Upside-Down Apple Ginger Cake

 

This is a sponsored post. While I was compensated monetarily, all opinions are my own.

It’s been a cold, cold week here in Saskatoon. The temperature has barely crept over -30C, so yeah, that’s very, very cold. I’ve largely been hunkering down inside my little house, and the oven has been working overtime. There have been roasts with herbaceous veg snuggled up beside them; cookies with puddles of chocolate; muffins burst with bananas. But, my favourite thing to come out of my gas range has been this Upside-Down Apple Ginger Cake, made with beautiful JAZZ apples. I am super thrilled to be included with a group of talented creatives across Canada this year with JAZZ Apples to create recipes incorporating their delicious  apples. This year, we made a recipe based on a “mystery ingredient” chosen for us by another group member. Mine was ginger, selected by the incredibly talented photographer/stylist/blogger Debi Traub from @simplybeautifuleating from Toronto, Ontario. 

Come for Tea: Ginger & Orange Drop Tea Biscuits

It's Victoria Day here in Canada, and with the long weekend comes the unofficial start to summer. Some of us are camping (or glamping!), or hitting the garden centres, or digging in the dirt, or kicking back and seeing that new Avengers movie. I slide to the more lazy side of the equation, which involved a getting up way past the time I usually get up, making lemon ricotta pancakes for my guy and I, sitting outside in the sun with my second cup of coffee, watching my cats eat grass and chase bugs. It's been a good day, so far. Like many of you, I'm hustling all the time. When a day presents itself with no immediate work to do, I almost don't know what to do. I think regular folks call these "days off", but for someone who has work hustles and side hustles and all the hustles, taking a little time to sit in the sun and watch robins dance in the bird bath is a glorious way to spend a few hours of the day.

Brown Butter Pumpkin Cookies with Milk Chocolate Chunks

Hey all!  Oh my gosh, long time no chat.  I feel badly about that.  The hours, the days, they are so jam packed lately, it's honestly hard to find time to hang out here.  I hope you understand.  The gigs that pay the money - like my regular food columns and recipes development often come first, because, well, I like to eat good things and I have to pay the mortgage.  And buy cat food!  And save for a new bathroom, because I hate mine so much every time I have a shower.  Speaking of bathrooms, if you follow along with me on social media, you know how I visited Toronto last month for a Food Bloggers of Canada Conference, thanks to the kind and generous sponsorship of Canadian Lentils. My suite was on the 29th floor, next to the CN tower, and it had the most magnificent bathroom that ever was.  Floor to ceiling windows.  Soaker tub, big enough for me to stretch out my long legs, amazing views of the harbour and CN tower.  I felt like the luckiest girl alive.  I would call my handsome farmer back in Sask, and talk to him all the while in the loo.  Sweet soul, he just laughed at me.  I probably spent too much time hanging out in this great bathroom, but who knows when such opportunities will surface again for me.  Seriously, if you find yourself in Toronto, book room 2914 in the new Delta.  It's so good!

Blueberry Ginger Smoothie and Stuff I've Been Meaning to Tell You

I feel like it's been forever since I've sat down at the computer and just wrote to you guys.  As you can imagine, there's been a whirlwind of activity around here for the past 6 months, and I finally have a few quiet hours to chill in the morning light and just say hey.  The manuscript for my cookbook is in the hands of the publisher and very soon I'm going to get the edits back then the whirlwind of activity will resume - except this time I'll also be working a few days a week at my pastry chef gig and the phrase "how am I going to do it all?" flits in and out of my mind on a loop.  But, as they say, we shall cross that bridge when we come to it.

