Mickey Mouse Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes (Everyday Food)

Guess where I'm going today?

I'm heading to Disneyland today to renew my Annual Pass. The Annual Pass rocks for a Southern California girl as you can go for just a few hours and just hang out. I've gone to DLand just to exercise and, well, negate all that with a corn dog (they have a crazy good corn dog).

This recipe for Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes is from Everyday Food of the Martha empire. You blitz half the old-fashioned oats in the food processor for a bit before adding the wet ingredients and whole oats.

I halved the recipe and really messed up! I was supposed to put 1/2 Tablespoon or 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, but used 1 1/2 T baking powder! I was wondering why the batter was all bubbly and exploding on me. It was an early morning chemical process lesson.

Even though it went all crazy, I liked the pancakes. I added blueberries to some of them. Next time, I'm going to sub some of the white flour for whole wheat flour, and throw in some chocolate chips. Oh yeah, and read the instructions!

Off to the Blue Bayou!

Recipe: Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes from Everyday Food

Zucchini-Spice Cupcakes (Martha Stewart Cupcakes)

I bought Martha Stewart's new Cupcakes book on "opening" weekend. However, I have yet to make anything in it!

I had good reason to try the Zucchini-Spice cupcakes first. See below.

When this ends up on your porch, you instantly think...Zucchini Bread.
(The cupcake liner is shown for scale)

Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book suggests a cream cheese frosting (which would be lovely). But I was out of cream cheese...so I made a quick glaze of powdered sugar, vanilla extract and water. I think I probably saved about 100 calories each too!

I got these cool cupcake liners at, well, where else? Surfas in Culver City, California. They are basically squares of parchment folded into pretty little things.

Note to Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet: When you and the family come out to Disneyland, I'll go with you to both Disneyland AND Surfas! :)

The cupcake is very moist and easy to make. It is dairy-free, and I used olive oil instead of canola oil.

I poured a wee bit too much in each cup and ended up with 20 cupcakes instead of 24. I also ended up baking them for about 35 minutes instead of 20 minutes. Because these liners are really tall, I had the pans on the top and bottom racks. If I use these liners again, I'll try baking them separately and in the middle. So watch the time and size of your cupcakes!

When you are gifted with some zucchini, make sure to make this tasty treat!

Recipe:
Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book, page 44-45.
Also found on Erin's Food Files blog. She made the cream cheese frosting - yum!

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake

When I saw this cake on Blue is Bleu's blog and instantly knew I had to make it! Audrie is so great! I've enjoyed her blog for a long time and you should definitely check it out! Audrie said she got the recipe from Smitten Kitchen's blog.

Not much to say...besides MAKE IT.
It's big. It's chocolate. It's cake. It's good. It's rich (1 stick of butter and 16 ounces of sour cream!) but not crazy, oozing rich. And my middle layer of cinnamon, sugar and chocolate chips didn't end up on the bottom! That's a good thing.

My co-workers really liked this when I brought it in last week. It an easy treat to make and really delicious. Definitely give it a try!

And thanks to everyone for your well wishes about my Dad and our lengthy Father's Day visit to Urgent Care! I so appreciate it! He tells me he is feeling a bit better now...it's such a pain (literally) to get old. Dad now uses a cane to help him around, and I've nicknamed him (with love): The Turtle. He has a backyard full of summer crops (I'll profile those soon), and luckily my mom is helping him out!

Recipe:
Cinnamon-Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake
from Smitten Kitchen

Gourmet's Gingerbread for June Gloom

June Gloom Gingerbread

Los Angeles is having a major case of June Gloom. In the last couple weeks we have had overcast skies, rain, foggy days, and even lightening. That marine layer just won't go away. There is only a 58% chance of sunshine in June in LA and I'm beginning to wonder if I need to take Vitamin D supplements instead of my daily dose outside. And perhaps a few hours in front of my Lowell Ego lights. Sigh. Just kidding...sorta.

This may sound very pathetic to some, but these lower temperatures and cloudy skies make me think of FALL. And what's the flavor of fall? Gingerbread.

I'm always looking for gingerbread recipes. I love ginger. I love unfrosted cakes (yeah, JustJenn, I'm not a member of Frosting Nation or "Legalize Frostitution" campaign). Gingerbread is the perfect combo of not too sweet cake, moistness, cinnamon and ginger.

