Grapefruit Poppyseed Bundt Cake #Bundtamonth

I begin this post with a heavy heart. One of the founders of #BundtaMonth has suffered a personal loss. My heart goes out to her and her family. I know there is nothing I can say or do that will ease her pain, only time will help to temper that sting. All I can offer is support, peace and healing thoughts from afar. Be strong my friend.

As far as I’m concerned grapefruit is an underused fruit when it comes to baking. Truly, it is a rare thing when I happen upon a cake or pastry that uses grapefruit as the citrus element rather than say lemon or orange. And I happen to really like grapefruit…so does my husband for that matter.

So I decided for my January #BundtaMonth posting I would use grapefruit as my citrus element. While we’re on flavors I favor, poppy seeds are a crunchy little favorite of mine too, so move over lemon poppy seed cake and say hello to Grapefruit Poppy Seed Bundt Cake! Mwah!

I started out with the aforementioned lemon version and tweaked the recipe just a tad, replacing the lemon with ruby red grapefruit and the crème fraiche with a sour cream/ half and half combo (you could use heavy cream, I just didn’t have any on hand). I also modified the leavener a bit. I was hoping the ruby reds would give the cake a pinkish glow, no such luck.

I decided to give the cake a flavor boost by brushing a soaking liquid onto the just-out-of-the-oven-stabbed-with-a-skewer-cake and the topped it off with a wee bit of glaze. I had fun.

I picked up a new pan for this one, it’s the blossom Bundt and while I like the shape I’m not sold on this gold tone pan. My cake came out a bit darker than I like but not over cooked. I’ll give it another chance before I relegate it to the back of my closet.

Interested in joining the citrusy fun? Here’s how you can be a part of Bundt-a-Month:

• Simple rule: Use mandarin, orange, lime, yuzu, lemons, Key lime or ANYTHING citrus – and bake us a Bundt for Tangy January
• Post it before January 31, 2013.
• Use the #BundtAMonth hashtag in your title. (For ex: title should read #BundtAMonth: Chocolate Cinnamon Bundt)
• Add your entry to the Linky Tool below
• Link back to our announcement posts
• Follow Bundt-a-Month on Facebook where we feature all our gorgeous bundt cakes. Or head over to our Pinterest board for inspiration and choose from over 350 Bundt cake recipes!

Grapefruit Poppy Seed Cake
Adapted from Cake Simple by Christie Matheson”

Ingredients – Cake
3 cups AP flour
1/4 cup Poppy Seeds
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar in the raw
6 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
2 teaspoons freshly grated grapefruit zest
1/3 cup sour cream mixed with 1/4 cup half and half (you can use heavy cream if you have that on hand)

Ingredients – Soaking Liquid
1 cup fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
2/3 cup granulated sugar

Ingredients – Glaze
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
2-3 teaspoons grapefruit juice
1 teaspoon half & half (or heavy cream, or milk)
Pinch of salt

Instructions – Cake
1. Grease and flour your Bundt pan, set aside
2. Preheat the oven to 325°F
3. Whisk the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.
4. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the eggs one at a time mixing between additions.
6. Add the vanilla, grapefruit juice, grapefruit zest and combine.
7. Turn your mixer down to low. In three installments each, alternate adding the flour and sour cream/half & half mixture to the butter mixture (Begin and end with the flour).
8. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the top. Bake for 50-60 minutes, checking at the 50 minute mark for doneness by inserting s skewer into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, it’s done.
9. While the cake is baking, make the soaking liquid.
10. As soon as you take the cake out of the oven, take your skewer and poke holes into it without going all the way to the bottom. Immediately brush the glaze all over the cake. I used about half of it.
11. Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.
12. Invert onto a plate.
13. Drizzle Glaze over cake and serve.

Instructions – Soaking Liquid
1. Add the sugar and grapefruit juice to a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring gently to dissolve.
2. Lower to a simmer, stirring occasionally until it has reduced to about half. This should take approximately 10 minutes.