Five Whole Years (!!) and a Few Favourite Things

When I first started writing this blog, I had no idea what I was a) doing, and b) getting myself into.  I never in a million years expected it to be anything more than a little chat about what I was making in my little green kitchen.  But then I fell in love with my little corner of the internet universe, and like anything else when it comes to love, you work at it.  Often.  I'd come to this space whenever I had a second or two free from my full-time chef gig, with hopes (and dreams!) of one day writing more at home and working in kitchens less.  Five years later, that is my current reality, which still blows my mind a little.  Okay, a lot.  I've come a long way since that very first post about pears and waffles.  Don't laugh at those photos!  I had no idea what I was doing!  Besides being a creative outlet, the blog has opened up all kinds of opportunities for me.  I've been lucky and traveled to Washington State, Toronto, Montreal, and Southern Saskatchewan, twice.  I've met other bloggers who've turned out to be sweet, sweet friends.  I've gotten freelance writing gigs for newspapers and food magazines.  And of course, I'm near the end of writing my very first cookbook.  All because of this blog, and hard, hard work.  In short, Sweetsugarbean changed my life.  This was not what I had in mind when I sat at my computer in January of 2011 and pressed "publish" for the first time.  But holy smokes, I'm so happy the way things have turned out.  Thanks to all of you who have been with me from the beginning, and to those who have just joined in.  I'm so happy to have you here!  Giant hugs and kisses all around!

Coconut Chia Pudding with Bluberry Ginger Compote

"One could not get enough of the nimble air.  Every morning I wakened

 with a fresh consciousness that winter was over."  ~ Willa Cather

Well my friends, we made it.  Another winter finished and into the books.  I know, I know, there's still snow on the ground and flannel sheets are still on the bed, but for all intents and purposes, spring is here.  Hallelujah praise the lord.  And I just did a few jumping jacks, scaring the bejeezus out of the cats.  Spring is my most favourite season.  I love the whole reassurance and resurgence that comes with it.  Just like the blades of green beginning to poke through the earth, so do new ideas, dreams, intentions and goals.  Not only is it the equinox today, but a super moon and a solar eclipse.  There are good things happening up there in the cosmos and timing couldn't be better for a little system restart.  What do you want to do with all of this rebooting energy swirling around you?  

All Curled Up: Chewy Molasses Cookies

Greetings and salutations from the land of butter, sugar and flour.  My little green kitchen is in the throes of a baking marathon, so the next few posts are going to be about cookies and sweet things.  Hope you don't mind.  Yeah, didn't think so.  Lest you think I'm living on cookie dough alone, I've also been throwing together hearty soups and stews, though by the time I sit down to dinner the winter light has faded earlier and earlier, thus no snaps of my turkey and cabbage pottage, which tastes much better than it sounds.  I scribbled down a few notes so it may make an appearance here in January, when none of us want to go near anything with a carb.  But (thankfully) we're not there yet, are we?  

The Last Hurrah: Baked Peaches with Almond Crust

It has been a ritual of sorts.  Every Sunday, for the past several weeks, I head to the farmers market.  There is a fruit truck there, you see.  And it beholds soft, fuzzy peaches from British Columbia.  I place about 8 or so in a bag - and they are all for me.  The kind-looking woman at the checkout knows.  You like the peaches, she says.  I  nod.  And she nods too.  Yes.  They are good.   And when they get home, they won't last the week.  I typically let them ripen on the counter until they smell just about right, and their flesh gives a little.  Then I bite into one and let the juices dribble down my chin, arms.  Sometimes this happens while I'm hovering over the sink (and I promise, I never eat over the sink, but I can't help myself) or it happens while sitting under my favourite tree in the backyard.   It's a ritual of sorts that is slowly coming to an end, because as goes summer, as go the peaches.  These last days of summer are numbered; the crisp mornings and faint cry of the geese overhead tell me so.  Just like a reluctant lover, no matter how hard you hold on, goodbye must be said.  Oh, but it was fun while it lasted. 

Chocolate Gingerbread Beer Bundt Cake

If I tell you there is dry mustard in this cake, will you believe me?  I hope so, because it's 100 percent true.  I know!  Dry mustard in a cake - who would have thought?  But it's one of the reasons I wanted to try this cake out.  Well, that and the beer.  Beer in cake too?  This is crazy talk.  I've put beer in bread and in barbecue sauce and down the gullet, but never in chocolate cake.  But 'tis the season of St. Patrick, so why not?  When you've been baking cakes as long as I have, it's cool to shake things up and see what the heck will happen.  I can tell you this cake started out by giving me grief, but there was a happy ending.  And that's all that matters, right?

