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Chocolate Coconut Marble Cake

14 Jun

Nostalgia can have a very powerful pull.  Sometimes in the summer, if the light is just right and the air is barely hovering below stillness, I can feel myself being a child, waiting for that hour between darkness and light when I could stretch my bedtime out a little bit further everyday.  A whiff of certain smells—Meyer lemons and eucalyptus trees—reminds me of my grandfather’s house.  Ak-Mak crackers, sad to say, conjure up memories of the three-plus months I spent being mind-bendingly nauseated and curled up, fittingly, in the fetal position while newly pregnant.  To this day, I can’t even look at one of those crackers without feeling mildly uncomfortable.

Marble cake, on the other hand, brings to mind a sea of childhood memories.  I am not sure if marble cakes were huge in the ‘80s, or if I just happened to associate with people with very much enjoyed the yin and yang of a cake marbled with two separate flavors, but when I was a child there was a lot of marble cake floating around.  A couple of weeks ago, when I shared some of this cake with a friend of mine, her first reaction upon seeing it was one of sheer surprise.  She hadn’t seen anyone make a marble cake in years.  Neither had I, and perhaps that is what drove me to make one in the first place.

It is worth pointing out, however, that this cake, with its gentle coconut undertones and light, chocolaty ribbon is a different animal than the marble cakes of my past.  Whereas my memories of marble cakes lie firmly in the layered-with-frosting realm, this is a more casual cake, fit for afternoon snacking or for taking along on a sunny picnic.  While you could certainly adorn this cake with some sort of light glaze or frosting, I believe it is perfect as is, and certainly not lacking in appeal with its unencumbered crumb.  In fact, I am feeling nostalgic for it already, since I have yogurt in the refrigerator, coconut milk in the cupboard, and, of course, an unrelenting love of cake and the joy it never fails to bring.

Last Year: Pear and Mascarpone Pizza, a fantastic twist on a pear tart

Chocolate Coconut Marble Cake Recipe

2 ¼ cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

2 large egg whites, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup plain nonfat yogurt

2/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk (low-fat is fine)

For Chocolate Marbling:

1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup unsweetened coconut milk (again, low-fat is fine)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease and flour a 10-cup bundt pan.

In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until it is creamy, about 1 minute.  Gradually add the 2/3 cup of sugar, and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Reduce the mixer speed to medium, then add the egg, followed by the egg whites.  Beat until just combined, then beat in the vanilla.

Whisk together the yogurt and 2/3 cup of coconut milk.  With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the yogurt mixture in 2 parts, starting and ending with the flour mixture.  Beat gently until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

In a medium bowl, combine cocoa powder, ¼ cup of sugar, and ¼ cup of coconut milk.  Whisk together until smooth.  Pour 1 ½ cups of the plain coconut batter into the chocolate coconut batter, and stir to combine.

Pour ¾ of the plain coconut batter into the prepared bundt pan.  Spoon the chocolate coconut batter on top of it, leaving it unsmoothed.  Pour the remaining plain coconut batter on top.  Using a knife of an offset spatula, marble the two batters together without completely blending them.

Bake the cake in the center of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake emerges with just a few moist crumbs attached.  Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

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Ginger Cardamom Cake with Lemon Glaze

25 May

As my week-plus of Indian food postings comes to a close, it would seem only natural thing I take the time to focus on an Indian dessert offering.  The problem is, I am not the most ardent fan of Indian desserts.  Though there are exceptions, I find most Indian desserts to be unbearably sweet, unpleasantly textured, and nearly always containing golden raisins, of which I am no friend.  With apologies to half of my genetic make-up, here is the part where I admit that, after a nice, satisfying Indian meal, I am 100% more likely to be found going out for gelato than reaching for the Indian dessert menu.

It is not as though a petite cup of gelato after an Indian meal is a crime against humanity, but, unless I happen to order a bit of mango sorbet, it is not the smoothest bookend I can think of to complete my meal.  And so, my dislike of Indian sweets, embarrassing as it is to admit, only compelled me to come up with a dessert that is at least slightly related to Indian cuisine, one that could be served at the end of an Indian feast and carry on the tone of the meal.

Though I can’t claim that this cake is in any way an actual Indian dessert, it is, at the very least, very much the type of dessert that makes for a satisfying end to an Indian meal.  Plumped up with three iterations of ginger (powdered, fresh, and crystallized), just barely scented with the aroma of cardamom, and brushed with a light, tart, lemony glaze, the flavor of the cake contains a subtle reminder of the savory foods that came before it.  If you are looking for something to bring your Indian meal to a gentle close, you should look no further.

You can, however, look beyond what I have initially come up with here.  Though a nice addition, the lemon glaze definitely takes this cake in a brighter direction than some people might like.  If you are looking for an even subtler presentation, omit the glaze and serve this cake with thin slices of ripe mango.  To make the ginger sit even more front and center, you can serve it with lightly whipped cream flavored with a bit of ginger extract.  No matter what you serve it with, you’re bound to be pleased with the result.

Last Year: Chocolate Cake with Coffee Frosting (and a Secret) This is one stand-out cake, my friends.

