Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake

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When is it okay to eat cake for breakfast?

When you call if a "breakfast" cake!  One that has blueberries in it.  Oh, and buttermilk.  Both blueberries and buttermilk are breakfast items so that qualifies as a breakfast right?

Look at it like a coffee cake...

So I saw this recipe on my favorite addiction, Pinterest, and had to make it.  Hot blueberries fresh from the oven are another addiction of mine.  I'm sure that nobody can resist a blueberry bursting in your mouth.

BUTTERMILK BLUEBERRY BREAKFAST CAKE

Let me confess that "I LOVE THIS CAKE"!  A moist and tender cake filled with blueberries that give the sweetness a burst of tart.  Each bite leaves you wanting more.  Dangerous, I know.

This would be the perfect cake to serve at an Easter Brunch.  It would also do well at potlucks, as a hostess gift, or at bridal or baby showers.  It's easy to make and everyone will love it!

Enjoy!

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake


½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp. lemon zest or more — zest from 1 large lemon
3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar for sprinkling
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
1/4 cup flour
cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.   In a medium bowl cream the butter, lemon zest, and 3/4 cup of sugar with a hand mixer until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla and whisk until combined.

To a small bowl add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk.

Toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup of flour.  Fold in the blueberries into the batter. 

Grease a 9-inch square baking pan with non-stick spray. Spread batter into the pan. Sprinkle batter with a tablespoon of sugar. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cool in the pan 15 minutes on a wire rack.  Serve.  

Adapted from Alexandra's Kitchen

Bakery Style Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake

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Let' celebrate Apple season! 

I know just the perfect way.  I'm going to make my mom's Bakery Style Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake.  This coffee cake just screams comfort, and fall.  Just picture taking this coffee cake out of the warm oven.  The smells of cinnamon and apples fill the house.  Serve this as a morning treat, or warm it up in the evening and serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert.  This is the perfect autumn recipe!

Bakery Style Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake

I found this recipe scribbled on an old recipe card in my mom's recipe box.  It was quite worn from years of reference.  I can remember mom making this many many times growing up and it brings back memories of raking leaves, and then jumping in them.  Oh!, the smells of fall. 

I sure have a love for apples which I got from my mom.  I love all varieties, but tend to gravitate more to the tart ones.  I can just hear mom saying "Eat an apple, they're good for you!".    So you can imagine my joy when I came across this recipe that brought back so many good memories.

Bakery Style Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake is an easy one to make.  It bakes in one 9 inch cake pan, and the batter is light and crumbly instead of wet and well mixed like other cakes.  This produces a very light textured cake which you are sure to love.  It's topped with a wet crumb topping that gives it great flavor and that coffee cake style.  Filled with apples, this cake is light and delicious!

Enjoy your fall and have a piece of cake!





Bakery Style Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Cake:
1 1 / 2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 / 2 teaspoon salt
1 / 4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1 egg
2 large Jazz apples, peeled, cored, and roughly chopped

Topping:
1 / 4 cup brown sugar
1 / 2 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 9 inch round cake pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, add flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, and the egg.  Mix until crumbly.  Add apples and stir to blend.  Place mixture in prepared pan.  

In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon, and butter.  Mix until blended.  Sprinkle over batter in the pan.


Bake 50 - 55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Summer Dessert Heaven: Grilled Lemon Pound Cake with Strawberries and Vanilla Ice Cream

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Yay for summertime!

I love summer.  Eating alfresco, cooking on the grill, and hanging by the pool.

We had a nice bash over the weekend with some friends we hadn't seen in forever...and we took that time to fire up the grill for some fresh food.  Even dessert was finished up using the grill!

So let's talk about this dessert.  Do you like lemon?  MGG loves it, it was my mom's favorite as well, and I like it mainly in baked goods such as muffins and cakes.  Pies? not so much.  In planning my menu I was sifting through an old Cook's Country magazine and had dog-eared a recipe for Meyer Lemon Pound Cake.  Say what? Lemon pound cake...ummm yes please!

Now, I know it's summer, and it's taboo to turn on the oven  but this was a serious situation here.  I had to have this pound cake.  So I got up really early and used the oven before the day got hot.  Success!!!  This cake was so easy to make. I even snuck some of the batter, so I knew it would taste outrageous.  And it did!  Everyone said so....haha!

Typically during the summer, our desserts run toward angel food cakes, trifles, pudding of some sort etc.  You know, throw it together quick and easy stuff.  So the pound cake did require more time than we usually put into our desserts but it was well worth it.  You could just as easily buy a ready made pound cake (it may not be lemon) and it would work just as well, but you really should try this lemony one.  The flavors of lemon and strawberry together are heaven.  So worth the effort.

