Cinnamon Ripple Sweet Potato Bundt - Day #4 - I Like Big Bundts

Day 4 of I Like Big Bundts: 30 Days of Bundt Cakes

It's Day 4 of my Bundt crusade with a Cinnamon Ripple Sweet Potato Bundt. And today, it's all about Paula. No, not the self-medicating former American Idol/Lakers Girl Paula, but Paula Deen.

Paula is always entertaining. I probably won't make most of her food, but I do like her sweet demeanor and I just love her sons. They are too cute, and really devoted to their mama.

Just remember:
This Bundt has VEGETABLES in it. And the walnuts? A superfood.

Just forget:

This Bundt is from Paula Deen so bring out the butter and sour cream!

Logo design: JustJenn of JustJennDesigns

Paula suggests pecans, but I used chopped walnuts in the yummy middle layer. It has brown sugar, nuts and cinnamon. The batter comes together quickly and gets layers between the Cinnamon Ripple. Easy peasy, no?

Paula has a rum glaze, but I drizzled powered sugar and milk glaze.

This is a Big Bundt. Really, did you expect anything less from Paula?! :) Make sure you are using a 12 or 14-cup Bundt pan. It is a moist cake with a fun, really sweet layer in the center. Perfect with a cup of coffee or tea or just a fork.

I've been getting question about the consumption of my Bundt adventure :) I've been passing them around at my and nearby libraries, family, friends and tomorrow, a neighbor. I hope you make and share a Bundt!

See you back here tomorrow and every day from now til National Bundt Day (November 15th) for another Bundt! - mary the food librarian

Recipe:
Cinnamon Ripple Sweet Potato Bundt from Paula Deen website, Cooking with Paula Deen, Sept/Oct 2006

I Like Big Bundts recap:
The Food Librarian confesses: I Like Big Bundts
Day 1: Pumpkin Spice Bundt with Buttermilk Icing
Day 2: Chocolate-Cinnamon Bundt Cake with Mocha Icing
Day 3: Pumpkin-Apple Spiced Bundt

Sweet Potato (not) Pumpkin Biscuits - Tuesdays with Dorie

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Erin of Prudence Pennywise selected Sweet Potato Biscuits, page 26 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. Be sure to check out Erin's blog...it is lively and fun!

I messed up and ATE my sweet potato. Yes, I ate it! I had baked some up for a Bundt and wasn't thinking when I was seduced by the fall scent of fresh yams/sweet potatoes (I forgot which ones I purchased!) and ate the remaining sweet potato.

So, I used leftover canned pumpkin instead. I made 1/4 of this recipe.

They were easy to make, but I think I should have added more sweetness to the mix. Dorie's recipe uses canned sweet potatoes, but I was going to use fresh. Since sweet potato is sweeter than pumpkin (as the name implies...hee hee), I should have added more sugar.

I didn't have a biscuit cuter and since I'm pretty square, I made them in my likeness. Yes, nerd biscuits by someone who ate her ingredient.

I'll have to try these again with the proper ingredients and cutting utensils. In the meantime, why don't you go visit some fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers and see how they made out?

And if you have time, visit the rest of my blog for my crazy baking adventure. I cannot lie. I Like Big Bundts and am making 30 Bundt cakes leading up to National Bundt Day, November 15th. Today, I'm posting a Sweet Potato Bundt from Paula Deen!

Recipe:
Sweet Potato Biscuits, page 26, Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.
Erin's blog of Prudence Pennywise

Pumpkin-Apple Spiced Bundt Cake - Day #3 of I Like Big Bundts

Day 3 of I Like Big Bundts: 30 Days of Bundt Cakes

Thanks to my friend JustJenn of JustJennDesigns (check out her great stationery!) for making the logo!

It's Day 3 of I Like Big Bundts: 30 Days of Bundt Cakes...and today it's a yummy fall treat! For those just joining me on this crazy baking endeavour, I'm making 30 days of Bundts leading up to November 15th - National Bundt Day.

And, please people, I'm not just doing this for my health! ;) I'm hoping to inspire you to make a Bundt cake! Let me know if you do...Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen and Maria of Two Peas and their Pod both made Bundts this weekend!

I met Amy of StreamingGourmet at the Foodbuzz Open House and BlogHer Food in San Francisco. She is posting 31 days of pumpkin recipes on her blog! You have to check it out and I'm sure you'll get lots of ideas.

