2frugalfoodies » cake

Guest Blogger: Stephen Vogel

2frugalfoodies — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:43:47 +0000

Hi, 2frugalfoodies readers! I’m honored to be the blog’s first ever guest-blogger after providing the carrot cake you may have noticed in the Easter update. I had a great time cooking (and then eating like royalty) over the Easter weekend, topped off by enjoying it all among friends.

I’ve been into baking for a number of years – blame it on the sweet tooth – but had only recently given carrot cakes a shot. A few weeks ago, I followed an online recipe, only to bite into what tasted like a giant, frosted, tasteless piece of carrot bread. Determined to redeem my baking reputation (especially since I’d be baking this for discerning foodies!), I spent a few days browsing recipes and figuring out what ingredients seemed most crucial for a moist, yet delicate, cake. The recipe below is what I ended up using, and won so much approval that I was encouraged to share it with you all. Brown sugar and ground cloves add dimension to the flavor while the crushed pineapple does a great job of moistening everything. Hope you enjoy!

-Stephen

Recipe: Stephen’s Easter Carrot Cake

Vanilla Cake with Strawberries

2frugalfoodies — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:52:26 +0000

Most of you know that I went to NYC recently – twice in the past month actually. Each time, I meant to make it over to the famous Magnolia Bakery that I’ve heard so much about. I’ve still never been. I’ve managed to go to Colicchio’s Craft, Bourdain’s Les Halles, and a fabulous little place called Cook Shop, but not to Magnolia…

So, when a friend’s birthday came around recently, I decided to try one of Magnolia’s recipes that I found online. Problem: there is only ONE Magnolia recipe online. And it’s for a vanilla cake…

I decided to give the cake a little extra goodness by adding fresh strawberries – with the weather we had this weekend, I couldn’t help but make it spring-y with some fresh fruit.

So here you have it – a dense, delicious cake inspired by Magnolia Bakery, even though I’ve never stepped foot inside.

Recipe: Vanilla Cake with Strawberries

Grapefruit Cake

2frugalfoodies — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:18:48 +0000

We’ve talked a lot about grapefruits, and about main courses for Christmas, but not much about the desserts we tried throughout the Christmas season. I know Christmas has passed, but this cake will not soon be forgotten… it is Thomas Keller’s Grapefruit Cake. Gardner received his cookbook, Ad Hoc at Home, for Christmas, and I was surprised to find lots of recipes that excited me, too.

This cake is so mouth-wateringly delicious, so divine, that I’ll actually be sad if you don’t try it. I realize that I say everything is delicious – but this, THIS, takes the cake. It’s moist and tangy and sweet and just so good that I really could eat it every single day. Even though this cake is fairly low fat (no butter, no shortening, etc), the only thing stopping me from eating it right this minute are my stupid new years resolutions.

The day that I give up on my resolutions (probably sometime in early February), I’m going to make this again.

Recipe: Grapefruit Cake

Happy Birthday Cake!

2frugalfoodies — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:28:47 +0000

What makes a cake the perfect birthday cake? For the baker, it needs to be easy, use ingredients that are readily on hand, and be easy to clean up (minimal bowls, pans, etc)…and in my case, the batter has to be tasty. I admit it - I lick the bowl (after the cake is in the baking pans, promise.) For the birthday girl/boy, it needs to be deliciously moist, tasty, and accompanied by some ice cream. Agreed?

We recently celebrated Gardner’s mom’s birthday – and this was the perfect birthday cake. It was all things to all people: easy, quick, tasty, moist, lovely, and just plain good. Today is another special birthday – my best friend from childhood is celebrating her first birthday as a mommy. Happy Birthday Mary! I love you, so I made you a cake (sort of). See?

Oh, and Mary licks the bowl too…we used to do it all the time.

Recipe: Classic Chocolate Layer Cake

Clementine Cake

2frugalfoodies — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 12:32:09 +0000

This is Nigella Lawson’s seemingly famous clementine cake… We made it once and only modified the baking time. Then we made it again – the second batch turned into 12 delightful little cupcakes with a lemon cream cheese icing (do you call it frosting or icing? we say icing.)

batch 1 = cake.

batch 2 = cupcakes!

There are several amazing things about this recipe:

It only has 5 ingredients.
It doesn’t use flour.
It contains clementine rinds, but is sweet rather than tart.
It is moist in a ridiculous kind of way.
It was so good that I made it twice in one week.
And… there are no leftovers sitting around anywhere.

So – go make some clementine goodness, and enjoy celebrating spring during this beautiful weekend!

Recipe: Clementine Cake/Cupcakes

Italian Creme Cake

2frugalfoodies — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:25:19 +0000

This post has been a long time coming. This winter, we had a Southern Living magazine giveaway – and two lucky readers won. In order to enter the drawing, we asked everyone to post a comment or recipe on our blog by a certain date. We drew a name, and Melissa (and Matt!) won! This is a cake that Melissa’s grandmother makes every year for Christmas… but we think it tastes good all throughout the year, too!

So – here is the beautiful cake she brought to our house for dessert one night – and boy, was it good. The recipe seems fairly simple, and Melissa swears that it is – so try it! and ENJOY!

Recipe: Italian Creme Cake

Olive Oil Cake with Blood Oranges

2frugalfoodies — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:18:48 +0000

Yes. Olive Oil Cake. There isn’t a lick of butter in this cake, and it’ll still be your new favorite. It’s super simple to make – you don’t even need your electric mixer…(but, I use mine because it’s still newish from the wedding and I like excuses to use it!), you really only need a whisk and two bowls. Easy peasy.

We’re so happy to finally post this recipe. It originally came from Nick Malgieri’s Modern Baker, which is a cookbook we use A LOT. We substituted regular navel oranges with blood oranges for a fun twist, but you can certainly use regular oranges.

Recipe: Olive Oil Cake with Blood Oranges

Milk Cake

2frugalfoodies — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:13:31 +0000

This is often referred to as Tres Leche cake and you may have had it in a Mexican or Cuban restaurant before – if so, this recipe should excite you. If this recipe doesn’t excite you, then you should either ask for your money back from that restaurant or get your tastebuds checked.

We love this cake! It takes some time and effort to get it right, but you’ll be so glad you did when you’re serving those delicious, moist, perfect cake slices to your guests at your next dinner party.

Recipe: Tres Leche – Milk Cake

Crab Cakes

2frugalfoodies — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:06:36 +0000

Wouldn’t it be nice to be sitting on the deck of a rustic and elegant dockside restaurant, looking out over the water, and enjoying some delicious crab cakes while the sun sets?

We can’t provide the dock, the restaurant, the water, the view, or the sunset, but we can say that these crab cakes are delicious and they’ll cost a tiny little fraction of a beach vacation.

Recipe: Classic Crab Cakes with Tarragon Creme Fraiche

Lemon Bundt Cake

2frugalfoodies — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:42:07 +0000

If you are looking for something sweet that comes in a not-boring shape and tastes delicious, you should try this recipe. Squares, circles and rectangles just don’t compare with a Bundt shape (what do you call that shape, anyway?) but once you taste it, you’ll be more focused on the cake than what shape it’s in.

Recipe: Lemon Bundt Cake