I made that!

“Rustic Fruit Desserts” just does NOT disappoint! It’s like they put a vacuum into my brain and sucked out all the recipes I ever wanted and made a book out of them. Today I made the Lemon Blueberry Buckle, my favorite buckle recipe so far. But I’m always a sucker for buttermilk. 

First I made a super lemony streusel by basically rubbing all the ingredients together with my fingers. I put it in the freezer to firm up while I made the cake batter.

A pretty standard cake batter, flavored with lemon zest and buttermilk.

I folded in the blueberries and spread it in the cake pan.

Then I cooked down some more blueberries with a little sugar and water and poured those on top.

Then I sprinkled on the streusel from the freezer.

Since that apparently wasn’t enough action, I made a syrup of lemon juice and sugar while the cake was baking.

It came out looking beautiful.

And only got better when I poured that lemon syrup all over it. Made a sticky mess of my countertop, but it was most definitely worth it.

I’ve been waiting on these yummy little blue guys. And since I am obsessed with upside down  cakes, it seems only fitting that my first blueberry recipe of the summer be a favorite of mine. I know ginger cakes have a distinctly winter flair to them, but san francisco summers are…special (aka foggy and cold), so it seems appropriate.

First I cook some butter, brown sugar  and lemon juice together for a few minutes, to make a quick and dirty butterscotch sauce.

I spread that on my cake pan, and then tossed on the blueberries.

Then I spread my ginger molasses cake batter over the top.

About an hour later I had a cake waiting to be inverted!

And what sticky pile of deliciousness…I’m telling you, upside down cakes are my new best friend.

RECIPE (adapted from “Luscious Berry Desserts”):

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)

3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 1/2 cups blueberries

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup molasses

2 large eggs

1/4 cup milk

– Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

– In medium bowl, combine flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt.

– Cook 4 TBSP butter with brown sugar and lemon uice in pot for 5 minutes, until smooth. Pour into 9″ cake pan. Sprinkle blueberries evenly on top of brown sugar mixture.

– In large bowl, with mixer at medium-high speed, beat remaining butter until light and creamy. Add granulated sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses until blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time. Whisk in half of flour mixture. Whisk in milk and then the remaining flour mixture. Pour batter over blueberries in pan and spread evenly.

– Bake 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on wire rack 15 minutes.

– To serve, run knife around inside of pan to loosen cake from side of pan. Invert cake onto platter. Serve warm, with ice cream or whipped cream if you like.

Lately I feel like all I make are cakes, but they’re kinda fun… Today I take on the apricot cake. I found a neat looking recipe in my “Rustic Fruit Desserts” book to try out. I switched it up a tad, since I think no stone fruit is complete without some almond.

It caught my attention with the batter. There is none, it uses a shortbread like dough instead.

You first press half of the dough into the pan.

And then spread out some chopped apricots.

And then drop the rest of the dough down on top, in chunks.

Sprinkle on some sliced almonds and bake!

Definitely a winner. The dough gives it an almost chewy texture, like a fruit bar. I’ll be trying this one again with cherries for sure!

RECIPE (adapted from “Rustic Fruit Desserts):

Almond Apricot Teacake


1 tbsp butter for pan

2 1/4 cups (11.25 oz) all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean

6 oz butter

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp almond extract

2 1/2 cups chopped apricots (or any other stone fruit)

2 tbsp sliced almonds


– Whisk together the flour, baking powder & salt. Rub the vanilla bean seeds into the flour mixture.

– Cream the butter for 1 minute. Slowly pour sugar in while creaming. Continue creaming for 3-4 minutes, until light and fluffy.

– Slowly pour in eggs while continuing to cream. Add almond extract.

– Add in flour and mix on low just until a dough forms.

– Wrap in plastic wrap and put in freezer for 30 minutes (or refrigerate overnight).

– Preheat oven to 375.

– Butter 9” or 10” cake or tart pan.

– Divide dough into 2 portions. Press one into the cake pan.

– Spread the fruit over the dough.

– Break the rest of the dough into tablespoon sized chunks and drop over fruit.

– Sprinkle with sliced almonds and sugar.

– Bake 30-45 minutes (depending on size of pan).

– Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes before unmolding.

