Christmas Dessert: Orange Marmalade Cake (+Giveaway)

My husband's younger sisters' winter break finally arrived. I think baking is a great way to spend time together and get over the stress of their school's finals. I didn't really have a specific recipe in mind, but I wanted to make a cake that reflects the holiday season. We started with a simple cake batter and flavored it with orange marmalade I received through our friend Diane from Napa Farmhouse 1885 and store-bought Swedish orange gingersnaps. I crumbled the gingersnaps and added them to the batter and the top of the cake. We baked the cakes in individual Flexipan molds and I let the girls decorate their own version with orange-flavored buttercream and chocolate-covered cherries.

Have fun this holiday season!

Today’s giveaway is 1 fig & Grand Marnier jam, 1 pear & vanilla preserves, 1 orange & ginger marmalade, 1 organic herbs de Provence and 1 organic Italian seasoning from Napa Farmhouse. For a chance to win the prize, just enter today’s giveaway.

Make sure you're a fan of PhamFatale Facebook fan page and Napa Farmhouse 1885, or follow @Phamfatalecom and tweet about this giveaway. To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: "3 jams & two seasonings #Giveaway from @Phamfatalecom and @NapaFarmhouse: http://bit.ly/sp4V7y".

Walnut Nectarine Tart Recipe

I stopped by Costco this week and found that nectarines were still on sale. Our family has been enjoying juicy, sweet stone fruit all summer and I was hoping this case of them would live up to our recent experiences. Alas, these nectarines weren't nearly as flavorful as the ones from earlier in the summer. Instead of letting them rot in our fruit basket ignominiously, I decided to give them a new and much more delicious life by baking them in a frangipane fruit tart.

For this version, I pre-baked store-bought puff pastry that I layered with walnut buttercream and nectarines. Making the nut butter cream for the tart has become one of my specialties; I could make this dessert with my eyes closed. It's very simple, and if you do this as much as I have, it will become second nature for you as well. Finally, I gave the product a professional look by glazing the tart with nectarine jam. The result was absolutely delectable!

Plum Crumble Recipe (Oatmeal Crisp)

Fruit crumble is my go-to recipe whenever I want to make an eggless dessert. The preparation is quite easy; it consists of mixing flour, sugar and cold butter into crumbs. To add more body to this version of the crumble, I adjusted the quantities and blended oatmeal into the mixture.

As for the fruit, I used black plums. Unfortunately, we already harvested all the plums from the garden a few weeks ago for the hazelnut plum pie. Luckily, I was able to find the same kind of plums at the farmers' market that were just as delicious. I peeled the plums, seared them in butter and sugar and finished them with a dust of flour. The fruit was then covered with the crumble mixture and baked until golden and crisp.

Don't forget to enter our third (and last) giveaway! The first two randomly selected winners are Natalie Fong and Hannah Nguyen. Congrats!

Nuts About Granola Giveaway Entry Form:

Pham Fatale Giveaway Terms and Conditions: No purchase necessary. All prizes are generously donated by the company featured. Winners will be chosen at random, and odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Pham Fatale is not responsible for late, lost, stolen, illegible or incomplete entries which will be disqualified. US Residents only please. Only one entry per person per giveaway. Prizes are not refundable or returnable. Giveaway terms subject to change.

Fig Crumble Dessert (Fruit Crumble Recipe)

Making fig crumble is very simple. The ratio is very easy to memorize; just combine equal parts by weight of flour, sugar and butter. To enhance the fig flavors, I caramelized the figs in butter and sugar and mixed a little bit of fig compote at the bottom of each cup. I think crumbles are best eaten warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I served them in individual small dessert cups for portion control, but I think it just tempts everyone into having seconds.

I was really excited to make this dessert, because all summer I've been waiting to use the figs from our garden. I try to wait until the fruits are ripe before harvesting them, but between the birds and the girls, there are almost none left on the trees. Today, I woke up in the wee hours of the morning to grab a few figs for the crumble. I’ll try again in a couple of days, so stay tuned for another decadent fig dish!

Tarte Tatin aux Pommes (Upside down Apple Pie)

 Tarte Tatin sounds like a fancy dessert, but really, it's just an upside down caramel apple tart. I made a simple tart shell using dough called pâte brisée. Instead of filling the shell though, I placed slices of apples that were cooked in a caramel sauce into the mold and then covered them with the tart shell. The tarts then went into the oven to cook the shell. 

You really should eat these treats almost as soon as they come out of the oven. To plate, just flip each mold and the apples will now be on top. If you wait too long, the caramel will harden and it will be difficult to unmold.  If you flip the tart out and let it sit, the crust will get soggy. This has never been a problem at my house because the smell of freshly baking apples always manages to gather the entire family in the kitchen.