Foray into Food

A very special day

2009-07-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

I was very honored to be a part of a really wonderful wedding recently. I love weddings anyway, but this was so much fun. The day was really all about the couple, their family and friends and the love that they had for each other. It was very personal and the guests were having a whale of a time. Being on an incredible property in the beautiful Rancho Santa Fe area didnt hurt either!
Here I am with the cake!

The details were totally adorable, like these little succulent place cards/favors.

Delicious barbecue was served, and it reminded me of a recent NYT article about the backyard bbq being totally where its at these days
I also made my first proper wedding cake! As an amateur I got to really enjoy the process, have fun with the couple, go through lots of tastings and iterations of designs and come to what I hope was a great conclusion on their special day. I recently bought Martha Stewarts book on weddings, and her advice to try making the entire cake for a practice run is a good idea. I found a very nice girl who wanted a birthday cake, so it was good to try a 3 tier cake.

I definitely pushed my boundaries, doing a square cake was a little tricky, but I'm glad they insisted as it came out super cute.

I helped out with some goodies for their out of town guests, they were treated to a home made recycled bag containing some water, fruit, chocolate chip cookies, caramels and fruit and nut bars. As per the bride's wishes I managed to find some biodegradable bags for the snacks from clearbags.

On the wedding day itself, I brought a big jar of caramels, three types of cupcakes, and a square 3 tier wedding cake, which the couple asked to be off center.

The cake was carrot cake on the bottom and 'almond joy' on the top two tiers, a delicious fudge chocolate cake, filled with a layer of coconut mixed with cream cheese frosting, and a layer of chocolate ganache with almonds. mmmm! The cake was covered in fondant and decorated with the couples colors of choice, and topped with their hand made likeness, very cute.

I also made 3 flavors of cupcakes, 'sexy vegan' from Vegan Cupcakes takes over the world, banana choc chip with caramel and cream cheese frosting, and a lovely light 'berrylicious' cupcake with berry buttercream.

The cakes looked wonderful on the table, and the guests all seemed very excited! So my first wedding experience was a fantastic one!

For any other amateurs thinking of trying this kind of thing, I'd recommend giving yourself plenty of time, if you're planning on doing a tiered cake, make sure to have all the cakes ready and crumb coated at least the night before and thoroughly chilled before you cover in fondant. Cardboard isnt strong enough as a base, use poster board or something similar(and food safe) between the layers and use a proper dowel (available from michaels) for support.

Daring Bakers Bakewell Tart.

2009-06-27T05:12:00.000-07:00

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

I was really happy this month that one of my favourite pastries from home was picked as the daring bakers challenge! I love almonds and I love pastry, so this was a total winner!

I was also happy that it was a nice quick challenge since I was a little under the weather when I made them.

This seemed like a perfect candidate for my little mini quiche pan. I cut the pastry down by half, and the frangipane to a third and it made 12 little mini bakewells and 3 larger ones in tart cases.

Thanks very much for the recipe!

Please stop by the daring kitchen to join us or to check out pictures of the challenge, or stop by and get the recipe from Jasmine or Anne Marie!

Foray into Sugarwork with Orchids

2009-06-16T20:27:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure this weekend of meeting up with one of my cake classmates and going for a sugar class with the immensely talented and busy Tami Utley.

It was a lot more involved than I realised, and I was pretty exhausted by the end, but now that I look at the end product, I'm really happy with it and its great learning a new skill.

These flowers are made on wires, so they are not technically food safe and the wire shouldnt actually touch the cake, so one has to make sure it is placed in a plastic flower holder.

I hope someone wants me to make them a pretty flower cake soon as I'd love to practice my new skills!!

Tami does lots of different classes, at Do it with icing, and also privately, as well as on DVD. I'd love to hear from people as to how they've got on with DVD lessons as its not a medium I've tried.

Daring Cooks Potstickers

2009-06-14T05:41:00.000-07:00

The june challenge for the daring cooks was chinese dumplings/potstickers from one of my favourite bloggers, Jenyu at use real butter.

This was a really fun challenge for us. We made them together, which was unusual but very enjoyable as we sipped sake, mixed up the dough, and the filling and then took it in turns to roll out and shape the little potstickers. It was also a lot easier and quicker than I expected.

Since I dont eat meat I improvised a little with the filling. I halved the recipe, taking a tin of crabmeat, a tin of water chestnuts, an egg and some panko breadcrumbs in addition to the cornstarch and chopped scallions. I added a little soy sauce and siracha for flavor.

We decided on the fried route since we knew that would be tasty! It was totally simple. I'm glad I have a nonstick pan! Thankfully I've already had experience with caramel, so it wasnt too much of a shock when the water boiled up. We were also in luck that a saucepan lid fitted the frying pan perfectly!

