recipe adaptation

Blueberries Make The Cake

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A simple single layer cake with lots of blueberries.

It’s July, so if you’re on Instagram, you may be noticing that everyone’s feed is filled with blueberries.

Whether you picked them yourself, found them at a farmers market, or bought them at the grocery store, ’tis the season.

My favorite cakes during the summer are simple single layer cakes. They aren’t too sweet. They travel well. Plus, since they aren’t frosted, they hold up in the heat.

One of the recipes that I use as a base is a Norwegian Apple Cake. I’ve been using this recipe for years, with a few changes. One of the easiest ways to adapt it is by changing the type of fruit.

I made the cake a few weeks ago using cherries. Everyone loved it, so this past week I used blueberries. Lots of blueberries!

I used two cups and the cake was bursting with blueberry flavor. Here’s the recipe if you want to give it a try.

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Summer Blueberry Cake
(makes one single layer cake)

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup butter (softened)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups blueberries (washed, stems removed)

INSTRUCTIONS:
In a medium bowl, combine butter, sugar and eggs. Stir in salt, extracts, baking powder and flour until well combined.

I use a regular size round cake pan, but a square or loaf pan would probably work fine too. I used to grease and flour the pan, but now I use parchment paper. So whatever way you prefer is fine.

Pour batter into a pan. Pour the blueberries over the batter and press into the cake.

The original recipe says to bake for about 25 – 30 minutes at 400 degrees. I’ve baked this cake a few times and am still adjusting the time and temperature. Blueberries are more wet than apples, so more baking time was definitely needed. The last time I baked this cake (July 13, 2019) for about an hour at 350 degrees. That seemed to work well. Everyone loved the cake and raved about the texture.

After the cake is done, I put it in the fridge and let it cool down. If you are taking it to go, maybe for a picnic, wrap it in foil,  pack it and be on your way!

Let me know if you try it and what you think.

Election Day Eve 2016

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Collage showing pictures of election day cakes and cupcakes.

Over the years, I’ve written about many elections. I was very excited about the election while I was supporting Bernie Sanders in the primary. After that, not so much.

Trump is an abomination and I will leave it at that. Since Massachusetts has early voting, I voted already for Hillary Clinton. I wasn’t particularly happy about voting for her, but she is the only sane choice. And again, I will leave it at that.

The campaigns have stressed me out and I’m horribly nervous about tomorrow. I have never felt worse about an election. Which is probably why this is my only real election post. And it’s still kind of not a real election post. But it’s all that I have in me to write.

The best thing that I can say about this election is the resurgence of election cakes. I baked one back in 2007 and blogged an election cake recipe on BoomerGirl.com. That blog exists in a different form now and my post is long gone. So much has changed since 2007!

Luckily, the Wayback Machine exists and I was able to find the archived version. The pictures of the cake aren’t there, but you can still read the post. I’m so glad to find my recipe, because I thought it was lost forever.

Maybe I’ll try adapting it again. Because as I recall, there was room for improvement. Assuming we survive the aftermath of this election. God help us all.

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Image: Screenshot Instagram #makeamericacakeagain

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Recipe: Double Berry Almond Breakfast Cookies

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Double Berry Almond Breakfast Cookies cooling on a rack.

Back in 2008, I posed the question, “Cupcake or muffin?” Is the only real difference that one we eat for breakfast or a snack and the other is dessert? Muffins sometimes have glaze, which is basically frosting.

Calorically there is not much difference either. I agree with a recent Vox article stating that we need to get real about our American breakfasts. They are basically dessert.  Although an article found in Essence may help assuage our collective guilt.  Eating dessert for breakfast may help us lose weight. Let’s go with that one!

If you ever think that I will discourage dessert, then you are sadly happily mistaken. I have a healthy (cough, cough) breakfast cookie recipe for you. It’s been a while since I blogged a recipe, so the time is right.

The only reason that I found this recipe is because another one of my favorite magazines abruptly stopped publication — More Magazine. It was a great magazine. Stylish, intelligent and thoughtful. Oh well. Seems that doesn’t sell. I still miss Whole Living. *sigh*

But I digress. For the remainder of my More subscription, I was given Shape Magazine. It’s not bad, but not a true replacement. Anyway, I did find this breakfast cookie recipe. It’s sweet, but uses maple syrup instead of sugar. I added honey and made a number of other changes based on the ingredients that I had at home, my particular tastes and knowing my oven.

As I always say, a recipe is just a starting point. Adapt away! Let me know if you try the recipe and what you think.

