Sweet Potato Spice Cake and the First Day of Fall!

Happy Fall!!!

"It's the  m o s t  wonderful  t i m e  of the  y e a r ..."

While at the store this morning, I found my favorite magazine of the year sitting on the shelf.

I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself!

I had to make a spice cake to kick off the season right : )

This is a moist sweet potato spice cake with an orange juice, orange zest, and an orange liqueur glaze.

Ahh... Fall, you have at last arrived.

Sweet Potato Spice Cake - Emeril Legasse

Ingredients-

•1 teaspoon unsalted butter at room temperature, plus 1/2 pound (2 sticks)
•1 cup packed light brown sugar
•1 cup granulated sugar
•2 cups mashed cooked sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds raw sweet potatoes)
•4 large eggs
•3 cups all-purpose flour
•1 teaspoon baking soda
•1 teaspoon baking powder
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•1 teaspoon ground ginger
•1/2 teaspoon allspice
•1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
•1 cup chopped toasted walnuts
•1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
•2 tablespoons fresh orange juice, or slightly more as needed

•1 teaspoon grated orange zest

( I added orange liqueur to the glaze )

Directions-

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 12-cup bundt pan with 1 teaspoon of the butter and set aside.
In a large bowl using an electric mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar, and sugar. Add the sweet potatoes and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat after each addition.
Into a bowl, sift together the flour, soda, powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg. Add to the sweet potato mixture a third at a time. Fold in the nuts and vanilla. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes in the pan.
While the cake is resting in the pan, in a bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar, orange juice, and orange zest. Stir well to combine and make a tight glaze, adding more orange juice 1/2 teaspoon at a time to achieve a pourable consistency.
Turn out onto a wire rack. While the cake is still warm, drizzle the orange-sugar glaze to evenly coat. Cool completely before cutting.

Ode to the English Muffin.

These English Muffins in particular.

They are gigantic!

And they came from this fabulous restaurant.

It can be overwhelming at times in a city of roughly three and a half million people.

It's restaurants like this one that help you forget you're surrounded by thousands of people doing thousands of things.

You can go to this cozy restaurant, in it's cozy neighborhood, and truly chill.

While we were waiting for a table at the wine bar next door, we walked into La Grande. They were pulling out batch after batch of these gynormous English Muffins from the ovens.

I didn't pause, I just reached for my wallet.

I ate them with lemon curd, raspberry jam, and butter...

I ate them with ham, tomato, pepper jack, and guacamole...

And when I ran out of crepes, I ate them with warm cream cheese, peaches, almonds, basil, and sweet whipped cream.

And I didn't miss the crepes one bit...

fabulous!

Thank goodness for favorite cafes and restaurants!

'Til next week : )