For the Love of Sucrose

Sweet Potato (Yam?) Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallows

2012-01-05T14:29:00.000-08:00

First off, what the hell is the difference between a sweet potato and a yam? I thought I knew.

Every time I go to the store I wind up holding what is called a "yam" in one hand and a "sweet potato" in the other not knowing why the sweet potato is white and if my local grocery store just doesn't stock the orange ones or if they in fact don't exist. I have yet to happen upon this produce chupacabra. Is the joke on me? I'm not so sure....Are we all being fooled or am I the only one who is unable to find an orange sweet potato?

To make a long story short, I in fact used yams because like I said, the above mentioned do not exist, at least in my world. The color was all I was looking for and the flavor is essentially the same so I went with it (after probably 15 minutes of waffling and googling in the grocery store).

Mashed yams I made by roasting them and scooping out the innards

Regardless of the tuber used, these cupcakes turned out brilliantly and although this post is ~~fashionably~~ obscenely late, were the perfect accompaniment to a Thanksgiving feast. Like all my favorite treats, they were not too sweet and didn't have a ton of coma-inducing frosting (just marshmallows) so they didn't completely weigh you down after an already sleep-inducing meal.

I have be eyeing the recipe in Martha's "Cupcakes" book for some time and surprisingly got a huge response in favor of making them for Turkey Day. They are definitely appropriate but I figured the masses would be clamoring for chocolate and pies etc. instead of a sweet potato cupcakes. Turns out it was a great choice.

Also, as a side note, I think a marshmallow frosting or even a toasted meringue icing would really kick these up a notch. That is if you don't have a 3000 calorie meal beforehand. Or even if you do. Who am I to judge?

All I made was fudge for xmas and proceeded to eat it ALL so no posts necessary for that. Have I posted a fudge recipe? I can't believe it. It's my mom's recipe and the easiest and best fudge ever! Make and eat immediately! It's still fudge season (when isn't it?).

3C chocolate chips (for the love of God, use GOOD chocolate, it makes all the difference)
7oz sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla (I often forget this in the excitement of fudge and haven't noticed a huge difference)

Melt chips and milk in a heavy bottomed pot and remove from heat, add the vanilla (if you remember) and pour into a 8X8 baking dish lined with wax paper. Put in the fridge for a couple hours to harden and then cut into cubes. Voila! Could it be any easier?!

No. It can't.

Photos by Collin Monda and myself.

Summer Berry Trifle

2011-08-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

My first attempt at an English trifle. I was dissatisfied with most recipes I found out there on the web (and in the cookbooks I own) mainly because they all required far too much work. I figured, all thats involved is cake, a cream filling, whipped cream, and berries/fruit. Why are these recipes calling for elaborate concoctions requiring literally days worth of work? Please. So, I forged ahead on my own, making a simple vanilla pound cake, some mascarpone honey cream, whipped some cream, chopped some berries, assembled it and called it good. Turned out ok right?

I don't think a rustic (well as least in my opinion) dessert should require more effort than that. So make any cake you like, any filling you like (even just whipped cream), add some fruit and put a little more effort in to making it look pretty rather than slaving away making a bavarian cream or some such thing. The pound cake recipe cake be found here as well as the filling here. As it turns out, the pound cake was a little stiff for a trifle. Traditionally, the cake should really absorb the juices/cream and become really soft. Mine was more cake with cream and berries rather than a singular dish. So keep this in mind if you make it. Perhaps use a standard cake recipe that turns out softer than a pound cake. Such a great summer treat though. We enjoyed this in the sun, on a boat in Lake Washington. So pleasant.

handfruit?

Photos by Collin Monda

Pistachio Cupcakes with Honey Vanilla Frosting

2011-07-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

I made these cupcakes for Collin's aunt Lacey's baby shower about a month ago and would probably have never thought to try pistachio unless she has asked for them and due to the pregnancy or not, is loving them right now. I'm so glad that I did some research and found a great looking recipe because I'm pretty sure this now takes the cake, literarily and figuratively for the best thing that I've made. These cupcakes are incredible. So moist, just a touch of savoriness and a healthy amount of crunch from the pistachios, mixed with the smoothest, subtly sweet frosting. Simply perfection. Who knew that I could love pistachios so much? Sure, I adore the actual nut, but have never gravitated towards pistachio flavored anything, probably because it looks terrible. Neon green and a strange flavor that doesn't resemble the actual nut what so ever. But these cupcakes on the other hand, use no chemicals to get a "pistachio flavor" they use the actual nut which just adds a touch of salty and a soft crunch to an otherwise smooth as can be cupcake. Amazing.

There are some hazards to be aware of though when making these. For some reason (and this happens to me a lot) the first time I make something it goes perfectly, no errors or problems what so ever, but then when I go to make it again, thinking that I've mastered it because the first time was so easy, it utterly fails. A strange psychological game I end up playing making me feel terribly inadequate. I usually can recover from the fail and everything works out but the road is a rocky one. At any rate, a couple problems occurred the second time.

ground pistachios (nice, bright, green color)

Number one, make sure there aren't too many brown skins on your pistachios because when you grind them up it turns brown instead of that lovely, vibrant, green color. Not good for the inside of the cake (although it works) and certainly not good for topping the cakes with. You can buy already shelled pistachios (again look for more green ones) or shell them yourself, takes a little bit longer but when I did this there were hardly any brown skins left on them.

Number 2. Cook the frosting till it's THICK. The first time it was a breeze and I cooked it until it was the perfect consistency (ok, ok, AFTER I burned the first batch). But when I made it the next time (3rd?) I didn't cook it nearly long enough and the frosting ended up being way too thin and had to thicken it with extra sugar and some refrigeration time. Annoying to say the least. At any rate, make sure to cook it till it's pretty hard to stir. Almost like a dough, but not quite. Also, whisk the h*ll out of it so it doesn't burn. Don't leave it. The first few minutes it's ok but once it gets heated that milk will burn in a hot second so watch it. Even though this frosting sounds annoying, believe me, it's worth it. The cooking portion really isn't all that bad if you heed my advice and after that you just add your body weight in butter and a little honey and vanilla and it's done. Not too bad really.

If you love pistachios make these. If you're unsure or don't like pistachio flavored things still make these. It surprised me too. You can find the recipe here that I used. In general, this cake is referred to as the Aunt Sassy Cake. I think I would prefer just pistachio cake but I guess if you enjoy saying "Aunt Sassy Cake" then go for it. For my purposes, I call it just pistachio.

Photos by Collin Monda

My cupcakes are also linked over at the blog Sweet As Sugar Cookies. Check it out!

Apple Streusel Coffee Cake

2011-07-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back for a morning group meeting I made an apple streusel coffee cake from the book of the moment/year/forever Rose's Heavenly Cakes. This cake was surprisingly simple (this is saying something considering the book. Everything in there is insanely complicated) and the perfect treat for the morning. Plus, anything with streusel is always good right? Definitely a great recipe to keep in the arsenal. But, I would suggest waiting for honey crisps to come back in season because there really just isn't any replacement for them. I used pink ladies for this and although it was great, I think it would have been that much better with honeycrisps, but I am uncommonly biased towards them.

Photos by Collin Monda

Tres Leches Cake

2011-06-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

For this past Cinco de Mayo I thought what better cake to make than a Tres Leches? I had never made it before and thought the new experience would be fun and enlightening. This cake was definitely different, in terms of preparation and the final product. It was shockingly moist and just sweet enough to feel like a dessert but wasn't overwhelming. It was on the other hand incredibly rich, as I'm sure you can guess, from the cups upon cups of heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, and whole milk poured on, and subsequently absorbed in to the cake. But the richness is what makes this cake stand out. It's absolutely like no cake I've ever made or eaten before. It's wonderfully decadent and such a treat. And even the tiniest sliver is satisfying, so a little goes a long way with this one. I can't wait to make this cake again and am thinking this would be a perfect summer treat considering that I chilled it before serving, making it refreshingly cool and satisfying.

Frosted with simply unsweetened whipped cream

Prepping the ingredients

Begin with a rather stiff cake

Letting the cake absorb all the cream and milk making it

sublimely tender and moist

**Recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cakes. Will post soon.

Photos by Collin Monda

S'mores Cupcakes and Baby Jesuses

2011-05-09T15:44:00.000-07:00

I finally did it. I made Collin's fantasy dessert: S'mores cupcakes. Whether or not they remain so is the question. They were good to be sure. But somehow seemed more like a chocolate cupcake with fixings to me. However, I must say, like pie, s'mores are not my favorite thing. Sure, while camping they are delicious and a must-have treat, but I'm not sure I would choose them otherwise.

This particular group meeting happened to fall on Mardi Gras and for the longest time, I've wanted to make a cake with a baby Jesus inside. Traditionally they are baked in king's cakes and whoever gets a slice with the baby Jesus means various different in things in different cultures. I like the version that it means good luck so I told my coworkers that whoever found it would have good luck for the rest of the year. Oleks was the victor after quickly downing two cupcakes to try and find it. Good luck for him in 2011!

Hiding the Baby Jesus

What could be more fun than a baby Jesus? I had just as much fun baking it and not knowing which one it went in to as I had eating them and hoping for the Jesus in my cake. It would have been a little too suspicious if I found it. The people would have revolted no doubt. So I'm glad I can share the luck with another.

If you're a s'mores fanatic like Collin, these would most definitely appeal to you. They aren't too difficult to make but the frosting in a little labor intensive and messy considering it is a meringue. Looking back, a marshmallow fluff would have been much better as a topper for these and much more appropriate. This is common though to many of the s'mores recipes out there and I wonder, why? You certainly don't whip up a meringue around the campfire to enjoy with graham cracker and chocolate, where did the marshamallow go?? Nary a marshmallow in sight. So sad. Perhaps this was the reason for it's downfall (at least for Collin and myself). I did love that the graham cracker was mixed with a bit of melted butter and packed in to the bottom of each cupcake. So so great. I doubt Martha could do any better with her recipe. Off Martha for awhile. Too hit and miss. Why do I always go back to her?

S'mores Cupcakes (adapted from Annie's Eats)

Crust ingredients

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

5 1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

8 oz finely chopped dark chocolate

Cupcake ingredients

2 cups + 2 Tablespoons of sugar

1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour

3/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon of cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 cup of whole milk (I used buttermilk)

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

1 cup of Boiling water

Marshmallow ingredients

8 egg whites, at room temperature

2 cups of sugar

1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar

2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

Method

Prepare the crust: Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 2 muffin tins (24 muffins all together.) In a small bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter. Mix until well combined. Drop about 1 tablespoon of the graham cracker mixture in the bottom of each cupcake liner and press down to line the bottom. I used the back of a measuring Tablespoon to so this. Sprinkle a small amount of the chopped chocolate on top of the graham cracker crusts. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven. Leave the oven at 350F.

Prepare the cupcakes: Sift together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in into a medium bowl. Whisk to combine, set aside. In the bowl of your stand mixer, or any large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract; whisk together. Add to the dry ingredients and mix on low speed for about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the boiling water and stir just to combine (the batter will be thin, don't panic.)

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners, filling each about 3/4 of the way full. Return the pans to the oven and bake about 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Rotate the pans halfway through baking. Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then remove and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare the marshmallow topping: Combine the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in the top of a double boiler. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it reaches 160° F with an instant-read thermometer. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk starting at low speed and gradually increasing to medium-high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form. Mix in the vanilla until combined. Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired.

If you have a blow torch, you can use it to carefully toast the marshmallow frosting. If you don't have one, slide the frosted cupcakes under your oven's broiler. (Note: I placed my cupcakes on a cookie sheet while doing this.) Keep moving the cookie sheet around while the cupcakes are under the broiler. They burn very fast, so don't wander around while they're toasting.

Remove and serve immediately

Makes 24 cupcakes.

Oatmeal Cream Pies

2011-04-18T15:29:00.000-07:00

What could be better right? In my book, nothing. Sure, I'm a chocolate fan. And yes, I love coconut, and carmel, and even crispies, but if I had the option of choosing any of those over an oatmeal creme pie? I'd go for it every time. Delicious and sweet and a touch healthy. Never stomach-ache inducing (unless you eat your body weight in them, not uncommon, but none the less), and always so satisfying.

I took my time selecting a recipe. Anyone can write an oatmeal cookie recipe but it takes a very special recipe indeed to make the right filling. It's oreo-like. Flaky and buttery, yet light and not too sweet. It's an enigma. And in searching for such fillings I discovered it's true secret. Nay, the secret to anything good. And no, it's not butter, but rather it's evil and alluring cousin, shortening. Oh yes, this is the key. Make it and forget you added it. It's incredible and the best frosting ever. You can find the cookie recipe here (but really use whatever recipe you like, just something soft and chewy.

I scoured the internet looking for the perfect cream filling and the most common recipe involved "very hot" water and lots of work. This frosting recipe killed it. Hands down best I've had/made. LOVE it. I found it here, along with another, I'm sure equally as delicious cookie recipe.

Cream Filling

1/2 cup vegetable shortening (I imagine butter would work just fine)
1 1/2 cups marshmallow cream
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 tbsp milk, as needed

Cream together the shortening and marshmallow cream. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, beat well. Thin with milk until you get the right consistency. The mixture should be thick and creamy, but easily spreadable.

These cookies turned out amazing. I had many of them and they were all worth it. I love me an oatmeal cream pie.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-04-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

Another Martha-inspired recipe. I've been on a cookie kick lately, mainly because they seem infinitely easier to tackle at the end of a day than say, a cake. The thought of them being completed the moment they are baked has been quite appealing lately. Plus, there are SO many delicious looking cookies in the Martha Cookies book that I feel compelled to make them all every time I browse through it. And you know the funny thing? They've all been pretty good. Surprisingly good. Unlike some of her other creations. If you click on the link above and go to "Look Inside" you can scroll through tons of recipes without actually having to buy the book! Best part? The chocolate chip cookie recipe is included in that preview under "Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies" (from the name alone I knew they would be good. This is my favorite kind of choc. chip).

These cookies turned out amazingly and honestly, I think they are the best I've ever made. My new cookie scoop has helped out immensely since I've made these. Mine doesn't happen to be a Martha, but it works just the same. Makes the process SO much easier and they turn out perfectly with a pre-measured scoop. Never going back to the spooning method (I was never very good at it anyway!). If you're in need/want of some choc. chip cookies, look no further. These are best (that I've found anyway).

Everything Good in One Bar (i.e. Peanut Butter Chocolate Crispies)

2011-03-23T15:04:00.000-07:00

In general, I will usually go for anything that includes chocolate, peanut butter, caramel, coconut, and crispies (puffed rice etc. etc.). When I found these bars on Oh She Glows, I knew I had to make them ASAP. They contained more than half of my required allurements for sweets and knew that they would be incredible. They were.

Do you like chocolate (hopefully this is a yes)? Do you like peanut butter (again, yes)? And do you like crispies? Good, these are the sweet for you. If you don't enjoy or abstain from any of these items, this probably isn't the treat for you, or really, the blog for you. This is the kind of treat I could eat all day long everyday. Surprisingly light and yet incredibly satisfying. Also, they are a sinch to whip up. Requires one bowl, a pot, and a baking dish.

