March 17 French Yogurt Cake

I made the layer cake version with strawberry jam and whipped cream (I'm new at whipping cream, and I'm always nervous about overwhipping, so it's a little soft. The kitchen was warm, but the cake must have been a bit,too, it looks like the cream is going to slide right off!).

This was the first recipe I'd had to combine the zest and sugar first - that was incredible! The sugar was so light and fluffy and fragrant. I could have just eaten that sugar straight.

I used two 9 inch pans, since I didn't have a two inch pan. The batter seemed to barely cover the bottom of the pans, but they rose like crazy! The cake was good, the lemon flavor was nice, and it was really easy to pull together. Mine doesn't have the nice tight crumb of others', mine looks pretty coarse, but if it's my choice of two pans, overbeating or something else I've no idea. In any case, this would be a great everyday cake.

Thank you to Liliana from My Cookbook Addiction for selecting today's recipe!

March 10 Espresso Cup Custard

For this week's TWD, the Lemon Cup Custard, I decided to try one of the playing around options - and use the 2 tsp espresso powder. I didn't use the cinnamon, just the espresso. Like others mentioned in their comments, it was very much like flan, which I love, and I really liked this espresso custard.

I'm sorry (only a little) that I don't have a picture to share, but I've somehow lost the adapter for my memory card. I did take the pictures, and they were pretty horrible, anyway, so I'm kind of relieved :)

Thanks to Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles for selecting this week's recipe!

Multigrain Crackers

After stepping on the scale two weeks ago, I decided I should maybe alternate weeks with TWD for a while :). It's hard to not bake anything, though, so I thought I'd try some crackers. Still not the healthiest things in the world, but I felt a little better about them.

These were based on a recipe from Andrea on an eGullet thread. I made a few changes based on what I had (no buckwheat flour, onion seed or cumin seed). Even with my sub and omissions, these are really good and easy to pull together. It was a fun project with the kids. We'll be making these again!

Multigrain Crackers
1c all purpose flour
1/3 c rye flour
1/3 c oat flour
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda

6TB cold butter
1/2c buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients, cut in butter and add buttermilk. Chill. Roll, cut and transfer to baking sheet. Bake at 324 til golden.