Buttermilk Citrus Cake with Raspberries

I have posted a variation of this cake before.

But it's just so good, I find myself coming back to it again and again.

I love that there are so many things that you can do with a basic buttermilk cake.

In the past, I have topped it with apricots, peaches, blueberries and rhubarb.

Today I'm trying raspberries with lemon and lime zest sprinkled with turbinado sugar.

This cake takes almost no time to prepare and bake.

Would be perfect with a little whipped cream or frozen yogurt.

Buttermilk Citrus Cake with Raspberries
(Super Natural Food Everyday by Heidi Swanson)

2 1/2 C all purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour (I used 1 1/2C All Purpose and 1C Spelt because I ran out of WWPF)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 C fine white sugar
pinch salt
1 1/2 C buttermilk
2 eggs
1/2 C butter, melted and cooled
1 lemon and 1 lime zested
1 C frozen raspberries
2 Tbsp course sugar (Turbinado)

Preheat oven to 400*.
Butter a 9 1/2 x 11 inch baking dish or 11 inch quiche dish.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
In small bowl or glass measuring cup, whisk together buttermilk, cooled butter, eggs and zest.
Gently combine wet ingredients into dry.

Pour batter into prepared pan spread to the edges.
Top with raspberries and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake 20-25 minutes.  Be careful not to over-bake it.
*Start checking the centre of the cake with a toothpick at around 20 minutes to ensure it doesn't overcook.

Honey Cake with Rhuby Soda

My sweet friend brought me a very special surprise.

A special surprise she knew I would love...and an armful of it.

Enough to make soda, a cake, and a crisp!

Thank you, my friend.

I love to bake with honey to cut back on the amount of sugar most recipes call for.

Honey is easily masked by the other flavours in baking but this cake is all about the honey and its warm, fragrant sweetness.

Nestled down inside the cake is some rhubarb...just because I can.

Honey Cake with Nestled Rhubarb

(adapted from Moosewood Farm Fresh Meals)

1/2 C softened butter

1/2 C honey

1/2 C sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 C flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 C milk

2 1/2 C chopped rhubarb

Preheat oven to 350*. Butter a 7 x 11 baking dish.

Cream butter, honey and sugar together until light. Add eggs one at a time, beating well.

In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking powder and salt.

Combine milk and vanilla in a small bowl.

Alternate adding flour mixutre and milk to butter mixture, beating well after each addition.

Spread 2/3 of the batter over the bottom of the dish. Top with all of the rhubarb. Top gently with the rest of the batter, spreading to the edges.

Sprinkle with 1-2 tsp cinnamon sugar if you like.

Bake 35-40 mins or until golden and cooked through.

*Raspberries or strawberries would be a good substitute for the rhubarb.

Top with vanilla yogurt, whipped cream or ice cream.

Rhuby Soda

(culinate.com)

1 1/2 C chopped rhubarb

1 C sugar

1 1/2 C water

Sparkling water

ice

In a large saucepan, combine rhubarb, sugar and water. Boil and then turn down to a simmer for 15-20 mins or until the syrup is bright pink.

Turn off the heat, cool and pour into a large mason jar.

To make each soda, measure ¼ cup rhubarb syrup into a glass.

Add enough sparkling water to fill the glass ⅔ full. Stir to mix, then add ice.

Or make Soulemama's Ruby Junes.

Fleur de Sel Buttermilk Cake

Apricots are in season.

I love apricot season.

I can hardly keep apricots around long enough to make anything with them. The kids love and devour them.

So I hid some and made a cake with them.

The apricots really get to show off here as they lay on top of this mildly sweet, slightly salty, buttermilk cake.

If that's where it ended, that would be delicious enough, but its finished off with a sprinkle of fleur de sel.

Fleur de sel is really cool because it doesn't dissolve into the cake like other salts would. It sits on top adding really pretty texture and a light crunch.

This cake sparkles.

Salted sweets hooked me a few years ago when I tried a Salted Caramel Tarte at Nadege Patisserie. My love continued at Hotel Gelato, with their Salted Caramel Gelato...oh my!

Clara and I outside Nadege.

Fleur de Sel Buttermilk Cake

(adapted from 101cookbooks.com)

2 1/2 C Whole Wheat pastry flour (or a combonation of WWPF and Spelt)

1Tbsp baking powder

1/2 C brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 C buttermilk

1/4 C butter, melted and cooled slightly

zest of 2 lemons

1-1 1/2 C Sliced Apricots (feel free to use any berry or soft fruit here. (I like using raspberries and blueberries here too)

1-3 Tbsp Large grain raw sugar (or scant 1 Tbsp of white sugar)

1 tsp fleur de sel or other large grain salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, rack in the middle.

