Kentucky Butter Cake

When I got the book Cake!, my first instinct was to make one of the coffee cakes. I absolutely adore all kinds of coffee cakes, and they're usually not too sweet, so they're great to have with coffee in the morning. They're also nice for dessert. They're like, all-purpose cakes.

Pecan Pie Coffee Cake sounded particularly appealing. I love nutty coffee cakes a lot.

But then I saw the Kentucky Butter Cake in the Bundt Cake and Pound Cakes section.

That sounded good because I have a bazillion Bundt cake pans, and I love pound cake.

But, alas, pound cake has been my white whale ever since I moved to high altitude. The first one I tried to make here boiled out of the pan. After I got over that trauma - like, several years later - I tried other recipes. While they mostly were fine cakes, they weren't as dense as I wanted them to be. They were more like sponge cakes than pound cake.

Bah, humbug.

As I eyed the Kentucky Butter Cake recipe, I saw that it was pretty similar to pound cakes I'd made in the past, with one very interesting difference. Instead of beating the butter and sugar together, and instead of beating egg whites or yolks to add air, this recipe called for chucking everything into a bowl together.

Wow. I love a recipe that's not fussy.

So I decided to give it a try.

Oh, and the other great thing about this recipe is that all the ingredients were in even numbers. It's not that I have some kind of mystical affinity for even numbers. However, it made the recipe easy to cut in half. As much as I like cake, I didn't want a whole pound cake for myself. So, I cut the recipe neatly in half and I baked it in a loaf pan. And it worked perfectly.

And it was almost a perfect pound cake, the way it lives in my memory. It was a little paler in color and not as yellow as some I've made, but that's not a big deal. And the texture wasn't perfect. There were a couple of larger air bubble holes here and there. Not enough to ruin the texture, and certainly no a flaw in the recipe. But if this is the only issue that high altitude caused, I'm giving this one a high five.

I didn't make the glaze since I was happy with the sweetness of the cake without it, but for a party or special occasion where this is being served as dessert, the glaze would certainly add something extra to the cake.

While I cut the recipe in half, here's the original. Get yer decorative Bundt pan ready.

Kentucky Butter Cake
Adapted from Cake! by Addie Gundry

For the Cake
3 cups all purpose flour, plus more for the pan
2 cups granulated sugar
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup buttermilk
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or extract
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

For the Glaze
3/4 cup granulated sugar
5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
Confectioner's sugar for dusting
Caramel sauce, warm, for drizzling

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan (I always use the baking spray that has flour in it).

Beat the flour, sugar, butter, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, salt, baking powder and baking soda with your stand mixer fitted with the paddle, or with a hand mixer. Start on low for about a minute, then increase to medium, until it's smooth.

Pour the batter into your pan and bake for 65-75 minutes, or until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

When the cake is done, start the glaze. Place the granulated sugar, butter, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of water in a small saucepan. Heat on medium-low heat until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved.

While the cake is still warm in the pan, poke it multiple times with a wooden skewer, then pour the glaze over the cake.

Let the cake cool completely in the pan, then invert it onto a serving plate. Dust with powdered sugar and drizzle with caramel sauce before serving.

Did I mention that I got this book for free? Yeah, I think I did. But I'm saying it again. Free to me. It's great to be me.

Banana Cupcakes with Plum Jam Frosting #OXOGoodCookies

Mmmmm. Cupcakes.

I love when I plan comes together. I had a banana that was past its eating best, and I had a new hand mixer I wanted to test. The mixer came from OXO, along with a decorating tool that's like a cookie press married to a pastry bag.

Oooooh. I love new toys!

This month is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and OXO usually sponsors Cookies for Kids Cancer events on blogs. I missed out on this year's official events, but I shoehorned my way in, got some gear, and decided that cupcakes are sort of like cookies.

Because that's how I am.

The Cookies for Kids Cancer is one of the blogger events I really like. Bloggers don't get anything except product, but OXO donates to charity. Plus, they donate for people who hold bake sales. All the details, straight from OXO, are at the end of this post.

Meanwhile, cupcakes and gadgets.

I had been curious about the kitchen electrics from OXO since they first announced them. My favorite OXO tool is probably my vegetable peeler, but I like a whole lot of other things, too, like their containers, and their mango splitter and their cherry pitter and their cookie press. What I like best about the cookie press is the extra plates you can buy for it. I think I have them all ... but I'm a little afraid to look!

