Hummingbird Cake

This is an old recipe that I got from one of my first cookbooks many, many years ago. Hummingbird Cake is basically a banana-pineapple-nut cake. It’s moist, delicious, and absolutely addictive. I usually bake it in a bundt pan and serve it plain, but you could also bake it in three round cake pans and frost each layer with a cream cheese frosting. Either way is delicious and will have you humming with delight!

HUMMINGBIRD CAKE

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 can (8 ozs.) crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously grease a bundt pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon with a wooden spoon.
3. Add the eggs, oil, vanilla, bananas, pineapple, and nuts, and stir together well.
4. Pour into prepared pan.
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (In my oven, 50 minutes is perfect, but depending on your oven, this could take up to 70 or 80 minutes.)

NOTE: If desired, cake may be baked in three 9-inch round cake pans. If using three cake pans, bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool completely, then frost with cream cheese frosting.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

• 2 pkg. (8-oz. each) cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup salted butter or margarine, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

1. With an electric mixer set on medium-low speed, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth.
2. Add powdered sugar little by little, beating at low speed until blended.
3. Stir in vanilla.
4. Increase speed to medium-high, and beat until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes.

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Easy Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate Ganache is used as a filling, a frosting, or a glaze for cakes and pastries. It’s very easy to prepare. This recipe is wonderful made with a good quality chocolate like Scharffenberger chocolate, but it’s just as good made with chocolate chips.

Make sure the chopping board, bowl, and utensils you use are completely dry because water will cause the chocolate to seize when it’s melted. Also when working with ganache, bear in mind that while it’s warm, it’s liquid and pourable, but it thickens and firms as it cools. If you need to soften it, just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds and stir.

EASY CHOCOLATE GANACHE

• 8 ozs. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (or chocolate chips)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter (optional)

1. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl.
2. In a heavy saucepan, heat cream and butter until it just comes to a simmer.
3. Pour hot cream over chocolate and let sit for a couple of minutes.
4. Slowly stir with a wire whisk until smooth. Don’t whisk vigorously. You don’t want to whip air into it.

NOTE:

• This recipe makes enough ganache to cover one 9-inch cake.
• The ganache may be made up to 1 week ahead. Refrigerate in an airtight container and bring to room temperature before using.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

My mom used to make this cake for us all the time when we were growing up. Pineapple Upside Down Cake is an old-fashioned cake that sort of died down in popularity over the years. It’s delicious, though, and definitely deserves a comeback. I’ve altered my Mom’s original recipe to make the cake more moist and added more pineapple to it, but the basic recipe is still hers. It’s easy to prepare and my family loves it judging by how quickly it disappears every time I serve it!

PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

• ⅔ cup butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 20-oz. can pineapple slices, drained and juice reserved
• 1 8-oz. can pineapple slices, drained and juice reserved (optional)
• 1 jar maraschino cherries
• 2½ cups flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• 16 Tbsp. reserved pineapple juice from the cans
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1½ cup white sugar
• 5 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Place butter in a 9×13-inch cake pan and put it in the oven to melt the butter.
3. When butter is melted, remove pan from oven.
4. Sprinkle brown sugar over melted butter. Spread evenly with a rubber spatula.
5. Arrange pineapple slices over the butter-brown sugar mixture in any pattern you want. You can leave the slices whole or cut them in halves or quarters to make a fancier design.
6. Cut a few maraschino cherries in half and nestle them, cut side up, around the pineapple slices in the cake pan. You can leave the cherries whole if you want, but my mom always cut them in half. Probably to save money.
7. In a medium bowl, stir flour, baking powder, and salt together.
8. In a small bowl, stir pineapple juice and vanilla together.
9. With an electric mixer, beat softened butter and white sugar on high until thick and light colored.
10. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well-combined.
11. Reduce speed to low and beat in the flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with the pineapple juice mixture until just incorporated.
12. Pour cake batter evenly over the pineapple slices in the cake pan, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula.
13. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until cake springs back when pressed down lightly on top.
14. Allow cake to cool for 10-15 minutes, then turn it out onto a rectangular plate. If a pineapple gets left behind in the pan, just pick it up with a metal spatula and flip it over onto the spot it came from on the cake.

