Tuesdays with Dorie DAC: Baked-in-a-Skillet Gingerbread
December 16, 2025 at 4:16 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, DAC, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: baking, cake
Gingerbread is one of my most favorite holiday treats. It can come in many forms, not just cookie versus cake, and I’m here for all of them. On the cake side, I’m used to gingerbread being dark and moody, heavy on the molasses, and sometimes even boosted with coffee. This Baked-in-a-Skillet Gingerbread is less molasses-forward and more spice-forward, zippy with bits of candied ginger.
The batter contains a surprise ingredient that threw me for a loop, especially since I didn’t bother to read the recipe until I was just about to make it! Apple butter isn’t a pantry staple for me, and I didn’t really want to go and get it just for this, nor did I feel like making it. I was contemplating substituting it with banana-data puree, but then as I was rummaging through my cabinet looking for last year’s jar of molasses, I found something else I bought last year– a seasonal pumpkin spice spread from Bonne Maman that I had big plans to use, and then, of course, never did. Problem sorted– I used that. (Now I have 3/4 of an open jar left to contend with, however.)
Sometimes I think the “skillet-baked” sweets thing is mostly a gimmick, but here I think baking it this way gives a nice crust to the gingerbread. This is a dense cake, not dry, but certainly not damp, and it lasts for days. It reminds me of some Scandinavian-style gingerbreads I’ve had, and it’s only as I type this that I wonder if that’s why Dorie suggests topping it with Swedish pearl sugar…
If you don’t have the book Dorie’s Anytime Cakes by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every third Tuesday of the month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Pistachio-Matcha Financiers
December 9, 2025 at 8:48 pm | Posted in BWD, cakes & tortes, cookies & bars, general pastry, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
To me, financiers represent a “quiet luxury” of the pastry world. Classic, timeless, but understated, you have to be in the know to recognize just how rich and indulgent they are. These Pistachio-Matcha Financiers are spendy treats to be sure, made with lots of butter and pistachios, but compared to so many of the pastries going viral today, they are not in-your-face flashy.
Dorie parks this recipe in the cookie chapter, but financiers, like madeleines, are soft and cake-like. While they are traditionally made in rectangular bar molds, these are baked in a mini muffin tin. I have a mini muffin pan that makes 24 baby cakes. This recipe yields 28, which would require me to cool, wash, dry and re-butter and flour my tin to get the few extra. Guess what I’m not doing. That…I’m not doing that. I’m doing math instead. I went with 2/3 the recipe, which just used a full stick of butter and made 18 or so. (To be fair, I could have made the full recipe and easily baked off the extra blob of batter in one of my little individual pie tins to make a tiny cake, but the smaller amount of financiers was plenty.)
I always associate financiers with browned butter, although Dorie only states to bring it to a boil here. I did decide to take my butter to a light, early-stage browning. Dressed up in white chocolate glaze and freeze dried raspberry crumbles, the finished financiers are perfect festive treats to serve to a discerning crowd.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie DAC: Fall Harvest Cake
November 18, 2025 at 9:55 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, DAC, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 8 CommentsTags: baking, cake
The most fun thing about making this Fall Harvest Cake is that you get to choose what you “harvest” to put in it. Pick some fresh fruit, pick some dried fruit, pick a nut, pick a glaze– it’s like the ultimate “playing around” cake, and I think you’d have to try hard to choose a combo that didn’t work well.
The base for this bounty of fruit and nuts is a sturdy but moist olive oil cake. It’s easily whisked together by hand, and I made it even easier by making it a one bowl affair. A couple of days before I baked this cake, I happened to have devoted a few hours to poaching several quince. Rather than apple or pear, I used slices of sweet, deeply rosy quince that I cut into chunks. For my other add-ins I used seedless red grapes, candied orange peel, dried cranberries and the last dregs from bag of sliced almonds. Quince has a lot of natural pectin, and its poaching liquid basically gels into a glaze when it cools, so I just used that to add some shine and extra fall fruitiness to the top of my baked cake.
