The Missing Piece

How to travel with deviled eggs

2010-11-26T08:41:00.005-06:00

I inwardly cringed when asked to bring deviled eggs to Thanksgiving dinner this year. Visions of the last time Speed Racer (aka:best husband) and I traveled with deviled eggs popped into my head.

Thankfully, the Internet is full of wonderful ideas like this one. Save and wash Styrofoam egg cartons. Line them with lettuce, spinach or other greenery. When making your deviled eggs, cut them across the middle (instead of end to end) so they will sit back in the egg carton. Fill the eggs, close your container and you are ready to travel.

When we arrived on site, we cut the top and flap off the carton and put frilly tooth picks in each egg for easy serving. Now that's the way to travel with deviled eggs! Yay!!!

Other sites to check out:

http://chickensintheroad.com/farm-bell-recipes/fun-way-to-transport-and-serve-deviled-eggs
http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/making-perfect-deviled-eggs

English Muffins - BBA Challenge #12

2009-08-13T13:40:00.008-05:00

Week 12's Bread Baker's Apprentice challenge is English muffins.

I decided to join in the fun that some of my fellow bakers were having by doing a bake off / throw down between two recipes.

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a BIG fan of Rose Levy Beranbaum and her Bibles. Not only does she write very detailed cookbooks but she's also very supportive & giving to those on her website. I used her English Muffin recipe out of the Bread Bible (BB) and I had no doubt that her recipe would beat Peter's Bread Bakers Apprentice (BBA). But did it?

Both recipes came together quickly. The Bread Bible used a sponge that you can leave overnight in the refrigerator should you choose. Then mixed and baked the next day. The BBA used a direct method that took 4 hours from beginning to end.

The BB dough is rolled out and cut with a large biscuit cutter

While the BBA is shaped like a dinner roll.

BB's rising on corn meal

BBA's after rise

Both are cooked on the griddle until dark brown on both side.

BB's

BBA's

The BBA's is placed in the oven for 5-8 minutes to finish baking.

Final product: BB

BBA's

Crumb shots:
BB's

BBA's

So which one did we like best?

Much to my surprise, I liked BBA's. The BB had a slight sour dough taste which some may find appealing.

A New Apron to go with the New Job

2009-08-01T03:20:00.011-05:00

My husband's sister, Becky, is an amazing seamstress. She has been whipping out aprons quicker than I can bat an eye. This is the second apron she has made for me. (the first on is a gorgeous half apron) Becky made this design up herself... she doesn't even use a pattern!
Even though it doesn't show in this picture, this design is very flattering to the chest area. My husband loves this apron. ;-)

This is the lovely Becky. She rocks! Thank you Becky! I love my apron! And you were right, it launders very well. I came home covered in chocolate, washed it, and it looks brand new. (the picture above is after I washed it... I wished I would have thought to take a "before" picture. I will next time and update this post with it)

Becky sent me the apron to celebrate my new job. At a bakery!!!! EEEkkkk! (that's me jumping up and down and squealing) I've been there a week and I absolutely love it. Everyone who works there is amazingly sweet and kind. This has been my dream job and now my dream has come true. Thank you Father!
I originally applied for this job back in January. I felt God's leading and I felt very confident I'd get the job. When I didn't, I was quite shocked. So, I turned it back over to Him and prayed about it constantly. And guess what. They sent me an email on June 30th asking if I was still interested. EEEKKKK! I thanked God instantly! (and continuously).

I went through three interviews. The first one was answering a lot of questions geared more for assessing some one's morals, honesty & integrity, the other two were practicals where I frosted a very moist chocolate cake with light colored frosting, made a pie and mixed up some cookies. The second practical I frosted another chocolate cake with white frosting & made a pie. The whole time I was working we were all chatting like sisters having a good time in the kitchen. ...and that's what it's like to work there. I am so impressed with all of the young ladies that bake from scratch. I thought it was becoming a lost art but not so. There are two other ladies around my age but the rest are young, smart and very talented.

How do I know God was in this? I got hired to work in their new location which would be baking only....my favorite. It won't be a retail shop. God knew what was coming up and which job would fit me best. I just had to wait for his timing. (I get a little impatient waiting sometime...okay most of the time... sorry God) The things we will bake at the new location will be transported to the original location where they are so busy they can't keep up with sales. What a wonderful problem to have, eh? (they'll still be baking at the original location also)

That's the latest news is my life. What's up with you?

P.S. If you want an apron, I'm sure Becky would love to sale you one. Here's a sample of her work:

Doesn't she pick out the most wonderful materials? I love them all!

Cranberry-Walnut Celebration Bread - BBA Challenge #11

2009-07-23T20:56:00.004-05:00

If you like cranberries and walnuts, this week bread is for you.

This dough can be baked in a loaf pan, as freestanding boules or braided.
The braids stacked on top of each other:

Here, the top braid listing to the left. I tried to encourage it back to the right before popping it in the oven but it wouldn't budge.

The crumb shot. This bread had a lot of cranberries and walnuts. It tasted great plain or toasted.

Up next... English muffins.

Corn Bread - BBA Challenge #10

2009-07-16T12:58:00.009-05:00

Being a true southern girl, I'm not allowed to make corn bread unless it's in a well seasoned iron skillet. I believe my grandmother would turn over in her grave if I even thought about it.

Although I was raised with cornbread at every meal, it was never my favorite.... until now. This corn bread is amazing. Moist, sweet, and with lots of bacon. It's almost a meal in itself.

We start this recipe by soaking the polenta overnight in buttermilk & leaving it covered on the counter. I was a little hesitant to leave it on the counter overnight but when I checked it the following day, it still smelled fine. hmmm. Interesting.

I mixed the baking powder, salt and baking soda with unbleached AP flour.
Added the white and brown sugar.

My mess-in-place....

I mixed all the liquid ingredients in well then added the corn. (note to self, defrost the corn first! duh!)

The directions state that the corn bread cooks in 30 minutes.... After 55 minutes, with an internal temp of 160, I grab it out of the oven, wrapped in in heavy foil, and put it in a short, thick box and drove off with it. I was five minutes late to Bible study... and I was the one with all the food. Boy were people glad to see me! :-D (I believe the frozen corn is why it took so long to cook. What was I thinking?)

The corn bread was still moist inside but not raw. (whew!) Everyone loved it. I had to hide a piece to take home so I could have a crumb shot.

How good was it? Rick requested it for breakfast! (is that man after my heart or what?)

(Yes, we ate more than just corn bread for Bible study...but that's another post...)

Coming up next.... Cranberry-Walnut Celebration Bread.

What are you waiting for? Buy a copy of Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice and join us. We're a friendly group.

Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread- BBA Challenge #9

2009-07-12T22:09:00.009-05:00

I decided to play with this recipe a bit to see if I could develop a deeper flavor. I created a sponge using part of the ingredients. (1/2 cup buttermilk, 3/4 cup water, 1 1/4 cup bread flour, 1 tsp yeast, 4 tsp sugar) I whisked it for 1 minute than covered the sponge with the rest of the dry ingredients minus the salt. (2 1/4 c flour, 1 tsp yeast, 1 1/4 t cinnamon) Typically, I'd let this sit at room temperature for one hour than put it in the fridge over night but I ran out of time so I let this sit at room temperature for four hours before mixing. Below you see the sponge breaking through the flour mixture.

After four hours, I added the egg and shortening and mix with the dough hook for 1 minute to for a rough dough. I covered the bowl and let the dough autolyse for 20 minutes.

After 20 minute autolyse:

I added the 1 1/4 t salt and mixed on KA #4 for 6 minutes

I added the raisins and walnuts in the last minute than finished the kneading by hand.

The dough doubled in 1 hour

I didn't have an 8x4 pan, so I shaped 2/3 of the dough and placed it in my 9x5 pan

Here's the dough after 90 minutes, ready for the oven. To reduce gaps in the cinnamon spiral, I let the dough overproof so I wouldn't have much of an oven spring.

Final bread cut in half

With the extra dough, I made small cinnamon rolls.

Finished rolls.

Rick has been on pins and needles waiting for this week. He loves raisins. He really enjoyed this bread. Rick said the bread was light, chewy and soft with a slight molasses taste.

Cinnamon Rolls - BBA Challenge #8

2009-07-01T06:26:00.002-05:00

Here we are at week 8 of the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. We are baking our way through Peter Reinhart's book "Bread Baker's Apprentice" in the order recipes appear in the book.

I have been looking forward to this week. So much so, that I even turned my brioche in week 4 into cinnamon buns. I wonder what other doughs I can turn into cinnamon rolls? :-)

I must say, the lemon zest in this recipe made the most wonderful smelling dough ever!

I rolled the dough out into a 12 x 14 square. (that left corner was being a pain)

I spread egg whites over the dough to hold the cinnamon sugar instead of butter. (a tip I learned from Rose Beranbaum) I also used my own cinnamon sugar recipe instead of Reinharts (3/4 c dark brown sugar, 1/4 white sugar, 2 t Vietnamese Cassia Cinnamon, and a pinch of salt)

To avoid distortion, I used a piece of white thread to cut the slices. (slide the thread under the dough, pick up the right thread with your right hand, the left with the left, going over the top of the dough, move the right thread to your left hand and the left to your right hand. Now, at the same time, pull the thread in your right hand to the right and the thread in your left hand to the left)

Violia! A perfect slice

Place the slice piece on a Silpat or parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

I covered them and placed them in the refrigerator until 2AM

I popped them into the oven at 5:30 sharp, baked for 25 minutes then cooled them on a rack for 10 minutes.

