Nectarine Oatmeal Coffee Cake with Brown sugar Topping

Well, we got through our first two days of school!  The kids started school on Thurs. which is really foreign to me, but I have to admit, it was nice to welcome the weekend yesterday!  I now have a 4th grader, 3rd grader, and a 1st grader (sniff, sniff).  It blows my mind to think of how fast my little ones are growing and makes me realize more and more that every day with them counts!
I have bittersweet feelings when school begins, but seeing how much they enjoy their teachers, friends and school, it gives me a huge sense of relief.

Anyway, I figured I'd dust off my cooking skills and make something yummy for breakfast this morning!
I had a few nectarines on the counter and thought a coffee cake would be good and some nice thick cut bacon to go along with it!
I actually altered this recipe quite a bit.  It was originally a muffin recipe, but thought I'd pour it into a 9 inch square pan.  Then I added a brown sugar topping that made this coffee cake extra special!
A couple of tips:  use any fresh or frozen fruit you'd like...blueberries, peaches, raspberries, etc.
Also, if you'd rather make muffins, I think they would turn out great and they'd freeze well too!
Last, be sure not to mix the batter too much.  This was a very fluffy cake, but if you mix it too much it will change the texture.  Just fold lightly!

Nectarine Oatmeal Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar Topping 
{adapted from Easy Breakfast and Brunch cookbook}


INGREDIENTS: {Makes one 9-inch cake or 12 muffins}

• 1 1/3 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/3 cups buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup melted butter or vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour {you can easily substitute 1/2 wheat flour}
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 almost ripe nectarines, pitted and flesh cut into large chunks 

Brown Sugar Topping:

• 4 Tbsp. butter, cut into chunks
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

*Mix together with fingers until it becomes a crumbly consistency

DIRECTIONS:

  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Grease a 9 inch baking dish {I used my pampered chef stoneware}.  

Put the rolled oats and buttermilk in a large bowl and let soak for 10 minutes.  Add the egg, melted butter, and sugar and mix well.

In a medium bowl whisk to combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Pour the flour mixture into the soaked oat mixture and stir briefly.  Quickly fold in the chopped nectarines.  The batter should look streaky...DO not over mix or the cake will become tough and dry!  

Pour the mixture into the prepared dish and sprinkle the brown sugar topping all over.  

Bake for about 20-25 minutes, checking after 20 minutes with a toothpick.  Let cool for 10 minutes then cut into large slices and serve with some crispy bacon and a big cup of coffee!

Blueberry Buckle. Summer is here.

I couldn't resist.  Our first official day of Summer vacation and I'm in the kitchen making breakfast.  I had to celebrate with something that we love...food.  More specifically...breakfast!  I rolled out of bed at the crack of 8:30 {a miracle for me}and came into the kitchen with an idea.  Blueberries and cake. 

Fresh blueberries are one of my favorite fruits.  They have to be nice and firm with a tiny bit of tartness.  I bought a pound of organic blueberries at one of our local grocery stores to use for baking.  

The smells throughout the house were amazing!  I made a frittata {I'll blog about that later}, a big pot of coffee, and sat down with my plate of food.  What a nice way to start off our vacation! 

Blueberry Buckle {recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour}

INGREDIENTS: 

Topping:

• 1/2 Cup sugar
• 1/2 Cup flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 6 Tbsp. cold butter, cut into chunks

Batter:

• 2 Cups All-Purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 stick butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup buttermilk {you can use regular milk instead}
• 2 cups fresh blueberries {you can use frozen too}

Directions:

  Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  Butter and flour 9 inch square baking dish or a 9 inch cake pan.  

To make the topping, combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl.  Add cold butter chunks and crumble with your finger tips until the mixture becomes very crumbly.  Set aside.

To make the batter, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.  Whisk thoroughly.  In another bowl, or your electric mixer, combine butter and sugar.  Beat until nice and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla and beat until creamy.  Alternately add the milk and flour mixture to the creamed butter mixture.  Mix gently, just until combined, ending with the flour mixture.  If you used your electric mixer, you will want to do the rest using a spatula.  Add blueberries and gently fold into your batter, making sure not to break up any of the fruit.  

Pour batter into the prepared baking dish.  Sprinkle crumble topping evenly over the entire cake batter.  Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Let sit at elate 5 minutes...if you can wait that long!

Chocolate Espresso Cakes

Chocolate Espresso Cakes {Sunset Dec. 2010}

Make these cute little cakes for your next Christmas party and you'll be glad you did!
I found these baking molds at Michael's Craft store.  They come in many different colors...


INGREDIENTS: {Makes 12 cakes}

• 1 12/ cups sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup brewed coffee, cooled
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• About 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup espresso powder
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 6 oz. semisweet chocolate chunks or chips
• 4 oz. bittersweet (or semisweet) chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup whipping cream

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl with a mixer, beat sugar, buttermilk, coffee, oil, eggs, salt, and vanilla on medium speed until well blended.

2. Whisk together flour, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl to blend.  Gradually add to wet mixture; beat on medium speed until smooth, scraping down sides as necessary.  Stir in semisweet chocolate chunks.

3.  Set baking molds on a rimmed baking pan and fill each about two-thrids full.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers (avoiding chocolate chunks) comes out clean, about 27 minutes.  Cool cakes completely on a rack.

4.  Melt bittersweet chocolate with cream in a small saucepan over very low heat and stir with a rubber spatula until smooth and blended.  Remove from heat and let cool until thick but still spreadable, about 30-40 minutes.  Spread on cakes.  Dust cakes with cocoa.  Let frosting firm up completely before serving, at least 30 minutes.  