Oh, and I totally LOVE the cold brew coffee maker (reviewed here; buy it on Amazon here). I use that coffee maker pretty exclusively for my everyday coffee.

But those particular gadgets aren't electric. I was curious if the OXOness of the electrics would match the thoughtful way they design their other products.

When the OXO hand mixer arrived, there were a number of things liked about it right off the bat. It stands up very steadily with no threat of tipping. It comes with both normal beaters and swirly beaters that are designed for heavy batters. And it has a headlight.

I wondered if the light was necessary. I mean, I've had plenty of hand beaters, and none of them lit up. It's not like I make cake in the dark, right?

But here's the thing.

I was really able to see what was going on in the bowl. I could see when things were fully mixed without stopping the mixer to look inside the bowl without the mixer casting a shado.

Is it essential? Well, obviously not, because we've lived without lighted mixers for a long time. But it really does make sense. I like it. A lot.

As far as the OXO decorating tool, I was a little confused by it until I put frosting into it and started using it. Then it made perfect sense. And nice cupcakes. I don't think I'd use the tool if I wanted to make one super-long unbroken line of frosting. But that's not something I see myself doing any time soon.

The tool comes with several tips, but the good news is that standard-sized tips fit, so if you've already got a collection of them, you can use them with this tool. Both the small and large tips fit, which is even better. And the whole thing can go in the dishwasher to be cleaned. After you disassemble it, obviously.

These banana cupcakes aren't similar in to a pound cake in consistency. Not as fluffy as a sponge cake, but not as dense as banana bread.

Banana Cupcakes with Plum Jam Frosting

To make the cupcakes:
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 mashed ripe banana

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line one 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt

In another medium mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar together. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs and vanilla. Beat until well combined. Beat in the mashed banana

Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternately with two additions of the milk, beating until incorporated after each addition.

Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full (these don't rise spectacularly, so they're fine at 3/4 full, even at high altitude). Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking until the tops are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean – about 18-20 minutes.

To make the frosting:
4 ounces cream cheese*
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons plum jam** (or to taste)
Powdered sugar, as needed (about a pound, depending on the thickness you're looking for)

Beat the cream cheese and butter until it's smooth, then add the vanilla extract and salt beat until incorporated.

Beat in the plum jam until it's incorporated.

Add the powdered sugar in increments until the consistency is what you're looking for. You can leave it softer if you're spreading the frosting on, but you'll need it firmer if you want piped designs to hold their shape. If you somehow manage to get it too thick, and more milk or jam.

*The cream cheese you choose does make a difference. I've tried making frosting with fat-free cream cheese, and I thought it tasted terrible. If you like it, go for it. BUT! The brand and type of cream cheese will affect the consistency of the frosting. You might need more or less sugar to get to a nice frosting-like consistency.

**You can use any any jam you like, or leave it out and make a vanilla frosting.

From OXO about Cookies for Kids Cancer:

September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and it's a very important time for us here at OXO. Childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in the U.S. The reason, sadly, is simple: lack of funding for research specific to children. Even though pediatric cancer claims the lives of more children annually than any other disease, it receives less than 4 percent of the National Cancer Institute's budget.

In 2007, Liam Witt, the son of longtime OXOnians Gretchen and Larry Witt, was diagnosed cancer at the age of 2. OXOnians regard each other as family, and news of Liam's diagnosis hit all of
us hard. Motivated to help, Gretchen and Larry had the "crazy" idea to host a larger-than-life cookie
sale, gathering more than 250 volunteers (many of whom were fellow OXOnians,) to bake and sell
96,000 cookies. The larger-than-life cookie project raised more than $420,000 to fund childhood
cancer research.

Nine months later, Gretchen and Larry launched Cookies for Kids' Cancer as a national non-profit organization, inspiring grassroots bake sales and other events with the ultimate goal of funding research for new, improved, and less toxic treatments for children. Since then, the organization has granted more than $10 million, funding 80 research projects, 32 of which are therapies that children have access to today.