I iced them using a poured fondant, snapped a few pictures, then handed them to my husband to take to his 6:15 Bible study. Ummmm. These smell awesome.

I relaxed, thinking I had safely escorted all the calories out of the house but not so. Rick stopped by on his way to work with a left over roll. (he knows they are my absolute favorite. Wasn't that sweet of him to go out of his way?)

Sigh.... I pour myself a cup of coffee, sat in my favorite chair and savoured each calorie. Thanks Honey!

You can find the recipe here (I had to add an additional 6 TBS of bread flour)

Here's a video of using dental floss to cut the rolls:

Caramelized Onion and Herb Ciabatta - BBA Challenge #7

2009-06-26T14:49:00.006-05:00

I've been dreading this bread since the beginning of this challange. The thought of working with a wet dough was a bit intimidating. However, it turns out that it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Isn't that the way it always is? Let's pretend you said yes. We fear the unknown but once we do it, we wonder what the big deal was.

I had the choice of two pre-ferments to use with this ciabatta recipe... a poolish or a biga. I've never made either one so I chose the first one that appeared in the book. The poolish is made a day in advance and cools it's heels in in the fridge overnight while it develops all that wonderful flavor.

My first poolish. Isn't it cute? It's smells wonderful. ...well, for poolish anyway.

While the poolish was warming up from it's over night stay in coolville, I sliced 4 cups of vidalia onions and put them over medium heat to caramelize.

Once the onions started turning brown, I added a couple of TB of sugar, let them carmalize a little more, than added the balsamic vinegar.

While the onions were carmelizing, I chopped up parsley and basil fresh from my herb garden. I tossed them in with the onions and balsamic vinegar until they wilted. I put the mixture to the side to cool while I mixed up the dough.

The dough was fast and easy to mix. Stir the flour, salt and yeast together, add the poolish and water. Mix for 7 minutes. I had to use the maximum amount of water plus 6 more TBs to get the dough to clear the sides but stick to the bottom as Peter describes in his book.

I poured the wet stretchy dough onto a generously floured table.

I pushed it out into a rectangle, floured the top and made the first stretch & fold. I let it rest for 30 minutes.

The book says to fold the onion mixture in at the second stretch & fold 1/4 at a time depending on how many loafs you were making... Ummm, so he's assuming the dough is divided into separate loaves already. Yet the instruction do not divide the dough into loaves until the shaping stage. What to do, what to do? I decided to divide the dough before the second fold and folded in the onion mixture. In the picture below, I have 1/4 of the onion mixture under the flap and 1/4 on top of the flap. I folded the last flap on top of the onions and let it rest 2 hours

Should I have waited to fold the other 1/4 of the onion mixture in at the last stretch and fold after the 2 hour rest? I have no idea.

One more stretch & folded and onto the couche they go. Don't they look cute?

It was a little tricky getting the dough to the pan after the proofing stage on the couche. Next time I will use parchment paper under the dough before putting them on the couche. Since they were so big I had to bake them separately. One loaf proofed for 45 minutes, the other for 65.

The finished loaf

A crumb shot

and another

This was very tasty and had a great chew.

What I learned:

Use more water for bigger holes
Use AP flour for bigger holes
brush excess flour from dough before stretching & folding
Use a parchment sheet before putting them on the couche
Cut the recipe in half

For your viewing pleasure, here's someone demonstrating making ciabatta with a different recipe.

I'd like to thank the Academy....

2009-06-25T14:38:00.001-05:00

Forgive me for being so cheeky. This is my very first blog award.

"You like me, you really like me"
LOL. Sorry, I just had to quote Sally Field.

This is so exciting for me!!! Okay, Okay, I'll calm down.

I have to say a special thank you to Patricia at ButterYum for presenting me with this awesome award! I really enjoy her blog and all the recipes she shares. I wish she was my neighbor! Yummo! Be sure to check out her blog for beautiful pictures, yummy recipes and to see her beautiful award.

As part of the award, I'm supposed to list 5 things I love, and pass this award on to 5 of my favorite blogs. (just 5? That's just so unfair!)

Aside from the usual top 3 favorite things - God, Rick and Family, Here are five things I love:

Playing card games with Family & Friends

I love the laughter & conversations that abound

Cinnamon Rolls

making them, eating them, smelling them. It's all good. :-D

Baking

I could bake all day. I love everything about it. But my absolute favorite part is sharing the baked goods with others.

My new DSLR camera

What would a blog be without one? Now I just have to learn how to use it.

Coffee

I'm addicted. I've tried stopping many times but I haven't been successful yet. (I'll be blogging on roasting your own coffee soon. It's so easy. Did I mention I was addicted to it?)

Now it's time to pass this award on to my 5 favorite blogs that I really love (yes, they're all food blogs, what did you expect from someone who loves to bake?):

ButterYum

by Patricia

I don't know if I'm allowed to pick her since she gave me this award but she is one I'd choose. She loves God, has a great sense of humor, takes awesome pictures, and has great recipes. She's great with step by step pictures on how to do complex recipes.

Flour Girl

by Heather

I love her quirky sense of humor, her writing style and the subjects she writes about. She is really down to earth and fun. She used to be a newspaper reporter but is now going to pastry school and blogging about it here

Bungalow Barbara

by Barbara

She likes taking a recipe and putting her own spin on it. I love that she shares what works and what doesn't in all the recipes she tries.

Pinch My Salt

by Nicole

Nicole has a beautiful blog with fabulous photography, recipes and useful links at the end of each blog. She's also started the Bread Baker's Apprentice bake-off Challenge

The Other Side of Fifty
by Mags
Another wonderful baker and photographer with a great sense of humor.

If you 5 are too busy and don't have time to do all this crazy blog stuff, just enjoy the award and know your blog is wonderful and I have enjoyed meeting you and treasure your blogs and friendship in this blogging world!

Round Challah: BBA Challenge #6 with French Toast Recipe

2009-06-23T06:02:00.000-05:00

This bread is a reminder of how God provided for the Israelites during their flight out of Egypt. The history is documented in Exodus, Chapter 16 starting at verse 4. The round shape symbolizes that the world has no beginning and no end. The sesame seed symbolizes the falling of manna from heaven. Covering the challah with a cloth as it is served at the sabbath meal represents the heavenly dew that protected the manna.
Round challahs are most traditionally used for the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah.

This bread is simple to make. Mix the flour mixture with the egg mixture.

After two rises, divide the dough up in the number of stands you need for your braid.

I needed four stands. I divided the dough into four blobs weighing 204 grams each and shaped them into balls

I let the balls rest 10 minutes before rolling them into ropes

I created a tic-tac-toe form with the four ropes

Follow the directions located here for detailed explanation on creating this form

The top of the finished braid

The bottom of the finished braid

After the final rise, I glazed the dough with egg wash and added sesame seeds. One way to attach sesame seeds is to dip your thumb in water, then place you thumb into the seeds, then touch your thumb to the bread.

Here's the loaf ready to go into the oven

Finished loaf fresh from the oven

Sliced Challah.

Since I had it sliced, I made french toast for lunch using my Dad's recipe.

1 egg
1/4 cup of whole milk
splash of vanilla (~1/8 tsp)
sprinkling of cinnamon

Mix everything together.

Dip each side of the bread into egg mixture.

Fry on medium-high heat until brown.
Bon Apetite!

Black Chocolate Party Cake - Rose Levy Beranbaum Bake-off

2009-06-20T18:00:00.001-05:00

German Chocolate Roulande

Rose released the BLAD of her new cookbook and our challenge for Father's Day was to cook one of her new recipes using it, the recipes from Marie's Blog, or the Angle food cake .

Many from the group were planning on making the Chocolate Party Cake so I decided I'd do something different with mine. I've never made a cake roll or a roulande so I decided to try it with this cake. This was all about learning after all. (The original cake is supposed to be baked in a bundt pan)

I collected all my ingredients and mixed them together and baked it in a 17 x 12 x 1 inch pan for 14 minutes.

I let the cake cool for 5-10 minutes then rolled it up in a silpat. While the roll was cooling I made Rose's German Chocolate Cake Filling
Then I unrolled the cake... uh, oh. I guess not all recipes are meant to be rolled. Or perhaps I should have used the chocolate syrup on the cake before rolling it up. I wasn't deterred. I spread the still warm filling on the cake, rolled it back up and placed it in the refrigerator overnight.

Hard to believe this was salvageable, eh?

I sliced the roll and syruped each side. It was a good cake before the syrup but the chocolate syrup really set the cake off.

I'll definitely make this cake again.. but maybe in the bundt pan as directed. :-)

This cake's taste is amazing as is the German chocolate filling. Definitely a winner.

Casatiello - BBA Challenge #5

2009-06-17T14:59:00.006-05:00

My original plan was to have this bread baked and delivered to my husband's team for an afternoon snack yesterday. But with all the issues I ran into while making the Casatiello, it wasn't ready until lunch time today.

The first issue: the sponge was not real bubbly after the first hour. I waited another hour then proceeded mixing the bread.

Below is the dough after I kneaded in 5 oz of fried prosciutto and 8 oz of provolone cheese.
The second issue: the dough did not increase in size by 1 1/2 times. It was 2 inches short of the mark. I waited another 20 minutes, didn't detect any change, so I shaped the dough and put it in an 8"x3" spring form pan. Since I was running out of time, I placed it in the refrigerator to bake the following day.