Seize the Season: Grapefruit & Ginger Cream Pie

Another week, flown on by.  And it all began with that shocking season finale of Downton Abbey.  Spoiler Alert! Skip to the recipe if you haven't seen Sunday's episode!  It was all a bit reeling, wasn't it?  And I can't seem to get Mathew Crawley's dead blue eyes out of my mind.  And that little trickle of blood.  Eeep!  Just goes to show, one minute you're on top of the world with a brand new baby boy and a massive inheritance and the next your life comes to an untimely end via a milk truck.  I know, it's not real life, and yes the actor desperately wanted off the show.  But there are little truths here.  Tragedy strikes any time, any place.  So Carpe Diem friends.  You only live once, or until Julian Fellowes decides your time is up.  It's time to eat more pie. 
 

Sweet Tidings! Brown Butter Ginger Cookies with Honey Mascarpone Cream

Two days before the big day, and I'm happy to report the unwinding has begun.  For the last several weeks the ol' nerves have been wound tighter than a Christmas Cracker.  No joke.  Just ask the handsome man.  But with the final catering gig out of the way, and an order from the boss not to return for two weeks, I'm able to finally feel merry about the season.  Yesterday I drove about town, not even bothered about the hideous road conditions in my city, and dropped off parcels of goodies to friends I haven't seen in so long.  Christmas hugs and wishes of good cheer felt so good.  I'm hoping the stress and anxiety of the last several weeks will wash away with a good dose of deep sleep, good food & drink and so much laughter my cheeks hurt.  And cookies.  This is really the only time of year when it's perfectly acceptable to have cookies at all meals.  Am I right or am I right? 

Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns with Maple Chai Buttermilk Glaze

I hope you aren't experiencing pumpkin overload....I know, I know, it's everywhere right now, but believe me when I tell you that these buns are pretty amazing.  So amazing, that yes, I kinda sorta devoted a Sunday to them, but with the first bite, I knew it was worth it.  And look at them, all gooey in their glorious glaze.  I know you want one.  As we enter into the eating holiday season (holy man tell me where 2012 went, please) these buns are good to have around, to feed loved ones at brunch or a late night snack, or let's be honest, any time is cinnamon bun time.  When I first told my mom I was making pumpkin cinnamon buns, she was like, why can't you just make regular cinnamon buns?  That's my mom.  Always asking the hard-hitting questions.  My response of wanting to try something new seemed to suffice.  I've never put pumpkin into a yeast product before and you know what?  It was worth it.  The dough is incredibly soft and lovely and easy to work with, all of the pumpkin-y spices are hanging out and having fun.  The glaze; oh boy, the glaze kinda blows my mind.  And who would have thought of steeping Chai in buttermilk?  Crazy? Crazy good!  So let's do this already!

Perfect: Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread Cake

At its point of perfection, an apple shouts, a pear whispers.  ~ Nigel Slater

I don't need to tell you what's happening in two months time.  If you've poked your head into any retail outlet, harmlessly looking for boots or pillows or cat litter, you've seen the signs for Christmas 2012.  In the olden days, you wouldn't see such stuff until after Halloween, but it's seems like every year the goods are coming out quicker and quicker.  Some of you may have already started (or finished!) your shopping, to which I give you a high five.  I'm not, nor will ever be one of those people.  Most days I'm lucky if my to-do list gets crossed off, and then I reward myself with tea and cake.  Fair deal.  

In Transit: Spiced Nectarine Cake

 Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the Fall.  F. Scott Fitzgerald

Happy second day of Fall everyone!  I hope wherever you are life is treating you very, very good.  This transitional time of year is one of the prettiest - when the leaves are turning amber and the light is warm and the subtle breeze of change is all around us.  Usually I'm a little maudlin right around now - having to put the garden to bed will do that to a girl -  but not this year.  Frankly I'm happy to see another season, ripe with new beginnings and adventures.  And how much do I love shopping for boots and sweaters and dark red lip gloss?  I'm happy to pack away the strappy sandals and sundresses for another year.  Bring on tea and snuggles under blankets and a brand new TV shows.  The beauty of the season is so short lived here - blink and the next minute it's gone.  The next few weeks are a treasure.

