ABC - Butterscotch Spiral Coffee Cake

Yeasted coffee cake. I no longer fear you. Bring it on! :o) Two years ago, or even a year ago, I would have been really intimidated by the prospect of making anything with yeast in it. They say "practice makes perfect", but after many tries and failures, I figured "they" must have excluded yeasted baked goods. Now I can honestly say, practice DOES make perfect. You just have to keep trying, keep making them, and learn from your mistakes. I can't believe I'm at a point now where I can touch the dough-in-the-making and know that it needs a bit more water, even though I used the required amount in the recipe. I used to keep adding flour to sticky doughs until it became the total opposite of "sticky", and guess what? The end result would be heavy and dense. You could seriously injure somebody with my baked [bread, rolls, you name it]. So if you recognize any or all of this, I say to you my friend, don't despair. If I can do it, you can too :o)

Let's get back to business here, after that little detour :o) The ABC bakers tackled the Butterscotch Spiral Coffee Cake this month. As I'm writing this, three ABC-ers (Monica, Raymond, and Chelly) as well as this month's guest blogger, Jenn of Knitty Baker, have already blogged about it and loved it. You guys rock! It's basically a giant cinnamon roll with lots of spices (and in my case, orange zest too), and a fabulous butterscotch glaze. What's not to love!

HCB - Sticky Toffee "Pudding"

The Sticky Toffee "Pudding" that the Heavenly Cake Bakers are baking this week, is not a pudding at all. It's a cake that originates in the UK where in many cases what we call a "cake" here, is called a "pudding" over there. But let's forget about semantics. I loved this cake. It has (Medjool) dates, lots of warm spices and caramel sauce on top. What's not to like?



A simple cake packed with flavor!



Hubby's birthday cake

Never before did it take me this long to decide what kind of cake to bake for my husband's birthday. Do I go with a recipe that I've made before or do I take this opportunity to try something completely new but risk total failure and end up having to run to the store to "buy" a cake. I'm sure you've been there :o) I decided to throw all caution to the wind and go with something completely new. I narrowed down my choices to: Dobos Torte or a Chiffon Layer Cake. I figured that either option would be a challenge; the Dobos Torte for its numerous thin layers and finicky buttercream, and the Chiffon Cake because it seems almost impossible to bake one without a tube pan. The Dobos Torte lost :o)

Here's a sneak preview of the birthday cake :o)

HCB - Spice Cake with Whipped Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting

The Heavenly Cake Bakers got to choose from a list of recipes that Marie, the group's organizer, had made in the past. Although it was hard to pick a recipe (all of them sound good), I decided to pick something that I could take to work for today's bake sale (benefiting the flood victims in Pakistan). My choice: Spice Cake. Rose suggests frosting it with a Peanut Buttercream Frosting but since I can't eat peanut butter, I opted to use my standby Whipped Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting instead. My main concern with the PB frosting was of course quality control: how can you sell something you haven't tasted yourself? :o)

Frosted, decorated and ready for the bake sale

ABC - Pain d'Epices

The day has finally arrived. What’s so special about today, you’re wondering? Today is when Wafae and I launch our very own brand-spanking new baking project we like to call the ABC of the Month. Click HERE for more info on that.

I asked Wafae to do the honor of choosing our very first recipe from Baking for all Occasions, and she picked Pain d’Epices. It's a great first recipe because it's very easy and quick to make. You need two bowls: one for the dry ingredients and one for the wet ingredients. Then you add the dry ingredients to the wet ones, and mix. You could easily do it by hand without dirtying your mixer :o)