Can you just imagine the mouth-feel of a bite of that cheesecake? Smooth, rich, a little tiny bit citrusy, in between being a dry cheesecake (not a bad thing) and a wet cheesecake (some people prefer that type). This one leans more toward the dry, I suppose, but not DRY, if you get my drift.

Oh my goodness, is this cheesecake beyond delicious. It’s not something I make – hardly ever. It’s not something I even crave. Now my DH, that’s another story. Cheesecake is his #2 favorite dessert, 2nd only to carrot cake. I do have a recipe for a cheesecake here on my blog – it’s a very tall, light and airy cheesecake. I had it the first time back in about 1970, when I was living for a brief time in Oklahoma. It was called a Gourmet Cheesecake. It contains many egg whites whipped separately, so it retains height during baking. And it’s got a much different (light) texture. I do love that cheesecake. But, since I was cooking for several couples coming to dinner, I decided to try a new recipe, at Saveur.

This cheesecake, comes from the famous Lindy’s Restaurant in New York City. Not to be confused with the current-day restaurant by the same name. Lindy’s was opened in 1921 on Broadway, and it was really a Jewish deli, but they became known for sturgeon, corned beef and blintzes. And, their cheesecake. Milton Berle used to eat there nearly every day. Lots of notables ate there regularly. The owners – Lindy Lindemann and his wife Clara – ran it (and another one some blocks away) for many years.  According to Wikipedia, Lindy’s was especially well known for its cheesecake, which was at times credited as perhaps the most famous in the United States. The cheesecake was immortalized in Guys and Dolls, where Nathan Detroit and Sky Masterson sang its praises. You could even sing some of the songs from the musical while you made this. Ah, never mind. Most of you probably don’t know what Guys and Dolls was! The recipe for the cheesecake, fortunately, can live on in our own kitchens because we have the recipe. The famous recipe. The restaurant closed in 1957.

So, on to the recipe. This must – absolutely must be made in a 9-inch springform pan. Please don’t try to make it fit in an 8 incher. Or thinner in a 10-incher. In a 9-inch pan the cake rises up above the sides. When I peeked in the oven window about half way through and saw it I panicked! I thought it would spill over – not only ruining the cheesecake, perhaps, but also making a monumental mess on the floor of my oven. But no, it rose up, stayed up and peaked out about an inch above the top.

First you must make an easy crust – very similar to a pie crust – that contains the seeds from a vanilla bean, an egg yolk and lemon zest, then you chill it for an hour before pressing it with your fingertips on the bottom and all the way up the sides of the pan. The crust didn’t make it quite up to the top when I did it – but it didn’t seem to matter. Ideally, you can make the crust thin enough to go all the way up.

Then you make the filling. Do you even want to know how much cream cheese is in this? A full 2 1/2 pounds. A lot. It has a bunch of eggs and egg yolks in it too. And a little bit of orange and lemon zest. It has a little tiny amount of flour in it, vanilla and 1/4 cup of heavy cream. I can’t imagine what that little amount of cream does, but it’s added in at the very end of the mixing. Pour it into the pan and bake.

That was taken about 20 minutes after I took it out of the oven. I baked it to an exact 160° using an instant read thermometer. I stuck the probe into the side so there wouldn’t be a hole in the top. It took about an extra 7-8 minutes in my oven (over the 75 minutes suggested). First you bake it for about 15 minutes at 500°. Can you imagine? Yes. Then you reduce it to 200° and continue baking. The back side (you can’t quite see it in the photo above) got a little dark. I should have rotated the cake, but I was afraid it might deflate if I opened the oven door. Do try to leave ample room all around the cheesecake in the oven and don’t put it too close to the top, either.

In this photo you can see the crust is about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up the sides. You can barely see the delineation in this photo. It took several hours to let it cool. After an hour or so, I took off the springform side – but first I used a sharp knife to make certain none of the cheesecake was sticking to the side and let it cool several more hours. The other interesting tidbit is that this cheesecake needs to chill for at least 8 hours or overnight. That was wonderful for me so I made it the day before our dinner party. I put the springform back on the cake to store it, covered well with foil.

When it’s cut, use a very thin, sharp knife and have a tall glass of hot water handy as the cheesecake wants to stick to the knife. Dip the knife in the hot water between each cut.  I used a wedge to remove it, but a knife will work too – the crust is sturdy enough to hold the piece together fairly well. The very center didn’t come out cleanly – it’s a soft filling, so a little bit of it stuck.

