Well, hello. Does this not scream come jump into bed with me in a completely unsexual but rather cozy Grandma’s cottage or quaint B&B on a long weekend sort of way?
I’ve wanted to make something with cornmeal and berries all summer, and the stray cob of corn on my countertop seemed as good an excuse as any… my sister’s raspberry bush had just been harvested, so it’s a little stingy in the berry dept. But the real kernels of corn, scraped off the cob, make up for it. It would do just as well with blueberries or blackberries, I think.
Cornmeal Cake with Fresh Corn and Raspberries
adapted from Farmers’ Market Desserts, via Food52
1 cup fresh raspberries
1 ear corn, kernels scraped off
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup fine yellow cornmeal
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup canola oil
Preheat the oven to 350F.
In a small bowl, toss the corn and raspberries with a spoonful of the flour; set aside. In a medium bowl stir together the remaining flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, and oil. Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture with a spatula until almost blended; gently stir in the corn and berries, stirring just until combined.
Spread the batter evenly into a 9-inch cake pan that has been buttered or sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch. Serve warm, topped perhaps with sweetened sour cream or raspberry ice cream.
One Year Ago: Bacon and Tomato Sandwich
At the Family Kitchen: Lower-fat Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
August 26 2010 | cake | 2 Comments »
The power of suggestion is strong with me. Plant an idea and it sits there, taking up space that could very well be used for something far more useful, until I do something with it. Case in point: the St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake.
All the cool kids are making it. It was, in fact, on my decades-old to-make list, but the version I had utilized a sugary, buttery goo poured over a particular brand of (stale) packaged coffee cakes that aren’t available in Canada. Which is why it sat there for eons on my to-make list. Now most of the versions making the rounds are made entirely from scratch, with either a cake or sweet yeasted bread base, but the crazy high butter-sugar content kept me from making it. Mostly out of fear for my thighs.
But the large-batch amalgamation of butter, sugar and flour (exactly the sort of thing that makes me want to reorganize my life so that I can be a professional athlete or mountain climber or someone who needs to pack as many calories into a day as possible in order to keep up with my high calorie output) is a perfectly suitable thing to make when you have 9 people under one roof, including teenagers and ravenous boys who have spent the bulk of their day surfing, running, kayaking and jumping in the waves. Also – there is sufficient competition to keep me from eating the lion’s share of it myself.
Still – it seemed too plain – too straight-up – on its own, like something was missing between the butter-sugar-egg-flour base and (altogether different) butter-sugar-egg-flour topping. I figured it would make the perfect ballast to tart, juicy fruit like plums, which cut nicely through the richness of butter and sugar. (Of which, by the way, I cut the quantities down a bit.)
As I puttered around making it, everyone asked what it was going to be. To tell them it was a coffee cake seemed too meh – and in fact it isn’t really a cake at all, with a yeasted, sweetbreadlike base, but then again it can’t really be labeled bread, as it’s cut into wedges and eaten much more like a cake than any sort of loaf. I suppose it should retain its rightful name – St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake – but with the streamlining and the layer of tart fruit that transformed it into something far more summery, the barefooted sandy-haired kids helping me arrange wedges of plum on the base before it went into the oven, who then ate it warm, straight from the pan, before heading out to fish from the rowboat, it didn’t seem right to be named for a city in Missouri. This cake belongs in Tofino.
I imagine it would go just as well with juicy apricots or sour cherries, and as she stood at the counter eating a wedge, my mom said, “this seems like it needs to have rhubarb in it.”
Tofino Gooey Plum Butter Cake
adapted from a few sources (with thanks)
Cake:
3 Tbsp. milk
1 3/4 tsp. active dry yeast
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Topping:
3-6 plums, thickly sliced
3 Tbsp. honey, light corn syrup or maple syrup
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Make the cake dough: In a small bowl, mix milk with 2 tablespoons hot water (this will make the lot lukewarm – easier, I think, than bringing your milk to room temperature); stir in the yeast and let it sit until it foams a bit.
