Yesterday was the birthday of one of my DH’s friends, Wayne. The “boys” came to our house for Bible study, so DH had asked me to make something special for Wayne. Not a coffee cake, like usual, since they meet at 7:00 am every Thursday. He wanted something that would stand in for a traditional birthday cake.It just so happened that I used a gift certificate I had from Williams-Sonoma a week or so ago and ordered a pumpkin cake mold. It’s just so darned CUTE! The mold comes with a recipe. Good thing, since I wasn’t sure what volume of cake would fill the mold to the correct height.

If you haven’t already noticed, I don’t go in for the frou-frou desserts. I rarely make a layer cake or frosting, etc. 9×13 pans are usually just fine for me. I’m more into the taste rather than the appearance. Some bakers prefer the latter. Go for it, I say. So it’s a bit unusual for me to do something like this cake mold. But it wasn’t all that hard. The cake recipe was wonderful, I must say. Lots of fragrant fall spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, etc. And very moist, which I like. The standout in this recipe is the crystallized ginger. I’m a fan of ginger, period. But chrystallized just adds a wonderful zing to baked goods. There was a chunk of it left on the cake plate this morning. It went immediately into my mouth. Yum.

Certainly this mold will be a seasonal item for William-Sonoma, so if you’re interested you might want to check it out soon. It’s only available for internet ordering here. $32.00 plus shipping, of course. Here’s what the mold looks like (right). It’s hard metal, in case you thought it was silicone.

Once the cakes are baked, they sit in the molds for 15 minutes, then you remove them to cool for awhile. Here’s a photo of the two halves. What’s interesting is you slice off the tops (because they’re rounded) so the two halves both have a flat side. Then you flop them together and voila, you have a standing pumpkin. I made a frosting (cream cheese type) and mounded it on the top half, and put some in the middle (between the two halves) also to hold the two halves together.
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What? Pound cake and anise? Well, yes. And you need to know that I don’t like licorice. As in licorice candy. Not even one bit. But I like fennel. Which is akin to the anise plant. And I like fennel seed, in moderation, in a few things, like cooked cabbage. And I really like this cake, made with toasted anise seed. Fennel and anise are different plants altogether, although they’re related, like first cousins. They both have licorice overtones; I think the anise has more of it than the fennel.

Probably I mentioned in a previous post that in the late 1980’s I was quite enamored with the cooking of Mark Miller (Coyote Cafe, Santa Fe, New Mexico). He was the first, or one of the first, to introduce “fine cuisine” to the Southwestern food genre. And he was kind of all-over the foodie scene. When I visited the restaurant (in the 80’s) I bought his cookbook, Coyote Cafe. What I found, though, was that most of his dishes are very labor intensive, requiring a sauce for this, a finishing glaze for that, a different marinade, or that most of his dishes needed one or two complicated sides. Everything is made from scratch too, including beans. After making several things, I closed the book and put it on my cookbook shelf, to be opened rarely. But in that interim, I needed a cake for a Southwestern gourmet picnic, and this one fit the bill.

I’ve made this many, many times. It’s a fairly standard pound cake mixture, and the only unusual thing is the toasted anise seed, subsequently ground finely, which is added to the batter. Because it’s toasted seed, it’s mellows out considerably. There’s no harsh licorice flavor, just a little background nuttiness to it. There’s a lot of anise seed in it – four tablespoons – but somehow it doesn’t seem like anywhere near that much. It peppers the batter, though, so you know it’s something different.

A few years ago I altered the recipe – it called for 1 full pound of butter. Somehow that seemed obscene to me to use that much in one cake, even though it served approximately 18 people. The batter is very heavy besides. So, even though I’m not much of an experimenter when it comes to baking (there’s too much science attached), I put in much, much less butter, and I separated the eggs to lighten the batter.

