Buttermilk Cake with Ricotta-Marscapone Frosting and Cherries

This cake (staying cool outside on the snowy deck) has tangy vanilla buttermilk cake, creamy-but-not-quite-sweet frosting with ricotta, lemon, honey, marscapone and Greek yogurt, and a crowing pile of juicy red cherries. It's a combination made in heaven.

Historically, I haven't been much of a baker or a dessert enthusiast--I've never had much taste for sweets, and baking requires a far more meticulous eye for directions than my natural cooking disposition allows for. Even when I am baking, I never measure baking power, salt, vanilla, etc. Hence, about half my sweet baking projects turn out horrible, fueling my anti-baking cycle. 

But occasionally--and apparently especially when pregnant--I get the urge to bake. In the last few weekends, I've made a new dessert each Saturday afternoon. One was smittenkitchen's Blood Orange, Almond, and Ricotta Cake, (but I used mixed citrus--grapefruit, lime, and orange). To go with this, I made a barely-sweet marscapone and Greek yogurt "whip cream", which had honey, lemon zest and juice, and vanilla. 

This was for my brother-in-law's engagement party, and the cake both looked pretty and tasted delicious. The tangy cream on the side really sent it over the edge--and ALSO started me on the kick of making creamy marscapone-and-ricotta baked goods, leading eventually to the fabulous buttermilk cherry cake. 

Next I made some homemade cherry Danishes. This also led to the invention of the frozen-dried-jam cherry sauce for the cake. The recipe, which I came across in a New York Times "What to Cook This Week" column, appealed to me because I'd never made Danish before, and because it looked like the sort of engrossing, complicated kitchen project I was in the mood for. Putzing around in the kitchen, completing hours-long cooking projects while listening to music or podcasts--this has been one of my favorite weekend pastimes. And I have a feeling experimental, all-day cooking is going to shortly take a backseat to my new hobby of baby-death prevention. So I have been wanting to enjoy it while I can. 

The Danishes came out really yummy, but honestly weren't worth the work. All the flavor came from the cheese and cherries--the yeast-butter dough, though interesting, wasn't especially fabulous. You could put the cheese-cherry combo on any number of other, far-easier bases. But if you want to try baking your own Danish from scratch, here is the recipe. 

Anyway--to the cake!
I must say this is up there with the best cakes I've even made. Even better, maybe, than that amazing coconut layer cake I made a couple summers ago. It was so, so, so good.

The buttermilk cake was the perfect base--and the tangy, not-quite-sweet, complex frosting--made with whipped cream, marscapone, ricotta, Greek yogurt, honey, lemon, and vanilla--was the perfect foil for the very sweet, very over-the-top-CHERRY-NESS of the cherry "sauce". This cherry sauce is my own invention and I think it's brilliant--and its formula can be applied to a ton of different fruits. What you do is take a bag of frozen cherries, a bag of dried cherries, a small jar of cherry jam, and an envelope of powdered flavorless gelatin, then boil everything together for a couple of minutes. The liquid from the frozen cherries and melted jam re hydrate the dried cherries, and the gelatin thickens it into the perfect saucy-but-not-runny consistency (the pectin from the jam contributes, too). It would work with apricots, pineapple, blueberries--anything. It makes a sweet, concentrated sauce that screams the flavor of the fruit. ULTIMATE CHERRY GOODNESS. Way, way better than any cherry pie filling I've ever tried. 
So! To the cake! You need 3 separate recipes, which you then assemble into the cake. 

Recipe for the Cake

This will make two 9-inch cake pans. You can make a layer cake, like I did this time, or two single cakes (this might be excellent if you are using fresh fruit in the summertime--two cakes piled with different fresh fruit). 

Note--the original recipe calls for 1 1/3 cup of sugar--I cut this to 3/4 cups (ish--didn't measure) because I wanted a distinct contrast between the less sweet, tangy cake and the sugar-cherry crush of the sauce. 