Oh and to make it a little healthier I found some organic kids cereal that fit the bill. It was delicious and I felt so much better about eating these without the thousands of ingredients and preservatives and flavorings added. They were not needed (or wanted).

Mom's Apple Crisp

2011-03-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

I have been making this dessert like crazy for the past few months. Although I'm slowing down considerably now (thank God) because the honeycrisps (my beloved) are not really in season any more. I pretty much refuse to use/consume any other apple besides the honeycrisp. I use my mom's recipe and it is amazing! No sugar added, except for brown sugar in the topping. It's one of, if not the healthiest desserts I've made and is really pretty good for you considering that there isn't much else in it besides apples.....

That is, until it gets into my hands and I add some flare (and in doing so, make it extremely unhealthy, but SO WORTH IT). I made some homemade vanilla ice cream to go along. I don't think I can adequately express how $%^* good homemade ice cream is. The recipe I use is pretty much entirely whipping cream, a bit of whole milk (why even add this?), a bunch of sugar, and vanilla beans (I like to buy the pods in the bulk spice section, split them, and scrap out the seeds myself. SO much cheaper and fun). I don't care how unhealthy this ice cream may be, it's incredible and even better along side apple crisp. I now can't imagine one without the other. They are perfect for each other. I miss you already honeycrisps.

beauties

Meringue & Raspberry Cupcakes

2011-03-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

Even though my updates have been a little sporadic lately, I have in fact been baking a fair bit. Last month for Collin's birthday it seemed I had been baking a lot and tried to suggest options for his birthday that selfishly looked easy to make. He resisted all my attempts to trick him into accepting chocolate chip cookies or a simple pie and insisted on these Raspberry Jam Meringue Cupcakes (similar recipe) that I foolishly showed him right off the bat. When it got down to making them I was dreading the meringues. I had never made them before and anything with eggs whites just seems fussy and likely to fail. They didn't in fact and were to my surprise, not too hard. Messy for sure, but not too difficult. I used Martha again. I'm in a Martha kick right now, not sure why. Her recipe called for making the entire cupcake/top a meringue then slicing it in half and filling with jam and whipped cream. This seemed odd to me. How would you possibly go about eating two hard things stuck together by glob of something smooshy? I made a simple vanilla cupcake instead and made the meringues not in a muffin tin like suggested, but on a baking sheet like normal. I can't for the life of me remember what cake recipe I used but rest assured it was something simple. Most vanilla cake recipes will work here. As long as it tastes good, you're good to go. Once the cakes were ready, I topped with a dollop of raspberry jam and whipped cream and finished with a baked meringue. The end result was good but a bit too sweet. Probably not something I will make again. Martha has fooled me yet again. Why do I still go back?? They weren't terrible by any means, but for me? Not my favorite. Although, who are we kidding, I love chocolate and peanut butter and frosting. My idea of a great dessert doesn't involve jam or fresh fruit of any kind really. But to each their own and this kind of dessert happens to be Collin's favorite so who am to say it isn't good?

A lot of left over yolks

Photos by Me and my new camera

Valentine's Day Tuxedo Cupcakes

2011-03-10T16:00:00.000-08:00

For Valentine's Day (gasp, almost a month away now....) I made Jamie's Black Tie Cupcakes from My Baking Addiction. A recently discovered her blog after trying to fill the gap of another blog I read that, much like this one, is too infrequent to keep my interest. Hopefully you haven't all given up on me! So, I found her blog and was instantly impressed and wanted to try one of her recipe's out and since it was V-day, chocolate was in order. The cupcakes were delicious but the frosting really was incredible. It was just the right amount of sweet and was amazingly creamy and didn't at all taste like cream cheese. To me this is a huge deal. I'm not adverse to cream cheese frosting but let's just say it would be my favorite. I love a buttercream but am finding them to be waaaay too sweet for most things that you wouldn't just take a tiny bite of. What I do love about a standard cream cheese frosting is that they are rarely ever too sweet because the bite from the cream cheese cuts the sugar nicely. I enjoy them from time to time but to have a cream cheese frosting that gets away with tasting not cream cheesy? Now that's a winner in my book (insert Charlie Sheen reference here). I'm sorry if I offend the cream cheese lovers of there. Never the less, you'll know it has cream cheese even if you can't taste it so you'll probably enjoy it just the same. Anyway, the end result was a decadent, creamy, not too sweet (or sour), frosting that perfectly paired with a rich chocolate cake. The cake on the other hand wasn't very good. The coffee proportions were all wrong which may have been my fault (I used fresh espresso and diluted a bit instead of instant espresso). I've had many other chocolate cakes that use instant espresso and they are wonderful (i.e. Ina Garten's) but this one just didn't work. I would highly recommend sticking to Rose's Heavely Devil's Food Cake for that one. See previous post for the recipe here. There is NO comparison as far as I'm concerned. Best chocolate cake ever. But maybe that's why all other chocolate cake's pale in comparison?

Oh! AND these cupcakes were filled with chocolate ganache. So if you're a chocolate fanatic I'm sure you will enjoy this little detail. For me? It was a bit much. But there are a few chocolate fanatics (and some not as much) of my acquaintance that loved this part especially.

I topped them with a little more of the frosting mixed with a TON of red food coloring. I couldn't believe how much it took to make it a true red! I was using gel as well and it took so much! So be prepared for that. I'll blame it on the cream cheese. It must absorb food coloring into a black hole of some sorts. Only explanation.

Photos by Collin Monda

VEGAN Chocolate Cupcakes

2011-02-25T12:57:00.000-08:00

I am no vegan but appreciate and admire its cause. The reason I made these cupcakes was not due to environmental reasons or animal rights, although those are HUGE pluses, I made them because they were easy. When it's 9PM, I'm laying on the couch watching the fifth Sopranos episode in a row (and possibly a few glasses of champagne deep) one of the last things I want to do is bake (and also clean up the inevitable giant mess I will create....due to champagne consumption). So I glanced through the Martha Stewart "Cupcakes" book and spotted these babies. Another huge reason I made these was because I was out of milk and whipping cream. So that means no frosting. Nearly every recipe contains milk or buttermilk, and inevitably has some sort of cream-related frosting recipe. When I happened upon a recipe with neither frosting nor milk involved in the cakes that's all I needed to whip them up. And the fact that they took like 5 minutes to prepare. I realized half way through (champagne) that the recipe only makes 12, so I had to go back and make another batch. Wasn't a problem though because it didn't require that much of any one ingredient. Thank God I had enough of everything because I was not about to go up to the store and I think I've used up all my favors long ago with Collin running that errand for me.

The batter was incredibly thin and I questioned whether they were going to turn out, but since they were chocolate I figured my lab-mates couldn't complain too much. Also, I decided to omit the vegan part until they had all consumed at least half before dropping that on them, figuring if they knew before hand they would say "oh yea, I know what you mean, they are dry" or "yea, butter would have really been nice here" or "where the hell is the frosting?". But instead of any of these comments, they were quite pleased they were vegan and requested more in the future. I was surprised but also agreed with them entirely. They were delicious cupcakes and certainly take no backseat to any dairy-ridden treat. I confess, I did use a tiiiiiny bit of butter in the ganache on top. What? It's ganache what am I supposed to do? I was confounded by the veganess and broke down and used some butter. In the book they have you dust cocoa powder on top which is a lovely version. So if you really want to be strictly vegan, use the cocoa powder or just have them plain. I promise they are good enough without any extras.

I'm happy to add this to my repetoir and my fear of offering a vegan treat has subsided a bit. I no longer fear that the people will rebel if they don't get their weekly rations of butter and frosting from me and are perfectly happy with a sweet non-dairy alternative. We can all feel a little better about ourselves for it. Which reminds me....

A wonderful charity that I donate too frequently is the Human Farming Association which rescues animals from industrial farms in this country. Please check it out. They do great work for such a worthy cause. If you can, please buy your dairy products from a local/organic farm. They are usually much smaller farms (non-industrial) and treat the animals humanely. Happy cows = good milk and butter (happy body). Yum.

In the case of these cupcakes at least, you will not miss the dairy. Promise.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes (makes 12)

From Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self rising, sifted)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups water

confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C). Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, mix together oil, vinegar, vanilla, and the water until well combined. Add flour mixture and mix until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed (batter will be very thin).
Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tin halfway through, until a cake tester inserted into centers comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Turn out cupcakes onto a wire rack and let cool completely.
Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 1 month, in airtight containers. Dust cupcakes with cocoa and confectioners' sugar just before serving.

Photos by ME this time (new camera).

New Year's Pink Champagne Cake

2011-01-11T18:25:00.000-08:00

Does anything sound more appropriate than the above name? Champagne and New Years clearly go together (or if you're me, any day of the week, and preferably every day, go with champagne) Combine champagne and cake and the color pink and you have a glorious, indulgent, and dare I say, perfect, New Year's treat. Or hell, for any day. God knows I could add cake to my daily list as well the champagne!

For Christmas, my cousin Nici may have received the best gift ever from a friend: a book called Booze Cakes. I could stop right there and I know most of you are sold already. I was. We flipped through the book, found the Pink Champagne Cake, and immediately decided to make it for New Years.

Since it was going to be four of us for our New Year's celebration, I cut the recipe in half and used my super cute 6" cake rounds to make a mini cake.

There wasn't anything too difficult about this cake, but for the frosting, I had to add two more cups of powdered sugar to get it thickened enough to frost. Either there was something lost when I halved the recipe or the recipe was wrong (either by my hand-most likely, or the publisher-let's blame it on them shall we?). In terms of mishaps, having it happen with the frosting is probably the best possible option. It was completely liquid when I was finished, so I just kept adding more sugar (a good rule of thumb!) until it thickened to the desired consistency. It was a bit (a lot!) on the sweet side though, not surprisingly. I had a photocopied page of the recipe so I may have misread the frosting recipe. At any rate however, it was a delicious cake and some how had amaretto flavor. Strange and surprising, but not unwelcome. Not sure how, but the champagne must've given it this flavor by some reaction with the rest of the ingredients or when it was baked. Seemed to fit very well with the style of the cake though. Like a pettifor.

I've since purchased the book. Not only because it has great cake recipes but because it kills two birds with one stone. The other stone being booze.

Recipe:

Cake:
3C flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1C unsalted butter
2C suga
1 tsp. vanilla
6 egg whites
few drops red food coloring
2C champagne

Frosting:
3/4C unsalted butter
4C powdered sugar
1/2C champagne
3/4C whole milk
1 Tbs. vanilla
few drops red food coloring

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans (or two 6-inch rounds and cut the recipe in half).
2. In a bowl combine flour baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl beat butter and sugar 3-5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat in egg whites one at a time.
3. Mix in food coloring. Beat in flour mixture and champagne in three alternating additions, starting and ending with flour to prevent curdling. Pour batter in pans and bake 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
4. For the frosting, in a mixing bowl, beat butter 1 minutes. Gradually add powdered sugar, champagne, milk, vanilla, and food coloring; beat until smooth and creamy.
5. Once the cake has cooled completely, place bottom layer on a cake plate and spread half the frosting overtop. Add top layer and cover with frosting.

Photos by Collin Monda

Halloween Cookies (2 months later)

2010-12-29T13:01:00.000-08:00

Ok, now this is embarrassing. How have I fallen so far behind that I couldn't be troubled to post a simple blog about Halloween cookies? I'm ashamed. Sorry.

I followed my mom's trusted butter cookie recipe as well as use her antique (at least to me) cookie cutters and a simple royal icing recipe (from martha stewart, gasp). The cookies are so simple to make it's ridiculous. Like a pie crust. Now, like the pie crust, the mixing of the ingredients is a breeze, that is, if you have a food processor, the molding/rolling/cutting of the mixture is not on the other hand. As I've said many times before, I have little to really no patience during most moments of my life, so decorating cookies is rather a hardship for me. I struggle with giving up, but what happens most times, is that I "decorate" the cookies as fast as I possibly can by slapping on a glob of frosting that if it all doesn't run off the cookies, remains an amorphous blob in the center (these cookies not shown, due to pride). So, if I'm making cookies I make something stress-free and patience saving, like snickerdoodles, or say sugar cookies (unfrosted). The key to decorating 50-100 halloween cookies? Employ help (for free) in the form of boyfriends, friends, and family. Luckily I had some help which not only saved me, but more than likely the cookies as well. It also adds some variety to the cookies, instead of each one looking like a perfect carbon copy of the one previous.............

The cookies cutters included a cat shape which naturally we turned into Penny....

and Murphy. Note the mustache.

Most cookies not shown due to either drinking too much or glob/patience issues. These were the survivors. Cookies aren't for me. Plus, they're meant to be eaten no? Who cares.

Photos and Cookie Assistance by Collin Monda

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting

2010-12-29T12:46:00.000-08:00

This is almost embarrassing, but I can hardly remember when I baked these cupcakes. It must have been sometime in October, perhaps even early November. What I do remember however, was how tasty they were. I made these before in the form of a cake and nothing was lost in translation I assure you. I switched up the frosting a bit and made it with cream cheese and cinnamon instead of maple syrup. Both ways go wonderfully with pumpkin so you can't go wrong. All of it was a cinch to make and really had a great pay off. Perfect Autumnal treat. Except now, oh god, it's nearly January. Sorry. Well if you love pumpkin and don't care that the month isn't September, October, or November then make these. I promise you will wish it was Autumn. Or at least it will feel like it. I loved all the photos Collin took of these so I'm posting nearly all of them. Enjoy.

Photos by Collin Monda

Annual Apple Pie and Triumphant Return

2010-12-10T13:13:00.000-08:00

How has it taken me this long to post?! Even though I have failed to blog, I promise you I never stopped baking. The problem is that I need a camera, a decent one, and I need to start taking my own photos. My usual lovely photographer has a full time job now and for some reason doesn't want to fill up all his free time not only taking the photos (which he always does) but editing them (making them beautiful) and then sending them me. The whole "job" thing has really gummed up the works here on the blog. But now, I am the one to blame, for I have had several photo sessions sitting in my inbox all week and have not done anything with them. I hope this dry spell will end today. Now I just need to get that camera and not go completely broke buying it. Stay tuned.

Since my last post on October 5th, I went into full holiday/fall/then-winter-mode and baked all things festive. To start out, I made my typical whisky apple pie. The people (labmates) spoke, and they clamored for the apple pie, so how could I refuse them? I whipped up one normal size (not nearly enough for 16 people I realized later) and two tart-sized ones for Collin (payment) and his office-mate. They turned out wonderfully and even though I will never be a "pie person" I thoroughly enjoy this pie. Probably because I make it with honeycrisp apples which are the best apples, hands down. They bring such a brightness and subtle tartness to the pie. The honeycrisps are truly irreplaceable.

