Food & Recipes - grace grits and gardening

How NOT to bake a Strawberry Cake.

May 19, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

We have many traditions in our family including Nana’s strawberry cake recipe. Since my birthday always happened during our Fourth of July trip to the lake, Momma (or Nana) baked a fresh strawberry cake at home to carry with us. (No one wanted to do real cooking at the lake.) Even after driving through the Ozarks, waiting in line at the ferry, and stopping in town for groceries, the cake was dreamy and luscious. We gorged on it all week.

This weekend, (daughter) Kelsey and I messed with tradition. For (son) Tate’s twenty-first birthday, we decided to tweak the recipe. Since we both love to cook, we thought it would be fun to try something new. We researched on-line recipes. Only a 4.5 star recipe would do.

Clearly, we weren’t right in our heads. Why mess with perfection? (Our excuses—I’d been cooped up too long in the house writing, and she’d just finished law school finals.)

The recipe we selected looked wonderful. It contained strawberry preserves and fresh strawberries and cake flour and vanilla bean paste. Plus there was buttermilk. Buttermilk means serious baking, y’all.

And oh my goodness, the batter. We licked the spatula and most of the bowl. Best batter ever. Light and fluffy.

We were feeling smug about our new and improved strawberry cake right up to the moment we tasted the finished product.

What a complete waste of calories. The cake was dense and flavorless, more like a bad grocery store bundt cake than fresh homemade cake-cake. The frosting was all wrong and not sweet enough.

It wasn’t Nana’s cake.

Not even close.

If Nana was watching (and of course she was), I’m sure she was thoroughly entertained by the whole birthday cake tasting debacle. The birthday boy pretended to like it. The rest of us gagged a few bites down. Kelsey had to cleanse her palate with a plain strawberry. (It did leave a strange aftertaste.) My sister’s boyfriend said it tasted like Nestle’s Quik strawberry drink from back in the day.

Even with a less than stellar cake, the day was a success because it was spent with family. We’ll be laughing about our cake experiment for a while…

Luckily we still have Nana’s 5-star recipe. And with my birthday only fifty-two days away, I know we’ll get the real thing soon enough at the lake. Momma will see to it.

Nana – baker of the best strawberry cake…

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

P.S. Today as I went back to review the recipe we used (trying to decide whether or not to call it out on my blog), I realized we chose a 2-star recipe! Not sure HOW that happened after reading so many 4 and 5 star recipes. Like I said, we weren’t in our right minds. This whole thing would have been avoided had we read the reviews. So be sure to never make the Country Living Fresh Strawberry Cake. It’s anything but.

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” ― Julia Child

Musical Pairing:

Carry on Wayward Son

Quinoa with Curried Yogurt and Mango

May 9, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

This is one of my new favorite quinoa recipes (adapted from Epicurious). If you happen to be one of those people who turns a nose up at quinoa or Greek yogurt or curry (I was that way forever), you may change your mind when you taste the flavor combination of this dish. I agree, plain quinoa doesn’t have much flavor, but that’s what makes it so versatile. Quinoa will highlight and enhance whatever herbs, veggies or fruit you toss with it. And this curried yogurt, ginger and mango combination is TASTEEEE!

Quinoa is considered a superfood. Yes, it seems the whole “superfood” thing has been talked to death, but the health benefits of quinoa are real:

high in protein;
low in calories;
source of riboflavin (relief for migraine sufferers);
gluten-free; and
low glycemic index.

So let’s get to it.

Mango, mint and onion. (You can use the green parts of the onion too. The bulb part of my onion was so huge, I saved the greens for something else.)

Quinoa with Curried Yogurt and Mango

Print Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups dry quinoa
1/3 cup Greek yogurt I use Fage
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large ripe mango pitted and diced
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1 Tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon fresh ginger
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup fresh mint chopped
1 fresh jalapeño seeded and chopped

Instructions

Rinse and cook quinoa according to directions on package.
In a large bowl, whisk together yogurt, lime juice, curry, ginger, salt, pepper. Add vegetable oil and whisk until blended.
Add quinoa, mango, jalapeño and mint into bowl with yogurt. Fold together. Store in refrigerator. Serve chilled, at room temperature or warm.

This quinoa recipe will serve 6-8. I like to make a big bowl and eat it every day for lunch. For variety, try a scoop with fresh arugula salad topped with homemade blueberry granola.

Grace Grits and Gardening

P.S. One last thing…Have you see the hilarious Bud Light commercial about quinoa? Seriously funny. I’ve included it below.

Hilarious Bud Light Commercial

Molten Chocolate Cake. Oh my ganache!

April 24, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

(Eggs for this recipe were provided by Great Day Farms. All opinions are my own.)

This molten chocolate cake recipe comes with a warning: not to be shared with the chocolate lightweight. With one scoop of the spoon, the luscious chocolate center flows like Willie Wonka’s river. Serious chocolate here, people.

This recipe is courtesy of Sur la table cooking school, where I learned to make it (along with creme brûlée—BeStillMyHeart). Here’s my rule about cooking class recipes—if I can successfully repeat it at home, (and by successfully I mean it turns out the same), it’s a keeper. Plus, if the steps are easy and the ingredients basic, I consider it blog-able and too good not to share.

Chocolat-y heaven.

This one passed the test. I think you’ll agree!

Molten Chocolate Cake

Print Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter plus melted butter for brushing
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup plus 1 extra tablespoon all-purpose flour divided
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
Confectioners' sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Using a silicon pastry brush, prepare the inside of four 6-ounce ramekins with melted butter.
In a small bowl, whisk the cocoa powder with 1 tablespoon of the flour; dust the ramekins with the cocoa mixture, tapping out the excess. Transfer the ramekins to a sturdy baking sheet and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, melt 1 stick of butter with the chocolate over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Let cool slightly.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the granulated sugar with the eggs and salt at medium-high speed until thick and pale yellow, 3 minutes. Using a silicone spatula, fold in the melted chocolate until no streaks remain. Fold in the 1/4 cup of flour.
Spoon the batter into the prepared ramekins. Bake in the center of the oven for 10-12 minutes, until the tops are cracked but the centers are still slightly jiggly. Transfer the ramekins to a cooling rack for 5-8 minutes.
Run the tip of a small knife around each cake to loosen. Invert a small plate over each cake and, using potholders, invert again. Carefully lift off the ramekins. Dust the warm cakes with confectioners' sugar. Serve immediately with optional whipped cream or ice cream.