Thanks so much Jen for this great idea, we'd never have tried this if it wasnt for you, I'll be making these for guests sometime soon! Very impressive looking recipe that is much easier than it sounds!!

Here are the assembled stickers

Fry for a couple of minutes

Very carefully adding the water

Pop a lid on

Cook for another 2-3 minutes to dry out a little

Butter Cake

2009-05-31T18:06:00.000-07:00

Thank you sunset magazine, I've been looking for a vanilla cake to add to my repertoire, this worked very well. I made 2 9 inch cakes and then sliced them into thin layers and sandwiched them with a chocolate buttercream. I didnt follow their recipe, I just made my usual chocolate buttercream. It was yummy.

The only downside with it is that it uses cake flour, and that makes it much more expensive than a cake with all purpose flour. If anyone knows a good cheap source for cake flour I would be eternally grateful, the only stores that carry it are ralphs, vons and albertsons and its hellish expensive.

I made it for a friend, so I didnt obsess about getting the decoration perfect, I had my first play with modelling chocolate and I really like working with it, and it has the added benefit of being much more palatable than fondant, especially the dark chocolate version. Soo easy to make too!!

Visit sunset for the recipe and some variations!

Chocolate buttercream- makes enough for more than this cake!!
1 lb butter-soft
1 lb confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 oz cocoa powder
3 oz melted chocolate (I used a mixture of milk and dark)
milk-as needed

Sift the cocoa powder and sugar. Beat the butter until fluffy, add vanilla, beat, then add the cocoa and powdered sugar in two batches, starting off really slowly to begin! Add the chocolate and beat again. If the mix looks too thick, add some milk until as soft as desired.

Modelling chocolate
1 part chocolate to 1 part corn syrup. Melt chocolate then add corn syrup and mix together. Put in fridge then knead. Keep in fridge wrapped in plastic until needed. Warm with hands before use.

Sitting out

2009-05-27T09:19:00.000-07:00

I feel all left out this month, I just didnt have the time and energy for the daring bakers strudel. Here's some stuff I was doing instead.

Boston Terrier cupcakes -chocolate mocha mudcake with chocolate kahlua ganache

Chocolate mud cakes with peanut butter/caramel filling and peanut butter frosting, a test for a retirement party. These were so good I'm glad I had one and gave them away immediately!!

Please see the daring cooks website for some of the strudel that everyone made.

Cake class-final

2009-05-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

Today was our last class with Chef Foran at Grossmont College. I was sad because it was an awesome class and I learned so much. My confidence has really grown and I've learned so much. I'm hoping to start some work experience soon so I can use some of my skills and learn much more.

We were given 4 tiers of dummy cakes, I was really keen to try the square cakes, my team were very apprehensive, but I thought we might as well challenge ourselves as much as possible since we're learning.

I think they were very thankful in the end. We decided on a white cake with red accents, which we saw in a book, which I've forgotten the title of! Jessica made some awesome gumpaste roses, I'd love to learn them, they were spectacular! We all had a go at piping the designs, which we traced on with a pin and then piped over the dots. We also used gumpaste cutouts and some pearls.

Here are most of the cakes all together, amazing how all of the groups came up with such different designs! All very pretty though.

My favourite cake (apart from ours!!) was this one with the beautiful purple flowers and painted vines. This was a really pretty technique and I noticed it seemed relatively quick too, which is always a bonus!

This is the other cake which didnt fit on the main table. An amazingly cheery yellow cake with pretty piping and lots of great flowers. I thought it was a really interesting design too. It would be a bit scary to do with real cake!

This was another fun design which looked like maybe a baby shower cake. They chose to put the top tier on its side, which I thought was in interesting look.

Please see http://www.grossmont.edu/ for more details about culinary classes at grossmont college.

Cake Class at Confetti Cakes

2009-05-17T16:36:00.001-07:00

I had a really fun time in New York with my Mum, but one of the main reasons I was there was for a class with Elise at Confetti Cakes.

We built a 2 tiered square cake in my class. I was really disappointed that I didnt get to decorate it and on reflection I think it might have been more fun to have done a smaller cake and had time for decoration.

Elise is a wonderful teacher, incredibly patient and a total perfectionist. I realised that her cakes are so solid because she takes the time and care to construct them very carefully. I didnt take pictures at every step, but I thought I'd go through the process to remind myself for my next cake.

First we took particle board and cut it to exactly 6" and 9" square for the cakes to rest on. We then took 4 sheets of cardboard and wrapped with foil, dull side up.

We took the frozen cakes and cut them into 3 lots of 9" cake and 3 lots of 6". The middle layer was actually two lots of cake put together, but it stayed together fine. We carefully piped a 1/2 inch layer of swiss buttercream with no gaps, then put the cake together and put in the freezer again to firm up for a couple of minutes.

