Apple Cake with Maple-Walnut Cream Cheese Frosting

Hola lovelies! I'm back with a new recipe from The Cookbook! I decided to make the Apple Cake with Maple-Walnut Cream Cheese Frosting and to be honest it came out just okay. Don't get me wrong, the taste was great and I highly recommend that you try this recipe. However my cake sunk in the middle :( I'm a great froster so I was able to cleverly disguise it. The reason why it sank was because the currants and the walnuts went straight to the bottom of the pan while it was baking. I may not have used enough flour to coat the currants and I may have overfilled my pans a bit too. But like I said before this cake was amazing and my hubby who hates "stuff in cakes" couldn't even tell there were currant and walnuts in the cake and he loved it. No bias.... But on to the cake!

Isn't it beautiful lol? It has a slight lean to it because of my sinkage issues but a little extra frosting helped me to mask the majority of the lean. The recipe instructions say to use three 9-inch diameter pans but I only had 2 hence my cake only being two layers. *This also might be why my cake sank in the middle so take heed*

For the cake

1    lb. Golden Delicious apples (about 2 medium), peeled, cored, diced

¼   cup water

2½ cups plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour

2    tsp baking soda

1½ tsp ground cinnamon

½   tsp salt

¼   tsp ground nutmeg

¼   tsp ground cloves

1    cup dried currants

1    cup walnuts toasted, chopped

2    cups sugar

1    cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1    tbsp brandy

1½ tsp vanilla extract

4    large eggs

For the frosting

1    cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1    cup (packed) dark brown sugar

2    8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature

½   cup pure maple syrup

¼   tsp maple flavoring

2    cups walnuts, toasted, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour three 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Combine apples and water in small saucepan. Cover; simmer over medium-low heat until apples are tender, about 20 minutes. Place in processor; purée until smooth. Cool purée. Sift 2 1/2 cups flour and next 5 ingredients into medium bowl. Toss currants with remaining 1 tablespoon flour in small bowl to coat; mix in walnuts.
2. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, butter, brandy and vanilla in large bowl until blended. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Beat in half of flour mixture and 1 1/4 cups apple purée, then remaining flour mixture (re-serve any remaining puree for another use). Stir in currants and walnuts. Divide batter among prepared pans.
3. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cut around pan sides to loosen cakes; turn out onto racks and cool.
4. Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until blended. Beat in cream cheese, then maple syrup and flavoring. Chill until beginning to firm, about 20 minutes.
5. Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread with 3/4 cup frosting. Top with second layer; spread with 3/4 cup frosting. Top with third layer. Spread 1 cup frosting in thin layer over cake. Chill 15 minutes. Spread remaining frosting over cake. Press 2 cups walnuts halfway up sides of cake. Chill until frosting is set, at least 30 minutes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; keep chilled. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.)

Enjoy!

-DJ

Simmered Creamy Mussels and Linguine

So in addition to baking, I have a general love of cooking non pastry things and as I and the hubby have recently given up red meat, I've really been struggling trying to come up with new and interesting ways to prepare the meats that we do eat (chicken and seafood). I've also tried to expand our horizons as far as different fishies go as well. We're very familiar with catfish, tilapia and salmon but after a while, even those fish get boring. So this past weekend, I raided the Sustainable Foods section that my local Kroger has and walked away with tons of goodies! I'm super excited to prepare these new fishies. However, today I made something out of these mussels that hubby purchased from my local farmers' market. I must admit I was a tad upset when he picked up the package of mussel meat because I wanted mussels in the shell so I could steam them and make a sexy dish. His man logic told him that he was doing me a favor, saving me from having to wrestle with the shells and whatnot....so I calmed down. I mean I appreciated the sentiment and the thought process there. But that still left me confused as to what the heck I was gonna do with them. So I hopped online and did a little research and found a great recipe from All Fish Seafood Recipes.

12       oz. mussel meat

¼         cup white wine

1          tsp. saffron threads(you can get these from Publix)

1          tbsp. chopped garlic

1 ½     cups heavy cream

1          cup diced tomatoes

            salt and pepper to taste

1          tbsp. chopped parsley

            linguine
            Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the linguine and cook the pasta to al dente according to the package instructions. 

In a medium saucepan, simmer the wine, saffron threads and garlic for 5 minutes.

Add the heavy cream and allow the mixture to continue simmering until the sauce has reduced and become slightly thick.

Add the tomatoes, mussel meat and the salt and pepper to taste and heat the sauce through.

At this point, the pasta should be ready. Drain the pasta but DO NOT rinse it. Pour the pasta into a serving bowl.

Ladle the sauce over the pasta, give it a quick toss and top with the parsley and Parmesan cheese.

Now you are ready to eat!

*this recipe serves 4 people*

Enjoy!

-DJ

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Today I decided to deviate from The Cookbook and bake a recipe from my mom's collection with the help of my friend Sidney, you can find her over at Bronzera. She has a cool blog devoted to clean living and eating and it's def worth checking out! With that being being said...these cupcakes are NOT clean but they are deliciously tasty and everyone deserves a cheat day or two right?! Anywho...back to business....my mom's recipe is for a two layer 9 inch round cake but I always make cupcakes. They're waaaaaay smaller than the slice of cake that I would cut(gotta watch the waistline ya know) and I feel like they last longer. I could be biased but I definitely think that this is the best recipe ever. I know that traditional Red Velvet recipes include chocolate but when I was kid I HATED chocolate so I always requested that my mom exclude it. As cupcakes, this recipe will yield between 20 and 24 cupcakes.

Red Velvet Cupcakes:

3          large eggs (room temperature)

1 ⅔     cups sugar

1 ½     cups vegetable oil

2 ½     cups self rising flour (sifted)

1 ½     tsp vanilla extract

1          tsp white vinegar

1          cup buttermilk

½        1 oz. bottle red food coloring

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting:

2          8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese

1          stick unsalted butter

2          cups  powdered sugar

½        cup slivered almonds

1          tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. 

Using a mixing spoon, stir the eggs and sugar together. Add in the oil and flour and stir until to well blended(according to my mom you should stir 200 times.....yes she counts her strokes). *The batter will be a little bit hard to stir but just use that elbow and push through!* 

Add in the vanilla, vinegar and buttermilk and stir until just blended.

Next, squeeze in the red food coloring. *If you like super red red velvet then you will use somewhere between half and three fourths of the bottle. If you like lighter red velvet then you can add color until you get the color you desire*

Spoon batter into 20-24 paper lined muffin cups, filling each cup a little over half full.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until an inserted knife or toothpicks comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool and then frost Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting.

While the cupcakes are baking go ahead and make the frosting.

Using a hand mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese together. 

Slowly add in the powdered sugar. *At this point I usually put the mixer down and continue on mixing with a spoon because the powdered sugar always ends up leaving a fine layer on everything within 2 feet of me*  

Lastly, smash up the slivered almonds a bit and add those along with the vanilla extract and stir until the almonds are distributed in the frosting. *If the frosting isn't as stiff as you'd like you can either add more powdered sugar or pop the frosting in the fridge for about 10 minutes* 

Enjoy!

-DJ