Kentucky Butter Cake with Rum Sauce

Kentucky Butter Cake with Rum Sauce - made September 27, 2021 from The Southern Lady Cooks 

2 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

2 teaspoons rum or vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Generously spay a Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray and lightly flour.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together granulated sugar and butter until combined and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing briefly until just combined, after each addition. Add buttermilk and rum or vanilla extract; mix just until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until just combined. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Pour batter into Bundt pan and smooth top. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the thickest part of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove from oven and let cool for several minutes before loosening sides of cake and center with a spatula rubber spatula. Turn over on a cake plate.

Rum Sauce

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup butter

3 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons rum or vanilla extract

1. Combine all sauce ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking until combined and fully melted. Do not boil. Poke holes over cake and pour sauce over cake.

Sometimes I'm hesitant to make southern desserts. Ever since I made "Southern Tea Cakes" and someone from the South disparaged the version I posted and basically suggested I should stop trying since I knew nothing about it, it's made me a little gunshy. I can't remember her exact words (although apparently I did log it in the post where I wrote about it when I clearly still remembered it) but, 5 years later, it's true that you can never forget how someone made you feel. In that case, this person made me feel chastised, defensive and very skeptical about the legend of Southern hospitality and manners.

I got over the feeling, thanks to another Southerner who did embody kindness and grace and shared her grandmother's recipe for the tea cakes. But since then, I've been leery about trying other Southern desserts as I really didn't need someone else to smack me around about it.

But, hey, you have to get over stuff like that or else you give it too much power and meaning. So back I go, wading into the South, with this recipe for Kentucky Butter Cake. This is from The Southern Lady Cooks so I'm going to assume she knows what she's talking about. Coincidentally, I also found two other recipes for Kentucky Butter Cake that was almost the exact same as this one, one from another blog who got it from allrecipes.com and another one from a culinary cozy mystery set in Kentucky. 

I say "almost" the same as the only difference with this one is the addition of rum in the cake and in the glaze. Otherwise, the ingredients and the measurements were the same. Which is unusual as usually a recipe with the same name may have the same ingredients but they're often in different measurements (think of chocolate chip cookie recipes). But nope, the amount of flour, butter, sugar, number of eggs, etc were all the same. So I'm going to assume this is a representative recipe for Kentucky Butter Cake.

Which turned out to be a pretty good butter pound cake. I was slicing these up to be given away so I wasn't going to serve it with copious amounts of butter sauce. One recipe of the butter sauce turned out to be too much for merely glazing the cake so I ended up making two cakes and used the butter sauce to glaze both cakes. That worked out fine. And I channeled that Southern hospitality to pass these out to our local homeless population.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

Pumpkin Coffee Cake - made September 27, 2021 from Chef Savvy

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4 cup milk

Streusel Topping

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Glaze

1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 9-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
3. In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin puree, light brown sugar, granulated sugar, oil and milk. 
4. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overmix.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top.
6. Make streusel: In a small bowl, combine flour, brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse sand. Squeeze handfuls of streusel together to make clumps. Sprinkle top of cake batter with streusel topping.
7. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Cool for 30 minutes.
8. Glaze: combine powdered sugar and milk, whisking until smooth. Drizzle over cooled cake.

If you want a seasonal, easy-to-make dessert, here you go. This pumpkin coffee cake is good for breakfast (oh, just me?) or afternoon tea. It's also good for making for a crowd since it's easy to put together, slice up and package for distribution.

For the streusel, I forever follow Martha Stewart's advice to gather the streusel in large handfuls to make big clumps before scattering over the cake. They bake up more crisp that way and provide a nice texture contrast to the soft fluffiness of the cake.

This cake bakes up moist and tastes amazing. Let the glaze set before cutting. The combination of soft cake, crunchy streusel and sweet glaze makes each forkful bliss for the taste buds.

Nutella-Stuffed Browned Butter Blondies

Nutella-Stuffed Browned Butter Blondies - made September 25, 2021 from The Food Charlatan

1 cup Nutella

10 tablespoons butter

2 cups dark brown sugar, packed

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla 

2 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup Nutella

1. Line a small baking sheet with wax paper. Measure 1 cup of Nutella and use two spoons to divide the Nutella into 12 dollops on the wax paper, about 2-3 teaspoons each. Place the sheet in the freezer.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 11 x 2" baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
3. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, stirring until butter foams, smells nutty and browned bits appear at the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl. 
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the brown sugar and cream cheese until well combined. Pour in the hot browned butter and beat until combined and slightly fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in the vanilla then the eggs, beating after each addition.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix until just combined.
6. Fold in 1/4 cup Nutella, leaving some streaks swirled into the batter. Pour into prepared pan and smooth into an even layer with small spatula. 
7. Remove the Nutella from the freezer. Use your fingers to push each dollop of Nutella into the dough, distributing them evenly. Smooth the dough over the Nutella with a spatula.
8. Bake for 27-30 minutes, until golden brown on top and the edges are set. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.