Here the dough is ready for it's final rise. You can tell by the height of the collar, I was expecting a big rise. (the idea for using a collar came from At the Very Yeast)

I woke up at 2AM, took the dough out of the refrigerator and went back to bed.

Here it is at 6AM. It rose to the rim of the pan. Not what I would consider 1 1/2 times size increase but I baked it anyway.

I spritzed the top of the dough with water, placed 6 ice cubes in the iron skillet at the bottom of the oven, placed the pan on the pizza stone and closed the door.

The oven spring added another inch or so to the bread.

The last issue: It took 75 minutes to bake! The minimum cook time was 40 minutes and the center was only 90 degrees. After 50 minutes it was at 107, at 60 minutes it was at 136, and at 70 minutes it was at 167. (I tented the bread for the last 5 minutes.)

While delivering the bread to Rick's office today, something strange, sad, yet rewarding happened. As soon as I pulled up in front of Rick's office building, an old noisy car pulled up next to mine. Behind the wheel of the old car was a woman who appeared to be in her early to mid 30s. Children occupied the other seats of her old jalopy. She said they were living in the car and that she just needed something to feed her kids. She wasn't asking for money or for anything for herself but she needed to feed her babies. By the time she finished her story, my husband had stepped out of his office building. I quickly related her story to him. We both exchanged a knowing look, I handed him the bread and he gave it to her. You would have thought we gave her a million bucks. I am still in awe at God's timing. Had things gone as I had planned I would have missed it all. God knew what this lady needed and when she needed it. He took care of her immediate need and he allowed us to be a part of it. Rick returned to the office building empty handed but with a full heart and I smiled all the way home at God's perfect timing. I hope you'll join me in praying for this woman and the many others in her situation.

I have no idea how this tasted but I hope it was grand and that it blesses that woman and her children.

Making Your Own Vanilla Extract

2009-06-10T06:00:00.003-05:00

Do you make your own vanilla? I didn't until last year. And WOW, is it ever good!

Most of the recipes I've found for making Vanilla use vodka or rum. When using a light colored alcohol, you get the satisfaction of watching the color change as it is transformed into vanilla extract. That's all fun and good but if you want truly awesome vanilla extract, use bourbon. It adds wonderful flavor to your recipes.

Use six vanilla beans* per cup/8oz alcohol.
Cut the vanilla beans in half lengthwise, leaving about 1 inch connected at one end.
Put the beans into the bottle of alcohol and shake gently.
Cover tightly and store in a cool, dark place for about 8 weeks, giving it a gentle shake about once a week.

*Using a variety of vanilla pods (Madagascar, Indonesia, Tahitian, Mexican) will produce a vanilla extract with a much more complex flavor and aroma. Try using Madagascar pods as a base, adding Tahitian and Mexican pods for additional flavor/fragrance notes.

Vanilla extract matures with age. I waited 5 or 6 months before I started using the bottle below.

**Shake vanilla bottle before each use. Small flecks of the vanilla pods will be in the vanilla extract - they provide additional flavor. They also appear as dark flecks in light-colored food, don’t shake the bottle if you don’t want the flecks to appear.

Other blog sites on making Vanilla Extract:

http://ayankeeinasouthernkitchen.com/2008/08/04/homemade-bourbon-vanilla/ http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_vanilla_extract/ http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1713,146191-251198,00.html

Brioche Cinnamon Rolls - BBA challenge #4

2009-06-07T06:00:00.001-05:00

Week #4 in the BBA challenge and we are on page 123 of The Bread Baker's Apprentice, Brioche.
We had three choices Rich man's (87% butter to flour ratio), middle-class (50% butter to flour ration) and poor man's (23.5% butter to flour ratio) I chose the middle-class because in the commentary he states it's perfect for cinnamon rolls. Say no more. I LOVE cinnamon rolls.
The only problem I had with the dough is it kept climbing up the paddle trying to escape during the last 6 minutes of mixing.
I found it helpful to roll the dough out on parchment paper because I could use it to help roll the dough into a log after sprinkling it with the cinnamon sugar.

Cinnamon-Sugar Filling

3/4 cup dark brown sugar (packed, 5 1/4 ounces)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter , melted

Combine sugars, spices, and salt in small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon melted butter and stir with fork or fingers until mixture resembles wet sand.

I baked these at 375 for 20 minutes and frosted them with poured fondant.

Croissants - Rose Levy Beranbaum Bake-off

2009-06-06T07:46:00.003-05:00

I love the forum bake-offs on RLB's site. We are given a category and each baker gets to choose a recipe under that category that is new to them. We post pictures on RLB's site and share the lessons learned along the way. With her busy schedule, Rose still finds time to give us supporting comments and praise. How sweet is she?

The first time I thumbed through"The Bread Bible" (Christmas 2007), the Croissants caught my attention and I knew that I would make them one day. Rose's writing style takes the most complicated recipe, breaks it down into do-able steps, sprinkles in a little food science and with each step she builds your confidence to try and succeed .

After mixing the dough and chilling it overnight, I squared the dough and rolled the corners out to create flaps.

I placed 8 oz of Plugra butter in the center and pulled the flaps over the butter, sealing it well. I wrapped this in plastic wrap and placed it back in the refrigerator for a 30 minute rest.

The first turn went very well. It took only a little time and coaxing to roll the dough/butter to a 16 x 7 rectangle. I gave it a business letter fold, wrapped it in plastic wrap, then put it back in the refrigerator for 40 minutes. So far, so good.

By the end of turn two, I was sure I was a natural croissant maker. I didn't have any of the horrible butter break throughs I have read about. I was feeling pretty darn smug with myself.

Then reality kicked in at turn 3.
After turns 1 and 2, I threw away a lot of flour so I decided I didn't need to use as much (I am, after all, a natural croissant maker by now. ...plus I was running low on flour)

You guessed it, I had butter break-through a third of the way through rolling the dough out. I also ran out of flour covering up the butter break-throughs so I grabbed the white whole wheat flour I had in the freezer. Big mistake. It's coarse texture set me up for a real mess in turn 4.

While I waiting for the dough to rest between turns, I checked RLB's site. She had made a comment that we could use unbleached bread flour. I wished I had read that before I grabbed the jagged wheat flour.
I used the bread flour for turn 4 but it was too late. The dough was harder to roll out and the wheat flour I used during turn 3 was cutting through the layers. (and my heart). I heard squishing noise with each roll of the pin. At this point I just kept dumping flour on it and hoping for the best. I wrapped in back up in plastic and let it rest in the refrigerator for 5 hours.

I rolled the dough out for the final time and cut it into triangles.

I shaped them and let them rise.

Then baked them until they were golden brown, cooled for 20 minutes and took my first bite. My husband and I were pleasantly surprised by the splintering crisp crust as we bit into them. Obviously, Rose’s recipe is fool proof because these came out a lot better than they should have considering all the extra flour I used. I really didn't expect these to be edible.

Lessons learned:

Shape the dough into a square after the first rise before refrigerating it overnight.

Don't use wheat flour to roll out your dough. The sharp edges breaks the glutton strands and causes butter break-through.

Be patient. The dough is harder to roll out in turns 3 and 4. Don't be too aggressive or use downward pressure.

With Rose's recipe, you can't go wrong no matter how hard you try. :-)

Here's a video of Pino Ficara making croissants. I found it very helpful to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxCE963K-FY

Things I'm going to try next time I make them:

I'll use bread flour in place of the all-purpose; I heard the higher gluten content allows the layers to rise higher.

I'll mix the butter with some flour and chill it. I heard it really helps keep it malleable but manageable.

How Do You separate Eggs?

2009-06-04T23:20:00.005-05:00

Crack open all the eggs into a bowl (using cold eggs straight from the refrigerator)

With clean hands, fish out the yolks and place them in another bowl
Violia! Fast and easy
Where did I learn this? DyannBakes

Bagels - BBA challenge #3

2009-06-01T08:53:00.006-05:00

I couldn't wait to get to week 3....bagels! These were very easy to make.

I expected the sponge to be thinner and used a whisk. It took a bit of work to get the thick gloppy sponge out of the tines.

I was feeling domestic, so I opted to hand-knead the last 3/4 cup of flour in. I was questioning my sanity after the first 1/4 cup and almost threw it back in the KitchenAid. It took me a total of 10 minutes to work in the rest of the flour.
Surely he didn't expect us to knead for another 10 minutes after that last 3/4 cup of flour was worked in. I consulted the recipe. Oh yes he did! There was a sense of accomplishment when I finished the final kneading. (and a sense of tingling in my arms, neck and back. lol)
At this point I divided the dough in half so I could make half cinnamon-raisin and half plain bagels.

