Steel Cut Oats with Figs, Hazelnuts and Honey

Kirsten Veng-Pedersen 2012

I've had smaller kitchens in my life.

In the efficiency apartment we shared post-college, my first live-in boyfriend and I had so little storage we had to keep our pots and pans under the futon in the living room.

Then there was the kitchen I had that was so small I couldn't open the oven door all the way and I had to store food in the dishwasher.

Yeah, for someone who's never lived in New York, I've had some pretty tiny kitchens.

And while my current kitchen storage situation isn't quite as dire as it was in the good 'ol days, it's still not ideal.

I've had to be creative (maybe not as creative as keeping microwave popcorn in the dishwasher, but creative nonetheless.) I've also had to be vigilant about what I bring into the space.

So when I picked up a $20 rice maker you can imagine my need to justify keeping the thing around.

I love the idea of "set it and forget it" when making brown rice and other hearty grains that you have to cook the bejezus out of. I do not love the idea of a unitasker taking up precious space in my kitchen.

Now maybe it's just the novelty of it but it turns out my little rice maker is super useful. I steam vegetables, prepare dumplings for lunch, make lentils and even cook hard-boiled eggs in there. One of my favorite uses, however, is to make steel cut oats.

Steel cut oats are oat kernels that have been chopped up, as opposed to rolled oats, which are oat kernels that have been steamed, rolled, steamed again and then toasted. Although they are both made of the same thing and have the same nutritional value, steel cut oats take longer to digest and therefore promote a more stable blood sugar and make you feel full longer than rolled oats do.

Oh, and they're tasty too. They have a richer, nuttier flavor than rolled oats plus more texture with an al dente feel to them. The down side to all of this is that they take longer to make. Enter the rice maker. Set it and forget it (except for stirring once at the 10 minutes mark, otherwise you risk a gooey oatmeal eruption of unincorporated liquid near the end of cooking.)

To make really delicious oatmeal, I stir in some non-fat Greek yogurt for the protein and probiotics, then sweeten thing up with brown sugar and top it off with quartered fresh figs, coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts and a decadent drizzle of honey. Easy peasy and it tastes so good you'll swear off regular oatmeal.



Steel Cut Oats with Figs, Hazelnuts and Honey

Ingredients

For two 1 1/4 cup servings of oatmeal using a rice maker
(for other ways to prepare see this link)

• 1 cup steel cut oats
• 2 1/3 cup water

For each serving of oatmeal:

• 1/4 cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt (or substitute with a splash of milk)
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 4 figs, quartered lengthwise
• 1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
• honey, to taste

Directions

1. Combine water and steel cut oats in rice maker. Cover and start.
2. After about 10 minutes, stir throughly to incorporate liquid into oats.
3. When rice maker switches to warm setting, unplug it and divide oatmeal into two bowls. 
4. Mix in yogurt and brown sugar.
5. Top with figs and hazelnuts.
6. Drizzle with honey. 

Beets: The Moist-Maker of Chocolate Cake

                                                                                                                               Kirsten Veng-Pedersen 2012

Beets have a way of showing up in unexpected places. In fact, they're kind of like the quiet cousin of today's fried egg.

With much bravado, fried eggs are tossed onto everything from artisan pizzas to juicy hamburgers these days. The motto, at least in Portland, isn't so much "Put a bird on it" as it is "Put an egg on it." But while the fried egg takes center stage in unconventional places, the lowly beet lurks below.

Like in Australia, where a slice of pickled beet is quietly nestled inside every standard hamburger. Yeah, yeah, you probably already knew that but guess where else those unassuming little beets have been hiding? In chocolate cake! Somewhere along the line, someone realized a root vegetable could elevate cake to a new level of moistness.

Although chocolate beet cake is by no means new (an early version dubbed Beetnik Cake probably originated in the fifties) my discovery of it is actually a pretty big deal. Maybe I've just had one too many slices of old birthday cake in the break room but I actually dislike most cakes. With their dry crumb and overly sweet frosting, what is there to like? With Chocolate Beet Cake, I find myself asking the opposite question.