I, of course, was drawn to the Bundt cake: Pumpkin-Apple Spiced Bundt Cake!

I used two cups of granny smith apples...diced into small bite-sized pieces.

Don't worry if the mix gets a bit curdled. It'll all come together in the end.

See? All came together! Yum. Fall in a Bundt pan.

Apple and pumpkin. Friends forever.
This cake is delicious.
Hands down.
Make this cake!

It is light, moist, full of fall flavors and Not. Too. Sweet. With "only" 1 cup of sugar, the flavors of the pumpkin and apple aren't overwhelmed by sweetness.

See you back here tomorrow and every day from now til National Bundt Day (November 15th) for another Bundt! - mary the food librarian

Recipe:
Pumpkin-Apple Spiced Bundt Cake
from StreamingGourmet blog

I Like Big Bundts recap:
The Beginning: The Food Librarian cannot tell a lie, I Like Big Bundts
Day 1: Pumpkin Spice Bundt with Buttermilk Icing
Day 2: Chocolate-Cinnamon Bundt Cake with Mocha Icing

(Edited to fix the name of Amy's blog! Sorry about that. Her great blog is called StreamingGourmet. Check it out!)

Chocolate-Cinnamon Bundt Cake with Mocha Icing - Day #2 of I Like Big Bundts

Bundt #2

Day 2 of I Like Big Bundts: 30 Days of Bundt Cakes

Today, it's the Chocolate-Cinnamon Bundt Cake with Mocha Icing!
The subtitle is: If at first you don't succeed and almost wire the entire library...try, try again.

See, the first time I made this, I confused a little thing called the teaspoon and tablespoon. Tea versus Table. Only the letter "b" and "l" are different. And I almost had the library flying.

The first time, I used two TABLEspoons of espresso powder instead of two TEAspoons. The cake baked up nicely but had a really, really strong coffee aroma. The kitchen smelled like a cranked up coffeehouse. I glazed it, photographed the cake and cut a slide for the "cross sectional photo." I usually take a bite of this piece to make sure the cake isn't strange and I used salt instead of flour or something. Man, my little bite was way tooooo strong.

So, I made it again with the proper proportions of caffeine. It still has a really strong coffee flavored jolt. If you like coffee and chocolate, this cake is totally for you. If you want a little less coffee, then ditch the extra espresso in the icing. (The cake has 2 teaspoons of espresso powder in the cake and another 2 teaspoons in the icing).

FTC disclosure: I got the Scharffen Berger Natural Cocoa Powder free in my swag bag at BlogHerFood '09 conference. I am not being paid by them to endorse or use their product. I'm just using free stuff...wouldn't you?! (The FTC came down with a ruling about full disclosure of free stuff and endorsements by bloggers. See here.)

Dietary notes: The cake can be made dairy-free if you ditch the chocolate chips or use dairy-free ones. The icing has butter, but you could leave it off and dust with powdered sugar.

I saved some of the mini chocolate chips to place on top of the cake! By the way, I definitely think you should use mini chocolate chips and not regular sized chips...the minis are more delicate.

See you back here tomorrow and every day from now til National Bundt Day (November 15th) for another Bundt! - mary the food librarian

Recipe:
Chocolate-Cinnamon Bundt Cake with Mocha Icing
from Epicurious (Bon Appetit, September 2009)

I Like Big Bundts recap:
The Food Librarian confesses: I Like Big Bundts
Day 1: Pumpkin Spice Bundt with Buttermilk Icing

Pumpkin Spice Bundt with Buttermilk Icing - Day #1 of I Like Big Bundts

Bundt #1

As we begin Day 1 of I Like Big Bundts: 30 Days of Bundt Cakes, let me point out why the Bundt pan rocks my world. Here are just a few reasons:

1. Cake : Frosting ratio
I love cake. I don't like frosting. Thus, the Bundt has the perfect ratio of cake to frosting.

2. "Divide batter between cake pans" and "Rotate pans" doesn't exist
I'm horrible at getting equal quantities of cake batter in those 9" round pans. I bring out the scale and do it by weight...but who has the time for that at 4:30 am? With the Bundt, you just pop the batter into the pan, smooth out the top and you are ready to go. And no rotating...it just goes in the center of the oven. Yes, the Bundt puts the Ahhhh in Awesome.