Everyone at OXO was profoundly impacted when Liam lost his 4-year battle. For years, Liam was a fixture in our office. He would visit frequently, riding his orange scooter, providing unsolicited (but always helpful) product feedback and sharing his vivacious energy with everyone. From a very young age he had a clear vision of what he wanted to do when he grew up: Become a chef and run OXO. We have no doubt he would have achieved both of his goals.


Through the years, OXOnians have devoted their personal time, energy and money to support Cookies, but the company wanted to play a larger role. In 2011, the year Liam lost his battle, OXO formalized its partnership with the organization, pledging to donate up to $100,000 per year through bake sale matches and other activities. Since then, we've helped inspire other "good cookies" to raise over $1 million and host more than 1,600 events in over 170 cities globally.

Awareness is one of the most important ways to create change, and we hope you'll support us in raising awareness around this very important cause. For more information and other ways to contribute - including hosting a bake sale of your own - visit Cookies For Kids' Cancer. If you register your bake sale and select "OXO" in the drop-down menu marked "How did you hear about Cookies for Kids' Cancer?", we'll match your proceeds for events held, before December 31st, 2016.

Thanks to OXO for sending the hand mixer and decorating tool for my use. The hashtag for this promotion is #OXOGoodCookies. Look for it on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Coffee Coffeecake Cake

Lest you think I've gone mad, the title of this came about after I witnessed a long discussion of what you'd expect to get if you were offered "coffee cake."

A large number of people said, "Well, duh, it's a crumb cake. You eat it with coffee, like at breakfast." Or like the olden days on sitcoms when people just randomly stopped by for coffee.

Another segment of folks said they'd expect a coffee-flavoured cake, with walnuts, and a coffee-flavoured icing as well.

See what happened there? The folks who spell flavor as flavour have a coffee cake that uses the word coffee in the same way we would use chocolate if we were talking about chocolate cake.

The folks who spell flavour as flavor probably also verbally pronounce coffee cake as one run-on word. Coffeecake. Not coffee ... cake.

On the other hand, I grew up thinking that this was coffee cake. Ah yes, my mother was the master at confusing me. I grew up with Andy Griffin (Griffith) and I thought there was such a word as dopefeine that rhymed with caffeine (dope fiend).

So after this long online discussion about what was or wasn't coffee cake, I decided that I wanted to bake a cake. Some kind of cake. Perhaps coffee flavored. I started pawing through cookbooks, although really I should have just made this coffeecake and called it a day.

I started with older cookbooks and couldn't find either a coffee cake OR a crumb cake. Finally I found a recipe for what was called a coffee cake, but it was really a sweet yeasted bread and not a cake at all.

Harrumph. 

So, I cobbled together some notes and ideas and walnuts and coffee and went into the kitchen to grind some soft white wheat berries to make flour to make a cake. Because, well, why not?

This coffeecake is moist and a little crumbly at the same time. It's sweet, but the sweetness is offset a bit by the coffee. It's got crunchy bits from the caramelized sugar and little chewy nubs of walnut. This would be great with coffee. Or a glass of milk. Or maybe just with a fork, for dessert.

If you don't have a grain mill (I have a Mockmill) to grind your own wheat, then just use whatever flour you like and hope to heck that it works. Hah! But seriously, it ought to be just fine with either store-bought white wheat or with all purpose flour. If you use the darker whole wheat flour, you'll probably need just a little bit more moisture - a tablespoon or so should suffice.

Coffee Coffeecake Cake

For the topping:
1/2 cup flour (I used whole wheat. Use what you have)
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
Pinch of salt

For the cake:
3/4 cup sugar
6 3/4 ounces (about 1 1/4 cups) white wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup half-and-half (or milk is fine)
1/4 cup strong brewed coffee
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons butter, melted

To make the topping:
Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix (fingertips work well) until the mixture looks like wet sand and comes together in clumps. Set aside until needed.

To make the cake:
Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with baking spray and heat the oven to 375 degrees. You can also line it with a reusable parchment, which is what I did. (I reviewed it here. You can buy it here.)

Combine the sugar, flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl and stir or whisk to combine. You can use your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, if you like.

Combine the half-and-half, milk, egg, and vanilla extract in another container. (You can combine them all in the measuring cup. Start with the half-and-half, then add the coffee, then add the egg and vanilla.) Beat lightly with a fork to break up the egg.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well.

Pour the mix into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Sprinkle the topping randomly over the batter.

