Sky High Cakes: Halloween Sweet Potato Cake (Cake Slice Bakers)

I've joined a new baking group! The Cake Slice Bakers make one recipe every month from a single book. This year, it's one of my absolutely favorites: Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne.

So far, I've made the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake, Strawberry Shortcake, and Chai Tea Cake before joining the group. This is a great book with beautiful cakes!

This month, we made the Halloween Sweet Potato Cake in the Holidays and Special Occasion section of the book (pages 178).

The cake is made with sweet potato (me love the sweet potato - I baked a bunch extra and ate them during the week) and yummy spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.

The filling is cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar with orange juice concentrate. The only problem was the filling made it a bit too loose so I think that caused my cake to tilt; I also should have leveled out my layers. Next time, I might use only orange extract and zest so there is less liquid in the filling.

The frosting is the cream cheese mixture with the addition of unsweetened chocolate. It is very sweet.

The cake, like her other cakes, is incredibly moist but very weighty. You get a workout carrying this around!

The cake was a hit at work! And since it had fresh sweet potato inside, we put it in the "vegetable" food group!

This photo looks straight but the layers were sliding and caused a leaning tower of sweet potato cake!

Grab a slice!
Join in on the fun and visit the other Cake Slice Bakers!

Chewy Gingerbread Cookies (Martha Stewart)

Martha Stewart's Chewy Gingerbread Cookies includes fall spices and freshly grated ginger. They are, like the name implies, chewy! :)

These cookies contain the yummy ingredients of gingerbread: cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, dark brown sugar and molasses.

The flavors are very fall and gingery. I love ginger so they weren't strong to me, but some people thought they were a bit too gingery (as if that could ever happen! :) It has both ground ginger and fresh ginger.

I rolled them in a combo of granulated sugar and sanding sugar. I just purchased Sugar in the Raw so I want to try that next time.

Find the recipe for these fall and intense cookies here on Martha Stewart's website!

Rice Pudding (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Vanilla Rice Pudding *

* No, I don't have gigantic spoons! This glass is super small (picked it up at the local Goodwill recently)

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie, Isabelle of Les gourmandises d’Isa picked Arborio Rice Pudding on pages 412 and 413 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Super simple recipe too! Parboil rice, add milk and sugar and stir and stir. Just be sure to take a sharpie and change the directions! Dorie Greenspan herself wrote to our group and said there is a typo in the recipe - cook for 55 minutes, not 35 minutes until it is a bit thick.

I got my arborio rice in the Whole Food bulk bins. You parboil it for 10 minutes before cooking it in the milk and sugar.

Yeah, I liked! Who needs to buy Kozy Shack when you can make your own!

I made the vanilla version per the recipe, using vanilla paste for those cute little flecks and rich vanilla flavor. Next time, I might add some orange blossom water and orange zest for a fruity dessert.

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

Los Angeles Fires

This weekend, as I'm sure you have heard, Los Angeles and Orange County were filled with many fires. I was glued to the TV as were many Angelenos.

My librarian friend's parents spent Saturday putting out fires on their property, even hopping the fence to dose a fire in the neighbor's palm tree.

A friend's daughter's classmate was evacuated from another fire and their front lawn burned. Luckily, their house was saved. She told us a funny story:

Last night I was looking outside and their were huge flames and explosions! It was so scary!

My mom said the transformers were blowing up.

I said, "Robots?"

My car on Sunday morning. I live a good 35 miles from the fires and the air was like snow - ash was falling everywhere.

My heart goes out to all those who affected by the fires.

If you are so inclined, please make a donation to the American Red Cross, who always do such a great job helping people in need of a meal, comfort, shelter and hope.

Crisp Persimmon Pie (Sunset Magazine)

Crisp Persimmon Galette

Crisp Persimmon Pie is from a great West Coast magazine, Sunset Magazine and can be found here.

The recipe calls for a double crust, but I only had one and made a galette instead. Next time, I'm definitely going with a double crust or a crumb topping. I think cooking the persimmons dampens their vibrant color so much that it makes them almost unappetizing (I did try some powdered sugar on it). Very tasty, but not sexy like a open blueberry pie...so I'll go for a cover next time.

The recipe calls for 2 1/2 pounds of fuyu persimmons. Yum!

