Cooking is my favorite hobby. I live to eat. I, however, do not live to bake. You can state that about as emphatically as you'd like. If I never baked again I'd probably be just fine. Desserts are just ok. Leftover desserts are either given away or thrown away. Once we've had a serving we're done. So, you can imagine my dismay when I got a baking blog for my Secret Recipe Club post this month. Gnashing of teeth, tearing of hair. Then, I started reading Gloria's blog. OMG does she have some fantastic stuff there. And, thankfully for this non-baker, most of her recipes are very approachable. Now, you do need to hit the internet to translate them into our wacko American measurements. But, the ingredient lists aren't overwhelming and the directions are well written. I knew I'd be ok. What to try? There was a recipe for pear cake with black sesame seeds. Connie LOVES pears. But, I wasn't sure I'd have the time to get to a specialty store to get the black sesame seeds. On to the next recipe. All of them better than the one before. I'd printed four or five. Then, I found IT. Scottish Whisky Cake. Yup. We had some lamb stew meat that Connie'd been talking about turning into lamb stew. We could have a nice little ScotchIrish dinner. After all, we're McConnell, Connolly, Martin, Clark and O'Keefe. Plus, you've got to add the English side - Hart and Marvel.
If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know the drill. Once a month I post a recipe from another blogger. It's like the old secret pal thing. They don't know you've got their blog until the day we ALL reveal our recipes. Over the last year I've met some wonderful bloggers doing this. And, I love actually being able to sit down and read another blog. There are two that I read with regularity (That Skinny Chick Can Bake and The Mom Chef.) Otherwise, I try and catch friend's blogs as I can. Which isn't as often as I'd like because I work so much. This month I got Canela Kitchen. Lucky me. Gloria is from Santiago, Chile. She's been blogging since 2007. You'll love her recipes and her photos. And, you can browse through the other folks sharing this reveal date below. But, to get to the folks from other weeks, head to Secret Recipe Club.
By now, you're probably wondering how our cake turned out... Dinner was lamb stew and Liz's hearts of palm, beet and blue cheese salad. We were both stuffed. But, I'd actually made the cake and it smelled incredible and we really had to try it for this blog. So, I cut a couple of slices. And, I snuck a bite of the corner that'd fallen off. Woo HOOO! Connie almost didn't get any cake. But, being a nice wife, I shared. We sat on the screened porch and ahhh'd and ohhh'd. And, the next morning believe it or not I slept later than Connie and when I got up there was an empty plate on the dining room table, a VERY happy hubby and a missing piece of cake. I followed suit. YUMMM! This was so easy to put together. And, the flavors all just danced together. Perfection on a plate. Not that I'll turn into a baker. But, I will make this again. And, I can pretty much guarantee it'll become a family favorite.
I'm printing the recipe with Gloria's measurements:
Ingredients:
Cake:
200 grs self-rising flour
170 grs butter
180 grs brown sugar
3 beaten eggs
3 T whisky (we used Scotch whisky)
rind of a small orange, grated
Glaze:
180 grs powdered sugar
70 grs butter
2 T honey
1 T orange juice (I used more to turn this into a glaze instead of icing)
Sliced almonds, toasted
Directions:
Cream the butter and brown sugar until they're light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Then, add the orange rind and half of the flour. Once that's thoroughly mixed, add in the whisky. Then, add in the balance of the flour. Bake at 350 in a loaf pan. The instructions said 20-25 minutes but mine took 35 to get done. While the cake is baking, cream together the butter, honey and orange juice. Add the powdered sugar slowly. I added about 2-3 more tablespoons of orange juice to make this a glaze. When the cake came out of the oven, I poured the glaze over it and allowed it to soak in while we were eating dinner. Then, just before serving, top with the toasted sliced almonds.
Bradley loves the color orange. Bradley is four. He's my grandson. His mom and dad have nicknamed him The Kraken. Yes, I'm biased. Yes, I do think he's the cutest, smartest, funniest kid around. His mom is wonderful about sharing the funnies he says on Facebook. Here's a sample of the most recent:
"Him: Momma, here's the deal, I been going round and round, and I decided I no need a rest period today. I going to do Jedi training in playroom instead. Good idea?
The cousins stripped off their clothes for a dip in the pool at Yaya's house. When it was time to get dressed, Elliott: Which underwear is mine? Bradley: I can tell. (Picks up one pair and takes a big wiff.) These are yours.
I made nearly identical lunches for The Kraken and The Siren. Both threw fits when I set their plates in front of them. Rather than throw a tantrum myself, I left the room to get a coke. When I returned both gremlins were silently chewing. The magical fix? . . . They switched lunches while I was out of the room.