This one's for the Nutella lovers who can't get enough Nutella. The key is to freeze the 12 dollops of Nutella first so you can be sure to get pockets of liquid goodness even after the blondie has been baked and cooled. Otherwise, the recipe is pretty simple and straightforward to follow. I didn't have an 8 x 11" pan so I baked it in a 9 x 9" pan and it worked fine. These turned out a bit gooey so I think it could've used a few minutes longer in the oven. The top formed a crust, which I didn't love, but the taste was still good.

Apple Pie #1

Apple Pie - made September 23, 2021, adapted from The Sensible Mom 

2 1/2 cups flour

2 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

8 tablespoons vegetable shortening, well chilled (place in freezer 15-20 minutes before using)

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, well chilled and cut into 1-inch pieces (place in freezer 15-20 minutes before using)

5 to 6 tablespoons ice water

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt
2. Scatter the vegetable shortening over the flour mixture and using either two butter knives, a pastry cutter or your hands, cut the shortening into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
3. Scatt the butter over the coarse flour mixture and repeat the same process.
4. Sprinkle ice water over the flour mixture, one tablespoon at a time. Press the dough together with a spatula after each tablespoon. Stop adding ice water once the dough has come together.
5. Divide the dough evenly in half. Flatten each half and shape into disks. Wrap the disks tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
6. When ready to use the dough, remove from refrigerator and let sit for 10 minutes. Place on a large piece of parchment paper and roll out in a round shape to 1/4" thickness. Handle the dough as little as possible. Cover and refrigerate while you prepare the filling.

Filling

3 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced

3 large Cortland, McIntosh or Braeburn apples, peeled, cored and sliced

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon light brown sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 egg white, lightly beaten

1. Place a rimmed baking sheet on oven rack in the lowest position in oven. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, toss the apples with 3/4 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, lemon juice, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Set mixture aside.
3. Place one rolled out dough in bottom of pie pan. Pour the apples onto the unbaked bottom crust, mounding in the middle. Lay the top crust over the apples, trim excess pie dough around the edges and seal and crimp the edges.
4. Cut 4-5 vent holes in the top of the pie crust. Brush the top crust with beaten egg white then sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of sugar over the crust.
5. Place the pie on the hot baking sheet then reduce the oven temperature to 425 degrees F. Bake at this temperature for 20-25 minutes or until the top crust is golden brown. Then rotate the baking sheet and reduce temperature to 375 degrees F. Bake another 30-35 minutes, until the top crust is a deep golden brown and the apple juices are bubbling. Remove pie from oven and let cool before serving.

I love apple pie. You'd think I know how to make one from scratch after all the years of baking. But I rarely bake pies, partly because it's not a dessert I can easily share with others, either in care packages or, even pre-pandemic and pre-retirement, in the communal kitchens at the companies I've worked at.

The other reason is I'm one of those people who suck at making pie crust. My pie crust making is everything all the pie recipes warn you against: don't overhandle the dough or you'll get tough crusts. You know how you supposedly get better at something the more you practice? HAHAHAHA *wipes tears*.

I suppose I could use that as an excuse of why I can't make a decent pie crust since I rarely bake pies from scratch. But I really want to learn. So I'm trying again. I'm going to number my efforts so I can keep track how many times and how long it's going to take me.

I got off to a dubious start with this first attempt. I didn't actually intend to make a Dutch Apple pie. I was trying for the traditional double crust pie. Except my pie dough just wasn't coming together and was still too dry and floury. Then I accidentally knocked part of the crumbly dough off the counter and ended up with just over half of the pie crust still sitting on the counter. The rest was scattered on the kitchen floor. Sigh.

But no need to let (yet another) mishap stop me. So I swept the floor and soldiered on with the surviving pie dough. It wasn't enough to make a double crust so I ended up making a rather thick bottom crust. 

The Dutch Apple Crumb topping is from 5 Boys Baker

The Dutch Apple Crumb topping is from 5 Boys Baker

1 cup flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup cold butter, cubed

Cut all ingredients together to form a streusel with coarse crumbs. Squeeze handfuls of the streusel together and scatter evenly over the top of the pie. 

It was a good way to save the pie and it turned out to be amazing with the filling. The filling was also quite good. The bottom pie crust? Yeah, not so much. It's not that it was too tough, although I can't claim it was that flaky either. But because I was so afraid of over-handling the pie dough that I didn't roll out the crust enough and it was a bit thick. 

So I would say this pie only half turned out. I used a combination of Granny Smith apples and Envy apples and the filling was amazing, not too tart and not too sweet, with the streusel topping adding some crunchy texture.  

I still haven't conquered pie dough but I'm feeling confident about my pie filling skills. Back to the pie dough drawing board because, as you can imagine, a crustless pie is mostly just a cobbler and I already know how to make cobbler, lol.