Instructions – Glaze
1. Whisk 2 teaspoons grapefruit juice and 1 teaspoon half and half into confectioners’ sugar. Add additional juice if needed to get a thick but flowing consistency.

Almond Clementine Bundt Cake by Carrie from Poet In The Pantry
Citrus Bundt Cake with Sparkling Wine and Fiori di Sicilia by Laura from The Spiced Life
Citrus Cocktail Mini Bundt Cakes by Renee from Magnolia Days
Citrus Lust Mini Bundt Cakes with Lemon Curd by Stacy from Food Lust People Love
Dried Tomato Cherry and Yuzu Cake by Ann from Anncoo Journal
Glazed Lemon Bundt Cake by Alice from Hip Foodie Mom
Grapefruit PoppySeed Bundt Cake by Deb from Knitstamatic
Grapefruit Yogurt Bundt Cake by Kate from Food Babbles
Lemon Bundt with Lemon Curd by Holly from A Baker’s House
Mini Orange Bundts with a Grand Marnier Glaze by Tara from Noshing With The Nolands
Orange Chocolate Marble Bundt by Paula fromVintage Kitchen
Orange Olive Oil Cake by Katerina from Diet Hood
Orange Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Bundt Cake by Anuradha from Baker Street
Soaked and Glazed Lemon Cake by Dorothy from Shockingly Delicious
Zesty Lemon Bundt Cake by Anita from Hungry Couple NYC

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Molasses Wheat Quick Bread #TwelveLoaves

First Thing First: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Whew! Now that the indulgent months are behind us I so want to get back to “normal” food. Simple, uncomplicated, healthy eating.

Clean Slate is such the perfect theme for this month’s #TwelveLoaves posting. I suppose that slate means somewhat different things to different people and um in a different context it could mean a whole lot of different things but let’s stay focused here.

For me it means enough already with the high fat, fancy shmancy foods, it means remembering to take care of myself and eating properly instead of picking at all the wrong things along the way.

I was looking for a simple, healthy grab and go type breakfast item, one that I can easily take with me in the morning if need be; something that would be filling enough to sustain me in the morning without leaving me feeling bogged down or fill me up with empty calories. I’d been sitting on this quick bread recipe made with whole wheat flour, flax seeds and blackstrap molasses and honestly kinda forgot about it until I stated thinking about this month’s challenge. It just seemed right.

All in all I think between the iron, calcium and potassium in the blackstrap molasses, the omega-3′s, fiber and lignans in the flax seed and the folic acid, protein and antioxidants in wheat germ this recipe is not too shabby on the nutrition scale. Not to mention the whole wheat flour.

I only made a few minor tweaks, adding raisins to one of the two loaves and using ground flax seed rather than whole which require grinding. BTW, I learned there’s a 1:1.5 ratio of whole to ground flax seeds…just in case you need to do the conversion like I did.

The bread is a bit on the tart side from the blackstrap molasses and so I found pairing it with some strawberry jam seemed the right thing to do. A small piece of cheese would also be a nice accompaniment.

Interested in joining us? Here’s the deal:

#TwelveLoaves January: Clean Slate. Bake a bread, yeast or quick bread, loaf or individual. January #TwelveLoaves is all about a clean slate. After the holiday indulgences, we are starting the year with simplicity. Have fun baking with whole grains and other flours. Share with us your favorite basic bread recipes. Let’s get baking!

Just follow the rules, it’s as easy as pie:
1. When you post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, make sure that you mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your blog post; this helps us to get more members as well as share everyone’s posts. Please make sure that your Bread is inspired by the theme!
2. Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of my blog. It must be a bread baked to the Twelve Loaves theme.