Underdog: Apricot & Ginger Tarte Tatin

Given the circumstances, this tart should never have existed.  I was definitely having one of those days where nothing, it seems, was turning out, but because of my stubborn disposition I was not going to let this tart die an unfortunate death because I knew it would be glorious, and it was.

Play: Gingerbread Trees with Lemon Icing

 

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmastime.  

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Nothing like a little Little House to get you in the Christmas mood, hey?  My love of reading stems from pouring over those books when I was a kid.  I especially loved the Christmas chapters; when the Ingalls are housebound by raging blizzards and old Mr. Edwards saves they day by bringing Laura, Mary and Carrie candy and oranges.  Love. It. So. Much.  Laura was right though.  Everyone becomes a kid again at Christmas.

I'm in full blown catering crazies, but happy to report no meltdowns and anxiety has been averted.  Touch wood!  Thanks, in part, to another set of hands peeling a million pounds of potatoes and dicing equal amounts of onion.  Poor guy will never want to touch either when he leaves our kitchen.  But just having those basic tasks done for me has meant the world.  And saved my sanity.  Give it up for Victor!  I've also decided I'm not going to let the stresses of the season bum me out.  My cortisol levels are staying relatively normal and I'm even having fun.  I keep getting invited to parties and I keep saying yes.  Good Lord, I'm tired, but this is the season to play, after all.

People think it's weird that after I cook all day at my real job, I would want to do anything in my own kitchen.  But honestly, it's not really mental to anyone who loves food like I do.  Rolling out gingerbread dough and cutting it into perfect tree shapes is playing.  And a reminder of a little girl with a blond head and a sweet tooth, by her Mom's side, eating the gingery dough behind her back and peeking through the glass door of the oven, watching the cookies rise into stars and trees and pigs.  I lived for those days before Christmas when the house smelled of butter and ginger and we got to decorate our cookies as we liked.  Icing! Sprinkles! Sugar!  The best part: biting off the limbs of the gingerbread man and saving head for last.  

Yes, me and cookie dough go waaaaay back - to days before everything was digital and my biggest worry was if my blue Club Monaco sweatshirt was washed so I could wear it to school the next day;  to days when my favourite song was "Eye of the Tiger" and I wanted to be Olivia Newton John when I grew up. Yeah, me and cookie making go way back.  If only my biggest "issue" these days could be whether or not I have clean laundry. Baking has always been a little therapy for this girl, and on more than one occasion it's saved me from holiday hell.  Sometimes the process of distraction is a magical thing.

This gingerbread is exactly what you want your house to smell like as you put that last star on the tree and as you finish addressing envelopes with the names of loved ones. The batter can be made the night before, so the next morning you just roll it out and cut into your favourite shapes.  They only need to bake for about 8 minutes if you like a softer cookie, or around 10 if you want your gingerbread to snap. The drizzle of lemon is a lovely compliment to the smooth bite of ginger.  Ginger + Lemon = Yummers.  Can't think of a better cookie to eat while I curl up on the couch to watch this, yet again.  It never gets old.

Gingerbread Tree with Lemon Icing

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (spooned and leveled) plus a bit more for rolling
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp coarse salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup molasses

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/3 cup icing sugar
coarse sugar, optional

In a medium bowl, whisk flour with rest of dry ingredients.  In a large bowl of a mixer, cream the butter and granulated sugar on medium high until creamy, about 3 minutes.  Add egg and molasses and beat to combine, scraping down bowl as you need to. With  mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and beat until combined.  Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour or up to 3 days.
Preheat oven to 350*F, with racks in upper and lower thirds.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to a 1/4 inch thickness, and with cookie cutters, cut into your favourite shapes.  My Mom still uses the cutters from when we were kids and I love the pig!  Or you can use a sharp knife and cut into triangles.  Arrange cookies on parchment lined baking sheets, and bake until firm and golden, around 8 min for chewy, 10 min for snappy.  Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.  Store in airtight containers for up to one week, or freeze.
To make the lemon icing, combine lemon juice, icing sugar with a small whisk.  It takes a little while for it to come together.  Add more lemon if too thick.  I just put the icing in a small Ziploc bag and cut one corner to make a tip.  Drizzle onto cooled cookies and sprinkle with sugar.  The cookies freeze well for up to one month.  Makes about 50-60 cookies.  