Wow, was this good. I don’t do too much baking with grapes, but Dorie’s right that they are a surprise treat here. This cake stayed soft and delicious for four days on my counter (my kitchen has basically zero climate control and is as cold as a root cellar in the fall and winter, else I may have chosen to refrigerate it if keeping it that long).
If you don’t have the book Dorie’s Anytime Cakes by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every third Tuesday of the month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie DAC: Cocoa-Swirled Pumpkin Bundt
October 21, 2025 at 12:01 am | Posted in bundt cakes, cakes & tortes, DAC, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, cake
Dorie must have sensed that we’ve almost polished off the cake section of BWD, because she’s come out with a whole new book of simple cakes with interesting flavors to keep us TWDers busy for another few years. Dorie’s Anytime Cakes is out today, and we are celebrating with a festive bundt! This Cocoa-Swirled Pumpkin Bundt is our first recipe from the new book, and also the first real fall vibes recipe I’ve made this year.
This bundt is a moist, spiced pumpkin cake with a sweet cocoa swirl running through the middle like a little smile. I made the Glossy Chocolate Glaze to drizzle over the top, but then accidentally let it rest in the bowl until it cooled more to a spreadable consistency than a pouring one. Still tasty, no worries. It’s a perfect cake to keep on the counter for a few days, helping yourself to a slice here and there. Dorie intends all the recipes in the book to be “kitchen cakes”…easy to make, good to eat, comforting to have around…just like this one. Maybe I need to get a cake dome?
If you don’t have the book Dorie’s Anytime Cakes by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every third Tuesday of the month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Marbled Cheesecake
March 25, 2025 at 3:23 pm | Posted in BWD, cakes & tortes, cheesecakes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, brekkie, cake
There are a couple of easy, basic things that, even after 20+ years of professional pastry experience, I am still not good at. I think I will never be able to make even, attractive slice-and-bake cookies. And I really have just about given up on marbling, as I’m sure you can see from the weak squiggles on top of my Marbled Cheesecake. Well, I guess it’s not all about looks and, especially if you’re baking at home, tastiness is most important. With pockets of chocolate in a vanilla cheesecake and a graham cracker crust flavored with espresso and cinnamon, tastiness here is a sure bet.
I downsized this baby to a 6-inch cheesecake (which still provided four nights of dessert for the two of us) using 1/3 of the batter recipe, but because I am a huge crumb crust fan, I went a bit heavier on that part and used 40% of the graham crust. I baked the cheesecake in the oven for the full 90 minutes because it was still so loose when I gave it a quick shimmy earlier. I’d probably rethink that next time with a 6-incher and turn the oven off after an hour and fifteen. Since it’s left in there to cool down along with the oven, I the think carry-over from that rest would have finished the job.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Yuzu Ginger Cake
December 24, 2024 at 9:16 pm | Posted in breakfast things, BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: baking, brekkie, cake
I had every intention of baking this cake by the book as an Orange Spice Cake with my bag of Christmas clementines and a ground mulling spice mix I concocted…but the other day I saw that my grocery store had fresh yuzu, which they never have, so I impulse-bought a couple. Then I remembered I had a jar of yuzu marmalade (another impulse buy) in the fridge with just a few spoonfuls left, and my own playing around version– Yuzu Ginger Cake– was born.
