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Easy Carrot Cake with Whipped Icing

Easy Carrot Cake with Whipped Icing

Trigger Warning: While I’ve tried to make the details of disordered eating behavior mentioned in this post very vague, they still may be triggering. If you’ve struggled with disordered eating and are vulnerable to that, you may not want to read.

I read an article yesterday that made my blood boil to the point where I could barely sleep a wink. Instead, I stayed up all night processing. What was so bad about the article? Why did it bother me so much? Why did the website’s flippant, patronizing responses to readers’ criticism on their Facebook page bother me so much?

I won’t link to the article, 10 Mistakes Women Make in the Gym, because T-Nation seemed particularly proud that it was one of the most popular articles on the website and I don’t feel like giving them anymore traffic. Instead, I’ll summarize: it’s a list of things women “should” change about how they exercise written in your typical peacocky fitness-website tone. It takes for granted that women should prioritize appearance above all else in the gym, mixes in some body shaming and triggering language, and ticks all the SEO boxes for the post to do well on the internet.

Particularly offensive highlights include:

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August 14, 2014 by Julie Ruble | 30 Comments

cakes

Easy Coconut Sheet Cake with Whipped Coconut Icing

Thanks, PAM, for sponsoring this post!

I’ve shared my social media confessions. Now it’s time for some cleaning confessions. I am a really, really terrible housekeeper.

I can deep-clean — things like disinfecting the whole kitchen, swiffering the floor — but it’s keeping things tidy that feels like climbing up a mountain during an avalanche. I’ll regularly leave a pile of papers sitting on my coffee table for a month, a pile of clothes in the dryer waiting to be folded, a pile of blankets in the floor “for Byrd to play in” (read: because I’m lazy.)

And then there are some chores around the house that I cannot wrap my head around. For instance, dusting eludes me. I’ll promise myself I’m going to dust every week, but by the second week, I find I’ve stopped believing in dust. Not enough will have accumulated in a week to convince me of its existence. Obviously, I tell myself, it has been eradicated forever. So I’ll stop dusting for 6 months or so only to open the blinds one day and feel like I’m a character in The Grapes of Wrath.

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August 5, 2014 by Julie Ruble | 90 Comments

cakes, cookies, cupcakes, pies and tarts

14 Summer Desserts from Willow Bird Baking (plus some from other blogs!)

Thanks, Foodie, for sponsoring this post.

Thank you so much for filling out my reader survey! If you haven’t yet, you can still do so here. I’m not surprised at all by how kind and thoughtful your comments were, but I do feel humbled by it. I seriously have the best readers in the world. One of the things I appreciated most was how many of you have made LOTS of recipes from the blog and how many of you love my stories. I can’t adequately put into words how much that means to me, since it’s been my dream since I was little to be a writer. I feel really blessed to share with you here.

Because I’m in total denial about school starting soon (I’m still going to sleep at 3 a.m. every night, so that should be fun to correct), here are some of my very favorite summer desserts from other bloggers (above) and 14 summer desserts from Willow Bird Baking (below). I only picked the absolute BEST EVER summer desserts, so make them ALL. And make them quickly to savor every second of the fading summer (Wahhhh.)

1. STRAWBERRY COBBLER WITH LEMON CREAM.

cooking difficulty: easy

2. GOOEY BUTTER STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE.

cooking difficulty: easy

3. STRAWBERRY COCONUT CREAM PIE.

cooking difficulty: intermediate

4. BROWN SUGAR POP-TART ICE CREAM SUNDAES.

cooking difficulty: easy

5. CARAMELIZED BANANA UPSIDE DOWN COCONUT CAKE WITH COCONUT WHIPPED CREAM.

cooking difficulty: easy

6. LEMON RASPBERRY SQUARES.

cooking difficulty: easy

7. KEY LIME PIE CHEESECAKE WITH SKY-HIGH MERINGUE.

cooking difficulty: advanced

8. FRUITY PEBBLE STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM SUNDAES.

cooking difficulty: easy

9. END OF SUMMER BERRY COBBLER.

cooking difficulty: easy

10. STRAWBERRY LEMONADE CHEESECAKE BARS WITH A SHORTBREAD CRUST.

cooking difficulty: easy

11. HOT RASPBERRY CAKE WITH VANILLA ICE CREAM.

cooking difficulty: easy

12. LIMONCELLO-SPIKED SHORTBREAD ICEBOX CAKE.

cooking difficulty: easy

13. RASPBERRY CHEESECAKE MORNING BUNS.

cooking difficulty: intermediate

14. LEMON RASPBERRY GOOEY BUTTER CAKE.

cooking difficulty: easy

August 1, 2014 by Julie Ruble | 4 Comments

cakes

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

Soooo, MAUVE. What an awesome color, right? Let’s talk about the many reasons mauve is so wonderful.

