the most amazing cake you will eat this year. NO JOKE.

The Market in the winter

i'll admit it's an interesting combination.

white zucchini cake, cream cheese frosting, and fruit. but not just any fruit- mandarin oranges, kiwi's, grapes, mango, and strawberry. (just think about that one for a little bit).

I know it seems crazy, but it works. it works really really well. This cake is called the "Spring Fling" cake and it originates from the wonderful Denver Colorado (my home) from a very well known cafe downtown called The Market. I have frequented the market many times before in my life and have to say I thoroughly enjoy it. However, I normally just stop by to get coffee. On a particular day this past December, however, I happened to decide to splurge on a piece of cake, and the attendant recommended the Spring Fling.

After the first bite I immediately knew I had to try to re-create it. But for what? My friend Sarah offered for me to make it for her birthday. I gladly accepted.

strawberry, strawberry, strawwberryy

The cake itself is not hard to make at all. The most time consuming part was grating the zucchini. The assembly of the cake though, is where the time commitment comes in. You need to slice the cake into three layers, then frost and put the layers of fruit on each later. The end result was so worth it though, the cake was beautiful, and well received. Sure, I did take it to a 21st birthday party, and sure that probably means that the compliments were exaggerated a little, but the adoration from the fans of this cake was enough to boost my baking ego into one of those string theory parallel universes. Probably one full of cake.

I just love the texture of the frosting!

Here is the recipe, courtesy of Malisa's Food Blog

The whole thing - finally assembled!

Spring Fling Cake

Serves 12 to 14

2 ½ cups shredded zucchini
5 eggs
1 ¼ cups sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
½ tablespoon plus ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (for frosting)
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
For frosting:
¾ cup cream cheese
¼ cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
½ cup heavy cream

Fruit for cake:
1 pint strawberries, cleaned, stemmed and sliced
4 kiwi fruit , peeled and sliced
2 mangoes, peeled and sliced
1 pint blackberries or black grapes
1 can mandarin oranges, drained (optional)
Apricot glaze, or apricot jelly thinned out with a bit of warm water (optional)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a round 10-inch cake pan.

• To prepare the cake: Shred the zucchini in a food processor. In a large mixing bowl combine shredded zucchini, eggs, sugar, oil, sour cream and ½ tablespoon vanilla.

• When thoroughly mixed, combine all dry ingredients and add to bowl; mix well. Batter should be fairly wet and easy to pour.

• Pour in the batter and bake for 50 to 70 minutes, testing with a toothpick in center.

• Cool finished cake on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove it from the pan and allow it to cool completely. (You can make the cake a day ahead and refrigerate.)

• To prepare frosting, whip room temperature cream cheese and butter until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing until well combined.

• In a separate bowl, whip the cream until stiff, and then fold it and the ½ teaspoon vanilla into the frosting. Do not overmix.  (I think the frosting resembles sweetened condensed milk.)

• To assemble cake: Cut the cooled cake in half lengthwise, making two layers. (The Market cuts the cake into three layers, which you may do if desired.)

• Spread an even layer of frosting over the first layer, and then add a layer of the various fruit pieces (repeat if three layers).

• Put on the top layer of cake and evenly frost. The sides of the cake are not frosted; use extra to fill in, as needed. ( I frosted the sides - I like more frosting in more paces!)

• Arrange the fruit in circles all over the top of cake, slightly overlapping fruit pieces.

• To finish: Spread the apricot glaze over fruit on top of the cake with a pastry brush. (I didn't do this but it still turned out fine)

Holy Moly thats a good Roly Poly!

Roly Poly's. I had never heard of them until one day when I was browsing my favorite baking blog, http://www.cakespy.com/. The cakespy is from Seattle, and I think with every post she tempts me to move there if only for their array of delectable bakeries. The following recipe is from one of those called the Macrina Bakery. The Roly Poly is basically a cinnamon roll on steroids. Not only is it made with crossoint dough, but the filling includes walnuts, raisins, AND coconut. Talk about a bite of heaven.

right after coming out of the oven

Now just to warn you - the recipe is not for the light of heart. It takes about a good full day of work to prepare these rolls and in no way is it easy. Me, being the smart biochemistry major I am, decided to start them on christmas eve so my family could eat them christmas morning. This resulted in me rolling out the dough at least 4 times at my grandma's during out annual christmas eve dinner. so PLEASE think it through before you start.

What makes these rolls so hard is that the dough is a crossoint dough. The dough is made without any butter in it and then rises for 12 hours in the fridge (bizzare...I know). Then you make a "butter block" which is also chilled and add the butter to the cold dough by rolling it it (yes, with a rolling pin). After rolling you then fold and chill the dough, and roll out again and repeat. After all of this you can finally make the rolls, only to allow them to rise again in the fridge for 12 hours. PHEW its a long process.

mmmmmmm...sooooo gooood

But totally worth it.

my friends and family who came over that day could not stop raving about how good they were. and really, they are delicious. I guess that is the product of a professional grade recipe (its from a bakery that actually sells these things) and about a day's worth of work. The picture in the link below shows them frosted, but I just left them plain and they were sweet enough.

