Recipe for Almond Angel Food Cake with Blackberry Curd for #BakeTogether

Almond  Angel Food Cake with Blackberry Curd

April has been a busy month. I started a new job after more than a year of the housewife life. I enjoyed my little break but it was time to get back into the working world.

It’s a writing post in the fundraising world, something I can feel good about every day. What I did not anticipate was the actual adjustment the job would require. Deciding who would get up first (I do, at 5:30 am, which is drastic to friends who know me well), making sure the rabbit’s morning routine is disrupted as little as possible (he has adjusted beautifully), remembering to pack a lunch.

Where, when and how to fit in exercise (right now it’s after work). And how to sit down to a healthy supper before 8 pm. I haven’t yet figured that out.

I’m trying to carve a sweet and balanced life for my family.  I’ve slowed a bit in posting here, but hope to resume a more regular schedule once I’ve figured out a new rhythm.

Coincidentally, April is the one year anniversary for Dust with Flour. Thank you, dear readers, for visiting and leaving such kind comments along the way. I’d wanted to start a blog for many years but the workaday life was a hurdle. I was definitely baking, but it didn’t get beyond that.

Vintage Recipe: An Old-Fashioned Jam Cake

Strawberry Jam Cake

With this recipe for an old fashioned jam cake, I’m introducing an occasional feature on older recipes, those from the early to mid 20th Century. And yes, most of them will be on the sweet side.

I love pouring over old cookbooks, especially the ones published by small organizations — churches, historical societies, service leagues. These collections — idiosyncrasies and all — are rich bites of history, telling us how people lived through what they ate.

One example is George Heritage: Treasured Recipes, the book from which this jam cake is taken. It was published in 1979 by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of  Georgia. There are all manner of recipes, from pimento cheese to punch serving 100 people.

And even though convenience foods were well established by the late 1970s, they are not prominent in this cookbook. Not a single recipe calls for cake mix.

Speaking of idiosyncrasies: Contributors are listed by their husbands’ names, with the wives’ first and maiden names in parentheses. A few years ago I would have been annoyed at that. Most newspapers used to behave that way and some still may for all I know. But now, so much time has passed, and there are so many things to worry about in the world, well, it’s not a bother. The quaint tradition reflects a particular time and place in society and I respect its historical value.

Recipe for Apple Pumpkin Walnut Cake

Apple Pumpkin Walnut Cake

In 2010, this Apple Pumpkin Walnut Cake was The Dessert of autumn. I brought it to late afternoon committee meetings, enticing and sweetening collegues to stay just a little bit longer. It went to church, to potlucks, to grieving friends.

Once or twice, I may have baked it for my husband. Sometimes he gets that look and asks, “Who are you baking for this time?”

It’s still a favorite one year later. I’ve been looking forward to baking this cake for months, waiting patiently for apple season to arrive. Last year, there were two abundant apple orchards within a couple miles of our house. If I had drawn a 5-mile circle, several more would have come into view.

The smallest farm I enjoyed most. It was a bit shaggy around the edges, the old house and barn nestled in the soft hills of west Michigan. Small and homey — I loved it. I’d pull in to the circular driveway and then spend a half hour chatting with the gal in the barn. She’d toss me one apple after another for tasting and then I would settle on a variety or two.

October Baketogether: Spiced Coffee Cake + Cocoa Streusel + Chocolate

Spiced Coffee Cake + Cocoa Streusel + Chocolate

Streusel has been a stumbling block.

There’s the messy factor of all those crumbs showering about, landing on your chin or clothing. (But don’t mistake me for a neat freak.)

And while I love cinnamon, sugar, flour and butter, I don’t enjoy them so much on top of a cake. (Or an apple pie, come to think of it.)

So, yes, the streusel appeal (like Broadway musicals) has been lost on me, which I realize sounds a bit un-American.

I was rehashing all this to my husband and before I could finish he said, “I like coffee cake. I like streusel.” He also enjoys musicals.

Abby Dodge’s Classic Sour Cream Coffee Cake for the October Baketogether challenge was too appealing to ignore — a richly spiced cake moist with tangy sour cream. I most definitely like cake. As for the streusel ribbon and topping, I thought I could work with it.

Here’s what I did:
• I substituted about 2 T. cocoa powder for cinnamon in the streusel. (Is it no longer streusel without cinnamon?) Warm spices take so nicely to chocolate — chocolate chips, glazes and frostings with spice cake, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies. Love it.

• I added chopped dark chocolate to melt into the streusel mixture.

• For the cake batter, I used 2 t. of mixed pumpkin pie spices instead of the cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves called for in the recipe. This move was purely one of convenience on my part, but I liked the result.

