Clementine Upside-Down Cake

Oh my darling, clementine cake is so good! My mommy friends and I meet for our MOPS@ breakfast meeting and each week we bring different recipes to the table... Here is one of our good finds from Susie at Food Blogga. While we eat we share tips on how we can be a better mom!

Clementine Cake

From: Food Blogga

1/2 cup butter (8 tablespoons)

1 cup brown sugar

2-3 clementines, peeled, with white pith removed, and sliced crosswise

1 cup flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 eggs, separated

1 cup granulated sugar

5 tablespoons fresh clementine or orange juice

2 teaspoons clementine or orange zest

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat to 350 degrees F - 180°C.

1) Place butter in a 9-inch-round baking pan, and place inside of a warm oven until melted, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven, and sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the butter. Add the clementine slices, fitting them close together.

2) In a medium bowl, combine sifted flour, baking powder and salt, and stir. Using a hand mixer, beat egg whites at high speed until fluffy. Set aside. In a separate bowl beat egg yolks with sugar at medium speed until creamy. Add juice, zest, and vanilla extract, and beat well. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, and beat until well combined. Fold in the egg whites with a rubber spatula. Pour cake mixture evenly over the fruit, and smooth with the spatula.

3) Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Run a blunt knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake. Invert carefully onto a plate. Serve warm or at room temperature.

White, red and blue cake

This cake was posted here, and it brings me back good memories of my grandma... I am glad we lived closer and I was able to enjoy precious moments with her. Happy 4th!

Frances O'Neal's fig cake

How good it is to have friends who know you so well that whenever they have a chance they send you your favorite food magazines! My friends in England and Canada are very good at this! This time Fabricia who lives in Canada sent me the April issue of Gourmet magazine. Every time I receive a food magazine I read it over and over again.

I like to read when we travel. We visit my parents who live two hours away and my in-laws who live three hours away once a month and we take turns driving, but I love it when my husband offers to drive and I can catch up with my reading. Then I make a list of the recipes to be tried and keep it inside the cover of the magazine to start working on them over the next few weeks.

Each magazine of mine has a list of must-try recipes inside...

And who gets to try my recipes? My family and the small group that meets once a week here.

This fig cake featured in the magazine is from the Back Porch Restaurant and Wine on Ocracoke Island, outer banks of North Carolina. All I needed to use some homemade figs in syrup that my sister-in-law made for my brother and they gracefully shared two jars with me.

I grew up with fig trees in our backyard and I remember that I used to help my mom to clean green figs with a cloth to make preserved figs in syrup. Food memories last forever...

I want to try this same recipe with other fruits like cranberries, blueberries, strawberries and dried fruits such as raisins, prunes, dates etc.

Frances O'Neal's fig cake
Adapted from Gourmet magazine, April 2009

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 large eggs
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
½ cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon warm water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup preserved figs in syrup, drained and chopped
1 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped

1) Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C) with rack in middle. Generously butter a 10 cup bundt pan (I used a tube pan).

2) Sift together flour, salt and spices.

3) Beat eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until light and foamy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and beat until pale and thick, about 2 minutes. Add oil and beat 1 minute. At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour.

4) Stir together baking soda and water until dissolved, then stir into batter along with vanilla, figs and nuts.

5) Pour batter into pan and bake until golden-brown and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Cool completely in pan, about 2 hours. Garnish with confectioners sugar or serve with a cream cheese icing.

Green figs in syrup

Holiday Cooking, Blogger Style - A too good to eat fruitcake

Thanksgiving approaches... then suddenly we realize that holiday season is just around the corner! It is so nice that the 3rd Holiday Cooking recipe exchange at Overwhelmed with Joy is here already so we can start collecting recipes! This year I am sharing the best ever Christmas cake I have ever had!

The combination of saffron and honey is just out of this world... This is a light cake and so easy to make. You can make it ahead of time or at the last minute! The recipe was adapted from the British magazine Good Food, that I received as a gift from a friend.

All recipes I tried from the December 2007 issue were a hit with my family!

