Only Creative Opportunities

TWD - Double Apple Bundt Cake

2010-10-05T07:33:00.003-04:00

This week, Lynne from Honey Muffin chose the Double Apple Bundt Cake from pages 184 and 185 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". I love everything about fall - the weather, the leaves, the pumpkins, and especially the apples! I picked up some crisp, tart apples from the farmers market to use in this cake. The cake was super easy to put together and tastes fantastic. Dorie recommends a glaze with confectioner's sugar and lemon but I had some reduced apple cider left over from another baking project so I used that instead of the lemon. Yum! Make that a Triple Apple Bundt Cake!

I'll be back with pictures ....

Please be sure to visit Lynne's blog and the rest of the TWD bakers to see how their cakes turned out.

Cupcake Hero - Caffeine

2010-09-19T08:57:00.016-04:00

Voting is now open! Please visit The Insomniac Baker's Blog to cast your vote. This month’s secret ingredient for the Cupcake Hero challenge is caffeine. Hooray! Since caffeine is an ingredient near and dear to my heart, I doubled up on the jitters and added caffeine in the form of chocolate and coffee. Until recently, I was skeptical about the cinnamon-chocolate combination but was hooked after I made a Cinnamon Chocolate Tart for the TWD group.

Cinnamon Mocha Cupcakes

adapted from Taste of Home's Cooking for 2 Fall 2005

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup baking cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup strong brewed coffee, room temperature

3 tablespoons buttermilk

Cinnamon Swiss Meringue Butter cream for frosting

chocolate covered espresso bean

cinnamon for dusting finished cupcake

Directions

In a small bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, baking powder and cinnamon; add to creamed mixture alternately with coffee and buttermilk, beating well after each addition.

Fill paper-lined muffin cups half full with batter. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Frost with Cinnamon Swiss Meringue Butter Cream, top with a chocolate covered espresso bean, and dust with cinnamon.

Yield: 8 cupcakes

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

4 egg whites

1 cup sugar

3 sticks of butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

Place sugar and egg whites in the heat-proof bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a pan of gently simmering water and whisk until sugar has dissolved and egg whites are hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.

Transfer bowl to mixer stand. Using the whisk attachment, beat on high speed until mixture has cooled completely and formed stiff and glossy peaks, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Switch to the paddle attachment and add the butter, one piece at a time, and beat until incorporated about 6 minutes. Don't worry if the buttercream appears curdled after all the butter has been added; it will become smooth again with continued beating. Add vanilla and cinnamon and beat just until combined.

If using buttercream within several hours, cover bowl with plastic wrap, and set aside at room temperature in a cool environment. Or transfer to an airtight container, and store in the refrigerator, up to 3 days. Before using, bring buttercream to room temperature, and beat on the lowest speed with the paddle attachment until smooth, about 5 minutes.

TWD - Peanut Butter Crisscrosses

2010-09-07T07:27:00.003-04:00

Jasmine of Jasmine Cuisine selected Peanut Butter Crisscrosses for this weeks TWD recipe. The recipe can be found on page 78 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". These cookies were fast, easy, and delicious! The only change I made was in the sizing department. Dorie says to scoop the dough by the tablespoon and I used a slightly larger #20 disher. The result was big, fat, chewy, peanut butter cookies! The next time around, I'll make the chocolate version as suggested in the "playing around" section. YUM!

Please visit the rest of the TWD bakers to see how they did with this recipe.

TWD - Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

2010-08-17T07:34:00.003-04:00

This week, Natalie of Oven Love chose Oatmeal Breakfast Bread from page 44 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours." You can also find the recipe on Natalie's blog. This recipe was simple and delicious and best of all ... I had all the ingredients in my pantry! Perfect for last minute baking! I followed the recipe as written except that I made 4 muffins and 5 mini bread loaves. I doubled up on the topping since I'd have more surface area to cover and I didn't want to skimp on the crunchy top.

Please be sure to check out the rest of the TWD Bakers to see their versions of this bread.

Raspberry-Peach Cobbler Cupcakes - Cupcake Hero August

2010-08-16T07:40:00.005-04:00

Raspberry-Peach Cobbler Cupcakes

I devised this recipe for the August edition of Cupcake Hero. Please visit the (Vegan) Cupcakes and Other Culinary Creations for details and voting (after August 18th). These are a buttermilk-cinnamon cake with raspberry peach compote filling, whipped cream frosting, and a crunchy streusel topping.

Cupcake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 T. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup butter, softened
¼ cup sugar
¾ cup honey
2 eggs
½ cup buttermilk
½ tsp. vanilla
Peach and Raspberry Compote
Sweetened Whipped Cream Frosting
Streusel Crumbles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in honey, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Scoop the batter into prepared cupcake pan.

Bake 17-20 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed. All cupcakes to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

When cool, core each cupcake and add about 1 teaspoon of peach and raspberry compote. Swirl on whipped cream frosting and top with streusel crumbles.

Peach and Raspberry Compote
¼ cup sugar
½ T. cornstarch
¼ tsp. cinnamon
3 peaches
¼ quart raspberries
1 tsp. lemon juice

Mix sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon in saucepan. Stir in peaches, raspberries, and lemon juice. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute. Cool.

Sweetened Whipped Cream Frosting
1 cup heavy cream
2 T. powdered sugar (or to taste)

Chill mixing bowl and whisk attachment. Whip cream and sugar in chilled bowl until stiff peaks form. Do not over mix!

Streusel Crumb Topping
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup chopped pecans
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
3 T. butter (not softened)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix with fingers until crumbly. Spread mixture on parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes. Stir mixture and return to oven for 5 minutes. Cool.

TWD - Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream

2010-08-11T11:42:00.003-04:00

Hooray! Ice Cream! The past few days have been scorching hot here so I was delighted that of Baking and Boys chose Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream for this weeks TWD recipe. You can find the recipe on her blog or on page 430 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". I make ice cream pretty often so and I thought I was fairly skilled in this particular area but my chocolate ganache didn't really freeze into what I consider "ice cream" - it was more like "frozen chocolate ganache". None the less it was decadent and will certainly not go to waste!

I've often wondered how ice cream ended up in a baking book but I just assumed that Dorie included it because ice cream and cake just go together. I happened to catch the Good Eats "Churn Baby Churn II" episode on Tuesday night and in this episode Alton Brown compares ice creams to baked goods. He states that the comparison makes sense because ice cream is essentially a foam (structurally) as are baked goods such as cakes and breads. Hmmmmm ..... interesting!

I wish I would have caught this show before I made my chocolate ganache ice cream because I think I could have vastly improved the outcome! and Please be sure to visit the rest of the TWD bakers to see how they did with their ice cream.

TWD - Lots-of-Ways Banana Cake

2010-07-20T07:08:00.007-04:00

It’s my turn to pick the TWD recipe! Yeah me! I feel like I get to be princess for a day! Many of the bakers in our group wait until the last minute to carefully make their pick. Me? I’ve had my eye on this recipe for months! Each time a new round of picks was announced, I would cross my fingers and whisper “please, please, please no one pick the banana cake”. When I saw the email asking for my choice, I jumped on it in about two seconds. No joke. I’ve made this cake a bunch of times in lots of ways. I love this cake so much that I wanted to share it with everyone. I hope you love it as much as I do!

This weekend, I made the cake as written and frosted and filled the cake with brown sugar cream cheese frosting but more often, I’ve used this recipe to make cupcakes. I get about 36 regular sized cupcakes which are super moist and full of banana flavor.

I vary the basic recipe for the cake and some of my favorite toppings are Cashew and Coconut Frosting (German Chocolate Cake-like Frosting), Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting and a Banana Slice with a Caramel Drizzle, and Cream Cheese Icing and Toasted Coconut.

But my all-time favorite is this one…

Caramelized Banana Cake with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting and Toasted Coconut
I used some of the brown sugar and the rum from the recipe along with an extra tablespoon of butter to caramelize three and a half ripe bananas. I let them cool a bit and added them to the batter as the recipe directs. I made sure to scrape up some of the caramelized sugar from the skillet – you can see them in the batter …

This cupcake was banana-y and caramel-y and yummy. Over the top delicious. No joke. One of the great advantages of cooking the banana before had is that you can use ripe bananas! No need to wait around waiting for brown spots to appear on your prized fruit.

Here’s the recipe, which can also be found on pages 204-205 of Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking: From My Home to Yours”.

Lots-of-Ways Banana Cake

The inspiration to bake a banana cake always seems to strike when a bunch of bananas are mottling on the counter. But just because you’ve got the fruit doesn’t mean you have all the other stuff you need, which is why I created this amazingly flexible cake. No coconut? Skip it. No brown sugar? Use white. No coconut milk? Use milk, buttermilk, sour cream or yogurt. You can serve the cake as a single layer or a double (the recipe makes two layers, plain, frosted, filled or frosted and filled. Take a look at Playing Around for some ideas.

If you make the cake with the ingredients listed first below, you’ll get a consistency that isn’t heavy but not featherweight either. It has enough substance to chew on, but its light enough to entice you to go back for a second serving … or a third.

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 ½ sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar (or granulated sugar)
¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons dark rum or Malibu coconut rum (optional)
About 4 very ripe bananas, mashed (you should have 1 ½ - 1 ¾ cups)
½ cup canned unsweetened coconut milk, regular (stir well before measuring) or “lite” (or whole milk, buttermilk, sour cream, or plain yogurt)
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut, preferably toasted (or an equal amount of moist, plump dried fruit, such as currants, raisings, chopped apricots, cranberries, blueberries, or halved cherries, or a combination of coconut and dried fruit)

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9x2-inch round cake pans, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg together. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugars and beat at medium speed for a couple of minutes, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, followed by the vanilla and rum. You’ll have a beautiful satiny batter. Now lower the speed and add the bananas-the batter will curdle, but that’s fine; it will come together as you add the remaining ingredients. Still on low speed, add the dry and liquid ingredients alternately, adding the flour mixture in three portions and the coconut milk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients). Mix just until everything is incorporated. Switch to a rubber spatula and gently stir in the coconut. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the cakes are a deep golden brown. They should start to pull away from the sides of the pans and a thin knife inserted into their centers will come out clean. Transfer the cakes to a cooling rack and cool for 5 minutes, then unmold and invert onto another rack to cool to room temperature right side up.

Playing Around
Frosting: To frost one layer or to fill and frost both layers, consider Sweetened whipped cream to which you’ve added vanilla, a splash of dark rum or Malibu coconut rum and toasted coconut, Marshmallow frosting (p. 247), Chocolate Whipped Cream (page 457) and just for fun, a crown of chocolate shavings (p. 471) or Bittersweet Ganache (p. 453).

Rum Syrup: If you like the flavor of rum, you can douse the cakes with rum syrup as soon as they come out of the oven (see page 226 for the syrup recipe-give these cakes the same treatment you’d give the Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes).

One-Layer Cake: Serve just one layer, lightly sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar or cocoa powder, and accompany it with lightly whipped cream and/or ice cream (chocolate, coconut, vanilla, or coffee) and/or Hot Fudge Sauce (page 465).

Grand Banana Sundae: You can cut one cake into small cubes and make a sundae. Toss the pieces of cake with some cubes of fresh banana and a little rum and top with ice cream, hot fudge sauce and whipped cream. Why not go all the way and add some toasted coconut too?

Thank you for visiting my blog today (please come back soon) and be sure to visit the rest of the TWD bakers to see lots-of-versions of this fantastic cake!

TWD - Brrrr-ownies

2010-07-13T08:15:00.003-04:00

Karen of Welcome to our Crazy Blessed Life selected Brrrr-ownies on page 103 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours" for this week's baking assignment. Please visit her blog to find the recipe. I had some trouble with these guys! I think I underbaked them a bit and they stuck to the aluminum foil lining the pan like crazy. Eventually, I had to scrape them off the foil which resulted in a crumbly gooey minty mess, although I did manage to salvage a few for pictures! I stuffed the crumbly gooey minty mess into a ziploc bag and plan to make Crumbly Gooey Minty Mess Ice Cream in the next few days - watch for it!

Some of the pieces that I extracted from the pan vaguely resembled brownies and they tasted delicious.

A tall glass of milk would definitely make a complete package!

Please visit the rest of the TWD bakers to see how their brownies came out!