This reminds me, if you are going to make an apple pie, you really must consider the type of apple you want in it. Not all (actually most) apples work well in a pie. They get overly mushy and sometimes tasteless and even off-putting. A pie apple must be firm and if you like it, just a bit sweet, but not overly (you add a fair amount of sugar to pies usually and a sweet apple is not required). It's nice to have a bit of sourness too for contrast. I find granny smiths to be delicious but just a bit too tart. I am a honeycrisp gal through and through and I can't imagine using anything else. If you can, or there is a sale, go for the organic honeycrisps. They taste better, are better for you, and are better for the Earth. Also, the organic honeycrisps at my local grocery store are gigantic. They dwarf the pesticide-ladden apples. Way to show 'em organics!

You can find the apple pie recipe here.

Happy extremely late Halloween and Thanksgiving!

Photos by Collin Monda

Four Layer Coconut, Raspberry, Lemon Cake

2010-10-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago for Collin's cousin Alison's bridal shower I made a four layer lemon cake with raspberry filling and lemon meringue buttercream with a coconut coating. I have to say, I think this was my finest work to date. Just in terms of sheer scale and impressiveness. I haven't ever attempted anything quite so large. It temporarily satisfied my desire to make a huge and ornate wedding cake that probably wouldn't have ended so well since I've never done anything close to that...until now that is. It was really fun to make and no problems occurred which was surprising and very reassuring. I got the recipe here and although it was delicious and certainly grand, I would change a thing or two next time. I didn't want to veer from the recipe too much since I didn't want to tempt fate, but I was a little disappointed that the cake wasn't coconut, nor that the frosting wasn't coconut either...I'm a little obsessed with coconut. The lemon frosting tasted great, but the meringue texture was a unsettling. Like grocery store cake frosting. Maybe this is what they use? It wasn't cloyingly sweet which was a relief because the cake itself was, so they balanced each other out nicely and with such a large slice, no one could have handled anything sweeter.

Originally, I was going to make two of these cakes, and as it turns out, I did. But I combined them together to make one big cake. I figured why not go big or go home? I actually said this out-loud and it convinced me to just go for it. Why not right? Who wants two stubby cakes when they can have one elegantly tall cake? I was supposed to cut each of the two layers in two so you would have a total of 4, but since I doubled the recipe, I had four layers anyways and didn't have to any dividing which is always troublesome and a bit difficult. I ended up having to level them though because with a cake this tall, one uneven spot can throw the whole cake off. The pictures seem to exaggerate this but it wasn't nearly so lopsided in person. Also, the layers slide a lot with the raspberry filling when frosted and is hard to muscle them back in to place after. You have to let go of perfection...

After it was frosted, I dusted the whole thing with a fine shredded coconut that I tossed in some powdered sugar to sweeten it. There were 20 or so guests, so I had Collin mock up a circle cut in to 24 even slices and used that to figure out how to cut the towering, thin slices. They were pretty with four layers but slightly too tall. We almost needed dinner plates to put them on. Never the less, for a bridal shower it didn't seem out of place.

What shall I strive for next? May have to trick someone in to having me make them a wedding cake.

Photos by Collin Monda

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

2010-10-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

My mom, her best friend Liz, and my aunt Sandi came up to visit Seattle/drink/eat a couple weekends ago and to celebrate Sandi's birthday as well as the arrival of Fall, I made a pumpkin spice cake with maple cream cheese frosting. Since there were only 5 of us celebrating, I made a small cake. A two layer, 6 inch cake. I actually really enjoy making tiny cakes. They are some how more impressive when they're small. Kind of like when you go shoe shopping and the size 6 is always cuter than the size 9 you require. Plus, when a small cake is more practical, why not? You can simply cut the recipe in half or, like I did, just make thicker layers but of a smaller diameter. Taller cakes, no matter the size always stand out more. The recipe was simple and delicious. A standard pumpkin spice cake, similar to a pumpkin pie. Here is the recipe.

The maple cream cheese frosting was a nice touch as well and added a hint of an extra flavor that usually isn't involved (maple). The maple really stood out and tasted great with the pumpkin cake. A fun way of changing up the usual pumpkin recipe.

I have also made this recipe into cupcakes and mini cupcakes and they are fantastic. Just make sure to not over bake them. This cake is best when it is really moist and soft.

To add a bit of decoration, I added some toasted, chopped pecans to the top. Normally, I detest nuts in desserts but the cake seemed to be made for them. Couldn't deny it that simple pleasure.

Photos by Collin Monda

Coconut Cupcakes

2010-09-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

At the request for something coconutty from my lab mates, and not wanting to think about it too hard I went straight to the good of standby and made coconut cupcakes. The recipe comes from my previous lamingtons to cupcakes post, here but with coconut buttercream. As usual, the coconut cupcake/cake/lamington recipe turned out wonderful. Exceptionally moist and just the right amount of coconut flavor (coming mainly from the coconut milk).

The buttercream on the other hand was ungodly sweet. I'm not sure how it happened but I think I've outgrown my sweet tooth a bit, at least with the intensely/extremely sweet items. With my own stuff at least, I just can't seem to handle it. Perhaps I'm being a bit too critical, but my usual buttercream is just a bit too sweet, even for me. Weird I know. The thing is, I'm not exactly sure how to make it less sweet, since all that's in it is butter, sugar, and cream. hmmmm. The other types of frosting I make seems to be less sweet and much more pleasant and although buttercream still is the reigning king of frostings as far as I'm concerned, mine needs to be taken down a notch or too. But perhaps there are still those of you out there that don't bat an eye at a mouthful of sugar. Maybe I'll get my insatiable sweet tooth back. Don't get me wrong, I still love the sweets, just not quite as sweet. At any rate, this cake recipe is wonderful and in some ways, perfect. I just have to work on the frosting if I don't want to put myself and my patrons in a diabetic coma. Self-imposed of course. They know what there getting themselves in to.

Photos by Collin Monda

Latest Round of Mini Doughnuts

2010-09-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

After re-reading my last doughnut post, which was curiously duplicated by another blogger, I discovered that I had intended on my next round of doughnuts to add sprinkles to mine, which was added in the blog mentioned previously. So, I did my own and was pleased with the results. Who could possibly turn down a mini, chocolate, sprinkled doughnut? Rainbow sprinkles at that? I highly recommend making them for any occasion requiring a dessert and also to give as gifts. I borrowed a glaze from another blog which may or may not be the same one I mentioned above. You can see it here. Perhaps my arrogance is getting in the way. You can check the dates for yourselves from my previous post here. At any rate, these doughnuts are wonderful and the tin is cheap. You wont regret that purchase, I promise. This coming from someone who suffers from crippling buyer's remorse.

Also, I will gladly take full credit for my advice on piping in the dough, as seen here: (5.21.10)

Boosh.

Photos by Collin Monda

Honey Mascarpone Berry Tarte

2010-09-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

The usual berry tart I make but remixed slightly to a 9-inch version with raspberries and blackberries. Delicious. See previous post here and here.

I love this tart because it is so versatile. The pastry cream made with honey and mascarpone cheese goes with every fruit imaginable. So delicious and has very little sugar.

Macaroons and the end to a very long blogging dry spell

2010-09-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's taken me so long to update this blog. I really have no excuse. I've been baking like crazy, just haven't gotten around to posting pictures or talking about the recipes. For now, I'll blame it on Collin for not stopping everything he's doing (i.e. full time job, art show, freelance work, favors, and sides projects) to upload his photos of my baking and send them to me. Yes, it's his fault.

So, awhile back for Collin's Granny's birthday I wanted to make something un-fussy, yet beautiful and tasty. Little did I know how insanely simple and incredibly easy macaroons really are. If you haven't gathered from the pictures, these are the American style macaroons. The big mounds of sweet coconut baked to golden brown on the outsides but soft and moist on the inside. For the record, the German style (more like a cookie; hard and crisp) are my favorites. My Grandma used to take me down to the Konditorei (German for Pastry Shop) and she would have a macaroon and a coffee while I had several of my own macaroons. They were delightful. Anyways, these are not the overtly fussy French macaroons which I have not mustered the courage to try to bake yet, mainly due to a lack of motivation. If I had a choice, I would much rather eat the mounded macaroons and more so, the cookie-style, not the sandwich version. Far too much work and probably many failed attempts to get something I feel so-so about. Perhaps when I'm feeling adventurous at some later date. Perhaps.

All you need to make these treats, aside from your ingredients (which are just standard baking ingredients) is a bowl. And maybe a spoon if you don't want to get messy. Seriously, so simple. Not pans or double boilers or silpats or whatever. Just a bowl. Well, an oven too, and a baking sheet would probably be for the best. I will post the recipe soon because I can't seem to find the one I used.

Combine all the ingredients and with wet hands form 1in balls or however big you might like your macaroons. I enjoy a nice bite size. As long as you watch them to make sure they don't burn after ten or so minutes, there is no screwing this one up. A lovely treat and a great gift. A great pay off for very little work. Unlike their fussy, French cousins.

Photos by Collin Monda

Organic, All-Natural, Raspberry Jam

2010-07-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

In honor of my Grandpa and love for his delicious raspberry jam that he made every summer I can remember, I made my first batch this weekend. My Grandpa's jam was definitely the best ever. Super sweet and fruity and absolutely incredible on an english muffin (with butter). My favorite way to eat it. I recall him liking it on shredded wheat with cream cheese or something very odd, and very old person-ish. I wanted to do things a little different though. Even though he for many years picked his own raspberries, I can't say for sure they were organic (i.e. not sprayed with pesticides). Although, they may have been because every time he dragged took me berry picking it seemed way out in the middle of no where and seemed like a family owned farm. Who can say though. Also, I'm not really sure why he took me other than for the company because I had about 5 minutes of actual berry picking in me. The rest of the time was spent half under the raspberry vines trying to avoid the hot July/August sun and probably saying "Grandpa, are you done yet? It's so hot. Let's go home." And "I want some jam already." Being difficult and lazy at any rate. I've never done too well in the sun.

So, like I was saying, I wanted to do things differently. I wanted this jam to be organic. Use naturally-derived pectin. And use organic cane sugar and less of it. I ended up using Pomona's Universal Pectin (from citrus peel) at my mom's suggestion and the recipe for freezer jam that came with it. This pectin is nice for those of you who either like less sugar or are trying to restrain yourselves and eat less of it (I currently am). I probably eat my body weight in sugar weekly. This pectin is activated by calcium and not sugar so you can use as little as you like. I ended up doubling the sugar anyways because I find cane sugar to be much less sweeter and I figure if I want this to taste anything like my grandpa's it's got to have more than 2 cups of sugar per batch. His probably had that amount in a single pint. The recipe is quite easy and the jam turned out well. Not as good as my grandpa's and not nearly as sweet, but still, sweet enough. I'm not sure if it jelled as much as his even though I added a good deal of pectin/calcium. That remains to be seen though since it's been refrigerating for awhile now.

Collin and I hand picked the raspberries from an organic farm in Monroe. Probably half of them were ripe but the other half could have used more time on the vine. Since the summer has been so late here in the northwest I think people picked all the berries too early and any hopes of getting ripe ones later when they are ready probably is a lost cause. If I make it again, which I'm planning on doing since I only picked enough to make 5 pints, I may end up buying them or picking at another farm. I also really want to make blackberry jam too. My other favorite.

So here's to you Grandpa. My jam isn't as good as yours but I have a feeling you would like it anyway.

Also, Family, this is going to be your Christmas present so I hope you like it!

Photos and Berry Picking Assistance by Collin Monda

Crème Brulée

2010-07-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

I know what you're thinking. Crème Brulée? Really? Like I'm ever going to make that. Way too hard.

If that's not what your thinking, then good, because that's what I thought when I first set about making these. I thought this is going to be hard, but I can do it. As it turns out, it's one of the easiest things to make. Really.

Here's what you do:
Adapted from Mark Bittman-New York Times
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Boil enough water to put in a baking dish that covers your ramekins half way.
3. In a saucepan, heat heavy cream and vanilla extract to a simmer
4. Meanwhile, whisk together egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until light in color.
5. Take about a quarter of the cream mixture and pour into the bowl while stirring with a whisk. Once the eggs have tempered, pour it all back into the saucepan and keep stirring until combined.
6. Divide mixture into six small ramekins. Put them into a baking dish and place in oven.
7. Pour the hot water you prepared earlier into the baking dish until it is halfway up the ramekins. Easier to do this step when you have the filled ramekins already in the baking sheet while it is in the oven.
8. Bake for 30 minutes or until the center of the custard is wobbly like jello and the edges are firm.
9. Carefully remove each ramekin from baking dish and let cool. Cover each with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
10. When ready to eat, place about of teaspoon of sugar on top of custard and move the ramekin around to get an even layer.
11. Torch sugar until it browns. Let it sit for about a minute to cool and harden.

Pretty easy right? Surprised? The hardest part is probably acquiring a little blow torch, which really isn't that hard at all. You can find them at any kitchen supply store and sometimes even at the grocery store. I got mine at World Market for $19.99. For a person who normally has severe buyer's remorse, I've never looked back on buying this item. So handy and so fun!

Photos by Collin Monda

Obligatory Fourth of July Inspired Cupcakes

2010-07-07T15:28:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure many of you have guessed, or know first hand, I am not really the type of person to make cutesy things or themed things or anything that requires much craftiness. I applaud those that encompass these attributes but I'm just not like that. Putting a blueberry on a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting is about as far as I'm willing to go with an Independence Day theme. It's not so much laziness, or uncreativity as it is stubbornness and intolerance.

For the 4th of July, Collin and his family, joined me, and my family down at my family's beach house in Cannon Beach Oregon. I felt immediately compelled to bake something tasty and something, ok with a bit of a reference to the 4th. But not too much. Having just slam dunked the red velvets 200 times over for the wedding last weekend and not being too sick of making them, I made one more batch and frosted them as normal with the cream cheese frosting. And to make it EXTRA festive, I plunked a cute little blueberry on them. My cleverness knows no bounds. They turned out pretty good though I think and even though they are simple and really not cleaver at all, I like them better that way. Simpleness is good. What did you expect? A perfectly hand-piped image of the american flag blowing in the breeze with the cream cheese frosting poking through making the stars and stripes? No way. I could suggest a blog or two where you would find something like that though.....

In all seriousness, if you've never made or had a red velvet, which is shocking to me (the eating part), please please make some or buy some and enjoy it. It really is fantastic.

Oh and I piped the frosting in a slightly different way this time. I had an epiphany while watching an add for a new cupcake show on TV (that's right....a show about cupcakes. Nice). There was a split second shot of them piping on frosting and I realized I need to start using a much bitter tip. A big round tip. I normally don't use a tip at all, just the screw piece at the end and didn't even realize I should use a bigger bag and a bigger tip. So I switched over and and am quite pleased with the results.

Red Velvet Cake Recipe

I'm posting a ton of photos mainly because Collin did an extra beautiful job on these. Amazing.