Bake at 375 degrees until the cake is set and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan and allowing it to complete cooling before serving. You can also leave the cake in the pan and serve from the pan.

Chocolate Mint Cake

So, I was wandering through the new Food52 Baking book, and I was very tempted by the Chocolate Dump-It Cake.

I'm not entirely sure what the "dump-it" refers to, since this isn't a dump-and-stir sort of thing. Ingredients need to be heated, although the mixing is done in a saucepan. But a second bowl is used for mixing the dry ingredients before adding them to the wet.

The cake was supposed to bake in a 9-inch tube pan. I thought that might be a bit more cake than I wanted to have around. I mean, even with friendly neighbors to help me, there's only so much cake I can eat.

So I decided to cut the recipe in half. Fortunately, it was easy to do without a whole lot of math or egg-dividing.

Then I made one more little teeny change. I substituted Smirnoff Candy Cane Vodka for some of the water. And I baked it in a snowflake pan.

Yes, baking a chocolate cake in a snowflake pan might not have been the best idea as far as color is concerned, but I sprinkled it with powdered sugar and it was really pretty.

The cake itself was pretty sticky - the instructions say to flip the cake onto waxed paper, but I flipped in onto a rack. It came out of the cake pan nicely, but got a bit stuck to the cake rack. Not a big deal. The stuck parts made a nice preview snack.

The vodka added a nice peppermint flavor to the cake, but it wasn't overly strong. Chocolate was first, then mint. And the cake was really moist. I'd definitely make this again. And again. And again.

Chocolate Mint Cake
Adapted from Food52 Baking

1 cup sugar
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup Smirnoff Candy Cane Vodka
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 375 degrees and spray a 5-cup baking pan with baking spray. If you only have larger pans, you could divide the batter or make a few cupcakes, but the 5-cup snowflake pan was just about the perfect size for the cake.

Combine the sugar, chocolate, butter, and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring once in a while, until the chocolate and butter melt. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool slightly.

Stir in the vodka.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Combine the milk and vinegar (you can just add the vinegar to the milk in its measuring cup).

Whisk in the milk mixture, then the egg. Whisk in the flour a little at a time, just until smooth. Whisk in the vanilla, just to mix it in.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 375 degrees until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Place a sheet of wax paper on top of the cake and turn it out onto a wire rack with the wax paper under it. Let it cool completely.

Baileys Caramel Swirl and Poke Cake with Baileys Whipped Cream

I'm a huge fan of Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur. Not just for sipping, although that's a very nice use of it. But I've also used it for recipes. So when the folks at Baileys asked me if I wanted to use some of their salted caramel flavored Baileys in a baking recipe, I knew I had to do it.

I had a couple different ideas, but I kept thinking about a caramel I made for ice cream that I used for a guest post on Cravings of a Lunatic. I decided to make a similar caramel, but make it more sauce, and then incorporate it into a cake.

Or course, caramel sauce wasn't enough Baileys for me. There's also Baileys in the cake batter, and in the whipped cream topping.

The caramel that's "poked" into the cake stays soft and squishy, while any excess caramel on top of the cake turns into a thin, crisp, flaky layer. As for that whipped cream, it's an amazing topping for the cake ... but if you happen to have extra, it adds a lovely note on top of hot chocolate. Particularly if you spike that hot chocolate for a little bit of Baileys.

Baileys Caramel Swirl and Poke Cake
with Baileys Whipped Cream

For the caramel sauce:
1/2 cup Baileys Salted Caramel Irish Cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter
Pinch of salt

For the cake:
1 3/4 cups (7 7/8 ounces) all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup Baileys Salted Caramel Irish Cream
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 to 2/3 cups caramel sauce

For the whipped cream:
2 tablespoons Baileys Salted Caramel Irish Cream
7/8 cup heavy whipping cream

To get started:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9-inch round cake pan with baking spray.

To make the caramel sauce:

Combine the 1/2 cup Baileys, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, and pinch salt in a saucepan. Heat to a boil, then lower to a simmer.

Cook until the mixture thickens. It should be thick enough so that when it's at room temperature it will be thick and, but not chewy. It also shouldn't be super-runny. You can test it by putting a small amount on a spoon and putting it in the refrigerator to chill.

