Oatmeal Raspberry Cake

As the zucchini infestation continues in our neighborhood I thought we needed a break in the sweets arena so I thought I would try a non-zuc baked good this week.  I had a recipe for an oatmeal cake that really sounded different.  Its a dense cake that at the same time has a neat crumble to it.  The original recipe called for chopped up fresh cranberries and orange peel.  It also had a thick sugary glaze that had orange juice as the base.  All of that put together makes me think of a Christmas cake, very sweet and very jolly. 

It is still to hot to be thinking Holiday baking even if the decorations are already showing up in the stores.  I thought about how to lighten the flavors for a more summery bite and remove a bit of that sweetness.  Folks are still all about swimsuits and short dresses, we aren't quite ready for heavy sweaters to cover up an overindulgence or two, thus a simpler cake, but one with grand flavor.  I took out the cranberry and added in some whole frozen raspberries.  I took out the orange in the cake and got rid of the frosting altogether. 

While the cake as it was will be great for colder months, and I plan to make it as such during that time, the current changes produced a wonderful summery cake.  I am the first to admit that I am not yet at the level of culinary skill to completely re-write a recipe to suit my needs but I am proud that I can give it a tweak or two and have it come out yummy, even if the berries do turn the cake blue and pink!

Oatmeal Raspberry Cake

2&1/4 cups all purpose flour, divided
1&1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, or equivalent egg substitute
1 cup milk
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries, or any berry of your choice

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.  In a bowl stir together 2 cups flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer at medium speed for 30 seconds.  Add in the sugar and beat until combined.  Add in the eggs and beat again until combined.  Alternately, add the flour mixture and milk to the butter mixture beating on low speed after each addition until combined.  Toss the raspberries with the 1/4 cup reserved flour to coat well and fold all of it into the batter.  Spoon batter into prepared pan and spread evenly.  Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool in pan for ten minutes then remove and cool fully on rack.   

I can imagine this cake would be tasty with any type of berry, or a nice mixture of several kinds.  I have several cups of frozen blueberries that may fall victim to this recipe, though I don't think I would get any complaints if they did.  I hope your gardens are overflowing and that you and your are enjoying the bounty of the summer!

Keeping it fresh,
Kelly, the origami ninja



   

Garden Harvest Bread

It seems a bit early to be whipping out the word "harvest" being that it is still August, but this cake/quick bread is too good to pass up.  It has yummy carrot, zucchini, and apple in it with lots of great walnuts.  So yes, it is a very fall baked good, but if we all try it now we will be able to bake and freeze a bunch of it when we have more veggies than we know what to do with.  Some of you may even have some of these ingredients coming out of your ears already depending one your location or mad gardening skills.  So amongst all the canning, freezing, jarring, crock potting, and pickling you have planned for the upcoming months of produce proliferation try baking some of this bread to get the house smelling ready for fall.

I am one of those people who will eat the same thing for breakfast for weeks at a time and then I will get bored, switch to something new, and then eat that for several weeks, and so on, and so on.  I have just gotten off of a whole grain toast and slice of cheese kick and I wanted something sweet that I could put cream cheese on, but not feel totally horrible about after I finished eating it.  So I dug this tasty treat out of an old cooking light, traded out the eggs for some egg replacer, used whipped cream cheese, and ended up with a wonderful rich breakfast that isn't too bad for me at all.  Oh the glory of the whipped cream cheese........

Garden Harvest Bread

1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup grated peeled Granny Smith Apple, or whatever kind you have on hand
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup shredded zucchini
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted if you like
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs, or egg substitute to match

Preheat oven to 350.  Whisk together flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  Add the grated apple, grated carrot, shredded zucchini, and walnuts to the dry mixture and toss well.  In a small bowl combine canola oil, milk, and eggs/egg substitute and mix with a whisk.  Stir wet ingredients into the veggies and mix until just combined.  Coat and 8 x 4 loaf pan with cooking spray.  Spoon batter into loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove cake from pan. Cool completely on wire rack before slicing.

I didn't really think there was much of a difference between grated and shredded until this recipe.  Now I know that grating is much finer compared to shredding, but that both taste great when mixed into quick bread.  Do you have a favorite recipe that uses up all your garden produce, we would love to taste it!  Send us a recipe so we can taste it and share with all the rest of the produce loving populace out there.

Keeping it yummy,

Kelly, the origami ninja

Cake anyone?

Well its been a while since I've broken out my cake tools.  I forgot how much fun it is to work with sugar and how much my hand hurts after decorating a two tiered cake in 2 hours.
 

I love the happy spring colors.  It was a nice energy boost.  I also tried a new recipe that seemed to go over pretty well.  It's Martha Stewart's devils food recipe and as you can see I think people liked it.

Im sad to say the reason I had to make this cake is the retirement of one of the hardest working women I've had the pleasure to have as a coworker.  Usha is moving on to spend more time with her family and split her time between India and the US.  She will be missed.  I do have to say it was a pretty awesome party though.  We had an indian food buffet where I ate way too many simosas, naan, and coconut rice (Usha's speciality).  Good luck, Usha, but thanks for giving me a new international adventure goal.  India here I come.

Cake on!
Anita