Photos by Collin Monda

Wedding Cupcakes

2010-07-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

For Collin's Uncle Steve and new Aunt Lacey I was asked to bake a couple different kinds of cupcakes and some brownies. After doing a taste test of a few, we decided on the always popular Red Velvet Cupcakes as well as the Devil's Food Cake Cupcakes with Chocolate Butter Cream. I gathered my materials last week which included the modest 7 POUNDS OF BUTTER and oh let's see 10 POUNDS of Powdered Sugar, 30 eggs, among other astonishing quantities. I'm not one to flinch at lots of butter but 7 pounds is enough to make me feel a little light headed. I took the day off on Friday and baked for a good 10 hours. For some reason I thought it would take me much less time but I'm not sure why. It was a baking marathon that is for sure. I never really stopped. There was little to no waiting because every time I put a batch in to the oven, I would start the next one. It was a low intensity endurance race. Never was I flustered or out of breath, but by the end of the day I felt like I really had run a marathon. Exhausted was an understatement but it was fun to see what it would be like to actually bake for a living and not just doing it once or twice a week for a couple hours each. This was a test and I think I passed pretty well.

200 cupcakes. 100 of the Red Velvet and 100 of the Chocolate. 3 pans of Peanut Butter Brownies.

When we arrived in Wenatchee for the wedding I got set up and started frosting. This might have been more challenging than the actual baking of the cupcakes. In my previous post, I mentioned how I'm not a good waiter. Patience is not one of my virtues....At any rate, the frostings were carefully chilled the whole way over so they didn't spoil. Cream cheese frosting frightens me. But they took awhile to come back to room temp even in 85 degree weather! I tried my best to pipe it on but it took so much muscle power that my arms were shaking. But still I tried. I tried to warm it up with my hands and that didn't really work. You just have to let it do it's thing and wait. Lesson learned. You can't force cream cheese to warm up. You just have to let it. Annoying. The chocolate was slightly more complying but that's only because it waited for the cream cheese to go first. After struggling for a bit with the frostings, I finally got them all done and topped with a bit of decoration (coconut for the red velvet and shaved chocolate for the....chocolate).

In the end they turned out pretty good if I say so myself. And I think everyone liked them so it was a success.

If was a gorgeous wedding and I'm so happy to have been apart of it!

Congrats to Steve and Lacey!

Photos by Collin Monda

Long Overdue Devils Food Cake (the best chocolate cake you'll ever have)

2010-07-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

I can't tell you how many times I've made this cake. It has to be in the upper 20s by now. I could probably make it with my eyes closed. It's not a difficult recipe but requires a few extra steps than your normal, simple cake, but believe me, it is worth it. I know I say on here that "such and such is the best thing I've ever made" or "this is the tastiest thing ever" etc. etc. What can I say? I'm an extreme person. I either love it or I hate it. And in most cases, if something exceeds my expectations, it's really GOOD. I have high standards for the things I bake and will honestly tell you if something is not that good or if it's ok and there are ways to improve it. This cake, however wonderful, was no exception. It still needed it's improvements. And when I say improvements, I mean, don't make shortcuts like I do, just follow the recipe. I swear I made this 6 times before I was like, OK FINE, the recipe is the best way to do it!! I didn't really ever think of this until the last time. Hmmmm. What it comes down to is that I normally resent it when recipes call for cake flour. It just annoys me. Why do I need to buy special flour when it turns out the same in the end anyway? Why do I need to spend $4 on 32oz of flour? Not going to happen.

Devil's Food Cake is a wily beast and doesn't hold to such conventions.

So I've held out this long on the cake flour and after testing time after time my preferred unbleached flour and having the devils food cake cave in on my every time, I did a bit a reaserch. The first thing I discovered was that unbleached flour actually can not hold room temperature butter in suspension. I guess this makes a certain amount of sense? I didn't care to think about the science behind this too hard and took the internet's word for it. I tried it with bleached white flour. Nothing changed. They still caved in. I should say that all the other times I've made it, they did cave in a bit but the deliciousness of the cake made me never care that they did. It is so dense and so moist, who cares that there isn't a perfect dome on top? The taste was a siren song and I never cared to correct it's structural deformeties....

....Until I was asked to bake them for a wedding.

I couldn't allow them to look the way they did at someone's WEDDING even if they tasted amazing. It would be humiliating and shameful. So I set down the path of perfecting these perfect tasting cakes and after altering a half a dozen variables I buckled and bought cake flour, as well as actually waiting for the unsalted butter and the eggs to be room temperature. I'm a very impatient person. Very. So these things are hard for me. Waiting is not something I do well. I usually put butter out the night before to avoid the waiting and if for some reason I forget or I run out the next day I microwave it a bit. Shameful. The eggs I usually use cold since you can't really microwave them, that just sounds like trouble. Scrambled egg inside it's shell...But to keep with the real recipe I used room temperature ingredients (I had Collin hold the eggs to bring them up to temp....like I said, I'm not a good waiter). You also have to wait for the hot water/chocolate mixture to cool which is so difficult for me I usually put it in the freezer instead of the fridge. But as long as you don't leave it too long, that doesn't seem so wrong.

So with the combination of cake flour and room temp eggs and butter, the cupcakes were a success! No caving in, perfect little flatish tops and the same wonderfully dense texture. I guess there's some science behind smooth, bleached, lifeless flour holding on to the soft butter for dear life and not allowing the cake to deflate.

I can tell you that this really is the best chocolate cake I've ever had or made. I'm sure my lab would agree since it's the usual request for all birthdays. Nothing really compares to devils food cake. I've learned this the hard way after trying countless other chocolate cake recipes, they just aren't the same. Give it a try and see for yourself.

To top of the cupcakes I just use chocolate buttercream. For a cake I use a simple ganache that has been refrigerated overnight. It turns into mouse-like frosting. Amazing. Ah those milk fats.....miracle workers.

I've happily converted the amounts in to ounces/cups. Your welcome.

Rose's Heavenly Devils Food Cake:

adapted from Rose's Heavenly Cakes

1 oz bittersweet chocolate

1/4 cup dutch processed cocoa

1 cup boiling water

2 large egg yolks, room temperature

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/4 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 oz cake flour

1 1/2 cups light brown Muscovado sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

In a medium heat-safe bowl combine the boiling water, the chocolate and the cocoa and mix until smooth. Place the bowl into the refrigerator/freezer to cool.

Butter and flour two, 9 inch cake pans and line with a piece of parchment or put cupcakes liners in your cupcake tin.

In a bowl, mix together the egg yolks, eggs, vanilla and sour cream and set aside.

In your stand mixer using the paddle attachment, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt for a minute on low speed. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the ingredients are crumbly. Scrape down the sides and add the egg mixture, beating for 90 seconds until light and well blended.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl again and add the cooled chocolate mixture while mixing on low speed. Once added raise the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds, until slightly fluffy.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and with a couple of strokes from a silicone spatula scrape down the sides and bottom to mix in any remaining chocolate and then pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly touched or a toothpicks comes out clean when inserted.

Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Slide a butterknife carefully around the sides of the cake to release and then carefully remove onto the rack to cool completely.

Frost with Chocolate Buttercream:

(enough for a cake, plenty for cupcakes, half this comes up just short for 24 cupcakes)

1 stick butter

3/4 cup cocoa powder

~1/4 cup warm milk (or as much as needed)

1 tsp. vanilla.

32 oz. powdered sugar (2 lbs)

Or frost with Chocolate Ganache: (Plan accordingly)

Dark Chocolate Ganache:

8oz dark chocolate (I like 60% Dark Chocolate Chips)

1 cup heavy cream

Bring the cream to a simmer and pour over the chocolate. Allow to sit for one minute. Whisk until smooth. Refrigerate overnight and allow to come back to room temperature before frosting the cakes.

Raspberry-White Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

2010-06-10T12:51:00.000-07:00

On my normal baking-extravaganza day (i.e. Tuesday) I was way under the weather and had a day at home. Normally this would entail a much bigger baking endeavor than cookies but with the sickness I decided to take it easy. And as far as I'm concerned, cookies are taking it easy. Even though these are sandwich cookies which I suppose requires twice the work, plus a bit more for the filling, they still weren't took bad (in terms of work) and in no way did I make myself worse for the ware for making them. Actually this was the ONLY thing I did on Tuesday, which I guess is good for my health but not so good in terms of productivity, but whatever.

Raspberry Cream Sandwhich Cookie Recipe

I really don't know why I bought the ___ book. Every recipe is on her website anyways. Word to the wise.

I hesitate to say that I am happy/fortunate/etc. to own the Martha Stewart "Cookies" book because as I've expressed before, and I'm glad that others agree, her stuff is a bit hit and miss. Seems strange that the reigning heavy weight of all things domestic (is she still reigning? maybe only by default) would have recipes in her repetoir that really weren't all that good. Nearly half the stuff I've ever made of 'hers' turns out not just bad, but almost awful. I can't all be my fault. It still baffles me. At any rate, I always enter in to making her recipes with a fair bit of apprehension and this time I searched around a bit to see if others had tested this recipe before I even attempted it. I wasn't about to make something else on my sick day if it turned out bad. Not going to happen. Seemed like several people in the blogging world had tested and liked the recipe, so I forged ahead.

The dough was mousse-y and granular. Mmm I love it when you can taste and feel the sugar. One of my favorite textures. Baking the cookies I noticed took a bit more skill but not much. I noticed the cookies tend to puff up a bit when baking, but when you turn the baking sheet half way through, you end up deflating them by opening and closing the oven door. This kind of annoys me and makes me think why didn't Martha's minions figure this out when coming up with the recipe? Why have such a temperamental cookie? I mean it's a cookie for ___'s sake. Anyway, they become a bit flat when all is said and done. Not a deal breaker but irritating. They cool extremely fast which is a great trait of this particular cookie I have to say. I'm far too impatient to wait around for something to cool. I do most of the time, but I don't like it.

I had to tamper with the filling just a bit to get it to work. 'Martha' says to melt the white chocolate then take off the heat and add the cream and then add the raspberry puree to it. Well, the white chocolate never seemed to melt. I'm not sure why since white chocolate is nearly all fat. Mine just sat there in a clump and never smoothed out to a liquid. I took matters into my own hands and added the cream and whisked until it was smooth. You usually add cream over heat with a ganache or at least right after you take it off the heat. So whichever way you do it just make sure the cream and chocolate are evening mixed before you add your pureed raspberries. Once you get it all mixed together you need to refridgerate for at least 30 minutes before you fill your cookies since it takes a while to thicken. I'd recommend an hour. I used a frosting spatula to do this but thought as I was doing so, a pastry bag would work so much better. Just pipe a big dollap on to each cookie and assemble. So easy. Refrigerate again to stiffen the filling back up. Since I have a tendency to slightly underbake cookies (on purpose-I like them super tender) they were amazing with the filling. Almost like a cake. Super soft and moist. The kind of cookies that slowly pull apart in the commercials. But these are chemical free. Always a plus.

If you're in a cookie mood, try these out. They are delicious!

Photos by Collin Monda

Strawberry Tartlets with Honey Mascarpone Filling

2010-06-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

For my next round of tartlets I used strawberres. Just another option for you. I can't decide which I liked better, strawberry of blackberry, but I think that's a good thing. Proving their versatility once again. Recipe and previous post on how to make these tarts here. Now what to make next? I think a mixed fruit would be beautiful and quite delicious....

Photos by Collin Monda

Blackberry Tart(let)s with Honey Mascarpone Cheese Pastry Cream and Coffee Shop Sampler

2010-06-03T12:52:00.000-07:00

I wanted to switch things up last week from my usual buttercream/cake overload frenzy to something a bit more refined. Perhaps a bit more French. Less sugar. More cream. More fruit. No buttercream. With those constraints I happened upon a wonderful tart recipe that used a honey and mascarpone cheese filling. I settled on blackberries for my fruit (one of my favorites and so pretty against white) and used the tried and true Pate Brisee recipe from Julia Child for the crust. The hardest part was making the little tart shells and that truthfully is not that hard. Just takes some time if you want to make a couple dozen and only have 6 tart shell pans. Lots of shuffling and repeating but really not too bad. And the only baking you have to do is of the shells so that's nice. Just remember to line them with foil or parchment paper and fill them with pie weights and/or beans. Also, poke some holes in the crust so the dough doesn't puff up too much.

For the filling you just mix up some honey, mascarpone cheese, sour cream, and vanilla. I was a bit weirded out by this mixture thinking it would resemble something like cheese cake (my mortal enemy) but was pleasantly surprised that it was not sour or cheesy at all. Despite the actual cheese and sour cream. It turned out more like a standard pastry cream, but richer. Had a wonderful depth and just a hint of sweet from the honey. Quite delicious with fruit. After you fill them and add your fruit topping, chill them in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or more to stiffen up the cream and keep them fresh. Keep chilled until ready to serve or just before.

I'm not sure how I could sell this to you more but I heard from several people independently that this was the best thing I've ever made and perhaps some shade of shock at how nice looking it was. Perhaps my tasters where surprised that copious amounts of butter was not involved nor any buttercream. A nice change up. It's good to keep people on their toes. One thing that I love about this is that it is so versatile. You can add any fruit as a topping. The cream and the crust are merely a base. You can do a mixed fruit or maybe even do them plain, or with chocolate. Who knows. It's open to interpretation. I'm planning on making several variations of this in the future. A definite crowd pleaser as it turns out.

Here's the filling recipe (from Annie's Eats):

2/3 cup mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

1/3 cup honey

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Pinch ground nutmeg

And the pate brisee recipe (from Master the Art of French Cooking)

Pate Brisee Instructions

2 1/2 cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon (4 grams) salt

1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) (226 grams) unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch (2.54 cm) pieces

1/4 to 1/2 cup (60 - 120 ml) ice water

A week ago I made a little sampler of baked goods for a coffee shop I may be supplying some sweets to in the future. (Fingers Crossed). I settled on the tarts (several people insisted that I do this so I figured they know best and are the type of customer for these treats so who am I to deny them?) as well as my favorite, the red velvet cake, in cupcake and minicupcake form, and the lemon doughnuts. I think they all turned out pretty well and hopefully I'll get the gig. I tried to do a nice mixture of flavors to show some versatility but then realized I didn't do any of my usual sweet laden treats with buttercream, but oh well, I think some of myself came through. People can't subsist entirely on buttercream creations. They want some variety. I think anyway. I'm good with just buttercream though.

The Baby Loaf

Photos by Collin Monda

New Round of Mini Doughnuts (Donuts?)

2010-05-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

I had to try out a few new flavors/toppings for my latest favorite thing to make for group meeting this week. It was a learning experience that's for sure. I decided to make good old fashioned powdered doughnuts as well as chocolate glazed doughnuts. Why must doughnut be spelled two ways and both ways are right? I always write "donut" but that seems so incorrect when compared to "doughnut". Hmmm. Anyways, the powdered were super easy since all you do after you bake them and let them cool is roll them around until coated in a bowl of powdered sugar. What could be easier? Well when I woke up in the morning nearly all of the powdered sugar had absorbed into the doughnut as if they were feeding off the sugar. A little irritated, I coated them again in the sugar and by the time group meeting rolled around the doughnuts had consumed about half of the sugar again. Despite them not looking totally coated they were really quite delicious, probably because of all the sugar additions and subsequence absorption. I ate way too many of them. Why are powdered doughnuts so addicting?

