Cakes and Tea

​In searching for a cake to feature for spring, I realized I usually don't make a big cake for our Easter holiday. For the past 39 years, my girlfriends and I have had festive Easter breakfast gatherings where cake isn't necessarily on the menu. Though the menu has slight changes from year to year, there are always lots of favorite “bready products,” as Suzi would say, just not typically cake. Probably because I am a baker who cooks, rather than a cook who bakes, when I'm cooking a meal, I am not focused on a fabulous cake for dessert. When cake baking, I want all my attention on the cake, not stuck in between salad, chops, and veggies. I like to have a fruit dessert, if I'm the dinner and dessert cook. A cobbler, pie, or shortcake gets the job done.

​A few years ago, Suzi found a small cake recipe which is insanely good and perfect for Easter. Golden Eggs are cakelets baked in egg-shaped pans or muffin pans. It is a rich butter cake which is then brushed with butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar, making them taste like the best doughnut you’ve ever had. The recipe is by a talented baker named Gesine Bullock-Prado and is from her fabulous cookbook, Confessions of a Closet Master Baker. Besides being an excellent baker and witty writer, she was the media lawyer for her sister, the actress Sandra Bullock and she writes entertainingly about her time in that world and her escape to baking. She has since written many cookbooks and now has a television show, Baked in Vermont. I cannot recommend these delicious cakes highly enough; as Gesine says, they are really magical as well as almost addictive. Find the recipe here on myteaplanner.com: Easter Tea Menu
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As to those bready products, a few make the menu most years, and several others show up frequently. Orangey French Bread Custard is probably the star of Easter breakfast, closely followed by my Hot Cross Buns. The Hot Cross Bun recipe is on our website: Easter Tea Menu. French Bread Custard is a delicious and highly adaptable baked French toast casserole which came from the Four Sisters Inns. My girlfriends and I grew up in Watsonville, an agricultural town on the California coast between Santa Cruz and Monterey. Many of us worked in the hospitality industry in gorgeous Monterey County as chefs, caterers or inn managers. I served the luscious French Bread Custard at the Gosby Inn and the Green Gables Inn in Pacific Grove, the Cobblestone Inn in Carmel and had it served to me when we stayed at the White Swan in San Francisco and the Maison Fleurie in Yountville. The breakfasts at Four Sisters Inns are as high in quality as the properties are well-appointed and beautifully run. Do treat yourself to a stay in one of their luxurious inns when looking for a getaway in California, Hawaii, or Puerta Vallarta.  See the collection of inns here: www.foursisters.com

​Back to breakfast, and its more glamorous sister, brunch. We always called it breakfast but it was really brunch, with fancier egg preparations, all manner of bready products, morning meats, and mimosas of all stripes. After we added Tiffany to the family, we always had plenty of the best Driscoll’s berries, made into fruit salad, dropped into mimosas, and decorating everything in sight! Tiffany’s family owns a berry farm in Watsonville and sells their produce to Driscoll’s to be shipped all over the world. The first Easter breakfast, when we were fifteen, was at my parent's house, using the pastel plates and mugs from our picnic basket. I chose breakfast for our party because Suzi was already working at age 15, and her shift at Thrifty’s was from 1:30 to 10:30pm. I know I prepared all the food, but besides hot cross buns, I have no idea what I made. Each Easter breakfast since then has been a shared cooking event, hostessed by various gals, a collaborative effort. The locations changed from one girlfriend's house to another and has come over time to include the children of those then teenaged girls.

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​A celebration in spring to welcome the return to green seems as old as the world. Who can resist lilies and tulips, freesia and daffodils? Add in bunnies and eggs, resurrection and renewal and you’ve got a lovely reason to celebrate. With spring pastels always the palette of the Easter breakfast parties, we held the feasts at kitchen tables, picnic tables, and in back yards around our green valley. We all decorated, cooked, and baked with spring joy and abundance in mind. And we had lots and lots of fun along the way!

French Bread Custard
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​This recipe is highly adaptable, and I confess I haven’t measured the ingredients for twenty years and it always comes out perfectly. I almost always put in the orange ingredients, but you can easily leave them out and it tastes lovely with just vanilla and a little spice. Feel free to pass maple syrup or a berry syrup and or a nice pourable custard sauce, such as crème anglais. The casserole can be assembled the night before with good results though it might need a few additional minutes of baking and will be a slightly firmer texture.

• 1 loaf French bread, cut into 1” slices
• 2 ounces melted butter
• 6 eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 4 cups half and half or any combination of whole milk and cream (This is not a low fat recipe; please don’t be tempted to use low fat milk.)
• The grated zest and juice of one orange
• 2 tablespoons orange flavored liqueur
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg or ground mace
• Powdered sugar for garnish

Special equipment: 13” by 9” glass or ceramic baking pan, sprayed with pan spray or greased with butter, pastry brush, large mixing bowl, whisk, sieve or sifter for powdered sugar
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Preheat oven to 350˚F

​Serves 12 as part of a party buffet or 6 to 8 hungry teenaged girls

1. Brush both sides of the bread slices with melted butter. Arrange in the prepared pan.
2. In large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, half and half, zest, juice, liqueur, and vanilla. Slowly pour mixture over bread, making sure all bread is moistened. Sprinkle nutmeg or mace over top.
3. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until golden and puffy and a table knife inserted into center of custard tests almost clean. Let rest 10 minutes before serving. Sieve powdered sugar over top just before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature. Refrigerate leftovers covered for up to three days.

Lightened Up Deviled Eggs
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These deviled eggs are a lower fat version of the classic recipe. Garnish with slices of pickled okra, tiny dill or sweet pickles, dill weed, bacon crumbles, Italian parsley, flying fish roe, olives, or sprinkles of paprika, curry powder, and or dill, whatever strikes your fancy. The recipe is easily doubled or tripled for a crowd.

• 6 hard-boiled eggs, cooled and peeled
• ¼ cup nonfat Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons dill pickle relish
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• ½ teaspoon dry mustard (I like Coleman’s best.)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne or white pepper

Special equipment: sharp knife, medium bowl, deviled egg plate or platter lined with fresh greens, potato masher, fork, silicone spatula, piping bag or zip-top bag
Makes 12

1. Cut eggs in half and place yolks in medium bowl. Place whites on egg plate or prepared platter, set aside. Mash yolks with masher or fork until evenly broken down and as smooth as possible. With fork, stir in yogurt, relish, vinegar, dry mustard, salt, and pepper. Stir until smooth.
2. Scrape yolk mixture into piping bag or zip-top bag. (If using zip-top bag, snip about ½” off one corner.) Pipe into egg whites.
3. To serve immediately, garnish as desired and serve. To make in advance, cover lightly with plastic wrap and chill up to one day. Garnish just before serving. Chill any leftovers promptly and use within two days.

To misquote Henry James, “Chocolate cake—chocolate cake; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” Perhaps a slight overstatement but essentially correct for our purposes. As I’ve said before, if you imagine a prototypical birthday cake, it’s most likely chocolate, and in my imagination, has pink frosting.

A good chocolate cake transports you to another realm, makes you temporarily forget your current surroundings and situation. You can see it on the faces of those eaters lucky enough to be forking morsels of good chocolate cake into their mouths. I’m not necessarily talking about dedicated chocoholics, many of whom will be as happy with a Snickers bar as a slice of chocolate cake. I’m imagining a high quality chocolate cake so delicious it almost surprises the unsuspecting with the breadth of its succulence. How it can seem to reach past your taste buds deep into your very soul. Eyes closed, face a reflection of almost Edenic bliss, time slowed to savor this bite of cake, so very, very chocolate.

