Raisin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I wanted something quick, easy and which did not require a long baking time. Once again we suffer in NY with sticky, airless weather. I came across this recipe from About.com (often an excellent site for baking). These are the full measurements; I halved them and used an 8-inch square pan.

Raisin Cake:
2 cups flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup applesauce
2 eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
1-1/2 cups raisins

Frosting: (I also halved this).
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (or lemon)
Milk, as needed (did not need, in fact needed a bit more confectioner's sugar)

Preparation:
Pour hot water over raisins to cover. Let steep until plump, about 15 minutes, then drain thoroughly. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13-inch pan with non-stick foil. In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and allspice. Make a well in the center. Add oil, applesauce and beaten eggs. Mix well. Fold in plumped raisins. Pour into pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. (My smaller cake was done around 25 mins.) Cool to room temperature. Frosting: In small bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla extract and confectioners' sugar. Add lemon juice and just enough milk to make frosting smooth and easy to spread. Smooth frosting on top of cooled cake. Refrigerate cake for 1 hour. (overnight)

This proved to be a great hit; it's a very nice snack cake and the apple sauce and oil made it wonderfully moist. I'll definitely make this for other occasions besides the office Tuesday treat.

Nut Sponge Cake

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I really like this recipe - it's quite rich and delicate in texture and the flavors blened in very well. I used a thin layer of apricot jam and whipped cream for the filling; this is a cake which could take a variety of fillings: creme anglaise would be lovely, as would a mascarpone cheese frosting filling, and so on and so on. I sprinkled the top with caster sugar.

Nut Sponge Cake with Jam and Cream

4 oz. butter
4 oz caster sugar
2 eggs, separated
1-1/2 oz roasted ground hazelnuts
4 oz self raising flour
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon instant coffee
1 tablespoon warm milk

Set oven at 375 degrees F. Grease and line a 8-inch round cake tin. Soften the butter in a bowl, add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the egg yolks, nuts, sifted flour and salt. Dissolve the coffee in the milk and add to the mixture; then fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Turn into the tin and bake for about 25 minutes until firm and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool. Fill with filling of choice.

Gingered Carrot Cookies - Tuesdays with Dorie

I'm wondering if there are photo lessons for Dummies, like the Dummy series books - I got this pic quite nicely because by chance the camera was in image mode. Must learn, must improve!

I have to say I didn't like these cookies very much; they were okay just baked but later they turned soft and did not seem to have that much flavor. But that's just my taste; a lot of TWD'ers did like the recipe.

Anyhow, they're up and posted.

Chewy Chunky Blondies and a Catch-up: Lots of Ways Banana Cake - Tuesdays with Dorie

First, the Blondies. Umm....! Chocolate, coconut, butterscotch chips, a combination not to be resisted, plus a chance to make some blondies, which I have not made before.

I halved the recipe and used an 8-inch square pan. Baking time was about 43 minutes. The top has a nice crust on it, quite flaky. Unfortunately quite a few cracks appeared when I flipped the cake onto the second tray; oh well, I think it's going to taste good even though it looks a bit like paving stones.

The recipe is here on Nicole's blog. Thank you, Nicole - it looks like a really good choice.

The Banana Cake was due last Tuesday but I had problems with unripe bananas. This time I had two beautiful, speckled bananas for the cake (also using half the recipe), so here it is. It's an easy cake to get together and I was grateful that I did not have to spend too much time in the kitchen, while NY is reaching record high temperatures and humidity.

This is another 8-inch square cake; I halved Dorie's recipe and baked it for just over 35 minutes. I'm going to keep it simple and just sprinkle some caster sugar over the top - the weather is too hot and sticky to think about frosting.

The recipe is on Kimberley's blog, here. It was an excellent choice.

Lemon Sheet Cake with Lemon Glaze

No Tuesdays with Dorie Banana Cake yet - I have some not ripe enough bananas hopefully ripening in the kitchen; I'll make the cake when the bananas get brown spots.

I wanted something easy, cool and quite plain as the heat is unbearable here, so I chose a lemon sheet cake - no frosting, just a glaze, a dollop of cream and an oven temp. of only 325 degrees F. Here's the recipe:

Lemon Sheet Cake with Lemon Glaze (from Texas Cooking website)

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), at room temperature
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
finely grated zest from 2 lemons
4 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, and set aside. With an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium-high setting for 2 minutes. Add the sugar gradually, beating for 5 to 6 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and lemon zest and beat until incorporated. Add eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Turn mixer speed to low and add the sifted flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Scrape down sides of mixer bowl as needed, and beat until the batter is uniformly smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake for just under 50 minutes or until the sides begin to pull away and a sharp knife dipped comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and turn on to cooling rack.

Make the glaze:

juice from 2 Lemons
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon light rum

Mix all ingredients and stir well several times until sugar is dissolved. When the cake has cooled for about 10 minutes, brush the surface with the glaze using a pastry brush. Use all the glaze.

This is indeed a wonderful cake, a great success. It has a light lemon flavor in the base of the cake yet the glaze is delightfully tangy. This was a hit at work. It's an ideal cake for a crowd - two or three batches would bake up beautifully for a reception or a party. Even without the cream it is delicious and would do nicely for an outdoor event.

Brrrrr-ownies - Tuesdays with Dorie

How nice to only have to spend about 15 minutes in the kitchen getting these together. They are quick and easy to make. It is so outrageously hot here in NY that it's difficult to think of doing anything at all except staying close to the air conditioner.

I'm excited about this recipe; I cut the York Peppermint Patties into 1/8ths and placed them on a layer of the batter, covered by the remaining batter. I'm hoping that way they won't get too gooey.

Well, they are indeed pretty ugly - there are bumps of peppermint chocolate sticking everywhere and it was a battle prizing the foil off the bottom. A pretty ugly picture too. But, beauty is not everything. They are amazing! I had such a nice treat of two brownies when I came home this evening - cool and chewy, straight out of the refrigerator.

Now I can't wait to take them to work tomorrow.

The recipe is on Karen's blog, here. Thanks, Karen; it's a super choice.

Betty Crocker's Peanut Butter Cookies

I'm always searching for nice, traditional American cookies to send to our Troops in the Middle East (I belong to the Baking Gals group). What could be more traditional than Betty Crocker peanut butter cookies!

These cookies are delicious; sweet (but not too sweet) and with a light, quite delicate texture. I used crunchy peanut butter, which gave them a nice munch/crunch quality. I'm mailing them tomorrow, with some other "traditionals" as well - cocoa drop cookies and coconut cookies. I'm am told that our troops really appreciate the packages the Baking Gals group sends them; I try to make a batch every month.
If you would like more information on the Baking Gals, check us out at http://www.bakinggals.com

Recipe - Peanut Butter Cookies
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
1 1/4 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Mix sugars, peanut butter, shortening, butter and egg in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until firm.
2. Heat oven to 375ºF.
3. Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with fork dipped into sugar.
4. Bake 9 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheet. Cool on wire rack.