Plum Cake

So lets talk about plum cake.
It's soft, it's pretty, it's sweet, it's tart. With all of the great stone fruit out right now, I decided to make this lovely cake that I found at Bellaeats.
You should too! It's really great for a light dessert or even good with coffee for breakfast in the morning. Also it tastes better the next day so it would be a great one to bake the day before a dinner party or cookout and then bring it the next day when all of the juicy plumness has been absorbed into the cake. Oh and you can substitute the plums for any stone fruit (meaning any fruit that has a hard seed in the middle like peaches, nectarines, apricots, ecc) but I find it works best with plums because they are slightly tart and that contrasts wonderfully with the sweet cake.

Plum Cake

Ingredients:
*1 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature, for the pan
*2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
*1 tsp baking powder
*1 tsp fine sea salt
*zest from 1 lemon
*1 cup sugar
*3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
*3 eggs
*1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
*2 1/2 cups stone fruit, halved the sliced to about 1/4" thick (I used 4 large-ish plums)
*juice from 1/2 a lemon
*1-2 tbsp granulated sugar
*1 tbsp turbinado sugar
*1/4 cup sliced almonds, chopped a bit

To prepare:
1. Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and lemon zest together in a bowl, set aside.
2. In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium high speed for 3-5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix.
3. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir just until a smooth dough forms. Pull together in a ball (it will be very sticky- don't worry) and wrap with plastic wrap. Flatten into a disk about 1-inch thick and freeze for 30 minutes.
4. While the dough rests, place the sliced plums in a bowl and drizzle with lemon juice and 1-2 tbsp sugar, depending on the sweetness of your fruit. Let it sit until the dough is read.
5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 10" spring-form pan. Remove the dough from the freezer and divide it into 2 equal parts. Pat one piece into the bottom of the buttered pan, making sure to cover the surface evenly. Spread your fruit over the dough, distributing evenly. break the remaining dough into 1-inch globs and distribute evenly over the surface of the fruit. Sprinkly wth turbinado sugar and the almonds.
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until bubbly and golden.

Enjoy with tea or coffee!

Triple Layer Chocolate Cake

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Thank you Livio for all of your help and being my favorite minion ever!

So it was my mom's birthday a couple weeks ago and my boyfriend Livio was in town, and we decided to make something super special for my mom. And well hey, what's more special than a triple layer cake?

Not many things... perhaps new macbooks or maybe a new mustang but those are on a different level of special. But trust me, if you make someone a triple layer cake for their birthday, they will feel special and that is something money can't buy. To top it all off, it's chocolate, and between the layers is chocolate ganache. And Livio thought it was surprisingly simple...and he probably has never baked a cake in his life. So there ya go I think next time you want to make someone a cake for their birthday, forego the box mix and try this one!

Triple Layer Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

For cake layers

3 oz fine-quality semisweet chocolate (sharffen berger or even ghirardeli work great!)

1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee

3 cups sugar

2 1/2 all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not dutch-process)

2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 tsp salt

3 large eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

For ganache frosting and filling

1 lb fine-quality semisweet chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp light corn syrup

1/2 stick (1/4 cup butter-unsalted)

To make the layers: (you'll need 3 8-10 inch round cake pans)

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Grease cake pans. Line the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper and grease the papers as well.

2. Finely chop the chocolate and in a bowl combine it with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

3. Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In other large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thicken slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held electric beater). Slowly add the oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until well combined. Add the sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well.

4. Divide batter betwen pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, about an hour to an hour and 10 minutes.

5. Cool the layers completely in the pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto the racks. Carefully remove the parchment paper from the bottoms and cool layers completely for several hours, or even up to a day ahead (but wrap them over night to keep them moist and at room temperature).

To make the frosting:

1. finely chop chocolate. In a 1 1/2 quart saucepan bring cream, sugar and corn syrup to a low simmer over moderately low heat, whisking just until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan immediately as to not cook the cream and add the chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into pieces and add to frosting, whisking until smooth.

2. Transfer frosting to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable (the better quality the chocolate the easier this is actually).

3. Spread frosting between cake layers and over top and sides. Cake keeps for about 3 days very well and probably can stretch even up to 5. bring the cake to room temp before serving. Oh and I added white pearl sprinkles just around the top near the edge because I thought it was beautiful :-).

Chocolated Buttermilk Brownie Cake

I want to thank all of my followers for their comments, encouragement and most importantly for following my blog!! Keep it up people and I'll keep posting!

I have never made 2 cakes in one night and we have eaten a lot of it lately due to Rosie's birthday, however despite that, I still thought this cake was SOOOOOO good! Alex and I made this cake on the same night as the lemon cake and it was also for Rosie's birthday, although not specifically by her request thus her name not being in the title. This cake was almost brownie like, but not so chewy and dense so it can still be called a cake, but it is moist and delicious and simple to make! The key ingredient in this cake is the buttermilk- it is what makes the cake so moist! Buttermilk is not actually buttery-milk, but rather acidic milk, and if you don't have any buttermilk, you can just add 1 tbsp of lemon juice to the milk and let it sit for an hour- I know it sounds strange but it works TRUST.

And the frosting is a must- it is what changes the cake from being a normal chocolate cake to something beyond good.

Anywho I must give credit where credit is due and I must say Alex did more than her share of the work (meaning she basically made the frosting alone and helped me a ton with the cake) however I did instruct her so kindly and gently that it implored her to carry out her duties so admirably :)

Chocolate Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking sda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tablespoons buttermilk
2 1/4 cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line and/or grease a 9×13 pan. I always line my pans with foil or parchment paper because this allows me to easily lift the cake out of the pan without having to cut the cake from an awkward angle.

2. combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In a medium sauce pan, combine the water, 1 cup unsalted butter, and 1/3 cup cocoa powder. Melt together and bring to a boil for just a moment, then add to the flour mixture and beat together until just combined. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the buttermilk and vanilla.

3. Pour the cake into your prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, until set. Allow to cool completely before frosting and slicing.

4. While the cake cools, make the frosting by melted together 1/4 cup unsalted butter, 2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder, and 3 tablespoons of buttermilk. When smooth, place in a large bowl and beat together with 2 1/4 cup powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Add a bit more buttermilk or water if the consistency seems to thick, or add a bit more powdered sugar if it seems to thin.

5. When the cake is cooled, frost and slice into 24 squares. Enjoy!

So the verdict is out- the cake was a smashing success last night, mostly on the part of MARTINO who ate probably a 1/3 of it :). I was so full after dinner I didn't even really want to eat cake however after trying a bite I had to have a slice! I SERIOUSLY recommend this cake! (Oh and I added sprinkles for a nice birthday touch- again HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSIE!)

Thanks again to Alex for all of your help and Rachel for the gorgeous photos! Oh and recipe is courtesy of Crepes of Wrath.