TWD - Tarte Noir

2010-07-06T09:55:00.003-04:00

This week, Dharmagirl of bliss: towards a delicious life chose Tarte Noire for our baking assignment. Please visit Dharmagirl's blog for the recipe and/or you can find it on page 351 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". I made a full recipe of the tart crust and the chocolate ganache but baked up mini tartes. The baby's a super smooth and delicious and very easy to make! I followed the recipe as written but after the fact I started second guessing myself and think I should have squeezed in a layer of peanut butter somewhere ... or perhaps a peanut butter shortbread crust? Mmmmm - next time!

My son had a friend visiting while I was baking and his friend was pretty insistent on trying a piece of "chocolate pie". I knew he wouldn't like the "grown up" chocolate (bittersweet) but finally relented and let him have the nearly empty ganache bowl. He disappeared into the living room thinking he was going to lick the bowl clean. Two seconds later he was back gagging like he had swallowed turpentine. Boys do not listen. Ever.

Please visit the rest of the TWD Bakers to see how they did. I'm SURE someone found a way to get peanut butter in the tarte!

TWD - Rum Drenched Vanilla Cakes

2010-06-29T07:13:00.005-04:00

Mmmmmm ..... rum .... This week's Tuesday's with Dorie assignment, Rum Drenched Vanilla Cakes, comes from Wendy of Pink Stripes. You can get the recipe at Pink Stripes or you can find it on pages 226 and 227 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". This cake is super easy to make and comes together in a single bowl! I halved the recipe, also easy to do if you are mathmatically challenged as I am, and got six mini bundt cakes. The batter was smooth as silk and honestly, I would have been perfectly content to sit down with the bowl and eat it with a spoon!

I mentioned previously, that it's strawberry season in these parts so I have an overabundance of berries (22 pounds at one point)! Although the cakes were delicious on their own, I topped mine with strawberries and freshly whipped, lightly sweetened whipped cream. So good!

Please visit the rest of the TWD bakers and see how they did this week.

Blueberry Mojito Cupcake - Cupcake Hero

2010-06-21T17:44:00.007-04:00

The ingredient for June's Cupcake Hero is blueberries and after much debate and research, I came up with a Blueberry Mojito Cupcake with Ginger-Lime Mascarpone Frosting. I knew I wanted to pair my blueberries with citrus but couldn't decide which one. I also wanted to incorporate ginger into the mix. I considered brushing the finished cupcakes with a ginger simple syrup and not knowing exactly what I was doing - I googled. What does google give me in the number 4 position ... a recipe by Tyler Florence for Blueberry Ginger Mojitos! Blueberries? Check. Citrus? Check. Ginger? Check. Perfect!

I started with the mojito cupcake recipe from Alpineberry which you can find on her blog. This cupcake is moist and delicious and the flavors of the mint and lime marry beautifully. Then I puree'd a pint of fresh blueberry and a few tablespoons of sugar. I found the mixture to be a bit thin, so I added a squeeze of lime and simmered it on the stovetop until I had a lovely blueberry jam. After portioning out the batter into the cupcake pan, I swirled about one tablespoon of jam into the batter and baked them. The Ginger-Lime Mascarpone Frosting was light and fluffy and the perfect topper for the cupcakes.

Dorothy of Kitchen Koala has generously agreed to host this months Cupcake Hero so please visit her blog to see what the other bakers have cooked up this month and to cast your vote for your favorite blueberry cupcake!

Mojito Cupcakes (from Alpineberry)
makes 18 regular cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup mint leaves, loosely packed
3/4 cup whole milk, hot
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp.
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
grated zest of 2 limes
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp rum (optional)

Preheat to 350F.

Add mint leaves to hot milk. Let steep for 10-15 minutes. Pour milk through a fine-mesh sieve into a small bowl. Press liquid from mint leaves. Discard leaves and allow milk to cool slightly.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter on medium speed until creamy, about 30 seconds. Add sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Mix in lime zest, vanilla and rum (if using).

On very low speed, add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk and ending with flour, mixing until just incorporated.

Fill 18 standard muffin cups half full. Bake until cupcakes spring back when touched, 18-22 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and cool completely.

Ginger-Lime Mascarpone Frosting

8-ounce mascarpone cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
2 to 3 tsp. grated fresh ginger (more or less depending on taste)
zest of 3 limes
juice from 2 limes
pinch of salt
1 cup whipping cream

Combine mascarpone cheese, sugar, ginger, lime zest, lime juice and salt and blend until smooth and creamy. Beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold whipping cream into mascarpone cheese mixture. Pipe onto cupcakes.

TWD - Raisin Swirl Bread

2010-06-15T09:23:00.004-04:00

This week, Susan of Food.Baby picked Raisin Swirl Bread for our baking pleasure. Yeast is not my friend so I'll admit to being pretty intimidated by this week's recipe. All was well in the beginning, I got a nice proof and a good rise. I let my dough rest overnight in the refrigerator and unfortunately, once my dough didn't rise well once it arrived in the bread pan. The bread tasted good but was much denser than I expected. Dorie suggests toasting it for maximum flavor and, as usual, she was spot on.

A cajoled my son, who doesn't eat anything I bake, into trying a piece of toasted raisin bread slathered with butter. His assessment ... he didn't spit it out which is high praise in our household! I'm looking forward to turning this bread into french toast this weekend!

Please visit the rest of the TWD bakers to see how they did with their bread this week.

TWD - Tender Shortcakes

2010-06-08T09:42:00.003-04:00

Cathy of The Tortefeasor chose Tender Shortcakes for this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie baking assignment. You can find the recipe on page 423 of Dorie Greenspans "Baking: From My Home to Yours" or on Cathy's blog. This recipe was super easy, wonderfully delicious, and a perfect dessert for spring/summer. The biscuits were huge! I baked 1/2 the recipe and had 6 enourmous biscuits. The dough contains sugar and is sweet enough but I gave my biscuits an additional sprinkle of turbinado sugar just before baking, which gave the tops on fantastic crunch.

Here in Michigan, strawberries are just coming in to season so I was able to use some fresh from the farm berries to top my dessert.

For the topping, I tossed sliced strawberries with some sugar and finely chopped fresh ginger and let it sit for about 10 minutes. The ginger added an unexpected (for me) kick to the berries and was it ever good! I topped the shortcakes with some sweetened whipped cream and I was ready to go. I intended to take just one bite to see how it tasted but I just couldn't stop! The shortcakes are excellent! Dorie says these shortcakes can also be made with poached mango and since Florida mangoes will come into season in about a month, I expect to make these again in July.

Thanks for stopping by and please visit some of the other TWD bloggers to see what they made with this week's recipe selection.

TWD - Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie

2010-05-26T09:05:00.009-04:00

This week, Spike of Spike Bakes chose Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie for our Tuesday baking task. You can find the recipe on Spike's website or on page 350 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking from My Home to Yours". I was skeptical about a couple things when I read through the recipe; the first was the mixture of chocolate and banana and the second was getting the frozen crust out of the pie pan. I don't really care for fruit mixing with chocolate so I pretty sure I wouldn't like the taste but I forged ahead with the recipe as written to give the good old college try! Even the addition of rum couldn't mitigate my aversion to chocolate and fruit co-mingling in a single pie. Of course, perhaps if I'd used 2 cups instead of 2 tablespoons of rum, I might have made it through! Bottomline - I loved the taste of the crust but not the pie. Additionally, I needed a jack hammer to extricate a slice from the pie plate!

Try as I might, I could not get good pictures for this go round! Here is what Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie V. 1.0 looked like.

On to the next. I like to call V. 1.2 "Deconstructed Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie". Yes, I watch way too much food TV. I took all the components of the pie (except the chocolate, of course) and reassembled them into a smaller single serving pie type creation. I used a small bowl lined with parchment paper to form a bowl with the crust ingredients. I piled vanilla ice cream into the coconut bowl and topped the whole thing with a banana rum sauce. It was fantastic!!

Dorie says that the crust will keep for a couple of months in the freezer if wrapped tightly so I plan on keeping a stash of small crusts/bowls in my freezer for dessert emergencies!

Please visit some of the other TWD Bakers to see how they did with this weeks challenge!

TWD - Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

2010-05-04T10:19:00.004-04:00

For this weeks TWD baking project, Becky from Project Domestication chose Burnt Sugar Ice Cream from page 432 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". I was so excited to make this ice cream, that I accidently jumped ahead and made this last week when I was supposed to be making Chockablock cookies! I love homemade ice cream and this variation was no exception! I have discovered that freezing up a batch of ice cream requires a level of patience that I'm ill equipped to handle! First you have to cook your custard, slowly adding hot ingredients to the eggs so that they don't curdle. Then, cook and stir and cook and stir. Cool the custard, freeze the custard into ice cream and then freeze until scoopable. Playing the waiting game paid off though because this ice cream was fantastic! The flavor was so unique and the ice cream was super smooth and creamy.

The day before I made the ice cream, I baked some Double Chocolate Chunk cookies to reward my official taste tester for assembling a bunkbed for my son. He took all but two cookies home so I had two of these brownie like cookies staring me in the face. Rather than eat them, I mixed them into some of the burnt sugar ice cream. Holy cow - it was awesome! Chocolate-caramel is a flavor combination can only be surpassed by the chocolate peanut butter combo. Yum!

Please visit the rest of the TWD bakers to see how they mixed things up this week.

TWD - Sweet Cream Biscuits

2010-04-20T10:57:00.003-04:00

This week Melissa of Love At First Bite chose Sweet Cream Biscuits from page 23 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". I was delighted to find the recipe for these biscuits because they use cream instead of buttermilk and I almost always have cream in the refrigerator but buttermilk ... not so much. I've made them several times and they are easy and delicious. This time around, I brushed the tops with a bit of butter and sprinkled them with turbinado sugar for strawberry shortcakes topped with brown sugar whipped cream.

Please check out the rest of the TWD group and see how they did with this week's recipe.

TWD - Mocha Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake

2010-04-06T08:02:00.003-04:00

This weeks selection is from Erin of When in Doubt…Leave it at 350. She picked Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake which can be found on pages 180 and 181 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". This was another super easy bundt cake and it was delicious. Of course, my cake looks nothing like Dorie's cake does! The directions instruct you to combine "just less than half" of the plain batter with the chocolate mixture. Eyeballing measurements is simply not one of my many talents! So my cake has more and paler chocolate ... really, what's the problem?? Although Dorie recommends baking the cake for 65 to 70 minutes, mine was done at 50 minutes. I also added a bittersweet chocolate glaze to my bundt cake to jazz it up a bit

I brought this cake into the office in the wee hours of the morning (practically fresh from the oven!) so I don't have any pictures to share today. Thanks for visiting my blog and please check out the rest of the TWD bakers to see how they did this week.

Updated 4-7-10: I managed to get a pretty good ginkgo pattern!

TWD - Coconut Tea Cake

2010-03-31T11:55:00.004-04:00

This week, Carmen of Carmen Cooks picked Coconut Tea Cake. You can find the recipe when you visit her blog and/or on pages 194 and 195 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours." The cake was a snap to make but looked a little plain fresh out of the oven so I topped it with a glaze of coconut milk and powdered sugar and sprinkled some toasted coconut on top. I think I may have overbaked this one a tad since it seemed a little dry to me, but it still tasted delicious! I have my eye on the coconut-lime variation for next time around.

Please visit some other TWD Bakers and see how they did. Personally, I can't wait to see some of the wonderful variations that my fellow bakers will come up with!

Frog Cupcakes

2010-03-29T12:53:00.014-04:00

Monday night my son's Cub Scout pack had a Cake Bake and cake walk. For the cake bake, the scouts baked a cake with his Akeela and the cake was displayed at our pack meeting. The cakes were then given away to some lucky winners. I'll post about his cake later!

My contribution to the cake walk was these adorable frog cupcakes that I found on the Hello, Cupcake Blog.

TWD - Dulce de Leche Duos

2010-03-23T11:56:00.007-04:00

This weeks pick for Dulce de Leche Duos was made by Jodie of Beansy Loves Cake. You can find the recipe on her blog or on page 161 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". I was super excited to try this recipe because I've been wanting to try making my own dulce de leche and this recipe was the excuse I've been looking for! I put two cans of sweetened condensed milk in my slow cooker, covered them with water, and cooked on low for 9 hours. Waiting for the cans to cool was excruciatingly painful! I wanted to see what was inside and when I popped the top, I was delighted to find that I had a wonderful, sweet, caramel concoction.

The cookies were very sweet but tasted absolutely wonderful! I will definitely bake these again but next time I will try to make my cookies smaller. These would be perfect as one-bite cookies, which is probably how Dorie designed them, but I have a problem with portion control!