Conversions
The conversions are rounded up or down as appropriate. I use grams and cups... but many people use ounces. For the dried fruits, you can get 2 handfuls of mixed fruits and it will work great, no need to be precise...

Honey saffron Christmas cake
2 tbsp brandy
A pinch of saffron powder (about 1⁄4tsp strands)
1 cup (8oz/225g) golden caster sugar
2 sticks (8oz/225g) butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups (225g) plain flour
2 oz/50g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
11 oz/300g raisins or sultanas
4 oz/100 g apricots, sliced
4 oz/100g cherries, halved
4 oz/100g dates, sliced
3 oz/85g mixed peel (I used candied orange peels)
2 oz/50g whole blanched almonds, roughly chopped
 2 oz/50g walnuts, pieces

 To soak
3 tbsp brandy
2 tbsp honey

Directions:
1) Heat oven to 360°F/180°C. Grease a round, deep 8inch/20cm cake pan. -> I used a ring mould and it baked more quickly.

2) Heat the brandy in a small pan, then add the saffron and leave to infuse off the heat for a few minutes. Put the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and a pinch of salt into a bowl, then beat together until creamy and smooth. Mix the fruit, nuts and brandy saffron mix into the batter and stir well.

3) Spoon into the prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour if using the ring mould.

Or... if you like a darker cake... you might want to cover loosely with foil to stop the top over-browning. Turn oven down to 280°F/140°C and cook for 1 hour more OR until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the pan then, while it's still warm, prod the cake all over with a skewer.

4) Mix the honey (microwave honey for 15s) and brandy together and spoon over the cake. Garnish with confectioner's sugar, pipe some whipped cream and dress up with fruits in season. I washed the fruits and coated them with confectioner's sugar.

You can wrap up the plain cake in foil and keep it in an airtight container until Christmas, feeding with more honeyed brandy every so often. Well, I made one last year on Christmas Eve and decorated right away... and still... it tasted great!

Brazilian carrot cake

Our children's favorite cake. This is a simple carrot cake I make and I think every mother here knows how to make it, as it is a very popular and traditional recipe in Brazil. Since I was not a big fan of carrot cakes, even though I like carrots, I started to add cinnamon to give it a twist. Very different from the carrot cakes you probably know, this one does not have nuts and fruits, and it is topped with chocolate icing!

This recipe also makes great cupcakes and I add chocolate chips on top before taking them to the oven!
Brazilian carrot cake
3 small raw carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup canola oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Grease and flour a 12-inch (30 cm) round pan. Preheat oven to 380°F (190°C).

1) Place carrots, eggs, and oil into a blender and puree.

2) In a bowl, add flour, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar. Pour the carrot mixture and mix until well blended. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and bake at 380°F (190°C) for 30 minutes.

Chocolate glaze
(mom's recipe)

4 tablespoons milk or water
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa

In a small sauce pan, cook all ingredients at low heat until it thickens, stirring constantly. Spread over cake immediately.

Mother's Day was good...

Mom baked us an all time favorite cake, served plain, with coffee... Simple like that, just like mother's love...

Ingredients for mom's plain cake
2 cups cake flour
2 tablespoons cornmeal or oatbran (her secret ingredient)
1 cup sugar
1 dash salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup warm milk (another secret)
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs

1) Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add milk and oil. Mix well.

2) In a separate small bowl, beat eggs and add to the mixture and beat one minute or about 60 strokes. The more you beat the better.

3) Bake in two small oiled and floured loaf-cake pans for 40 minutes at 375˚F (190˚C). Serve plain or with a lime glaze.

Lime and poppy seed glaze
4 tablespoons lime juice
4 tablespoons sugar
Poppy seed (optional)

1) Put lime juice and sugar in a small saucepan and simmer over medium heat for 1-2 minutes until the sugar is dissolved.

2) Remove from heat, poke holes in top of warm cake with toothpick or fork and spoon the warm glaze over the cooked cake. Sprinkle poppy seed.