Then there are dry, cardboard-tasting cakes from the supermarket bakery who only share a passing acquaintance with any cocoa powder or low quality chocolate. The dark-colored cakes sporting vile drifts of oily shortening frosting garishly decorated with air-brushed day-glow roses masquerading as a chocolate cake: eek! These are not the stuff dreams are made of.

We begin with a good recipe, good ingredients, good intentions, moral fortitude. Decent cake pans, no less. I digress. The recipe is the thing we are discussing here.
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My first favorite chocolate cake recipe was from a little paperback cookbook by Peg Bracken called, The I Hate to Cook Book. As the title suggests, most of the book deals with ways to not cook anything, especially desserts. The chapter dealing with the after dinner portion of a meal is called something like, “Dessert, or people are too fat anyway.” As an eight-year old, I found this hilarious, amplified by the accompanying charming illustrations of Hilary Knight, the same talented gal who illustrated the Eloise at the Plaza books. After suggesting many droll ways to avoid making dessert, Ms. Bracken grudgingly gives one all-purpose cake recipe, to be used if all else fails. It is a chocolate cake, of course. It is eggless and butter-less, making it appropriate for vegans though they probably weren’t invented at the time Peg Bracken was writing the book. The cake is sometimes called a “dump” cake because you dump all the ingredients into one bowl and just beat them together. It has also been know as “wacky” cake (how wacky that you just beat everything together!) or “war” cake (eggs and butter are scarce in war time.) Technically, the absence of eggs and butter makes the cake very light and the addition of oil makes it moist. The trade offs are a less dense chocolate experience, a slight chemical taste from the baking soda-vinegar leavening, and a shorter shelf life than a traditional butter cake. As it makes a snack-sized 8-inch cake, the keeping quality is rarely a problem. It is a delicious, if light, chocolate cake. I’ve made it hundreds of times, served it to many people, in guises from a chocolate trifle to a layer cake to plain old unadorned cake, eaten warm, right out of the pan. The book has been reissued in a 50th anniversary edition, and I highly recommend you click over to Amazon and pick up a copy.

This is a famous recipe, I believe, but I haven’t the faintest idea who invented it. I saw it in a newspaper years ago, meant to clip it, didn’t, and finally bumped into the cake itself in the apartment of a friend of mine. It was dark, rich, moist, chocolatey, and she said it took no more than five minutes to mix it up. So I tried it, and, oddly enough, mine, too, was dark, rich, moist, chocolatey. My own timing was five and a half minutes, but that includes hunting for the vinegar.

• 1 ½ cups sifted flour
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup cold water*

Put your sifted flour back into the sifter, add to it the cocoa, baking soda, sugar, and salt, and sift this right into a greased square pan, about 9 x 9 x 2 inches. Now you make three grooves, or holes, in this dry mixture. Into one, pour the oil; into the next, the vinegar; into the next, the vanilla. Now pour the cold water over it all. You’ll feel like you’re making mud pies now, but beat it with a spoon until it’s nearly smooth and you can’t see the flour. Bake it at 350˚for half an hour.

Eventually, though, I wanted a denser, more chocolatey chocolate cake. In the dark pre-internet times of the 1970’s, outside of cookbooks, ladies' magazines were the leading source of new recipes. I clipped many a recipe from Good Housekeeping, Sunset Magazine, and Ladies’ Home Journal. Recipes came from articles and also from the advertisers. A craze for chocolate cakes made with mayonnaise grew out of a successful Best Food’s mayonnaise ad campaign. Though sounding odd, there’s actual science behind mayonnaise use in a chocolate cake. Mayo is made up of eggs, fat, and acid, such as vinegar, all components found in cake. American kitchens of that time stocked a quart jar of mayonnaise as a matter of course, so even if you were out of eggs or butter, you could still produce a good chocolate cake. It was my go-to recipe for cake for many years. Here is a version from All Recipes website:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/7423/mayonnaise-cake-i/

But time marches on and we don’t stock such large jars of mayonnaise in the fridge and we generally do keep eggs and butter in the house at all times. This led me to my current favorite dark chocolate cake recipe which I’ve been using for twenty years now. I have to confess I was immediately attracted to the full-page advertisement for the recipe in a 1998 copy of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The recipe is recipe file card size, against a backdrop photograph of a very much enlarged slice of the frosted layer cake: stunning! It’s such a great ad, I never did cut out the recipe and glue it to a recipe card; I just kept the whole magazine page.

​A TEA ROOM REVIEW
© www.myteaplanner.com
BY: KATHLEEN

FIRST IMPRESSION, EXTERIOR PARKING:
GLENDEVEN INN IS LOCATED RIGHT OFF A SPECTACULAR SECTION OF hIGHWAY ONE ON THE NORTHERN CALIFORNA COAST AND COULD NOT BE MORE ENTICING, WITH ITS PRISTINE 1867 CLAPBOARD FARMHOUSE AND SOFTLY WEATHERED WINE BARN SEEN DIRECTLY FROM THE DRIVEWAY. IT SITS ON EIGHT LUSHLY LANDSCAPED ACRES, INCLUDING A LLAMA PASTURE WHICH OVERLOOKS BREATHTAKING SEA VIEWS.

WELCOME, DECOR, AMBIENCE:
WE WANDERED INTO THE WINE BARN AND CHECKED IN WITH THE HOSTESS. SHE LED US TO THE FARMHOUSE WHERE A TEA TABLE WAS LAID FOR US IN FRONT OF LARGE WINDOWS, OVERLOOKING THE LLAMAS AND OCEAN VIEW. tHE ROOM, AS ALL THE SPACES WE SAW AT GLENEVEN INN, WERE BEAUTIFULLY AND TASTEFULLY DECORATED IN CONTEMPORARY STYLE. OUR SERVER WAS FRIENDLY AND ACCOMMODATING. THOUGH IT WAS HER FIRST TIME SERVING AFTERNOON TEA, SHE DID A WONDERFUL JOB.  LIGHT JAZZ WAS PLAYING SOFTLY IN THE BACKGROUND.

MENU, VARIETY, TRADITION, SPECIAL DIET:
GLENDEVEN'S AFTERNOON TEA MENU IS PUBLISHED ON THEIR WEBSITE AND INCLUDES HOMEMADE FINGER SANDWICHED, SCONES WITH HOMEMADE CLOTTED CREAM, LEMON CURD, JAM, FRENCH MACARONS AND PETITS FOURS. THE TEA MEAL IS SERVED ON THE TRADITIONAL THREE-TIERED PLATTER. WE DIDN’T ENQUIRE ABOUT SPECIAL DIET SUBSTITUTIONS, BUT WE RECOMMEND MENTIONING ANY ALLERGIES OR SPECIAL DIETARY REQUIREMENTS AT THE TIME OF MAKING THE RESERVATION. 

BEVERAGES, TEA SELECTION AND BRAND(S), CHAMPAGNE:
GLENDEVEN INN SERVES TEAS FROM FLYING BIRD BOTANICALS BRAND WHICH WERE NICELY BLENDED AND EXTREMELY FRESH. A CHAMPAGNE TEA OPTION IS OFFERD DURING THE RESERVATION PROCESS, AND WE CHOSE IT. THE CHAMPAGNE WAS SLIGHTLY SWEET AND APPROPRIATELY CHILLED.

TEA: QUALITY, STEEPED CORRECTLY, HOT, REFILLED PROMPTLY, APPROPRIATE TEAPOT:
FLYING BIRD’S ENGLISH BREAKFAST TEA IS A TRADITIONAL, WELL-BALANCED BLEND.  GLENDEVEN INN SERVES THE LARGE, PYRAMIDAL TEABAGS IN CONTEMPORARY WHITE CERAMIC TEAPOTS AND LEAVES GUESTS TO STEEP THE TEA AS LONG AS DESIRED. OUR HOT WATER WAS REFILLED PROMPTLY.