Apple Blondies

Apple Blondies - made September 25, 2021 from Num's the Word 

3/4 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

3 cups apples, diced (I used Granny Smiths)

1 cup chopped walnuts, optional (I left out)

Topping

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing briefly until just combined. Add vanilla and beat until just combined.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, salt and baking powder. Add to butter mixture in 2 additions, mixing briefly after each addition, just until combined. Do not overmix. Fold in apples and walnuts, if using. Spread evenly into prepared pan.
4. In a small bowl, mix together granulated sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over batter.
5. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Cool before cutting and serving.

This is a good recipe for autumn if you want something apple-y but don't want a more traditional dessert of apple pie.

I like to use Granny Smith apples for most apple desserts. Granny Smiths are tart and their tartness helps offset the sweetness of whatever dessert you're baking them in.

The batter will be thick and the easy part of this dessert is you don't have to cut the apples into (too) small pieces or dice them into even pieces, something I'm spectacularly bad at.

Not only are these easy to make but they're also delicious. It's hard to overbake these since the apples release so much moisture into the blondies. You don't want to underbake them too much either or they'll be soggy.

The only thing I didn't love about these is the top gets a little crusty so it was hard to cut cleanly without the crusty top breaking off into jagged pieces. But still, the flavor and texture make up for it.

Sausage Spinach Quiche

Sausage Spinach Quiche - made September 22, 2021 from Miss in the Kitchen

1 refrigerated pie crust

1 pound sausage, casings removed, sausage crumbled

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup diced onion

2 teaspoons minced garlic

3 cups chopped baby spinach

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups shredded smoked gouda cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Unroll pie crust and press into a pie plate. Prick the bottom and sides of the pie crust with a fork. Bake for 10 minutes then remove from oven and lower temperature to 325 degrees F.
2. In a large skillet, cook sausage over medium-high heat, breaking up the larger pieces; set aside.
3. Add olive oil to a medium skill and cook onions and garlic, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add spinach and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and salt until well combined. Add shredded cheese, sausage and spinach mixture. Stir until well combined.
5. Pour into pie shell and bake for 50-55 minutes or until center is set. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

I'm not even going to bother with a humble brag - I can cook! At least this time with this recipe. I was trying to use up the rest of the bag of spinach I had on hand, not to mention another pack of sausage links (yes, I bought them from Costco which means I have multiple packs for future cooking endeavors).

This is an inadvertently gluten-free quiche. I say inadvertent because I bought the pie crust ready-made from Trader Joe's and I only saw the gluten-free version in the refrigerator case. The TJ's cashier assured me they have the gluten version but I was checking out by then and didn't want to go hunting for it or have the TJ's employees go to the trouble of finding it for me. So gluten-free it is.

This was so easy to put together and pretty tasty. I generally like quiche anyway so my taste bud-bar is low. The tricky thing with quiche is you definitely don't want to overbake it or the eggy custard will be rubbery. The picture of the slice below might look a little runny but that's partly from the melted cheese (smoked Gouda for the win) and partly because the quiche was still a little warm when I took the picture. So this is the texture I prefer.

Bakery Review: Brooklyn Cupcakes

Brooklyn Cupcakes - ordered August 20, 2021 from Goldbelly

Besides doing my own baking, I'm still dedicated to trying out small business bakeries. Since I'm not traveling at the moment and can't visit them in person, the site Goldbelly.com has been a great way to do my virtual bakery travels.

It can be a bit pricey though so I'm always glad when there's a sale. In this case, Goldbelly was offering 20% off at one point and Brooklyn Cupcakes had free shipping. So I tried not to calculate how expensive each jar still was and instead egged myself on with "support small business". That usually does the trick and let's face it, it doesn't take much for me to click on the "order" button. 

Brooklyn Cupcake offers a variety of flavors of basically cake-and-custard in a jar. I'm not a big custard person but thought I'd try it. I went with the Samoa flavor. From their website, it's described as "chocolate cake topped with signature coconut cream cheese frosting layered with coconut custard (Flan) and caramel drizzle topped with toasted coconut."

You can see from the pictures that the 6 jars arrived well-packaged and, even shipped in the warm temps of summer, also arrived fresh and intact. I put them in the refrigerator and had one every day or two. Even after a week in the fridge, each jar was still "fresh" and the cake part wasn't dry.

Surprisingly, it wasn't too sweet either (although remember that my sweet tooth has a high tolerance) and I have to admit, the custard, cake and frosting combination worked really well. Thumbs up for Brooklyn Cupcakes. Now I have my beady eye on trying out some of the other flavors, in case there's another sale.

If you don't want to wait for a sale, you're welcome to use my referral link on Goldbelly. You get $15 off your first order of $50 or more. (Full disclosure, I get $15 off too. I am not affiliated with Goldbelly or Brooklyn Cupcakes.)