INGREDIENTS

• 2 ⅓ cups cake flour
•  Vegetable oil for greasing pans
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 6 ounces butter
• 3/4  cups sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 
  
• PREPARATION

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch cake pans and set aside. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla.
2. Using a mixer on medium speed, beat the butter until creamy. Over the course of 3 minutes, beat in the sugar. Over 2 minutes, add the egg mixture. Reduce the speed to low and alternate adding the flour and buttermilk in three parts, scraping the bowl.
3. Divide the batter between the pans and smooth the tops. Bake until light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, then unmold onto a rack to cool completely before frosting

Recipe for the Marscapone-Ricotta Frosting 

Ingredients

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 8 oz container marscapone cheese 

3 / 4 cup Greek yogurt 

3 / 4 cup whole milk ricotta

2 or 3 tablespoons honey 

1 tablespoon vanilla extract 

juice and zest of one lemon

What to do 

Put the cup of whipping cream into the bowl of  a stand mixer (you could also certainly use a hand mixer for this) and, using the whisk attachment, whip the cream into nice, fluffy whipped cream with soft peaks. Add the remaining ingredients and whip together on high speed for a minute or two. Taste for sweetness--remember that you don't want it too sweet. 

Place into the fridge until the cakes and cherries are cooled and ready to assemble. This should be chilled when spreading on. 

Recipe for the Cherry Topping

Ingredients 

1 bag frozen cherries

1 bag dried cherries

1 12 oz jar of cherry preserves 

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

What to do

Place the frozen cherries, dried cherries, and cherry jam in a sauce pan and heat over medium until boiling. Make sure to stir regularly. After it boils, turn the heat off and sprinkle the envelope of gelatin over the top, then mix everything together vigorously. Allow to come to room temperature or cooler--don't put cherries onto cake warm, or they'll melt the frosting. 

How to assemble the cake! 

When cake and cherries are completely cooled, you're ready to assemble! You can make two single-layer cakes, or one double-layer. Place one layer on your cake plate. Using your spatula, blob a big pile of frosting onto the middle of the cake, then smooth it across. Take another scoop and smooth it along the sides. Stack the other cake on top and repeat. Use all the frosting! You want it nice and thick, especially on top and in the middle labor.
Once frosted, pile the cherries onto the middle of the top. Don't worry if some juice drips along the sides. 

Cake after being cut to celebrate the Denver Superbowl win. Utterly delicious. 

This cake is utterly, completely delicious. Among the better desserts I've made.  This would make an incredible dessert for a special occasion.
Or--just make it because you feel like it!
Enjoy!!!!

Salted Caramel Shortbread Bars

Yummmm.

If I have a "signature" baked good, it's these fabulous salted caramel shortbread bars.
These are insanely, unbelievably delicious. They're tied with no-bake chocolate-peanut butter cookies as my all-time favorite homemade dessert.
I've made them for baby showers, dinner parties, birthdays, bachelorettes, advisory parties at school, and I've left plates of them in my schools' staff rooms at both Stapleton and GVR at key "stress" times of year (October and February). I believe salted caramel's combination of salt, sugar, and fat stimulates all the brain's pleasure centers at once, and can immediately save a frustrating day. These are like vicodon for work-related despair.
I have a long history of manipulating others with homemade snacks. My second day at my new job in Colorado, I brought my mom's recipe for apricot scones, enough for the whole staff--and from then on, everyone liked me. I realized that, through food, I could easily trick people into being my friend without adjusting my personality!
My school added our 11th grade this year, necessitating the takeover of classrooms in another building on our campus. This building is run by Denver Public Schools, not DSST, and we are only allowed to use those classrooms because the DPS people are being nice to us. So, as thanks and to suck up, I baked a big batch of these to leave in their office. I need to stay on their good side, and Salted Caramel Shortbread Bars have historically been effective to this end.
I also handed some out to new teachers to calm nerves. School starts Monday. I should maybe bake another batch this weekend...

 I originally found this recipe in Good Housekeeping, but I can't find it anywhere online. Luckily, some blogs have the exact same one. 

