Cake!

I haven't been posting much because I've been busy making another wedding cake (and a groom's cake!). Here's what I've been up to. (No, I didn't do the flowers...the florist took care of that...I just did the cakes.)

Pomegranate Vinaigrette

I don't eat as many salads as I'd like (or should). And, normally, I don't make my own dressings. However, I happened to have some pomegranate molasses, and this recipe from Bobby Flay looked too good to pass up. I was right. This is delicious on a spinach salad, especially if you add some chopped apples and toasted walnuts as suggested with the accompanying salad recipe. Very refreshing and tasty. I only made a slight modification to the amount of pomegranate molasses.

Pomegranate Vinaigrette

1/3 cup pomegranate molasses
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Whisk together the pomegranate molasses, vinegar, mustard, honey and salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until emulsified.

Recipe courtesy Bobby Flay

Chickpea Curry

This tasty dish could have come from your local Indian restaurant, but it's so simple and quick to make at home, either on the stovetop or in a crock pot/slow cooker. Since I cooked this on the stove, I smashed some of the chickpeas (probably 1/4 to 1/2 of them) to make the curry a bit thicker and less chunky. I served this over rice. Mmm...yum.


Chickpea Curry

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, grated
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. coriander, crushed
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. salt
15 oz. can chickpeas
15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp. garam masala

Saute oil, onions, ginger, and garlic for 5 minutes. Place onion mixture & remaining ingredients except garam masala into crockpot and cook for 6-9 hours on low. Add garam masala before serving.

Saute oil, onions, ginger, and garlic for 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients except garam masala and simmer covered for 30 minutes. Add garam masala before serving.

Recipe courtesy Simple Vegetarian Recipes

Cranberry Swirl Coffee Cake

I love cranberries! My freezer is stocked full of them. However, this recipe is great using canned whole berry cranberry sauce (though I'm sure it would be even better using homemade cranberry sauce). It's quick to put together, and the results are fabulous. It was perfect to serve for brunch on Thanksgiving Day. Just make sure to cool the cake before you try to glaze it. (Trust me; it works better that way.)

1/4 pound margarine (I used BlueBonnet)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pint (1 cup) sour cream
1 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
7 or 8 ounce can whole cranberry sauce
1/2 cup chopped nuts, lightly toasted (I used pecans)
Glaze:
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
1 tablespoon warm water

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease 6 or 9 inch tube pan. Cream margarine and sugar with electric mixer. Add unbeaten eggs one at a time, beating after each addition on medium speed.
Mix dry ingredients and add alternating with sour cream.

Add flavoring. Put a layer of batter on bottom then swirl some cranberry sauce over batter and sprinkle with a few nuts. Add batter, more cranberry sauce, then the remaining batter and remaining cranberry sauce. Swirl the cranberry sauce into the batter with spatula or spoon. Sprinkle with nuts.

Bake for 55 minutes or until cake tests done with toothpick. Cool in pan for 5 minutes then turn out on rack to cool, or to serve. If desires, drizzle with glaze.

Glaze: Mix sugar, water and flavoring and drizzle over cooled or cold coffee cake.

Recipe courtesy Carroll Pellegrinelli on About.com