Cooking Baking Eating

Work has really been evil for me lately. My schedule got knocked around majorly, I now have to be at work at 5:00am. Because of my commute I have to leave at 4:20am. I have to wake up by 3:10am to go shower.

Yeah, its early and yeah it sucks. Hopefully it’ll only be temporary.

It feels as though my soul has taken a little beating lately with the stress of a new work schedule and the stress of getting up so flipping early. It almost feels as though my soul needs a hug. Or maybe a band-aid and a bubble bath. Either way I know there is one thing to feed my soul.

Baking.

I wanted to cook. I needed to bake. My soul just needed that quiet mind time where nothing exists except me and my ingredients. Something beautiful born from something so simple, and made with the intent to feed the soul.

I wanted something slightly sweet, tart, and oh so yummy. I saw this recipe on another site and saved it a while ago. I love going through old recipes on the hard drive. Its a simple coffee cake brightened with the slight taste of lemon, topped with a layer of fruit (I picked raspberries) and cream cheese.

This cake turned out ooey-gooey and delicious. The cream cheese and berries really worried me when I was scooping it into the pan. The cream cheese seemed really too runny and it didn’t seem as though there was enough fruit. I’m glad that I didn’t add more berries to the recipe like I originally thought since it would be too tart, and the cream cheese actually made a great gooey mess on the top that tastes delicious!

I also used a much bigger pan than 9″ the original recipe calls for. I think its actually around 13″, so it’s not quite as tall as it could be, but I think its perfect!

My soul feels a little better

Raspberry Coffee Cake

• 1 cup frozen raspberries
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar (divided)
• 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into chunks
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 3/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a small pan over medium heat, bring raspberries and apple juice to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until berries thaw and start to break up. In a small bowl, mix up the cornstarch and 2 teaspoons water. Add to the berry mixture and stir until it thickens, about a minute. Set aside to cool.
3. In a separate bowl, mix flour and 3/4 cup of the sugar. Cut butter in with a pastry blender until the mixture looks crumbly. Reserve ½ cup of the flour mixture and set aside for the topping. In the remaining mixture, stir in baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon peel.
4. In a bowl, mix yogurt, vanilla, and 1 egg until blended; stir into flour mixture and mix well. Spread batter into a buttered and floured 13-inch round spring form pan.
   Mix the cream cheese, the rest of the sugar (1/4 cup), one egg, and lemon juice until almost smooth. Spread over the batter in the pan, leaving about a half an inch border bare. Gently spread blueberry mixture over cream cheese mixture, leaving some of the cheese visible. Sprinkle reserved flour mixture over the cake evenly, concentrating around the edges as well.
5. Bake until the center of the cake barely jiggles when pan is gently shaken and the top of the cake is golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool on a rack for 15 minutes, then remove pan rim.
6. Serve warm or room temperature.