On to the chocolate doughnuts and the issues that came along with them. Instead of using a recipe I thought I could just whip up a simple ganache and that would glaze them nicely. Why wouldn't it look just like a normal glazed doughnut? Why would I have to use a special recipe? One that will actually harden and not remain sticky and wet forever. No I didn't consider any of this and made a simple ganache by pouring hot whipping cream over dark chocolate chips, letting them melt, stirring it until mixed and shiny and then dipping the cooled doughnuts in the glaze. Well, the ganache was far too thin for this sort of job apparently because it just looked like a brown sheen or lacquer rather than an icing. So I mixed in powdered sugar. And more powdered sugar. And more to stiffen it up a bit and by the time it was relatively thick that frosting was so sweet it was insane. And I have a pretty tolerant sweet tooth. The icing stuck nicely to the cake but the problem was is that it never made a shell like normal doughnut glazes. Still good albeit insanely sweet. Also, really messy.

I need to find an actual recipe for this next time. Also, I wanted to make the actual cake part chocolate too. I'll probably just add in a bit of cocoa powder to the normal recipe. I think that will do the trick.

Here's the doughnut recipe:

1 1/4 C cake flour, sifted
1/2 C granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. nutmeg (I don't add this in--unless you're doing some sort of spice cake I really don't think this is necessary).
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 Tbs. butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. I use a pastry brush to coat the doughnut tin with melted butter. Works so much better than your fingers (I did this the fist time). Or you could use spray but you wants all those chemicals??

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add buttermilk, egg, and butter and stir until just combined. Fill each doughnut cup approximately 1/2 full. I pipe it in using a large tip. Makes for even sizing and is far less messy. Bake 4-6 minutes (for my oven, 5 min is perfect) or until the top of the doughnuts spring back when touched. 5 minutes doesn't allow for a browning of the doughnuts, instead it makes them soft and pillowy and since your coating them in a glaze etc. who needs them to be golden brown? Let cool in a pan for 4-5 minutes (again, 5 minutes is perfect) before removing. Finish doughnuts with glaze or sprinkles (mmm sprinkles, why had I never thought of you?! Next time. Next time). Makes 24 doughnuts.

Photos by Collin Monda.

Lemon Cake With Lemon Simple Syrup and Lemon Icing

2010-05-20T12:21:00.000-07:00

For a coworkers birthday instead of making the usual chocolate cake I made a Lemon Cake since the recipient doesn't like chocolate. I know. Crazy. Actually it was kind of nice to not make the same old chocolate cake again. I've made it about 10 times in the past couple months. It's a good one and a definite crowd pleaser but it was getting a bit tired of making so many appearances, and so was I. I don't think I've ever even posted that cake. Reminder that I must do that. It's the best chocolate cake recipe I've ever had that isn't insanely rich and puts you into a food coma. It's especially delicious in cupcake form. But what isn't better miniature? So with chocolate out of the picture I kind of floundered a bit. So many options. What to make? What's the opposite of chocolate? Fruit? Someone suggested lemon and I was sold. I wanted to redeem my last lemon cake which was admittedly very dry (it happens....). I also added poppy seeds which I don't think it needs. Better to be smooth and sugary and lemony. No crunchy bits. Anyway, I scoured the internet (taste-spotting) and found one that looked particularly good and the blogger who made it said it was the best she had ever tried so I figured why not see if I agree? It's an Ina Garten recipe which gives it some credentials (recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lemon-cake-recipe/index.html) . I'm not sure I trust her so much with desserts let alone cakes but I was willing to give this a shot especially since the recipe had you pour a warm lemon simple syrup over the cooling cake. That's a good enough reason for me. Dry-cake problem solved.

The recipe was the usual. Nothing fancy. Had you alternate buttermilk and flour mixtures which I think always makes for a good cake. Why? I have no idea. The batter was incredibly mousse-y for a lemon cake so that was a good start. I baked it in a bunt pan which I love doing because it's instantly fancy and much easier than making layered cakes. After you remove it from the oven and let it cool for a bit upside down (cake part up) you pour a simple syrup made with lemon juice over the cake. The recipe was a bit confusing at this point so I just slowly poured it over the cake and let it sit in the pan while it cooled. I thought this will either end up wonderfully by having the syrup soak in all over the cake or this could end horribly with the cake turning into a mush and slopping all over the place, simple syrup flying as I try to turn the cake over and out of the pan. It ended up like the former which was a relief. It seemed also the the syrup mainly absorbed at the bottom of the cake and didn't really do much at the top even though it soaked in. Strange.

Once the cake it cooled all the way you pour on a lemon juice icing. Which is just powdered sugar and lemon juice. Amazingly good. So simple. To get it looking like you spent hours carefully spooning it back and forth to create the little streams of frosting down the sides? Spend about 2 seconds and pour the frosting just on the top of the cake and let it do it's own streaming. Trust me. It looks great and requires no stress or time.

If you're looking for a good lemon cake this is definitely one to make. Enjoy!

Photos by Collin Monda

Whiskey Apple Pie (Now With More Whiskey!)

2010-05-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

While religiously reading Ms. Humble Pie's blog (http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/) and wallowing in jealousy I came across a contest she was throwing (?? what's the proper verb here?) and with the prize of having your blog plugged in addition to a sweet little something from Morrocco (where she will be traveling soon) I decided I had to make something. And I knew that I had to make the best pie I've ever made, which is the Whiskey Apple Pie. Admittedly, I'm not a huge pie person. And as a result, I don't make pies that often (so selfish...) so this really is the best pie I've ever made. I happen to like it a great deal and the whiskey addition is just a little treat. Why not right? So here is the recipe again if you care to try it out. It's simple and tasty. Not over the top sweet, or rich, just a nice little snack or dessert. Or breakfast item? (Collin...)

Here is the recipe adapted from Joy of Baking: (http://www.joyofbaking.com/ApplePie.html)

Pate Brisee (Short Crust Pastry):
2 1/2 cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon (30 grams) granulated white sugar
1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch (2.54 cm) pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup (60 - 120 ml) ice water
AppleFilling:
2 1/2 pounds (1.1 kg) apples (about 6 large), peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4 inch thick (about 8 cups sliced) (about 900 grams sliced)

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar

1/4 cup (55 grams) light brown sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon (15 grams) cornstarch (corn flour)

I tend to not follow the recipe and just use the ingredients. I think my way is so much simpler and really turns out well. Instead of letting the apples macerate at room temp for 3.5 hours, I simply combine all of my filling ingredients and cook them down for about 5 minutes in a couple tablespoons of butter in a large skillet to soften them just a bit and let them release some of their juices so it doesn't boil over in the oven.

I then remove the apples from the pan and place in a large bowl and add 3 tablespoons of whiskey (when I first made this recipe I added one tablespoon, the next time I added two, and I now I add three, but I'm convinced more whiskey is always a good thing so really you can add as much as you like! It doesn't affect the quality of the pie, just adds more whiskey flavor!) and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to thicken it a bit.

Also, great tasting whiskey really helps. If you wouldn't drink it, don't put it in the pie. I then fill the pie with the slightly cooked apples/whiskey and top with a lattice. While the pie is baking, I cook down the juice mixture from the skillet to a carmel sauce and drizzle over the pie when cooled.

Serve with vanilla ice cream. Next time I think I might up the whiskey factor by making a homemade whiskey vanilla ice cream. The whiskey flavor in the pie is nice and subtle so it could handle something like this as a topping. Now I just have to buy an ice cream maker. But more importantly, find the space to put it!

Fingers Crossed about the contest!

Photos by Collin Monda

First Thursday Cupcakes

2010-05-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

For a friend's First Thursday art showing I was generously allowed to bake a couple things for people to enjoy along with the art. I wanted to make the Rogue Chocolate Stout cupcakes that I've made many times in the past and something new. I happened upon a lime cake recipe adapted from Martha Stewart that looked pretty good after Collin suggested making margarita inspired cupcakes. I added a bit of buttercream made with tequila and lime juice and voila: A margarita cupcake.

Here's the lime cake recipe: http://annies-eats.com/2010/05/04/margarita-cupcakes/

We tried a bit of fleur de sel too and it was a bit too strong. Already kind of a savory cake. At least in comparison to my usual baked goods. But never the less, the salt would have made it a bit more margarita-y. The Rogue cupcakes are one of my favorites. The combination of rich chocolate stout and sour cream make these cakes super moist. I was going to do a Bailey's buttercream on these but at the last moment in a weak moment of auto pilot I made chocolate buttercream which I'm convinced I could make in my sleep now. Along with any other buttercream for that matter. Sooooo they turned in to Rogue Chocolate Stout Cupcakes, instead of Irish Car Bombs. Still good. And still a crowd pleaser.

The margarita cupcakes were definitely different. They had a distinct sour flavor from the lime juice and the buttermilk and although this doesn't happen to be my personal preference in flavors, it seems that many people really enjoyed them. Even preferred them. For the frosting, I did a simple buttercream but instead of adding vanilla, I added about 3 tablespoons of tequila and about the same of lime juice and enough whipping cream to make it nice and smooth and combined. I rarely use a recipe for buttercream. It's nice to just wing it. If you're using good flavors, you really can't mess it up, at least in my experience.

Aside from the fact that I made way too many mini cupcakes, they seemed to be enjoyed and the people at my lab seemed to enjoy them even more so the next day. The rogue cupcakes are a for sure winner and the margaritas might just stick around and make another appearance, even though it wasn't my favorite. Still nice to test out new and interesting flavors. I'm always surprised at how different people's preferences are in sweets. It's definitely a good thing though. If we were all the same, I'd be making millions of of coconut cakes (my fav) and that would get quite boring after awhile, even for me.

Photos by Collin Monda.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

2010-05-10T13:30:00.000-07:00

Yes....you read that correctly. I put chocolate chip cookie dough inside a cupcake. I know. I may have gone too far. But only (s)he who gone too far knows what is enough (or something like that). For me, I think I went too far and realized I could probably handle these better without cookie dough, but others seemed to love the cookie dough and since it is more of a novelty cake I may leave it in. Just for fun. I have to say though, the cake in the cupcakes is AMAZING. So much better than any plain cake (i.e. vanilla etc.) I've ever made. I love them!! When you hollow out the cupcake to make room for the cookie dough you're left with a little ball of cake like a donut hole and since I made about two dozen of these, I've been enjoying the cakes holes (?) all week long. The cake has a richness to it like a cookie would. A subtle molasses depth from all the brown sugar. The frosting too is rich and flavorful and anything but simple or plain. I was hesitant to make the frosting since it diverted so much from my buttercream but decided to stick with it and was the opposite of disappointed. It was brown sugary and thick, yet light and mousey. The frosting contains flour which is why I was resistant but I'm glad I gave it a try, I may start using it on a lot of things.

The recipe itself was pretty straightforward but a little involved. The author recommends making the cookie dough a day ahead but I ended up doing it all on the same night and it was fine. The cookie dough does need to refrigerate though, so plan accordingly. Once you've made the batter (which has a whopping 3 sticks of butter, even puts me to shame) and baked and cooled the cupcakes, you take a knife (I used a grapefruit knife and it worked beautifully) and carefully cut out a good round chunk for the cookie dough to sit just beneath the frosting. Take little chunks of cookie dough after it's chilled an roll in into roughly a ball and place in the hollowed out cupcake. After you've whipped up the frosting, you just pipe it on over the cookie dough and then add some mini chocolate chips to the top for decoration. Those mini chips were hard to find and after much searching I found them in the gluten free section....weird, but whatever, they worked.

Link to the recipe: http://sugarcooking.blogspot.com/2010/04/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-cupcakes.html

A couple final thoughts about these cupcakes: 1. I don't think the actual cake needs the cup of chocolate chips. Even though only a couple chips end up making in to each cake, I found it a bit much with everything else that was going on. 2. If you try to make chocolate chip cookies from the cookie dough for a cute little decoration like the author did, they don't bake very well fyi. They are hard as a rock (because there are no eggs?) and burn easily. 3. Save the cake holes (?). Delicious. 4. The cookie dough is safe to eat because of the lack of eggs even though I've probably eaten my body weight in raw eggs over the course of my life...and I'm fine.

Here's the grapefruit knife I used. Worked so well since it's curved. Works well on grapefruit too I suppose. More of a reason to buy it.

http://site.unbeatablesale.com/img101/irwg713.jpg

Photos by Collin Monda

Mini Baked Donuts

2010-05-10T12:57:00.000-07:00

A couple Saturday's ago I happened to stumble into Sur La Table and found the coolest new piece of baking equipment: A mini donut tin. Of course I had to have it and also had to make donuts that very day. Irresistible. It just so happened to be a good friend's birthday party that evening so I decided to make a couple different varieties of mini donuts to test out on my hopefully willing audience. I used the batter recipe that came along with the tin (I had no idea what was involved in donuts batters and didn't want to mess it up since they were baked instead of deep fried). So really these are "healthy donuts" and certainly acceptable to eat handfuls at a time if so inclined (which normally I am). The recipe was one of the easiest I've made. Just flour, a bit of sugar, a bit of butter, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. So easy. No mixing involved except with a spoon until just incorporated. The first time I made these (they are quickly becoming my favorite thing to make mainly because they are so easy and so very disproportionately good for how easy and quick they are) I just used a spoon to put the batter in to the tiny molds and then use my finger to smooth them. This was tricky and very messy since the batter is almost like a yeast dough in stickiness. The next time I made these (this past weekend for Mother's Day) I put all the batter in a pastry bag with a large circle tip and just piped a long strip into the molds forming a circle. Worked so well. Will never do it any other way again.

The donuts bake for about 5 minutes at 425 and then cool in their tin for another 5. It's amazing how quick they are. You can whip up dozens of them in no time! After they've cooled on a wire rack you can frost them or glaze them, etc. For this batch I did half coconut and half cinnamon and sugar. I made two batches of simple icing (powdered sugar and milk) and made it fairly thin (more milk) so that they would glaze the donuts. I put coconut extract in one and left the other plain. I dipped half in the coconut so just the tops were covered and then put them back on the wire rack so the glaze would move down the sides and then dipped them in some shredded coconut. For the other half, I dipped in the plain icing and then after the glaze coated them, I dipped them in cinnamon and sugar. Afterwards I put them all in the fridge for a bit to stiffen up so I could package them in bags.

This last weekend I did the coconut again as well as a lemon. I used the simple icing but instead of using all milk I did about half milk half lemon juice and then sprinkled a bit of lemon zest on each.

If you can find the donut tin somewhere I highly recommend these little treats. They are delicious and one of the easiest things I've ever made. Really.

(like here for example: http://www.thehomemarketplace.net/HomeMarketPlace/Shopping/ProductDetail.aspx?CID=Baking&ProductID=BC00337416&SCID=Bakeware&SiteNum=0&TabNum=0)

Photos by Collin Monda

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

2010-03-19T13:56:00.000-07:00

For Saint Patrick's day/co-workers birthday I made what are now named Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes. I am not clever enough to realize this seemingly simple observation (Collin was). Guiness chocolate cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream. It never crossed my mind that this is Irish Car Bomb ingredients, well minus the chocolate cake....and the buttercream. Still, it's the liquor that counts in the end. I used a chocolate stout cake recipe that I've made many many times, usually with Rogue Chocolate Stout or Rogue Shakespeare stout mainly because they are some of the best. Really flavorful and really rich. Makes for a good cake.