NOTE:  You only need one 20-oz. can of pineapple, but if you want to completely cover the top of the cake with pineapple rings like I have pictured, you’ll find one can is about 2 slices shy. My family likes a lot of pineapple so I add the second smaller can, but if you don’t want to bother with that, you can make do with one 20-oz. can and just space the slices farther apart so they’re evenly distributed. Bear in mind, if you do decide to use just one 20-oz. can of pineapple slices, you might be a little short on the pineapple juice. Different brands have different amounts. If you’re short, just add enough water or cooking oil to make 16 tablespoons.

Cocoflan Cake

This cake is a play on my Chocoflan Cake. I was making a Chocoflan Cake for Cinco de Mayo and I started thinking how fun it would be to make a coconut flavored flan cake, so I went out to buy ingredients for a test drive. It took a few trial runs over the next few weekends, but eventually my Cocoflan Cake was born! Thankfully my family doesn’t mind being the guinea pigs who have to taste and EAT all my kitchen experiments.

I like how this final version turned out. The dessert isn’t overly sweet, the cake is moist, and the flan is smooth and creamy. It looks like a lot of steps, but if you read through the recipe, it’s really not hard to do. Give it a try and you’ll see what I mean.

COCOFLAN CAKE

Macapuno Topping:

• 1 cup white sugar
• ¼ cup water
• ½ cup macapuno, you can add more if you like

Leche Flan:

• 4 ozs. (½ box) cream cheese
• 1 can (14 oz.) condensed milk
• 1 can (13.5 oz.) unsweetened coconut milk
• 5 eggs
• 1 Tbsp. coconut extract

Coconut Cake:

• 1½ cups all­-purpose flour
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. baking soda
• ¾ cup cream of coconut (or coconut milk)
• 2 tsp. coconut extract
• ½ cup butter, at room temperature
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs

Make the Topping:

1. Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan and place on stove over low heat.
2. Let come to a boil and continue to cook until sugar starts to caramelize. Watch it carefully! The sugar can burn in an instant.
3. Once the sugar starts turning reddish brown, take it off the heat immediately. It will continue to darken and you don’t want it getting bitter.
4. Pour the sugar syrup into a bundt pan and swirl the bundt pan around so the sugar syrup coats the bottom and about an inch up the sides of the pan. Be careful. The bundt pan will get very hot so use oven mitts!
5. Put the bundt pan down on a trivet.
6. Distribute the macapuno evenly over the sugar syrup.
7. Set the bundt pan aside to cool.

Prepare the Flan:

1. Place cream cheese in a medium bowl and heat in microwave for about 30 – 40 seconds so the cream cheese becomes very soft.
2. Add the condensed milk to the softened cream cheese and whisk vigorously together with a wire whisk until well-blended and very smooth.
3. Add the coconut milk, eggs, and coconut extract, and whisk together well.
4. Set flan mixture aside while you prepare the cake batter.

Make the Cake:

1. Prepare a water bath by placing a roasting pan half full of water into the oven.
2. Turn oven on to 350ºF to preheat.
3. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
4. In another small bowl, stir the cream of coconut and coconut extract together.
5. With an electric mixer set on high speed, beat butter and coconut oil together until smooth.
6. Slowly add sugar, continuing to beat until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.
7. Reduce speed to medium and add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
8. Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with 2 batches of cream­ of­ coconut mixture.
9. Beat until just combined.
10. Pour the cake batter on top of the macapuno-sugar syrup in the bundt pan, smoothing the batter evenly with a rubber spatula.
11. Slowly pour the flan mixture through a sieve over the cake batter. Don’t worry if it sinks or causes the batter to separate in clumps.
12. Cover bundt pan tightly with a piece of tin foil and place into water bath in oven.
13. Bake for 1 hour, then remove foil and bake uncovered for 30 minutes more or until cake springs back when touched lightly in the center.
14. Remove from water bath and allow to cool to room temperature; then place in refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
15. To serve, invert cake onto a large cake plate or serving platter.

