Stir Crazy

Been baking again. I visited a new-to-me blog, When Harry Met Salad, (clever title, huh?) and Megan was making Jamie Oliver's Rhubarb Stir Cake - boy, that looked good!

I didn't have any rhubarb, however, so decided to try substituting the plums that were still in my fruit bowl awaiting inspiration. I figured that the sweet-tart plum skins would give some of the same jazz to the cake that the sour rhubarb does, so I chopped up three cups of the little purpley-black beauties and added them in place of the rhubarb.

It worked like a champ, although I have to admit it probably wasn't as zingy as I'd have liked. My plums were very ripe; next time, I'd figure out a way to add some lemon juice if I was using pretty sweet fruit. I think you could change this up with peaches, apples, cherries - it's clafoutish although less eggy and more cakey than true clafoutis. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, it was still crazy good!

Lithuanian Coffee Cake

Another treat we enjoyed at Claire's Corner Copia was her signature Lithuanian Coffee Cake. It comes with or without buttercream frosting; if you are a regular reader of this blog, you already know that we chose with.

The coffee cake is rich and heavy, like pound cake but with spices and the occasional knot of small raisins and walnuts dotted through the crumb. The buttercream icing was plopped in a big mound on the side of the sunny yellow plate for us to take as much or as little as we wanted.

Claire's recipes are available in any of three cookbooks reminiscent of the fabled Moosewood Cookbook, and I found the link to the recipe for the coffee cake online. If you are in New Haven, however, do stop in at Claire's for a piece of Lithuanian Coffee Cake and a cup of her espresso hot chocolate. Then, go do something smart.