Apple Streusel Cake

Happy Thanksgiving! First off, I want to comment on how crazy the weather has been in Seattle this week. Record rainfall then blue skies, hail and lightening. And it is really cold. Usually it is just grey and drizzling. Anyway, I am looking forward to having Thanksgiving dinner with Cory and my dear friend Sarah and her husband. I know my mother will be sad that I won't be home this year but all three of her children will be back in a couple of weeks for early Christmas and I know she is excited about that.

Rainbow Cake

I promised my friend Rula I would post more. We have a blog pact which I have been neglecting but I know she will both appreciate this cake and the sentiment behind it! This rainbow cake is in celebration of Ref 74 passing in Washington. I am super happy to live in a state where gay men and women have the same rights as everyone else, to marry the person that they love. In Washington, the additional revenue from marriage licenses for same-sex marriage (conservatively estimated at $50,000) will be going to help at risk LGBT youth. We also legalized marijuana but just to be clear, this cake isn't "special". Just beautiful and delicious.

Gingerbread

This is gingerbread. It is moist cake with ginger and molasses. Most people think of gingerbread cookies when they think of gingerbread; it is very confusing, especially because it is hard to be more descriptive than gingerbread. Gingerbread cake sounds redundant. However, after getting over the initial confusion, everyone seemed to love it. I certainly did. I tried to resist by cutting myself small pieces. I'm sure the size of the slices are much more important than the actual percentage of cake consumed (which was quite large in my case).

Peanut Butter Torte

This torte is basically the most ridiculous thing ever. It has peanut butter, cream cheese, espresso, chocolate and Oreos. It isn't something I would normally bake but my boyfriend wants to learn how to cook and he picked this out. He saw peanut butter and Oreos and wouldn't be deterred. It ended up being rich and decadent and amazing. Enjoy!

Blueberry Orange Bundt Cake

 I am totally behind with my posts. I have so many delicious recipes for you. But then I wen to Italy (and got even more recipes) and have been bad about keeping up. Anyway, I'll try to get all these old recipes posted along with the new ones from Italy.

Raspberry Struesel Coffee Cake

More things with berries! I went berry picking with my lovely friends and ended up with about 10 pounds of berries. I may have gone a little overboard with the berries. But on the other hand, it doesn't really seem to be a problem and my co-workers are pretty happy about eating all the berry baked goods so I say it was a win.

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

I realize the rest of America is currently baking in the hot weather but here in Seattle we're having thunder storms. Boo. But we did get some beautiful weather this weekend, sunshine and 80 degrees and it finally felt a bit like summer.

Devil's Food White Out Cake

I made this cake for a charity dessert auction.  The charity supports local and global efforts to enable everyone to have access to healthy, sustainable and local food.  Mostly though, I just wanted an excuse to make this cake.  This cake has a lot of chocolate in it, so if you're a fan of the it may be the right choice for you.

Chocolate Layer Cake

I know I haven't posted in ages.  And I have tons of recipes ready to go.  So I am making up for it with this recipe, which is the best chocolate cake ever.  Just look at all the chocolatey goodness, so rich and moist.  You're forgiving me already.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

After cooking some fancy cakes, I thought it was time to try something a little easier.  This can is a breeze to make, and takes only about 45 minutes from start to finish.  It may not look as glamorous but it's rich chocolate flavor makes it a hit.

Red Velvet Cake

This cake is a second attempt at two things: making a red velvet cake that is actually red and assembling a layer cake that doesn't sag.  And I suppose practice does make perfect because I was much more successful this round in both regards, creating a very red and stable, beautiful layer cake.

Black-and-White-Chocolate Cake

Two of my good friends are getting married in June and have asked me to make the cake (eek!).  They are planning on having other desserts but want a small cake for tradition's sake.  They key criteria is that it taste good (which I think I can handle) but it also needs to be somewhat photographable (which I'm not so sure about). 

Pound Cake

I am so excited to share this pound cake recipe with you because it is one of if not they best pound cake I have ever had and it is also the simplest recipe.

Chocolate Whiskey Cake

 Happy Valentine's Day!  I am not ashamed to admit I spent this Valentine's day getting a massage and then cooking myself dinner and soon taking a bubble bath with a good book.  I used to resent Valentine's Day (even when I've been in relationships, so much pressure).  But now I've embraced it as a perfect excuse to bake delicious sweets for all the people I love, which is one of my favorite things.

Cinnamon Mocha Cake

I am so excited about this new cookbook I got, which is "Baking: From my home to yours" by Dorie Greenspan.  The book is beautiful with tons of tantalizing recipes and lots of charming asides.  I have a feeling I will be posting a lot of recipes out of it.  Here is the first one, a cinnamon mocha cake which is absolutely delicious.

French Apple Cake

I love finding recipes like this French apple cake.  It has the key aspects I want in a recipe: something that is easy and quick but still delicious and fancy or elegant, a step above ordinary.  This cake is a breeze to make and it has a great flavor and it is different from what we in America think of as cake.  It is light and fresh.

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

This is my mom's and aunt's favorite birthday cake.  My mom and aunt are twins and they are the best!  It is their birthday on the 13th.  So happy birthday Mom and Aunt Leslie.  I wish you guys could have eaten my Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes but come visit me and I'll make you some.  I love you both!

Pear Spice Cake

My parents have a pear tree in their back yard. It was crazy how many pears it could produce. And they would all get rip at the same time and we would just be inundated with pears, although it wasn't as bad as the persimmon tree at our old house, apparently. Mom would usually can a bunch of the pears, which was really tasty, but I think this recipe is a good alternative too.

Plum upside-down cake

I had this vision of making individual plum upside down cakes with a perfect half of a plum like a little jewel in each one. It mostly worked, but scaling a recipe from a full cake to mini-cakes is not as straightforward as I expected. That said, they turned out looking fairly nice, even if most of the plums didn't make it out of the pan initially and they are super tasty. I'm a big fan of cardamom and plums and I seriously ate like 4 of these. Or more, but really no one is counting.

Plum Kuchen

So actually, I'm pretty sure these are not actually plums but rather pluots.  Pluots are a hybrid of plums and apricots which look a lot like plums and are very sweet and juicy.  They seemed basically like plums to me.  I've gotten a lot in my CSA and there is only so many one girl can eat, so I made a cake (which is unsurprisingly a common solution to almost any problem I may encounter).