Things have been really busy around here so far this year. Lots of visits with kids and grandkids, with more to come, lots of poring over seed catalogs and gardening books, and lots of cooking. Lately I have not felt that a lot of the recipes I've worked on have been blog-worthy. I have a certain standard in mind for what I share here, and while I have some good ideas that I am working on, not many of them have gotten to the point where they are ready for prime-time. This cake is a huge ... Read More about Pumpkin Yogurt Crunch Cake
Coffee Cakes
Banana Streusel Coffee Cake
I actually made this a few weeks ago, after yet another family visit that left behind the remains of a bunch of bananas. Neither of us is at all fond of eating fresh bananas, particularly ones that are getting past their prime. On the other hand, such bananas are just reaching the perfect stage for baking, and we are both big fans of baked stuff with bananas. And if your grandkids happen to leave behind some nearly-overripe bananas and you don't feel like baking with them right away, did you ... Read More about Banana Streusel Coffee Cake
Blueberry Ginger Buttermilk Cake
A lovely late summer cake! Alas, this will be the final blueberry post for the summer of '14. Not the last blueberry thing we'll eat, for sure. We freeze blueberries to use in the wintertime. They are equally good as the fresh ones in a cake like this. If you run across this recipe for Blueberry Ginger Buttermilk Cake later on in the year, don't hesitate to use frozen berries in it. But fresh ones are what we have today. A final picking that Larry did with his Mom the other day. Blueberry ... Read More about Blueberry Ginger Buttermilk Cake
Strawberry Cheese Coffee Cake
I started work on this recipe last year, and didn't get it quite where I wanted it. Then, along came cherries, and I got distracted. I came back to it this year though, because it is definitely worth getting right, and now I am very happy with this final version. Local strawberries are just now coming into season here - we will have them for about a month or so, but no longer than that. Pick-your-own strawberry places are big around here, and I think you can find them just about anywhere. ... Read More about Strawberry Cheese Coffee Cake
Brown Butter Rhubarb Cake
Rhubarb is definitely one of my favorite things in all the world, and this Brown Butter Rhubarb Cake is not the only reason. There are few things that are more rewarding to grow. Once established, it will continue to produce pretty much for the rest of your life. It is a big plant, but not unattractive, so it's not hard to find a spot for it, even in an urban setting. You have to give a couple years after first planting before picking very much, but after that, so long as you keep the flower ... Read More about Brown Butter Rhubarb Cake
Rhubarb Kuchen
It is such a luxury this year to have all the rhubarb I could want. Our oldest plants are finally 3 years old, which means we can pick from them pretty freely - yay! As my Mom reminded me on a another rhubarb post a few weeks ago, my grandmother loved rhubarb, and I can still remember the gooey sweet and tart pies that she made with it. She would give us little bits to eat raw, and even though it was so puckery-sour that it nearly turned us cross-eyed, we ate them anyway. They were a taste of ... Read More about Rhubarb Kuchen
Cinnamon Chocolate Chunk Coffee Cake
Ya know - I try not to be too bitchy about the weather. I do enjoy all four seasons, for the cycle of life that repeats each year, for the contrast, for the different ways we live in each part of the year. We are in Upstate NY, and unless you are going to be miserable for about half of the year, you have to come to terms with cold, wintry, snowy weather in these parts. And I admit that the last few winters have been extraordinarily mild, lulling us into a sense that we lived in a more temperate ... Read More about Cinnamon Chocolate Chunk Coffee Cake
Blueberry Skillet Cake
After a couple weeks of awful hot and humid weather, where no sane person entertained even the ghost of an idea that involved turning on the oven, I woke the other morning to cool, crisp air and a weather forecast that said the day would stay that way. Just what I was waiting for, as we had a container of freshly picked blueberries in the fridge, that I had been hoping would get a chance to be in this cake. I actually worked on this recipe last August, but ran out of blueberries before I had a ... Read More about Blueberry Skillet Cake