I made a mango puree (a coulis) to serve on it or on the side of it. I don’t think Lindy’s served it with anything. It really doesn’t need anything to adorn it, but I thought a bit of added color would be nice. I bought frozen mango pieces at Trader Joe’s and made the puree the day before also.  I’ll post that recipe tomorrow or the next day. Anyway,  dessert was all done the day ahead.

After sitting (chilling) for 24 hours the cheesecake had deflated some. It was then about level with the side of the springform, and the center sunk too. I know it was done, though the center was still slightly jiggly when I took it out of the oven. Obviously that means the center surely wasn’t as “done” as the outer parts, but when researching this on the ‘net, I read several places that a cheesecake should be at 160° so that’s exactly what I did.

What’s GOOD: there is everything good to say about this dessert – unctuous texture, smooth, decadent, rich, full of the cheesy taste you look for when ordering a cheesecake. It has the drier texture that is coveted by most cheesecake fans. It’s spectacular to serve – I showed our dinner guests the cheesecake before cutting it and asked everyone if they wanted the mango coulis on the side. We had left overs twice and oh, was it ever good then too. Maybe even better because we were eating it after an ordinary meal and the cheesecake absolutely stood out.

What’s NOT: there is nothing, whatsoever, I could say about this other than it’s fantastic.

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Silky = smooth and almost molten. Not quite, but nearly so. You can see that this cake doesn’t ooze, but can you see how shiny it is? It’s really, really moist – it’s not at all like candy, so don’t misunderstand my description – it’s just incredibly chocolaty and smooth.

At a cooking class last week Tarla Fallgatter served this unctuous chocolate dessert. Unbelievably chocolaty and rich. Smooth and addictive. If you’re still wondering what to serve for Valentine’s Day – if you’re cooking at home that night – this is your romantic ticket. If I were doing it, I’d likely cut the recipe in half and pour the cake into 4 ramekins and bake them individually. I don’t know how long they would take to bake that way, but maybe 15 minutes or so? That’s a guess.

In any case, if you’re a chocolate freak, you’ll be moaning as you spoon this into your mouth. It’s not all that difficult to make – really it’s easy – as long as you have an 8-inch springform pan – and you have bittersweet chocolate, eggs, butter, sugar, flour and a little cream to whip for the topping. It’s a 3-dish/pan dessert (saucepan to melt butter and chocolate, bowl to mix the batter in, and the springform to bake). You do have to put the springform pan (wrapped in foil) in a larger baking pan because you add hot tap water to it and it cooks in a water bath. That’s what keeps it so tender and moist – almost like pudding, except it’s definitely a cake. You’ll find this recipe in several places on the internet. This one came from Food and Wine, back some years ago.

What’s good: no question it’s the chocolaty-ness of it. Oh yes! Very decadent. Very rich. Very festive, and surely very romantic.

What’s not: as with most tortes and things of this nature, they’re not quite so good the next day. This one has to be made within about 6 hours of serving.

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My husband said: “Wow, this pudding is fantastic!” Now, you have to understand that he’s a Type 1 diabetic, and he steers away from desserts 95% of the time, so any time he does eat dessert he thinks he’s in heaven. But I’ll attest – this rice pudding is fabulous.

You know how it is when you read some recipe somewhere and it just plain “speaks” to you? That’s what happened when I was reading Baking Banter, the baking blog from King Arthur Flour. I subscribe to their blog through Google Reader, and the varied bakers post several times a week. And I just love how they design a recipe – how they test and change, taste and change, until they finally get it right. And this recipe is just absolutely SPOT-ON! Kuddos to Mary Jane Robbins, who developed this recipe for King Arthur.

I have another recipe for rice pudding here on my blog. And in comparing this one to the other one, they’re very similar. And yet, I think this one is better (probably because of the cream added). Much better. I liked the creamy texture of this one. The little bit of bite to the rice (particularly you don’t want to overcook the rice, because then it would be mushy). The other aspect of this pudding is its focus on the vanilla. Two different types of (King Arthur) vanilla are called for here. I used two different types I had on my pantry shelf, neither of which are King Arthur. Use your best vanilla to stir in after the pudding is cooked.

