White Lemon Cake with Berry Topping

I tend to be an early riser. Well, I am if you compare me to H, at least. Out of the two of us, he is definitely the one who likes to sleep in. And while I love H dearly, I really savor those couple hours of the weekend morning that I have to myself before he wakes up and our day begins.

During the winter, those mornings are often spent wrapped up in a blanket, reading, listening to jazz, and drinking a home made peppermint mocha. In the fall, the windows are open; I'm loving the brisk wind and crisp, undoubtedly fall smell; and I'm more likely than not baking some sort of pumpkin treat or starting a big batch of chili.

This summer, I've been spending those mornings listening to some Ray LaMontagne or Amos Lee, appreciating the soft breeze of the ceiling fan, and putting coffee iced cubes in my morning cup. And yesterday morning, enjoying this cake. Really, really enjoying this cake.

This cake truly made my morning. It manages to be light, yet rich at the same time. The lemony sweetness of the cake is a perfect complement to the slight tartness of the berries. I just used blueberries in the topping, but I bet raspberries or blackberries would be just as delicious. 

White Lemon Cake with Berry Topping

(serves 12)

1/2 pint of berries

1 stick of butter, room temperature

3/4 cup of white sugar

1 egg white

3/4 teaspoon of lemon exract

1 cup of cake flour
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 cup of buttermilk

Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Cut a parchment paper round to fit inside your cake pan. Grease parchment paper with a bit of butter, place it in the bottom of the cake pan, and spread berries out on top of the greased parchment. 

Beat butter and sugar together with medium speed for about 2 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add egg white and lemon extract and beat for another 30 seconds. 

Combine all dry ingredients (cake flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder) in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Add 1/3 of dry ingredients to bowl while beating on low. Alternate with buttermilk, ending with dry ingredients, beating until just combined. 

Plop batter on top of the berries in the cake pan, and spread to the edges. Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until slightly golden brown on top and the middle is no longer jiggly. (I used an 8" pan, so I may have needed a bit longer. If you're using a 9" pan, check after about maybe 25 minutes.) Allow to cool on a rack for 15 minutes, and then invert on to a plate. Cool completely before cutting, and serve with a dusting of powdered sugar. Enjoy!

Inspired by Smells Like Home, and adapted from The Powdered Plum, original recipe here.

Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake

I have been somewhat MIA lately. It is definitely a busy time of year! But, I have a number of things on my to-make list that I am quite excited about, so hopefully that will change in the near future. But for the first order of business...

One of the things I love about having people over (other than seeing my dear friends and family, of course) is being able to cook/bake dishes that I wouldn't normally make for just the two of us. And an entire cheesecake would certainly fall into the category of one of those dishes that I wouldn't make for just us.

So this past weekend, when H and I, along with MIL, FIL, BIL, and his girlfriend gathered at our place for dinner after picking out our Christmas trees at the farm, I knew I had a chance to make one of those dishes that I had reserved for a larger group of people. I had my favorite beef stew cooking away in the crock-pot, a nice loaf of French bread to soak up the gravy, and for dessert (not to toot my own horn or anything) one of the greatest cheesecakes I've ever had. Seriously. This was just that good.

This recipe was on the cover of my December issue of Cooking Light. I wanted to make it the second I saw it, and I was so happy to finally have the perfect occasion. I probably fattened it up slightly (but not too bad), and I think I made it a bit easier as well. Please note that you will need a large roasting pan for this recipe. The original recipe has you putting a 9" spring-form pan into a 9X13" baking pan, which doesn't exactly work all that well.

Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust

For the crust:
1 1/2 cups of chocolate graham crackers crumbs (approximately 6-8 whole crackers)
5 Tablespoons of butter, melted

For the swirl:
1 1/2 cups of cranberries
1/2 cup of sugar
2 Tablespoons of raspberry jam
3 Tablespoons of water

For the filling:
2 1/2 (8 oz.) packages of 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of low-fat plain Greek yogurt
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon of salt
3 large eggs

Directions: Preheat oven to 375. Line the inside and outside of a 9" spring-form pan with a double layer of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Mix melted butter and graham cracker crumbs together in a bowl. Press mixture into the bottom of the pan, to all the edges. (You can do up the sides a bit if you want, but I just did the bottom.) Bake crust for 8 minutes, and allow to cool on a wire rack. Reduce oven temperature to 325. 