Just look at the caramelly goodness oozing from the sides.

I need to run to the store for a couple more cans of sweetened condensed milk because I now have a long list of dulce de leche recipes (including butter cream frosting and ice cream) that I must try. Immediately.

Please check out some of the blogs of the other TWD bakers to see how they did this week. I'll be visiting them just as soon as I come out of my caramel coma.

Snickers Cupcakes

2010-03-15T11:33:00.008-04:00

This cupcake is my entry into this month's Cupcake Hero. Please visit the I Heart Cupcakes Blog and cast your vote for your favorite caramel creation!

This cupcake was inspired by the Snickers candy bar (my favorite!) My starting point was Peanut Cupcakes with Nougat-Chocolate Frosting from the Food Network website and I tweaked it from there. This cupcake is the best I've made and I think I can make it even better the next time around!

For the Cupcakes: (adapted from The Food Network: Peanut Cupcakes with Nougat-Chocolate Frosting)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole milk
1 cup chopped salted roasted peanuts, plus more for garnish

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.

In another bowl, beat the eggs and both sugars with a mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in the melted butter and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add half of the flour mixture, the milk and then the remaining flour. Fold in the peanuts but don't over mix.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cups, filling each about halfway. Bake until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes. Let cool in the pans 10 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting
Makes approximately 1 1/2 cups, enough to frost 24 cupcakes
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter

In the top of a double boiler set over simmering water, whisk together the egg whites, sugar, salt, and cream of tartar. Continue whisking until the mixture becomes too hot to touch comfortably, 7 to 10 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat on, medium-high speed until the egg whites hold a stiff peak and the egg whites have cooled, about 8 minutes. Switch to a paddle attachment and add the butter, one or two pieces at a time, beating well after each addition. When all the butter has been incorporated, continue beating for another 8-10 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and peanut butter.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
Makes approximately 1 1/2 cups, enough to frost 24 cupcakes

6 ounces milk chocolate, chopped
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup whole milk
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt

Melt chocolates in a double boiler. When chocolate has melted, transfer to bowl of stand mixer and add the confectioners' sugar, milk, butter, vanilla and salt and beat until smooth and creamy.

To assemble cupcake:

Frost each cupcake (I used a pastry bag to make things easy) with a layer of Peanut Butter Swiss Meringue Buttercream, top with a layer of Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, sprinkle with chopped peanuts, and finish with a drizzle of caramel sauce.

TWD - Thumbprints for Us Big Guys

2010-03-10T11:25:00.002-05:00

For this week's baking, Mike of Ugly Food Dude, chose "Thumbprints for Us Big Guys". Please visit Mike's site (he's very funny!) for the recipe or check page 164 in Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". This was a super simple, tasty cookie and with endless variations, I think I will be making this one repeatedly. I baked this recipe pretty much as written with hazelnuts in the dough and a raspberry filling. The one exception was the portion size - Dorie instructs us to use a teaspoon of dough for each cookie. A teaspoon? For "Big Guy" cookies? I think my portion size was closer to a tablespoon! I gave these cookies to my mother to share with her co-workers and they gave the cookies a big thumbs up!

TWD - Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart

2010-03-02T12:19:00.002-05:00

This week, Beryl of Cinemon Girl chose Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart for our baking pleasure. You can find the recipe on the Cinemon Girl blog or better yet, on pages 344 and 345 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours".

I've never tasted coconut cream pie so I really don't have a baseline for assessing the yumminess of the tart but I can say that I wasn't crazy about it. Although I followed the recipe carefully, my dark Jamaican rum completely overpowered the filling. I could scarcely taste the coconut. I brought this tart to my co-workers who, in general, gave it a thumbs up!

Please visit the rest of the TWD baking crew to see what they thought of this recipe.

TWD - Honey Wheat Cookies

2010-02-23T09:39:00.003-05:00

This week, Michelle from Flourchild, chose Honey Wheat Cookies from page 81 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". You can also get the recipe from Michelle's blog if you stop by for a visit. I was really excited to see that the description of these cookies included the words "soft" and "chewy"! Faaaaantastic - my favorite kind! I was never a big honey fan until spring of 2009 rolled around and I discovered Green Toe Gardens at my local farmers market. All their hives are local and the flavor is fantastic! I can now add "honey" to my list of snobberies. I used Wild Detroit Honey for Dorie's Honey Peach Ice Cream and for this recipe I used Eight Mile Road Honey.

These cookies are easy to make and are delicious! Dorie's recipe calls for the addition of lemon zest but I forgot to by lemons so I forged ahead with it and the cookies were still wonderful!

I did want to try one little experiment with the dough ... A couple weeks ago I wandered into Sur La Table and discovered cookie cutters on sale for 60 cents each. Seriously? Sixty cents? I picked up a bunch of cutters, including an extra large bee hive! This cookie dough is really soft but I refrigerated, rolled, refrigerated, cut, refrigerated and finally made these into a soft and chewy cut-out cookie. The next time around I may need to throw the freezer into the mix because it was very difficult to transfer the cut outs to the baking sheet.

Please visit the rest of the TWD bakers to see what they did with this weeks recipe selection.

TWD - My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-02-16T08:37:00.009-05:00

This week's selection is from Kait, from Kait's Plait, who chose "My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies". You can find the recipe on Kait's blog or on page 68 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours".

Right out of the gate the following words fill my heart with dread ... Thin. Crunchy. Cookie. In case you missed the memo. I do not like Thin. Crunchy. Cookies. My mission this week became three-fold. Part one - make something my son will like, part two - make a cookie that is neither thin nor crunchy and part three- make them Valentine's Day appropriate. Mission impossible?

My son recently became hooked on ice cream sandwiches made with chocolate chip cookies so I thought I would try to make ice cream sandwiches for him. With the first batch of cookies, I scooped the dough with a big disher and refrigerated them before baking in order to reduce spreading. That didn't work out ... I got Thin. Crunchy. Cookies. that were oddly shaped (as opposed to the perfectly round cookies I was shooting for!)

Next! I moved on to Valentine's Day appropriateness with a silicone heart-shaped muffin pan. I had some difficulty with the edges of the cookies climbing the sides of the pan and some sinking in the middle of the cookie but after a bit of playing around, I managed some good heart shaped cookies! These cookies were thick but still a little on the crunchy side.

With two-thirds of my mission complete, I decided to go back to part one - "kid friendly". I went with heart-shaped ice cream sandwiches using Dorie's recipe for vanilla ice cream and they turned out thick and delicious! I can see the appeal of these yummy treats!

Please check out the rest of the TWD bakers to see how their spins on these chocolate chip cookies.

TWD - Sables

2009-12-11T11:07:00.003-05:00

This weeks recipe is for Sables, which is essentially a shortbread cookie. I loved these cookies because they are rolled and sliced, so I can cut them as thick as I want! After the dough has been refrigerated, it is brushed with an egg wash and rolled in sugar (I used turbinado) before slicing. This gives the cookie a fantastic crunchy edge that I loved! I will be making these over and over and look forward to trying some variations.

This weeks recipe was chose by Barbara of Bungalow Barbara. I love to visit Barbara's website! Check out the rest of the TWD blogroll to see what the rest of the bakers are up too!

Daring Bakers - Vols-au-Vent

2009-10-01T10:06:00.011-04:00

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

First of all - I cannot believe that I actually made my own puff pastry! I wish I had a picture of my face when I pulled the baking sheet out of the oven because I was astounded that I had actually done it. Seriously, I think I was grinning from ear to ear! Very soon after I had removed my vols-au-vent from the oven a pair of high school seniors appeared at my door wanting to sell candy to my seven year old in order to pay for a trip to ... Paris! Their timing was impeccable. Of course, they got a handful of cash! Had they been going to Cozumel I probably would have sent them packing! LOL!

Puff pastry is something most of us buy at the grocery store because it is a bit time intensive (but very easy to do!) Puff pastry is in the ‘laminated dough” family, along with Danish dough and croissant dough. A laminated dough consists of a large block of butter (called the “beurrage”) that is enclosed in dough (called the “détrempe”). This dough/butter packet is called a “paton,” and is rolled and folded repeatedly (a process known as “turning”) to create the crisp, flaky, parallel layers you see when baked. Unlike Danish or croissant however, puff pastry dough contains no yeast in the détrempe, and relies solely aeration to achieve its high rise. The turning process creates hundreds of layers of butter and dough, with air trapped between each one. In the hot oven, water in the dough and the melting butter creates steam, which expands in the trapped air pockets, forcing the pastry to rise.

Since it is officially fall up in these parts, I decided to fill my pastries with apples sauteed with a bit of butter, sugar, and cinnamon. I topped them off with a dollop of maple whipped cream and sprinkle of cinnamon. I used some of the pastry scraps to cut out tiny maple leaves for garnishes. If you cut shapes, I highly recommend chilling them like crazy before baking because some of mine spread quite a bit.

Thanks Steph for a great challenge! Please visit the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see how the rest of the group fared with their Vols-au-vent!

TWD - Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart

2009-09-29T12:03:00.003-04:00

Woo-hoo! Look at me! I baked. I blogged. I did it in a timely manner! I finally feel like I'm getting my baking mojo back! This week's Tuesday with Dorie recipe was selected by Carla of Chocolate Moosey, who chose Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart. The recipe can be found on Carla's blog or on pages 355-357 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours."

This recipe was pretty straight forward and simple yet came together beautifully! I used a 10-inch tart pan because that is what I have and everything still managed to work itself out. The tart is rich and decadent and would be great for a fancy schmancy get together. Personally, I used to bribe my official taste tester into assembling a bunk bed!

Please check out the rest of the TWD bakers to see how they did with this week's recipe!

Banana Chai Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

2009-09-13T19:01:00.010-04:00

I've been in the funkiest funk for the last couple of months and I haven't been able to shake it. I've barely baked and I certainly haven't blogged! What I have been doing is reading blogs and taking notes. Lots of blogs and lots of notes! I got the ball rolling with some peach cupcakes posted by Deb over at Smitten Kitchen. I love, love, love her blog regularly stalk it looking for some goodies. I love cupcakes and hers were wonderful. The next thing to catch my eye was a post on I Heart Cuppycakes about the revival of Cupcake Hero. Cupcake Hero is monthly cupcake contest and I decided that a little competition would be just the jump start that I needed.

I borrowed Deb's Peach cupcake recipe and tweaked it into a Banana Chai Cupcake and I outright stole her brown sugar cream cheese frosting. :) It's a hella good frosting and intend to use it often! I often have a banana chai protein smoothie for breakfast and I always thought it would be a great cupcake flavor.

Banana Chai Cupcakes

3 cups cake flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. chai spice blend (I used McCormick's)

3/4 c. unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 c. granulated sugar

3/4 c. light brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 c. buttermilk

1 4-ounce jar banana baby food

3 small bananas, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line 30 muffin cups with paper liners.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chai spices and set aside. Cream the butter and sugars together, beating until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl between each addition, and then add the vanilla. Gently mix in the buttermilk and baby food. Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the chopped banana.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes for five minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/4 c. light brown sugar

1/4 c. cornstarch

1/2 c. powdered sugar

2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 c. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cornstarch and powdered sugar. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the sugar-cornstarch mixture and vanilla, beat until frosting is smooth and light. Chill the bowl in the refrigerator until it thickens back up a bit, about 30 minutes, then spread or dollop on cooled cupcakes.

I was afraid of losing some banana flavor since I was using chopped banana instead mashed banana so I used a small jar of baby food. I loved the little banana chunks scattered throughout the cupcake and they had an excellent banana flavor with a little kick from the chai spices.

Please check out the other Cupcake Hero entries and cast your vote for your favorite at I Heart Cupcakes. The voting poll is on the left hand side of the screen.

Here I was thinking that this overpriced Animal Kingdom monkey was a complete waste of money when in fact, she makes an excellent photo prop!

Daring Bakers - Bakewell Tart…er…Pudding

2009-07-06T11:30:00.006-04:00

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.
Bakewell tarts…er…puddings combine a number of dessert elements but still let you show off your area’s seasonal fruits.

Like many regional dishes there’s no “one way” to make a Bakewell Tart…er…Pudding, but most of today’s versions fall within one of two types. The first is the “pudding” where a layer of jam is covered by an almondy pastry cream and baked in puff pastry. The second is the “tart” where a rich shortcrust pastry holds jam and an almondy sponge cake-like filling.