Oh, and the frosting? Beets give it that amazing girly-girl pink color without a drop of food coloring. How perfect would this cake be for a baby shower or a little girl's birthday party?

Chocolate Beet Cake with Beet Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes one 8 or 9-inch layer cake

Original recipe from Joy the Baker, adapted from Fine Cooking November 2001

Ingredients

The Cake

• 2 medium beets, unpeeled but trimmed of their greens
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 6 ounces (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the pan
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pans
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk

The Frosting

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 8 ounces (1 brick) cream cheese, softened
• 4 to 5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 2 tablespoons finely grated beets, mashed with a fork
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or scrapings of one vanilla bean pod
• 1-2 teaspoons milk, depending on desired consistency
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• pinch of salt

Directions (for the cake)

1. Place a rack in the center and upper third of the oven.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Wash beets under running water, and trim their leaves, leaving about 1/2 inch of stem.  Place clean beets in a piece of foil.  Drizzle with just a bit of vegetable oil.  Seal up foil.  Place on a baking sheet in the oven.  Roast until beets are tender when pierced with a knife, about 1 hour.
3. Remove the beets from the oven.  Open the foil and allow beets to cool completely.  Beets will be easy to peel (just using a paring knife) once completely cooled.
4. Using a box grater, grate the peeled beets on the finest grating plane.  Measure 3/4 cup of grated beets for the cake and 2 tablespoons for the frosting.  Set aside.
5. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.  Use butter to grease two 8 or 9-inch round baking pans, then dust with flour.  Next, trace a piece of parchment paper so it is the same size as the bottom of the cake pan.  Cut it out, butter it, place it inside the cake pan and then dust it with flour. Do this for each pan. Set pans aside while you prepare the cake.
6. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars.  Beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, for one minute after each addition.   Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  Once eggs are incorporated, beat in beets and vanilla extract until thoroughly combined.
7. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
8. Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture.  Beating on low speed , slowly add the buttermilk.  Once just incorporated, add the other half of the dry ingredients.  Beat on medium speed until milk and dry ingredients are just incorporated.  Try not to overmix the batter.  Bowl can be removed from the mixer and mixture folded with a spatula to finish incorporating ingredients.  Cake batter will be on the thick side… not pourable.
9. Divide the batter between the two prepared cake pans.  Bake for 23 to 25 minutes (for a 9-inch pan) or 30-32 minutes (for an 8-inch pan).  Cake is done when a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove cakes from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes.  Invert cakes onto a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting and assembling the cake.

Directions (for the frosting)

1. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat cream cheese for 30 seconds, until pliable and smooth.  Add the butter and beat for another 30 seconds, until well combined.  Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl as necessary.  Beat in the beets.  Add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, milk, lemon juice, and salt.  Beat on medium speed until smooth and silky.  Refrigerate the frosting for 30 minutes before frosting the cooled cakes.
2. To assemble the cake, place one layer of cake on a cake stand or cake plate.  Top with a generous amount of pink frosting.  Spread evenly.  Place the other cake on top of the frosting.  Top with frosting.  Work frosting onto the sides of the cake.  You will have extra frosting left over.  Refrigerate for an hour before serving (it will make the cake easier to slice).  Cake will last, well wrapped in the refrigerator, for up to 4 days.

Notes:

• Beets stain. Use rubber gloves if you want to avoid rosy fingers. Also, I'm glad I was wearing my apron, which now sports a bright pink spot. 
• My frosting was overly fluffy from whipping too much air into it during the beating process. To avoid this, take it easy and use a low mixer speed.

Truffles: The Fancy Pants No Bake Dessert

Some oven-free desserts are just a little bit classier than others. Consider rice crispy treats, no bake cookies or even puppy chow. All are tasty but certainly not chichi.

Now what about chocolate truffles? They evoke visions of glass cases, tiny gift boxes and high prices, and they're usually prepared by a chocolatier. But why? It turns out they're easy to make at home and just like rice crispy treats, they're no bake. You can even skip the mess of dipping the truffles in molten chocolate and instead, roll them in cocoa and chopped nuts, like I did. 