I regret to say that I have never been all that impressed with Guinness. Sorry to offend but I think growing up in the Northwest and starting to drink beer at a relatively early age (German family...) I had a greater appreciation for local beers which I still wholeheartedly believe stomp the global competition. Anyways, I was a bit apprehensive on using Guinness, thinking that it just wouldn't be as good as the rich Rogue Stout but I had to keep with the Irish theme and I felt that if I had stuck with my usual stouts some kind of horrible Irish karma would come my way making it on St. Patricks. The batter was pretty much the same so that was a good sign but once they were cooked, man, they were way better than the others I have made. I have no idea why.....perhaps it was some good Irish karma. The universe was pleased with my compliance with tradition and they were fantastic. Also, the Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream didn't hurt either. Instead of using cream and vanilla to bind the frosting, I used Bailey's. Just Bailey's. Amazing.

I highly recommend using liquors for buttercreams. Even if it's just a little bit. So fun to experiment with flavor combinations. Plus, there's a bit of booze in there so it's an added bonus, albeit a small one. I piped on some florets of frosting instead of topping the whole cupcake with it just because it was a bit on the strong side and didn't want to overwhelm my tasters at 11AM (why is group meeting so early?). I was very pleased with the end product and got some good reviews. They were a great take on a classic. Interesting and new, yet familiar (perhaps too familiar...in the Irish car bomb sense). Will be making these again in the future. But perhaps, on a non-Irish holiday I will make it with Frangelico. Yum. Also, next time I think I'll pipe the frosting on the inside of the cupcake so "it's like a real bomb" (Collin Monda). Agreed. And perhaps just do a simple ganache on top. Cute.

P.S. Don't steal my cupcake name, even though I'm sure it's been used a million times over. Whatever.

Pasteis de Nata (Portuguese Custard Tarts)

2010-03-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

For Group Meeting this week the presenter requested Pasteis de Nata from his country of origin, Portugal. I was a bit intimidated when he described them to me. I was thinking these sound a lot like Creme Brule and was a bit resistant to the idea mainly because I would have to go find about a dozen more ramekins to house these creme brules. I quickly found out though that these custards are in fact, tarts, which means the custard sits in a puff pastry shell, which also means I can just bake them in a muffin tin. Easy.

You might be thinking I'm going to say "or so I thought..." or "little did I know how hard this was going to be...", but acutally, they were, very, easy. I was nervous to replicate a cherished childhood treat not to mention one that originated so very far away from here. Never the less I was excited after reading the recipes because they were painfully simple. Just cream, eggs, sugar, lemon, vanilla, cornstarch. There was a bit of discrepency about the ingredients once they were tasted. Apparently, they don't have vanilla nor do they have quite so much sugar (there really wasn't much as all and to my American/high threshold for sugar-palate it barely tasted sweet). Also, some think that there is less lemon and some think it was the right amount. I usually pick the self depricating road mainly because I should even if I don't want to because the baked item needs some improving. This time however, I'm not going to do that. They were delicious. Got to say. Sugar, lemon, vanilla, I don't care. They were so good I ate many in one day. It's really hard to stop. I'm not really even that much of custard person, but man these are good. A great breakfast/brunch treat if you want to switch it up from the usual cinnamon rolls or pancakes etc. Yum. Can't wait to make them again.

A couple pieces of advice:
Don't overcook them just to get the burnt spots on top. Yes, the burnt spots are very important, they kind of make the treat, much like the hard shell on creme brule. I really need to get a mini blow torch for this kind of stuff. Would work so well on these.

Buy the puff pastry. God I hate saying that. It's true. To be fair to myself, I didn't actually try because I was scared into submission by EVERY SINGLE RECIPE I found that explicity said DO NOT MAKE THE PUFF PASTRY!! Ok OK!! I wanted to. I really did. But how could I defy such forboding statements? So I went to the store and bought it. It was good. And much easier even though I get really impatient with it and don't let it thaw and just break it and end up having to let it thaw anyways so I can roll it back together and/or mash the seams with my fingers. Stupid sheets.

Anyway, with the puff pastry bought, all you really do is mix everything together and heat it up. Then pour it in to the muffin tins lined with the pastry dough. You just cut out circles with a cup and then mold them to the muffin tin cups.

Here's the recipe. Scroll down to find it. I compared many different recipes and this one had all the elements I liked and seemed well written. I tried to really hard to find one from a person actually from Portugal but never did. Give these a try. They are seriously easy and so worth the minimal amount of time to make them.

http://gourmettraveller88.com/2009/06/02/portuguese-egg-custard-tarts/

Lamingtons to Cupcakes

2010-01-21T13:15:00.000-08:00

When searching one day for a delicious home-made udon recipe I discovered the blog of Seattle women who is so good at baking and cooking that she puts me to serious shame (http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/) Seriously, who makes cookies that look like Wii remote replicas? That said, I do have a full time job and only have a few precious hours every day to bake, unlike her who as far as I know (she probably won't ever read this....even though I gave her this site....dammit) has all day and all night to fritter away baking. Sorry. I wish I was able to do that, but then again maybe I don't because I think I would be so frustrated and stressed out baking all the time and having no one to eat it but myself and would probably be huge and angry and stressed. Not good. I'll keep my job thank you. Also, she has a kid, so maybe we are square but even still, she definitely schools me in the baking department.

These were and are still my thoughts on the matter, but my baking self-esteem soared to new heights after making these delightful mini coconut cupcakes. Part is borrowed, part is my own, and the sum is f-ing fantastic. Really.

If you are a fan of coconut, which I hesitate to even call myself that because I'm borderline obsessed with it, then you will LOVE these. Or if you like white cakes, or vanilla, or just sweets in general, these are incredible.

So I borrowed the recipe from the Seattle blogger who BORROWED it (HA! she gets recipes for her stuff too! I'm not bitter, no not at all) from Rose's Heavenly Cakes cookbook which I must say is the most amazing cake batter/cake ever. Ever ever ever. So moist and crumbly and so flavorful.

The story begins with me trying to imitate Seattle blogger's (a.k.a. Not So Humble Pie-my title's better no?) lamington recipe from which she used the coconut cake recipe from Rose's cookbook. I tried really hard to do my own thing. Instead of coating the mini cakes (which is really all these "lamingtons" are) in a white chocolate ganache and then dusting them with coconut, I attempted to frost each side of each cake then roll them in coconut. I quit after two. Way too difficult to frost since the cake is super moist and crumbly. Not going to happen. I caved, made some ganache, ended up sopping it up with the cakes on a piece of wax paper (yea...not my finest moment, but it actually worked pretty well) and then rolling them in coconut on a plate. This was so much easier and they actually turned out pretty well, in a sort of chaotic way.

The next day I decided to try again. Why? I'm not sure. But this time I made the batter and turned them in to mini cupcakes. What could be cuter? and whipped up the same frosting which was my standard buttercream with a 1/2 tsp (I think it's safe to add a full tsp. in retrospect) of coconut extract (the most amazing culinary creation ever. How did I live without you before?!). Used a large tip on my pastry bag and piped a big dollap (I love the way it looks, simple and cute). Now, where I start to school Mrs. Not So Humble Pie! (ok maybe not...) I took about a cup of coconut and toasted it in a frying pan on the stove. Then I took a pinch of it and placed it ever so carefully (not really) on the top of each mound of buttercream. Really pretty simple and cute. And I must say so not fussy like the lamingtons. I hate fussy desserts, they just make me angry. The thing is to make it look fussy but only make it if it's not.

Here is the recipe for the best coconut cake ever: (this annoys me because the blogger actually finds the grams useful. Really? This is a little insufferable. So, for the record: 180g = ~5 egg whites and 400g = ~6.3 oz (or a smidge more than 2/3C). See now aren't I nice and helpful? Please, who uses grams? I'm a a scientist and use grams pretty often and this doesn't work at all for me. Again, sorry, God I hope she doesn't read this....I just deleted my comment with my blog website. But dammit, it just says it was deleted but my username is still there. Oh well. Like she's going to check....(?!)

Rose's Heavenly Southern Manhattan Coconut Cake:

from Rose's Heavenly Cakes

180 grams egg whites at room temperature

1 1/3 cup canned coconut milk, divided

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons coconut extract

400 grams all-purpose flour (or cake flour) sifted

400 grams super fine sugar

5 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

16 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature

And here is my old friend, the buttercream recipe now turned into coconut buttercream (which I really think would be good on anything you would frost with normal, vanilla buttercream. It's so subtly coconutty. So delicious and really enhanced the vanilla buttercream taste. really).

1/4C softened unsalted butter
2C powdered sugar
~4-6 Tbs heavy cream
1tsp vanilla
1 tsp coconut extract

If you want to make something quite simple but beautiful and cute make these! Love them.

Photos by Collin Monda

Ugh....cheesecake

2009-12-17T16:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the biased and unpleasant title. But god, I hate cheesecake. I thought, maybe I'll like it this time? Maybe if I make it, it will be different? No. No. No. NO. It was worse. Much, much worse. I could barely stomach the smell while making them let alone force myself to take a bite of that abomination. It could've had something to do with being hungover from the hot cocktail party but regardless, I don't think I would've done well with them even if I was totally well. To be fair, many that tasted them did enjoy them, and even those that don't like cheesecake (perhaps less so than myself) liked them, so that was a triumph. They were quite pretty (thanks to Martha's minions). I can't comment on the taste, only relay to you what criticism I got. I find myself totally betraying the wise words of one of the greatest cooks ever: Julia Child. She always said to never criticize your food when you serve it. Why do I always do this? I guess I just always want it to be the next greatest thing I've ever tasted. But, I am quite honest in saying if something is good or not. At least I'm not the one who came up with the recipe? Not always....

So, yes, they were pretty, and yes, many said they tasted great, but some said that the texture was a bit off. And some some said that they weren't sweet enough. There really wasn't that much sugar, so probably add a lot more. Perhaps double. But, what do I know. I don't even know what cheesecake is supposed to taste like. I do know however, that the technique for the top is something any cheesecake would be glad to adorn itself with. You blend up about a cup of raspberries (or any fruit), strain them so you remove the seeds, add some sugar and put a few drops on each cheesecake and then with a toothpick, swirl it around so it makes, a well, swirly design. What more can I say?

So instead of making one big cheesecake (gross), I made a dozen cupcake sized ones with graham cracker crust. This part, I'm ok with. Crush up some graham crackers, add some melted butter (yum) and press a bit in to the bottom of each cupcake well. Bake for 10 and add your cream cheese mixture (gross). Then top with the raspberry sauce (so good on waffles the next day), swirl, and bake. Word to the wise, I also made tiny cupcakes and cooked the crust for the same amount of time and they burnt completely, so watch them and only bake for like 5 minutes.

Also, if you're like me and have a total aversion to cream cheese and don't understand that it is a dairy and needs to be refrigerated, take this as a lesson learned: refrigerate the cheesecakes after it's cool. Not saying I didn't do that.....

I'll never understand you cheesecake lovers. But I will make it for you. Begrudgingly.

The recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/cheesecake

Hot Cocktail Party Treats

2009-12-17T15:40:00.000-08:00

A couple weekends ago we had a hot cocktail party and of course I had to make some desserts. This wasn't one of my better ideas because all the drinks were so overly sweet that not even I could take a single bite of one my sweets. Way too much sugar. They got eaten soon enough though. I went all Martha Stewart on this one. You know, I always think that her stuff is going to be the best because it just seems with all the thousands of minions she has coming up with ideas and taste testing everything, that her recipes would just blow everything else away. I've come to find this is not true....all the time anyway. While she does make some seriously good looking things, I've found that, yes, they are ALWAYS good looking, but not always as good tasting as you expect. Most of the times she comes half way. So it's kind of a toss up. A toss up I'm always willing to make though for some reason. I'm so brainwashed by the gorgeous pictures that I just think, man, this MUST be the best chocolate cupcake recipe there is?! It just has to be. In my case, it was gingerbread cupcakes and chocolate sandwich cookies.

Both recipes were relatively easy to make. Nothing out of the ordinary. My main problems and compliments with each are as follows. The gingerbread cupcakes took some getting used to. If you like not-so-sweet desserts, which many do (weird...) this is a good one. It is intense and SUPER molassesy. I mean, like there is 1 cup of molasses in the batter. If you've ever made anything with molasses, a little goes a long way, so this was a ton. I was shocked. Also, there is a ton of ginger in it too. So mostly, they just tasted like gingery molasses. Maybe not your thing? Not really mine either. I did warm up to them after a couple though. Like I said, they take some getting used to. However, they looked so pretty with a little white buttercream piped on top to look like a snowflake and then dipped in shimmering sugar. You can't go wrong with that. Not to mention, the beautiful display I used that I got for my birthday. So pretty!

Gingerbread cupcake recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/gingerbread-cupcakes

The chocolate sandwich cookies turned out different than I expected as well. First, I thought they were going to be more bite-sized like in the picture, which I can only blame on myself because I was the one that distributed the dough. It was fun though because you put little balls of dough on your baking sheet and then press them down into a disk with the bottom of a sugared glass. Makes them sparkly and a little bit sweeter. However, the cookies came out too crunchy and hard for my taste. I didn't over-bake them, quite the opposite. If anything, I under-baked them. So if you like your cookies crunchy, these are good for you. The recipe book I used (Cookies-Martha) is so cool because it divides the recipes into the different cookie textures i.e. crunchy, soft and chewy, crumbly, rich and dense, etc. Pretty good thinking there minions. I can't recall, but if these cookies weren't in the crunchy section, they should've been. The filling surprised me as well because it came out almost exactly like the Oreo filling, which depending on your predilections, could be a good or bad thing. I thought it was a good thing.....mainly because it didn't contain high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated palm oil and was still just as tastey, but that's just me! So, the cookies had the frosting going for them, but they were too crunchy. Too hard to eat. And they were way too big. Especially since they were a sandwich. So not only do you have the too hard chocolate cookie, but you have two! Make them small if you make them. Word to the wise.

Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/cream-filled-chocolate-cookie

These weren't my favorite holiday treats by a long shot, but regardless, it's still fun to experiment and have people tell you what they think of them. I didn't even get too many tasters though, I think the cocktails did them (and me) in.

Pumpkin Roulade

2009-12-07T15:45:00.000-08:00

I made a pumpkin roulade for Thanksgiving and despite it looking like one of the hardest desserts to make, it was actually one of the simplest....or maybe I just got lucky. You do have to be fearless though, no second guessing yourself on this one!

