Allspice Applesauce Cupcakes with Spiced Brown Sugar Frosting ~#TheCakeSliceBakers

These Allspice Applesauce Cupcakes have just enough spice to make your tastebuds tingle

and are topped with decadent Spiced Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting.

Brown-Sugar Ripple Bundt Cake ~ #BundtBakers

"Cake baking has to be, however innocently, one of the great culinary scams: it implies effort, it implies domestic prowess; but believe me, it's easy". Nigella Lawson

The Cake Slice Baker's November 2013 - Applesauce Spice Cake

I have been looking forward to this day for a while.  Not only is it time for a new cake from the Cake Slice Bakers, it is also time to reveal our new book for the upcoming year.  Can I have a drum-roll please - we all voted and the winning book was Great Cakes by Carole Walter.  Ms. Walter is a respected author, has over 30 years of teaching experience, and has been honored for her "Outstanding Commitment to the Culinary Arts.”  It would be an understatement to say that this woman knows her stuff.

Just to refresh your memory the Cake Slice Bakers consists of a dedicated group of bakers from all over the world and every year we bake from a different cake book. Each month a selection of cakes are presented and we vote on which cake to bake next from our current book. We then have a month to bake it in secret before we all blog about it on the same day each month – the 20th – never before. We never reveal to anyone outside of the group which cake it is until this date. There are a few rules that we follow but the most important one is to have fun and enjoy eating cake! We have a blogroll which is open to anyone to view and it lists all the members. We link to this at the end of our cake reveal posts each month and it can be also be found at The Cake Slice Blogroll. Please come and visit us!

Tate's Bake Shop Giveaway + Cinnamon Swirl Scones

Have a craving for a cinnamon rolls but not the time to make them?  Then I have the recipe for you - Cinnamon Swirl Scones.  These have all the cinnamon-y goodness of an actual cinnamon roll, and a yummy vanilla glaze, and can be made in a fraction of the time.

The recipe for these scones comes from Tate's Bake Shop Baking for Friend's, which was sent to me last October for review.  I have really been enjoying this book but had not had the chance to make these scones before.  Boy, had I been missing out. Even though there are three components - filling, dough, and icing - they are super quick to make.  I did make the mistake of not rolling the dough quite tight enough, so I put them in the fridge to firm up and all was well.  I also found that when I cut the dough it tended to flatten a little, and I baked the first batch like this.  With the second ones I kind of squished them a little so they were more rounded and found that they baked up much better this way.

Once again I found myself trying very hard not to nibble too much before I could get a decent photo. Warm out of the oven, with a little drizzle of vanilla icing these really hit the spot, perfectly mimicking a cinnamon roll.  They were a little crisp on the outside and then became softer as you got towards the middle of the scone. These did have raisins in them, which I liked, but you could certainly omit these if you wanted.  I made sure that I didn't put the vanilla icing on them all since I plan on warming them a little in the morning for breakfast. I think that they would make the perfect addition to your Mother's Day Celebration.

And speaking of Mother's Day, it is just around the corner and the wonderfully generous people at Tate’s Bake Shop are giving one reader of All That's Left Are The Crumbs a Mother's Day Brunch Basket. The basket includes their sinful sour cream coffee cake, a lemon pound cake loaf, two each of their heavenly raspberry bars and crumb cakes, plus a box of Tate's Bake Shop's famous chocolate chip cookies.  I still dream of their cookies, so I can only imagine how good the rest of the items in the basket are.  One lucky reader won't have to dream about it, they will win it!

Entering the giveaway is easy:


Main Entry
To enter the giveaway all you have to do is leave a comment telling me about your favorite Mother's Day memory.

Additional Entries
Even more chances to win - you can receive up to two additional entries by doing the following:

1. Following All That's Left Are The Crumbs on Facebook - leave an additional comment to let me know that you are following.
2. Follow Tate's Bake Shop on Facebook - leave an additional comment to let me know that you are following.

The Fine Print

• Deadline for entry is May 11, 2013 at 6:00PM HST.
• Sorry, this giveaway is open only to US addresses.
• Please leave a valid email address where I can contact you if you choose to publish anonymously.
• One winner will be chosen at random using Random.org.  I will announce the winner at the top of this post on Mother's Day - May 12, 2013 - and send them an email.  If I do not have a response within 48 hours, another winner will be selected.
• The winner will receive a Tate's Bake Shop Mother's Day Brunch Basket (prize supplied directly to the winner by Tate's Bake Shop).
• The prize for this giveaway to one of my readers is being provided by Tate's Bake Shop.  I was not compensated personally for this post.
  