I followed the Cooks Illustrated recipe and used Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate (instead of bittersweet) to form these beauties. The author of the recipe set out to develop a smooth, non-grainy truffle with the perfect mouthfeel and she achieved it. A few extra things helped in that endeavor. One was the addition of small quantities of corn syrup and butter and the other had to do with the cooling process (2 hours cooling on the counter before putting the ganache in the fridge.) All in all, pretty minimal effort. One thing I did change was the size of the truffles. I prefer mine slightly larger than directed by the Cooks Illustrated recipe and changing that was not a problem. 

Rustic Rolled Chocolate Truffles

Ingredients

The Ganache

• 2 cups (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips or roughly chopped chocolate
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces and softened

The Coating

• 1 cup (3 oz) Dutch-processed cocoa
• 1/4 cup (1 oz) confectioners' sugar

or

• Diced almonds, macadamia nuts etc. (These should be toasted quickly in the oven first for the best taste)

Directions

1. Lightly spray 8-inch baking dish with oil. 
2. Cut two pieces of parchment paper that are approximately 8 inches wide. They should be laid down in the pan perpendicular to eachother so that excess parchment paper comes up over all four sides of the baking pan. This forms the sling with which the formed ganache will be lifted from the pan after solidifying.
3. Microwave chocolate in medium bowl at 50 percent power for 2-3 minutes. Most chocolate should be melted with a few chips retaining their shape.
4. Next, microwave cream for about 30 seconds. Stir in corn syrup, vanilla and salt. Pour mixture over the chocolate. 
5. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit for 3 minutes.
6. Mix the chocolate and cream mixture by hand with a spoon (will prevent air bubbles from forming and making ganache less smooth)
7. Slowly stir in butter one piece at a time until fully incoorporated.
8. Using a rubber spatula, transfer mix to prepared baking dish. 
9. Allow to sit on counter for 2 hours.
10. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to overnight.
11. Remove ganache block from baking dish using parchment slings.
12. Cut ganache into 30 pieces (rows of 6 by rows of 5)
13. Combine cocoa and confectioners' sugar, sift through fine mesh strainer twice to remove lumps.
14. Using resulting mixture to dust hands, then form each ganache square into a ball.
15. Roll the balls in cocoa/confectioner's sugar mix or in toasted, diced nuts. 

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to a week. Allow truffles to sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before serving. 

Mmmmmachaca! An Ode to Carolina's

Has any food ever brought tears to your eyes? Not the kind of stinging, onion-induced variety but real, honest-to-goodness tears?  Me neither...until the night I left Phoenix.


The day had been a long one, filled with packing, cleaning and preparing for the 1300 mile haul to Portland. While disappointed with our sluggish departure, there was a silver lining to that cloud: If we rushed, we could enjoy one last meal at Carolina's on our way out of town. Carolinas is a divey little Mexican restaurant in south Phoenix that serves up the best damn machaca this gringa has ever eaten. Oh, and having lived in Phoenix for the last seven years, I've eaten a lot! 


The machaca at Carolina's is hot, wet and a little bit spicy. If there are onions or peppers still in the meat, they're so cooked down I haven't noticed them, unlike at some other taquerias, where they constitute half the filling. Tightly wrapped in a soft, handmade tortilla and served with Carolina's addictive salsa, the machaca burro (or burrito to the rest of you) is not to be missed. It is the perfect farewell Phoenix meal and my stomach was screaming for it by the time we locked up the apartment and closed the roller door on the U-Haul. 


Unfortunately, time was tight and I knew that if I was going to score a couple of machaca burros, it was going to be right before closing time and I was going to have to race for them. Although the drive there is a bit of a blur, I know I pulled some Andretti-like moves in my little white Versa while Martin followed distantly in the cumbersome moving truck. Then, just before 7:30, I got stuck at the stoplight directly in front of Carolina's. It was 7:29 when I finally parked so I tried the door. Joy of joys, it was open! 


"Two machaca burros, please!" I said panting.


"Sorry, Mam, we're closed," said the man behind the register.


"But it's not 7:30 yet!" I cried.


"It's 7:31," he said, nodding towards the restaurants's clock.


"Please!" I begged "I'm moving and I have to have one last machaca burro!"