Beat together the butter, sugar and salt, then beat in the egg. Add flour and milk mixture alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Stir until you have a sticky dough, then turn it out onto the countertop (resist the urge to add more flour) and knead for a few minutes, until soft and smooth.
Pat, press, stretch and nudge the dough into a buttered baking dish that is around 9″x13″ and at least 2 inches deep. Cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel, and let it rise while you go to the beach – 2-3 hours.
Preheat oven to 350F. Lay the slices of plum in rows over the surface of the dough, which really won’t have risen that much. In a small bowl, stir the honey, 2 tablespoons water and the vanilla together with a fork. In a larger bowl beat the butter, sugar and salt until smooth and light, then beat in the egg. Add half the flour, then the honey mixture, then the rest of the flour, scraping down sides of bowl between each addition and stirring just until blended.
Spoon the topping in large dollops over the plums and gently spread overtop with a spatula. Bake for about an hour, until golden; it will still be slightly soft (gooey) in the middle. Cool completely before serving – really, do – plums hold onto their heat and you won’t be able to taste it properly until it’s cooled. Serves 10-12.
July 26 2010 | breakfast and cake | 9 Comments »
Sorry guys, I’ve sort of let you slip through the cracks these past few days. We’ve been going flat-out since Friday, when we all went up to Canmore to do a story – Friday night we baked for the bake sale at Market Collective (thanks to Vincci’s idea and organization we collectively raised $1200 for Meals on Wheels!), which was Saturday. Sunday was Ramsay Rocks, which we were there setting up first thing in the morning, and as I got to emcee, I was there for the entire day. We went straight from there to my parents’ house for my Dad’s birthday dinner – homemade pizza, salad, cherry tomatoes and wee bocconcini in balsamic vinaigrette with torn basil.
Although he’s lactose intolerant, my dad loves cheesecake so that he requested one. I hadn’t baked a cheesecake in ages, but pulled out my old standby – the cheesecake from my battered Canadian Living Cookbook (the one with the blue cover – mine has almost disconnected itself from the rest of the book). Yum.
It hadn’t occurred to me to make a cheesecake for a very long while, but sitting on the patio eating one topped with blueberries made it feel finally like summer was actually here. (The fact that it was summer solstice may have helped.) There are essentially two types of cheesecake: those you bake and those you don’t. The unbaked ones usually get their structure from gelatin and firm up in the fridge. Baked cheesecakes have a different texture altogether; they are denser and cheesier, but are just as easy to make. Regular cream cheese produces the creamiest results, but light cream cheese works very well too. Fat free cream cheese just doesn’t cut it. The key to a nice, creamy cheesecake is to not overbake it – it should be slightly jiggly in the middle when you take it from the oven. To keep the top from cracking, some spray water into the oven or toss a few ice cubes onto the bottom of the oven to add humidity as it bakes; I keep the temperature low and run a thin knife around the edge as soon as it comes out, then leave it to cool with the sides of the springform pan still intact – don’t take the ring off until your cake is completely cool. Chilled, even.
Cheesecake
Slices of plain cheesecake can be dressed up with anything you can think of: fresh berries tossed with a little sugar, thawed frozen berries in syrup, caramel sauce, or a drizzle of bottled chocolate sauce, as is or spiked with 1-2 Tbsp. Kahlua.
Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs or chocolate wafer crumbs
3 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. sugar (white or brown – optional)
Filling:
1 1/2 lb. (three 8 oz./250 g packages) cream cheese, regular or light, or a combination
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
grated zest of 1 lemon (optional)
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
3 large eggs
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
To make the crust, combine the graham crumbs, butter, and sugar and press the mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan that has been sprayed lightly with nonstick spray. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then set it aside. Turn the oven up to 425°F.