Surely, I should have taken a photo of the pudding as it was simmering away, with my handy-dandy Stirr device (now called a RoboStir – very inexpensive if you’re interested) jittering around inside the pan. Here at right is a picture I found online. I’ve written about it before, but it’s a battery-operated device that sits inside the pan, has silicone feet and once you turn it on (mine has 4 speeds), it jitters itself around the pan, turning in circles to keep the pot contents moving – stirring. It’s an automatic stirring device is all I can tell you, and it worked SO perfectly for this pudding! I also use it on the rare occasions I make risotto. It’s ideal for sauces.  Just an aside about this device – if you go online, lots of people don’t like it. Including Consumer Reports, who found it worked for very few things. A thick sauce will stop it cold. Some people think it’s a joke. Mine works well – have never used it except on the lowest speed. It doesn’t do dry ingredients (like toasting nuts) or frying onions as it just pushes the items out to the edges of the pan. It must have liquid to help it move the contents. It does require a pan with a sufficient flat surface AND the cooktop needs to be level. If it’s not level, the device will simply gravitate to the lowest spot and sit there, still jittering, but it won’t migrate around the pan as it’s designed to do. My dear hubby (DH) did level my range for me last year. I didn’t realize how “off” it was. I made this pudding in a pan with rounded edges – mine is a Caphalon nonstick pan – a saucier pan that Caphalon doesn’t make anymore, but a similar one would work because it has a gently rounded bottom edge – a Calphalon Unison Nonstick 4-Quart Pot with Lid. The key is the sloping edge – you don’t want a squared-off 90° angle as it’s very difficult to stir that corner (whether you’re using a stirring device or an ordinary spoon) and keep the pudding from burning. Or if you’re making a sauce, or a creamy soup. This particular pot is called a soup pot.

Okay, so here’s how you make it – you combine the whole milk, some of the cream, sugar (and not very much of it), some of the vanilla and Arborio rice (a short grain rice, which works best for rice pudding – you can also use sushi rice). Once you bring it to a simmer, reduce the heat and simmer very slowly, stirring very frequently, for about 30 minutes. At this point start tasting the rice – it still wants to have a little tiny bit of bite (toothsome-ness, I call it). Continue simmering until it’s just barely done. Remove, allow to cool, stirring it every so often so a skin doesn’t form on the top (or put a piece of plastic wrap directly down on the surface), and you add a little bit more cream and more vanilla. Done. Once cool you can put it into ramekins, or just store in a plastic container and dish out what you want later. I found that the pudding was still very VERY loose once I took it off the heat, but I was assured in the recipe that it would firm up. Yes, indeed it did! In fact, when I went to serve it, I needed to add milk to it to kind of thin it a bit. It was amply thick at that point.

In most respects, this pudding is made like a risotto, except you start off with all the liquid in the pan at the beginning rather than adding it now and then. It’s EASY to make – although you do have to keep your eye on it. I made this as part of a dinner we took to our pastor and his family since he’s recently had surgery. But I made a double batch and kept a little bit of it for ourselves. What a treat.

What’s good: every single solitary thing about it. A must make – if you like puddings, and especially rice pudding! The vanilla flavor predominates (in a very good way).

What’s not: well, it does take some patience and hovering (unless you have one of the stirring devices). I’ll definitely be making this again!

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Fans of bread pudding will stand up and cheer, especially if you/they like pumpkin. The bread pudding is VERY easy to make – truly – although it does need to rest overnight before baking.

This recipe had been in my to-try file for several years. It came from Diane Phillip’s cookbook, Happy Holidays from the Diva of Do-Ahead: A Year of Feasts to Celebrate With Family And Friends. I own one of her cookbooks, but not this one – I think I found it at my local library and had made photocopies of recipes that sounded right down my alley. This was one. I needed a dessert that could be made ahead. Yes, you can mix it up ahead – and make the sauce that goes with it ahead too – but you do need to bake it somewhere close to serving time. I baked it a few hours ahead and then kept it heated in a very very low oven for an hour. The sauce I made the day before, which was good, as it said it will keep chilled in the refrigerator for up to 72 hours ahead. Diane Phillips is a master of the do-ahead meal. She and Phillis Carey teach a duo class at least once a year, near Christmastime.