Serve this with some fresh summer fruit – either peaches, apricots, or berries. My favorite is strawberries, sliced thinly. And top with either whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
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Before they’re all gone, I wanted to have just a few more peaches. We didn’t eat them out of hand in the first couple of days, so I decided to try a new recipe for Peach Cobbler. Now, I like cobbler in nearly every form imaginable. Apple probably is my favorite, but lots of other fruits can stand in and make me happy.

But, it was a week or so ago I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, and she wrote up a detailed post about marrying a southern gent, and how she’s collected cobbler recipes for a long time. She liked some things about one recipe, but other things about another. Finally, she found one with the right texture, worked with it and subsequently came up with her own version combining all of the recipes from a bunch of “southern ladies,” she said. With that write-up (kind of like the home kitchen answer to the Cook’s Illustrated treatises on recipes), I had to try it. I don’t think I had quite enough peaches, but she mentioned that the recipe is forgiving that way. I’ve simplified the directions just a little bit and hope I haven’t changed the recipe significantly.

Her blog has an error about the amount of cinnamon (one teaspoon vs. one tablespoon), so I just had to improvise and use my best judgment. She doesn’t have an email address to contact her, and somebody else posted a comment asking about the error, but she hasn’t answered or fixed it yet. So, that’s why I had to just make a management decision. That meant using 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. Which is a lot. Plus, I couldn’t find the pecans in my freezer, so used walnuts instead. Pecans would certainly be more southern, but there are very few nuts in this dessert anyway.

Peabody mentioned that before she married her southern gent, what she knew about peach cobbler was just peaches, some kind of topping, then bake. But this has a kind of cake to it, and the peach slices slide down into it somewhat. I really liked the edges of the cake – a little bit crunchy, then with the smooth, moist cobber and peaches in the middle. I’d suggest each serving get a little bit of the edges (less peaches there).

Now, I must interject here, that I do like cinnamon. A lot, actually. But I’m very particular about what I use. No store bought for me. (You can, this is just picky me who thinks she knows a lot more about cinnamon than the average cook. I really may not know more, but I know what I like and don’t like, that’s all.) I buy my cinnamon from Penzey’s. Have for years. Cassia cinnamon is what you usually find in the grocery stores. But I’ll tell you, Penzey’s cassia is one strong cinnamon. I use their Indonesian Korintje Cassia mostly. A few years ago I bought their Vietnamese cinnamon, which I believe Penzey’s says is the highest quality and the “best.” I didn’t care for it at all. I also have Ceylon cinnamon from Penzey’s too, which has citrus overtones, but is less strong tasting than cassia. In this cobbler I used the Indonesian Korintje Cassia because I knew the cinnamon taste would be a welcome highlight. If cinnamon is going to be a minor flavor, I use the Ceylon. Otherwise, it’s the Korintje type. And because Penzey’s cinnamon is so much stronger tasting than store-bought, I reduced the amount called for in the recipe – by about 1/5 I’d guess. If using regular cinnamon, just use the full tablespoon. Oh, and by the way, Penzey’s does have some stores around the country. Mostly they’re in the northeast, but there’s now a store here in California, in Torrance. Thanks to my friend Cathy for that tidbit. Next time I’m driving that direction I’ll definitely stop in there.

My recovering foot was so tired by the time I got this made I didn’t take time to whip any heavy cream, so I just drizzled it with the heavy cream instead. It was fine. More than fine. Delicious, in fact. I’d make this again, no question.
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We’re on the home stretch with peaches these days. Now is the time to make or freeze any of those peach favorites before it’s too late. I still have some sliced peaches in the freezer from LAST summer that didn’t get made into peach ice cream, as I’d intended, until sometime soon. A couple of weeks ago my friend Cherrie and I attended a cooking class with Tarla Fallgatter. Tarla made mostly tapas, and certainly not traditional ones for sure. But the group always wants a touch of sweet at the end, so Tarla whipped up this very simple dessert. Very homey. Very comfort food. Very peachy.