  Good luck everyone!

Update: Happy Mother's Day and congratulations to Anne @Have a Cookie who is the lucky winner of the Tate's Bake Shop Giveaway.  Anne, please respond to my email with your details so that Tate's can mail you the prize.  Thank you to everyone who visited my blog and entered the giveaway.

Also, if you are still looking for that perfect Mother's Day gift Tate’s Bake Shop is the place to order something amazing for your mom, grandmother, mother-in-law, or that special person who is like a mom to you. There are baskets, towers, squares, and cookies - seriously, you cannot go wrong with anything you order.  They are offering everyone a special 20% off discount code that can be redeemed until Mother's Day.  All you have to do us type in mom13 when you are checking out on their website.

Cinnamon Swirl Scones

(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients
Filling

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) salted butter, at room temperature
• ½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Dough

• 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon spiced vanilla sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold salted butter, cut into ½ -inch cubes
• 1 cup dark raisins
• 1¾ cups half-and-half

Icing

• ½ cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Preparation
Filling

1. In a small bowl, mix the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon until smooth.

Dough

1. Position the oven racks in the top third and center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375℉. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, spiced vanilla, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, work in the butter until the mixture is crumbly with some pea-sized pieces of butter. Do not overmix. 
3. Gently mix in the raisins, then add the half-and-half and mix stirring just until the dry ingredients are moistened.
4. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 17-by-12-inch rectangle about 1/4-inch thick. Spread the cinnamon filling evenly over the top of dough, leaving a 1/2 -inch border on all four sides. 
5. Starting at a long side, tightly roll the dough up into a log. Cut the dough into 2-inch slices and arrange them, cut sides up, 4 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
6. Bake, switching the positions of the baking sheets from front to back and top to bottom halfway through baking, until the rolls are slightly golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool on the pans for 10 minutes.

Icing

1. To make the icing: In a small bowl, mix the confectioners' sugar, vanilla bean paste, and water with a fork until smooth. Drizzle over the buns. Serve warm, or let cool to room temperature. 

Makes 12.
Recipe from Tate's Bake Shop Baking for Friend's

Cup O'Joe Baked Beans

I have to say hats off to people like Bush's, Heinz, Van Camp, etc - not because of their beans, but because they can get an appetizing photo of said beans.  Ok, they have a professional staff for things like this but I was really struggling to get something decent.  Don't let this dissuade you from trying these beans as they are so easy to make and pack a wallop of flavor in each mouthful.

It has been a few years since I last made baked beans.  I remember that I wasn't thrilled with the results last time, and was determined this time to get the flavor I wanted in the beans.  I searched for a few days for the perfect recipe before I decided that it did not exist, well not for me anyway.  Instead I chose to take the flavor profiles I liked from three recipes and reinvent the beans to suit my family's tastes.  I did have a couple of considerations - I wanted the beans to be vegetarian, I wanted to use my slow cooker, and I wanted a sweet BBQ flavor.  The three recipes I chose were Vegetarian Baked Beans (Squawkfox), Crockpot Vegetarian Baked Beans (Blade & Cauldron),  and Barbecued Beans (Slow Cooker Revolution via Cooking Light), and then I went to work choosing what I liked from each recipe.

I decided to soak my beans over night even though I was using the slow cooker.  Remember to sort through them to pull out any rocks or clumps of dirt that may be hiding, and give them a good rinse.  I covered them with water and then left them until the next morning.  Apparently you don't have to soak the beans if you are using a slow cooker but I didn't want to take any chances of them not being ready in time, and it really isn't that much work to soak them. 

A few recipes I found mentioned adding barbecue sauce, but I really wanted to add my own ingredients to achieve the flavor of a sweet barbecue sauce.  I went with molasses, honey, tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup and a good dose of my favorite Coffee's of Hawaii coffee that had been brewed fresh that morning.  Two of my daughters are vegetarians so I did not want to add bacon, and I found that adding the coffee provided that roasted flavor.  Honestly I did not miss the bacon because the ingredients I added managed to be sweet and smokey by themselves.  Don't get me wrong, I love bacon as much as the next non-vegetarian so add it if you would like too, I just didn't want anyone to wonder if these would still be good without the smokey flavor that bacon can impart to a dish.