We had two options for shaping the bagels. Poke holes in the rolls we shaped or create a rope and wrap them around our hands to shape. I chose to do both.
The bagel on the left was shaped with the rope method, the bagel on the right with the poke method. I like the wonkiness of the rope method.
The cooked bagel on the left is with the poke method, the ones on the right the rope method. Next time I'll stretch the holes out a little more for the rope method.
Sliced Raisin bagel.
Sliced plain bagel topped with kosher salt and sesame seeds

Lessons learned:

Don't use a whisk on the sponge
Use my KitchenAid mixer to work in the last 3/4 cup of flour before hand kneading.
When boiling, boil the tops first then flip over and boil the bottoms. (they came out prettier this way)

Our next recipe in the book: Brioche

The Very Late Christopsomos - BBA #2

2009-05-30T12:08:00.005-05:00

My second week into the BBA challenge and I'm already late. In the span of one week, I have had out of town guests, a 100th birthday celebration (no, not mine), a dinner party for 14, and a visit from my youngest step-daughter (that was the best part of the week). I considered skipping this bread and coming back to it later but my OLDER sister said I had to bake them in order. (She always was a pest) Just kidding Terri. Truth be known, I was the pesky little sister that got into her make-up, her clothes and followed her everywhere. Somehow, she has forgiven me. (I'm guessing it's because senility is setting in ;) I love that she and I are doing this challenge together. (she is mustangterri in San Diego)

Anyway, onto the bread! We had the choice of three different variations of Artos: Greek Celebration Bread. I found the picture of Christopsomos very intriguing, so I choose it. However, after shaping mine, I noticed the author didn't use the dried fruits and nuts in his. He's such a cheater!

Typically, I wouldn't make a bread with raisins. It's just not my thing. But I'm married to a man who loves raisins in everything, so being the awesome wife I am, I made the sacrificed. ;-)

This bread smelled amazing from the moment the spices and zest were added to the flour.

I selected golden raisins, dried cherries and orange zest from a list of options for the bread and I used a barm instead of a poolish. I didn't have allspice or cloves on hand, so I used Anise, (Rick's favorite spice) I'm really going for the extra bonus points here. He'll probably think I put a dent in the car when he taste this. I glazed the bread with a simple syrup enhanced with honey and orange extract. I omitted the optional sesame seeds because I ...um... forgot.

I timed the bread to be ready to slice at the same time I knew Rick would be driving by our house on his way back to the office from a meeting. I asked him to swing by and pick up the bread for an afternoon snack for everyone. (it was enough bread to feed a small army)

So what did Rick think of Christopsomos? He ate 4 huge pieces and ruined his dinner! He said he would do it all over again given the choice. lol (now who's going for the bonus points?) He loved the orange zest but said the bread needed more raisins. (what did you expect from a raisin lover?)

Next: Bagels!

Whoopie!

2009-05-22T06:00:00.002-05:00

While viewing pictures on foodgawker.com, Whoopie pies caught my attention. I had some cream cheese frosting I needed to use, so I decided to make Whoopie pies using my grandmother's recipe for red velvet cake.

I gathered all the necessary ingredients

Mixed them together

Then used a #30 scoop and plopped them on to the parchment paper.

I baked them for 10 - 11 minutes, let them cool, then filled them using a pastry bag and tip #23.
How were they? Very moist and sticky ....finger licking good. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Red Velvet Cake
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 (1-ounce) bottles red food coloring
1 ounce water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon cocoa
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Sift flour, salt, and cocoa; set aside.

Beat shortening at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy; gradually add sugar, beating well.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition.

Stir in food coloring, water and vanilla, blending well.

Add flour mixture to shortening mixture, alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed until blended after each addition. Beat at medium speed 2 minutes

Sprinkle baking soda over vinegar, fold into cake mixture.

Using #30 scoop, place batter onto prepared pans.

Bake at 375° for 10 minutes.

Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from parchment and cool.

Fill with your favorite frosting and eat.

Yields 21 Whoopie pies using #30 scoop

Other places to find Whoopie pie recipes:

Pumpkin with maple cream cheese http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2008/09/28/i-was-doing-so-good/

Chocolate with marshmallow http://www.notquitenigella.com/2009/03/24/making-whoopie-pies/

Wicked Whoopie Pies from IssaMac's http://www.wlbz2.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=18974

Whoopie Pies, from Gourmet
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, from Rachael Ray magazine
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling, from Martha Stewart
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies, from Food Buzz

Anadama Bread - by the seat of my pants (aka: without a book)

2009-05-15T07:31:00.012-05:00

BBA #1 Anadama bread.

My Bread Baker's Apprentice book is late. :-(
However, the recipe is posted here. :-)

Have you ever heard someone take a bite of an apple and it sounded so crisp that it grabbed your attention? Did you look in the direction the sound came from in time to catch the juice from the apple running down their chin? Did it make you crave an apple? When Anadama is toasted, it appeals to the auditory senses in the same way. It sounds crisp, light and yummy. (and yes, butter was running down my chin)

There are several popular myths about the origin of the name of this bread, which mostly take this form:

A fisherman from the New England area was abandoned by his wife. She took everything except cornmeal mush and some molasses. In his anger, he combined them with flour, water and yeast to make bread, all the while muttering, "Anna, damn 'er!". (close your eyes and picture a Bostonian pronouncing this... the R's are silent) Touching, eh?

This is a simple recipe of flour, yeast, polenta, golden molasses, and water. I couldn't find the golden molasses so I used Lyle's Golden syrup which I brought back from my trip to Ireland. This recipe is so simple that, for an old pro like myself (ha!), I decided to complicate things. I added 75 grams of old sour dough starter to enhance the flavor, an autolyse stage to cut down on the kneading and I baked the bread on a stone...um...because I had one.

The dough was pretty wet and I had to add extra flour to get the texture required.

I would love to take a bread baking class so that I can learn how to knead the dough, do a window pane test and shape loaves correctly. I'm just not one of those people who can pick up a book, read about it, then execute it like I've been doing it all my life. (and people who are like that really get on my nerves...opps, sorry Rick..I really do love you... here, have a piece of bread) To learn, I need someone in my face, showing me step by step ...and I need hands on. So if you're in the Memphis area and want to give a free class... let me know. I'll take you to a great BBQ joint for payment. :-)

Because the loaves would have been branded by the heating elements if I used the middle shelf, I baked my bread on a lower shelf then suggested. I know Peter said not to use ice but I ignored him (shocking, I know) and I tossed 6 pieces of ice into the hot iron skillet located at the bottom of my oven (a trick I learned from Rose Levy Beranbaum) It wasn't my fault I didn't use simmering water...I didn't have my book yet...I didn't know...don't kick me out of the group. Perhaps I'll follow directions to a tee next time. (um...probably not)

The first loaf baked in 32 minutes! When I checked the internal temp, it was 200 degrees! It exceeded the required temperature by 10 degrees! I know, I know... I need an oven thermometer. But I can't find one I can read. (yes, I'm almost 50 and I didn't eat my carrots while growing up) If you know of a good thermometer, ...one that is super sized ...please let me know. Why isn't this a feature on ovens? A nice LCD reading of the actual temperature in the oven with a toggle button so you can read the exact temperature at each rack level. I think I'm on to something here...but I digress.

To bring the oven temperature back up to bake the second loaf, I turned the oven up to 400 degrees. Yes, you are correct.... I forgot to turn it back down to 350 when I popped the pan in the oven. I discovered the error of my ways when I rotated the pan 180 degrees after 20 minutes of baking and it looked done. I checked the internal temperature (157) and with my vast bread baking experience, (notice this is my first and only post on bread) I decided it needed to bake for 7 minutes more. Why 7? I have no idea... but 7 minutes later, the internal temperature was 200! Obviously, that's my lucky number today.

What amazes me is that no matter what I did to this recipe, the taste and texture didn't suffer. The bread was soft, moist and delicious. I'm going to call this a no-fail bread recipe. If it survived all the antics I put it through, it'll survive anything!

Click here if you want to see a world map where the Bakers live. (it takes a minute or two to load. Go get some coffee, take the dog for a walk, then come back to view it) Sorry... I tried to embed the map but it kept messing up. (yes, I have no idea what I'm doing)

Baker's from all over the world uniting to bake together. Brings a tear to the eye, doesn't it? Can you picture us all stretched across the world, holding hands and singing... (to the tune of "I'd like to buy the world a coke")

"I'd like to buy the world some flour and leaven it with love,
Bake buns and rolls and marbled rye and Anadama loaves.
I'd like to teach the world to knead in perfect harmony,
I'd like to buy the world a couche and keep it company.
That's the real thing.
Anadama bread
What the world wants today.
Bread Is the real thing"
(If you're under 30, you may not know that song)

If I haven't scared you off, I'd love for you to join us. (no, you don't have to shave your head or drink the kool-aid) Just get your hands on Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice", post pictures of your bread on Flickr and put a link to your pictures in the comment section below.

Next week: Artos-Greek Celebration Bread

Chocolate-Pistachio Marzipan Spirals

2009-05-11T06:30:00.002-05:00

For our second bake-off using one of Rose Levy Beranbaum's cookbooks, we chose to do something from her "Rose's Christmas Cookies" cookbook. The rules offered a lot of latitude. We could choose either a bar or a filled cookie. It didn't dawn on me until after I tasted these that they weren't technically a cookie but more of a candy. (the fact that I didn't have to turn on my oven should have clued me in on this)

The most time consuming step was shelling the pistachios and the most difficult step was getting the skins off of the pistachios. However, none of these task were daunting or impossible. Baking the pistachios for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven help in removing the skins.

To make the marzipan, I processed the pistachio nuts, powdered sugar, corn syrup and glycerin in a food processor until in formed a dough, then I kneaded it for 3 minutes.

If you’ll notice, my marzipan is VERY green. The recipe said to use just a dab of green paste. I stuck my toothpick half-way into the paste and used whatever food coloring clung to it. I almost added more coloring because the green doesn’t come through until you start kneading it. Thank goodness I didn’t add more!

