Night Baking

holiday treats for the neighborhood (a glance back to 2011)

2012-01-14T23:41:00.000-08:00

Happy new year and welcome to 2012! Sorry for the delay. Let's go back in time a few weeks and talk about holiday cookies, shall we? Once we're caught up, I'll get back on track with what I've been baking this year.

At the beginning of Christmas week, I baked up boxes full of treats for my neighbors, as is our annual tradition. We all exchange sweets, and for two weeks, the counters are just loaded with cookies and candy. Tom's fudge and Kristen's buckeyes are my absolute favorites, but mostly I love the tradition of baking for each other.

Usually I'm pretty organized, but I was all over the map in deciding what to bake this year. First I planned on tart cranberry jam, but it wasn't quite enough on its own. I thought about adding mini loaves of pumpkin bread, but... nah. I had been wanting to make chocolate-covered cherries, so that was a start. I also wanted to explore non-chocolate flavors. Ultimately, I cobbled together a variety of random recipes I came across in the blogosphere, and I think they came out pretty festive.

Here's a look at all the sweets:

Chocolate-chip cookie dough fudge. Tasted OK, but honestly, if it's not chocolate fudge, I'm not really interested. It looked cute, though.

This was sort of a cheat since I've made the cranberry tea cookies before. But they're just so good!

Gooey butter cake squares. Recipe courtesy of Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar, so I had high expectations. I was pretty shocked when the base included cake mix, since I can't think of the last time I used a cake mix. Unfortunately, though I liked the idea of them, I could taste the chemical-y mix. Plus, I think I overbaked them, so they weren't as gooey as they were described.

Salted caramel is everywhere right now, and these bars featured salted caramel poured over a shortbread crust. Idea = great; execution = not-so-good. I followed the directions very closely because making candy still unnerves me. But the caramel was way too salty, and it did not set up firmly enough. I added the chocolate drizzle to offset the other problems, but the caramel still oozed and the salt was just too much. Although I wouldn't repeat the recipe in this form, I reworked it with some additional tips, and I will talk about that more in another post.

The chocolate-covered cherries were my favorites! They take a couple of days to "cure" while the fondant inside liquefies. And you really have to dip them thoroughly or the cherry juice leaches out after a couple of days. Lessons well learned.

I assume my neighbors ate whatever suited their tastebuds and - given there was no cookie shortage that week - dumped the rest. I'm glad I tried new recipes even if they weren't all keepers. Happy belated holidays, and look forward to moving on to some new successes!

marshmallow dreidel spin, dance, and turn

2011-12-19T21:10:00.000-08:00

Chanukah starts tomorrow night! Are you ready? I still have some shopping to do, but thankfully, I have 8 nights to get it all finalized. (Secret Chanukah buddy, don't worry; I'll have you covered!)

Friday was the final day of school before the three-week winter holiday. I signed up to bring dessert for the kids' holiday parties, and Bug's class asked that each family's contribution reflect their heritage. She came up with this dreidel idea based on a similar treat from the Sunday school Chanukah party. Aren't they so cute? Here they are with the letters in order from right to left: nun, gimel, hay, shin. It's an acronym: Nes Gadol Haya Sham, which means, "a great miracle happened there." (Fun fact: dreidels you buy in Israel actually have a letter peh instead of shin - it stands for Po in the acronym, and it changes the meaning to, "a great miracle happened here.")

If it were up to me, I would have made them all say gimel, since that's winning spin that lets you take all the gelt from the pot. My fair-minded daughter specifically requested an equal distribution of the Hebrew letters.

Not only were the dreidels a great idea, but I got to use child labor to complete all the prep work! The kids counted out 60 marshmallows, unwrapped 64 Hershey kisses (oh, did you notice that discrepancy? they each got to eat two as payment), and glued them on with melted chocolate. Later that night, once the chocolate glue firmed up, I inserted the pretzel sticks and then dipped them into candy melts (green) or melted chocolate (not green - if your chocolate is green, I highly recommend you don't eat it). After they hardened in the fridge for 15 minutes or so, I piped on the Hebrew letters. I packaged them in tupperware containers between layers of waxed paper, and they were ready to transport.

Unfortunately, I still struggle with dipping - not my best baking skill. I did get to try out my brand new Wilton Chocolate Pro, which made the job less frustrating. During Boy-o's school conference, the conversation turned to baking (you know, as it usually does when reviewing scholastic performance). Turns out B's teacher is a cake pop maker extraordinaire, and she highly recommended ponying up the $25 for this mini-crockpot-like device which melts the chocolate and keeps it warm while you dip. The sides of the pot stay cool, and the temperature holds steady, so you're less likely to burn yourself or your chocolate. She also recommended Paramount Crystals to thin the chocolate to the right consistency (similar concept to vegetable oil or shortening, but she claims they are easier to work with and more effective). I will try that next time, because I think thinner chocolate would be easier to manage and look smoother. I will definitely give the Chocolate Pro another whirl soon!

The dreidels were well-received at school, partly because they looked adorable and partly because what 5- and 7-year-olds don't like chocolate-dipped marshmallow, Hershey kiss, and pretzel? We may even make some more for the family holiday party this weekend!

Happy holidays, everyone!

tinkerbell doll cake

2011-11-18T23:20:00.000-08:00

What's cuter, for a three-year-old birthday girl, than a doll cake? Maybe a doll cake with wings? Yep, it's Tinkerbell, covered in fondant, with a gigantic leaf hoop skirt. Pretty cute, actually.

I've seen a lot of gradient colored fondant cakes recently, and they are so pretty! Making one of those is on my eventual "to do" list, but for today, I borrowed the idea for the green fondant in Tink's skirt. I used three shades, though I think a really beautiful gradient cake should have four or five shades. Next time! (The bottom tier looks white because of the lighting, but it's actually light green.)

Mary the Food Librarian recently made a doll cake using a small bundt pan and a special doll built specifically for this purpose: it's actually just the Barbie head, arms, and torso mounted on a stick that you insert in the center of the cake. (Um, totally creepy, by the way.) I thought it would be fun to buy an actual Tinkerbell Barbie so the birthday girl could play with her again. I used the Wilton doll cake pan, which is essentially a tall, narrow bowl shape with a narrow (1 cm?) hold baked into the center. I think you could easily use a bowl, but mine were too shallow for the 9" tall doll. As it was, I had to bake an 8" tier to add height under the inverted bowl cake.

Starting with the existing hole, I used a skinny serrated knife to widen the core, then pushed the crumbs out. The assembled cake was just a bit too tall for Tink, but rather than cut it down, I borrowed a tip from Mary and gently shoved a marshmallow into the center for her toes to rest on. It worked like a charm!

After placing it on an 8" cake board (not visible, but providing support), I torted the cake, frosted between the layers, and crumb coated it, and then I was ready for the doll. I had removed her dress, but the shoes looked like they might never go back on her feet, so I left them on and wrapped the whole thing securely with plastic wrap up to her waist. Since I was making a fondant bodice and skirt, it could cover any plastic. I cut a rectangular strip of the darkest green fondant and wrapped it around the doll to form the top of the dress, leaving it a little long in the waist to cover any gaps. Then I carefully lowered Tink into the cake and lifted her arms just enough to get them out of the way so I could do the skirt. (Had I planned to cover the whole cake in fondant, I would have done that first, then put Tink in.) I rolled, cut, and veined the leaves, then started applying them around the cake, overlapping. I started from the back - so any seams wouldn't show. Ultimately, when I got all the way around, I was able to gently lift the first leaf to tuck the last one underneath, so it ended up there was no visible seam. I wasn't exactly sure how many layers I'd need until I had done two or three rows, so I just kind of eyeballed it. I was using the largest leaf cutter of a set of four, so I assumed if I started running out of room, I could just decrease the size of the leaves as I got closer to her waist. It worked out pretty well for two rows of each color. The top row of leaves is one size smaller. I created the fondant waistband to conceal the remaining gap between the leaves and the doll, but some tiny leaves would have worked, too.

I didn't actually apply the wings until I assembled the cake, the morning of the party. I covered the velcro with scotch tape, then used a blob of green fondant to attach the wings to Tink's back (that way, I wouldn't ruin the wings with the fondant).

Tink wasn't enough cake for all the guests, so I layered her on a 10" square vanilla cake with pink vanilla frosting, decorated with grass and sweet flowers.

Same cake, different background.

Skinny strips of dark and medium green grass, wavy blades with pointy tips.

I love the look of the shiny fondant. This time it's just from being refrigerated, which isn't the best idea for fondant by and large. I didn't refrigerate Tink, but I did put the bottom layer in the fridge overnight. The flowers were actually made from homemade marshmallow fondant, as opposed to the Satin Ice or Pettinice store-bought I usually use, and it's a little more pliable to start with. The flowers took on that shine from being chilled, then warming up to room temperature.

I used the Absolutely the Best Yellow Cake recipe because it is a sturdy enough cake to stand up to being layered and sculpted. I like the taste of it, but upon reflection, I think I prefer a little lighter and softer cake. I will continue my search for the best vanilla cake.

The frosting is my usual vanilla bakery icing, but I omitted almond extract (and subbed in a little extra vanilla) due to the birthday girl's brother's allergies.

The cake was very well received by party-goers, and more importantly, I think the birthday girl really liked it. I sure hope so! We had a great time celebrating with you, A!

Print vanilla cake recipe.
Print vanilla frosting recipe.

peanut butter pretzel chocolate chip cookies

2011-11-17T22:54:00.000-08:00

Peanut butter and chocolate. Salty and sweet. Crunchy and chewy. What do these have in common? They all go together like a horse and carriage. Great. Combos. So can you imagine a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie with crunched up pretzel bits? Da. Bomb.

I can't explain exactly what happens to the pretzels. They soften just a little and take on this caramel-coated texture, but since there's no caramel ingredient, I'm not sure how this magical transformation occurs. At the same time, they retain their crunch and provide little bursts of salt that are perfect complements to the chocolate. I recommend crushing them coarsely so the crumbs are about the same size as the chocolate chips.

See how rounded and thick these cookies are?

And these are flatter? These cookies don't spread a lot unless you flatten the dough slightly before baking. I guess it's a personal taste thing, but I preferred the consistency of the thinner cookies. They got nice and golden brown with slightly crisp edges, but stayed chewy. The thicker ones were cakier, which isn't my thing.

I can't recall how I came across these at But Mama I'm Hungry, but I thought they sounded great and bookmarked them for a future baking date. So worth it! You can use whatever kind of pretzels you like, but choose one thick enough to get decent size chunks. I'm a fan of Trader Joe's Honey Wheat Pretzel Sticks, and they were perfect here.

Peanut Butter Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 cup (9 1/2 ounces) peanut butter

1 cup (7 ounces) sugar

1 cup (7 ounces) brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

3 cups (12 3/4 ounces) flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 3/4 cups crushed pretzel pieces

12 ounces chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Beat butter, peanut butter, and sugars until creamed. Add vanilla and eggs and mix well. Add flour, baking powder, and baking soda, and mix. Finally, stir in pretzel pieces and chocolate chips until combined.

Scoop cookie dough onto silpat- or parchment-lined cookie sheets, leaving at least two inches between cookies. Flatten slightly with dampened fingers or the bottom of a glass. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

These are fine stored at room temperature, and they freeze well, too.

Print this recipe.

eric wolitzky's chocolate chip cookies

2011-11-09T22:21:00.000-08:00

I tested out Eric Wolitzky's recipe for chocolate chip cookies for two reasons:
1. I liked him very much on Top Chef: Just Desserts, Season 1. I liked that he called himself a baker, not a pastry chef. He was unquestionably skilled at making delicious desserts. At the same time, he was very relatable, whereas this past season, with the heavy focus on showpieces, felt completely removed from any kind of baking I'm capable of.
2. The recipe was recommended by Adam, the Amateur Gourmet, and I love his recipes. (NB: it's great fun reading about his new adventures in LA, since I've actually eaten at some of these restaurants, unlike the ones he talks about in NY!)

They were very tasty! Nice and rustic and chewy, probably due to having twice as much brown sugar as white. I was stymied by the lack of vanilla in this recipe, since I always think it's such an important component in baking. Since I usually weigh my ingredients, working with weights in this recipe didn't faze me, but I'm accustomed to ounces, not grams. Out of curiosity, I measured in grams, then translated the measurements into ounces (no fancy math - I used the g/oz button on my kitchen scale). Not surprisingly, the amounts are pretty standard, and I'll share them below. The recipe is actually pretty similar to the Cook's Illustrated Thick and Chewy Cookies - my old go-to recipe: both have an egg and an egg yolk; the sugar measurements are the same; and both call for melting and slightly cooling the butter.

I liked these a lot and would make them again, but I don't know if they quite topple my favorite recipe. Still, they are totally worth a shot, so give them a try if you have a free hour. Oh, and what's written below is half the recipe, which makes a lot of cookies!

Eric Wolitzky's Chocolate Chip Cookies
Forgot to count how many it makes - probably two dozen?

170 grams (1 1/2 sticks; 6 ounces) butter
100 grams (1/2 cup, 3 1/2 ounces) sugar
200 grams (1 cup, 7 ounces) brown sugar
10 1/2 ounces (2 1/2 cups) flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 egg
1 egg yolk
10 1/2 ounces chocolate chips (1 3/4 cups) (I used a combo of Trader Joe's semi-sweet and Whole Foods dark mini chunks)

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Melt the butter and let it cool slightly. Use the mixer to cream the sugar, brown sugar, and melted butter until just incorporated.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Add the egg and egg yolk to the butter/sugar mixture, one at a time, until they're incorporated. On a very low speed, add the flour until almost fully incorporated, and then add the chocolate. Mix until just combined.

Scoop the dough onto a parchment- or silpat-lined baking sheet. Try baking one cookie first and see how well they are spreading. You may want to flatten the dough slightly with damp fingers to achieve the right thickness and spread.

Bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.

Print this recipe.

mars cake for a special 5th birthday celebration

2011-10-25T23:09:00.000-07:00

My sweet little guy turned 5 a few weeks ago and he created an "aliens and outer space" themed party. We played pin the spaceship on the planet, whacked a planet-shaped pinata, and made alien masks with googly eyes. The kids hung original alien artwork, streamers, and silver stars. We even ate Jupiter beans (edamame), Saturn sticks (carrot sticks), and Mars berries (strawberries and grapes).

I had envisioned a fun alien cake, but Boy-o wanted a planet. He wanted marble cake, frosted red, like Mars, but he didn't feel the need to be terribly literal, so I gave our planet a ring. I call this, "playing fast and loose with science." Our planet had stars and a moon, Buzz Lightyear next to his space shuttle, chocolate rocks (cute, but not terribly tasty), an alien in a spaceship, craters, and a few friendly, fondant aliens.

I had fun piping and shaping/smoothing the edges of the craters.

The not-tasty-to-adults chocolate rocks. I was actually picturing candy rocks, but this was what was available at the bulk candy store.

Friendly aliens

The truth is revealed when you peek underneath (which hopefully most of our guests didn't). I couldn't decide whether to fill in the gaps between the lower edge of the cake and the ring or to leave it not quite touching to prevent the frosting from sticking when I removed the ring. Straws inserted in the center supported the top layer, but I did ultimately sacrifice the perfect fit. To cut the cake, I removed the top layer and the ring and sliced the bottom layer. It's not easy cutting a bowl-shaped cake. The sides kind of fall down as you cut, and some of the pieces are oddly-shaped.

As mentioned, Boy-o wanted a marble cake. I used the same adapted yellow cake recipe as for my daughter's rainbow cake in April. Though it served twice as many people as we needed, I baked one full recipe of cake batter in a 10" bowl for the bottom and a second recipe's worth for the top. I could have reduced the amount of batter, but I wanted the planet to feel substantial enough in size. So the kids and Josh's office had lots of leftovers.

To frost, I placed the bottom layer, flat side down, on a spare cake board and torted it into three layers. I crumb coated and frosted everything but the very top (which would be flipped to become the bottom), and then I inverted it onto the cake board. A thicker cake board would have been helpful here since so little of the cake was actually resting on the board; it felt a little flimsy. The base frosting was red, and then I dabbed on bits of yellow, orange, and purple frosting and dragged across them with a small offset spatula for a streaky effect. Frosting this way is very forgiving, which also means it's much quicker than trying to achieve perfectly smooth sides. When the sides were complete, I inverted the cake, flat side up, onto the center of the cake board, and then I frosted the top, flat part. I inserted straws into the center and refrigerated it to firm up the frosting.