The only problematical ingredient in making this is challah. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find it at any of my local markets, but was surprised to find Trader Joe’s has it. I will say, however, that their challah is very dense. I expected it to be lighter in texture, but it was not at all. If you can’t find challah, you could use King’s Hawaiian Bread instead – it’s a spongy, eggy bread, but it’s also very sweet, so I would reduce the sugar some in the recipe – by about a third is a guess. The bread gets torn up into a bunch of small pieces, bite-sized is best. Then you mix up the pumpkin stuff – eggs, brown sugar, canned pumpkin, cream and lots of good spices and it’s mixed into the bread. Stir it around a bunch, then pour it all into a 9×13 pan (I would use glass or nonstick, not metal), press any bread pieces down into the liquidy mixture (there won’t be much), cover and chill for at least 12 hours (or up to 72). You do have to bring it back to room temp (about an hour) before baking. Keep it covered and bake for 35-40 minutes.

IMPORTANT: I’ve included notes in the recipe below about the bread – if the challah is very dense, you may need more of the pumpkin mixture to soak into the bread – increase those ingredients some to compensate. You want the bread pudding to have ample gooey-ness and it won’t if the bread is dense or dry.

Ideally, serve this warm. I baked it a few hours ahead and just reheated it in a 175° oven for about 30 minutes before serving. Whatever you do, don’t let it dry out.

What absolutely MAKES this dessert is the sauce. It’s not hard to make, but it does take a bit of time to do. It’s 3 parts whole milk and 1 part cream, so it’s not all that bad in the fat department. You steep the milk with crystallized ginger pieces and the zest of an orange. Those are strained out, then you make the sauce part with egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and some orange liqueur and cream added in at the end. BE SURE to strain the sauce at the end as you’ll invariably get some egg white solids in there, and it’s not so fun finding those in your super-smooth pudding or sauce when you serve it! I prepared it the day before, which made for easy reheating. Actually I warmed the sauce on the stove – watching it carefully so it wouldn’t burn, then I placed the saucepan right in the 175°oven with the bread pudding I warmed.

I had ample sauce left over – because people didn’t take enough of the sauce when they served themselves – but I found this sauce is absolutely wonderful as a pudding! I gave some to a friend and we had some of it a few days later. It’s not totally firm like most puddings, it’s looser, but you can see in the photo above, it’s still almost pudding consistency. If you want to make this AS a pudding, reduce the milk quantity down to 2 1/2 cups rather than 3.

What’s good: the sauce is the best part, but I like pumpkin anything, so I enjoyed that too. I liked making this because most of the work is done ahead of time.
What’s not: really nothing. I’d make this again – but I would increase the pumpkin and egg mixture so it’s more gooey. That’s it.

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Oh gosh, was this cake ever good. And lick-your-lips tasty. And easy! And, and, and. All the superlatives you want to use. Chocolatey, yes. Light in texture, yes. Can I repeat the “easy” word?

At the cooking class a few weeks ago with Phillis Carey, she did 4 soups and a dessert. She always says that people (us, the students) complain if she doesn’t make dessert. Well, I’m so glad she did make dessert, because this recipe is a real winner. I think Phillis has shared this recipe before – probably before I started writing a blog, because it seemed very familiar when she made it and served it. It’s all mixed up in a bowl, baked a short period of time, really, and while it’s baking you make the frosting which needs to be poured onto the warm (not hot) cake and allowed to cool for at least 30 minutes. The frosting begins to set up almost immediately. Oh, it was SO good!

There’s only one really big “condition” about making this – you need a 10×15 sheet pan (jelly roll pan with a 1-inch height). It’s got to be a 10×15. You could make it in a 9×13 cake pan, but it will be a thicker cake and require longer baking. I suppose that would work. I actually ordered the cake pan Phillis used – a Parrish Magic Line 10 x 15 x 1 Inch Jelly Roll/Cookie Sheet. She brought the pan from home because most cooking schools don’t have this cake pan size! Don’t get confused with the pans – the company (and amazon, at the link above) also sells a 10×15 deeper 2-inch cake pan too (which probably would work), but this recipe just plain works perfectly in the 10×15. The pan has a flat side lip on the edges – a flat edge that makes for easy grabbing right out of the oven. NOTE: when you click to the actual pan through the link above, it SAYS it’s an 11×15 pan – and if you measure it edge to edge, it is 11×15, but the interior is 10 inches. And make sure you get the one with the 1-inch depth – they also have a cookie sheet (no edges). Read the description carefully.

