Easy Yellow Layer Cake @LucyBurdette #recipe

LUCY BURDETTE: I wanted to make a cake for a small dinner party, but I didn’t have a lot of time. (Big deadline looming for food critic mystery number nine.) I Googled “easy yellow cake” and came across the recipe on which this cake is based. It was simple, because everything gets added into the food processor in turn– No sifting, no separating of eggs, no alternating liquids with dry. And it was very good, light but dense. Maybe not my favorite yellow cake for all time, but very good!

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 large eggs, room temp

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 1/2 teaspoons low sodium baking powder

1 1/4 cups whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare two 9-inch cake pans by buttering well and then flouring lightly.

Combine the butter and sugar in the food processor and beat until pale yellow. Beat in the eggs. Add the flour, salt, and baking powder and mixed that minimally. Beat in the milk and vanilla, again don’t overbeat.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 for about 25 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched lightly. 

Then cool for 10 to 15 minutes and then remove from the pans to cool completely. 

Frost as desired– My desire was whipped cream and sliced strawberries, but chocolate or mocha butter cream would be wonderful as well.

(Sorry about the photo--we were quite a ways into the cake when I remembered!)

Death on the Menu, the 8th Key West food critic mystery, will hit bookstores on August 7 from Crooked Lane Books. 

Here's a pre-order the book link from Amazon--and here's a link to preorder a hard copy from RJ Julia in CT, where you'll be able to get a signed copy. 

Or you can order it from Books and Books in Key West, or call Suzanne Orchard at Key West Island Bookstore ((305) 294-2904)--she'll be delighted to order you a copy! 

Or really, wherever books are sold...

Lucy Burdette's Best Mocha/Chocolate Frosting for Mother's Day #recipe

Hamming it up over my dad's birthday cake

LUCY BURDETTE: Happy Mother's Day everyone! We are grateful for all the mothers in our lives, in what ever form they came--mothers, grandmothers, aunts, stepmothers, friends, sisters... Now on to cake:)... 

My mother loved to eat and to read and loved her family and her pets. But she did not love cooking. Of course she did cook most every night for our family of six. 

And she did love to celebrate birthdays. Each birthday person was allowed to choose the cake of his or her desire. We were predictable. My father always chose yellow cake with mocha icing. My older sister and I always had angel food cake with whipped cream as the frosting. My mother didn't like cake, so we made her tapioca out of a box.

But I've been thinking about that yellow cake, so cake it will be for my retro Mother's Day contribution. I suspect my mother's cakes came from a box, too, as the 50s and 60s were the age of convenience foods. (And how could she have made food from scratch when she had a full-time job and four children and 3-6 pets?)

This frosting is basically chocolate with coffee added instead of milk. If you don't like the taste of coffee, skip the coffee and replace it with milk. If you want a more intense chocolate flavor, add more cocoa.

Ingredients

2/3 cup unsweetened Cocoa powder, sifted
Two sticks unsalted butter, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons strong coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla

After sifting the cocoa powder, beat in the unsalted butter until fluffy. Now and one cup of confectioners' sugar and 1 tablespoon coffee and beat well. When the mixture is combined, beat on high for one minute. Repeat that procedure with the other sugar and coffee. Then beat in 2 teaspoons vanilla and taste for sweetness.

This batter may look familiar and that's because I'm crazy, crazy for this yellow cake:). It's the perfect host for chocolate frosting, delicious without being overpowering. I found this in the BACK IN THE DAY BAKERY COOKBOOK, which I highly recommend for your cookbook shelf.

Ingredients for the cake

1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 and 3/4 cup cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 cups sugar
3/4 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 cup milk 
4 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two cake pans.

  

    Mix all the dry cake ingredients in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add cool cubes of butter, a few at a time, and continue beating on low for about 1-2 minutes. Beat the eggs in one at a time, mixing well but minimally after each.
 Mix the milk with the extracts.
    Add 1/2 cup of milk mixture to flour mixture and beat until combined. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat for about 1 minute.

 

 

  Distribute batter evenly into the two prepared cake pans (well buttered and floured.)


Bake at 350 until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and cake springs back when touched, about 25 minutes. (check for done-ness with a toothpick or wooden skewer.)

Cool for ten minutes in the pans, then remove the cake to a plate to cool completely.  Then ice as usual, beginning with the middle, layering the second cake on top, and icing top and sides. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Lucy with her mother, circa 1969

When she is not blogging and cooking, Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mysteries

Fatal Reservations, the sixth book in the series, will be in bookstores on July 7, but you can certainly order it now!

Spooky Graveyard #Cupcakes #Recipe for #Halloween

 LUCY BURDETTE: Hooray for Halloween, when we get to wear funny clothes and eat wonderful sweets!

This batter may look familiar and that's because I used the same recipe for raspberry cake day. In this case, I wanted to serve the cupcakes with two kinds of frosting and also spend more time on the Halloween decorations. And besides that, I'm crazy, crazy for this yellow cake:).

Ingredients for the cupcakes


1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 and 3/4 cup cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 cups sugar
3/4 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 cup milk 
4 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract


Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two cupcake pans with liners.

       Mix all the dry cake ingredients in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add cool cubes of butter, a few at a time, and continue beating on low for about 1-2 minutes. Beat the eggs in one at a time, mixing well but minimally after each.

 Mix the milk with the extracts.

    Add 1/2 cup of milk mixture to flour mixture and beat until combined. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat for about 1 minute.

 

     
  Distribute batter evenly into the two prepared cupcake pans.

Bake at 350 until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and cake springs back when touched, about 20-22 minutes. (check for done-ness with a toothpick or wooden skewer.)

