Cake and Punch

I made a lemon cake and some chocolate cupcakes for the baby shower last weekend. I did all the baking at home, then transported the unfrosted cakes to my mom's house, because I didn't want to risk taking finished cakes on a three-and-a-half hour drive. It was a good call, because a few of the cupcakes got smooshed along the way, so I can just imagine what would have happened to a frosted cake.


I made a last-minute choice to make two cake flavors; I had originally planned to do one large lemon cake and I had a really cool crane design worked out for it. I thought that some people might not like lemon, however, so I did a regular lemon layer cake and the cupcakes. As it turns out, lemon was actually much more popular than chocolate, so it would have been fine, but oh well.


Anyway, I busted out my piping tips and this spontaneous, swirly design is what came out. Overall not too bad, although the writing could have been more centered. I had so much trouble with the frosting that day. I usually use only butter in my frosting, but for these cakes I used half butter, half shortening, as my grandmother taught me; it was my first time using the "new" (trans-fat-free) Crisco and now I see what everyone on the cake decorating boards has been complaining about. It is prone to cracking and in order to get a smooth result, I had to make the frosting softer than I normally would.

The frosting was also frustrating when it came to the cupcakes; it seemed to deflate and looked sort of sad and melted. My mom said no one would notice but me, but I was definitely annoyed - one of the few times lately when I actually get to share something I've baked with a larger group, and they weren't up to my usual standards.


The shower was nice and intimate, with just under twenty guests at my mother's house. I insisted that we have a punch bowl, which my mom thought was funny and old-fashioned - "Who drinks punch anymore?" - but it turned out to be a hit! I used this recipe, which was just right - not overly sweet like some punches - and the leftovers mixed well with rum, although vodka or amaretto would have worked, too.

GRAMMY'S BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
*A note on buttercream: what constitutes buttercream is a matter of raging debate across the internet and in various cookbooks. Many will argue that buttercream must contain eggs. I grew up calling this buttercream; it has no eggs, and is not a cooked frosting, but since you start by creaming the butter, buttercream seems like a fitting name to me.

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup Crisco
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar mil
1 tablespoon

Cream butter and Crisco together until light, fluffy, and completely blended. Add vanilla and half a cup powdered sugar and beat until well-incorporated. Continue adding sugar in 1/2 cup increments until all has been added. If necessary, add some or all milk to adjust consistency.

These are the quantities my grandmother dictated to eight-year-old me when she gave me the recipe, but it's really only enough to frost one layer. For 8" or 9" layer cakes or a 9"x13" sheet pan, double the quantities.

SARAH'S BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
Follow directions for Grammy's buttercream, but substitute butter for Crisco (so instead 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup Crisco, use 1/2 cup butter). This frosting will have a slightly stronger butter flavor. What can I say? I love butter. Not everyone does.

Daring Bakers: Chocolate Valentino with Ice Cream

Here it is - my first Daring Bakers challenge result!


The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. They have chosen a chocolate valentino cake by Chef Wan, a vanilla ice cream recipe from Dharm, and a vanilla ice cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.


The flourless chocolate cake requires only three ingredients - chocolate, eggs, and butter - and pretty much tastes exactly like the chocolate that you use. I selected Scharffen Berger 70%, which is dark and not very sweet, with subtle fruity hints. The cake is supposed to be very dense and fudgy, but I'm sorry to say mine came out rather dry. There could be a few reasons for this. I've heard that the cake is best after sitting for a day, but I ate my first serving the day I made the cake, and my second serving straight out of the fridge. Other servings (which we gave away) that weren't straight out of the refridgerator looked a bit more moist, but I can't say for sure. The other possible cause for the dryness might be the egg whites; the recipe calls for stiff peaks, which I thought I had, but notes that overbeating may cause a dry cake. I guess my peaks should have been a little softer.


The challenge hosts, Wendy and Dharm, each provided a vanilla ice cream recipe (one custard-style, one Philadelphia-style), but they also stated that we didn't have to make vanilla - we were free to experiment. I made a custard-based coffee ice cream (since Dan loves coffee!). I hobbled together a recipe (included below) after looking at dozens of non-coffee recipes (every coffee recipe I could find used instant - yuck!). After spilling half of the ice cream mix (oops), I dumped the rest in my ice cream machine only to discover that the motor had died. It wasn't completely gone - a sickly hum emanated from somewhere within - but it couldn't summon the power to turn the paddle, so it was useless. I had to pour the mix in to a Tupperware container and use the old "take it out of the freezer to stir every half hour" method, which worked fine, but it wasn't as smooth as it would have been with a machine.


I also made a bourbon caramel sauce, which was fantastic. I used Bulleit, which has undertones of tobacco and coffee, so it worked very well with the coffee ice cream. The caramel sauce is the subject of my next video, which will be posted here Monday, so come back then for the recipe. (If you haven't seen the first video, click here to watch it.)