We cut the cake to make sure it was uniform and left a small gap between the board and the cake for the icing to be flush wi

th the board. This is important, even with round cakes and I realise now that it is very important. It creates a really clean line and really saves time and trouble later.

The next phase was a 'crumb coat' of buttercream. I was reminded never to lift the spatula from the cake, and also to smooth away from the edges. This was tricky and time consuming. A bench scraper was then used to get a really clean line, and the cake was returned to the freezer. For the top layer of frosting, I learned a little trick. We put the buttercream in the microwave until quite runny, it was really easy to apply as a top layer and meant that we didnt have to fiddle around with a hot spatula as the icing was so runny. The cake was put in the fridge to firm up.

The next step was to cover the bottom board with fondant. I'm torn on this, it gives a really nice presentation, but I hate wasting things and it just seems a really expensive waste for me at the moment. I'm glad I learned this, as it is always a nice option for people who would like to spend extra.

Start by rolling the fondant into a square. Be careful to get the thickness even. Roll onto the pin, brush off excess cornstarch.

Place on board and smooth out from the center outwards.

Push the fondant into the board with a fondant smoother until you see a line. Cut with a knife.

If you want to get a knife edge finish to the fondant, you can pinch the edges together.

The cakes were then covered with fondant, which was really hard work. It was really hard to get the fondant smoothed over the corners of the cake. One of the keys is to smooth the fondant on the top, then work downwards. Working with the back of the hand, smooth the fondant down, make sure not to create any creases. This is where Elise became completely exasperated with me being incapable of smoothing down with no creases.

We used a non-toxic glue on top of the fondant base to stick the cake to the base.

A dowel was cut to size and put in the cake to support the top layer. Buttercream was put on the top of the cake to attach the top cake, then the cake was carefully placed on top.

When doing large cakes, it is good to place a wooden dowel right through the middle of the cake. This was actually hammered into the cardboard base for extra stability.

A small piece of fondant was wettened, and added to the top to hide the hole.

Here is my finished cake, very pretty but a bit frustrating since all I can see is the imperfections in the fondant! Thanks so much to Elise for being so patient with me, its given me so much to work with for my future cakes.

Daring Cooks make gnocci!

2009-05-14T01:20:00.000-07:00

A new phase in the daring kitchen started this month, the daring cooks! I decided to join. We'll see if I manage to stick it out for the long haul, things are so hectic that it might just fall by the wayside.

I was really happy when I saw the challenge, gnocci! We love gnocci so I was really looking forward to it. Its actually ricotta gnocci, something I've not tried before.

I was very happy with my local fresh and easy, their ricotta was in a little basket already draining, which really saved me some time!

I was a little disappointed with these, they were very bland. I wish I'd gone ahead and added much more flavor, I decided to go easy on the extras this time. The texture was also a little wierd.

I sauteed some garlic, added a little cream and tossed the cooked gnocci in it.

This was a really fun challenge and I'll definitely be trying making gnocci again, I'd love to recreate the delicious pumpkin gnocci we had in belluno, italy. I remember eating 5 pieces and finding it was enough to fill us to bursting!

Please visit the Daring Kitchen for the recipe and more takes on this delicious meal!

Thanks so much to creampuff and liz for the challenge!

New York City!

2009-05-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

I recently spent a really fun long weekend with my Mum in New York, we made the most of my iphone apps and tried to see everything we could. Here are some of the culinary highlights! For more piccies check out my poor neglected travel blog.

The main focus of the trip for me was a cake class with the lovely Elise from Confetti Cakes, which I'll blog about later!
On the first morning we made our way up to columbus circle and had baked eggs, a great way to start the day.

We later made our way up to wholefoods for a drink and then a lovely salad at Angelicas Kitchen

Dinner was probably the highlight of the trip. I got a really early reservation at babbo and I'm so glad I did. It really lived up to the hype, it was a wonderful experience. We shared softshell crab for an appetizer and my mum enjoyed a rabbit 3 ways for the main course and I enjoyed ricotta ravioli. We had to try dessert, a wonderful hazelnut chocolate cake with gelato. Mmm. I highly recommend trying to get a table there, it is very reasonably priced and a wonderful experience! Very much like a swan, it seems beautiful and serene in the dining room and I'm sure there is an amazing amount of work going on behind the scenes!!

The next day we made our way towards the financial district and decided to get a bagel for breakfast at murrays. It was incredible, it was very stressful trying to order without getting shouted at. The bagel with salmon and cream cheese kept me going all the way to an afternoon cupcake at babycakes, which was a real fun place to visit!

