Photos - The Snowflake Bundt shortbread pan has beautiful fine details, but I’ve yet to find a recipe that actually captures all of them. The glaze on these at least shows off the snowflakes. Most of them are in the freezer for one-at-a-time reheat as snacks beside coffee or tea. The Medallion Bundtlets are just right sized for beside/under berries and got frozen, unglazed, for future desserts.
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Sally, that is stunningly beautiful!
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awww thank you! I’ve literally made that cake since my almost 19-year-old turned 5 - it’s a huge crowd pleaser! We even made it when my younger daughter couldn’t eat PB and would make a small vanilla cake too (she had a birch tree pollen allergy, so was allergic to the proteins in peanuts, but not the peanut itself so we were fortunate to never have to worry about cross-contamination etc. - and allergy shots completely cured the allergy so we’ve been back to PB for 6 months!).
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It’s my sister’s 66th birthday (I’m her younger brother at 61) and I made her a spice cake. I used butter instead of the vegetable oil the recipe called for because we only have olive oil in the house and although I know that butter will change the taste (a positive change?) and texture (a negative change?) of the cake, I just preferred to use butter.
Instead of the water called for in the recipe, I used a low calorie ginger syrup I had made a while back and because it was getting a little long in the tooth, I felt it was a good way to use it up. Miraculously, the recipe called for 1 cup of water and the amount of syrup remaining was just under 1 cup! I rinsed out the mason jar the syrup had been in to make up the difference.
My sister adores anything with what she terms “warm spices” and because of that, I put in extra ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice.
I don’t know how it came out and I’m slightly worried since my sister’s nearly 40 year old gas oven hadn’t been used in a while. It took a bit longer than it should have for the center of the cake to be fully baked through, but it looks and smells good.
Since I changed so much of the recipe, I’d rather not share it if asked. Thanks in advance for understanding.
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Warm spices are the best! Let us know how she likes it 
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That’s a lovely gesture. I’m sure she will love it, and the changes have only improved upon the original.
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I gave it to her about 7 hours ago and she still hasn’t eaten any. 
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I hope so, but since she hasn’t eaten any, I’m unable to post here about whether she likes it or not.
Hooray! Well done
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Broke out the new USA Pan Pullman loaf pan I got over the holidays and made my standard milk bread (KA with half the sugar) which I’ve done often enough to have down pat.
The new pan meant that the final proofing time was WAY shorter (35-40 min instead of a full hour), since I had to stop it once the dough filled the pan about 80%.
But hey, Success!!
The crumb is tighter than other loaves, but with a lidded pan, I guess that’s to be expected. Tastes great.
I wonder if cooling it upside down might prevent the top from sagging? Or maybe pulling the lid the last 5 min and letting the top crust get some direct heat?
Also, my silly plastic bread slicing guide works very nicely. Uniform, thin slices I would mangle horribly of done freehand.
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New favorite - I made it once in December, and again on the 1st. I used butter (primarily because I am not knowledgeable about using/purchasing olive oil), added a tsp of vanilla (because…) and didn’t bother greasing, just used parchment. Easy and really delicious. I love lemon desserts. I just wish I had found this recipe earlier.
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I love the bread slicing guide! I am wildly erratic at cutting any bread, and won’t buy unsliced sandwich bread for that reason.
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First cake of 2025… nothing special – just my standard Chocolate Cake (Martha Stewart recipe) with Chocolate butter cream frosting.
I was able to snap a picture of it, right before Sunshine cut a small piece to have with her morning coffee.
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I would, too!
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Now that the holidays are over I’m back to sourdough baking. The bottoms of my loaves have always been
slightly overdone, finally tumbled to the fact I had a cast iron trivet I used when dutch oven camping. This loaf turned out great and the bottom was perfect.
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I had enough ricotta cheese left over from the holidays to bake this Ricotta Olive Oil Pound Cake. Taking advice from Milk Street 177 I used light tasting olive oil and the recipe requires 1/4 cup and some sour cream. There is also orange zest in the cake. Instead of sprinkling sugar after bundt pan is greased i brushed the baked cake with Grand Marnier sugar syrup. Will be served with French Vanilla ice cream.
Trying to overcome my anxiety of using the heritage pan. Recipe is from Dinner In One by Melissa Clark.
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Stunningly beautiful! You are among the bakers here who should open an art gallery with your gorgeous baking photographs!
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Gorgeous!
Looks great!
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