I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the marzipan rolled out. My sister called me while I was doing this step and I forgot to take pictures. I rolled the marzipan between two sheets of plastic wrap to 1/16th of an inch then spread chocolate ganache on it. I placed the ganache covered marzipan in the refrigerator for 10 minutes for the ganache to firm up then rolled it up like a jelly roll, painted it with egg white then rolled it in chopped nuts.

At first bite, the brute force of the chocolate is dominant overall but then as the marzipan melts on your tongue the chocolate mellows and there is a subtle pistachio finish. Very interesting indeed.

This would be a great dessert to make in the summer time because you do not have to turn your oven on. But the best thing about the Chocolate-Pistaschio Marzipan Spiral is you can make them several weeks or months in advance. They store very well in the refrigerator or freezer. I plan on serving them on May 22nd at a get together at our house. I love foods that you can make ahead of time. It reduces the stress of entertaining!

You'll have to be a member (free) of Rose's forum to read what the others made. Join then click here.

Chicken Salad

2009-05-07T17:19:00.002-05:00

I needed to make chicken stock this week but was short on time so I ran up to Costco and bought one of their rotisserie chickens. All I needed for the stock were the bones so I pulled all the meat from the chicken and used some of it for chicken salad. It was awesome!

In a small bowl, I mixed
1/3 cup Dukes Mayo
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 T olive oil
2 T sugar
1 T tarragon
salt and pepper to taste (about 1/4 tsp each)

In a larger bowl, add the diced chicken, chopped celery (1 stalk), chopped sweet onion (1/4 cup), chopped bread& butter pickles, and red grapes. Pour the dressing on top of the chicken mixture and toss gently.

Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge

2009-05-05T21:12:00.008-05:00

A group of food bloggers and home bakers have joined together and taken on the challenge of tackling every recipe in this book (in order as they appear). The idea for this challenge was the brainchild of Pinch My Salt, an excellent food blogger I've been following for awhile.

If you love baking bread and would like a learning challenge, please join our group. The last day to join the group is this Sunday. Go to Pinch My Salt BBA Challenge for the details.

For a preview of the book, which include many recipes, click here.

If you want something a little less formal, we can have our own mini BBA challenge (Bread Baker's Apprentice challenge)! Anyone interested in taking part can post on my blog in the comment section under each post. Once you have made your bread and taken a few photos, add the links to your photos, comments on how your recipe's turned out, changes you made in the original recipe, or tips you learned along the way to improve the recipe. (There are many free sites you can use to upload your photos to so you can share them, including flickr.com.) Or include a link to your blog so we can pop over and read about your experience.

I'm not an experienced bread baker so don't feel intimidated to join in and try. I'm looking forward to being pushed into learning and this challenge will certainly give me the opportunity to do so. Although the group itself has no set rules or schedule, I am going to TRY and complete one recipe from the book each week. I will post the monthly schedule of the four recipes we will tackle each month, and anyone that wants to take part can. It will be informal, so if you can only do one or two recipes a month, no problem. I'll create a new post each week for each recipe, and post photos and a description of my results.

I cannot post the specific recipe itself for you without permission from the author, so you will have to have your own copy of the book to join in. You may buy your own copy, or borrow it from your local library (or friend's bookshelf!).

The date of completion for the first recipe will be May 17th to allow those interested in joining enough time to get hold of the book. We will be progressing through the book from front to back, so the first month's schedule will be as follows:

Anadama Bread (p. 108): Finish by Sunday, May 17

Greek Celebration Breads (p. 111): Finish by Sunday, May 24

Bagels (p. 115): Finish by Sunday, May 31

I've heard the book is a great primer for many artisan breads any home baker can recreate within their own kitchens. I hope that you want to join me in this challenge which will make the journey much more fun, as well as help to keep me on track as well!.

I'm Foodgawker Worthy!

2009-05-02T19:10:00.003-05:00

Foodgawker accepted one of my photos! I'm so excited!

After reading ButterYums post on "Foodgawker Worthy?", I thought I'd give it a try too and submitted a picture from my post "Cupcakes for a Baby Girl"

Either click on the title above or here to see the picture on Foodgawker. Check out all the other photos while you are there by clicking on "home" in the upper left corner. They're amazing! By clicking on any of the pictures, it takes you to that person's blog site so you can get the recipe or read all about the process. What a great idea!

What are you waiting for? Go check it out! LOL :-D

Wilton Cake 2 Class

2009-05-01T15:45:00.005-05:00

I forgot to take a picture of my final cake before Rick took it to work. Luckily, his friend's cell phone had a camera and he snapped a few pictures for me. Thanks, Tony! The cake was a red velvet cake (old family recipe) with a crusting cream cheese frosting I found on cake central.

In this class we learned how to make flowers using Royal icing and a plaque (bird) using color flow. We had to bake just one cake for this class which took a lot of stress off. Cake1 wore me out because we had to make a cake every week. I had no idea how much frosting it took to frost and decorate a cake! My goodness!

I have to confess, I couldn't get the hang of making mums. I don't know why, but I'll just leave that to someone else to make. All the other flowers were fun to make.

This was my favorite one to make. It's a primrose. I used tip 103, 14 and 1
These are Victorian roses made with tip 97

Here are my pansies. I didn't realize I had left off the two shorter petals on top of the yellow until 3 days after they had dried. Oops. Luckily, no master gardeners were there to eat the cake. :-D
The final cake also consisted of rose buds, violets, daffodils and daisies.

It took me forever to do the basket weave! I used tip 47. I used the smooth side for the vertical piece and the serrated side for the horizontal piece. Another lady in the class used tip 23 for the basket weave. I think I liked it better. The rope border was easier to do than I thought it would be.

Charlotte Bake off

2009-04-25T15:48:00.007-05:00

Some fellow bloggers from http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/decided to have a bake-off. Each person was to select one of the Charlottes from "The Cake Bible" by Rose Levy Beranbaum and then post about it.

A charlotte is made by lining a mold with a sponge-type cake in varying geometrical shapes and then filling the mold with an airy Bavarian or whipped cream. The nice thing about the charlotte is you can prepare it in advance and refrigerate it up to 3 days with no loss of texture or flavor.

I chose the Chocolate Chip Charlotte because it had an interesting look (well...and it had the least amount of components needed to assemble) All I needed was a Genoise (pronouced JenWAHZ), Chocolate Ganache, and Chocolate Chip Whipped Cream.

A Genoise is a European sponge-type cake containing butter and is leavened by stiffly beaten eggs. The ganache was made with equal amount of chocolate and cream and the Chocolate Chip Whipped Cream was made with heavy cream, sugar, vanilla, ground almonds and chocolate with enough powdered gelatin to stabilize it. I accidentally omitted the almonds. oops

I baked the genoise in a square pan, coated one side of it with half of the ganache then sliced it into thin strips. These strips were then placed in a bowl slightly overlapping each one. Once the bowl was lined with the cake strips, it was filled with the chocolate chip whip cream and refrigerated.

I was very surprised how easy it was. I'd definitely do it again.

To see pictures of the charlottes other made click here

Other blogs on Charlottes:
La Tartine Gourmande Strawberry and Raspberry
Zoe Bakes Chocolate
Happy Home Baking Mango and Peach
Cannelle et Vanille Summer Berry

Frozen Buttercream Transfer

2009-04-18T19:47:00.007-05:00

While in Wilton's Cake 1 class, we transferred a rainbow pattern to a frosted cake using gel and wax paper then filled in the design with buttercream and a star tip.

Frozen buttercream transfer is a method of transferring your art to your cake by making a buttercream plaque to apply to your cake. It can be used on small as well as very large cakes. There's only one caveat... you have to create the design in reverse.

I had the opportunity to try this technique tonight while making a birthday cake for a retired Marine. I printed the Marines logo (below), traced the design on the back of the printed paper (so I'd have the logo in reverse), taped the reversed picture to a cake board, tape wax paper on top of it, and proceeded to trace and fill the logo using buttercream.

Once the buttercream Plaque was on the cake, I added the braided cord to the anchor

For my first time, I'm happy with the way the design came out.
In hind site, I'd outline the design in the same color as the frosted cake, use the bottom of one of my baking pans as my surface instead of a cake board (it chills super quick) and I'd use 1/2 cup of butter in place of shortening. (I think it would firm up faster and harder).

I can't wait to see Jerry's face when he sees his cake tomorrow.

Here are a couple of sites where you can read up on Frozen Buttercream Transfer if you decide you want to try it.

http://www.sdbytracy.com/frozbutter.htm
http://www.soggycheerios.com/archives/197
http://thecakestylist.blogspot.com/2007/10/superman-cake-frozen-buttercream.html

ButterYum's Juiciest Oven Roasted Chicken Ever & Chicken Stock

2009-04-17T18:37:00.002-05:00

I've always wanted to make my own stocks but was a little intimidated about doing so. That was before I read ButterYum's posts on it. She made it sound so easy.

The first step for me was to make her "juiciest oven roasted chicken ever"
If you don't feel like baking your own chicken, pick up a roasted chicken at your local store to feed your family with and use the left over carcase from it.

Both recipes were easy to make and the house smelled wonderful.

I've used the stock to make soup and chicken pot pie and Wow! There is a big difference between homemade stock and store bought. Thanks for the encouragement to make my own ButterYum!