Next, I placed the top layer on a 10" cake board, just a tiny bit smaller than the cake, and then I torted and frosted it in the same manner. Once the icing firmed up, I transferred it to a 12" board covered with marbled grey, blue, and white fondant, which served as the planet's ring. I wrapped the fondant around the edges with about an inch of overhang. To assemble the cake, I centered the ring and top layer over the bottom layer. The last step was to add the aliens, rocks, and other fondant decorations. To be safe, since I used floral wire for some of the fondant pieces, I slid drinking straws into the cake and inserted the floral wire inside the straws. When serving the cake, I just removed the straws. I'm not sure floral wire would poison anyone, but let's not take any chances.

The cake was a lot of fun, and I liked how it came out. More importantly, so did my 5-year-old Boy-o.

Print marble cake recipe.
Print vanilla frosting recipe.

stiletto slipper cake topper

2011-10-19T22:25:00.000-07:00

Now, for the shoe. That is, the shoe on top of the bridal shower zebra cake. I was really excited - but intimidated - to create a shoe completely out of fondant and gumpaste. I'm still new to working with gumpaste, and despite that it still takes a couple of days for a large piece to dry fully, it begins to firm up quickly, so it's not quite as user-friendly as fondant. It will get easier with more experience, I know. Luckily, I had an amazing tutorial to follow. Melissa makes everything seem possible... even easy!

Anyway. Let's take a close look at it and then we can talk some more. (By the way, I love the reflections on these.)

All things considered, I was really happy with it! It didn't fall over, it didn't break in half, the shape of the heel looked pretty realistic, and it was elegant. I struggled with how to give the appearance of a fluffy feathered slipper, and ultimately used a very stiff royal icing that held its shape, though I considered rice paper feathers and cotton candy. (Couldn't get my hands on rice paper and had no experience whatsoever with it, and cotton candy had the right look but became matted and compressed too easily - no dice.)

My favorite part of the exercise was Melissa's suggestion to buy a cheapo pair of stilettos (best $7 ever spent at Payless), cut off the straps, and use that as a template and a mold for the footbed of the shoe. I traced the shape of it, cut out the gumpaste, and laid it on top of the (cleaned, wiped with shortening, and dusted with powdered sugar/cornstarch) shoe. Then I walked away for at least three days and let it dry. Completely. (Full disclosure: I made a sample shoe first, and I used a combo of gumpaste and fondant, and it didn't dry fully after a week. So I tried again, this time with only gumpaste, and it dried in about two days. I gave it some extra time just to be sure.)

After the shoe was dry, I molded some more gumpaste around a lollipop stick to form the heel. I have to say, getting the shape and angle right was absolutely the hardest part. In fact, the heels weren't quite tall enough for the angle of the shoe, which I couldn't tell at first, so I later added a bit of dark gray gumpaste to look like the rubber tip on a heel. It looked pretty realistic and gave me the extra 1/4" I needed. When I later assembled the shoe, I still had to supplement it with fondant to get the heel attached properly, so clearly my heel sculpting needs work. Another thing Melissa made look so easy!! I made the heels and let them dry separately for several days.

About two days before the party, I cut a very thin piece of fondant for the shoe liner, making it just smaller than my template. I laid it on top of the footbed and trimmed very gently with a small knife to get the shape just right. It actually stuck by itself, but I painted on some fondant glue just to be sure. I then cut a rectangular strip of hot pink fondant for the strap, attached it, and propped it up by stuffing it gently with crumpled bits of Viva (unembossed) paper towels. That dried by the next day, at which point I piped on the "feathers" using a grass tip and thick, hot pink royal icing. I wanted to touch the shoe as little as possible once assembled, so it was better to do the piping first, assembly second.

Finally, when I couldn't put it off any longer, I moved the footbed off the model and began to attach it to the heel. I actually had made two heels and two shoe bases, and the one I used didn't fit as naturally, but it was a better shape, so I jury-rigged it with fondant and very gentle smoothing until it was attached. Whew! I'm stressed out just thinking about it. These pictures are of the shoe I didn't use, and you can see if you look carefully at the back of the shoe, where it attaches to the heel, that I wedged (and smoothed) some extra fondant in there to get the shoe to sit better on the heel.

The final touch was to make it shiny. I was going to use the vodka/corn syrup glaze to give it a shine, but I didn't want the shoe to be sticky and I hadn't had time for further experimentation. Instead, I mixed silver luster dust with vodka to make silver paint, and I painted all the grey parts of the shoe shiny silver. I wiped a little vodka on the white fondant to give it just a little sheen. I loved how the silver color looked!

I like pushing myself to try new things with fondant and gumpaste. The only way to improve is with practice, and it's really fun learning from my mistakes. (Let's just say that the second set of heels were much more attractive than the first, which resembled something I would have worn in the early '90s.) I was very excited to try this latest project, and I will happily undertake future challenges. As with dissection in 10th grade biology class, in which our surgical skills improved in leaps and bounds when my lab partner and I were forced to start our project over, I assume the next gumpaste shoes I make will come together more easily and be better-looking than this one. I've got those size-6 Payless shoes at the ready, staying clean in a nice ziploc bag!

cranberry tea cookies

2011-10-17T18:11:00.000-07:00

These are my favorite new cookies. I have made them three times because I like them so much. They are a perfect little afternoon cookie with a cup of tea, not that I ever sit down and have tea and cookies in the afternoon, but wouldn't that be nice? Essentially, they're a slice-and-bake shortbread cookie with dried cranberries and pecans. They are crisp and a little crumbly, not too sweet. The sugar on the edges is crunchy and balances the shortbready butteriness. And despite my relative indifference to cookies with nuts, the pecans are perfect against the sweet-tart cranberries.

I met two-thirds of The Baking Posse for dinner recently, before Nanette moved away, so I baked up a batch of these to bring along. I didn't have time to photograph them, so I wrapped the extras carefully for the freezer to take pictures later. When I searched for them, I learned that Josh had discovered them and been eating them! I actually didn't mind; he so rarely indulges in what I bake, so it's fun to make something he likes. Luckily, there were a few left for me to take pictures of.

Did I mention that these are addictive? They kind of melt in your mouth. I could very easily eat three. Or six. SO good. Oh, and they travel really well! Perfect for gifts, or to take camping. You can stack them up and roll them in plastic wrap.

That's the bottom of the cookie with the pecans showing.

All the cranberry goodness is at the top.

Cranberry Tea Cookies
Makes 35-40 cookies

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar
2 tablespoons milk or cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups (10 5/8 ounces) flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup chopped dried cranberries (sometimes I don't chop them, which is just fine)
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) extra sugar

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add milk and vanilla and mix. Add flour and salt and mix well. Stir in cranberries and pecans.

Roll into two logs, each about 8 x 1 1/2" long. Wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap and chill for two hours in the fridge. (You can also put them in the freezer for 30-60 minutes if you want to move things along, just so it's firm enough to slice easily while still keeping its shape.)

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Unwrap one roll, and sprinkle it with a little sugar. Use the waxed paper or plastic wrap to sort of roll the cookie log around in the sugar that falls off. Keep rolling, adding a little more sugar if needed, until the log is completely rolled in sugar. (This is easier than rolling each cookie individually.) Slice cookies about 1/4" thick and place on cookie sheets lined with silpats or parchment. The cookies won't spread much, so you can place them fairly close together. Bake for 10-12 minutes, checking them after 10 minutes. Do not overbake them. They should look baked (not gooey) and have just a touch of color. You don't want them to get very brown on the edges or on top.

Eat with tea, milk, coffee, or just by themselves!

Print recipe.

Roasted Carrot and Orange Lentil Soup

2011-10-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

Let's take a break from sweets to talk about the delicious soup I made last night. I call this one, "birthday party leftover carrot stick soup." The title might need some work, but it was my mom's brilliant suggestion for what to do with the two pounds of carrot sticks my husband so laboriously peeled and cut for our 5-year-old's birthday party Saturday. I have a weird relationship with carrot soup: I really like to eat it, but when I think about it, it doesn't always sound appealing. Though I have a recipe from a coworker in grad school, I thought maybe finding a new recipe might invigorate the carrot soup plan, and I was right! I scrolled around online, took inspiration from this roasted carrot soup recipe, and made my own roasted carrot lentil soup.

The soup is delicious! It is hearty and filling but not rich, and the lemon juice added at the end contrasts perfectly with the sweetness of the carrots. I used broth, not water, so I didn't need too much salt, but I did grind up a little sea salt as I roasted the carrots and onions, and I added a little more to the soup itself. I didn't have any fresh herbs, and rosemary can sometimes overwhelm, so I threw in a bay leaf and sprinkled in a little dried thyme. I ate a tiny bowl of it last night (the soup was finished just too late for dinner) but I'm looking forward to eating it tonight with some crusty bread.

This soup is quick and easy to make - less than an hour, start to finish. It uses up extra carrots, it's a filling and frugal meal, and it can be customized to your personal tastes and the contents of your pantry. Here's how I made it:

Roasted Carrot and Orange Lentil Soup
Makes about 6 cups (that's a guess).
2 pounds carrots, cleaned or peeled and cut into chunks or sticks
1 large onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 cup dry orange lentils
1 quart plus 1 pint vegetable broth or chicken broth (water can be substituted but may not be as flavorful and definitely will require more salt)
fresh or dried herbs (I used one bay leaf and a few teaspoons of dried thyme)
juice of a lemon
salt
pepper (optional)

Spread out the carrots and onions on a baking sheet lined with a silpat or parchment (to make cleanup easier). Toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt. Roast at 425F for about 25 minutes, until the carrots are fairly soft. Mine did not really start to get any color; the onions were just translucent. Remove from the oven and add to a soup pot along with the lentils. Stir in the other teaspoon of oil (which I suppose is optional, but my carrots were starting to look a little dry), and then add the broth. Bring it to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer. After about 20 minutes, add the herbs. Long about that time, I used a potato masher to mash the carrots slightly. I let it cook another 5-10 minutes just to make sure the lentils were cooked through. They basically dissolve, so it's a little hard to tell whether you're looking at carrots or lentils, but just use your best judgment.

Turn off the heat and remove the bay leaf. Use an immersion blender (or blender or food processor) to blend the soup as smooth or chunky as you want. I wanted mine a little smoother and thinner, so I added water, a few tablespoons at a time, blending between additions, until I had the consistency I wanted. Stir in the lemon juice, and then season to taste with salt and/or pepper. I had some hopes the kids would eat this, so I didn't use pepper at all. We'll see if that works. I gave Boy-o a bite last night and he pronounced it good, but that doesn't mean he'll actually eat a bowl of it.

I didn't have any in the house, but I'll bet this would be delicious with a little cream, creme fraiche, sour cream, or yogurt drizzled or spooned on top.

Print recipe.

zebra cake with stiletto slipper

2011-10-16T00:36:00.000-07:00

When my friend Cassidy was a little girl, she and her best friend would sneak into the friend's mom's room and try on her fancy, feathered, stilletto slippers. Do you remember clomping around the house in heels far too big and much too high? I do. In the '70s, my mom had some wooden-heeled sandals that I just adored. Actually, they'd probably be right back in style today.

Anyway, when Cassidy started planning her friend's wedding shower, she really wanted to incorporate the stiletto slipper somehow. Her friend is very glitzy-glam, and Cass was decorating with hot pink, black, and white, so it was a logical leap to decorate the cake with zebra striped fondant and hot pink accents, topped with a beautiful shoe.

I was really proud of this cake! And more importantly, the bride-to-be loved it. As my husband can vouch, I was a bundle of nerves about the shoe, but we can talk about that in a different post. The zebra striping, while time-consuming, was not hard to do thanks to a great tutorial from My Cake School (from which I also got the idea for the fun cake topper - I thought the shoe would be lonely up there by itself). Rolling out the white fondant big enough to cover the cake was harder since it had to be a 22" circle, which, it turns out, is a lot bigger than I realized. The pink fondant balls were also easy but time-intensive. I rolled out the fondant and cut circles, then rolled them in balls; this kept the size fairly consistent. Guess what? If you leave fondant in the sun, it fades! So I ended up painting them with a mixture of luster dust (for shine), vodka, and hot pink food coloring to restore the color and add some glitter.

The cake was chocolate with vanilla frosting, and I used my go-to recipes. (I do love them both, but I think the proportion of posts in which I refer to one or the other of these recipes has gotten a little out of hand.) After crumb coating the cake and chilling it, I covered it in white Satin Ice fondant. A firm cake is easier to cover and smooth, though you have to work pretty quickly: the fondant can get a little sticky as the cake comes back to room temperature. For the zebra stripes, pre-colored Satin Ice fondant was a great shortcut to eliminate the ridiculous amount of black food coloring needed to color it myself. I rolled it out relatively thin (thick enough that I could work with it, but thin enough that it didn't stick out too far on the cake), cut it in narrow, random shapes, mostly ending in points, and laid them on the cake one at a time. I looked at pictures of zebras, and some have very straight stripes while others have angled or even more wavy stripes, so there was quite a bit of flexibility in how to shape and lay out the stripes. I just started on one side of the cake and worked my way around and over the top.

I always have a hard time figuring out how many fondant balls to make to fit around the cake. It seems to involve higher math - which is to say I find myself trying to remember how to figure the circumference of a circle, and then measuring the size of the balls and multiplying and maybe rotating around an axis or two (just kidding). So I guesstimate and add a few just in case, and it seems to work out okay.

The topper was really fun to make and super easy. I bought heavy gauge black floral wire at Michael's and wrapped coiled pieces around a pencil to form a small spiral and around my small rolling pin to form the larger spiral. I pressed fake diamonds into a few disks of white, black, and pink fondant to attach to the toppers and brushed them with luster dust to add sparkle. Whenever I add wires to a cake, I like to push them into a straw for two reasons: 1) in case there's anything harmful in the wire or coating and 2) to add structure so the wires stand up at the angle you want. I cut the straw just shorter than the height of the cake and it's completely concealed. (Lollipop sticks are inedible, but not poisonous, so I don't worry about them.)

This cake was great fun to plan and make, and I was excited with the challenge of trying a new design. Congratulations to the happy couple, and thanks to Cassidy for the opportunity to help make the day extra special!

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colorful flower garden birthday cake

2011-10-15T22:25:00.001-07:00

Our friends' younger daughter turned 5 a few weeks ago. She and my little guy are new kindergarteners together. She celebrated with a couple of dozen friends - all girls - and I was asked to make a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting, filled with strawberries and whipped cream, and decorated with colorful flowers. Beyond that, I had free reign, so I kind of went to town making different shapes and sizes of flowers by mixing a few basic colors.

I laid the flowers out first on a cookie sheet to get an idea of how to arrange them to balance the height, shapes, and colors, and then I transferred them over to the cake. As much as I liked the variety of the flowers, it could be fun to keep it simple next time and stick with one type of flower or a more geometric arrangement.

Here's the garden up close.

Some, like the carnation, followed official (Wilton) techniques, but most I just made up using various cookie cutters or shaping them freehand, like the roses. I particularly like rolling the fondant super thin - so thin you can read through it! - and then thinning out the edges even more with a ball tool. Carnations let you do just that.

See how the flowers are really shiny and shellacked-looking? I painted them with a 50/50 mixture of vodka and corn syrup. The flowers had been drying for a couple of days, so they were firm and easy to paint, but the shiny mixture left them feeling tacky. Next time, I might adjust the proportions to use less corn syrup. I thought the shine gave them a little extra depth and dressed them up. Without it, the flowers looked a little dull and flat. I have heard that rubbing them with a little vodka on a paper towel can give a gentle luster, but a small paintbrush was much easier to use without breaking the delicate petals.

When I got bored of the colors, I started marbling the fondant and creating different color combinations.

Hope you enjoyed your flower garden cake, E! Happy birthday!

