Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spice Bread

So given that we ate the Blueberry Coffee Cake in about 2 days (I could say my husband ate most of it, but I'd probably be lying), and I'm really bored waiting for more quilting supplies, I decided to bake something else!

I chose another sort of cake/bread recipe that I found on Pinterest again. This one is called Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spice Bread, originally from An Edible Mosaic.

Looks yummy, right?

Now, I don't have a loaf pan, sadly, so this was a bit of an experiment.

Ingredients:

   Cheese batter:

• 8 oz (225g) cream cheese, room temp
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup (30g) powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

   Pumpkin Spice batter:

• 3/4 cup (150g) brown sugar, lightly packed
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup (180g) pumpkin puree
• 2 Tbsp canola (rapeseed) oil or sunflower oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup (160g) all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp cloves

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). Lightly grease 3 mini loaf pans (or, in my case, 3 round cake pans).

Combine cheese batter ingredients in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Whisk together brown sugar and eggs in a medium bowl until light and fluffy, then stir in pumpkin, oil and vanilla.

The best kind of pumpkin, ask any American! 

It is ridiculously expensive, but well worth it :)

In a separate bowl, whisk or sift together the dry ingredients.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet, careful not to overmix.

This batter, btw, tastes incredible. I know, raw eggs and all that, but if you're into licking the spoon, I highly recommend it :) 

Divide the pumpkin batter between the 3 pans, then pour the cheese batter on top. It looked quite thin once I put it in the pan, but I figured I'd wait to see what happened when it was done.

Bake until golden around the edges, about 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted inside comes out clean. I checked mine after 30 minutes, and either because of the pan I used or my oven, it was pretty much spot on.

I decided because they were so thin to basically just stack them. I bet it'd taste really great with some cream cheese frosting in between the layers, but my second package of cream cheese went mouldy, so I just stacked them up as is, and it's just for us so the presentation doesn't really matter anyway!

It smells amazing, by the way. Nothing like the smell of pumpkin bread in the oven to make you drool! 

It was actually really good, but a wee bit on the bland side. I think possibly doubling the amount of cream cheese batter would go a long way toward making it less bland, because that had a nice tang to it and brought out the spiciness of the pumpkin bit. On the other hand, warmed up with a little bit of butter it was really delicious, so depends on your individual taste and what you want out of it. If it's a dessert, I think it needs a bit more sweet and spicy; if it's a smooth breakfasty sort of cake loaf you're after, I'd keep it as is and spread with butter.

Still, pretty yummy, so an overall success, I think :)

Blueberry Coffee Cake

A coffee cake is not, as many British people around me seem to think, a coffee-flavoured cake (well, it can be, but that's not usually the point). It is instead a class of cakes intended to be eaten alongside coffee (for example, as part of a breakfast meal) or that may be eaten during a coffee break or offered to guests on or around a coffee table. I gather it's an American thing, this type of coffee cake (especially because here in the UK it's usually a tea break rather than coffee).

I chose this recipe based on the above picture on Pinterest, which is probably dangerous, but it just looked so good! In following the link, the ingredients looked pretty standard, and it called for a large amount of fruit, which I always feel is a good start.

So, the ingredients:
Crumble topping:

• 1/2 cup (100g) brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (65g) flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• 1/4 cup (57g) butter, softened

Cake:

• 2 cups (255g) flour (I used cake flour for this part, but all purpose will probably do!)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup (150g) sugar
• 1/4 cup (57g) butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup buttermilk*
• 3 cups fresh blueberries**

*Now before we start with the steps, I haven't really been successful at finding buttermilk very often, and I rarely have it on hand. You can use regular milk, but the acidity of the buttermilk reacts a bit better with the chemicals in the baking process, and because it's really easy to make buttermilk, there is really no excuse.