I removed most but not all of the fat before storing the stock. (I left about 1/3 of the fat.) I've stored the rest of the fat to use later. Nothing makes food taste better than a little fat. :-)

Please visit ButterYum's site for the recipes. (Take a look at some of her other recipes, too, not to mention her beautiful photos)

Try it. You'll like it. :-)

Other websites on making stocks to check out:

Simply Recipes

Kalyn's Kitchen

Tigers & Strawberries

Chocolate Fudge Cake with Peanut Butter Frostings

2009-04-08T15:32:00.007-05:00

Captain Joe, our pastor at the Salvation Army Corp, likes chocolate and he likes peanut butter so for his birthday I decided to combine the two. I used my Mom's favorite chocolate cake recipe (recipe to follow) and frosted it with a Peanut Butter Mousseline Butter Cream then decorated it with a chocolate peanut butter frosting.

I don't know where this recipe originated. My Grandmother gave my Mom this recipe when I was six and it instantly became everyone's favorite.

Best of the Best Chocolate Fudge Cake

3 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 1/4 c sifted cake flour (I used 8.3 oz/236 grams)
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup of butter
2 1/4 c firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 c sour cream
1 c boiling water

Melt chocolate and set aside to cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients
Pre-heat oven to 350 degree F
Grease and flour two 9 x 1 1/2 cake pans (I used a 13 x 9 x 2)
Sift flour, baking soda and salt onto waxed paper
In a large bowl, (I used my KitchenAid) beat butter until soft.
Add brown sugar and eggs to butter and beat with mixer until light and fluffy (3 mins on 4 or 6) 5 mins on high with a hand held mixer
Beat in vanilla and cooled chocolate
Stir in dry ingredients alternating with sour cream beating well with wooden spoon after each addition until batter is smooth (I used my KA on stir)
Stir in boiling water. Batter will be thin.
Pour at once into prepared pans
Bake in a moderate oven (350 F) until center springs back when gently touch in center. Everyone's oven is different so monitor closely. It took me 35 mins for 9" round, 50 for 10" and 13x9x2.
Cool layers in pans on wire racks 15 minutes. Turn out and cool completely.

The Mousseline Frosting came from Rose Levy Beranbaum's "Cake Bible". I added a 1/2 cup of Peanut Butter and 1 T vanilla at the end. I'll use less peanut butter next time because on day 2 I noticed the frosting became softer.

For the Peanut Butter Ganache, I used:

226 grams of chocolate

256 grams of heavy cream

8 T Jif Peanut Butter

1 T corn syrup

I processed the chocolate in a food processor.

Heated all the other ingredients in a sauce pan to a boil, then poured it over the chocolate as the processor was running. As soon as all the liquid was added, I stopped the processor and poured the chocolate into a bowl to cool.

After the ganache cooled a bit, I stirred in 1 T Vanilla

On day 2, the ganache was too bitter for me. (I used half 53% and half 62% baking chocolate) So I beat in 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla. This changes it from a ganache to a frosting.

The frosting piped like a dream and made beautiful roses.

Cookie Blues

2009-04-03T23:02:00.007-05:00

This video was just too cute... I had to share it.

Warning: the ending is a little sad and creepy...

Wilton Cake 1 Class

2009-03-26T10:55:00.014-05:00

Final project for Wilton Cake 1 class

Week 4: Twelve Pound Final

Yesterday was the last class of four of Wilton Cake 1.

The cake above was used to celebrate Tony's birthday since Tony didn't get to have any of the cake I originally made for him. (see week 3 below)

This is a 10" chocolate cake (Mom's recipe), torted and filled with 3 cups of Beranbaum's chocolate ganache and frosted with 7 cups of Wilton's buttercream. I didn't keep track of how many cups of icing the roses used, so I'm guesstimating 1 cup. That's 11 cups of frosting to complete the entire cake. (yikes!)

The final cake weighed 12 pounds! (technically, 11 lbs 12 oz)

Lesson learned: I used two cake rounds to support the cake but I should have used 3 or 4 because the base flexed a bit as the cake was moved from class to home, then from home to the workplace, causing the crusted buttercream to crack.

I can make roses! Finally!
Wilton's method teaches you how to make the rose in three steps over three weeks. In week two, we learned how to make the center cone (what the pedals attached to), In week 3, we learned how to make the center and three pedals around it, the last week we learned how to do the other two layers of pedals. The only thing that kept me from hating roses, was the fact they were my mom's favorite flower. It took me 60 to 80 tries before I had something that looked close to a rose.

Week 3: Send in the clowns.

This is the second cake I made. My frosting to ice the cake with was too stiff and the frosting to make the clowns wasn't stiff enough. Oh well, it's a learning experience.

And as my instructor, Karen Houdek, says "it's just cake" Does she know how many hours of my life I spent on this? :-D LOL

The clowns started out with great posture but they kicked back and relaxed on the drive home. When I open the box to show them to my husband, Rick, they were lounged back on their elbows looking up at us. I'm just glad they didn't lie down and take a nap! That would have looked too weird...
Lesson learned: Use a stiffer butter cream and let it set up before putting their heads on. Perhaps taking their heads off for the bumpy car ride home would help also. (I don't know if I can do this... clowns are scary enough with their heads on...) :-)

I made the cake by doctoring up a cake mix with sour cream, sugar, flour, vanilla and coffee. It came out really light and fluffy. It was very tasty but I was hoping for a dense cake.

My husband took this cake to work to celebrate his buddy's birthday... the problem was, his buddy (Tony) was on vacation. Rick (husband) took a lot of pictures of his co-workers eating the cake and celebrating Tony's birthday, then emailed the pictures to Tony. Guys are too funny!

Week 2: Our first Cake.

Our class used piping gel and wax paper to trace a rainbow pattern. We flipped the wax paper/gel on top of our cake and lightly pressed over the gel then removed the wax paper. We filled in the pattern using the star tip. I was surprised how much coloring gel you had to use to get a true color. The teens at our church ate this cake.

Week 1:Demo only

We met our teacher tonight. She wheeled a buggy full of items into the class to give us a demo. (little did I know that I'd be balancing a buggy full of my kitchen items with one hand and a cake to decorate in the other for the next 3 weeks. Ahhh. Ignorance is bliss.)

Karen, our teacher, explained how to make buttercream icing and frost a cake. Then she demonstrated both to us (making it look so easy) We were instructed to show up next week with a frosted 8" round cake that was 4 inches high, a cup of firm, medium and thin frosting for practice, plus enough frosting to decorate our cakes. How hard can that be? i-yi-i

Week 0:

Wilton had their classes on sale for half price ($17.50) last month, so I signed up for cake 1.
I had a 50% off coupon that I used on the required kit ($13) and thought all my spending was over. Ha! Not quite. I didn't keep track of how much I spent on powdered sugar, Crisco, and cake mixes every week. (denial is a good thing) ;-)

Cupcakes for a Baby Girl

2009-03-13T09:36:00.007-05:00

Here are pictures of cupcakes I made for a baby shower for a baby girl. I wanted pink cupcakes, so I used a red velvet cake recipe and went light on the red coloring.

Angel on a cloud:

3 little bears:

The cupcakes below are supposed to be a baby in a baby carriage... The flowers are the wheels. The blue thing at the mouth is a pacifier. No matter how much my husband squinted, he couldn't see the vision I was trying to create. LOL

I decorated the cupcake stand instead of making individual cupcake wrappers as I did in a previous post.

Final presentation

If you decorate the cupcake stand keep in mind that the cupcakes will need to be displayed at eye level. Otherwise, the cupcakes on the lower levels will be blocked as shown below.

French Macarons

2009-03-02T16:05:00.001-06:00

We agreed to have a low key, inexpensive Christmas last year. I wanted to make something nostalgic and special for my husband and his sister. I've often heard my husband talk about his grandmother's Anise cookies that were hard as a rock. (not exactly what I look for in a cookie...) When I questioned his sister about it, she too talked enthusiastic about those cookies. Aha! I can kill two birds with one rock cookie. :-) Now all I had to do is find a recipe.

After searching on the internet for an Anise cookie, I found the Caramel Cook's blog site with this Anise cookie (excuse me, Macaron)

Picture courtesy of Caramel Cook's website.

I had great success with his recipe and without realizing it, I had fallen under the spell of the French macaron.

Was the French macaron the rock hard cookie my husband and his sister remembered?
No, but they didn't care.... they really liked the macarons... and so did I.

When the Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary contacted me this month and asked me to contribute something for a coffee they were hosting on March 2, I thought, what could be better than a French macaron. (did I mention the coffee would host 150 people? Yikes!)

I decided on a chocolate macaron and started searching for a recipe so I could practice making them. I started with David Lebovitz recipe.

Picture courtesy of David Lebovitz's website.

I appreciate the fact that he gives weights on most of the ingredients, however, I wished he would have included the weights for the egg whites too. (if you love to bake and you don't have a kitchen scale, buy one. You can find an inexpensive one at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I recommend one that has 1 gram increments. Read this article on scales that Rose Levy Beranbaum wrote for more information) I tried David's recipe using 50 grams, 62 grams and 68 grams of egg whites. I was successful at getting a foot on them each time and I loved the flavor but the batter seemed too thick each time.

Next I tried a recipe from Coco & Me

Picture courtesy of Coco & Me website.

She gives a lot of helpful insight into making macarons. The recipe's outcome was successful and tasty with a light chocolate flavor.