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mini animal cupcakes

2011-10-04T06:17:00.000-07:00

Many years ago, I used to babysit for a little girl named Jaime. Last week, my mom and her friends threw a baby shower to celebrate the mom-to-be. How did so much time pass so quickly?

Jaime's having a girl, and they are decorating the nursery with animals and bright, fun colors. We decided to coordinate the cupcakes to the animal theme by making tiny fondant animal toppers for mini cupcakes. Initially, we thought we'd need about 80 cupcakes, and I was going to make four different flavors, but it ended up being a smaller party, so we just went with simple favorites: chocolate/chocolate and vanilla/cream cheese. I picked a frog, tiger, pig, and chick because the colors were fun and bright together.

Here's a sampling of each:

And here's the whole gang together:

The mini cupcakes are so small that each of the toppers is only about an inch across, so I had to make them simple shapes and relatively simple detail or else it would be too tiny to work with! All of the black elements you see are drawn on with a food-safe marker. The frog's and pig's eyes are tiny circles of white fondant cut out with a large piping tip; the pig's nose is cut from my biggest piping tip. It was the easiest way to make them somewhat uniform in size.

In my original design, I made slightly larger white fondant disks to go under each animal. In that iteration, the chick had legs drawn on with edible marker, but he lost his legs when I decided to put the animals directly on the frosting rather than on the fondant circles. Poor, legless chickie.

To make the animals to pop, I added a few 3D elements like the frog's rolled up tongue and the pig's curled ears. The frog was actually the hardest shape to cut out. I did it freehand based on a drawing, and it was really hard to get the sides even! The top of his head was cut using the top half of a heart-shaped cookie cutter, but I had to be careful not to press too deeply.

I used my regular chocolate cake recipe and the new buttermilk chocolate frosting recipe (yum!). For the cupcakes, although I love the new vanilla cake I've been making, it does not work as well in cupcake form (some recipes just don't translate well!) so I stuck with a favorite. I used Pinky's cream cheese recipe which is extremely rich, but it tastes delicious and pipes well.

I did see a picture from the shower, and Jaime is approximately the cutest pregnant woman ever. I wish the three of them much love and luck!

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two are due! beach-themed twin baby shower cake

2011-09-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

My friend Susan's younger sister and her husband recently became parents to beautiful twin girls. The proud dad - clearly a golf enthusiast - sent out a very cute email announcement with all their stats listed in golf lingo. Before they arrived, Susan hosted a beach-inspired baby shower with all sorts of great plays on the twin theme... Doublemint and Double Bubble gum (did you know you could still find those?), two-packs of Walker shortbread cookies (a tie in with their last name)... and she asked me to bake the cake. She asked for twins, surfer, beachy, and bright colors (not too girly-girl). I figured surfboards, palm trees, sand and sea would do the trick.

"Two are due!" was Susan's inspiration, and I thought it worked perfectly. Since there was nowhere obvious to write on the cake, I made a removable fondant banner held up by lollipop sticks on either end.

The palm trees are fondant wrapped around a drinking straw, anchored by a lollipop stick. I didn't realize super-long lollipop sticks existed, so the straws gave me the height I needed. However, they were not strong enough to support the weight of the fondant, and since they were wider than the sticks, the trees rattled around. This made driving across town more than a little nerve-wracking, since the palm fronds were balanced (and glued) on pretty precariously.

I LOVED how the surfboards came out. The colors were exactly the bright contrast I had envisioned, and I liked the simplicity of the striped design. And the sand? Graham cracker crumbs! I have also seen brown sugar used, but I thought that would be less pleasant to eat. The crumbs held together like slightly damp sand, which was perfect.

This was my favorite fishy. Something about the shape of his tail (insert joke here). Oh, and I made some molded chocolate and white chocolate shells for an extra touch. I realize they are pretty disproportionate to the size of the fish, but the whole cake is hardly to scale!

I used a star tip and piped the frosting in concentric waves, filling in all the gaps and then starting new swirls. I figured it would give the cake some ocean-like motion.

Wise girls, they are chocolate fans. So I called on Martha again for her one-bowl chocolate wonder cake, and I used my usual vanilla buttercream recipe. Twinfully, sinfully delicious! Congratulations, Susan, on your new nieces, and biggest and best wishes to the brand new mom and dad!

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3rd birthday bumblebee cake

2011-09-11T23:36:00.000-07:00

Our good friends are up and moving to Portland. We are truly going to miss them. Who's going to be our regular Friday night dinner dates? Their beautiful girl turns three in a few weeks, and they decided to combine the two events - an early birthday party with a goodbye party. It started out as a simple gathering with pizza and beer. Then the birthday girl had an adorable black and white dress with bumblebees on it... and all of a sudden, it morphed into a full-on shindig with a theme and tons of good eats (including homemade lumpia and adorable s'mores pops!). Nanette sent me a photo of Em's dress and some thought-starter photos. She asked for lemon with lemon curd and lemon or vanilla frosting. They were expecting 50+ guests, so I wanted a large base layer to feed most of the party plus a top layer shaped like a beehive for decoration and extra servings.

The beehive... a 6" layer stacked on an 8" layer, chilled and carved, crumb coated with yellow buttercream, and wound with yellow, extruded fondant. (This was the dumb part of the creative endeavor. The inspirational photos showed beehives covered with fondant, and I didn't realize until much too late that I could have piped it in a spiral with a large, round tip - and the same yellow buttercream - achieved the same striations I was going for with the fondant, and it would have taken approximately three minutes instead of the hours I spent extruding an ounce at a time of fondant. Live and learn. It still looked cute.)

The daddy bee, the mommy bee, and the baby Em bee.

Baby bee. My favorite part are the antennae. Delicate rice noodles, colored black with a food marker, with tiny dots of fondant on the ends.

I molded this adorable three and attached it to a lollipop stick as a little extra whimsical decoration. Then it broke into three pieces (coincidence?) and I had to start over. I probably should have made it earlier and given it a good 2-3 days to dry instead of a day and a half. My guess is the fondant wasn't dry enough yet when I started picking it up. Oops.

This lollipop-style three kept the color theme and was both smaller and sturdier. It's also attached to a lollipop stick with a bit of white fondant covering it (you want it to look good from all directions, and this disguises the stick a bit).

Cute little daisies, some with just a hint of pink to break up the bee color theme..

A quick note about the yellow fondant balls around the edge of the cake. To get them the same size - if you are anal like I am - roll out fondant to a consistent thickness. Cut out circles and roll them into balls. Magic!

Now we have to talk about the cake. Tasked with lemon, I decided to try a new recipe, and I found a vanilla layer cake from Piece of Cake, adapted from America's Test Kitchen, that sounded intriguing. It used a different method than I've ever used for making a cake. You stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt, and then blend in the butter, a chunk at a time, until the mixture resembles sand. Then the whisked egg whites, milk, and vanilla are blended in. (Lemon zest and subbing lemon juice for about two tablespoons of the milk turned it into a lemon cake.) Shauna of Piece of Cake notes that this method produces consistent results, but that wasn't my experience. Maybe I need more practice, or perhaps I should have beaten the batter longer, but the butter didn't incorporate as well as with the traditional creaming method. The three 12" layers came out perfectly, but my 6" and 8" cakes were bizarrely chewy; I guess they were underbaked? I re-baked them with my usual lemon cake recipe (and was relieved to see nice, tall, fluffy layers emerge from the oven!).

I filled the cake with homemade lemon curd. The cake and curd recipes balanced out nicely, one using 6 egg whites and the other, 5 egg yolks, so I didn't waste ingredients. And the tart curd was a good complement for the sweet, light cake. For frosting, I used my regular vanilla frosting recipe but swapped the almond extract for lemon extract for a hint of lemon flavor. I prefer to add lemon zest to kick up the flavor a notch, but I wanted a very smooth finish to the cake, so I omitted the zest this time.

Happy 3rd birthday, Em! We will miss you, your mommy, and your daddy!

ETA: one full recipe of the cake batter yielded a 1" thick, 12"-round layer. The 8" cake was made up of one full recipe of the regular lemon cake recipe (and was a good 3" tall), and the 6" cake (2-2.5" tall) was a half-recipe of the regular lemon cake.

5th birthday elephant cake

2011-09-11T21:27:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been two years since one of our favorite little guys turned three... and now he's five and a big, brave kindergartener and soccer player!! For R's fifth birthday, he had a few family friends over, pizza, relay races, and a pinata that would not succumb. Despite still loving biplanes, his latest fascination is with elephants. We bought him a book with beautiful photos of elephants (they are so majestic!) and I made him this cake:

I had a great time crafting this elephant. I created a template from a "how to draw an elephant" instructional website, used it to cut out the fondant, and then rolled over it gently with crumpled parchment to emulate the elephant's wrinkles. (My initial plan was to use plastic wrap, but it wasn't strong enough to make the impressions.) I tucked the tusk underneath and layered on a gently flared ear to add some three-dimensionality. I meant for it to look like he was walking in the tall grasses, so I let the blades come up around his knees.

The elephant looked a little lonely. It needed a pop of color. Josh suggested a little birdie, and I pictured him riding along on the elephant's shoulder. The sun and clouds just finished it off.

R's a chocolate fan, so the cake was my usual chocolate recipe with vanilla frosting.

I love celebrating with these kids and watching them grow every year. Happy belated birthday, Ra!

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o's first birthday cookies

2011-09-04T00:28:00.000-07:00

Just over a year ago, my sister hosted a baby shower for her good friend Kris, who was expecting a baby girl. It's incredible to realize that baby O is already turning one! Kris is hosting a celebratory lunch on Monday, and I was honored to make cookies as party favors. Kris requested cookies with a "1" on them in colors to coordinate with the invitations, and here's what I came up with:

I loved the egg yolk-yellow hearts around the border and the tiny polka dots on the 1's.

To cater to kiddos, I made plain vanilla sugar cookies, but I missed the depth of flavor the lemon zest adds. The royal icing is Antonia74's recipe. For 4 dozen cookies, I needed about 3/4 of a full recipe.

Although I didn't remember to take a picture after they were wrapped, I packaged the cookies in individual cellophane bags tied with skinny pink bows. They looked super cute, and I'm told the enormous amount of bubble wrap (and double-boxing them) ensured safe shipping from LA to northern California.

Happy, happy birthday, O!

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a family birthday and anniversary celebration: that chocolate cake

2011-09-03T23:19:00.000-07:00

Today is my mother-in-law's birthday! (29, again! Can you believe it?) Monday is my brother- and sister-in-law's 6-year anniversary. Lots to celebrate! The whole group of us went out for sushi, the family favorite, and then came home for dessert. Since the honorees are all chocolate fans, I decided to try a new chocolate cake recipe. (Family loves being guinea pigs, right?) I had bookmarked this deep, dark chocolate cake for just such an occasion! While I was in experimental mode, I also played around with this pretty ruffly flower I saw on My Cake School. It looked really easy, and although I was happy with how it turned out, it was harder to make than I expected. (My fondant didn't cooperate very well when I used the ball tool to ruffle it. Oh well.) I swirled the icing on the top of the cake to complement the concentric circle look of the flower. I liked the symmetry, and we all loved the cake.

I wasn't sure how different this would taste from my usual chocolate cake recipe. The ingredients and even the proportions are really close, and yet... it's different! It's lighter, less dense, and while the taste is nice and chocolatey, it's not overwhelmingly rich. As a non-coffee-drinker, I was skeptical about adding an entire 12 ounces of coffee, and I may have skimped by brewing the weakest cup of coffee known to man. However, I trusted what I know - that a small amount of coffee boosts chocolate flavor. As expected (and hoped), not the slightest evident hint of coffee, just a delicious chocolate flavor. What surprised me is that the recipe calls for no vanilla, (what cake doesn't have vanilla?) but I committed to following it to the letter. One final note: my usual cake is a one-bowl recipe. While this requires dirtying one more bowl (to mix the oil, eggs, and milk), the batter comes together really smoothly and quickly, and I think it reduces the possibility of cocoa lumps. I will test out this method with my other cake next time!

Appearance-wise, I liked how nice and tall the 8" layers came out!

As for the frosting recipe, it's like a tweaked ganache. You heat the cream, then add the chopped chocolate (plus butter) and wait for it to cool and thicken. I'm not sure why you have to cook it for six minutes, other than to make sure the sugar dissolves completely? I'm sure you could just as easily omit the sugar and use bittersweet chocolate, but again, trying to follow the rules the first time.

Like ganache, it tastes rich and fudgy, but man, this recipe is a pain in the you-know-what. Cooking it and keeping an eye on the stove is a time-suck. (I multi-tasked by chopping chocolate while the sugar and cream simmered.) Then you have to whisk it and refrigerate it and whisk it some more until it's ready to use. It's definitely the slowest frosting I've ever made. Not only that, I wasn't sure this would yield enough volume. I've taken to being pretty liberal with frosting, between filling, crumb coating, final coating, and decorating. Since it took so dang long to get to the right consistency, I didn't want to have to make another half-batch midway through decorating. Instead, I defrosted some leftover chocolate swiss meringue buttercream and chocolate sour cream frosting, beat them together, and used them to fill the cake. I quite liked the result! A lighter (in color, taste, and texture) filling, and a darker, richer, ganache on the top and sides. In fact, I think it might have been too rich using the given frosting recipe throughout. Ultimately, I had about a cup leftover, so the recipe as written would have worked if I limited the filling, but it would have been cutting it close.

As I said, the family really loved it (even the non-chocoholics). The kids licked their plates, but then, they're not known for being discerning. I would absolutely make this again!

*That* Chocolate Cake
Adapted from The Essence of Chocolate

Makes one 3-layer 8" cake

Cake
3 cups (600 grams) sugar
scant 3 cups (425 grams) flour*
1 cup + 2 tablespoons (135 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups hot coffee

*Note: 425 grams of flour = 15 ounces, which makes three, 5-ounce cups. I typically follow the King Arthur measurement of 4 1/4 ounces of flour to one cup. However, in this case, I used the more specific weight measurements provided; that is, 425 grams.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line three 8" round cake pans with parchment and spray with cooking spray with flour. You can use 9" pans instead, but the cake will be less tall.

In a mixer bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Whisk to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine the beaten eggs, vegetable oil, and milk. Stir to mix. Then, with the mixer on low, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix on low until evenly distributed. Pour the hot coffee into the batter and mix on medium low until smooth. The batter will be soupy.

Divide the batter between the cake pans. Bake for 35-45 minutes. When the cakes spring back when pressed lightly with a finger, or when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out cleanly, the cakes are done. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes, then invert the cakes onto cooling racks to cool completely.

Assemble the cakes using the frosting recipe below (or your favorite frosting recipe).

Frosting
1 3/4 cups (350 gr) sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
7 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a saucepan, bring the sugar and heavy cream to a boil over medium heat. Immediately reduce the heat to low and simmer the cream and sugar for six minutes. Be careful not to let the saucepan overflow.

Remove from heat and whisk in the chocolate and butter until they have completely melted. (At first, I just stirred it, but the chocolate refused to incorporate until I used a whisk, and then it took about two seconds.) Stir in the vanilla extract.

Let the frosting cool completely, whisking every now and then during cooling. (You can do this step in the refrigerator to speed up the process) Once completely cool at room temperature, the frosting will thicken to a spreadable consistency.

Note: If you use a different filling, as I did, you can begin frosting the outside when the frosting is cool, but still relatively goopy; this will make it incredibly easy to smooth on the sides and top of the cake. However, if you want to pipe decorations, you'll have to wait until it is completely cool and thickened before it will hold a shape. To fill the cake with this frosting, you'll also have to be patient; otherwise, the filling will slich everywhere. Once frosted, the cake firms up nicely in the fridge.

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school-spirited wedding cake toppers

2011-08-19T00:07:00.000-07:00

Recently, my super smart, cute, accomplished cousin, Bobby, married his (equally super smart, cute, accomplished) high school sweetheart, Stephanie. They attended separate colleges, Bobby a year ahead of Stephanie, and still managed to stay together through all those long-distance years. Bobby went to Santa Cruz, Stephanie to Cal, and for their wedding, they asked if I'd make cake toppers based on their school mascots: a banana slug and a bear.

Please welcome, for the first time... Mr. and Mrs. Bear-Banana Slug!

