LOL I am going thru my spices right now making a list and checking it twice ;)
I note in your little cottage cakes post, you had a pic of whole nutmeg spice in a jar. What do you use to grind it? Maybe the super small side of a cheese grater?
BTW, they look wonderful and I may be adding to my list ;)
Also, in an earlier post, you noted you were going to try an orange batter...that sounds interesting...and yummy. Was it good? Did you post the recipe or link for that?
I was organizing my pudding file (yes, I have one...) and came across this recipe: I’ve never tried it but have always intended to.
Bread Pudding with Eggnog Sauce
½ - ¾ loaf French bread
½ c chopped pecans
3 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
1½ c milk
2 T brown sugar
In a sprayed 9x13 pan, tear the French bread into pieces. Sprinkle with pecans. In a separate bowl, beat eggs with sugar, cinnamon, and milk. Pour over the bread pieces. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Cover and refridgerate for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours. Bake in a 350’ oven for 50-60 minutes or golden brown. Serve warm with eggnog sauce. (Optional: add raisins, blueberries, cranberries, or cherries)
EGGNOG SAUCE:
In a double-boiler, combine:
3 T. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 T. sugar
Slowly stir in 2 c. eggnog. Cook over medium heat until thickened. Cool slightly.
Exactly - the wee size of any grater will work. I have a microplaner that is the easiest thing to use and produces the finest powder, but it’s not necessary. Just have to be cautious with graters that have the more protuding sharpie thingies - the little nutmegs can be hard to hold onto when using those. With the microplaner, I can get down to using up all but a sliver of the nut. (is it a nut?)
I baked the orange batter ones yesterday, but darned if none of them rised out of the pan. So I didn’t get to sample it. The others needed the bottom rounded parts cut off so I got to sample ;)
Here’s the recipes - I did post them before but figured it’s easier to repost than find them. I think I am on here too much....it wasn’t that long ago and I couldn’t find them in the last 3 pages...
Here’s 3 options, the last is a gingerbread. I’ve read a dense cake works best with the little molds.
The first has a link to a page with pictures for the silicone pan. I converted that one to US measurements below.
Cozy Village Cakes https://www.icedjems.com/2012/12/christmas-village-cakes/
note - this one I did sample and it was yummy. It looks plain, but the vanilla flavor was strong (I likely added extra!) and it wasn’t sickeningly sweet. Just right, IMO.
3 1/8 cup Plain Flour
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 1/2 Tsp Salt
1 cup Milk
1 1/2 Tsp vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
1 cup Unsalted Butter or Margarine
4 Eggs
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Start by mixing your Butter and Sugar until fluffy. Next, add your eggs one a time until well combined. Next add a little milk and a little flour and mix well, repeat this until all of the milk and flour are in the mixed in. To finish, add the Vanilla, Salt and Baking Powder and mix a final time until you have a smooth batter. Grease the silicone Cake Mould and pour the cake batter in. Fill it nearly to the top, the mixture will rise so it doesn’t need to be completely full. Bake in the oven for approx 20-25 mins. Remove from the oven once cooked, don’t worry about any excess cake, as this can be trimmed off! Don’t remove the cakes from the mould until they are completely cooled - the cakes are much firmer once cooled, and thus less likely to break when removing them from the mould! Once completely cooled, simply stretch each cavity and push the cake out from the bottom. Trim the excess off, so your mini houses have a flat bottom. Sprinkle Icing sugar over the cakes and the details will pop out immediately! Alternatively you could decorate with piping details and sweets!
Snowy Village Cake Recipe, courtesy of Nordic Ware:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
1 cup butter, melted
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp orange extract
grated orange peel from 1 orange
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour Cozy Village Baking Pan; set aside (I used Baker’s Joy). Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, combine yogurt (or sour cream), butter, eggs, vanilla and orange extract; beat on medium speed, scraping bowl often, until well blended. Add dry ingredients; blend on lowest speed, scraping bowl often, until well combined. Beat on medium speed 1 minute. Stir in orange peel. Spoon half of batter into prepared pan, filling each well 3/4 full. Tap pan onto countertop to release air bubbles. For best results, spread batter up to reach the top edges of each well, so it is slightly lower in the centers. Set remaining batter aside. Bake for 22-27 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Invert cakes onto cooling rack and cool completely. Wash and dry out pan. Prepare pan as previously instructed. Repeat filling and baking procedure with remaining batter. Decorate as desired.
Makes 12 little cakes. I’m sure this would also make one large bundt cake.
Mini Gingerbread Bundt Cakes
Gingerbread cake
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsps ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 cup molasses (not blackstrap)
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3 eggs + 2 yolks, @rt
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
Cinnamon sugar coating, combine:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsps ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a mini bundt pan with flour-based baking spray (such as Baker’s Joy brand) or grease and flour, tapping out excess flour; set pan aside. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. In a small bowl, combine the molasses with the hot water. Cream the butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add the brown sugar and beat until lightened, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs and yolks, adding one at a time and scraping down the bowl intermittently. Add the flour and molasses mixture alternately, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, filling each cavity about 2/3 full. Gently drop the pan onto a work surface two times to remove any air pockets. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean. Let cakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn cakes out and dredge in cinnamon and sugar. This cake recipe also makes one standard size bundt cake or 12 little buildings.
I’ll have to send you a pic of my spice drawer ;) When we remodeled the kitchen, the cabinet upgrades were SO expensive that I opted out of most of them - except the spice drawer and the knife drawer and the kitchen cabinet lined with ... something waterproof.
I LOVE that spice drawer - i got it extra big and it held ALL my spices (and I got to go buy a few more, LOL).
The village cakes thing was a comparision - Yaelle got a metal pan and I got the silicon one. We were going to see which worked best. I was afraid the silicon wouldn’t create the detail the metal woould. But I have a metal flower bundt pan and only have a 75% success rate getting the cakes out. So I opted for less-cute, but roof remaining intact! But I might still get the metal one when it’s on sale again, if Yaelle has good results. It could be my technique.