Tag Archive for: cake

Bakeries: Kiss My Bundt

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Chrysta Wilson, chef-owner of the West Hollywood bakery Kiss My Bundt may not be a southern baker, but her inspiration came straight from the south. All I know is no matter where these cakes came from, I want one HERE right now!

Watching in awe as her Southern aunt baked cakes and confections, an 8-year-old Chrysta Wilson wanted to use the oven like a “big girl.” When her mother and aunt gave her an Easy-Bake Oven that year, Wilson began her love affair with desserts.

These days, the owner of Kiss My Bundt makes all of her confections from scratch, using hand-selected ingredients from the local dairy and farmers markets. The sassy 30-year-old also gets a kick out of giving the students in her baking academy one mischievous piece of advice: “Go say bundt hole to someone you know tomorrow,” she tells her class.

It is everything except the hole, however, that keeps customers coming back to the Mid-City bakery.

“It has sexy curves like a woman, and the glazes hug those curves,” Wilson says. During one of the 22 classes she teaches each month, named “Bundts and Booze,” one student fumbled with an ingredient. “Inventions are created by mistake, right?” he jokes.

“God knows, that’s how this store was created,” his instructor responds.

In the past year, the statuesque baker has taught roughly 1,300 people how to bake a proper bundt. And since her bakery opened, in August 2008, Wilson has been commended for her nontraditional cake flavors, such as maple-bacon, Tecate and lime-basil…

 

Some Southern Wisdom: Cake for Breakfast

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From a graceful little blog called A Southern Grace, comes a tasty recipe for Crumb Cake. This is the kind of cake you have for breakfast when you’re feeling like cake for breakfast is exactly the perfect thing (and we think it often is.)

Crumby Crumb Cake

(based on this recipe, which is based on this recipe – but all our credit goes to Grace from A Southern Grace for this one.)

Crumbs:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Cake:
1/3 cup vanilla yogurt, low fat
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
To make the crumbs, in a large bowl, stir together the sugars, cinnamon, salt and butter until smooth. Stir in the flour with a spatula. It should look like a solid dough. Pat it down and set it aside.
To prepare the cake, in a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, eggs, and vanilla. In a larger bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the softened butter and a spoonful of the yogurt mixture and mix until flour is moistened. Add the remaining yogurt mixture in two batches, beating after each addition and scraping down the sides of bowl with a spatula. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the blueberries over the batter. Using your fingers, break the topping mixture into big crumbs, about 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch in size. Sprinkle the lovely crumbs over the blueberries. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean of batter, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

Durham NC’s Watts Grocery Bakes

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Pecan-Cornmeal Butter Cakes

The New York Times April 20 Dining section has a great story about the flowering of restaurants in Durham, North Carolina (Durham, a Tobacco Town, Turns to Local Food).  When I lived there in the 1970s, the food was great, but the range of cookery was nowhere as bountiful as it is today.

Watts Grocery represents the best that Durham has to offer these days, and that’s alot –  Frommer’s gives it 5 stars:

“…this down-home eatery run by Durham native Amy Tornquist serves the best farm-fresh fare in the area. The chef-owner believes in serving the best of Piedmont produce, and every rib-sticking dish is homemade. You can get fried chicken gizzards here just like grandma used to make when she wasn’t baking those red velvet cupcakes. Sandwiches, burgers, and salads dominate the luncheon menu, featuring a fried green tomato BLT, even (our favorite) hand-cut buttermilk onion rings with a chipotle-blue cheese dipping sauce. At night it gets fancier with entrees ranging from braised rabbit in red wine to yellowtail snapper filets stuffed with crabmeat. Buttermilk pancakes and shrimp and grits highlight the breakfast menu.”

Amy gave us her recipe for Pecan-Cornmeal Butter Cakes that ran in the NY Times, and now that I have baked up a batch, I can affirm that this is a wonderful and unusual dessert that perfectly represents the new style in Southern cooking.  Enjoy making and eating them.  If you’re like me, you’re already thinking about your next trip to North Carolina to visit this restaurant!

Time: One hour, plus at least 3 hours’ cooling

9 ounces unsalted butter, plus extra for pans

1 cup pecans, toasted and cooled

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for berries (optional)

3/8 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

7/8 cup white cornmeal, plus extra for pans

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

8 egg whites

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Berries, for serving

Ice cream or whipped cream, for serving.

1. In a small pan, simmer butter over low heat until light brown and toasty, 8 to 10 minutes. Strain and set aside.

2. In a food processor, rapidly pulse pecans, confectioners’ sugar and 1/4 cup granulated sugar until finely ground.

3. Sift flour and baking powder together. Mix in cornmeal and salt. Mix in pecan-sugar mixture.

4. Whisk egg whites and vanilla together just to combine and whisk into dry ingredients. Whisk in melted butter. Refrigerate batter at least three hours or overnight.

5. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Thickly butter 10 four-inch tartlet pans or a muffin-top tin. Dust well with cornmeal. Fill each a little more than halfway. If you have extra batter, make a second batch.

6. Bake until golden, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool 5 to 10 minutes in pans, then immediately turn out on a rack. Serve warm, topped with berries (if you like, stir with a little sugar and set aside for a few minutes), ice cream or whipped cream.

Yield: 8 to 12 small cakes.

Thank you Amy Tornquist and the Watts Grocery, located at 1116 Broad St, Durham, NC – call 919/416-5040 for reservations.