In the evening we thought it would be fun to try the oyster bar at the grand central station. The architecture was so cool and it was so old fashioned. I found my meal to be pretty bland and average, not to mention more expensive than a vastly superior meal the previous evening. Mum enjoyed her sole an awful lot, so that was good.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast near our hotel at cafe europa. Although it was a big chain, you couldnt beat the prices, it was a good breakfast with a fantastic view and we were very happy to be set up for the day.

We were also very happy to check out dean and deluca next to the rockafella centre. Really nice cheesecake with a very cool view where we could check out all the people.

Wedding cupcakes!

2009-05-05T19:44:00.001-07:00

This weekend was very special, I made 130 cupcakes for a lovely couple of friends who got married. It was stressful, but thankfully they are so sweet and relaxed about everything that it was a really fun experience.

For their actual wedding day I made a banana choc chip cake with chocolate layers, bananas, caramel and it sounds like it went down very well.

For the cupcakes I made banana choc chip, red velvet with cream cheese, dorie greenspans perfect party cupcakes with lemon buttercream, and these mocha mud cakes

Mocha Mud Cakes -womens weekly cupcakes

makes 12 cupcakes

165 g butter

100g dark eating chocolate

290g caster (superfine) sugar

2/3 cup (170ml) water

1/4 cup (60ml) coffee liqueur

2 tablespoons instant coffee granules

150g plain flour

2 tablespoons self raising flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 egg

Preheat oven to 300f/150c

Combine the butter, chocolate, sugar, water, coffee liqueur and coffee granules and heat on low, stirring until melted together. Whisk the flours and cocoa powder and the egg, and then put into cupcake cases, around 2/3 full.

Bake for 30-40 mins, or until a toothpick comes out clean when put in the cakes.

Ganache topping

100ml cream

100g dark chocolate, chopped

Heat cream until nearly boiling. Add chocolate, leave for 5 minutes then stir until melted. Refridgerate until a little thicker

Freeze the cupcakes for 5 mins, then pour a little chocolate onto them until it reaches the sides of the cake.

Daring bakers! Kumquat Cheesecake

2009-04-27T06:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, wow wow! I love cheesecake, and thanks to my lovely friends at bookclub and the wonderful daring bakers, I had a chance to make this.

I decided to go with a citrus theme, and made a kumquat cheesecake. This was absolutely divine! I added some minced candied kumquats to the cheesecake batter, then decorated with cutout candied kumquats and then drizzled the juice on the cake. Very sticky, but very tasty.

We agreed that the citrus cut through the incredible richness and I was glad I hadnt gone the chocolate and/or nut route as that would have been too much for me.

I was hoping for leftovers, but the ladies have started taking the leftovers to their husbands, who look forward to bookclub as they will be getting leftovers. What an enormous complement!

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Please check jenny's site for the recipe, which I followed exactly, apart from adding 1/2 cup candied kumquats to the batter. I also added candied kumquats and syrup as decoration.

I baked the cheesecake in a springform pan, but I used saran wrap (clingfilm) to wrap before wrapping in foil, which is a good thing, since the foil did leak, but the saran wrap didnt(the foil must cover the saran wrap).

Take care not to overbeat the cheesecake, this will make it rise, then fall. Turn off the oven when it is just a little jiggly in the middle, and it will be just perfect after its second hour in the oven resting.

Cake extravaganza!

2009-04-16T06:32:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy attending classes, making easter goodies and all sorts that I've not really been trying any new recipes! More grossmont cakes to come, although we finished the last cake baking in my cake class and we're now doing cake decorating for the rest of the semester.
We started yesterday with buttercream roses, I never got the hang of them. I feel like I just dont have enough interest in them, I cant see myself ever wanting them on my cakes, so there is no incentive to try and perfect them. I might try at the weekend again though.

I started with some cupcakes for a fellow medicinal chemist, making dinky little labcoast and drawing molecules, and some beakers and erlenmeyer flasks, really fun!

Then I had the pleasure of making a cake for the lovely Canine Cologne, who was celebrating a birthday, I'm so glad I finally got to meet her, she's just as sweet and fun as I imagined and I'm really glad she took a risk and asked me to help with her special birthday. Thanks for the shout out too!

I made a banana cake with caramel, banana and cream cheese frosting with chocolate fondant.

The other request was the chocokat cupcakes, these were also fun to make, I love doing cartoon characters!

We then moved onto easter, and I made a mixture of cupcakes with an easter theme, I was asked to make some peeps ones, and some baby birds. I rounded it out with a few birds nests with robin eggs in

I also enjoyed making a fun easter cake. If I'd known quite how big it was going to end up, I'd have made lots more daffodils for it, I also made a birds nest basket with chocolate, caramel syrup and rice krispies

The most recent project was a spur of the moment thing, lots of people are always banging on about 'Yo Gabba' and I have no idea what it is but it sounds fun. A friend recently gave birth to a very adorable little boy, her 2 year old was being a very cute big brother and I thought it would be really fun to make some treats with his favourite characters on. I was really happy with how they came out, I'm a bit annoyed with myself for not taking the time to pipe the frosting, but the characters are cute.

