My personal challenge: baking my way through "How to Bake". This post is my experience baking and learning new skills from tackling each recipe in Paul Hollywood's, "How to Bake". I will also document any recipe changes that I made - mainly as a result of not having the ingredients on hand (i.e., we never have regular sugar in the house) - and how the recipe fared. I will not be providing the recipes that are in his book.
This was another holiday bake. I can't count the amount of hours that I spent in the kitchen from baking to cooking dinner to cleaning to prepping dog treats and food, but you will have to trust me that it was A LOT of hours. I decided to bake this Spice Coffee Date cake from "How to Bake" as a thank you. I didn't get to try but it smelled incredible. I will certainly make it again and the next time, I will make sure that I have my fair share!
For those of you who have not followed my blog outside of food recipes, I have been to too many doctor visits in the past 8 months as I recover from a mild TBI. As a result of weekly appointments, follow-ups, assessments and blood draws, I decided to make a special holiday treat for our neighborhood family medicine staff. Because their specialty is family medicine, my appointments have been severe head-scratchers. Even still, they have taken the time to set up referrals and guided me as best as their capabilities allow.
And as a thank you, I decided to make Paul Hollywood's Spice Coffee Date Cake the morning of my appointment. The kitchen smelled of Christmas spices and I even used some of the soaked ginger and dates for our morning decaf coffee. No, it might not have been the same as devouring a slice of coffee cake, but it sure was tasty.
Since I made this cake in the morning, going to the grocery store was not an option since I was on a tight schedule. As a result, there were some missing ingredients that I needed to substitute. Read on to learn some of the mistakes and tweaks I made to this recipe.
Here are some of the lessons that I learned while making the Spiced Coffee Date Cake from "How to Bake":
No ground ginger. Unfortunately, even in the winter, my spice cabinet was not stocked with ground ginger. I decided to improvise with what I had on hand. I soaked some crystallized ginger with the dates and then I used some fresh ground ginger in the coffee cake batter by using a zester. Licking the batter off the whisk was delicious and well-balanced. I really like ginger, so I enjoyed the subtle ginger kick. In the future I will definitely keep using fresh ginger over ground. I always have some on hand and it added such a nice dynamic to the batter.
No pecans. Sadly we did not have any nuts in our house for this recipe. I knew for both texture and taste that I should find a substitute. I scoured our pantry and found some almond granola with slivered and whole almonds. In a pinch, I decided this would work. For the topping, I added 30g of the granola and followed the recipe. As I was making the topping, I questioned putting the granola in the sauce pan because I figured it would make the granola soggy. So, when I poured the topping sauce over the cake, I strained away the granola. I then added fresh granola over the cake for decoration and an added crunch. Did it work? I'm not sure almond granola replaces the nutty sweetness of pecans, but I do think it was a great texture substitution. The granola was a ginger-almond, so flavor-wise it supported the coffee cake well.
Cake Tin Issue. When I made this coffee cake I struggled to determine if I should use our pie dish or our cake pan. I did not want to use any parchment paper because I didn't have time to cut and fit it to the cake tin and keep the edges nice, and I was unsure if I could fit the batter into the pie dish. Turns out the batter fit perfectly in the pie dish and just reached the edges when baked. The only downside was having to remove the coffee cake into a travel giveaway tin after I poured the topping over the cake. What to avoid? This may be obvious, but if you are going to transfer the cake onto a serving dish or a travel tin, do not pour the topping over the coffee cake until after you transfer the cake. I decided to pour the topping over the cake immediately after pulling the cake out of the oven because in "How to Bake" it says, "as you take the cake from the oven, pour the topping over the surface." When I read this, I thought "immediately and simultaneously", so I did just that - poured as I removed. Let me save you the trouble, and remove, transfer and pour while the cake is still warm.
Using the Soaked Dates and Ginger. I brewed extra decaf coffee and of course, when my husband smelled coffee brewing from his desk, he asked for a cup. After I soaked the dates and the ginger in the coffee for the cake, I did not use all of the dates to top the cake and I just could not throw them away. Dates are incredibly nutritious and pricey. So, I decided to put a few slices of crystallized ginger and dates into the bottom of our coffee mug. Not only was it a nice, sweet surprise after sipping our decaf coffee, but it provided such a great cozy flavor with the ginger, cinnamon and date. I highly recommend. If you need further convincing, below are some health benefits of ginger and dates!
Health Benefits:
Ginger: Contains the compound gingerol which gives ginger its medicinal properties and its anticancer properties. It is also useful in fighting bacterial and fungal infections. There are also studies that have suggested ginger can reduce blood sugar levels, prevent osteoarthritis, prevent cognitive decline, and reduce heart disease risk.
Dates: Contain very important vitamins and minerals like Potassium, Magnesium, Manganese, Copper, Iron, and Vitamin B6. Dates also have a lot of fiber and disease fighting antioxidants like flavonoids which reduce inflammation, carotenoids which promote heart health, and phenolic acid which reduces cancer risk.
Our Review: I have not heard a review from the family medicine office about the coffee cake, even though I have been back several times since the cake. Honestly, there are probably so many baked goods during the holidays that it might not have even been tried. Either way, my review my smell and batter is absolutely a family favorite. I love ginger, dates, cinnamon and nutmeg, so I was insanely jealous that this Spiced Coffee Date Cake was a gift. You better believe that I will be making it VERY SOON.
On that note, I hope that you find a recipe book you enjoy, or this one, that I am currently baking my way through. Either way, enjoy baking and nourishing yourself and your family.
All my light and all my love.
Namaste,
Jordan
Resources:
To catch you up, the first post I wrote describes the acute injury that led to my mild TBI - My Experience with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
Victims of TMS Actions Group: https://tms-sideeffects.com
Unshadowed Thought - YouTube podcast recording
Comments