Once they had finished cooking and I was happy with the texture of the beans I found that they were still a little "soupy".  Some people prefer their beans to have a bit of liquid, but I added a corn starch mixture to thicken them up a little.  For those making these beans the day before don't add too much corn starch because they will thicken overnight.  We had some leftovers the next day and I will definitely make them a day or so before next time. The flavors really developed overnight and they tasted amazing after being gently reheated.

Cup O'Joe Baked Beans

(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2½ cups dried navy beans, picked over and soaked overnight 
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 1 cup strongly brewed coffee
• ¼ cup molasses
• ¼ cup honey
• ½ cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 6oz tin tomato paste
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup ketchup
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons corn starch dissolved in water, if required

Preparation

1. Heat oil in pan.
2. Add onion and cook for two minutes, add garlic and continue cooking until both are soft and golden.
3. Drain pre-soaked beans and add to the slow cooker insert.
4. Add cooked onion and garlic to slow cooker insert.
5. In a separate bowl whisk together the vegetable stock, coffee, molasses, honey, dark brown sugar, tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, and ketchup - add to slow cooker insert and stir to combine.
6. Set slow cooker to high and cook for approximately 6 hours.
7. Add salt and pepper to taste.
8. If there is too much liquid in your bean mixture dissolve 2 tablespoons corn starch in water.  Add to bean mixture and stir until thickened.

Recipe by All That's Left Are The Crumbs©

Roasted Bananas Foster Ice Cream

Growing up in Australia it was perfectly normal for us to throw whole bananas on the BBQ, and once they were ready we would split them open and enjoy the contents - sometimes with a little ice cream, but mostly just plain.  Roasting them like this brought out all of their sugary goodness and when we BBQ today, I still add some bananas to the grill.

I always try to have bananas in the house.  They are one of my favorite fruits and I love them in baked goods too.  They are even great in a curry.  Thank goodness they are relatively inexpensive here as I tend to buy the big bag of them from Costco.  My eldest daughter tells me that in Australia they are currently $14.00 per kilo, that is about $7.00 per pound!  This is due to a cyclone which ravaged the trees up north.

When a recipe for Roasted Banana Ice Cream appeared on Michelle's blog, Brown Eyed Baker, I knew my family would go crazy for it.  I really should have known to double the batch because there were some very sad faces when it was all gone in a few hours.  This is such an easy ice cream to make because it is not custard-based.  The hardest thing you will have to do is roast the bananas and lift your blender and ice cream maker out of the cupboard - if you keep these items on your kitchen counter then you just halved your workload.

As usual I had trouble sticking to the original recipe.  I wanted to make it a little more like Bananas Foster so I added some Malibu rum to the bananas prior to baking, I used orange juice rather than lemon juice, and I substituted 1/2 a cup of whipping cream for some of the milk.  I think that next time a little toasted coconut would make a nice textural addition too.  The flavor of the blended roasted bananas and the milk/cream base is amazing.  I think that I could have eaten it with a spoon before it was even churned.  I did restrain myself and the reward was definitely worth it.  This ice cream is swoon-worthy.



Roasted Bananas Foster Ice Cream

(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients

• 4 medium-sized ripe bananas, peeled
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
• 2 tablespoons Malibu rum
• 1 cup whole milk
• ½ cup whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1½ teaspoons orange juice
• ¼ teaspoon coarse salt
• prepared caramel sauce, optional 

Preparation 

• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• Slice the bananas into ½-inch pieces and toss them with the brown sugar, butter, and Malibu in a 2-quart baking dish.
• Bake for 40 minutes, stirring once during baking, until the bananas are browned and cooked through.
• Scrape the bananas and the thick syrup in the baking dish into a blender or food processor.
• Add the milk, cream, granulated sugar, vanilla, orange juice and salt, and purée until smooth.
• Chill the mixture for at least 8 hours (preferably overnight) in the refrigerator.
• Freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions (if the chilled mixture is too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it to thin it out).
• Serve with a drizzle of caramel sauce, optional.

Recipe by Brown Eyed Baker and adapted from The Perfect Scoop.