The phrase "we've been doing a little cooking around here" is an understatement. The entire family is enamored with Lucinda Scala Quinn's book, Mad Hungry: Feeding Boys & Men and we've been testing out as many dishes as we can. When I say "we," I mean it. The boys, big and small, are part of the cooking act. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Q. loves to make "Aunt Patty's Coffee Cake." Besides the fact that it's delicious, he knows that he can really get his hands dirty making of the dish. And if he's not in the picture, his stuffed animal is:
Let's take a closer look, shall we? Because this little mix of sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder* and instant coffee (Starbucks Via*) brings the coffee cake to life:
Yum.
The cake batter calls for one cup of sour cream, which adds a delicious richness to the cake. Last night, however, our refrigerator didn't contain sour cream. So we used Brown Cow plain non-fat yogurt instead. My husband said the yogurt version tasted better than the sour cream version. The only noticeable difference was that the cake didn't have as much volume after baking.
Two great jobs for little helper hands: Prepping the Bundt pan by covering it with butter and mom or dad can handle the flouring of the pan. (See Spot? Always around.)
And sprinkling the filling over the batter (they get to do this twice).
Once the last bit of batter covers the filling, I let Q. help me swirl a knife through the middle of the batter to give it a marble effect. We popped it in the oven and waited patiently for 80 minutes (50 to bake, 30 to cool down). For an almost five-year-old boy, 80 minutes is ETERNITY. But Q. was a good sport about it. And the requisite peeking was involved.
Once the cake is ready for us to devour, I usually slice it into two halves and freeze one half of it. It thaws quickly so it's perfect for a weekend breakfast treat. This time, I cut it in half but the four of us each had a slice right away and I could tell we were going to need that other half sooner rather than later. That little slice at the top of this post? Inhaled.
I interviewed Lucinda back in November and I'll have to post it here soon. Her book is wonderful, I can't
recommend it enough. Her family favorites have become our family favorites. (I also tweak her recipes to add different twists and flavors. Which is the way of cooking, right?)
But tomorrow, my recipe for veggie chili.
*I used samples obtained at BlogHer Food 2009. Thank you, Sharfen Berger Chocolate and the gal who was handing out Starbucks Via samples. I'm not a fan of it for drinking but those little packs rock for recipes that require instant coffee.
