Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Tuesdays with Dorie—Dimply Plum Cake & some awards

Dimply Plum Cake baked in passion fruitDimply Plum Cake has been around the food blogosphere for awhile. Here's a round-up of some of the other ones out there before the food blog world gets hit by 250+ TWD members today (let me know if I missed you):

Cupcake Project
The Wednesday Chef
Kitchen Parade
My Feasts
No Special Effects
Palachinka
Peapods
Slow Like Honey
Smitten Kitchen
Rosa's Yummy Yums
Tartelette
Vegan Diva’s Blog

I now know why it's been blogged about so much. It's a delicious breakfast, afternoon, evening, anytime treat.

Playing Around

Dimply Plum Cake baked in passion fruit shellsPassion fruit has been stealing my heart and taste buds lately. It's a taste memory that goes way back for me and is my favorite fruit out there. I thought the shell of the passion fruit would be tough enough to withstand baking a mini dimply plum cake in it. It worked great.

I also tried baking the cakes in half a mango and half a yellow dragon fruit. The batter in the mango trickled out while baking on one side, but the other side looked fine. The dragon fruit stood up well, and I'll definitely use that again.

For all the shells, next time I would dry the shell out in the oven for an hour on a low heat to reduce the moisture that the cake absorbs.

Recipe
Dimply Plum Cake IngredientsYou can find the recipe for Dimply Plum Cake in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or here. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! Thanks to Michelle of Bake-en who chose the recipe for this week.

Dimply Plum Cake baked in passion fruit, dragon fruit and mangoTasting Notes
I loved the crunch of passion fruit seeds in the cake (but you could strain the seeds out if you don't like them). The hint of cardamom was delicious too. This cake was gobbled up quicker (mostly by me!) than a lot of other desserts that come into our hosue. Usually, when reading other TWD posts, I have the urge to nibble on whatever it is we made that week. I won't be able to do that this week, unless I make it again…soon. And I will.
"The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown:
The Lion beat the Unicorn all round the town.
Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown;
Some gave them plum-cake and drummed them out of town."
Chapter 7, Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Recipe for Next Week (September 30)
Creme Brulée on page 393 chosen by Mari of Mevrouw Cupcake.

Awards
In the past month, I've been lucky enough to get two awards from three different bloggers.

Karen from Something Sweet by Karen and Laura from She's Cookin' Now both gave me the "E for Excellent" award. Karen has beautiful photos of her kitchen creations, and I'm so glad she kept on blogging instead of deleting her gorgeous blog! Laura's turkey chili looks amazing as do her blueberry muffins. Check them out!

Esther & Hannah from Del Sisters Kitchen gave me the "I Love You This Much" award. Esther & Hanna are two sisters baking up a storm together.

Thanks so much, you guys. It means a lot to get these blog awards and feel supported and loved in the food blogging world. It's a treat to be part of this community!





36 comments:

Marthe said...

This is such an original idea! I absolutely love it!!

CB said...

How fun baking them in little passion fruit skins! You are so creative. Love reading your TWD every week! Great job!
Clara @ iheartfood4thought

Anne said...

Wow, they look just amazing baked up like that! Beautiful photos as usual Shari. It's always a treat to stop by and see what you've been making!

Anonymous said...

Always so amazingly inventive! Gorgeous!

kimberly salem said...

these are freakin' adorable ;) i loove passionfruit! great idea!

PheMom said...

I love coming here every week to see what new and creative ideas you've come up with!! You are amazing!

Anonymous said...

wowie - you turned the whole idea inside out! i'd never have thought of doing what you did, great ideas.

Susan @ SGCC said...

What a creative idea! Brilliant! They look so adorable.

Anonymous said...

Wow, they are very pretty, those petite little things. Well done!

Anonymous said...

so cute to bake them inside the fruit skins! i love your variations. :)

Christine said...

You are so creative and you cakes look amazing!

The Food Librarian said...

No you did not! No, you didn't! Oh my god! You did make the cutest cakes out of my favorite, favorite fruit. So cool! Amazing photos are usual.

chocolatechic said...

Gorgeous presentation.

Helene said...

Great variation on the cake! Passion fruits are so good in baked goods!

Marija said...

WOW! What a creativity! You made them beautiful!

vibi said...

Of course, I should have known!!! LOL LOL LOL ...orange peels, tangerine peels, hence... plum peels! LOL
You know, I've been thinking, perhaps you should change your blog's name to "Expect The Unexpected!", suits you sooooo well!
A feast for the eyes, Shari! ...as usual!

TeaLady said...

These are adorable and so creative. Great job.

My Sweet & Saucy said...

These are simply adorable! I love passion fruit and find these fantastic!

Pamela said...

I know I'm not the first to tell you what a cute idea that is! The cakes look fabulous. Congrats on your awards, too.

Mandy said...

you have done it again! The mini cakes look adorable! Baking with the durian shells? I need to see the photos!

steph- whisk/spoon said...

oh they look great!! did the cake baked in the durian smell funny? :)

Family First said...

Your food presentation style is just awesome!

Susie Homemaker said...

I give. You rock this TWD mobile.
Oh hey, I have been meaning to ask you...can you buy Clearly Canadian water there? No luck here, and my prego friend loves that stuff. If you can get it, I would be HAPPY to PayPal some $ to you if you'd mail me some!
ALso, I hope you'll find the time to join us making pies one a month... You are so creative you could do it in your sleep!

Cathy said...

I'm in complete and total awe of your creations. WOW!!! So much fun -- and I love your pictures!

Anonymous said...

This is such a creative presentation, I just love it!

Katrina said...

Love what you've done with the TWD Dimply Plum Cake!

NKP said...

Very cute and creative. I haven't tried passionfruit before - you must have a great market near by.
I love your spin on the plum cake.

Engineer Baker said...

As always, a wonderfully creative take on the recipe. It makes me wish I could find passionfruit somewhere in Wisconsin!

Anonymous said...

oh they're lovely!

Jessica Eiden Smedley said...

Beautiful presentation, Shari! This was a delicious cake to have with my morning coffee.

Sara said...

I made the original version a few months back - yours looks amazing!

SteamyKitchen said...

The crunch of the seeds is my absolute favorite part!!

Jacque said...

Oh my gosh! You win the originality award... how fun are those!?!? Very impressive and creative!

Congrats on your awards, they are much deserved.

Anonymous said...

Looks so wonderful...all of it...and I really need to try passionfruit as I never have...I am thinking now is the time.

Great job...post, photos, recipe, all of it.

Bungalow Barbara said...

Oh my goodness, what a creative woman you are! You took this rather "down-home" recipe and turned it into something fabulous and exotic!

Shari said...

Thanks everyone for stopping by! I hope to get some time to peek at yours too! I'm sorry for not visiting lately, but I'll try to do better!

xoShari