Opera Cake

2009-04-08T15:04:00.000-07:00

My favourite cake at Grossmont Cake Classes has been the Opera Cake. Layers of delicious almond jaconde moistened with coffee syrup, layered with chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream. How could you go wrong!!

I was excited to make this as I'd made the opera cake with the daring bakers just over a year ago, with white chocolate and I knew I'd love the dark chocolate and coffee flavors.

Be sure to serve this at room temperature, its much better when the chocolate and buttercream is nice and melty.

Opera Cake- Serves around 12

Joconde

6oz almond meal
4 oz powdered sugar
2 1/2 oz cake flour
6 eggs
6 egg whites
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 1/2 oz sugar
2 1/2 oz butter melted

Sift together the almond meal, powdered sugar and cake flour

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar, adding sugar slowly until the eggs reach medium peaks.

Whisk the eggs into the flour mixture, fold the egg white mixture in followed by the butter. Be sure to make sure the butter didnt just fall straight to the bottom but dont overmix.

Bake on a parchment lined half sheet pan at 350f convection for 5-7 mins.

Coffee Buttercream

5 1/2 oz sugar
2 1/2 oz water
1 tbsp corn syrup
2 eggs
7 oz butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp mocha extract

Heat the sugar water and corn syrup to a temperature of 240f. Meanwhile, whip up the eggs for about 5 mins until theyy reach full volume. Slowly pour the syrup into the eggs, beating continuously. Beat until cool, then add the butter a tablespoon at a time while beating. If the mixture curdles, stop adding butter and beat until it comes together again. Add the vanilla, salt and mocha extract and beat to combine.

Espresso Syrup

5 oz espresso
2 1/2 oz sugar
3 oz kahlua

Dissolve the sugar in the espresso, heating. Add the kahlua

Ganache
20 oz cream
1 lb 3 oz dark chocolate-chopped

Heat the cream until it reaches a boil. Add to the chocolate and mix until smooth. Keep half warm and allow half to cool to room temperature

Assembly

Cut the cake into 3 equal pieces

Take the bottom layer, brush with coffee syrup

Top with a layer of the room temperature ganache

Add cake, brush with syrup

Add a layer of half of the buttercream

Top with the last layer of cake, brush with syrup

Spread the rest of the buttercream on the top.

Chill for around 30 mins or so

Pour the warm ganache over the top and smooth.

Trim the edges, then cut into slices.

Optional: Write 'opera' on the slices

Cake pops-they are way harder than they look!

2009-04-05T20:26:00.000-07:00

Just a word of caution, bakerella is brilliant at what she does and these are way harder than they look. I'm really glad I tried them but I need a lot of practice!

The pops just didnt get covered very smoothly, and when I tried to dip them twice, they started to come off the sticks. Hopefully this will be easier if I try them again, its a great use of the little domes I get with my cakes!!

Swing by bakerella for more tips, and let me know if you have any ideas on how to get a good finish!

Raspberry Mousse Charlotte

2009-04-04T07:17:00.000-07:00

Another Grossmont cake! We made a delicious raspberry mousse cake, 2 layers of sponge with layers of raspberry mousse, surrounded by ladies fingers and topped with a pretty mirror layer, meringue and raspberries.

I learned a clever technique to pipe the lady fingers out to make things a lot easier. This is a really nice cake to serve for a special birthday, I'm annoyed I didnt get a shot of a slice, its very pretty indeed, not to mention delicious!

Raspberry Mousse Charlotte

Makes 2 cakes

Sponge Cake

makes 1 9" cake

4 1/2 oz cake flour
3 1/4 oz sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

3 egg yolks
2 oz oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup water

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 oz sugar

Sift together the dry ingredients, whisk together the eggs, oil, vanilla and water then whip the egg whites and cream of tartar, adding the sugar together and beating until the mixture has soft peaks.

Fold the egg yolks into the egg white mixture followed by the flour.

Bake for around 30 mins at 325 in a conventional oven. Allow to cool while the other components are made.

Ladies Fingers

400f convection oven 3-5 mins

2 2/3 oz AP flour
2 oz corn starch

4 egg yolks
pinch of salt
2 oz sugar

4 egg whites
2 1/2 oz sugar
3 drops lemon juice

Sift the flour and corn starch twice. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar for about 5 minutes until they reach full volume. Whip up the egg whites with the lemon juice, adding the sugar slowly and allowing to form medium peaks. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolks, followed by the dry ingredients

Prepare a baking sheet with a guide so that you can pipe the batter to surround a cake, for us, our circles were about 2 inches high, so we piped our ladies fingers to be slightly wider. As you can see, this is a quick technique for forming the surround for a cake without having to make individual fingers.

