TWD: Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

When I read "Brown Sugar Bundt Cake" I thought: Hm. Dunno. Sounds not too exciting. I usually use brown sugar anyways. But then I read that the recipe calls for prunes and pears - complete change of mind! Prunes and pears are some of my favourite ingredients.

To make it short: This cake tastes wonderful and is easy in the making! I halved the recipe and still got two little children-bundts and three minis. (I use minis as "test-pieces" because I don't want to give somehting to my co-workers I have not tested before.) I made no changes to the original recipe but did cut the baking time due to the smaller mold I used.

Dorie says, the cake will be even better tomorrow, because the taste will spread through the cake. Well - I am looking forward to it! [P.S.: Now it is tomorrow - and Dorie is right, as so often!]
Thanks to Peggy from Pantry Revisited who has chosen this recipe for this week's TWD. Go to her page for the recipe or have a look at Dorie's book page 179.

P.S.: This was a big cooking and baking day for me. First, I made the bundt. Then I made some vanilla frozen yogurt (taken from David Lebovitz great book "Perfect Scoop") - my first frozen yougurt ever. Then I went to the monthly "Guerilla Bakery" - three friends baking once a month in a pop-up "store" (in fact it is their flat) and did taste some great little cakes: mini-cheescake with crumbles, peanutbutter cookies, lime cakelettes, lemon ricotta muffins and coconut-almond muffins. And no, I didn't eat all of it alone ;o]. Back home I started making vegetable soup, which is still simmering in my kitchen, made some strawberry-champagne-sorbet (also adapted from the champagne-raspberry-sorbet by David L.) and strawberry-rhubarb-compote. I guess my duty for this week is done :o] 

TWD: Great Grains Muffins

Let's make this quick and dirty - Great Grains Muffins, chosen for this week's TWD by Christine of Happy Tummy, are a wonderful breakfast treat! They are not too sweet and even I can mix them together in a snap. And: There are millions of possible varieties, because you can deviate from the basic recipe in a myriad of ways. So, no excuse for not baking them due to any unloved ingredient ;o]

I did stick mainly to the original, despite I mixed the meal-types in slightly different quantities (more cornmeal and only wholewheat). And I omitted the oats, because I did not want to open a 2 pounds package for just a few grams, and used some shredded nuts and grains instead (a mix of sunflower/pumpkin seed and soya beans for salad) . Perfect match! And it additionally supports the breakfast/muesli character of the muffins.

They did almost not rise, but maybe they shouldn't. But who cares anyways... as long as they taste good and look agreable!

Find the recipe at Christine's page or in Dorie's book on pages 8/9.