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Double Berry Almond Breakfast Cookies (Adapted from recipe on Shape Magazine)
(Makes a dozen)

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/2 cup sliced almonds
  • 1/2 cup almond meal
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 cup whole-wheat flour
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
  • 2 T honey
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1  1/2 cup blueberries
  • 1 cup cranberries (halved)
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened dried cranberries
  • 1/2 tsp. orange peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a medium to large bowl combine ingredients. Mix well. Use an ice cream scoop to put batter on baking sheet. Bake about 30 minutes. Remove cookies and let cool on a rack. Enjoy!

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Recipe: Spring Strawberry Cake

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strawberry cakeThis past week was one of the first where it was pleasant to be outside. Most of the piles of snow are gone. The sun is shining brightly. The temperatures are warming. We will have Spring after all!

Since today is Easter, I baked a cake to share with my family. One of my favorite go to recipes is Magnolia’s Vanilla Cupcakes. I just half the recipe to make a single layer cake.

This cake is a total experiment. But that’s the only way to come up with something new! For the topping, I didn’t measure anything so all these amounts are estimates.

I took 3/4 of a cup of strawberry preserves and combined in a small bowl with 1 tsp. vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp. almond extract. Then I spread the mixture over the top of the cake. I baked the cake last night, then left it in the freezer overnight and let it thaw out for a few hours this morning.

Then, I sprinkled about 2 T of powdered sugar over the the cake. I cut about eight strawberries in half, rolled them in about 1/4 cup of sweetened flaked coconut, then placed each strawberry on top of the cake. Then I put maybe 1/4 of white chocolate chips between the strawberries.

The plan is to serve the cake with some ice cream. Hopefully it will be good. My philosophy is always, “Just how bad could it be?” If you combine a bunch of stuff that you like, it can only taste so terrible.  And should taste quite excellent actually.

Happy Easter and Happy Passover to all who celebrate!

Recipe: Brant Point Grill’s Oatmeal Molasses Bread

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oatmeal molasses bread

One of my favorite columns in Bon Appétit is Rsvp, where readers can get recipes from their favorite restaurants. I immediately thought of this column as I was diving into the bread basket at Brant Point Grill.

In Part 1 of my Visiting + Eating on Nantucket blog post, I mentioned that I had dinner there recently. They had savory flatbreads, almost cracker like and a sweeter bread that I kept trying to figure out. Turns out it was oatmeal molasses bread. I would have loved to take a few of these bread baskets home with me!

When I returned home, I decided to try and get the recipe for the sweeter bread. Brant Point Grill, the restaurant at the White Elephant, was more than happy to share the recipe. When I received it, I discovered that it was the exact recipe they use at the restaurant, which calls for 22 cups of flour. Eeeek!

Seeing that I’m not baking for dozens of people, I realized that some recipe adaptation was in order. Luckily, shrinking down recipes is one of my specialties!

I was surprised to realize that it was a quick bread recipe, which has no yeast. Also, it had buttermilk and the only fruit was raisins. Somehow I thought the bread contained a bunch of different fruits! Maybe because the recipe calls for golden raisins which taste a bit sweeter.

When I bake, I use what I have in the house instead of going out and buying ingredients for a recipe. Unless, it’s for something very special.

So not only did I shrink the recipe down to make a tiny loaf, but I made some other substitutions as well. I didn’t have raisins, but I had some dried papaya and dried pineapple. I don’t use buttermilk, so I used vanilla almond milk. I didn’t have whole wheat flour, so I used buckwheat flour. Also, I added some ground ginger just because.

This bread was truly quick to make, because of the tiny amount of ingredients. I loved it and think it tastes quite like the bread in the restaurant. At least to how I remember it. Here is my adapted version of the recipe below. I hope you give it a try!

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Oatmeal Molasses Bread

Ingredients + Instructions
(Makes one tiny loaf.)

1/4 cup vanilla almond milk
2 T oats
2 tsp. molasses
2 tsp. oil (I used grapeseed oil.)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup buckwheat flour
1 T sugar
scant 1/4 tsp. baking soda
scant 1/4 tsp. baking powder
scant 1/8 tsp. salt
scant 1/8 tsp. ground ginger
3 T dried fruit

Combine ingredients in a small bowl. Place the dough in the pan and sprinkle a few oats on top. I used a 3 x 5 mini bread loaf pan lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes. I used a toaster oven, which may impact the timing. Remove from oven and let cool for about 5 minutes. Slice and enjoy plain or with some butter.