[cooking] Yule Log Cake

We went to a holiday party this past weekend and I baked a bundt cake to bring:

It's the Nordic Ware Yule Log pan. I used this recipe, increasing all the ingredients by 50%. I've made this recipe in this pan before and the batter didn't fill in the pan completely. This was the perfect amount for this pan. 

No frosting or glaze- I just made some vanilla bean whipped cream to serve with it.

I should embroider the yule log on a bundt bag during the Christmas break.

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Had a car appointment this morning; worked on the advent socks more.

This limited color palette is presenting an extra challenge to working on these socks.

The only other thing on my to-knit list is a little Santa hat for Baby Yoda.

[cooking] Maple Walnut Swirl Bread

This month's bakealong challenge in the Cooking from Scratch Ravelry group is specialty yeasted bread. I chose to make this Vermont Maple Swirl Bread from King Arthur Flour:

I used ground walnuts instead of almond or pecan meal. It's kind of like making a rich cinnamon bun log or king cake but baking it in a bundt pan. The only downside is that I placed the log seam side down into the bundt pan, so when I turned it out:

The seam is very apparent. Doh- next time I'll remember to put it in seam side UP.

It's a great bread- I think slices will toast nicely. I opted not to do the maple glaze but I definitely would if I were to make this again for a party. It feels like it's needs a frosting, like cinnamon buns.

It's so pretty baked in a decorative bundt shape and would be impressive to cut into- guests will oooo and aaahh when they see the swirl.

[cooking] Butterfly Cake

I had a hankering for something lemon-poppy, so I whipped up this cake:

I love these Nordic Ware cast aluminium pans. I've never had a problem with any batter sticking- the cakes always come out cleanly. I've made a castle, a house, misc designed round bundts- all it takes is a dusting of powdered sugar to finish but it looks so impressive (and the pan does all the work).

And... it's so tasty!

So that was my baking project Saturday morning before the weather got horrific. Temps in the high 90s (heat index peaking at 106) and suuuuuper high humidity. The house stayed fairly cool on Saturday and I did a lot of fabric cutting for quilting. Sunday was just a complete waste. Couch surfing and staying in front of a fan.

But I found some new shows that I love. Plebs on Hulu (hilarious) and Hollywood Weapons on Netflix.

[cooking] 4th of July Bundt

Attended a BBQ on Sunday and brought a bundt:

Ooooo eeee, that looks perfect.

The recipe is a plain, buttermilk vanilla bundt. I added (in layers) dollops of blueberry compote and raspberry jam, and then swirled with a butterknife:

Baked at 325 for 80 min. Recipe was for 70 min but with the extra jam throughout- it needed another 10 min before the tester would come out clean.

After it popped out of the pan:

Gorgeous! And then dusted with powdered sugar:

This was my take on red, white and blue (raspberry, powdered sugar, blueberry) but the jams both looked equally dark. Oh well- it still tasted awesome!

Was nice to have a long holiday weekend but I didn't get nearly the amount of things done that I wanted. I did start spinning for Tour de Fleece- and that was the main reason I got distracted from everything else.