Organic, All-Natural, Raspberry Jam

In honor of my Grandpa and love for his delicious raspberry jam that he made every summer I can remember, I made my first batch this weekend. My Grandpa's jam was definitely the best ever. Super sweet and fruity and absolutely incredible on an english muffin (with butter). My favorite way to eat it. I recall him liking it on shredded wheat with cream cheese or something very odd, and very old person-ish. I wanted to do things a little different though. Even though he for many years picked his own raspberries, I can't say for sure they were organic (i.e. not sprayed with pesticides). Although, they may have been because every time he dragged took me berry picking it seemed way out in the middle of no where and seemed like a family owned farm. Who can say though. Also, I'm not really sure why he took me other than for the company because I had about 5 minutes of actual berry picking in me. The rest of the time was spent half under the raspberry vines trying to avoid the hot July/August sun and probably saying "Grandpa, are you done yet? It's so hot. Let's go home." And "I want some jam already." Being difficult and lazy at any rate. I've never done too well in the sun.

So, like I was saying, I wanted to do things differently. I wanted this jam to be organic. Use naturally-derived pectin. And use organic cane sugar and less of it. I ended up using Pomona's Universal Pectin (from citrus peel) at my mom's suggestion and the recipe for freezer jam that came with it. This pectin is nice for those of you who either like less sugar or are trying to restrain yourselves and eat less of it (I currently am). I probably eat my body weight in sugar weekly. This pectin is activated by calcium and not sugar so you can use as little as you like. I ended up doubling the sugar anyways because I find cane sugar to be much less sweeter and I figure if I want this to taste anything like my grandpa's it's got to have more than 2 cups of sugar per batch. His probably had that amount in a single pint. The recipe is quite easy and the jam turned out well. Not as good as my grandpa's and not nearly as sweet, but still, sweet enough. I'm not sure if it jelled as much as his even though I added a good deal of pectin/calcium. That remains to be seen though since it's been refrigerating for awhile now.

Collin and I hand picked the raspberries from an organic farm in Monroe. Probably half of them were ripe but the other half could have used more time on the vine. Since the summer has been so late here in the northwest I think people picked all the berries too early and any hopes of getting ripe ones later when they are ready probably is a lost cause. If I make it again, which I'm planning on doing since I only picked enough to make 5 pints, I may end up buying them or picking at another farm. I also really want to make blackberry jam too. My other favorite.

So here's to you Grandpa. My jam isn't as good as yours but I have a feeling you would like it anyway.

Also, Family, this is going to be your Christmas present so I hope you like it!

Photos and Berry Picking Assistance by Collin Monda

Crème Brulée

I know what you're thinking. Crème Brulée? Really? Like I'm ever going to make that. Way too hard.

If that's not what your thinking, then good, because that's what I thought when I first set about making these. I thought this is going to be hard, but I can do it. As it turns out, it's one of the easiest things to make. Really.

Here's what you do:
Adapted from Mark Bittman-New York Times
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Boil enough water to put in a baking dish that covers your ramekins half way.
3. In a saucepan, heat heavy cream and vanilla extract to a simmer
4. Meanwhile, whisk together egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until light in color.
5. Take about a quarter of the cream mixture and pour into the bowl while stirring with a whisk. Once the eggs have tempered, pour it all back into the saucepan and keep stirring until combined.
6. Divide mixture into six small ramekins. Put them into a baking dish and place in oven.
7. Pour the hot water you prepared earlier into the baking dish until it is halfway up the ramekins. Easier to do this step when you have the filled ramekins already in the baking sheet while it is in the oven.
8. Bake for 30 minutes or until the center of the custard is wobbly like jello and the edges are firm.
9. Carefully remove each ramekin from baking dish and let cool. Cover each with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
10. When ready to eat, place about of teaspoon of sugar on top of custard and move the ramekin around to get an even layer.
11. Torch sugar until it browns. Let it sit for about a minute to cool and harden. 

Pretty easy right? Surprised? The hardest part is probably acquiring a little blow torch, which really isn't that hard at all. You can find them at any kitchen supply store and sometimes even at the grocery store. I got mine at World Market for $19.99. For a person who normally has severe buyer's remorse, I've never looked back on buying this item. So handy and so fun!

Photos by Collin Monda

Obligatory Fourth of July Inspired Cupcakes

As I'm sure many of you have guessed, or know first hand, I am not really the type of person to make cutesy things or themed things or anything that requires much craftiness. I applaud those that encompass these attributes but I'm just not like that. Putting a blueberry on a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting is about as far as I'm willing to go with an Independence Day theme. It's not so much laziness, or uncreativity as it is stubbornness and intolerance.