Salted Caramel Shortbread Bars
Makes 1 8×8″ pan, adapted from Joanne Eats Well With Others

Ingredients
For the shortbread

• 10 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 2/3 cup flour

For the caramel

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp heavy cream
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Instructions

1. Line an 8×8-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang.
2. To make the shortbread, combine the butter, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mixing to combine. Add the egg yolk and continue mixing. Add in the flour and mix together just until the dough starts to come together.  Combine with your hands into a ball and pat into the parchment-lined baking sheet into one even layer. Use a fork to poke small holes in the surface.
3. Refrigerate for 30 minutes (at least). Preheat oven to 350 and bake for 25 minutes, or until firm and golden brown. Set aside to cool.
4. To make the caramel, combine the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, sea salt, sugar and heavy cream in a heavy-bottomed pan. Bring to a boil and stir constantly until the mixture reaches soft ball stage, about 10-15 minutes. 
5. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla, and pour into the prepared pan over the crust.
6. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight. Sprinkle with sea salt and cut into squares. Store in the fridge until ready to eat.

 I made a double batch. 

Shortbread before baking. 

Be still my heart!

Enjoy!

Apricot-Filled Chardonnay Cupcakes With Strawberry Frosting

Cupcakes make you happy.

Apricot surprise!

My friend Anna is a cupcake genius. Cupcakes are her obsession and she's made a million amazing types. I hired her to make cupcakes for our pre-wedding BBQ based on a Moscow Mule--the drink Adam and I had on our second date, when I stole him a copper mug from Steuben's. Anna's the best baker I've ever met--and she had last Friday off, so she came over and we made these delicious, fruity cupcakes, drank boxed wine, and she regaled me with horror stories of her dating life. A great Friday afternoon.

World's foremost cupcake expert. 

I learned that cupcakes, like cobbler, is a formula rather than a specific recipe. You can improvise endlessly to create new flavors and themes.


Cupcake Batter:
 2 1/3 cups flour 

1 1/2 cups white sugar 

1 tablespoon baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk 

1 cup canola oil

2 eggs 

1 tablespoon vanilla 

What to do: Mix all the ingredients together! Now you have batter! Place cupcake papers into a muffin tin. Fill each one about halfway with batter. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Cupcake batter

How to improvise: 

To make more healthy: Replace half of the canola oil with apple sauce. 

To make other flavors: Replace the milk with any other liquid. You can use fruit juice, booze--anything! 

For these particular cupcakes, we used boxed wine. Trashy and delicious. 

Then, to go on these chardonnay cupcakes, we made a Swiss Meringue butter cream frosting, with diced strawberries. This type of frosting starts with an egg white meringue, to which you whip in butter and flavorings. 

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

6 egg whites 

1 cup butter 

1 cup sugar 

What to do ( I copied these directions from Martha Stewart) 

Combine egg whites and  in the heatproof bowl of a standing mixer set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk constantly by hand until mixture is warm to the touch and sugar has dissolved (the mixture should feel completely smooth when rubbed between your fingertips).

Anna beating egg whites and sugar. 

Attach the bowl to the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Starting on low and gradually increasing to medium-high speed, whisk until stiff (but not dry) peaks form. Continue mixing until the mixture is fluffy and glossy, and completely cool (test by touching the bottom of the bowl), about 10 minutes.

With mixer on medium-low speed, add the butter a few tablespoons at a time, mixing well after each addition. Once all butter has been added, whisk in vanilla. Switch to the paddle attachment, and continue beating on low speed until all air bubbles are eliminated, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl with a flexible spatula, and continue beating until the frosting is completely smooth. 

At this point, add your flavorings. For fruit frosting, add about a cup of finely diced fresh fruit. We used strawberries, but any fruit would work.

Or--add a TB of vanilla and drops of food coloring for classic party frosting. 

Put on cupcakes!

The final exciting part of these cupcakes was the apricot filling. I chopped up 2 cups of fresh apricots, sprinkled them with 2 TB of sugar and 1 TB of cornstarch, then cooked them in a saucepan until boiling, then mashed them with a potato masher. They became apricot jam. 

Apricot filling being cooked. 

Then, we poked holes in the cupcakes, filled them with apricot filling, then frosted them. 

Cupcakes with apricot filling. 

Being frosted. 

Done!

These were delicious, and now, thanks to Anna, I know how to make cupcakes! Maybe I like baking more than I think. 

Yum.

Enjoy! 