I love this cake, because whenever I bake it for my kids I have the feeling I am doing something just like my mom used to do when I was a child. I remember her moving around the kitchen getting the ingredients and the utensils ready, turning the oven on etc. That's why I love cooking for my family, so that they can have fond memories of their childhood too.

Congo Bars and Christmas Cookies around the world

I am so far behind with the Thanksgiving recipes I promised to post here that I decided to switch to Holiday cooking! Last year my old small group organized a Christmas party and there was a gift exchange. It was a lot of fun, the hostess gave away Congo Bars baked in small bundt pans and wrapped in clear cellophane to each of us. I asked for the recipe and she was kind enough to share her secret with us. These make a great gift.

Susan at Food Blogga is hosting an event called Eat Christmas cookies from now through December 24th, and I wanted to share this recipe that tastes so much like cookies and it is so easy to make. To see all the wonderful Christmas cookies recipes from around the world, you just need to click the red logo!

Ingredients
5 tablespoons melted butter
3 eggs
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup chopped Brazilian nuts or walnuts
1 cup chocolate chips
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1) Preheat oven to 350 °F (180 °C). Grease 10 x 15 inch pan. (You can use small bundt pans or 12 muffin cups).

2) Combine butter and sugar in bowl. Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt; blend well. Fold in chips and nuts. Turn in pan, spread evenly.

3) Bake until top is lightly browned, about 20-25 minutes. Transfer to wire rack; let cool. Cut into bars and sprinkle confectioner's sugar on top. Congo bars will freeze.

Kabocha (or Pumpkin) Spice Bread

Kabocha squash or Japanese pumpkin is very popular in the Japanese cuisine. I use kabocha to cook everything pumpkin, like pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, soup, muffins etc. And... Tis the season for pumpkin spice bread!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup kabocha puree (or canned unsweetened pumpkin)
1 large egg

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour an 8 1/2- x 4 1/2-inch (21 x 11 x 6 cm) loafpan. Sift together first 6 ingredients; stir in salt.

2. Combine sugar, oil, and kabocha puree/canned pumpkin in a large bowl; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add egg, beating until well blended. Gradually add dry ingredients, beating at low speed until blended. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour 5 minutes or until loaf is golden and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes; remove from pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

From our home to yours:
- The dark green skin is very hard and not easy to carve but the pulp is lightly sweet. So, you need to be careful when handling the knife to cut up a kabocha.

- I cooked the kabocha without strings and seeds in the microwave for 20 minutes, an easy and fast way to make a pumpkin puree from scratch.

- This recipe works both with canned pumpkin and kabocha squash puree.

- A different twist to this cake is the cocoa powder added to the batter.

Thank you Kelli for this wonderful Giving thanks week!

If you want to share and visit other blogs with recipes, menus, pictures, poems, and stories, please go to Kelli's blog for more details.

This recipe was adapted from Cottage Living magazine - November 2006

Blondie Brownies

The last day of October seems to be the busiest evening of the year where we live. There are many kids running around on their costumes, the doorbell rings every minute and at the end of the evening lots of candy wrappers are all over the house. I believe English Language schools started this tradition here in Brazil and kids love it. I always have something handy for the kids. This year I decided to try first with my kids this blondie brownie recipe. It did not turn out as blonde as I expected, maybe because I used dark brown sugar instead of light brown or demerara sugar. We used whipped cream to make the ghosts and allspice to make the eyes because I ran out of mini-chocolate chips.

Ingredients
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 dash salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg beaten (use 2 if they are small)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup white or dark chocolate chips

1) Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add chopped nuts. Set aside.

2) Melt butter, add brown sugar and mix. Add egg and vanilla and blend well with a whisk or a hand mixer, 3-4 minutes or until mixture whitens. Add flour mixture, a little at a time, mixing well. Stir in chocolate chips.

3) Spread into a 9 x 9 inch (20 x 20 cm) greased pan. Bake at 350°F/180°C, 20-25 minutes, or until tester inserted in center comes out clean.

