Cooking Club: August

Theme: Sunday Brunch!

Although I'm no longer part of this fantastic Salt Lake cooking club (sigh), I'll still post all of the tasty photos (drool) so I can pass along the yummy recipes and cooking club theme ideas to you. Thanks to Shauna for these pics!

What would a Sunday brunch be without some colorful ripe fruit?! Yum.

And to go along with all that healthy fruit, delicious mini glazed cinnamon buns. Oh yah!

Robin's Spinach Sausage Quiche

Betty's Zucchini Blueberry Muffs

Love the addition of zucchini in these muffins. Not only does it add potassium and vitamin A, it adds extra moisture!

Gayle's Banana Nut Bread with a butter schmear

Shauna's bruleed grapefruit with creme de cassis soaked blackberries

So artful!

Teresa's Ham and Cheese Casserole.

Creamy and delicious with a nice crunch from the corn flake topping.

And to wash it all down, Orange Juice and Pomegranate Mimosas and Bloody Marys.

Judi's Smoked Salmon Frittta

That's a good looking plate of food. 

Ranate's Crab Dip.

And to top it off...

Abby's Creme Brulee French Toast with Creme Fraiche.

Next Salt Lake Soiree: Cowboy Grub! Yeehaw

Recipes:
Creme Brulee French Toast
Zucchini Blueberry Bread
Bruleed Grapefruit
Ham and Cheese Casserole
Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

Spiced Lemon Cake

This cake is moist and delicious! The 'spiced' part of this cake comes from ground cardamom (I love cardamom). 

The cardamom lends a warm note to the cake that pairs really well with the lemon flavor. The zesty lemon glaze almost takes away from the delicate flavor of the cake, but gives it a nice punch and makes the cake overall more interesting. 

My mom and I enjoyed a slice of this today and we couldn't help but have another slice with coffee. Yum.

This cake is super easy to make and would be great for brunch or an after dinner dessert or with coffee in the morning. I thought the coffee really brought out the flavor of the cardamom. Might just be me?

I wouldn't recommend substituting cinnamon for the cardamom. Cardamom has a more subtle sweet flavor than cinnamon and is really tasty with the lemon.

Recipe Source: Martha Stewart Living, Oct. 2010 Issue

Spiced Lemon Cake

1 stick unsalted butter, room temp.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest plus 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 2 lemons)

3/4 tsp. ground cardamom

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 375. Butter and flour an 8-inch round cake pan. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat butter, sugar, zest and cardamom with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Reduce speed to medium-low; beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour. Pour batter into cake pan.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack. Let cool, top side up. Whisk confectioners' sugar with remaining 3 tablespoons lemon juice until smooth; pour over cooled cake.

Raspberry-Lemon Shortbread Tart

This is an easy and delicious tart that's perfect for summer.

A simple shortbread crust is pressed into a cake pan and pre-baked. The cookie-like crust is then filled with berries and covered with a lemon cream. After another trip to the oven,the berries and cream set-up and you have a delectable tart bursting with summer flavors.

Below is the pre-baked crust filled with frozen berries. I used a berry medley for this one because that's what I had on hand. Fresh or frozen fruit would work and any type of berry would be scrumptious.

The combination of black raspberries and blackberries gave the tart a gorgeous deep purple color once cooked. I topped it with powder sugar...
And it was pretty darn tasty. Here's a piece topped with a big dollop of fresh whipped cream :)

My only change to the recipe would be to use a little less lemon juice, so it's not so tart. I think juice from 1 1/2 lemons would give it the right amount of zip (or maybe just 1 lemon). That extra amount of juice put it over the top. But if you like tart lemony desserts, keep it the same.


Update: My mom made this tart and used frozen berries and she said it put her bake time at about 40 minutes over the listed time! I baked mine at sea level in San Diego and she baked hers at high altitude. Maybe that's the reason?? So make sure to thaw and drain your berries well!


Raspberry-Lemon Shortbread Tart
Source: RachealRay
3 cups frozen raspberries (1 pound)
1 stick plus 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
11/4 cups granulated sugar
13/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
Zest and juice of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup juice)
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Drain the raspberries in a strainer set over a bowl. Preheat the oven to 400°. Using your fingers, combine the butter, 1/2 cup of the sugar and 1 1/2 cups of the flour and blend together until coarse crumbs form.* Pour the mixture into an ungreased nonstick 9-inch springform or cake pan and press down evenly to form a crust. Bake the shortbread crust until lightly golden, about 20 minutes.

Remove the shortbread from the oven and reduce the temperature to 325°. Scatter the drained raspberries** evenly over the baked shortbread.

Beat the eggs with the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar until thick and pale yellow. Whisk in the lemon zest, the lemon juice and the remaining 1/4 cup of flour. Pour the lemon cream over the raspberries and bake the tart until the custard is set, about 30 minutes. Let cool, then dust with confectioners’ sugar.

* The crust mixture is quite crumbly, but bakes up well. So, don't worry as you're pressing it into the pan.

** I filled my hot crust with frozen berries. I didn't wait for the berries to thaw and drain. The only problem this caused was that it needed extra time to bake. It also changed the consistency into a berry filling as opposed to a drier, cakier filling. So, if you want it cakier, make sure you drain your berries well.

Gigi's Cupcakes

* * * * *

Bakery: Gigi's Cupcakes

Where: Fairborn, Ohio

What: Cupcakes Only

Site: http://gigiscupcakesusa.com/

Gig’s is everything I like in a dessert bakery.

