I have missed you all so much!

My world has finally settled down.  Papers signed, boxes moved, walls painted.  We had about six weeks of complete hectic insanity, and we are finally settling into our actual life.  Sigh.  It’s so good to be home.

We have a great backyard.  Roses, and jasmine, fruit trees.  So, so many fruit trees.  As far as we can tell right now, we have a lemon tree, a Meyer lemon tree, an apple tree, what looks like a loquat tree, and my personal favorite, a red plum tree.  These plums are insanely delicious.  Sweet and juicy and tart and so, so much flavor.  Unlike anything you would find in a grocery store.  These taste like pure summer; warm from the sun, juice bursting out with each bite, the snap when your teeth break through the skin.  God, I love plums.  Especially these plums.

I decided the first thing I would make at our new house would be with these plums.  But what?  I thought about a pie or a cobbler, but I don’t like pie or cobbler.  And I definitely wanted to partake in the first baking adventure at our home.  So, cake it was.

Soft, spongy cake, flavored with vanilla and dry champagne, with a thick layer of red plums.  The super sweet cake with a bite of tart plum.  Whipped cream and fresh blueberries.  This IS summer.

Look at that incredible color!  They are the most beautiful deep purple-red.  Gorgeous.

Do you have any great fruit trees at your home?  What’s your favorite thing to make with them?  THG

Champagne Plum Cake

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup sugar, divided

1/4 cup canola oil

3/4 cup dry champagne

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

7 egg whites

pinch of cream of tartar

3 cups fresh red plums, pitted and sliced

Preheat oven to 350ºF.  Line a 9” springform pan with parchment paper.  Butter and flour parchment paper, knocking out excess flour.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, sift cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 1/2 cup sugar together.  Create a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add canola oil, champagne and vanilla.  Do not mix yet.

In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy.  Add remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and whisk egg whites to stiff peaks.  Add 1/4 of egg whites to dry ingredient mixture mix to combine.  Add remaining egg whites and fold until well combined. 

Pour 1/2 cake batter into springform pan.  Arrange 1/2 the plum slices on top of batter.  Add remaining batter on top of plum slices.  Add remaining plum on top of batter.  The plums will sink down quite a bit, but shouldn’t go all the way to the bottom if you do it this way.

Bake in oven until golden on top and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes.  Allow to cool.

Flip springform pan upside-down onto cake plate and remove from cake (so that sunken plums are now on top).  Serve with fresh whipped cream and blueberries.

Makes one 9” cake

This past Saturday was my mom’s birthday.

We went into the city for a night of drinks and dinner.  My aunt Kym and her friend (affectionately referred to in my family as “That-Michele-Lady”) came up for the celebration.

We started with drinks at Bar 888, a posh bar in the InterContinental Hotel in SoMa.  They specialize in very fancy cocktails, most made with grappa, an Italian brandy made from grapes.  From there, we walked to Chinatown and went to one of my family’s favorite Chinese restaurants, Cathay House.  Great food, nice ambiance, and a great view of the California Street cable cars, right in the heart of Chinatown.  We usually go at Christmas time to see the lights and window displays in Union Square, and dinner has been at Cathay House the last few years.  Delish.

We finished off the night at Johnny Foley’s Irish House.  Great Irish pub, with really terrific pub-style food, though we stuck to the bar that evening.  Very fun, easygoing city night with the family.

Although we had a good time, I felt bad that my mom didn’t get a proper birthday dessert.  Aside from fortune cookies.  And, of course, lemon drops.  But those don’t count

No, she definitely deserved some type of cake.  And I had just the thing: cara cara and poppyseed olive oil cake.

My darling friend Kat of Mekatsu Mekatsu gave these to me.  Her uncle grows them, and he gave her and her husband a bushel.  She, in turn, gave some to me, knowing that I would love them.  And I did. 

Cara caras are a red flesh naval orange that taste like a cross between a orange and a grapefruit.  Very citrusy and sweet.  The flesh is a beautiful, coral color, incredibly juicy and fragrant.  Yum yum yum.  Perfect for an olive oil cake.

I love citrus fruits in olive oil cakes.  The rich, dense quality of the cake with the bright fresh flavors of the citrus are such a great compliment.  These cakes take on an almost muffin-like quality, but not dry at all.  No, they are incredibly moist; crumbly and nutty from the olive oil, not-too-sweet and zesty from the cara cara.  The poppyseeds add a nice little pop to the texture. 

A little raspberry sauce with a splash of cara cara juice in it, and fresh vanilla whipped cream.  Simple, elegant, perfectly suiting to a birthday.  My mom’s birthday.

Happy Birthday to my dear mama.  Thank you for giving me life, unconditional love, and a place to bake all my crazy concoctions over the past two years. 

I love you Mama.  THG

Cara Cara Poppyseed Olive Oil Cakes

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cake flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

5 eggs, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 cup cara cara juice

zest of 1 cara cara

1/4 cup poppyseeds

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Butter and flour a large muffin tin.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together until smooth and thick.  While whisking, slowly drizzle in olive oil and whisk to incorporate.  Add vanilla and whisk.  Add in cara cara juice and zest and whisk until smooth and well combined.  Pour in 1/3 of the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until smooth.  Repeat twice more with the rest of the flour mixture until all is combined and the batter is smooth and without any lumps.  Fold in the poppyseeds until evenly distributed.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tins about 2/3 full.  Bake in the middle of the oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Let cool in the tin for about 10 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.  Serve with raspberry sauce and whipped cream.