For this challenge, I made three mini tarts. For one of them, I used mango jam (I know you're all shocked that I would slip in mangoes) and for the other two I used homemade caramel apple jam. I think the idea behind the tart .. er.. pudding, was to use a smooth jam, I just couldn't pass on the chunky apple jam. The result? Fantastic! I actually liked the apple version better than the mango version and plan on making this again when fall rolls around. Here, in Michigan, that could very well be the week after next! :)

The recipe calls for flaked almonds for the top, but I used sliced almonds because I had them in the cupboard. Here is what the inside of the mango tart looked like.

And the caramel apple jam version topped with whipped cream sweetened with brown sugar and a dusting of cinnamon. Yum! I seriously can't stop eating the tartlettes!

Please check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see other versions of the Bakewell Tart .. err .. Pudding. Here is the recipe I use for the Caramel Apple Jam.

TWD - Perfect Party Cake

2009-06-29T19:58:00.007-04:00

I've been diligently baking and photographing, but I've been a bad bad blogger and haven't posted my TWD assignments in a little while. I'll play catch up in a couple of days. In the meantime, this weeks recipe for the Perfect Party Cake was selected by Carol of mix, mix… stir, stir. The recipe can be found on her blog and on pages 250-252 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours."

My co-workers and I have enjoyed this cake twice in the last couple of months. The first time I baked it, it was to celebrate impending nuptials. I made the cake exactly as written and it was fantastic! Everyone loved everything about this cake - the filling, the frosting, the coconut - it was all fantastic. The second time was for a birthday celebration and I turned the cake into cupcakes. I made both regular sized cupcakes and mini cupcakes.

The frosting was thick enough to use in a piping bag and each cupcake was topped with generous swirl of frosting and a sprinkle of coconut. Instead of using raspberry preserves, I simply added a fresh raspberry to each cupcake. The results were divine! This recipe is by far my favorite so far and I'll be using it again and again!

Please visit the rest of the TWD blogs to see what the rest of my fellow bakers did this week!

TWD - Fresh Mango Bread

2009-05-19T20:21:00.005-04:00

Fresh Mango Bread. My co-workers have become accustomed to my TWD treats and have in fact, come to expect them. When I announced this weeks recipe, the first words out of our office managers mouth were "Did you get to pick?" I love mangoes. Love, love, love mangoes. Alas, this weeks recipe was chosen by Kelly from Baking with the Boys. Kelly is my hero!

I spent the first 18 years of my life growing up in Michigan before I headed to Miami for college. Among the many wonderful things I discovered in college, mangoes topped the list! It was hard to leave behind my beloved fruit when I moved back to Michigan. I am taking my son to Disney World at the end of June. Forget about the Mouse - can someone please direct me to a farmers market or a produce stand? I'm bringing an extra suitcase.

A fresh, juicy mango, freshly plucked from the tree is absolute bliss. It has been suggested that mangoes are best eaten in the bathtub and while I have never eaten one in a bathtub, I often suck on the pit while leaning over the kitchen sink. Yes, I'm a heathen!

OK - on to the mango bread. This bread recipe is fantastic! The combination of ginger and fruit chunks was sublime. I intend to make this bread frequently. My official taste tester thought it was delicious but I've been hoarding this one from my co-workers. I may share a few slices tomorrow! I managed to find some wonderful ripe mangoes at Whole Foods and the hardest part of this recipe was actually put the fruit into the dough instead of into my mouth! I fell a little short of the 2 cups of fruit that the recipe, uuummm ... suggested.

Please visit Kelly's blog for the recipe and the TWD Blogroll to check out the rest of the TWD bloggers. Now if you'll excuse me, that mango in the first photo has yet to be eaten ...

TWD - Tartest Lemon Tart

2009-05-12T15:52:00.009-04:00

I have to apologize for being a super blog slacker lately! Last week the TWD group baked a Tiramisu Cake but I didn't blog about it because the dog ate my homework. For real. See ...

At the time of my cake baking he had only been a member of our household for a few hours and I set my cake layers out by the window to cool, just as I always do, and he just started chomping away when I had my back turned. He's new and cute and I'm an inexperienced dog owner ... c'est la vie. I'll try it again in a week or so. Now, on to this weeks TWD Baking Assignment! Today's Tartest Lemon Tart was chosen by Babette of Babette Feasts. One of my co-workers was just telling me about the movie Babette's Feast - looks like a sign that I should visit Blockbuster! Please visit Babette's Blog for the recipe, which can also be found on page 336 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours."

My tart tasted super lemony with just a tiny hint of bitterness, but it was fantastic! Dorie recommends using a blender to get a smooth custard but this super slacker was too lazy to dig out the blender so I used my food processor instead. I could not get a smooth custard so I strained it into the crust and was very happy with the results. My official taste tester loved it (and I did too)! My tart was very skinny - I think my tart pan may be 10 inches instead of the recommended 9 inches and it was not very photogenic!

Please visit the rest of TWD Bakers to see how they made out with the Tarty Tart! Next week is Mango Bread! I CAN. NOT. WAIT! I love mangoes!

TWD - Chocolate Cream Tart

2009-04-28T09:15:00.004-04:00

This week's recipe for Chocolate Cream Tart was chosen by Kim of Scrumptious Photography. Please take the time to visit her blog. You will not only can you find the recipe for the Chocolate Cream Tart, you will also find absolutely stunning photos of yummy food! You can also find the recipe on pages 352 and 353 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours."

Once again, I struggled with the TWD recipe. I seem to have lost my baking mojo! I've baked Dorie's shortbread tart crust before with no problem but this time around, the crust was super dry and crumbly. I'm not sure where I went wrong - other than the fact that it was over baked - oops! The chocolate cream filling came together easy and was creamy and delicious. I decided to make mini tarts this time around.

I also decided to sneak in a layer of homemade peanut butter because ... well, just because I could. Everything except for the crust was to die for yummy! I will definitely try this one again. In the meantime, please visit the rest of the TWD bakers to see what they cooked up this week!

Daring Bakers - Cheesecake

2009-04-27T19:53:00.008-04:00

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

Have you ever eaten something so good that the taste of it haunts you? Many years ago I made a Key Lime Cheesecake with Strawberry Butter Sauce that was absolutely divine. I think about that cheesecake with a frequency that borders on obsession. We were allowed to choose our own flavors for this challenge and not surprisingly, the key lime cheesecake crept back into my brain.

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake was wonderfully smooth and creamy. I added about 1/2 cup freshly squeezed key lime juice which made it over the top delicious! The strawberry sauce wasn't as good as I remember but it certainly didn't stop me from eating it! I served a slice to my official taste tester and he pronounced it "evil" and licked his plate clean.

The photos are actually from a mini cheesecake that I kept at home for myself and the taste tester. After the photography session, I remembered some blackberries that I had stashed in the refrigerator so I made a quick single serving of blackberry butter sauce. Oh my ..... the combination of the key limes and blackberries was indescribable. Yum!

I can't wait to see what the rest of the Daring Bakers have concocted this month! You can also check out the new Daring Kitchen website which is full cool cooking stuff! May will also be the inaugural month of the Daring Cooks Challenges! I can't wait for these challenges!

TWD - Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding

2009-04-21T11:24:00.004-04:00

This week, Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle chose the recipe for Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding, which can be found on pages 410 and 411 of Dorie's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". The recipe can also be found on Lauren's blog.

So, bread pudding was this week's directive and I'm fairly certain that I failed miserably. I have never tasted bread pudding. I have never made bread pudding. I have no idea what bread pudding is supposed to look like or taste like. Since I was wondering around in unknown territory, I decided to halve the recipe and bake it up in ramekins. I had some leftover liquid and in hindsight I think I should have added more of the milk/cream mixture.

I tasted it at room temperature and after chilling overnight in the refrigerator and I wasn't really excited about it so I brought some to a co-worker who professes to love the stuff. She thought the taste and texture were excellent but the pudding was a little dense. I'm glad tried something new! Thanks Lauren!

Please check out the rest of the TWD bakers to see how they did. I'm sure they baked up some decadent creamy concoctions that will make me want to try this recipe again!

TWD - Banana Cream Pie

2009-04-07T00:00:00.001-04:00

I have a confession to make .... I had a complete kitchen meltdown on Sunday. The kind of meltdown reserved for those moments when you have screamin' PMS and somebody stole the last chocolate bar from your super secret hiding spot. And left the wrapper the behind out of spite. You know what I'm talkin' about!

So here's the story. Phase I of the banana cream pie extravaganza required pie crust making. I made Dorie's "Good for Nothing", I mean "Good for Almost Everything" Pie Dough as instructed. I've baked this crust before and sadly had to throw it out because it shrank. It shrank A LOT! I decided to give it another go and valiant efforts resulted in ... shrinkage.

Sigh ... so I had a little fit and was ready to call the whole thing off. Sorry folks, no pie for you. Luckily, some cooler heads in the TWD group prevailed and I was convinced to give it another go round. For the second attempt, I decided to take the graham cracker crust route. Since I had some leftover macadamia nuts, I threw those in the mix too - just for good measure! :) I made a couple more changes along the way too. The biggest tweak to the recipe was my decision to use my 10-inch tart pan instead of a regular pie pan. I made a half batch of both the custard and the topping and used only a single layer of bananas.

Would you just look at that beautifully fluted and well behaved graham cracker macadamia nut pie crust! I was quite happy with the results! I've never baked banana cream anything so I had to dig into this one right away and despite my crust troubles, I think I may come back to this recipe! The custard was smooth and creamy and the addition of cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar wonderfully complemented the bananas and the macadamia nuts. The topping was rich and delicious with a light touch of sour cream.

Thanks to Amy of Sing for Your Supper for choosing this week's recipe which can be found on her blog and on pages 342 and 343 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours." Don't forget to check out the rest of the TWD bakers to see how they baked their Banana Cream Pie.

TWD - Coconut Butter Thins

2009-03-31T00:00:00.000-04:00

When I read through this recipe and spotted coconut, macadamia nuts, and lime as ingredients, I was immediately put in an island state of mind. When I spotted key limes at the grocery store, I knew I had to have them! Would anyone know the difference if I substituted key lime zest for regular lime zest? Nope. But I would know and adding key lime zest makes me happy. :)

The recipe states that the cookies should come out "wafery" and "lacy". Anyone who has known me for more than 5 minutes, knows that I do not like thin crunchy cookies. "Wafery" and "lacy" are not what I look for in a cookie, so I put the baking sheets in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking them and removed them from the oven at exactly 18 minutes. The results were perfectly square little butter cookies that resembled a shortbread.

I baked the cookies on Sunday afternoon and as I stood at the kitchen window, nibbling on coconut and key lime, I was transported to a lovely little key, swinging in a hammock, and watching the sunset. In reality, I watched big fluffy flakes of snow fall from the sky and blanket my yard in white. I swear they were mocking me. The cookies were delicious and super easy to bake. I will definitely bookmark the recipe to make again and again!

This weeks recipe was chosen by Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch. You can find the recipe on her blog or on page 145 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From my home to Yours". Please visit the TWD Blogroll to see what the rest of the bakers did this week!

Daring Bakers Challenge - Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna

2009-03-28T17:00:00.006-04:00

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.

When I found out we would be making pasta for this months challenge I was super excited. Pasta making is something that I have always wanted to try and now I had the perfect opportunity. We were to make an authentic Italian lasagna composed of noodles, bechamel sauce, and a ragu. My enthusiasm started to fade as I was reading through the recipe for the ragu. I started Weight Watchers about a month ago. I'm not the food police by any means and if I want something like lasagna, I just have a small portion, make good choices for the rest of the day and call it good. But the ragu ingredients (pancetta, veal, pork loin, beef skirt steak, Prosciutto di Parma and red wine among other things) did me in and I had resigned myself to skipping this months challenge. Lucky for me ... I stumbled upon a logical substitution. Roasted Vegetable Ragu.

My friend google and I found a delicious sounding recipe at Picky Cook. The ragu tasted as wonderful as the recipe promised! I was eating it straight out of the pan! The vegetables looked so pretty in the pan ready for roasting.

Here's the finished roasted vegetable ragu. Some of the veggies got a little overdone.

Now on to the pasta making! I struggled with the recipe at first. I wanted to make 1/2 batch and I couldn't get the dough to come together. I had a big pile of unsightly crumbs.

So I added another egg and after a lot of hard work formed a lovely little dough ball!

After some rolling and stretching of the dough, I cut some beautiful noodles. My noodles were a little on the thick side but my dough was starting to tear, so I decided to just take my chances. On a side note, how is it that Alton Brown made this process look so much easier on TV and he did it in thirty minutes! I didn't let my noodles dry since I did the entire lasagna process in a single day. Here they are hanging out in the kitchen.

