Pumpkin Roll Cake
Perhaps it isn’t ideal to have had a night collecting and munching on chocolates and candy only for me to show up the next day and be like, ohmgoddd, make this cake…
But seriously, you gotta make this cake.
new on bbs
Pumpkin Roll Cake
What’s different about this?? It’s a bit of an illusionist, pretending to be a regular ol’ layer cake, but then dessert time rolls around, your guests are peering over as you slice into it and - lo! The slices are sideways! How did you do that?? I’m going to show you how ;-)
Orange Cider Bundt Cake
Soft & moist cake made with fresh orange juice and fresh apple cider.
(psst, it doesn’t have to be a bundt)
Apple Cider Muffins
Fresh cider, grated apple and ground cinnamon all in a bakery-style muffin.
From the November Recipe Archive
2023: Brown Butter Pie Crust (aka homemade pie crust but with browned butter!)
2022: Olive Oil Sourdough Dinner Rolls & Giant Fig Cinnamon Roll
2021: Sour Cream Cinnamon Rolls & Chocolate Wool Bread
2020: Blueberry Pomegranate Galette (the poms have arrived in the stores!! Get some, open them the correct way and then dive in :D)
reader review
“Excellent recipe!! Everybody loved this. I made this as muffins (12) and baked about 20-25 minutes. Making now for second time and can’t wait for them to be done.” Betty on Apple Cider Banana Bread
weekly reads & notes
“In refusing such a limiting designation of women’s roles in the revolution, they began to understand that work undertaken inside the kitchen was not an act of love but of labour, and that this labour was intrinsically linked to the political strategies being devised outside of it. By reclaiming autonomy, every space where women gathered could be made political.” Hungry Work, Vittles.
“… (W)omen baked what became known as election cakes to potentially encourage voters to back causes that they cared about. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, suffragists included several such recipes in the cookbooks that they published… Today a new generation of protest bakers — making cakes in support of rights once again under threat — are interested less in appeasement than in subverting a symbol of domestic labor,” Why Cakes Can Be a Powerful Form of Protest, New York Times.
“Food is politics, of course. Of course there are political forces pushing and pulling at it, the engine behind everything from the price of grain to the availability of labor to the potability of water to patio zoning to how much sawdust you can add before your processed dairy product is no longer allowed to be called cheese. How can you not understand that? But so many people don’t, willingly or unwillingly. So many people retain the luxury of seeing food as nothing but pleasure, spilling blood to announce that they don’t care who made it or how you feel about it or what it symbolizes to you, and they don’t care to hear you tell them about it — they only care if it tastes good. What a luxury to not care! What a choice!” This Buttercream Kills Fascists, Eater. [this is years old but seemed relevant to share along with the rest of today’s articles on food, politics, and protest]
If you bake sourdough, you’ll love noor.e.y ‘s instagram. Noor shares the most gorgeous sourdough bread recipes and they all have really unique flavors, like chocolate pumpkin butter, fig and star anise, a loaf with bits of cookie dough (reminded me of my ccc brioche, a blog favorite), and berry crumble. The one I’ve had bookmarked to make for awhile is the double chocolate loaf, imagine that sliced & toasted!
It was my elder daughter’s eighth birthday last week and the cake she requested was a chocolate layer cake with caramelized white chocolate ganache in between and blackberry buttercream. I had the cake layers baked and ready, but the ganache broke as I was making it and then wouldn’t set (which broke my heart a little, I couldn’t simply get more chocolate and do it again because making caramelized white is a process) and it turned out the freeze dried blackberries had gotten too soft to grind into a powder. I quickly shifted gears and used chocolate hazelnut spread in between the cake layers (her favorite food, lol) and dyed a vanilla buttercream purple. She absolutely loved it, phew.
November first means we are now officially in full holiday baking mode. Coming soon to you are new recipes for pies and cakes (I finally nailed down an apple cake recipe, after what felt like 374 tries), and so many cookies. November is heavy on the pumpkin and apple but I’m going to break it up with some lemon (obviously). December is all about molasses, chocolate, brown butter… and, depending on how things go next week, a new cinnamon roll recipe =) (I’m either going to redo my double chocolate or do a halva roll, mmm). This is my favorite time of year because so many people are baking, and everyday bakers are baking even more! I can’t wait to see what recipes you make, please tag me if you share on socials, comment on the recipes here or on the blog; I always want to know what you think & see your beautiful creations 💗
sam