Orange Ginger Cranberry Oat Bundt Cake

Whenever I think of a 'bundt' cake, I think of a scene in the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I often joked with my husband that parts of our own love story were eerily similar to many parts of that movie. That's usually what happens when an ethnic family and an American family mix--it's a beautifully hilarious juxtaposition of norms.

In the scene I'm referring to, the American groom's parents are invited to the Greek bride's family's home for dinner and the groom's mother brings a bundt cake for the host (bride's mother). This is what I recall went down (upon receiving cake):

Maria Portokalos: "What is it?"
Mrs. Miller: "It's a bundt."
Maria Portokalos: "A Buntttttt?"
Mrs. Miller: "Bundt."
Maria Portokalos: "Bunk?"
Mrs. Miller: "Bundt."
Maria Portokalos: "Buuun-t."
Mrs. Miller: "Bundt, Bundt."
Aunt Frieda: " Einai cake, mori."
Maria Portokalos: "Ohhhh... It's a cake! I know! Thank you! Thank you very much!"
As she walks away, Maria Portocalas: 'There's a hole in this cake!'

Anyway.......fun dinner with the neighbors again and cranberries going bad....time to get creative. I know that bundt cakes are too retro these days as cupcakes have become hip, but I couldn't resist since I need to justify my $3 Nordicware cake pan purchase 7 years ago. The reviews said that the oats give a nice crunch to the cake.

The recipe was modified (by myself) to include candied ginger....I think the flavor combination of cranberry-ginger-orange is wonderful, but you can leave the ginger out if you prefer. There's no denying the genius of orange and cranberries--like lemon & blueberries, cherries & almonds, vanilla & pear, butter & pecans, Fred & Ginger, love & marriage, martinis & aspirin, you get the picture...

ORANGE-GINGER-CRANBERRY BUNDT CAKE
Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups rolled oats
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 cups fresh cranberries, chopped
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 heaping Tbsp. candied ginger, chopped (optional)
2 tsp. finely shredded orange peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan; set aside. In bowl stir together flour, oats, baking powder, soda, and salt.

In large mixing bowl beat butter with electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add the 1 cup sugar; beat until well combined. Add eggs; beat until well combined. Alternately add flour mixture and milk, beating on low speed after each addition until combined.

Toss cranberries with 2 tablespoons sugar; fold into batter with orange peel (and candied ginger, if using). Spoon batter into prepared pan; spread evenly.

Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool on rack. Prepare Orange Glaze; spoon over cooled cake. Let stand until glaze is set.

Makes 12 servings.

Orange Glaze:
In small bowl combine 1 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel. Add 2 to 3 teaspoons orange juice to make drizzling consistency.


Since my olfactory senses are temporarily suspended, I cannot tell you what it tasted like, but I can share that I got thumbs ups from the guests. I think that this cake might do really well served with some whipped cream and coffee..just a thought.

And since my camera battery died this afternoon at the park (hooray for swing time!), phone picture is all I can provide of cake's interior (sorry). Happy weekend! Hope you all get out and meet your neighbors!

Sinfully Delicious Orange Flourless (Dark) Chocolate Cake

This is definitely one of the 'champagne' recipes....I know, not exactly healthy. But, it's FAST preparation and EASY to make. Extremely decadent. Worthy of those moments in life where you want to punctuate sentences such as, 'I love you for working like a dog so I can stay home', or 'sorry I ran up the Discover prior to Christmas', or 'can I change your mind about taking that vacation?' or 'happy birthday to a hardworking immigrant mom that I never get to see on her birthday.'  Ha! You get my point...

Being that my mom is visiting on her birthday weekend and she is European, making a traditional cake with buttermilk frosting was completely out of the question. Therefore, this was the perfect opportunity to pull out another 'can't wait to try this when I have people over' recipe that combined her favorite things: dark chocolate and orange flavor. No, this cake is NOT attractive. But that's ok. One bite, and you are lost in love....

This delightfully moist and rich flourless chocolate cake was made for the Reagan family by the French pastry chef Roland Mesnier, during President Ronald Reagan's administration. The recipe is excerpted from the book Chef Mesnier wrote describing the desserts he made during 25 years he served as the White House pastry chef.

This recipe appeared on http://www.epicurious.com/ and had amazingly good reviews. I modified the recipe using salted butter and leaving out the extra 2 Tbsp. of sugar which made it turn out particularly excellent, but the original recipe is below.

ORANGE FLOURLESS (DARK) CHOCOLATE CAKE
Adapted from All the Presidents' Pastries: Twenty-Five Years in the White House, A Memoir

1 1/2 sticks (170 g) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
flour, only for dusting
6 ounces (170 g) bittersweet chocolate
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (220 g) sugar
zest of one large orange
4 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
1/2 cup (55 g) unsweetened cocoa powder

To serve:
Confectioner's sugar, for dustingcandied orange peel and vanilla ice cream, optional--but, apparently worth it

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Butter and flour a 10-inch (25-cm) round cake pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, then butter and flour the parchment paper.

Gently melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Stir the butter into the chocolate to melt, and stir until smooth.

Remove from the double boiler and whisk the sugar and orange zest into the chocolate mixture. Add the eggs and egg yolks and whisk well. Sift the cocoa powder over the chocolate mixture and whisk the batter until totally smooth. (Below is some of the chocolate I used--a little of each)

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for approximately 35 to 40 minutes, or until the top has formed a good crust. The cake will puff up some, but it will not be as heavy as other flourless chocolate cakes.

Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Invert the cake onto a serving platter. Dust with confectioners' sugar and if you like, serve with candied orange peel and/or vanilla (bean) ice cream.

 
Makes about 10 servings.

Best. Salad. Ever.