NOTES:

• This cake is best prepared a day or two in advance and kept chilled in the fridge until ready to serve.
• Macapuno is a Filipino delicacy. It’s basically shredded young coconut that’s been cooked in syrup to preserve it. It’s sold in jars in Asian food markets. If you can’t find macapuno, you can omit it from this recipe.

Blueberry Buttermilk Cake

It’s blueberry season! Every year, my sister Helen takes her daughters blueberry picking with a bunch of their school friends and their families. They go to this blueberry farm up in the hills and have an absolute blast while they’re there. Helen’s youngest daughter, Sophie, is a little blueberry-picking speed-demon and can fill up a bucket faster than you can say blueberry pie!

Anyway, whenever they go, they always make sure to bring me back a bagful of the beautiful little blue gems. This year was no exception. The berries are always so sweet and juicy. If you’ve never had blueberries fresh off the bush, you’ve got to find a way to try some. Commercially sold blueberries are good, but they pale in comparison to these ones. I think it’s time for some Blueberry Buttermilk Cake!

BLUEBERRY BUTTERMILK CAKE

• 2 – 2½ cups fresh blueberries
• 3 cups flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup buttermilk
• ¼ cup demerara sugar (or white granulated sugar)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 9×13-inch baking pan.
2. Place blueberries in a small bowl.
3. Take 2 tablespoons of the flour and toss it with the blueberries. Coating the blueberries with flour helps keep them from sinking to the bottom of the cake as it bakes.
4. Combine remaining flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.
5. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
6. Add vanilla and beat in eggs, one at a time.
7. Beat in the flour mixture, alternating with the buttermilk, in three additions until completely combined.
8. Fold in blueberries.
9. Spread batter in prepared baking pan.
10. Sprinkle top evenly with demerara sugar.
11. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
12. Cake can be served warm or cool completely before serving.

NOTE:  If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make your own homemade buttermilk by placing 1 tablespoon of lemon juice in a glass measuring cup. Add enough milk to the cup till it reaches the 1-cup line. Let stand for 5 minutes, then whisk with a wire whisk for a few seconds.

Gluten Free Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I keep trying to create gluten free recipes for my daughter, Spunky. It’s not always easy though. Especially with baked goods. You usually have to use 2 or 3 different non-wheat flours, and add specialty ingredients like xanthan gum, guar gum, gelatin, or agar-agar. And some things just don’t turn out right when you try to convert them using commercial gluten free flours.

That’s why I was so happy to discover Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour at my local grocery store. My sour cream coffee cake turned out great with it! It really took the guesswork out of converting an old family favorite into a gluten free recipe. I decided to research and learned that there are other brands of cup-for-cup flour replacements out there like King Arthur Flour’s Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour, or Cup4Cup Gluten Free Multipurpose Flour, but since Bob’s Red Mill is what my local grocery store carries, that’s what I used for this recipe. I’ll have to experiment and test the other brands someday. If you have a favorite cup-for-cup gluten free replacement flour, feel free to try it out with this recipe and then let me know how it turned out.

GLUTEN FREE SOUR CREAM COFFEE CAKE

• 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill gluten free 1-to-1 baking flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cups butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup sour cream

Streusel

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 10-inch tube pan or angel food cake pan.
2. Mix streusel ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.
3. In another bowl, stir flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.
4. With an electric mixer, cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy.
5. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Beat in flour mixture alternately with sour cream.
7. Spread half the batter in the pan, then sprinkle half the streusel over it. Top with the rest of the batter, and finish with the remaining streusel.
8. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
9. Cool cake in pan for 10-15 minutes, then loosen from sides of pan with a knife.
10. Remove cake from pan and place topping side up on a serving plate.