The kraken: Mom, how does daddy poke people at work? Me: I don't know. You should ask daddy all questions regarding giving shots. I can answer anything else. The Kraken: What about thundercats? Me: Okay. All shot and thundercat questions to daddy. The rest to me. The Kraken: What about cars? . . . "
Needless to say, Kara's commentary provides both Connie and me with lots of entertainment. In fact, the only reason Connie ever looks at my Facebook is to see the latest Kara's written.
We made it to Columbus for Rosie's 2nd birthday but Bradley's celebration was in the middle of a week and we couldn't get there for his. Between my stepson David being on call several weekends (he's a pediatric anesthesiologist so if he gets called in he's gone for hours and hours) and their family vacation and our wacko schedule, we'd not seen them for a couple of months. It was time for Grampy and Grammy to pack the cooler and head to Columbus.
Shortly before our visit, I found an article in Food Network Magazine that had me giddy with anticipation. Directions for frosting colors. Orange was 90 drops of yellow and 33 of red. Bright orange, that is. There were probably 5-10 different shades of orange shown. The article also gave a recipe for white frosting so you've got a base from which to work. How cool is that???
I decided to make a cockeyed cake for two reasons. One, it's like making mud pies and Bradley could help. Two, I really don't like to bake so relying on a family favorite that's easy, moist and just chocolatey enough was a great plan. Cockeyed Cake has been my family's go-to cake for as long as I can remember. In fact, it's on page 92 of my I Hate to Cook Book. Even though there are several recipes in there that are go-to's for me, the book falls open to page 92.
End result? Bradley had an orange cake. We all had my favorite chocolate cake. Kara has a cheat sheet with tons of different colors for frosting. I do love being a Grammy!
Cockeyed Cake
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c flour, sifted
3 T cocoa
1 t baking soda
1 c sugar
1/2 t salt
5 T cooking oil
1 T vinegar
1 t vanilla
1 c cold water
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350. Mix the dry ingredients and dump them into a greased 9x9 cake pan. If you've got a phobia about washing dishes, you can mix the dry ingredients in the cake pan. Whatever. Then, make three wells in the dry ingredients. Pour the oil into one, the vinegar ino the second and the vanilla into the third.
Pour the cold water over everything and start mixing. Yes, you can also do all of that in a mixing bowl then pour it into the cake pan. Again, whatever you prefer. Once everything is mixed, pop the pan in the oven for thirty minutes. You can dust the cake with powdered sugar or frost it. You can make two and make a layer cake. Or double it and bake it in a 9x13 pan. Whatever you do, this is a fantastic cake!
adapted from the I Hate to Cook Book by Peg Bracken
I've seen photos of this cake several times. It got to the point that I didn't care what in the heck it tasted like, I wanted to make it because it looked so daggone cool. I bought grapes to make it. Please don't ask how many boxes of grapes went to the compost bin. We're just not dessert eaters. So, it didn't get made. Perpetual menu item. Always a bridesmaid, never the bride. Well, this last weekend, this cake became the bride. Thank goodness! It was easy to make, tasted really good and yes, it looked incredible. We ate it for dessert, then we ate it for breakfast. It was great both times. I'd have liked for it to be just a wee bit more moist but my guess is that how it tasted was how it's supposed to taste. We'll make it again - for the cool factor and the fact it really does taste great.
Winemakers Grape Cake
Ingredients:
Butter and flour for preparing the cake pan
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 c sugar
4 T unsalted butter, melted
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 c milk
1/2 t vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
3/4 t baking powder
A pinch of salt
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 orange
10 oz small, fresh purple grapes
Powdered sugar, for garnish
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350°. Butter and flour your springform pan. Make sure you shake out any excess flour.
Combine the eggs and sugar in your mixer. Beat them until they're thick and lemon-colored.
Then, add the butter, olive oil, milk and vanilla.
Mix them until they're blended.
Next, your dry ingredients. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Add the baking powder and salt. Then, add the lemon zest and the orange zest.
Toss them well to assure they're well coated with flour.
Pour the flour mixture into the egg/sugar mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until well blended.
Put the bowl aside for 10 minutes. That will allow time for the flour to absorb the liquids.
Stir the grapes into the batter.
Spoon the batter into the springform pan.
Arrange the grapes in a pleasing pattern.
Bake for 55 minutes at 350. The top will be dark golden brown and will feel quite firm when pressed. Cool, the top with a dusting of powdered sugar. Serve in thin wedges.
adapted from Epicurious