Stephanie wanted the bear to wear a bow... no veil, since she wasn't wearing one. I thought the bouquet of flowers added a fun touch.

Bobby asked for sunglasses and a bowtie. The top hat just jazzed things up a bit.

Positioned on the cake this way, the slug is curled around the bear (or has his arm around her... do slugs have arms?). They are in fondant love.

I was very nervous about driving 120 miles to San Diego and having these guys in the hotel room until the wedding, but I brought along emergency supplies just in case. Other than replacing a runaway eyeball and repairing one crack on the bear's back (same issue with the fondant sagging while it dried), they were in great shape! I handed them off to the wedding planner to place on the cake along with the flowers, and they came out just as I'd pictured. Bobby and Stephanie loved them, and I was so happy to be a tiny part of their special day. Congratulations, B and S!

jessica's bridal shower cake

2011-08-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

Our family friend's son recently got married. I was his daycamp counselor when he was about 4, so it's hard for me to think of him as old enough to be married even though I've spent time with him and his fiancee at holiday dinners over the past several years, and they are both lovely and unquestionably adults. Here's how you can tell this post is overdue: I was honored to make Jessica's bridal shower cake... and yet they already done got hitched! (Sorry so belated, guys!)

Anyway, my mom's friend sent me the invitation and gave me nearly free reign. She wanted the cake to coordinate with the invitation and decorations, all of which were Tiffany blue with bronze/brown accents. Done. She also wanted some fondant work, so I decided to make a cute little bride to sit atop the cake, like in the invitation:

I am paranoid, so I made two brides (in case one broke). Here's the winner, sitting back-to-back with her friend (who was perched in a spare wine glass as a cute table decoration, so she still got to go to the ball):

As I've described before, I'm still working on improving my fondant molding skills. With this project, I really wanted to accomplish some of the details from the invitation: pearl earrings and necklace made of royal icing with a tiny 00 tip, the drape of the dress down the side of the cake, and the veil. I also tried to make her arms look more realistic by giving her fingers and an indentation on the inside of her elbow. Although it's not edible, I had so much fun crafting a tiara out of floral wire and using it to attach the lace ribbon I selected for the veil. Aside from the lollipop stick holding up her body, and the toothpicks inserted in her arms, those are the only inedible parts of the cake (not that you'd want to eat a fondant bride, but I guess you could).

Alas, my glamorous, svelte bride sank onto herself a bit while drying, resulting in a short, cute, chubby bride. (Bad posture due to a lack of yoga?) Jessica is a tiny slip of a thing, so this is no reflection on her! I continue to work on the right proportion of fondant to lollipop stick because I definitely see some sinking going on in my larger molded pieces. Still learning!

As for the rest of the cake, it was chocolate with vanilla frosting, and I piped frosting on the sides to generally match the piping on the cake on the invitation. After the frosting dried a bit (called "crusting," but that just sounds gross), I painted the piping with edible paint: bronze luster dust mixed with a little vodka. It gave the piping just a little bit of a gleam, though with the overcast outside light, it's pretty hard to see.

Here's how the cake came out. See how well the color worked with the decor? I was secretly thrilled.

The cake was well-received by the partygoers, and I'm told the bride really liked it. Here's to a long and happy marriage, Jessica and Michael!

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baked success! chocolate and vanilla marble bundt cake

2011-08-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

Exciting news! I made a recipe from the Baked guys, and I liked it! This chocolate-vanilla marble bundt was really light in texture and moist, with chocolate streaked throughout it. Only a third of the batter is chocolate, so you are mostly getting a vanilla cake with chocolate accents. In the same way that chocolate chips keep their shape after baking, the chocolate reforms into chunks throughout the cake, making for a great consistency contrast with the soft cake. I served the cake to Boy-o's friends and their moms at his "clubhouse" play date. Dessert was a hit, but when have you ever known 4-year-old boys to turn down cake?

The only negative thing I'd say about this cake is that I'm still so in love with the Buttercake Bakery marble bundt that this recipe is unlikely to supplant that one. Still... well done, Baked guys! One more note: this recipe makes a lot of cake, so do what we did: invite some friends over to share, and send them home with a care package!

See the streak of chocolate through the center of the cake? Nice!

Look at this chunk o' chocolate, down below on the left. YUM!

Chocolate and Vanilla Marble Bundt Cake
Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Chocolate Swirl
6 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon unsweetened dark cocoa powder

Sour Cream Cake
3 1/2 cups (14 7/8 ounces) flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
2 1/4 cups (15 3/4 ounces) sugar
4 large eggs
16 ounces sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

First, make the chocolate swirl. Melt the chocolate (either in 30-second bursts in the microwave, or over a double boiler - be gentle, because chocolate burns easily!). When the chocolate is melted and completely smooth, whisk in the cocoa powder until thoroughly incorporated. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Next, the cake batter. Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a 10" bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. (I prefer the kind with flour incorporated - it takes "grease and flour" down to one step and seems to cover better.)

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

With the mixer, cream the butter until smooth and ribbonlike (not my word; let's say it should be smooth and light). Scrape down the sides, add the sugar, then beat until smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Scrape the sides again and beat for another 30 seconds.

Add the sour cream and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in three additions, scraping down the bowl before each addition. Mix only until just incorporated, and do not overmix. (NB: Most recipes have you alternate the dairy with the flour; not sure it makes a difference, but this definitely seems easier!)

Pour 1/3 of the batter into the chocolate mixture and stir to incorporate. Spread half the remaining vanilla batter into the pan. With an ice cream scoop, dollop the chocolate batter onto the plain batter. The dollops will touch and mostly cover the plain batter, but the plain batter will peek through. Use a butter knife to swirl the chocolate and plain batter together. Pour the remaining vanilla batter on top, smooth it, and use the butter knife again to create a swirl. A good rule of thumb is to make figure eights with the knife. Don't swirl it too much or you won't have the distinct chocolate and vanilla pockets.

Bake in the center of the oven for about 60 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. A sharp knife inserted in the center of the cake should come out clean. Remove from oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Loosen the edges of the cake with a knife, then invert it onto the wire rack to cool completely. The cake will keep, tightly covered, at room temperature, for 3 days.

Print this recipe.

lemon-molasses bundt cake

2011-08-16T21:20:00.000-07:00

I was really excited about this recipe from Technicolor Kitchen. It jumped out at me because it wasn't chocolate, and I thought Josh might like it. Molasses cookies are one of his favorites. I was intrigued by the molasses/lemon combo, but it just didn't jive. The cake was moist and tender, and the marbling looked pretty, but the flavors didn't complement each other in the way I'd hoped. Still, it's pretty, and it was fun trying a new recipe.

Lemon-Molasses Marble Cake

Molasses batter:
1 2/3 cups (just over 7 ounces) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) butter, softened
3/8 cup (2 5/8 ounces) brown sugar, packed
3 egg yolks (you'll use the whites for the lemon batter)
3/4 cup molasses
3/8 cup plain yogurt

Lemon batter:
1 2/3 cups (just over 7 ounces) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) butter, softened
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
grated zest of 1 large lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3/4 cup plain yogurt
3 large egg whites
pinch of salt

powdered sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 9-10" Bundt pan or tube pan.

Make the molasses batter first. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, and set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until very light. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, and then the molasses. Add the dry ingredients to the batter alternately with the yogurt, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat until just mixed.

Now make the lemon batter. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar, and set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and lemon zest until very light. Add the lemon juice. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the yogurt, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Do not overmix. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites with salt until nearly stiff, and gently fold into lemon batter.

Drop 3-4 large dollops of lemon batter into the pan. Top with 3-4 dollops of molasses batter. Continue layering batters, then swirl the batters a few times with a butter knife to marble. Do not swirl them too much.

Bake for 1 hour or until the cake is risen and golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 20 minutes, and then unmold it onto the cooling rack. Cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

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5th birthday chocolate dinosaur cake

2011-07-23T16:24:00.000-07:00

Can you guess what this lumpy, bumpy, spiky, orange hill is?

Does a side view help?

What about the other side?

It's a dinosaur!

One of Boy-o's best buddies just turned 5, and today, he had a dinosaur-themed birthday party. We gathered at the La Brea Tar Pits. Yes, I know those are fossils of woolly mammoths and sabre-toothed cats, but once you start talking about 45,000 year-old critters, who's counting? The kids had a great time in the museum, and I think they just as much enjoyed running up and down the big hill out in the park. The dinosaur cake was a big hit, even if he does sort of resemble a (wingless) dragon.

He's made from chocolate cake - the usual Martha Stewart recipe - with chocolate frosting on the bottom layer and tinted vanilla frosting for the dino and grass. The dino's purple spikes and yellow spots are a 50/50 fondant/gumpaste mix. (I'm still learning to work with gumpaste. It dries faster, which is why it's an advantage to use it when sculpting, but it's a little less forgiving than just molding straight fondant.)

To make the dino, I took inspiration from several cute cakes online, including a dragon tutorial from My Cake School. However, the dimensions were sort of a craps shoot. I baked a 6 1/2" bowl cake for the rounded base of his back, but when it didn't seem tall enough, I layered some thin pieces of 6" chocolate cake underneath. Then I baked an 8" cake and cut snake-shaped pieces off for the tail, neck, and head. I sort of eyeballed it, and I used a small, thin, serrated knife to sliver off the edges to make them more rounded and realistic-looking. Since the individual pieces had rough edges, I froze them before frosting them (to keep the crumbs more contained), and did a rough crumb coat before piping on, smoothing, and then making scales on the final coat of frosting. (Dinosaurs had scaly skin, right?) I assembled all the frosted pieces on a cake board, glued them together with more orange frosting, and filled in the joints to make them less visible. The legs and toes were piped; I had actually carved some little cake pieces for them, but I was tight on space. The dino turned out about 10" round, and it took almost a full batch of frosting to cover it! It is totally worthwhile to have extra frosting on hand just in case so you don't have to try to match the color midway through the project.

Next, assembling the cake. I inserted about 8 drinking straws straight down into the frosted, 12" base cake, a few inches apart. I snipped the straws just a bit (1/8"?) taller than the cake, and the cake board rested on them to prevent the dino cake from smushing the icing on the base cake. Green grass frosting, piped around the edge of the dino and in between his body and tail, concealed the cake board.

I made a few bumblebee friends to keep the dino company. The figure eight wings were Josh's suggestion!

Notes for future cakes of this size:
- Each single 12" layer = 2/3 of Martha's recipe
- 8" cake plus 6 1/2" bowl of cake = 2/3 of Martha's recipe
- 6" cake = 1/3 of Martha's recipe
- orange frosting + green frosting = 1 full vanilla buttercream recipe
- chocolate frosting/filling for 12" cake = double chocolate buttermilk recipe

Happy 5th, A! We had a great time celebrating with you!

Print chocolate cake recipe.
Print chocolate buttermilk frosting recipe.
Print vanilla frosting recipe.

ladybug sugar cookies

2011-07-20T12:48:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine loved the silly face cookies I made for birthday treats, and she asked for the same for her daughter's third birthday. As we talked about the party theme, we debated the design and changed our minds about six times. Ultimately, since her girl's favorite color is red, we decided ladybugs would be adorable.

So cute! I made the lemon-vanilla sugar cookies but substituted lemon extract for the lemon zest (to make it a little more kid-friendly). Although I like the look of royal icing decorations, the taste is not my favorite, and I thought about using glace icing instead. Glace icing tastes more like a traditional glaze (it uses powdered sugar, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla) and looks a little shiny, which I like. I made about 1/8 of a batch to see if it would dry firm enough overnight, and it did - not as hard as royal icing, but dry enough to stack the cookies, especially with parchment in between. However, the consistency of the icing is completely different from royal icing, and I was concerned about getting the right thickness to hold its shape while piping the details. This time around, Antonia74's royal icing was a better choice, but I will try glace icing in the future!

Happy birthday, S!

Print sugar cookie recipe.
Print royal icing recipe.

silly face cookies, part deux

2011-06-12T23:32:00.000-07:00

Remember the silly face cookies I made for a school birthday party? Well, the birthday girl's little brother had a birthday, and he wanted silly face cookies, too. How could I say no? I tried to make them just as goofy as the last ones, and by request, I made a special, rainbow cookie for the birthday boy.

These are so much fun to make because you can get carried away with adding fun touches like glasses, cheeks, and eyebrows. I deliberately kept my black royal icing thicker this time, since it was much too runny before, and when you're doing detail work, the best way to control it is with the thickness of the icing. I was already using a tiny size 0 tip - you can't get too much smaller (though 00 and 000 exist, amazingly!) - so you have to be very judicious when thinning the royal icing. Just a drop or two at a time! Marian at Sweetopia has some amazing tips on how to decorate cookies with royal icing.

I used the same chocolate brownie roll-out cookie recipe and royal icing recipe as before. I actually tried adding corn syrup to the royal icing to achieve a shine, but perhaps I didn't add enough because I didn't notice a difference. I'll experiment with that more at some point; I didn't want to throw off the texture or taste with too much.

Print chocolate brownie roll-out cookie recipe.
Print royal icing recipe.

happy birthday, gina!

2011-06-11T00:15:00.000-07:00

Gina has been one of my closest friends for the last 25 years. I can't quite believe it's been that long since 10th grade, but what can I say? We're getting old. In jazz choir, we shared a mic while singing dissonant voice parts (1st alto and 2nd soprano). We lived in a shoebox-sized apartment for a few years with our low-paying first jobs out of college. Discount shoe shopping, margaritas, and awesome neighbors made it a highly enjoyable time. Although we've lived in separate parts of the country for the last decade and a half, we can pick up where we left off every time we get the chance to spend a little time together.

Unbelievably, G ended up in SoCal, visiting her parents, over the week of her 40th birthday. We got to celebrate together for the first time in ages! When she thought she'd be visiting, she joked that maybe I'd make her a lemon cake, like I made for her wedding shower years ago. And of course, I'm highly suggestible, so I did just that.

I tell ya, this rose cake is kind of addictive! The cake is small - just 8" and two layers - so I wanted to try the design with just one rose high around the sides. And because the diameter is smaller, I didn't have room for three concentric circles of roses, so I improvised a middle ring of swooshy swirls. I thought it looked really pretty.

The cake is lemon, of course, filled with homemade lemon curd and frosted with regular vanilla buttercream that has lemon extract subbed for the almond extract. I'm not sure it's my favorite lemon cake, but I didn't have a lot of flexible time this week for experimenting. I'll try something new next time.

We were so full when we got back from dinner that I sent the cake home with Gina to eat with her family, so I didn't get to taste it as planned. I hope it was delicious! Here's to the next 40 years and a lifelong friend!

Lemon Layer Cake
Recipe says it makes 2- 9" layers, but I thought it was really better suited for 2- 8" layers

2 1/2 cups (10 ounces) cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, slightly softened
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) sugar
2 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla
grated zest of one lemon
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup whole milk

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line bottom of pans with parchment and spray with cooking spray with flour. (You can also grease and flour the pans.)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.

Using a stand mixer, beat the butter for about 30 seconds, until soft. Gradually add the sugar, and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. One at a time, beating after each addition, add the whole eggs and the egg yolks. Beat in the vanilla and lemon zest. Add the lemon juice. The batter may look curdled, but that's okay. It will smooth out when you add the flour and milk.

Add the flour and milk alternately, starting and ending with the flour. Mix until just combined, and then pour into the prepared pans. This is a fluffy batter and doesn't "pour" well - just scrape it in, dividing evenly between the pans. (I find it easier to bake it as a single cake in a 3" high pan, then cut it into layers; then you don't have to divide the batter and worry about whether you put the same amount in each pan.)

Bake for about 20-25 minutes if using two pans. In one pan, it will bake longer - at least 35-45 minutes. Best baking advice: it's done when it's done, not when the timer says it is. The cake will spring back when pressed lightly with a finger. Remove from the oven, cool for 10 minutes, and then invert the cake onto a rack to cool completely. Layer with lemon curd, but first pipe a "dam" of frosting around the edge of the bottom layer so the lemon curd doesn't zlich out. Then crumb coat and frost with buttercream.

Print lemon layer cake recipe.
Print vanilla buttercream recipe.

