A Little Bit of All Right

This month's choice featured three winter-themed cakes - spicy eggnog, chocolate peppermint, and this cranberry topped pavlova. All three appealed to me, but I needed something that required hands on time, so the pavlova was the obvious choice. I have, however, added the other two cakes to make "bake this soon" list so am looking forward to reading how they went for others. This recipe calls for creating a Swiss meringue for the pavlova, and I am a fan! I should have taken a picture of the unbaked meringue because I felt quite successful with how thick and shiny my meringue turned out to be. It piled up beautifully on my baking sheet. The recipe calls for baking for 2 hours and then leaving in the turned off oven for several more hours.  The cranberry topping includes dried cherries in addition to the cranberries and is flavored with five-spice seasoning. I did not have any port in my cupboard, but I did have a bottle of blackberry wine from Shenandoah National Park, so I

When I got ready to bake this month's cake, I noticed I had several egg whites sitting in my refrigerator, left over from a batch of lemon curd. That, coupled with the author's note that store bought raspberry ice cream would work as well as homemade, led me to attempt this version of a baked Alaska. A Baked Alaska starts with a layer of cake that gets topped with a dome of ice cream, and the entire thing gets covered in egg white meringue that is toasted. The air bubbles in the whipped egg whites insulate the ice cream from the heat.  This version starts with a large, round brownie that is wonderfully chocolate and would be a terrific dessert on its own. The author then provides a recipe for raspberry ice cream that you freeze in a round bowl approximately the same size at the top as your brownie circle overnight. We don't own an ice cream maker, so I opted to buy raspberry ice cream from the store.  The final steps of this dessert should be made right before you're re

 The Tart Cherry Almond Cake starts with an easy almond-flavored cake batter that you then fold in tart cherries. Once it comes out of the oven and cools, it gets a soak in an almond simple syrup and then topped with a thick glaze and a sprinkle of slivered almonds.  The only problem I had with this recipe is that the cherries all sunk to the bottom. The recipe says you can use either fresh or frozen tart cherries. I had a couple of jars of tart cherries in my house, so I decided to use one of those. The note at the top suggests placing half the cherries on top of the batter if you're using frozen, which I did with my jarred cherries. But they all sunk anyway. With the cherries all clustered at the bottom, I had to work to get a proper taste of all the components. And while the iced cake was good, and the cake-encased cherries were good, the cherries with iced cake was perfection. If I were to make this cake again, I would cut the cherries into fourths, and I might even opt to coat

May is strawberry season here in Maryland. We have a local farm that we go to with friends every May to pick strawberries, so this recipe was perfect for me. I turned a big portion into strawberry jam, part of which is used to flavor the frosting, used more in the cake itself, and served extra on the side for anyone who wanted an additional strawberry boost. The cake starts with a lemon-zest flavored batter that gets topped with strawberry halves before being baked. The recipe calls for 1.5 cups, but I didn't actually measure. I just placed as many strawberries on top as I thought the cake could stand. While the cake bakes, you make a lemon syrup that then all gets brushed/poured onto the cake to both reinforce the lemon flavor and provide an amazing level of moistness to the cake.  Once the cake cools, it's time to make the strawberry marshmallow frosting. Start by heating up eggs whites and sugar and then whisk until still, glossy, and cool to the touch. I did have a bit of p

The recipe header describes this as banana heaven, and that is certainly a good description. It required 5 bananas, and came out both smelling and tasting wonderfully banana. The cake starts with a spiced banana batter. You then fold in diced bananas that have been cooked briefly in a mixture of rum and brown sugar. Once the cake is baked and cooked, it gets a brown butter rum drizzle that is a good match for the banana flavor.    My drizzle did not drizzle, and it was much darker than the picture in the book. I did add a little bit of milk to the mixture even though the recipe didn't call for it. I probably should have added some more to get a looser mixture. Instead, it was more like frosting. It was still delicious, and there were not complaints from the tasters. One suggestion the author makes is that when you're ready to remove the cake from the pan you should flip it onto the cake plate, and then let it sit for a minute before slowly lifting the pan off the cake. I had ne

Where does February bring to mind for you? Mae Jemison, Shirley Chisholm and Josephine Baker? Hearts, candy and flowers? Snow, ice, and cold? In our family it's Samoas, Trefoils, and Thin Mints. Yes, February is Black History Month, and it has Valentine's Day right in the middle, and it is (at least where we live) the coldest month of the year, but it is also Girl Scout Cookie month, and my daughter is a girl scout who actively participates with her troop in selling cookies. So of course I had to try out this month's choice of a Thin Mint-inspired cake, the Thicc Mint Cookie Cake. It's a layer of chocolate cake, topped with mint buttercream, and covered in ganache. It did not disappoint. This cake had a great mixture of flavors and textures that is indeed reminiscent of the cookie. It was easy to prepare and sliced up neatly. I'm especially a fan of the buttercream mixture. It starts with 1 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of shortening to which 3 1/2 cups of powdered suga

 This year the Cake Slice Bakers will be baking out of The Cake Book: Beautiful Sweet Treats for Every Craving . Based on January's recipes, I believe I'll find the subtitle completely accurate. We had three recipes to choose from: Lemon-Olive Oil Chiffon Cake, Glazed Tangerine Donut Cake, and a Dark Chocolate Cajeta Cheesecake. I opted for the Glazed Tangerine Donut Cake. The cake is supposed to be baked in a tube pan which will give it the appearance of a donut. It then gets topped with a tangerine glaze to finish the look. I opted to use my Bundt pan, so it doesn't quite have the expected appearance, but the taste was still spot on. The cake is flavored with vanilla and nutmeg giving it a light spice cake flavor. It's light, airy, and moist, and tastes lovely without the glaze. With the glaze, it's the perfect cake for cup of coffee or tea, and carries over to make a nice bite for breakfast.  I'm really looking forward to what the rest of the year will bring.