"And perhaps a sticky bun...or 4..."

Once again, I went on a bit of a blog hiatus. I blame my show. It was a blast, but it left me with very little time to blog. I did bake a lot though. Mainly props for my show…and I figured I might as well share some of them with you, in case you ever have to play a hungry little girl in a Sondheim musical one day.

One of the specific sweets I needed to eat in the show was a “sticky bun”. Well, actually 4 of them…every night…however, they couldn’t actually be all that sticky as I had to be able to swallow them and sing and not get it all over my costume. So, I altered these buns to make them not so sticky…however, I made these twice last week and the second time I doubled the batch so I could have some for my cast and I sticky-ed them up with some cream cheese icing goodness. And they were divine.

I know there are a lot of cinnamon bun recipes floating around out there, and I’ve tried a handful…but these are my new favorite. They bake up beautifully and taste divine. So go make some sticky buns! And eat at least 4…

Cinnamon Buns
(Recipe adapted from Allrecipes Ooey-Gooey Cinnamon Buns)
I find that these are better if you roll the dough thinner and maybe up the filling a bit…this recipe is a great starter, but you can definitely improvise with these in terms of what you want to put in them.

Ingredients:

Dough
1 tsp white sugar
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
4 cups all-purpose flour

Filling
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup melted butter

Directions:

In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar and yeast in the warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter and salt; stir until melted. Let cool until lukewarm.

In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture, milk mixture, eggs and 1 1/2 cup flour; stir well to combine. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.



Once risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, roll into an 18x14 inch rectangle (the thinner you can roll the dough though, the better - these dimensions are simply a guideline). Brush with 2 tablespoons melted butter, leaving 1/2 inch border uncovered; mix brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle mixture over the buttered dough.



Starting at long side, tightly roll up, pinching seam to seal. Brush with remaining 2 tablespoons butter. With serrated knife, cut into 15 (or more) pieces; place cut side down, into a buttered pan (I like to use circular foil pans that look like Chinese food take-out pans…they work pretty perfect for these). Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in volume. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.


Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool in pan for 3 minutes, then invert onto serving platter.

Finally, frost these babies up with some cream cheese icing and you’re good to go!

Carrots, spice and everything nice!

One of my absolute favorite cakes in the entire world is carrot cake. It actually surprises me how much I love it now considering how much I despised it as a child. But I guess most children aren’t too keen on vegetables in their cake…at least, I wasn’t.

Then I grew up. My tastes matured. I learned to love mushrooms and olives and even became quite tolerant of onions and eggplant – all foods I hated when I was little. I also fell in love with carrot cake. But I think I was spoiled because my first carrot cake experience was so good that I’ve become a bit of a carrot cake snob. I’m very picky when it comes to carrot cake now – it has to be moist, but not too dense, with just enough spice and sweetness. Not to mention copious amounts of cream cheese icing.

Oh, and no raisins. I like raisins in some things, but NOT carrot cake. I get furious when people put raisins in carrot cake.

Yeah…I’m weird like that.

But anyways, I’ve strived to find a great carrot cake recipe…and I think I’ve finally found it. At least, for now. It’s from a cookbook of comfort food by real mothers and I have to say, it’s pretty darn amazing. The secret is purée-ing the carrots, as opposed to shredding them. It gives the cake a ton of moisture and just enough of that signature taste. I also upped the spices a bit and took out the walnuts – only because I didn’t have any. Otherwise, they would’ve been in there. Walnuts are a must in carrot cake for me…except when I have none and I’m desperately craving it but it is -30 out and I refuse to leave my house. In other words, only in extreme circumstances do the walnuts get left out.

But enough yacking about carrot cake, how about you go make some? Here, I’ll even give you the recipe.

Carrot Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting
(Adapted from my “Mother’s Best Comfort Food” cookbook)

Ingredients:

1 pound carrots, peeled and thinly sliced (about 4 medium carrots)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup packed sweetened shredded coconut
3 cups walnuts (divided)

Directions:

Fill a saucepan with a couple inches of water. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Place the sliced carrots in a steamer basket and set over the saucepan. Cover and steam the carrots until very tender when pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes. (You can also bring a pot of water to a boil, add the carrots, cover, and cook until tender – that’s what I did.) Place the carrots in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and purée until smooth (I used my magic bullet). You should have 1 1⁄3 cups puréed carrots.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease the bottom and sides of a 13x9x2-inch baking dish or two 9-inch cake pans with oil. Sprinkle in a little flour and turn the pan(s) to evenly coat the greased areas.

Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt into a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, mix the oil and sugar until combined. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until well incorporated before adding the next. Add the vanilla and carrots and beat for another minute. Slowly add in the sifted dry ingredients, mixing just until combined. Stir in the coconut and 1 cup of the walnuts.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and bake in the center of the oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the cake is pulling away from the sides of the pan(s). Remove the pan(s) from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. After 15 minutes, place a cooling rack(s) over the pan(s) and invert (so the cake falls out of the pan and onto the rack). Cool the cake for at least 1 hour before frosting.


Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

2 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla with a mixer on medium speed until combined. Slowly add icing sugar, and beat until it’s at the consistency you want.


Now, all you have to do is frost your cake and eat up! Warning...this makes alot of cake...and you may be tempted to eat it all. I was. My thighs are hating me right now.

Pumpkin Spice Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting

I love cake. It is probably my favourite dessert of all time. I could eat cake every day. In fact, it’s not uncommon that I do…

(*Note: I also work out like an animal to make up for my cake obsession. Otherwise, I would most likely weigh 300 lbs. And as hilarious as that would be on my 5’2” frame, it’s really not the look I’m going for.)

I also love pumpkin. And spice. So, I combined the three into a magnificent Pumpkin Spice Cake. With cream cheese icing. Because cream cheese icing is a must with spicy cakes.

I also added pecans. Just ‘cus. They’re delicious.

Pumpkin Spice Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting
(Adapted from Martha’s Pumpkin Spice Cake recipe)

Ingredients:

CAKE
2 ½ cups flour (I used 1 ½ cups cake & pastry flour, 1 cup all-purpose)
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice
½ cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 ½ cups sugar
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

FROSTING
1 8-oz bar of cream cheese, softened
1 cup icing sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla

butter (for the pan)
pecans (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan (I used a circle cake pan as my square one is still filled with casserole).

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin-pie spice. In a large bowl, whisk oil, eggs, sugar, and pumpkin puree until combined.

Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and mix gently until smooth.

Turn batter into prepared pan, and smooth top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake 10 minutes in pan, then turn out of pan, and cool completely, right side up, on a rack.

Make the cream cheese frosting. Mix the cream cheese with the vanilla and then add the icing sugar. Mix until smooth (you can add more or less icing sugar depending on how thick you want the icing).

Ice entire cooled cake with cream cheese frosting.

I made a small well in the top of the cake and lined it with pecans and then put chopped pecans in the middle – mainly because I had a huge bag of pecans in my cupboard I needed to get rid of. You can garnish this cake with whatever you like however, or just have it plain. It’s yummy either way!