All Cakes Considered

I read cookbooks all the time. I read them the way some people read trashy detective novels or the latest Twilight saga. When I was reading All Cakes Considered, I realized that Melissa Gray is a kindred spirit (as Anne of Green Gables would say.) Melissa is a producer for NPR's All Things Considered, but this book is about cakes. She bakes a cake every week for her office. She doesn't use cake mixes. She likes to make people happy with her baking - which is the best reason to bake something from scratch that I know of. Melissa (I feel like I know her personally now) is a good baker. She uses real chocolate and vanilla, and cares enough about results to "re-cake" again and again until she gets it right. Amusingly enough, we might be neighbors. It says that she lives near Mount Vernon and so do I. We might even shop at the same Farmer's Market or grocery store. Now that we know each other, if I see her I'll say hi, and ask for her autograph. (I think on the Sweet Potato Pound Cake page- or maybe the Tunnel of Fudge page.)
That brought back memories...it was the Tunnel of Fudge cake - from a mix- that got me started on my baking career. I remember that Pillsbury sold the mixes with an aluminum Bundt cake pan attached. I begged my mom to buy one and the rest is baking history. (I still have that pan.)
If you like to bake and make people happy, you won't go wrong with this book.
I think you'll like Melissa too.
Happy Baking!

Cake for Breakfast

Why not? Flour sugar butter eggs...Nothing non-breakfasty there. I like cake for breakfast with coffee;I'm not much of a dessert eater. However the rest of the crew at chez Hunting Creek are very much dessert eaters; there have been pointed comments and wistful looks at empty cookie jars and cake plates this week. Last night was cold and rainy so I made homemade macaroni and cheese. While it was baking I thought I'd make a cake but none of my recipes inspired me, or I didn't have some vital ingredient. So I made up my own recipe. I've been baking since the Cretaceous Period, surely I could invent a cake? I consulted several of my cookbooks. The basic proportions were all about the same. Here's my invention, based on ingredients on hand:

Cinnamon and Brickle Chip Cake
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream, or yogurt ( I used yogurt because that's what I had.)
2 teaspoons vanilla (I make my own, see previous post on Vanilla for the recipe, I may in the future flavor the cake with rum, Amaretto, lemon brandy or whatever strikes my fancy)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cinnamon chips ( I got mine from King Arthur Flour)
1 cup Heath Brickle chips (obtained at the good old grocery store)

Preheat your oven to 350. Grease and flour bundt pan or angel food cake pan. Blend the butter with the sugar ( I use my Cuisinart), add eggs and vanilla, mix in then add sour cream or yogurt. It should be creamy and all mixed up. Add flour and baking powder and salt. Mix that in, then fold in chips. Bake about 55 minutes. It may take longer or shorter - ovens differ. I start checking at 50 minutes and gauge from there.

A note on recipes. I say I invented this, but I am sure someone, somewhere has also made a cinnamon and brickle chip cake. How could it be otherwise? I think that there are really are no original recipes, there are only variations.

At our house cakes are eaten in bowls with milk, because that's how we all always eat cake. We prefer our cakes unfrosted, so that they can get the bowl and milk treatment.(Of course when there are guests we eat cake like the guests. The milk in bowls will be our little secret) I assume it would also be good with ice cream, because what cake isn't?
Next time I will try it with blueberries and cinnamon chips, or maybe mini chocolate chips and nuts. It all depends on what I have on hand.
Happy Baking!