Orange Poppy Seed Bread

Orange is one of my favorite flavors. It tastes light and satisfying to me. You just can't get offended by its flavor. I'm a hard core chocolate lover, but I love this! This bread is sweet, slightly sticky, and  very moist. The poppy seeds add a nice element to the bread, but can easily be taken out if you don't like them.  A good cup of tea goes beautifully with this bread. It's a very easy recipe to make, and is a great gift too. Serves about 12-16.

Ingredients: 

Zest of one medium sized orange

1 Cup sugar

1/2 Cup buttermilk, or 1/2 cup milk+ 1 1/2 teaspoons of vinegar; mix together and let sit for 5 minutes, at room temp.

3 Tablespoons orange juice (reserve leftover juice for glaze)

3 Large eggs, at room temp
1 3/4 Cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon table salt

2/3 Cup of either vegetable, canola, or extra-virgin olive oil

1( or up to 3) Tablespoons of poppy seeds*

1/2 Cup of confectioners' sugar. Also goes by powdered or icing sugar.

Heat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour an 8-in loaf pan

1. In a bowl, combine orange zest and sugar, and rub together with your fingers, until it looks like wet sand. Whisk in buttermilk, 3 tablespoon orange juice and eggs. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk dry ingredients into the batter, then whisk in oil and poppy seeds. 
2. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick  inserted in the center comes out clean, 40-55 minutes. Let cool in pan until warm to touch, then turn out onto a baking rack set over a baking sheet. Turn cake right side up.
3. Whisk together the remaining orange juice and the confectioner's sugar. Poke holed on top of the bread bread, using a regular sized table fork. Use a pastry brush to spread glaze evenly over top and sides of cake. Cool completely before slicing. Lasts for about 5 days tightly wrapped up in plastic wrap or foil.

Adapted from the New York Times lemon poppy seed pound cake.

* Some people have a hard time digesting poppy seeds. If you have that problem, just let the seeds soak in the buttermilk as it comes to room temp. It's fine to add them into the batter with the buttermilk.

Broccoli Slaw

I got this recipe from a good friend, although I'm not sure where she found it. What I love about this recipe is how easy it is to make. The flavor is a perfect combo of sweet, sour, and slightly salty. I really like the ramen noodles crunchiness. It adds a nice texture that seems to balances the slaw out. Also you can make the dressing a few hours ahead of time, just put it in the fridge. This is an all time classic in my family. Any barbecued meat goes great with this. Enjoy! Serves about 6-8 people.
1 package of broccoli slaw. I've also used rainbow slaw and cole slaw, which works just fine.
For dressing whisk together:
1/2 tsp. of ground black pepper
1 tsp. of table salt
2 Tablespoons of vinegar
2 Tablespoons of granulated sugar
1/3 Cup of vegetable oil or canola
The flavor packet from chicken or oriental flavored ramen noddles, save the noddles

Crunchy toppings:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
The noodles from  ramen noddle package, broken up
1/4-1/3 (depends on how much you like) Cups of salted sunflower seeds. Unsalted sunflower seeds is fine, I prefer salted.
1/2 Cups of sliced almonds. Put all the ingredients onto a cooking sheet, and bake for about 5-10 minutes, until you've reached a golden brown color.

Toss the slaw with the dressing. Add the crunchy toppings and toss again, before you serve it, otherwise they will get soggy.

Doesn't this look yummy?

Buttery Yellow Cake

I have never found a recipe that quite beats this one. I love the nice, sweet vanilla taste this cake has. It's not like how some cakes have an overpowering flavor, or not enough flavor. Smaller cake slices are better because this cake is on the richer side. The secret to making a perfect cake is having your butter softened and eggs and milk at room temp. You can use any kind of frosting. My favorite is chocolate. Serves about 10-12
You will need:
1/2 Cup whole milk, room temperate
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 3/4 cups of cake flour (definitely use if you are a beginner)
1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
3/4 teaspoons salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter cut into 16 pieces, softened

1.  Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8- or 9- round cake pans, then line the bottoms with non stick parchment paper. (I never put parchment paper in my pans for this recipe, but beginner's please do.) Whisk the milk, eggs, and vanilla in a small bowl. (If you have a 2 cup liquid measuring cup just crack your eggs and vanilla in there).
2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together. Using an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat the butter one piece at a time into flour mixture, until it resembles moist crumbs, 1 to 3 minutes.
3. Beat in all but 1/2 cup of the milk mixture, then increase mixer speed to medium and batter until smooth, light and fluffy, 1 to 3 minutes. Reduce mixer to low and slowly add the remaining milk mixture, until batter looks slightly curdled, 15 seconds.
4. Give the batter a final stir with a rubber spatula to make sure everything is combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans, smooth the tops, and gently tap the pans on the counter to settle the batter. Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 20-25 minutes, rotating pans half way through.
5. Let cakes cool in pans for 10 minutes. Run a small knife around the edge of the cakes, and flip the cakes onto a wire rack. Cool for 2 hours before frosting.   If you have any questions please comment, and I'll try to answer them. Thanks!

From The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. Baking gurus wrote this!

I got a little crazy with my Duff Goldman cake graffiti cans!