So, now, back to the cake. You melt butter, coffee, cocoa powder and oil and add it to the dry ingredients with some buttermilk and eggs. Just whisk well and pour into the greased or sprayed cake pan. It bakes for about 18-20 minutes. During the last few minutes before the cake comes out of the oven make the frosting: cook milk, butter and cocoa, add powdered sugar and vanilla. It can sit for about 10 minutes, so in that interim the cake will be cooling and then you pour the frosting over the still-warm cake, spread and sprinkle on the pecans. Allow to cool. See, I said it was easy!

What’s good: gosh, the cake was so full of chocolate flavor. The coffee or espresso you add to it isn’t discernible, but the food scientists say coffee brings out the best in chocolate. And the frosting is delicious – not too thick and not too sweet. Just right.

What’s not: really, nothing. It’s so easy. Make it!

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Smooth lemon deliciousness in a soft, smooth mousse. Perfect as a light dessert (well, it’s not really light in calories or fat, but light in texture). Our Meyer lemon trees are still producing and I look for any opportunity to use the wonderful sweet juice.

We had friends over for dinner and I needed a dessert, but this was just before Christmas, and every direction I headed my car there was traffic and congestion. Both in and out of stores. So I used ingredients I had on hand – my wonderful Meyer lemons that were beginning to wither on my kitchen counter, some whipping cream, sugar, zest, eggs, butter and a little tiny bit of gelatin.

First you soften the gelatin – that takes about 10 minutes or so. Then I made the lemon curd – I haven’t compared this recipe with my regular favorite lemon curd, but it’s all the same process. The proportion of juice to sugar is important and this one was spot on. Once that mixture thickens, you cool it, then you add the whipped cream (unsweetened) and pour it into serving dishes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. I made them the day ahead. I’m sure they’d keep even a couple of days without a problem. From the whipped cream I made, I removed just enough to put a soft dollop on the top of each.

The recipe came from a wonderful little lemon cookbook, Luscious Lemon Desserts by Lori Longbotham. I’ve made several things from this cookbook and have been pleased with each one. If you have a lemon tree, you likely need some kind of lemon cookbook. I’m always on the look-out for new uses for lemon juice or zest.

Everyone thought this was very tasty. Me included. The recipe was for 4 servings, but I just divided it amongst 5 dishes and I think the portion was just fine. It IS rich. The texture is really nice – the gelatin makes certain it firms up. If you were to make this just ahead of serving, you probably wouldn’t need to stabilize it with gelatin, but it’s not difficult or time consuming to add in that step.

What’s good: the taste, first and foremost. As I mentioned above, I liked the ratio of sweet and tart in this. I love-love lemon anyway, so it was a no-brainer that I’d like this. My cousin Gary was visiting – some of you may remember reading about his gluten intolerance (actually just wheat) so I always seek out recipes that are adaptable to his allergy. This one was easy. If you wanted to fancy-it-up, add a little graham cracker crumb mixture on the bottom. That would also add a nice texture change to this. Definitely a make again recipe. I added just a tiny sprinkle of freshly grated nutmeg on top (not in the recipe).
What’s not: you do have to plan ahead – it needs a few hours of chilling time to firm up. And fresh (real) lemons are a must here. No concentrate, please!

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Do you read foodgal? It’s a great food blog by Carolyn Jung. She lives in the Bay Area, and often writes about restaurants and foodie activities in her region. And she regularly shares recipes too. She’s a food journalist in her own right, so she must get sent dozens of cookbooks for review. I assume that’s how foodgal acquired this recipe, from Pastry Chef Joanne Chang, who owns Flour Bakery + Cafe in Boston. Apparently there, this cake is a top-seller. The recipe is from her cookbook, Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe.  And the first time I made it I stuck to the recipe exactly. But in thinking about it I decided to change a few things. I added more spices (just more quantity, not different ones) and I reduced the sugar, as I thought the original was just a bit over the top. It was good – it was excellent, in fact – but too sweet for me that first time. So I changed it.

It’s only been in recent years that I’ve read any recipes that call a cake a “snacking” cake. Now, my idea of such a thing is something you’d make on a blustery fall afternoon and it would be ready for your 5 children when they tumble in the door with snow flurries around them. And the cake would be something sturdy and easily picked up in hand and gobbled down with a glass of cold milk. But maybe a snacking cake just means it doesn’t have frosting. Does anybody know? Do enlighten me if you do!