1. What color would your great-aunt Ida choose for her bath mat if mauve hadn’t been invented? She’d probably be steppin’ out onto a bright yellow mat that would give her indigestion. It wouldn’t even match the soap.

2. Without mauve, how would we describe the color of old, well-chewed bubble gum?

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

3. There was even a book written about mauve, believe it or not, and how it paved the way for synthetic dyes. We’d all still be dying our clothes with berries if it weren’t for mauve!

4. It was apparently “all the rage” in 1858, according to said book. They called its eruption of popularity the “mauve measles.” COME ON, YOU KNOW YOU WANT THE MAUVE MEASLES. And we all aspire to Victorian fashion, right?

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

5. We need a color we can use for the plasticky wrappers of feminine products that we don’t have to then use elsewhere and be reminded of feminine products. VOILÀ: MAUVE.

6. Nail salons need dozens of colors to fill up their shelves. Most of those need to be good colors, obviously, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a few bottles that would always stay full? (Oh, and a few that they could use on your great-aunt Ida, should she ever come in for a manicure.)

7. You can pronounce it moh-ve or mah-ve. Isn’t that fun? Isn’t it??

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

OKAY LISTEN, I KNOW MAUVE IS NOT EXACTLY THE MOST APPETIZING COLOR. I don’t know why this stupid glaze decided to turn mauve. I’ve tweaked the recipe below a bit (adding whole raspberries and making it in a food processor) in hopes that yours won’t turn mauve. You can even add some red food coloring if you’re really particular.

BUT I HAD TO POST THIS CAKE BECAUSE IT’S ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I’VE EVER EATEN. We can’t be fussy about colors at a time like this, y’all. It’s HOT RASPBERRY CAKE. And that glaze, while decidedly mauve, is also delicious. You have to make this super easy cake right this second and eat it with vanilla bean ice cream (on the balcony, straight from the skillet; you know the deal.)

One year ago: Strawberry Lemonade Cheesecake Bars with a Shortbread Crust
Two years ago: Shredded Wheat (or Weetabix) Breakfast Scramble
Three years ago: Soft Sugar Cookies and Cookie Decorating with Freedom School
Four years ago: Spicy Peach and Cucumber Salsa

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

Recipe by: Willow Bird Baking, adapted from the Blueberry Coffee Cake by Sweet Anna’s
Yield: 6-8 servings

This cake is absolutely to die for. It’ll come out of the oven seeming biscuity on top, but inside it’s the most tender, soft, buttery hot raspberry cake. It’s so easy, too!

Cake Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 cups frozen raspberries (do not thaw)

Glaze Ingredients:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoon seedless raspberry jam
8-9 fresh raspberries
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
milk to thin (I used around 3 tablespoons)
fresh raspberries and vanilla bean ice cream for serving (optional)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Reserve about 1/4 cup of this mixture in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and extracts and blend until just combined. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour. Toss the raspberries in the 1/4 cup reserved flour and then fold them (and the rest of the reserved flour) into the batter. (The dough is quite stiff, so be patient as you’re folding in the berries. It’ll seem like it’s mostly berries, but just trust me. It’ll be awesome.)

Spread the batter into a 10-inch skillet (I used the back of two spoons to work it around.) Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs (cooking time in a cast iron skillet can be variable, so check early and often.) While the cake is still hot, purée the jam and raspberries together in a food processor. Add the extracts. Slowly add the powdered sugar as you process. Add milk slowly to get the desired consistency — I ended up adding about 3 tablespoons. Pour your glaze (which is hopefully NOT mauve) over the hot cake. Serve while still warm with fresh raspberries and vanilla bean ice cream.

July 17, 2014 by Julie Ruble | 15 Comments

cakes

Chai Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I wrote this post as part of the Plugrá Butter Brigade. Thanks, Plugrá, for sponsoring this post and for making my favorite butter!

Perspective.

In the Middle Ages, art was often used primarily for worship or teaching religious lessons. The portrayal of Biblical figures, therefore, wasn’t meant to be realistic, necessarily, but to point to higher truths. Figures often floated on a backdrop of gold in the absence of a realistic contextual landscape. Their importance dictated their size instead of their position in space (while now, we might paint a person much smaller to show they’re standing far in the distance. You know, if the extent of our artistic talent didn’t abruptly end just past stick figures.)

One of the great innovations of Renaissance painting, often attributed to architect Filippo Brunelleschi (whose incredible dome I saw in Florence, Italy), is realistic linear perspective; that is, illustrating a scene such that it appears to recede in the distance toward an invisible “vanishing point.” Ancient Greeks and Romans knew about linear perspective, but like so much of their knowledge, this method of painting was lost — until the Renaissance, when artists began trying to create realistic paintings. Some Renaissance artists went as far as dissecting corpses, seen as a grave sin in this time, in order to better understand the human form.