Molasses Wheat Quick Bread
Slightly adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients
4 cups white whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
6 tablespoons ground flaxseed
2/3 cup toasted wheat germ (plus more for sprinkling)
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup blackstrap molasses
3 cups buttermilk
2/3 cup raisins
2 teaspoons cinnamon (plus more for sprinkling)

Instructions
1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Spray two 9 inch loaf pans with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, sift both flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Whisk in the ground flaxseed and wheat germ.
3. In a large measuring cup (or a bowl) combine the buttermilk, blackstrap molasses and canola oil. Add to the dry ingredients and stir to combined.
4. Place half of the batter in one prepared loaf pan. Even out top with an offset spatula and sprinkle with extra wheat germ if desired.
5. Gently fold the raisins and cinnamon into the rest of the batter. Don’t overmix.
6. Pour the remaining batter into the other prepared loaf pan. Even out top with an offset spatula and sprinkle with extra cinnamon if desired.
7. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Remove from the oven an let sit in the pans for 10 minutes or so the turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Alabama Light Bread by Dorothy | Shockingly Delicious

Basic White Bread by Renee | Magnolia Days

Classic Oatmeal Bread by Liz | That Skinny Chick Can Bake

Grandmom’s Dinner Rolls by Jennie from The Messy Baker Blog

Italian Potato Bread by Rosella | Ma Che Ti Sei Mangiato

Molasses Wheat Quick Bread by Deb | Knitstamatic

Orange Date Nut Loaf by Katerina | Diethood

Pandoro by Paula | Vintage Kitchen

Rosemary Olive Oil Bread by Alice | Hip Foodie Mom

Whole Wheat Pita Bread by Holly | A Baker’s House

Whole Wheat Sea Salt Bagel by Lora | Cake Duchess

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Honey Lemon Drops

For Chanukah this year my sister in law asked me to make the challah which I foolishly didn’t take a picture of before we tore into it. Six Strands! Ugh! Anyway, she also asked me to make some cookies, a request I am always happy to fulfill. I wanted something simple but tasty. Once again Cookiepedia by Stacy Adiamando came to the rescue. The last wonder I made from this book was my Orange Cardamom Cornmeal cookies.

The Honey Lemon Drops are petite little cookies but don’t let that fool you, they provide a wondrous little burst of lemon and honey flavor. Originally I pretty much followed the recipe as written (unusual I know) but although tasty I felt they were too salty; my family agreed. So the second time around I fiddled with the recipe, cutting the salt and tweaking the sugar.

The end result is a chewy, flavorful little cookie.

This batch, well okay some of this batch, was packaged up and given as gifts to a few people at work along with a little knitted ornament I made for each person. Here it is on a co-worker’s tree!

The trick to getting these cookies even in size and shape is to use a small cookie (mini ice cream scoop) and drop the dough onto the parchment lined sheet pan.

To flatten them I simply used one or two fingers to gently press them into disks. They will expand some but not much. Tip: If your fingers get a little sticky you can wipe them off or dip into a little water, just be careful not to transfer the water to the cookie.

Once they have completely cooled lay them out on a piece of parchment paper and drizzle the glaze over the cookies. I just used the whisk I blended the glaze ingredients with to do this.

These cookies are particularly tasty with a nice cup of Earl Grey tea…just in case you were wondering.

Honey Lemon Drops
Adapted from “The Cookiepedia” by Stacy Adiamando
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon lemon zest

Instructions
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
3. In a small bowl or measuring cup combine the egg and honey, stirring until well combined. Set aside
4. In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the lemon zest.
5. With the mixer running, add the egg/honey mixture to the butter mixture and beat until combined.
6. Slowly add the flour to the wet ingredients in three increments, blending until mostly combined between each. After the last addition blend until the dough looks smooth.
7. Using a small cookie scoop, drop the dough onto one parchment lined sheet pan about an inch or so apart.
8. Gently pat each cookie ball down into a disk.
9. Bake for about 11 minutes or until you just see a light brown tinge around the edges. Let stand on the sheet for about 2 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
10. Repeat with more dough and the second sheet pan, allowing the first one to cool before reusing.

The Glaze
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons half and half or milk.

Once the cookies are cooled, combine the sugar and half and half with a whisk until well combined. If the glaze is too thick add a little more half and half one teaspoon at a time. You want it to remain a bit on the thick side.

