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?

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!

Pineapple Cupcakes + Coconut Frosting

Oh cupcakes, how I love thee.

They really just don't seem to ever get old in my eyes.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good layer cake. But I really adore a tiny personalized dessert of any flavor.

A few weeks ago, we went to a big barbecue at my aunt's house. I wanted to make something summery and most importantly, simple. It was the same weekend that I made 80 cupcakes for Lindsey's shower and so I wanted something that would take just a little bit of time and effort.

I had seen these pineapple cupcakes on Skinnytaste a while back and have had them in the back of my head ever since. It's two simple ingredients - a box of moist yellow cake mix and a large can of crushed pineapple. Mix 'em together well and bake and voila! Gorgeous, moist, pineappley cake. Or cupcakes.

The recipe made 24 cupcakes. Admittedly, some came out a bit smaller than others, but I didn't mind. There was a full table of desserts at the party and so I'm glad that these pretty lil' things were small and simple to eat.

Oh and the frosting!

How could I forget that?! I chose my own coconut frosting recipe for these. Fluffy, coconutty and sweet, this is really one of my favorite frostings. I piled it on, dusted with shredded coconut and a sweet little pinapple coconut cupcake was born!

Pineapple Cupcakes
*from Skinnytaste
1 box Supermoist yellow cake mix
1 20oz. can crushed pineapple

Preheat your oven according to the box directions. Mix together the cake mix and pineapple (note: do not drain the pineapple!) on medium-low for 30 seconds. Up the speed to medium-high and mix for about 2 minutes until the batter is light and fluffy.

Pour into a prepared pan - a muffin tin lined with baking cups for cupcakes or a greased 13x9" pan for cake.

Bake according to package directions.

Let cool completely and make the frosting!

Coconut Frosting
*From my Pineapple Coconut Dream Bars
1 8oz pkg cream cheese, at room temperature
½ stick butter, at room temperature
2-3 tbsp virgin coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 C confectioners’ sugar
sweetened shredded coconut, for garnish

Beat the cream cheese and butter together in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix in the vanilla and coconut oil. Beat in the sugar, 1 cup at a time. Beat until light and fluffy.

Frost the cupcakes. Eat many immediately.

And side note: I'm totally crushing on these sweet cupcake liners! So cute!

Questions of the Day:

What's your favorite kind of dessert to bring to a party?

What's your favorite easy dessert?