FOOD: TASTINESS, FRESHNESS, AS DESCRIBED ON MENU: QUALITY OF SAVORIES, SCONES AND TEA BREADS, SWEETS:
THE QUALITY OF THE FOOD AT GLENDEVEN INN WAS VERY HIGH. THE SANDWICH SELECTION WAS PARTICULARLY DELIGHTFUL TO THE EYE AND THE PALATE. AN ABUNDANCE OF GARDEN-FRESH CHIVES EDGED THE GOAT CHEESE SANDWICHES AND ADDED A FRESHNESS AND PEPPERY BITE. WE BOTH ENJOYED THE EGG SALAD WITH CAVIAR AND THE CUCUMBER SANDWICHES AND AGREED THAT THE DEVILED EGGS WERE OUTSTANDING. TWO TYPES OF SCONES WERE ON THE TIERED SERVER, BOTH OF GENEROUS SIZE AND PLEASINGLY WARM. I LOVED THE PLAIN CREAM SCONE, AND MY TEA COMPANION JUSTIFIABLY RAVED ABOUT THE CHERRY CRANBERRY SCONE. THE THREE SCONE TOPPING OPTIONS WERE ALL AMONG THE BEST WE’VE SAMPLED ANYWHERE, WITH THE CLOTTED CREAM PERHAPS THE BEST I’VE HAD OUTSIDE OF BRITAIN. tHE MENU LISTS THE JAM AS SHANDEL’S LOCAL BLACKBERRY JAM, AND I’D LIKE TO GIVE A WARM THANK YOU TO SHANDEL FOR A TRULY GREAT PRESERVE.

DESSERT SELECTIONS INCLUDED DELICIOUS FRENCH MACARONS AS DESCRIBED IN THE MENU, BUT SADLY THE PETITS FOURS WERE REPLACED BY BISCOTTI. I DO UNDERSTAND THAT MAKING THE FAMOUSLY LABOR-INTENSIVE PETITS FOURS FOR JUST TWO GUESTS BORDERS ON MARTYRDOM, AND THIER ABSENCE WILL THUS BE OVERLOOKED.

OVERALL FEELING, RATING OR STARS:
ATTENTION TO DETAIL IN EVERY CATEGORY MAKES GLENDEVEN INN STAND OUT AMONG TEAROOMS. FROM THE PHYSICAL BEAUTY OF THE BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS TO THE INCOMPARABLE OCEAN VIEWS TO THE INVITING FARM HOUSE SETTING TO THE FRIENDLY SERVICE AND EXCELLENT FOOD TO THE BUCOLIC VIEWS OF PASTURED LLAMAS, GLENDEVEN INN IS A NOT TO BE MISSED DESTINATION ON THE MENDOCINO COAST.
 
A SPECIAL THANK-YOU TO OUR GENEROUS SERVER FOR SHARING HER KNOWLEDGE OF WHALE WATCHING.  RIGHT FROM OUR OCEAN VIEW TEA TABLE, SHE SHOWED US HOW TO SPOT DIFFERENT COURTSHIP BEHAVIORS OF MIGRATING GRAY WHALES. MY TEA COMPANION, BEING FROM THE EAST COAST, RIGHTLY RANKED THIS AS ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF HER CALIFORNIA TRIP.

​January is National Soup Month, Slow Cooker Month, Sunday Supper Month, Oatmeal Month and Hot Tea Month. I approve of all of these. In the chilly days of January, I’ll take any and all reasons to cook, bake, drink hot beverages, invite people over, and even eat the occasional bowl of oatmeal with plenty of brown sugar, warm milk, and a pat of melting butter (though I’m really more of a toast gal.)
 
After the hullabaloo of the holidays, January can be a bit of a let down. As a January birthday girl has frequently said to me, everyone is broke and on a diet during the first month of the new year. After New Year’s Day, festive holidays are scarce on the ground so we may as well make our own reasons to celebrate. We do have visionary Martin Luther King Jr to honor and he is included in this link to some famous January-born Americans:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/90220/10-famous-birthdays-celebrate-january
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​You’ll note that Elvis Presley and David Bowie share a birthday on January 8th (along with my friend Randy and my Grandma Rose.) I’m not sure about the Thin White Duke, but we can rest assured that Grandma Rose, Randy, and Elvis are all reported to enjoy a good, home cooked meal. As January 8th is on a Monday this year, you could cook up a Sunday Supper on the eve of their birthday, with one hell of a sound track. (Rock and roll for sure but Grandma Rose favored Italian opera.)
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​What to serve? You can never err with hot soup on a winter’s day. Well-made soup, that is. Not much is more disappointing than ho-hum soup. I’m a firm believer in homemade stock (some might say rigid fanatic…ahem.) It’s difficult to think up another passive activity that yields such amazingly delicious results.  

There are two general schools of thought on making stock. One is what I’ll call The Best Ingredients method and the other might be called The Garbage method.  Though you might surmise which one I favor by my titles, surprisingly, I have a foot in both camps. By now, readers probably know that in my baking, I spare no expense on ingredients.  The best butter, the beautiful garnishes, the imported chocolates all show up in my cookies and cakes. But daily cooking is another matter.  A little frugality is generally the order of the day with getting dinner on the table.  To this end, The Garbage method of stock-making appeals. The tops and tails of vegetables trimmed for another meal go right into the stock pot, wasting nothing. The bones from that Costco roaster chicken go into the pot. Even the skins of yellow onions can be added for an extra golden color in chicken stock. The only caveat is to add no cruciferous vegetables, i.e. no stinky ones such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, or cabbage. As you are preparing dinner, toss the vegetable scraps and bones into a zip-top freezer bag and store in the freezer until you are ready to make stock.

The Best Ingredient method, as the name implies, means you start with the freshest, finest ingredients you can find. I’ll chose this method when I’ll be serving the finished soup at a party or when I sell stock to friends, as I have been known to do.  Homemade stock is like money in the bank. It’s your secret weapon. It means you can be 30 minutes away from homemade soup at all times. It makes you a cooking rock star with almost no effort. Who doesn’t want that?

Kathleen’s Homemade Stock Instructions

Add to a 5 quart or larger stockpot, Dutch oven, or any large pot these vegetables:

• Peeled garlic cloves, 3 or more
• Onions, 1 or 2, quartered
• Celery with leaves, several stalks, cut into big pieces
• Carrots, 3 or 4, cut into big pieces
• Italian parsley, a big handful or half a bunch
• Thyme, a few fresh twigs or a few pinches of dried
• Peppercorns, I tend to just open the pepper mill and pour out some in the palm of my hand
• Optional but yummy, some mushrooms or mushroom stems

Add to pot, a meat component:
Roasted chicken or turkey carcass. For beef stock, add beef bones and a blob of tomato paste. (I keep a tube of very concentrated tomato paste on hand, found at Trader Joe’s.)
Add enough water to cover, or mostly cover the ingredients, not more than 2 or 3 quarts.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn heat down to a low simmer and cook for 2 hours or more. If you like paying attention and hanging around the stove (nice on a cold day,) you can skim the scum that rises to the top and discard it. Or, you can ignore it entirely for two hours, no problem. The stock is done when it tastes like stock rather than lightly flavored water. The longer you cook stock, the more concentrated it will become. In classical French cooking, stock is boiled down to a few tablespoons of ultra-concentrated demi-glace, true culinary gold. But for our purposes, cooked down to delicious liquid stock is fine.

