Autumn is settling in.  Autumn has settled in, and here I am ready to accept it.  I’m also ready to accept the fact that my days in the kitchen are about to dramatically increase (if you can believe that) as my cravings for apple crisp (lovelovelovelovelovelovelove), pumpkin cookies and cranberry treats become harder to ignore.  I’m less ready to embrace the way my jeans are tightening around my thighs… or maybe it’s my thighs growing inside my jeans.  Either way, the tightness and the sucking in of the tummy seems to be just a part of the season.

What are you up to in the kitchen these days?  Here’s some food for thought  Yes… I totally just said that. 

Mocha Hazelnut Marble Cake.  This cake was gorgeous, classy and utterly fine… until I tried to transport it in a fancy cake stand and got this glistening chocolate glaze exactly everywhere.  Everywhere.  Lesson learned. 

Sweet and soft Ginger Chewies.  Full of molasses attitude.  

Spiced Pear Walnut Cake with a praline walnut glaze.  How about I just go ahead and make the glaze and then spoon it into my mouth… forget the cake.  This beauty is all about the glaze.

Cinnamon Spice Buns.  The dough is spiced.  The filling is sugar and spice.  There’s butter and glaze.  Make this a part of your life please.

Vanilla Bean Rice Pudding.  I ate the whole pot.  The whole pot.  By myself.  

Pizza.  Homemade pizza.  Easy.  Not hard. Worth it’s weight in gold and precious stones.  

I sometimes wish that my future self could just pop into my present world just to… you know… say hi, and let me know that everything in the future is going along just swimmingly.  That never happens, but maybe I just haven’t given future me enough guidance.  With this in mind…  here’s a quick letter to future me.  Now maybe 48 year old me will get crackin’ on some answers.  Slacker.  

Dear Future Me,

Hi.  How’s it going?  You look really pretty in that sweater.  

I have a few questions for you.  I hope you’ll indulge me.  

Are you still unreasonably afraid of spiders?  Probably.  You know what?  That’s ok.  That’s what spouses are for… clearing spiders from anywhere that might interfere with you.  

Speaking of spouses… do you have one?  How’s that going?  Awesome.  I hope it’s awesome.  I hope you two hold hands and take morning walks and go out on dates.  

Do you still buy the cheap mascara?  Have you been to Italy yet?  

Tell me you still wear a little black dress and heels on occasion.  Please.  

Kids.  Do we have Mom hands yet? Oooh, I love Mom hands.  I can’t wait to have Mom hands… well I can wait.  I’m waiting right this very second and I don’t feel bad.  But Mom hands…. I bet we totally have Mom hands. 

How do you feel about eggplant?  Do you like eggplant yet?

What’s been good?  What’s been not so good?  Are you livin’ the dream?

Let me know how we are.  Send me a sign… maybe a paper airplane with your answers… whatever you need to do.

I’ll be sitting here with a cup of tea and my Spiced Apple Cake waiting to hear from you.

Love,

Present Me

Quick Blurb of Shamelessness

Hi… it’s me, Joy the Baker.  I hang out here a lot.  So do you.  I like that.  Thanks. 

Last week I was nominated for the Foodbuzz Blog Awards.  The Best Baking Blog… go figure.  If you’re feeling… votey, you might head on over to Foodbuzz to vote for all the fine folks that are up for an award.  Yea?  Thanks!

I love this apple cake.  LOVE IT!  It’s perfectly spiced, full of tart fall apples and moistened with sour cream.  I baked my apple cake in an old fashioned tube pan, but I think this recipe is best made in a 8″ or 9″ spring form pan.  Bonus!  This cake freezes well.  I sliced my cake and wrapped up pieces individually to grab as an afternoon snack at work.  Spiced Apple Cake with hot tea… a perfect world. 

Spiced Apple Cake

     from The Sweet Life

     Print this Recipe!

Sauteed Apples

2 tart apples (about 1 pound)

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons sugar

Cake

12 Tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1 cup packed light brown sugar

4 egg yolks, at room temperature

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon clove

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon sour cream

1/4 cup raw sugar (or granulated if you don’t have raw on hand)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place a rack in the center of the oven.  Butter and flour an 8-inch spring form pan and set aside.