You should end up with somewhere between 1/2 cup and 2/3 cup of syrup. Pour 1/4 cup of syrup into a glass measuring cup and refrigerate while you work on the cake. Leave the remainder of the syrup in the pot; you'll be reheating it later.

To make the cake:

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Combine the Bailey's and the yogurt in small bowl or measuring cup. Set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating until they are thoroughly incorporated.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of the yogurt mixture, beating well after each addition and scraping down the bowl when needed. This is a fairly thick batter, so don't be concerned that it's not as loose as many cakes you've probably made.

Take 1/2 cup of the batter out of the bowl and add it to the chilled caramel sauce you set aside in the refrigerator. Stir to combine.

Transfer the rest of the batter to your prepared pan. Dollop the batter mixed with caramel on top of the plain cake batter, and swirl with a knife.

You could also add half of the plain batter to the pan, top with the caramel, then add the rest of the plain batter. Swirl or not, as desired.

Level the top of the batter and bake at 350 degrees until the cake springs back when touched, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Heat the remaining caramel sauce until it's a pouring consistency.

Holey Baileys Cake!

Use the handle of a wooden spoon to poke holes into the warm cake, then pour the warmed syrup into the holes. You don't need to be neat about it - it's fine to spill over the top of the cake.

When you've used all the syrup, use a spoon or soft spatula to spread the syrup remaining on top of the cake into a thin layer and encourage it to fill any holes that might not be completely full.

Let the cake cool completely, then turn out onto the rack then immediately flip over onto a plate or cake stand, so the side with the holes is on top - the caramel is soft, so if you leave the cake upside-down too long, the caramel will start oozing out.

To finish the cake, you have several options. Because of the holes from poking, you probably want to do more than just sprinkle it with powdered sugar. You could, of course, frost it. You could also cover it with a poured or whipped ganache.

But I thought the perfect partner for this slightly dense cake was a fluffy Baileys-flavored whipped cream. If you know you're going to serve the whole cake for dessert, you can top the entire cake with the whipped cream, but I actually like the idea of topping each individual slice with a pretty little dollop of cream. Or a big dollop.

To make the whipped cream:
The best way to measure this is to use a 1 cup measure, add the 2 tablespoons of Baileys, and then add the cream to measure 1 cup.

The easy way to make the cream is to combine the heavy cream and Baileys and place in a nitrous cream whipper. Charge and dispense according to manufacturer's instruction.

The other way is to start by whipping the cream until it begins getting thick, then add the Baileys and continue whipping until it is as thick as you like.

Because of the Baileys in the whipped cream, it doesn't hold its shape for as long as a plain whipped cream, so it's best to make it right before serving and decorate the cake or slices at the last minute. Of course, if you're using a whipper, you can just leave the cream in the whipper and dispense as you serve.

I received Baileys for my use at no cost to me.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pudding Poke Cake

First up, I'm calling this a peanut butter poke cake, but I didn't actually use peanut butter. However, "chocolate and substitute peanut butter poke cake" doesn't have quite the same ring to it. And this tastes like peanut butter, so it's what people would think when you serve it.

But first, about the cake.

I had the urge to make this cake for quite some time. It started with a photo of a chocolate poke cake. But then I thought, gee, peanut butter would be fun. I love chocolate with peanut butter. But trying to shove plain peanut butter into the holes of a poke cake probably wouldn't be successful.

So then I decided that I needed to make a peanut butter pudding. That's something I've never made before, but it certainly seemed worth a try.

But! For the peanut butter, I used WowButter, which is a non-peanut, safe-for-schools product. There are more and more nut-free butters out there, which is a great thing for kids with allergies. This one is made from toasted soy nuts.

I used to buy toasted soy nuts as a snack, and the WowButter has a similar flavor when you taste it on its own. It has a nutty flavor without tasting like a specific nut. But the toasted flavor is a little more prominent than what I've noticed in standard peanut butters. It's a really nice toastiness.

But when the WowButter was used to make peanut butter pudding and then added to cake, I think most folks would just assume it's a nut butter. And that's a good thing.

For this particular cake, I used a box mix, but you could certainly use any chocolate cake recipe you like, as long as it's enough to fill a 9x13 pan.