"Warning From Coco & Me:
This dessert is very difficult to master.
A perfect Macaron MUST have ‘THE FOOT’. It mustn’t come out cracked or wrinkled or have a gap between the shell and the foot. It must be round and be of the same size. (but they still taste great even if you don't master it) it’s all about trials & tribulations!"

Now, if like me, you become obsessed with Macarons, you need to visit Syrup & Tangs blog site. He wrote 5 excellent articles on Macarons. With this type of detailed explanation into the world of Macarons, I believe he could work for Cook's Illustrated.

Are you ready to begin your obsession?

Equipment you will need:
3-4 cookie sheets (you will start with cookie sheets stack on top of each other for the first 5 mins)
piping bag (you could use a freezer ziplock bag)
coupler or tip for piping bag that has a 1/2" opening
whisk (I use a hand mixer with a whisk attachment)

Final recipe I used:

90 grams powdered sugar
50 grams blanched almond flour
20 grams dutch processed Cocoa powder
68 grams egg whites, room temperature (old eggs, not fresh)**
65 grams fine grained sugar (caster*)

The day before making macarons, crack and separate 3 large eggs. (to store the yolks for use later, dissolve 1/2 tsp of castor sugar into the yolks and mix well. You can freeze them if you won't be using them right away)

On baking day, place a rack in the middle and top position of the oven and Preheat to 375 F /190 C

Place the powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa in a food processor and process for 1 minute. Place to the side for use later.

Stack two or three heavy baking trays on top of each other. Line the top tray with parchment paper or a silpat. (I use parchment paper and draw 1" circles on the back so I can achieve the same size)

This is what happened when I forgot to use the extra baking trays. :-(

Whisk egg whites starting on low speed for first minute, then increasing the speed a little bit at a time every 15 seconds until you are at a medium high to high speed) When the whisk starts to leaves a trail through the egg whites (soft peak stage), gradually add the 65 grams of sugar. (You can add the sugar after the egg whites are foamy but it'll take you longer to get to the firm, glossy, compact meringue you will need)

When the meringue is at the stiff peak stage, sift half the dry mixture over the meringue and fold in with a spatula using a circular motion around the bowl and under the batter. Repeat with the remaining dry mixture. (It's better to undermix than overmix) The final mixture should be smooth and thick but flowing. (A ribbon of batter dropped from a spoon on top of the remaining batter should take about 30 seconds to disappear)

To keep the baking paper from slipping, dab a little batter under each corner of the parchment paper to anchor it to the baking trays.

Spoon the batter into a piping bag (I use a Pringle can or tall glass to hold the piping bag)

Pipe evenly onto the parchment paper. Mild peaks should settle back into the batter eventually. If they don't disappear, tap the tray repeatedly on the counter top until the peaks have largely disappeared.

Place the tray in the oven on the middle shelf. Set timer for five minutes. (a foot should form at 5 or 6 minutes) When the timer goes off, remove the extra baking tray(s), place a piece of aluminum foil on the top shelf to protect the Macarons from browning, change the oven temperature to 340 degrees F / 170 C, and crack the oven open with a wooden spoon. Re-set the timer for 5 minutes.

Remove Macarons from the oven and leave on the tray for a minute or two. Gently try to lift one of the outermost shells. If the shells stick badly, but are firm, try spraying or brushing a little water under the baking paper. Don't use too much water or the shells may start to dissolve around the edges. Cool on a wire rack face up.

When completely cool, apply a small dab of ganache or buttercream to the underside of one shell and gently press another shell on top of it.

Refrigerate for 24-48 hours. They taste better on day 2. After three days, they become softer.
(You can freeze the shells without ganache & buttercream for a couple of weeks)

Eat macarons at room temperature.

*you can make your own caster sugar by processing granulated sugar in a food processor for 1 minute
**because of the protective nature of egg whites, you can leave them out on the counter top for 1 day

Other websites to check out on Macarons:
Here's a Video of a charming French chef demonstrating how to make them.
Serious Eats

Baby Shower Cupcakes

2009-02-19T10:26:00.016-06:00

The ladies at our church (Winchester Corp Salvation Army) pitched in to throw a baby shower for a member that grew up in the church and I had the honor of making the cupcakes!
I found my inspiration on the web.

The ducky ones I found were used to advertise these cute cupcake wrappers. However, at $1 a piece, the wrappers were not even considered. Instead I made cupcake wrappers using doilies given to me by a friend. (Thanks, Gale)

I used a 12 inch doily to make the cupcake wrapper

picture courtesy of AlamoSweets on cakecentral.com

A lot of people must have liked the edible pearls shown in the duck picture above because they were sold out every place I looked. I decided to make my own using royal icing. I tried piping orbs but they did not come out perfectly round. After a few trial and errors, I found that letting the odd shapes dry for 2-4 minutes, I could round them using my index finger and palm. When they were completely dried, I tossed them in Super Pearl dust to give them a wonderful sheen.

Since the baby was going to be a boy, I went with blue frosting and pearls.

Here's the finished product. Cute, aren't they?

I found the ducks at http://stores.ebay.com/Monkey-Dog-Balloons. They were easy to work with and they shipped my order very quickly. They even combined the postal charges on multiple items I ordered. I like that!

I fell in love with this baby bird cupcake from Martha Stewart's web site.

Unfortunately, my birds turned out looking more like the Michelin man. I overheard one person asking her friend "Is this a frog?" Back to the piping board for me. :-D
I used tip #12 for the birds. Next time I'm going to make the birds using the coupler without a tip and use longer strands of coconut for the nest.

The daisies were made using gumpaste. It's a lot of fun to work with.... it's a lot like play dough. It brings the kid out in you.

Rustic Apple Pie

2008-10-25T17:52:00.014-05:00

I don't know why but I bought a lot of apples a couple of weeks ago. A LOT! I couldn't help myself. I went a little crazy when I saw all the different varieties available. I meandered around all the crates and containers picking up a couple of each variety as I went and before I knew it, I had a boat load! What's a girl to do? Make a pie!

Instead of making the typical pie, I went with a more rustic looking pie. (aka galette)

I keep extra pie dough in the freezer at all times for such an occasion. You can use any pie crust recipe you would like for your galette. If you want an easy (and tasty) recipe with photos, pop over to Simply Recipes.

Peel, core and slice your apples. (I used 4 granny smiths, 4 golden delicious and my favorite apple peeler/slicer) Toss the apples with 1 TBS fresh lemon juice and a 1/2 cup of sugar. Let them rest on the counter for an hour, then drain the liquid off into a sauce pan.

Caramelized the liquid over medium heat for 5-8 minutes.

To prevent a flood of juices from collecting in the bottom of the pie/galette, pre-cook your apples in the caramelized liquid for 10 minutes over medium heat to a temperature of 120 to 140 degrees. (This stabilizes the pectin and prevents the apples from becoming mushy when cooked for a second time in the oven. Temperatures over 140 causes the pectin to break down and you'll end up with an applesauce pie.)

Remove the apples from heat, adjust the flavoring to your liking (I sprinkle in cinnamon, a tablespoon or two of brown sugar and a slash of vanilla)

Let the apples cool for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Roll out your dough and place it on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Put your cooled apples in the middle of the dough and fold the dough up leaving most of the fruit exposed

Mix a splash of water with an egg white and brush it on the exposed dough then sprinkle it with sugar and pop it in the oven.

Bake on the bottom rack 30-45 minutes at 400 degrees (until crust is brown and fruit is bubbly) Check the bottom of the pie after 35 minutes, if it is getting too brown, move it to the middle rack and lower the temperature to 350.

TWD: Chocolate chocolate cupcakes

2008-10-22T13:57:00.013-05:00

After living vicariously through all the "TWD" bakers out there, I finally have jumped on the bandwagon. (Yes, the October deadline had a lot to do with motivating me)

This weeks recipe, Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes, was selected by Clara of I Heart Food4Thought You can find the recipe on her website or on pages 215-217 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking From my Home to Yours"

Although I carefully weighed all my ingredients and took the cupcakes out of the oven the second the tops of the cakes were dry and springy to the touch and a knife inserted into the center came out clean (21-22 mins) as Dorie described, I found these cupcakes to be on the dry side.

I only had one issue with the recipe... the step where you fold the melted chocolate into the batter, ...I scraped all the chocolate into the batter at once, grabbed my spatula to fold it in, and hit a big lump of chocolate! The entire amount of melted chocolate had solidified! grrrrrrrrr. (the chocolate was around 74 degrees, the cake batter around 66 degrees when I merged the two.)

I removed the big lump of chocolate out, wiped off all the cake mix that I could, and stuck it in the microwave until it was pliable again. Then I mixed it into the batter slowly. I think there were still some small pieces of chocolate that solidified but they seemed to have melted when I baked the cupcakes.

I wanted to do something different with the cupcakes so I used the vanilla cream filling that Baking Bites posted on her site. For half of the cupcakes, I used her method of filling the cupcakes ,

for the other half, I used a faster method... I shoved the piping tip into the cupcake and squeezed the pastry bag until the cupcake swelled. (some of them cracked because I squeezed too much. See the one on the left below)

The cupcakes using Baking Bites method (shown below) looked nicer and more symmetrical than the ones I filled by shoving the tip into. (shown above) However, I'm probably the only one who noticed.

I'm have a lot to learn when it comes to baking... especially when it comes to chocolate. I really, really don't like chocolate. Not only does it end up all over my kitchen, but it doesn't behave the way it's supposed to. Please leave me a message on what I need to do differently to get chocolate under control. Perhaps there's an obedience training class out there that you could recommend?