Grease a 9 x13 dish or grease and line an 11inch tart pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl whisk eggs and buttermilk together, whisk in butter and zest.

Pour buttermilk mixture over flour mixture and combine gently. Try not to overmix here.

Spoon batter into dish, pushing into the corners. Top with fruit of choice.

Sprinkle with sugar and salt.

Bake 18-20mins. Or until cake is set and golden on top.

Cooking with Guinness

Steak and Guinness Pie

Guinness Cake

3 delicious recipes with a common theme.

It is very hard for me to let a St. Patricks Day pass without making something with Guinness.

First, a dark rich beef stew baked inside a puffy, buttery crust. Served with peas and a green salad on the side.

Followed by a very dark and damp chocolate cake topped with a fluffy white frosting. (Looking quite like a pint of the dark beverage it contains.)

Regardless of their preferences towards Guinness as a drink, I have yet to find a person who did not love it in these forms.

Steak and Guinness Pie

(adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe)

3 medium red onions peeled and chopped

3 cloves garlic, peeled chopped

2 Tbsp Butter

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 stalks celery chopped

6-8 mushrooms, sliced or chopped

2.5 lbs stewing beef cut into 3/4 inch pieces and trimmed of fat

1 Tbsp herbs de provence (or 2 sprigs rosemary stemmed and chopped.)

salt and pepper

1 pint of Guinness

2-3 Heaping Tbsp Flour

water or beef stock

1 1/2 C grated cheddar cheese

1 package store bought puff pastry

1 egg, lightly beaten for egg wash

Preheat oven to 375*.

Heat a very large saucepan over med heat and saute onions gently for 10 mins.

Turn heat up to med-high and add the other vegetables. Stir together and then add beef, herbs, a pinch of salt and 1 tsp pepper. Fry for 4minutes.

Pour in Guinness and scatter the flour over top. Stir in enough water or stock to just cover the beef and veg.

Bring to a boil and then put the lid on the pot and place in hot oven for 1 1/2 hours or until meat is very tender.

Remove the pan and stir the stew. Return stew to the oven and cook another hour.

If the stew is a bit watery at this point remove the lid and cook on the stove top over med heat until some of the liquid is gone and the stew is really thick.

Stir in half the cheese.

Season with more salt and pepper if needed.

Roll out one of the sheets of puff pastry big enough to cover the bottom of the appropriately sized dish. Let the excess pastry dangle over the edges.

Pour the stew into the bowl. Top with remaining cheese and brush the edges of the pastry with egg wash.

Score the other sheet of pastry diagonally in 1 cm crisscrosses. Place the lid on the pie and fold the edges inwards together to seal the pie and make a nice crusty ring around the outside.

Brush the top of the pie with more egg wash and place in the oven for 45 mins at 375* or until pastry is puffed up and golden.

Guinness Cake

(Nigella Lawson)

1 C Guinness

1/2 C + 2 Tbsp unsalted butter

3/4 C cocoa powder (unsweetened)

2 C sugar

3/4 C sour cream

2 eggs

1 Tbsp vanilla

2 C flour

2 1/2 tsp baking soda

8 oz Cream cheese

1 1/4 C icing sugar

heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 and butter a 9 inch springform pan.

Pour Guinness in a large saucepan, add butter and heat until butter is melted over med heat.

Whisk in cocoa and sugar.

Remove from heat.

Beat together sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Pour into buttery beer.

Whisk in flour and soda.

Pour into prepared pan.

Bake 45 mins.

Cool.

Whip cream cheese until light and fluffy, add sifted icing sugar. Add enough cream to make the icing spreadable. Beat again.

Top cold cake with icing.

Finally, another delicious Guinness meal we have had recently can be found over here.

Orange Yogurt Cake

It's good to have something that you make with some regularity for when people come over unexpectedly or at the last minute.

I'm usually all about scones of any shape or flavour. Scones are pretty easy to whip up but are also a little fancy.

I remember my mum making scones so many Sunday nights when we'd have people back from church. I was always proud because I knew my mum would make a fresh batch of these perfect little scones and serve them with butter and marmalade or strawberry jam. I loved the predictability of it.

I'm about to make this cake for the second time in 24 hours and it may become the equivalent of my mum's scones. This cake takes about 4 minutes to prepare and 24mins in the oven. All the ingredients get tossed in a big bowl and whisked together somewhat haphazardly. No fuss.

You would never know by what ease it is made after it's done though. Damp and subtly sweet with little flecks of fresh orange zest running through it, dusted with a bit of icing sugar.