 For the 4th of July, Collin and his family, joined me, and my family down at my family's beach house in Cannon Beach Oregon. I felt immediately compelled to bake something tasty and something, ok with a bit of a reference to the 4th. But not too much. Having just slam dunked the red velvets 200 times over for the wedding last weekend and not being too sick of making them, I made one more batch and frosted them as normal with the cream cheese frosting. And to make it EXTRA festive, I plunked a cute little blueberry on them. My cleverness knows no bounds. They turned out pretty good though I think and even though they are simple and really not cleaver at all, I like them better that way. Simpleness is good. What did you expect? A perfectly hand-piped image of the american flag blowing in the breeze with the cream cheese frosting poking through making the stars and stripes? No way. I could suggest a blog or two where you would find something like that though.....

In all seriousness, if you've never made or had a red velvet, which is shocking to me (the eating part), please please make some or buy some and enjoy it. It really is fantastic.

Oh and I piped the frosting in a slightly different way this time. I had an epiphany while watching an add for a new cupcake show on TV (that's right....a show about cupcakes. Nice). There was a split second shot of them piping on frosting and I realized I need to start using a much bitter tip. A big round tip. I normally don't use a tip at all, just the screw piece at the end and didn't even realize I should use a bigger bag and a bigger tip. So I switched over and and am quite pleased with the results. 

Red Velvet Cake Recipe

I'm posting a ton of photos mainly because Collin did an extra beautiful job on these. Amazing.

Photos by Collin Monda

Wedding Cupcakes

For Collin's Uncle Steve and new Aunt Lacey I was asked to bake a couple different kinds of cupcakes and some brownies. After doing a taste test of a few, we decided on the always popular Red Velvet Cupcakes as well as the Devil's Food Cake Cupcakes with Chocolate Butter Cream. I gathered my materials last week which included the modest 7 POUNDS OF BUTTER and oh let's see 10 POUNDS of Powdered Sugar, 30 eggs, among other astonishing quantities. I'm not one to flinch at lots of butter but 7 pounds is enough to make me feel a little light headed. I took the day off on Friday and baked for a good 10 hours. For some reason I thought it would take me much less time but I'm not sure why. It was a baking marathon that is for sure. I never really stopped. There was little to no waiting because every time I put a batch in to the oven, I would start the next one. It was a low intensity endurance race. Never was I flustered or out of breath, but by the end of the day I felt like I really had run a marathon. Exhausted was an understatement but it was fun to see what it would be like to actually bake for a living and not just doing it once or twice a week for a couple hours each. This was a test and I think I passed pretty well.

200 cupcakes. 100 of the Red Velvet and 100 of the Chocolate. 3 pans of Peanut Butter Brownies.

When we arrived in Wenatchee for the wedding I got set up and started frosting. This might have been more challenging than the actual baking of the cupcakes. In my previous post, I mentioned how I'm not a good waiter. Patience is not one of my virtues....At any rate, the frostings were carefully chilled the whole way over so they didn't spoil. Cream cheese frosting frightens me. But they took awhile to come back to room temp even in 85 degree weather! I tried my best to pipe it on but it took so much muscle power that my arms were shaking. But still I tried. I tried to warm it up with my hands and that didn't really work. You just have to let it do it's thing and wait. Lesson learned. You can't force cream cheese to warm up. You just have to let it. Annoying. The chocolate was slightly more complying but that's only because it waited for the cream cheese to go first. After struggling for a bit with the frostings, I finally got them all done and topped with a bit of decoration (coconut for the red velvet and shaved chocolate for the....chocolate).

In the end they turned out pretty good if I say so myself. And I think everyone liked them so it was a success.

If was a gorgeous wedding and I'm so happy to have been apart of it!

Congrats to Steve and Lacey!

