Peanut Butter Cake for the Ages - Seriously...

Peanut Butter is the only thing that sustained me during the school lunches of my youth.  My love of this creamy, dreamy foodstuff will likely be written in my biography some day. Lurid details of open faced PB sandwiches and eating it with a tablespoon.

Oh Peanut Butter, you saucy minx....

Wait, what? Cake - Right.  My big (*cough* - older) brother Glen would traditionally ask for a Peanut Butter Birthday Cake with Peanut Butter icing. It was a dense, delicious concoction that I personally looked forward to as well.  I went looking for Irene's recipe and then decided to... change it up a little, Lori Style.

Things You'll Need (Otherwise Known as Ingredients and Supplies)

Cake

Wet Ingredients
1 Cup Smooth Peanut Butter (I used a natural one)
1/2 Cup of Butter, softened (I used salted butter, if you use unsalted definitely add a 1/2 tsp of salt)
1 1/4 Cups White Sugar
1 Cup Buttermilk *
2 Eggs, beaten
2 Tsp Vanilla

*No Buttermilk - No Problem! Take a Tbsp of Lemon juice and put in the measuring cup, fill with milk to the 1 Cup mark.  Mix together - Buttermilk!

Dry Ingredients
2 1/4 Cups Flour
1 1/4 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt (optional)

Cream Cheese Filling

4 oz Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 Cup Smooth Peanut Butter
1/8 Cup Whipping Cream (maybe a wee bit less)
1/2 Tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 Cups Icing (Powdered) Sugar

Ganache

7 Oz of Semi Sweet Chocolate
4-5 Oz of Whipping Cream

Baking Items

2 - 8" Round Cake pans
Parchment Paper
Non-Stick Spray or a small bit of butter
Pan of water (to put in oven)
Small sauce pan
Mixing stuff

Things You'll Do (Otherwise known as Directions)

I'm going to take a moment and talk about my experience with the oven temperature. I actually baked 4 cakes.  2 at 350F for 33 minutes and 2 at 325F for 38 minutes.  I preferred the 325F cakes.  My advice is to keep watching the cakes after about 30 minutes and judge yourself accordingly.  You know your oven.

Cake

Preheat oven to 325F. Take a baking pan, fill with water and put it on the rack below the baking racks.  Make sure your cakes bake on the middle rack of the oven. This is a key feature in most of my cake baking endeavours, it amps up the moistness of the cake.

In a mixer, cream together the peanut butter and butter.  Add sugar and continue to mix until completely smooth. Add beaten eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk.  I beat this together until it was smooth and almost airy. Lots of volume.

In a separate bowl, sift together 3 (three) times - the flour, baking powder and baking soda.  I don't know why 3 is the magic number - it just is. Add the pinch of salt (if you wish).

Add the sifted ingredients, 1 cup at a time, to the wet ingredients and mix after each addition.  Don't beat too much as it makes the batter kind of... tough - it's a stiff batter anyway.

Once just mixed, spread evenly between two greased and parchment lined cake pans.  Yes, the batter is stiff - don't worry. Also take the time to smooth the top of the batter - it aesthetically makes a difference and makes for an easier application of frosting.

Pop in oven.  At 325F, I removed the cakes at 38 minutes. Use the tried and true cake test and ensure the "pointy object" comes out clean.

Let the cakes cool completely in the pan, then turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack while you do the filling and ganache.

Filling

Cream together the softened cream cheese and peanut butter until smooth and completely combined.

Add 1/2 of the whipping cream and vanilla.  Mix well.

Add the icing sugar in 1/2 cup increments until completely combined.

If it looks too stiff, add the remaining cream a Tbsp at a time until you like the consistency.

Place 1st cake on a plate and then smooth the filling on the top of cake. You can cut off the top of the cake to have a flat surface.  I'm lazy and didn't.

Lay 2nd cake on top of filling.

Ganache

There are a million recipes to make ganache, but here is the link that changed my life (from the kitchn).  It makes the process simple and versatile.  Follow the logic and ganache-superiority is yours for the taking!

In a heat proof bowl cut up 7oz of semi-sweet chocolate.

In a small saucepan, heat 5(ish) oz of whipping cream.  No need to boil it, just heat it.

Pour about 2/3rds of the heated cream over the chopped chocolate and stir. Keep adding heated cream, bit by bit until you get the consistency you need.  Mine was  not a thick glaze nor a pourable one so I wasn't quite 1:1.

Once smooth and no chocolate chunks exist, spread over cake and decorate as you wish.

Whew!!!  And we're done.

