Harrison's First Birthday Cake

The biggest reason my blogging has become so infrequent is I've got this little man around that takes up so much of my time. It's fantastic. This past Friday was his birthday, so we went with the family to Lincoln City to celebrate one year of Harrison.

Of course I made him his own cake. It was a process that took a couple of weeks and lots of test cakes. Some were too snack cake, some were disgusting (that's what I get for trying sugar free), and some were just meh. But I found one that was just right and then, as I do, started to modify. I used the frosting from my favorite baby food blog/book (thanks Renai!) and along with some exploding writing icing and a bit of cinnamon, we had a cake.

Harrison tried to eat a slice whole. I'd say that's a success.

Harrison's First Birthday Cake adapted from Martha Stewart and Wholesome Baby Food:

Makes 1 9" 2 layer cake

For the cake -

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 c. whole wheat flour

1½ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. salt

¼–½ tsp. cinnamon

½ c. sugar

½ c. butter, melted

½-¾ c. yogurt

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 c.)

For the frosting -

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

¾ c. sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1½ c. heavy cream

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 300 degrees. Butter and flour two 9x2 round cake pans. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and sugar. Blend in the melted butter, mixing together until moist. Add half of your yogurt and combine.

In a separate bowl, combine the other half of the yogurt with the eggs and blend into the flour mixture. Add the vanilla and mashed bananas. Beat for 1 minute. Divide the batter between the two cake pans and place in center of oven. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. When cake is done, top should be a golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean.

Cool cakes on a cooling rack in pans and then invert onto rack to cool completely.

While cakes are cooling, make the frosting. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, salt, and vanilla until smooth. In a small bowl, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Fold into the cream cheese mixture.

When the cake have cooled, place one top side up on a cake stand or inverted plate. Place a big dollop of frosting in the center and spread evenly across the top. This is going to be that tasty middle layer of frosting, but don't go too bananas (haha), you need enough to frost the rest of the cake. Place the other cake top side down over this frosting layer. Put a huge amount of frosting in the center of the top and spread it across and down the sides. Keep turning the cake until you've frosted the whole thing. Stick a large knife or spatula or anything long you can find to remove the cake from the plate and onto another one. This is a great two person process, so wrangle someone in to help you.

Once on the other plate, stick in the fridge for at least 10 minutes to let the frosting firm up a bit before doing any further decorating.

Slice it up and watch an adorable one year old get his first piece of cake. Also, some other people ate it, but you know, priorities. 

Nectarine Plum Cake

I love summer desserts. Fruit in summer is the best thing. Okay, fruit any season is the best thing, but it’s summer now, so let’s focus on that. This week I’m going to post a few summer dessert recipes because a) summer b) I like baking and c) yeah, okay, I promise to blog about something with garlic again soon, even though 4 of my last 7 post have included garlic. Anyway…

Sometimes I get crazy ideas into my head. Like – I really want cake and even though it’s 9 pm, I’m going to bake one. Fortunately this cake is a snap and you won’t be up forever waiting for cake. My grandma used to make me a peach cake every summer when she came to visit my family in Alaska. I didn’t have any peaches, but figured any stone fruit would work. This recipe looked similar to the one she used to make. I had to make some other substitutions because it was 9 pm – like no whole milk (I never have that in the house), different yogurt, and no zest, but including citrus sugar.  Citrus sugar is simply a jar of sugar I have that’s mixed in with the zest of oranges and lemons I have saved. Easy and a fun thing to have on hand. I think my version of this cake was pretty darn good too. Make it any ol’ time. Even late at night.

Nectarine Plum Cake modified from Peach Cake from Cooking From Scratch:

Makes one 9” cake

1½ c. flour

1 c. sugar

1½ tsp. baking powder

A dash salt

¾ c. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1/3 c. honey Greek style yogurt

1/3 c. vegetable oil

2 small-ish nectarines, sliced

2 small plums, sliced

2 Tb. citrus sugar (or regular sugar and include ½ tsp. lemon zest in the cake itself)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix the flour, sugar, and baking powder together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the milk, vanilla, egg, yogurt, oil, and lemon zest (if using) together. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir completely. Spray a 9" round pan with oil. Pour the batter into the pan. Place the sliced fruit on the top of the batter. You don't need to press them in; the batter will rise up around them. Sprinkle with citrus sugar. Bake at 350 for 60 minutes or until the cake is nice and golden and a tester comes out clean. Let cool slightly before serving.

It’s not a heavy cake and reminds me a lot of the very best raspberry buttermilk cake, another summer favorite. Perfect with tea or for late night cake cravings. 

