Applesauce Cake with Caramel Glaze

I'm going to go ahead and say that this is the best dessert I've eaten in a long time, let alone made.  It was seriously good.  This might have something to do with my palate craving fall flavors and this being one of the first fall items I've made this year.  But I also have some serious back up in thinking this cake is the jam.

It also was insanely easy to make.  I made it a little harder by making my own applesauce from scratch, which is not a requirement, but probably made this cake that much better.  Plus making your own applesauce may seem like it's a crazy thing to do when store bought is pretty legit but honestly it's so easy and the fall bounty of apples is upon us.  I got mine at $1/lb at my local farm stand and I've seen grocery store prices hover not too much higher than that.

I have to say that for such an easy cake to make, it's pretty impressive looking and tasting.  So if you have some folks you'd like to impress or a loved one then whip this up and let them think you slaved away.  Happy fall everyone!

Applesauce Cake with Caramel Glaze
made from Food52; applesauce recipe was made up on the fly

Cake:

•     2 cups all-purpose flour
•     1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
•     1 teaspoon kosher salt
•     1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
•     2 teaspoons cinnamon
•     1 teaspoon ground ginger
•     1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
•     2 large eggs
•     1 cup sugar
•     1/2 cup light brown sugar
•     1 1/2 cups unsweetened (preferably homemade) applesauce
•     2/3 cup vegetable oil
•     1 teaspoon vanilla

Caramel Glaze:

•  4 tablespoons butter, cut into chunks
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar    
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 to 1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar

Applesauce:

• 6 lbs of apples.  I used gala but feel free to use a mix of sweet/tart apples
• juice of one lemon
• 1 cup apple juice or cider

1. If making the homemade applesauce, start with that recipe.  Core apples and cut into medium size chunks.  Add to a large dutch oven or stock pot.  Add lemon juice and apple juice.  Bring to a boil and then let simmer until apples are broken down and soft, about 25 minutes.  Using a hand blender or regular blender, blend the mixture until smooth.  Jar up anything you don't use in the cake recipe.  Feel free to add spices or sugar at this point but you don't need that for the sauce you use in the cake.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees and butter/flour a bundt pan.  Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, pepper and spices and set aside.  In large mixing bowl of a stand mixer beat the eggs with both sugars until a light color. Mix in the applesauce, oil and vanilla until smooth.
3. Using a spatula fold in the dry ingredients - don't over mix.  Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.  Cool the cake in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning it out on a rack to cool completely.  Make sure the cake is cold before glazing.  
4. Put the butter in a medium saucepan with brown sugar, cream and salt and set over medium heat. Bring to a full rolling boil while stirring constantly.  Boil for one minute exactly then pull off the heat.  Leave the pan to cool for a few minutes.  Then gradually whisk in powdered sugar until you have a thick but pourable consistency.  You might not use all the sugar.  If it becomes too thick then add a splash of cream to thin it out again.  Immediately pour over the cooled cake.  Let the glaze set for a few minutes, or longer, before serving the cake.

Crack Cake aka Pineapple Upside Down Cake Reinvented

Lately I've got a case of the winter blues. I thought Portland was going to skip over its rainy storm weather since we've had a very mild winter thus far. But after 5 years I should have known better 'cause we've been getting slaughtered lately. It's enough to make a girl start looking at last minute plane tickets outta here and spend long periods of time dreaming of warm sun and fruity drinks. So when I saw a large pineapple display at the store this week I thought, well, it's a start. I got that pineapple home and starting chopping it up only to realize it's not quite pineapple season and that sucker was tart. Like lip puckering, tawlk lawk dis tawt. So I immediately thought what if I made a pineapple upside down cake, not like the ones of olden days with canned pineapple and maraschino cherries, but a really amazing fresh and well done version.

I went in search of a recipe and whaddya know that wonderful blog Smitten Kitchen had a perfect recipe, yup, of course it did. And it just so happened I had all the ingredients I needed at home. Any recipe that starts with a homemade caramel is aces in my book and this one did NOT disappoint. I took it out of the oven and the smell was intoxicating. I waited until it was just cool enough, slapped some vanilla ice cream on a slice, and immediately proclaimed (to no one at all) "that's some crack cake right there!". This is going to make many a reappearance come pineapple season. Mark my words.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Source: Smitten Kitchen

Topping:

1/2 medium pineapple, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cored
3/4 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

Batter:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon dark rum
1/2 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
2 tablespoons dark rum for sprinkling over cake

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Make topping: Cut pineapple crosswise into 3/8-inch-thick pieces. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add brown sugar and simmer over moderate heat, stirring, four minutes. Remove from heat and pour into a 9" cake pan. Arrange pineapple on top of sugar mixture in concentric circles, overlapping pieces slightly.

Make batter: Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, then gradually beat in granulated sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and rum. Add half of flour mixture and beat on low speed just until blended. Beat in pineapple juice, then add remaining flour mixture, beating just until blended. (Batter may appear slightly curdled.)

Spoon batter over pineapple topping and spread evenly. Bake cake in middle of oven until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cake stand for five minutes. Run a knife around the edges to loosen the cake. Invert a plate over cake pan and invert cake onto plate (keeping plate and pan firmly pressed together). Replace any pineapple stuck to bottom of pan. Sprinkle rum over cake and cool on plate on a rack.

Serve cake just warm or at room temperature. And add some vanilla ice cream, you won't regret it.

Do ahead: Cake may be made one day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Caramel making and nesting

Batter making

Some rum for sprinkling on the final cake

Pretty as a picture

Birthday Cakes are the Best, especially Carrot Cake

I love volunteering to make birthday cakes for people because I really don't get many excuses to make cake. I'm not one to spend the time on something I'll undoubtedly end up throwing away. But birthdays are occasions to celebrate which means I get to spend time making pretty cakes in honor of the ones I love. And when the ones I love request carrot cake, well, that just turns out to be one of my favorites as well. My mom has spent the last decade or so using a great recipe she got from Bon Appetit long ago. I was having trouble finding my copy of that one so I went in search of a new recipe on the blogs of my favorite food bloggers. I settled on one from Simply Recipes. It turned out absolutely divine. It was moist and beautiful, dense and light, all at the same time. And as the birthday girl said, this cake was all about the cake and not so much the cream cheese frosting which carrot cakes have a habit of drowning in. I made a couple of modifications to the original recipe. I have posted it as I made it.

Carrot Cake

Adapted from Simply Recipes

Cake:

• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tbsp baking soda
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups olive oil or grapeseed oil
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups shelled walnuts, chopped (more whole or chopped for topping)
• 1 1/2 cups sweetened, shredded coconut
• 2 cups of finely grated carrots
• 1 cup of drained crushed pineapple

Frosting:

• 8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temp (I accidentally used a whole stick and it was fine)
• 2 1/2 cups of confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9 inch cake pans. Cut out rounds of wax paper and place at bottoms of cake pans. Butter the top of the wax paper rounds.

Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add oil, eggs, and vanilla. Beat well. Fold in chopped walnuts, coconut, carrots and pineapple.

Pour batter into pans. Set on the middle rack of oven and bake for 45-50 minutes (shift positions of cakes front-to-back if necessary about halfway through), until edges have pulled away from sides and a toothpick or sharp knife tip inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a cake rack.

To prepare frosting, cream together the cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl. Slowly sift in the confectioners sugar and beat until mixture is free of lumps. Stir in vanilla and orange juice.

Once cakes have cooled, frost. Sprinkle top with chopped walnuts or arrange walnut halves in a crown around the top.

Serves 12-16.