Bake at 400f in a convection oven for 3-5 mins, rotating when half done. Remove from oven and take the parchment out of the baking sheet to prevent over cooking.

Raspberry Mousse

18 oz seedless raspberry puree
8 oz sugar
pinch salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice

6 sheets gelatin=bloomed in cold water

24 oz whipping cream

Warm the puree, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan until sugar is completely dissolved. Squeeze out the gelatin and whisk into the puree mixture. Allow to cool.

Whip the cream until medium peaks form, then fold the raspberry mixture in.

Raspberry Glaze prepare when cake is ready to serve

6 oz seedless raspberry puree
4 oz water
3 1/2 oz sugar
1 tablespoon pectin

2 sheets gelatin-bloomed

Combine the puree, water and sugar and bring to a boil. Sprinkle pectin in, boil gently for a minute, then strain through a chinois. Strain gelatin and whisk in.

Italian meringue

1 parts egg whites
2 parts sugar

whisk over boiling water until temp reaches 240f then whip at high speed until firm.

Soaking syrup
4 oz simple syrup
1 oz Chambord

Assembly

Cut the ladies fingers to fit into a 9" cake ring, fit in nice and snug.

Cut the cake into 4 layers and trim until it fits snug inside the ladies finger ring. Brush with syrup then ladle a layer of raspberry mousse. Add second cake, brush with more syrup them add more raspberry mousse. Get a nice flat finish, leaving 1/4 inch for the glaze, then freeze the whole cake for at least 4 hours until firm.

Remove cake from freezer, then quickly pour glaze over the top. Allow to cool for 30 mins

Pipe meringue onto cake

Brown meringue wiht a blowtorch, making sure not to burn the sides of the cake

Decorate with raspberries, make sure the cake has fully defrosted before serving.

Hot cross buns

2009-03-31T21:08:00.000-07:00

Since Easter is on its way I thought I'd try my hand at some Hot Cross Buns. Especially since they arent very common over here in the US.

The buns are supposed to be something to do with the cross and are traditionally served on Good Friday.

I referred to my trusted Dairy Book of Home Cookery, which my mum bought from the milkman years and years ago.

Hot Cross Buns
Preparation 1 1/4 hrs plus rising
Cooking 25 mins

450g (1 lb) bread flour
50g (2oz) superfine sugar
25g (1 oz) fresh yeast or 20ml (4 tsp) dried yeast
150ml (1/2 cup, 1/4 pint) milk, warm
60ml (4 tbsp) warm water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
100g (4oz) currants
50g (2oz) chopped mixed peel
50g (2oz) butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
50g (2oz) sugar
45ml (3 tbsp) milk

Place 100g flour in bowl with the caster sugar.
Mix the yeast with the milk and the water, leave to stand until frothy.
Mix the two together and leave for 20-30 mins until frothy.
Meanwhile, combine the dry ingredients. Add the frothy mixture, egg and butter and then knead together for around 5 mins until dough is smooth.
Place in a bowl and cover until doubled in size.
While dough is rising, mix some flour with water and make into crosses for the top of the buns.
Lightly knead and shape into 12 buns, leave to rise for a further 30 mins.
Cut crosses in the tops, top with the flour crosses and bake at 220c, 425f, gas mark 7 for 20-25 mins.
Make glaze by melting sugar in milk in a saucepan, boil for a couple of minutes.
Brush onto hot buns twice.
Eat while warm, or reheat, slice in half and serve with butter.

Mmmm

Yeggies

2009-03-29T18:18:00.000-07:00

With all this baking, I need the best ingredients. I've been worrying about my eggs, so I was very happy when I found a really lovely stand at the little italy farmers market (mercado 9-1pm Saturdays). They have the prettiest eggs, lots of shapes and sizes and I'm just captivated by the beautiful blue and green ones. I keep my egg boxes and they re-use them, and it feels good to know that my baked goods are just that bit better when the eggs come from happy chickens.

Schaner Farms

(760) 749-3976

30819 Mesa Crest Road

Daring Bakers Lasagne!

2009-03-26T21:51:00.000-07:00

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge I was as surprised as many of the other daring bakers to see this challenge, its very different from our other challenges, and I really lagged behind on getting it done. I was so glad that i did though, it was really fun getting the pasta machine out, and my husband absolutely loved it, so that was really rewarding. I was so scared that the pasta machine would break with the spinach, but it was fine.

Please see beans and caviar for the whole recipe, I'll share my changes to make it veggie!

I decided on a half recipe, that way we would have a big dinner with leftovers, but not enough to have lasagne coming out of our ears!