The description of this cake hooked me, though. It’s loaded – and I mean loaded – with minced-up apple (Granny Smiths). And it has some fragrant spices added, some golden raisins and nuts. As I explained I made this cake twice in 3 days. The first time to test it, the second time with my changes and it went to a dinner party. The first time it was made with walnuts, and the 2nd time (with a few tweaks) with toasted pecans. Both were good. We were going to a potluck gourmet dinner with friends (a new group we’re in), and I’d chosen to make dessert. Since it’s certainly apple season, I’d already decided I’d make something with them. I just didn’t know what. But spotting this recipe, and reading the headnote that said this was hereby the very last apple dessert recipe foodgal was ever going to use forevermore, that got my attention.

The first time I made it with Truvia mixed half/half with sugar so my DH could have some. He loved it. And I did too. But the next time I reduced the sugar and I used pecans (and I toasted them).  It was still plenty sweet. So the recipe below is my slightly adaptation of the original recipe. I served it with maple syrup-sweetened whipped cream (see photo below) for the dinner. I just drizzled heavy cream over each slice on the first one (see left photo).

What’s good: the wonderfully fragrant spices mixed in with the multitude of apples and a little bit of the cake part. If you like more cake then you might not like this recipe. It’s mostly apple with some of the cake batter to hold it together. It definitely IS a cake, but it’s just loaded with apples. It was best with the honey-sweetened whipped cream. We also ate it with heavy cream drizzled over it too.
What’s not: really nothing at all – it was a delicious cake. It’s not difficult to make, though you do have to peel and finely chop several apples. And that has to be done JUST before you add it to the batter because otherwise the apples will turn brown. Have everything all ready – the oven at temp, the cake batter ready to go, then cut the apples and finish making the batter. And as for the superlative about it being the best and last cake foodgal will ever make, I don’t think I’ll attach the word to this. It’s really good, but the Teddie’s Apple Cake is by far my favorite apple cake. And my Mom’s Crisp Apple Pudding is my all-time apple crisp type dessert.

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If beauty were the only thing needed in a cake, this one would be a winner in my book. Pretty! Carefully drizzled with icing that puddles on the cake stand. Lots of light and dark contrast in the photo. From a blogging point of view, yes, the picture is a good one! And actually, from an eating point of view, it’s tasty also. Not off the charts (because it’s from a boxed mix), but certainly good enough. It was for a church event. I did something a little bad – I cut the cake into about 20 slices, and cut one itty-bitty shred for myself and gently mushed the cake together. I needed to taste it, right? Quality control, for sure!

I’m not going to write up much about this cake – it’s fairly self explanatory – a boxed yellow cake mix, a box of instant lemon pudding, some oil, water, 4 eggs and into a greased and floured bundt cake pan it went. Once baked and cooled, I mixed up some lemon juice with powdered sugar and when it was thick enough I drizzled it on top. Just after I took that photo I sliced up the whole cake – here’s a picture of the interior. I removed 2 slices just to take the photo, then cut my itty-bitty see-through shred to taste and re-formed the cake on two heavy-duty paper plates.

How did it taste? Like a light, lemony cake from a mix. I do have another lemon cake on my blog that my friend Joan made – if you click on that link, you’ll find an Ina Garten recipe that was sensational some years ago. But also here on my blog I have a Yellow Cake with Fudge Frosting, a wonderful made-from-scratch yellow cake – it’s breathtakingly tender – like a cake mix, but it isn’t. It’s from scratch. Both of those are delish. But in this case I was in a hurry to make something – mostly to be eaten by children, so they wouldn’t know whether it was a mix or home made, so I opted to go quick and easy. And it was.

What I liked: obviously –  it was easy to make. I had a yellow cake mix in my pantry, and the box of lemon instant pudding. Even the icing was simple. And it had delightfully lemony flavor. It would be nice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, for sure.
What I didn’t like: nothing, really. It’s a cake-mix cake enhanced with lemon. Perfect for what I needed.

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I’m remiss in not posting this recipe a couple of months ago. I got permission to post it here on my blog, but then we went away on vacation and I forgot to post this last recipe. Not a good thing since this cake is such a winner.

For whatever reason, I don’t think much about making desserts with blueberries. Usually I’m not so fond of them in cooked form – I prefer them raw on my morning Greek yogurt. But then I was served this cake and I fell in love with blueberry cake. Ah, but it has to have the nutmeg in it. It would be nowhere near as interesting without the freshly grated nutmeg!