Peach and Blueberry Cobbler

A fantastic summer dessert. 

I really don't have much of a sweet-tooth, so while I bake a lot, it's almost always bread, pretzels, biscuits, etc. I am also pretty bad at baking--baking requires recipe-adherence discipline, and I just don't stick to recipes. I've had some notorious baking disasters--like the time I forgot the eggs in pecan pies for Adam's birthday. I realized it about 20 minutes into the baking so I just added the eggs late to the bubbling caramel. So it was a sweet, scrambled egg pie. Needless to say, that shit was super gross.

Cobblers are an exception to my sweet-baking reticence! I love making cobblers in the summer--the sticky, soft fruit tastes more intensely peachy (or plummy, or berry-y) than eating the fruit raw. Plus, you don't really need a recipe--it's more like a formula--and they are nearly impossible to mess up.

Basic cobbler formula 
You need a full pie-dish worth of stone fruit (peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots) OR berries or apples, or any combination. If using stone fruit, apples or strawberries, thinly slice. (Technically you should peel these, but I never bother). Small berries like blueberries or blackberries can be left whole.
Add to the fruit 2 TB of white sugar, 1 TB of cornstarch, 2 TB of lemon juice.
Then, make the crumb, biscuit or pastry topping, and bake at 400 for 25 minutes.


Personally, I like a nut-based pastry top. Here is what I used, a pecan-based pastry. This makes enough for two cobblers.

Blend the following in a food processor:
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 stick butter
3/4 cup flour
tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
Dribble of cold water

Blitz everything but the water in the food processor. It will look like gravel or sand, depending on how dry the air in your kitchen is. Dribble in the water until it forms a coherent ball (this will only take about 2 tablespoons).
Then, pinch the pastry into little leaves and place over the fruit. Done!
If you are only making one cobber, the other half of the pastry freezes well. Leave it in the freezer for your next cobbler!

Ingredients

Fruit filling. I used five peaches and a small crate of blueberries.

Before baking

All done!

I love to use blueberries in cobblers because they explode during baking, creating a rich, purple fruit syrup all through the bottom.

I plan to make a lot of cobblers this summer with different fruit combinations. We have a plum tree in the backyard--but so far it's produced a single, rock-hard, midget of a plum. My home-grown cobbler dreams my not come to fruition. Heh. Fruition--get it?
Enjoy!

Biscuits and Gravy

The pictures in this post are kind of blurry--I didn't realize my lens had butter on it. 

I love making breakfast on Saturdays. Waking up late, drinking coffee or bloody marys (maries?) on the couch, watching Inglorious Bastards yet again, and of course making something for breakfast from whatever happens to be in the fridge.
So what did I have today? Buttermilk, which I always seem to have lately. One leftover smoked chorizo...idea! Biscuits and gravy!
First, I made buttermilk biscuits.

Buttermilk Biscuits 

• 1 cup melted butter 
• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup buttermilk 
• 2 tsp salt
• 4 tsp white sugar 
• 1 TB baking powder 
• 1 tsp black powder

Pre-heat oven to 400. Grease a cookie sheet. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Round into balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 25-30 min, or until golden brown. 

Before 

After! 

While the biscuits are baking, make the gravy. I made a bacon-and-chorizo gravy, but you can use any meat you'd like. 

Bacon and Chorizo Gravy 

• 4 strips bacon, chopped
• 1 chorizo sausage (or any kind of sausage), chopped 
• 1 yellow onion, chopped 
• 1/3 cup flour 
• 2 cups milk (add more if needed to thin)
• pinch salt 
• pinch black pepper 
• dash of hot sauce 

What to do 

Crisp the bacon and sausage in a skillet. Cook until a lot of the fat has rendered out. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently. until golden-colored (about 10 minutes). Then, add the flour. Cook in the fat for about five minutes. It should develop a sweet, nutty smell. Turn the burner off and pour in the milk. Stir around to get the bits off the bottom. Season with salt, pepper, and hot sauce. 

Pour gravy over biscuits! I like to dribble some hot sauce over mine. 

Have this for breakfast, and you've eaten heartily enough to, say fight the Protestants. Walk from Galway to Kilkenney. Chase down a  wayward cow. Something like that. 

