Blue Corn Raspberry Coffee Cake

Up here in Northern New Mexico it's raspberry season and a couple weeks ago M and I went raspberry picking at Salman Ranch. It was fun and we ended up with enough raspberries to snack on, freeze, and bake into coffee cake and muffins.

It's hard to bake at an altitude this high, especially if I want to put stuff in the batter. Stuff in the batter, I have learned from my friend Betsy the high altitude baking expert, causes the batter not to rise correctly. Betsy worked in the high altitude test kitchen of General Foods several years ago, so she knows what's up.

Nonetheless, I decided to bake a not too sweet cake with raspberries and blue cornmeal. And what the heck, I tossed in some toasted pinon nuts, too.

And you know what? The cake came out fine with no high altitude changes at all.

Raspberry Blue Corn Coffee Cake

Just a note: This is not a very sweet cake. Most of the sweetness comes from the raspberries.
 

Makes 1 single layer cake, 8 inch square or round pan

Ingredients

1/2 cup piñon nuts

1 cup unbleached white flour

1 cup stone-ground blue cornmeal

1/2  tsp. salt

1 Tbs. baking powder

1 1/4  cups buttermilk

1/2  tsp. baking soda

2 large eggs, or reconstituted egg substitute to equal 2 eggs

1/2  cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup mild vegetable oil such as corn, canola or peanut

1 cup fresh raspberries

Extra sugar for sprinkling on top

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a 8 or 9 inch round or square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Toast piñon nuts by heating in a skillet over medium heat, stirring or shaking pan almost constantly, for 3 to 4 minutes. When nuts become aromatic and golden, remove from heat and set aside.
3. Combine flour, cornmeal, salt and baking powder in a large bowl, stirring well. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk and baking soda. Whisk in eggs, sugar and oil.
4. Stir combined wet ingredients into dry until mixture is not quite blended. Be gentle when blending. Add piñon nuts and raspberries with a couple of strokes so the mixture is just barely combined. Pour into prepared baking pan. Sprinkle the top with some sugar, about a tablespoon or so.
5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. 

Refrigerate leftovers. 

Strawberry Icebox Cake

The 4th of July is almost here and that means barbecues and food, most definitely. Do you need to take a dessert?

I shared this recipe last year, a simple dessert where you don't have to turn on the oven!  For you folks suffering in the heat, I can't give you a better 4th of July gift. Give this icebox cake about 4 hours in the fridge to allow the whipped cream and strawberries to soak into the graham crackers, making an excellent, creamycakeyfruity treat. There's also the satisfaction of returning home with an empty pan, but that satisfaction is bittersweet because you know you want one more bite.

Strawberry Icebox Cake

Ingredients

2 pounds of fresh strawberries
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup confectioners sugar
1 t vanilla
4 sleeves graham crackers (that's about 24 whole crackers)
Hershey's chocolate syrup, dark (optional)

Directions

1. Take out 4 or 5 good looking strawberries and set aside. Thinly slice the remaining strawberries.

2. Whip the whipping cream until it just starts to hold stiff peaks.(Stop the mixer, lift up the beater and if the cream peaks, that's what we're talking about here.) Add the sugar and vanilla and whip to combine. Don't overwhip or you will have butter.

3. Spread some whipped cream on the bottom of a 9 X 13 inch baking pan. Place six graham crackers on top of the whipped cream. Lightly layer another spoonful or two of whipped cream. Add a single layer of strawberries. Repeat the graham cracker layer, whipped cream layer, and strawberry layer three more times until you have four layers of graham crackers.

4. Spread the remaining whipped cream over the top and drizzle a zigzag of chocolate syrup over the whipped cream if you want to.

5. Cover the pan with some plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours. The graham crackers should have softened completely. They are supposed to be "cake-like."

Before serving, put the pretty strawberries you saved on top. This icebox cake is so yummy you should encourage everyone to eat it all because if there are leftovers in the fridge, you will find yourself spooning this strawberry goodness out of the pan in the middle of the night.

Serves 8

A Fourth of July Quilt and Strawberry Icebox Cake-A Winning Combination

At the First Las Vegas, the one in Northern New Mexico, tradition runs deep, and this weekend will be the annual Fourth of July Fiestas, a three day celebration with parades, coronation of a Fiesta Queen, food, music, and dancing. 

The first Fourth of July Fiestas was in 1850, in the same main Plaza where the festivities are still held today. That same Plaza just a little less than four years before was where General Stephen Kearney and his troops stood and told the stunned Las Vegas residents that they were no longer Mexican citizens, but under the "protection" of the Army of the United States. I am not sure they needed the U.S. to protect them, but that's the way it went.


I will be there for the first time this Saturday, to watch Ernest's daughter Leandra dance folklorico on the Plaza stage, eat some elote (roasted corn on the cob) from one of the street vendors, and look at the patriotic quilts displayed in Thread Bear's window. 

Here's the quilt I made for the window display. It was a challenge requiring us to use the patriotic flag panels and fabrics Ann had assembled in a bag. We were allowed to use up to four additional fabrics and we had to keep the quilt fairly small. I framed the flag panel with blue strips and all is quilted in the ditch. I quilted along the lines for the flag in the center.

When you look at this quilt, sing the first verse of America the Beautiful so you can "get it." I got the idea from a quilt by Sandra Millett I found in Quilt magazine (Winter 2002).  Hers is much bigger and way better. 

What you have here are "spacious skies," "amber waves of grain," "purple mountain majesties,"  and a "fruited plain." If I had spent more time on this I would have done a better job of finding appropriate fabric, but this is what I had in my stash. That's okay. I like it anyway.


Below is the back of the quilt which I like almost as much as the front. Miss Bonnie wouldn't move.

A Fourth of July barbeque needs a tasty dessert, and last summer I found a recipe for Strawberry Icebox Cake. I took it to a barbecue at our Yurt Neighbors' place and it was a hit!

You don't have to bake it, just layer the ingredients, put it in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight and then watch everyone pig out when they taste it.


Strawberry Icebox Cake

Ingredients

2 pounds of fresh strawberries
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup confectioners sugar
1 t vanilla
4 sleeves graham crackers (that's about 24 whole crackers)
Hershey's chocolate syrup, dark

Directions

1. Take out 4 or 5 good looking strawberries and set aside. Thinly slice the remaining strawberries.

2. Whip the whipping cream until it just starts to hold stiff peaks.(Stop the mixer, lift up the beater and if the cream peaks, that's what we're talking about here.) Add the sugar and vanilla and whip to combine. Don't overwhip or you will have butter.

3. Spread some whipped cream on the bottom of a 9 X 13 inch baking pan. Place six graham crackers on top of the whipped cream. Lightly layer another spoonful or two of whipped cream. Add a single layer of strawberries. Repeat the graham cracker layer, whipped cream layer, and strawberry layer three more times until you have four layers of graham crackers.

4. Spread the remaining whipped cream over the top and drizzle a zigzag of chocolate syrup over the whipped cream.
5. Cover the pan with some plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours. The graham crackers should have softened completely. They are supposed to be "cake-like."

Before serving, put the pretty strawberries you saved on top. This icebox cake is so yummy you should encourage everyone to eat it all because if there are leftovers in the fridge, you will find yourself spooning this strawberry goodness out of the pan in the middle of the night.

Serves 8