Secret Recipe Club: Cherry Cake

Oh hi!

Happy Monday! I'll be spending most of the day in the car, driving to and from a meeting in Connecticut. Shaun and I spent the weekend having a delicious dinner with great friends at Minetta Tavern and hanging out down the shore on Saturday and Sunday. A great summer weekend, in my opinion!

I'm excited today because it's Secret Recipe Club reveal day for Group C! This month, I received Mother Thyme as my blog assignment. If you haven't spent some time on Jennifer's blog, well, you really need to. Her photos are gorgeous and her recipes all look incredible. When I stumbled upon her recipe for a simple cherry cake, I knew it had to be mine.

Each month, The Secret Recipe Club, founded by the lovely Amanda, pairs a blogger with another blog. The blogger then chooses one recipe to cook or bake and reveals it as a surprise on a designated day. I like. A special thanks also to Angie @ Big Bear's Wife for playing hostess in Group C!

So this cake. I really liked this cake. It was incredibly easy to make. I used frozen cherries, rather than fresh (because, really, who has the patience to pit all of those cherries? If I did that, most of them would end up in my mouth), which I think worked nicely. Oh! And I also didn't have any sour cream on hand when I went to make the cake, so I just subbed in buttermilk instead. I think the sour cream would have made it more fluffy, but for me, the buttermilk worked just fine.

This cake was moist and not too sweet with just a hint of tartness. I made this for my birthday celebration last Sunday and I think it was a hit! 

Cherry Cake
*Adapted from Mother Thyme

1 C all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 C sugar

1/4 C unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 C buttermilk

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

12 oz. frozen whole sweet cherries, pitted

1 tsp confectioners sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray an 8" springform pan with cooking spray.

In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer) cream together the sugar and butter. Pour in buttermilk and mix until blended. Add in the eggs one at a time. Mix in the vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients just until combined.  

Pour batter into prepared pan. Place cherries on top of cake batter and lightly press them into batter.  

Bake for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool completely. Remove sides of springform pan and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.  

Eat up!

So that's my SRC recipe for July. Not too shabby, right? I'd happily eat this for breakfast or lunch today ;)

Hope you all have a great week!

Questions of the Day:

What's your favorite way to eat cherries?

Do you ever bake with them?

To see other great recipes from Secret Recipe Club members, visit the links below!

Banana Doughnuts with Peanut Butter Frosting   Soft Pretzel Bites   Panko Chicken with Grapefruit Honey Sauce   Homemade Butterfinger Candy Bars   Parmesan Meatballs with Saffron Pasta   Strawberry Peach Frozen Yogurt   Crockpot BBQ Root Beer Shredded Chicken   Parmesan Zucchini Pasta   Homemade Snickers for SRC   Sticky Caramel Toffee Cheesecake~   Strawberry Cream Tart   FLOURLESS REESE'S COOKIES!   Homemade Nutella for the Secret Recipe Club   Gateau au Chocolat   Peanut Butter Chip Flourless Chocolate Coo   Pickled Zucchini   Homemade Twix Bars   Date Bars   Candied Sweet Potatoes   Avocado Cup Salad   Cinnamon Ice Cream with Cinnamon Chips   Double Chocolate Caramel Brownies   Pineapple Sorbet & Blueberry Curd   Tomato Peach Salad   Pissaladiere: Caramelized Onion Tart   Dulce de Leche Brownies   Cherry Cake   Baked 'Fried' Pickles   Pineapple Ice Cream   Spiced Plum Clafoutis   Brownie Trifle   4 Cheese Stuffed Shells   Corn Fritters with Avocado Salsa   Potato Pancakes   Brown Butter Glazed Pineapple   Homemade Chicken Rice-A-Roni   Pear Cake with Pine Nuts   Dukkah Egyptian Spice Mix   Sorghum Granola   Sublime Arctic Grasshopper Pie   Black Bean Tostadas with Guacamole for   Pad See Ew   Double Layer Oreo Cake Bars   Pulled Pork   S'Mores Rice Krispie Treats   Maple-Nut Granola   Boca Chica Shrimp   Cinnamon Sugar Peanuts   Better than strawberries Ice Cream   Italian Roasted Broccoli   Chocolate Kahlua Cake

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Lemon Bars

I have an affliction, friends.