We, however, just sat around the house thinking of names for our new tadpoles. All four are now known as Wiggles. 

Enjoy! 

Buttermilk Corn Waffles

Today was the perfect lazy Saturday. We slept till 10:30, watched Blood Diamond and drank coffee. We didn't have much in the way of breakfast food in the house. But we DID have cornmeal, flour, and a carton of buttermilk left over from when I made biscuits. Buttermilk corn waffles! I had made these before for a chicken-and-waffles party: they're great, way better than regular no-corn waffles.

All this stuff was already in the house!

Adam has only once in his life requested an item of cooking equipment: an industrial waffle iron. It's huge and heavy. You usually only see these in the dining hall at college or camp. But we have one in our house. 

Buttermilk Corn Waffles 

Ingredients: 

1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
2 TB sugar
1 TB baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups buttermilk

3 TB water 
2 TB vegetable oil (light olive or canola) 
2 large eggs

What to do: 

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.  

2. Pour into a greased waffle iron and cook. 

3. Top with whatever you want and enjoy! 

Don't overfill the waffle iron or it will poop out the sides like this.

Yum. 

Flat bread with mushrooms, bacon, cheese, and balsamic reduction

Hello, lovely.

I had a fantastic surprise this morning when I arrived at work: it was Teacher Appreciation day, so our usual meeting was canceled. Given our abbreviated Wednesday schedule and the fact that last period is my planning, I was done at 11:35! It was that snow day emotion--unexpectedly not having to work! One of the best feelings there is.
So, having some free time, I of course felt like cooking. There wasn't much in our fridge--but I found ricotta and mozzarella (originally intended for raviolis I never made) and some dried porchinis (no idea why I originally bought these). And I always have garlic, yeast, and flour. So, flat bread! Flat bread has become my "whatever's in the fridge" go-to creation. It's great to have around for snacking, and it's fun to make.

Some of the ingredients. Not pictured: balsamic, olive oil

Ingredients

For flat bread dough:

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 (1/4-ounce) packet active dry yeast

1 TB sugar
4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
1tsp salt
2 TB olive oil

Toppings: 

1 package dried porcini mushrooms 

7 strips bacon, diced

3/4 cup ricotta 

1/2 cup mozzarella 

4 cloves garlic, chopped

red pepper flakes 

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

What to do: 

1. Dissolve the sugar in the warm water and add the yeast. Let it sit for 15 minutes. This wakes the yeast up and gets them horny and hungry. 

2. Add the flour. Mix and knead into a pliant, cohesive ball. You may need to add more water or flour. 

Dough before rising

3. Allow the dough to rise. Cover with a damp paper towel and set somewhere warm. It should about double in size. This will probably take around an hour. 

After rising

5. Boil some water. Add the dried mushrooms to the water and allow to sit in the hot water with the burner off.

4. When the dough is risen, knead it a few more times, then stretch/ spread it into a large oval and put on an oiled rectangular cookie sheet. Push into all the sides and attempt to get it uniformly thick.

6. Spread the cup of ricotta over the flat dough. Then, leave this to rise again while you make the toppings. 

Dough spread with ricotta.

7. Crisp the bacon. Sprinkle the crisp bacon over the dough. 

8.  Mince the garlic and sprinkle it evenly over the top.
9. Take the mushrooms out of the water and lightly squeeze them out. Toss them into the bacon grease and cook for about a minute on high. Then, scoop them out with a slotted spoon and spread them out over the dough. 

10. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes (up to you how much to use). 

11. Dot all over with little chunks of mozzarella. 

12. Bake at 450 for about 35 or 40 min, or until golden brown. 

13. While the flat bread is cooling, pour the balsamic into a small saucepan and add about a tablespoon of sugar. Simmer to reduce into a syrup that coats the back of a spoon. When thick, dribble this over the flat bread. 

14. It's done! Slice and eat.

Were I to make this again, I would omit the reconstituted mushrooms. Their earthiness clashed a bit with the salt-sweet-garlic-cheese of the other flavors.  Would have been better without them. Alas! Now I know.
Enjoy!