Once the cake is made the rest is easy.  After the dinner grilling was done I grilled slices of this luscious lemon pound cake and plated them with macerated strawberries and a big ole scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Oh man, was this gobbled down by everyone.  Our long lost friends may not be so lost after eating this.  I'll bet we see them often this summer just to get more of this Grilled Lemon Pound Cake with Strawberries and Vanilla Ice Cream!

Enjoy!

Grilled Lemon Pound Cake with Slice Strawberries and Vanilla Ice Cream


Pound Cake
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons Meyer lemon zest
1 cup granulated sugar plus 2 additional tablespoons
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 large eggs, at room temperature, beaten

Toppings: 

Macerated sliced strawberries

Vanilla Ice Cream

To make the cake: Preheat oven to 325 F. Spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk the sour cream and lemon juice together in a small measuring cup.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the lemon zest and sugar. Rub together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter to the bowl and beat the butter/sugar mixture on medium speed until very pale and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the eggs in 3 additions, beating well after each addition until the mixture is smooth (stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary). With the mixer on low, alternately add the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the sour cream mixture in 2 additions, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Once all the ingredients have been added, scrape down the bowl then beat on low for another 30 seconds to fully combine.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Smooth the top then tap the pan on your work surface to release air bubbles. Bake the cake for 55-65 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted near the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the cake cool for 10 minutes, then turn it out.

Once the pound cake has completely cooled, (about 2 hours) slice it into 1 inch thick slices.  Add slices to an outdoor grill, or indoor grill pan and all to toast several minutes on each side until grill marks appear.  Top with strawberries that have macerated in sugar for about 15 minutes.  Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and serve immediately.

Pound cake was adapted from Cook’s Country, April/May 2006

Banana Bundt Cake

I hope everyone had a fantastic Valentine's Day.

We decided to go and and have some fun this year, so I really didn't do any cooking. We wanted to go somewhere and walk around and window shop, get a bite to eat, and listen to some music.  Well, big mistake to head on down to The Grove in L.A. because everyone else had the same idea, it was jam-packed.

When I say jam-packed I mean it.  It took us about 15-20 minutes to find a parking spot in a 6 level structure.  All the cars were fighting over the spots, people were driving crazy (not like they don't in LA already!), but we finally got lucky and found one.  Then we headed down to the open air shopping/restaurant village.  The music was bumping and people were gathered around.  We tried to get through the crowd of sardines and somehow ended up in line for a restaurant.  LOL!  Kinda just got pushed into that.  When we realized what was going on, we just laughed, shrugged to the people in line with us, and quickly moved on.  

We ended up at a wonderful Greek restaurant, which really inspired me to start cooking more Greek style dishes.  I ordered a shot of Ouzo to toast and they brought me the biggest shot (which was half a glass really!) and we toasted the night!  I'll tell you I was feeling really good by the time I finished that drink and the crowds didn't seem that bad after that!  

So we danced a little, shopped a little and ate a lot...then headed home for a wonderful dessert of Banana Bundt Cake, that I had whipped up earlier in the day.  As I always have ripe bananas hanging around this was a great way to use them.  Who doesn't love a good pound cake?  Perfect for spring, and a great choice for your Easter dinner, or Mardi Gras celebration.

I know you are going to love it.


Banana Bundt Cake

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
2 overripe medium bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup + 2 Tbls Splenda Sugar Blend
3/4 cup brown sugar
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup buttermilk (make your own by adding 1 teaspoon lemon juice to milk and let it sit for 5 minutes)
Topping:  powdered sugar - optional

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 12-cup fluted bundt pan.

Whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in mashed bananas and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 

Add the flour mixture (with the mixer on low) in two parts alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour. Beat just until it comes together. Do not overmix!

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 45-55 minutes.

Once done, cool cake 10 minutes in the pan. Turn out cake onto cake platter and allow to cool completely.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.  Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Simple Entertaining: Deconstructed Strawberry Angel Parfait

To us summer spells Entertaining...

When summer rolls around that's what we think about most. We love to dine al fresco and take advantage of the long evenings, sitting around by the pool, or having smore's over the fire pit. The addition of friends and family just takes it up a notch and creates some of our fondest memories.  

Sometimes we grill, other times we fix something quick indoors, but we always strive to make dishes that are easy to put together, flavorful, and delicious.  This is key to simple entertaining, keeping in mind that it's not about the process of cooking, or how elaborate the dish is, or perfection...it's about the mingling with friends, the conversations, and laughter.

Being stuck in the kitchen all night while everyone else is sitting outside is not my idea of entertaining. Besides, who wants to miss the fun?

So this dessert fits the profile of easy to put together. California has so much fresh produce on hand from local farmers that we always take advantage and tend to make dishes utilizing them.  Fresh berries are in abundance right now, and I'm in a strawberry mood!