Orange Yogurt Cake

(from a vintage Martha Stewart Magazine)

1 C flour

1/2 C plus 2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1/2 C yogurt (I used banana yogurt)

1/4 C vegetable oil

1 orange zested

1 Tbsp orange juice (1 Tbsp of grand marnier here would be decadent!)

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

(icing sugar for dusting)

~Preheat oven to 350*.

Grease a 8inch round cake pan.

Stir all ingredients together in a large bowl.

Pour into pan.

Bake until cake tester comes out clean, about 24mins.

Cool.

Dust with icing sugar.

Jib suggests having this cake with a cup of tea.

Birthday Cake

When we sat down to think about Clara's birthday party this year, she was very decided about what she wanted to serve; Oreo Ice Cream cake, S'more Bars and Ritz mini cheese sandwiches. The ice cream cake recipe is one I know I will use again and again. The base is a very simple, thinn-ish layer of chocolate cake, topped with a tub of ice cream, topped with sweetened vanilla-infused heavy cream, topped with a crumble of oreo cookies. The cake could be modified by using any other ice cream flavour and topping. Candy cane ice cream on Christmas Eve, with crushed After Eights on top would be amazing...

Ice Cream Cake

1C All Purpose Flour

1/4C cocoa powder

2t baking powder

1/4t salt

3/4C sugar

3/4C milk, warmed

1 egg
1/3C oil

1T vanilla

1/2 gallon Ice Cream any flavour

1 1/2C Whipped cream

3Tbsp sugar

1t Vanilla

Topping of your choice: crushed chocolates, candies, cookies or sprinkles...

Heat oven to 325*

1. Put flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a sifter and sift into a large bowl. Stir in sugar with a whisk.

In a separate bowl, whisk milk, egg, oil and vanilla until well blended.

Pour egg mixture into flour and whisk.

Pour into a 9x13 inch dish (pre greased).

Bake 20mins. Cool completely. Freeze 30mins.

2. Remove ice cream and soften 15mins or so on the counter.

Spread over the cake, cover with plastic and freeze 4 hours.

3. Whip cream with sugar and vanilla about 3mins, until stiff peaks form.

4. Crush topping.

5. Spread whipped cream on ice cream and top with whatever you just crushed.

6. Freeze again until ready to eat.

Cut with a knife dipped in warm water.

Pink Cake and My Apprentices

A little produce shop I go to has great seconds of fruit and vegetables for 2$ a basket. This week I was able to get tons more strawberries so I made a strawberry cake with strawberry icing...decorated with a strawberry.

The cake took a while to make but I think that was only in part due to the recipe. Clara and I were having a slow afternoon and had fun taking our time while making it. To assemble the cake, I placed one cake face side down topped that with some strawberry preserve, then placed the other half right on top and drizzled the top with icing and let it run down the sides.

I realized how much Jimmy watches me cook when I saw him pull a pot out of our cupboard and start mixing in it with the wooden spoon. He looked at me quite impress with himself as if to say "Look mama, I'm cooking too".

Strawberry Cake

3 cups + 2 tbsp (780 mL) cake-and-pastry flour

2 tsp (10 mL) baking powder

3/4 tsp (4 mL) baking soda

1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt

2 cups (500 mL) halved strawberries (8 oz/250 g)

1/2 cup (125 mL) buttermilk

1 cup (250 mL) unsalted butter, softened

1-3/4 cups (425 mL) granulated sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla

Butter two 9-inch/23 cm diameter cake pans; line bottoms with parchment paper, then flour sides; set aside.

In bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and soda, and salt. In blender, purée together strawberries, and buttermilk.

In large bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy; on high speed, beat in sugar, 1/3 cup/75 mL at a time, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time; beat in vanilla. Gradually stir in flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, making 3 additions of dry and 2 of wet. Divide evenly between cake pans, smoothing tops.

Bake in centre of 350F/180C oven until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool in pans on racks for 10 minutes. Slide knife around edges and remove from pans; peel off paper. Let cool on racks.

Strawberry Icing
1/2 cup frozen strawberries thawed
1/2 C butter
1/2 brick cream cheese
4 cups confectioners sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla

Cream the butter and cream cheese together. Add vanilla and the confectioners sugar. Puree the frozen strawberries until smooth and add to the icing.

Vanilla Pound Cake

Pound cake has never been something that I love or relish making. This recipe changed my view. I have to admit I love a good bit of fuss when making a cake. It's good to have a few standby, throw everything in a bowl and mix recipes, but this one was just enough fuss to still be fun. The result was a light and mildly sweet yellow cake with a slightly sweeter golden crust. I enjoyed it best plain in a thin slice. Clara liked it with ice cream and strawberry jam melted on top....and also with vanilla yogurt and raspberries.