TWD (rewind): Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake

Over the last few weeks - months, really - I've missed several TWD recipes that I was really looking forward to making. As I get the chance, I'm going to go back and bake a few of them. Starting with this loaf cake.

Chocolate cake rarely impresses me. I usually find it too dry, and lacking in chocolate flavor. Oh boy, did this cake prove all of that wrong! It was amazing in every way: flavor, texture, appearance - even the batter was beautiful; it looked like fluffy chocolate mousse. The cake's inherent deliciousness, is elevated to an even higher level by the elements of filling and frosting. Even with all of that, it manages to seem miraculously light. This cake is a keeper.

The cake itself is deeply chocolate-y, the crumb is moist and tight - very reminiscent of a pound cake. Superb. After baking in a loaf pan, the cake is cut horizontally into 3 layers. Each layer is filled with a tart fruit jam - I used black currant; a perfect complement in flavor and texture to the cake. The frosting is amazingly simple. It is made of nothing more than melted chocolate and sour cream. As it cools it hardens, forming a bittersweet ganache-like texture with a sour cream tang. Wow. I'll be using this frosting again. I'll be making the whole cake again for that matter!

I love that this cake has so many elements, yet is so simple. Perfect for any occasion. Thanks to Amy Ruth of Amy Ruth Bakes for making this wonderful selection. You can find the recipe on her blog.

Rhubarb Upside Down Cake for My Dad's Birthday

Growing up, I used to snack on the rhubarb that grew plentifully in my Iowa backyard. I had quite the affinity for sour things back then, and since I loved raw rhubarb so much it seemed incredibly strange to me to see it in things like pies. Especially when paired with strawberries. Frankly, I found it repulsive. It wasn't until last spring that I ever tried rhubarb in a baked good, and I couldn't have been more wrong about it. I have become obsessed.

I've been picking up hefty bunches of rhubarb every Saturday for the last few weeks, ever since its first appearance at the farmer's market. I've made a few galettes with it - which I haven't posted because they disappeared too quickly! - but decided to branch out this week, so I did a little rhubarb research. I found several recipes I wanted to try - I'll have to double up on my rhubarb purchases to make everything before the season is over - starting with this cake; a perfect choice, since today is my dad's birthday. He still lives in Iowa, so he won't get to taste his birthday cake, but he can at least enjoy looking at it. Actually, I'm not sure if that's nice or just torture...

I've made so many upside down cakes in the last year, and am always excited to find a new and fantastic recipe for one. I love the concept of them, and they are always beautiful and delicious. I love the way the fruit of choice is completely transformed by their long stint of being cooked in sugar and butter. In the case of rhubarb, it becomes tender and buttery with a sweet and wonderful zing, melded with a light caramel flavor. There is no lip-puckering, mouth-watering sour punch that is so often associated with rhubarb.

The cake itself is dense and moist and quite sturdy, with a tight crumb and a light and subtle tang from the buttermilk in the batter. Can you see the flecks of orange zest in the above photo? Who knew that orange and rhubarb were a match made in heaven???

The thing that ties this cake together, and makes it really superb is the crumb bottom. It is a simple crumb topping that is sprinkled on top of the batter before baking, but when you invert the cake, it becomes a crunchy base for the cake. I love having textural differences in my desserts, I don't like eating things that are just soft and mushy. They're too, well, soft and mushy. The crumb bottom completely solves that problem, and adds such a delicious dimension, I'll be adding it to all of my upside down cakes from now on!

In addition to the way this cake tastes, I love the way it looks. That's the great thing about upside down cakes - they need no adornment once they come out of the oven! This recipe has you cut the rhubarb in long pieces - about 3 inches long - and lay them in the pan all going in the same direction. The result is a beautiful pink and green design that looks almost like an abstract watercolor painting. Almost too pretty to eat! Though that didn't stop me from having a slice for (second) breakfast...

Happy birthday, Dad!

Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

adapted from Martha Stewart

For the Crumb Topping

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup white wheat flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

For the Cake

1 pound firm rhubarb stalks, ends trimmed and cut at a very sharp angle into 3 inch long pieces

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar, divided

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened, divided

1 1/2 cups white wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

freshly grated zest from one medium-sized orange

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350. Line bottom of 9 inch spring form cake pan with parchment, butter sides of pan and parchment, dot bottom of pan with 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) of the butter, set aside.

Make Crumb Topping

Combine melted butter, flour, sugar and salt in a small bowl and stir until combined. Refrigerate until needed.