* Easily accessible with plenty of parking out front.
* Nice surroundings.
* Very clean and fresh inside with plenty of sun light flitering in.
* Table and chairs or a bar area to sit and enjoy a cupcake if desired.
* And, a heavenly sweet smell that hits as you walk in the door.

 Their cupcakes are baked fresh every morning, so their menu changes daily. On any given day they offer 13 or so tempting flavors to choose from. 

Below are their samples! I was really surprised. They are perfect, deletable miniatures of the large versions. I could just pop a couple of these and be happy.

Their cute packaging

 And now what we came here for, Cupcakes! 

S'Mores 

$3

Milk Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Chips Baked in, Topped with Vanilla Fluff, Toasted Marshmallows, Graham Cracker Crumbs and a Milk Chocolate Square.

 Banana Split

$3

Strawberry Cake filled with Marshmallow Cream, topped with Banana Frosting, Ganache, Cherry, Nuts and a Banana Chip.

Fresh Strawberry

$3

White Cake Baked with Fresh Strawberries, Topped with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting and Red Sugar Crystals.

Midnight Magic Chocolate Chip

$3

Devil's Food Cake with Dark Chocolate Chips, Topped with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and Chocolate Chips

 Chocolate Salted Caramel
$3
A Special Dark Chocolate Cake Filled with Caramel, Topped with Caramel Frosting dipped in Ganche with a pinch of Sea Salt on top.

All the cupcakes we tried were rich and delicious! 

So no matter what flavors you like, you're sure to find something here to satisfy your craving!

Bakery Review

* * * * *

Bakery: Cake, Hope and Love

Where: Beavercreek, Ohio
Offerings: Cupcakes or 'Cuppies" as they call them.
Website: cakehopelove.com

Store Front

Simple, but Welcoming

Logo

The interior was very spacious and clean. It was a nice atmosphere to enjoy our cupcakes in. Only gripe? The Ikea furniture was a tad small and the chairs felt like you were sitting on the ground. They were perfect for my pint-sized eaters though!

Cuppies

The bakery case was on the small side, but they had plenty of different cupcakes to choose from in enticing flavors like hibiscus, honey bee and lavender lemon. My girls and I had no trouble finding ones we wanted to try.

They also offer (they didn't have them when we went) original flavors like At the Movies which is a a sweet buttery cake filled with a milk chocolate center and topped with a vanilla buttercream and sprinkled with coarse salt and buttered popcorn and Breakfast in a Cuppie - a cinnamon spiced vanilla cake filled with a java buttercream and topped with the cinnamon maple buttercream and sprinkled with  crunchy bacon pieces! I've tried so many cupcakes that I would definitely give these unique flavors a try!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

What we tried:

The traditional Ohio cupcake, The Buckeye!
$2.75

This was a tasty cupcake and would definitely satisfy your chocolate/peanut butter craving. But...the chocolate coating on top was really thick and really hard! We couldn't crack it or cut it with the metal forks they gave us. I wished the chocolate would have been a bit softer. We had to smash the cupcake to get the chocolate off. 

It did have a nice chocolate ganache center though.

Lemon Lavender Cuppie

$2.25 

This cupcake was delicious! The cupcake was moist and the frosting was creamy. The flavors were perfect together and not too strong. It reminded me of my favorite lavendar martini!!

Cake Hope and Love

1490 N.Fairfield Rd. Suite B

Beavercreek, OH 45432

ele Cake Co

* * * * *

(2.5 Stars)

I'm currently cooped up in a hotel with two small kids, so I've been checking out the local bakery scene in my area for a sweet reprieve. 

I'm in the Fairborn/Beavercreek area and there are a handful of bakeries within driving distance. Score! A friend of mine recommended Cake, Hope, Love, but after a few U-turns, I finally found the place and weaved my way into the butter yellow colored building only to find out that they were closed on Mondays. Oh well. In all my driving around though, I spotted elé Cake Co and decided to try it out.

Here's what we tried:

My youngest girl picked out the White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcake (because it was pink).

$2.75

I settled on the Peanut Butter Brownie.

$2.00.

My oldest chose the Fudge Brownie.

$2.00

And we rounded out our order with the Basic Cupcake in vanilla.
$1.00

Review

As for the desserts we had, they were just alright. Nothing memorable. The white chocolate cupcake had subtle hints of the flavors listed in the name, but nothing special. As for the brownies, they looked decadent, but they tasted like an average sweet brownie you could get from any grocery store. I love a good basic vanilla cupcake topped with silky buttercream, but this one fell short. The good part about the desserts were they were reasonably priced, except maybe for the white chocolate raspberry cupcake. I would rather pay a bit more for a dessert that has that 'wow' factor and leaves me wanting more.

So, all and all I was underwhlemed and I wouldn't go back when I'm having a sweet/dessert craving. I will say, they did seem to be selling quite a few birthday cakes, so maybe their focus is on wedding/party cakes more than small individual desserts. They have another location in West Carrollton that seems to get good reviews (I went to the Beavercreek location).

The packaging was cute and simple. And just to be picky, I like logo stickers to seal the box better than a piece a tape. Just looks a little cleaner in my opinion (I'm a weirdo, I know).

The inside was OK, well lit and open, but very random. It must have been a large store front of some kind and elé didn't make any changes, just moved in and had to fill in the space. It's part bakery, part gift shop, part wedding cake displays. There wasn't any seating available, which would have been nice, so my girls and I could have hung around and enjoyed our cupcakes.

The outside leaves a lot to be desired.

  elé Cake Co - 2 1/2 Stars

http://www.elecakeco.com/