PS I linked to Sweet as Sugar Cookies' Sweets for a Saturday #21 post.

m&m frosted brownies

2011-06-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

The Friday afternoon before Memorial Day was Boy-o's official preschool graduation. He'll stay at school for most of the summer, but Friday marked the End of the Year Show, complete with songs, group and individual yoga poses (gotta love the 4-year old shouting out, "Ardha Chandrasana," while trying to do half-moon pose), and a pizza party. I asked B what he wanted me to bring, and he chose frosted brownies with M&M's.

They came out really cute, and the kiddos gobbled them up, but I've gotta say, they weren't great. (The under-5 set = usually not too discerning.) Maybe I just overbaked the brownies, because they are usually pretty fudgy. But something about the combination of frosting + brownie just sucked all the moisture out of the brownies! They almost turned cakey. It was really weird. I thought it was just me, because I've been less enamored of this recipe lately and seeking something fudgier, but Josh noticed it, too.

I made my usual brownie recipe and searched online for something akin to a Texas Sheetcake cooked icing to pour over the brownies. Texas Sheetcake icing tastes fine, but it's a little thin and always has that cocoa essence; I wanted something a little thicker that would stand up on its own and have a more pronounced chocolate flavor. Although I wasn't wild about the brownies overall, I wouldn't fault the icing: it was tasty, a great thickness (thin enough to pour but set up nicely, probably 1/8" thick, with a glossy sheen on the surface), and very easy to make. I would definitely make frosted brownies again, but perhaps with a different brownie recipe next time.

In any event, congratulations to the mini-graduates!

Steffi's Brownies (from Epicurious)

Makes an 8" pan; double the recipe for a 9x13" pan

1 stick butter

2 ounces (2 squares) unsweetened chocolate

1 cup (7 ounces) sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (2 5/8 ounces) flour

pinch of salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips (ok, the recipe says walnuts, but we know nuts don't belong in brownies)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8" pan with tinfoil, shiny side up, and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

This recipe is great because you can make it all in one saucepan (or bowl, if you prefer to use the microwave). Melt together the butter and chocolate over low heat. Let cool for three minutes, then stir in the sugar and vanilla. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, stirring thoroughly after each addition. Stir in the flour and salt until just combined, and then fold in the chocolate chips (or nuts).

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean but not dry. Err on the side of underbaking. Remove from the oven and let rest until it is cool to the touch. Remove the foil-lined brownies to a cutting board or wire rack and allow to cool completely before cutting. (Note: if you're frosting them, underbake them an extra minute or so - they will continue to cook in the pan - and leave them in the pan after removing from the oven. You're going to pour the warm icing over the warm brownies.)

Brownie Frosting

Makes enough to frost a 9x13" pan of brownies; halve it for an 8" square pan

6 tablespoons milk

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter
1 ½ cups (10 ½ ounces) sugar
1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup M&M's (optional)
Combine milk, butter, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Allow to cook at a rolling boil for 30 seconds and immediately remove from heat. Add chocolate chips and vanilla, and stir until the chips are completely melted. Pour immediately over warm brownies. If desired, let set for 5-10 minutes and then sprinkle with M&M's.

Print brownie recipe.

Print frosting recipe.

chocolate buttermilk frosting

2011-05-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

I talked last week about the new chocolate frosting recipe I used on the rose cake, but I forgot to post it! As I mentioned, I don't often find a great chocolate frosting recipe. Many are made with only cocoa, and they're not chocolaty enough; others taste nice but are too thin to pipe (to be fair, that works fine for certain cakes, but I usually need to be able to fancy up my cakes, so I want that thicker consistency that holds a shape).

This recipe has very similar ingredients to my usual chocolate fudge frosting, but the method is just a little different. In my usual recipe, you beat together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk, then add melted unsweetened chocolate and butter. At that point, the frosting is very dark and thin, and you need to beat it over a bowl of ice water to lighten and thicken the frosting. It can be temperamental: if the bowl gets too cold, the frosting becomes unspreadable, and then you have to adjust it with a little more milk.

The new recipe goes about it differently: you melt and slightly cool the chocolate, then beat it together with softened butter. (If you don't cool the chocolate a bit, it'll melt the butter.) Then you add the vanilla, a little cocoa powder (which amps up the chocolate flavors), and the powdered sugar. At this point, it's thick, dry, and crumbly, and you beat in about a third of a cup of buttermilk - a little more, if needed. For some reason, by inverting the process, you end up with a perfectly spreadable, lightened frosting that's thick enough to hold its shape when piped. And I like the hint of tang from the buttermilk. It's not quite enough to call attention to itself, but it's just enough to cut down on the sweetness of the chocolate. For what it's worth, the original recipe called for semi-sweet chocolate, but with five cups of powdered sugar, I didn't think the extra sugar in the chocolate was needed, so I used unsweetened.

I found the recipe online, paired with a cornmeal cake, and I think it sounds like a delicious combo! Meanwhile, it went perfectly with my chocolate cake, and I would make it again in a heartbeat.

Chocolate Buttermilk Frosting

(Makes about 4-5 cups)
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
2 sticks butter, at room temperature
5 cups (20 ounces) powdered sugar
1/4 cup (3/4 ounce) cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup buttermilk

In a large bowl, cream together the melted chocolate and butter until smooth and creamy. Add the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and vanilla, and begin mixing. Slowly add in the buttermilk until the frosting reaches your desired spreading consistency. If the frosting is too stiff, add a few more drops of buttermilk.

Print this recipe.

hi-hat cupcakes

2011-05-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

Remember dip cones? Well, I do, since we took the kids to get them on Tuesday. Another quintessential summer dessert. As soon as you pierce the fake-chocolate-but-still-tastes-good shell, the drips start coming, and keeping up with them becomes a full-time job.

The second I saw a picture of a hi-hat cupcake, it brought dip cones to mind. In fact, these would be outstanding with the cupcakes baked into ice cream cones, if only the cones didn't taste like straw. Basically, you've got a chocolate cupcake base, piped with a two- or three-inch swirl of marshmallow meringue, dipped in melted chocolate that then hardens, concealing the fluffy, white interior. See exhibits A, B, C, and D:

Every recipe I looked at had the same basic concept and pretty much the same proportions, so this is more of a "how-to" than a specific ingredient list. The process is not difficult, but each step takes a little time, so read all the way through and plan accordingly!

Start with your favorite cupcake recipe: I made 2/3 of Martha Stewart's recipe and got 24 cupcakes. When the cupcakes are cool, make the meringue. It is a little fussy to work with in that it starts to set up relatively quickly. I'll describe the meringue in detail in a moment, but let's keep with the steps. Make the meringue, then pipe it onto the cupcakes. Make a spiral covering the cupcake, top it with a slightly smaller spiral, and then make a third spiral on top, ending with a soft peak. I used for a star tip, but I really would recommend a round tip (or even a pastry bag with no tip) because the rounded shape of the piped meringue yields a more distinct look when you dip it in chocolate. Here comes the hurry up and wait part: place the meringue-d cupcakes on a cookie sheet and stick them in the freezer for a few hours. They won't freeze, but the meringue will chill all the way through so you can dip them without it sliding off or gooping up.

After a few hours, you'll be ready to dip. Melt a bag of chocolate chips (12 ounces) with 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil (sounds gross, but trust me; it does something good to the consistency and still allows it to harden up). Go slow - 1 minute at a time in the microwave - then stir until it is completely smooth. Let it cool for about 5 minutes (more if your chocolate is really hot). Then pour it into a wide-mouthed, short cup. Not a bowl. A cup. That makes the dipping easier. Remove no more than a dozen cupcakes from the freezer. Leave the rest in so they don't warm up too much. Holding a cupcake by the base, invert it, dip it straight down into the chocolate, and pull it back up, holding it upside down over the cup. Let a little of the excess chocolate drip off, then turn it right-side up. If you need to, spoon a tiny bit of chocolate around the base/edge of the cupcake to conceal any meringue and make a nice seal. Once you've dipped all the cupcakes, put them in the fridge for about an hour to harden up. Ultimately, for 24 cupcakes, I needed another 1/2 bag of chocolate chips. I couldn't bear to throw out the rest of the chocolate, so I cut two bananas in half, stuck lollipop sticks in each piece, and made frozen, chocolate-dipped bananas. (Another tasty, semi-healthy, summer dessert treat - for banana lovers, anyway.)

Now we can talk about the meringue. I was not delighted with my recipe, so I won't bother sharing it. If you look up hi-hat cupcakes or marshmallow meringue, you can find plenty of recipes. The proportions differ a bit, but here's the basic plan: in the top of a double boiler, you'll combine egg whites, sugar, a little water, a pinch of salt, and maybe cream of tartar and/or corn syrup. You'll stir them together to start dissolving the sugar, and place the bowl over a double boiler with simmering water. Now, you start to beat. And beat. And you're grateful for a hand mixer and seriously questioning those pioneers who ever thought making meringue by hand was a good idea. Some recipes have you do all the beating over the double boiler. Others have you just heat the ingredients enough to completely melt the sugar, then remove from the heat and keep beating. Most have you add some vanilla toward the end, and then beat for another minute or two. Then you scoop it into a piping bag and you're ready to go.

I'll tell you what problems I had. First, I doubled the recipe, but my bowl was Not. Big. Enough. Toward the end, it was nearly overflowing with sticky meringue. Second, my mixture never got hot enough, so my sugar never melted all the way. Result? Gritty texture (you can feel the sugar crystals with your tongue and teeth). The elementary school kids didn't notice, but I did! My recipe called for beating for 12 minutes and letting the mixture reach 160 degrees, but after more than 15 minutes, I still wasn't past 145F. At that point, frankly, the consistency was fine, my mixer was wheezing, and I'd had enough. You want the mixture to hold firm/stiff peaks, or else it won't cooperate when you try to pipe, then dip, it. I think next time, I will try a recipe like this one that cooks the mixture more quickly, then removes it from the heat to beat it the rest of the way.

The Open House bake sale was the perfect excuse to bake these. I'm not sure I could otherwise condone the serious amount of sugar in each cupcake. (It took me a bag and a half of chocolate chips just to dip these suckas, let alone the pile of tooth-shattering meringue and a cupcake.) But other people's kids? Have at it. Having promised to bring cupcakes, I realized I had not idea how to package them without smushing them, but since these have a hard chocolate shell, they're reasonably transportable. A plastic cup and cellophane bag worked well and looked cute, though not as "green" a solution as I'd typically like. Hopefully, the kids recycled. Here they are packaged up and ready for sale ($2 each! big money-makers):

Even without perfect meringue, I loved how these came out and I would absolutely make them again. I'd actually prefer them as minis, I think, though obviously that would be more time-consuming. They are really cute and super festive, and I got terrific feedback from the bake sale-goers.

Print Martha Stewart's one-bowl chocolate cake recipe.

chocolate rose wedding shower cake with pastry cream filling

2011-05-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

When I first saw the rose cake Amanda posted on I am Baker, I knew I'd have to try my own version of it. I love the easy, elegant rosettes piped with a 1M tip, and this is simply a cake covered with those roses. You can make them as big or as small as you'd like. I like how Amanda's has just a single rose all around the edges, but my cake was very tall, and the roses would've had to be mammoth to cover the sides in a single row.

Last week, my friend Connie called about a bridal shower she's hosting. The first-time bride-to-be is SO excited about her upcoming wedding and was looking forward to a very traditional shower. Per the bride's wishes (she is English), I was asked to make chocolate cake with chocolate frosting filled with custard and blueberries. (Custard filling just sounds so British to me! It gave me a great chance to make pastry cream - more on that below.) Connie's only design request was that it be really pretty, which immediately called up this design in my mind.

Isn't that pretty? I think it is simple, beautiful, and elegant - and the best part is, it's a snap to decorate! It requires no fussing to be sure the top and sides are perfectly smooth - just a solid crumb coat to seal everything in and conceal the color of the cake. Then pick a spot on the side of the cake, about an inch from the bottom, and pipe a spiral (starting in the center and making two rounds moving outward) to make your first rose. I'm lefty, so I moved the piping bag about an inch to the left and started my next rose. You'll quickly get the hang of how big you want to make them and how far over to move the pastry tip. If you really don't like how a rose looks, just gently scrape the frosting back into the bowl using a small offset spatula. Once I'd piped all around the cake, I filled in a second row of smaller roses (I only went around 1 1/2 times), and then I piped the top. I made concentric circles starting at the outer edge and ending with a single rose in the center. Any place there was a lot of space between the roses, I piped a little swoosh of frosting in the same direction as the rose. This method, including the crumb coat, takes a double batch of frosting.

I really wanted to cover the cake with roses, so I needed some way to write the congratulatory message on the top. A heart-shaped piece of fondant, brushed like marble with silver, white, and pink luster dust, made a good plaque. I let it harden just enough to hold its shape so it wouldn't sink into the roses. Mazel tov to the couple!

Now let's talk about what was new and different with this cake! I get very few requests for fresh fruit cakes, and they are usually accompanied by whipped cream. Pastry cream is a great alternative; it's a versatile base that can be flavored in pretty much any way you'd imagine (chocolate, fruit purees, whole fruits, alcohol, etc.) but I just stuck with vanilla. I used Zoe Francois's recipe (she of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day fame) because I know her to be a reliable, thorough resource, and this recipe did not disappoint. It did set up a little thinner than I expected, and I hope the cake doesn't "zlich" too much when they cut it, so it's possible it needed another 30-60 seconds of cook time. Still, the taste was right and should complement the berries nicely. I simply used a little less filling than I would've if it had been thicker, and I also decided against lightening it with whipped cream. (The pastry cream we used to make in the bakery was super thick - nearly solid - until it was whipped again after cooling. I think that's what I expected.)

I also used a new chocolate frosting recipe, which is very unusual for me. I am very particular about the fudginess of chocolate frosting recipes, which is why I tend to prefer those made with melted chocolate rather than cocoa powder. This recipe has both - just a jolt of cocoa powder to amp up the chocolate flavor - and it's thinned with buttermilk, which gives it just a little tang and cuts the sweetness just a bit. I saw it via Tastespotting, paired with a cornmeal yellow cake, and I'd love to try that combo some time!

Here is the pastry cream recipe. I'll post the frosting recipe in a separate post because this is starting to get long-winded.

Zoe's Vanilla Pastry Cream (her original recipe not only has great techniques, but also step-by-step photos!)
Makes about 2 cups

2 cups milk (I used whole)
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar, divided
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla (or 1/2 vanilla bean - yum!)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 egg
3 egg yolks

Bring the milk, 1/4 cup of the sugar, butter, salt, and vanilla to a gentle boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from heat.

While the milk is heating, in a heatproof bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and cornstarch. Add the whole egg and the egg yolks, and whisk into a smooth paste.

In order to add the hot milk to the eggs, you need to temper them; otherwise, you get scrambled eggs. Slowly, a little at a time, pour some milk into the eggs, whisking constantly. Once the egg mixture is warm to the touch, pour it back into the milk in the pan.

Return the pan to the heat and bring it to a boil, whisking constantly, and cook it for 2-3 minutes. (If you have nonstick pans, like I do, invest in a silicone whisk. I'm not sure why I didn't do that a long time ago!) The pastry cream will start to thicken right away, but you need to keep cooking for the 2-3 minutes to cook out the starch. Otherwise, it tastes gritty. When it's finished, the pastry cream will look nice and shiny and smooth.

Immediately strain the pastry cream into a flat dish or bowl. Use a rubber spatula to press it through the fine mesh sieve. Cover with plastic wrap and press the plastic wrap down completely onto the surface - you don't want a skin to form. Place the bowl in the freezer for about 15 minutes to give it a quick cool-down, then move it to the fridge and cool completely. It can stay a few days in the fridge.

Before using, whisk it to remove any lumps. If it is very thick, you can fold in some whipped cream to lighten it. Note that this will taste fabulous but it will make the consistency very light, so if you are using it as a cake filling, it might not be firm enough to hold the layers. I would whip 1/2 cup of whipping cream and add about half of it and see how the consistency and taste are. If you are using it to fill pastry (e.g., eclairs), this lighter consistency may be perfect. Check Zoe's recipe/comments for details on flavoring pastry cream.