Make Cake

In a medium sized bowl, toss rhubarb with 3/4 cup of the sugar. Set aside. In another medium sized bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat remaining stick of butter and cup of sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add orange zest and juice and beat to combine. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk in 2 additions, mixing until just combined. Toss rhubarb one more time, then lay pieces in pan as closely together as you can without overlapping too much. Lay them in rows all going in the same direction. Pour remaining sugar from bowl over rhubarb. Pour batter in pan, smoothing the top, then sprinkle crumb mixture over batter as evenly as you can, making crumbs of all different sizes. Bake for about an hour, or until a tester inserted intp center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then run a sharp knife around the edge of the cake, and invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely - don't invert onto serving plate here, or your beautiful, crunchy crumbs will become soggy, and we can't have that, can we?!

Spelt Olive Oil Cake with Chocolate Chunks

Ever since I got the book Good to the Grain - from which I baked these cookies last week - I haven't been able to get this cake out of my head. It is so unusual, so unpredictable, so humble, yet so sophisticated. It was curiosity that made me bake it the first time, but it is the sheer deliciousness of this cake that will keep me coming back to this recipe for years to come.

It doesn't look like much, but it has a little secret; the thing that sets this cake apart. What is it, you ask? Rosemary. Am I the last person on the planet to bake a dessert with rosemary? I was skeptical, I admit, but after eating this cake I can't believe I waited so long.

I was shocked and amazed at how seamlessly rosemary fit into this cake. Though I haven't baked with rosemary before, this wasn't my entry into herbal desserts. I made basil ice cream last summer and was less than thrilled about it. Because of that experience, I definitely had my doubts going into this cake, but I shouldn't have worried. It is spectacular.

This is a cake that can follow a fancy meal just as easily as it can be an afternoon snack. It has more dimension of flavor than almost anything I can remember eating. Though foods containing both olive oil and rosemary are, more often than not, savory, they make perfect sense in this cake. Really, this is the most surprising thing I've ever made. Each bite I take is new, and transportive and utterly delightful.

There isn't a lot of sugar in this cake, so the sweetness is subtle. It has the perfect quantity of bittersweet chocolate, whose richness and bitterness offset all of the other ingredients beautifully. I couldn't detect the taste of the spelt at all, but chocolate and rosemary are fairly strong flavors to compete with. The crumb of this cake is fluffy and soft and fine and moist, and it has a firm crust. It isn't the prettiest cake around - actually, it kept reminding me of another wonderful though entirely different cake - but I guarantee it can hold its own in the taste department against most anything else.

Oh, and if I haven't convinced you yet, it has minimal ingredients and is mixed up by hand in mere minutes. Make this cake. Make this cake, make this cake, make this cake.

Spelt Olive Oil Cake with Chocolate Chunks

adapted from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce

3/4 cup white spelt flour

1 1/2 cups white wheat flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1 cup olive oil

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a 9 inch spring form cake pan. In a large bowl, combine flours, sugar, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a medium sized bowl, whisk eggs thoroughly. Add olive oil, buttermilk and rosemary and whisk well to combine. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and whisk until just combined. Stir in chocolate. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for about 40-55 minutes, or until evenly golden brown and tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool completely before slicing.

TWD: Swedish Visiting Cake

I know I'm a little late posting this cake - it was the TWD pick from last week - but I was at the beach, so I didn't get a chance to make it until now. More on the beach later, for now, it's all about the cake. I've paused on the picture of this cake in Baking from My Home to Yours many times, and have been intrigued by its humble appearance, simple ingredients and the harming story that accompanies it.

Dorie was introduced to this cake by a friend who described it as being so easy you can start making it when you see company coming up the driveway, and have it ready to serve by the time they sit down to coffee. It's true! It is a one-bowl cake that is mixed by hand, then baked and served in a cast iron skillet. What could be easier?!

Not only is this cake easy to make, it is delicious. Unbelievably delicious. In fact, it is one of the best cakes I've ever eaten. It isn't too sweet, it has a subtle almond flavor, a delicious paper-thin sugar crust, crunchy outer edge and a light citrus zing. There are no chemical leaveners in this cake, resulting in a texture that is moist and dense, chewy even.

Chances are, you have all of the ingredients for this cake in your pantry, so rush right into your kitchen! You won't be sorry!

This cake was chosen by one of my favorite bloggers, Nancy. She has not one, but two fantastic blogs - The Dogs Eat the Crumbs and The Corner Loaf. The latter is devoted solely to bread. Everything she makes is beautiful, and she writes the most thoughtful and descriptive posts. If you haven't read her blogs before, you must check them out! The recipe for this cake is posted on The Dogs Eat the Crumbs.