I made the bechamel sauce and assembling the rest of the lasagna was a breeze! The end result was divine! I never imagined that this lasagna would taste so good!

Thanks Mary, Melinda, and Enza for this great challenge! Thank you Kristin for allowing me to use the ragu recipe. Please check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see how the rest of the gang did with their lasagnas! If you've never made your own pasta - try it!

Oh, and for those that may be counting: WW Points=7 :)

TWD - Blueberry Crumb Cake

2009-03-24T19:40:00.005-04:00

Or in my case, Blackberry Crumb Cake! I searched two different supermarkets for fresh berries and could only find fresh strawberries. I found myself in the frozen food aisle contemplating blueberries and blackberries. I wanted to try something a little different (for me) so I went with the blackberries since I had never baked with them before. A wonderful choice if I do say so myself and I will definitely bake this one again when fresh blackberries, and blueberries, and raspberries, come into season around here!

The only other change I made to Dorie's recipe was using the zest of an entire lemon instead of half - another wise choice I think! I also used a round pan instead of square since I rarely have the proper pan for the chosen recipe!

Unfortunately, I had a few problems with this cake. From what I have read from other TWD bloggers, many had the same issues with their crumb cakes. After 55 minutes in the oven, I had a puddle of butter in the center of the cake. After 65 minutes in the oven, my cake was over browning and not cooked in the center. When all was said and done, I think I left my cake in the oven for close to 90 minutes! YIKES! I still couldn't get a clean knife out of the center so I just gave up and removed it from the oven and when it cooled, it seemed fine.

My official taste taster had to have a piece before it was properly photographed and he said it was fantastic. I took the rest to my co-workers and they ate it and (I think) mostly loved it. I heard no complaints about it being dry. I had a small portion from near the center of the cake and thought it was absolutely wonderful! I will be trying this one with an assortment of fruit. Dorie says you can use peaches and in my world peaches = mangoes, so expect to see that version come out of the kitchen! :) I also want to make these as minis from my cupcake pan.

Please see how the rest of the TWD group fared and visit Sihan of Befuddlement for this weeks recipe. Sihan has mango marshmallows posted on her site. Mmmmm ..... mango. :)

TWD - French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze

2009-03-17T11:41:00.007-04:00

This weeks recipe was chosen by Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction. Please visit her blog for the recipe! I was happy to see that this weeks recipe was simple and Dorie called it "foolproof"! Yeah! I skipped last weeks TWD because I made three cakes for my coworkers and just couldn't find the time to squeeze in the custard. I was really surprised at how lemony the yogurt cake turned out using only zest and no juice.

Although Dorie instructs us to strain the marmalade and gently brush it the glaze on the cake tops, I decided on a more rustic look and basically spread my marmalde directly on top of the cake! I think it looks pretty cool with the chunks of orange peel.

Instead of making a large loaf or a round cake, I baked eight mini loaves instead. They were super moist and delicious. Yum!

Please check out the TWD bakers to see what they're up to this week and thanks for stopping by. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

TWD - Chocolate Armagnac Cake

2009-03-03T00:00:00.010-05:00

Armagnac? Armagnac is a grape brandy from the Gascony region of Southwestern France. Its closest relative is cognac, which is also grape brandy. I had to google to figure it out! After checking my booze stash, I realized I was fresh out of Armagnac. I also sadly lack cognac, brandy, and scotch whisky, all suggested substitutes for Armagnac. The closest thing I have? Bourbon whisky. Wild Turkey. Close enough. :)

Dorie's cake also calls for prunes. Prunes are not a staple in my pantry and since I am not going out for liquor - I am most certainly not going out for prunes. As recommended, I sub raisins for prunes. Raisins soaked in Wild Turkey Bourbon Whisky. Yee haw ... I'm going to countrify Dorie's fine french dessert!

I think I'm ready to get this cake going but realize that, once again, I don't have the proper sized pan. You'd think that I would just throw in the towel at this point. I don't have several key ingredients and I don't have an 8-inch springform pan. I'm not a quitter and I refuse to let baked goods get the best of me! A few days ago, I saw an episode of Good Eats on the Food Network where Alton Brown uses a regular 2-inch tall cake pan instead of a springform pan so I decide to improvise by covering the bottom and sides of the cake pan with parchment paper. I am happy to report that it worked like a charm!

The cake came together easily enough and looked beautiful when I removed it from the oven. It tasted great ... except for one small thing ... I don't like dried fruit co-mingling with chocolate. Like a 3 year old, I picked the raisins out of my cake slice. The bits of cake without raisins were fantastic! I plan on making this cake again and using the prunes as directed. I think they will disappear into the cake and I will be happier with the texture. The chocolate glaze that tops the cake is thick and rich and decadent!

Thanks Lyb of "And then I do the dishes" for choosing this months recipe for Chocolate Armagnac Cake, also known as the cake that got Dorie fired. You can read that story and find the cake recipe on pages 278-281 of "Baking: From my home to yours".

This is how I like my fruit and chocolate. Neighbors. On the same plate but separated by dollop of sweetened whipped cream. No touching!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the TWD bakers to see their twists on this cake.

Daring Bakers - Chocolate Valentino

2009-02-28T20:19:00.008-05:00

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. They chose 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.

I was super excited to see this month's flourless chocolate cake challenge! I LOVE chocolate in all of it's forms. I made my chocolate cake for my honey as part of our Valentine's Day dinner. He loved it. I loved it. All around it was huge success! I halved the recipe and made four mini heart shaped cakes in my silicone heart-shaped muffin pan.

The February Challenge included churning some homemade ice cream. My aimless wandering around the Internet led me to a recipe for Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream by David Lebovitz (click link at your own risk!) I made the caramel three times and even after the third time it still tasted slightly burned to me but since I'm hyper critical of my cooking, I decided to go with it anyway. Fantastic! I couldn't stop eating it!

I served the flourless chocolate Valentinos with Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream, and a dollop of fresh whipped cream. It was so good and the perfect ending to a dinner of ribeye steaks and roasted potatoes. Please check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see how the other bakers did.

TWD - Caramel Crunch Bars

2009-02-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

For this weeks recipe, Whitney of What’s left on the table? chose Caramel Crunch Bars. You can find the recipe on her blog or on pages 112-113 of "Baking: From my home to yours" by Dorie Greenspan. This was a pretty easy straightforward recipe. I used bittersweet chocolate in the crust portion of the bars and milk chocolate for the topping. I also used Heath Bar Bits for the toffee sprinkled on top. These cookies were pretty good but I thought they were really sweet! There was a little bit of a problem with some of my bars - the chocolate layer separated from the crust layer. I'm not sure if I would make these again.

On a side note, I was noticing that I have a bunch of partial bags of chocolate and small chunks of chocolate in my baking cupboard and I'm kind of annoyed by it! :) I'll need to make some kind of chocolate chip cookie and dump the assortment of chips in the mix to use them up. After finishing the Caramel Crunch Bar recipe I was left with yet another partial bag of "stuff" - in this case, the toffee bits. Instead of adding to the cupboard collection, I made the World Peace Cookies again and used the toffee bits instead of bittersweet chocolate chips. YUM! YUM! YUM!

Please check out the Tuesdays with Dorie Blogroll to see what the other bakers came up with.

TWD - Chocolate White Out Cake

2009-02-17T07:49:00.006-05:00

This week's Devil's Food White Out Cake was chosen by Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater. You can find the recipe on her blog and/or on page 247-249 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". This particular cake is featured on the cover of the cookbook and looks quite spectacular! Dorie's looks spectacular - mine, not so much!

I always seem to struggle with layer cakes and this one was no exception! The cake itself was pretty simple and straightforward and tasted delicious. I will definitely be referring back to this one although I may use a different frosting.

The frosting is fluffy, marshmallowy, and not overly sweet. I thought that it tasted OK but was not crazy about it. At the very last minute I decided to make one single cupcake, hollow out the center and fill it with the frosting. The cupcake was fabulous! The frosting had the perfect texture and consistency for filling a cupcake! I will do the cupcakes again.

I had a picture of the inside but it seems to have disappeared from my memory stick! When I spread the frosting between the cake layers, I didn't add equal amounts to each layer so my cake looks a little wonky on the inside.

Please check out the TWD blogroll to see how the rest of the bakers did this week.

TWD - World Peace Cookies

2009-02-03T00:00:00.000-05:00

This week Jessica of cookbookhabit chose World Peace Cookies for our baking pleasure. The recipe can be found on her blog and on pages 138-139 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours." I've heard rave reviews about these cookies so I was pretty excited to be making them and then I read the through the recipe and found these two words in the fine print: "crumbly" and "cookie". Those who have read here before know that I do not care for crumbly crunchy cookies but I pressed onward. I thought that at least my coworkers would eat them.

I whipped these up as directed except that I used a fine sea salt instead of fleur de sel. The raw cookie dough tasted fantastic and I considered just eating it straight from the bowl and calling it good but ended up rolling the dough into logs and freezing for a couple hours. I tried one cookie soon after it emerged from the oven and I was underwhelmed. :( I wanted to like them, I really did, so I tried another a few hours later. I sliced my cookies thick, so they were a little crisp around the edges and outside but overall, not too crunchy, but still, I thought the cookies were a little bleh.

Never one to give up, I tried another cookie the next morning for breakfast. I couldn't believe these were the exact same cookies I had baked up the day before. They tasted fantastic! I'm pretty sure I ate three or four more before putting them up! My official taste tester ate a bunch of them and when I asked if he wanted to take the rest and share them with friends, I was met with an unequivocal "NO". That's right folks, we are hoarding the world peace cookies. No sharing with friends, families, or coworkers! I will definitely bake these again and perhaps next time I will spread the peace, love, and joy with those around me.

Or not.

Please visit the TWD Blogroll to see how the rest of bakers did!

The Cannoli Project

2009-02-02T21:10:00.002-05:00

My official taste tester, aka dear boyfriend, asked me to make cannoli's as a special favor. When I explained that I had never made cannoli's he responded with "so?" Both the taste tester and my six year old are convinced that I can bake absolutely anything and while I'm quite flattered by their unwavering conviction, I was still pretty intimidated. I'm always up for a challenge so after a few good google sessions and picking the brains of a few of my fellow TWDers, I decided to mix and match a couple of recipes and several sets of instructions.

For the shells, I chose a recipe from The Arthur Avenue Cookbook suggested by Susan at Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy . The only concern that I had was the instructions indicated that the cannoli shells be fried at 325 degrees and that seemed too low of a temperature. I started at 325 and added heat and found that I had the best results when the oil temperature was closer to 400 degrees. In order to cut the suggested oval shape out of the dough I decided to try a template that I created on my computer.

This worked well, but about 1/3 of the way through the very time consuming process, I was getting a bit frustrated. I took out my largest biscuit cutter and forced it into an oval.

Since it wasn't big enough, I simply rolled the dough a little thicker, cut out the ovals, and then rolled them thinner and larger. Now I was moving along at a better clip!

I don't have a deep fryer so I just used a regular old pot from my collection and had to fry them one at a time so the temperature would remain high and I had room to move them around a bit in the pot. The end result looked pretty good but I couldn't tell if they were overcooked or undercooked or greasy or just plain nasty. I'm fairly certain that I have never eaten a cannoli so I had no idea what I was aiming for!

For the filling, I decided to try the recipe suggested by Becke from Columbus Foodie. I added just a tad more sugar to sweetened things up a bit and thought the filling tasted fantastic! The texture was grainier than I expected but I loved the flavor! I gave the finished cannoli's a dusting of powdered sugar and a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips and I sent them on their way.

The recipient (MA) and her friends and family were very impressed with the results so I guess I did ok! MA is old school Italian and mentioned that she had an authentic recipe that she dearly loved and perhaps I would like to try that one next time? Bring it MA! Bring it.

Thanks again to Susan and Becke and everyone else who offered up advice and suggestions!

Daring Bakers - Tuiles

2009-01-29T00:00:00.001-05:00

While most people made resolutions to lose weight, I resolved to bake more and joined the Daring Bakers Group! Lucky for me, my first month with the group brought a relatively easy challenge!

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux. Thanks ladies for a super fun (and yummy) challenge!

