Friday, July 31, 2009

Buttermilk Cake

So...



I really do love this cake recipe. I made it last weekend also, and when you have a container of buttermilk, finding little projects that use up the bottle is coming in very handy. Last time I made it with blackberries and it was great. This time I used peaches and strawberries, but I think the sugar in all the fruit, plus the sugar I sprinkled on top, did....something....(chemistry help, Zoe?). Anyway, it's kind of hard to see from the top, but big chunks of the bottom were stuck to the pan when I tried to take it out. Last time that didn't happen, and this time I still used butter, pan spray, and floured the pan. Oh well.



At least that gave me an opportunity to taste it, and mmmmhmmmmm. Divine.



Recipe from Elly Says Opa!
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 stick of unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup plus 1.5 Tbsp. sugar, divided
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup well-shaken lowfat buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries (about 5 oz.)

Preheat the oven to 400, with a rack in the middle. Butter and flour a 9″ cake pan (I used a springform pan – I no longer mess around with trying to get cakes out of pans).

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Beat together the butter and 2/3 cup sugar at medium-high until pale and fluffy. Beat in vanilla, and then egg.

At low speed, mix in flour in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, until just combined.

Spoon batter into a cake pan, and smooth the top. Scatter raspberries on top, and sprinkle remaining 1.5Tbsp. sugar.

Bake until cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Cool in the pan 10 minutes and then turn onto a rack and cool to warm, 10-15 minutes.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Eggs Benedict. Eh.....not really but kind of.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who, when mapping out daily meals, thinks: "Hmmm. I better eat a real meal now if I want to be hungry for ice cream later." However, I still like to believe thinking like this should be lauded if it leads to something this good.



Welcome to my bastardized eggs benedict. It's true: I was expecting failure. And when I took them out of the water, I thought these eggs were utter disaster. It's odd when you can overcook something in two minutes.

And they probably were a little overcooked compared to other poached eggs I've had, but after I put everything together with Drew's sweet potato biscuits (they were great and thank you) and Morningstar sausage patties, I was delighted to discover that they were DELICIOUS. I can't emphasize that enough, so it gets caps, bold, and italics: DELICIOUS.


(I took that picture to emphasize the disappointing yolks. But then when I started eating them the yolk did break. By that time, though, I wanted to eat, so that part of the actual success gets no picture.)

Then I added some chili lime Cholula I found in the fridge and ohhohohoho...ZOMGZ. So good.