Chocolate Babka

It is so exciting to discover delicious new treats. Until recently, my only frame of reference for a babka was a vague recollection of a Seinfeld episode. I also kind of knew that they were something served on Easter. Then a while back I saw a photo of a chocolate babka on Tastespotting, and I haven't been able to get it out of my head ever since.

Since Easter is coming up, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to give this decadent yeast treat a shot. Turns out, what I made is more of a Jewish babka and not the Easter type, but oh well... It is incredibly delicious, and there is no reason it couldn't still be part of your Easter spread!

For some reason, I had a feeling that I would be able to find a fantastic babka recipe on Smitten Kitchen. Maybe because Deb lives in NYC, I don't know. Regardless, I was right. Boy, was I right. I hit the babka jackpot. However, when reading through the recipe, I discovered that it made 3 loaves of this rich chocolate bread. I have no need for even one loaf, and only certain insanity would prompt me to bake three. Looking at the quantities, it is not a recipe that lends itself easily to scaling down, but I knew it was the one I wanted to try so I went ahead and did the math. A scale will be helpful for this recipe, but you can still make the babka if you don't have one. You'll just have to estimate the partial eggs.

So, what is so special about this bread? Where to start...

The actual bread element is soft, tender, creamy, sweet, not at all dry. Actually, I think it would make a better base for the St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake than the one in the recipe, as it is similar in texture but much less dry.

In almost equal proportion to the bread is chocolate. Dark, decadent, beautiful chocolate. This bread is most definitely not for the faint of heart. Even in the scaled recipe there is close to a pound of chocolate.

The less dominant flavor in the bread is cinnamon. I enjoy the combination of chocolate and cinnamon, but was unsure of the almost alarming quantity of cinnamon this recipe called for. I was afraid it would be overpowering. It was actually quite complimentary, though it is a distinguishable flavor.

To finish off this already over-the-top loaf is a streusel topping - which despite slightly resembling cauliflower, is delicious. I have never met a streusel I didn't like, and this was no exception. It is made with powdered sugar, which makes it quite crunchy when baked, and offers a wonderful counterpoint to the soft bread and rich creamy chocolate.

Before you make this babka, be warned; it has many elements and takes a good chunk of time. It is, however, completely worth it.

Make sure you read through this recipe thoroughly before starting out. As I mentioned, it was slightly strange to scale, so some of the quantities are odd. In addition, there are a lot of steps. This one requires a little more attention than your average recipe.

Chocolate Babka

adapted from Martha Stewart via Smitten Kitchen

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

1/3 + 1/4 cup sugar

1 large egg divided (33.3 grams - 2/3 egg, 16.67 grams - 1/3 egg)

12 grams egg yolk

2 cups unbleached white flour*

1 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons unsalted butter

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon cream

*depending on the consistency of your dough, you may need more flour. I had to add almost an entire additional cup to mine.

Heat milk to 100-110 degrees. Pour into a small bowl, and add yeast. Let stand for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in another small bowl, combine 1/4 cup of the sugar, 33.3 grams of egg (that's 2/3 of an egg) and the egg yolk. Add egg mixture to yeast mixture, and whisk to combine. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, stir together flour and salt. Add wet ingredients and mix on low until the flour is almost incorporated. Change to dough hook. Add 5 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon butter to mixer. Beat on medium until dough is smooth and soft, and slightly sticky. If your dough is too sticky, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time until it is the right consistency. Butter a large bowl, form dough into a ball and roll around the bowl to coat it with butter. Cover bowl with plastic and set in a warm place until doubled in size, about and hour. Meanwhile, make the chocolate filling. Place remaining sugar and butter in a medium sized bowl, and using your fingers or a pastry cutter, combine them until well incorporated. Add chocolate and toss with your fingers until completely blended (though there will of course still be chocolate chunks of different sizes). Butter a 9" x 5" loaf pan. Beat remaining egg (remember, this is 1/3 of an egg) with cream. Turn dough out on a well-floured board. Roll to a square about 16" x 16". Brush edges with the egg-wash, and sprinkle all but 2 tablespoons of the chocolate over the dough, leaving a 1/4 inch border. Roll dough tightly into a log. Pinch seam closed, pinch ends together. Twist 5 or 6 times, and lay twisted log out straight on your board. Brush the left half of log with egg-wash, and sprinkle with remaining chocolate. Fold the right side over the left, making sure your chocolate stays in place. Fold ends under, and pinch closed. Twist your doubled log two times, and place in prepared pan. Brush the top of log with egg-wash, and sprinkle with streusel (recipe below). Cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let it sit in a warm place for 20-30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350.