Or you could make a smaller cake and use less pudding, like this wacky cake. Another smaller cake is Midnight chocolate cake, which is a little denser, and also very good.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Poke Cake

1 9x13 chocolate cake, freshly baked

For the peanut butter pudding:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup WowButter

For the whipped ganache frosting:
8 ounces (by weight) dark chocolate chips or bar chocolate, chopped
8 ounces heavy cream

The cake and pudding should be warm when they meet each other, so make the cake first, and start making the pudding while the cake is baking. You can take your time making the pudding, and if the cake isn't done when you're finished with the pudding, you can gently re-warm it.

To make the pudding:
Put the sugar, salt, and cornstarch in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and whisk to combine and break up any lumps. dd the cold milk and stir to combine, making sure there are no clumps of cornstarch.

Heat the mixture on medium heat until it thickens to coat the back of a spoon. Add the WowButter and stir to combine. This mixture needs to be thick enough to turn into pudding when it has cooled, but it also need to be thin enough to pour and seep into the holes you'll form in the cake. If it's too thick, you can add a little more milk to thin it to a pouring consistency.

To add the pudding to the cake:
Use the handle of a wooden spoon (or any implement of a similar size) to poke holes in the still-warm cake. I didn't count the number of holes, but you do want to make sure you have multiple holes per slice of cake.

Pour or spoon the pudding onto the cake, focusing on getting it into the holes in the cake. Make sure the pudding is going down into the holes and not just forming a pudding bubble above an empty hole. You can use a skewer to make sure the pudding is settling into the hole.

If you have a significant amount of pudding left, you can poke more holes into the cake and add more pudding.

Let the cake cool, then refrigerate it until it is chilled.

To make the whipped ganache frosting:
This is simple to make in a stand mixer, but you can also make it in a bowl with a hand mixer. Make the ganache after the cake is cool, and just before you want to frost.

My favorite 9x13 pan from Silverstone.

Put the chocolate into the bowl of your stand mixer fitting with the whipping attachment.

Heat the cream until it is simmering. Add it to the chocolate. With the mixer on low speed, "stir" the mixture until the chocolate is fully melted. Stop the mixer and use a spatula to make sure there are no lumps of chocolate stuck to the bottom or sides of the bowl.

Turn the mixer speed up a notch or two and continue mixing. This will help the chocolate cool a little faster. If you're using a bowl and hand mixer, it's probably easier to just let it cool rather than stand there mixing.

When the chocolate is cool, it will begin to thicken. Turn the mixing speed up and continue beating until the frosting is as light and fluffy as you like.

To finish the cake:
Remove the cake from the refrigerator. If there are pools of pudding on top, scrape or spoon the pudding off - it will make the frosting harder to spread if there's a thick layer on top.

Frost the cake. You can serve the cake immediately, or refrigerate to serve later. The ganache will get firmer when it is chilled. Keep any leftover cake refrigerated.

I received the WowButter at no cost to me as a sample; I wasn't required to use it in a recipe.

Yuzu Blueberry Poundcake

I know almost nothing about Japanese desserts, except that I've had green tea ice cream. And I have no clue if that's even traditional. So I was really interested in seeing what the new cookbook, Kyotofu, might have to offer.

The book is divided based on the Japanese ingredient included in each of the recipes - soy, miso, green tea, sesame, rice, and yuzu.

I have no clue how traditional any of the recipes are, but I have a suspicion that some are more traditionally American with a Japanese twist - like the chocolate chunk cookies that included some kinako, which is a flour made from toasted soybeans.

After browsing around the book for a while, I decided to make a recipe using an ingredient I happened to have, rather than investing time into finding something else. I could have made a green tea recipe, since I'm well-stocked with both tea and matcha.

But then I saw the poundcake. The description said it was light and gently sweet, and the photo showed a cake cut in a wedge from a round cake rather than a normal loaf cake as you'd expect with an American pound cake.

But then when I read the recipe, it called for a 9x5 loaf pan. What?

This is a particular pet peeve of mine - when photos in a book don't represent what the recipe instructions say. But I carried on, anyway, because I liked the ingredients in the recipe.

I ended up with a sort of squat cake - it might have been better in a smaller loaf pan (8x4) or in an 8-inch round pan, as might have been used for the photo.

This also took a lot longer to bake than the recipe called for. At first, I thought it might have been the difference between the loaf pan and what was depicted in the photo. But then I realized that the book said to use either fresh or frozen berries, but didn't suggest thawing the berries (which would have made the batter purple/blue) or increasing the baking time for the cake.

