Cranberry Greek Yogurt Coffee Cake

I saw this recipe online at foodgawker last fall. It was full-on cranberry season, and I wanted something sweet to make on a Sunday afternoon.

This was the perfect thing!

It comes together in a snap. Then bakes up nice and golden.

You can either do a glaze for this cake (maybe a nice orange-flavored glaze would be nice) or powdered sugar.

We kept it simple with powdered sugar. Look how nice it looks.

It was so moist and delicious. I could see this as being a perfect breakfast cake or housewarming cake.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 12 ounces fresh or frozen cranberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a Bundt pan.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking power and salt and mix well.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until well-combined. Fold in the Greek yogurt and about half of the cranberries.

Spread half of the batter into the prepared pan and spread the remaining cranberries on top of that layer. Cover with the remaining batter.

Bake in the preheated oven for 55-65 minutes until the edges are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting.

Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Blueberries are in season!!!! There are so many blueberries everywhere and I love it.

What to do with so many blueberries……make a casual cake!

This cake is absolutely simple and yummy. It uses lemon zest and buttermilk to set it apart from other blueberry cakes.

This cake would be great to serve for a casual get-together in the evening, or a brunch in the morning!

Ingredients:

• ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 tsp. lemon zest or more — zest from 1 large lemon
• 7/8 cup* + 1 tablespoon sugar**
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• ½ cup buttermilk

* 7/8 cup = 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons
** This 1 tablespoon is for sprinkling on top

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cream butter with lemon zest and 7/8 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Meanwhile, toss the blueberries with ¼ cup of flour, then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt.

Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk. Fold in the blueberries.

Grease a 9-inch square baking pan (or something similar) with butter or coat with non-stick spray. Spread batter into pan. Sprinkle batter with remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake for 35 minutes. Check with a toothpick for doneness.

If necessary, return pan to oven for a couple of more minutes. (Note: Baking for as long as 10 minutes more might be necessary.) Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

Blackberry Buttermilk Cake

It’s almost blackberry time! I love this time of year, PERIOD, for so many reasons!!! But it’s always great when berries start to come into season.

I wanted to have a simple dessert to showcase the abundance of blackberries (and raspberies) I had in my fridge.

Raspberries and Blackberries – beautiful!

Spectacular berries…..dont you just want to stick your face in the bowl?

This cake goes together so easily – and uses buttermilk, along with basic ingredients you have in your pantry.

Doesnt that look beautiful before it’s even baked?

And then it looks even more amazing when it’s cooked!

It was so moist and delicious. We made 2 cakes and just sprinkled with sugar prior to baking.

Since this cake is more of a casual brunch/afternoon cake, it doesn’t need icing. The sugar on top was all it really needed to accompany the moistness of the cake and sweetness of the berries. You can also top with whipped cream and more berries.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups blackberries, plus more for serving
• Sweetened whipped cream, for serving (if desired)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400°. Butter a 9-inch-round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter the paper.

In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat the butter with the 2/3 cup of sugar at medium-high speed until fluffy, 3 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla. At low speed, beat in the buttermilk and dry ingredients in 3 alternating batches, ending with the dry ingredients; do not overbeat. Gently fold the batter just until blended, then scrape into the pan and smooth the top.

Scatter the 1 1/4 cups of blackberries over the batter; lightly press them in. Sprinkle the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar over the cake. Bake for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Transfer the cake to a rack to cool for 10 minutes. Turn out the cake and remove the paper. Turn the cake right side up and let cool completely. Serve with whipped cream/powdered sugar and more blackberries.

Makes one 9-inch cake.

Mrs. Olson’s Banana Bread with Buttercream Frosting

When my girlfriends and I were visiting Jen Olson in Iowa last fall, we talked a lot about food and recipes. We started to swap some recipes as well. Jen showed me her mom’s banana bread recipe and I quickly asked Jen to email it to me.

This bread is heavenly. It’s like no other banana bread I’ve ever had. It’s much more of a cake than anything.

You can really taste the brown sugar in the recipe – I think that’s what sets it apart from the rest. That, and there is a great amount of bananas added. Pay no mind to the burned quality of the bread……my oven was in poor shape 😦

And the icing…..oh man. This buttercream icing will now be my GO-TO icing for everything from now on. It is fabulous and sweet and creamy. I will probably need to make it its own blog post in the near future.

It’s a very simple bread, that is very people-pleasing. I took some in to share with my co-workers after Hurricane Sandy, and it was eaten immediately.

I am so thrilled that Jen shared her mom’s recipe with me. This will be my only banana bread recipe that I will ever need for life.

Look at this stuff……..sinful!!!!!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups brown sugar (you can sub a cup of white for one of brown if you prefer)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups mashed very ripe bananas
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 loaf pans.

Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs and vanilla and bananas. Add dry ingredients last.

Pour in loaf pans. Bake at 350 45-50 minutes or until done. (start checking around 40 minutes)

Jen’s mom served this bread with a buttercream frosting recipe that she added just a little bit more milk to make it a creamy spread.

The BEST Buttercream Frosting:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup half & half
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Directions:

Beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until creamy.

Gradually add powdered sugar and salt alternately with half & half and vanilla, scraping bowl often, until well mixed.

Stir in corn syrup.

When loaves are fully cooled, spread over top and serve.

Zucchini Bread

It’s that time of year when the zucchini is plentiful and it’s being sold DIRT CHEAP. I love to buy a bunch of odd-shaped zucchini from the farmers market and turn it into zucchini bread!

This is my mom’s recipe. It’s really the only zucchini bread I’ve ever known. And I am boldly saying that it is the ONLY recipe you will ever need for this bread.

Hand grating….the old fashioned way

Start off with freshly grated zucchini. You can either run it through the food processor grating-blade if you are doing a couple batches – fast and easy. Or if you are just whipping up 1-2 batches, you can grate your zucchini on a hand-grater (see above).

The ingredients really come together quite easy.

If you are a nut person, DEFINITELY add the walnuts. I am not really a nut person, but I know that the walnuts take this zucchini bread from great to amazing!! You can also add raisins if you like, but I never do.

I tend to go nuts and make a TON of the little mini-loaves and bring them to work, give them to friends/family, and also keep some in the freezer to pull out on a random night.

You can see the zucchini, but it just tastes like heaven

Cant you get a whiff of the cinnamon??? My house smelled like sugar and cinnamon for a day after I made the latest batch…..yum!

Joan’s Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2.5 cups of sugar
• 2+ cups grated raw zucchini
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour your pans. This recipe makes either 6 little loaf pans, 1 9×5 loaf pan, 2 large loaf pans, or 1 3-quart bundt pan.

Beat the eggs until foamy. Gradually beat in oil and sugar.

Add cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder – mix well. Then add grated zucchini.

Gradually blend in flour. Then fold in chopped nuts.

Bake for 1 hour. This bread freezes really well.