Bake until golden, about 55 minutes, then turn oven down to 325 and bake for about 15-20 minutes more, until the loaf is deep golden. Cool in pan on rack. Wait until babka is completely cool before cutting.

Struesel Topping

1/3 cup + 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons unbleached white flour

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Combine all ingredients. Using your fingers, mix until completely incorporated. Crumble, so that there are chunks ranging greatly in size.

St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake

I grew up in a small town in southeast Iowa, a mere 5 hour drive from St. Louis, a city I visited several times over the years. Why then, had I never heard of a St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake until recently?

The first time I saw this cake was a few months ago - soon after it was published in the New York Times. It was the name that got me; how could anything with the words "gooey" and "butter" in it be a bad thing. So descriptive, so evocative, yet so mysterious... What in the world was this gooey butter cake?! I had to find out. After reading more about it I knew I had to make it. However things came up, as things tend to do, and I forgot about it. Until Deb made it recently. Seeing hers made me fairly obsessed, and I knew I wouldn't be able to get it out of my mind until I was taking it out of my oven. Yesterday was the day. The day I finally got around to baking this oh-so-ugly, yet oh-so-tasty cake.

This cake starts with a layer of lightly sweetened brioche-like yeasted dough, and is topped with something gooey, buttery, rich, butterscotch-flavored, delicious. When put together, they create a treat very reminiscent of a cinnamon roll - though there is actually no cinnamon in the recipe... The cake itself is tasty, though not spectacular - it is far out-shined by the gooey topping, which is out of this world. It would be amazing on a shortbread crust. The yeast cake is a little on the dry side, but I think if the quantity of the gooey topping was doubled it would off-set the dryness. It should be noted that my cake is darker than the other gooey butter cakes out there, as I sweetened it with palm sugar.

St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake

adapted from The New York Times

Cake Layer:

3-5 tablespoons milk

2 tablespoons water

1 3/4 tablespoons instant yeast

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

3 tablespoons palm sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 3/4 cups unbleached white flour

Gooey Topping:

3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon agave (I used amber)

2 tablespoons water

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups palm sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 cup + 3 tablespoons unbleached white flour

Make the Cake:

Butter a 9x13 baking pan, set aside. Combine water and 3 tablespoons of milk in a small saucepan, and heat until it reaches about 90 degrees. Pour into a small bowl, and add yeast. Whisk to combine. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, palm sugar and salt. Beat in egg. Add 1/3 of the flour, then half of the yeast/milk mixture, stirring to combine with each addition. Repeat for a total of 3 flour additions and 2 milk additions. Beat dough on medium speed until it is smooth and pulls away from sides of bowl, about 7-10 minutes. At this point, if the dough seems too dry, add the additional milk. The dough should be a bit loose and slightly sticky to the touch. Press dough evenly into your prepared baking pan. Cover with kitchen towel and set in a warm place until dough has doubled. About 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Towards the end of the rise, preheat oven to 350.

Make Gooey Topping:

In a small bowl, combine agave, water and vanilla. Set aside. In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy. Add egg, and beat until combined. Add flour in three additions alternating with agave mixture in two additions. Stir until just combined. Spoon topping over risen dough, and spread as gently and evenly as possible. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Cake will not be flat when baked - it will have hills and valleys all over the surface. It will not be attractive. Top will be deep golden, and center will still be liquid when done. Cool in pan before cutting. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar, if desired.

Lemon Upside Down Cake

Upside down cakes have got to be one of the greatest categories of baked goods. I mean, what is not to like about a cake that has a caramel-like crust, tender fruit and a moist base, made, baked and served in less than an hour.

It is strange to me, but until recently I never thought there were possibilities beyond a pineapple upside down cake. What a world of deliciousness I have been missing!!! I mean, I do love a good pineapple upside downer, but there are so many other cakes to be eaten! I love this apple upside down cake more than words can say, and I think pear would be equally delicious. I recently saw a banana version somewhere - which I'm dying to try - and this lemon cake is just heavenly. Heavenly!

I made this a few days ago for my boys, and it is perhaps their favorite thing I've ever baked. They didn't like the lemons on top - granted, they are rather tart - and took them off, but I love those lemons. With baking they become tender, chewy, and soaked with (palm) sugar and butter, turning them into a sort of heightened candied lemon peel that I would gladly eat sans cake.