Strawberry Genoise with Whipped Cream

Ok, so your probably thinking "what in the heck is a genoise?" Well, I wasn't too sure myself until I started browsing through my Joy of Cooking cookbook the other day. I was looking for a cake to make and of course, I stumbled upon this one!

JOY of COOKING describes it as: "a rich, moist cake of Italian origin...excellent with fruit fillings and as a roll cake with cream fillings". Don't be afraid by all of the whipping & beating of the eggs...it really wasn't that bad. I had a lot of fun with this recipe and it turned out really yummy! I knew I wanted to use whipped cream, strawberries and lemon curd as my topping, so I sort of muddled my way through the filling/topping part. Not too shabby...

INGREDIENTS & DIRECTIONS for CAKE: Cake recipe from JOY of COOKING

(Makes two 9 inch. layers)

*Have all ingredients at room temp. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cake pans (9 in.) with parchment or wax paper. This (i've found) is one of the only ways my cake will release from the pan perfectly every time!

Pretty simple ingredients

Sift together 3 times and return to sifter:

• 1 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted
• 1/4 cup sugar

Melt in saucepan:

• 1/3 cup (5 1/3 Tbsp.) unsalted butter

Set aside. Whisk together in a large heatproof bowl:

• 6 large eggs (room temp.)
• 3/4 cup sugar

**Set the heatproof bowl in a skillet of barely simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture is warm to the touch. Remove the bowl from the heat and beat on high speed until the mixture is lemony-colored and has tripled in volume. *About 5 minutes in a heavy-duty mixer with the whisk attachment, 10-15 minutes with a hand-held mixer.

Whisking like crazy!

In 3 additions, sift the flour mixture over the top and fold in very gently with a rubber spatula. Re-heat the butter until it is hot and transfer to a medium bowl. Fold about 1 1/2 cups of the egg mixture into the butter until completely incorporated, along with: 1 tsp. Vanilla.

Srape mixture onto the remaining egg mixture and fold in. Scrape the batter into the pans and spread evenly.

Bake until cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pans and the top springs back when lightly pressed, about 15 minutes. Let cool in the pans on a rack for 10 mites. Slide a thin knife around edges to loosen from pan, inver the cake and remove the paper liners. Let cool right side up on the rack.

For the Filling:

• 3 cups strawberries, cut into 1/2 inch slices. **save some for garnish
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 tsp. powdered sugar
• 1 jar lemon curd (I found this at Trader Joe's)

**Whip the cream and sugar in a heavy-duty mixer with a whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Place the strawberries in a bowl. Fold about 3/4 of the cream into the berries. Place bottom cake layer on a serving plate. Spread a generous even layer of lemon curd on bottom cake layer. Arrange sliced strawberries around the outer edge of the cake, on top of the lemon curd, then spread the whipped cream with the strawberries in the center of the cake.

Place the top layer on and top with remaining whipped cream and strawberries.

I didn't frost the sides of the cake, but feel free to do so with the leftover whipped cream!

This was my bottom layer...

My little piece of Italy

Cinnamon Streusel Cake

This is a recipe that my mom has been making for a really long time! I've always loved this cake because it smells soooo incredibly good as it's baking!! As I got older and started making this cake on my own I realized how incredibly EASY it is also! There aren't many ingredients, so it's quick to prepare. I have made this cake for breakfast, brunches, dessert, pretty much for anything.

INGREDIENTS FOR CAKE:

• 1 Box Yellow Cake Mix (I use good old betty crocker)
• 1 pkg. vanilla instant pudding
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• 1 1/3 Cup water
• 2 eggs

INGREDIENTS FOR STREUSEL:

• 1/2 Cup flour
• 1/2 Cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp. butter, melted

INGREDIENTS FOR GLAZE:

• 3/4 Cup powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp. milk

DIRECTIONS:

Beat cake ingredients together with mixer for 2 minutes at medium speed. Spread 3/4 of the batter in greased & floured (or sprayed) 10 inch Bundt Pan.

Combine streusel ingredients. Sprinkle 2/3 Cup streusel over batter. Spread remaining batter over streusel and top with remaining streusel. Bake at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes. Cool 25 minutes then remove from pan by inverting onto serving plate.

Whisk together glaze then drizzle over cooled cake.

CARROT CAKE

This has got to be THE MOST requested cake ever! It's a popular birthday cake with my friends and I love making it! I mean come on, you've got your healthy veggies, your nuts, your dairy...how can you resist? Well, this cake smells amazing when it's baking, tastes even more amazing and makes for the BEST leftovers!

CARROT CAKE

Ingredients

• 2 C. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 C. Oil (I can never bring myself to use that much, so I use half applesauce, half oil) You'd seriously NEVER know!
• 1 tsp. vanilla - sometimes I add a splash more :)
• 1 3/4 C. sugar
• 3 C. grated carrots
• 1 C. chopped walnuts (optional)

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 lb. box powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, room temp.
• 1 cube butter, room temp.
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions: Prepare two 9 inch round pans by wiping the bottom and sides with butter, then flour to coat. This cake is SUPER moist, so if you have Parchment Paper, cut 2 rounds to place on the bottom of the pan after you grease and flour...it will help tremendously with removing the cake after it's cool.

Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, combine over medium-low speed, eggs, oil, vanilla. Add sugar to combine. On low speed, add flour mixture 1 cup at a time. Turn off mixer then stir in carrots and nuts. Divide mixture evenly among the two cake pans.

Bake in pre-heated 300 degree oven for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto rack. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting and ENJOY!!!!

The batter: Sweet Carrots from Farmers Market

The BEST frosting EVER!!!!

Do I eat the rest of the frosting or do I finish the cake?