Photos by Collin Monda

Long Overdue Devils Food Cake (the best chocolate cake you'll ever have)

I can't tell you how many times I've made this cake. It has to be in the upper 20s by now. I could probably make it with my eyes closed. It's not a difficult recipe but requires a few extra steps than your normal, simple cake, but believe me, it is worth it. I know I say on here that "such and such is the best thing I've ever made" or "this is the tastiest thing ever" etc. etc. What can I say? I'm an extreme person. I either love it or I hate it. And in most cases, if something exceeds my expectations, it's really GOOD. I have high standards for the things I bake and will honestly tell you if something is not that good or if it's ok and there are ways to improve it. This cake, however wonderful, was no exception. It still needed it's improvements. And when I say improvements, I mean, don't make shortcuts like I do, just follow the recipe. I swear I made this 6 times before I was like, OK FINE, the recipe is the best way to do it!! I didn't really ever think of this until the last time. Hmmmm. What it comes down to is that I normally resent it when recipes call for cake flour. It just annoys me. Why do I need to buy special flour when it turns out the same in the end anyway? Why do I need to spend $4 on 32oz of flour? Not going to happen. 


Devil's Food Cake is a wily beast and doesn't hold to such conventions. 


So I've held out this long on the cake flour and after testing time after time my preferred unbleached flour and having the devils food cake cave in on my every time, I did a bit a reaserch. The first thing I discovered was that unbleached flour actually can not hold room temperature butter in suspension. I guess this makes a certain amount of sense? I didn't care to think about the science behind this too hard and took the internet's word for it. I tried it with bleached white flour. Nothing changed. They still caved in. I should say that all the other times I've made it, they did cave in a bit but the deliciousness of the cake made me never care that they did. It is so dense and so moist, who cares that there isn't a perfect dome on top? The taste was a siren song and I never cared to correct it's structural deformeties....


....Until I was asked to bake them for a wedding. 


I couldn't allow them to look the way they did at someone's WEDDING even if they tasted amazing. It would be humiliating and shameful. So I set down the path of perfecting these perfect tasting cakes and after altering a half a dozen variables I buckled and bought cake flour, as well as actually waiting for the unsalted butter and the eggs to be room temperature. I'm a very impatient person. Very. So these things are hard for me. Waiting is not something I do well. I usually put butter out the night before to avoid the waiting and if for some reason I forget or I run out the next day I microwave it a bit. Shameful. The eggs I usually use cold since you can't really microwave them, that just sounds like trouble. Scrambled egg inside it's shell...But to keep with the real recipe I used room temperature ingredients (I had Collin hold the eggs to bring them up to temp....like I said, I'm not a good waiter). You also have to wait for the hot water/chocolate mixture to cool which is so difficult for me I usually put it in the freezer instead of the fridge. But as long as you don't leave it too long, that doesn't seem so wrong. 


So with the combination of cake flour and room temp eggs and butter, the cupcakes were a success! No caving in, perfect little flatish tops and the same wonderfully dense texture. I guess there's some science behind smooth, bleached, lifeless flour holding on to the soft butter for dear life and not allowing the cake to deflate. 


I can tell you that this really is the best chocolate cake I've ever had or made. I'm sure my lab would agree since it's the usual request for all birthdays. Nothing really compares to devils food cake. I've learned this the hard way after trying countless other chocolate cake recipes, they just aren't the same. Give it a try and see for yourself. 


To top of the cupcakes I just use chocolate buttercream. For a cake I use a simple ganache that has been refrigerated overnight. It turns into mouse-like frosting. Amazing. Ah those milk fats.....miracle workers. 


I've happily converted the amounts in to ounces/cups. Your welcome. 

Rose's Heavenly Devils Food Cake:

adapted from Rose's Heavenly Cakes

1 oz bittersweet chocolate

1/4 cup dutch processed cocoa

1 cup boiling water

2 large egg yolks, room temperature

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/4 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 oz cake flour

1 1/2 cups light brown Muscovado sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

In a medium heat-safe bowl combine the boiling water, the chocolate and the cocoa and mix until smooth. Place the bowl into the refrigerator/freezer to cool.

Butter and flour two, 9 inch cake pans and line with a piece of parchment or put cupcakes liners in your cupcake tin. 

In a bowl, mix together the egg yolks, eggs, vanilla and sour cream and set aside.

In your stand mixer using the paddle attachment, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt for a minute on low speed. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the ingredients are crumbly. Scrape down the sides and add the egg mixture, beating for 90 seconds until light and well blended.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl again and add the cooled chocolate mixture while mixing on low speed. Once added raise the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds, until slightly fluffy.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and with a couple of strokes from a silicone spatula scrape down the sides and bottom to mix in any remaining chocolate and then pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly touched or a toothpicks comes out clean when inserted.

Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Slide a butterknife carefully around the sides of the cake to release and then carefully remove onto the rack to cool completely.