Sometimes, I get things in my head and I just can't seem to get them out.

Like the Ray Bans I had been coveting for a year before making the purchase. Or this lush headboard that I've been lusting after for months (it will be mine!). Or Alexander Skarsgard.

It happens all the time. Even with cooking and baking.

I had been wanting to try making lemon bars for quite some time. I was actually never really a lemon fan until recently. And once I decided that lemon bars must be mine...well...it just had to happen.

I'll be honest. Lemon curd scares me. And not just by name. (Curd...just doesn't sound appealing to eat).

Anyhow, the egg yolks on the stove, trying to keep it from burning but cooking until safe to eat and thickened (how thickened?)...blah. I just couldn't be bothered.

Luckily, this recipe from Katie Couric has none of that. Just pour and bake. 

That's the way I like it.

I was worried that these wouldn't have that gooey lemony center after baking. But they did. Oh how they did.

Gooey, sweet and tart...I really loved these bars. Not to mention the shortbread crust. Which has not one but two sticks of butter. It's done right, I tell ya!

These were incredibly easy and were a big hit at my in-law's barbecue on Saturday. We also enjoyed some leftovers for breakfast on Sunday. What? Calories don't count on your birthday, didn't you know?

Lemon Bars

*Adapted from Katie Couric via Food.com

For the crust:

1/4 C confectioners' sugar

2 C all-purpose flour

1 pinch salt

1 C butter, room temperature, cubed

For the filling:

4 eggs

2 C sugar

6 Tbsp all-purpose flour

¼ C lemon juice (about 3 lemons’ worth)

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting the top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13 x 9" baking pan with cooking spray with flour (such as Baker's Joy).

In a food processor, combine the flour, confectioner's sugar and salt. Add in the butter and pulse until combined into coarse crumbs.

Press into the baking pan and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a mixing bowl with hand mixer), beat together the eggs, sugar, flour and lemon juice until combined. Stir in the lemon zest. It will smell like lemony heaven.

Pour lemon mixture over the crust and bake for another 25 minutes. Let cool completely, cut into squares, and dust with lots of confectioners' sugar.

Enjoy many of them. They are so good.

Perfect for dessert...or breakfast :)

So there you have it. Some easy peasy, yet delicious lemon bars. I think these are the perfect summer dessert! So light and tart. I wish I had six one right now.

Questions of the Day:

Do you suffer from a similar obsessive affliction?

Do you like lemon desserts? I'm a recent convert!

Cherry Almond Oatmeal To Go {Or To Stay}

Though it's about, oh, 100 degrees in New York today (I'm rocking the glistening face, freshly washed hair slicked back into a bun with limited make-up look), I'm sharing one of my favorite warm breakfasts.

Most days I simply don't have enough time to eat breakfast before running out of the house (and by don't have enough time, I mean I don't leave myself enough time, which could simply be rectified by waking up earlier). 

Instead, I usually pack something up and eat when I arrive in the office. Though my ideal breakfast to reheat in the office is scrambled eggs with a side of fresh fruit, sometimes most of the time, I am running around and don't have time to cook up the eggs and take them to go.

On those days, I choose a close second - oatmeal to go!

I really love this oatmeal. I can throw it together in about 2 minutes, pack it up, heat in the office microwave and voila! A simple, filling and hearty breakfast. Ok so I'm not exactly making this on a 100 degree day like today, but on most other days this suits me just fine!

Cherry Almond Oatmeal To Go
1/2 C old fashioned oats
1 C almond milk or fat free milk (or milk of your choice!)
1/4 C dried cherries
2-3 Tbsp sliced almonds
1/4 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
sweetener, to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a microwave-safe plastic container.

To Go: I cover tightly and load it up into my lunchbox. When I arrive at the office, I remove the lid and microwave for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave for 1 minute more. 

To Stay: Pop right into the microwave for 1 minute. Stir and microwave for 1 minute more.

Enjoy!

So simple!

I adore the tart cherries mixed with a bit of cinnamon and love that the almonds add a bit of protein to keep me full for the morning hours.

So there you have it. A super simple, easy breakfast on the go. And as a bonus? The A-mazing aroma of cinnamon wafting through the office!

Questions of the Day:

What are your favorite breakfasts?

Do you eat first thing in the morning? Mid-morning? When you arrive at work?