This is Gourmet's Gingerbread from February 2009

Recipe by Ruth Cousineau

One of my co-workers said it tasted like little Ginger People chews were in the cake. Sorta like a soylent green ginger cake! :) This cake only uses ground ginger, ground cinnamon and molasses for the spice - making it really easy to assemble!

I dusted my squares with powdered sugar but a dollop of whipped cream would be nice too.

I find that cutting everything and putting them in cupcake holders makes for easy grabbing by co-workers and less mess. Good thing I picked up 1,000 of these at Surfas recently! :)

Hopefully the sun WILL come out tomorrow! :)

Recipe: Gourmet's Gingerbread

Cinnamon Squares - Tuesdays with Dorie

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures chose Cinnamon Squares on pages 210 and 211 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. Be sure to head over to Tracey's blog. Her blog rocks!!!

I've made this recipe before and it is delicious! A perfect breakfast, tea, snack, brunch, dessert, 3:00 pm, midnight and TV snack. Yes, a friend indeed.

The center swirl is a delicious combo of instant espresso powder, sugar, cinnamon and chocolate. I know some people don't care of the flavor combo of cinnamon and chocolate, but I love it. I put in 3/4 of the batter, the swirl, then the remaining 1/4 batter.

The topping is a mix of melted bittersweet chocolate and butter. Simply yum.
Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers

Recipe: Find it on Tracey’s Culinary Adventures, or in Dorie's fantastic book, Baking.

Snickerdoodle Muffins (Recipe from Peabody)

I'm late on the Snickerdoodle Muffins bandwagon. But then I'm quite slow with many things. Peabody made these in 2007 and they made the rounds on the blog, including some crazy person who sent Peabody a bill for her ingredients because she didn't like them. I wonder if that person is now calling herself the Octo-Mom. Anyway, I'm sure by 2010 I'll make the Snickerdoodle Blondie and Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake - those are still on my list. I love me the Snickerdoodle - here are the Martha Stewart Snickerdoodle cookies I made earlier.

Recipe here on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. Peabody is very funny and a great chef and baker!

Make the stiff batter. Using an ice cream scoop, plop a ball in a cinnamon sugar mixture.

Rolly polly round it goes...

...into a greased muffin tin

Aren't these cute? The tops look just like a Snickerdoodle cookie!

Get the recipe for Snickerdoodle Muffins here on Peabody's great blog.

P.S. If you are here for the Tuesdays with Dorie post, I pray that it will be coming. I hope I can run home and make a little tart!

Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies (from the package)

Can I begin to tell you how excited I am to have found Cinnamon Chips in Los Angeles? (I went to a big, nice (not like my janky) Albertson's).

I turned the package of goodness over and found this recipe for oatmeal cookies! I love the back of the package recipes. They rock.

Find the recipe here on the Hershey's website!

My changes to their recipe:
1. Used old fashioned oatmeal (not quick cooking)
2. Omitted the raisins
3. Added 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon to the dry mixture

Notes: The recipe calls for 1 bag (10 oz) [1 2/3 cups] of cinnamon chips. Now, if I manufactured the main ingredient, of course I would tell you to use the WHOLE bag and then more! But, since I don't work for Hershey, I'll tell you that I think you could scale back the chips a bit. They made the cookie really sweet. Perhaps if you had raisins in it, that would cut some of the sweetness...anyway, that's my opinion. Try it out and let me know what you think. I'm just glad to have found the cinnamon chips!! :)

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2-1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1-2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) HERSHEY'S Cinnamon Chips
3/4 cup raisins

For the how to, see their recipe online or the back of the package!!

Recipe:
Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies (Hershey's website)

National Library Week Day 5 with Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcakes, Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins and Hello Kitty Giveaway

Whew! It's the last day of National Library Week!

I made Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcakes with a strawberry cream cheese frosting. I missed the farmer's market and used frozen strawberries to make the puree. I think fresh would have given more of a strawberry punch.

I didn't make the Sprinkles' frosting on Martha's website because I wanted to incorporate cream cheese. The frosting was 1 block cream cheese (8 ounces), 1/2 stick butter, 3 cups powdered sugar, 3 T strawberry puree.

I also made some Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins (recipe from July 2006/Gourmet on Epicurious). See those brown cupcake holders? Well, you can win a package of them that I picked up at Surfas. How many in that package? 600. Yes, six-hundred. That's a zillion of those little packs you get from the grocery store. If you should win, I hope you either make a ton of cupcakes and muffins or share with others!

