Tag Archives: bundt cake recipe

When You Visit Maui And Tote Home Exquisite Vanilla Beans, You Must Make This…

Posted on by 2 comments
A rich cake fragrant with three vanilla beans and vanilla extract.
A rich cake fragrant with three vanilla beans and vanilla extract.

For the longest time, I have wondered what happened to the glorious Maui Gold pineapples that I used to snag so easily at Bay Area Costcos and local grocery stores.

A recent trip to Maui turned up an explanation for why they are MIA here — along with an unexpected gift of wonderfully aromatic Maui-grown vanilla beans.

It all started one morning just after I finished breakfast at the Westin Maui Resort & Spa. Guests like myself staying in the newly revamped Hokupa’a Tower rooms enjoy breakfast bites on the lanai included in their reservations. To make the lanai more festive, the resort often has featured performers, chef demos or other entertainment.

Maui-grown vanilla beans.
Maui-grown vanilla beans.

That morning, I spied Michael Schenk at a counter, cutting up samples of Maui Gold pineapples to give out to guests. Or rather, my nose first caught wind of the unmistakable sweet, tangy, tropical scent of the fruit and I followed it to its source.

Read more

Big Daddy’s Cake

Posted on by 6 comments
Bake your father a "Big Daddy's Cake'' this holiday.
Bake your father a “Big Daddy’s Cake” this holiday.

Big cake?

Big yeah!

We’re talking three sticks of butter and six eggs in this baby.

Could there be a more apt treat for Father’s Day than “Big Daddy’s Cake”?

This substantial cake — full of nuts, a “tunnel” of chocolate inside, and glazed with still more chocolate — is from the new cookbook, “Chocolate Is Forever: Classic Cakes, Cookies, Pastries, Pies, Puddings, Candies, Confections, and More” (Little, Brown and Company), of which I received a review copy. It’s by the legendary self-taught baker Maida Heatter, who passed away in 2019, but not before inspiring a legion of bakers, both amateur and professional ones.

This collection of nearly 100 chocolate-centric recipes features everything from “Sour Cherry Chocolate Torte” and “Hungarian Seven-Layer Cake” to “Key West Chocolate Treasures,” “Viennese Chocolate Ice Box Cookies,” and “Chocolate-Chip-Cognac-Coffee Ice Cream.”

This particular cake will bake up to the very top of a regular Bundt pan, so be sure to use a large-sized classic one, not one of the smaller, more fancifully designed ones.

Read more

Too Good To Wait: Marbled Red Wine and Chocolate Bundt Cake

Posted on by 11 comments
A cake made for chocolate and wine lovers.
A cake made for chocolate and wine lovers.

Whenever my Mom started reading a new novel, the first thing she did was turn to the last chapter to see how it ends.

My Dad and I used to laugh and shake our heads in disbelief.

But I think I inherited a little of that gene because I don’t always adhere to strict order, either.

Take the new “365: A Year of Everyday Cooking and Baking” (Prestel) by Berlin-based food writer Meike Peters.

I couldn’t wait to tear into Peters new cookbook, especially because I loved her first one, “Eat in My Kitchen: To Cook, to Bake, to Eat, and to Treat” (Prestel), which won a James Beard Award.

As the name implies, this new cookbook, of which I received a review copy, offers up an entire year’s worth of recipes. Yes, one for each and every day.

The recipes are arranged from January to December, with everything from soups to salads to mains to desserts. The delights include “Saffron and Clementine Cake” in February, “Salmon with Juniper-Gin Butter” in April, “Squash Pasta with Orange, Maple, and Sage” in September, and “Spiced Chestnut and Apple Pie” in November.

I know it’s October, but when it came time to try my first recipe from the book, I leaped ahead unapologetically to January. Hey, you would, too, for a taste of “Marbled Red Wine and Chocolate Bundt Cake.”

Read more