There are various methods for DIY buttermilk, but usually the standard is to add 1 Tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar to a measuring glass, then fill up to the 1 cup mark with whole milk (you can use 2%, but it really depends on the recipe). Since this only called for 1/2 cup of milk, I instead added 1 1/2 tsp (equivalent to 1/2 Tbsp) of lemon juice and filled up to the 1/2 cup measure. This way you don't end up with leftover buttermilk if you don't need it. Set aside for at least 5 minutes. It WILL get clumpy. This is normal, that's the point!

Homemade buttermilk - the clumps are normal!

** I actually misread this, and only put 2 cups of blueberries in, but I think it turned out pretty well, but I think even more could be even better, so I'd probably say, depending on the size of your blueberries, 2-3 cups would suffice.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 C). Grease a 9" square pan (or a circular springform pan, which is what I used because it's what I had on hand!).

Crumb topping ingredients

In a medium bowl, combine the crumb topping ingredients with a fork until crumbly. I'm not sure if it was the fact that my butter was mostly melted or the fact that my flour was cake flour, which is finer than normal flour, but mine was a bit more squishy than crumbly. It seems to have turned out fine, so I went with it. Should taste the same! I also should note that I didn't have cardamom or nutmeg. For some reason I always assume that I have these on hand, but rarely ever do. Instead I used Pumpkin Pie spice, which you probably can't find in the UK, but it's a delicious combination of spices used in pumpkin pies, and I'm sure will taste just as amazing.

Cake ingredients

In another medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and blend until smooth. Then alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. I'm not exactly sure why this is important, but it does make it easier, as the batter is very very thick. Make sure to keep pushing your ingredients down with a spatula or else you'll get streaks of unmixed flour mixture in your cake, which no one wants.

Next is the best part, the blueberries! Add your blueberries and fold gently, trying not to burst them, because otherwise they'll not cook in the fabulously juicy delicious way you want. You can use either fresh or frozen, but in my freezer things tend to get freezer burned, and I again didn't want my cake watered down by the melting ice! If you do use frozen blueberries, don't thaw them beforehand, just dump them in as is.

It looks like a lot of blueberries, but actually this is only the 2 cups. As I mentioned earlier I misread the instructions (I was using my phone, the screen was tiny!) but it still looked turned into a decent amount anyway. You can really use any fruit with this, I particularly like blueberries, raspberries or apples, but strawberries might be nice too. If you plan on washing your fruit first (probably recommended), make sure you wash them ahead of time if you can so that they're dry by the time you're adding them. You don't want to add any unnecessary water to your batter.

Spoon the batter into your pan - it's really thick, don't be put off! And spread out as best as you can, but don't be too perfectionistic about it. The hallmark of a good coffee cake (in my opinion) is that it's not smooth and regular, but full of little holes and crevices.

Sprinkle the crumb topping on top. Again, I had difficulty with this part, because mine was very squishy. I probably could have added more sugar or flour or something, but I didn't want to mess with the taste, and I figured the butter would melt anyway and you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. So I just went with it!

All ready for baking!

Pop in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the centre comes out clean. Depending on your oven I'd keep an eye on the top so it doesn't burn, as it will rise up a bit, and pop some foil over it if necessary to prevent burnage. I had to do this at around 40 minutes into baking, and I also popped the shelf down a level to try to control the heat at the top, as my oven is definitely top heavy on the heat.

Another good reason for a springform pan - it will cool a lot more quickly, 

and therefore you can enjoy the deliciousness sooner!

I think the crumb topping doesn't really look like it's meant to. It kind of just became part of the cake in the end. It certainly doesn't look like the picture at least! Whether this was because of the type of flour I used or because I did something else wrong, who knows. Maybe adding the crumb topping 15 minutes before the end would have given a better result? Something to work on for the future anyway. :)

My lunch today, really healthy, I know. I have somehow managed to only gain 5kg in my entire pregnancy (the average is 12kg), but if maternity leave keeps up like this that might change in the next few weeks!

I had to give in to the caffeine today as well and make myself a French press coffee, it's been so long since I've had anything but instant decaf, and I'm a bit nostalgic for a proper cup of coffee! So, despite obviously not looking as perfect as the online picture, it was still amazingly yummy!