I didn’t think it was possible, but I’ve found a better version of bread pudding. Think of it as bread pudding: the sequal. It’s so easy that I feel a bit slow for having not thought of it sooner. I have my new cookbook “Rustic Fruit Desserts” to thank, for showing me the light. 

First you get some lovely berries. I haven’t made anything with raspberries yet this summer, so that’s where I’m going. But I used blackberries a couple of weeks ago and it was super fabulous…

Then you toast up some rich bread. I used challah, but brioche would be tasty.

And then you make a loose pastry cream (aka: vanilla pudding).

And basically just layer it all together.

And bake it for around 20 minutes, just until the berries start to break down a bit and the edges start to set.

And then just dig in. 

Cherries are early this year and I am ON IT. And what better way to kick of cherry season than an upside down cake. An upside down cake with cornmeal and balsamic vinegar.  Oh yes.

First the bloodbath of cherry pitting. No matter how neat I try to be, I always end up with red juice all over me and the kitchen. But it’s ok, I’m excited about all the cherry stains I’m gonna get this summer.

I cooked my pitted cherries in butter, brown sugar and balsamic vinegar. I poured them in the pan to cool.

Then I made a batter.

And a meringue to lighten the batter.

I folded the meringue into the batter, and poured it over the cherries.

I baked it, cooled it, and inverted it! So pretty!

RECIPE (bon Appetit):

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

3 cups whole pitted fresh cherries (about 21 ounces whole unpitted cherries)

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs, separated

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole milk

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

It seems the more I learn about baking, the more I appreciate the classics. Lately, I just can’t stop thinking about pound cake. I needed to make some cakes for the cafe, and had some oranges in the fridge, so orange flavored pound cakes it is! I really wanted to taste the orange, so I decided to use both the juice and the zest in my batter.

I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to pound cake. I believe in going sans leavening, letting the hyper-creamed butter and eggs do all the heavy lifting. I’ve been using the recipe my teacher gave my in pastry school, and have found it a great base to add other flavors into. So first step, I creamed my butter and sugar for about 8 minutes, until it was super white and fluffy. Since there is no baking powder or baking soda, it’s important to keep a strong emulsification in the butter, so the batter is strong and gets a lot of height. This makes temperature really important. I try to have every ingredient at room temperature, since things emulsify better when they’re not cold.

Then I slowly drizzled in my eggs and kept beating until it was all smooth.

Then I beat in the orange juice and zest, and finish by sifting in the flour, vanilla bean seeds and salt.

I poured the batter into a lined and buttered loaf pan, slicing down the middle with a spatula to reign in the future hump.

I baked it for about an hour and let it cool.

Then I made a glaze out of the orange juice and powdered sugar. I poured that over the top and let it drip down the sides.

Stop by Etiquette Lounge and have a slice!

RECIPE:

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla extract

8 oz butter, room temperature

8 ¾ oz sugar

7 oz cake flour

½ tsp salt

1 ½ TBSP orange zest

3 TBSP orange juice

– Butter and parchment line loaf pan.

– Cream butter and sugar for 8 minutes.

– Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each.

– Continue to beat for 1 minute.

– Add zest and juice.

– Continue to beat for 1 minute.

– Sift in the dries in 3 additions.

– Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top.

– Bake at 325 F for 50 – 80 minutes, or until baked through.

Strawberry rhubarb.

I know it’s totally obvious, but I hadn’t made a strawberry rhubarb crisp before. I’ve never thought of myself as boring, I just generally assumed that apples and pears were what went under a crispy topping. I doubt I really ever “got” rhubarb before. Now I understand. I made a strawberry rhubarb crisp last night, but of course there wasn’t enough (Is there ever?). So I made another one today. I’ll probably make another one tomorrow. It’s THAT good.

Strawberries and rhubarb make big puddles when baked, so I started by chopping them up and macerating them for 30 minutes. I strained out the liquid and tossed the fruit with sugar, cornstarch and the seeds from a vanilla bean.

As I’ve mentioned before, I keep crisp topping in the freezer. So on days when there’s a dessert emergency, or when I’m too lazy to make a pie, I make a crisp. I tossed frozen topping all over my fruit and popped it in the oven.

I baked it until the top was nice and browned. As you can see, the puddles were unavoidable. Totally worth it.