Ginger Cardamom Cake with Lemon Glaze Recipe

Ginger Cardamom Cake

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground cardamom

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/3 cups sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger

Lemon Glaze

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/3 cup powdered sugar

Make the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place an oven rack in the middle position.  Thoroughly butter and flour a 12-cup bundt pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ground ginger, cardamom, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until light and creamy.  Add the sugar, and beat on medium-high speed until well blended, about 2 minutes.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition.  Add the vanilla and freshly grated ginger and beat until combined.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add one third of the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined.  Add half of the sour cream, and beat until just combined.  Add half of the remaining flour mixture, beat until just combined, then add the remaining sour cream, mixing only until just combined.  Add the last of the flour mixture and beat until just combined.  Stir in crystallized ginger

Spoon the batter into the prepared bundt pan, and bake for 50 to 55 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake emerges with just a few moist crumbs attached, and the top of the cake is golden brown.  Cool the cake in its pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to cool.

To make lemon glaze, in a small saucepan, combine lemon juice and powdered sugar over low heat and stir to dissolve sugar completely.  Heat the mixture very gently and do not allow to boil.  When sugar is completely dissolved, remove mixture from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

While cake is still slightly warm, brush all over with lemon glaze.

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Lemon, Almond, and Cornmeal Cake

23 Apr

For a while there, we were eating a lot of cake.  I brought this up a few weeks ago, but it bears repeating because, after I brought it up the first time, we continued to eat cake, and lots of it.  It’s not like we were just sitting around while stuffing cake in our mouths (at least, we mostly weren’t doing that).  There were dinner parties and birthdays and then, um, Cake Tuesdays, which is not a real thing but now that I’ve mentioned it right here, I sort of want to make it a real thing.  The point is, a lot of cake was made, and a lot of cake was enjoyed.

Most of the cakes I made over the past few weeks were old favorites.  This dark chocolate zucchini cake and this butter cake made appearances (the butter cake is an old standby of mine, but that blood orange curd was a new addition and, boy howdy, was it a fantastic one), as did a newly conceived cupcake.  Another new addition to my baking repertoire was this lovely number from Nigella Lawson and, though I hesitate to play favorites when it comes to cake, I think I might have found a new best friend.  Not Lawson (lovely as she is).  The cake.

With a base of both almond meal and cornmeal, this cake’s structure is just a delight.  It’s crumbly but moist, and the slight bite of the cornmeal adds a little something special.  Once the entire thing is soaked, whilst still warm, with an intensely lemony syrup, that little something special magically becomes a whole lot of something special, and I’d be lying if I told you that I wasn’t totally consumed by this cake (while I simultaneously consumed it, as it were).  Like I said, I don’t want to hurt any other cake’s feelings by declaring favorites, but this is a cake you definitely want to get to know.  Perhaps with a few friends, a pot of coffee, and a lazy afternoon of chit chat, because if you truly love your friends, you’re going to want to get them in on this cake as well.

Last year: Yeasted Buttermilk Biscuits

Lemon, Almond, and Cornmeal Cake Recipe

Adapted from Nigella Kitchen, by Nigella Lawson

I’ve made a few changes to this cake in both ingredients and process, mostly notably in the form of reducing the sugar in both the cake and the syrup. By reducing the sugar in the syrup topping, but not reducing the lemon juice (and then adding a bit of zest to the mix), you get a clearer, brisker lemon topping that just makes this cake a total showstopper. There are a couple more tweaks here and there, but I’d still say this cake is definitely Nigella Lawson’s and not mine.

2/3 cup granulated sugar

zest of 2 large lemons

1 ¾ sticks (14 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature (plus a tad more for greasing the pan)

2 cups almond meal or almond flour

¾ cup finely ground cornmeal

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

3 large eggs, at room temperature

For the Syrup:

Juice of 2 lemons

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan, then line the bottom with a round of parchment paper.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the sugar and lemon zest and process until the sugar is finely ground and the lemon zest is incorporated.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, combine the sugar and lemon zest with the butter.  Beat together until pale and whipped.

In a medium bowl, combine the almond meal, cornmeal, and baking powder.  With the mixer still mixing, add 1/3 of the almond mixture to the butter, followed by 1 egg.  Continue beating in the remaining almond mixture and eggs in this fashion, adding one after the other.  When the last egg has been added, beat the batter until everything is fully incorporated, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes.  The cake will be done when the edges begin to shrink away from the sides of the pan.  The middle of the cake will appear a bit underdone, but a cake tester inserted into the middle should come out marginally clean with several moist crumbs still attached.  Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool, leaving the cake in the pan.

To make the syrup, gently boil together the lemon juice, lemon zest, confectioner’s sugar, stirring all the while, until the sugar has completely dissolved into the juice.  Prick the top of the still-warm cake all over with a toothpick or cake tester, then spoon the warm syrup all over the cake.  Allow the cake to cool almost completely before taking it out of its pan.  (Lawson recommends allowing the cake to cool completely, but I found this cake to be even more fabulous when served just barely warm.  You definitely don’t want to serve this cake while it is hot, but anything just a few degrees warmer than room temperature is perfect, I think.)

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