Strain stock through a mesh colander into a clean pot or bowl. You may have to do this in batches, depending on the size of your colander. For clearer stock, line the colander with cheesecloth. Discard solids. (Yes, it’s done its job, you don’t need it anymore. If you feel better about it, you can pick through it and nibble on the parts that you are interested in. The discarding of all the ingredients is hard for some of the frugal cooks among us, and I think that’s why The Garbage method appeals to them.)
Add salt to taste, remembering you may not want it overly salty if you will be adding it to unknown ingredients. But some salt is advisable.

Chill stock until fat solidifies on top. At this point, you can remove the fat, if you so choose. I’ll leave it up to you how much, if any, fat to leave in. 

Divide into freezable containers, leaving lots of head space, as stock expands greatly when frozen. I use wide mouth canning jars in quart or half quart sizes or plastic containers with lids. Always mark the contents and date on containers and use within one year.

Now that you have gorgeous homemade stock on hand, you can make soup anytime.
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​Mexican-ish Corn Chowder

​This is my version of a Pinterest soup recipe that used cheese to create the thick texture of the chowder. I originally made the soup for friends who can’t have lots of cheese, so I modified the recipe. You could certainly add cheese back in or offer shredded cheese as one of the toppings. The best change I made, though, was swapping out canned green chilies for my go-to tomatillo salsa, Herdez Salsa Verde. It has a much brighter flavor than plain green chilies. It’s also delicious as a table salsa with tortilla chips. It’s a pantry staple.

• 1 tablespoon oil, vegetable or canola
• 1 small onion, in small dice
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped finely
• 3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 to 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups half and half
• 1 jar (16 ounce) Herdez Salsa Verde, or similar
• 1 can (14 ounce) creamed corn
• 1 can (14 ounce) diced tomatoes, drained
• Salt to taste
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken or cooked shrimp

Garnishes:
Lime wedges, chopped cilantro, diced avocado, shredded cheese, hot sauce
Makes: soup for about four
Equipment: 4 or 5 quart sauce pan or stock pot

1. Heat oil in sauce pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook to soften, stirring occasionally, for about five minutes. Add garlic, jalapeno, and cumin. Cook for a few more minutes.
2. Stir in chicken stock, half and half, salsa verde, creamed corn, and drained tomatoes. When mixture is hot, add chicken or shrimp. Taste for salt and add if needed. Heat until chicken or shrimp is hot.
3. Serve immediately in pre-warmed soup bowls, passing bowls of garnishes.

Variation: add a can of drained hominy in step 2 to turn the soup into a Mexican-ish pozole.
 
 
 
 
 

Ho, ho, ho! How do we have the best possible Christmas without going insane? How can we make it fun, spiritual, communal, satisfying, comforting, novel, traditional, easy, and magic? Well, you can’t. It’s impossible. But you can rearrange your priorities, let go of what is not important and concentrate on what feeds your soul. Let go of musts and have-tos and figure out love-tos and want-tos.

​Ho, ho, ho! Easier said than done, you say and I agree. But delving into what parts of the holidays you really enjoy and which parts you dread is a good place to begin. If you were starting from scratch, with no Christmas traditions or family obligations, what would your holiday season include? The answers are different for different people. Sometimes, we’ve grown beyond traditions we used to enjoy. New circumstances require new adaptations. Losing or adding family and friends in our circle may call for and or allow changes in our customs. Give yourself permission and dream space to ponder a holiday season that truly lifts your heart and allows joy to truly shine.

​Ho, ho, ho! First, let’s think about the things you look forward to most. The list might include chopping down a tree from a snowy lot, attending religious services, baking holiday cookies, decorating the house, exchanging gifts. But for some of us, the preceding list has some or all of the things we dread the most. That is why you need to be honest with yourself about your true feelings. Though you may have made your special cocoa mix every year for friends and family and hosted a hot cocoa and caroling party each year for twenty years, you’re actually totally bored with cocoa and long to do something else. Is it AA that tells you to make a fearless inventory? Do that about holiday likes and dislikes. If you hate turkey, now is the time to admit it.

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Ho, ho, ho! Shall I share some of my inventory with you? My loves: looking at Christmas lights, covering everything with red tartan, going to the woods to hunt for fresh mistletoe and greenery, baking the Italian Christmas cookies with my Suzi, staying cozy in the house while my man makes tamales, watching the black and white version of A Christmas Carol on television, playing with Christmas crackers with my mom. My loathes: mall shopping, tacky decorations, secret Santa-ing, mandatory gift-giving, football, excess consumerism. Your lists will be completely personal to you.

​Ho, ho, ho! I can just hear the parents among you say, “The children want things to stay the same! Grandma has to have her Polish candy fruitcake loaf!” If your children are small, now is the time to introduce new customs just for your family or try different activities or foods. Their childhoods will be richer for it. If your children are grown and settled in their ways, now is the time to let them try out some independent holiday activities. If you’re in charge of making holidays for older folks, now is the time to have heart to heart talks with them. You may find that grandpa has never liked big family gatherings and has secretly longed to spend Christmas in a cabin in the mountains. Or your mom would love to go to Thanksgiving dinner at a fancy hotel. You don’t know until you ask. If you change things, there may be complaining, there may be pleasant surprises. Best of all, you may find what feels meaningful and joyful to you, making the holidays feel magical again.

Ho, ho, ho! I do like a holiday party. Several years ago, I tried a cookie exchange party with my gals. I’m a baker, have a best friend that’s a baker, come from a family of bakers, so I assumed that everyone was enough of a baker to look forward to being part of a cookie exchange party. I was not correct. By casually Googling “cookie exchange party” you get lots of ideas on how to throw a successful party, what to serve, and tellingly, lists of rules. Rules? Is this supposedly festive party complicated enough to warrant rules? The most complete lists of rules is found here: http://www.cookie-exchange.com/rules_of_the_cookie_exchange.html by Robin Olson.
​She’s so good, she even wrote the book on the subject, http://www.cookie-exchange.com/the_cookie_party_cookbook/index.html
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Ho, ho, ho! Perhaps her guests are much more willing and compliant than mine or just much less busy but it was like pulling teeth to get about 6 gals to bake 6 dozen cookies each and show up at a party. Six dozen may sound like a lot of cookies but most cookie recipes make 3 or 4 dozen. Thus, one double batch of cookies would cover it. The questioning and complaining by guests was matched only by the cajoling and threatening by the hostess! Not a recipe for a relaxed and enjoyable gathering. Luckily, one of the younger guests showed up without cookies but with all the ingredients for a hot apple cider toddy. Another party saved by the judicious application of alcohol. 