This dessert is perfect for entertaining...or just for the family. I call it deconstructed because it uses the basic ingredients of a parfait...without the parfait glass.  The simple part is that it uses the help of a pre-made angel food cake that's been torn into bite sized pieces.  To round it out you have ripe, juicy, plump strawberries and blueberries sitting among some cheesecake flavored pudding. Topped with whipped cream you have one heck of a tasty dessert! 

Easy to put together, check!  Flavorful, check!  Delicious, double check!!

Simple Entertaining...

Deconstructed Strawberry Angel Parfait

serves 10-12 (make a many or as little as you like!)

2 pkg (3/4 oz) cheesecake instant pudding

4 cups of milk

1 pre-made angel food cake

1 pint of strawberries, hulled and sliced

1/2 c blueberries

whipped cream

In a large bowl combine the pudding mixes and the milk. Stirring to combine until all pudding granules are dissolved. Place cling wrap directly on pudding to avoid a skin from forming and place in the refrigerator to set.  

Tear the angel food cake into medium bite size pieces.  Hull and slice the strawberries.  To assemble:  Place pieces of cake on each plate.  Top with about 1/4 c of pudding drizzling over the cake.  Scatter about 1/4 cup of strawberries and a few blueberries over the pudding.  Add a dollop or two of whipped cream.  Serve.

Grandma Landon's Strawberry Cake

May is strawberry season in Los Angeles!

It holds the great Strawberry festival up in Oxnard, which is a blast!  We try and go each year and eat everything strawberry in site.  I usually come home with a flat of strawberries and a stomach ache!  They have everything from strawberry margaritas to strawberry nachos, even strawberry pizzas!

You can ride strawberry rides, listen to the Young Dubliners, or bungy jump to your hearts content.  Plus there are vendor's booths selling all sorts of hand made crafts.  But the main draw for me are the juicy, plump, ripe strawberries! Just thinking about them now is making my mouth water!

So what do you do with a big flat of strawberries?  Well I have lots of recipes that will use them up but first off I wanted to make my Grandma Landon's Strawberry Cake. Now this cake is famous among my family. When they heard I was going to break out my 9x13 pan and make Grandma's cake I immediately got all sorts or stories bringing back fond memories of this cake....and requests for the recipe.

My mom handed down this recipe and even she was in love with it.  She said the flavors are just outstanding and that the fresh strawberries in the icing are a must to make this cake the bomb!  She told me stories of Grandma serving this cake a family gatherings as it was such a crowd-pleaser and served a lot of people. Mom was smiling ear to ear as she recalled the fond memories of this cake.

I must say it is easy to put together as it uses a box cake mix to start.  I was blown away at the end result. This is one of the most moist cakes I've tasted and full of strawberry flavor. I did change up the icing just a bit from the original recipe. The icing calls for mashed strawberries to be incorporated in the icing.  I chose to chop my strawberries and fold them in leaving them chunky so that you get bits of strawberries throughout.  I must say it came out fantastic!  Everyone just loved the cake and there wasn't a bite left.

Guess I'll have to make another one!

Enjoy!

Grandma Landon's Strawberry Cake

serves 15

FOR THE CAKE:
1 box (18.25 Oz. Box) White Cake Mix
1 box (4-serving 3 Oz. Box) Strawberry Jello
¾ cup Oil
½ cup Water
¼ teaspoon Baking Soda
4 whole Eggs
½ cup Fresh or Frozen Strawberries
3 Tablespoons Flour

FOR THE FROSTING:
½ stick Butter
3 ounces, Cream Cheese, softened
1 dash Salt
1 pound Powdered Sugar
⅓ cup Strawberries, Fresh or Frozen, Thawed And Mashed (I cut mine into chunks)

For the cake:
Mix cake mix and box of Jello until blended. Add oil, water and baking soda and then beat 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs and beat 2 to 3 minutes. Toss strawberries with 3 Tablespoons of flour. Fold the strawberries and any juice that may have accumulated into the batter mixture. Pour into a greased and floured 9″x13″ pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until done.

For the frosting:
Beat butter and cream cheese with salt until smooth. Gradually beat in half of the powdered sugar, then the strawberries, then the remaining powdered sugar until smooth. (Note: if you leave the strawberries chunky then fold them in after the frosting comes together, adding all the powdered sugar.)  Frost the cooled cake and enjoy.

Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Butterscotch Coffee Cake

I've secretly loved coffee cake for years...

Well, okay, it's not really a secret.  But I do, I do love coffee cake.  I remember my first cinnamon coffee cake, the yellow cake with the crumb topping piled high.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven!  Then came my mom's coffee bundt cake with the swirl of cinnamon and nuts inside.  Man was that good.

So over the years MGG and I have enjoyed a variety of coffee cakes.  He loves it with his coffee, and I love it for breakfast with my hot tea...or dessert...or a snack...okay and dinner too!

