Category Archives: Cake

Strawberry-Almond Upside-Down Cake

Posted on by

1

Last week, I picked up a few pounds of fresh strawberries at the store. Unfortunately, work was crazy, so I was at the office super-late and living off of take-out. So I never got around to eating the strawberries. The end of the week rolled around, and I found the strawberries when cleaning out the fridge. Instead of racing to eat them before they spoiled, I knew I needed to find a way to bake the strawberries in to something awesome!

I’ve made a few upside-down cakes before, from a traditional pineapple upside-down cake to my Pear & Ginger Upside-Down Cake last fall. I’d never seen a spring-y upside-down cake, so I decided to go a little outside of the box and make one using my abundance of fresh strawberries!

This cake is sweet and fruity, with a soft and moist almond sponge cake. Sprinkled with slivered almonds, it is a perfect spring cake! The boyfriend has now moved it to the top of his list. He says it’s his favorite cake I’ve ever made! But he’s said that 3 or 4 times now, so I know this one must be good. ;)

Click below for the recipe! Have a question? Feel free to ask in the comments. And thanks for reading! :)

Continue reading →

About these ads

Fish Fingers & Custard

Posted on by

0

Happy Fish Fingers & Custard Day!! For those who are not HUGE Doctor Who fans (like me!), Fish Fingers & Custard Day celebrates the anniversary of the Eleventh Doctor (the third Doctor of the reboot), played by Matt Smith. You can watch a little clip of the scene on YouTube. :)

This year is my first celebrating Fish Fingers & Custard Day, as I only recently became enthralled by Doctor Who. The boyfriend has been quietly prodding to get me to watch it since we started dating, and I finally gave in when we moved in together a few months ago. After the first few episodes, I was hooked! (It’s all on Netflix streaming, which makes it really easy to catch up quickly!)

So to celebrate my new-found obsession, I wanted to make my own version of Fish Fingers & Custard. And no, no fish is actually involved. But cake definitely is!!

The fish fingers are sliced pound cake, which I made from scratch in preparation but feel free to purchase store-made to save time!. The pound cake is battered in panko and chopped pecans and fried. (Fried cake, what?!) The custard is mango-flavored, made with custard powder to cut down on prep time.

All in all, these “Fish Fingers & Custard” are really good! The fried pound cake tastes almost like funnel cake, and the pecan coating goes splendidly with the mango custard. The “fish fingers” also go really well with chocolate ice cream, as the boyfriend discovered last night! :P

So Happy Fish Fingers and Custard Day, fellow Whovians! To make your own Fish Fingers & Custard, click below for the recipe! Have a question? Feel free to ask in the comments. And thanks for reading! :D

Continue reading →

Peanut Butter & Jelly Tarts

Posted on by

1

Whoops, I’m a little late on yesterday’s post, given that I’m publishing it today… ;)

But now, it’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time!!

I’m sorry because it’s probably stuck in your head now, like it is mine. But I had to…

I’m apparently on a bit of a tart binge at home, after making the Fig & Grape Tarts a few weeks ago. Since I had some extra pie crust leftover, I decided to turn a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in to another tasty dessert!

The tarts start out with a pie-crust base, that is filled with jam (or jelly!) and a dense, white cake. Then, they are topped with a peanut butter crumble mixture. The tarts are definitely reminiscent of a PB&J sandwich on white bread! :)

You can use either homemade or store-bought dough for the tarts, just roll the dough out a little if you want to use the pre-made kind! Also, feel free to use whatever types of jam or jelly you want. I used strawberry and raspberry jam, mostly because that’s what I had in the fridge. I’m curious to think how they’d turn out with grape jelly!

Click below for the recipe! Have a question? Feel free to ask in the comments below! And thanks for reading! :)

Continue reading →

Cranberry-Orange Cheesecake

Posted on by

0

Cranberry Orange Cheesecake

This year, the boyfriend and I hosted a large Orphan Thanksgiving gathering. We opened our new apartment for all of our friends who were in town for the holiday, inviting everyone for daytime drinking and snacking, dinner, and desserts. I cooked two turkeys (cause you can never have too many leftovers!), stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. And, of course, I took care of dessert…

For dessert, I knew I wanted to do something with cranberries. I thought about a cake, but I couldn’t decide on the right type… I thought about cookies, but I wanted to use fresh cranberries… So I decided to make a cheesecake! A few different flavor combinations swirled though my head, but I fell in love with the idea of a cranberry and orange cheesecake.

This cheesecake is smooth and creamy, with the tart flavor of cranberries swirled in to the sweetness of the orange batter. The whole thing is surrounded by a gingersnap crust, which lends a slightly spiced element to the cheesecake. And it fits perfectly with the winter holidays! :)

If you’re a cheesecake novice, don’t be afraid to try out this recipe. Cheesecakes aren’t inherently more difficult than other cakes; they just require a little more attention to detail. Check out my Pumpkin-Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake post for tips on how to bake a perfect cheesecake!

Click below for the recipe! Have a question? Feel free to ask in the comments below! And thanks for reading! :)

Continue reading →

Apple Cider Cake

Posted on by

5

I’m at a loss for words today. I think my brain is still a little fuzzy from the madness of Thanksgiving and the four-day weekend. Or maybe I ate enough turkey that I’m still in a turkey coma! With the 27 pounds of turkey I cooked, I think the latter may be the case. It doesn’t help that the holidays are quickly approaching, and my focus is quickly waning…

I don’t know about anyone else, but I always go a little overboard at Thanksgiving and for holidays and at dinner parties and sometimes on Tuesdays. After getting not one but TWO turkeys ready in their respective oven and slow cooker, I looked around my kitchen and decided I hadn’t done enough dessert prep yet! I spent most of Wednesday night making mushroom and sage stuffing, a cheesecake (yep, I’m an addict!), and fresh cranberry sauce. And my morning prep before the turkeys involved wrapping things in bacon and prepping a batch of Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream. But I needed [at least] one more dessert…

In comes the Apple Cider Cake! I had a gallon of apple cider in my fridge and some apples that were supposed to go in to pie, so I decided to bake an apple cider bundt cake. The cake is sweet and full of apple’y goodness from both the cider and the chopped apples, but the caramel really is the best part! The apple cider caramel is made by reducing cider until the sugar begins to caramelize, and then adding a small amount of butter and salt. And it’s like an apple cider explosion in your mouth!

I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday and/or weekend! I can’t believe that we’re already nearing the end of November… Time to start prepping for the holidays and New Year’s Eve! :D

Click below for the Apple Cider Cake recipe! Have a question? Feel free to ask in the comments below! And thanks for reading! :)

Continue reading →