The cake itself, however, is fantastic and not to be skipped over. Incredibly moist, fluffy crumb, lemony. I wasn't sure about the flavors of palm sugar and lemon together, but I wanted my kids to have a treat so I went ahead with it. I'm so glad I did, because the deep, rich palm sugar pairs beautifully with the tangy, light, zippy lemon. If you've never had palm sugar, it's worth seeking out (despite its hefty price tag), because it really adds an extra dimension to baking, plus it has a glycemic index of only 35. I have an exciting palm-sugar related announcement that I'll be telling you about soon. I would like to figure out how to make a cake that had a larger portion of the crunchy sugary edges that upside down cakes naturally have - perhaps an upside down cake minus any fruit? Hmm, I may have to try this out... Or a smaller pan... Or both! I'll let you know how it turns out.

Lemon Upside Down Cake

adapted from Luscious Lemon Desserts by Lori Longbotham

2 medium lemons

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened, divided

1 1/4 cup palm sugar, divided

1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350. Wash lemons, cut ends off, and slice as thinly as possible - 1/8" thick or less. Discard seeds. In a 10" cast iron (or other) skillet, melt 1/4 cup of butter with 1/4 cup palm sugar, stirring until palm sugar is dissolved. When mixture begins to boil, arrange lemon slices in an attractive pattern (though it may be disrupted by the batter) and continue to boil for one minute once the lemons are all in place. You don't need to worry about using all of the slices you cut, but the entire bottom of the pan should be covered - it is okay if they overlap. After one minute, remove skillet from heat and set aside while you prepare the batter. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the remaining 1/2 cup butter on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the rest of the palm sugar (1 cup) and lemon zest and beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well combined. Stir in vanilla. With mixer on low, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/2 of the milk, stirring each time until just combined. Repeat with remaining flour and milk. Spoon batter over lemons in skillet, and smooth as evenly as you can. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until top of cake is golden and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in skillet, then invert onto a heat-proof plate/cake stand. If you let the cake cool completely, it is much easier to cut through the lemon slices using a very thin serrated knife. It is delicious warm, however, so serve it as you will.

TWD: Bittersweet Chocolate Mini-Bundts

I've been on the search for the perfect chocolate cake. Though I love chocolate in just about all forms, chocolate cake isn't usually my thing. It isn't ever chocolate-y enough. I am always willing to try a new recipe, however, hoping to close in on that ever-elusive perfection that I hope is out there.

I made 1/3 of the recipe, thanks to Nancy's meticulous math, and it fit nicely into one cup of my new mini bundt pan.

I read reports of a lack of chocolate flavor in this cake as written - milk chocolate, that is - so I went darker.

I topped my little cake with a ganache instead of the glaze in the book, as there were also lots of people who had issues with it.

The flavor of the cake was good - it actually tasted like chocolate - though it was a little dry. I may have over-baked it, but dryness was also a common complaint among the other TWDers, so I don't know. Nancy added some yogurt to her batter to help combat the feared dryness. Perhaps with that in mind, I'll attempt this again. We'll see how that works.

The search is still on for the perfect chocolate cake.

Thanks to Kristin from I'm Right About Everything for hosting this week. You can find the recipe on her blog.

Lemon Olive Oil Cake

You my recall I made a lemon pound cake a week or so ago, and I wasn't so hot on it. It wasn't lemony enough, and was just generally blah. Though it left me wanting a great pound cake I didn't make much of an effort to find one, as I had moved on to other tasty treats.

Now, I have a serious baking book habit. Serious. I basically want every baking book ever written, and have a good number of them already. The most recent addition to my collection is The Craft of Baking, and on my first flip-through this is the recipe that jumped out at me. I love the name of this cake, and everything it evokes. Olive oil; earthy, fruity, tangy - the perfect complement to zippy, tart lemons.

This is my first olive oil cake, per se, though I have used olive oil several times in baking - whenever a recipe calls for a different oil. So I suppose what I should say is that this is the first time I have baked something where olive oil was intended to be a contributing flavor. Oh, how I loved it.

This, people, is a lemon cake.

This is everything a lemon cake should be. It is also everything a pound cake should be. The crumb is tight and tender, supple even. It is perfectly lemony. Lemony, but not tart. The real triumph of this cake, however is its texture. This cake is so moist, it makes a sound when you tear a piece off. It makes a sound!!! It does not have a drop of extra grease, either. It isn't a very sweet cake, which I appreciate, though the top is sprinkled with sugar before baking, creating a paper-thin crunchy crust. Perfection.