A tuile is a light, dry, crisp cookie that is molded into tiles or other shapes. Tuiles that are formed into cups can hold a wide variety of fillings, such as mousse or ice cream. For the challenge, I used some handmade stencils to shape the tuiles into flowers and circles before baking and then formed them into little cups while they were still warm. For the stencils, I used some quilting plastic that I cut into 4" square and I used my Sizzix die cut machine to cut the shapes. The possibilities are endless! When my cups cooled, I filled them with mango mousse and gave them a drizzle of strawberry coulis. I had intended for the coulis to go on the plate as garnish but I thought it looked much yummier right on the cookie! They tasted great!

I also filled a couple of my cups with some leftover cream cheese filling from my Berry Surprise Cake and topped them with a slice of mango, a dollop of whipped cream, and a sprinkling of cinnamon! Fabulous!

Finally, I put some mango mousse in cup, topped it with a smidge of coulis, a dollop of whipped cream, and used a flower-shaped tuile as a garnish (and an edible spoon)!

I had a ton of fun with this challenge! I had never made tuiles but will definitely be making them again. Please check the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see all of the yummy concoctions from the rest of the group!

TWD - Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

2009-01-27T00:00:00.001-05:00

I'll admit that I had pigeon-holed gingerbread into the category of treats to be only enjoyed during the Christmas holidays but let me tell you, this chocolate gingerbread is to die for any time of the year! Holy smokes, this was one heck of a good recipe! Thanks Heather of Sherry Trifle for choosing the Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread. The recipe can be found on Heather's blog and on page 212 of "Baking: From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan.

Now, before we delve into TWD business let's see a show of hands - who here watches Top Chef? If you don't, I recommend you do, and if you do you'll recall that last week's episode was the infamous "restaurant wars". In this particular episode, Stefan, makes a wonderful little treat which is not really talked about and is only shown for a few seconds - Mango Lollipops. How are chocolate dipped mangoes related to gingerbread you ask? Patience, grasshopper, patience ... I'm getting there. When I saw the little chocolate/mango squares, I knew I would make gingerbread lollipops. I have been eyeballing a silicone brownie bites pan and this weeks recipe gave me just the excuse I was looking for to buy it! Of course, I really think I need another one because I had to fill that bad boy up 4 or 5 times to use up all of the gingerbread batter! So now do you see my plan coming together? Do you?

The recipe calls for letting the icing firm up for about 10 minutes before spreading on the gingerbread but I wanted a smooth satiny finish so I used it right away. I put the icing in a squeeze bottle and squirted it on the brownie bites allowing it to dribble over the sides a wee bit.

I topped them with a little piece of mango and a lollipop stick for a tasty little nibble. These things were awesome by themselves but the mango pushed them to spectacular.

I also made the ginger infused whipped cream but whipped it until stiff peaks formed to that I could pipe it. I added a little swirl to the top of some of the gingerbread squares.

I also added a little dollop to be scooped up on my lollipop. Wow. Just wow.

Each gingerbread bite was about one inch square and 1/2 inch tall. I double the icing recipe but still didn't make enough to frost each and every square. I will definitely be making the chocolate gingerbread again! Yum! Please check out the rest of TWD group to see how they handled this weeks challenge.

TWD - Berry Surprise Cake

2009-01-20T00:00:00.002-05:00

If you're here looking for a Berry Surprise Cake, I'm afraid you've stopped at the wrong blog. Surprise! I have no berries and I have no cake. I do, however, have my own adulterated version of Dorie's recipe on pages 273-275 (that's not a typo - the recipe took an entire 3 pages without a photo) of Baking: From My Home to Yours. You can also find the recipe on Mary Ann's blog "Meet Me in the Kitchen".

Dorie explains that her inspiration for this cake comes from a treat from her childhood called charlotte russe. Specifically the charlotte russe served in New York City bakeries that consisted of sponge cake, fruit or jam, and whipped cream. The treat was served in a cardboard cylinder with a round of cardboard on the bottom that you pushed up as you ate. Here's a link to a photo.

I knew from the get go that I wouldn't be using berries in this recipe because they are out of season. Even the frozen ones taste tart to me. I quickly decided on frozen mangoes and swapped out the Chambord used in the soaking syrup for Peach Schnapps. I was also strangely intrigued by the concept of cake as "street food" and after a few days mulling over the situation, I thought that I could make cupcakes in my king size baking pan and use tulip muffin wrappers so they would be portable. One problem - I can't find tulip muffin wrappers locally and to have them shipped by Tuesday would cost a fortune. I decided to give it a go with the regular muffin liners but that didn't work out so well ...

My cupcakes collapsed and while I could still dig out the cake with spoon and eat my concoction "street food style", it just wasn't what I wanted. I wanted the smooth sided tulip cups and nothing else would do! Late Saturday night I decided to try and make my own tulip cups out of parchment paper. To my surprise and delight - it worked! Now they are not nearly as perfectly pretty as the ones you can buy, but I think they suited my purposes!

The second time around, I paid closer attention to my eggs and I used superfine baker's sugar instead of regular sugar. I'm not sure if either change made a difference but I ended up with five beautiful king size genoise cupcakes! Here are some photos of the assembly process.

I love how these turned out! They taste fabulous and my mind is spinning with possibilities. How great would these be filled with ice cream at a kid's birthday party? Have I mentioned they're portable? And adorable. Check it out ...

My son could not squeeze one of my creations into his regularly scheduled diet of chicken nuggets and ketchup, but my official taste tester took one for a test drive and gave it a thumbs up. The wrapper really stayed together even while digging around with a spoon. I wanted to tape the loose ends together but ... uh ... nothing sticks to parchment paper ... the ribbon's cuter anyway! Here are a couple more photos of the cake unwrapped and cut in half.

Please check out the rest of TWD group to see how they handled this weeks challenge.

Cake Mania!

2009-01-17T14:52:00.007-05:00

My office probably has the best fed employees in the country. Not only do they get the spoils from my Tuesdays with Dorie baking, I also bake cakes for my co-worker's birthdays. Usually, we average 2 or 3 birthdays a month but apparently Midwesterners are gettin' busy at the end of March and we had 4 celebrations the first week of January!

First up is carrot cake. Since Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours" has been such a great resource, I turned to the recipe for Bill's Big Carrot Cake on pages 254-255. When I pulled the cakes out of oven I was a little worried because they didn't rise very much. I was even more alarmed when I tried to remove them from the pans and they stuck like crazy! Two of the layers came out in pieces and I contemplated starting over and making a sheet cake but since it was late Sunday afternoon, I decided to try and salvage what I had. I used the cream cheese frosting to stick everything together in a shape that resembled round and called it good. The cake was tasty but didn't live up to my perfectionist standards so I will be trying this one again and hoping for better results.

Next up was a "baker's choice." I love when I get to choose the flavors because it gives me the opportunity to try something new. I recently found some Meyer lemons at the grocery store and since everyone raves about them and I'm such a follower, I grabbed them. They probably set me back $10 bucks (I averted my eyes when the cashier rang them up) but I really really wanted to try them! I made Meyer Lemon Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. The cupcakes had a pretty mild lemon flavor (I was hoping for something tangier) but were moist and delicious.

On Thursday, I got an unexpected reprieve. The birthday boy requested an angel food cake but I don't have a tube pan. I had intended to forge ahead and try to make some cupcakes but when a coworker offered up the baking talents (and tube pan) of her significant other, I reluctantly agreed to take the night off! ;)

For the last cake of the week the birthday girl chose my most requested recipe - German Chocolate Cake. I think nearly everyone in the office would pick this cake but most change their minds when they see my brow start furrowing in consternation. Yeah yeah, I know it's not all about me, but really people, change is good! I just use the recipe on the back of the German's Sweet Chocolate box but I have made this cake so many times, I have tweaked it to perfection and it turns out wonderfully. One coworker remarked that this was the best version yet! This time around, I got smart and made the frosting FIRST so that it would have plenty of time to cool and I could go to bed sometime before 2am. Unfortunately, this cake doesn't photograph very well ...

But wait, there's more! In addition to the craziness at work, my mother's birthday also falls during this same week! She really loves the recipe on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa container, so I went that route for her and the results were an epic fail! Every single cupcake collapsed on me no matter what I did. I tossed them all in the garbage and started over. Mom is a huge fan of peanut butter cups so I decided to try a chocolate/peanut butter cupcake. A google search lead me to Food and Wine Magazine's Double Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Filling. Oh. My. Word. These cupcakes were so rich and decadent I could hardly restrain myself from eating them all. Each and every one of you MUST make these treats immediately! Serve them up with a talk glass of milk. Seriously, the calories are worth it.

So there you have it ... a weeks worth of crazy cake baking! Now it's time for ME to get busy. Not with baby making but with this week's TWD recipe. Can you guess what it is? Surprise! It's cake. That's right, cake. Berry Surprise Cake. I'm off to make another cake.

TWD - Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

2009-01-13T00:00:00.000-05:00

This week we have Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake to thank for choosing Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins. You can find the recipe on her site or on page 6 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours."

I'll confess that when I made this recipe, I felt like I was just going through the motions. As the official office birthday cake baker, I had a busy last week. I made two cakes and thirty or so cupcakes for my coworkers, as well as a couple dozen cupcakes for my mother's birthday! I'll share more about those sweet treats later. By the time TWD baking time rolled around, I wasn't particularly excited about corn muffins.

All of that ambivalence changed once I popped one of these babies in my mouth! These things are GOOD! I made tiny little mini muffins and served them alongside barbecued pork ribs and homemade baked potato chips. Going forward, these muffins will be a staple in my recipe rotation.

I threw a couple muffins on the dinner plate of my official taste tester, but I didn't tell him what they were. See, he's a believer that corn bread should be baked in an iron skillet with bacon grease. If I would have let him in on the secret he would have turned his nose up at my cute little muffins! I watched out of the corner of my eye as he took a couple of bites and eyed them suspiciously. He asked "is this some type of corn bread?" I was all innocence. "What?" "Why yes, yes they are. They're corn muffins! Aren't they cute?" He kind of snorted, ignored me for a while, cleaned his plate, and ate 4 or 5 more muffins. Eventually, he grudgingly gave them his seal of approval.

The bottom line? Try them! You'll like them! Check out the other TWD bakers here!

TWD - French Pear Tart

2009-01-06T00:00:00.004-05:00

This weeks recipe for a French Pear Tart was chosen by the author of "Baking: From My Home to Yours", Dorie Greenspan! Ooh la la ... a french pastry. I had a French class in college and we had to give a 5 minute speech, en francais, about something French. I, of course, choose French pastries, which I knew absolutely nothing about. My rambling speech also included some fresh examples. My professor, who was approximately 39 weeks pregnant at the time, gave me some sort of passing grade and ate all my desserts.

I've never baked a tart and I'm pretty sure that I've never even eaten a tart so I was a little intimidated by this assignment. After reading through the recipe I realized that this recipe was relatively easy and that, once AGAIN, I have the wrong size pan! I think this is the third recipe, that did not involve a cookie sheet, in a row! Although I own a new 10-inch tart pan and the recipe called for a 9-inch tart pan, I relaxed about the pan size after pre-baking the crust. The crust fit the pan well!

I whipped up the almond cream, filled the tart shell, and got started on slicing the pears. I bought 4 fresh pears (the recipe called for only 3) and I pealed and sliced all 4 of them. For some reason, I was thinking that the pears should cover the entire top of the tart so ended up using all of my pears!

I really love how this dessert turned out! The crust tasted like shortbread, the almond cream was smooth and delicious, and the pears had just the right firmness. I will definitely be making this one again!

When I do it again, however, I will make more almond cream because I think my slices (yeah, I ate 3 of them) were a little slim.

The recipe called for brushing the tart with apple jelly or sprinkling with powdered sugar. I did neither. I like my tart naked. Please go to the TWD Blogroll to see how the rest of the bakers did.

TWD - Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

2008-12-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

aaaaaand we're back ..... miss me? Sorry folks, I just couldn't embrace the butterscotch pudding from last weeks TWD. Maybe at a later time ....

This week, we have Tall and Creamy Cheesecake which was chosen by Anne of AnneStrawberry . Yeah! I LOVE cheesecake! I made this recipe as is, no changes, no substitutions. Except for the pan. This recipe calls for 9-inch x 2 3/4-inch springform pan. Come on now. Seriously? I just bought a new springform pan for the Caramel Peanut Topped Brownie Cake in October! I made a short and creamy cheesecake with a side of mini cheesecake! This what the twosome looked like at the end of the hour and half baking time.