To sautee the apples: peel, core and dice the apples into 1/4-inch cubes.  Melt the butter in a saute pan over medium heat until butter beings to bubble.  Add the diced apples and cook for one minute, stirring with a wooden spoon.  Add the sugar and continue to cook for 2 minutes.  Turn the heat to low and cook the apples, uncovered for 4-5 minutes until they are softened.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  You’ll only use the sauteed apples for the recipe so you can discard any liquids that may have accumulated.  

To make the cake:  cream the butter, sugar and spices in a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment until light in color and fluffy.  This may take 6 to 8 minutes.  Stop the mixer occasionally, to scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue beating until mixture is light and fluffy.

Add the egg yolks one at a time and continue beating until fluffy and glossy.  

Measure out the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  With the mixer set on low speed, add half of the dry ingredients to the batter.  Mix until no flour streaks remain.  Add the sour cream all at once and incorporate.  Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix until no traces remain.  Fold in the cooked apples with a rubber spatula.  The cake batter will be thick.  

Spread the cake batter into the prepared pan and distribute evenly.  Take a knife and run it in a singular circular motion through the batter 1-inch from the edge of the pan.  This will help the cake to rise evenly.  Sprinkle the cake with the raw or granulated sugar and bake for 60- 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing the sides of the spring form pan.

Ooooh God.  This is embarrassing.  This is about to happen.  

Here’s a small excerpt from Joy’s (before she was the Baker) diary circa late 1996.  I had strong feelings about a lot of things back then… my first crush named Hayden, my best friend turned enemy, the television show Seinfeld, making the volleyball team and…. MTV’s The Real World.  Yea… I’m not so sure about that last one either.  I dunno.  Here’s an actual excerpt:  

Um.  Diary.  Seriously.  (P.S.) Real World Miami sucked just to let you know.

Reasons to be on Real World…

1) I’m athletic… DUH

2) I’m funny… so how bout them Dodgers… who’s on first… knock knock.  

3) I’m diverse.  I’m a black girl (woman).  

4) Kissing.  But not on camera. 

5) I’m from Los Angeles… with bright lights and clear skies.  

6) I’m a country music lover… Come on baby let’s go to Vegas.  

*HELL-OOO

My heavens! I laughed out loud when I found this little gem in my teenage diary. Ooooh but believe me… that little book is full of all sorts of priceless wallowing and poetry so terrible… so foul… that I can barely even stand to revisit it. This little list though…. hot dang… so funny.  I think I love reason number three the most.  Why did I feel the need to put the ‘woman’ in parentheses?  My heavens.  What a weirdo. 

I just had to get that off my chest… now, cake. 

I have gone through many a Red Velvet Cake recipe but I’ve finally found my favorite.  The Humming Bakery Cookbook is just a dream when it comes to cakes and cupcakes.  I turned my favorite Red Velvet Cupcakes into a cake with Fluffy White Seven Minute Frosting and topped with whole monster with toasted coconut.  The recipe has a good dose of cocoa powder and buttermilk, making the cake both flavorful and moist.  This beauty makes for a super lovely party cake.  It’s impressive.    

Can’t imagine Red Velvet without Cream Cheese Frosting… we’ve got that recipe too!

Red Velvet Cake with Fluffy White Frosting and Toasted Coconut

     from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

     makes 2 8-inch or 9-inch round cakes

     Print this Recipe!

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 egg

5 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

4 Tablespoons red food coloring mixed with 2 Tablespoons water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour two 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pans.  Set aside.  

In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about three minutes.  Turn mixer to high and add  the eggs.  Scrape down the bowl and beat until well incorporated.

In a separate bowl mix together cocoa, vanilla and red food coloring to make a thick paste.  Add to the batter, mixing thoroughly until completely combined.  You may need to stop the mixer to scrape the bottom of the bowl, making sure that all the batter gets color.

Turn mixer to low and slowly add half of the buttermilk.  Add half of the flour and salt and mix until combined.  Scrape the bowl and repeat the process with the remaining milk and flour.  Beat on high until smooth.

Turn mixer to low and add baking soda and white vinegar.  Turn to high and beat a few more minutes.

Spoon batter into prepared cake pans and bake for 25-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center cupcake comes out clean.