Click here for the Recipe

The Year of the Cake: Starting with Strawberry

So I made a rather ambitious goal for myself (but really, when are goals never ambitious?). I told my RA staff that I would bake them their favorite cake for their birthday. With this task on top of my other friend's birthdays - I have been making quite a few cakes within the past month.

The first was Rachel's. She wanted funfettii, which of course I understand, but there was no way I could improve my baking skills from a box. Thus I opted for her second choice, strawberry cake. Now, I have this amazing cookbook that was assembled by my Nana that contains nearly every recipe she owns. Needless to say, it is one of the most beautiful books I own. It also is very usefully, because it has a strawberry cake recipe in it. I would trust the recipes in this book with my life - so I decided to give it a go.

 The recipe is originally from my Great Aunt Wolaka, whom I never met. It also is one of the few recipes I found that does not call for strawberry gelatin and vanilla cake mix - it is made from simple ingredients and frozen strawberries. (I would defrost the strawberries before baking to decrease the bake time.)And the frosting? A sugar-evaporated milk-pecan topping with the consistency of evaporated milk. Every cake in this book seems to have pecans incorporated in it somewhere. Its the country-southern influence.

Sadly I did not get a final picture of the cake. Rachel loved it though and so did most people. The frosting was VERY interesting and the flavor somewhat contrasted with the cake. I ended up adding waay more sugar to it and cooking the pecans with it to make it more nutty flavored and syrupy in texture. The outcome was interesting. Also, the cake did not have enough strawberry flavor for me. If I were to do this again I would have perhaps made also a whipped cream-strawberry frosting or perhaps whipped cream frosting with a strawberry-vanilla compote to enhance the flavor and make a more complementary frosting. However, some people really did like the cake just the way it was...

This is the mushed up strawberries on top of the dry ingredients. 

The beeeautiful pink batter!

Before putting into the oven. I got a little artsy with the pictures.

Recipe:

2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
2 eggs
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 16 oz package frozen strawberries, mashed.

Combine all dry ingredients. Add eggs, oil and strawberries (juice and all). Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

Topping:
1 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 small can evaporated milk (but really...what do you mean Great Aunt Waloka by small?)
1 cup pecans, chopped (optional- but good)

In small saucepan, boil butter sugar and milk for 4 minutes. Add nuts. Spread on cake while hot.

Let the Cupcakes Begin....

So really, I'm obsessed.

I should be doing physics homework. My lab. My mol. gen outline. Dreaming about medical school. What is in my head AGAIN? Sweets. Beautiful, glorious, AMAZING sweets! cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, muffins, banana bread, yum, Yum, YUM!

So in order to get this obsession out so I can get on with the splendid homework due tomorrow, I thought I should blog. You know, update on the world about the happenings in my own kitchen. Specifically, only one happening, but hey, its better than none.

About two weeks ago I had a crazy idea that formulated one night on duty. I was searching baking blogs (as normal) and found these amazing things called cheesecake pops (http://www.bakerella.com/cheesecake-pops/). They looked so delectable and delicious I just wanted to make them right then and there. However, I also stumbled upon the bake it in a cake website (http://bakeitinacake.com/ ) which is also incredibly amazing. Then this idea dawned on me, sort of like an epiphany - what if I baked the cheesecake pops inside a cupcake?!?! WHAT?! The idea was contagious. I began sorting through my martha stewart cupcake book finding an appropriate fit until I stopped on - viola! The marble cupcake. Simple, yet delicious.

The process, however, was not so simple. I ended up buying a cheesecake to speed up the process, as well as some meltable chocolate from shaws (not the nice ones from micheals). First, the cheesecake was extremely difficult to roll into balls. It kept melting onto my hands and not sticking to itself. I had to incorporate some of the crust in order for them to stay in a shperical shape. Second, when I dipped the cheesecake into the chocolate it also continued to melt and the balls had a difficult time being coated with chocolate. Third and lastly, after about 3 cheesecake balls, the chocolate cooled and separated, making dipping impossible. So much for chocolate covered cheesecake balls.

ARGH.

But no worries. I found that the dried up chocolate was still good to roll the cheesecake around in and it was still incorporated. I then made the cupcakes and the final product was beautiful and delicious. I did not frost them but rather just sprinkled powdered sugar on top! My advice - eat them while they are hot. If not, remember to REFRIGERATE them because the moisture of the cheesecake will spread throughout the cupcake making it soggy.

Below are some pictures for your enjoyment! I also couldn't help but take some of my friends eating them too. :)

The cupcake from the side

From the top

 The INside








All of this equals:

Intense, 

and Serious, 

Satisfaction. 












Recipe:

Makes 16

1 3/4 c. cake flour (I used all purpose and they came out fine)
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/3 c. milk

1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
1 c. granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temp
1 t. pure vanilla extract
1/3 c. unsweetened dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 c. boiling water
confectioner's sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine milk and cream.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk mixture, and beating until combined.

3. To make chocolate batter, measure out 1 cup batter, and transfer to another bowl. Combine cocoa and the boiling water in a bowl. Stir into reserved 1 cup batter.

4. Fill prepared cups with alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batter, filling each three-quarters full. Run the tip of a paring knife or wooden skewer through batter in a figure-eight motion to make swirls. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until tops are golden and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tin to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

5. To finish, dust with confectioner's sugar just before serving.