Single Malt, Triple Berry & Pecan Tea Cake

It was a lazy Sunday morning and the faded baking mittens in the corner started twitching. My wife needed some more space in the refrigerator and ordered me to clear out the pecans and frozen berries that I had stored. The message was loud and clear. It was time for a bake.

I tried out a variation of this Pecan Fig Bourbon bundt cake recipe. I prefer scotch to bourbon anyway so some single malt added the twist and the result served as worthy accompaniment to the evening chai.

Quantity (Regular measure)	Quantity (Alternate measure)	Ingredients
1 Pound	450 grams	Blueberries, Cranberries & Blackberries
2 cups	32 Tbs	Water
½ cup	8 Tbs	Single Malt Whiskey
1tsp	16 Tbs	Pure Vanilla extract
3 cups	400 grams	Flour
2 tsp	2 tsp	Baking Powder
¾ tsp	.75 tsp	Baking Soda
¾ tsp	.75 tsp	Salt
½ tsp	0.5 tsp	Cinnamon
½ tsp	0.5 tsp	Grated Nutmeg
1¾ cups	200 grams	Pecans ( Substitute : Walnuts)
2 cups	440 grams	Brown Sugar
1 cup	220 grams	Vegetable oil
3 large	3 large	Eggs, at room temperature 30 minutes
10 ounces	280 grams	Blueberry preserve

1 Berries & Scotch	Simmer berries in water in a heavy medium saucepan, covered, until berries are tender and most of liquid is absorbed, 35 to 40 minutes. Purée in a food processor with scotch and vanilla. Cool to warm.
2 Batter & Nuts	Preheat oven to 350°F / 175 °C with rack in middle. Butter and flour cake pan, knocking out excess flour. While oven preheats, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Lightly toast pecans ( or walnuts ) in a shallow baking pan in oven, 8 to 10 minutes, then cool and coarsely chop. Leave oven on. Beat together brown sugar, oil, and eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer until thick and creamy, about 3 minutes. Stir in berry mixture. At low speed, mix in flour mixture until just incorporated, then fold in pecans.
3 Bake & Filling	Pour batter into pan and bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 - 35 Mins. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes; remove cake from pan and let cool completely. use a piece of sewing thread to cut the cake. Just get enough thread to go around the cake, and long enough to grab at the ends, make sure it's in the middle of the cake then cross the end strings and pull, then you have an even cut. Using long metal spatulas, carefully lift off the top layer. Spread bottom layer with berry preserve. Replace top layer.

Walnut Torte with Coffee Whipped Cream

Thought I'd bake something over this weekend and since I had a lot of walnuts in the larder, I picked up a nice Walnut Torte recipe from epicurious. Didn't vary from the original recipe except that I doubled the portions ...and the reviews of this baking spree were not bad at all.

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Here is a tip if you have some left over coffee whipped cream and walnuts : They make an awesome combo with pancakes topped off with some regular maple syrup. Yes, I have a very sweet tooth - so be warned :-)