Today's the day....

Excuse me for a moment while I step out and purchase my new DVD.....

TWD: French Yogurt Cake With Marmalade Glaze

I had previously made this cake and talked about it here, so when Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction revealed her choice for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie, I was excited to write a little more and have it count for something other than what I've been eating lately. This recipe can be found on pages 224-225 in Dorie's book.

This cake is more like a sweet bread or pound cake if you will...but without the all the butter. It has been lightened up with yogurt and a little oil making me think I could actually be eating something healthy. My reasoning goes something like this: I eat yogurt for breakfast...there is yogurt in the cake. I eat marmalade for breakfast...there is marmalade on this cake. I eat bread for breakfast...this is baked in a bread pan. Hence, this must be good for breakfast! My reasoning makes for one tasty breakfast!!

I had 2 different types of yogurt in my fridge...nonfat plain yogurt and a thick Greek yogurt from TJ's. Why not make 2 loaves and use the playing around method too!

My first loaf was made according to the recipe in the book. I used the almond meal, plain yogurt and orange marmalade. I couldn't find lemon marmalade anywhere and hadn't made my Meyer Lemon Marmalade yet so I just went with the orange. Dorie says to strain the marmalade but I like the bits of orange so I skipped that part. I love how you can see the flecks of almond meal in the cake. This was so good I had to drop half a loaf at a friend's house to get it away from me.

My second loaf was made substituting the all-purpose flour for the almond meal, olive oil for the canola oil and thick Greek yogurt for the regular plain yogurt. This loaf was a little higher than the first loaf and looks more like a bread. I didn't glaze this one as it is still in my freezer!

My third loaf was made substituting whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour and then back to the regular plain yogurt and canola oil. This one turned out a little more dense and flatter than I would have liked...it's in the freezer too. (No picture of this one)

When I defrost these, I will have a chance to use the lemon marmalade I made a few weeks back...I think that will be mighty tasty on the olive oil/Greek yogurt loaf.

Check over here to see what the rest of the bakers created.

Thanks for stopping by!

A BIG Thank you!

So here's how it happened...I have been adding photographs of my cupcakes to the Cupcakes Take the Cake pool on Flickr every so often...when I bake them, remember to photograph them, and then remember to take them off my camera, put them on the computer and upload to Flickr... :)

I was so so excited when the Cupcakes Take The Cake blog featured a photograph of my Valentine's themed cupcakes. I even wrote about it here! Wow...they're over in New York and they liked my photographs from all the way over here in Northern California! Life is good!

Then...I got some Flickr mail from Rachel who helps run the CTTC blog. She said she loved my photographs and was wondering if she could use 5-6 of them to feature on the blog with a credit and a link! I almost started hyperventilating! So very cool...me...on that blog! Of course I said yes and here it is!

I owe a big thank you to all the girls at CTTC! You guys made my week!

Getting Baked!

I have a new cookbook! I'm sure you've seen it around...

Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. You know...they own that little bakery up in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

The first thing I made were these yummy Peanut Butter Crispy Bars. Let me just say "Oh my!"

These bars were a little bit of heaven in each bite...chocolate, peanut butter, crunchy, soft...wow.

The notes on the page in the cookbook mention that these are extremely rich and should be served in small portions...and they aren't joking. The only drawback is that these morsels need to stay refrigerated so they are hard to bring...to say...a girls' night out at a bar someone owns...they got a little soft an mushy. Still ate 'em though!

I am going to make every single recipe in this book....is there a group I can join? :) I'll keep you posted.

Still with the lemons.....

No TWD for me this week...I guess I would rather not have custard than have it...that's my theory anyway. Bridget of The Way The Cookie Crumbles chose the beautiful looking Lemon Cup Custard. I have to admit, I wasn't really looking forward to making this and then I went and checked out all the comments on the TWD site and I guess that kicked me into "not gonna make it" mode. Maybe I should have asked my husband first, he might have liked it...but I just couldn't do it. I don't like eggy...my kids don't like eggy and if my husband ended up not liking it...well I would have felt guilty pouring it down the drain.

Sorry TWD'ers....I promise to be back next Tuesday!

At any rate, I did do something with lemons. Of course I did...I have them coming out my ears!

