Cinnamon Apple Coffee Cake

Cinnamon Apple Cake

3 cups All purpose flour

1 cup oil

2 1/2 cups white sugar, I didn't have enough so I used 2 cups white 1/2 brown sugar which is why my batter appears darker

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup apple cider (spiced or non spiced)

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

4 eggs

4-5 apples peeled and cored, sliced thinly

4 or more tablespoons brown sugar

5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Grease and flour a tube pan.

Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon and set aside in a small bowl.

Slice the apples and set aside.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.

Add the oil, Apple cider and vanilla and beat well.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Spread a third of the batter in the tube pan. Arrange a layer of apples over it and sprinkle generously with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Continue with two more layers, ending with apples and cinnamon sugar. Bake at 325 for about 90 minutes.

Cool and serve!

This recipe is best made in a kitchen aid but it can be done with a sturdy whisk and arm and since I am still without a mixer I attempted it.

Recipe adapted from here

Fresh Coconut Loaf cake

I saw this fresh moist looking coconut cake and knew my little sister would love it!

There were two versions of the cake on the original site (here) and I went with fresh, it was a lot of peeling and shaving and to be honest half of the flesh did not infuse into the milk at all (which evaporated into about 1 tbsp) so I went with the fresh flesh and canned coconut milk to make up the rest of the milk that had evaporated.

The glaze also split once, then the second batch split while on the cake (which was probably still warm) but all in all it was good, and everyone loved it!!

So for all you coconut lovers out there this is a keeper, but I would recommend adding a coconut extract for more flavour and maybe finding a good coconut tasting fresh coconut (some of them taste of nothing)

If you can buy pre shredded then you're in luck as it'll save you lots of time.

Give it a try and let me know! :)

p.s I got one loaf by halving the fresh coconut recipe but using 3 eggs instead of 2.5 as there is no point in trying to halve an egg.


Thanks to my sisters for the lovely shots, that's me holding the cake in the shots below and pigging out while they both shoot the cake.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Peach Upside Down Cake I

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 5 fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and halved
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

1. Melt 1/4 cup butter or margarine in an 8 inch square pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar and nutmeg. Arrange peach halves, cut side down, in pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Spread batter over peaches.
3. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 35 to 40 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. Remove cake from oven, and let stand in pan for 5 minutes; invert onto serving platter. Serve with whipped cream.
   
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   This recipe is truly fantastic!! The cake is amazing, you won't believe it until you try it. Substitute whatever fruit you want but canned peaches work just fine, this time I tried it with fresh pineapple and it was divine! Let me know what you think of that cake!!!

Key Lime Bundt Cake

I'm all about seasonal freshness and local food, if I see vine tomatoes but the sign says product of usa or mexico and I'd much rather go for the hothouse tomatoes grown locally.

I'm also a bargain hunter so today I saw key limes, tons of them on the clearance rack, two little sacks choved onto a tray and wrapped up with plastic and a sign that says 1.49. I figured I'd give them a try since they looked pretty ok and I've been eyeing them over the summer but their price is usually close to $4.

The key lime always confused me, I've never tasted them before and I hear they are used for pie - the fameous key lime pie - but I don't have much of a sweet tooth and pie isn't my thing really, especially a citrus pie with meringue .. not my thing at all (please don't kill me lol)

When I was younger in pakistan my mother used to give us a lime type of fruit that was very sweet, and delicious but this isn't the same thing at all. I've not yet located any of those in the west yet, but my search over those sugary limes is not over yet!

Wiki says key limes are loomi amani, which is a dry lime that is brown in color used in arabic food, to flavour stews and rice, and all sorts of dishes, very popular in southern iraqi cuisine, as well as all over the gulf and parts of the middle east as well as persia where it's called leemo. Being of middle eastern backround I can work with this.

If I can dry the rest of these babies successfully (unlike the baby cherry peppers I hung from my window which resulted in a scary moldy interior -ewe! ) then all should be well and I'll have a huge stock of some dry lime for my cooking.

Not a fan of the pie as I said so a cake sounded just right. I LOVE CAKES! Especially plain sort of cakes.

Here's a good time to use the kitchen aid mixer or a hand mixer because you'll have to trust me on this, after zesting and squeezing the juice out of all those little limes the last thing I wanted to do was use a whisk.

Took me a bit to figure out what the breadcrumbs were for, I've debated whether to use panko or ordinary ones and it's a good thing I didn't season my homemade breadcrumbs with salt, pepper or anything like that because I was thinking of it last week.

Upon some searching online I found a blog which mentioned not to use panko, and instead a fine regular sort of breadcrumb so I went for that instead and seems it is a trick used for bundt pans to prevent sticking I guess. Learning something new everyday!

Moving on to the recipe. I've zested close to 10 key limes even though the recipe calls for three, why not I say - go big or go home - and their juice made EXACTLY 1/2 cup for the syrup. Yay!

Upon tasting the batter I found it to be just right, tasted like a green fruit loop to be honest, so I'm glad I went for more zest.

Next time I'll use coconut milk instead of regular, and see how that turns out!
My cake baked for exactly 1 hour, so keep an eye on it, Also I've placed another tray under the bundt to prevent any browning because my oven is hotter than the norm.

Recipe for Key Lime Bundt Cake

Best made the day before. Helpful to have one of those microplane graters for lime zest. I think I use a bit more zest than the recipe calls for. Enjoy!

Fine dry bread crumbs & softened butter (for coating pan)

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

8 oz unsalted butter, at room temp.

2 cups sugar

4 extra large or jumbo eggs (I often use 5 large eggs)

1 cup milk

Finely grated zest of 3 limes, preferably key limes

Glaze:

1/2 cup fresh key lime juice or 1/4 cup each lime & lemon juice

3/4 cup sugar

Oven 350 degrees

Butter 10 inch tube pan (I use my Bundt pan) and sprinkle w/ bread crumbs (coat - use a lot of butter)

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and set aside.

Beat butter till soft, gradually add sugar, beat 'till light & fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down bowl after each addition.

On lowest speed, alternately add dry ingredients & milk, scraping bowl as nec. and beating just to mix each addition.

Stir in lime zest by hand.

Pour half the batter on one side of pan, half in other. Level top by briskly rotating pan back and forth.

Bake until cake tester comes out clean, about 1 1/4 hours. Let cool slightly on wire rack - 10-15 mins.

Stir lime juice and sugar together just to mix.

Place cake rack on tube pan and invert and place rack over foil. Using pastry brush, brush glaze all over warm cake until completely absorbed. Brush on any glaze that drips onto foil.

Let cake cool completely & transfer to cake platter. Let stand loosely covered for several hours or preferably over night. When ready, outside of cake will be completely dry.

Thanks to MMRuth, a chowhound member for this recipe. It is a delicious cake and I'll be making it again and again!!!