TWD: Nutty Chocolatey Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Oh yum!

I'm just going to tell you straight up that I ate 4 pieces of this cake. Right after I cut it...and one right after another. No breaks in between. Then I had to stop myself because I needed something to take to the brunch I was headed to. As it was, I showed up with pretty much half a cake. I really don't think anyone noticed. :)

A lot of bakers had problems with the cake sticking to the bundt pan. I super-sprayed mine with Baker's Joy and kept the filling away from the sides. No problem with sticking. Mine came out intact.

I also had to kind of use my fingers to spread the batter over the filling at the end. I didn't want the fall out some had a problem with, It seemed to work. Nothing came out when I unmolded.

The one substitution I made was to use lemon zest instead of orange zest. Simply because I had lemons in the house. And oh yeah, left the raisins out of the swirl....that just didn't seem right.

And I got to use nuts in the filling!!! Since this cake was destined to be consumed outside my home...I was able to use nuts. And I used pecans. So the combination of pecans, cinnamon, mini chocolate chips and fresh nutmeg....made for a tasty swirl.

A big thank you to Jennifer over at Cooking for Comfort for choosing this week's TWD.

Don't forget to have a look over here for the rest of the bakers' beautiful cakes.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

Let's make this short and sweet.

Betsy from A Cup of Sweetness chose this week's TWD.

I have so many lemons....I don't know what to do with them all. I have a lemon tree in my yard...friends drop big bags of lemons at my front door...my parents bring them to me...This recipe helped out a little. :)

I substituted nonfat Greek yogurt for the sour cream because that's what I had in the fridge. I also left off the glaze because I'm keeping them in the freezer. At least one of my boys likes to eat these for breakfast so he'll be in muffins for days.

Bright and lemony with a crunch of poppyseeds. Very nice.

Don't forget to stop by the TWD website to catch up with the other bakers.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Fluff-Filled (Minus the fluff) Chocolate Madeleines

No ridges...no humps...no filling...but a really yummy chocolate spongy cake dipped in bittersweet chocolate ganache.

This week's TWD tasted really good but was lacking in the looks department.

I don't know what happened with my madeleines. I had my new madeleine pan buttered and floured. I had my madeleine batter chilling in the fridge. I portioned out the batter into the 12 wells of the pan. Pre-heated the oven to 400 then lowered to 350 when I put them in. Baked them for 14 minutes and ended up with smooth chocolate blob looking things.

Each one overran the mold it was in and not one gave me the "hump" or the "ridges" characteristic of the MADELEINE!!!!

Oh well, maybe I just need to try again. This was my first time using a madeleine pan and certainly not my last. I think I'll play around a bit and see what happens.

So...I bypassed filling them with fluff. I did not, however, bypass dipping them in the chocolate ganache. Chocolate dipped in more chocolate? Of course. Why not? And the ganache kind of hid the lack of....things....in my madeleines.

Thank you to Margo over at Effort to Deliciousness for this week's choice. Go to her blog for the recipe and have a look at her beautiful photographs to see how these are supposed to look. Absolutely perfect. :)

Stop by here to see what the others came up with. I saw peanut butter ganache, nutella filling, mini muffins and vanilla cakes. Lots of variations.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Midnight Crackles

Happy Anniversary to Tuesdays with Dorie!!! It's been 3 years that this fabulous baking group has been going and I am happy to say I have been a part of it for 2 of them. My very first TWD post was 11/4/08....Rugelach! I have had so much fun since then. I can't believe that I will have a cookbook that I will have made almost every recipe in. If you were to look at my Baking From My Home To Yours book...you will see a frosting splattered, pencil written, chocolate smeared, well-loved cookbook. :) Like many others I'm sure.

This week's pick was from Laurie and Jules over at Someone's in the Kitchen. Laurie founded the TWD group back in and Jules has been helping her with the site....so very appropriate they chose a recipe together. Together they chose Midnight Crackles...a rich, chocolatey, slightly spicey cookie perfect for sending to people with the rest of your Christmas cookies.

Full disclosure...I made these cookies back in December of 2008 and posted about them, but no pictures...what's up with that?? I didn't bake them from my book but from the December '06 issue of Bon Appetit. So...I already knew I loved them.

A lot of people had issues with the dough becoming to firm if left in the fridge too long. I think I left mine about 1/2 hour and it was fine for scooping and rolling. I used my small scoop so that if I ate 5 in one sitting...I wouldn't feel so bad because hey, they're small!

I still have some of these in the freezer. They're perfect when you want something chocolate. :)

Don't forget to check out the rest of the Midnight Crackles over here.

Oh yeah...when I posted the about the Cardamom Crumb Cake 2 weeks ago...the cake itself had gone into the freezer to be eaten on Christmas Morning. Thanks to all the great comments letting me know I would absolutely love the cake....as you can see, we did. :)

The one with the sweet tooth...

Thanks for stopping by!