I made Giada's Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze! Yummy, cakey and very, very lemony. I ate them, my kids ate them and my husband ate them. And then I finished them off. These little bundles of sunshine were very easy to make. The recipe calls for whole milk ricotta but I used the part skim I always find in my grocery store. The ricotta cut the sweetness a bit so the lemony flavor stood out. These are not crispy and not chewy...they are cakey with a nice lemony glaze on top. Like eating your own mini lemon cake! I read in the reviews that some used cream cheese with good results. I like using ingredients that I wouldn't normally use in baking so I will stick with the ricotta...I will definitely be making these again.


I think he would agree....

Check over here to see what the other bakers came up with...

I have a PTC meeting tonight...I need to go make a bundt cake.. :)

Now that's what I'm talking about....

Let me tell you a little story....

I have a friend who is planning a quick trip to Vegas with her husband along with her aunt and uncle who are flying out from New Jersey. The uncle, who has a terminal illness, wanted a last hurrah in Las Vegas with his favorite niece. One of the days they are going to be in Vegas also happens to be the uncle's birthday. What a party!!

My friend thought it would be a nice idea to have a spectacular birthday cake ordered for the occasion and they would bring it to the restaurant to enjoy after the birthday dinner...Friend called up a well known bakery in Las Vegas and ordered a birthday cake in her uncle's favorite flavor...Carrot Cake...to be picked up prior to dinner.

When my friend called to tell me the plans...I said "Oh, too bad you didn't use RETRO BAKERY in Las Vegas." They are locally owned and operated by a couple with 2 young daughters and though I have met neither Kari nor Brian, they seem like the nicest couple. (I read Kari's blog!)

My friend proceeded to cancel the order at said well known bakery and called up Retro to see what they could do for her. She spoke with Brian and he said he would make her a spectacular birthday cake for more within her budget! Success!

What type of cake did my friend want? Carrot Cake of course....Brian said they didn't make it :(

My friend said that was all right...Vanilla loves Vanilla would be fine and that her uncle would enjoy his day to the fullest as it would more than likely be his last birthday....

Do you know what Brian said after he heard that?

He would make the carrot cake and it would be spectacular! Did you read that??? HE WOULD MAKE THE CARROT CAKE...even though that is not a flavor they make at Retro...he would do it...and they would DELIVER the CARROT CAKE to the restaurant for them!

I cried when my friend told me and nearly cried as I typed this...Great Customer Service is what will keep you going..I believe...Now that's what I'm talking about...

Thank you Kari, Brian and Retro Bakery!

(Please note, the cupcake picture is not Retro's but mine. I made them for above friend's daughter's birthday...I just didn't want a pictureless entry!:) )

TWD: Chocolate Armagnac Cake...the one that got Dorie fired!

Well...if I had to go...I would want it to be over a delicious cake more than any other reason..

Thanks to LyB from And then I do the dishes for choosing this weeks beautiful baked good for TWD! Let me say, after last weeks Caramel Crunch Bars I didn't really want to make another yummy, chocolatey, dessert that I would most likely end up eating myself. I was going to skip it but at the last minute we decided to have some friends over for a BBQ Saturday night. Perfect opportunity to make a cake!

I didn't have pecans, prunes or Armagnac in the house so substituted almonds, raisins and Scotch. It seemed to work out fine. I followed Dorie's instructions for subbing the raisins and Scotch and let them steep in a jar for about 4 hours. I wasn't quite sure what to do with them as the playing around bit is a little vague. I dumped them into a saucepan with the extra water...boiled them, then tried to flame them. Nothing doing. I ended up just dumping the mixture into the batter.

I baked my cake for exactly minutes. My knife was a little bit streaky...so I pulled it and let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan. After releasing the sides and turning the cake over to pull off the paper...I put a cooling rack on the bottom to turn it back over and smooshed half the cake into oblivion! Since the cake was still warm, I just kind of molded it back together like play-doh and hoped that the glaze would cover...and it did. I spread my glaze with a spatula and did not have to wait for it to become spreadable.

After dinner I served wedges with a scoop of vanilla ice cream...though now that I think about it, I should have served a big 'ol glass of milk too! This cake was moist, chocolatey and not too boozy...or maybe we didn't taste the booze because we had already drunk too much wine! Who knows...My husband had seconds (with a glass of milk). This from someone who claims to not eat desserts!!

I had a piece for breakfast this morning...straight out of the fridge with my am coffee...wow, I think I like it better cold and fudgey. I have to get the rest of this cake out of the house now!

Head on over here to see what the others baked up.... now I gotta get off this computer!