The only downside of this superb pound cake is that it is small and it requires a lot of dishes. You may want to double the recipe and save one loaf for later. I say this under the naive delusion that two loaves have a chance of lasting longer than one (which lasted exactly 6 hours in my house).

Lemon Olive Oil Cake

adapted from The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco

3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unbleached white flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

zest of 1 lemon

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream

fresh squeezed juice from 1/2 lemon, strained

3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 tablespoon sugar for topping cake

Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2 " loaf pan with parchment, butter parchment and any pan that is exposed. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt into a small bowl. Set aside. Place 2 inches of water in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. In a heat-proof bowl - preferably the bowl of a stand mixer - combine eggs, sugar and zest, and place bowl over pot of simmering water, whisking until egg mixture is warm to the touch - this doesn't take very long. Remove bowl from pot and attach to mixer fitted with whisk attachment - if you're not using a stand mixer, place bowl on counter and use hand mixer - and beat on medium until mixture thickens and becomes pale, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together olive oil, cream and lemon juice in a small bowl. When the egg mixture has reached appropriate thickness, drizzle olive oil mixture over it and mix until combined. Turn mixer to low and add dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Stir in melted butter. Pour batter into prepared pan, smooth batter and sprinkle with tablespoon of sugar. Bake until top of cake is golden, and tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes in pan, then remove to rack to cool completely before cutting.

Coconut Cake with Chocolate Chunks

There was a time when I would have turned up my nose at this baked treat, simply because it is a cake. Even the chocolate wouldn't have swayed me. Until quite recently, I just wasn't a fan of cakes. Or so I thought. I have now come to realize that I had never had a good cake, or at least not enough of them.

In the last year I have actually come to love cakes.

For reasons like this. And this. And this. (Please excuse the photos for those links, most are from very early in my blogging...)

Oh, and this.

I made this coconut cake for my aunt's birthday today. I find it rather amusing that I have upwards of 40 baking books, a handful of which are dedicated to cakes, all of which are under-used, and yet I turn to the internet when looking for a recipe. Ah well, when there are things this wonderful on the internet, what can you do?

I knew I wanted a coconut cake that contained both shredded coconut and coconut milk. As soon as I happened upon this recipe from Bon Appetit, I knew I had found the one. This time, it was the chocolate that swayed me.

This cake is amazingly fluffy, making it impossibly light without nearing the texture of an angel food cake. It is tender, slightly dense, and oh so moist. The level of sweetness is perfect, especially when paired with the chunks of semisweet chocolate. The coconut on top becomes chewy with crunchy edges in the oven, and forms a sort of macaroon topping for the cake. The only thing I will change when I make it again is the amount of chocolate. It needs more. Next time, I will add an additional 3 ounces of chocolate to the batter, bringing the total amount in the cake up to 9 ounces.

Everyone in my family loved this cake, and it was devoured in record time. Many people commented that it was the best cake they had ever eaten (though they did echo my sentiment about the slight chocolate deficiency).

Coconut Cake with Chocolate Chunks and Coconut Drizzle

adapted from Bon Appetit

For the Cake:

1 3/4 cups unbleached white flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped (or 9 ounces if you are a chocolate lover)

1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut, or 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut tossed with 1 teaspoon agave until all coconut is coated and ever so slightly damp

For the Coconut Drizzle:

3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

2-3 tablespoons unsweetened coconut milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a 9 inch spring-form cake pan. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a medium-sized bowl. Stir in 1 cup coconut. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with coconut milk in 2 additions, mixing until just combined with each addition. Fold 3 ounces (or 6 ounces) of the chocolate chunks into batter using a rubber spatula. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top with spatula. Sprinkle remaining 3 ounces of chocolate as evenly as you can on top of the batter, top with 1/2 cup of coconut. Bake for 60-70 minutes. Check cake at around 40 minutes. If it looks like it is browning too quickly, place a foil tent over the pan. Remove cake from oven when a tester placed in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool for at least 30 minutes before removing from pan. Cool completely before cutting. (I wasn't able to wait that long, hence the slightly shaggy slices. I will say, it was rather delicious warm, as the chocolate was melty. If you don't mind shaggy slices, serve it warm by all means!)

Coconut Drizzle:

Whisk together sugar, vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of coconut milk. Add more coconut milk as needed until mixture is pourable. I did this in a pyrex measuring cup, making drizzling very easy.