As far as I know, here in Brazil, blondie brownie can be found at Applebee's in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

I am dedicating this recipe to two dear friends: Mona, because I am so sure she would be giving lots of treats to my kids if we lived closer and to Karla, who has been such a good friend since I was a senior in high school, something like 20 years ago?

Grandma's Angel Food Cake

My grandma was born in 1912, grandpa in 1910, they got married in 1928, had six kids, several grandchildren and even greatgrandchildren. They would be almost 100 years old if they were alive. I think about them almost every day. I still remember my grandma calling my name and coming towards our home, with trembling hands, holding a plate to share something she had cooked for lunch. One of Grandma's specialties was this cake, that was beaten every Saturday using her hands, without a mixer. Grandma served it plain with coffee only and me too, until my oldest son's birthday, when I decided to add a milk caramel as filling and a whipped topping and he said it was his favorite cake ever. Needless to say that besides love as the main ingredient, this recipe carries sweet memories and it has been in the family for over half a century!

Grandma's angel food cake
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
1 cup water

This cake does not take baking powder.

1) Preheat the oven 350º F/180^o C. Grease a 12 inch/30 cm deep round pan.

2) With an electric mixer at high speed, beat egg whites with one dash cream of tartar or salt until they form soft peaks. Gradually beat in sugar, egg yolks, water and flour until just combined.

3) Pour batter into greased round pan. Bake 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven immediately, cool on a rack. Garnish as desired.

More ideas:
- For filling, use milk caramel and whipped cream as a topping. Add strawberries and blueberries.
- Add fresh orange juice to the batter instead of water.
- Drizzle cake in pan while still hot with a sweet orange glaze.

Strawberry Chocolate Éclair Cake

Another version of the chocolate éclair cake. I added strawberries on top for the perfect finishing touch. This dessert was so requested by our family and friends that I ended up enhancing the cake's presentation!

Cream puffs and éclairs always catch my attention at every bakery, imagine then a whole cake made with this pastry. I found this recipe on Kerri's blog, and decided to give it a shot. 

A family favorite recipe.

Crust (Cream puff/éclair): 
1 cup of water
½ cup butter or margarine
½ tsp. salt
1 cup plain flour
4 eggs

1) Put water and butter in a medium saucepan, bring water to boil; simmer until butter melts. Remove from heat.

2) Mix salt and flour; add all at once to water; butter mixture. Stir until dough forms a ball. Add one egg at a time, beating well with a wooden spoon after each addition.

3) Spread in a greased jelly roll pan (15x10x1 inches) (38x25x2.5 cm) I think a 13x9 (33x23) pan would work if you don’t have the bigger one.

4) Bake at 400ºF/205ºC for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and press flat (wait a minute or two so you don’t burn yourself). Cool.

5) Spread filling and topping over crust. Serve cold.

Pastry cream filling:  
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 can milk (use the can to measure milk)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine sweetened condensed milk, milk and cornstarch and then bring to a boil, stirring frequently. The mixture will thicken. Add the vanilla. Transfer to a shallow bowl and press plastic wrap directly to prevent a skin from forming. Use as a filling for cakes, éclairs etc.

(Sometimes I use a creamy Brigadeiro recipe (Brazilian chocolate truffles) instead of the pastry cream as filling.)

Topping:
1 8oz tub of Cool Whip  Spread on top of pudding mixture.
Garnish with fresh strawberries.

˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜
Or you can use this filling instead of the Pastry cream:
2 packages of instant vanilla pudding
2 ½ cups of milk
8oz (227 g) package of cream cheese, softened

With electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and add just a little milk at first (if you add too much at once you’ll end up with lumps of cream cheese). Keep adding milk gradually while beating. Then add the 2 puddings and beat until thick. Spread over crust. Serve cold.

Blueberry Yogurt Cake

Last week I had the pleasure to have a friend over for coffee. She's Irish, married to a Brazilian, they live in Minneapolis and she has the most charming English accent I have ever heard. I know she likes cake and coffee, as she used to live in Brazil. So, I woke up very early and baked this cake before she arrived for our long expected get together. After two years apart, as we had our coffee with cream, we talked non-stop trying to catch up!