Bringing NY to the UK

In the form of the best cheesecake ever.

I've always been a bit disappointed by the 'cheesecake' that people in the UK seem to find acceptable. It's not really cheesecake. It's light and fluffy and almost mousse-y. This is not cheesecake. Cheesecake is dense, crumbly, intense and cheesy! I found this recipe from Smitten Kitchen a few years ago when in my final year of vet school, and every Friday was 'Cake Friday'. It was such a hit that not only did one of the scarier professors tell me that it reminded him of his visit to NYC, but I also was requested to make it not once but twice more. It really is that delicious!

If you want to see really yummy and fancy looking pictures, or just go straight to the deliciousness that is the recipe, I suggest you head straight-on over to Smitten Kitchen, because hers looks way more professional than mine does. I'll let you know some of my little alterations to her recipe that I've found helpful for life in the UK.

First off - Graham Crackers. They are a distinctly American cracker/biscuit that is kind of sugary and cinnamony and honey-molassassy and amazing (the preferred brand of with is Honey-Maid. Nothing compares!). I will never understand why they aren't a thing here in the UK, but I have yet to find them and most British people don't understand the concept. Sometimes I manage to bring a box or two over with me for special occasions like Thanksgiving, where graham cracker crust on a pumpkin or pecan pie is pretty much necessity, but I don't usually have them on hand. So the nearest thing is digestive biscuits. I like McVitties originals, as they're the most similar things I've come across, and I use about 225g of them, all mushed up.

I also line my pan with baking paper. Partly because I don't have a tall springform pan, and last time I tried making anything with a springform pan the sides came away with the pan. So I use baking or parchment paper. I probably would try to cut it off a bit more evenly at the top, because it can get in the way of the cake puffing up.

Here's the crust all pressed into the pan. Try to really get into the corners and press them well, because otherwise you end up with a giant wedge of crust in every piece, which I find a bit much.

I also use vanilla bean paste (or if I have an actual vanilla bean on hand I use that), because I love the look of the little seeds, and it tastes a bit better in my opinion.

My pan here is a bit too short. You really need a TALL springform pan for this. Like really tall. My cake puffed up at least 4 inches beyond the pan, and as a result cracked a bit. I have yet to make one that doesn't crack. Hence why a topping is sometimes nice to cover up the mess that is the top of the cake. I didn't make one this time mostly out of laziness, but I'm bringing some nice Blackberry jam in with it. I have, however, made SK's cherry topping in the past and it is fantastic.

This is my result. I had to chop off the top as it was burnt, and then popped it back in the oven for another 10 minutes to try and cook the top a bit. I'd gotten pretty good at this when we lived up in Edinburgh, as we had a fairly new oven, and I felt like I could trust the temperature reading (plus the oven actually was able to get hot enough to cook it properly). This was my first time making this recipe in my much older oven in our current house, and, as you can see, it's a bit of a disaster. The oven only went up to 250 C despite needing to be at 300 for the beginning, and it's a bit top-heavy on the heating coils, even with the fan oven on. Usually I put some foil over the top to prevent the top from burning, and tend to have better results, but wasn't really thinking it through this time and didn't really know how this oven would behave anyway. Oh how I can't wait to get back to Edinburgh!

Here's the result once the pan and paper are off. It collapsed a bit in the middle (and every time I look at it as it cools it seems to be sinking a bit further, so it may have been a bit raw in the middle. Hopefully the girls at work will appreciate the cheesecake despite it's somewhat disastrous appearance. It really does taste amazing!

I can't believe my last day of work is tomorrow, but seriously I am so ready for mat leave. This weekend I've started to really feel the discomforts of being so big and whale-like. I think this might mean the baby has dropped, because it feels like I have a cantaloupe sitting in my pelvis. I am imagining that standing up to do surgery for 4 hours tomorrow is going to be really uncomfortable!