Place the on some parchment paper and drizzle the glaze using the whisk over the cookies. They will need to set for about an hour or so, then you can place them in an airtight container.

NOTE: The glaze may be made and drizzled over the cookies the next day.

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Long Island Iced TeaCake #BundtaMonth

Well you know, how could I not? Seeing as how this month’s #BundtaMonth challenge is booze and I live on Long Island, Long Island Iced TeaCake made perfect sense!

In case you’ve been living under a rock, didn’t go to college (or college parties), don’t have a joker as a friend, Long Island Iced Tea is for the 21 and over crowd, despite how it tastes, it is most definitely not iced tea, *hic*. The thing of it is, it’s one of those wild concoctions that doesn’t taste like what it really is and so you have a tendency to drink it like what it’s not and then have another and another and then you stand up…don’t ask how I know, I’m not telling.

What it actually is, is a concoction made from five different clear liquors – vodka, gin, white rum, tequila and triple sec with a bit of sour mix and splash of cola for that tea-like color. It was created as part of a contest at a bar right here on Long Island in New York in 1972. The only requirement was that Triple Sec had to be included in the recipe. The rest is history, but if you would like to read more, check out this site.

Okay, now that you’re back, I have this fun book called “Booze Cakes” that I immediately turned to for this month’s challenge. There were SO MANY options that I thought it would be difficult to decide until of course I found the Long Island Iced Tea Cake recipe. I didn’t make many changes to the original recipe except I used a homemade sour mix and added a brown sugar glaze. I also made mini bundt cakes rather than a sheet cake.

These cakes are also quite tasty without the soaking liquid so you can control just how boozy you want the to be.

I must say this would make a great addition to your New Year’s Eve party dessert tray.

But remember, drink your cake responsibly!

Interested in joining the Bundt-a-Month fun? Here’s the deal:

- Get inspired by your favorite cocktail, mocktail or just use your favorite liqueur and bake us a Bundt for Boozy December.
- Post it before December 31, 2012.
- Use the #BundtAMonth hashtag in your title. (For ex: title should read #BundtAMonth: Chocolate Cinnamon Bundt)
- Add your entry to the Linky tool below
- Link back to both Lora and Anuradha’s announcement posts.
 
Follow Bundt-a-Month on Facebook where we feature all our gorgeous bundt cakes. Or head over to our Pinterest board for inspiration and choose from over 350 Bundt cake recipes.

Long Island Iced TeaCake
Recipe mildly adapted from “Booze Cakes” by Krystina Castella and Terry Lee Stone

Ingredients – Cake
2 cups cake flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon gin
1 tablespoon light rum
1 tablespoon tequila
1 tablespoon triple sec
1 tablespoon vodka
2 tablespoons sour mix
2 tablespoons cola, chilled
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
6 egg yolks
1 cup minus 1 teaspoon sugar, divided
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

Ingredients – Glaze
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon rum

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour your mini bundt pan, set aside.
2. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.
3. In another bowl, combine all the liquor, gin thru vodka plus the sour mix, cola and light brown sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves then add the milk.
4. In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the egg yolks until they are thick and a light lemony color. Add 1/2 cup of the sugar and beat until the yolks form a thick ribbon when you drop some off a spoon. Gradually add the butter and the remaining sugar until just combined.
5. Alternating wet and dry, add the flour mixture, liquor mixture in three additions each.
6. Scoop the batter into your mini bundt pans and bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Let set in pan until just about cooled then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the Glaze
1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the brown sugar, milk and salt.
2. Bring to a low boil, stirring constantly with a whisk. Be careful not to let the milk boil over.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the rum. Allow it to cool slightly before drizzling over the cake. The glaze will thicken slightly, this is okay.

About 15 minutes before you are ready to serve, mix up another batch of the liquor and sugar mixture (no milk this time) and put a tablespoon (or two) into each dish and put one of the cake on top. You can also drizzle some over the cake if you are so inclined.

