Cherry Cornmeal Cake with Chocolate Glaze

This recipe is from the lovely ladies of Fleur-De-Licious.  A med student/law student high school friends combo that takes turns with the blog posts.  They are awesome and make me wonder what the heck I was doing with my time in college.  (Studying daddy, I swear!)

Pitting cherries without a cherry pitter is a pain in the butt, FYI.  However, totally worth it.

These ladies made their cake with a bourbon glaze but I have three kids that are gonna want a bite.  I could’ve gone for a powdered sugar glaze but I wanted some chocolate with my cherries!  I gave my neighbor some of this cake last week along with his loaf of zucchini herb bread.  He stopped me the next day and gave this cake rave reviews from him and his wife.

Fleur-De-Licious‘ cake was a bit thicker and their cherries didn’t all fall to the bottom.  I must’ve messed up on my flour a bit but that is OK because the chocolate glaze covers my flaws.

I didn’t change the recipe enough to post it here.  I only upped the salt and vanilla to 1 teaspoon each.  However, the changes they made to the original recipe that this is based off of are phenomenal.  Brown butter and brown sugar?  Genius!  I did whip up my own glaze, however, but feel free to use your favorite.

One bite…

My GeekyLinks are all Doctor Who related.  Some old and one new as we are gearing up for the new season that is supposed to come our way soon (August? September? not sure yet).  Also, just to make me feel a bit better about not going to Comic-Con.  You know what, I was busy that last resale day but I wasn’t sure which day to get tickets for anyway.  I was thinking maybe Sunday but didn’t get any and so of course the Doctor Who panel and the Fringe panel are on Sunday and I am not going.  *hrmph*  Anyways, a few months ago Scientists invent real “Doctor Who sonic screwdriver”, someone actually put a monetary value on the TARDIS, and (spoilers) new pictures of an upcoming episode.

Two bites…

Apple Fritter Cake and UFOs

Dang, was this recipe was an evolution!  I just set out to adapt a recipe that used cake mix but make it without cake mix.  I did it, the cake part itself turned out great!  I was really proud of myself but overall I thought the cake was too sweet.  However, I loved the glaze on it!  It was just like a donut glaze, and since the overall effect of the cake was that of a coffee cake and I had just bought a butt load (yes, I said butt load) of apples, I thought I’d make an Apple Fritter Cake!  Also, because I wanted to cut down on the overall sugar content I changed my base recipe and decided to start my adaption from my all time fave Joy the Baker.  She has this awesome Strawberry Coffee Cake that is a big hit in this house.  It is one of my husband’s favorites, so I know it is good.

The tart apples cut the sweetness a bit.  Cinnamon just makes it better.  It really tastes like an apple fritter!

Before we get into anything else, is anyone else completely overwhelmed by the season yet?  Not just the holidays necessarily but for my kids the end of soccer season and the beginning of performance team is coming up.  The end of the year party and playoffs are stuck into the days that the girls don’t have practice or dance.  O yeah, dance.  My girls love to perform so I sign them up to be on performance team where they go to local festivities and dance.  We have those coming up.  There are two parades they are in starting today.  Plus Angela insisted on trying to make a classmates birthday party right after the parade…we’ll see.  Man o man, it is all coming up: Thanksgiving, a birthday party for three family members at once a few days later, three dance performances, two days of playoffs, dance Christmas show and party, soccer party, school parties, Christmas, Robert’s third birthday, then New Year’s, then vacation (which is never vacation for a mom, right?).  I just need to breathe and make lists and I should be OK but I need to keep remembering that!  Breathe and make lists!  Breathe and make lists!  Seriously, just listing everything coming up has made me feel better, thanks!

My GeekyLink for this week is something I discovered last week but had to wait because The Hunger Games trailer was released before I could share it with you. Army vs. UFO (1942; Los Angeles), I had never heard about this.  Now I don’t even remember how I came across it but I found it completely intriguing especially growing up in Southern California and being a longtime lover and follower of UFO lore.  Eyewitness to History is one of the links under the video and I really liked it because it sets the stage for the things that went on during that time.  Air raid drills and blackouts and anti-aircraft target practice late into the night set the stage during a World War II era UFO sighting that was either nothing that went way too far or something that just gave up after us firing at it for two hours.  Anyways, I thought it was pretty cool.