21 February 2007

sweetcakes

as i've mentioned, i am the baker and dan is the chef in our house. as i may not have mentioned, he has a sweet tooth; specifically for semi-sweet chocolate chips: straight from the bag. (he is a simple creature.)

therefore he likes adding them into almost everything. on special & not-so-special mornings, he whips up these delicious chocolate chip
banana pancakes. these pancakes were stacked high on Valentine's Day. for a healthy dose of sweetness. (such a sweetheart!) they may have been the best i've ever had, i could not resist taking a photo. just look at them. a perfect combo of ingredients. mmm...

moving onto more sweet things..
i have discovered a sweet secret weapon; Pam with flour. yes, it is all that it claims to be, and then some.

you see, i have a love/hate relationship with my bundt pan. although it's a fine & dandy pan in itself, i can't get over how many times it grabs hold of my confections; leaving me with one or two holes that a dab of frosting poorly camouflages. i realize it's the baker & not the pan who is at fault here, but i just could not see what i was doing wrong. i would grease & flour that bad boy again & again, even in the old school method. how could i be so wrong?

i have been trying (and failing) for far too long. i would have tossed the ol' thing long ago & never tried again if it hadn't been for dan's favorite cakes in the whole world are bundt cakes. he calls them "hobbit cakes". i guess hobbits eat 'little round kecks'. at least Bilboa Baggins does. and he is, i suppose, the man we want to pattern our eating habits after (which is a very scary thought). therefore, i am attempting to make these 'little kecks' all the time, it has been dan's birthday cake recipe for three years now. and sure, we'll devour them and it still tastes moist & scrumptious, just not so pretty; which is really half the fun in my eyes.


so the other weekend there was a major victory in our kitchen. that little chocolate chip cinnamon streusel keck slipped out of the pan without nearly a shake or a tap. my heart leapt and i praised the all-knowing, quick fixer, marvelous miss Pam. who knew the new-fangled method of greasing & flouring could be my answer? how could i have been so ignorant & arrogant?! pure genius. i don't really believe that grease & flour could truly exist inside that little canister and spray the perfect combo of the two. yet it works wonders. and that is really all that matters. two thumbs up, wait - no, four thumbs way up for quick fixes. hurrah for baking in the twenty-first century.

and in case you'd like to feel like Frodo yourself, here is the delicious Toll House Recipe. enjoy.


Chocolate Chip Streusel Cake {aka Dan's Hobbit Cake}

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups sifted flour

Streusel Mix
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cups pecans/walnuts (optional)
6 oz. chocolate chips (semi-sweet)

Preheat oven to 350.
In large bowl, cream butter & sugar together until smooth. Add eggs & sour cream, baking powder, salt, soda & vanilla. Gradually add flour & mix well. Combine streusel ingredients in a small bowl. After greasing bundt pan well (with Pam spray) sprinkle 1/4 of streusel mix into it. Then add 1/3 of the batter into pan. Alternate layers of cinnamon mixture & batter into the greased pan. Bake 45-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream or simply a sprinkling of powdered sugar. Treat yourself + your sweetheart.

2 comments:

jamieanne said...

Mmmm...that sounds delicious. There is also a product called Bake-Kleen (can be purchased at Spoons & Spice or Williams-Sonoma) that works wonders as well.

summer said...

I, too, am crazy about a good bundt cake.
Grant likes plain ol' pound (& so do I)... but this recipe looks like it has my name all over it! When I saw the title my eyes went wide with excitement- I couldn't believe how perfect it sounds! thank you, thank you! Will surely have to grab myself some of that Pam before I whip it up. can't wait!

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