Chocolate Peanut Butter Bundt Cake

During this crazy time of year known as "tax season", my Hubbers and I literally work 7 days a week.  Sundays have become my favorite work day. I can wear my yoga pants to work.  There are no phones ringing, no clients to talk to (I love my clients, but it's tiring explaining tax law all day long!) I turn on some music or listen to the latest drag race on audiocast and work on more complicated projects. I usually have a game plan going into the weekend, a list of projects that I want to complete. It keeps me focused and gives me a sense of accomplishment as I head into Monday and the chaos that will ensue. On a recent Sunday I finished everything on my list by 12:30, my goal had been 2:00.  I was quite happy with myself and ready to tackle some other projects, to get ahead of the game.  But first I had to upload my client's QuickBooks file that I had worked on all morning. Alas, none of my journal entries were there!  It seems I had been working in the wrong dated file! Ugh, I had to retrace my steps, re-do everything and re-do the tax return I had just finished. By the time I did that I was behind schedule. I headed for home so I could play in the kitchen a bit and de-stress.

I have been wanting to make this chocolate bundt cake for a while now, so I put the butter, eggs, milk and sour cream on the counter to come to room temperature.  While I waited for that I hunkered down in my craft room and worked on a quilt block. It seems I was ripping out more seams than I was sewing.  I don't know if it was from lack of concentration or my brain was really tired, but I just kept messing up! I'm a perfectionist, like all my seams and points to be perfect, so rip, rip, rip I went!  I finally got the block done.  I looked at the clock and it was 6pm!  Dinner hadn't been started, nor had the cake.

I worked on the cake batter while simultaneously cooking rice on the stove and getting veggies in the oven. Thankfully, my Hubbers was grilling the tri tip! The cake came together wonderfully and we sat down to eat right after I got the cake in the oven.  About 10 minutes later we started smelling some burning.  The cake was overflowing the pan! I re-read the recipe and it warned that the cake pan should only be filled 3/4 full, the extra could be used for cupcakes.  Obviously, I missed that part of the instructions! By the time the cake was done I had a nice little charred mess on the bottom of my oven , which will need to be cleaned soon!

It seemed everything I touched that day was a disaster! Despite all the miscues of my day, the cake turned out delicious.  It is tender and moist.  The chocolate and peanut butter batters compliment each other nicely.  The peanut butter glaze is amazingly good! A piece of cake and a glass of milk and all was right in my world once more!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bundt Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 cups milk, room temperature
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 cup creamy peanut butter

Peanut Butter Glaze:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
3-4 tablespoons half & half (or enough to achieve thick drizzling consistency)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour (or using baking spray) a bundt pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a stand mixer beat butter on medium speed for 1 minute. Slowly add the sugar and beat until combined until light and fluffy (about 4 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl as necessary. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla.

Add half the flour mixture, then half the milk, and beat until just combined.  Add remaining flour mixture and milk and beat until just combined.

Transfer half the batter to a medium bowl. Stir in the melted chocolate. Stir the peanut butter into the other half of the batter.

Using a separate spoon for each batter, alternately dropping spoonfuls of the chocolate and peanut butter batters into the prepared bundt pan. (Fill your pan 3/4 full.  If batter remains, use it in a smaller pan or for cupcakes.  Trust me on this! See above!) Use a knife or spatula to swirl the batter together being careful not to overmix.  You want the batters marbled.

Bake for 60 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely.

To make the glaze, combine all glaze ingredients in a bowl and mix until you get the desired glaze consistency. Drizzle over cooled cake.

Swirl the batter just enough to get a marbling of the batters.

Jamaretti Cookies

I love anything with almond paste in it, especially amaretti cookies, and any baked good made with jam.  This bar cookie combines the flavor of an amaretti with a jam filling, thus the name, jamaretti! I've had the recipe from Martha Stewart ear-marked to try for a while now.  I ran across a version that had orange zest in the cookie dough and orange juice and zest in the glaze and knew I would be baking them soon!  It's crazy tax season time in my office and I put a platter of these by the coffee pot, they didn't last long! They make a nice little treat with your morning coffee!