Today I wanted to share one of our favorites.  This one is full of chocolate, peanut butter, and butterscotch.  Oh, how I love hot melted chocolate.  It just does it for me.  The 3 flavors together are outstanding.  I love this recipe since it is easy to pull together.  Using some help from a can of biscuits you don't have to make a dough.  This is perfect when you want to through something together quickly and still have the results be full of flavor and company worthy.  

I have a dozen different coffee cakes to share with you.  I better get baking!

What is your favorite coffee cake?


Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Butterscotch Coffee Cake

serves 6

1/2 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 can of large buttermilk biscuits (8 count)
4 Tbs. of butter, melted
2 Tbs chocolate chips
2 Tbs peanut butter chips
2 Tbs butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9 inch cake pan with cooking spray.  Set aside.  In a medium bowl mix the sugar and cinnamon.

Separate the 8 biscuits.  Cut each biscuit in to quarters.  Dip quarters in melted butter and then roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.  Place in the prepared pan, covering the bottom of the pan.  Sprinkle all flavored chips over the dough quarters.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through the center.  Cool 10 minutes in pan. Serve.

Easy Blueberry Skillet Cake

My love of breakfast goodies also runs over into brunch items too.

Having brunch with close friends is always fun.  Taking the time to eat outdoors is always a treat during the summer in Los Angeles.  The weather is generally cooler in the morning and it's a great time to sit and relax, laugh with friends and enjoy the day before the heat blasts us back inside for cover and cool air-conditioning.  

I came across a wonderful dish from Paula Deen that is perfect for a summer brunch. It's semi-homemade using canned biscuits as the base for the cake.  Add some fresh berries and some flavor powerhouses like brown sugar and cinnamon, and you have a winning combination!

Not only was this easy to put together, it feeds a crowd, and you serve it in the dish you cook it in!  How easy is that?  I love using my cast iron skillets to bake in and serve with.  Double duty all the way!  So off to the brunch this went and the most important part?  The taste!  I love anything with cinnamon and brown sugar.  So this was an instant winner for me.  However, the addition of the blueberries put this over the top.  

Let's just say there won't be any leftovers!

Easy Blueberry Skillet Cake

Adapted From Paula's Best Dishes Episode: Breakin' For Breakfast

Servings: 4 to 6

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 35 min

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

Streusel Topping:
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Coffee Cake:
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 (12-ounce) tube buttermilk biscuits
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen and thawed

Directions

For the streusel topping: Combine the almonds, sugar, butter, flour, and cinnamon in a food processor and pulse until large crumbs form.

For the coffee cake: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a 9-inch cast-iron or other ovenproof skillet, cook the butter and brown sugar over medium heat until melted. Arrange the biscuits in a single layer in the skillet. Scatter the blueberries over the biscuits, and then distribute the streusel topping over the berries. Bake until the biscuits are golden and a tester inserted in the center of a biscuit comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and serve from the skillet. 

Carrot Cake with Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting

It's time for the dessert in our Spring Brunch!

Nothing says spring like carrot cake in my book.  One of my favorite cakes, that I rarely get a chance to make.  But the craving comes every spring.  This year I caved in and made this slightly adapted version from Cooking Light.  It's a little healthier than the normal carrot cake which was my justification. (A girl's gotta have a justification sometimes!)

This cake has the addition of flax seed meal, giving this cake more fiber, and therefore also a more dense cake.  Almost the texture of a bran muffin.  It's not the lightest cake around but it does have great flavor, and makes a pretty presentation.  

You also don't ice this cake fully.  The icing is a lighter version as well, with a little bit of cream cheese which gives it just enough tang.  It really does look pretty with the strategically placed icing.

Great for brunch, and can anyone say Mother's Day? 

Carrot Cake with Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup flax seed meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups shredded carrot (about 6 medium)
1 cup refrigerated or frozen egg product, thawed, or 4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup granulated sugar 

1/2 cup packed brown sugar 

1/2 cup canola oil
1 recipe Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting
Coarsely shredded carrot (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour two 8 inch round cake pans.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, flax seed meal, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In another large bowl, combine finely shredded carrot, eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir until combined. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans, spreading evenly.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes for 8-inch pans.  Cool cakes in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto wire racks. Cool completely.

Place one cooled cake layer on a serving platter. Top with half of the Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting. Place the second cake layer atop the frosting; spread with the remaining frosting. If desired, garnish with coarsely shredded carrot. Makes 14 to 16 servings.

Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting

YIELD: 3/4 cup

2 ounces softened reduced-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups frozen light whipped dessert topping

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until smooth. Thaw 1-1/2 cups frozen light whipped dessert topping. Fold about 1/2 cup of the topping into the cream cheese mixture to lighten. Fold in the remaining whipped topping. Makes about 1-3/4 cups.

adapted from Cooking Light