Let rest in the pan for 20 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

Fluffy Seven Minute Frosting

     from Epicurious.com

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

3 large egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

In large metal bowl, whisk together 1/3 cup water, sugar, egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt. Set bowl over pan of barely simmering water and mix with handheld electric mixer at low speed. Gradually increase speed to high, beating until mixture holds stiff peaks, about 5 minutes.

Transfer bowl from pan to folded kitchen towel on counter and continue beating until mixture is cool and billowy, about 2 minutes more. Beat in vanilla. (Frosting can be made 4 hours ahead and chilled, covered.)

Toasted Coconut

1 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Spread coconut on top of a foil lined baking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 6-10 minutes, tossing coconut occasionally so it browns evenly.  Keep a close eye on the coconut, it burns quickly!

Cake flour.  Let’s face facts:  I never have cake flour on hand when I need it.  Luckily, there’s a super easy way to turn good old all-purpose flour into cake flour, lightening your cake crumb, making it super soft and delicious.    Maybe you already know this trick.  It’s a good one.  

Here’s a step by step.  From me to you!

How to Turn All-Purpose Flour into Cake Flour

Step One:  Measure out the all-purpose flour that you’ll need for your recipe.  

Step Two: For every cup of flour you use, take out two tablespoons of flour and return it to the flour bin.  Throw the cup of flour (minus the two tablespoons) into a sifter set over a bowl. 

Step Three:  Replace the two tablespoons of flour that your removed with two tablespoons of cornstarch.  

Step Four:  Sift the flour and cornstarch together.  Sift it again, and again and again.  The cornstarch and flour need to be well incorporated and the flour aerated.  Sift the flour and cornstarch mixture about five times.  Look at that!  You just made cake flour!

Let’s play a game called Usta Wanna or… I Used to Want To.  

I usta wanna be brave enough to go down the free fall water slide at the water park. 

I usta wanna be a traffic cop… the kind that would dance in the street on occasion… the kind that I saw at the end of a slow evening news show sometime when I was about six.  I actually still want to be one of those traffic cops.  No joke.

I usta wanna take the swim test at overnight summer camp privately.  Something about doing my life saving dog paddle in front of the entire girls camp made me nauseous.  

I usta wanna design a postage stamp.  This is the precious dream of a young girl whose parents both work at the post office.

Between the ages of 13 and 15, I usta wanna eat nothing but popcorn and orange juice.  I dunno…. I never claimed to be reasonable. 

I usta wanna completely negate whole wheat from my life.  If I could have eaten Wonder Bread and ignored the whole wheat millet bread my parents bought as I was growing up… ooooh, how dreams would have come true.  Because whole wheat seemed to be impossible to escape, it would seem that somewhere along the way I grew fond of it.  For this reason, I bring you…  Honey Whole Wheat Pound Cake.  

Let’s talk about it. 

Let’s talk about how lovely this pound cake is.  It was nutty and full-flavored, without having an overwhelming whole wheat density.  I used white whole wheat flour instead of regular whole wheat flour.  If you can, use a good raw honey for this cake… something like Bee Raw or Ames Farm.  The honey add a sweetness with character and depth, making the pound cake really delightful.  I love this cake.  It’s a definite go-to classic in my world. 

Honey Whole Wheat Pound Cake

     makes 1 9 x 5-inch loaf and 6 muffins

     Print this Recipe!

2 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 sticks (12 Tablespoons of butter)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup honey

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter and flour the loaf pan and muffin tins.  

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.  

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, whip the butter, sugar and honey on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the vanilla extract.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about one minute after each addition.  Scrape down the bowl as needed.  Add the dry mixture and buttermilk in three additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.  Stop the mixer and scrape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is evenly incorporated.  

Transfer the batter to the prepared pans.  Smooth the top down and bake the cake for about  hour and the muffins for about 20 to 25 minutes.  The cake will be a lovely golden brown and a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake will come out clean.  

Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Ok… first of all, stop looking at me like that.

Yea, I can see that crazy look of your face.  But it’s me.  The same person that brought you amazing Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls and Perfect Lemon Pound Cake. We trust each other.  We have an understanding.  Just go with me on this.

Something about hot summer weather gets me to thinking (or melts my brain) and brings some strange recipes to the surface.  Remember last year’s Blueberry Ice Cream with Homemade Hot Fudge?  Yea… I got a few strange looks for that too.