Dorie's recipe instructs filling the pan all the way to the rim with filling. I only filled my pans about 3/4 full and look how tall they rose! I'm afraid that if I would have followed directions, I would have a had a huge mess! OK, now here's a question for the experienced cheesecakers ... why is that the recipe says the cake will be brown on top but Dorie's photo of her cheesecake is a beautiful white?

The cheesecakes were allowed to cool in the oven for an hour; at which time they looked like this.

I love how the big one isn't even cracked! I'm a perfectionist like that! I could barely stand waiting for these things cool! But wait I did! Dorie recommends chilling for 4 hours so I set my kitchen timer and got ready to dig in ... kidding ... I didn't really set the timer but I may have watched the clock like a hawk.

My graham cracker crumbs seemed a little wet. I'm not sure if I had some water intrusion beyond my foil wrapped pans. It tasted fine though. OK, who am I kidding? Can't you see how smooth and custardy that cake looks? That is exactly how it tasted! Smooth, light, melt in your mouth deliciousness. The best cheesecake I have ever tasted. Ever. My dear boyfriend had this to say. "I don't know how you do it! I must have been eating poop all of my life!" Hmmmmm ... I think there is a compliment in there somewhere? He also said that the cheesecakes he had previously consumed were really dense and he much preferred this one because of the fluff factor. I paraphrased that last part. :)

I wanted to try a couple different toppings. I started with strawberry.

I also had a slice with apple filling from my disasterous Christmas pie. The crust was so horrible that I scooped out the inside and have been using the filling to top ice cream and now my cheesecake! The apple topped slice was spectacular! I will make this cheesecake again and again! But first I have a date (or four) with the treadmill.

Thanks again Anne for choosing this great recipe. Be sure to check out the other TWD cheesecakers! You can find them here.

TWD - Buttery Jam Cookies

2008-12-16T01:36:00.002-05:00

This weeks cookie recipe was chose by Heather of Randomosity and the Girl chose Buttery Jam Cookies. The recipe can be found on page 80 of Baking: From my Home to Yours and on Heather's blog.

These cookies turned out cute but kind of bland. I used a flavorful mango fruit spread instead of jam and had high expectations for these little nibblers but they need a little sumpthin' sumpthin' to give them a little kick!

My favorite things about these cookies?

They're soft!!

They're cakey!

They're stackable!

Please check out the rest of TWD gang to see how they made out with these cookies.

TWD - Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

2008-12-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

This week, Ulrike of Küchenlatein chose Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies, which can be found on pages 146-147 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". Before I get started discussing these cookies, I wanted to take a few moments to ramble on about how great this cookbook is! I have learned so much from this book and from my fellow TWD bakers! Oh dear, now I'm all verklempt. Please, talk amongst yourselves.

Now about those sugar cookies ... I've said it in a least a half dozen posts ... I do not like hard cookies. All of the sugar cookies that I have known have been hard. With that in mind, I wasn't really excited about making these cookies BUT I had an agenda so I made them. Please take out your Winter 2008 Fancy Flours Catalog. I'll give you a minute to find it. Come on ... I know you have one. Turn to page 25 and check out the upper right hand corner. That snowflake cookie wreath is beautiful! I really wanted to make one so I forged ahead with the sugar cookies, including my first foray into royal icing.

The cookie dough was pretty crumbly but I was really afraid of over beating it. I roughly divided the dough in half and put each half into a gallon ziploc bag and gently kneaded it until it came together. Then I rolled it out (while it was still in the bag - a tip I learned from making the brown sugar shortbread) and refrigerated it for a few hours. Most of the times when I make cut out cookies, the dough spreads into an unrecognizable blob. This time around, after I cut out the shapes, I popped the baking sheet and the cookies back into the refrigerator so they could chill out for another half hour or so (a tip from the linzer sables). It worked like a charm, my cookies came out beautifully!

The royal icing was not a fun adventure. I wanted to get it to "pouring" consistency, but no matter how much water I added, I couldn't do it. It took me hours to frost these cookies but I think the end result was worth it .... and if anyone has any royal icing tips to share, please do!

Here is my take on the Fancy Flours Cookie Wreath which you can see HERE.

I took the wreath to work and left it out for my coworkers. Apparently, they were quite good! After being admonished several times and told that the cookies were NOT HARD, I decided to try one for myself. Except, that by the time I made it back to the kitchen, then entire wreath was gone. Seriously, in less than a half an hour! Gone. Luckily I had a few stashed at home and I found them to be soft and delicious. Like buttah ...

As always, please check out the rest of the TWD Bakers.

TWD - Linzer Sables

2008-12-02T07:49:00.003-05:00

This weeks Tuesdays with Dori recipe is Linzer Sables and was chosen by noskos of Living the Life. I halved the recipe, substituted ground hazelnuts, and filled them with chocolate ganache. I was super excited about this flavor combination but found that the hazelnuts completely overpowered the cookies! I used my snowflake cookie cutter to shape them but sadly they still look like flowers. The cookies may have been rolled a little too thin and they were crispier than I like. Overall, I thought these were OK and I would like to try them again using ground almonds.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the TWD gang to see how they made out with these cookies.

TWD - Thanksgiving Twofer Pie

2008-11-30T11:43:00.009-05:00

This weeks recipe was chosen by Vibi from La Casserole Carrée. Once again, I made something that, when left to my own devices, would not have tried! Thanks Vibi! The "Twofer Pie" is basically a pumpkin pie with pecan pie layered on top. I had problems with this recipe right from the beginning. I put flour in my food processor for a single pie crust and then promptly added the rest of the ingredients as listed for a double pie crust. I didn't want to trash a couple cups flour (King Arthur flour is $4.19 a bag in my neck of the woods!) so I added enough flour for the double crust and away I went ...... until my dough refused to come together in the food processor. I ended up finishing the dough with my hands but I was very worried that the results would be less than flaky. I pre-baked the pie crust as directed and ended up with this.

Shrinkage. I decided to go another route with the remaining pie dough. I cut the dough to fit my regular sized muffin pans and ended up with 12 crusts! I pre-baked 6 of them to use for mini Lemon Meringue pies and used the remaining 6 for mini Twofer Pies. This time around, I did not pre-bake the crust. Here they are fresh out of the oven.

The next time around (and there WILL be a next time because these were fabulous), I will more generously butter the muffin tin, including the top! These buggers were sticky!

In general, I'm a pie purist and didn't think I would care for pecan and pumpkin pie sharing the same space, but once again, I was surprised and delighted with the outcome! The pumpkin portion was perfectly cooked and the pecans added a wonderful flavor and crunch! Although I was worried about the crust, it turned out just fine! You can see a little bit of the flakiness in this photo.

As for the lemon meringue pies, they turned out ok. The filling was more tart that I would have liked and the meringue was kind of marshmallowy but overall, very tasty!

I think I may make mini pies like this from now on. It is very easy to please everyone this way and they are super cute and fun to make!

One more thing .... this recipe does not use an entire can of pumpkin. I refuse to throw it away. I won't do it. So say hello to my pumpkin mousse!! I added a little sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to the pumpkin and folded it into about a cup of whipped cream.

Please check out the rest of the TWD bakers to see what they cooked up!

TWD - Arborio Rice Pudding

2008-11-18T10:57:00.007-05:00

Isabelle of Les gourmandises d’Isa chose "Arborio Rice Pudding, White, Black (Or Both)", for this weeks TWD selection. For the third consecutive week I'm wandering about in unknown culinary territory! I have never cooked rice pudding or any kind of pudding for that matter. Truth be told, when I saw how much money the arborio rice was going to set me back, I almost scrapped the whole project! I managed to muddle through the recipe and produce an OK pudding (I think)!

I made both the vanilla and a chocolate version but thought that both tasted rather bland. These days chocolate pudding makes me think of Dexter, my latest unhealthy obsession! Rita in the kitchen, stirring, stirring, stirring, that chocolate pudding. Seriously people, this is good TV!

On another tangent, this was the view of my backyard on Sunday.

and on the front porch. There is nothing like the first snow of the season to make you go "blech"!

Sunday was pudding cooking day and coincidentally, Dexter watching night! So I decided to go all "winter themed" on my pudding. I decorated my little bowl of chocolate pudding with a white chocolate snowflake and my little cup of chocolate pudding with some crushed candy cane. I added a little bit of the caramel apple jam and a sprinkle of cinnamon to the vanilla pudding. The last one being my favorite! I think I had more fun styling my food than cooking or eating it!

Check out the rest of the TWD Bakers and see what they cooked up! And watch Dexter! Do it! Do it now! :)

Black Hole Chocolate Cake

2008-11-16T20:02:00.002-05:00

I think I can.... I think I can..... I will conquer the layer cake. This attempt was called Black Hole Chocolate Cake and I found the recipe at http://www.cdkitchen.com/. I had high hopes for this one since after baking, the layers were very dense. I had a few problems though ....

1. A buttercream concoction was to serve as the filling and used to frost the sides of the cake. Now I know how to make buttercream. I really do. So when the recipe instructed that melted, uncooled chocolate, butter, powdered sugar, and cream be combined; I knew I wouldn't get "light and fluffy". None the less, I followed the directions, and ended up with a tasting filling but not enough frosting. I looks ok though.

2. Nothing good can come of pouring a hot glaze over a cake. Nothing. Nothing but a disaster. Again, I'm no stranger to the kitchen, so I let the glaze cool but not nearly enough. I should have been darn near room temperature. On the plus side, this was the best tasting glaze I've ever had and I think I'll keep it!

3. This cake did not taste good. The cake layers were very dry and the filling was "meh" but not spectacular. My coworkers ate it but my official taste tester dumped it into the garbage after a couple bites (as did I - after I licked the glaze off the top).

So it's back to the layer cake drawing board.

TWD - Kugelhopf

2008-11-11T00:00:00.001-05:00

This weeks TWD selection comes from Yolanda of The All-Purpose Girl and she chose the Kugelhopf on pages 61-63. As I scanned the ingredients list my very first thought was "yeast? Ummm ... no can do." Yeast is not my friend. As a matter fact, I would even go so far to say that yeast is my Kitchen Kryptonite and quite frankly, I think the yeast is in cahoots with the layer cake and they are determined to drive me from the kitchen. I put away my copy of "Baking: From My Home to Yours" and walked away. I'll just catch up with the TWD folks next week.

Fortunately (or not), I cannot resist a challenge, so by Friday afternoon I was back in the kitchen ready to go. I started on Saturday morning but by Saturday afternoon I couldn't get even one single rise out of that doughy mess in my bowl. I reread the recipe, googled, and tried again. The second time around, I started by using my thermometer to make sure the milk was the proper temperature and I proofed the yeast to make sure it was still fresh. Everything checked out A-OK and I actually got the bugger to rise this time. As directed I put it in the refrigerator and got two more rises out of the dough. I let it rest overnight but when I took it out Sunday morning, the dough was very stiff and went into my bundt pan in three separate pieces.

Much to my surprise and delight, the dough rose in the pan!

The portion of the dough that is visible in the top right of the above picture was kind of deformed and even during baking that part of the dough didn't rise. None the less, I could smell victory over the yeast! I can assure that the sweet scent victory made my house smell fabulous when my kugelhopf was baking. I couldn't wait to dig in to this baby! Seriously, I was salivating - I love the smell of baking bread.

Following the rest of the directions, I brushed the kugelhopf with melted butter, sprinkled it with sugar, dusted with confectioners sugar, and ate it the same day. Just kidding, I only ate half of it on Sunday. Seriously, it was that good. Nearly half.

In the cookbook, Dorie warns that this cake is best eaten the same day that it is prepared or else it will go stale. She suggests that stale slices of kugelhopf should be toasted and served with jam. Really? Stale bread makes me think of french toast. Mmmmmm ..... french toast. So I cut up the remaining quarter, I mean half, of my kugelhopf, and made french toast Monday morning. Seriously. To the untrained eye, it would appear that my french toast is covered in giant pats of butter, but you know what they say - the camera adds ten pounds. Seriously. I would never eat that much butter on tiny pieces of bread. That would be wrong.

So, at the end of the day I would definitely make this recipe again. The kugelhopf tasted fantastic and I am so glad that I tried it. Now that I conquered the yeast, bring on the layer cakes! Seriously, check back tomorrow because I made a chocolate cake. Don't forget to check out the other TWD bakers!