NOTES:

• You can substitute buttermilk or yogurt in place of the sour cream in this recipe.
• This cake can be made in a 9×13-inch rectangular baking pan. If you prefer to use a 9×13-inch pan, I would just pour all the batter into the pan and then sprinkle all the streusel on top. It’s a pain to make the layers, though it can certainly be done. Just bear in mind that you’ll have to spread the batter really thinly if you want layers.

Pumpkin Squares with Cream Cheese Frosting

Fall is pumpkin season. It’s the time when pumpkin farms do a booming business as people flock to them to pick out the pumpkins they want to carve into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween or put on display on their fall table centerpieces. But pumpkins don’t just make great decorations. They’re wonderful for eating, too!

Pumpkins make delicious soups, side dishes, and desserts. I mean what would Thanks-giving be without pumpkin pie? Well, this is an old recipe for the yummiest pumpkin cake you’ll ever bite into! Iced with cream cheese frosting and cut into squares, it’s a family favorite that’s ideal for taking to potlucks and office parties, too. It’s moist and delicious and my cream cheese frosting is the perfect showcase for the rich, not-too-sweet cake underneath it.

PUMPKIN SQUARES

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 can (15-oz.) pumpkin
• 1⅔ cups sugar
• 1 cup cooking oil
• ¾ cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together eggs, pumpkin, sugar, and oil.
4. Add the flour mixture and beat till well combined.
5. Stir in chopped nuts, if desired.
6. Spread batter in an ungreased 9×13-inch baking pan.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or till toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
8. Cool completely and frost with cream cheese frosting.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

• 1 pkg. (8 ozs.) cream cheese, softened
• ¼ cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups sifted powdered sugar

1. In a medium bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until fluffy.
2. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until smooth.

Blueberry Lemon Bread

I had a bunch of blueberries that I needed to use up. Today didn’t feel like a blueberry pie kind of day so I decided to make cake instead. Blueberries and lemon form the perfect sweet and sour flavor combination. Specially if you get blueberries when they’re in season and are at their peak, practically bursting with juicy sweetness. This recipe makes a super moist cake that’s great for breakfast or for an afternoon snack with a nice cup of hot tea.

Speaking of which, I saw a picture somewhere (probably on Pinterest) of a blueberry cake that was cut in small little rounds so I decided to try doing that. I baked one loaf cake with half my batter, but poured the other half of the batter into an 8-inch round pan to make a thinner cake which I cut into little circles with a mini-biscuit cutter. Don’t those look adorable? How perfect for a dessert table or for my annual Mother’s Day tea party!

BLUEBERRY LEMON BREAD

• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• 3 cups flour + 2 tbsp. for tossing with blueberries
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup plain yogurt (can substitute sour cream)
• zest of one lemon
• juice of one lemon
• 1 tsp. vanilla or lemon extract

Topping:

• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 tbsp. butter, melted
• ¼ cup sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease bottom and sides of two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.
2. Toss blueberries in 2 tbsp. flour. This helps keep them from sinking to the bottom of the loaf. Set aside.
3. Combine 3 cups flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
4. In another bowl, whisk eggs together; then whisk in melted butter, milk, yogurt, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla.
5. Pour into dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
6. Gently fold blueberries into batter.
7. Divide batter into prepared pans and bake for 50 to 60 minutes.
8. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from pans.
9. Make topping by mixing lemon juice and melted butter together.
10. Brush lemon-butter mixture on top of loaves.
11. Sprinkle with a heavy layer of sugar while tops are still wet.

NOTE:  My kids love the crunchy sugar topping made by sprinkling granulated sugar over the loaves, but if you prefer to have a glaze for the topping, just omit the butter, replace the granulated sugar with 1 cup of powdered sugar, and stir in 2-3 tbsp. of lemon juice till it reaches a good consistency for drizzling.

A nice trick to help you remove a cake from a loaf pan is to line the bottom of the loaf pan with a strip of parchment paper long enough to go up the short sides and stick out at least a couple of inches past the edge of the pan on either side. After your cake has cooled for 10 minutes, grasp the ends of the parchment paper that stick out past the loaf pan and use them like handles to lift the cake up and out. You can then tip the cake on its side to peel the parchment strip off.