I made the dough the night before and got up a little early to roll out the dough and bake them. They baked while I showered, it was a great use of time! Any kind of jam can be used, I used apricot and boysenberry for this batch.  Raspberry would be good, too. They are a little chewy, not too sweet, and very tasty!

Jamaretti Cookies

2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 oz. almond paste, cubed
1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, cubed
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
2/3 cup jam (apricot, boysenberry/blackberry, raspberry)

Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh orange zest
2 teaspoons fresh orange juice
2 teaspoons milk

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Combine almond paste, orange zest, and sugar in a food processor and pulse until blended. Add butter, eggs, and almond extract, and blend until smooth. Add flour mixture and pulse just until a soft dough forms. Divide dough in half, scrape out onto two pieces of plastic wrap (dough will be sticky), shape into a disk, and wrap well.  Chill dough until firm, 45 minutes to 1 hour (dough can be made ahead).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. On a lightly floured board, shape dough into two 14 x 3-inch logs; transfer to baking sheet. Bake logs for 15 minutes, until just set. Remove from oven and make an indentation down the center of each log with the back of a tablespoon.  Place jam in a small bowl and warm briefly in the microwave (about 10 seconds). Stir jam to loosen, then fill the center of each log with jam. Return logs to oven and continue baking 12 to 14 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven and place baking sheet on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the glaze, whisk together powdered sugar, salt, orange zest, orange juice, and milk in a small bowl.  Drizzle glaze over logs, and let set before using a serrated knife to cut logs on the diagonal (like biscotti). Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

Adapted from Martha Stewart and Tutti-Dolci.

Orange Mimosa Cake

The only fresh, local fruit this time of year is citrus. It seems all my friends have trees and I've been (luckily) inundated with fresh oranges and lemons. My son has an orange tree and I've gone through quite a few buckets from his tree. I'm always looking for new recipes to try and this cake, from the cookbook Grandbaby Cakes: Modern Recipes, Vintage Charm, Soulful Memories, caught my eye. Her recipe calls for blood oranges.  I had no blood oranges and needed to use up the fresh-from-the-tree oranges I had.  Blood oranges have a pink tint to them.  The resulting pink in the glaze would make this cake a perfect dessert for a Valentine's Day celebration. It was good with traditional oranges but I am looking forward to making it with blood oranges.

This is basically a pound cake; lots of mixing of the butter and sugar.  It's got a wonderful orange flavor as orange zest is rubbed into the sugar, thus distributing the orange all throughout the cake. It gets extra moistness from the simple syrup that is poured over the baked cake. It was great for dessert and it was great for a mid-morning treat!

A bonus to making this cake is that there will be leftover champagne. A little bubbly, while baking? Why not!

Orange Mimosa Cake

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 3/4 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
3 cups sifted cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup pink  Champagne
3 tablespoons orange zest
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Simple Syrup
1/2 cup pink  Champagne
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup fresh orange juice

Orange Glaze
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice

Heat oven to 315 degrees. Spray a 10-cup bundt pan with nonstick baking spray.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar with the orange zest. Using your fingers, rub the zest into the sugar until fragrant.

Add the butter and salt to the bowl and cream together with the sugar. Beat on medium-high for 7 minutes, until butter is pale yellow and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, combining well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Reduce speed to low and slowly add the flour in two batches, mixing each time until just combined. Pour in the champagne and vanilla extract and mix until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 70-80 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate. Let cool to room temperature.

To make the simple syrup, in a small pot over medium heat, combine all the ingredients and cook until the mixture is reduced by about a third and thickened; about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

For the glaze, whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl until it is a pourable consistency.

To assemble cake, poke holes all over the cooled cake with a skewer or fork. Slowly pour the simple syrup over the cake so it's absorbed. Repeat until the syrup is used up.

Drizzle the glaze over the cake and let it set for 10 minutes.