In the end it was a good cake, flavor-wise. Next time I might make it in a round pan or as cupcakes, and for sure I'll try it with fresh berries. A far as the yuzu juice, I had it on hand, so it went into the batter. But if you don't have it, I'd suggest simply using lemon juice - it's only a tablespoon, so I doubt at that quantity no one would be able to tell the difference between lemon and yuzu in the cake.

As far as the rest of the book, I was curious whether the mismatched photo was a one-time error, or of other photos were also more creative than realistic. I found a few more, including a recipe that was supposed to be made in muffin tins and unmolded that was shown in a glass, a tart recipe that was shown as individual tarts rather than one large one described in the recipe, cookies that were supposed to be cut with a round cutter rather than the scalloped rectangular cutter used for the cookies in the photo, and a round cheesecake that was depicted as being cut into a square.

Okay, with that last one, you could take a round cheesecake and cut it into small squares to serve it - but why would you?

I didn't scrutinize every photo to nitpick details - but those were the obvious ones that caught my eye.
These photo mismatches aren't a total dealbreaker for enjoying the book, since the recipes themselves look solid. But I do wish that instructions were given - even as an option - for making the recipes as they were shown in the photos. If it's just a matter of cutting something (like the cookies), it's really no big deal. But if it's a matter of baking mini tarts instead of a large one, or a round cake instead of a loaf - well, that makes a difference with baking time.

The photos are indeed pretty, and the recipes sound interesting. I plan on making a few more using some of the ingredients that are new to me. And I'm looking forward to that, as soon as I can hunt those ingredients down.

Meanwhile, have a piece of cake.

Yuzu Blueberry Pound Cake
Adapted from Kyotofu by Nicole Bermensolo

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon zest (from one lemon)
1 tablespoon yuzu juice (lemon juice would be fine)
1/4 cup sour cream, at room temperature
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups (150 grams) all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Heat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x5 loaf pan with baking spray

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy.

While the mixer is running on medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, then add the lemon zest.

Add the yuzu juice, sour cream, and vegetable oil and continue mixing until well combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add this mixture to the bowl of the stand mixer. Mix until just combined, scraping down the stand mixer bowl to make sure everything is evenly mixed.

Gently mix in the blueberries by hand.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the surface with a spatula. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean - it actually took mine over an hour to finish baking - that might be because I used frozen berries and they were chilly when they were in the batter. Consider that, if you make this.

Fastest Fudge Cake

I was having a bit of a cake crisis. I wanted to make a cake. I tried to make several cakes. But the recipes I tried weren't working. First, I tried something called "Wonder Cake" from a cookbook written in 1894. It was pretty horrible.

Then I tried a couple more modern recipes that failed.

It happens sometimes at high altitude - cakes can be pretty finicky up here.

I probably could have fixed those recipes with some troubleshooting, but I wasn't in the mood for that. I just wanted to find a recipe that worked from the beginning. Without testing and tweaking and re-testing.

I decided to turn to a cookbook that had worked for me before - Fine Cooking Cakes and Cupcakes. I make a crumb cake from the book a while back, and it was pretty danged good. So I browsed through the book to find something else.

I was temped by a few different yellow cakes, but went in the opposite direction and chose a chocolate cake instead. The title made me happy: Fastest Fudge Cake. I like fast and I like fudge. And, I had all the ingredients I needed to make the cake.

While several of the other cakes I made had risen and then fallen - either in the oven or while cooling - this one rose politely and didn't collapse. It was perfect.

Fastest Fudge Cake

Adapted from Fine Cooking Cakes and Cupcakes

1 cup 4 1/2 ounces) all purpose flour
1 ounce (1/4 cup, plus 2 tablespoons) natural cocoa powder (not Dutch)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick (1/4 pound) unsalted butter, melted and warm

1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup hot water

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with baking spray.

In a small bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together. If it's lumpy, sift it. If it's not lumpy, you're good to go.

In a large bowl, stir the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir until well blended. It will take some stirring, but it will blend. Add the flour all at once and stir until all the flour is moistened. Add the water and stir until it's incorporated and the batter is smooth.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning it out of the pan.

Let the cake cool completely before frosting - I used a poured ganache, but use whatever you like.