Frost with Chocolate Buttercream:

(enough for a cake, plenty for cupcakes, half this comes up just short for 24 cupcakes)

1 stick butter

3/4 cup cocoa powder 

~1/4 cup warm milk (or as much as needed)

1 tsp. vanilla. 

32 oz. powdered sugar (2 lbs)

Or frost with Chocolate Ganache: (Plan accordingly)

Dark Chocolate Ganache:

8oz dark chocolate (I like 60% Dark Chocolate Chips)

1 cup heavy cream

Bring the cream to a simmer and pour over the chocolate. Allow to sit for one minute. Whisk until smooth. Refrigerate overnight and allow to come back to room temperature before frosting the cakes. 

Raspberry-White Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

On my normal baking-extravaganza day (i.e. Tuesday) I was way under the weather and had a day at home. Normally this would entail a much bigger baking endeavor than cookies but with the sickness I decided to take it easy. And as far as I'm concerned, cookies are taking it easy. Even though these are sandwich cookies which I suppose requires twice the work, plus a bit more for the filling, they still weren't took bad (in terms of work) and in no way did I make myself worse for the ware for making them. Actually this was the ONLY thing I did on Tuesday, which I guess is good for my health but not so good in terms of productivity, but whatever.

Raspberry Cream Sandwhich Cookie Recipe 

I really don't know why I bought the ___ book. Every recipe is on her website anyways. Word to the wise. 

I hesitate to say that I am happy/fortunate/etc. to own the Martha Stewart "Cookies" book because as I've expressed before, and I'm glad that others agree, her stuff is a bit hit and miss. Seems strange that the reigning heavy weight of all things domestic (is she still reigning? maybe only by default) would have recipes in her repetoir that really weren't all that good. Nearly half the stuff I've ever made of 'hers' turns out not just bad, but almost awful. I can't all be my fault. It still baffles me. At any rate, I always enter in to making her recipes with a fair bit of apprehension and this time I searched around a bit to see if others had tested this recipe before I even attempted it. I wasn't about to make something else on my sick day if it turned out bad. Not going to happen. Seemed like several people in the blogging world had tested and liked the recipe, so I forged ahead. 

The dough was mousse-y and granular. Mmm I love it when you can taste and feel the sugar. One of my favorite textures. Baking the cookies I noticed took a bit more skill but not much. I noticed the cookies tend to puff up a bit when baking, but when you turn the baking sheet half way through, you end up deflating them by opening and closing the oven door. This kind of annoys me and makes me think why didn't Martha's minions figure this out when coming up with the recipe? Why have such a temperamental cookie? I mean it's a cookie for ___'s sake. Anyway, they become a bit flat when all is said and done. Not a deal breaker but irritating. They cool extremely fast which is a great trait of this particular cookie I have to say. I'm far too impatient to wait around for something to cool. I do most of the time, but I don't like it. 

I had to tamper with the filling just a bit to get it to work. 'Martha' says to melt the white chocolate then take off the heat and add the cream and then add the raspberry puree to it. Well, the white chocolate never seemed to melt. I'm not sure why since white chocolate is nearly all fat. Mine just sat there in a clump and never smoothed out to a liquid. I took matters into my own hands and added the cream and whisked until it was smooth. You usually add cream over heat with a ganache or at least right after you take it off the heat. So whichever way you do it just make sure the cream and chocolate are evening mixed before you add your pureed raspberries. Once you get it all mixed together you need to refridgerate for at least 30 minutes before you fill your cookies since it takes a while to thicken. I'd recommend an hour. I used a frosting spatula to do this but thought as I was doing so, a pastry bag would work so much better. Just pipe a big dollap on to each cookie and assemble. So easy. Refrigerate again to stiffen the filling back up. Since I have a tendency to slightly underbake cookies (on purpose-I like them super tender) they were amazing with the filling. Almost like a cake. Super soft and moist. The kind of cookies that slowly pull apart in the commercials. But these are chemical free. Always a plus. 

If you're in a cookie mood, try these out. They are delicious!

Photos by Collin Monda

Strawberry Tartlets with Honey Mascarpone Filling

For my next round of tartlets I used strawberres. Just another option for you. I can't decide which I liked better, strawberry of blackberry, but I think that's a good thing. Proving their versatility once again. Recipe and previous post on how to make these tarts here. Now what to make next? I think a mixed fruit would be beautiful and quite delicious....