Print vanilla pastry cream recipe.

chocolate brownie roll-out cookie ice cream sandwiches

2011-05-16T23:54:00.000-07:00

I've been making these chocolate brownie roll-out cookies to decorate with royal icing, and they are a nice departure from standard roll-and-bake sugar cookies. They have a chewy consistency if you roll them 1/4" thick, and more of a snap if you roll them 1/8" thin. The taste is a subtle cocoa chocolate, but actually really nice, and not too rich.

A while ago (gauging by the fact that Bug hadn't yet lost any teeth in this picture and now we're down six, it's been several moons), I amped them up a notch: rolled 'em in classic round rainbow sprinkles, paired 'em up, and turned 'em into ice cream sandwiches.

(I love how the sprinkles bled just a little bit onto the vanilla ice cream, giving it an awesome rainbow effect. Totally intentional. Uh huh.)

To me, ice cream sandwiches scream summer. We homemade them every year growing up, and that's definitely the kind of tradition I want to continue. With two little kids who ask for "special treat" every single night (and are not often denied), I like to keep the portions under control, and ice cream sandwiches are an easy way to do that. Small cookies + just a tablespoon or two of ice cream = reasonably-sized dessert. In a pinch, I've been known to cut one in half, and they've still never complained.

You can use any flavor combo to personalize your ideal ice cream sandwich. No disrespect to Ben or Jerry, but I think this is the right time for very simple, classic ice cream flavors, particularly if there's a lot going on in the cookie itself. Chocolate, vanilla, and mint-chip all work great. As for cookies, chocolate chip, M&M, and peanut butter are all good choices, but this brownie roll-out cookie really holds up nicely consistency-wise. I would roll these to around 1/4" for the ideal thickness.

Match up the cookies so they're close in size and shape. Soften the ice cream slightly (so it's scoopable, but not starting to get melty). Spoon a small amount onto one cookie, top it with the partner, and squeeze gently to bring the ice cream out to the edges. If you're anal - if, like me, you just like things neat - run a small offset spatula around the ice cream to smooth it out. Wrap individually in plastic wrap, and freeze, then serve them to your kids outside on a warm evening (fewer ice cream drips on the floor). Now if it would only get warmer than 61...

Print cookie recipe.

bad blogging biscuits

2011-05-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

When you have a food blog, it's a pretty good idea to keep track of which set of pictures matches which recipe. Makes sense, right? The natural order goes something like this: make food, take pictures of food, taste and evaluate food, post about food. But when there's a food you're trying to perfect - say, chocolate chip cookies - where you feel compelled to try every recipe in the known universe, despite each one's similarity to the other 93 you've already tried, it's smart to be somewhat scientific in logging the date, recipe, source, and your reactions.

Otherwise, you get this:

Flaky biscuits, with lots and lots of layers, which I remember tasted great straight out of the oven... only I have no idea what recipe they are from. And no way to talk intelligently about why I preferred this recipe to any of the other numerous, relatively similar, biscuit recipes.

Bummer. 'Cause these were tasty. Guess I'll have to start my testing process over, this time with a sharpened pencil.

NB: It's possible, but not certain, they were these: http://browniesfordinner.com/2010/02/02/buttermilk-biscuits-for-the-soul/

my girl turns 7 with a rainbow, chocolate marble cake

2011-04-10T23:37:00.000-07:00

My girl just turned 7! It is amazing how fast she's growing up.

We celebrated with a bunch of giggly girlfriends from school (and one brother and one boy friend), pedicures, and High School Musical 3. Oh my. They were transfixed. Instead of a cake, Bug requested they decorate their own cupcakes, so at her direction, I made chocolate/vanilla marble cupcakes and vanilla frosting tinted light purple, light blue, and light green. They piped on gobs of frosting and pretty much obliterated the cupcakes with insane amounts of sprinkles. They also had a great time doing it.

The next night was our family party, and I'd been looking for a chance to try out this new, pretty petal effect covering the sides of the cake. Bug asked for a rainbow again this year, so I re-tinted the extra frosting from the night before and piped a sweet rainbow with puffy frosting clouds.

See how pretty the petals are on the sides of the cake? They are so easy to do! I learned them from Melissa at My Cake School.

It's best to begin with a crumb-coated cake because there will be a few tiny places that don't get 100% coverage, and this way, the cake won't show through. Starting at what will be the back of your cake (because there will be a little bit of a seam), and using reasonably soft frosting, pipe a vertical row of dots, each about 1/2" to 3/4" across, starting from the bottom and working your way up. The number of dots will depend on the height of the cake, but 3-5 is about right. Use a small offset spatula (I'm sure a dinner knife would do in a pinch), and start with the bottom dot. Hold the spatula parallel to the cake. Place the spatula against the dot, covering about 2/3 of the dot, push gently, and drag and release the spatula to softly smear the dot. Scrape off the excess frosting into the bowl. Repeat, moving your way up the vertical line of dots. Smearing the top dot will form a pretty little ridge and make a perfect border around the cake.

When you have finished one row, pipe a second vertical row of dots, again starting at the bottom, overlapping the flattened side of the last row of dots. It's a little time-consuming because you have to do one row at a time. Working on a cake turntable makes this much easier!

I had a surprisingly hard time figuring out the right marble cake recipe. I actually had to ditch one, which was supposed to be a zebra cake, because the texture was crumbly and it didn't taste that all good. For the marble cupcakes, I used justJenn's marble cupcake recipe, which was very well-received. Instead of food coloring, I tinted the batter with just a little unsweetened cocoa powder to give it the right look and a subtle chocolate flavor. I also scooped blobs of chocolate and vanilla frosting next to each other in the cupcake tins and swirled them ever-so-gently with a skewer to preserve the marbling. It's easy to overmix marble cake, and then it just looks like mud.

For the birthday cake, I wanted to amp it up one more notch. I've been searching for the right yellow cake recipe, and the chocolate flavor needed more oomph. There were two parts to the solution: Carole Walter's "Absolutely the Best Yellow Cake," which is a really tasty cake on its own, and the homemade chocolate syrup from my favorite marble bundt. (For the record, that cake is also delicious, but it has a firmer, pound cake texture, and I wanted the softness of a layer cake.). Here's how that came together:

I love how the marbling is just a little different on each piece!

And here's the recipe!

Absolutely the Best Yellow-Chocolate Marble Cake (adapted slightly)

Chocolate Syrup
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar
1/2 cup (1 1/2 ounces) cocoa powder
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Cake

3 cups (12 ounces) sifted cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter
2 cups (14 ounces) sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350F and position rack in the lower third of the oven. Select your cake pan, line it with parchment, and spray it with baking spray with flour. This recipe makes a large cake - either one 10" angel food cake pan or three 9" layers - or you can halve the recipe and bake it in a two-quart pan.

Make the chocolate syrup first so it can cool while you make the cake batter. In a small saucepan, whisk together sugar, cocoa powder, corn syrup, and water. Bring just to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla. Set aside.

Sift the flour and then measure it. I like to sift it right into a bowl that's sitting on my kitchen scale. The original recipe calls for triple sifting the flour, but I think that's excessive. Sift, measure, and then add the baking powder and salt and whisk them in. This will keep the flour aerated.

Cut butter into pieces and beat for 1 minute, until creamy. Add sugar, a tablespoon at a time, taking 8-10 minutes to blend it in well. (I finished adding the sugar after about 4 or 5 minutes, but I kept beating it for several more minutes until it was very light in color.)

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Add vanilla.

With the mixer on low, add the flour and milk alternately, starting and ending with the flour. Mix until just incorporated.

If you're just making a yellow cake, stop here, spoon the batter into the pan and smooth it, and bake.

If you're making a marble cake, remove about 1/4 to 1/3 of the batter to a small bowl. Stir in the reserved chocolate syrup. The chocolate batter will be much thinner, but don't worry about it. Spoon about half of the remaining yellow cake batter into the pan. Pour the chocolate batter over it pretty evenly. Cover with the rest of the yellow cake batter. Use a dinner knife or skewer to swirl the batter lightly. A figure-eight pattern can do the trick nicely, but try not to overmix it or you will lose the marble effect. Smooth the batter, if needed.

Bake for approximately 65-70 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown on top and comes away from the sides of the pan. If you press your fingers lightly on the cake, it should spring back. I'd start checking it after 55-60 minutes, depending on how hot your oven runs.

Let the cake cool for at least 15 minutes (it's okay to wait until it's room temperature), and then invert it onto a rack to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar or frost (chocolate is nice!). Store at room temperature under a glass dome or in an air-tight container for up to 5 days.

Print this recipe.

Happy 7th birthday, beautiful girl! Love, Mommy

party tray: assorted deliciousness

2011-04-09T23:14:00.000-07:00

Indulge me: I'm on a cheesecake bites kick. See how pretty they look alongside other delicious treats? They are so rich that just a tiny piece is the right amount.

On this party tray, created for a fundraising event, I featured all sorts of good stuff: cheesecake bites, pecan tarts, lemon bars, brownies, demerara shortbread, and meringue nests.

Man, I clearly have baking on the brain... I'm going to have to do something about this pronto!

plaid cheesecake bites

2011-04-09T22:50:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday night. We're home, watching movies on Netflix. I'm menu planning for Passover next Monday night, busy digging around online and making lists. To distract myself, I decided to look at something pretty. Whaddya think about these cheesecake bites?

No, I didn't just make these; I brought them to a party a few months ago and I'm just behind on posting. This is the same recipe I've made before - it's really reliable, easy, tasty, creamy, and best of all, tastes best on day two or even three. You don't want to eat this cheesecake until it's been in the fridge at least overnight. In other words, perfect for a party because you can easily make them in advance.

In the past, I've topped these with candied lemon zest or fresh berries. This time, I piped ganache one direction and caramel sauce the other, for a faux-plaid look. Though I am usually a chocolate fiend, there are rare exceptions when I prefer sweets without chocolate, and this is one. I think melting some chocolate and swirling it into the batter, for a marbled effect, would be quite tasty, but as a garnish, I think it should be fruit or nothin'. Make these soon!

Print this recipe.

gymnast birthday cake

2011-03-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

Time for another fun birthday cake! This one was for my mom's friends' granddaughter who is visiting from Minnesota. She is about the cutest little blond thing you've ever seen, and she has a penchant for Barbies, gymnastics, and the color purple. So you can see what I had to make for her:

I continue to work on my fondant sculpting technique, and I know I'm improving! Even though I meant for her to look cartoonish, I would've liked the shape of her head to be either totally round or a little more realistic; same with her body. Josh suggested putting a slight crease in her arm next time to make it look like the inside of her elbow. That's a matter of letting it dry enough to hold its shape, but not too much to crack, so I just have to work on my timing. But to stop being hard on myself, my top priority was to make cute hair (success!) and to make a gymnast, doing the splits on the beam, with her arms up (success!). Let's call it a win overall, and I'll keep practicing.

Here she is from all sides (this is just my way of memorializing for next time I sculpt a body).

Here's a close-up of her on the beam. Perfectly balanced!

She kind of looks like a Fisher-Price toy.

I wrapped a thin piece of brown fondant around the sides of the cake to make a second balance beam. Then I rolled out turquoise fondant, cut out gymnasts in different poses, and positioned them around the cake on the beam. I really liked how they came out. Since I did them a few days in advance, the fondant hardened, which meant it didn't conform to the curves of the cake, but I liked the 3-D effect (otherwise I might have warmed them ever so slightly - I'm talking 1 or 2 seconds in the microwave - to get them to bend to the curved sides).

The birthday girl's favorite flavor combo is vanilla cake with strawberry filling and vanilla buttercream. Because both the cake and the frosting are pretty sweet, I only added a little sugar to the strawberry filling. I think it would have benefited from some lemon zest and/or a tablespoon or so of lemon juice, but I thought I'd keep the flavor really simple for kiddo tastes.

Here's how I made the filling. The amounts are pretty rough.

Strawberry Filling
2 cups strawberries, hulled and chopped coarsely
1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar (to taste, depending on how sweet your berries are)
1 cup water
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Cut up the strawberries and place them in a saucepan with the sugar and about 3/4 cup of water. Begin cooking over medium heat until the mixture starts to boil and the berries begin to break down. In a small dish, stir together the cornstarch and remaining 1/4 cup water. Add to the berry mixture. Let it cook until it thickens. You can puree it or leave it chunky. (I actually pureed it, but then decided it was too smooth, so I threw in a few more berries, chopped pretty small, and let them cook down for another 3-4 minutes.) Cool, then use to fill the cake.

Tip: pipe a thick (1/2") border of frosting around the edge of the cake before filling it. The frosting moat helps prevent the filling from leaking out. If it does leak, just cover the side gently with more frosting.

Print strawberry filling recipe.
Print vanilla cake recipe.
Print vanilla buttercream recipe.

silly face cookies

2011-03-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

"Hey, good lookin'!"

"Outta the way, fella. That's my lady!"

"Howdy, handsome..."

"Well hello yourself, foxy lady!"

"Say cheese!"

"Everybody in! We're gonna be in People Magazine! Or at least Us Weekly!"

As you can probably tell, I made chocolate brownie roll-out silly face cookies. One of Bug Bug's school friends is turning 7 and requested these to share with her classmates. I was supposed to just make smiley faces, but I couldn't resist being a little silly with it. Plus, my black royal icing (for making the faces) really wasn't cooperating - I had a hard time getting the thickness right - so it was easier to pipe shapes that didn't have to be entirely uniform. It's a little hard to tell from the pictures, but the colors were really fun and vibrant: electric purple, turquoise, a combination of avocado and leaf green, and orange.

Here are the ones I liked best:

And here's the rest of the gang:

I used Smitten Kitchen's mom's cookie recipe. I've used it once before and decided to give it another shot. Just by rolling the cookies a tiny bit thicker, the consistency had a little extra chew. And the taste is really nice - subtle, but chocolatey like a brownie. I made a double batch of the same dough last weekend when we hosted a group play date and let the kids cut out shapes and decorate with insane amounts of sprinkles. The dough is very easy to work with. I did my usual trick - just after mixing it, roll out the dough between sheets of parchment to the right thickness*, and then it chills in a fraction of the time - but the dough was forgiving when I needed to re-roll the kids' scraps. With just a little flour on each side, it didn't stick to the rolling pin at all. I wouldn't change my method, but it's great to know it doesn't necessarily have to re-chill before dealing with the leftover bits.

*Note: I usually divide the dough in half before rolling. It's a good amount to work with.

Here's the cookie recipe. I should note that I changed the method - I couldn't understand why the cocoa was added to the wet ingredients rather than being stirred in with the flour mixture. If I've changed some elemental property of the cookies, I guess I'll never know. The royal icing is Antonia74's recipe, though I tried adding a tablespoon of corn syrup to get a shiny effect. It didn't work at all. Maybe I needed more corn syrup? I was afraid to add too much, that it would make the consistency wonky, but maybe next time I'll be more daring.

Chocolate Brownie Roll-Out Cookies (adapted slightly)
Makes about 30, 3" cookies

3 cups (12 3/4 ounces) flour
2/3 cup (2 ounces) unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. Beat butter and sugar, then add eggs and vanilla and beat until well-incorporated. Slowly add the flour mixture (it will fly around everywhere, so you may want to cover the mixer with a towel to minimize the cleanup). Mix until all flour is incorporated and dough is smooth, but don't overdo it. You can wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill it for an hour, or you can do what I suggested above - roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment and place the flat slabs of dough on a cookie sheet in the fridge. Twenty to thirty minutes should do it.

When you're almost ready to begin baking, preheat the oven to 350F. I like to peel off the parchment on the top, then replace it, flip the slab over, and peel off the other piece of parchment. That way, the cut cookies come off the paper more reliably.

Cut into shapes and place on a cookie sheet lined with either a silpat or parchment. Though I'm usually a silpat girl, I baked right on the parchment this time, and it worked very nicely. Bake for 7-10 minutes. (I set the timer for 7 but kept checking them every 30-60 seconds; they probably baked about 8-8 1/2 total.) Since they don't change color, it's a little hard to tell when they're done, but the cookies should feel reasonably firm and hold their shape when pressed lightly with a finger. They shouldn't look shiny. Cool on the sheets for a few minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Eat plain or decorate with frosting or royal icing.