This cake is dense, rich and delicious.  A small piece is enough... Well... Maybe.

Eat, eat and be merry.

Cheers,
Lori

Newfoundland Molasses Cake (with a Twist of Lori for Good Measure)

Continuing the series of Family Recipes, I thought I would invite you to try the Molasses Cake. It is very much like a gingerbread cake with notes of ginger, allspice and clove... Yes and Molasses.

I've put a little twist on this cake with some additional steps which I believe makes for a better cake. Oooh and I used a frosting recipe shared with me by Sara Case Strickland via Twitter.

Here we go...

Molasses Cake

Things You'll Need (Otherwise Known as Ingredients and Supplies)

 

1 Cup Butter, Softened
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Cup Coffee, Cooled (brew a touch more - you'll see)
2 Eggs

3 Cups Flour, grab your sifter
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Ginger
1 tsp Allspice
1 tsp Clove
Pinch of salt

1/2 - 2/3 Cup Raisins
1/2 - 2/3 Cup Dried Cranberries

Tube, Bundt or Angel Food Pan
Parchment Paper
Butter/Spray to grease pan
Extra cake or loaf pan
Water

Time to wait

Ok - I did this cake twice. I cooked it on too high a heat and two things happened. The cake scorched as did the fruit which dotted along the top and sides.

Things You'll Do (Otherwise known as Directions)

Preheat oven to 325F (My oven runs hot so I had to reduce from original temp of 350F).

Take 2 bowls, dump the raisins in one, cranberries in the over. Cover each bowl of fruit with 1/2 cup of coffee and set aside for about 30-45 minutes. I found that soaking the fruit avoids much of the scorching of the fruit while baking.

Using your mixer (or very strong upper body motions) cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.  Break eggs, mix with fork and then beat in one at a time. Beat until pale yellow and very fluffy.

Add the molasses and mix completely.

Drain coffee from fruit, top up coffee to 1 cup total.  Add to mixture and mix completely.

Sift flour one cup at a time and add to mix to a total of 3 cups.  Add baking soda, spices and pinch of salt. Combine completely.

Add fruit and fold in by hand.

Finished cake batter

Take your pan, line it with parchment paper, grease well.

Add the cake batter and smooth the top of the cake.

Here's where I changed the step slightly.  Like the gumdrop cake I added a pan of water to the side (and the rack below) in the oven while this cake baked. I also lowered the rack for the cake to the 2nd lowest in my oven. With lowering the temp and these steps change the baking result immensely (for the good).

Bake cake for 90 minutes. Check with tester and ensure the cake is done.  Mine was right on time.

Remove cake, let to rest IN PAN on a rack (may take a couple of hours).

Now I could leave well enough alone and cut and serve it like this.  But I didn't.  I wanted a delicate frosting to offset the strong flavour of the cake.

Ridiculously Good Frosting

(Thanks to Sara)

Things You'll Need (Otherwise Known as Ingredients and Supplies)

2 1/2 Tbsp Flour
1/2 Cup Milk

1/4 Cup Shortening
1/4 Cup Butter (you could use 1/2 Cup of Butter and omit the Shortening if you wish)
1/2 Cup White Granulated Sugar (not icing)
1 tsp Vanilla

Things You'll Do (Otherwise known as Directions)

Put flour and milk in a saucepan and cook over medium-low heat until the consistency of porridge. Stir constantly! Mine took about 5 minutes.

Frosting Paste

 Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely.

Cream together Butter/Shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla and mix.  Then add cooled Frosting Paste and mix completely.

It should look white and airy.

I was unsure how much the cake would need so I actually doubled the recipe. I had a fair bit left over so I don't think it was really necessary - meh... I like frosting by spoon too!

This isn't an overly sweet frosting, not those buttercremes from the store that make your teeth hurt. I am sure you would add a touch of sugar if you felt it needed it.

My decorating skills are sub-par at best.  So don't judge me people!!!

This cake went to work intact and was gone with high praise from many folks.

Add it to your repertoire with my blessing (and encouragement).

Enjoy and please, carry on this tradition.

Cheers,
Lori

Journey to the Camino de Santiago - Let's Talk Footwear Shall We?

OK, before you compare this blog post with others on similar subject matters, please note that my previous hiking experience was a stroll to Western Brook Ponds boat ride in Gros Morne National Park... In 1993. I've done zero true backpacking/hiking in my 40 (cough... something) years. So, like you, I went to friends, "the Google" and "the Twitter" for help.