TWD - Rugelach

2008-11-04T00:00:00.001-05:00

I was super excited to see that Piggy of Piggy’s Cooking Journal chose rugelach for this weeks TWD baking adventure. I have never eaten rugelach and I had certainly never baked rugelach! After carefully reading through the recipe I realized two things. The first realization was that my grandmother made something similar to this with leftover pie crust! She would roll out the scraps, brush the dough with melted butter, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon, cut into triangles, roll, and bake. Yum, yum, yum! The second realization was that this recipe contained both fruit and chocolate. As discussed in the Chocolate Chunker post, I do not care for fruit mixing it up chocolate!

I decided to make half the batch with the recipe more or less as written (I didn't use currants because I didn't have any) and I found that I didn't really care for apricot preserves with the mini semi-sweet chocolate chips that I used. My official taste tester didn't really like them either so I took them to the office and unloaded them on my co-workers.

My second batch was entirely different story ... mmm mmm good. I loved them so much that I refused to take them to work and share with my co-workers! It is my intention to consume each and every one of them by myself!

I substituted the apricot jam with caramel apple jam, skipped the chocolate and currants, and used pecans. I made the jam myself using this recipe. The jam was overally sweet and didn't taste very "caramelly" but it was really good! I've sinced used it on an english muffin and as a topping for ice cream. I'm going to mess around with the jam recipe and try to develop a stronger caramel flavor. I am totally in love with the apple rugelach and will surely make more as soon as I finish eating this batch.

In the following photo, you can see the tiny chunks of apple peeking out of the dough.

In my excitement, I forgot to brush the cookies with the egg wash and sprinkle them with coarse sugar prior to baking but I still think they turned out great! Please check out the other TWD bakers to see all the other amazing twists on rugelach.

TWD - Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

2008-10-28T00:00:00.001-04:00

This week, Clara of I Heart Food4Thought chose Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes .... wait ... is that too much chocolate? Nope! No such thing! Actually, these chocolate cupcakes weren't too chocolaty at all. They were wonderfully flavored and the ganache frosting was a to die for! The only problem I had with these little gems is that they were a little on the dry side.

I had decided to take these chocolate cupcakes to work for a birthday celebration so I made a double batch and ended up with 24 regular sized cupcakes and 10 minis. The cuppy's looked beautiful when they came out of the oven; perfectly done with nice flat tops right at the top of the liner.

I made the ganache and quickly became concerned. Is this it? Is this all the frosting I get for all of these cupcakes? I rechecked the recipe and went over the steps in my head. I had definitely doubled it so it must be right so I began frosting away. Typically, I prefer my cupcakes topped with a big giant mound of scrumptious frosting, however, this ganache was so rich and decadent, a little went a long way.

The minis had a greater frosting to cupcake ratio and they instantly became my favorites!

These are the perfect grown up cupcakes served just the way they are but with Halloween just around the corner, I couldn't resist playing around with some spooky decorations. I wanted to keep it simple and non-cutesy so I chose the spider web route. I used melted white candy melts in a squeeze bottle and hand drew spider webs on wax paper. When they hardened I attached the webs to the cupcakes with a little dot of melted candy. At first, I was a little disappointed that the webs looked so messy, but then I realized that they were supposed to be spiderwebs and I needed to get over it!

Overall, these were great little cakes and I would definitely make them again using some of the "added moistness" tips I picked up the from the TWD folks. Thanks for choosing a super recipe Clara!

My six year old son asked to try one of the mini cupcakes. He took one bite and looked a little puzzled. He asked me "What flavor are these?" I told him chocolate. He then "accidentally" dropped it on the floor. I tried to initiate the 3 second rule but he was having none of it and the entire thing ended up in the trash.

TWD - Pumpkin Muffins

2008-10-21T00:00:00.001-04:00

Pumpkin Muffins! As my boy likes to say ... "Yay! Hooray!" I love all things pumpkin and was so excited to see this week's "Tuesdays with Dorie" recipe was chosen by Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp. I began by roasting some pumpkin that I picked up at the pumpkin patch, but unfortunately, at the end of the cooking process my fresh pumpkin was dry and stringy and I had to start the process over with a new pumpkin.

As luck would have it, I was caught in the act of butchery by my seven year old son, who shreaked "What are you DOING to my pumpkin?" To which I replied, "I'm going to EAT it." He was not happy with this response and eventually left the kitchen sulking. My second attempt, yielded a tender, tasty pumpkin, suitable for baking with!

I followed Dorie's recipe pretty closely, except that I omitted the nuts, raisins, and sunflower seeds ... ok maybe, it wasn't so "close"! I used dates instead of raisins and subbed fresh roasted pumpkin seeds for the sunflower seeds. These muffins are fabulous! So fabulous in fact, I'm getting ready to make another batch!

Bake another batch after my son goes to bed that is! No need to further traumatize the youngster by consuming his precious pumpkin!

Thanks again for a great recipe selection! Don't forget to see what the other TWD bakers are up to this week!

TWD - Lenox Almond Biscotti

2008-10-14T07:32:00.009-04:00

Lenox Almond Biscotti was chosen by Gretchen of Canela & Comino for this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. We'll start with a confession of sorts - I have never baked biscotti! Sad, but true and it sounded easy enough so I thought I'd give it a whirl. On the heals of this confession I need to post a WARNING .... the following photos are quite graphic and may be unsuitable for viewing by experienced biscotti bakers. Consider yourselves warned and continue reading .... if you dare!

Since I was biscotti newbie, I followed the recipe (ok, I followed the ingredient list) exactly as written. When it came time to form the cookies for the first baking, I deviated from the written instructions and I made two short loaves instead of two long loaves.

After the first baking, this was the result ..... please avert your eyes if you have delicate sensibilities.

Wow! They spread out A LOT more than I anticipated! My first instinct was to throw them away and start over but after careful consideration, I decided to forge on and see what would happen. These cookies were SLIM and experienced quite a bit of breakage when I sliced them and stood them up on the cookie sheet. I'm not sure what Dorie meant by standing them up "like a marching band" so this what they looked like before they went into the oven for a second baking.

I like the rustic look of my cookies! I had a hard time getting them to stand at first but I found that if I sliced the cookie, left the knife in place, and lightly pressed the slice against the knife, I had one fairly flat edge to stand the biscotti on. Here is the final result.

Not too bad looking and they tasted awesome! Now for confession #2 ... my coworkers are usually the beneficiaries of my baking forays but I only shared these gems with a few close friends! I ate a few (ok, perhaps many) and gave the rest to my official taste tester because he really really enjoyed eating them! I also dipped half of these in bittersweet chocolate but they disappeared before I was able to photograph them!

Thanks for choosing a great recipe Gretchen! Don't forget to check out the other TWD Bakers!

TWD - Caramel Peanut Topped Brownie Cake

2008-10-07T07:10:00.003-04:00

This weeks recipe for Caramel Peanut Topped Brownie Cake was chosen by Tammy of Wee Treats by Tammy. I decided to make this cake for a coworkers birthday but the first problem I ran into was the springform pan - I had a 6" pan; I could only find a 9" pan in the stores, and the recipe called for a 8" pan. I opted to go with the 9" pan but rather than fool with the recipe and perform complex mathematical operations in order to get a cake of the proper thickness, I followed the directions as is.

The cake turned out fine except that it sank A LOT in the middle! When I looked at it after cooling, I was afraid that the center portion of the cake would be paper thin but that was not the case. The caramel topping gave me a little bit of trouble as it took 15-20 minutes to reach a deep amber color but my patience paid off and it was delicious! Because of the larger diameter of the cake, I ended up using more peanuts and almost all of the caramel. In order to get full peanut coverage, I put the peanuts on the cake first and then poured the caramel over the top of everything.

This cake was a huge hit at the office and I will definitely be making it again. As a matter of fact, I later found 8" springform pans at JC Penney of all places! Check out the other TWD bakers here.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-10-01T07:46:00.003-04:00

My son likes chocolate chip cookies. Not peanut butter. Not oatmeal. Chocolate chip and only chocolate chip. No substitutions please. I wanted to make some cookies for him to take on an outing with a friend but I didn't have a "to die for" chocolate chip cookie recipe. Yes, six year old children need "to die for" cookies. For real.

I decided on Alton Brown's "The Chewy" and guess what .... they were not "to die for", but they were pretty darn tasty! This recipe intrigued me because a.) it calls for melted butter and I never have softened butter when I really need it, b.) it calls for kosher salt, and c.) it's a chewy cookie. The cookies turned out nice and soft but not really "chewy" per se. I followed the recipe pretty closely except that I used milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet and I made small cookies instead of large ones. All in all, these cookies are a keeper!

TWD - Recipe "Rewind"

2008-09-30T00:00:00.000-04:00

Mari of Mevrouw Cupcake chose Creme Brulee for this weeks TWD recipe. Now, while I am a huge fan of Creme Brulee, I am not huge fan of the process of making one. Quite frankly, I'm scared and a little bit intimidated. So when given the option to chose a previous TWD recipe to make, I picked the very first recipe - Brown Sugar Pecan Shortbread.

I decided that since I had some chopped hazelnuts laying around, I would use those instead of pecans and I substituted cinnamon for the cloves. I followed the instructions darn near to the "T" and all was going quite well. The shortbread looked beautiful on the cookie sheets and during the first few minutes of baking I was indulging in fantasies of dipping the finished cookies in chocolate and pouring another cup of coffee. The kitchen timer jolted me out of fantasy land and reality slapped me in the face when I opened the oven door.

I must have rolled the cookies too thin because they melted into one huge monster cookie that had neither the taste nor texture of shortbread. Bummer.

Oh well, better luck next week! Please check out the other TWD bakers here.

TWD Dimply Plum Cake

2008-09-23T00:00:00.000-04:00

Or in my case ... Dimply Peach Cake! I'm not a huge fan of the cooked plum, or the dried plum for that matter so I chose the peach variation instead. You can check out what the other TWD bakers created at the Tuesdays with Dorie Blog.

I found some fabulous looking peaches at the farmers market on Saturday.

They even looked pretty halved and pitted and ready to go into the cake batter.

Unfortunately, they were the sourest peaches I've ever tasted! The cake portion of the dessert was absolutely fabulous though. As recommended in the cookbook, I added a little bit of fresh basil the cake mixture, and although I never would have done this on my own, it was a great flavor complement to the peaches! The cake tested done after 45 minutes in the oven but when I removed it from the pan, it fell to pieces. The plum cake is photographed for the cookbook with some whipped cream and I decided to do the same with my plum cake. I whipped up (a little too stiffly) some heavy cream with a touch of almond extract. This was the end result ....

OK, so a food stylist I am not! I guess I'll keep my day job! I was a really good cake though!

I am thinking about trying this again with mangoes. Mmmmmm mangoes...

TWD - Chocolate Chunkers

2008-09-16T03:00:00.000-04:00

Chocolate Chunkers. In a word ..... YUM!

Wow - were these cookies ever fabulous! I use the term "cookie" loosely because these things were more like chunks of chocolately goodness stuck together with tiny bits of dough. Chocolate Chunkers are this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie selection. The original recipe called for chunks of white chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, chopped peanuts, and raisins but I made some alterations.

The raisins I left out, because really, do I need a dried up piece fruit coming between me and a giant hunk of sweetness? I think not. Quite frankly, I was too lazy to chop the peanuts, so I left them whole. I kept the white chocolate in but replaced the semi-sweet with milk chocolate. I was looking for some good affordable chocolate to chunk up and found this Cacao Reserve by Hershey's and it was pretty good!

I shared the cookies with co-workers and they were met with approval (ie scarfed down at the speed of light). I also enjoyed these gems with a glass of milk - I can't even remember the last time I drank a glass of milk! I was a little camera happy this weekend!

TWD - Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops

2008-09-10T22:05:00.000-04:00

Last week I joined a cool community of bakers and bloggers. The group is called "Tuesdays with Dorie". Every week, each member of the group bakes the same recipe from the cookbook "Baking: From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan. I'm so excited to be doing this! Of course, I am late with my post this week, but I did make the most delicious cookies!

This weeks recipe was Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops and I barely had enough left over to photograph. After my taste tester finished off a half dozen of them, he says "What? You have leftover whoppers?" "I'll take those off your hands ..."

Let's Go Canes!

2008-09-06T18:28:00.001-04:00

Adopted

2008-09-01T09:52:00.000-04:00

Two Fridays ago this showed up at my backdoor.

I'm not a fan cats, but I simply cannot turn away animals in need. This poor kitten couldn't have weighed more than a couple of pounds. Two weeks later, "pretty kitty" as my son calls her, has put on weight, been de-wormed, de-fleaed, and is sporting a very stylish black collar. My son took this picture this morning.

Welcome to the family "pretty kitty!"