• I used less streusel on top of the cake, not wanting to overdo it. Next time, I will use it all, but probably swirl through the batter a bit more.

Stumbling block removed to streusel success. Thanks, Abby, for organizing #Baketogether and offering a new recipe for my files.

Spiced Coffee Cake with Cocoa Streusel and Chocolate

adapted from Abby Dodge

Chocolate Streusel
2/3 cup (4 5/8 ounces) firmly packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup ( 3 3/8ounces) all purpose flour
2 good tablespoons cocoa
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Cake
2 cups (9 ounces) all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spices
1/2 teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) firmly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sour  cream, at room temperature
3 to 4 oz. dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces

To make the streusel:
In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour and cocoa. Drizzle over the melted butter. Using a fork (or use your fingers), mix the ingredients until they are well blended and form small crumbs. Place in the refrigerator while cake is prepared.

To make the cake:
Position an oven rack in the center of the oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease and flour the sides and bottom of a 9 x 2-inch square baking pan.

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and spices in a medium bowo. Whisk until well blended. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat at medium speed until well blended, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape the bowl and beaters as needed. Add about half of the flour mixture and mix on low speed just until blended. Add the sour cream and mix just until blended. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the remaining flour mixture.

Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Evenly scatter half of the streusel mixture over the batter. Sprinkle half of the chocolate pieces over the streusel. Spoon the remaining batter evenly over the streusel and spread evenly. Scatter the remaining streusel and chocolate pieces evenly over the top.

Bake until the top is browned and a pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 43  to 45 minutes. Cool the pan on a wire rack until warm or room temperature.

Recipe for Applesauce Cake

Applesauce Cake based on a recipe from King Arthur Flour

Every autumn for the last several years, I’ve adopted a Favorite Apple Cake. I’ve baked the recipe over and over until family, friends and co-workers grow tired of it. Then, come the following autumn, a new Favorite Apple Cake arrives on the scene.

The 2011 favorite is about as humble and modest as they come. This Applesauce Cake has no extravagant ingredients or techniques, and leaves few dirty dishes to tell the tale. It’s from King Arthur Flour, which happens to be the source of many Favorite Apple Cakes. They do apples well up in New England.

The recipe calls for whole wheat flour and that’s what I used. I love whole grain baking, though I admit some sweets made that way can taste a little too healthy. Not so with this cake. The flour adds depth of flavor and takes well to the warm spices. Your skeptical friends will not know it’s made with whole wheat. Bake it and keep quiet.

The full cup of applesauce ensures it won’t be dry and crumbly. This cake stays moist for days and its flavor develops more fully with time — that is, if you can keep it on hand that long.

Recipe for Three-Berry Buttermilk Cake

Three-Berry Buttermilk Cake

I have never met an upside down cake that I didn’t like, and this one is my new favorite.

When the recipe appeared in the June issue of Bon Appetit, I rushed to make it, using the peaches and blueberries I had on hand instead of the blackberries. Round two was again peaches and blueberries.

The third time (can you tell I like this cake?), I used blackberries but delved into a stash of raspberries and blueberries in order to cover the cake sufficiently.

Really, the cake will work with just about any kind of fruit, but do use blackberries if you can get your hands on some.

Summer Cake with Cornmeal and Amaretto Peaches, Plus a Second Variation

Summer Cake with Cornmeal and Amaretto Peaches

Thinking about this cake was almost as fun as baking and tasting.

Abby Dodge offered a Twitter #baketogether challenge for July and I enjoyed pondering variations of her recipe. I’d think about it while washing dishes, exercising, eating other meals. I know I’m not the only one whose mind wanders in this way.

My version substitutes locally produced cornmeal for half of the flour. You could call this a very sweet and moist cornbread. For a frame of reference, this cake is more moist than an Italian polenta cake tends to be.

For the fruit, I selected peaches because I love how the flavor deepens after baking. The peaches hail from Missouri because I’m told peaches do not grow so well in Iowa. (Iowa State University, would you please get on that and develop some Iowa peaches?)

From Paris Sweets: Pavé Montmartre

Pavé Montmartre

Stone streets will wreck your fancy shoes — or cause you to stumble — yet this quite old and very well dressed woman glided along in her impossibly high heels. She never let a heel touch down on the old Paris street. I felt shabby in my Danish clogs.

I remembered her as I baked Pavé Montmartre, a recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Paris Sweets, the book I am cooking in its entirety. It is an egg-rich almond cake that is wrapped in a thin sheet of almond paste, then lightly burnished in the oven for some color. It was designed to resemble a paving stone in Pâtisserie Arnaud Larher’s neighborhood.