Birthday Cake, Breakfast Cake: Upsidedown Cake from Rachel Allen's Favorite Food at Home

This weekend we are celebrating my birthday.  I’m not one to get too excited about my upcoming birthdays.  Most of the time I forget about my birthday, or I would, if not for my mother who always sends me the most thoughtful gifts and tells me my birth story each and every year (and no, I never get tired of hearing it).  This year is a little different however, because my son, Emmett who is three now LOVES birthdays. He’s been excited about mine for weeks.  To him, birthdays mean CAKE and I cannot let him down.

The fact is, not only am I not a “birthday person” but I’m not really a “birthday cake person” either.  Don’t get me wrong, I love sweets as much as the next person but in terms of cakes, I’m much more of an afternoon tea or a breakfast cake eater than a dessert cake type.  I am drawn to cakes that are moist, fruity and tart, the kind you could imagine having for breakfast with a cup of tea or coffee.

So, in selecting my birthday cake this year I knew the following:

#1 – I could not forgo cake because, Emmett

#2 – I wanted something in the vein of a “breakfast cake”; and

#3 – after a long Chicago winter and a not very spring-like spring, I wanted something bright, something that would remind me that we are on the precipice of longer, warmer days.

Somehow I knew that Rachel Allen would not let me down.  I picked up her fantastic cookbook “Favorite Food at Home” and sure enough, it had just what I was looking for.  First, I noticed a Plum and Rhubarb Crisp that is exactly MY kind of dessert, but unfortunately, not a cake (see #1 above).  So the final decision ended up being between Sponge Cake with Rhubarb Cream and Upsidedown Rhubarb and Ginger Cake.  Talk about a tough decision.  Well, until, I thought to whip up some Bird’s custard to spoon on top of each piece of the Upsidedown Cake.  Did I mention that I am definitely a “custard person”?  That’s when I knew this had to be my breakfast-birthday cake this year.  

You know what they say about the best laid plans right?  Well, all three of my birthday choices involved rhubarb (which I thought was a safe bet because it is supposed to be rhubarb season), but when I went shopping there was no rhubarb to be found anywhere. Disgruntled but not defeated I decided to find a replacement for the rhubarb but nothing seemed right. After much deliberation and in spite of #3 above, I finally settled on cranberries. Despite their complete lack of seasonality, in terms of taste, I thought they would make the best stand in and I wasn’t wrong.

This cake is both sweet and tart with a terrific texture – moist cake topped with soft pieces of cooked down fruit and crisp bits of caramelized sugar tucked in around the edges of the berries. It really needs no accompaniment. Rachel Allen suggests topping it with fresh whipped cream which sounds amazing. Emmett wanted his with ice cream, also a solid choice. But I am a custard girl through and through.

Because Paul is only selectively fond of ginger (i.e. gingersnaps and gingerbread) I replaced the ginger with some vanilla bean paste and lemon zest.  I also used a cake pan because my cast iron skillet is enormous.  So I melted the butter on the stovetop, added the brown sugar and cranberries and poured the whole mixture into the cake pan instead of doing it in a skillet. It was birthday perfection and even better the next morning with a big dollop of greek yogurt (or more custard, I won’t tell if you won’t) and a cup of tea. You can bet I will be baking this again with rhubarb as soon as I can get my hands on some.

A Cranberry Cake adapted from Upside-Down Rhubarb and Ginger Cake

from Rachel Allen's "Favorite Food at Home."

Makes:  8 servings

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar (divided)

12 ounces rhubarb, trimmed and cut into ¾-inch chunks OR 12 ounces of frozen cranberries

1 2/3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk or sour milk

1/3 cup vegetable or sunflower oil

1 generous teaspoon grated ginger OR the zest of one small lemon and 1tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

Softly whipped cream OR Bird’s custard

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter in medium (10-inch) ovenproof frying pan. Stir in half the brown sugar and cook over low heat about 2 minutes. Add the rhubarb (cranberries) - no need to stir - and remove from heat. Set aside.

I added the brown sugar-butter-cranberry mixture to the bottom of the cake pan and just tried to spread it out in an even layer before pouring the cake batter on top. 

Into a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

Okay, we didn't sift it.  But this little guy stirred and stirred. 

In a 2-cup glass measuring cup or small bowl, whisk eggs and add remaining brown sugar, the buttermilk, oil and ginger (or zest and vanilla).

Our liquids are in the measuring cup in the center of this photo, just waiting to be whisked and incorporated into the batter. Emmett was so proud of himself for cracking the eggs and getting them all in the cup (no eggshells!). 

Mix together, then pour into dry ingredients and whisk to form a liquid batter.

