TWD: All in One Holiday Bundt Cake

Out of order again! This time, instead of the crisp (which I made last week), I made this fabulous bundt cake. This one is a keeper. It was enjoyed by all.

It was easy to put together. There are quite a few components, but none of it was tough to deal with. This recipe calls for pumpkin, pecans, cranberries - fresh and dried, diced apples, and the usual cake ingredient suspects. I had never worked with fresh cranberries before. Really. They were pretty cool looking on the inside. The batter came together quickly in my stand mixer. Then into a greased bundt to bake for about an hour. This is a cake that makes the kitchen smell wonderful.

It came out of the pan with no sticking. Here's where I did a smart thing. I baked the cake the day before I needed it. I wrapped it tightly and left it on the counter so the flavors could ripen and meld a bit. Good call! I made a glaze with maple syrup, powdered sugar, and vanilla. It was a little on the thin side, but I liked it when it had hardened.

Very thin glaze. It made it shiny.

I am not a fan of pumpkin. At all. But this was so good! All of the flavors worked so well together. And since it had so much fruit in it, I was able to convince myself that it was healthy and therefore a good breakfast option.

See, there's the golden pumpkin and cranberries right there. Healthy!

Breakfast of champion. And bakers.

Thanks to Britin of the Nitty Britty for choosing such a great cake. (She made the crisp this week, but check back at her site for the recipe)

TWD: Cran-Apple Crisp

Yea! I have a hard drive again. Mind you the old one is still AWOL, but I'm working on it. Actually I'm spending obscene amounts of money to have someone else work on it, but I digress. Back up your data, folks!

On to the food! This month, because of the holiday, we are allowed to move things around a bit. The four recipes can be made and presented in any order. The husband liked the sound of the crisp, so that one came up first.

I love a good crisp. There's the contrast of the textures and, in this one, the contrast of the tart cranberries and sweet apples. The apple chunks took on a bit of a rosy hue.

Crisps also scream "Fall!" to me. They are homey and the perfect dessert for a cool autumn evening. This one was easy to make. The topping came together in an instant in the food processor. The cranberries and apples were tossed with a few ingredients in a bowl and then poured into a baking dish. Dorie's original recipe calls for individual crisps, but I just went with one big one. I was all about the easy. I was very happy to find fresh cranberries in my grocery store. And they were on sale! This baked for about 50 minutes. My kitchen smelled amazing.

It came out looking really good. The crisp crust was a gorgeous golden brown. I could just bake this stuff up and eat it as is.

It was hard to let it cool before eating it. I added a scoop of good vanilla ice cream, and... WOW! This was very good. Very. Good. I hate coconut. There was coconut in the topping. I didn't even really notice it. It just added a "something." I would absolutely make this again. I don't think I'd change anything.

Thank you, Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef for picking such a winner! Go see Katya's blog, Second Dinner for the official recipe for this week.

TWD: Cherry Fudge Brownie Torte

First off, I'm typing on the husband's computer, so I have no photos. They are on my computer. The one with the crashed hard drive. Keep your fingers crossed that the data recovery magicians can pull off a miracle.

On to the food! Want to know what's a really good idea? (Other than backing up your computer. Often.) Reading the recipe. It's helpful. It tells you little things. Things about saving four ounces of chopped chocolate to add at the end. Things about the mousse part needing at least four hours to chill. Oy.

This ended up being a really rich brownie cake studded with cherries and a hint of rum. It was slightly fussy. The chocolate and butter needed melting. (only seven ounces of chocolate!) The dry ingredients needed blending. The cherries needed boiling and flambeeing. And then it all needed to be mixed together.

Mine baked for about an hour. It came out cleanly from the pan. I sprinkled some powdered sugar on top and served it as is. I think that the mousse would have been tasty, but this was really rich on its own. The extra chocolate melted in added to the richness, I'm sure.

Thank you to April of Short + Rose for picking this recipe. Go to her blog to see what this should look like. Hmmm, I seem to be saying that a lot lately....

I'm writing a new feature for the TWD site!

