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This rich, moist, golden cake is a butter cake, not a pound cake, but a spongy, soft and fancy bundt version.  This beautiful cake was baked by my own blog super-fan and chef extraordinaire, Lindsey.  She is my thirteen-year-old niece, and she can whip up anything flat…just try her!  I dare you.

Perfectly footed Macarons… pas de probleme, poached eggs…she’s a pro…Taiyaki…hers are absolutely soft and sweet and she even has her own pan for these!  Do you even know what that is?  I consider myself a mega-foodie and didn’t know what that was until Lindsey informed me that they are delicious fish shaped Japanese filled pancakes. I am trying to get her to guest blog them soon.

When dinner is being prepared, one that is not her favorite, Lindsey is often found in one corner of the kitchen whipping up her own addition.  No complaints on the dinner being made, she just digs right in and makes something to add to the menu.   Last week she spontaneously started making a spinach salad and her own vinaigrette.  I mean what thirteen year old spontaneously makes spinach salad? I can’t get my 17 yr. old to eat anything green what-so-ever and this girl is making it herself on the fly!

When she volunteered to bake something for her mother’s family buffet dinner, she was determined to make this Butter Cake from her Teens Cook Dessert cookbook (one of her favorite cookbooks). Her mother told me that she had suggested to Lindsey that she add a different glaze (maybe citrus?) to her cake other than the butter sauce that was part of the recipe.  But no, Lindsey knew better and wanted to remain true to the original intent of this cake.

When I looked at this semi-shiny cake and saw a puddle of butter sauce, I was a bit skeptical to be quite honest.  It looked beautiful, but I erroneously assumed the cake might taste too buttery, even a little greasy…but absolutely NO.  It was scrumptious…I could have licked my plate, my fingers and slurped the luscious butter sauce right from the bottom of the serving dish if allowed.

I hope you make this cake because I know you will have the same response as Lindsey did.

—Linds…do you think you could guest blog those amazing Taiyaki? Pretty please?

Butter Cake

Taken from Teens Cook Dessert 
1 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
2 c.  granulated sugar
4 eggs
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
2 T. vanilla
1 c. sour Cream
3 c. all purpose flour

Butter Sauce
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. water
1/2 c. butter
1 T. vanilla

For the Cake: Heat the oven to 325 degrees and amply grease and flour a bundt pan (or spray coat). In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar, adding eggs one at a time, stirring in between each egg.  Add the salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Add vanilla and beat together on low.  Add 1/3 of the flour to the butter mixture and 1/3 of the sour cream and mix together on low. Repeat this process until all of the sour cream and flour have been well incorporated into the batter.

Bake in the oven for 60-70 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and cake is soft but bounces back to the touch.  While the cake is baking, prepare your sauce…because you will pour the sauce on while the cake is still in the pan and is still cooling.

For the Sauce: Place the sugar, water, and butter in a small saucepan and cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, or until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the vanilla and stir until combined.  While the cake is still warm, spoon the sauce over the cake, and then allow it to cool completely.  run a knife around the edge of the pan and invert the cooled cake on to a serving platter.  Sprinkle with confectioners sugar.
Try not to lick your fingers (or go for it but wash your hands afterwards!)

Making soup is magical. I love to step into my kitchen with a big, empty stock pot on the stove and start building my soup. It’s therapeutic for me; as onions sizzle, and my sleek chef’s knife makes crisp and loud chops against the cutting board through celery, carrots and potatoes, my entire body releases stress. Forget about a runner’s high. It has absolutely nothing on a soup maker’s high.

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After a 10 hour excursion to the movies Saturday, I woke up on Sunday feeling like I owed my family a great big “Thank you” for letting me go AWOL. I was sure making a good, stick-to-your-ribs Sunday breakfast was a nice way to start. I was thinking hashbrowns, bacon and eggs but maybe not quite so greasy, and after a little research, found these fairly healthy Cooking Light Muffin Cup Frittatas and knew that I had landed on the right recipe. They are stuffed with crumbled bacon, sauteed diced potatoes and peppers (in a little bacon grease!), and are topped with a smattering of grated cheddar.

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I am a fairly casual person and am most comfortable in jeans, eating homemade macaroni and cheese, baking good ol’ chocolate chip cookies and not having someone scrape crumbs of the crisp white table cloth while “I dine”. Don’t get into my chocolate preferences though because my whole theory on my own unpretentiousness just may sail right on out the window.

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Valentine’s Day is over, and I am very type-A when it comes to my posts, and it literally makes my skin crawl to have red, pink and hearts spread out on my home page so here is a repeat post just to hold us over for a day. I have a lemon souffle I will be posting by tomorrow (or sooner) so don’t fret. Feel free to skip this post or read it. It’s totally up to you; I’ll never know the wiser.

Here it is crazy cold (all of 47 degrees F. in So Cal and Yes, I am a big baby), and I just made this soup last night so I thought it was quite appropos.

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I know, us foodie bloggers tend to over-do the holidays. I just may be the biggest culprit of all. But, since we are all in the same red hearted boat my friends, I have decided to do a round up BECAUSE I have found some gorgeous and tantalizing things out there, and perhaps you have not run across these posts of perfection so here they are…red, hearted and delish!

Cali from Offally Tasty knocked my socks of with these Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies. I need to see how I can work them into my life between today and Tuesday and you should too!

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Can you think of a better way to start your Valentine’s Day morning than with rich, soft, chocolaty Red Velvet Pancakes?!  I can’t either.  They even get served with a luscious, cream cheese dipping sauce.  Pretty sweet, right?— pun totally intended…that’s just how I roll.

Seriously, these are absolutely decadent and for the handful of readers I have from the Los Angeles area, they are a dead ringer for the ones served from L.A.’s famous Buttermilk food truck.  I have dreamt of these babies and craved them for days and now I can make them right in my own little kitchen…happy, happy me and now happy, happy you!

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Inhale. I am giving you permission unlike Bill Clinton’s little foray. You’re not running for president are you? Let’s hope not. Use some imagination…c’mon…I know you can. Close your eyes, picture standing in my kitchen. Please step over the Golden Retriever. Chances are, she is lying at your feet, or more likely has her nose in your crotch. Try to ignore that…it’s difficult, but please try for this little exercise.

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I’m out of things to say my friends, and I yet I sit here and write because it makes me feel better. It’s been a hard weekend. I stood with my mother at the bedside of one of my uncles today during the last hour of his life. I don’t have answers as to why some lives are so much more difficult than others. His life has always been difficult and yet honestly, he was mostly a really cheerful guy. How? I have no idea. I would not have endured with as much vigor and zest for life.

Cool new plate from Misadventures in Cooking Giveaway!

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These delicate, raspberry or Nutella filled mini Linzer cookies are rich and buttery, just slightly crispy and have so few ingredients, you are guaranteed to have them on hand. This recipe is from the Barefoot Contessa and requires NO EGGS which concerned me at the get-go, but after tasting them, I was sold and so was my Girl Scout Troop as they nibbled inhaled the raw cookie dough sans salmonella.

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