In the kitchen in extreme weather: Maple-garlic Salmon and Applesauce Spice Cake

So, if you are not on the East Coast right now experiencing Mother Nature's cold and brutal side, you might be wondering, "So what are they doing out there during the snowstorm?"


And the answer would be: we are eating.

Come on in and we'll make some good food. The first thing on the menu is salmon and baked potatoes.

Marinate your salmon filet in a mixture of maple syrup, crushed garlic, soy sauce, garlic salt, and black pepper.

There it is! Just waiting for some goodness.

Okay, now you bake this at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. The potatoes had already been in the oven for 20 minutes baking when I put them in, so when the salmon was done the potatoes were just perfect.

Now we're going to make spice cake while everything else is in the oven.

You'll need all the usual cake ingredients, plus spices. I ran out of cinnamon while I was adding it and nearly had a heart attack. Thank goodness I remembered I had a little bag of cinnamon tucked away in the pantry.

It's Vietnamese cinnamon. Allegedly it tastes stronger than regular cinnamon but honestly I can't tell the difference.

Butter and sugars.

All the dry stuff, mixed up.

Eggs and applesauce.

Now we mix. Oh, and I added some wheat germ just for fun.

At this point the smell from the salmon and the spices was nearly too much to handle. Everything smelled so amazing.

Then I died.

And then I came back to life and finished baking.

Now that the batter in finished, we need to make streusel. And here's when I did something really dumb. Perhaps you are saying to yourself, why are there chunks of butter in the blender? Because on Thanksgiving I broke my pastry blender making pie crusts and haven't bought a new one yet, and so I thought I could blend the streusel ingredients together in the blender and wouldn't that be perfect.

My blender was just not that thrilled about that idea. So I ended up just mixing all the streusel ingredients by hand, which wasn't the end of the world by any means.

Here's the streusel on top of the batter, all ready to be baked.

While the spice cake was baking, the salmon was done and we had lunch. Guess what Nate had?

And here's our spice cake, all done. I became addicted to this in the fall and I think I made it three times in a month, but then Thanksgiving happened and our steady supply of spice cake diminished. Like my new china? That cute little plate was $.50 at Goodwill. I got the entire set for $10. I had been wanting some new china and was tickled pink to find this. And whoever owned this, and I'm guessing they washed it tenderly by hand for years, would probably die if they knew I've been putting it into the dishwasher.

My little nappers were happy to wake up to a yummy snack.

Don't you love the post-nap hair? :)

Maple-garlic salmon marinade:

1/4 C pure maple syrup

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 T soy sauce

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

Place salmon in a glass baking dish and pour marinade over, place in refrigerator. Marinate for half an hour, turning over after 15 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Applesauce Spice Cake:

For the batter:

2 C flour (I used 1/2 unbleached, 1/2 whole wheat)

At least 2 tsp. cinnamon, or more*

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 C butter, softened

1/4 C sugar (I used raw; granulated works fine too)

1 C packed brown sugar (I used probably 3/4 C and no one complained . . . )

2 large eggs

1 1/4 unsweetened applesauce

*Alternately for spices, use heaping teaspoonfuls of pumpkin pie spice. Or lots of cinnamon. The more cinnamon, the better.

For Streusel:

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 C packed brown sugar

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients, then cut in butter with a pastry blender or use your hands to mix well.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9" square baking pan.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, spices, powder, soda and salt.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and sugars until blended. Increase speed to high and beat until light and fluffy, this takes a few minutes. Add eggs and beat well. Reduce speed to low and beat applesauce, which will give batter a "curdled" look. Beat until smooth and stir in raisins, if using.

4. Scrape batter into prepared pan, spread evenly. Add streusel topping and press down lightly. Bake about 40 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean or with a few crumbs. Cool completely and serve! Yields 12 to 16 pieces. This cake is very dense and filling.