"Sorry, the registers are already closed," he said patiently.


I finally gave up and slunk out to the car, defeated. "I didn't make it," I told Martin over the phone, my eyes beginning to water. "I just really wanted one last machaca burro."


The ridiculousness of the whole thing didn't strike me until later and although I know moving can be a stressful time, I maintain that the machaca burro is a special food, if not a tear-worthy one. 


The following recipe is my own tweaked version of Big Dave's Beef Machaca and, despite the name, it comes astoundingly close to Carolina's machaca. We had it for dinner on Christmas Eve as a sort of tribute to our Christmases in Phoenix.


Beef Machaca

Ingredients

• 3-4 lb Chuck Roast

Marinade

• 1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce
• juice of 2 limes
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup vegetable or olive oil

Additional Ingredients

• Additional vegetable or olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion-cut into large chunks
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup beef broth
• 1/2 a 28 oz can of Las Palmas Red Chile Sauce (or other sauce)
• 1 small can whole green chile peppers
• Dash of Tabasco Sauce
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon oregano

Directions

1. Slice chuck roast into 3" pieces. Trim larger portions of fat off and discard.
2. Combine marinade ingredients, add meat and marinate overnight.
3. Heat a small amount of olive oil or vegetable oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat on the stove.
4. Remove beef pieces from marinade, dry with paper towels. Working in batches, brown beef in hot oil. Do not crowd pan or beef will steam instead of brown. Remove beef from pan. If necessary, add a little more oil. 
5. Add onions and saute for approximately 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute for an additional minute.
6.  Return beef to pan. Add broth, chile sauce, chile peppers, Tabasco, cumin and oregano. 
7. Bring to a boil, scraping browned bits off the bottom of the pan. 
8. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 hours.
9. Remove beef from pot. Allow to rest on a cutting board for 10 minutes. 10. Meanwhile, strain pan juices through strainer into a bowl. Discard onions and chile peppers in strainer. Pour strained sauce back into Dutch oven. Note: This step can be omitted if you would like onions and chiles mixed in with the final machaca.
10. After its 10 minute rest, use two forks to shred beef pieces.
11. Return shredded beef to sauce in an uncovered Dutch oven.
12. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and continue cooking until much of the sauce has cooked off and mixture is just slightly wet.
13. Season with salt and chile pepper flakes as desired.
14. Serve rolled in warm tortillas with cilantro. Provide salsa on the side.

Perfect Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies

I'm three-quarters Swedish so maybe there are some things I'm just destined to like: meatballs, volvos and particleboard furniture. Genetically predisposed or not, one Swedish thing I'm definitely crazy about is the oat crisp. Waifishly thin with a delicate, lacy appearance and a sweet, buttery crunch, it's hard to resist. Over time I've only fallen more deeply in love with this unassuming little cookie. 


My first introduction was made a number of years ago by the Swedish cultural ambassador Ikea. There was a store just a few freeway exits away from the house where I lived in Phoenix, so popping in for a box of my little crisps was never a problem. The size of the box was another story. It was really more of a giant cardboard flat of them than anything else. It may have been designed for those people who rent a U-Haul trailer and drive to Ikea from hours away for an epic shopping journey rather than for the casual shopper, like myself, just dropping in. Anyway, the point is, the box was darn large and would either lead to an out-and-out cookie binge or to a slow and steady cookie consumption that threatened to leave me nutrient-deprived, uninterested in actual food. Such was the appeal of these treats. 


Fast forward to last year when a Swedish restaurant opened in Tempe and took my affection for the oat crisp to a whole new level. The cookies, like everything in the restaurant, were homemade. These cookies were much larger than their Ikea counterpart and were sandwiched together with a cold lemon cream filling between them. I'm not much of a cream fan but the cookies, oh, the cookies… 


Now with December well underway and cookie season in full swing as we approach Christmas, I've been thinking more and more about the oat crisp. Sure I could have just popped into the Ikea here in Portland or checked out the town's token Swedish restaurant but instead, I wanted to make some myself. Amazingly, I got lucky and stumbled onto what ended up being an excellent recipe on my first try. 


