Friday, December 31, 2010

TWD: REWIND!!!

This week's TWD is a rewind....thank goodness.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. My family sure did and now my brother, his wife and their 2 kids are here for a week long visit from Atlanta. We are all headed to Bass Lake for the week along with my two boys and my parents. Skiing, sledding and snowboarding will be on the agenda for the week.

Before Christmas, I received a request for a lemon tart. The person requesting also loves meringue so I combined 2 recipes into 1.

Dorie's The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart topped with meringue from Dorie's Creamiest Lime Cream Pie.

Under the broiler for a few minutes and there you have it. I hear it was a hit.
Don't forget to check out what the other bakers came up with.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a safe and happy New Year celebration!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

TWD: Cardamom Crumb Cake

Thanks Jill for choosing this week's "perfect for Christmas morning" crumb cake. I love cardamom and I love cake so the two together is pretty much perfection. A little fyi...cardamom is a common ingredient found in Indian and Scandinavian cooking and a nice change from the typical cinnamon found in coffee cakes.

I'm not saying I would pass up a cinnamon flavored coffee cake...but if it was sitting next to this cardamom one....I think I would choose this one.

This cake was so easy to put together. Mix up the topping, set aside. Mix the dry ingredients, rub the fresh orange zest into the sugar and then pour the wet ingredient over. Pour into the pan and top with the crumbs. 35 minutes later you can be digging in.

I did have a few substitutions and omissions. I left out the walnuts in the topping because both my kids and my parents would be eating this Christmas morning. My kids can't stand nuts and walnuts make my mom's lips swell. :) Not a good start to present time.

The only thing different with the cake batter was to substitute half and half for the whole milk..simply because I had no milk in the house. I have buttermilk, whipping cream and half and half in my fridge....but no regular milk. Somehow that seems so wrong.

I can't comment on the taste as this is going into the freezer for Saturday morning. But with the combination of orange zest, espresso powder and cardamom...I can only imagine it will taste exceptional!!!

I'll let you know.

Don't forget to stop by here to check out the other bakers' creations.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

TWD: Apple Coconut Family Cake

Oh yum!

Good thing my kids liked this cake...or I would have eaten the whole thing myself. And no, I didn't cut the recipe down. I made the full deal!

First off...I used sweetened coconut and toasted it. I like the flavor of toasted coconut better than the super sweet of untoasted.

I also omitted the rum, simply because I didn't have any. :)

Oh, and I used Granny Smith apples. No glaze on the top...just a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

There's not a huge coconut flavor in this cake..just a hint. Which is just enough.

Thanks Amber for your.....easy to put together in this crazy month...pick!

Stop by here to see the many variations.

Thanks for stopping by.