Cool for ten minutes in the pans, then remove the cupcakes to a plate to cool completely.








For the mocha icing:

Ingredients

4  ounces unsalted butter, softened
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 to 2 tablespoons strong coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 to 2 cups confectioners' sugar






Beat the softened butter with the cooled chocolate until smooth, and add in the vanilla. Next beat in the confectioners' sugar, starting with one cup and tasting for the level of sweetness you prefer. Use 1 to 2 tablespoons of coffee to bring the icing to spreading texture

for the raspberry cream cheese frosting

4 ounces unsalted butter
4 ounces cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
one or more cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 pint raspberries

Beat together the cream cheese and the butter. Add the vanilla. As with the mocha frosting, beat in the sugar half a cup at a time until you obtain the texture and sweetness that you prefer

For the graveyard decorations:

Ingredients

Chocolate graham crackers
white decorative gel
green sprinkles

On the cupcakes with most mocha icing, mound a little extra icing in the center of the cupcake. Trim off the graham cracker gravestones to the shape that you like, then use the white gel to engrave your favorite spooky saying. Sprinkle the cupcakes with green "grass." Then insert the stones into the mounded icing. Add cats or other creatures as desired. Boo!

And just for fun: one of the amazing ways we get to celebrate Halloween in Key West is with the zombie bike ride. Thought you might get a kick out of my zombie look:)

 And Yoda says to remind you that today is National Cat Day!






DEATH WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS will be out on December 2, just in time for Christmas stockings!

Pre-order it here. 

Decadent Southern Caramel Cake Offered by Lucy Burdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Ladies and gentlemen, if you're on a diet, please move on to the next recipe. You will be over your calorie count just looking at this beauty. For the rest of you, read on...for a magnificent cake, worthy of any special occasion--including the upcoming book launch of MURDER WITH GANACHE. (You knew that was coming!)

When I was touring in North Carolina last spring with Molly Weston, Hallie Ephron, and Jennifer McMahon, we made a stop at the fabulous McIntyre's books in Fearrington Village. One of my purchases was a book called Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott. 


I've been studying these amazing recipes for the last eight months, and finally got the nerve to try this one, a dense yellow cake with caramel frosting. I am crazy for caramel, but this was my first attempt at preparing it at home. I take no credit for developing the recipe, just credit for having the good sense to try it!

3/4 cup butter
1 cup milk
2 cups sifted flour
2 and 3/4 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
2 cups of sugar
1 tsp vanilla

 


For the icing:
one pound light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
7 tablespoons evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt the butter with the milk and cool to room temperature. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, beat the sugar and eggs together in another until they are a beautiful thick yellow color.  

Stir the dry mixture into the egg/sugar mixture until the flour just disappears. Then mix in the cooled butter/milk, along with the vanilla. 



Divide the batter between two buttered and floured cake pans. Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes. 



 


Tops will be a light brown and the cake edges will be pulling away from the pan, and will spring back to shape when touched. Once the layers are cool, remove them from the pans and have them ready for the great icing adventure.

 

John testing the icing!

Combine the icing ingredients in a medium pan and bring to a boil. Cook for seven minutes at a light boil, then remove from the heat. Cool 5 minutes and beat with a wooden spoon.


 












Wasting no time, spread some frosting over one of the layers. Add the second layer on top, quickly frost the top and then the sides. If you tarry, the icing will harden and be difficult to spread. As you can see from my photo, I waited a bit too long to make beautiful caramel swoops on the top. But it was soooo good and soooo rich--hope you enjoy it as much as we did! It's perfect for a celebration--like the launch of a book--or a birthday!

Lucy Burdette is the author of the Key West food critic mysteries. MURDER WITH GANACHE will be out on February 4, but you can pre-order it now.

Follow Lucy on Facebook, or Twitter, or Pinterest! She loves it when you pin her stuff:) 

And don't forget to enter the Goodreads giveaway for Murder with Ganache.

Happy 4th and Picnic Suggestions

Greetings friends! We hope you are all off celebrating Independence Day--with parades, parties, and picnics! If you're still wondering what to bring to the picnic, we have some July 4 ideas.

As usual, Lucy thinks it's all about the cake. How about a yellow cake with whipped cream and flag-colored berries? You can find the recipe here.









Happy fourth!  Daryl aka Avery loves desserts on the fourth. But it's all about the family.

These cake pops are so much fun to make for the kids!!! Make sure you have plenty of sprinkles on hand!!! Click on the RECIPE HERE

Peg recommends peach kuchen--in some parts of the country it's peach season already!  And there's nothing more delicious than a fresh peach.  This dessert can be made with fresh peaches in the summer and canned in the winter (when you need a hint of summer!)  It's perfect for the 4th of July.  Recipe here.




If you're looking for something cool to drink (and one that's historically appropriate for the Fourth of July), Sheila suggests taking a look at shrub, a Colonial-era drink. You can find the recipe here.

Says Victoria: If only life could be all dessert all the time! But sooner or later, someone will want a main course. Even on July 4th.  Here's something a bit different, but very delicious, for your grill and your guests!  Make lots.

Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Cedar-Planked Maple Salmon

At Krista's house, the fourth usually includes Dead Man's Bones (baby back ribs). They're not just for Halloween! But they're finger-licking good. Even better, if rain sends you running indoors, they can be made in the oven, too!

And last but not least, if you want a showstopper without a lot of work? Use white cake mix and food coloring to create Cleo Coyle's Fireworks Cake with this recipe!

Happy Independence Day everyone! with love from the writers at Mystery Lovers Kitchen