Okay, I'll admit it. I used a Pillsbury pie crust! I just didn't have time to make the crust and chill it. The fruit mixture includes lemon juice, zest, cinnamon, sugar and tapioca. I probably won't use the tapioca again because some of the little balls didn't dissolve. Next time, I'll use flour instead. Persimmons aren't that high in water content (unlike apples) so you don't need much.

I did a post about fuyu persimmons here. Be sure to try some this fall - recipe here!

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake with Dried Cranberries and Apricots (Whole Foods)

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake with Dried Cranberries and Apricots

I made this about a week ago... On page 378 of the Whole Foods Market Cookbook (2002) by Steve Petusevsky and the Whole Foods Market Team Members, they have a recipe for a Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake with Dried Blueberries. I've had this book f o r e v e r and have yet to make anything! I used cranberries and apricots (and threw in some crystallized ginger).

I'm only disappointed that they don't have their deli-favorite Cranberry Tuna recipe. That stuff is CRACK. I buy it and end up sneaking bites in the parking lot. Sad, I know. I'm waiting for Jeff to come from Intervention and tell me I'm in a room with "a lot of people who love 'ya."

Batter: 1 stick butter (soft) + 1 c sugar [cream together]. 2 eggs + 1 t vanilla + 1 T lemon juice [blend in]. [alternately fold in] dry mix with 1/2 pint of sour cream (dry mix: 2 c flour + 1 t baking soda + 1 t salt + 1/2 t baking powder). 1/2 c dried cranberries + 1/2 c dried apricots + a few crystallized ginger pieces [fold in].

Half the batter is placed into the 9x9 pan, then 1/2 the topping and repeated. Topping is 1/2 c sugar + 1 T cinnamon and I added 1/2 t ground ginger. The instructions say to bake at 350 for 35 minutes, but I ended up baking it for close to 50 minutes.

Too bad we don't have smell-a-blog! This fills the house (and office) with a lovely cinnamon fragrance...my favorite air-freshener! :)

Kugelhopf (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Kugelhopf with Dried Blueberries

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie, Yolanda of The All-Purpose Girl selected Kugelhopf. You can find the recipe on Yolanda's site or on pages 61-63 of Dorie's book: Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Light and airy with a touch of melted butter & sugar on top

The brioche-like batter went through the motions...and there was lots of motions. I can't imagine making this without the KitchenAid mixer (and I know there are some TWD bakers who did! My arms are off to you!) When you have to let the dough mix for 10 minutes, my machine was shaking more than the wall clock in a honeymoon suite.

I began Sunday afternoon and felt like I was slapping dough for hours on end. In order to bring this into work, I set the alarm for 2:30 am so I could pop it into the pan and let it go through the final rise. As I was padding through the dark house, I came to really appreciate bakers and the time they spend making bread! Went back to bed and woke up to a nicely risen dough! A quick pop in the oven and voila! Kugelhopf!

I didn't have a Kugelhopf pan (just can't add more hardware to the shelves) so I used my pretty Bundt pan. It presents a mean lemon cake (here) and pound cake (here).

I followed Dorie's recipe but subbed dried blueberries for the raisins. Recently, the nice folks at Oh Nuts! offered me some dried fruits and nuts, and they sent me some delicious dried blueberries, pine & mac nuts. They are really glorious. I have lots of plans for these ingredients and will write more about them soon! Be sure to check out Oh Nuts! - they have several storefronts in New York but offer everything yummy through mail order.

Check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers and the different ingredients they put into their bread! Next week, rice pudding! Oh yes!

Persimmons! Persimmons! Persimmons!

Fuyu Persimmons (not the Hachiya)

I heart persimmons.
Seriously, I want to marry the persimmon (well, along with lemon curd).

In Los Angeles, "fall" isn't a season of frost (for example, yesterday was over 80 degrees!) and changing leaves (soooo jealous of that!) Each year, fall begins with the appearance of my beloved fuyu persimmons.

Okay. There are TWO types of persimmons and it is soooo important to know the difference! The Fuyu persimmon can be eating hard like an apple or soft for pulp. However, the Hachiya persimmon is shaped like a human heart or acorn and can only be eaten fully ripe and soft. If you bite into a Hachiya before it is soft, you will, sadly, probably never eat a persimmon again. The unripe Hachiya tastes like chalk and scar you for life.

