TWD: Caramel Pots de Creme

Wow, somehow I'm behind 4 recipes! Guess I've been baking, but not posting.

In the interest of time, I'll just do a quick catch up, then.

This week, Peggy from Peggy the Baker chose Caramel Pots de Creme for the Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.

Sounds fancy, huh? Really, it's caramel custard and man-oh-man is it heavenly. So simple too. I baked 1/2 recipe exactly as specified and it worked great. The custard was perfectly set. The only "fail" was covering the pan with plastic wrap... my first "visual inspection" of the pan in the oven surprised me with plastic wrap that was half melted. Thankfully, none of it melted into the custards. I followed up with an aluminum foil covering and all was well.

Needless to say, this was my favorite recipe of the four.


Last week, Patricia from Life With a Whisk chose Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones.

These were surprisingly good and I loved the slightly chewy texture the oatmeal gave. I didn't really detect the nutmeg but I could tell "something" was there.



Before that, Lindsay from A Little Something… Sweet chose Maple Cornmeal Biscuits.

I thought these were OK, something like a breakfast flavored cornmeal biscuit. I'm sure the cornbread lovers would enjoy these.



Finally, Peggy from Pantry Revisited chose Brown Sugar Bundt Cake earlier in the month.



I really enjoyed this bundt cake and it's rich caramelly taste. The pears were a nice addition, although I think their ghostly appearance turned off my kids.



OK, that pretty much covers the month of May. If you'd like to see the recipes, please check out each baker's blog, or Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking, From my Home to Yours".

TWD: Basic Marbled Loaf Cake & Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake

It was a double-loafer weekend. Loaf cake, that is.

Carol from The Bake More chose Basic Marbled Loaf Cake for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.

Amy of Amy Ruth Bakes decided on Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake last June but I didn't get to it then.


I used my handy-dandy home-made loaf cake splitter-in-halfer thingamajiggy* and made half a recipe of both cakes in one pop.


* the thingamajiggy is a piece of cardboard cut to fit the pan, then covered well in aluminum foil. I use a couple of pieces of parchment paper lining the bottom and middle side for a little extra insurance to keep the batters safely on their own sides.

As long as the baking times are similar, this method works well for halving loaf cakes. (I included a show and tell on how to make the divider in this post).


As you can see, I opted not to make the standard vanilla - chocolate marble cake. Instead I went with straight vanilla and colored half the batter pink. My son begged me not to add raspberries like I was planning to, or any other flavors, so my marbling is cosmetic only.


Both cakes were moist and dense and tasted delish with no frosting or glaze. I would have a hard time picking a favorite.

If you'd like to see the recipe, stop by Carol and Amy's sites (links in the first paragraph), or find yourself a copy of Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking, From my Home to Yours".