I love having a reason to bake a cake. I don’t bake cakes as an after-school treat (cookies rule!), as we just don’t want that much of a tempting sweet around unless it’s easy to parcel out and freeze. But for birthdays, I’m all about baking a cake!
This weekend we celebrated several January birthdays in our family, and I was tasked with bringing a pareve, or non-dairy, cake. My mom keeps a kosher home, and she and my dad were serving deli for our lunch gathering, so I had to find recipes without butter and milk.
The night before our event, I baked two rounds of Black Chocolate Cake, using dark cocoa powder and Earth Balance butter sticks for the shortening. It was gorgeous and moist — truly more black than dark brown.
Since buttercream frosting wasn’t an option, I decided to try my hand at White Meringue Frosting. Egg whites are whisked with lots of sugar and a little vanilla extra over a double-boiler, until the eggs reach a temperature of 160°F and all the sugar is dissolved. Although the recipe cautions about thoroughly dissolving the sugar to avoid a grainy end product, I wasn’t totally successful. I did whisk that mixture by hand, on the stove, for 20 minutes though! The cooked mixture felt and tasted smooth to me, but once it was whipped in the KitchenAid the graininess became more pronounced. Regardless, the frosting was tasty and my father-in-law actually thought the sugar granules were an on-purpose, delicious feature. A. did not — upon tasting it, he immediately asked why there were “crumbs” in the frosting.
The cake was a big success, and I am sure I can do a better job on the frosting next time. If you need a non-dairy frosted cake for allergy or kashrut reasons, I can definitely recommend this one. And here’s the evidence:
I was attracted to 101 Cookbooks’ Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookies Recipe for two reasons: it uses whole wheat flour exclusively, instead of a blend of AP and whole wheat; and the novelty of baking the cookie in a cast iron skillet.
I simplified the recipe a bit, creaming the butter and sugar in my mixer and then just dumping the rest of the ingredients along with it. (I wasn’t about to use multiple bowls for a chocolate chip cookie — I’m lazy like that.) I also used a 12 oz. bag of semisweet chocolate chunks instead of cut up a bar of chocolate myself.
The boys thought this “cookie cake” was very cool. It reminded me of my high school afternoons, working at the Nanuet Mall. There was a Great American Cookie Co. across the aisle from my store, and their cookie cakes were all the rage in early 90s. The boys wanted to cut this cookie up into pizza wedges, but even though I cut the slices thin they still felt very large because of the diameter of the pan.
The cookie is a bit dense because of the whole wheat flour, but my kids definitely did not realize it was any different than a sweet made with all-purpose flour. I wound up freezing half the cookie, and it still tasted fresh once defrosted. While we enjoyed the novelty of this skillet cookie, we’ll probably stick to our tried-and-true drop cookies in the future.
I ripped this recipe for Pretzel-Shortbread Bars out of the October 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living — the mix of salty pretzels and sweet cookies caught my eye. I was considering making these treats for a holiday cookie exchange later this month, but since the recipe was new to me I wanted to test out a smaller batch first. Luckily, I have plenty of people willing to eat my test batches!
The reviews attached to the recipe were unanimous: the pan size stated is far too large. Either use the ingredient quantities as listed and bake in an 8″x8″ pan, or double the ingredients and bake in a 9″x13″. I did the latter. This is a very easy recipe, though it requires the use of two small appliances: a food processor and a mixer (stand or handheld). I love the idea of making a flour out of ground pretzels in addition to including larger pretzel pieces in the dough. However, I did not think the pretzels on top were necessary at all — although I pressed them down into the dough, most of them fell off and made serving an already (purposely) hard cookie more difficult to eat.
The flavor, though, was really lovely. Very buttery, mildly sweet, and wonderfully salty all at the same time. I love that there is no chocolate called for here: it would be easy to recommend a drizzle of chocolate on top, but it is not needed and would just take away from the unique salty sweetness of this cookie.
My boys thought these cookies were “weird” and “interesting.” They have eaten more than one but told me not to make them again. G. said he would like the cookie part if I put chocolate chips in the dough instead of the pretzels! It is a delicious shortbread base. While I enjoyed these bars, I wouldn’t make them again unless someone asked for them by name.
The problem with bringing a homemade cake to an event is that, unlike with individual cookies, you can’t really sample your creation without detection before presenting it to your friends. I wasn’t worried about making this Sour Cream Coffee Cake for the first time, though, because every Ina Garten recipe I make turns out beautifully. This one was no exception.
I did make a few changes: I only used 8 oz. of sour cream (I didn’t want extra in my house and figured the missing 2 oz. would not make a big difference), and I used 4 large eggs instead of 3 extra-large. Instead of cake flour, I used 2¼ c. all-purpose flour plus ¼ c. cornstarch, a substitution ratio I read suggested in the recipe reviews. Also based on the reviews, I doubled the streusel topping.
To bake, I greased and floured a bundt pan and sprinkled about a quarter of the streusel topping in the bottom of the pan — once the cake was baked and turned right-side up, this created the appearance of a glaze which I thought was pretty. (I did not make the separate glaze suggested in the recipe.) I then smoothed half the batter in the pan, evenly distributed the rest of the streusel mixture, and then added the remaining batter on top. I tapped the pan on the counter a few times to make sure there were no voids in the batter, and then baked it for a full hour.
The cake was tender but held together well enough so that a slice could be eaten by hand, breaking off little bites as you went. It is a mild dessert, and definitely a perfect accompaniment to a cup of coffee. It would also be a great addition to a brunch.
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more about me and CITK, and keep in touch:
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Cheesy Kale Crisps: We rarely eat kale now that our farm share is over, and I want to fix that. I've wanted to try using nutritional yeast, and this recipe looks like a tasty way to do it.
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 
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