Spiced Apple Cake with Salted Caramel Sauce

 

How many of you were lucky enough to trek to a nearby orchard and go apple picking?  The only picking I did was off the ground beneath my crabapple tree.  Gorgeous tree.  Love it.  But the apples are so tiny, and once you core them, there's really not that much apple left.  If I was not so lazy more industrious I guess I could have boiled a huge mess up and made applesauce or something.  But I said the same thing last year - that I'll do it this year - and my intentions are well meaning.  It's the follow-through that's a little lacking.

If only I had four more hours in the day. Two hours would go towards sleep, that's a given.  6:15 comes way too soon, and is highly unwelcome, and frankly makes me cranky.  One hour would go towards reading. There's a small stack of beautiful books on the bedside table, sadly collecting dust.  And the final hour would go towards all the stuff I say I'm going to do, but never get around to - like painting that spot in my bathroom, or refinishing that mirror, or knitting that rug I started a year ago.  Stuff like that. Yes, I need four more hours in my day.  Who do I talk to about that?

So the apples fell, and fell.  There was a two week stretch where my entire backyard smelled like some sort of rank apple liqueur.  Ah, rotting fruit.  I gathered up the fallen lot and dumped them into my vegetable garden, where I'm sure they are rotting away in all of their happy glory.  In the Spring they'll be churned up along with other compost material and their rotten glory will be mine!  (Insert evil cackle here.)

While I didn't pick the apples for this cake, I did buy them from the farmer's market, where the very kind vendor has an organic orchard not too far from here.  These are heirloom apples, and while I did write down the varieties, wouldn't you know I lost that slip of paper?  I'll have to get back to you on that one.  Delicious apples, these.  Not too sweet, with a perfect crispness that tastes like Fall as soon as you bite into one.

I'm all crazy for anything baked in cast iron. Plus the cake is simple and crazy delicious.  And really, it had me way back at salted caramel sauce.  That's probably why you've been reading this post, isn't it?  It's all about the salted caramel.  Two perfect words.

 

Whether you're planning a fancy dinner party, or having old friends over for tea, this cake is simple, straightforward and can easily be whipped up in 15 minutes.  The hardest part is peeling and chopping the apples, if that's any indicator of the skill level required.  Moist, and not too sweet, with lovely chunks of apple and the heavenly aromatics of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, this cake is delicious warm, with ice cream, and of course the salted caramel. (I should also say that it's almost better cold, after some of the caramel has soaked into it overnight.  That was a happy discovery!)  Don't be afraid of making the caramel - there's nothing to it, and the rewards are so, so good.  So good that you'll want to lick out the saucepan when no one is looking, and heck, even if anyone sees you they'll understand.  It's salted caramel after all.  It casts a spell; one I happily and willingly fall under. 

Spiced Apple Cake

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup butter, cubed at room temp
2 eggs
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups chopped, peeled apples, cut a few for slices for top of cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease a 9 inch square cake pan, or go all rustic like I did and grease a cast iron skillet. Baked like a dream.
In a large bowl, beat together the sugar and butter until light.  Beat in the eggs, until all fluffy.  In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.  Stir this into the batter along with chopped apples.  Spread into prepared pan.  Top cake with a few apples slices in centre.  Bake for 25-35 minutes, until cake springs back when lightly touched or when toothpick comes out clean.  Serve warm with salted caramel sauce, and ice cream, or whipped cream, if you like.  Serves 6.