You may recall that some months ago (last May, actually) we attended a dinner in the backyard of some (now) friends who live a mile or so away from us. We met Cheryl Sternman Rule, a professional food writer and developer from the Bay Area (who writes her own blog, 5 Second Rule) and we and 20+ other people had a delicious 5-course meal from Cheryl’s new cookbook called Ripe: A Fresh, Colorful Approach to Fruits and Vegetables. This was the finale of the dinner and I was all over it. So soft and tender a cake and the subtle flavors. If you like blueberries – and nutmeg – you’ll like it too. Easy to make for sure. The blueberries kind of sink down into the batter during the baking process – it’s not frosting or an icing there – but it makes for a really pretty appearance, I think.

Recipe reprinted with permission from RIPE © 2012 by Cheryl Sternman Rule, Running Press, a member of the Perseus Book Group. Cookbook photography © 2012 by Paulette Phlipot.

What I liked: the almost sponge-cake texture – soft and luscious. Easy to make too. The blueberries stand out for sure – and oh, the nutmeg. Of course I love nutmeg, so naturally I’d like this.
What I didn’t like: nothing whatsoever. A definite make again cake.

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If you’re most of my readers, you probably don’t have wattleseed in your spice pantry. If that’s the case, and you don’t really want to buy any (from Australia) then you may want to breeze on by this recipe. If you’re intrigued, you may want to look at my previous post about wattleseed, incorporated in the recipe for wattleseed ice cream – my favorite (to date) wattleseed recipe.

Have you ever made something – in this case baked something – and it was good, but not the “best,” so you gave it away, or even tipped it into the trash? Sometimes it’s just that whatever it was didn’t appeal to you the next day – I’ve had that happen often enough. Like left overs! When I made this cake, I also made the wattleseed ice cream along with it. The ice cream was the star of the show. No question! I was bereft when the quart of wattleseed ice cream was gone. In the meantime I’ve restocked my wattleseed supply. That, in itself is another story – an acquaintance at a local herb and spice store had an employee who was visiting Australia – one thing led to another and I ordered wattleseed from Vic Chericoff, had it shipped to where this employee was staying and she brought it home in her suitcase! I gave her a Starbucks card as a thank you. Yippee. I now have enough wattleseed to make another 3-4 batches of ice cream. There’s a lesson here – if anyone you know is going to Australia make arrangements to have them bring you some! I bought it when I was in Australia 2 years ago, but I only bought a little bit. Definitely not enough!

The cake recipe. Well, I found it on a website that also (it just happens) sells wattleseed and some other indigenous Australian products. And a wattleseed cookbook. And has a group of wattleseed recipes too. The cake looked interesting – I like Bundt cakes. I had an orange and a lemon, so I put it together and baked it up in a flash. The batter is divided in half – half gets wattleseed – the other half gets orange/lemon flavorings. You swirl it around in the pan a bit and that’s what you get. The above photo shows the top before I’d swirled it. The one at right shows it after I’d used a knife to swirl the batter.

So, to get back to this cake story . . . after making the cake I was hoping the wattleseed would be just permeate the flavor. It didn’t. What I tasted was the orange and lemon in it. Hmmm. Not what I had in mind. We had it that night, and I think my DH and I had a piece the next night. By the following day it didn’t appeal to me at all, so without asking my DH I threw it out. My hubby doesn’t eat much sweets, so I never thought for a minute he would miss it. Oh yessiree, he did! Went hunting for it a day or so later. Therefore, I made a couple of minor flavor changes to this recipe – toning down the orange (I only added lemon because I didn’t have enough with just one orange) and lemon. Use small ones so the zest doesn’t overpower the cake. That’s all. And definitely don’t over bake it – I think I did and it was a bit on the dry side. I prefer moist cakes. My DH I guess likes cakes drier than I do!

What I liked: well, that here’s another way to use wattleseed. I don’t have a big inventory of recipes for it (yet), although if you click on the link up above you’ll find several, mostly desserts. Just remember that wattleseed is subtle. You don’t want to use a lot of it (it’s precious, remember, for a Californian since it ships from Australia!) in any case. I’ll watch the baking time very carefully next time.
What I didn’t like: that the wattleseed flavor wasn’t the predominant flavor. But it was still nice anyway. A kind of a white spice cake. See what you think and let me know!

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