Some people have asked if I'm eating all these baked goods myself...oh no! Reason #100293 why the library is a great place...it has lots of hungry co-workers who eat lots of desserts! And yes, this does generate a bunch of goodwill at work. ;)

Today's library thing...programs! Do you like knitting? watching movies? local history? genealogy? selling everything you own on eBay? Perhaps your library has a program about your favorite hobby or interest. Libraries today are reaching out to the community with a plethora of programs for kids, teens, adults and seniors. Most people know about storytime for kids, but did you know that a chess club might be meeting at the library as well? Or a seminar on identity theft? Check out your library's website for a listing of programs and opportunities. You might be surprised that it isn't just storytime anymore!

Here is today's language lesson: kawaii (ka - wa- EEEEeeeee) is the Japanese word for cute. Since I'm Japanese American, I'm genetically drawn to all things cute. (So that probably explains my obsession with the miniature treats!)

And what is more kawaii than Hello Kitty?! For today's giveaway, you can win a Hello Kitty stationery pack with 5 different papers and envelopes, candies, pencils and eraser. (Librarian Action Figure and rice (!!) not included)

To celebrate my last day of National Library Week Day 5, I'm giving away the following to one lucky winner:
a. Hello Kitty Assortment of kawaii stationery and candy
b. 600 (six-hundred!!!) brown cupcake holders (2 inch standard)
c. Handmade beaded bookmark (designed by the Food Librarian!)
d. Disneyland book bag

600 pretty brown cupcake holders from Surfas (Librarian Action Figure not included)

This is your last chance to win! To enter the Day 5 Giveaway, simply leave a comment below (one entry per person) and I'll pick the winner from a hat. Deadline: Monday, April 20, 2009 at midnight PDT. If your comment isn't linked to a blog where I can find you, please leave your email or check back on Tuesday, April 21st to see if you won. Shipping to U.S. addresses only.

Don't forget to enter the daily giveaways to celebrate National Library Week!
Day 1 Giveaway for mini-cake pans, Day 2 Giveaway for mini-loaf pans, Day 3 Giveaway for Trader Joe's Favorites, and Day 4 Giveaway for mini-tart pans. Deadline for all giveaways is Monday, April 20, 2009!

Thank you for visiting my little blog and celebrating National Library Week with me!!! I really enjoyed hearing your library stories - Jen F. cracked me up with: We love ours not only for my crazy book habit, but also for the DVDs for my son--it's a great way to keep up with his ever-changing interests, and as a bonus, we get to get rid of the really annoying DVDs after a week!

Special thanks to my co-workers who loaned me their Librarian Action Figure (Patty, Susan, Andrea, Karen, Jessica and Sue), and my friends who helped make the bookmarks (Agnes, Julie and Sumi)!

Whew. I'm exhausted. Good thing this is only once a year!

What are you still doing here? Get out there and visit your library! :) - mary the food librarian

Cinnamon Chocolate Bundt Cake

Cinnamon Chocolate Bundt Cake

Spring.

One of our two seasons here in Southern California (the other, of course, is summer).

And what comes with Spring? Besides in influx of pollen that can destroy your quality of life (oh, I digress and yet would like to take this opportunity to say the Neti-Pot isn't just an Oprah craze...it is a miracle worker!)…Okay, back to Spring. What's else in the in air? It's love. Yes, love is all a'swirling.

Or at least in my oven.

Recently, I was looking at Amy’s Sing for your Supper blog and saw her beautiful Chocolate Cinnamon Bundt cake . She has a fancy new Bundt pan. Go look at her cake. Go ahead. I’ll wait for you.

Cute, huh?

It was love at first sight and bite!

And the love continues. I have made this cake four times in one week (to four different groups of people)! Yes, I'm so in love.

This recipe is so awesome simple! Don’t have to get anything to room temp and you don’t need a KitchenAid mixer. The secret is bringing 1 c water, ½ c oil, 1 stick butter and ¼ c + 1T (or 5 T) cocoa powder to a boil and then adding it to a 2 c flour, 2 c sugar and ½ t salt mixture. Add in ½ c buttermilk and 1 t baking soda. Mix 2 eggs, 1 ½ t cinnamon and 1 t vanilla in a small bowl and combine with batter. That's it!! Bake in a Bundt at 375 for 30-35 minutes (the original recipe says 25 minutes but mine has been raw at this point). Cool in the pan (I took depanned mine after about 20 minutes with no problems).

