Page 55: Jalapeno-Cheddar Corn Bread

We hosted a chili cook-off to watch the Notre Dame vs. USC game on Saturday (go Irish!), and I took the opportunity to pair this last cornbread recipe with a delicious array of chili cooked by me and my friends.

I'm not generally a fan of vegan cheeses, but I bought a block of Daiya Cheddar just for this recipe.  While entirely unimpressive on it's own, it worked well in the finished product.  The cornbread was sweet yet savory and was a perfect pair with the chili.

I also made this cornbread as directed in a loaf pan instead of in mini muffins like the plain version I attempted.  It caved in the middle a bit but was done through and was really moist.  I definitely like it better in this format!

Stay tuned for dessert: Strawberry Shortcake.  One of the last TWO recipes to go!

Page 62: Gingerbread

That's right friends, three ginger BabyCakes recipes in a row. Hey, I bought ginger. Why not?

As I said before, I was actually kind of excited to make the gingerbread because it involved a layer of BabyCakes frosting. But... it's BabyCakes frosting... and therefore it's temperamental. From what I recall, the last frosting attempt was in January with the Sweet Paradise cake when it turned out beautifully thick and set up perfectly. It did not do so this weekend for the gingerbread.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The gingerbread making itself was pretty uneventful. It's another teacakes recipe that has "extra batter" which I chose to use on cupcakes. Not very exciting - I definitely preferred the final product in teacake form and think I actually (gasp!) trashed six of the eight cupcakes by Sunday night. Mostly due to the frosting drama I'll discuss further below.

The final loaf, which I do not have a picture of because the camera battery died and we were already digging in, was very moist and definitely tasted of ginger and spice (and everything nice). The recipe also has one fourth cup of molasses. This seemed like a lot to me since I usually measure that stuff out by the teaspoon, but it added to the spice quality of the final product. And it gave me an iron boost for the weekend. Yay.

In short: it was good. Similar to a spice cake but not as sweet as the ginger snaps... but not so good that I would be inclined to eat it plain. Thus enters the frosting. And the drama. I'll spare you the details (they've been written here before) but I ended up with vanilla sauce. Still so delicious - as always - but not beautifully spreadable. So to enjoy a slice we spooned the frosting "sauce" on top of the slices like so:



As I said, it was still delicious and really brought the gingerbread to life, but it was not the thick layer of frosting pictured piled atop the gingerbread in the book (and that I was really looking forward to). Sigh.

Enough with the ginger... partly because I've now made all three of the ginger centric recipes in the book. Next up: biscuits for my veggie-ful Easter brunch (unless I find something wonderful to make before then!).

Page 61: Lemon-Poppy Teacake

Teacakes. Oh how I love teacakes. Almost as much as I love scones.

And this baby did not disappoint. As I type it's still warm on the counter so I'm not sure I can be completely objective, but it definitely ranks in the top five of my BabyCakes favorites to date.  I'm sure my partiality to teacakes plays into that somewhat.

I'm going to apologize right now for the pictures. I picked up the camera and it had a strange lens and no flash... and I wasn't sure how to rectify either problem. So I did my best. Sorry!

This had the usual BabyCakes ingredients, and was made perfectly lemony thanks to fresh lemon zest in addition to lemon extract. This was also my first experience with poppy seeds, and if any of my office mates have to undergo random drug tests this week I will be happy to provide an affidavit regarding their use in this recipe.

This time I was good and left the pan in the oven until a toothpick came out clean! I was so proud of myself. Even if I did have to bake it almost twice as long as called for in the recipe. 

Overall, this was a very uneventful baking session. No drama. No undercooking. No disasters. It was a nice change but, unfortunately makes for a rather boring post! Sorry - I'm sure I will have plenty of disasters in the future worth writing about.  

For now, all I have to say is YUM! It was so moist. And delicious. And lemony. Love it! Although I better go have another piece now that it's had time to cool, just to be safe. 

Page 53: Corn Bread

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Since I was already planning to do some baking for the holiday, I thought it would be most efficient to use this opportunity to inch slightly closer toward the BabyCakes goal. While not a traditional part of the Thanksgiving meal, I felt like corn bread was a sufficiently fallish recipe. The BabyCakes corn bread is in the teacakes chapter, and teacakes are some of my favorite treats! I also thought that if I made a batch of Morgan's homemade pumpkin butter to accompany the corn bread at dinner, it could certainly pass as standard Thanksgiving fare.

The corn bread recipe calls for it to be baked in a loaf pan, like a teacake. Not a brownie pan or muffin tins, but rather a standard loaf pan. I adore this idea and thought how decadent it would be to slather some earth balance on a slice of corn bread masquerading as a teacake. However, I was having dinner with roughly thirty people... one little loaf pan was just not going to cut it. Granted, I wasn't responsible to feed the whole crew, but I thought it might be rude to take a dish with only ten servings. So, I rectified the situation with my darling little mini muffin pan. "Perfect..." I thought to myself... "then everyone will get to sample the amazing BabyCakes corn bread that is sure to result from my efforts."

First thing Thursday morning, I set out to make my ingenious mini corn bread muffins. My hidden agenda here was that the hubby and I could enjoy a few for breakfast with the pumpkin butter I'd made the night before.

The ingredients seemed normal enough... including gluten-free flour, cornmeal, and corn flour. And, I think you'll agree, the result was adorable little golden nuggets that oozed with the feeling of fall.