What have I learned about myself, my friends, parties, cookies, and life? All very good questions. I still enjoy baking cookies for loved ones during the holidays and that not everyone does. Parties should be as stress-free and as rule-free as possible. If you want to bake cookies this holiday season, check out Rose’s blog which lists a baker's dozen of the most delicious and reliable cookies EVER. If you don’t feel like baking cookies this holiday season, please don’t. No one has ever starved for lack of Christmas cookies. Please yourself by finding Christmas cheer that feels right to you and please those around you by giving them a less frazzled and happier you.
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Though we love hosting afternoon teas in all seasons, our fall tea is very close to our hearts. After the scorching summer is over, we long to gather in the kitchen and bake the spicy autumn treats. Suzi and I hosted an autumn tea party we share with you here. We had wonderful collaborators, making the tea party for eight much more manageable and truthfully, much more fun for the hostesses. Peggy and Kristin agreed to come early and handle most of the savory chores. We are always tickled to see Peg roll up with her cooler on wheels which we know is stuffed with delightful champagne. On this occasion, not only was there the good champagne but also a wonderful cranberry roasted garlic spread she whipped up for the turkey sliders. Kristin fearlessly walked in carrying a pumpkin to transform into creamy pumpkin soup! We are so lucky to have these talented and very fun women on our tea party team. We pulled a champagne cork, toasted our pre-party togetherness and got to work.
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Suzi’s house was beautifully decorated for autumn, with many pumpkins, gourds, and seasonal foliage already on display. I used a vintage Quaker lace tablecloth with coppery satin cloth underneath to coordinate with Suzi’s floral drapes. Though I told myself I shouldn’t buy the British china salad plates with pheasants in the center and an attractive brown filigree border, I didn’t listen. They looked stunning with the vintage green gratin dishes in which we served the salad and the nut brown tall custard cups we used for the pumpkin soup. The bottom layer of the place setting were these unusual ivory melamine pierced plates, reminiscent of traditional Lenox ivory china. Fall color cloth napkins, our brown-patterned vintage cups and saucers and plain champagne glasses finished off the place settings. I picked up a traditional Brown Betty tea pot which looked right at home with the table setting. We borrowed a couple of the natural wooden slab serving trays to play up the woodsy feel of our table and called it done. The remainder of our guests arrived promptly, and a good time was had by all.
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​I used two cake batters to make dark and light acorn cakelets, shown here atop one of our borrowed wood slab platters. Apple cake, spice cake, and or chocolate batters would be delicious. 
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​Suzi makes a decadent chocolate bark with three kinds of chocolate, dried fruits and nuts, bagged in cellophane bags and tied with coppery string and oak leaf tags.
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​Luckily, Suzi had the presence of mind to use the tea leftovers to assemble this recreation of our tea menu to take a photo. During the tea, we are always too busy serving our guests and enjoying the party to stop and take photos.

http://holidays.simplyorganic.com/appetizers/organic-curried-butternut-squash-soup-shooters-recipe
Growing up in apple farming county, each September there would be a wooden crate of apples perfuming our garage. Baking with these beauties was definitely encouraged, and there was always a willing audience for any apple recipe testing going on. My time-tested apple pie, cake, and bars are reliably well received, but now each autumn finds me ogling Pinterest with its many inventive ways to utilize our local apples. Suzi and I made the puff pastry apple “roses” which are as tasty as they are stunning. We followed blogger Manuela's extremely clear recipe and video, here: http://cookingwithmanuela.blogspot.com/2015/03/apple-roses.html
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But then, consider savory tarts or turnovers. We’ve done miniature Cornish pasties with success, and variations with fall spices could be yummy. Roasted root vegetables with Caraway seed or a light curry spice sounds delightful. For meat eaters, add ground turkey or beef with the same spice profile, decorated with pastry leaves or lattice.

What about maple? Though sugar maple trees are tapped in late winter, I always think of maple flavored goodies in fall, with caramel or nuts or pumpkin. We recommend Trader Joe's charming maple sandwich cookie, shaped like a maple leaf. Maple also lends itself to savory applications. I think a fall variation on my raspberry and walnut salad would make a tasty tea salad. Crisp Fuyu persimmons and tart apples cut into fat match stick sized pieces, tossed with shredded Napa cabbage and dressed with maple-mustard dressing just before serving sounds yummy and celebratory of fall colors and flavors. When I was testing the recipe in mid-September, the persimmons weren’t ready. The farmer I spoke with said his generally ripen in October. In the photograph, the part of persimmons is being played by late summer nectarines.

We do have to get some more orange color into our fall tea. Pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash can all star in this role. Cooked and mashed, all three are almost interchangeable. Ripe, soft Hachiya persimmons just need to be peeled and mashed and the pulp is ready to be used in baked recipes. I’m thinking a pumpkin-based cake, marbled with a spicy gingery batter. I decided on a cake baked in a jellyroll pan; cut into small squares, the pretty swirl decoration needs no additional adornment.

​Another Pinterest find, pies with cinnamon pinwheel crust, shown as an apple pie here, will also be tasty with pumpkin or pecan filling. Country Living magazine has an excellent article about these pies using refrigerated pie dough here:  http://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/g3620/cinnamon-roll-pie-crust/ I like that they start off by saying that “ Pie season is the best season.” Who can argue with fall logic like that?

An autumn-centric use for your trifle bowl is our Gingerbread Trifle with Leftover Pie, found in our Post Thanksgiving Tea Menu: http://www.myteaplanner.com/november-a-post-thanksgiving-tea.html Or perhaps a trifle featuring pumpkin roll slices showing through the sides: pretty!

I hope my ideas for fall tea menus get you excited about baking and cooking in the cooler weather. As always, let me know about any fun autumn dishes you are working on.

Persimmon and Apple Salad with Maple-Mustard Dressing

Dressing:

• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 6 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons grainy mustard
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper or 1/8 teaspoon cayenne

Salad:

• 5 cups shredded Napa cabbage, about half a head
• Juice of one lemon
• 2 large firm apples, preferably a red-gold skinned variety
• 2 firm Fuyu persimmons
• 1 cup toasted pecan or walnut halves or pieces

Special equipment: small bowl, whisk, serving bowl, medium bowl, cutting board, chef’s knife, colander, salad servers
Serves 12 as tea-sized servings or 4-6 as salad course at dinner

1. Dressing: whisk all dressing ingredients together until well mixed and thickened. If making ahead, store in glass jar with tight lid in refrigerator up to one week ahead.
2. In serving bowl, place shredded Napa cabbage. Set aside.
3. Make lemon water bath: in medium bowl, place lemon juice and about 2 cups of water.
4. On cutting board, quarter and core but do not peel apples. Using chef’s knife, cut apples into matchsticks and place in lemon water bath. Let apple matchsticks soak for 5 minutes then drain in colander. Shake off excess water. Place on top of cabbage. Cut persimmons in to thin slices, add to cabbage.
5. To serve: toss just before serving. Shake or whisk dressing then pour over salad. Toss briefly then top with pecans. Serve immediately. Cover and chill any leftovers and use within a few days.

• 2 cups flour
• 1 ¼ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 3 eggs
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ cup molasses
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to325°F

Special equipment: 10” by 15” jellyroll pan lined with parchment and sprayed with baking spray, large mixing bowl, medium bowl, whisk, silicone spatula, table knife

Makes about 48 tea sized squares or 15 dessert sized squares

1. In large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. In medium bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, and vanilla until smooth. Pour into flour mixture and fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until no flour shows.
3. Scoop about half of the batter into the medium bowl (no need to wash in between.) To this batter, add molasses and spices. Stir until smooth.
4. Alternate scoops of spice batter and pumpkin batter in prepared pan. Run a table knife through batter to swirl decoratively.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, rotating pan back to front half way through baking time. Cake in done when pick inserted into center of cake comes clean and when pressed lightly cake springs back.
6. Cool in pan 10 minutes then remove to cooling rack to cool completely. Cut into small squares for teatime or larger squares for dessert. Cake keeps well loosely covered at room temperature for several days.

Dulce de Leche Gelatin Mold
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Dulce de leche is the addictive milk caramel popular in Latin America for ages and now available here in most well-stocked grocery stores. Nestle makes canned Dulce de leche in the same sized can as sweetened condensed milk. You can make your own with a can of sweetened condensed milk one of several different ways. Growing up, my Cuban neighbors cooked the unopened can for an hour in a pressure cooker, but this method is highly discouraged in the pertinent literature. But the pressure cooker never did blow up, and my little friend and I ate many spoonfuls of the delicious homemade caramel before her mom shooed us away.

