Marble Pound Cake

Marble cake always looks so pretty, so I've been tempted to try this recipe for a while now. Unfortunately, I've made another slightly dry cake! I tried my best to follow the directions, but the cake still turned out a bit on the dry side for me. Looks like I will have to add a bit of liquid (2 - 4 tblspns) on my attempts at pound cake. Although...I did halve the recipe, it's possible that I overbaked the cake.

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Marble Pound Cake
1 cup + 2 tblspns cake flour (scooped & leveled)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

1 stick (8 tblspns) butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
**2 - 4 tblspns milk/heavy cream/buttermilk

2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted & cooled

• Melt 2 ounces of chocolate over a double-boiler & set aside to cool.
  
• Preheat oven to 325F. Grease & flour baking pan (I used 8X4).
• Whisk together, flour, baking powder & salt.
• With a stand mixer & the paddle attachment, beat butter & sugar till light & fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape as you go to fully incorporate mixture.
  
• With the mixer on medium, slowly add one egg at a time, beating for about 1 minute after the addition of each egg. Scraping the bowl & beaters as you go.
• Add vanilla extract.
  
• Reduce the mixer to low & slowly incorporate the flour. (**Alternate between flour & few tablespoons of milk/heavy cream, end with flour.) Do not overmix.
  
• Divide the batter into half, add the melted chocolate to one portion of the batter.
• Alternate large spoonfuls of white batter & chocolate batter into the prepared pan. Run a knife through the cake in a zigzag pattern & smooth the top.
• Place the pan on a heavy baking sheet, & place in the middle rack of the oven to bake for 45 - 50 minutes - bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, a few crumbs are ok. If the top gets too dark, cover slightly with a piece of parchment paper.
• Remove the cake from the oven & allow to cool for 30 minutes.
• Loosen cake, remove from pan & allow to cool to room temperature.
• Tightly wrap cake to store at room temperature for a few days or freeze for longer storage.
  

Vegan Cheesecake

Vegan orange cheesecake - added orange zest & orange extract - but added a little too much. Made two small containers. Recipe from Nicole on baking bites.

Lemon Raisin Pound Cake

Lemon Pound cake from Veganomican. Dense & moist, but a little too wet. Texture tasted like steamed asian cake. Did not mix batter for 1 - 2 minutes as instructed.

Chocolate Mint Melties

My boyfriend wanted a wheat-free cookie with dark chocolate + he loves mint! Dreena's chocolate mint melties seemed like the perfect candidate to satisfy his craving. I didn't have mint chocolate, so subbed regular dark chocolate chips - gave them a whirl in the food processor, although next time I'm just going to give them a semi-rough rough chop. Although I omitted the dry sugar, the sweetness level was perfect for me. Since I needed more mint flavor, I went with 1/2 tsp vanilla extract & 1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract - next time I will try 1 1/4 tsp peppermint** to see if there's a better balance between chocolate & mint. The cookies are a little crumbly & more cake-like to me, I want to try them again using egg replacer + a little more flour to see if they would result in a slightly denser & chewier cookie texture.

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Chocolate Mint Melties

3 oz/85 grams dark chocolate
1 1/8 cups whole spelt flour
3 tblspn cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp sea salt

¼ cup pure maple syrup
2 tblspn agave nectar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 ½ tsp peppermint extract**
¼ cup organic coconut oil (a touch generous)

• Preheat oven to 350F & line baking sheet with parchment paper.
  
• Give chocolate a thorough chop, leaving small & medium-small chunks.
  
• Transfer chocolate to a bowl & combine with dry ingredients, sifting in flour, cocoa powder, baking powder & baking soda, & whisk to combine.
  
• In a separate bowl, combine syrup, agave nectar, vanilla & mint extracts + oil & stir until well mixed.
  
• Add wet mixture to dry, & stir until just combined (do not overmix).
• Spoon/scoop batter onto baking sheet, spacing evenly.
  
• Place 1 to 2 chocolate chips on top of each cookie & press down slightly to flatten.
  
• Bake for 11 - 12 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies.
  
• Remove from oven & allow to cool for a minute or so on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.
• Makes about one dozen/12 cookies.

Bread Pudding Muffins

Bread pudding muffin recipe from Joyofbaking.com. My boyfriend took me out on a date this past Friday & part of our doggie bag included some leftover bread! The waitress was even so kind to get me a fresh loaf from the oven! What a perfect excuse to make some bread pudding once the bread got a bit stale! I only made a half batch, which yielded about 8 muffins, instead of apples (cause I was too lazy to chop it), I used raisins, semi-sweet chocolate chips & toffee chips. I was also afraid the apples would add some unnecessary moisture, but if your bread is truly stale, the added moisture seems a worthy addition. I reduced the sugar just a bit & I decided the muffins definitely needed a generous dusting of powdered sugar. The original amount of sugar in the recipe, or even an addition of a little extra may have been a good idea - although maybe bread pudding isn't supposed to be sweet? I have no idea - this was my first time. I bet this would be tasteful using brioche and/or croissants - although I've never had brioche before.

Pumpkin Roll

Pumpkin cake roll, slight variation using whole wheat.

Cookie Cupcake

What a cool concept - easy & no plates or napkins required really. These chocolate chunk cookie cupcakes from Marthastewart.com taste better the next day once the dough has had time to settle & harden up a bit. The batter is a bit buttery & rich, but still somewhat light & airy. In addition to dark chocolate chips, I added peanut butter chips, toffee chips & pecans. Because the dough isn't very dense, although I coated my filling with some flour, the chips sunk to the bottom of the cookie cupcake.

Tonka Beans

I don't have access to tonka beans, but still wanted to try Tartelette's Tonka Bean White Chocolate & Apricot Cake. This cake is dense & rich, if you ask me, they taste like pound cake. Instead of tonka beans, I used pure vanilla extract & pure almond extract. I didn't get the chance to add slivered almonds, but I'm sure that would have been a nice crunchy addition. Apricots don't have a lot of strong flavor to me, so I couldn't say they're the star of this cake.