Pour over rhubarb, in our case, cranberries, in pan. Place pan in preheated oven and bake 30 minutes or until cake feels firm in center.

The top, um bottom, was so beautifully browned and a little crisp around the edges.  It was a good idea to bake this on a baking sheet to catch the overflowing juices. 

Cool 5 minutes before turning out by placing an inverted plate over top of pan and turning pan and plate over together in one quick movement. Serve warm or at room temperature.

“Paddy Melts”: Irish Breakfast in Sandwich Form

The men in my husband’s family love puns, good ones, bad ones, it doesn’t really matter.  As you can guess, this can take getting used to.  Actually, I’m pretty sure you never get used to it.  My husband is notorious for not only using bad puns whenever possible, but for taking things a step further and EXPLAINING them to anyone who will listen.  It might go something like this:

HIM: “Why should you never break up with a goalie?”

ME: “I don’t know. Why?”

HIM: “Because he’s a keeper.”

ME: Eyes rolling

HIM: “Get it?” 

ME:  Silence.  No matter what I say here, he will go on.

HIM: “He’s the goalie, the GOAL keeper!” (Proud)

ME: Yes. I got it. 

Even after more than a decade and 2 (almost 3) children together, there are some things about my dear husband that remain a mystery to me.  I guess that’s a good thing – though I’m still not sold on the puns.  Nevertheless, today I made a punny breakfast in the form of Irish Breakfast Sandwiches: Irish cheddar, breakfast sausages and eggs between two pieces of buttered brown bread heated up in a pan until the bread is crisp and the cheese is melted.  Served with baked beans, they make the perfect hand-held version of an Irish breakfast.  Delicious whether you like the name or not.  

Breakfast “Paddy” Melts

Ingredients (from the Irish Boutique)

Serves 4

3-5 tablespoons room temperature  Kerrygold Irish butter (I use salted butter)

8 pieces Brown bread – homemade or store bought. 

1 cup Irish Cheddar, grated

4 Irish breakfast sausages, I’m using Winston’s.  They are SO good.

4 eggs

2 tablespoons milk (whole or 2%, half and half also works)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 can Heinz baked beans

Worcestershire, HP or hot sauce to taste

Cook the sausages.  The sausages can be cooked over medium high heat in a sauté pan for about 10 minutes or until you slice into one and no pink remains. If you have a meat thermometer, 165F is what you are looking for here. I like to cook mine in a cast iron under the broiler for easy clean up.

This is what they look like after 10 minutes under the broiler.

Cook the eggs.  Beat the eggs and milk together and add salt and pepper to taste.  Heat a non-stick skillet over medium high heat and add 2 tablespoons of the butter until it becomes foamy. Add the eggs and scramble.  I take mine out of the pan when they are fluffy but still moist as they will be cooked a little bit more in the sandwiches.

Heat the beans.  Heat your baked beans in a saucepan or the microwave. My kids ate the last of our beans last night, as my son says "I'm a beanie boy!" So no beans for us today. Next time.

Once the sausages and eggs are cooked, set them aside and use the remaining butter to butter each piece of brown bread on one side.  Top the other side of the brown bread with about 1/8 cup of grated cheese. Now, cut your sausages in half horizontally and cut each of those pieces in half again so you have four nice little pieces of sausages that fit your bread. Place sausage pieces on top of half of the pieces of bread and top of each of the remaining pieces of bread with an equal portion of eggs.

At this point you should have butter, bread, cheese, sausage on four halves and butter, bread, cheese, eggs on four halves.

Heat your non-stick skillet over medium heat until pan is quite hot. Place sausage topped bread pieces butter side down in the hot skillet and egg topped pieces, butter side up on top.  Gently press sandwiches together with a spatula.  After a couple of minutes, turn the heat down to medium low and cover the pan.  Cook for two more minutes.  Uncover the pan and turn the heat back up to medium.  Use a spatula to press down gently on the sandwiches again just before flipping to cook on the other side. After a couple more minutes, turn the heat down to medium low again and place a lid on the pan. Cook for two more minutes, remove the lid, check the sandwiches for crisp bread and melty cheese.  If they look done, remove from the pan.

Cut in half and serve with beans, Worcestershire, HP, or hot sauce.

Cook the Book: My Irish Table by Cathal Armstrong

Have you seen this book? It’s gorgeous. Page after page of delicious looking Irish food, the food of the author Cathal Armstrong’s childhood.  The book also includes some Irish inspired recipes from Armstrong’s restaurant in the Washington D.C. area, Restaurant Eve.  Delicious Irish food?  Yes! Don’t get me started on this one. Ireland is a country with amazing natural resources when it comes to food. When I think of Ireland, I think of Irish butter and cheese, grass fed meats, fresh produce and seafood plucked straight from the sea.  I believe that Irish food is having its moment and will continue to do so as the popularity of fussy food wanes in favor of rustic, sustainable, ingredient driven dishes that we all love to eat.

