I'm a Weeenner!

It's official. Life totally rocks right now.

Not only did I have a fab lunch yesterday with my awesome new co-workers, but I hit 500 followers on Twitter AND *drum roll* I won first place in my company's Iron Chef contest!

This is particularly exciting news because: (1) I never win anything ever, (2) I didn't totally embarrass myself in front of 25 people I'd only just met, and (3) I've clearly accomplished very little in my lifetime, making prize-winning bundt cake a defining moment in my life. Witness me grinning like a fool with my gift card (left).

But it really could have been a real disaster. I had baked a brand-new recipe with ingredients I don't normally use. Not wanting to destroy my beautiful bundt cake, I brought it to work without even tasting it. It could have been burnt or dry or something weird could have fallen into the cake batter-- I had no way of knowing. That's me, always living on the edge.

I had three goals: (1) find a recipe with good reviews that didn't take too long to make because earlier that day I found myself wandering the new Target in a daze and lost track of time, (2) make something using the only cake pan I own, (3) impress my co-workers so they'll want to eat lunch with me. Oh and one of the directors threatened to fire me if I brought in something nasty. So (4) don't get fired.

As always, I turned to trusty AllRecipes.com and found this super easy recipe for a pumpkin bundt cake. I mean, it really doesn't get any easier than this. Normally I never use cake mix, but because I had gotten hypnotized by Target like I mentioned earlier, I had to make do. It turns out the pumpkin puree does a good job masking the tell-tale flavor of cake mix. Next time I'll probably make yellow cake from scratch and increase the spices in the cake. The whipped cream is key, so don't leave it out. I definitely think it balanced the flavors in the cake and tipped the judge's hand in my favor. One gentleman tried to spoon the whipped cream directly into his mouth. Here's the recipe (incl. my modifications):


PUMPKIN BUTTERSCOTCH BUNDT CAKE

Ingredients
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix

1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix

4 eggs OR 3 eggs + 1TBS oil (for high altitude)

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin OR 2 cups fresh pureed pumpkin

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice OR this pumpkin pie spice recipe

Preparation:
Combine ingredients. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds; beat on medium until smooth (about 2 minutes). Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350' degrees F for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve with citrus whipped cream.


CITRUS WHIPPED CREAM

Ingredients
1 cup heavy cream
1.5 Tbs confectioner's sugar
1 Tbs orange juice
1 tsp orange zest (1.5 tsp if you like a lot of zest)

Preparation
In a large bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks begin to form. Beat in sugar, juice and zest until peaks form. Enjoy!

Mocha Rum Cake In The Sky

Today was my first entree into baking a cake at high altitude. 4,350 feet, to be exact. I don't think I've ever lived this far up. I feel like I'm living in a desert in the sky.

The first week we got here, I tried baking cookies to disastrous effects. I had no idea why my tried-and-true chocolate chip cookie recipe was so flat and hard and dry. It was the fine print on my bag of Nestle Tollhouse semi-sweet chocolate morsels that clued me in:

"FOR HIGH ALTITUDE BAKING: Increase flour to 2.5 cups. Add 2 tsp. water..."

I thought, wait a second... there are mountains everywhere here, and it's awfully dry and the air is kind of thin... holy mother, I'm living at high-altitude and by some law of physics it's affecting my baking! So I tried it Nestle's way. And my cookies still turned out crappy. I had my heart set on baking cookies for the leasing office and maintenance staff at our apartment complex (to thank them for helping us get settled in) and I wasn't about to give them rock-hard cookies.

Three batches of cookies later, I finally got it right. Thanks to this high-altitude chocolate chip cookie recipe I found online. The gals at the leasing office were very pleased.

Still, after all the difficulty I had baking cookies, I wasn't sure if I had the energy to wrestle around with a cake recipe for two days like I did with the cookies. Knowing me, of course, I decided that today would be a good time to bake a Mocha Rum Bundt Cake-- while sleep-deprived and fighting off a cold. Thanks, masochistic inner voice!

I chose rum cake because a Swedish friend of mine from elementary school baked it almost 20 years ago for me and to this day, I still remember it. We lost touch and I never got the recipe, but if my version tastes anything like the one she made, it's going to be rum cakes for the holidays forever.

The original recipe is from a 1994 issue of Gourmet magazine. I altered it according to comments from others and then adapted it based on these high-altitude baking guidelines. That means I increased the rum and oven temperature and decreased the baking soda, coffee and sugar.

How did it turn out? Amazing. Super, super moist. Definitely making it for the holidays. Baked it with 1-1/4 cup dark rum, but that might be too much for most, so took it down to 1 cup in the recipe below. Make sure to grease your bundt pan heavily so it doesn't stick! Mine just slipped out. Easy peasy.















High-Altitude Mocha Rum Cake

Ingredients
cocoa powder for dusting
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup dark rum
1-1/3 cups strong brewed coffee
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, beaten lightly
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
confectioners' sugar for dusting
lightly sweetened whipped cream

Preparation
Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter a 4 1/2-inch-deep (12-cup) bundt pan and dust with cocoa powder, knocking out excess.

In a bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. Remove chocolate from heat and stir in rum, coffee, and granulated sugar. With an electric mixer beat in flour, 1/2 cup at a time, scraping down side, and beat in eggs and vanilla until batter is combined well. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake cake in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean, about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Let cake cool completely in pan on a rack and turn it out onto rack. Cake may be made 3 days in advance and kept wrapped well and chilled.

Dust cake with confectioners' sugar.