Simple Strawberry Sour Cream Bundt Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This simple bundt cake is perfect to tote to a meeting or serve with coffee following a Sunday church service. It's an easy-to-make butter cake, that is made even more delicious when topped with a good fruit jam. I used strawberry this time around, mainly because I wanted something red for Valentine's Day, but there are no rules that prevent you from using apricot or blackberry jam if that's what you have on hand. The only trick to making this cake is to make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature, and that the pan in which the cake is baked is well greased. This moist cake can be made a day before you plan to serve it, and while it is a great keeper, I doubt there will be leftovers to worry about. This is one of those cakes that will neither make nor break your reputation as a cook. It's good without being great, but the ease with which it comes together and its fine crumb guarantee it will be given a spot in your recipe rotation. Here is how the cake is made.

Berrylicious Lemon Pound Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...While I realize this is a matter of opinion, I'll go on record as saying local berries have been a disappointment this summer. The only thing that has prevented the season from being a total berry bust is the crop of Chester blackberries that are now appearing in local markets and farm stands. They are as sweet as sacramental wine, and when we have guests I like to serve them with a cake that is as good as they are. I found one several years ago that adds a special flourish to berry desserts. The cake I'm featuring tonight is so lovely that I'm surprised I haven't been able to find it on other blogs or recipe sites. It was developed for Gourmet magazine ages ago, and, while this gorgeous pound cake should be manna for lemon lovers, it seems to have fallen into obscurity. Pound cakes were traditionally made with a pound of each of flour, butter, eggs and sugar. Nowadays, ratio, rather than weight, defines this classic, and any cake made with ingredients in a 1:1:1:1 ratio is considered to be a pound cake, regardless of its component weight. If you are interested, more detailed information about this type of cake can be found here. Pound or butter cakes get their lift from a combination of butter, eggs and baking powder. They are heavier and richer than sponge cakes and they are also easier to make. They are not foolproof, but if you measure your ingredients carefully you should have a lovely cake to serve your family. We'd all have better and more consistent luck with our baked goods if we weighed our ingredients. Unfortunately, most of us do not yet do that. When I prepare dry ingredients for baking, I spoon rather than scoop them into a measuring cup. I also level the content of the cup with the back of a knife rather than my fingers. When you look at the ingredient list for this cake, you will undoubtedly notice that it calls for 1/4 cup lemon zest. That is not a mistake. Five large lemons will yield that amount of zest, but a caution must be issued here. Make sure you avoid the white pith when you zest the lemons. The pith will make the cake bitter and its after taste can be downright unpleasant. Your cake will probably need more time in the oven than the recipe suggests. Mine required an hour to bake. This is a wonderful cake for lemon lovers and it makes a perfect base for macerated fruit. When the recipe was published, it was suggested that the cake be served with strawberries. While it's delicious served that way, I actually prefer to serve it with a blueberry or blackberry compote. Perhaps that's an unconscious homage to the state of Oregon. I hope you'll try this recipe. I love this intensely lemon-flavored cake. I think you will, too. Here's the recipe.

Kentucky Butter Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I didn't realize how old this recipe was until I began backtracking to its source. While it appears throughout the blogosphere, most of the recipes you see are simple riffs of a cake created by Nell Lewis for the 1963 Pillsbury Bake-Off. Over time, the bourbon she used in the cake was replaced with vanilla or rum extract. If you peruse the ingredient list below, you'll see this cake uses a lot of sugar. I decided to revert to the original recipe, hoping bourbon or rum would help neutralize its sweetness. I also thought the cake needed something more than vanilla flavoring, and, as I do not like the flavor of rum extract, I decided to use the real thing. Rum extract is one of my "Princess and the Pea" triggers, and because I so dislike its flavor, I will not use it in my baking. Fortunately, I had plenty of dark rum left from my holiday baking, so I decided to use it in the cake I made for the Silver Fox and friends. This is an easy cake to make and if you have a nagging sweet tooth, you will enjoy it. I do hope you will give it a try. It would make a perfect base for macerated fruit, particularly peaches. Here is how the cake is made.

Pumpkin and Chocolate Bundt Cake with Bittersweet Chocloate Glaze

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I don't want you to think I've forgotten about Thanksgiving Day. I plan to devote this week, save for Tuesday, when I'll be featuring a new Table for Two recipe, to cakes and desserts that are perfect for the holiday. I wanted to start with this very simple bundt cake because it is just that. Very Simple. I believe the recipe first appeared in Eating Well magazine, but it has so proliferated that I can't state that as an absolute fact. The cake uses pureed pumpkin to replace much of the oil that's used to make a standard bundt cake, so it is a bit healthier for you than most. It also makes the cake incredibly moist and lends a holiday touch to what would otherwise be just another chocolate cake. I've made this cake several times and have come to the conclusion that it really needs the added flavor that a bittersweet chocolate glaze provides. The cake was originally made with a simple sugar glaze and topped with miniature chocolate chips. It was good, but my family prefers strong flavors and the version made with bittersweet chocolate was their hands down favorite. The cake stays fresh for days and it transports really well. It also makes a terrific base for "Death by Chocolate" type dessert. I hope you'll give this recipe a try. It would make a great addition to your holiday dessert table. Here is how the cake is made.

Glazed Buttermilk Bundt Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Earlier this week we had a buttermilk sky. It had been years since I had seen one and it reminded me of a debate my parents had regarding the name of the curdled cloud formation that my mother, an easterner, insisted should be called a mackerel sky. I prefer to use its more lyrical name, so, for today anyway, we're going to call it a buttermilk sky. If you close your eyes quite tightly and have an active imagination, the myriad clouds might just resemble the curds that can be found in buttermilk. Buttermilk, by the way, gets its name from the way it is produced. It is the liquid that is left over from churning butter, so it is actually relatively low in fat and will curdle naturally, or be given an assist with the addition of a bacteria that will cause it to curdle. While I can never bring myself to drink it, I use a lot of buttermilk in my cooking and baking and there is almost always a quart of it in my refrigerator. I love the slightly tart flavor that it imparts to food and it makes for remarkably tender baked goods. I'm always on the lookout for new recipes that use it and when I found the one for this wonderful cake in Food and Wine magazine, I knew I had to give it a try. I was so pleased with the results that I wanted to share the recipe with you tonight. I do hope you'll give it a try and treat your family and friends to this delicious cake. Here is how it's made.

Blueberry and Cream Cheese Pound Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This is a slightly altered version of a cake that graced Midwestern farm tables for years. It is super easy to make and it's simply delicious - the kind of delicious that makes my socks going up and down. This butter-rich cake is wonderfully moist and has a gorgeous velvet crumb that almost melts on the tongue. It is also eminently portable and all of this makes it a perfect candidate for a barbecue or picnic. If you are still looking for a slightly different holiday dessert, I hope you'll keep this in mind. I know you'll enjoy it. Here is how this simple cake is made.