Salted Caramel Sauce

1/4 cup butter, unsalted
1/2 cup  brown sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp kosher salt (if using salted butter, decrease this amount a smidge)
1/2 cup 35% cream

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat.  Add sugar. Bring to a boil, whisking occasionally.  Cook 3 min.  Stir in vanilla and salt until dissolved.  Remove from heat, let stand 1 min, then whisk in cream until smooth.  Makes one cup.  Adapted from Chatelaine, October 2011.

for Peter G. 

Ginger & Vanilla Peach Upside Down Cake

Oh September.  You bittersweet month.  For someone who loves Summer as much as I do, I'm always a little verklempt when the ninth month rolls around.  I was never one of those kids to jump up and down, excited for school to start.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  I know of a few occasions where I'd fake sick so I could stay home from school (Shhhhhh!  Don't tell my Mom!) trying to sneak in one last day of Summer holidays.  And not much has changed.  While I don't call in sick, I try to hang on,  just a little longer, to the best of Summer.  I know its  days are numbered, by the frosty mornings and changing light; the birds flying away and the impending fall TV schedule.

September is a month of transition.  A leaving-behind month.  A saying good-bye month to the best that Summer had to offer.  September is kind of like reading the best book you've read in a long time and knowing that it has to end, though you don't want it to. You savour every detail, knowing in the end you're going to have to let it go.  That's how September is for me.  My letting-go month.  The transition is made easier by starting a fun new class, and planning fall pot-luck parties.  I find the purchase of some tall suede boots (on order as we speak!) also makes for a smooth transition into the next season.

I was pulling a tomato plant out of the garden a few days ago, and caught one last whiff of that tomato leaf smell.  You know the one.  It smells of Summer.  Same with the sweet peas climbing the fence in my front yard.  I try to smell them every day - the last of the late bloomers.  I'm soaking up the last smells of Summer all around me.  And one of my favourites is of peaches - so impeccable when perfectly ripe, you can smell them from clear across the room. This tart touched on just how much I love peaches, and I think after you taste this cake, you'll fall for them just as badly as I have.

This cake is perfect seasonal transition food (but really, there is never a bad time to eat cake.)  The best of Summer's peaches are combined with aromatics of ginger and vanilla.  I've eaten baked a lot of cake in my little lifetime, but I don't think any have smelled quite like this one.  If you like ginger, you'll be happy to learn there are thinly sliced coins of it simmered with the peaches; both powdered and grated fresh ginger in the cake batter.  And the vanilla bean!  Sliced in half and scooped of it's goodness, well, it makes this cake, with the little bits of bean almost popping on your tongue. There's brown butter, brown sugar and the wee bit of whiskey (!!) to round things out.  So let's go over that again:  notes of ginger and vanilla, brown sugar and  brown butter, whiskey and cinnamon. And peaches.  Let us not forget the peaches.  You will love the smell of this in your kitchen.

There are a couple of steps to this cake, but definitely worth the effort.  Once you invert it on to a pretty platter, and see the warm golden glow of the peaches, (this cake even looks like fall!), you'll be happy you did. I left the vanilla bean halves in with the peaches, just to add some drama when inverted, but don't eat them.  The sliced coins of ginger add a lovely bite, but you can pick them out if you so desire, or if you aren't a ginger freak like me.  I ate the cake warm (with ice cream!) and cold (for breakfast!) and was in love with every bite.  I may be a little sad to see Summer go, but with a cake like this, new episodes of America's Next Top Model and my tall suede boots, I think me and Autumn will get along just fine.

Ginger and Vanilla Peach Upside Down Cake

Peaches:
2 tbsp butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 inch fresh, peeled ginger, sliced into thin coins
pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean, sliced in half lengthwise, seeds scraped out (if not using vanilla bean, use 1 tsp pure vanilla extract)
3 tbsp whiskey (I used the last bit at the bottom of my rye bottle)
1 pound of fresh, ripe peaches, sliced (I left the peel on and it was fine!)