• 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
• ¼ cup cold water
• ½ cup boiling water
• 1 can (13.4 ounces) dulce de leche
• 1 ½ cups whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Special equipment: 6 cup Bundt pan or jello mold, oiled, small bowl, electric blender, silicone spatula, serving plate or cake pedestal
Serves 8 to 10

1. In small bowl, add gelatin to cold water. Let sit 5 minutes. Stir in boiling water. Stir until smooth.
2. Pour dissolved gelatin into blender container. Add dulce de leche, milk, and vanilla. Blend on medium speed, scraping down sides as needed. Blend until mixture is completely smooth.
3. Pour into prepared mold and chill for 4 hours or for up to a week, tightly covered.
4. To serve, carefully dip mold into hot water, halfway up sides, for 30 seconds. Run a thin knife around edges to loosen. Shake side-to-side to make sure mold has loosened. Place serving plate* or cake pedestal over mold and flip over to unmold. Serve with coffee pecan sauce. Chill any leftovers tightly covered with plastic.

*Rinsing the serving plate in cold water and leaving damp allows the mold to be centered more easily.
 
Coffee Pecan Sauce

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup strong coffee or espresso
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup toasted pecan halves or pieces

Special equipment: small sauce pan, wooden spoon
Makes about 1 ½ cups

1. In a small sauce pan over medium heat, stir together sugar and coffee. Heat until sugar is dissolved.
2. In a small bowl, mix together water and cornstarch to make a paste. Stir mixture into coffee sauce.
3. Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce is shiny and smooth, about five minutes. Remove from heat and stir in toasted pecans. Sauce will be thin. Serve at room temperature. Store tightly covered in fridge up to a week. Bring to room temperature before serving.

​Not often, but every now and then, you walk into a place which is perfect, that is not trying too hard, that is not overly decorated, that though fairly new, feels like it’s been there a long time, just waiting for you.
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That’s how I felt, walking into Buttercup Cakes for the first time and magically, every subsequent time. The room is airy and light, uncluttered. The floor is beautiful, made up of vintage-looking tiny, classic, black and white tiles, like it could have been there since the early 1900’s. In fact, it was leftover from the previous tenant, a Noah’s bagel shop, and Buttercup was smart enough to keep it intact. There is a line of square marble tables along the wall to the right. On the left, there is a simple display of fresh flowers for sale, next to the glass case. The array of daily cupcakes and pastries are housed on the counter and in the glass case. 
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​​Stepping further back into the room, to the right, there are shelves of well-chosen cake-related items for sale. As an admirer of thoughtfully stocked gift shops, I love Buttercup's dry goods almost as much as their divine cupcakes. I’ll browse these shelves at each visit and use any excuse to buy a screen-printed tea towel, a new cookbook on cakes, unique birthday candles or cards, or a jar of the house-made plum jam. (More about the jam later on.)
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​In the very back of the room, are a few larger tables, set with vintage linens, silverware, and china. This area is where Buttercup is now serving afternoon tea. Amazingly, my favorite spot for a tiny, perfect cupcake is now the setting of a fresh take on afternoon tea. It’s nearly impossible to convey my joy at this turn of events.

Though the Monterey Bay area is stuffed full of outstanding restaurants serving a wide variety of cuisine from around the globe, a decent afternoon tea is hard to come by. One of the reasons we took up the habit of giving teas was just to get our fix of the experience, a DIY necessity as it were. But Buttercup has come to our rescue.

A disclaimer here: I am not a journalist and have very little interest in getting to the bottom of anything or rooting out the cold, hard facts. I’ll leave that to others. These are my impressions, my feelings on this lovely place. I don’t know who the wonderful owner(s) of Buttercup are; it’s enough for me to know they’re makers of magic. Yelp can give you 227 reviews of Buttercup that will give you volumes of information on cupcake flavors and frostings. I want to tell you what Buttercup feels like and perhaps to give a hint as to their methods.
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Their tea menu is structured unlike most traditional menus. As you book a reservation for afternoon tea, they ask if you will be having a cream tea. This is the option that consists of a pot of tea, freshly baked scones, and a trio of toppings. If you would like scones, you need to say so right then, and you do indeed want scones. You may also want savories, but you can decide that when you arrive. There is no option on the menu for a traditional three-course, sandwiches, scones, and sweets combination. Instead, there is a long, thoughtfully written menu of savories with dessert from which you chose three items including many vegan and gluten-free choices. Normally, I’m nonplussed about both of these dietary restrictions but Buttercup uses these parameters to create artful selections using the best of California’s local produce. They are taking the forms of tiny afternoon tea foods and remaking them into something delicious and unique. Herbed mousse might be piped (yes, piped, with a small-gauge shell tip) onto cucumber ovals and garnished with a tiny petal of pickled ginger and a wisp of dill. Another unusual feature of their savory tea is a beautiful mixed green salad which arrives first. In this simply dressed salad, you see how Buttercup’s afternoon tea is being merged into a light, modern meal. Though I adore traditional tea, even I have to admit that it can be so carb-heavy and rich that you may not feel well after indulging in an entire tea. Some might find this revisionism traitorous, but I find it refreshing. On one visit, a small dish of summer peach and plum slices was presented in which every bite of fruit was at its absolute peak. Do you know how rare that is? In over fifty years of eating out, it is a first for me. This was a completely different creature from the under-ripe, hard-melon-filled generic fruit bowls commonly found next to sandwiches in restaurants across America. This little dish of ripe fruit slices was more like one you would make for dessert at home, served in a little china dish, in the dead of summer, because your backyard peach tree was loaded with peaches. Buttercup was serving this fruit not because it was the cheapest at the warehouse store, rather, because the farm they order produce from, just up Highway One from Santa Cruz, sent them the most perfectly ripe fruit because it was in season. I know Chez Panisse pioneered this concept way back in the early 1970’s but I’m so impressed to run into it here in a little bakery in Santa Cruz where it is practiced without fanfare, seemingly as naturally as breathing. Buttercup seems to say, “Of course we’ll use the best fruit in our salads, sandwiches, cakes, and frosting. We love the taste, we think you will, too, and we think you deserve it.” 
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​These are not Chez Panisse prices. As afternoon tea goers know, going out for a festive tea can be pricy. Buttercup cupcakes are not cheap. Their special occasion cakes are not cheap. But that beautiful pink frosting on the Bramble cupcake, topped with a fresh raspberry, is that color pink due to fresh fruit puree, not red dye #6. And you can taste that fruit, underscored by the high quality butter in that frosting. With this superb quality of cake, you are satisfied with your choice of cupcake and truly don’t need to eat many. You will want to taste more flavors, of course, and that is the brilliance of the mini cupcake; you can sample several of Buttercup’s unique flavor combinations, from blood orange to Earl Grey to hibiscus. ​
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​Which brings me to the dessert portion of afternoon tea at Buttercup: you are offered a selection of their mini cupcakes and pastries from which to choose as many as you’d like. That little gesture, trusting a guest’s natural good manners to limit possible over consumption of those fabulous cakes, is the pinnacle of sweet hospitality. And it works; you are happy to eat one or two of these little jewels and feel completely satisfied and cared for.