There really is nothing to it. I used Libby's recipe, a good standby. I like to substitute organic pumpkin instead of Libby's pumpkin, but the rest works great. You just mix everything together, poor the batter in a large (10X15in) jelly-roll (casserole pan is fine) pan, bake for the exact lower range time (not a minute more!) and immediately when you take it out of the oven, carefully flip it onto a dishtowel covered in powdered sugar. Then carefully roll it up slowly from short end to short end, using the towel to help you roll by lifting it up and curling the cake with it. If all went well it rolled up perfectly without cracking or crumbling. Let it cool for a couple hours. When it's completely cool, carefully and slowly unroll it and frost it liberally with a vanilla buttercream. Any flavor would work here though. Cinnamon? Maple? Frangelico? Whatever you think is good with pumpkin. It should be pretty sticky on the inside, like it's slightly underdone. Helps it to roll better. Then roll is back up carefully (I know....it requires a lot of redundancy) and if you like, you can pipe along the swirl to make it look a little prettier and perhaps pipe on the top. Sift on some powdered sugar and it's done! Pretty easy overall as long as you work slowly and carefully. Just go for it and if you mess it up, it still tastes the same right? And hopefully next time it will look a little better. I've never made anything like this before, I wasn't even in my own kitchen, and it went perfectly, so it can be done.

I apologize for the atrocious pictures. Collin wasn't around to take any of his amazing photos. It will have to do.

Endnote: I used organic powdered sugar for the first time in this recipe and I have to say, it was way better than regular sugar. It had this slightly different texture, way more powdery than powdered sugar and had a slight color to it. A richer cream, almost a gray, so pretty. Loved it! Give it a try! So good for the Earth...and you too!!

Notifications

2009-11-24T11:43:00.001-08:00

I just edited my preferences and allowed my blog to notify you all when it's updated. If you want to be added to the list and you aren't on it just let me know. Or, if you don't want to be on the list, also let me know! Thanks!

Peanut Butter Brownies

2009-11-19T15:35:00.000-08:00

So I used to say that I wasn't much of a brownie person. They usually make me a little sick due to their density and chocolatiness. I used to say this until a few weeks ago when I started making brownies like every single week. I'm not sure how this happened but ever since I made them for the AIDS Walk Bake Sale, I've been on a brownie making/eating spree. I have no regrets however. This time though, I got a recipe from my cousin Autumn for Peanut Butter Brownies and I have to say they are amazing! I cooked them exactly according to the recipe which I usually don't do (I like to put a little of myself in to the mix) and they turned out perfectly. I even cooked them for the specified bake time (10 min, turn, then 15 min more) and they were just a little underdone in the center but cooked which is perfect if you ask any brownie lover. I loved that they were peanut butter and not chocolate for a change and they didn't make me ill even though I had a huge chunk.

I do have one bone to pick with the recipe trier/blog writer however and that is with her statement that you should always use Jiff or Skippy when baking and not the all-natural kinds. Are you kidding? Please. I think I can do with a little let high fructose corn syrup in my life. Use the all natural!! If that's what you like. I used a creamy Organic peanut butter and it was amazing. If you like chunky, go for that too. But for your own health, perhaps we can find one way of reducing our corn in-take and this might just be the time. Just saying....

I love making brownies because they are SO easy and these are no exception. Seriously, give them a try. Great for parties or large groups, it makes a ton! A 9x13in pan.

Here's the recipe:

Peanut Butter Brownies

With Love and Butter
Makes 12 huge squares or 24 small ones

You have your choice here of creamy or chunky peanut butter and I used chunky. When baking with peanut butter, you almost always want to use something like Jif or Skippy, not the all-natural kind.

2 eggs
2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup peanut butter, at room temperature
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
2 tbsp. molasses
2 tbsp. honey
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups flour
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°F and move the rack to the middle position. Butter a 9×13-inch pan.

Whip the eggs and brown sugar together with an electric mixer. Add the peanut butter, melted butter, molasses, honey, vanilla, salt, and flour. Mix. Stir in 1 cup of the chocolate chips by hand.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan. Strew the remaining 1 cup of chocolate chips over the surface. Bake 10 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake 15 minutes more or until the brownies turn golden and the center is set. Cool and cut into squares.

http://danatreat.com/2009/09/holly-bs-peanut-butter-brownies/

I forgot to have Collin take photos so the ones here are not mine, but from the blog I got it from.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Rolls

2009-11-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

Everyone's favorite right? Pretty much.

I love making these, they are way too good! The recipe I use says they are like the cinnabon rolls and I have to agree. Delicious and yet they don't contain all the preservatives and chemicals etc. that the cinnabon one's must have in them which is a definite plus. They are also probably the easiest baked good I ever make even though you make them from absolute scratch; starting with yeast, making the dough and letting it rise. Trust me, so so easy.

I like to do things a little different though.

I can't stop myself from wanting to cream the butter and sugar and add the eggs one at a time and then add the flour alternating with the milk/yeast mixture even though they tell me to just throw all the ingredients together. I just can't. It's too engrained in me. However, last time I'm pretty sure by adding the flour stepwise with the milk/yeast it overworked the dough and caused the gluten to break down a bit....that or I over baked them....which I did. Also, don't be tempted by the bread hook for the Kitchen Aid. It didn't work. I fell for it.

In all the times I've made these babies before, I've never overbaked them. I actually tend to underbake most everything because....well, it's just better. A little chewiness goes a long way. It was tricky for me this time though for some reason. Every time I looked in the oven, the rolls looked raw....so i kept baking and kept baking. I took them out probably 5 minutes after the recommended bake time and they looked gorgeous but it's a fine line with dough. Too long in the oven is way too long. It's like an exponential curve. Same is true of batters and well anything else that is baked. So when you bake these, and I highly recommend that you do, bake them for about 10-12 mintues and no longer. I realized a great test for seeing if they are done is keep an eye on the bottom of your baking pan (I like to use a glass caserole dish) and you can see if the butter that you lightly greased the pan with is burning. Also, the rolls tend to bake through first on the bottoms and sides, where they are touching the pan. So instead of checking the tops (like I made the mistake of doing), check the sides and bottom as well. Just a hint that I think works pretty well.

Aside from bake time issues, these are a cinch to make. You just mix everything up. Yes, cream the butter and sugar and add the eggs one at a time and the milk/yeast, but then just as a cup or two of flour, until you can form a lump and transfer it to a bowl. Work in the rest of the flour with your hands. Will make for happy gluten.

Let it rise for an hour. I put a heating pad under the bowl and a towel on top to help it rise. This is especially helpful in the winter when it's not warm enough (at least in my apartment!) for the dough to rise. After it's doubled in size (I'm kind of flexible on this amount) you roll it out to about 21in by 16in. Spread with a huge amount of butter (1/3C) and a ton of cinnamon and sugar and then roll up starting from the short side. Then cut in about 1.5in sections and place them in a baking pan. Then bake for ~10 minutes.

Let cool and frost with my old standby, vanilla buttercream. You can make it as thick or thin as you want depending on preferences. I made my a little thinner this time and I really liked it on the rolls, however, I would say a thick dollop on top is probably more satisfying.

For the buttercream I always use these proportions (yes I have them memorized.....):

1/4C butter

2C powdered sugar

1tsp. vanilla

~3Tbs. heavy cream

Here is the recipe for the rolls: http://www.recipezaar.com/Cinnabon-Cinnamon-Rolls-76864>Cinnamon Rolls

Photos by Collin Monda

Pumpkin Pie (from scratch?)

2009-11-05T12:27:00.000-08:00

After a two week long hiatus of the cake club I am back. Several weeks ago I decided to undertake the task of making a pumpkin pie from scratch, as in from a pumpkin. You are supposed to use a pie pumpkin which is a smaller, sweeter pumpkin, primarily if not solely used for making pumpkin pies. I chose to make my pie this week which as you know is the week after Halloween and despite it still be Autumn there are no pie pumpkins to be had. NONE. You would think people would still be enjoying pies the entire season and surely for Thanksgiving?! Do they take the pies away after Halloween and then bring them back again for Thanksgiving? I do not know, all I know is that I had to use a can of already cooked and pureed pumpkin. Fail. Although the rest of the pie is made form scratch, so it's not so much like cheating. I really wanted to make it from a pumpkin though. Oh well. Perhaps in a couple weeks?? Crazy grocery store.

I made my crust the night before to save on time (great trick, it freezes and refrigerates amazingly well) and rolled it out and filled it the next night. The pie filling is always really strange to me because it's so liquidy. I always think, this is never going to gel and become firm. No way. Somehow it always does. Anyway, I was using a slightly shallower pie pan and didn't want to fill it up to the point of it was spilling all over the place when I moved it from counter to oven so I just put in enough to reach the lip and then used the leftover pie dough to make some little crusts to put in ramekins. I filled the ramekins with my leftover filling and baked the pie and little pies all together. I even had leftover dough after that and made schnittchens (had to). German tradition (or maybe just Schroeter tradition?) of taking the left over scraps of dough (schnittchen means "scrap" in German), rolling it out, spreading some butter over it, sprinkling some cinnamon and sugar, rolling them up and cutting them into little cinnamon rolls if you will. Delicious and a great way to use all of the dough. Plus, it always reminds me of my Grandpa, it's a kind of offering to him. I think he likes it.

After about thirty minutes of baking I cut out a few leaves and acorns from the leftover leftover dough and placed them on top of my pies. Very cute. It's the little things.

I read a recipe somewhere to make whipped cream with maple syrup to go with it and I got to say this is the best idea ever. Due to not wanting to bring whipping cream, beaters, and maple syrup to work and whipping it on my desk for group meeting, I decided to not try this delicious add-on but please do, I'm sure it's amazing!

I would give you a recipe for the pumpkin pie but really, just use the Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie recipe. It's the best.

Oh but instead of using Libby's Pumpkin Puree I used an organic pumpkin puree. Just doing my part. Good for you and good for the earth!

Photos by Collin Monda

Brown Sugar Cookies with Fleur de Sel

2009-10-27T11:56:00.001-07:00

For Kathleen's birthday I made her new favorite cookie which is the brown sugar cookie with sea salt. For those of the savory variety and not the sweet (I am not in this camp if you haven't already noticed that) this is a great cookie for you. It is a pretty sweet cookie but it has a good deal amount of fleur de sel ("flower of salt" in french) which is a quite salty salt. So a little goes a long way. The recipe calls for a lot of sugar (mostly brown) which surprised me because even regular unsalted cookies have less sugar than these, but am not one to complain about sugar content. Another interesting component of the recipe is that it uses browned butter. Butter cooked to the point where is just starts to turn brown and right before the milk solids actually burn. Mine burned a bit (okay, I've never brown butter) but I just strained off those pesky milk solids and all was well. The browned butter I have to say is a nice touch. Adds a little extra nuttiness to the cookies (and butteriness).

The dough had a delicious molassas-y aroma and was a nice rich, nutty, brown color. I decided to split it up into three different cookies. One with pinch of fleur de sel on top, ones rolled in a mixture of brown and white sugar (what the recipe called for) and ones that I piped on the letters of happy birthday and then dredged in salt. So all camps were accounted for. The recipe called for the cookies to be pulled out when the inside was still a bit raw which is what I normally do (makes for a very chewy cookie-my fav) but this time, every time I would check on the cookies they still seemed far from done until I decided to pull them out and they looked great but turned out to be a bit on the crunchy/done side. So, don't go with your instincts on this one, just pull them out when they are raw, after about 12 minutes. The cookies, aside from texture were delicious. I love brown sugar. Who doesn't? The salt was a nice addition and for those that enjoy a little more savoriness in their lives than sweet, this is a nice treat for you.

Here's the recipe I used:

http://noshwithme.com/2009/01/brown-sugar-cookies/

This recipe is identical to the one that made this type of cookie Kathleen's new favorite, except salt is added to the sugar mixture the dough balls are rolled in. Perhaps a nice medium between camps?

Happy Birthday Kathleen!

Photos by Collin Monda

Whiskey Apple Pie

2009-10-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

I finally have acquired the skills to make pastry dough. Triumph! Ok, it's a piece of cake (pie?) if you have a Cuisinart and as far as I'm concerned there is no other way. I can not even begin to imagine how people made/make pastry dough without one. I tried, believe me, with the Tarte Normande and it was something similar to a disaster. Sure it looked ok, but it just wasn't right in any capacity. I felt like I had offended Julia and perhaps she rolled over in her grave. It was close to a shamful experience. A bit dramatic, but in comparison to my Cuisinart dough, you would understand. The Cuisinart makes the perfect, buttery dough that just barely holds together but doesn't crumble out of control and is silky smooth. Just like Julia told me. Well mashing chunks of butter into flour with your warm thumbs trying to keep your palms out of it doesn't exactly work the same as a high speed blade slicing the butter into tiny little particles perfectly mixed and in a nice equilibrium with the dough. If you don't have a Cuisinart, get one, somehow. I borrowed (took) my mom's but I'm guessing they have old ones (which are perfectly good believe me! That's what I'm using) on ebay or second hand at a shop. The new ones are a bit pricey, but sweet jesus are they beautiful.

www.cuisinart.com

Anyway, somehow acquire a Cuisinart and you can make any pie. Guaranteed. Ok, enough with my shameless promotion of the Cuisinart food processors, but seriously, it made all the difference for me. Once you have the perfect dough, your pie has pretty much made itself.

When I was home in Portland my cousin Nici and I got a lesson from the pie/Cuisinart masters (my mom and cousin Autumn).

The first trick given by Autumn is to mix half the amount of butter called for (usually one stick, a healthy amount) into your flour as well as the remaining amount in the form of Crisco. Yum, I know, but really, it makes all the difference. Makes it flakey and buttery and perfect. Keep the Crisco in the freezer (it won't freeze......yea I know). It just keeps it that much colder and really what else would you be using Crisco for? Hopefully nothing.

So once you've got your flour and butter/crisco equilibrium after a few pulses of the food processor then you slowly (slowly!) add ice water (yes, ice in the water) in a steady stream until......now this is where the masters differ. I chose sides. Sorry. Until.....the dough JUST forms a ball. NOT when it's rolling around in there in one big lump. You've gone too far at that point and the gluten starts to break down. Bad for pastry dough. So, add it until it just forms a dough. Others say when it just starts to form big chunks but not to the point of a ball. So, try it out and see what you prefer. I like the ball because those extra few seconds make the dough that much easier to roll out and manage, but it doesn't make all that big of difference. Choose whichever side you like.

Once your dough forms a ball, divide it in two if you've made a double recipe (typical when making pies with a top) and wrap it up in saran wrap (mom says wax paper) and form a ball, then smash it into a disc and refrigerate it for as long as you see fit (I do an hour). While you're waiting, whip up your filling. I did an apple pie made with whiskey. I kind of merged two recipes so here is my little summery of the frankenstein I made (a delicious one at that). So follow the recipe below but disregard the part about the steps in making the filling and just use the ingredient amounts and listen to me.

Apple Pie Recipe

So mix all the ingredients together except for the whiskey and vanilla (I know, it's not listed).

Probably the most important part of this, besides the whiskey is that you should use Honeycrisp apples if you can get your hands on them. They are abundant in the fall and are hands down THE BEST APPLES. To eat. And to bake with. Delicious! Always firm and crisp and never mealy. Juicy and amazing. So use them! It will make your pie that much better.