It’s more cake than it is fruit, and it doesn’t serve out into squares or shapes, so Tarla used a large scoop for it. She had forgotten the vanilla ice cream to serve with it, so we drizzled a bit of half and half on top. I’d recommend the ice cream. You can use any kind of stone fruit for this, but this one was peaches and raspberries. It was still warm, almost hot out of the oven. Delicious.
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My friend Linda T. is a very good cook. We always talk cooking and food and restaurants and all-things-entertaining as part of our conversation. She used to work for the Los Angeles Times (that’s how I knew her through the ad agency I co-owned; she was our outside rep).

Maybe one time I mentioned my tried-and-true carrot cake, and she mentioned hers. Then she brought it recently for a get-together. Oh my goodness, was it ever GOOD. Her recipe is better than mine. Maybe one of these days I need to put her recipe and my recipe side by side and compare them. Hers has considerably more pineapple in it than mine, but that just makes it more moist and delicious. I don’t know the origin of this cake, but I remember first having “carrot cake” in the late 1950’s, or no later than 1960. It was REAL popular back then. Linda, if you’re reading and want to comment on the origin of your recipe, that would be lovely. But, 50+ years later there has been no diminishment of carrot cake’s popularity. And it’s just as good as ever.

Low calorie it is NOT, unfortunately. Delicious it is, though, and I highly recommend you try it. It’s not made in the layer format, but in a 9×13 Pyrex dish. Easier. Just as good as a layer cake in my book. And yes it has a cream cheese frosting too. Nothing so different there, even the proportions, whatever. It’s just gosh-darned good. And not very many recipes serve 16. You want small portions of this and maybe you can stay out of the pan for seconds. If so, you have more discipline than I do.

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(photo taunton.com)

Almost nothing heralds Fall more than gingerbread and pumpkin cake, pie. Cool weather would help too, but alas, here in Southern California we’re in the low 100’s every day. But, back to Fall cooking here. Until I tried this cake, I thought a gingerbread is a gingerbread is a gingerbread. Sure, you could have a more dry one, maybe a moist one, one more highly spiced than another. But I doubt I would have thought a gingerbread could be something I’d really rave about.

Then Cherrie and I went to a cooking class at one of our favorite cooking school haunts, Our House South County, and Sarah made this fabulous cake. It just went right over the top for me. I’ve made it several times since. The apples make it different. I’d just never had apple gingerbread before. But then you add the “caramelized” part of it and it really did shoot through the moon. This cake isn’t hard, although it does take a bit of extra time to cook the apples and make the caramel. What a terrific accompaniment to a tummy warming dinner tied to fall flavors. If you make this, I guarantee you, you’ll have a hard time staying out of it.
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(photo wholefoodsmarket.com)

Maybe I’ll have a photo of this special dessert this summer. But only if I can still find apricots in the market by the time I’m able to walk again.

Several years ago I attended a cooking class taught by Susan Hermann Loomis. She’s an American woman who took a left turn in her life and went to Paris. Attended culinary school, found jobs here and there cooking for wealthy families, met a Frenchman, married, bought a home in Normandy, settled down, had two children, then wrote a cookbook. And opened her home for cooking classes. And no, I didn’t attend a class at her home in Normandy. Maybe one day.

Susan’s a fun personality, and her cooking is quite straightforward. She cooks rustic. Country French. Seasonal. But oh, so delicious. This was the one recipe from her class that I made as soon as it was apricot season. I bought her cookbook and memoir On Rue Tatin and read it cover to cover as soon as I brought it home from the class. It’s not currently in print, but you can find used copies. But, I very much enjoyed her breezy style, and learning more details about her life. I can’t say that I’ve made very many of the dishes (you know, so many cookbooks, so little time, especially with a broken FOOT!), but I loved reading about them. I tagged the book in many places to remind me of the things I want to make.