At all three visits, we had been served by Annie, a young, smiling server who did, actually, treat us as guests in her home. That alone is quite rare and most beautiful. It says to me that she is working for people who allow her to be natural and more or less, be herself. She explained all the tea choices and then kept our teapot filled with hot water throughout our visit.
What propelled her work from efficient and charming to amazing super star status was the offer to bake us scones when the reservationist failed to note our cream tea reservation. She OFFERED to bake scones, right then. And she meant it. And she did it with a smile, willingly. And they were delicious. Wow. I take that to mean that Annie was empowered to do whatever she judged necessary to make our visit the best possible. To my unending delight, she achieved that goal. An eternal thank you to Buttercup and our wonderful server.
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​Another pleasurable facet of Buttercup’s afternoon tea service is the table settings. The tables are set with light-colored vintage tablecloths and cloth napkins, mixed floral china cups and saucers, and vintage serving pieces such as heavy glass pitchers for water and vintage silver platters. With the cream tea come three miniature canning jars, one with the perfectly tart house-made plum jam, then lemon curd, and a creamy spread. Three tiny silver spreaders accompany the spreads. The savory course may come on a traditional two or three-tiered server. 
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​Extra pieces are kept in a glass-front china cabinet, just at the back of the tea service area. The serving pieces look like someone with a good eye spied these at yard sales and consignments stores to bring them together for a new life; they didn’t need to be “repurposed” they just needed to be returned to their original purpose. The tables look refreshingly unstudied and very inviting. There is nothing stuffy or cloying in the décor or table setting, no excess ruffles or dolls. You feel free to enjoy your table companions, a delicious tea, and uncluttered space.

When we reserve a date for afternoon tea, we stress that we’d like both the cream tea and the savory and dessert options. Since they are just beginning afternoon tea service, things do not always run smoothly, but we accept the little bumps as growing pains. At Buttercup, anything can be forgiven because they are my new local tea house.
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Cake is expected to do many jobs, fill many roles. Cakes make happy people happier. Cakes make sad people feel better. We celebrate with cake and we mourn with cake. Cake is up to each and every challenge. Bundt cakes in particular have a well-deserved, cozy reputation for being welcomed into almost any social situation. Abundant, moist, simply presented, who wouldn’t love to see a glorious bundt cake on their buffet?

Baking is a meditation. I first practiced intentional baking when making wedding cakes, stirring in good wishes for a happy life together for the bridal couple. While mixing up a birthday cake, I like to imagine a year’s worth of good things coming to the birthday boy or girl. It makes sense to me to reflect on the life of the person I am honoring while baking cakes as part of memorial service.
In the perfect world, only elderly folks who have lived long, fulfilling lives would pass on and they would pass on only in wintertime when the mood lends itself to solemnity and one wishes themselves in a cozy kitchen baking comforting cakes to raise the spirit of the bereaved.

Real life, of course, is seldom as well orchestrated as one would wish. People die too young, in the heat of summer, when almost nothing can make you feel better. But even in the heat, sweets are required and must be baked.

As a dedicated year-round baker, I have evolved strategies for keeping the heat mostly endurable. The best time to bake in summer is as early as possible, say five o'clock in the morning. I measure out all my ingredients the night before, organize mixing bowls and baking pans, making sure everything is ready to go at the crack of dawn. In the morning, I preheat the oven just before it’s needed. Most modern ovens preheat more quickly than in the prescribed 15 minutes. If I’m baking a series of recipes, I try to stagger my mixing, scheduling one cake to be coming out of the oven just as the next one is going in. I also put a big box fan right in my kitchen doorway to help move that hot air. My last resort is to run over to Suzi's house, crank up her modern air-conditioning, and bake in cool comfort. I recommend finding a Suzi of your own but unfortunately, she’s one in a billion, and she already has a best friend, sorry.

Recently, I took five favorite bundts with me for a memorial reception. The grief-stricken need tea or coffee and something sweet and uncomplicated to momentarily take them away from the suffering at hand.

Even at a sad event, we want the food tables to be attractive (though not blingy or ostentatious.) As I’ve said before, varying heights using cake pedestals works elegantly. When making a buffet display of multiples of the same thing, it’s up to the baker to differentiate the items with visual clues. I’m fortunate to have a variety of shaped bundt pans which is one easy way to do that. Finishing with different methods is another. In the five cakes I made, one had powdered sugar sieved simply over the top, one had a thick chocolate icing, one had a soaking syrup which left a slight sheen, one was topped with coconut, and one had a powdered sugar glaze.

Unsurprisingly, the favorite cake turned out to be our Lemon Yogurt Cake. The recipe began life as a bundt cake before being turned into our most requested wedding cake flavor. It is featured in our wedding menu and planning guide here: http://www.myteaplanner.com/lemon-yogurt-wedding-cake.html Lemon juice and zest contribute to a huge lemon flavor while butter and yogurt keep it tender and moist. It’s soaked with lemon syrup before being glazed with a lemon icing.

Right behind the lemon cake, though, was one of my favorites, the rum cake, made with a cake mix, instant pudding, and the most heavenly glaze made of spiced rum, butter, and sugar. It’s hard not to keep sampling the glaze as you brush it on the cake to make sure it is really as delicious as you thought. The recipe was extremely popular in the 1970’s when a wave of cocktail-themed cakes broke in magazines around the county. Most were kind of strange (Harvey Wall banger cake, anyone?) but the rum cake is so divine it has remained a treasured recipe in most recipe boxes. I bake several as gifts at holiday time. It keeps extremely well and ships, snuggly packed in a tin, flawlessly.

The prettiest cake when sliced was the Cinnamon Apple Crown cake which I adapted from my Nordic Ware Bundt cook booklet. One batter is divided so the light colored batter goes first into the pan then the remaining batter is enhanced with apple butter and apple pie spice. The cake bakes up a delicate vanilla on top (the crown) with a darker, spicy bottom. It would be right at home on a harvest dessert table. Though I served it with just a dusting of powdered sugar, many different glazes and icing would be yummy.

Bringing up the rear in cake slices eaten, were Ellen’s Coconut Cake and a Dark Chocolate Bundt. I think the coconut cake suffered by comparison to some of the other bundts by way of height: I baked it in a shallower pan so it didn’t soar to the majestic heights of a cake baked in a deeper pan. I have learned my lesson. But as a mother best loves the wayward child, I chose the coconut cake to sample and it was so good! It stays moist via the coconut syrup drizzled over top, which also adds to a triple dose of coconut. This coconut cake is still the best I’ve ever had. It is part of our American Southern Tea menu, here: http://www.myteaplanner.com/an-american-southern-tea.html
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The Dark Chocolate Bundt cake’s lack of popularity is a bit more puzzling. Usually, chocolate anything is the first to be gobbled up. This one was very attractive with a thick, shiny chocolate glaze and deep chocolate flavor. Too deep, perhaps? This was no mild, supermarket affair but a cake with a super deep chocolatey flavor. Probably too dark for the heat of summer. Just pleasing myself, I would not have put a chocolate cake on the menu. Yet, as I’m creating a menu for any group of people, I remember Rose's advice that people will be disappointed if there is no chocolate. And we would never want to disappoint our chocolate-lover friends. Just to be on the safe side, I won’t include the recipe here. If any of you have the perfect chocolate Bundt recipe, do pass it along.
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​I monkeyed around with this recipe to make it a little spicier. The original calls for cinnamon and apple sauce but I always like the extra kick of apple butter. You can use whichever you have on hand.

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup oatmeal
• ½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons apple pie spice
• ½ apple butter

Powdered sugar to finish, if desired
Preheat oven to 350°F
Special equipment: Bundt pan, sprayed with Baker's Joy or heavily greased and floured, hand or stand mixer, silicone scraper, cooling rack, sieve if using powdered sugar to finish
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​Makes 1 Bundt cake, serves from 10 to 20, depending on serving size

1. In mixer bowl, combine first eight ingredients on low speed, scraping bowl as needed. Beat three minutes at medium speed.
2. Spoon half the batter into prepared pan.
3. To remaining batter, add oats, brown sugar, apple pie spice, and apple butter. Mix thoroughly.
4. Spoon batter over first half of batter in pan. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until cake tests done when pick inserted into cake comes clean.
5. Cool in pan 15 minutes then turn out onto cooling rack to cool completely. Sieve powdered sugar over cake just before serving, if desired.

