TWD: Coffee Break Muffins

I've gotten to the point where I always have just enough energy at the end of the day to cook dinner for my family, feed them, clean the girls up after dinner, entertain them for a few hours after dinner, and get them into bed...but that's it. The bedtime routine stretches from Eloise whose teeth I start brushing at 8:00 and who gets in her crib around 8:30 to Helen who I start reading bedtime stories to at 8:30 and finally (if I'm lucky) get into bed around 9:30. Lately, Helen has been getting out of bed approximately five times before actually falling asleep (don't even ask me about our hour long knock down drag out fight everyday for nap time...which they never ever take at the same time). So guess what, every night I try to drag myself back into the kitchen to wash dishes, scrub pots, sweep, clean the highchair, etc. but that has not happened since this pregnancy started! So then the next morning (is 4:50am considered morning?) I have a horribly dirty kitchen staring me in the face- a kitchen that I must clean prior to starting breakfast and packing Derrick's lunch. So let me tell you about these Coffee Break Muffins. Let me just say they will be a staple for this house for the remainder of this pregnancy!!

First of all, they are extremely simple to throw together. The butter is melted, so no having to remember to put it out to soften on the counter. There is no citrus zesting. No sifting of flour. No chopping of chocolate. No toasting of nuts. You get the picture! If you are plagued with a dish washing epidemic like I am, you can even just use one bowl and dump the liquid ingredients directly into the dry! Oh and although Dorie calls for baking the muffins for 20 minutes, mine were ready in about 13. Now, most importantly, the muffins contain both a strong cup of coffee and a tablespoon of espresso powder so these muffins are actually caffeinated- music to my sleep deprived ears! When you're pregnant you aren't supposed drink much caffeine, most doctors say one cup of coffee a day is the limit, and I have been pretty dedicated to not really drinking more than 1/4 a diet coke every few days so these muffins were like gold! The whole family loved them! Thank you Rhiani of Chocoholic Anonymous for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie!

TWD: Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake

First of all, I have no idea what I did to these pictures but they are in some kind of state where they cannot be edited or rotated in any fashion therefore they will be forever sideways....

In short this cake was delicious! Probably my favorite bundt cake of all time! I toasted the walnuts before grinding them up in the food processor and it really helped bring out a nutty flavor in the cake. My marbling didn't reveal the lovely ginko shape that Dorie suggests but the cake itself popped easily out of the pan. The cake was moist with a wonderful crumb. This was Derrick's favorite Tuesday with Dorie recipe to date. Thank you Erin of When in Doubt...Leave it at 350 for choosing a spectacular recipe!

TWD: Cinnamon Chocolate Cake

This week's amazing Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures. The recipe is actually called Cinnamon Squares but I decided to do it in a round pan and put in on my cake stand because the recipe sounded too delicious to be made into ordinary squares! The combination of a cinnamon batter with a ribbon of cinnamon sugar, espresso powder, and chopped chocolate running through the middle of it and a delicious chocolate frosting is such a beautiful pairing that I cannot believe that I was ambivalent about the cinnamon and chocolate combo! As a matter of fact, many of the TWD bakers weren't impressed with the idea of combining the two potent (but rarely seen together) flavors... then of course they tried a bite and fell in love! Seriously, I am so surprised that I loved this so much!

When I popped my cake out of the pan I was a little nervous because it looked like a fair amount of my chopped chocolate had sunk to the bottom of the cake and the cake itself fell a little in the middle.
It smelled so wonderful though and it still looked presentable so I went ahead and frosted it with the simple chocolate/butter frosting and that dressed it up quite a bit. When I cut into the cake I found that the ribbon actually looked fairly intact (although it was closer to the bottom of the cake than Dorie's picture) once the pieces were sliced up- so I guessed I worried needlessly!


This was such a winner- I honestly think I'm going to make it again tomorrow for my little brother who just graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design last week and will be heading home to NOLA. I just can't stop thinking about that delicious cinnamony chocolaty goodness!

TWD: Tartest Lemon Tart and Tiramisu Cake

Ok, bear with me, we are moving into a new apartment, I'm thirty weeks pregnant, and dear little Helen Mae is getting her incisors. I made both this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe (Tartest Lemon Tart- selected by Barb of Babette Feasts) and last week's recipe (Tiramisu Cake selected by Megan of My Baking Adventures) a few weeks ago so that I wouldn't be rushing around like I am now to write them up! So much for that plan!!


Anyway... the lemon tart was really delicious! The almond crust is absolutely foolproof and really tasty- I can't wait to try it with other nuts. The lemon filling contains the ENTIRE lemon- yep, rind and all- blended in the blender with egg, sugar, and cream. Now apparently some TWD bakers found the filling bitter because of the rind- but honestly I used the whole lemon and I didn't have any problem- I really don't know if I was just lucky or what! The filling is poured into the partially baked crust and the whole tart bakes at a pretty low temp for a good long while. The filling is almost like a lemon jelly- and although it is not the prettiest tart in the world the entire thing disappeared in a matter of minutes at the party I brought it to! In fact, I didn't even get a picture of an individual slice! I will definitely make this again.


The Tiramisu Cake was a bit of a different story. I'm still trying to weigh out the results in my head. You see, I didn't really like it very much at all- I found the cake to be dry and I thought the espresso/ kahlua syrup was too tame. I can't really say that it was awful or anything- it just wasn't great. Though the cake is not hard to make, there are quite a few components to it and it does take a good amount of time to make so I can't imagine that I'd make this again. The only thing that would keep me from saying that this was a definite miss is that my brother, my dad, and my aunt really enjoyed it (at least they said did multiple times and ate quite a few pieces each!). Honestly, I was very excited about this cake and sadly, it ended up being a let down for me.