Warm out of the oven they were tasty enough. Hubby's only immediate comment was that they seemed to turn to dough in his mouth. Not such a bad thing in my opinion, but he wasn't necessarily complaining either.

Topped with Morgan's pumpkin butter.
How much more fallish can you get?

However, the more these muffins cooled the less impressed I was by them. By the time I took them to dinner, I found myself explaining to everyone that they should really add the pumpkin butter for more flavor. It didn't help my cause that they ended up on the dessert table instead of the dinner table... and, let's be real here, the world's best corn bread cannot possibly compete with a Thanksgiving dessert table.

Also, somewhat mysteriously, after they cooled I noticed they had little orange specks throughout the muffin. Strange I thought... particularly since there were absolutely no orange ingredients. Still haven't figured that one out.

In summary, I take full responsibility for being entirely underwhelmed by the BabyCakes corn bread as I did not bake it in the form and manner designed. I think I owe this corn bread another shot - this time in a loaf pan. Even if it doesn't feed 30.

Page 58: Apple-Cinnamon Toastie

What is a "toastie" you may ask? I wasn't sure either, but it appears to be a sort of streuselesque tea cake. And this one, as with most BabyCakes goodies (save all cupcakes attempts to date), is fantastic. Toastie is now and forevermore part of our household vocabulary.

The batter for this goodness included applesauce and cinnamon, and you also fold in some roasted apples.  Then you make a separate batter derived from the original batter with some extra cinnamon, sugar, and water. You pour the second batter on top of the original batter and swirl it in, thus creating a delicious swirl of streusel throughout the loaf. And a yummy and sweet crunchy streusel top.

Although I think I baked it at least 50% longer than called for, I was patient this time and left it in until the toothpick came out clean. My patience was rewarded and, unlike the banana bread fiasco, it came out perfect. Fluffy, with a lovely balance of apple, cinnamon, and sweetness. And the crunchy streusel top was the best part.

It was wonderful warm... right out of the oven... but we didn't stop there. For dessert we warmed a couple of pieces in the toaster oven and added a scoop of ice cream (soy for me, dairy for the hubby, who actually requested coconut milk which I didn't have but the request still made my day). It tasted similar to an apple crisp and was quite yummy!

The next morning, I stole an idea from the St. Regis Princeville and fried up some slices in a pan with a little bit of earth balance (that's a butter substitute for you not in the vegan-know). This created a sort of apple cinnamon french toast. And it was amaaaazing! Slightly crunchy on the outside but still soft inside with a roasted apple peaking through every once in awhile. I topped it with a homemade cinnamon butter syrup using a recipe from my favorite vegan recipe genius, Morgan at Little House of Veggies. The combination was nothing short of delectable.

We definitely made the most out of the this toastie this weekend! And it's definitely going in the "to make again" category.

Page 57: Banana Bread/Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Early Sunday morning while hubby was out for a sunrise surf session, I decided to whip up a yummy BabyCakes treat for breakfast. Flipping through the book, I happened upon the banana bread. Not having ventured into the tea cakes chapter yet, I thought banana bread was a perfect choice.

The recipe was for just the banana bread, but in the description Erin McKenna recommends throwing in a cup of chocolate chips. "You will not be sorry" she declares. Okay then... mine became banana chocolate chip bread.

The recipe was pretty standard - well, pretty standard for BabyCakes. You know the drill... gluten free four, xanthan gum, agave nectar. And, of course, coconut oil - which I have been using with such frequency that I recently ordered a seven pound vat of it from amazon.com.

When I got to the part in the recipe where you pour the batter into the bread pan, the following sentence struck me as somewhat odd: Fill the pan halfway with batter. See "Batter Spectacular" on page 63 for ideas for using leftover batter. I thought it was a little strange that the recipe had "extra batter", but who am I to question. So I obediently flipped to page 63 to see what was up.

The referenced "spectacular" paragraph on page 63 recommends lining a pan with parchment paper and spreading the batter out like a giant pancake (well, I made the pancake reference up on my own, but it works). So I did, and as you'll see in a bit it was a darn good thing I did.

The extra batter only has to bake for 10 minutes, while the entire loaf is supposed to bake for 35 minutes.  It being breakfast time and me being hungry, I had dug into the extra batter pancake long before the banana bread was finished. I was adequately impressed. I actually think next time I will leave out the chocolate chips because they really took over the flavor and I am a fan of a good, solid, plain old banana bread. But the extra batter was very moist, not too dense, and overall quite yummy.

Perhaps it was because I was so happily preoccupied with the extra batter pancake, but I completely destroyed the banana bread. Using the tried and true method, I checked the loaf with a toothpick at 20 minutes when I rotated it 180 degrees. As expected, the toothpick was not clean so I left it to bake the remaining 15 minutes. However, I didn't use a toothpick again at 35 minutes and instead just removed the beautifully golden brown loaf from the oven.

Big mistake. Despite the golden brown appearance, it was not yet ready to be retrieved.

I let it cool while we were out for the day and when we returned the sunken center made it quite obvious the top was still mostly batter. I sliced into it and verified the obvious. There was no saving it at that point.

So I am discovering that the baking times in the book are ... more like guidelines. Maybe it's my oven. Maybe, as my grandma recently suggested, it has something to do with the weather. Maybe I should just check it with a toothpick before I call it done.

Based on how good the extra batter and the sides of the loaf were, I will certainly try this again. But for now, moving on to carrot cupcakes - coming soon!