Desserts

Carolyn's Plum Torte

Carolyn's Plum Torte

My friend and neighbor Carolyn Lengel made this cake for me after Sophie was born.  I have since passed the recipe on to multitudes of folks, who all love it.  I believe the original recipe came from the New York Times.

3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. unsalted butter
1 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
pinch of salt
2 eggs
plums
sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream sugar and butter together.  Add flour, baking powder, salt, and eggs and beat well.

Prepare your cake pan (springform or regular) by spraying it with baking spray.  Spoon batter into the pan. Cut plums in half, removing pits, and press plum halves, skin side up, lightly into the batter.  Sprinkle with lemon juice and sugar (depending on the sweetness of the plums).  Sprinkle with a little ground cinnamon.

Bake about 1 hour or until done.  Remove from oven and cool.  Serve warm, at room temperature, or from the refrigerator.  Can be frozen, too.

Dalia and Noel’s birthday cake

This cake has a hilarious story.  Its original name was Red Devil's Food Cake, and my stepmother, Shirley Waxman, brought it to us for Sophie's second birthday party, just before Dalia was born.  It was delicious, so I knew I had to get the recipe.  Dalia was due on July 13, and Noel's birthday is July 14.  I decided to make this cake for Noel's birthday.  The morning of July 13, I called my father and obtained the recipe over the phone.  Shortly after I started to mix everything together, my labor started.  The contractions were pretty bearable, so I continued making the cake, and took the two layers out of the oven just as Noel was walking in the door to take me and doula Lauren to Sue, my midwife.  Sue checked me and told me to go home, have lunch, and rest, which we all did, but I still found a moment somewhere in there to make the frosting and frost the cake.  It went into the fridge, and my in-laws brought it to us the next day, in the hospital, with champagne, to toast the health of both Dalia Maya and Noel, both born on July 14.  Vive le chocolat!!!

Cake:

½ c butter
1½ c sugar
½ c cocoa
2 eggs
2 c sifted flour (1/2 c ww, 1½ c unbleached white)
½ buttermilk or yogurt
2 tsp baking soda

1 c boiling water
1 tsp vanilla
½ c choc chips

Spray and flour 2 8” cake pans, set aside.  In a large bowl, cream butter and add sugar and cocoa. Mix thoroughly, add eggs, beat well.  flour alternately with buttermilk.  Add boiling water, vanilla, and choc chips.  Turn into 2 cake pans, bake in moderate oven at 350 degrees F, for 30 minutes.

(Alternatively, you can bake one cake in a Bundt pan, then slice it in half horizontally.  Mark the sections with toothpicks to ease matching them up.)

Frosting:

In food processor, blend:

1 stick butter
½ c cocoa
milk or liquor (coffee liquor or brandy)
confectioner's sugar (add until the right consistency is achieved)

Lemon Ginger Almond Biscotti

Makes about 7 dozen

 1 c toasted sliced almonds
2 ½  c all-purpose flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c sugar
1 T ground ginger
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ c molasses
1 tsp pure lemon extract or lemon juice
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (not imitation junk! J)
½ c minced crystallized ginger

Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a squared-off 7-by-3-inch rectangle about 1 1/4 inch thick. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until very firm.

These are amazing cookies, really delicious, and not very fattening when you consider how thin they are!  Also, really not very labor-intensive like regular biscotti—a lot of bang for your buck/effort, since you can mix them up, refrigerate them, go do something else, then come back and slice and bake.  My family adores them.  This recipe is modified from one of Martha Stewart’s.