3. You can pass it off as a breakfast food
You know how people think Pop Tarts are breakfast foods? (yes, this breaks the hearts of nutritionists, but work with me here as I build upon that fallacy). With a Bundt cake, people associate it with a coffee cake (obviously a breakfast food...it has the word Coffee in it!) and other tea cakes. So have a bite 24/7...it's okay.

I can go on and on. And I will during the next 29 days, so I have to save some of them for later!

So, let's get to the inaugural Bundt!

This recipe is from the (weep) recently departed Gourmet magazine (November 2005 issue).

Super easy to pull together, this recipe uses canned pumpkin (have you secured your stash during this pumpkin shortage?), butter, buttermilk (as the name implies!) and the spices are cinnamon and allspice (if you are a Tuesdays with Dorie baker, you should have some left from the recent Allspice Muffin!)

The result is a really soft and moist cake. It got thumbs up at the library and I hope you enjoy it as well.

The icing is light (buttermilk and powdered sugar) and provides a nice bit of sweetness, but it can be skipped if you want. A quick dust of powdered sugar would suffice as well.

Remember, come back every day from now til National Bundt Day, November 15th for another Bundt! - mary the food librarian

Recipe:
Pumpkin Spice Bundt with Buttermilk Icing
from Epicurious (Gourmet, November 2005)

Thanks to my friend JustJenn of JustJennDesigns (check out her great stationery!) for making the logo!

National Bundt Day is coming so I cannot tell a lie... I Like Big Bundts

Here's some dates you should know:

1. December 7th
That's my birthday and I'm that person who just loves her birthday.

2. September 19th
The day I started my new career as a librarian. And next year, I'll be vested in the retirement plan! Sweet.

3. May 6th
George Clooney's birthday. Enough said.

3. November 15th
National Bundt Day
Seriously, I think I should bump (or Bundt!) this up to the top.

So, to honor the Bundt pan and encourage you all to celebrate...I'm going to post...

30 days of Bundt cakes leading up to National Bundt Day on November 15th!!

Because, as you know from all my past Bundt posts... I LIKE BIG BUNDTS

Huge thanks to my friend JustJenn who came up with this awesome logo featuring Sir Mix-a-Lot (no endorsement implied, although I think he would like a big Bundt).

Come back every day until November 15th and check out a Bundt cake. I'm not crazy enough to bake and post on the same day so I've been working on this for a week and the library is like a Bundt den. I just hope I can finish...you'll give me lots of encouragement, right?!

I hope I can inspire you to bake a Bundt for your friends, family and even frienemies. Because the Bundt totally rocks. The Nordic Ware Bundt pan is American made and has limitless possibilities. I like Big Bundts and I cannot tell a lie. I'm going to get myself this or that t-shirt when I'm done!

Please join me for the next 30 days to celebrate the Bundt!
- mary the food (and Bundt!) librarian

Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes - Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club

For this month's Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club, Kim from What the Whisk chose Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes on page 236 of Martha's fantastic book: Martha Stewart's Cupcake Book

Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club is a new club where members make one cupcake recipe per month.

I scored some canned pumpkin (you know you are in a baking community when your twitter feed is full of the Pumpkin Panic of 2009!) and made 1/2 the recipe.

I made my own version of cream cheese frosting: 1 block (8 oz) cream cheese and 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar.

I thought the cupcake was not dense like a pumpkin bread and pretty light on the pumpkin flavor. However, I only had a bite and it was right out of the oven...so the flavors might not have settled down yet.

Martha, oh Martha. I'm so not in your world. She (well, her staff) leave us instructions to make our own marzipan pumpkins to place on top. Um, yeah...I'm just not a marzipan decorating kinda gal. I love me marzipan, but I'm not crafty enough to shape my own mini-pumpkins (and I just don't have the time). I'm just saying that the great Pumpkin shortage includes handcrafted marzipan pumpkins. I sprinkled some orange jimmies on top and saved myself about 10 hours of work. Whew!

By the way, come back to visit on Saturday. I'm starting a crazy, I-hope-I-can-do-this baking project. For those who know me...it will involve my beloved Bundt pan. - mary

Recipe:
Martha Stewart's Cupcake Book: Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes, page 236

The Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club doesn't post the recipe. You can use WorldCat to see if your library has it in their collection.

