Stuesel Coffee Cake

Who doesn't like coffee cake?
This one is came out nicely. I didn't have a tube cake pan, but it worked out fine in a bundt pan. Make sure you watch the baking time carefully or it will easily over bake and come out dry. I think next time I make this, I'll double the streusel.

Sour Cream Streusel Coffee Cake (Ina Garten)
Preheat oven to 350F

1 1/2 sticks butter
1 1/2 C sugar
3 X-large eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 1/4 C sour cream
2 1/2 C cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt



Cream butter and sugar until creamy and light in color (4 min)
Add eggs, vanilla and sour cream. Combine well.



Sift dry ingredients and slowly add to batter and mix well.

Streusel
1/4 C brown sugar
1/2 C flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp kosher salt
3 T cold unsalted butter



Mix together streusel ingredients and crumble in the butter with your fingers or a pastry blender. Spoon half of the batter in a pan and sprinkle with about 3/4 C streusel. Fill with remaining batter...


Top with the rest of the streusel.
Bake for about 50 min. and cool.



Mix about 1/2C confectioners sugar with 2 T maple syrup.



Drizzle over cake and ENJOY!

Eggnog Pound Cake with Butter Rum Glaze

Around the holidays I usually have a hankering for my mom's Rum Cake! Its so delicious.

I was about to bake one, but I came across an eggnog pound cake recipe that sounded interesting as well, so I decided to meld the 2 recipes together! In the end, it was tasty, but I prefer my mom's rum cake.

There are a few things I'd change with this recipe:

- more rum in the cake batter

- full box of vanilla pudding mix

- chopped pecans mom puts on top. I think it does help the glaze to soak into the cake more.

Eggnog Pound Cake
Preheat oven to 350 F

2 sticks unsalted butter
3 eggs
2 C sugar
1 C eggnog
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 rum

3 cups flour
3 T instant vanilla pudding mix
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg


Mix dry ingredients together.
Grease Bundt pan and dust with flour.


Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.


Add flour in 3 additions, alternating with eggnog and ending with flour. Add vanilla and rum.

Bake for about 55 minutes - or until cake is done.

Butter Rum Glaze
1/4C water
1/4C butter
1/2C sugar
2T dark rum



Melt butter, add sugar and water bring to a boil for 5 min.
Take off the heat and add rum.

Let cake cool for 5-10 minutes and remove from pan.

Poke holes on the top of the cake and pour glaze over while cake is still warm.

Chocolate Guinness Stout Cupcakes

YAY! This month is Loose Cannon Studio's 3rd anniversary!
Can you believe it? Congratulations to Dev and Matt for the inception Nov. 2005 in our living room. "2 Guys and a Fax machine!"

I decided to make these cupcakes for the celebration!
(veering away from my stealth health streak, but hey, it's a special occasion and Dev and I didn't eat them all ourselves.

I have to say, I came across way too many variations of this recipe...
Cream the butter and sugar together OR
Melt the butter, take off the heat and add the Stout OR
Heat the butter and Stout together?
Granulated sugar only OR
Brown sugar only
Add oil, milk or molasses
Add 1 cup of stout OR 2 cups OR 1 bottle... and so on.
Oh well, This is what I ended up doing:

Preheat oven to 350F

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes
12 oz CAN Guinness stout
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
1 T vanilla
3 eggs
3/4 C plain yogurt
3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
2C granulated sugar
1/2C golden brown sugar
2 C all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt


Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat, adding Guinness Stout and bring to a simmer.


Reduce heat and add cocoa powder - whisk until smooth.
Remove from heat to cool.

In another bowl, mix together flour, sugars, baking soda and salt.


Beat eggs until thick until light in color – about 4 minutes on medium to high speed. Add yogurt and beat until combined.

While mixer is running, slowly add the chocolate-stout mixture to the egg mixture until combined.
Add the flour mixture and stir until well mixed.


Bake 12 minutes for minis
18 for full size

For the frosting:
1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1 C heavy cream
confectioners' sugar

Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Slowly add cream and continue to beat until well combined. Add confectioner's sugar to taste - about one pound (half a bag)


End result:
Texture: moist!
Taste: Guinness was fairly subtle, but good. Honestly, it tasted a lot like Duncan Hines box cake mix to me. Does that mean Duncan hines tastes homemade, OR does this recipe taste like a box cake mix? Considering all the work, I wonder if I could've just added Stout to a box mix instead. BAH.