This salad is inspired from my favorite little romantic, yet humbled, Northern Italian restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina. My husband and I love to eat here when we're on vacation. We love to drink Prosecco and eat freshly baked foccacia at Al Di La. It's off the beaten path, away from the tourists, and packed night after night. Sometimes you have to sit at the bar or on oak barrels in the bar area and wave like a madman to get served.

There are SO MANY things I love to eat at this restaurant--the gnocchi, the tiramisu, the halibut with lentils....one day I got a wild hair to go talk to the chef and he was kind enough to tell me how my favorite salad is made. Unforunately, he could not give me exact measurements--but the rough proportions still allowed me to work it all out successfully. Luckily, it's not an exact science and you can make this salad at home just as good as it tastes in the restaurant. I LOOOOVE this salad and think you will too--it's one of my few deviations into 'sweet+savory=pretty good' as far as non-dessert items go. I'm just not a fan of all the fruit thrown into salads...there's a time and a place for it in my not-very-humble opinion (sorry). And most often, in my twisted world, fruit belongs in desserts...except here :)

There are a million versions online for this salad with some of these ingredients (so obviously it's a hit), but the mix of ingredients below are my favorite: simple, elegant, fresh, and SPECTACULAR. The crunch of the nuts, the peppery aspect of the arugula, the tartness of the orange, and the creaminess of the cheese...I don't like to sing...but I just might, if you served this to me. It may just be one of the things I ask for if permitted a 'last meal'....try it.

ARUGULA SALAD WITH GOAT CHEESE, WALNUTS, ORANGES, AND BEETS

Fresh arugula, rinsed, patted dry with a paper towel--baby arugula is great

Goat cheese (chevre), crumbled
Walnuts or pecans, chopped or left whole
Navel oranges, in segments (peeled and pared-without membranes)
Beets (boiled until a fork easily goes in it, about an hour), peeled, sliced into strips OR canned beets, drained)

Dressing--Mix together equal parts of:
Extra virgin olive oil
Fresh orange juice
Balsamic vinegar
Salt & cracked pepper, to taste

Toss together the arugula, orange segments, nuts, and crumbled goat cheese with dressing (LEAVE OUT the beets unless you want your whole salad to be entirely pink). Assemble the salads by plating the dressed arugula salad on each plate and add beets on top of your salad.

Serve this salad COLD (sometimes when I get really crazy, I chill the salad plates in advance before plating this salad--I swear it makes a difference!).

Orange Cranberry (Drop) Scones (Slightly Adapted With Whole Wheat Flour)

This morning, my kitchen was a haven with classical music (Enescu), the smell of oranges (from the grated rind), coffee brewing, and a chatty toddler at my heels.

Ok, so these are not the most attractive scones you'll ever eat...but they are sooooo good! Cranberry orange scones are my favorite scones. I hadn't made this recipe in years--because it's a two-sticks-of-butter recipe (sigh). But today, the easiest scone recipe I've ever come across (no shaping the dough!!!), got gleefully dusted off.

Husband: what are you making?, Wife: Scones. But healthier. With whole wheat flour...and maybe some light butter. Husband: (Inaudible muttering accompanied by a sigh).

Because I CAN. I'm sure he's wondering why ruin a good thing...so HERE is the original recipe (made with currants-but who has currants lying around?) just in case you don't want to mess with perfection--because the original recipe REALLY is perfection (especially if you add white chocolate chips). But if you try to sneak in a little whole grain and lower a tiny bit of fat in your recipes, try my version below. You really won't miss the original. That much.

A bit of whole wheat pastry flour won't destroy the integrity of this drop scone. I promise. It's still VERY good. Crumbly texture...crispy crust...soft interior. Heavenly with coffee.....These scones are not very sweet-as authentic scones really shouldn't be--and you can control the sugar content of the topping too. These are cakier rather than drier scones. I'm sure if you baked them longer and at a lower temperature, they may get drier (or let them sit out longer).

Final result? Husband said 'they're really good' and my toddler inhaled two today without making a single sound. Did I mention I ran back in the house as we were leaving just to grab another? YUM! But just once in your life...make them with all white flour. They orange color comes out brighter and they are wonderful to serve to company .

ORANGE CRANBERRY DROP SCONES

adapted from Gourmet magazine

Yield: 24 scones

4 cups all-purpose white flour (I used 2 cups all-purpose & 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour)
3 Tbsp. sugar (any sugar will do, really)
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp, baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
*2 sticks (1 cup) butter, cut into bits
3 Tbsp. freshly grated orange zest (from about 2 navel oranges)
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons well-shaken buttermilk (I used low-fat)
2 large eggs
1/4 cup granulated raw sugar (turbinado or Demerara--gives you that crystalized look)

Optional Add-ins:
white chocolate chips
nuts

In a bowl of a standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment stir together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add butter and zest and beat until mixture resembles coarse meal. Beat in currants (and any optional ingredients). In a bowl whisk together buttermilk and eggs and add to flour mixture, beating just until a dough forms. (Dough will be sticky and will not seem completely mixed-that's ok--better not overwork the dough so you don't get tough lumps).

Preheat oven to 350°F. and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. On each sheet arrange mounds of dough about 1 inch apart. Sprinkle mounds with raw sugar and chill 15 minutes.
Bake scones in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of sheets half-way through baking, until light brown, about 20 minutes. (your total baking time is 20 minutes at most)

*One of the recipe reviewers stated they used 1/2 cup less butter than called for. I tried it but my dough was quite clumping as it should. So, at the last minute I added 1/2 cup of LIGHT butter. I am not sure I'd do all whole wheat flour and all light butter--you won't get the same wonderful texture-sorry.

ENJOY! ENJOY!