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| Blueberry boy bait for the neighbors |
After a few weeks of a fairly lackadaisical baking schedule, it was time to get things back on track. Luckily, the weather started to cooperate, as well, which helped in the motivation department. It also helped to have an event to bake for: National Night Out! I'd never heard of this event until after we'd moved to Minneapolis. It's a sanctioned block party that allows neighbors to meet and mingle over a potluck. This year, I decided to make the ever popular blueberry boy bait from the good folks at Cooks' Illustrated/ATK. It's a great tray bake for sharing with a crowd. Since I had some leftover heavy cream in the fridge, I substituted some of that for half of the milk. It really made the cake fluffier. Happy to say that it was a hit at the block party. I also particularly enjoyed having the chance to drink a couple beers in the street and using the momofuku koozies that had been languishing in the kitchen drawer.
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| Lemon pistachio cake |
That weekend was also J's birthday which meant it was time to make cake. I had asked for specific requests and, as a result, there were two recipes that had been picked as possible birthday cake options. Those who know me will have already realized that when presented with two cake recipes, I'm going to make not one, but both!
First up was the lemon pistachio cake from the Huckleberry cookbook. This recipe called for ground pistachios which was a lovely alternative to all of the almond flour that I'd been using in my bakes. Since this was a fairly simple cake, I decided to make this in one of my decorative pans. A couple small patches stuck to the pan when I turned it out (the original recipe called for lining with parchment), but since the cake was topped with some candied pistachios, it worked out in the end.
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| Sweet potato and pecan cake |
Next up was a far more ambitious (and even more delicious) cake: a sweet potato and pecan layer cake from the legendary Maida Heatter. I used some white sweet potatoes and, instead of the apricot jam filling, I used some of the ever-present black raspberry jam to bring in some color (given the lack of orange sweet potato). The frosting for this cake is a homemade marshmallow frosting which was quite fun to make; quite sticky, too. I thought that rather than coating with flaked coconut, I would instead flavor the frosting with a bit of maple. That was the right call. What a gorgeous triple decker sensation of a cake! It would really fit right in on a Thanksgiving menu, too.
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| A messy slice |
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