I don’t cook with apricots very often. They have such a short season, after all. But they’re very much a celebrated fruit in Normandy, the region where Susan lives. She obviously subscribes to the Slow Food movement, using only local and seasonal ingredients. Some apricot varieties cook better than others – if you’re not careful they become mush. But if you have a good source, and they are full of flavor, by all means, this would make a super end to a meal. Be sure to make this in a baking dish that’s got at least 1/2 inch of space once you add all the ingredients, or it may bubble over in your oven. My notes remind me that it’s the topping that makes the dish. Otherwise it would be a fruit with a custard on top, I suppose. But this has a simple eggy topping that adds a piquant taste to it. Goes very well with those perfectly baked apricots.
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Probably most of you have heard and/or made a German Chocolate Cake. You know the kind – two layers with a coconut brown sugar filling and frosting. A very popular cake back in the 70’s, as I recall. This ISN’T one of those cakes. And I don’t know the origin of this. I’ve never seen it in any of the cookbooks that come from the cake mix craze, either years ago and recently.

A family friend gave me this recipe way back then, but bears no resemblance either in taste or appearance to the typical layer cake. Although it IS made with a cake mix. This is baked in a 9×13 pan and requires little more than mixing up the cake mix box. Cake mixes were introduced to the world in the 1960’s or 70’s. What a boon they were to the home cook. And my recollection is that nearly every homemaker was baking all varieties of cakes from the mixes. Back then it was just the standard white, chocolate, German chocolate, and marble. Later came lemon and other mixes for brownies, angel food, etc. And later yet, the ones with pudding inside. So if you can find it, use a German Chocolate mix without any additions to it. Just the plain, regular stuff. But actually, the pudding inside works just fine too.

Back then, it took a year or two before cooks began to come up with variations on cake mixes – not even mixing them up like a cake, but using them as streusel on top of fruit, or combining different ones. And it was a year or two before they introduced the frosting in a can. I never liked that stuff – way too sweet for me and cloying.

So, when my mother’s friend Mary served the cake that day (there were four of us who had a Mah Jong group back then and each time we met, the hostess served lunch and dessert), I just went crazy for this cake. It was light and flavorful, but not overly rich. No frosting. But then I’m a nut when it comes to chocolate anyway. There were some chocolate chips in it and nuts. And this elusive sprinkle on the top. It was so simple – just some cinnamon and sugar.

In years following that, my former husband and I used to go camping in the Colorado mountains (we lived in Denver then) during the summer months. This cake was a staple in the camping or picnic category for me. My daughter Dana has always loved this cake, and she makes it herself now, but for many, many years, growing up, this was her most requested cake for her birthday.

This recipe came to the forefront of my mind this week because my friend Cherrie phoned me a couple of days ago and asked, since they’re going cabin camping this weekend, if I had a different recipe for garlic bread (I do, will post at a later date) and when she mentioned needing something for dessert my mind leaped to this cake. This cake is so EASY, and I’ve yet to have anyone not like it. You can serve it with vanilla ice cream, but it’s not necessary, really.
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My friend Linda emailed me one day just to tell me about this glorious apple cake. With the most unlikely name: Grandgirl’s Fresh Apple Cake from Georgia. Huh? She mentioned it again a few weeks later. We do share recipes all the time, and she’s a good cook. She still works full time, so can’t go to cooking classes much, if at all.

She has the MasterCook software also, and I’ve taught her how to use it, how to capture recipes off the web and easily import them into the software. It’s really quite easy. MasterCook is not expensive software, but it’s a very powerful program that accomplishes nearly everything I need to do to save my recipes. I have over 400 recipes in My Cookbook within MasterCook 9. It has a lot of functions that aren’t exactly “advertised,” but are subtle enhancements the program offers if you learn how to use them. Like scaling recipes. You’re having 10 for dinner and the recipe serves 6? No problem. Two keystrokes and you have the recipe re-sized for 10.One of the things I like the best is the fact that I can create my own custom cookbook design. In other words, I’ve set up a pretty design for all of my recipes. If you have printed out one of the recipes from my blog, the recipe was entered into MasterCook 9, then I converted it to a PDF file (for Adobe Acrobat) so you can print the exact recipe, with picture, in the format I’ve chosen.