Cake:
8 tbsp butter
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger

In a skillet, over low heat, cook together the butter, brown sugar, ginger, salt, vanilla, whiskey and peaches, until the juices thicken like maple syrup.  If the peaches are quite soft and start to break up, remove them and thicken the juices on their own.  Takes about 12 minutes or so.  Pour into a 8 inch square baking dish.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

To make the cake, melt the 8 tbsp butter over low heat, until it turns a caramel colour.  Strain this into the bowl of a mixer.  Discard solids. Let the brown butter cool for a bit.  Combine the dry ingredients in another bowl and set aside.  Beat together the brown butter, brown sugar and vanilla with the paddle attachment.   Add one egg at a time, scraping bowl between additions.  Alternate adding the dry ingredients with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.  Add the grated fresh ginger and pour this on top of the peach mixture, smoothing with a spatula.  Bake for about 30 minutes.  While still warm, invert cake onto platter.  Serves 6.  

Comfort Me With Gingerbread Waffles and Caramelized Pears

Welcome to my very first blog entry! 

While I am a professionally trained chef, cooking in various kitchens for the past 12 years, I won't be writing about work.  Instead this will be ramblings and musings about food ~ what I like to eat and cook and grow when I am at home in my little green kitchen.   My garden is a huge inspiration to me, and though currently snow covered, it is never far from my mind!
   Living in Saskatoon, the winters are long, and ever so cold.  Right now January is calling out for comfort.  "Comfort me with waffles!" it is saying.  And so I do. I adore breakfast, especially on long lazy weekend mornings.  Growing up, my Mom made the best Sunday brunches.  We would stumble down the stairs, bleary eyed, but perk up at her pancakes and bacon and hash browns. But my Mom's  waffles are the stuff of legend, and still one of my favourites at her house.  Wanting to treat her,  I initially made these waffles for my Mom and I on a snowy morning in December, and they were delicious!  However, I had gathered all of the dry ingredients together, but alas was completely out of ground ginger!  Must have used it up in my gingerbread cookie dough.  Silly me.

  With a full jar of ginger, I set out to make these again.  And perfect timing too because I had a few ripe pears in the fridge, waiting to be used up.  The pear, to me, is the perfect fruit. I love the shape and the scent and the sweetness.  In fact, if I were to ever get a tattoo, it would be that of a pear, somewhere. Pears are what I remember eating as a kid, while riding with my mom in the grain truck, as my dad was combining the wheat that harvest.  Pears are what a really cute boy I used to work with many years ago would bring me, as a token of his fondness.  Things didn't work out with the boy, (in my case they seldom do!) but my fondness for pears lives on.  Funny thing how one sniff takes you back to when you were 5 or 25.

Gingerbread Waffles with Caramelized Pears

2 Cups all purpose flour
1 Cup whole wheat flour
1/2 Cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
11/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
11/2 tsp each ground cinnamon and ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
4 Eggs
1 Cup cold coffee
1/2 Cup melted butter
1 Cup buttermilk

Makes about 8-10 waffles

Preheat your waffle iron.  Be sure to lightly oil it.  In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients.  In a separate mixing bowl, beat the eggs, then whip in the rest of the wet ingredients.  Fold the wet ingredients into the dry, being sure not too over mix or your batter will not be so supple!  If the batter seems too thick, go ahead and fold in a bit more buttermilk.  And be sure to use buttermilk.  Not yogurt or regular milk.  Buttermilk makes all batters really tender, and not heavy like yogurt.  Let your batter sit for 15 minutes while you prep your pears.

Slice 4 medium, ripe, pears, of any variety.  You can peel them if you like, but I typically don't.  Who doesn't need more fiber?!!!  Melt about 3 tablespoons of butter in a frying pan.  Once nice and bubbly, toss in your pears, and gently stir around.  Sprinkle about 3 tablespoons of brown sugar over the pears, and give a nice gentle stir, over medium high heat.  You want them to be soft and golden, but not soggy. 5 minutes should do it.  Your batter is ready to be made into waffles by now.  Preheat your oven to about 200 degrees, to keep some waffles warm while you finish cooking the rest.  Or serve them immediately. Up to you.  Top with the caramelized pears, and more maple syrup (the real stuff, please) if you like.  And butter!  For the people who really want to impress, add a dollop of whipped cream.  Now that is a breakfast!