My parents have a FUYU persimmon tree in their backyard. My paternal grandmother gave one tree to each of her 4 boys (leaving out the 2 girls!) They've had it since I was a little girl. Now that my dad is 76 years old, I've been helping them climb the ladder and pick the kaki (Japanese for persimmon).

You can eat fuyu persimmons like an apple. I like to peel the skin. It's a perfect snack. During persimmon seasons, I'm averaging about two a day!

They are also brilliant (I mean brilliant) in salads. Oh my gosh delicious. This is a baby spinach, fuyu persimmon, pomegranate and goat cheese salad with a citrus vinaigrette. It's perfect for Thanksgiving!

We also like to dry persimmons. I use a mandolin to make uniform slices of the persimmons. After my dad's old dehydrator finally died, I bought him an early Christmas gift. The different colors are due to ripeness of the fruit: darker orange = more ripe.

4 hours later! Little pieces of natural candy.

(To Pam Jam: I'm mailing these to you tomorrow!)

You should definitely try them! What do they taste like? Since I've been eating them forever...to me, they taste like persimmons! (Know what I mean? What does an orange taste like? Well, like an orange!) Here is my attempt to describe the fuyu persimmon:

sorta like a cinnamon apple.
crisp, rich flavorful fall fruit.
eaten hard or soft. never mealy.

I'm so glad they are readily available now...they used to be an Asian family secret :) But, like sushi, edamame, wasabi, Panko breadcrumbs, and ramen, they are now mainstream. Try the fuyu persimmon! You won't be disappointed.

Autumn Apple & Pear Buckle (Food & Wine recipe)

Autumn Apple & Pear Buckle

Jan Birnbaum's recipe for an Autumn Apple Buckle is found here on the Food & Wine website

I picked up some lovely Bartlett pears at the Farmer's Market (Ha's Apple Farm stand)...and I didn't have enough apples so I decided to go with an Apple & Pear Buckle.

The topping is really easy...flour, butter, cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar, zest, and walnuts. Super yum!

Equally simple to throw together is the batter. It has half-and-half but I substituted cream (yes, nothing like increasing the fat content!) I folded the apples into the batter, and spread half in the springform pan. Then I layered my pears and covered it with the remaining batter.

You can find the recipe here on the Food & Wine website!

Yuzu Got Big Hair Pie (You want pies with that?)

Yuzu Citrus Meringue Pie
(aka Yuzu Got Big Hair Pie)

I've joined a fun monthly baking group, You Want Pies With That? We don't work on one recipe, but one theme for the month. This month: FASHION!

I'm no fashion diva so I spent a lot of time thinking about this one! I went through all the Project Runway seasons and was pulling my hair out when it came to me! Hair Fashion!

You may not have the money to buy a new wardrobe, but armed with a curling iron, hairdryer, ozone depleting hairspray and a scrunchy, you can change your look every day!

Captain and President of the Big Hair Club.
Inspiration from Sherry Yard and Rod Stewart!

I was inspired by an absolutely beautiful pie in Sherry Yard's book, Desserts by the Yard. Sherry is the pastry chef at Wolfgang Puck's Spago restaurant. She made a stunning "Yuzu Lemon-Lime Meringue Pie". Her pie has a pre-baked shell, Yuzu saboyan and brown sugar Italian meringue. Her pie is served warm, and since I was going to bring it into work, I opted for different technique.

Spiky Hair. A favorite of teenage boys with lots of hair product and some librarians.

What's Yuzu fruit? Yuzu is a specialized Japanese lemon-lime citrus fruit. I haven't seen it in markets, but Sherry says she gets it at Farmer's Markets (probably the Wednesday Santa Monica market where all the top chefs go). I picked up bottled yuzu at the Japanese market. Sherry says the Yuzu fruit is expensive, and the small bottle was $8!

I made Dorie Greenspan's tart shell recipe, adapted Martha Stewart's lemon curd using 1/2 c of Yuzu juice plus 2 T of fresh Meyer lemon juice, and finally, I made Martha Stewart's Swiss Meringue topping to create my "hair."

This is my dreadlock pie.
Yeah, man.

(Actually, my meringue got weird and came out a bit strange. I mixed it up some more and the other one came out more like Sherry Yard's inspiration.)

And my favorite "appliance" in the kitchen is the blow torch. I torched the meringue to give the "hair" some highlights!

As Rod Stewart says, "Do Yuzu Think I'm Sexy?"

Join the club! Check out You Want Pies With That?