I love working with MasterCook. One of its better features is how easy it is the copy and paste a web-based recipe into the program. It takes about 3 keystrokes to get to the import assistant, a small help screen that requires very little to get the recipe into MasterCook. I move a few things around sometimes (the program likes the recipe to be in a certain order), I hit a couple more keystrokes and the recipe is there. Sometimes a photo is available; if so, I import that too. I never forget that adage – a picture speaks a thousand words. Or, I use a fairly new feature called the Web Import Bar which will help you transfer a web recipe into the program. Also very easy.

So back to the fresh apple cake. Last weekend Linda drove up to our house (she lives about 50 miles south of us) on Sunday JUST to fix a wonderful dinner for us. Bless her heart! DH was delighted not to have to cook. I was delighted to finally eat two of Linda’s favorites that I’d not gotten around to trying. Grandgirl’s Apple Cake from Georgia was one of them. We’re still eating off the cake 5 days later. It’s SO SO good.

The recipe came from Paula Deen, and unfortunately it’s no longer available online at the food network, but you can find it at a couple of other sites if you do a search on the web for the title. It doesn’t need any changes or embellishments. It’s perfect just the way it is. It’s a dense, nutty cake. Just overflowing with apple flavor. And once the cake is baked, you pour over it this luscious buttermilk sauce that takes a bit of time to soak in. Please try this recipe. It doesn’t need anything to serve with it, but it’s good with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or even a drizzle of heavy cream too. So, thanks Linda, for another winning recipe.
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I would be ever so negligent if I didn’t post one of my favorite recipes, my mother’s Crisp Apple Pudding. I’ve been making this for as long as I’ve been cooking (that began in 1962). It was written out in my mother’s small recipe journal, something she began when SHE got married in the 1930’s, a recipe from her mother. And she passed this recipe on to me when I got married. My mother is gone now. Bless her heart. I loved her so much. But she lives on in this recipe for sure. I think of her every time I fix this.

I believe – but I’m not sure – that this recipe came from a vintage (probably 1930’s version) Betty Crocker Cookbook. Or maybe it was a Better Homes & Gardens. Did they publish cookbooks back in the 1930’s? I think one time in a used book store I saw a very old, stained copy of one of those books and glanced in it, and sure enough, it looked like this recipe. It has one very unique technique that I’ve not seen in any recipes I’ve studied. Even today. I did a search just now, and after looking at probably 40-50 apple crisp recipes, with variations of toppings (this one has no oatmeal or brown sugar in it), not a single one of them sprinkles the flour/sugar topping with water. That’s what gives this apple dessert its crispness, a different texture for sure. I love it – of course, it’s what I grew up having when my mother made this, so it’s what I think is the “right” kind of apple crisp. Note that this dessert has a whopping 5 grams of fat per serving.

One year either Bon Appetit or Gourmet did a very in-depth article about crisps, buckles, pandowdies and slumps. They are all similar, but not quite the same. And this technique was not in there, either. I even wrote a letter to the writer of that article about it. Never heard from her. Oh well. Her loss!

So, here is my mother’s recipe: Sliced apples, piled into a 8×8 Pyrex or metal baking dish, with a floury-egg-sugar based crumbly topping, dotted with a little butter, and sprinkled with cinnamon and a bit more sugar. THEN, it’s sprinkled with water to give that topping an honest-to-goodness crust. Once baked the topping melds together into a crust, and rises a little bit since it has baking powder in it. Allow to cool about an hour, then serve with warm cream or whipped cream. Ice cream is okay too, but whipped cream is better, I think. I’ve cut down a little on the sugar – I think originally it called for 1 cup, so if you like it sweeter, go ahead and add the full amount. And I hate to say this, but in a pinch, this is marvelous for breakfast.
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