I made a veggie ragu, I went the easy option and subbed some fake meat and mushrooms, this made it a lot more appetizing to my husband!

I didnt change anything other than the ragu, here is my veggie take on it:

Country Style Ragu’ Ragu alla ContadinaPreparation

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (15 mL)

1/2 medium onion, minced

1 medium stalk celery with leaves, minced

1 small carrot,

4 oz crimini mushrooms, chopped

7 oz beefless strips, chopped

dry red wine

1 tsp better than bouillon, dissoved in 3/4 cup water

1 cup milk

1/2 tin diced plum tomatoes, drained

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 tbsp arrowroot mixed with water

Sautee mushrooms, celery and carrots until soft, add mushrooms, stir then add wine, followed by all other ingredients. Simmer for 10 mins.

The sauce was a little thin so I took some and blended it with a hand blender and added some arrowroot to thicken, simmering for a further 2 mins.

Mini Pavlovas

2009-03-24T21:19:00.000-07:00

These mini pavlovas were inspired by my trip to Australia at the beginning of the year. The pavlovas were the most delicious thing in the middle of summer.

I knew I wanted to re-create what I'd enjoyed so much in an individual form. I made little mini meringes and topped with a dollop of whipped cream, some lemon and strawberry curd and the lovely local strawberries.

I served these as part of a mini dessert spread at a wedding and I'm told they were the hit of the party!

Pavlova- Donna Hay Modern Classics Book 2

4 egg whites
1 cup superfine sugar
3 teaspoons cornflour
1 tsp white vinegar

Preheat the oven to 300f

Beat the egg whites until frothy, then start to add the sugar slowly while beating. Continue whipping on a med/high speed until the mixture has a medium peak. Fold in the cornflour and vinegar then pipe 3 inch circles onto a silpat or parchment paper.

Place in oven then reduce temperature to 250f and bake for an hour, turn the oven off with the door ajar and allow to cool.

Lemon Strawberry Curd
100g (4oz) butter
225g (8oz) sugar
3 eggs plus 1 yolk, beaten
grated rind and juice of 2 lemons
1/2 cup strawberry puree, strained

Melt butter on a double boiler, add remaining ingredients and whisk over the heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon, taking care that the mixture doesnt boil.

Pour into clean jars and keep refridgerated for up to 2 weeks.

Assemble pavlovas as soon before eating as possible. Take the meringe, add a tablespoon of unsweetened whipped cream, then some lemon curd and top with sliced strawberries.

Chocolate Mousse Cake- More Grossmont Cake Classes

2009-03-23T15:50:00.000-07:00

Mmm pretty! We made a stellar and beautiful chocolate mousse cake in class. I'm showing you the chef's version since he did such a wonderful job and we still have a little to learn!

Chocolate mousse cake-makes 2 x 9 in cakes- chef James Foran

9oz cake flour

2 oz cocoa

8oz sugar

1 tbs baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 yolks

5 1/2 oz buttermilk

4 oz oil

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp orange zest

8 egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

3 oz sugar

Heat oven to 350f (conventional)

Sift dry ingredients together and set aside

Whip up yolks, sugar, oil, vanilla and zest

Whip egg whites to a medium peak.

Fold egg whites into yolk mixture followed by dry ingredients. Bake for 30 mins.

Chocolate Mousse

40oz cream

1lb 8oz bittersweet chocolate

Beat cream until it reaches soft peaks. Meanwhile, melt chocolate.

Take 1/3 cream and beat into chocolate then quickly fold remaining cream in. This is best done as quickly as possible when the two are at similar temperatures, try and get the cream room temperature.

Soak

2oz Grand Marnier

1oz simple syrup

Chocolate Glaze

14oz chocolate, chopped

14 oz cream

Heat cream until the sides are bubbling. Add to chocolate, leave to sit then mix until smooth. Try not to mix too much, that adds bubbles.

As always, get a nice clean top to the cake Cut 3 layers of cake. Set one layer aside.Cut cake to fit a nice clear space for mousse in a 9 inch cake ring. Use soak to moisten cakes.

Beating cream into chocolate mousse

Folding cream into chocolate/cream mixturePipe into mould around cake, making sure to use enough pressure to get the mousse around the cakeCover top of cake with mousseTop with another layer of cake, pipe more mousse, then get a nice clean finish on the top. Freeze for at least 2 hours Release from pan with a blowtorch.Now for the bit that is harder than it looks. Working quickly, pour chocolate ganache over cake, allow to run evenly down the sides of the cake

Use a heated spachelor to make one clean sweep across cake. This is best only done once.

Here are our team's cakes. We quickly realised that a frozen cake and hot ganache is very tricky to work with. Also, make sure to use lots of soaking syrup to make sure the cake stays nice and moist.