The cookies were the picture of perfection by themselves but then, I had an epiphany (pause for dramatic effect). This is the best cookie the world will ever know for use in an ice cream sandwich. What makes them so perfect? They are sweet, crunchy and brittle, like the top of a perfect crème brûlée. When you sink your teeth through cookie into ice cream, it's the same feeling you have when you tap the edge of your spoon through caramelized sugar into creamy custard in a crème brûlée. Maybe it's just that I love crème brûlée that much but these ice cream sandwiches are awesome! 


I used Eating Right's Black Cherry Chocolate Chip Low Fat Frozen Yogurt for the filling because it was already in the freezer, however, I highly recommend it. I also used a slightly thinner layer of filling than you would in a sandwich with thicker cookies. I feel it yields a better cookie-to-ice cream ratio. Additionally, although I didn't have any around, Nutella would probably have made these ice cream sandwiches even more amazing. (Really, is there anything Nutella can''t improve?) Just try spreading a thin layer on one of the cookies before you assemble the sandwich. 

Swedish Oat Crisps (Havreflarn)


Ingredients

• 7 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/4 cups oats (I used quick oats)
• 1 egg
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Melt butter over medium heat in a pot on the stove
3. Stir oats into melted butter
4. Mix eggs and granulated sugar together in another bowl.
5. Add flour and baking powder to the egg and sugar mixture, then mix everything into the oat and butter mixture.
6. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat mats.
7. Drop 1 teaspoon of batter for each cookie, spaced 3 inches apart on baking sheets.
8. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Middle will have developed a lacy appearance.
9. Remove from oven, leave cookies on cookie sheet for approximately 1 minute.
10. Carefully remove with a spatula or knife and place on cooling rack and allow to cool and harden. 

Recipe credit: Delishhh

Notes

• More batter can be used to make larger cookies. If so, space further apart, use a spatula to spread batter out and bake for slightly longer than with smaller cookies.
• Do not allow batter to sit before making cookies. Use immediately, otherwise oats will begin to absorb moisture from the batter and cookies will not spread out properly when baking.
• If desired, rather than transferring cookies to cooling rack, cookies can be place on rolling pin and allowed to harden. This will yield curved cookies. 
• Half of each cookie can be dipped in chocolate for a special treat. 

(Probably) Not Your Grandma's Chicken Salad

Minnesota is full of many things: Mosquitoes, lakes and my relatives, to name a few. Every year, during the muggy Iowa summer when school was out and sweet corn was plentiful, we'd pile into the green family hatchback and make our pilgrimage north.

This was the land of my mom's childhood and of my grandma's cooking, home of hotdish and the ham sandwich. All the traditional Midwest dishes that my mom turned her back on forever when she left Minnesota were there for my discovery. What most people would call comfort food was completely foreign to my childhood palate. The fact that I was born in San Francisco to a couple of health-obsessed granolas whose only form of transportation was a camper, explains a lot.

The strange intersection between international and healthy is squarely where my mom's cooking resided. Hummus, pan-fried Falafel, and whole grain pitas were her answer to creamed corn and casserole. Wheat germ cookies and chocolate meringues stood in for Rice Krispie Treats and Jello salad. I only knew about Kool-Aid from camp, commercials and hanging out with friends. Until the day I moved out I was expected to drink a glass of pureed vegetables, affectionately dubbed "Veggie Drink" by my mom, with each meal.

To say my diet was non-traditional is putting it mildly so when we visited my grandparents I felt more like we had crossed an international border than just a state line. I was a tourist taking in the local fare at every meal. Buttered white bread? Sugar cereal? Don't even get me started on the things my grandma could do with a can of cream of mushroom soup! Of course there were, as I later discovered, Swedish dishes like rice pudding mixed in with the Midwest comfort food but I loved them all.

When it was finally time to leave, my grandma would pack us a lunch for the drive home. It usually included either egg salad or chicken salad sandwiches. Although both were pretty standard food, to me they were a special treat. My palate has changed since then but I still appreciate a good chicken salad sandwich. I especially enjoy this curried version, which I like to think is a fitting combination of my grandma's traditional fare and my mom's flair for the international.