The result of this careful study of reality (including, in Brunelleschi’s case, his survey of ancient Roman ruins) was paintings with breathtaking perspective.

Before I learned about the development (or redevelopment) of linear perspective, looking at Renaissance paintings was a lovely but shallow experience for me. They were beautiful, but without knowing that they represented a revolution in thought, I didn’t appreciate them as much as I do now. Learning about the development of linear perspective gave me a broader perspective, if you will, about why the art I was looking at mattered.

I’ve decided this summer is going to be the summer of perspective. In between the pool and lots of visits to Starbucks, I want to spend some time reading, listening, learning, thinking: trying to broaden my understanding of the historical trajectory my life is situated in and my own personal trajectory as a person. What other beliefs do I hold or reject because of my limited perspective? What else am I missing out on because I don’t have context? What struggles am I facing that I could change my perspective on? Maybe these questions are a way to reflect after a hard, wonderful year full of changes: marrying, moving, changing jobs. Over and over again, I’m thankful for my trip to Europe for inspiring me to think about these things.

* * *

And now, cake. This gorgeous Chai Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream is stuffed with spices that complement a gorgeous summer day and smothered with the lightest of light frostings (in terms of texture, that is; don’t count the calories!) Enjoy this sweet indulgence on a balcony or patio for full summer bliss.

Have you ever had a life experience that put things into perspective for you?

One year ago: Gooey Chocolate Coconut Cream Skillet Cake
Two years ago: Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries with Basil Salt and Lemon Garlic Dipping Sauce
Three years ago: Blueberry Cream Cheese Almond Braid
Four years ago: Santa Fe Breakfast Bake

Chai Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Recipe by: Adapted from Chef Kevin Kidd of SALT Bistro in Boulder, Colorado
Yield: 12 servings

Swiss meringue buttercream is the lightest, most heavenly frosting on the planet. Now imagine it slathered all over an incredible chai cake. Now imagine eating that cake on the balcony on a summer evening. Now make it happen!

Chai Cake Ingredients:
2/3 cup milk
3 tablespoon loose black chai tea*
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom, crushed*
sliver of fresh ginger, peeled and grated*
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 6 tablespoons flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup (4-ounces) Plugrá® European-Style Butter, unsalted, at room temperature
*If you can only find plain loose black tea, use 1 teaspoon ground cardamom or 7 crushed cardamom pods, 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed, and 1/4-inch of fresh ginger peeled and grated

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups sugar
5 egg whites
1 pound Plugrá European-Style Butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour the bottom and sides of three 8-inch round cake pans. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, combine milk, tea, cardamom, fennel, and ginger. Bring it to a simmer but not a boil before removing it from the heat and steeping for 5 minutes. Strain the milk and set it on the counter to cool (I popped mine in the fridge after it had cooled a bit.)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolk, vanilla, and 1/3 of the cooled chai milk. In a separate large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Beat in softened Plugrá Butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add the remaining chai milk and beat on medium-low speed until incorporated. On medium speed, add the egg mixture in three additions, scraping the bowl after each addition. Beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Divide the batter evenly among the pans (it’ll be a pretty thin layer of batter in each pan, so I used a scale to make sure it was accurately divided) and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out with just a few moist crumbs (if you’re using larger pans, like 9-inch pans, they will bake a lot faster, so keep an eye on them!) Cool for 10 minutes before removing the cakes from pans and cooling completely on a wire rack. Then wrap them tight and stick them in the freezer for 30 minutes to make them easier to frost.

Make the frosting: Make sure your butter is softened before you begin — if it’s not totally room temperature, it won’t integrate appropriately. Put egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and place this over a saucepan partially filled with simmering water to create a double-boiler. Whisk the mixture constantly for about 3 minutes or until sugar has completely dissolved. Transfer the mixing bowl to a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on medium-high speed for 10 minutes, or until the mixture has cooled completely and formed stiff peaks. On medium-high speed, add Plugrá Butter, a tablespoon or so at a time, mixing to incorporate after each addition. If ever your mixture seems to break a bit, whisk on high for a minute or so to re-fluffify it (that’s the technical term, of course) before continuing. After adding all the butter, continue mixing until smooth. Add the vanilla and beat until just combined.
Assemble the cake: Use a daub of frosting to anchor a cake layer on a plate. Spread a little more than 1/2 cup of frosting between each cake layers and let it fall out over the sides of the cake. When your cake is built and even, use this excess frosting to spread a thin crumb coat over the whole cake. Refrigerate for 20 minutes or so for the crumb coat to harden. Then smooth the rest of the frosting over the top and sides of cake in a relatively thick layer to create a pretty finish. Garnish with a sprinkling of cinnamon if desired.

June 16, 2014 by Julie Ruble | 14 Comments

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