I also adore Cathal Armstrong.  No, I don’t know him, but I feel like I do. He reminds me of my father-in-law, Paddy, in many ways.  One of so many Irish immigrants who has laid down roots on the other side of the Atlantic.  Like my father and mother-in-law, Cathal and his wife Meshelle (Filipina, just like my mother-in-law) built their business from scratch and made it successful through hard work and unwavering belief in their vision.  Like Paddy, Cathal is a very civic minded individual as demonstrated by his dedication to the sustainable food movement and his creation of Chefs as Parents™ (www.chefsasparents.com) a not-for-profit company that partners with the Alexandria public school system to improve the school lunch system.  Among many similarities, the one that strikes me the most is something that Armstrong, Paddy and so many of our customers at the Irish Boutique and Paddy’s on the Square have in common.  It is the way that they maintain their Irish identity, instill a love of all things Irish in their families and salute their home country even as they make America their permanent home.  They serve as shining examples of how to be both Irish and American.

Choosing a single recipe from this book was SO hard.  Honestly, I cannot wait to cook through the entire thing: Irish Stew, Dublin Coddle, President Obama Stew (Chicken Casserole), Shepherd’s Pie, Marrowfat Peas, Piccalilli, Tomato Jam, Apple Pie – I could go on. I chose ‘Cashel Blue and Toasted Pecan Terrine with Frisée and Apple Jam’ because we’re having friends over who we haven’t seen in ages, including two new babies (yay!) and I want to set out some food that we can graze on while we catch up and get the BBQ going. With six adults and five little ones, I think that it’s nice to do something that feels a little bit special with the appetizers, since we’ll be doing burgers and feeding-chasing-cleaning up after little ones during dinner. I’m serving this with a selection of other cheeses and meats and skipping the frisée, only because including it would necessitate forks (less forks, more hands free for holding babies!).

This recipe embodies my favorite aspects of Irish food. It’s simple; made up of only a few quality ingredients, and yet it feels elevated enough to serve to guests.

Cashel Blue and Toasted Pecan Terrine with Frisée and Apple Jam

Terrine

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1 pound Cashel Blue cheese, crumbled

Jam

2 small apples, such as Bramley, Ida Red, Granny Smith, or Pink Lady, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Salad

6 ounces (about 8 cups) frisée

2 tablespoons finely minced shallot

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Toast the pecans: Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a 9-inch loaf pan with plastic wrap, leaving a generous overlap. Spread the pecans on a pie pan and lightly toast them in the oven for 10 minutes, then allow them to cool.

Make the terrine: Combine the cheese and pecans in a large bowl and pack the mixture firmly into the loaf pan. Fold the overlapping plastic wrap over to cover completely and refrigerate overnight or for up to 3 days.

I halved the terrine recipe because I bought a few other cheese to serve as well. 

This little container worked perfectly for the amounts of Cashel and pecans I had. At this point I packed the mixture in very firmly, first with my hands and then with a spoon. 

Make the jam: Combine the apples, sugar, honey, and lemon juice in a saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until the apples are syrupy, about 5 minutes. Lower the heat to medium and continue cooking for another 10 minutes, stirring often, until the apples are completely soft and caramelized. Remove from the heat and mash the apples into jam with the back of a fork. Let cool.

I used one Pink Lady and one Fuji apple and substituted agave for the honey.  Did you know that babies aren't supposed to eat honey?  I didn't. Not until I had one. Babies are cagey little creatures known to love apples and jam so I'm not taking any chances.

This is what mine looked like once I had cooked it down as instructed in the recipe. 

Jammy! I left it pretty chunky because that's how I like things but you could mash it more.

Present the dish: Unmold the terrine and cut it into 12 half-inch slices. Gently separate the frisée leaves and put them in a small bowl. Add the shallot, olive oil, and salt and toss to mix. For each serving, center a slice of terrine on a dinner plate and place a small mound of salad and a dollop of apple jam next to it. 

As you can see, I did not present the dish as instructed above but I can see how it would make a beautiful composed first course.  I'll have to store that one away under 'simple-fancy-good dinner party ideas'. 

I may have packed it in the mold too aggressively because I had a hard time getting it out.  Once I managed to unmold it, the terrine held together quite well.  You really must eat it with the apple jam.  It's sort of magic how ingredients that complement each other can equal more than the sum of their parts.