Cake Byte: The 2009 CakeSpy Holiday Card Collection!

Oh, hello. Meet the 2009 CakeSpy holiday card collection!

Whether you've been naughty or nice, there's some sugar and spice for everyone in this sweet suite of stationery, which is ready to ship starting October 10.

Here are the new designs:


Inner Greeting: "Season's Sweetings"


Inner Greeting: "Sweet holiday wishes"


Inner Greeting: "Sweet holiday wishes"


Inner Greeting: "Hope your holidays are an absolute scream"

Plus the cupcake and robot card pictured top.

The cards are available in boxes of 10 assorted cards and envelopes, or you can buy 10-packs full of just one style (if you'd like all one style, simply purchase the assorted pack and specify which style you'd like ten of in your payment "notes").

They can be purchased at cakespyshop.com.

Underdog Desserts: A Savory Meets Sweet Giveaway from BK!

Next time you feel compelled to glove-slap somebody, why not do it in sweet style? Well, you can: CakeSpy is giving away a pair of sweet gloves with cupcake pattern trim--a sweet donation from friends at Bitchin' Lifestyle (you may remember the interview with BK's Nadia G. from a while back?).

What do you have to do to enter?

To Enter, click over to the video about Underdog Vegetables on the Bitchin' Kitchen website--a hilarious roundup and appreciative ode to veggies like brussels sprouts and parsnips--and leave a comment on the site. Love veggies? Go ahead and sing their praises. Still not convinced? Then leave a comment talking up your favorite--wait for it--underdog dessert.

Of course, I'd love to see your comments here about what your favorite underdog desserts too. Perhaps you think coconut macaroons need more love? Or maybe oatmeal cookies have stood in chocolate chip's shadow for too long? Sing the praises of your favorite!

This giveaway will close for entries on Friday, October 9 at 12:00 p.m. PST!

Nothing Bundt Cake: Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake for a Rainy Day

What is it about baking cake that always brightens up the darkest day or mood? Surely it's not just the taste, although that certainly doesn't hurt. It's the the full sensory experience: reading a recipe. Gathering and mixing together the ingredients; seeing them come together. Putting the batter in a pan...and that amazing cake-baking aroma while it bakes. By the time the cake is done, eating it is almost secondary (note: almost), as you've already gotten so much satisfaction out of making the finished product.

In Seattle, I couldn't imagine a cozier bakery for a rainy day than Macrina Bakery, so I was thrilled when they sent out their coffee cake recipe in a recent newsletter. Any fruit of your choosing makes a nice complement to the dense butteriness of the cake, which is perfect for breakfast; I used bananas and topped the cake off with a generous dose of chocolate and nuts, which is guaranteed to make the darkest days brighter.

Rainy Day Bundt Cake

- adapted from Macrina Bakery's Fresh Fruit Coffeecake -

Makes 1 Bundt cake

• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat--worked nicely with the banana)
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups ripe fruit (I used bananas)
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups buttermilk

Chocolate topping:

• 1 teaspoon shortening
• 3 ounces semisweet or dark chocolate

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Oil a 12-cup Bundt pan.
2. Sift flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl and toss with your hands to combine. Remove 1/4 cup of the flour mixture and set bowl aside.
3. In a separate medium bowl, combine fruit and the reserved 1/4 cup of flour mixture. Toss until fruit is evenly coated and set aside. Tossing the fruit in flour helps keep it from sinking to the bottom of the coffeecake _ a true disaster!
4. Combine butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix with the paddle attachment for 5 to 8 minutes on medium speed. The mixture will become smooth and pale in color. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure the first egg is fully mixed into the batter before adding the other. After the second egg is incorporated, add vanilla extract and mix for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and mix for another 30 seconds to make sure all of the ingredients are fully incorporated. Remove the bowl from the mixer.
5. Alternately add small amounts of flour mixture and buttermilk to the batter mixing with a wooden spoon just until all dry ingredients are incorporated. Gently fold in the flour coated fruit making sure the fruit is evenly distributed through the batter. Spoon batter into the prepared Bundt pan filling two-thirds of the pan.
6. Bake on the center rack of the oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until top is golden brown. Check the center of the coffeecake with a skewer. It will come out clean when the cake is done. Let cool in a pan for 45 minutes.
7. Loosen the sides of the cake with a sharp knife. Place a serving plate upside-down on top of the cooled Bundt pan and invert the pan to remove the cake.
8. For chocolate topping: melt chocolate and shortening in a double boiler. Pour gently directly on to the cake. Toss some walnuts, powdered sugar, or both, on top if it suits you.
9. Enjoy!

Baker's Dozen: A Batch of Sweet Links!

From top left, clockwise: MKE Cupcake Queen reigns supreme; Coco Cake cutes it up, Cuppie-style; sweet marshmallow witches; delicious Fiadoni. Links below!

Never too early to get started: CakeSpy Holiday Cards are available for pre-order in the newly revamped CakeSpyShop.com!

Simply perfection: double vanilla cupcakes, via Simply Recipes.

Dirty but sweet: in Chicago, Sweet Mandy B's has a delicious-looking Dirt Cup.

Milwaukee Cupcake Alert! CakeSpy buddy Sandy, AKA the Milwaukee Cupcake Queen, makes buttercream waves with Iron Cupcake!

Coffee stencils: because your coffee deserves to be as cute as the cake it's served with!

Like, OMG: Cuppie-ish cupcakes! These look delicious, via Coco Cake.

Cereal deliciousness: check out the General Mills Cereal Spooktacular!

Didn't get to attend the BlogHer conference? Read Not Martha's recap, it's as if you were there!

Kicking off the Halloween Candy season: these Marshmallow Witches on Taste of Home are freaking adorable.

Fiadoni: roughly translated, delicious Italian Pocket Pies.

Salty-sweet, make-your-life-complete, chocolate dulce de leche cupcakes, via JustJenn.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and Sprinkles offers some of the sweetest cupcakes for the cause the first week of the month.

Are cupcake lovers seeking eternal childhood? Newsweek investigates.

Pastry Road Trip: Amazing Hungarian Pastries From the Back of a Volvo in Grand Rapids, MI

Pop Quiz! You're in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Where do you get delicious Hungarian Pastries?

Answer: The back of a Volvo. Naturally. Or should I say, természetesen.

Joking aside though, it's not junk in the trunk of Grand Rapids-based pastrymaker Julianna Mechtler's car: it's a bounty of delicious pastries like walnut, poppy seed and apricot-walnut pastry rolls, cheesy Danish, and various pies and breads. And for 20 years, she's been unloading this deliciousness from the back of her car to a table at the Fulton Street Farmers Market.


Clearly she's been doing something right for all these years: Cake Gumshoes Matthew and Wendy, who first directed me to this Hungarian phenomenon in Grand rapids, state that they "have dreams about" the sour cherry danish, pictured top. 

Of course, it would be remiss to neglect mentioning the fact that Gumshoe Matthew Reidsma (who supplied the photos!) is also a pretty spectacular cartoonist. Take a peek:

Foodie cartoons? Delicious pastries? It's all enough to make you feel pretty Hungary.

To buy Julianna Mechtler's pastries, visit the Fulton Street Farmers Market, 1145 E. Fulton St., Grand Rapids, MI 49503, 616) 454-4118 (Hours of Operation: 8:00am - 4:00pm Tuesdays, Wednesday, Fridays and Saturdays May through) Christmas; for more information, visit fultonstreetmarket.org.

To keep up to date with the Grand Rapids Gumshoes, visit Matthew's site here and Wendy's here.