Ok, that said, place your peeled, cored, and sliced apple and sugar etc. mixture in a sauce pan and simmer on a lowish-medium. This forces most of the liquid out of the apples so it doesn't all end up in your pie and overflow all over the oven. Makes for a soupy pie and the fire alarm going off. No good. So cook them for about 5-10 minutes. While your waiting, take your pie dough (after an hour) and roll it out on a silicon pad (if you have it-so much easier!) and then transfer it to your pie plate. It's easy to just kind of flip it into the pie plate if you get under the dough a bit, or you can fold it in quarters and then lay it in the plate and unfold it. Crimp the edges and trim off the dough hanging over. Mix in two tsp. of vanilla and one teaspoon of whiskey (a bourbon whiskey like Makers or Knob Creek) in to the apple mixture. The whisky and vanilla make such an impact on the flavor of the pie it's kind of incredible. When I did this myself I added the whisky before I cooked down the apples and I think it cooked out the liquor (for shame!). So wait, till they are already cooked to add it.

Put your partially cooked apples in the pie crust and add about half the liquid. Put the pot with the rest of the liquid back on the stove to simmer for another five or so minutes until carmely. Roll out the other half of your dough and cut into strips (using a crimper to do this looks so pretty). Starting with the edge place one strip vertically and another horizontally and keep moving in a diagonal until you reach the opposite corner, if a circle had a corner. Then rub some butter on the top of your lattice dough and sprinkle with some raw sugar (or whatever you have). Not too much, just enough to make it a bit sparkly. You can also do cookie cutter shapes or nothing. Up to you.

Bake for about an hour. Drizzle with the reduced carmel sauce and let cool for several hours. Must be served with vanilla ice cream. It just has to.

It's pretty and oh so good and not too hard to make right? There are a lot of steps but really, once you can make the crust, like I said, the pie just makes itself.

Enjoy!

Any excuse to drink while you eat is an excuse I can get behind.

Me triumphant. Pastry dough "mastered".

Photos by Collin Monda and Autumn Webring

Pumpkin Cookies

2009-10-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

I recently made pumpkin cookies, a very appropriate fall dessert. I usually love them but since last fall, I found them to be a bit on the sweet side this time. I think I may not be used to the copious amounts of buttercream I put on anything I can this time around, so next time I probably will add just a bit. The cookies are subtly sweet, much like pumpkin pie, so a little frosting is nice, but a little goes a long way. These cookies are a cinch to make and don't take much time at all so I'd definitely recommend giving them a try. Also, one cookie is more than satisfying to any sweet tooth so you wont feel too guilty around the holiday dessert table. Admittedly, one probably isn't that healthy, but still, having only one will make you feel good about yourself! I like to add a touch of cinnamon to the top for affect, but you could do nutmeg or any fall-like spice.

Here's the recipe I use:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/iced-pumpkin-cookies-recipe/index.html

Photo by Collin Monda

Lemon Poppyseed Cake

2009-10-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

Last week I made Lemon Poppyseed cake and used a recipe from my beloved joyofbaking.com and was extremely disappointed. It was overly dense and a little dry. Also, the color was more white than yellow even though I added a whole lemon zest and juice. I thought this was odd. I should have stuck to my mom's or cousin Autumn's recipes. Those are SO good. I realized the crucial difference in a lemon cake recipe is the eggs. You need a lot of eggs. Like 3-5 eggs and sometimes more yolks. A lot. It keep it really moist which is what you want in a pound cake. Also, I found that when you have a really moist lemon cake it doesn't need any glaze whatsoever. Sweet enough on it's own and so delicious. My cake definitely needed the additonal eggs and more importantly, the extra egg yolks which provide the desired yellow color. Also, buttermilk does a lot to keep cakes moist and many recipes include it.

Here is an example of a much better recipe:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,166,136189-244196,00.html

I will definitely have to make this cake again and try a recipe that has more eggs and probably buttermilk too and I wont glaze it this time.

Also, if you want poppyseeds in your cake, many recipes are just plain lemon, so add 2 tablespoons and that should be enough. I also sprinkled some on top of my glaze for decoration when the cake was finished.

Photo by Collin Monda

Brownies and Recipes

2009-09-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

So I remade the brownies from the AIDS walk for a party at Collin's sister and boyfriend's place for the Australian football championship and I have to say they were amazing. It probably was because they were fresh out of the oven but they were one of the best brownies I've had. Granted, I'm not a huge brownie fan, but nevertheless they were great.

Also, I have had several "complaints" (haha I find this kind of amusing) that I haven't been adding the recipes to the blog. I will start doing this right away. I realize it's kind of the whole point of doing this blog but I felt in the beginning it was more about the process and the analysis of the types of desserts in general and less about the specifics of the recipe. But, the people have spoken and I must appease the few that actually do read this so here is a fresh start.

My fav brownie recipe so far:

http://www.joyofbaking.com/barsandsquares/ChocolateBrownies.html

P.S. If you ever need a recipe for something sweet, check out this website. It has such great stuff. I feel a little guilty ransacking it all the time, but it is amazing.

http://www.joyofbaking.com

AIDS Walk Bake Sale

2009-09-23T11:34:00.000-07:00

I was asked to make a couple of things for the upcoming bake sale at Collin's sister's office (NBBJ) for the AIDS walk in Seattle so I made some vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with a kind of mint colored buttercream (I wanted it to be more grayish blue) but it turned out mint....still looked pretty, but don't know how that happened (used blue food coloring). I also made some brownies with a semisweet chocolate ganache. I tasted the brownies and they were pretty good (really chewy and with frosting, my favorite kind).

The vanilla cupcakes turned out really well (looks wise, I didn't taste) and puffed up nicely, but the chocolate however, seemed to condense rather than rise. They shrunk away from their paper liners and became small little cupcakes. Seemed fine but looked a little messy with the papers hanging off. The chocolate cupcakes called for a chocolate fudge frosting but I had so much vanilla buttercream that I decided to just frost them all with it and it looked rather pretty against the chocolate color.

All of the recipes I really liked; the batters were thick and smooth, especially the vanilla. The brownies, like I said were really chewy and moist so I might have to make those again for myself. I usually am not a brownie person because they are more often than not hard and crispy. Not a fan.

All in all, I'm glad I contributed. I work in an HIV research lab and should have participated in the walk to do my part but perhaps baking for a cause is good enough? I guess it's better than nothing!

I was planning initially to make white buttercream frosting and sugar cookies and pipe on red ribbons and am glad I didn't. Way too kitsch. I figured people would probably spend more money on pretty cupcakes rather than something kitschy. Who knows though. Hopefully they make some money!

Photo by Collin Monda

Tarte Normande aux Pommes

2009-09-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

So I recently signed up for a local, organic produce delivery system called Full Circle Farm (http://www.fullcirclefarm.com/ It's fantastic-check it out!) and included in this week's bundle was four deliciously ripe pears (poires, you'll see why my tart has pommes later) which immediately inspired me to make a French tarte. Beautiful fruit are best displayed in a tart. The only problem was I have never made a tart of any kind, let alone pastry dough.....cakes are my thing, not pies....yet.

Pastry dough, I quickly learned is a huge pain. Like all things in my life I jump right in and try it out. It comes from having little to no patience. Things went pretty well once I combined the ingredients but soon after that things began to crumble, much like my dough, pretty rapidly. Julia (Who else would I use for making a French tart) tells me that the dough should just stick together but not be sticky. Ok? So I added just enough cold water for the dough to bind but once I started to blend the fat by kneading it with the heel of my hand, the dough didn't stick together at all but just fell apart. I added more water and more water and still it never really was a cohesive mass. I think it went too far in the sticky realm, but what could be done? I refrigerated the dough and in a couple days went to finish my tart but the pears had gone bad and Collin had eaten a couple so I switched to apples......

I attempted to roll out my dough and somehow was surprised that it still wasn't sticking together even though I had done nothing to magically transform it and had to add yet more water. I was able to roll it out to about 8 inches in an oblong shape an decided to forgo my plan of using an 8in springform pan and used my oval Le Creuset caserole dish instead. Couldn't bear the frustration of rolling it out any longer. Like I said, pastry dough is not my thing. I don't even like to eat it so it is decidedly not my friend.

I put it in the pan, attempted to make some decoration around the edge with a fork but some of it just crumbled off and some of it stayed with the fork marks. Whatever. I moved on.

I decided to kind of combine Julia's Tarte Normande with her Tarte aux Pommes. I wanted the fruit to be on top so I used the basic tart part for that and I wanted it to have custard, but under the fruit, so I used the Normande part for that. It was a bit confusing but I managed it. I cooked the apples in their sugar and cinnamon (I evidently decreased the amount of apples called for and used the same amount of sugar....not a problem for me) seperately and cooked the custard in the partially baked shell and then layered the apples on top and baked for a bit longer. Covered it with powered sugar at then end. It turned out rather pretty and I was pleased.

However, the custard either cooked too long and became a bit thick or it soaked in completely to the crust because it was nearly impossible to distinguish crust from custard. The apples were delicious though, but Honeycrips always are (my favorite apples). The custard/crust was nice and vanilla-y because I added vanilla instead of apply brandy (didn't have it....who does?). It was tasty and pretty which I guess is all that matters in baking. At some point here I've got to learn how to make a decent pastry dough. Mom? Sasha? Anybody? Julia is far too confusing.

Photo by Collin Monda

Red Velvet Cake

2009-09-16T14:06:00.000-07:00

This is probably my favorite cake. I always liked it but I have come to love it. It is the most rich, moist, and delicious cake I have ever made. It definitely lives up to the name "red velvet". The recipe I've been using, although not authentic or special in any way, is the Paul Deen recipe which was her grandmother's. I love it because it has a lot of EVERYTHING. Including butter, sugar, and red food coloring. I'm not sure if I should divulge to you exactly how much red food coloring it does contain, but lets just say that it isn't that incredibly rich, deep red color from just a few drops from the squeeze bottle. In fact, no measuring in drops or tablespoons is even necessary. This cake is unique in both taste and ingredients. Part of what makes it so good is that it contains a chemical rxn (well aside from the usual ingredients involved in the baking process....."cooking is chemistry" as my mom always says) involving baking soda and vinegar. This is the reaction.

NaHCO₃ (aq) + CH₃COOH (aq) ----> CO₂ (g) + H₂O (l) + CH₃COONa (aq)

So CO2 is produced (the bubbles/foam) and you're left with a dilute solution of sodium acetate in water. The CO2 is what allows the cake to rise. It seems as though it causes it to rise only slightly (just enough) because overall the cake is quite dense and produces relatively thin layers (recipe calls for 3 layers). You could make two thicker layers.

Here is the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/grandmother-pauls-red-velvet-cake-recipe/index.html

I never get tired of making this cake. It is that good. Also, traditionally the cake calls for cream cheese frosting but I have been know to substitute it for buttercream (if I'm making it mostly for myself...). Just an extra something. Also, it says to mix in the coconut and pecans before you frost the cake but I sprinkle on the coconut after. It gives it more texture and just looks better than having the coconut mixed in and hidden. Also, I don't add pecans. I hate nuts in desserts but mainly I just think it takes away from it's texture and it's beauty. Leave the outside pure white and when you cut into it the inside is bright red. Very impressive. A good cake at anytime, but especially for the holidays!

Photos by Collin Monda

Carrot Cake

2009-09-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

For the first "official" cake of the cake club I was asked by several people to make a carrot cake. My least favorite cake except for maybe fruit cake. But, since I've never made it and never liked it I thought it would be a good chance to try my hand at it and hopefully like my own creation. This was not the case. Everyone else seemed to love it though!

The cake batter however was delicious (yes, I ALWAYS try it) and I felt hopeful that my opinion would change despite the large chunks of walnuts (I hate nuts in desserts) and mostly cream cheese, cream cheese frosting (not a favorite to say the least). It was fun to make though, especially piping the carrots on top, even though I completely winged that. The first couple were a little askew and I should probably have piped the leaves but didn't feel like washing the pastry bag twice. It's a complete hassle.

I thought it was interesting though that the carrot cake came about during the Middle Ages because carrots, beets, and other "sweet" vegetables and fruits were used as a way to sweeten the cake when refined sugar supplies were low or too costly. Another fascinating anthropological fact is that carrots were first used and cultivated in the 7th century AD in Afghanistan and were purple instead of orange! Eating a cake with so much beta carotene justifies it enough for me. If I was to make this cake for myself, which I tried to suppress the desire to do this this time, I would have cut the walnuts way down so they were barely even chunks and used buttercream (my favorite!) instead of cream cheese frosting. I would probably still leave in the whole lemon's worth of zest though. It was a nice touch and added a bit of tartness to counter the sugar. If you like carrot cake this was a good one. If you don't, it probably doesn't matter if it was good or not. I still may never come around. Vegetables in cake? No thanks.

Made Collin a couple cupcakes from the batter. They may have turned out better. Less chunks of walnuts.

Photos by Collin Monda

Following

2009-09-08T15:03:00.001-07:00

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German (American) Chocolate Cake

2009-09-03T14:53:00.001-07:00

For my boyfriend's uncle's going away party (going to art school in New York) I made a German Chocolate Cake (his professed favorite...and one of mine too!). While looking for a good recipe, I did a little research and discovered that German Chocolate Cake isn't really German at all, but rather (Samuel) German, who developed the specific chocolate used in the recipe in 1852. I felt a little taken advantage of to say the least. All this time, thinking that the reason I liked that cake so much, must have been related to my heritage. It is sadly American down to the very last ingredient. Oh well....it's still pretty great, even if the recipe is only as old as my Great Grandmother. I also found out that the sides are traditionally left unfrosted, which normally goes against everything I stand for, but in the hopes of giving this recipe a bit mor legitimacy I stuck with the aforementioned "tradition".

The cake was relatively easy to make and included the always effective way of adding your dry ingredients alternately with your wet, in equal portions, always starting and ending with the dry. For some reason I just love this. So practical and so very specific. If this sounds too fussy for you, perhaps the resulting batter will change your mind. It's always perfectly smooth and evenly mixed.

I baked the cake for about 5 minutes less than the recommended minimum time and it could've gone in for even a bit less. Wound up making three thinner layers so it didn't need as much bake time.

Frosting was a cinch since the sides were left bare. All in all, not too bad to make and well worth the effort. Delicious. Even I almost couldn't handle the richness and chocolately-ness. It's an intense cake. Perhaps coffee or even milk would have been a better pairing than champagne? Hmmm, no.

Photos by Collin Monda

The Cake Club

2009-09-02T13:57:00.001-07:00

So I've decided to take the advice of a friend and start a blog about the things I bake, namely cakes (my favorite). I will be making a treat weekly for the recently founded: "cake club" at the request of my co-workers. I will be the one making the cakes and they will be the ones eating them (well I will be eating them too!). I figure, why not at least take a picture of all the sweets I make and perhaps say a thing or two about the difficulty, if it tastes good, and if I would change anything about the recipe. I have not quite moved on to mastering any recipes of my own, but I do usually change a thing or two when making cakes etc. For instance, I follow Julia Child's example and never skimp on the butter. In fact, I usually judge a recipe's worth by how much butter it calls for. If it contains less than a stick, depending on the type of desert, it usually isn't worth making. It just wont be good (sorry to be so cruel to the butter-poor recipes, but it's true). So no healthy food here, just delicious, sugar and butter rich deserts. Mostly cakes. We were made to want sugar and fat so why not give in to that wonderful evolutionary trait every now and again? If not weekly? Or daily....depending.