Print cookie recipe.
Print royal icing recipe.

welcome, little man! raquel's baby shower cake

2011-03-20T22:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I attended a baby shower for our good family friends, Raquel and Noah. They're expecting their first baby in mid-April. Noah's family was one of the first we met when we moved to California 30 years ago. We four kids went to Sunday school together and did summer stock together. Our parents worked together in his dad's office. We shared countless holidays. A few years ago, Noah married Raquel, and she's such a sweetie - they are a great couple - and they are so excited for this new baby boy to join their family.

As one of the shower hostesses, my mom asked me to make the cake decorations Tiffany blue; other than that, I had lots of leeway. First up, another pram. Blue and brown stripes seemed right for a boy. Next, I wanted to try my hand at the sweet baby shoes again. A little toy bear and some fondant stars rounded out the decorations.

Here's a close-up look at the toppers:

The cake was Martha Stewart's one-bowl chocolate cake, and I used my standard vanilla buttercream frosting tinted with a combo of turquoise and sky blue. My mom gave me a Tiffany box lid to match the color exactly. :-)

I was so happy that the mom-to-be loved the cake - turquoise is her favorite color - and I loved getting to prepare something special for her. Welcome little man! We can't wait to meet you.

Print chocolate cake recipe.
Print vanilla buttercream recipe.

mexican hot chocolate snickerdoodles

2011-03-14T23:27:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I forgot to post about these cookies - a twist on a traditional snickerdoodle. I found them on Culinary in the Desert, and as they noted, the name was a little misleading. When I think of Mexican hot chocolate, I think of thick hot chocolate laced with cinnamon. These cookies have a cinnamon element like a traditional snickerdoodle - there's cinnamon in the dough and they're rolled in cinnamon sugar - but they also include 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, which is what the "hot" in the title actually refers to. (I put a tiny bit of cayenne in, but probably not even 1/8 teaspoon since I knew the kids would be eating them. So yeah, I didn't really get the "hot" of the hot chocolate, but the cinnamon in the dough gives a little kick as well.)

I really liked these. They are chewy, and the sugar on the outside makes for a nice crunch. I usually find snickerdoodles too buttery, but they're actually made with oil, not butter, plus the cocoa changes the whole equation. They are a great cookie to have around to snack on. Not fancy, but a good, basic cookie with a nice, surprise twist.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles (Adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar)
Makes about two dozen

Cookie dough:
1 2/3 cups (7 ounces) flour
1/2 cup (1 1/2 ounces) Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or omit, if desired)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup (use the good stuff!)
3 tablespoons milk (if you want it to be vegan, use soy or almond milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla

Sugar coating:
1/3 cup (2 1/3 ounces) sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cayenne (if using), and salt. In a small bowl, which together oil, sugar, syrup, milk, and vanilla. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined.

Mix together the remaining sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Scoop cookie dough into balls, roll in cinnamon sugar, and place about two inches apart on a parchment- or silpat-lined cookie sheet. Use the bottom of a glass to flatten the cookies slightly. (The original recipe says to roll the dough into balls, flatten each into a 2" disc, press one side of the cookie into the sugar, and then place the cookie, sugar side up, on the cookie sheet. That seemed harder to me.)

Bake until the cookies have spread and are crackly on top, 9-12 minutes. Cool cookies on sheet for 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely. If you move them sooner, they will fall apart; they need a few minutes out of the oven on the cookie sheet to firm up.

3rd blogiversary fondant flower garden cake

2011-02-15T21:21:00.000-08:00

I just realize I missed my own blogiversary! Can you believe it? February 11th was the third anniversary of my little blog. I love having this public/private record of what I've baked, whether I liked it, and how it looked. I'm really proud of the baking progress I've made - especially in the fondant decorating realm - and I'm happy that my photography skills have improved. Someday I'll try using a tripod, which should improve my focus issues. (You know how those rascally baked goods can't sit still. Just like my 4-year-old.)

Today is all about the pictures. This fall, I took a 4-part fondant class at NY Cake West, a newish baking supply store on the Westside. Each week, we learned new bits and pieces of techniques for making flowers: daisies, roses, mums, carnations, and lilies. We practiced rolling fondant as thin as humanly possible - 1/16 of an inch - so thin we could literally read through it - then used a balling tool to thin the edges even further and ruffle them to form realistic-looking, imperfect flowers. Our teacher, Sophia, provided great tips that have informed and bettered my fondant skills: instead of powdered sugar, use a 50/50 mix of powdered sugar and cornstarch to prevent sticking. Use it sparingly. Roll excess fondant in a ball and spread a thin film of shortening on it to keep it soft and pliable. Melt a tiny drop of white fondant in a few tablespoons of water to form a "glue" for sticking fondant elements to each other or to the cake. And so on, and so on. For a baking geek like me, so much fun!

On the last class, we each brought a frosted cake to class, covered it with fondant (another good lesson! and one I want to practice more), and then used our flowers to decorate our cakes. I'll be the first to admit this cake isn't really my style (it's pretty froufy), but I think it came out so beautifully. Here it is!

That's a lotta flowers!

See the marbled look of the fondant? I kneaded pink and white together, but not all the way. (Originally, I meant it to be more distinctly marbled, but I screwed up and had to roll it out a second time; the rerolling process incorporated the colors more, but there's still a subtle effect.) I also love the border. It gives it a more finished, polished look. I actually borrowed this method for the cake I made recently even though it wasn't covered with fondant. The fondant-covered board is too much for me, not to mention kind of a waste of fondant. I prefer a plain cake board.

I just like the lighting of this one. So dramatic.

Carnations are one of my dad's favorite flowers. As flowers, they're not so highly prized, but I think the fondant version are so pretty!

You can make roses in any state of bloom, more open or more like a bud.

I really like the mums, too, and they're fun to make but they require planning ahead: you have to make the centers of the mums (and the roses) first and give them a few days to dry and firm up.

The lilies aren't my favorite. (Sorry, lilies.)

I could also live without daisies, but they are very sweet on a baby shower cake.

The whole garden.

Thanks so much for reading and commenting along with me! I enjoy all the feedback and I love getting to share all my baked stuff with my (real-life and interweb) friends!

elinor klivans' essential chocolate chip cookies

2011-02-08T23:16:00.000-08:00

Have you heard of baker and cookbook author Elinor Klivans? I'm ashamed to admit I hadn't until my aunt mentioned her. She is the sister-in-law of my aunt's good friend, and she has written tons of cookbooks! She is apparently well-known to many home bakers, and I'm hoping to check out one of her cookbooks soon. In the meantime, I Googled her and discovered the cover recipe for her book The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook. You have to think if you're going to write an entire book about chocolate chips, the cover recipe should be the gold standard. Besides, they look delicious and each cookie supposedly holds 50 chocolate chips. (OK, that might be just a teensy bit insane.)

Well, mine looked a lot like the cover picture, and they tasted delicious. In fact, they had a little too much chocolate for me (though it feels sacreligious to say that), but the cookie itself was tasty, chewy but a little crisp around the edges, and had those great caramel notes that a good chocolate chip cookie has. They have less sugar and (as mentioned) way more chocolate than many recipes. I would definitely try these again.

Choc-Full of Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies

1 1/4 cups (5 1/4 ounces) flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) brown sugar
6 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups (24 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line two cookie sheets with silpats or parchment paper.

Measure the flour, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl, and whisk it around just a little.

With the mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar, and sugar until smoothly blended, about 1 minute. Add the egg and vanilla, and blend well, about 1 minute. Slowly add the flour mixture, beating just until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Scoop the batter onto the baking sheets giving them plenty of room to spread. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until they are lightly brown on the edges and the centers are golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Cool the cookies on the sheets for 10 minutes, and then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling. The cookies will flatten as they cool.

milk dud cookies

2011-02-08T22:38:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to love these cookies. A chocolate cookie, rolled in sugar (my addition), and filled with caramel: what's not to like? They caught my attention immediately and were billed as tasting like a combination of a cookie and a Milk Dud. The Ginger Cook gave them such high praise, but unfortunately, I thought they were just so-so. The chocolate flavor wasn't very deep, and the caramel was nice and oozy just out of the oven, but it hardened after a few hours. (As the original post points out, a very quick zap in the microwave takes care of that.) I wish I could give them a higher recommendation, but not every cookie can be a winner. At least they look yummy!

julie's baby shower cake

2011-02-06T21:40:00.000-08:00

Today was a special day: my book club friends and I hosted a baby shower for our friend, Julie. Julie has graciously celebrated the births of our twelve babies over the past seven years, and we were so happy to celebrate with her today! The five of us divided the responsibilities, and I got to make the cake and provide the house. After putting away the stray tennis shoes and legos, the house part was easy. The cake... now that was fun! I wanted it to be sweet, girly, and delicate, but I needed some new ideas for the decorations.

I recently discovered a new cake decorating site called My Cake School, and after poking around and being really impressed with what I saw, I even paid $30 to subscribe to the tutorials and photo galleries. Melissa gives very clear video instructions and has really cute ideas and helpful techniques. In fact, all the cake toppers I made for Julie's cake were ideas I tried from My Cake School, and they are great additions to the decorating arsenal.

First up, check out this old-fashioned baby carriage. The base of the carriage is a 3" circle, so it's not too big, but it's enough space to add a small pattern... dots work well and I think stripes would be really cute. Of course, you can customize it to any color scheme. The springy green and pink were perfect for our decor. The carriage is held up by two lollipop sticks glued to the back with a strip of fondant. You don't have to add the baby and blanket, but I like the extra three-dimensionality it adds. A smaller version of these (without the lollipop sticks) would be great as cupcake toppers... but even though each step is easy, it took a pretty long time to make just one. (I was impatient, and you really have to wait for the pieces to dry before you assemble them.)

Next, a sweet bunny girl. She is molded around a lollipop stick that gives her body a little more support while it dries. I'm not sure why I never thought of lollipop sticks: they're sturdier than toothpicks, and at $2.50 for 100, they're pretty darn affordable. I liked the floppy ears, but the site gives a demo for stand-up ears supported by floral wire that are also really sweet. My favorite pars is the pink inner ears. Or maybe the bow (which is the best bow I've made!).

Lastly, the sweetest, most delicate baby shoes. I wanted to decorate them with tiny flowers, but bows, hearts, polka dots, or a single, large flower would work just as well. I used the little flowers as an echo around the sides of the cake. The shoes are really easy to make from a paper template: trace around it on the rolled-out fondant and twist it to so the points match up like on the template. I stuffed the freshly-made shoes with 1-2" bits of paper towel to hold the shape while they dried overnight. You almost have to use tweezers to pull them out without breaking the straps!

Want to see the whole thing? I was so happy with how this cake came out! The cake toppers, a simple fondant border, and some daisies and tiny flowers were perfect over barely-pink frosting and dark chocolate cake. Best of all, the guest of honor loved it.

Congratulations, Julie! Wishing you guys the very best!!

Print chocolate cake recipe.

Print vanilla frosting recipe.

baby shower animal cookies

2011-02-02T23:23:00.000-08:00

I'm in a baby shower frame of mind over here. On Sunday, our semi-defunct-but-still-very-fond-of-each-other book club is hosting a shower for one of our members. She has graciously celebrated the birth of our collective dozen babies in the past seven years, and we are super excited to be celebrating her first. I'm busy making fondant decorations and planning and revising cake designs in my mind. More on that soon, but I can't spoil any surprises!

So meanwhile... I can't believe I forgot to post pictures of the baby shower cookie favors I made for my sister's dear friend, Kris! Her beautiful baby girl is already over four months old, so you can see how delinquent this post is. Oops. Anyway, Kris has thrown two beautiful showers for my sister, and I was so happy to get to help her celebrate from afar. My sister sent me the shower invitation, and I designed the cookies to match the sweet little animals. The colors don't show up very well here, but the background is chocolate brown and the animals are pale pink and yellow.

To start, I piped a chocolate brown background on all the cookies and let it dry overnight. Then it was time to make the animals. I'm actually terrible at drawing, but piping is actually a little easier. I practiced on an empty cookie sheet just to try to get the animal shapes right. Since the designs are just one color, it's pretty easy to make corrections to the outlines before filling them in. You don't have to rush, but the royal icing starts to set up pretty quickly, so you want to keep it moving. I wanted a smooth edge to the designs, rather than a defined, outlined edge (which looks great if you're using a contrasting color), so I piped outlines of just two cookies, then filled them in completely before moving on. If you wait too long until the outlines harden, they'll be visible on the finished cookie. I found it was easier to do all of one animal before moving on to the next because my hand got more practiced at making the right shapes - getting the bunny's ears just right, or the angle of the bear's arms and legs, or adding the giraffe's horns..

See, here they are all together, using almost every cookie sheet I have in the house. Remember, they have to dry for about 24 hours before the icing is fully hardened, but the icing actually protects the cookie and they really don't go stale, even if they're just sitting out on a cookie sheet in the kitchen.

I did a few extra ones just for fun :-)

Belated congratulations, Kris! I'm so happy for you and your girl!

Print lemon-vanilla sugar cookie recipe.

Print royal icing recipe.

penguin cookies

2011-01-29T23:36:00.000-08:00

You can't have an anniversary party without party favors! Since the penguin cake was actually a gift from their daughter, I decided to make my cousins some penguin cookie party favors for all the guests. Many penguins mate for life (though some just seasonally, I learned), so I though a pair of penguins in each bag would be perfect with the anniversary theme. I happened upon an inexpensive penguin cookie cutter that made this project a whole lot easier. Black, white, and orange royal icing, lemon-vanilla sugar cookies, and labels handmade by the kids, and I was in business.

These were a snap to decorate. I outlined and filled the black first, let it dry an hour or so, and then added the white bellies, orange beaks, orange feet, and eyes. I had the weirdest experience doing the feet and beaks: for some reason, almost all of them got air bubbles that I didn't notice until it was too late - even though I was on the lookout for them. With royal icing, the bubbles pop as the icing dries, which results in little tiny holes in the frosting that are nearly impossible to patch neatly. You can see it on the beak of the solo penguin. This didn't happen with the white or black frosting, and all three colors came from the same batch of royal icing. I really can't explain it, and quite possibly, I was the only one to notice, but it was aggravating.

One more word on these cookies: usually, I am incredibly careful in packing and transporting them because they are very delicate. For some reason, I decided putting them in a paper bag would be appropriate (not sure what I was thinking because at least 3 or 4 pairs of cookies sustained damages). NB: pack these carefully, even just for a short car trip!

Print lemon-vanilla sugar cookie recipe.
Print royal icing recipe.

penguin anniversary cake

2011-01-29T23:09:00.000-08:00

We are very close with our San Diego cousins, and last weekend, we drove down for the day to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. I have a hard time imagining being 60, let alone having been married 60 years! Amazing. Years ago, they visited Antarctica and fell in love with the penguins. My cousin has collected penguins ever since, and some of her collection helped decorate the party table. So of course, the cake had to feature penguins!

Aren't these guys cute? I really liked how they turned out (especially the scarves and earmuffs). I'd really love some tips on how to sculpt larger fondant pieces without them sinking, slumping, or weighing themselves down before they have a chance to dry out sufficiently. I tried laying these down, which kept their pear shape, but then their backs were flat. Hmm. Any suggestions are much appreciated.

The happy couple requested chocolate chip cake with chocolate frosting. To complement the penguins, I made E and W initial plaques with a big "60" to unite them, and I decorated the sides of the cake with handmade fondant snowflakes brushed with sparkly white luster dust.

The cousins loved the cake, which delighted me to no end. I was honored to make a cake to celebrate them! Happy 60th anniversary, E and W!

Print vanilla cake recipe. (Note: I added about 1 cup of chocolate chips to each layer.)

Print chocolate fudge frosting recipe.

cookie brittle. seriously addictive stuff.

2011-01-07T00:02:00.000-08:00

When you read a lot of baking blogs, you see trends emerge: cupcakes, cake pops, baked doughnuts, and so on. For a while, everywhere I turned, this recipe for cookie brittle popped up. Hmm. A thin, crunchy cookie, filled with your own custom choice of mix-ins. What could be bad?