Makes 10-12 cakes

Raspberry Sauce

1 small package fresh raspberries

juice of 1 cara cara

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup sugar

In a small saucepan, combine the raspberries, cara cara juice, lemon juice and sugar over medium-high heat.  Cook until bubbling.  Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook until raspberries have broken down and mixture begins to thicken slightly, about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Strain the raspberry mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl, being sure to not allow any seeds to pass through.  Stir the sauce until smooth and let cool to room temperature.

Makes approximately 1 1/2 cups

This is Christie.

Christie recently married this guy, Ryan.

Ryan is the older brother to these girls.

Yes, that’s me.  And yes, I just took a really long time to explain that Christie is my sister-in-law.  But I promise it was worth it, kay?  (And yes, the other girl is my sister Caiti.  But she’s a story for another day.)

ANYHOO, Christie is my sister-in-law.  She became my sister-in-law at the beginning of October, in a beautiful (and cold!) wedding at Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe.  2 weeks later was Christie’s birthday.  So basically, the month of October is Christie month here.  I’m pretty sure she planned it that way

A week before her birthday, my mom was asking her what she wanted for her birthday dinner.  “Sausage, chili, and a pumpkin cheesecake with caramel sauce”.  Well, my hand immediately shot up at the mention of cheesecake like I was in elementary school and playing heads-up Seven-Up.  Because, I love cheesecake.  But more than cheesecake, I love making cheesecake.  There are just so many ways to go about cheesecake, from chocolate marble, to raspberry, to traditional New York cheesecake, the possibilities are endless.  So, I happily volunteered for the job of cheesecake maker.

Now, there are two different ways to bake a cheesecake: straight baking in the oven or in a water bath.  In the oven, no water bath, creates a denser, creamier, more torte-like consistency.  I find this is the best method for cheesecakes being made with heavier and heartier ingredients: sweet potato, peanut butter, traditional New York style, and pumpkin.  Baking cheesecake in a water bath results in a much lighter, fluffier cheesecake, with more of a custard or flan-like consistency.  I like to bake fruit and chocolate flavored cakes this way.  Either way though, you’re getting a damn-good dessert.  Seriously.  I have yet to have a bad cheesecake (knock on wood).

But back to Christie’s pumpkin cheesecake.  I knew I wanted to do a no-water bath cake, I knew I wanted to do a gingersnap crust (best pairing for pumpkin), and I knew I wanted it to be real creamcheese-y.  I have a basic cheesecake “base” that I’ve adapted over the years that works really well for most styles.

I will get better at this photo-taking thing, I promise

I personally like to do a combination of cream cheese to ricotta cheese; it creates the creamiest and silkiest texture.  I also prefer to forgo the pre-packaged “pumpkin pie spice” usually advised for these types of cheesecakes.  My favorite spice ratio is 1 part nutmeg, allspice and ground cloves to 2 parts cinnamon and ground ginger.  It’s a little spicier and richer and very gingery.  But feel free to adapt it to whatever your tastes suit.  I also use less of the pumpkin than most recipes call for; I prefer it more cheesecake and less pumpkin pie.

As for the caramel sauce, I used a great recipe I’ve used many times before; butter, sugar, heavy cream.  You can add vanilla extract to make it more fragrant or sea salt for more of a fleur de sel caramel flavor.  It’s a fantastic sauce for topping any type of dessert, but it went especially well with the pumpkin cheesecake.

And Christie seemed very happy, which was the most important part.  Shawn, who also gets a cheesecake every year on his birthday, tried to hoard the remainder of the cake, but to no avail.  It went pretty quick, but when doesn’t cheesecake with caramel sauce go quick?  But don’t just read about awesome pumpkin cheesecake, make some for yourself.  You won’t be sorry.  THG

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Caramel Sauce

Crust:

2 cups gingersnap crumbs

4 Tbsp. melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

Cheesecake filling:

3 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup ricotta cheese, at room temperature

1 cup pumpkin puree

3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

In a medium size bowl, combine gingersnap crumbs, melted butter and sugar.  Mix until all crumbs are coated with butter.  Press mixture into the bottom of a 9” spring-form pan.  Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden-brown.  Allow to cool to room temperature.

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the cream and ricotta cheeses together until fluffy.  Add pumpkin puree, eggs, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla and mix well.  Add spices and mix until just incorporated.

Pour cheesecake filling into prepared spring-form pan with the crust.  Bake in the center of the oven for 45-60 minutes, until set but still slightly jiggly in the center.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes.  Cover with plastic wrap pressed against the surface of the cake and refrigerate at least 2 hours until set.

Caramel Sauce

1 cup sugar

8 Tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup heavy cream

In a medium saucepan, heat sugar over medium-high heat.  Whisk continuously while sugar melts.  When sugar begins to boil, stop whisking.  Watch carefully.  When the sugar has reached a light amber color, immediately remove from heat and add butter.  Whisk until all butter is melted.  Add cream and whisk until smooth.  Allow caramel sauce to cool to room temperature in saucepan.  When cooled, pour into a glass jar and refrigerate.  When using the sauce, microwave in jar 20-30 seconds to heat up.

Serves 8-10 slices