Meanwhile, heat cranberries, sugar, water, and jam in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Allow to cook for about 8-10 minutes, or until cranberries begin to pop. Set aside and allow to cool, for about 20 minutes. When cooled, pulse mixture in a food processor until mostly smooth.

Place softened cream cheese into stand mixer bowl, and beat on medium-low with the sugar until smooth. Beat in Greek yogurt, vanilla, and salt. Add eggs, one by one, mixing well after each addition.

Pour cheese mixture over chocolate crust. Spoon cranberry topping over the filling, swirling lightly with a butter knife. Place spring-form pan into large roasting pan. Fill roasting pan with about 2" of hot water. Place roasting pan in the oven and bake cheesecake for 50 minutes.

After 50 minutes, it will still be a little jiggly in the center- like a Jello consistency- but that is what you want. Turn oven off, and allow cheesecake to sit in inside with the door shut for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, and remove cheesecake from water bath. Cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours. Cake will then firm up, and allow you to remove it from the pan with ease. Enjoy!

Adapted from Cooking Light, original recipe here.

Caramelized Pear Spice Cake

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful three (yes, you read that right- three) Thanksgiving dinners this weekend. We had one with my extended family Thursday, one with my grandparents Friday, and one with H's family Sunday. I'm excited to be moving on to the Christmas holiday now, as I have to admit, I'm beginning to feel a bit turkey-ed out!

For the main event, which was hosted by my mom on Thanksgiving Day for 25 people, she asked me to bring a dessert. The pumpkin and apple pies, however, were already taken care of. Ooh, perfect- a challenge! I wanted to keep it fall-y, and kind of wanted to stay away from pumpkin and apple all together. I decided I'd love to do something with pears, and turned to my trusted companion Google to find the perfect recipe. I found this one for a caramelized pear upside-down-cake, which sounded easy, and I loved that it could be served at room temperature. I decided to turn up the spice a bit, as I loved the idea of a spiced pear cake, and here is what I came up with.

The topping is absolutely delicious, but I was actually a bit disappointed with the cake part. It tasted kind of dry to me, so when I make this again (which I definitely will), I am going to look for a different spice cake recipe to use instead of this one. It was still a hit though!

Caramelized Pear Spice Cake
Serves 8-10

For the topping:
3 medium Bartlett pears
4 Tablespoons of unsalted butter
1 cup of brown sugar

For the cake:
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
1 cup of packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs

Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit a 9" round pan, grease it with a bit of butter, and place in the bottom of pan. Peel, core, and slice pears into about 1/4" thick slices. Arrange in the bottom of the pan in a circular pattern, slightly overlapping each other.

Melt butter over medium heat in saucepan. Stir in brown sugar, and continue to gently stir until smooth and combined. Pour caramel mixture over the pears in the pan, and give the pan a little spin to even it all out.

Mix the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in a small bowl. In another bowl, mix milk and vanilla extract. In a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter with medium speed until light and fluffy. Slowly add brown sugar, continuing to beat. Turn speed to low, and add in eggs, mixing until combined. Slowly add the flour and milk mixtures, alternating in 5 stages, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until just combined.

Bake for about 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, and then flip cake onto a plate to allow to cool completely, peeling off parchment paper if necessary. Enjoy!

Adapted from Fine Cooking, original recipe here.

One Sweet Surprise

Whoo hoo! I won something! I actually won something. I can't believe it, I've never won anything before!

Alright- back up a little- I've been reading Sarah's blog Pink of Perfection for quite a while. I love her recipes, style, entertaining ideas, and just her nod to the simple pleasures in life. And when I saw there was a give-away for the cookbook Booze Cakes, my heart may have skipped a beat. I love booze (what can I say?) and I most definitely love sweets, so in my mind it doesn't get much better than that (as you may have guessed). I entered, and didn't give it a second thought. When I got an email the next day saying that I had won, I did a little happy dance in my chair. And when the book came the very next day(!) I may have even let out a bit of a squeal.

Naturally, I had to make something right away. I flipped through the book, book-marking almost every other recipe and marveling at all the wonderful ideas. I asked H to help narrow it down, and he chose the Mudslide Cake. It is two layers of chocolate cake with a hint of coffee and Irish cream, Irish cream whipped cream between them, and and Irish cream caramel sauce to top it off and covered in chocolate shavings. WOW. Good pick, H :)

This was truly delicious, and I can't wait to make the next one!