It's a dangerous week to be a cake

At least, at my house it's dangerous to be a cake.  You won't survive!

I made an extremely simple buttermilk-apple cake (here's the buttermilk popping up again), which I topped with a ginger whipped cream, and my absolutely favorite ever chocolate bundt cake.

CAKE 1
So first, the cake with the buttermilk and the apples was Heidi Swanson's "Unfussy Apple Cake Recipe."  I LOVE 101 Cookbooks!  I have used so many of her recipes for potlucks and parties because they are so awesome (and vegetarian, vegan, wholesome, different, for picky eaters, etc.)  I made one "change" to her recipe.  Because I ran out of cinnamon (how does that happen?) I added a teaspoon of ginger.  Then, I made for it some whipped cream that wasn't over sweet, but also played on the ginger.  It went so well together that I actually sorta, kinda, maybe forgot all about taking a picture until the very end.

Ginger Whipped Cream
Makes about 1 cup of whipped cream

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp confectioners sugar
2 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine ingredients.  Whip until a whipped cream consistancy.



CAKE 2

On Friday night, my friend called me.  She was upset some because the next day was her birthday and her simple plans had fallen through.  Basically, we were just supposed to meet at her sister's house and have a pot luck.  But something came up and her sister couldn't have it.  Another (::ahem::) friend who had previously offered up his house for the celebration retracted it as there was a show he really wanted to go see.  So, without looking at my wreck of a living room or dining room, I tell her "Come on over to my place, I'll have something for you.  We'll have food and cake.  Real not-from-a-box cake!"  And I sent out an email to our crew and went to sleep.

I woke up Saturday morning with a laundry list of things before my house was presentable to a large group of people, including people who are allergic to cats.  I spent most of the day picking up and cleaning, so I knew I would make something fast but good for the "dinner" portion, but I needed to make a cake.  Everyone loves chocolate cake, and I had been itching to make this recipe.

This chocolate cake recipe has a bit of personal history with me.  At my parent's house, when I was growing up, if I wanted a cake for my birthday I needed to make it myself.  This is what I made every year.  So yes, it's a winner.

Chocolate Birthday Cake

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
6 tbsp cocoa
2 tsp soda
1 tsp salt

12 tblsp oil
2 tblsp vinegar
2 teasp vanilla

2 cups cold water.

Stir together dry ingredients.

Make 3 holes.  In one hole pour oil.  In one hole pour vinegar.  In one hole pour vanilla.  Over all of this, pour water.

Mix with fork. DO NOT BEAT!

Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan.

Bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes.

When cool, top with sifted confectioners sugar.

Buttermilk-Leek-Potato Soup

I found a web page from the farm where the buttermilk came from, Cruze Farm.  I linked to it in previous post (if you want me to unlink it, just tell me!).  The site claims that their buttermilk is churned.  Does that mean that it's the left over from the butter? Or is it the "artificial" buttermilk, the kind with a reagent added. I'm curious.

Last night I made both the Apple Cake and the Potato Soup.  Sutro came over after his lecture, so about 9:30 PM and we each had a lovely bowl of Potato Soup with a slice of rye bread. 

Potato Soup is one of my favorites of my mother's repetoir.  It is thick and creamy, almost like a slightly thinner bowl of mashed potatoes.  But there's a little something extra too.  My mother will serve hers topped with a thick dollop of sour cream, so I figured that my recent acquisition of buttermilk would work just fine.

With this bowl of soup I wanted to go vegetarian, so no chicken broth.  To fill in the flavors I used a PILE of leeks and some herbs.  They were so beautiful I just had to.  Because I didn't want to detract from that I didn't also use onions or garlic - possibly a first for me!

Buttermilk-Leek-Potato Soup

3 large Leeks, just the white parts, sliced
1 tbsp butter (approx)
1 cube vegetable bouillon
water
short 1 tbsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
approx 2 lbs potatoes, mostly peeled, cubed.
3 cups buttermilk

In your favorite big soup pot, add leeks and butter.  Cover and let soften over medium-low heat.

Dissolve the cube of bouillon in 1 cup water.

When leeks are transparent, add bouillon/water mix.  Add potatoes, rosemary and thyme.  Now add enough water just to cover the potatoes.  Turn heat to medium.

If it boils hard, turn heat down some.

When potatoes are soft, remove cover.  Blend/mash the entire content of the pot until smooth.  An immersion blender is perfect for this.

In a separate bowl, add about 1 1/2 cups buttermilk.  Slowly ladle hot soup into buttermilk until buttermilk/soup mixture is the same temperature as the soup.  Add mixture to the soup.  Repeat.  This technique keeps dairy products from curdling because of sudden temperature change.

Stir soup so buttermilk is well mixed.

Cover and let simmer until ready to serve. (Can sit for about 1/2 hour).

This soup freezes very well, so don't hesitate to double the recipe if you have a big pot!

Ingredient Introduction #1 - Buttermilk

The farmer's market yesterday was pretty much closed down by the time I got there, so today when I ran to grab a prescription I hit one of the local vegetable markets, Garden Fresh Market. This market has been really great at having reasonably priced produce while attempting to get from local/regional buyers. They have eggs and milk from Cruze Farms and the produce is definitely seasonal (they had muscadines today!). They do cater some to their customers by occasionally importing stuff (20# bag of Idaho Potatos, citrus fruits), but that's normally quite obvious. I ran in with the intent of making something this evening for Sutro and me, but I hadn't been home much in the last week, between going to PA and falling ill at Sutro's.

They had these lovely leeks, which inspired me to make my mother's potato soup, while I got the few ingredients for those, I went to get some eggs. The soup, I remembered, needed cream. The only cream they had was from Mayfield. But they did have Cruze Farm buttermilk. Well, that led to remembering that a friend has a birthday this weekend, and I've wanted to try a recipe for Apple Cake that needed buttermilk, which I would then bring another batch to Sutro's family's Thanksgiving over in Western TN. So in go some local Fuji apples, plus a lovely Acorn squash because I know I'll use it, and there we go. We have meals planned and cooking to do.

The woman at the register noticed my buttermilk and commented on how much she loves it. She drinks a glass of it every morning. I had no idea what buttermilk was really like, except that it was different from milk and much creamier.

I come home, put away my groceries, feed the cats, and pour myself about a finger of thick, creamy buttermilk.

And I drink it.

Or at least... I try to. It's chunky and sour! So I go online to make sure that *this* is what the woman drank. And sure enough....
from wikipedia:

Buttermilk is a fermented dairy product produced from cow's milk with a characteristically sour taste. The product is made in one of two ways. Originally, buttermilk was the liquid left over from churning butter from cream. In India, buttermilk or mattha is known to be the liquid leftover after extracting butter from churned curd. Today, this is called traditional buttermilk. On the other hand artificially made buttermilk, also known as cultured buttermilk, is a product where lactic acid bacteria called Streptococcus lactis have been added to milk.

How can she do it?

Well, off to clean some and make the cake and soup. I think the buttermilk will work for those.

Good news: I found my camera, so now there may be pictures of my cooking. Yay!