In this salad, apples and raisins sweeten up the chicken nicely while the addition of curry powder is an incredibly simple way to amp up the flavor and give it an enticing saffron color. With the use of olive oil mayonnaise in place of regular mayonnaise it's relatively healthy too unless, of course, you serve it on a buttery croissant like I did. Make it and you're sure to curry favor from the members of your household.

Curried Chicken Salad with Apples and Raisins

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 2 teaspoons water
• 1 cup chopped skinless, boneless chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper or lemon-herb
• 3/4 cup chopped Braeburn apple (about 1 small)
• 1/3 cup diced celery
• 3 tablespoons raisins
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Combine mayonnaise, curry powder and water in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Add the chicken, chopped apple, celery, raisins and salt, stir mixture well to combine
2. Cover and chill
3. Serve between a halved croissant, two slices of bread or with a side of crackers. 

This recipe is from My Recipes

Mini Champagne Cakes

One of the funniest novelty cookbooks I've seen is the one my parents presented to my brother when he moved into his own place. It's called A Man, A Can, A Plan and it's constructed of the sort of thick cardboard normally reserved for children's picture books. My brother's edition even came with its own can opener.

The beauty of the book lays in its caveman-simple directions and the use of no-muss no-fuss ingredients that could be found laying around a bachelor pad. One ingredient that figures prominently, unsurprisingly, is beer. The instructions for a recipe might go something like this: "Dump half a can of beer into a pot, then drink the other half..."

When I was making these Mini Champagne Cakes, I kept thinking about A Man, A Can, A Plan. "Dump half a bottle of champagne into a bowl, then drink the other half..." It was tempting but then again, so are these Mini Champagne Cakes and I needed all but about a glass for the recipe. So what was this sober cook rewarded with in the end? Light and delicate mounds of champagne-infused bliss, perfect for a festive occasion. Luckily, I already have an event in mind. My friend Sarah is having a baby girl this fall and her upcoming shower motivated me to test out some recipes, including this one. 

To be honest, I've actually made Mini Champagne Cakes a couple times before and have always adored them. Unfortunately, the last time I made them they got horribly stuck in the pans and while they were still delicious, they weren't exactly the sort of thing I would want to present to an expectant mother and all her friends. I decided to do a test run to see if I could remedy the sticky situation. 

This time I greased the pans well, floured them and only filled them about two-thirds full. I let the cakes cool in the pan and then inverted them onto a flat wire rack which I menacingly banged against the metal sink edge a few times to help the cakes release. Guess what? It worked! I hope the ladies at the shower like boozed up cake! 

Disclaimer: Men can't control themselves around these cakes. If you wish to save them for a photo shoot or a special event, consider making a sign since verbal warnings may prove insufficient. In fact, some men may interpret anything you say regarding these cakes as an invitation to eat one. 

Mini Champagne Cakes

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cups shortening
• 2 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• A few drops of red food coloring (optional)

• 6 egg whites

• 2 cups champagne

Directions

1. Let egg whites stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. 
2. Preheat oven to 350 F.
3. Grease and flour 12 mini bunt cake pans (they come in groupings of six.) Grease and flour 4-6 muffin cups for the extra batter. 
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat shortening with electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, vanilla, and if desired, 8-10 drops red food coloring. Slowly add egg whites. 
5. Alternately fold in flour mixture and champagne to shortening mixture until just combined- Avoid over-mixing as this will make the cake tough. 
6. Spoon into prepared bunt pans to a height of 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool, then invert on a wire rack and thump against counter to release. 
9. Drizzle with Champagne Icing and allow to dry. 

Champagne Icing

Ingredients

• 3 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons champagne, plus additional
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• Red food coloring, if desired

Directions

1. In medium bowl, combine all ingredients. 
2. Slowly stir in more champagne, one teaspoon at a time, until icing is a drizzle-able thick glaze consistency. 

Recipe Credit: From Simply Perfect Celebrations, 2003. I can't find any record of this publication. I'm not sure if it was a book or a magazine, all I have is the stained, photocopied pages the recipe appears on.