 

The results varied from "hiking shoes" to "hiking boots" to "I did it in sneakers".  Here are the things I considered:

1. Weight of footwear
2. Support for my ankles (weak things they are)
3. Waterproof-ness (that's a new technical hiking gear word)
4. Comfort
5. Cost
6. Style (not really but a little)

If there is one area of advice that I was given and can recycle to you all is...  Try them all on.  Take them home and wear around the house for a few days.  If the store doesn't suggest this option, move on to another one.  Be sure of your footwear.  I can live in wet, hot, and stinky but if my feet are in agony all the time, I may as well take in the sign and close up my Camino shop (figuratively speaking).

I opted not to buy online.  I suppose I could have tried shoes on in person then ordered but the ones I selected weren't any cheaper elsewhere. Sometimes service makes a huge difference and MEC has been excellent to me.  That is Mountain Equipment Coop (or MEC). If you check out my packing blog entry, you'll see they feature heavily in my supplier list.

What other websites did I use to understand what I was looking for in footwear?

There's a bajillion and I probably read at least ... 10 of them.  Here are the websites I kept coming back as reference:

REI - Hiking Boots: How to Choose
Outdoor Gear Lab - How to Choose the Best Hiking Shoe
BackCountry.com - How to Choose the Right Hiking Shoe & Backpacking Boots

Now while the terrain of the Camino is not expected to be very rough, I took these hints to heart when deciding between a hiking shoe or boot:

• Carrying a moderately heavy load
• A beginner or occasional hiker who needs more support to help out less developed muscles, or is prone to rolled ankles or tweaked knees.

(from backcountry.com) 

Ring a ding ding! Boots it is!

When I tried on the shoes I looked for a couple of things.

Fit - Were my toes squished? They shouldn't be.  In fact, you should have a thumbs width between the tip of the big toe to the tip of the boot toe.

*Tip: Easy way to gauge especially with a hard toed shoe is to take out the liner, place your heel against the back of the liner and measure accordingly.

Anti-Blister Factors - Did my heels move up and down or feel them slip when walking?  NO, unless you want blister torture! My boots ended up with some structure along the heel for stabilization and I'm happy to say that after about 50kms of walking, no blisters formed

Feeling Once Laced - Tight enough that there isn't excess movement but not too tight that it feels like your feet and toes are going to sleep.  I am planning a blog post on lacing shoes - we'll see.

After trying on 6 pairs and prancing around the store I settled on La Sportiva FC ECO 3.0 GTX Trail Shoes. They are called a shoe but I think they an excellent hybrid of boot and shoe. 

"Borrowed" from MEC.ca

WAIT!!!  WAIT once minute! My feet need a break from these boots.  20+ kms a day. What do I do?  Sandals folks.  Some light, airy, comfortable sandals.  If you need stability - then judge yourself accordingly. I haven't purchased mine quite yet but here is the top of my sandal heap (and no, Crocs are not part of my vocab - Ever).

Teva Terra Fi Lite Sandals

At about 396g or 14oz, it's about as much as I want to add to my pack. Good looking soles and support. Straps instead of being enclosed will allow my feet to breathe.

"Borrowed" from MEC.ca

Read This: Corey reminded me of a big tip I should share. Buy your footwear and give yourself time to break them in BEFORE the Camino. I will have a couple hundred kms on mine before I leave. Your feet need to love these boots/shoes, introduce them and make sure your feet and footwear love to snuggle.

Next up in this blog pilgrimage (see what I did there?) are my search for socks and how to tie my laces.

Buen Camino,
Lori

Heading out on longer hikes over rougher terrain

Carrying a moderately heavy load

A beginner or occasional hiker who needs more support to help out less-developed muscles, or who is prone to rolled ankles or tweaked knees

- See more at: http://www.backcountry.com/sc/how-to-choose-a-hiking-shoe-or-boot#sthash.gkDrgC7B.dpuf

Heading out on longer hikes over rougher terrain

Carrying a moderately heavy load

A beginner or occasional hiker who needs more support to help out less-developed muscles, or who is prone to rolled ankles or tweaked knees

- See more at: http://www.backcountry.com/sc/how-to-choose-a-hiking-shoe-or-boot#sthash.gkDrgC7B.dpuf

How to Choose the Right Hiking Shoes & Backpacking Boots - See more at: http://www.backcountry.com/sc/how-to-choose-a-hiking-shoe-or-boot#sthash.gkDrgC7B.dpuf

How to Choose the Right Hiking Shoes & Backpacking Boots - See more at: http://www.backcountry.com/sc/how-to-choose-a-hiking-shoe-or-boot#sthash.gkDrgC7B.dpuf