To make the filling, beat the cream cheese in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar, flour, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla and beat it again, just until it’s smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Pour the batter over the crust.
Bake the cheesecake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 250°F and continue to bake for another 30-35 minutes. You can tell when the cheesecake is done when it’s barely firm around the edges and the center is just slightly jiggly. It will firm up as it cools. Immediately run a thin knife around the edge to loosen it from the pan, but allow it to cool completely and then refrigerate it for at least an hour before you remove the sides of the springform pan.
June 22 2010 | cake and dessert | 15 Comments »
Blood oranges are on their way out, I know, but you can swap regular thin-skinned oranges to top these, which is what I used in the cake itself. You could leave the fancy slice off the top altogether and just make the cake. I just like the look of it, and the chewy-sweet baked slice winds up reminiscent of marmalade.
When it comes to blood oranges, their appeal (to me, anyway) is their bad-ass name and crazy purpleness, their brand luring me in far more than their flavour. I’ve never really been blown away by the taste of a blood orange, but they do look great when sliced thin and laid atop orange pound cake batter.
Don’t let the name pound cake scare you – this is actually much lighter than most, although they do retain that dense sandiness that makes them different than a plain old muffin. And this recipe makes lots. I did mine in some of those jumbo muffin tins that were around, thinking that half-filled they might turn out more like little cakes, which they kind of did. You can use regular muffin tins though, or loaf pans, or cake pans.. whatever you think. I totally trust your judgement.
Orange Cakes (Bloody or Not)
If you like, brush still-warm cakes with a glaze made with equal amounts orange (or lemon juice) and sugar, simmered until the sugar dissolves.
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cup sugar
finely grated zest of an orange
5 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk or thin plain yogurt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 blood orange, washed and sliced very thin
sugar, for sprinkling
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, beat the butter, oil, sugar and orange zest for 2-3 minutes, until pale yellow and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add about a third of the flour mixture, beating on low speed just until combined. Add half the buttermilk in the same manner, then another third of the flour, the rest of the buttermilk and the rest of the flour.
Divide the batter between lined or greased muffin tins, filling them three-quarters full (or you could fill two 8”x4” loaf pans, and arrange a lineup of orange slices on top); top each with a slice of orange and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 25-30 minutes for cupcakes or 50-60 minutes for loaves, until golden and tops are springy to the touch. Let cool for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes about 1 1/2 dozen small cakes or 2 loaves.
One Year Ago: Lower-fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
April 17 2010 | cake | 18 Comments »
The sky upended itself on us all day today – friends came to stay with their completely adorable little girls (who have inspired W to expand beyond his usual superfriends scenario and play house – he gets to be the daddy, have a wife and wriggly baby to attempt to tuck into bed before he reads the newspaper – how cool is that?) and we’ve all spent most of the week (thus far) in our rain gear, which never really does dry off.
When much time is spent coming inside and peeling off layers of sodden clothing, changing everyone into something dry and coming up with new ways to entertain preschoolers in one room there seems to be an increased demand for snacks. Cake is particularly well received. With a bunch of extremely speckled bananas on the counter I thought they might translate well to a pineapple upside-down cake, without the pineapple. (It’s like W’s breakfast order every morning: “can I have toast and jam, untoasted?”)
Banana Upside-Down Cake
(Make this cake with whatever batter you like – enough for a single layer, or double the topping and bake two.)
Topping:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 large bananas
Cake:
1/4 cup butter, softened, or canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter an 8″ or 9″ round or 8″ square cake pan. Put the butter into the pan and put it into the oven as it heats; once melted pull it out and stir in the brown sugar. Slice the bananas and lay them over the bottom.
In a largish bowl, beat the butter and sugar for a few minutes, until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
By hand or with the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing each time until just combined.
Spread the batter into the pan, over the bananas. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch. Let cool for 10 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack or plate, or eat warm, straight from the pan.
April 08 2010 | cake | 17 Comments »