Busybee

2009-03-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

I've really been slacking off in terms of keeping up with this blog, I love sharing my recipes and thoughts. Hopefully after this weekend I'll have more time. I've been so busy making cakes for people I haven't had time to share any recipes, so I thought I'd share some here, and feel free to check out my flickr page to see more.

I made some thomas the train cakes this weekend for a lovely little boy. I think they went down quite well from the party photos. Thanks to flickr user hello naomi for the inspiration

I also had a couple of requests for polka dot cakes for people, they were very specific about the colors. My fondant technique is getting much better and I dont have to worry about hiding stuff quite as much these days!!

Another fun project was some tiffany boxes. I took a starburst chew, encased it in a thin layer of chocolate and topped with a bow. These adorned the super delicious raspberry chocolate cupcakes. A bit fiddly as they are very fragile, but super delicious

I used a similar technique for these baby blocks, I also got to use my new extruder to make the piping. Its going to be a very handy tool!

A real version of the present cake I made recently:

And my entry for the san diego cake club competition. I was really happy with this, but it obviously didnt wow the judges. Oh well, more practice!

And some carrot cupcakes for the delightful twins celebrating their first birthday. From the pictures it looks like they finished the whole cakes!

Daring Bakers News!

2009-03-09T13:49:00.000-07:00

So the Daring Bakers upgraded to a whole new website, which looks absolutely awesome! I was also honored to be included in one of the new features, cookbook reviews.

See here for my review of the field guide to cookies.

Other features include a whole new challenge, the 'daring cooks' and lots of other fun forums and things. Very much looking forward to the new site!!

Mini date cupcakes

2009-03-01T07:59:00.001-08:00

I recently checked a few cookbooks out of the library and amongst them was Demolition Desserts by Elizabeth Faulkner. I had a good look through and most of the desserts were just too 'out there' for me. I'd love to say that I'm really adventurous, but when it comes down to it, I'll always go for a really traditional dessert over some crazy flavors.

There were a couple of really tasty and interesting recipes though. There was an interesting vegan lemon curd which I'll be trying, and this scrummy 'sticky toffee pudding' cupcake. It turned out to be a date cupcake which was pretty healthy, the moist dates replacing a lot of the butter. I think I could probably get away with wholewheat flour too. Her one had a scoop out of it and a bit of toffee sauce added, with a cream cheese swirl of frosting. I decided to use my favourite cream cheese recipe and some caramel sauce swirled into it for a quicker presentation.

Beware, when you boil the dates up they smell like ass (maybe thats just my ones) but the final cake tastes lovely!

I made mini cupcakes in a mini muffin pan and found that I had 48!

Date cupcakes from Demolition desserts by Elizabeth Faulkner

1 cup (80z) water

1 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

6 oz pitted dates, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces

1 1/2 cups (7 1/2 oz) all purpose(plain) flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

4 tablespoons (2oz) butter

3/4 cup (6 1/4oz) firmly packed dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350f (gas mark 4)

Line a 12 cup standard muffin pan with cupcake liners

Put the dates, water and baking powder in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Set aside to cool.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt

Cream butter and sugar in a mixer for 3-4 mins until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between additions. Add the vanilla.

On a low speed add the flour and stir just until combined. Add the dates and mix a little more, then scoop into the cupcake cases.

Bake the cupcakes for around 18-20 mins, turning half way though. Test with a toothpick, if its clean they are done.

Cream cheese frosting:

8oz cream cheese

4 oz butter

Powdered sugar to taste

tsp of vanilla or lemon juice

Beat the cream cheese and butter together until all the lumps are gone. Add the sugar and slowly stir until combined then beat for a couple of minutes.

Pour caramel (see here for the recipe I used) down the sides of a piping bag, then add the cream cheese frosting, pipe a swirl onto each cupcake

Daring bakers! Daring flourless chocolate valentino

2009-02-28T05:59:00.000-08:00

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.

This is especially exciting as I'm a massive fan of Dharm. I love reading about his delicious cooking and his absolutely delightful family, in a faraway place. I cant wait to hear his daring baker story, its always interesting!

I went to the farmers market and got special european style local butter, and some lovely eggs, some of them with pretty blue shells. I got some callebut chocolate too. All was well, but unfortunately I overcooked my little cakes so they were a little dry.

I dont have an ice cream maker, so I thought it would be nice to freeze a little of my white chocolate strawberry whipped ganache into heart shaped moulds as an accompaniment. I thought it went very well and it lightened the dry, dark cake. Mmmm.

Thanks for a wonderful challenge! See you next time!

Chocolate Valentino

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped

½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter

5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often. I did this in the microwave, I always seem to have more luck with it.

2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.

3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.

4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).

5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.

8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C

9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.

Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.

10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.