TWD: Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased to present a very special Poetry Edition of Tuesdays with Dorie.

*polite applause*



There once was a food called a scone
With oatmeal and nutmeg alone
In looks it was simple
Bumps, crags, and a-dimpled
But the taste could make a man moan!



These scones were a treat eaten plain
We enjoyed them again and again
But we liked them the best
When with jam they were dressed
Not to gorge ourselves was a real strain.



So we come to the end of the post
And I truly don't mean to boast
The scones were quite good
For a non-dessert food
Thanks to Patricia, our host!

TWD: Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

Back in my pre-blogging days, when I was a young idealistic lass, I thought that when I had a food blog, I would bake yummy foods and take pictures of them and write about how yummy they were. My eyes sparkled with naivete and hope.

Ah, foolish youth.

Instead, what I mainly write about is bundt cakes, and my lack of success with unmolding them. Seriously.

For reals.

I'm not kidding.

This happens all the time.

It's kind of a problem.

I got a new bundt pan and the past few attempts have gone swimmingly. I was confident--cocky, even!--that my days of bad bundts were behind me. Smoooooth sailing ahead. You see where this is going?




Weeping. Wailing. Gnashing of teeth.

Honestly, I'm not so young anymore. I don't know that I can take the heartbreak and the emotional rollercoaster of baking bundt cakes. It's exhausting. I'm happy--the batter tastes good! The bundt cake looks beautiful! What could possibly go wrong?! And then--DISASTER. Someone cover this cracked mess with powdered sugar, stat.

I am willing to accept some blame. Maybe the cake was a little underbaked, maybe I should have waited a little longer to unmold it. Perhaps. But maybe it's just a sign from the universe that I should never, no never, no NEVER make bundt cakes again.

Word.


Well, this was a pretty good cake to go out on. I nixed the fruit options and instead used ground pecans in the batter, and added mini chocolate chips and toasted pecan chunks as mix-ins. It was nice and moist, although perhaps I should have kept in some fruit for a bit more texture. But it makes a nice, low-key tea cake, assuming you don't have a conniption fit upon trying to unmold it like I did.

Want to try your luck at bundt roulette and make this cake? Peggy has the recipe and some lovely pictures over at her blog, Pantry Revistited.

TWD: Chocolate-Orange Marbled Loaf Cake

Ahhh it feels good to be back in the warm embrace of Tuesdays with Dorie. I've taken more than a few weeks off lately, and although it was necessary, it's so nice to be back in a routine, blogging with some of my favorite people!

Fun fact: this week's recipe, a Marbled Loaf Cake, looks an awful lot like my first TWD post ever, for Black & White Banana Loaf! I remember that bread being a-mazing, although I do think the pictures have improved around here since then...

I flavored half of the batter chocolate, and added orange oil and orange zest to the other half, to make a subtly scented orange-chocolate loaf. Haters gonna hate, but I'll always love the orange-chocolate combo.

I had too much batter for my loaf pan, so with the extra I made the sweetest little 3" mini loaf. It was actually better than the full-sized one (didn't get as brown and crusty on top) and I wish I'd baked all mini loaves. The tiny tin is from Sur la Table.

This is a soft, fine-crumbed cake that seems perfect for afternoon tea, or a light dessert with maybe a touch of lightly whipped cream and some berries on top. You can find the recipe at Carol's blog, The Bake More.

Thanks also for the well-wishes about my big race last weekend! It was kind of epic. There were high highs and low lows, but overall it was wonderful and I finished feeling great, even though I couldn't stomach all of the chia I'd packed. By the end, I just wanted brownies and Coke. (Which, PS, is a very bad combination. Learn from my mistakes.)