CUSTARD-STYLE COFFEE ICE CREAM
2 cups heavy cream, divided
1 cup 2% milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup coffee

Put milk, sugar, and 1 cup of the cream in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until just before boiling. Do not let it boil! Remove from heat and let cool for five minutes. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, then slowly add a small amount of warm milk mixture (about 1/2 cup) while whisking rapidly to temper the eggs. Add egg mixture to the saucepan with the remaining milk mixture and stir. Return to moderate heat and cook (without boiling) until thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from heat and stir in coffee and remaining cream. Place custard in refridgerator for several hours or overnight. For freezing, if using a machine, follow manufacturer's directions; to freeze without a machine, follow David Lebowitz's directions here.
The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Valentine's Cupcakes

I tell you, I'm exhausted. It's only Tuesday morning and already it's a hell of week. Between dealing with car issues and meeting with clients, I feel like my brainpower has already been sapped for the next few days. So I'm not going to say too much about these cupcakes - I'll just post the pictures. We can all appreciate a little eye candy, right?






ETA: You can read about how I made the royal icing decorations here and see where I used the rest of them here.

LOST Birthday Cake

Wow, what a hectic weekend! I'm getting a late start today because, after bidding our guests adieu, Dan and I had to deal with some car maintainence stuff this morning. I finally got some time to upload photos and write, but my computer is being PAINFULLY slow - and it's huffing and puffing and making all sorts of strange noises. I fear the end is near for this reliable old hunk of metal. I'm just hoping it can hold out long enough for me to save the money for a new one.
Anyway, yesterday was Dan's twenty-ninth birthday, and per his request, I made a cake based on Lost, our favorite TV show. If you don't know the show this cake must look very strange. I drew on the extensive mythology of the show and made a collage design using some of the most iconic images - the smoke monster, the polar bear, and the lock-down hieroglyphs. There's also the beach, of course, with "Happy Birthday Dan!" written as a message in the sand, and the numbers (4-8-15-16-23-42) hiding in the waves. The whole thing is framed by jungle foliage. I made the leaves in advance with royal icing, but otherwise, everything you see is buttercream. Since this weekend was just packed for us, I did something very out of character and used a cake mix; and to stick with the theme, I made it banana-flavored by adding a box of banana pudding to a plain white cake mix. I sprinkled a little bit of cinnamon-sugar on the beach to give it a more sand-like texture.

Dinner, Part 3: Chocolate Peanut-Butter Cake

Here it is: the last (and best?) part of Sunday's dinner. I wanted to make something but had limited ingredients in the house and didn't want to go to the store since the snow was coming down hard. I also wanted something rich and gooey. I had very little butter and only three squares of Baker's chocolate (no cocoa powder), so I couldn't make my usual chocolate cake. After searching for recipes online and scouring my cookbooks, I finally came across a recipe that would work with what I had.


I found the recipe in All About Baking, a 1935 publication from the Consumer Service Department of General Foods Corporation, the producers of Swan's Down Cake Flour, Calumet Baking Powder, and other brands. It's a great little book containing about 100 recipes. What I like most about it is the concept: twenty-three "picture lessons" use a recipe to demonstrate a technique, while several related recipes for each lesson follow. For example, after the Lady Baltimore Cake recipe, there are three recipes for different cakes made using the same basic method. For this cake, I used the caramel devil's food cake recipe, transcribed below. The biggest difference between this and other devil's food recipes I have used is that this one calls for brown sugar, which I imagine works nicely with the caramel frosting.

I wasn't sure I wanted to tackle caramel frosting without a candy thermometer, and I'd pretty much decided on making peanut butter frosting anyway. I had a bit of peanut butter from two jars left (salted and unsalted). I only use natural peanut butter, and I usually get the Teddie brand since it is tasty, cheap, and made right here in New England. I started using natural peanut butter a few years ago when I realized how much junk they put in the processed brands: corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and all kinds of unpronounceable chemical compounds. By contrast, Teddie contains peanuts and, if you get the salted version, salt. That's it. Since I grew up eating Skippy, it took a while for my taste buds to adjust, but now natural peanut butter tastes better to me.


Anyway, for this peanut butter frosting, I scraped out the two jars and ended up with about 2/3 cup of peanut butter. Normally for a peanut-butter frosting I would use some butter, but I'd used the last of my butter in the cake. So I just added powdered sugar and milk, alternately, beating well between each addition, until I found a consistency that I liked. I stopped when the frosting had a thick but gooey texture, similar to caramel, and I didn't so much spread the frosting on the cake as drop it on there, the frosting falling in a lazy drape from the spatula and, upon contact with the cake top, oozing to a smooth finish. After some time, the frosting firmed up, and the end result looked somewhat like fondant. To finish the cake, I dusted the top with sifted chocolate malt powder (Ovaltine) and a sprinkling of kosher salt. Some people have asked me about the salt; I think salt intensifies the taste of the chocolate, and injects the rather soft taste of the peanut butter frosting with more spunk. It was a risk, but one I was pretty sure Amanda and Gordie wouldn't mind, since I knew that Amanda likes chocolate with pretzels.