Photos by Collin Monda

Blackberry Tart(let)s with Honey Mascarpone Cheese Pastry Cream and Coffee Shop Sampler

I wanted to switch things up last week from my usual buttercream/cake overload frenzy to something a bit more refined. Perhaps a bit more French. Less sugar. More cream. More fruit. No buttercream. With those constraints I happened upon a wonderful tart recipe that used a honey and mascarpone cheese filling. I settled on blackberries for my fruit (one of my favorites and so pretty against white) and used the tried and true Pate Brisee recipe from Julia Child for the crust. The hardest part was making the little tart shells and that truthfully is not that hard. Just takes some time if you want to make a couple dozen and only have 6 tart shell pans. Lots of shuffling and repeating but really not too bad. And the only baking you have to do is of the shells so that's nice. Just remember to line them with foil or parchment paper and fill them with pie weights and/or beans. Also, poke some holes in the crust so the dough doesn't puff up too much. 

For the filling you just mix up some honey, mascarpone cheese, sour cream, and vanilla. I was a bit weirded out by this mixture thinking it would resemble something like cheese cake (my mortal enemy) but was pleasantly surprised that it was not sour or cheesy at all. Despite the actual cheese and sour cream. It turned out more like a standard pastry cream, but richer. Had a wonderful depth and just a hint of sweet from the honey. Quite delicious with fruit. After you fill them and add your fruit topping, chill them in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or more to stiffen up the cream and keep them fresh. Keep chilled until ready to serve or just before. 

I'm not sure how I could sell this to you more but I heard from several people independently that this was the best thing I've ever made and perhaps some shade of shock at how nice looking it was. Perhaps my tasters where surprised that copious amounts of butter was not involved nor any buttercream. A nice change up. It's good to keep people on their toes. One thing that I love about this is that it is so versatile. You can add any fruit as a topping. The cream and the crust are merely a base. You can do a mixed fruit or maybe even do them plain, or with chocolate. Who knows. It's open to interpretation. I'm planning on making several variations of this in the future. A definite crowd pleaser as it turns out. 

Here's the filling recipe (from Annie's Eats):

2/3 cup mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

1/3 cup honey

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Pinch ground nutmeg

And the pate brisee recipe (from Master the Art of French Cooking) 

Pate Brisee Instructions

2 1/2 cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon (4 grams) salt

1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) (226 grams) unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch (2.54 cm) pieces

1/4 to 1/2 cup (60 - 120 ml) ice water

A week ago I made a little sampler of baked goods for a coffee shop I may be supplying some sweets to in the future. (Fingers Crossed). I settled on the tarts (several people insisted that I do this so I figured they know best and are the type of customer for these treats so who am I to deny them?) as well as my favorite, the red velvet cake, in cupcake and minicupcake form, and the lemon doughnuts. I think they all turned out pretty well and hopefully I'll get the gig. I tried to do a nice mixture of flavors to show some versatility but then realized I didn't do any of my usual sweet laden treats with buttercream, but oh well, I think some of myself came through. People can't subsist entirely on buttercream creations. They want some variety. I think anyway. I'm good with just buttercream though.

The Baby Loaf

Photos by Collin Monda

New Round of Mini Doughnuts (Donuts?)

I had to try out a few new flavors/toppings for my latest favorite thing to make for group meeting this week. It was a learning experience that's for sure. I decided to make good old fashioned powdered doughnuts as well as chocolate glazed doughnuts. Why must doughnut be spelled two ways and both ways are right? I always write "donut" but that seems so incorrect when compared to "doughnut". Hmmm. Anyways, the powdered were super easy since all you do after you bake them and let them cool is roll them around until coated in a bowl of powdered sugar. What could be easier? Well when I woke up in the morning nearly all of the powdered sugar had absorbed into the doughnut as if they were feeding off the sugar. A little irritated, I coated them again in the sugar and by the time group meeting rolled around the doughnuts had consumed about half of the sugar again. Despite them not looking totally coated they were really quite delicious, probably because of all the sugar additions and subsequence absorption. I ate way too many of them. Why are powdered doughnuts so addicting?

On to the chocolate doughnuts and the issues that came along with them. Instead of using a recipe I thought I could just whip up a simple ganache and that would glaze them nicely. Why wouldn't it look just like a normal glazed doughnut? Why would I have to use a special recipe? One that will actually harden and not remain sticky and wet forever. No I didn't consider any of this and made a simple ganache by pouring hot whipping cream over dark chocolate chips, letting them melt, stirring it until mixed and shiny and then dipping the cooled doughnuts in the glaze. Well, the ganache was far too thin for this sort of job apparently because it just looked like a brown sheen or lacquer rather than an icing. So I mixed in powdered sugar. And more powdered sugar. And more to stiffen it up a bit and by the time it was relatively thick that frosting was so sweet it was insane. And I have a pretty tolerant sweet tooth. The icing stuck nicely to the cake but the problem was is that it never made a shell like normal doughnut glazes. Still good albeit insanely sweet. Also, really messy.

