Kale and Goat Cheese Stuffed Squash Blossoms

Squash blossoms are a very special treat for me at the beginning of summer. Farmers pick some blossoms off of their plants and sell them for a pretty penny at farmers’ markets. Restaurants run a special featuring the golden flowers for a week or two as they have limited supply. They make great toppings on pizza, can be thinly chopped and added to salads, or my favorite- stuffed.

I picked up some local kale and cooked 1/2 of the bunch low and slow in a little olive oil with some garlic, salt, and pepper. When it cooled to room temperature, I mixed it with locally made goat cheese. And that’s it- the stuffing was ready.

Gently open the tips of the blossoms and stuff them with a tablespoon or so of the kale cheese mixture. Twist the ends to keep the filling inside, and start lining them up on an olive oiled baking tray or pan.

A lot of chefs will fry stuffed squash blossoms like a breaded and stuffed pepper, but I’m not looking for a calorie bomb in my home cooking. Let’s save that for special occasions!

Bake them at 375 until they start to brown a little and you hear them “talking.” That’s always the secret to whether food is done or not- Is it making a bubbling gurgling sound? If so, it’s likely cooked!

I served these on with some roasted veggies, and sure had a fun time arranging them on my plate!

White Derby Cake

I was recently tasked with baking a birthday cake, and the plan was for a vanilla cake for a two-year-old’s taste buds. After going back and forth on the icing options, I recalled that as a child in New Jersey my mom would take my sister and me to La Bonbonniere Bake Shoppe and we’d get our cakes there for special occasions. My favorite had a whipped cream frosting with fresh fruit incorporated into it, but that’s where my memory faded. Good ole mom to the rescue! A quick text message later and I learned I always wanted a Brown Derby Cake- a chocolate cake with whipped cream and fruit covered in cocoa powder. A quick Google search, and thinking “white” as a substitute word since it was a vanilla cake I was looking to make, and sure enough, there’s a White Derby Cake.

This is a perfect dessert in my opinion. A classic vanilla cake with freshly whipped cream sweetened with a little maple syrup and topped with fresh fruit. It’s WAAAAY better (in the healthy sense) than buttercream frosting which is all butter and loads of sugar. Sure, whipped cream isn’t the best thing for your arteries, but it’s not full of excess sugar as it doesn’t need to be to satiate the taste buds. Whipped cream doesn’t linger on the tongue like buttercream frosting, so you can get away with using so much less sugar.

Ingredients for the vanilla cake-

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1.5 cups organic cane sugar
• 1 TBS aluminum free baking powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and lightly butter entiredly and then line with parchment paper the bottoms of two 8×2 inch round cake pans.

Next, in your KitchenAid stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs and beat until fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and beat in the milk and vanilla. It’s going to start looking curdled like cottage cheese, and that’s what you’re going for. Then, slowly add the flour until the batter is smooth.

Pour evenly into the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool the cakes on wire racks for ten minutes before running a small knife around the edges and flipping them out of the pans onto the wire racks to completely cool.

I made the cake the day before the party and let both cake layers cool completely before wrapping them in parchment paper and then plastic wrap to keep them moist over night.

A few hours before the party I prepared the filling- strawberry whipped cream with bananas.

I stopped by the local farmers market for strawberries, which I cut up into somewhat smaller pieces, mixed them with a tablespoon of sugar, and let them macerate for an hour or so. I had purchased two pints of heavy whipping cream, and used 2/3 of one to make the portion for the filling, which was then mixed with the macerated strawberries so it would turn pink and be sweetened by the berries.

Then I topped this layer with thinly sliced bananas.

I added another cup or so of the strawberry whipped cream on top of the banana slices and then the other layer went on top and I pressed it down to try and even out the filling.

I refrigerated the cake until just before serving to keep the freshly made whipped cream firm.

I whipped the rest of the heavy cream with about a tablespoon of maple syrup, and then spread it all over the cake. There’s a bit of a mound in the center because that’s the way I remember it being as a child. Thinly sliced bananas and strawberries adorned the cake to make sure you get a serving of fruit with your cake.

Enjoy!

Cranberry Poundcake Bread Pudding

One of my favorite desserts that Sean makes is pound cake. It’s a simple cake that tastes just like childhood to me as I ate Entenmann’s pound cake by the pound whenever my parents bought it. This twist on bread pudding using home made pound cake as the “bread,” though really labor intensive, is a winner. Especially for holiday parties.

There are three main steps:

1- make a pound cake

2- make a cranberry compote

3- make the poundcake bread pudding

I’ll walk you through these three steps.

Pound Cake

Ingredients-

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions-

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a six cup loaf pan.

In a KitchenAid stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on a high speed. Add eggs one at a time, vanilla, and salt and mix until well combined. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add the flour until it’s all combined.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for an hour or so until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing it from the pan to cool on a wire rack.

Cranberry Compote

The next step is to make a cranberry compote. Sean added a couple bags of frozen cranberries to a pan on medium heat like you’d start to make a cranberry sauce. He then added a little water, approximately 1/2 cup of sugar,  a handful of frozen strawberries, a handful of frozen blueberries, and some frozen raspberries. This will turn into a sauce if you let it simmer for 30-40 minutes. He added some orange zest at the end.

This part of the recipe can be adjusted to your likes. The addition of sweeter berries allows for a little less sugar and still makes the cranberry sauce really sweet.

The final step is to assemble the bread pudding.

Cut the poundcake up into cubes and let it sit out at room temperature over night to get a little dry.

Cranberry Poundcake Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf poundcake cut into cubes
• 2 TB melted butter
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• tsp vanilla extract
• 1.5 cups cranberry compote

Preheat oven to 350.

Put the pound cake cubes in a square pyrex baking dish and drizzle melted butter over the top.

In your KitchenAid stand mixer, combine the eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and cranberry compote and mix until well combined. Pour over the pound cake and lightly push down on it with a fork to be sure the bread is covered and soaking it all up. Let this sit on the counter for 45 minutes or so to be sure it has soaked up the mixture before baking for 45 minutes and has cooked through.

Chef Sean served food to Opera on Tap Colorado at Upslope Brewing Company, and he served this dessert paired with their Christmas Ale. Smear a little extra compote on the plate and a dollop on top and shove a fork in it!

Enjoy!

Greek Honey Cake

Chef Sean Smith and I, besides helping others throw exciting dinner parties, like to throw dinner parties at our own home. He’s usually in charge of every course, but he asked me to make dessert for our Greek-themed party a few weeks ago. I searched through dozens of Greek dessert recipes looking for something without filo dough and for a dessert that I could make in a reasonable period of time as real estate is very valuable and limited in our tiny kitchen.

I found a Greek Honey Cake recipe on Allrecipes that I just loved and it’s definitely one we’ll make in the future for clients. Maybe next time I’ll remember to snap a photo before eating a piece as well!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 3/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup cane sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 3-4 tablespoons honey

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 inch square or round baking dish.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and orange rind. Set aside.
3. In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and the 3/4 cup of cane sugar. Add in the eggs, one at a time.
4. Beat in the flour mixture alternatively with the milk, mixing just until incorporated.
5. Stir in the walnuts.
6. Pour batter into the pan and bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool at least 15 minutes before cutting.
7. Drizzle honey over the top of cut pieces of cake and enjoy.