Variations: this cake takes well to many glazes and pourable icings. A complementary soaking syrup would be apple cider boiled down with sugar and brushed over the cake while still warm. Cream cheese icing would be a hit. The buttery rum glaze from the rum cake would be exquisite. A wonderful icing which would be perfect on this cake is a poured caramel icing which Rose uses on a yule cake at Christmas time. You can find the recipe for Caramel Toffee Yule Log with the icing on our December tea menu at www.myteaplanner.com
 

​This is my interpretation of the classic Bacardi rum cake recipe.
Cake:

• 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts or sliced almonds
• 1 yellow or white cake mix (I’ve used 15 ounce to 19 ounce sized mixes with equal success)
• 1 box (small size) vanilla instant pudding
• 4 eggs
• ½ cup cold water
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup spiced rum (I use Sailor Jerry brand)
• Glaze:
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• ¼ cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup spiced rum

Preheat oven to 325˚F
Special equipment: Bundt pan, sprayed with Baker's Joy or heavily greased and floured, hand or stand mixer, silicone scraper, cooling rack, microwave-save 3 or 4 cup bowl, wooden or metal skewer, pastry brush
Makes 1 Bundt cake, serves from 10 to 20, depending on serving size
Cake:

1. Sprinkle nuts over bottom of prepared pan.
2. In mixer bowl, combine all cake ingredients on low speed, scraping bowl as needed. Beat three minutes at medium speed.
3. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake one hour. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until cake tests done when pick inserted into cake comes clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes then turn out onto cooling rack.

Glaze:

1. In microwave-safe bowl, soften butter for 30 seconds. Add water and sugar, stirring to combine.
2. Microwave on full power for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring every minute, until mixture is combined and syrupy. Stir in rum.

Assembly:

1. Poke holes in cake with skewer. Brush and spoon glaze over cake. It seems like quite a bit of glaze but just keep at it and the cake will eventually absorb all the glaze.

*Bonus bundt cake recipe from Nordic Ware
This is the recipe that goes with the photograph at the beginning of this blog. I don’t usually take photos of my own bundt cakes because, really, each looks pretty much like the next. This recipe looked good and Nordic Ware recipes can generally be trusted.
https://www.nordicware.com/recipe/cardamom-cream-bundt-cake/
 

​I love fruit desserts: nine times out of ten I will be baking a cobbler, fruit upside down cake, or pie with seasonal fruit. That said, there is also a special place in my heart for chocolate. That tenth dessert better be deep, dark chocolate, luscious and rich. Except for coffee, nothing pairs better with dark chocolate than cherries. Plenty has been written about the love affair between coffee and chocolate, but cherries’ affinity for chocolate gets little press. Though not a fan of chocolate covered cherries, I adore chocolate cakes with cherries and cookies adorned and or flavored with cherries.
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As a kid, cooking my way through the Time-Life Foods of the World cookbook series, I was dazzled by the photograph of the Schwarzwald Kirschtorte or Black Forest Cherry Cake. It is a grand dreamy cake of four layers of chocolate cake, brandied cherries, clouds of whipped cream, and an excessive coating of shaved chocolate. Unfortunately, the most familiar these days are the commercially available versions on view in supermarket bakery sections. The problems with these cakes are numerous: artificial whipped topping, low quality chocolate shavings, horribly sweet, artificially colored cherries, a base cake of not much chocolate taste, and no subtle tang of kirsch. 

Kirschwasser, made in the Black Forest, is a clear brandy (schnapps,) literally “cherry water,” akin to the French eau de vie, “water of life.” Many brands of German kischwassers are available at liquor stores here in the states. While any brand will do for baking, I have a special fondness for a maker in Oregon, Clear Creek Distillery. http://www.clearcreekdistillery.com/products/clear-brandies/ I keep a bottle in my liquor cabinet to use in cherry desserts. (It is really a baking liquor cabinet. I keep brandy, Sailor Jerry's Spiced rum, and Grand Marnier to use in cakes. The drinking vodka is in the freezer.)
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As a firm believer in keeping a well-stocked baking pantry, I keep my favorite cherry baking ingredients on hand for spontaneous ​cherry desserts. Over the years I’ve narrowed down my selection to a handful of cherry products that build cherry flavor in multiple layers. Besides the kirsch, I keep a few jars of Trader Joe’s brand Dark Morello Cherries in Light Syrup on hand. They are great right out of the jar with cottage cheese and work perfectly in any recipe calling for poached cherries. While at Trader Joe’s, I recommend purchasing their dried tart Montmorency cherries, as well. Since I make most of my own preserves, I buy only cherry jam, the French Bonne Maman brand. They use Morello cherries and do not stint on the fruit. This jam delivers true, tart cherry flavor for around five bucks a jar. Should you want to try a jar, you can join their email list and receive coupons for discounts. http://www.bonnemaman.us/join-our-newsletter/

​My best cherry recommendation, however, is Royal Harvest brand Bordeaux Maraschino Cherries with stems. Made with cherries and water as the first ingredients, they are much less sweet than traditional glowing red Maraschino cherries and are a pleasing natural cherry color. I’ve introduced both Maraschino lovers and haters to these cherries and so far, 100% have fallen in love with them and demanded to know where to get them. I found them in a northern California supermarket chain for about five dollars a jar. I’ve since seen them for around eight dollars in other stores and online.

The Black Forest cake is a great example of flavor layering for stronger cherry flavor. I like dark chocolate cake layers rather than the traditional lighter cake. I usually use this classic cocoa cake from Hershey’s: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/hersheys-perfectly-chocolate-chocolate-cake

Gather ingredients:
You’ll use more or less ingredients depending on the size cake and number of layers used as well as how generous you are with the ingredients.

• A cake pedestal or plate
• Three or four cake layers, either 8” or 9” rounds
• Kirsch, about ½ cup
• Cherry preserves, about ½ a jar
• Pitted cherries (frozen tart, canned tart, or my favorite bottled Morello) about 1-2 jars, drained
• Whipped cream, sweetened to taste, from about a pint of cream
• Maraschino cherries or fresh cherries, with stems attached for decoration, about 12
• Chocolate shavings or curls, for garnish, if desired

​Place one layer cake on the pedestal. Begin adding the cherry flavor by sprinkling kirsch over the bottom layer. Next, spread some cherry jam. Then place a good amount of drained, bottled cherries over the cake layer. Spread sweetened whipped cream over the cherries. Center the next cake layer over the whipped cream and repeat layering. Top with the final cake layer, sprinkle with kirsch, spread on whipped cream, and place maraschino cherries with stems decoratively around the top. Shower the top with chocolate shavings, if desired. If your cake is four layers high, you may want to secure the layers from sliding off with three bamboo skewers, trimmed to fit. (Remember to remove the skewers before serving.) Chill until serving time.
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Why am I not talking about fresh cherries? Isn’t fresh fruit better than canned, frozen or dried? In the case of cherries, the answer is no. Fresh cherries in season here on the west coast are all meant to be eaten fresh, right out of hand. They don’t really have the fruit acid, the natural tartness that’s needed for a great cherry pie. In Michigan, it’s possible to purchase fresh tart cherries in their brief season, and I would encourage bakers to seek them out. But better substitutes for most of us are canned or frozen tart cherries. If I have wonderful fresh cherries, I’m most likely just to eat them out of hand
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