Oh yes... the recipe! This is such a good cake that if you do not have the blueberries handy, they won't be missed.

Blueberry Yogurt Cake

1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup plain yogurt (I use honey flavored)
1/2 cup canola oil
1 dash salt
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F/180° C. Grease and flour a tube or bundt cake pan. I used a round pan.

2. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, beat the egg, yogurt, vanilla, and oil together. Make a well in the dry ingredients and fold in the wet until the mixture is moist. Fold in the blueberries into the mixture.

3. Pour the batter into the greased cake pan, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Let stand for ten minutes. Slide a thin knife around the edges of the cake and invert it to a platter. Place a decorative stencil on top and dust confectioner's sugar using a fine-meshed sieve.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Our sons' preschool holds bake sales for kids that are in the kindergarten. With the money raised, the kids go to an amusement park at the end of the school year. My son volunteered this time and he knew from the beginning what to ask his mommy. Muffins, muffins!!! I decided to make cupcakes, as they have a finer texture and can have a frosting, as a friend of mine suggested. And he sold all the cupcakes before I could get there, they were gone in a minute! When I arrived my son and a friend were already telling the class their business experience and how happy they were with the successful sales!

Chocolate Cupcakes
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
3oz/100 g butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
7oz/200 g plain yogurt (I used honey flavored)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 dash salt

1. Pre-heat oven to 400°F/200°C. Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the other ingredients alternately with the yogurt; beat well.

3. Fill 12 muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Frost with your favorite frosting or icing when cool.

For the icing:
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon orange or lime juice

Stir the liquid into the sugar, adding a few drops at a time, as needed. Pour into a small plastic sandwich bag. Cut off one small corner of the bag and use as a pastry bag to drizzle the glaze over the top of the cupcakes.

Chocolate Éclair Cake

Cream puffs and éclairs always catch my attention at every bakery, imagine then a whole cake made with this pastry. I found this recipe on Kerri's blog, and decided to give it a shot. A week later, it was my husband's birthday, and guess what he asked me to make? So, here is his favorite cake recipe.

Crust:
1 cup of water
½ cup butter of margarine
½ tsp. Salt
1 cup plain flour
4 eggs

1) Put water and butter in a medium saucepan, bring water to boil & simmer until butter melts. Remove from heat.

2) Mix salt & flour & add all at once to water & butter mixture. Stir until dough forms a ball.

3) Add one egg at a time, beating well with a wooden spoon after each addition. Spread in a
greased jelly roll pan (15x10x1 inches) (38x25x2.5 cm) I think a 13x9 (33x23) pan would work if you don’t have the bigger one.

4) Bake at 400ºF/205ºC for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and press flat (wait a minute or two so you don’t burn yourself). Cool.

5) Spread filling, topping and glaze over crust. Serve cold.

Filling:
2 packages of instant vanilla pudding.
2 ½ cups of milk
1 8oz (227 g)package of cream cheese, softened

With electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and add just a little milk at first (if you add too much at once you’ll end up with lumps of cream cheese). Keep adding milk gradually while beating. Then add the 2 puddings and beat until thick. Spread over crust.

Topping:
1 8oz tub of Cool Whip

Spread on top of pudding mixture.

Glaze:
½ cup of chocolate chips
2 tbsp. Butter or margarine
1 cup confectioner's sugar (icing sugar for the Aussies)

Melt choc chips with butter in the microwave or on the stove. Stir in confectioner's sugar.
Drizzle over the Cool Whip.

Make at least 2 days ahead so crust can soften and flavors blend.
(I never make it ahead and it tastes wonderful anyway.)

I use this pastry cream recipe instead of the vanilla/cream cheese filling:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 can milk (use the can to measure)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Vanilla

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine sweetened condensed milk, milk and cornstarch. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. The mixture will thicken. Add the vanilla. Transfer to a shallow bowl and press plastic wrap directly to prevent a skin from forming. Use as a filling for cakes, éclairs etc.