my adventures in baking: Boyajian

Zesty Orange Streusel Coffee Cake

pretty coffee cake, just out of the oven

I wanted to make a coffee cake one Saturday morning but didn't have a tried and true recipe...so I adapted a couple of Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipes from Rose's Heavenly Cakes and made my own. Since it's an adaptation, I'll include my recipes below for the streusel filling and for the cake itself. I didn't make the full streusel filling recipe because I only needed it for filling and not to cover the top of a cake, so my measurements are approximate. Use more or less, to your liking (you don't need much more though!).

Streusel Filling ingredients (adapted from Cinnamon Crumb Topping, by Rose Levy Beranbaum)
approx. 70 grams (3/4 cup) walnut halves, finely chopped
2 T melted butter
approx. 50 grams (1/4 cup or so) total of light brown sugar and granulated sugar, use mostly brown sugar
30 grams (1/4 cup) all-purpose flour
1/2 t cinnamon
scant 1/4 t freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 t cardamom
drop of orange oil

Streusel instructions: melt the butter and stir in the sugars, spices, flour, and orange oil. Mix in the flour and the finely chopped walnuts. Set aside.

Zesty Orange Streusel Coffee Cake ingredients (adapted from Lemon Poppy Seed Sour Cream Cake, by Rose Levy Beranbaum)
2 large eggs PLUS 1 large egg yolk, at room temp
200 grams (3/4 c plus 1 T) plain, full fat, strained Greek yogurt (I used Fage), separate out approx. 1/4 cup which you'll use to mix with the eggs. I think you could also use sour cream instead of yogurt
1 3/4 t vanilla
1/2 t orange oil (I used Boyajian)

250 grams (2 c plus 3 T) all purpose flour
250 grams (1 1/4 c) granulated sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 salt
zest from 2 oranges
200 grams (14 T) unsalted butter, at room temp

Preheat oven to 350 and put the oven rack on the bottom third of the oven. Spray your 10 c bundt cake pan with a baking spray with flour (I love the Spectrum Organics brand). I use this Nordic Ware 'Heritage' pan. It is wonderful. It's heavy and the sharp edges make the most beautiful cakes...no frosting or other embellishment is needed.

Cake instructions (also adapted from Rose's sour cream cakes method - no alternating of mixing in the milk and flour - it's the best!):

In a small/medium bowl, mix together: eggs, egg yolk, 1/4 of the yogurt, vanilla, orange oil, set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment to combine the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, orange zest. Add the softened butter and remaining yogurt. Mix on low until combined, scrape down, and then increase speed to med-high for 90 seconds to two minutes.

Add the egg-yogurt mixture in two parts, mixing on low until combined and then on med-high for about 30-40 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl when adding the eggs.

Spoon about 2/3 of the batter into the bundt pan, then create a 'well' into which you can spoon the filling. Spoon in the streusel filling in, and then gently spoon over the remaining batter. Smooth the batter with a small offset spatula being careful not to mix up the streusel mixture.

Bake for 45-50 minutes (mine was done at 48 minutes), until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan, on a rack, for 8 minutes, then turn out onto your serving plate and let cool completely (or...if you're like me, eat while still warm).

The cake came out really well. It had a really light crumb and the filling was a delicious mix of nuts, sugar, and spices. I'll definitely make this one again. Enjoy!

ingredients for the streusel filling. Use whatever spices you like best.

mise en place for the cake

I used some of my homemade vanilla extract

the batter with the dry ingredients, plus butter and yogurt...

and now the egg-yogurt mixture added in...smooth!

about 2/3 of the batter is scooped into the pan

then the streusel filling is added

add the remaining batter...

and carefully smooth over the filling

I love the edges that this bundt pan creates

this is a little smooshed because I was too impatient to let it
cool completely before slicing...but tasted delicious!

Bye for now...

Heavenly Cake Baker: Lemon Poppy Seed Sour Cream Cake

The Heavenly Cake Baker club is over now, but I still frequently bake from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Rose's Heavenly Cakes cookbook. Her recipes are very straightforward and always delicious. She also has a great method (read: easy) for making cakes. You combine the dry ingredients, add the butter and part of the sour cream, beat for a couple of minutes to create air in the batter, then add the eggs and remainder of sour cream and then beat. So much easier than the old alternating the dry and wet ingredients, starting/ending with the dry.

So, back to this cake...although I am not a huge fan of poppyseeds, I've been wanting to try to make a poppyseed cake for a while, so who better to turn to than Rose? I have memories of my mother making some sort of lemon poppyseed pound cake when I was younger so maybe that is why I wanted to try this recipe? Well, regardless of the reason I felt compelled to bake it, this Lemon Poppy Seed Sour Cream Cake was fantastic.

Even though it had a lovely light lemony flavor (and I even added lemon oil, not called for in the recipe), I would probably add some freshly squeezed lemon juice next time to punch up the lemon flavor a bit. I would also cut back on the poppyseeds slightly. The recipe also called for lemon syrup to be brushed on after baking...which I skipped. So I would definitely make the syrup next time and this might also help with the lemon flavor.

mise en place

oops, I accidentally started by beating the butter...no worries, I'll just mix
the dry ingredients in another bowl and then add to my mixer bowl

here we go, the dry ingredients mixed and added back to the mixer bowl

in goes 1/2 c of the sour cream

the butter and most of the sour cream are mixed in and beaten for 90 seconds
and then the remaining wet ingredients are added

and done...into the pan!

so pretty and smells great

a slice for the chef

delicious!

Bye for now...

Carrotcake Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

I made these cupcakes a couple of years ago for my birthday and they were SO good. The frosting alone is amazing...I think I could just eat the frosting on its own. It is cream cheesey, orangey, and sweet. So delicious.
I think the Carrotcake Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting came out much better this time. I added more spices, added raisins, and used more butter than oil (I ran out of oil so had to improvise). I also used a larger shredder for the carrots so the pieces were larger and more noticeable in the finished cupcake. I really liked the addition of the raisins, and more butter was nice too. I think using more melted butter versus all oil made the batter thicker, more like a cake batter, instead of thinner like it was last time. The cupcakes lasted almost a week (unfrosted), covered on the kitchen counter. I kept the frosting in the fridge and scooped a bit out as needed, letting it warm to room temperature before using.

The recipe is 24-Karat Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Icing from Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions (page 239).