Because I still see those raised eyebrows on your face, let me tell you a little about this beast of a cake.  Believe me, I was super skeptical too.

The vegan chocolate cake is dense and moist, and everything you might want from a chocolate cake minus the eggs and butter.  The fat in the cake is almond oil (or anything you have on hand) and one whole mashed avocado.  It’s lovely, and I didn’t taste a lick of avocado in the cake.

The avocado buttercream is a dash more strange.  Yes, it’s bright green.  Yes, the only fat in the buttercream is avocado meat.  It’s sweet with slight hints of citrus.  I had my doubts, but when combined with the chocolate cake… holy wow!  It actually worked!  It was honest-to-goodness delicious!  Not to mention vegan and full of healthy fats!

Your thoughts?  Have I scared you off?

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Avocado

makes 2 8-inch rounds or 2 thinner 9-inch rounds

from Vegetarian in the Middle East

Print this recipe!

3 cups all-purpose flour

6 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used almond oil)

1/2 cup soft avocado, well mashed, about 1 medium avocado

2 cups water

2 Tablespoons white vinegar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour two 8 or 9-inch rounds.  Set aside.

Sift together all of the dry ingredients except the sugar.  Set that aside too.

Mix all the wet ingredients together in a bowl, including the super mashed avocado.

Add sugar into the wet mix and stir.

Mix the wet with the dry all at once, and beat with a whisk (by hand) until smooth.

Pour batter into a greased cake tins. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let cakes cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto cooling racks to cool completely before frosting with avocado buttercream.

Avocado Buttercream Frosting

from Alton Brown

8 ounces of avocado meat, about 2 small to medium, very ripe avocados

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 pound powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Peel and pit the soft avocados.  It’s important to use the ripest avocados you can get your hands on.  If the avocados have brown spots in the meat, avoid those spots when you scoop the meat into the bowl.

Place the avocado meat into the bowl of a stand mixer fit with the whisk attachment.  Add lemon juice and whisk the avocado on medium speed, until slightly lightened in color and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.

Add the powdered sugar a little at a time and beat.  Add vanilla extract until combined.  If not using right away, store in the refrigerator.  Don’t worry.  It won’t turn brown!

I still write letters.

I still hand write letters in a festive card with a return address sticker.  I might even decorate the envelope with a rubbe-stamped dolphin stampede.

I still write letters and I still have pen pals.

My favorite pen pal?   My grandmother.  I call her Mommom.  She’s rad.  I don’t know how she would feel about me calling her rad.  She writes me short letters during the break she takes on her morning walk.  These letters are usually written from her favorite bagel shop.  Letters always include some sort of loving greeting, an update about her walking adventures and the bagel shop, something about an upcoming trailer trip, inquiries about my little sister, and an abrupt closing.  Short, sweet and to the point.

The best part about being pen pals with Mommom is that she will not let me slack off.  If  I haven’t written her a letter in a few weeks, I’ll get another letter urging me to, if I know what’s good for me, write my grandmother back.  If for some reason I don’t get to that letter in adequate time… well, I’m liable to hurt my grandmother’s feelings.  Hurt grandmother feelings, of course, leads to all sorts of guilt from all sorts of family members.  News of pen pal activity, or inactivity travels fast in my family.

Letter writing isn’t a chore.  It’s a nice break from simultaneously writing an email and checking my blog stats and watching stupid cat videos.   Letter writing is not technology multi-tasking.  It’s easy, breezy, simple… all about just sendin’ a little love.

Then there’s cobbler, which couldn’t be any more simple and delicious.  This easy cobbler is like letter writing, in baking form.  Spend a little time baking up a little love with this cobbler.  Sit down with a nice warm slice and write a letter to someone.  It’s supreme.

This cobbler just couldn’t be easier to throw together.  I used delicious golden nectarines as the filing, but feel free to use fresh raspberries, blueberries, blackberries or peaches in any combination.  You can also use frozen fruit, although it should be thawed and drained before incorporated.  Enjoy summer the easy way.

Easy Nectarine and Cream Cobbler

adapted from The Pastry Queen

Print this recipe!