Caramelized Onion Hummus

My friend Patrice and her now husband make some pretty tasty things. I’ve featured her loveliness on the blog before and this is another one that I’ve had saved in my reader for forever. Other than cooking the onions, this is a low heat recipe – perfect for the hot days of summer to typical Alaskan days.

Caramelized Onion Hummus from The Fantastic Mr. Feedbag:

 1 large medium onion, chopped

3 Tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. honey

4 to 5 garlic cloves, halved

1 can of garbanzo beans (rinsed & drained) or around 2½ c. soaked & cooked

2 Tbsp. tahini

1 lemon, juiced

¼ c. of olive oil

2¼ Tb. plain yogurt

Sea salt & pepper to taste

1 Tb. Aleppo pepper for topping

Heat the 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add chopped onions and honey stir and cook for 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring often. Remove onion, garlic, honey combo and let cool.

While onion mixture is cooling use a food processor to combine the rest of the ingredients. Add more olive oil or water for a creamier texture.  Add onion, garlic, honey mixture to bean mixture and process until smooth. Let it hang in the fridge for a couple of hours to cool and get even more delicious.

This is the creamiest, best tasting hummus I’ve ever had or made. I recommend it and not just because it came from a loving household.

Blackberry Lime Muffins

Two weekends ago, I went camping with a few of my girlfriends at Mt. Rainier National Park (Renai (in two parts) and Brittany have already posted about it). Car Portland was in charge of breakfast, so I decided to make muffins because it’s berry season and I love muffins. They were delicious and it was an amazing camping trip, made all the better because my fall semester just started and I know I’m going to be bogged down in grad school stuff once again. Incidentally, this will likely mean a slowdown in posts. As always, I’ll try to keep up. In the meantime, make these muffins. They are fantastic.

Blackberry Lime Muffins:

Makes 18 small muffins

1/2 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. oats
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. sugar
1 c. homemade applesauce
1/2 c. Greek-style yogurt
1 egg, beaten
Zest and juice of 1 large lime
1 1/2 heaping c. Oregon blackberries

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix together flours, oats, baking powder and soda, salt, and sugar. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together applesauce and yogurt. Add in beaten egg and mix well. Add lime zest and juice. I ended up adding in a bit more because the cinnamon flavor of my applesauce was overpowering the zesty lime flavor profile I was going for.

Slowly mix in dry ingredients, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next. Fold in blackberries. Add mixture to cupcake liners, filling about 2/3 of the way full, and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes.

These ended up being more dense than I had intended, but were still amazing. I would have used all whole wheat flour, but I made these the morning of the trip and ran out. In the future, I will likely increase the amount of flour a bit, but for the most part, I loved them. They are incredibly moist and the best part is how the blackberries and lime play together. It’s one of my favorite flavor combinations. What I think is great about muffin recipes is how much you can play around with them. In the future, I might take out the lime and sub in blueberries. Because my applesauce is so full of cinnamon, I wouldn’t change anything else or maybe I could add lemon instead. The world is your muffin!

Yogurt Cream Cheese

There’s a note in my Deli cookbook that mentions how great it would be to have a brunch where everything, from the lox to the bagels to the cream cheese, is homemade. So that’s what I decided to do. Also, the cream cheese recipe is on the opposite page from the lox, so it’s kind of just right there, asking to be made. This is a half-size recipe.

Yogurt-Cream Cheese from Deli:

Makes about 5 oz.

1 qt. yogurt
Salt (optional)
Flavoring of your choice




Line a sieve or colander with a long piece of doubled damp cheesecloth and place in over a large bowl. Dump in the yogurt, fold the cheesecloth over to cover well, and leave in a cool part of your kitchen for 24 hours. Every once in a while, pour off the liquid that accumulates in the bowl.


At the end of the 24-hour period, pick up the wrapped ball of yogurt cheese and squeeze it over the bowl to extract any remaining liquid. Place the cheese in a bowl and mix in the salt to taste (although it is perfectly delicious with no salt at all) and – if you wish – the flavoring of your choice. I went with salt and no additional flavorings. At first I thought I hadn’t added enough salt and then I thought I had added too much. It turned out to be just fine, but be careful! Refrigerate for several hours before serving. If the yogurt is fresh to begin with, the cream cheese will keep for weeks.

I did like this, but mostly as a layering device to go with the lox and bagels. On its own (and why would you eat just cream cheese on its own anyway?), it wasn’t bad, just not amazing. Part of this is likely due to the fact that I used Nancy’s organic non-fat yogurt. I love, love, LOVE Nancy’s, but it does have a very distinct taste and tang to it, which definitely comes through in the cream cheese. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does change the flavor profile quite a bit. However, it worked really well with the bagels and lox and I am glad I made everything on my own. I was filled with pride, just like the book said.