The Wife Makes Plum Upside Down Cake

A few weeks back I was making my weekly farmer's market run.  I saw some beautiful fresh fruit and felt the urge to do some baking.  

Thanks to Epicurious I was able to find a Plum Upside Down cake recipe while I was browsing the market.  

Ingredients

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup packed golden brown sugar

1 tablespoon honey

6 large plums, halved, pitted, each half cut into 6 wedges

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 cup milk

Lightly sweetened whipped cream

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Stir 6 tablespoons butter, brown sugar and honey in heavy medium skillet over low heat until butter melts and sugar and honey blend in, forming thick, smooth sauce. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter cake pan with 2-inch-high sides. Arrange plums in overlapping concentric circles atop sauce.
• Mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat remaining 6 tablespoons butter in large bowl until light. Add sugar and beat until creamy. Add eggs and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in extracts. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk, mixing just until blended. Spoon batter evenly over plums. Bake cake until golden and tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 5 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool in pan 30 minutes.
• Using knife, cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Place platter atop cake pan. Invert cake; place platter on work surface. Let stand 5 minutes. Gently lift off pan. Serve cake warm with whipped cream.

Hints

I followed the recipe pretty closely.  My pan did not have 2 inch sides but it still came out perfectly fine.  Definitely serve warm and I served with ice cream instead of whipped cream.

                                     

The Wife Makes Lemon Basil Popsicles

After having an amazing Lemon Basil Popsicle from King of Pops (Richmond, VA) I decided that I could most likely create an at home version.  The day I had the pop was an extremely hot day and it was so refreshing.  Now I will say that my pop is probably not as good as the King of Pops version but it was still pretty good.  I found the recipe on this site.  There are a few other pops that I think would be fun to try as well.

I bought the Tovolo Popsicle molds at Whole Foods.  They are pretty large molds and I honestly haven't been actually finishing the whole pop (that is probably because it gets quite tart!).

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar (for my 2nd try I replaced with Truvia natural sweetener for baking...use the natural sweetener directions for measuring equivalent...mine was 1/2 cup of Truvia to 1 cup of sugar)  I used about 3/4 cup of water still to make the syrup
• 1 cup hot water
• 1/4 cup fresh sweet basil leaves
• 1 1/4 cup cold water divided
• 1/2  cup fresh lemon juice (depending on size it will be 3 - 4 lemons)

Directions

• In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup cold water. Stir over medium heat until all of the sugar is dissolved. It's not necessary to boil. Remove from heat. Tear basil leaves, stir into syrup and allow to steep in syrup for 2 hours.
• Strain cooled syrup to remove basil leaves. Measure out 3/4 cup of the basil syrup and combine with lemon juice and 1 1/4 cups cold water. Pour into ice pop molds and freeze for at least 4 hours or until solid.

These pops are extremely easy to make. Just allowing for plenty of time for the basil syrup to steep is the most challenging part of the process.

Keep an eye out for more posts on different pops we try in the future!

Bacon Baklava...Yeah we went there!

I follow the food magazines of Bon Appetit and Food & Wine.  So a few weeks ago I was looking through Facebook and happened upon a post about baklava.  I'm not a huge dessert fan but I LOVE good baklava.  So when I saw the recipe I thought this seems interesting enough for me to try to make it on my own.  I know what goes into baklava..anyone who has ever fought with phyllo dough knows it will not be an easy dessert to prepare yourself.  What really got me was the fact it had bacon in it.  

Here is the link to the recipe.

As usual I followed this recipe pretty much to the letter.  Here are a few helpful hints if you do decide to tackle this.  I was very pleased how this came out especially for this being my attempt. 

Phyllo Dough - Follow the instructions on the packaging for proper thawing time and take it seriously if it says to cover with plastic wrap and a damp towel.  DO IT! It will dry out very quickly.  Good news is that because you layer so much of the dough if you have a few ripped pieces it really won't be noticed.  Having a second set of hands might make the layering part a bit easier.

Bacon - I microwaved my bacon and I honestly don't think you would be able to tell the difference on how you cook it.  Do what is easiest for you.

Nuts - I had some challenges on the processing of the nuts.  It was my first use of the Vitamix without Tom available to help.  Let's just say I had a few larger pieces of nuts in the baklava...and guess what..it still tasted awesome!

Orange Water / Rose Water - I used orange blossom water this time.  I would be tempted to try the rose water if I see at the store.  I honestly don't remember where we got it from buy my guess would be you can find at speciality stores like Whole Foods and Fresh Market.

Timing - It is key that you have the syrup ready to pour over the baklava as it comes out of the oven.  So time your steps accordingly.  The cook time is painless however building the baklava layer by layer will take time.  

Below are a few pictures of the baklava in the pan as it cooled.  Also I suggest serving slightly warmed in the microwave with ice cream!