I need to find an actual recipe for this next time. Also, I wanted to make the actual cake part chocolate too. I'll probably just add in a bit of cocoa powder to the normal recipe. I think that will do the trick.

Here's the doughnut recipe:

1 1/4 C cake flour, sifted
1/2 C granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. nutmeg (I don't add this in--unless you're doing some sort of spice cake I really don't think this is necessary).
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 Tbs. butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. I use a pastry brush to coat the doughnut tin with melted butter. Works so much better than your fingers (I did this the fist time). Or you could use spray but you wants all those chemicals??

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add buttermilk, egg, and butter and stir until just combined. Fill each doughnut cup approximately 1/2 full. I pipe it in using a large tip. Makes for even sizing and is far less messy. Bake 4-6 minutes (for my oven, 5 min is perfect) or until the top of the doughnuts spring back when touched. 5 minutes doesn't allow for a browning of the doughnuts, instead it makes them soft and pillowy and since your coating them in a glaze etc. who needs them to be golden brown? Let cool in a pan for 4-5 minutes (again, 5 minutes is perfect) before removing. Finish doughnuts with glaze or sprinkles (mmm sprinkles, why had I never thought of you?! Next time. Next time). Makes 24 doughnuts.

Photos by Collin Monda.

Lemon Cake With Lemon Simple Syrup and Lemon Icing

For a coworkers birthday instead of making the usual chocolate cake I made a Lemon Cake since the recipient doesn't like chocolate. I know. Crazy. Actually it was kind of nice to not make the same old chocolate cake again. I've made it about 10 times in the past couple months. It's a good one and a definite crowd pleaser but it was getting a bit tired of making so many appearances, and so was I. I don't think I've ever even posted that cake. Reminder that I must do that. It's the best chocolate cake recipe I've ever had that isn't insanely rich and puts you into a food coma. It's especially delicious in cupcake form. But what isn't better miniature? So with chocolate out of the picture I kind of floundered a bit. So many options. What to make? What's the opposite of chocolate? Fruit? Someone suggested lemon and I was sold. I wanted to redeem my last lemon cake which was admittedly very dry (it happens....). I also added poppy seeds which I don't think it needs. Better to be smooth and sugary and lemony. No crunchy bits. Anyway, I scoured the internet (taste-spotting) and found one that looked particularly good and the blogger who made it said it was the best she had ever tried so I figured why not see if I agree? It's an Ina Garten recipe which gives it some credentials (recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lemon-cake-recipe/index.html) . I'm not sure I trust her so much with desserts let alone cakes but I was willing to give this a shot especially since the recipe had you pour a warm lemon simple syrup over the cooling cake. That's a good enough reason for me. Dry-cake problem solved.

The recipe was the usual. Nothing fancy. Had you alternate buttermilk and flour mixtures which I think always makes for a good cake. Why? I have no idea. The batter was incredibly mousse-y for a lemon cake so that was a good start. I baked it in a bunt pan which I love doing because it's instantly fancy and much easier than making layered cakes. After you remove it from the oven and let it cool for a bit upside down (cake part up) you pour a simple syrup made with lemon juice over the cake. The recipe was a bit confusing at this point so I just slowly poured it over the cake and let it sit in the pan while it cooled. I thought this will either end up wonderfully by having the syrup soak in all over the cake or this could end horribly with the cake turning into a mush and slopping all over the place, simple syrup flying as I try to turn the cake over and out of the pan. It ended up like the former which was a relief. It seemed also the the syrup mainly absorbed at the bottom of the cake and didn't really do much at the top even though it soaked in. Strange.

Once the cake it cooled all the way you pour on a lemon juice icing. Which is just powdered sugar and lemon juice. Amazingly good. So simple. To get it looking like you spent hours carefully spooning it back and forth to create the little streams of frosting down the sides? Spend about 2 seconds and pour the frosting just on the top of the cake and let it do it's own streaming. Trust me. It looks great and requires no stress or time.

If you're looking for a good lemon cake this is definitely one to make. Enjoy!

Photos by Collin Monda