The end result: really good stuff. So good that we each had a small second serving while playing Yahtzee after our guests left. Thankfully Dan took the rest in to work the next morning so we didn't have to face temptation again. And if you were reading last week, you know that I said I was avoiding sweets. For the most part, I have been. But I decided before I made it that I would have a piece (or two) of this cake, and I'm glad I did. So worth it! But don't take my word for it. Try it yourseldf.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Caramel Devil's Food Cake
adapted from All About Home Baking

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter or other shorting
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs, unbeaten
3 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour and baking soda. In a separate bowl, cream butter thoroughly, add sugar gradually, and cream together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add chocolate and blend. Add flour, alternately with milk, a small amount at a time. Beat after each addition until smooth. Add vanilla. Bake in two deep greased 9-inch layer pans for 25 minutes.*

*My cake passed the toothpick test after only 19 minutes, so I took it out then and it was done. I would suggest checking on your cake around the 20-minute mark just in case.

Gooey Peanut Butter Frosting

2/3 cup natural peanut butter
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk

Beat peanut butter at medium speed with about 1 cup powdered sugar. Alternately add milk and remaining powdered sugar, beating well after each addition. Adjust amounts until desired consistency is reached.

Year in Review: Thanksgivings

When it comes to holidays, we are a family cemented to tradition. Change and innovation do not come lightly. Something as a simple as the suggestion of a change to the Christmas Eve menu has been known to cause actual rioting. So it's no surprise that on Thanksgiving, our table has always been filled with traditional fare: turkey, of course, plus gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, and roughly one 9" pie for every two people in attendance. Delicious, indulgent, tryptophan-triggering? Of course. But I felt something was missing: the color green. So I asked my mom, who hosted this year's get-together, if I could bring brussels sprouts.


As I mentioned in my review of The Harrison, I love brussels sprouts. This is not an enduring affection but rather a newfound passion, still young and bright and wallowing in the puppy-love stage. You see, prior to this fall, I had never tasted brussels sprouts. Never. But we got some in our CSA one week and for me, it was love at first bite.

For Thanksgiving, I sliced three pounds of loose sprouts in to halves and roasted them with a little olive oil at 400 degrees for about forty minutes. The outsides turn dark, nearly black, but the inside becomes a soft, creamy treat. I tossed the roasted sprouts with crisped pancetta, grated parmesano-reggiano, and some lemon juice. The sprout eaters at the table were very satisfied, and I got to eat the leftovers for days.

Incidentally, this year there was another green dish: Aunt Liz's spinach casserole, which is absolutely delicious. I'm going to get the recipe from her and will write about it in a separate post soon after I do.

You may have noticed the s in the title and thought it a typo. It's not; this year, we were blessed with two Thanksgiving dinners, as my in-laws decided to push their celebration up a few weeks and have a Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings in late October, to coincide with a visit from Great-Aunt Rose. The menu was similar to that at my mother's, with a few variations. Lynn, my mother-in-law, makes an awesome homemade cranberry sauce (while my side of the family is married to the canned kind). Also, because Lynn is Armenian, instead of mashed potatoes, she serves pilaf. (Pilaf holds a very special place in my husband's heart, so years ago I secured his mother's/grandmother's recipe; when he asks what's for dinner and my response includes pilaf, I'm guaranteed praise for days.)


For this early Thanksgiving dinner, I made a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and busted out my piping tips to add some old-school decorations. The pattern was not planned: I just went where the frosting took me, which was apparently back to the 1970s, as the bright orange frosting, inspired by the frosting carrots that top bakery carrot cakes, reminds me of nothing more than the orange formica countertops in the chalet my family once owned.

The carrot cake (based on this recipe -- I skipped the pineapple and used whole wheat flour) was moist and delicious and I had fun making it. My decorating skills have deteriorated, though, so I might have to start using my piping tips more often.

Smorgasboard!

Here is a shot of that applesauce spice cake I blogged about earlier. Now that I know to build in at least eight hours for the flavor to develop, it's earned a place in my baking arsenal. This time I topped it with - what else? - cream cheese frosting.

This is the beginning of a pot of potato-leek soup I made a few weeks back. It was simple, delicious, and perfect for the gray, rainy days we've been doomed with lately. No picture of the finished soup because it didn't come out well (too late for natural light - the days are getting shorter). I served it with popovers.

Whole-wheat pancakes with walnuts, dried cranberries, and Vermont maple syrup - the perfect beginning for a Saturday. I apologize for the lousy picture quality; this was during the borrowed-camera phase and this particular camera was definitely my least favorite. I'm so glad to have my new Canon now!

Kale and azuki beans is a very simple but delicious and healthy dish. Azuki beans are small, red beans popular in Japan; they are usually sold in the bulk bins at the grocery store. This dish starts with sauteing greens (in this case, fresh kale, but I've used frozen spinach many times before) with a little garlic and oil, then adding the cooked beans. I usually spritz the combo with Bragg's Liquid Aminos, but you could use soy sauce instead. Serve over brown rice and you have a tasty, nutritious, and cheap meal.

And lastly, no food story here, but I snapped this shot at a rest stop on the way back last weekend. This is why I live in New Hampshire.