Enjoy!

Araby Spice-Limoncello Bundt Cake with Limoncello Glaze by Lora | Cake Duchess

Bailey’s and Buttershots Bundt Cake by Karen | In The Kitchen With KP

Banana Pineapple Bundt Cake with Coconut Rum Glaze by Carrie | Poet In The Pantry

Chocolate Bourbon Mini Bundt by Holly | A Baker’s House

Chocolate Port Bundt Cake by Paula | Vintage Kitchen

Eggnog Rum Pound Cake by Dorothy | Shockingly Delicious

Long Island Iced TeaCake by Deb | Knitstamatic

Madeira Pound Bundt Cake by Renee | Magnolia Days

Mint Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake with Creme de Menthe by Laura | The Spiced Life

Shirley Temple Bundt Cake by Kim from Cravings Of A Lunatic

Spiked Eggnog Bundt Cake with Bourbon Glaze by Kate | Food Babbles

Sweet Potato Bourbon Bundt by Jennie from The Messy Baker Blog

Rum and Raisin Butter Bundt with Rum Honey Glaze by Stacy | Food Lust People Love

Tiramisu Bundt Cake with Kahlúa Mascarpone Glaze by Anuradha | Baker Street

Vanilla and Bourbon Cake by Kate from Diet Hood

Vanilla Mini Bundt Cakes with Kahlúa by Alice | Hip Foodie Mom

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Cornbread: Sweet or Savory?

Many a spirited conversation has surrounded this question. Frankly I don’t prefer one over the other, it’s a matter of what I’m making for dinner, which works best with what I’m making for dinner and what my husband is in the mood for with dinner (sometimes he even gets his way LOL!). The sweet vs savory debate is a regional thing, think Mason-Dixon line.

Southerners prefer not to include sugar in their cornbread.

Northerners prefer sugar in their cornbread.

I’ve made many varieties of cornbread over the years, in fact during hurricane Sandy I made it on the stovetop in a cast iron skillet, no oven needed (good thing, since without electricity it was out of commission). But no matter how I make it, sweet or savory, in the oven or on the stove top, my base recipe remains the same. Creature of habit.

So when my mother-in-law asked me to make some mini cornbread muffins for Thanksgiving this year I thought I’d have a little fun and make both a sweet version and a savory version. I’ll be curious to see who likes which. (Mom, if you’re reading this, don’t tell!)

This recipe evolved quite some time ago from a cornmeal package label but at this point it doesn’t really resemble the original recipe much…other than the cornmeal part. It’s incredibly versatile and super easy to make. If you want to keep the mix on hand, simply combine all the dry ingredients minus the ingredient that makes it either sweet or savory – you know, sugar or herb/spice (in this case rosemary) – and store in a container in a cool dry place until ready to use.

If you’re looking for a quick and easy carb for Thanksgiving, this is it.

Ingredients – Base Recipe
1 ¼ cups stone ground cornmeal
1 cup All Purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk, well shaken
½ cup milk
¼ cup neutral oil like canola or grapeseed
1 large egg

For Savory: Add 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary in with the dry ingredients (Thyme would be nice too).
For Sweet: Add ¼ cup sugar in with the dry ingredients.

Instructions
1. Preheat your oven to 400°. Grease your 24 well mini-muffin tin (I use cooking spray) and set aside.
2. In a large bowl combine the cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk together to blend well.
3. Now you need to make a decision: sweet or savory? If you are going the sweet route add the ¼ cup sugar. If you are going the savory route, add the 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary.
4. In a separate bowl or large measuring cup (that’s what I did) combine the buttermilk, milk, oil and egg; whisk together to blend well.
5. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir just until combined. Be careful not to overmix!
6. Using a small ice cream scoop or ladle, pour the batter into the muffin tin.
7. Bake for 10-14 minutes or until lightly golden.
8. Allow to sit in the tin for about five minutes then remove to a wire rack.

Both the sweet and savory are nice served warm but room temperature is perfectly fine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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