Oh geez, I just typed the recipe from memory. I’m seriously head-over-heels in love.

One time, I added 1 t instant espresso powder to the boiled mixture and it was good, but it muted the cinnamon flavor. Ina Garten just did a Barefoot Contessa show where the secret ingredient in her chocolate recipe was coffee…and I agree with her…but not in this one so I'm sticking with the original. Also, I've made it with both Dutch-processed and regular Hershey's cocoa powder - and it was fab both times. I'm telling you - this cake rocks.

Do your friends, family and co-workers a favor...make this cake!
You'll fall in love this Spring too!

Recipe:
Amy’s Sing for your Supper
Play-by-Play photos on Vintage Victuals (who adapted the recipe from the recipe from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake (Donna Hay)

Apples.
Cinnamon.
Cake.

Yum.

Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake

My co-worker went to the American Library Association conference last year (oh yeah, thousands of librarians in one place...[insert your own joke here]). She was waltzing around the vendor area and one of them was packing up...decided to not shlep all of the display books back home...so she gave away this great Donna Hay Simple Essentials: Fruit book!

And then my co-worker gave the book to me! How sweet! Oh yeah, did I mention that pages were marked with "suggestions" to make and bring to work?! (just kidding...sorta)

This book is awesome and beautiful. Every recipe is short and sweet (she fits 4 recipes on one page!!) and each one has an awesome photo. Donna Hay has a lovely empire of magazines and books. Australia is so lucky to have such a gem.

Okay, so my intention was to make the cake as directed on page 82...but I didn't have all the ingredients and ended up substituting so many things I don't know if its her recipe anymore. Anyway, my creation was yummy. And I'm sure her recipe would only be much better, richer and more delicious. I'll gather all the right ingredients and make it again.

Here are the changes I made:
- Used an 8” springform (instead of an 8 1/2" springform) so mine is a bit taller. Next time, I'll use a 9" springform.
- Used what I had at the time – skim milk instead of whole milk.
- Used granulated sugar instead of caster or superfine sugar (because I didn’t have it on hand)
- Misread the ingredient list and used 6 oz. butter (1 ½ sticks) instead of 6 ½ oz.

apple and cinnamon tea cake

Cream together: 6 ½ oz. soft butter (if my conversions are right, this should be 1 stick + 5 T butter), ½ t cinnamon and 2/3 c caster (superfine) sugar.
Add one at a time: 3 eggs.
Sift onto batter: 1 ½ c all-purpose flour and ½ t baking powder.
Mix in: 1/3 c milk.

Place on top of batter: 4 small green apples, peeled, halved, cored, and cut thin - but don't cut all the way through. I didn't press them down at all because the apples were small snack size gala apples. Sprinkle on top: 1 t sugar and ¼ t cinnamon.

Bake for 50 minutes (160 C / 320 F) then brush on ¼ c apricot jam or jelly, warmed. Pop back into oven and bake for another 10 minutes or so. I ended up baking mine for 65 minutes at 325 F.

Yummy! And the co-worker who gave me the book? She loved this cake. Thought it really focused on the apple.

Get a copy of Donna Hay's Fruit book here, or see if your library has it on Worlcat!

Dorie Greenspan's Nutty, Chocolaty, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Nutty, Chocolaty, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake (Dorie Greenspan's recipe)

I was never the student who skipped ahead to the next assignment, or finished the chapter before it was due. I was usually finishing up on my way to class.

But my love of the Bundt has put me ahead of the Tuesdays with Dorie group. We'll be baking for a few more years to get through all the recipes and I just couldn't wait because I was craving me another Bundt.

A sour cream cake batter is made and 1/2 the "swirl" added. The swirl is sugar, walnuts, bittersweet chocolate, raisins, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Dorie says to scoop the rest of the batter in the pan, dig a little trench and then place the rest of the swirl in the opening. Finally, cover it the best you can (it won't cover everything). I wasn't very good at this and might try to save more batter to place it on top of the swirl instead.

Just before a simple topping of powdered sugar rounds out this delicious Bundt.

Recipe: Nutty, Chocolaty, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake on page 182 of Dorie book, Baking.