So excited! In an effort to spice up the TWD site a bit, the moderators asked for some suggestions and volunteers to help add content. I'm writing a feature (name! I need a name!) on ingredients and kitchen tools. Those you love, those you don't know how to use, those you need to expand on a bit, and those you covet. Go check it out. I post the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month.

Any ideas or suggestions for the feature? (column? post?) let me know!

TWD: Not this week

Sorry folks. If you came here looking for Sweet Potato Biscuits, you will be disappointed. I got to spend a glorious weekend away with the husband, and other people did all the cooking for me. Baking is a little more than I could get to right now. Once I climb over the mountains of laundry, I might be able to get back to the kitchen.

Go visit Erin's blog to see the recipe and what these delicious biscuits look like. I'll be back soon!

TWD: Allspice Crumb Muffins

I was really pleased to see this recipe this week. I love dessert. A lot. But it was nice to see something that I could (without guilt) serve the boy and the girl for breakfast. Not that pudding doesn't make a nice breakfast....

Anyway. I was excited by the comments from the other bakers. Most really loved it and praised the flavors and simplicity. As an added bonus, it was chosen by my internet friend, Kayte. She has amazing taste, so I knew this would be a winner. I really enjoy her blog. (Grandma's Kitchen Table) The boy and I set out making them this afternoon.

It was an easy recipe. Three bowls. One muffin tin. First up was the streusel. It was basic - butter, flour, brown sugar, and allspice. Dorie likes fingers for blending. I like my pastry blender.

Cutest sous chef ever.

Then comes the muffin. It's your basic formula. Wet ingredients get quickly blended into the dry ingredients. The muffins were scooped. (By the way, if you do not yet have an ice cream scoop for muffins and cupcakes, get one!) I got 12 muffins in the tin and two extras. The streusel was strewn on top. Here's where it got a little... off. I had more streusel than muffin top. But since I love the stuff, I put it all on anyway. Into the oven they went. Lots of good smells in my kitchen.

And out they came. Not so streusel looking. It's more like there's a sugar crust on top of the muffins. It's not a bad thing, but I was disappointed. They are not pretty. They did taste good, though. I wasn't bowled over as some of the other bakers were. I think they're good, but there needed to be more of something. Cinnamon maybe? I know that allspice was supposed to be the star here, but I didn't get a whole lot of the flavor. I think if I was to make this recipe again, I would add in some pecans or something. Maybe a bit less butter as well. There was a small puddle of butter in each of the muffin wells after I had taken the muffins out.

Dorie's notes say that the flavor intensifies overnight, so maybe in the morning the flavor will be more pronounced. The other tasters in the house enjoyed these. Maybe it's just me.

Here's one of the extra muffins. It was in this cute little heart-shaped foil pan. Here it is from the bottom.

Ooops. Here's a lesson -- don't over fill your muffin cups!

Thanks Kayte for the change of pace. Go visit her blog to see the recipe. Or go buy the book already.

TWD: Split Level Pudding

I have discovered the joys of homemade pudding. The chocolate pudding that we last made for Dorie was amazing. Sad to say, this one did not give me the same joy. It was a layer of ganache covered with a layer of vanilla pudding. It sounded delicious, and I was eager to make it.

The ganache was fine. What could be bad about heavy cream and bittersweet chocolate? The pudding layer was not so fine. Dorie's recipes call for her pudding to go through a round in the food processor. From my experience and from what I've read from other members, it does something to the pudding so that it doesn't set up as well. Although it spent about six hours in the fridge, my vanilla layer never quite set.

Here's the other thing for me. I didn't like the two layers. When it comes to pudding, I want a really rich chocolate or a really strong vanilla. The vanilla didn't shine through enough. The overwhelming flavor was the chocolate, which to me sort of defeats the purpose. Ah well. Maybe I'll just try the vanilla part without using the processor and without the chocolate. I will say that the boy and the girl liked it a lot. They ended up stirring the chocolate and vanilla together, so it negated any layers anyway.

Here's dessert for the family.

Ready for a spoon....

As close to a "layered" shot as we got. No layers here.

Here's what the boy and girl ended up doing. The liquidity of the pudding did something to the ganache layer, so it was pretty soft as well.

Thank you Garrett of The Flavor of Vanilla for choosing the recipe this week.