This has a familiar feel to some other Dorie cakes we’ve made. She calls these types of cakes “visiting cakes” since they are easy to bake, are sturdy enough to travel well and keep for several days. With heavy cream and butter in the batter, a compact crumb and nice outer crust, this one seemed like a citrus pound cake. I made just a half recipe of the batter, which only took about 40 minutes to bake, although I think I should I picked a slightly smaller pan than I did to get a taller loaf. It smelled great with the yuzu zest and juice and fresh grated ginger that I used. I noticed that a couple of folks who made it for December’s first TWD posting found their cakes to be a tad dry, so as soon as mine came out of the oven, and before glazing with marmalade, I poked holes all over it and drizzled it with a yuzu liqueur I keep on my bar cart. Can you tell it’s a favorite flavor? Not the holiday-scented cake I’d originally imagined it would be, but a fun bake and a delicious treat.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Morning Bundt Cake
October 22, 2024 at 7:26 pm | Posted in breakfast things, bundt cakes, BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 8 CommentsTags: baking, brekkie, cake
Any fan of “breakfast cake” should love this Morning Bundt Cake. Great with your first cup of coffee, but not a typical coffee cake, the batter is a mix of all your breakfast staples…except for bacon, I guess…you’ll have to serve that on the side. It has oranges (zest, juice and chopped segments), yogurt, muesli, nuts and dried fruit. I didn’t buy muesli to make this, but instead used some rolled oats, sunflower seeds and a bit of extra dried fruit and nuts. I chose toasted pecans, by the way, and prunes, since they seemed like a good choice for getting the morning going. I subbed about 1/3 of the AP flour with einkorn flour and combined my “muesli” with the yogurt a few hours ahead of time to soften it before mixing the batter (I had to adjust the mixing order slightly because of this, but it was a tip I got from IG bake-alonger Stef).
This is so good. It’s moist and quite hearty, with all those breakfast ingredients blended together. A citrus glaze that’s brushed on while the cake’s still hot is a nice final touch that makes the crust as special as what’s inside.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Strawberry-Rhubarb Squares
June 11, 2024 at 9:41 pm | Posted in breakfast things, BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 11 CommentsTags: baking, cake
It’s fun to visit my Saturday farmers’ market this time of year. After a gloomy few months of root veggies and winter squash, finally there is green stuff…and even some red stuff, too! These Strawberry-Rhubarb Squares have a soft honey-kissed buttermilk cake base, topped with a layer of early summer “red stuff” that turns jammy when baked. It’s delightfully simple and not too sweet– a perfect breakfast cake, snack cake or dessert cake. I made a half recipe in a loaf pan, so rather than using my stand mixer, I just put the batter together by hand. This was my first summery bake of the season, and it was a good one.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Breakfast-in-Rome Lemon Cake
March 12, 2024 at 5:04 pm | Posted in breakfast things, BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 12 CommentsTags: baking, brekkie, cake
Somehow neither The White Lotus nor seemingly the entire world’s fabulously dreamy Instagram summer vacay pics have spurred me to book a flight to Italy yet, but this Breakfast-in-Rome Lemon Cake may do the trick. I can imagine being pretty happy for a few days to wake up to a double espresso and a slice of the breakfast/snack tube cake known as chiambella. Until I get my passport renewed, luckily Dorie has provided us with her Italian vacation version to bake at home. She makes a lemony separated egg sponge that results in a tall, light, bouncy cake. Berries are optional, but since I had some frozen blackberries in my mess of a freezer, I rummaged around and found them. If I’m going all the way to Italy, I’m not just going to Rome…I’m also going to the Almalfi Coast, so I drizzled the top of my cake with a little limoncello while it was still warm and at its most absorbant for another hit of lemon.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Chunky Citrus Cornmeal Cake
January 9, 2024 at 10:42 pm | Posted in BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, brekkie, cake
Dorie’s Chunky Lemon Cornmeal Cake is a sunny loaf, getting color and flavor from cornmeal, lemon zest, chopped up lemon segments and sumac. I happened to notice a few bags of cute, tiny, bright orange calamansi at my neighborhood grocer. I’ve only ever come across calamansi here as frozen juice at some of the Asian grocery stores, so I snapped up a bag. Even though I didn’t have any plans for them, I like to be sure to buy things that I don’t normally see on the shelves so my store knows people are interested.
I sat on the calamansi in the fridge for a few days and then thought I could use them in this cake. Prep was super easy, since you can eat the whole fruit…they have thin, sweet skins with almost no pith and puckery, tart insides. I simply quartered each calamansi, popped out any seeds or membrane I found and used them in the simple one-bowl cake batter just like that. I left out the sumac, but I had about a tablespoon and a half of spiced sugar left from some holiday cookies and I sprinkled that on top of the cake batter before I put it in the oven for a little crust.
This was so tasty with the little pops of calamansi and it stayed fresh for several days. I loved the color and the texture (just a bit gritty from the cornmeal) and was super pleased when I cut into the cake.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
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