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of cloves

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

3/4 cup milk (low fat milk will work fine)

3 cups sliced nectarines, skins left on

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Melt the butter in a medium saute pan set over medium high heat until it bubbles and turns a nut brown color.  Watch the butter closely, as it can go from browned to burnt in just a few seconds.  The butter will have all sorts of browned bits in it.  That’s good!

Pour the butter into an 8-inch or 9-inch square baking dish.  Do not try a pie baking dish.  I did.  Overflow!

In a medium bowl, stir together the granulated sugar, flour, baking powder and spices.  Add milk and stir.

Pour the mixture on top of the melted butter.  Here’s the hard part:  do not stir!  Without mixing, arrange the fruit evenly over the top of the batter.  Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Bake the cobbler for 40 to 45 minutes, until the top turns golden brown.  Amazingly, the batter will migrate from the bottom of the pan to cover the fruit.  Yum!  Serve warm with slightly sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Strawberries make me restless.

It’s a fact.  Yes, a strange fact, but no less true.

See, in my part of the world, strawberries come along every year right around May.  This is around the time when I’ve loooooong ago let slide any New Year’s resolutions I might have made for myself, when it’s possible that I’ve slacked a bit on my workout routine, and the goal of reading a chapter of a book a night before I fall asleep has somehow transferred into watching an old episode of House every night before I pass out.

Don’t even get me started on the mania that I try to pass off as my closet.  It’s not pretty.

So…. strawberries come along at a time of year when I’ve cemented in some slightly lazy and ooooooh so comfortable habits for myself.

I don’t know how or why this works, but strawberries inspire me to shake my world up a bit, maybe introduce something new, maybe hop on one leg every morning just for the hell of it…. whatever.  This is the time of year when I change things up a bit.

This year, strawberries have inspired me to do two things:  learn Italian and combine fresh strawberries with one of my favorite cakes of all time…. streusel topped coffee cake.

Let’s do this.

Now seems like a good time to admit that you could put streusel topping on just about anything and I’d devour it with few regrets.  Please don’t let that take away from how crazy awesome this strawberry coffee cake is.  Moist sour cream coffee cake is mixed with cooked down fresh strawberries and topped with streusel topping.  It’s both lovely ad humble, and just the perfect little cake to sit with in front of my computer as I work my way through Italian flash cards.

Strawberry Coffee Cake

inspired by Panache at Rose Hill

Print this recipe!

1 heaping cup sliced strawberries

1/3 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons water

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 ounces sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

a few drops of almond extract (optional)

Topping:

3 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the topping:

Combine all the topping ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly.  Set aside.

To make the strawberry mixture:

Combine strawberries, 1/3 cup sugar, water and cornstarch in a small saucepan.  Cook over low heat for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring constantly until the sauce is thickened and strawberries are soft and somewhat broken down.  Set aside to cool.

Grease and flour a 10×10-inch baking dish, knocking out excess flour, and set aside.

To make the coffee cake:

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add vanilla extract, and almond extract if you’re using it.

Sift dry ingredients together.  Add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter in 3 parts alternating with the sour cream in 2 parts, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.  Beat just until combined.

Spoon 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan.  Spread the cooled strawberry mixture over the batter.  Spoon the remaining batter onto the strawberries and spread evenly.  Top with streusel topping and bake in the upper third of the oven.  Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Before I made this cake on Sunday afternoon, I sat down with a nice, tall root beer float.  Sure, it was 10:30 in the morning.  I suppose that technically that means I had a root beer float for breakfast.  That’s one of the great thing about being an adult, you can have a float for breakfast with no resistance.

Something about a root beet float puts me on a conveyor belt back to some really random childhood memories.  The taste, the bubbles, the increasingly creamy soda… it take me back to constantly skinned knees, playing in a beat-up old red wagon with my sister, and sitting in front of an old black and white television watching baseball with my grandfather.  Funny what a little ice cream and soda can do in your brain, right?

But cake!?  Root Beet Float Cake?  I have so many questions.  Will it have the same memory inducing effects as the real deal?  Is that asking too much?  Wait, is this cake chocolate or root beer?  Can I eat it for breakfast?  Will it change my life for the better?

Answers and cake, just a click away.

Here’s what you should know about the Root Beer Float Cake.  It’s a wonderfully moist, super chocolate Bundt Cake.  It’s the kind of cake that’s great to take to a outdoor summer party because it has the “hmmm” factor.  People will wonder what’s in it besides the chocolate.