Be sure to check out the other Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club members and their version of the recipe! I'm sure some bakers were marzipan artists!

Allspice Crumb Muffins - Tuesdays with Dorie

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table chose Allspice Crumb Muffins, page 16 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Ah. The muffin.

Such a lovely little mini cake that takes no time at all. And no frosting to fuss with. Score.

This one uses Allspice as the secret ingredient. (Although with the name Allspice Crumb Muffin, I guess it ain't a big secret! :)

I don't use allspice much...and I had to head to Penzeys Spice to pick up a new container. Ahhh. Nothing like fresh spices.

I think my topping should have formed a bit more. My topping wasn't crumby enough and sorta spread out on muffin. I'll have to see how my other Tuesdays with Dorie friend made theirs.

Thanks Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table for a yummy pick!

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

P.S. Happy Birthday to my niece Hailey!!

Recipe:
Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table
Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours (page 16-17)

Split Level Pudding - Tuesdays with Dorie

Tonight is a night for pudding.

Pudding was one of the things we "made" as kids. Sure, it came out of a square box and you just added milk, but it was "cooking" to us kids.

Now that I'm grown up, I make it from scratch.

But, today, I just wish I could be a kid again.

Because then my friend, Lisa would live 5 houses down the street and we would play all the time. Sleep overs. Picking pill bugs in the garden. Forming clubs...complete with membership cards in the backyard clubhouse.

Lisa and I went to separate colleges and would lose touch for stretches of time over the years. Last May, I called her dad and got her phone number in Minnesota. As it has always been in our lives, we picked up like we just saw each other last week. I wished her happy birthday, and she was filled with news! She was in school getting her Master's degree, her four kids were healthy and happy, and she was engaged to a her college friend. After an uneventful one date in college, they reconnected after all these years.

Then, after a few emails and our usual promises of keeping in touch again, time just flew by...

Today, I learned that she has Stage 2 breast cancer. She's had surgery and will start chemo in seven days.

I'm in shock and sad. And guilty that I didn't know sooner and worked harder to keep in touch. Sometimes, I know more about people in my "blogging" world than someone I've known since the 2nd grade.

Grown up stuff like breast cancer can suck it. Today, I need pudding and to think about my friend Lisa and memories of us riding our bikes to school and walking to Winchell's donuts. My friend Lisa is a fighter and she'll be wearing a pink survivor shirt soon enough. I know she is surrounded by a wonderful family and community of friends. And she will always have a friend here in Los Angeles.

Oh yeah, that nice guy from college? He married her as soon as he found out. So congratulations Lisa and Jason on your recent nuptials...and kick this cancer in the butt.

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Garrett of Flavor of Vanilla picked Split Level Pudding, pages 384- 385 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I only made 1/4 of the recipe. I used milk chocolate for the ganache and it came out a bit hard (my 1/4 measurements may have been off too). I made the vanilla pudding using just a whisk and skipped the food processor. I sifted the cornstarch and salt mixture instead of food processing it. The small amount was fine with a whisk, but if I make the full recipe, I'm going for the food processor. It only too a few minutes for the pudding to thicken.

It was good and just what I needed today. - mary

Chocolate Gingerbread Bars - Everyday Food

It's Fall.
As in the season that follows Summer.
How in the world did that happen?!

Granted, Los Angeles doesn't "do" seasons too well. Today is was burning hot with Santa Ana winds (where the hot air from the desert in Vegas and the like come into Los Angeles...it is payback for all the smoke we sent them last month during our fires). Anyway, I flip the calendar to October and I freak out. I see Christmas decorations up and hyperventilate. Wasn't it just Y2K?! Oh, time is flying by.

So, I'm trying to embrace the season. Here's to Fall!

Chocolate Gingerbread Bars. Yes, you heard that right. Chocolate + Gingerbread = Yum.

This recipe is from Everyday Food and gets thrown together in a flash. You just need two bowls and don't even need to get things to room temp. My kind of recipe!

I used mini chocolate chips instead of regular size semi-sweet chips, and reserved some to sprinkle on top.

Get your Fall started and make some chocolate gingerbread bars.

Recipe:
Chocolate Gingerbread Bars, Everyday Food