Tyler Florence Banana Bread

2008-10-13T13:14:00.004-05:00

While visiting our daughters in Florida, the youngest, Carey, made this awesome banana bread. It was light, fluffy and delicious! As much as I love her and visiting with family, I couldn't wait to get back home so I could make it myself!

My first batch turned out heavy and dense (like most of my banana breads) It was tasty but I wanted light and fluffy. (picture a kid at the checkout stand at Wal-Mart pitching a fit because they wanted something... yep, that was me)
Exhibit A:

I emailed the above picture to her and asked her what I did wrong. I followed the recipe to a tee and it came out heavy and dense. :-( It turns out that she didn't follow the recipe to a tee. (She is so much like her Father... He makes little changes to a recipe and it comes out mouth watering... me, I follow a recipe to the tee and... well you get the picture) Anyway, Carey explained that she was out of plain flour that day so she used self rising flour plus a pinch of salt and baking soda instead. Amazing how little things make such a big difference!

While I was baking batch #2 (this time with self rising flour) I remembered that we ate the bread while it was still quite hot. Aha! Another clue! I let the 2nd Banana Bread cool for 15 minutes before I sliced it.
It was closer to hers but still not quite right.
Exhibit B:

I had 3 bananas left, so on the 3rd and final batch I sliced the bread as soon as I took it out of the pan. (10 mins)
Exhibit C:

You can find the original recipe at:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/banana-bread-with-pecans-recipe/index.html

The changes I made from the original recipe for the last batch of Banana Bread were:

I used:
2 cups (10 oz) Self rising flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
3 bananas (about 13oz /381grams)
and I folded the flour in instead of using the mixer.

In all three batches, my banana / sugar mixture never looked what I'd call a "light and fluffy banana cream" as described in the recipe. Maybe you can tell me where I went wrong...

Wilton Fondant and Gumpaste Final

2008-09-24T17:44:00.004-05:00

Peninsula Grill's Ultimate Coconut Cake

2008-09-16T10:34:00.017-05:00

This cake is the signature cake belonging to chef Robert Carter of The Peninsula Grill in Charleston, SC. It is based on his grandmother's recipe and it has become the cake-of-choice for Charleston brides. After tasting it, I can see why. It is heaven.

I believe you either love coconut or you hate it. There's no in between.
My younger sister, Belinda, hates it. She can detect a teeny-tiny drop of coconut in a huge vat of anything. While growing up, I got everything she tasted that had even a hint of coconut in it. Life is good. :-)

I love, love, love coconut.
There, I've said it. I'm Tammy and I'm a coconut-a-holic. (is there such a thing?)
If a dish has coconut in it, I guarantee I will love it.

I love to bake, I love coconut, I was in the mood to try a new recipe, so I did a google search for the perfect coconut cake recipe. After reading through several blogs and seeing this recipe come up over and over again by other coconut lovers, the decision was made.

Since the cake looked very intimidating, I thought about ordering this cake from the Peninsula Grille and having it shipped to me. I justified that the $100 price tag would be well worth it 'just once' for a very special occasion. However, to have it shipped to my location, FedEx wanted $100. Time to go to plan B... make it myself!

Chef Robert Carter was generous enough to share his recipe and to show us how to make it when he appeared on Martha Stewart show. Good news for me because I learn better if I can see how it's done first! To view the video of chef Robert Carter making the cake, click here then on view video (I couldn't download the video so if Martha has changed the link, try searching on Martha Stewart's website for the Ultimate coconut cake.)

There are a lot of steps to the create this masterpiece but none of them are hard to do and it is well worth it! I took this cake to our Wednesday night Bible study and you would have thought I discovered how to walk on water. Everyone was absolutely amazed with the presentation and the taste.

Typically, I don't post recipes that others have posted on their sites but since Martha keeps updating her URLs, I'll give you the recipe at the very end of this post. That way if the link doesn't work, you still have the recipe. (Nothing frustrates me more than a broken link! ...or a bad recipe!)

Important things to note:

You must use Plugra butter. (it has more butterfat... a key ingredient)
You must cut this cake while it is cold (else the lovely filling squishes out...trust me on this)
Let it come to room temperature before serving. (2-3 hours)
You are not allowed to leave a negative comment if you made any changes to the recipe. Baking is a science and all the ingredients and measurements are essential.

The cake has five steps:
1. The filling: You make it the night before assembling the cake.. and it is awesome. (to whip it the next day, I had to divide the filling into 2 parts. My 5 qt couldn’t handle the full load) click here for recipe

2. The cake: Two 10” cakes. (At first, I was disappointed when I took them out of the pan. They reminded me of corn bread… large crumb and very yellow. I may try less baking powder next time… what do you think? When you watch the video, Rob said a tsp and a half of BP, but the recipe on Martha’s website has 1 1/2 TBS… (P.S. The final cake tasted great so maybe no change is needed) click here for recipe.

3. Simple syrup (can be made ahead of time and stored up to 1 month refrigerated in an airtight container) Click here for recipe.

4. The frosting… (warning: This is very addictive) click here for recipe

5. The assembly: click here for directions

Here's a picture of my final cake. I got a bit wild when applying the coconut to the sides and ended up covering the whole cake with coconut.

Side by side comparison:

If the URL's above are not working, use the recipes below.

Coconut Filling
This delicious coconut cake filling is courtesy of Robert Carter from the Peninsula Grill, in Charleston, South Carolina.
Ingredients
Makes enough for 1 cake .
5 cups heavy cream
3 cups sugar
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 T water
9 cups shredded sweetened coconut

Directions

Place coconut in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until coconut is finely chopped. (this will make it easier to slice the cake. Don't skip this part)
In a small bowl, mix together cornstarch, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon water and set to the side. (the ratio of liquid to cornstarch doesn't seem right... I added 2 more TBS of water)
Place cream, sugar, and butter in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved
Add the cornstarch mixture to the cream mixture and bring to a boil. Simmer until thickened, about 1 minute.
Remove cream mixture from heat and stir in processed coconut until well combined.
Transfer to a large baking dish or bowl; let cool.
Cover filling with plastic wrap and chill overnight.
When you are ready to assemble the cake, place half the mixture in the bowl of an 5 qt electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat for 4 to 5 minutes. (should be smooth and creamy) Do the same process for the rest of the mixture.

The Cake

Makes two 10-inch round cakes. (you'll be cutting each layer into 3rds later)

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray with flour (I like Baker's Joy)
1 pound unsalted PLUGRA butter (can purchase at Fresh Market or other high end store)
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Spray two 10-inch round cake pans with cooking spray with flour; set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a small bowl, mix together cream, vanilla, and coconut extract.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 5 to 6 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until creamy, occasionally scraping down sides of the bowl using a spatula.
With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture, alternating with cream mixture, beginning and ending with flour; beat until just combined.
Divide batter between the two prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes.
Let cool completely on a wire rack before removing cakes from pans.

Simple Syrup

Makes enough for the entire cake (two 10 inch layers)

Ingredients

3/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar

Directions

Place water and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.
Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, until sugar has dissolved.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Store up to one month refrigerated in an airtight container.

The Frosting

makes enough for the entire cake

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted PLUGRA butter, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 cups confectioners' sugar
1 vanilla bean, scraped

Directions

Place butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat until creamy.
With mixer on low speed, slowly add vanilla extract, seeds from vanilla bean, and confectioners' sugar.
Continue beating until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes.

The final assembly:

Makes one 6-layer cake

Ingredients needed:
2 cups sweetened shredded coconut flakes, toasted
2 Coconut Cake
Simple Syrup
Coconut Filling
Coconut Cake Frosting

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Spread coconut flakes in an even layer on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake until golden, 5 to 7 minutes; set aside to cool.
Using a serrated knife, trim tops of cakes to make level; discard trimmings.
Cut each cake into 3 even layers. (also known as torting)
Place four strips of parchment paper around perimeter of a serving plate or lazy Susan.
Place one layer on the cake plate. Brush with about one-fifth of the simple syrup.
Spread 2 cups (4oz) of filling on the cake.
Place a second layer on top.
Repeat process with the next four layers and top with last remaining layer.
Spread top and sides of cake with frosting, keeping in mind you may not need to use all of it.
Press toasted coconut into sides of cake; remove parchment paper strips.
Chill cake at least 5 hours and up to 5 days. (the syrup is more evenly distributed after 1 day)
Slice immediately; bring to room temperature before serving
Sit back and listen to all the praises.

Bobby Flay from from the TV show THROWDOWN! challenge Robert Carter on this recipe ...and Bobby won… The next time I make a coconut cake, I’ll try his recipe and blog about it… http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/throwdowns-toasted-coconut-cake-with-coconut-filling-and-coconut-buttercream-recipe/index.html

Wilton Fondant and Tiered cake class Final

2008-08-27T11:31:00.005-05:00

Here’s my final from Wilton's Fondant and Tiered Cake class that I took at Michael's Craft store. The cake is a White Velvet Butter cake from The Cake Bible (TCB). It is torted and filled using TCB lemon curd mousseline and covered with TCB fondant.

I stayed up until the wee hours making the royal icing lilies. It took longer to peel the lilies from the foil after they dried then it took to make them.

Fondant make a very pretty cake and although it was tasty, I prefer a cake that is frosted with buttercream.