The cake doesn’t have the same memory inducing effects as a real root beer float.  I blame that on all the chocolate.  The root beer flavor does intensify in the cake the next day.  I suggest making the cake a day ahead, wrapping it well, then frosting it and serving the next day.  And yes… cake for breakfast is always encouraged around these parts.  Cake for breakfast usually makes my life better.

Try this cake.  Maybe for Memorial Day.  Maybe put it on your summer baking list.  I’d love to hear what you think!

Root Beer Float Cake

Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Print this recipe!

2 cups root beer (don’t use diet)

1 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

Preheat even to 325 degrees F.  Spray the inside of a 10-inch Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray, or butter generously and dust with flour, knocking out the excess.

In a small saucepan, heat the root beer, cocoa powder and butter over medium heat until butter is melted.  Add sugars and whisk until dissolved.  Remove from heat and let cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

In a small bowl whisk the eggs until just beaten.  Then whisk into the cocoa mixture until combined.  Gently fold the flour mixture into the cocoa mixture.  The batter will be slightly lumpy.  You can give it a quick whisk if you like, but don’t over beat the batter or it could cause the cake to be tough.  Don’t worry, the batter is very loose.

Pour the batter into prepared pan and cook for 35-45 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking until a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely then loosen edges with a butter knife and turn out onto a cake plate.

Chocolate Root Beer Frosting

2 ounces 60% cocoa, melted

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon salt (you may want to use less… maybe just 1/2 teaspoon)

1/4 cup root beer

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 1/2  cups powdered sugar

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using an electric hand mixer, beat softened butter and cocoa powder.  Once combined add the melted chocolate, salt, powdered sugar and root beer.  Beat together until smooth.  Spread on top of cooled cake.  Slice and serve with  vanilla ice cream.

Everyone has their own way of enjoying toasted marshmallows.  It’s very much a personal thing… this I understand.

I like my roasted, toasted marshmallows extra crispy… extra well done.  I want that sucker on  the end of the misshapen close hanger, stuck right into the depths of the fire.  I want it to come out flaming.  That’s right, I’m a marshmallow torch girl.

Apparantely, the marshmallow torch is not how you make friends at all-girl sleep away camp.  I would always get groans of disapproval from the girls that were trying to keep their precious marshmallows just far enough away from the orange coals to perfectly toast them.  Maybe they were less than thrilled with my marshmallow torch because I usually managed to set at least one of their darling marshmallows on fire just out of sheer proximity.  I considered it a favor.  Them..?  Not so much.

But these brownies aren’t really about my summer camp misadventures, are they?  These S’mores Brownies are more about fudgy, dense chocolate that bakes up with graham cracker bits and toasted marshmallows.  Toasted, not torched.

There are few things quite as spectacular as a pan of warm brownies just about 15 minutes out of the oven.  With their  slightly crackled top and perfectly chewy  chocolate center, brownies are a simple pleasure.  These S’mores Brownies are  simply an improvement on something that didn’t really need much fussing with.  The result is a marshmallow topped brownie that’s so good, you might find ways to rationalize a big hunk for breakfast.  Chocolate can be breakfast too.  Life is entirely too short not to make a S’mores Brownie breakfast from time to time.

S’mores Brownies

adapted from Bon Appetit, October 1991

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• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 5 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup graham cracker, roughly crushed with your hands
• 12 big marshmallows  (I also diced 6 additional marshmallows and stirred them into the batter. These marshmallows dissolve when baked, so you can leave them out, or throw them in.  Up to you!)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9×13-inch baking pan with 2-inch-high sides. Combine first 3 ingredients in small bowl. Stir butter and chocolate in a medium sized bowl over a  heavy  saucepan of simmering water.  Stir chocolate and butter in this double boiler until melted and smooth.

Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Stir in warm chocolate mixture, then dry ingredients. Fold in graham crackers.  Pour batter into prepared pan. Dot with 12 large marshmallows.  Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 30- 40 minutes minutes.

Marshmallows will be browned and puffy but will deflate as the brownies cool.  Cool for at least 20 minutes than slice with a sharp knife, cleaning the knife with hot water if it gets too messy and sticky.  Serve or wrap individually in wax paper for storing.