Chocolate Cobbler

A cobbler is an old-fashioned American dessert that’s been around since the 1800’s. It’s traditionally made with fruit, like peaches or blackberries, that are baked in their juices and topped with a cakey or biscuit-like dough. There are different variations on how the topping is made depending on where you’re from.

A chocolate cobbler breaks from tradition in that it isn’t made with fruit, but as far as making it goes, it’s just as easy to put together as any fruit cobbler and it’s every bit as delicious! Served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it’s absolutely to die for. Whenever I make this, it disappears almost as soon as it comes out of the oven!

CHOCOLATE COBBLER

• 2 sticks butter
• 1¼ cups sugar
• 1½ cups self-rising flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• ¾ cup evaporated milk

For the Chocolate Layer:

• 1 cup sugar
• 6 Tbsps. cocoa powder
• 2 cups boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. Place the 2 sticks of butter into a 9×13 pyrex glass baking dish and put in the oven to melt.
3. While butter is melting, stir together 1¼ cups sugar, flour, vanilla and milk in a bowl.
4. Pour the batter over the melted butter. Do not stir!
5. In another bowl, mix the 1 cup sugar and cocoa powder together, and sprinkle on top of the batter. Again, do not stir!
6. Pour the boiling water on top of everything. Resist the urge to stir! Just don’t do it!
7. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until you have a nice golden brown crust on top.
8. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Americanized Bibingka

Living in the United States, we don’t always have easy access to Filipino food. I guess it depends on where in the U.S. you live. Unfortunately, where I live, if you want Filipino food, you need to make it yourself. There have been times when I’ve really been craving some native food from back home. This recipe was born from one of those cravings.

Filipino bibingka galapong is a native cake made of rice flour that’s cooked in a clay pot lined with banana leaves. As strange as it sounds, the sweet little cakes are dotted with pieces of quesong puti (carabao milk cheese) and wedges of itlog na maalat (salted duck eggs). Growing up, the best bibingkahan to get hot, fresh-made bibingka was a place called Ferino’s. It was started in 1938 by a man and his wife who made their bibingkas on three clay pots set on a bench. From there, the business grew till they eventually had shops all over town.

Anyway, I was craving the taste of Ferino’s bibingka one day. Since I don’t have a clay pot or banana leaves, and since we can’t get quesong puti or itlog na maalat where we live, I came up with this recipe which I called “Americanized Bibingka” because I baked it in a pyrex glass baking dish in the oven, and I substituted American ingredients for the native Filipino ingredients I couldn’t get – cream cheese for the quesong puti and dried shredded coconut for the itlog na maalat. It’s not Ferino’s, but it’s a really good substitute.

This recipe makes a big pyrex dish so it’s perfect for parties or get-togethers. Don’t expect it to look anything like traditional native Filipino bibingka galapong. Just follow the recipe and you’ll get a good taste of what bibingka is like, albeit without the look. Everybody loves it, including all our American friends.

AMERICANIZED BIBINGKA GALAPONG

• 4 cups self-rising flour
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup butter
• 1 box (8-oz.) cream cheese
• ½ to 1 cup shredded, sweetened, desiccated coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. In a bowl, mix together the flour, eggs, sugar and water.
3. Pour batter into a greased 9” x 13” pyrex glass baking dish.
4. In a small saucepan, melt and stir together the butter and cream cheese. The cream cheese mixture will be separated and lumpy. It looks weird, but don’t worry. This is normal.
   
5. Pour cream cheese mixture as evenly as you can over the cake batter. Don’t worry about trying to make it perfectly even. You can’t.
6. Bake for 30 minutes.
7. Remove cake from oven and top with shredded coconut (as much as you want).
8. Return cake to the oven and broil till the coconut flakes turn golden brown.

NOTE:  If you can’t get self-rising flour, you can make your own by mixing together:
                4 cups all-purpose flour
                2 Tbsp. double acting baking powder
                2 tsp. salt