I have to admit, I have shied away from recipes for crisp cookies. I tend to prefer chewy cookies, and often, anything that crunches is simply over-baked. A lot of commercial cookies have an appealing snap, like Oreos and Chips Ahoy, but that quality is hard to accomplish at home - particularly using pronounceable ingredients. (Mind you, I love me some Oreos and Chips Ahoy... I'm not slamming my friends at Nabisco.) These are not crisp in the same way store-bought cookies are, nor are they as thin as, say, ginger snaps. They're approximately the thickness of a chocolate chip - or whatever other ingredients you stir in - and they definitely crumble a bit when you bite into them. Because they're baked in a big mass and broken into pieces, you get a good mix: the center pieces are firm but with a little chewiness, and the edges are browner and crumblier. The butter taste really comes through, you get a perfect hit of salt with sweet, and because there's less sugar than most cookie recipes, most of the sweetness actually comes from the mix-ins themselves. Plus, with totally customizable ingredients, you get exactly the flavor combo you want. They are highly addictive (ask my cousin and my mother-in-law, who couldn't stop nibbling).

See how thin they are?

The edge pieces are a little darker and crispier. You can also see the chocolate is a little swirled. That's what happens when you stir in just-toasted nuts to a batter with chocolate chips. I actually really liked the effect; some of the chips melted and others remained whole.

See the one underneath? It's a center piece. Lighter in color and a little chewier.

The recipe hails from a cookbook that offers a collection of recipes from B&B's around the country. It surprised me at first that the recipe contains no brown sugar, but it actually makes perfect sense: brown sugar contributes to chewiness, while white sugar tenderizes but also makes things crisp. No baking powder or soda are needed; you don't want these to rise. The lack of eggs is also strategic: eggs tenderize and contribute moisture. The net-net is a really short ingredient list and a really easy-to-stir-up cookie!

Cookie Brittle
Makes at least 3 dozen odd-shaped pieces

Try any variety of chips and nuts. So far, I prefer chocolate chips and toasted pecans, but I also tried cashews, dark chocolate, dried cranberries, and M&M's. Butterscotch chips or shredded coconut could be tasty if you like that sort of thing.

1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) flour
1 cup chopped, toasted nuts (pecans, cashews, or whatever you like)*
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F. Melt the butter in a large, microwave-safe bowl, and let it cool for about 5-10 minutes. Stir in the vanilla. With a wooden spoon, stir in the sugar, salt, and flour, and mix to combine. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips. Due to the butter content, they may not incorporate completely; just do your best. Press the mixture in a thin, even layer onto an ungreased cookie sheet (use the chocolate chips as your guide--try to get them in as close to a single layer as possible throughout the dough, and you'll have the right thickness). You may not fill the entire sheet with the dough - that's okay - but they will spread a little, so leave yourself a good border around the edges. (Please note: I use silpats or parchment nearly always, but this recipe really is fine on an ungreased cookie sheet!)

Bake for 23-25 minutes, until light golden brown (the edges will be a bit darker than the center). Let cool completely before breaking into whatever sized pieces you desire. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for several days or freeze.

*Longtime readers will know that I don't believe nuts should interrupt chocolate. I often omit nuts in cookies. That said, they really belong in this cookie, and basically in a 1:1 proportion to chocolate. I mean it!

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homemade marshmallows to accompany seriously sinful hot chocolate mix

2010-12-23T00:03:00.000-08:00

I promised to post about the marshmallow experience, and so here goes: they were surprisingly easy, and they taste really good! To be completely honest, I haven't actually had them in a cup of hot chocolate yet, but they are really good plain. They are a little softer than their store-bought counterparts, though I noticed today that they were getting a little firm around the edges with age (I made them two days ago). However, that's not much different than what Stay Puft do, and I have no hesitation that they'd soften back up beautifully in a mug of hot cocoa. They have a nice vanilla flavor (that's the tablespoon-and-a-half of vanilla extract talking), and they're definitely sweet, but no more cloying than any other marshmallow. I like how light their texture is; some "artisan" marshmallows I've bought at candy stores are very thick and kind of heavy. It was fun to make them - to conquer another baking challenge - and they were a perfect accompaniment to the rockin' hot chocolate mix I made for our neighbors' holiday treats.

See how cute? You can even see the little holes in them that are probably part of the reason the texture is so fluffy.

I used a recipe from The Kitchen that they adapted from a book called Marshmallows by Eileen Talanian. If you write a whole book on marshmallows, your basic vanilla recipe ought to be a darn-good starting place for novices. The recipe requires quite a few tools, but the directions were very clear and helpful. I opted to line my pan with parchment (which I also sprayed with cooking spray), and the marshmallows stuck to it a bit, but I was terrified they'd never come out of the pan if I didn't use the parchment. Maybe next time I'll be brave. If you've ever made 7-minute frosting, this isn't too dissimilar... basically, you're making a very sticky meringue, and it starts to set up fast, so you have to move pretty quickly. (And then you have to sit around for 12-15 hours while they "cure." Not unlike chocolate chip cookie recipes that won't let you bake the cookies until the dough has "rested" for 36 hours. Harrumph.)

Vanilla Marshmallows
Makes about 100, depending on size

Special Tools:
9x13" pan
3- or 4-quart sauce pan
candy thermometer (preferably one that can clip onto the side of the pan)
stand mixer with wire whisk attachment
stiff spatula or spoon (a rubbery one is too flexible here)
pastry brush
sharp knife or pizza cutter

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons (usually 3 packets) unflavored gelatin powder
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons cold water
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
3/4 cup water
1 1/4 cup corn syrup or sugar cane syrup
pinch salt
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar

Spray the 9x13" pan with cooking spray. Use a paper towel to wipe the pan and make sure there's a thin film on every surface, corner, and side. Get all of your equipment ready to go.

Place the gelatin powder in the bowl of the mixer. Combine the 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water and vanilla, and pour it over the gelatin while whisking gently with a fork. Continue stirring until it's the consistency of applesauce, and make sure there are no large lumps. Put the bowl back on the mixer and affix the wire whisk so you're ready to go.

Combine the 3/4 cup water, corn syrup, salt, and sugar in the sauce pan. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. (I actually clipped my thermometer on at the beginning because I didn't want to have to work with the hot pan.) While the mixture is heating up, dip your pastry brush in cold water and brush any crystals back down the sides of the pan. I did this several times while the sugar syrup was cooking. I also didn't want to walk too far away from the stove because I wasn't sure how fast it would come to temperature (it took several minutes all told). If you don't have a pastry brush, cover the pan for 2 minutes once it comes to a boil, and the steam will wash down the sides.

Do not stir the sugar once it has come to a boil or it may crystallize. Continue boiling the mixture until it comes to 250F. Remove from the heat and take off the thermometer.

Turn the mixer on medium speed, and then gently and carefully pour the hot sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin. Try to avoid getting the syrup on the whisk or it will harden. Don't worry if it foams up; just go slowly and carefully. When all the syrup has been added, cover the bowl with a cloth (to prevent spattering), increase the speed to high, and whip for 10-12 minutes, until it looks like a glossy meringue. This is basically homemade marshmallow fluff!

Working quickly, scrape off as much marshmallow mix as you can from the whisk. Use the stiff spatula to scrape the mixture into the pan. Get out as much as you can without making yourself crazy. You can wet your fingers and smooth the top so it's even. Let it sit out, uncovered, for 12-15 hours to cure.

Marshmallow Coating:
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) powdered sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch

Stir these together in a bowl. This makes more mixture than you'll possibly need, but it's better to have too much. Sprinkle the top of the marshmallows with the powdered sugar mix. Then turn them out onto a large cutting board. You may need to pry them out of the pan (or coax them off the parchment with a paring knife, as the case may be). Sprinkle more powdered sugar over what is now the top.

Sprinkle the rest of the mixture into a shallow bowl or baking pan. You're going to roll each marshmallow in this to keep them from sticking together, and it's helpful if you have a large, flat dish to work in. Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut strips, then squares, of marshmallow. I made strips about 1" wide, and then cut them in about 3/4" rectangles. (Guess they weren't really squares.) I used the pizza cutter and it worked very well and didn't stick. If your knife sticks, dip it in water after every few cuts. Toss each square in the mix to coat them evenly on all sides. I actually shook mine out in a fine mesh sieve because I didn't want too much extra powdered sugar mix in the gift bags. The next day, I tossed in a little more of the mix because I worried they were getting sticky.

These make great gifts, and they will also keep in an airtight container at room temperature for several weeks. You can keep the leftover marshmallow coating in a sealed container indefinitely and use it for your next batch!

Print this recipe.

chocolate-peanut butter fudge

2010-12-20T22:09:00.000-08:00

Fudge. I really love fudge. I'm partial to simple flavors - usually just chocolate (no nuts!). Fudge should be creamy and about as sweet as you can stand without your teeth actually hurting. It shouldn't be gritty, and it should have be soft but have enough body that it's not a smushy mess. Fudge is what I gravitate toward in any old-fashioned candy store. Now that I think about it, I often buy some as a special treat on vacation.

I really don't know what more there is to say about fudge except that I'm sometimes seized with the drive to make it (holiday time is usually a good excuse) and I make cheater's fudge. Yep. The recipe on the back of the marshmallow fluff jar. With all the sugar. And the fluff.* And it's darn good, my friend. I could try harder - and use a candy thermometer - and it would probably taste good - but I really, truly, like this recipe, and it's easy, and you should go make some right now.

I was planning to make simple, two-layer fudge: peanut butter on the bottom and chocolate on the top. But I didn't move fast enough, and the chocolate was thicker than the peanut butter, so it kind of blobbed on top and just sat there. I decided to swirl it, which looked pretty (and tasted fine), but I really had been looking forward to that clean visual distinction between the two flavors. Oh well, guess I'll have to try again!

Isn't that a pretty swirl? I couldn't stop taking pictures of it.

I'm not kidding that it's easy to make. The only gripe I have is that it was hard to evenly divide the hot sugar mixture among the two bowls with the chocolate and peanut butter chips. Next time, I might measure it or do it in two batches, but I couldn't be bothered to dirty another pot last night. I also thought of doing two separate batches, but that would've made a 9x13 pan, and that just seemed excessive. Here's the recipe, which I adapted slightly from Culinary in the Desert; it's the same concept as the fluff Fantasy Fudge, but the proportions actually are a little different, so credit where it's due.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Fudge

Makes an 8" square pan - about 36 squares

1 cup (6 ounces) peanut butter chips

1 cup (6 ounces) bittersweet chocolate chips

2 cups (14 ounces) sugar

1 7-ounces jar marshmallow fluff

3/4 cup (6 ounces) evaporated milk

1/2 stick (2 ounces) butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Line an 8" square pan with tinfoil and spray with cooking spray.

Place peanut butter chips in one medium, heat-proof bowl, and chocolate chips in another.

In a 3-quart saucepan, stir together sugar, marshmallow fluff, evaporated milk, and butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Continue boiling and stirring for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately, but carefully, stir in vanilla. Mixture will foam up!

Quickly pour half the hot sugar mixture into each bowl. Stir the peanut butter mixture until the chips are all melted and everything is incorporated and smooth. Pour into the prepared pan. Repeat with the chocolate. If it doesn't spread, either decide not to worry about it or use a butter knife in a figure-eight pattern to swirl the chocolate and peanut butter mixtures together.

Let sit at room temperature until it is completely cool, and then cut into small squares. This stuff is very rich and very sweet, so small squares are just fine!

*True story: Josh came into the kitchen last night while I was making the fudge, so the empty jar of fluff was next to the stove. I had just finished making marshmallows and they were sitting out to dry. He saw the jar, put two and two together... and actually thought I had used the marshmallow fluff to make marshmallows. Now, that's just cheating. I'm not above using the recipe on the back of the jar, but at least I transformed that ingredient into something else! I'll post about the marshmallows soon - I really did make those from scratch.

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chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons

2010-12-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

Happy Chanukah everyone! In the spirit of latkes and applesauce, here's a very overdue post about the new macaroon recipe I made... for Passover. Yeah, the holiday in April. I'm very timely.

Macaroons are not typically the first cookie I'd reach for. Not everyone is a fan of coconut (including my husband with his "allergy"), but about two years ago, at my parents' house, I tasted a sweet, creamy, chocolate-covered macaroon the likes of which I've never had before or since. The coconut flakes almost were indiscernible because the cookie was extra moist. I researched a lot of macaroon recipes, and this is probably not the one I was seeking, but it was really delicious and very reminiscent of what I liked in the maybe-Rachael-Ray version: the same creaminess and the integrated, not stringy, coconut. They were chewy and rich. (I might have underbaked them just a little, but I typically prefer that in a cookie.) Dipping them in chocolate was a nice extra, but not necessary; they were very tasty on their own.

Although I'm used to the simple coconut/vanilla/condensed milk routine, many fancier macaroon recipes call for an egg white - in some cases, a beaten egg white - which I assume acts as a binding agent and enhances the texture. I've liked Brown Eyed Baker's recipes before and decided to try hers. I've also heard that using Coco Real Cream of Coconut is a fabulous substitute for regular condensed milk. It's essentially sweetened condensed coconut milk! All the better for the coconut flavor. I bought some and will try it next time. (If you have trouble finding it, look in the liquor section of your local grocery store near all the other non-alcoholic mixes!). The only other change I made is that I used unsweetened coconut. It's available in big, flat flakes at places like Whole Foods. (My local Albertsons carries it in the natural foods section.) The flakes are much bigger than shredded coconut, so give it a quick whirl in the food processor.

Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons
Makes 3 dozen cookies

2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk or Coco Real Cream of Coconut
1 large egg white
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut (or unsweetened coconut flakes, shredded)
10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (optional - for dipping)

Preheat the oven to 325F. Line cookie sheets with a silpat or parchment paper.

In a large bowl, stir together the condensed milk/Coco Real, egg white, vanilla, and salt, and then stir in the shredded coconut until well blended.

Drop by tablespoonfuls about two inches apart on the cookie sheets. Most macaroons are drop cookies shaped like rough haystacks. For these, use dampened fingers to press the cookies lightly into a pyramid shape.

Bake, one sheet at a time, until the cookies are light golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Cool the cookies on the sheet for about two minutes, and then remove them to a baking rack to cool completely.

If you want to dip the cookies, melt 8 ounces of the chocolate in a double boiler over low heat. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining 2 ounces of chopped chocolate. It will melt and become smooth. (If you're only dipping some of your cookies - and a mix would look very nice - you can halve the amount of chocolate.) Holding a cookie by the pointy top, dip it in so the bottom and about 1/2" of the sides are covered. Gently shake or scrape off excess chocolate, and place the dipped cookie on a parchment-lined (cool!) baking sheet to set up. The chocolate will set up by itself, but placing the cookie sheet in the fridge for about 15 minutes helps the process along much more quickly. You can store the macaroons in a container at room temperature once they are set. They are great for Passover or really any time if you're a coconut fan!

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cake pops

2010-11-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

I haven't made cake bites in a few years, but I'm always tempted because I often have leftover bits and pieces of cake and find it hard to throw anything away. Mixing up the crumbled cake and frosting is easy, but the dipping... man! It is not a skill I have mastered yet. With leftover red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting, I had to try again. We're going to a fundraiser this weekend, and I'm making cheesecake bites, but I thought some cake pops would be a great, festive addition.

I'll admit, they're awfully cute.

How can you not like sprinkles?

And they definitely taste good.

But dipping remains a pain in the patootie, and I'm just happy I only had to do 3 dozen. Makes me seriously admire Bakerella and all the other cake pop makers who not only make these regularly, they decorate them in the most adorable, creative ways.

Here are a few notes on making these:
- I used cake scraps, so it wasn't as exact as baking a cake for the sole purpose of cake pops. Pretty much any flavor combo of cake and frosting can work
- Crumble the cake into fine crumbs in a large bowl. You can do this by hand or use a fork to help
- Mix in frosting. I have no idea how much I used, though for a single 9x13" layer, I'm guessing about 1 1/2 to 2 cups. The mixture should be fairly damp
- Scoop into balls. You can make them pretty small. First, they're pretty rich. Second, by the time you finish dipping them, they will grow a bit in size
- Place balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and freeze them until you're ready to dip them - at least an hour or so
- When you're ready to dip them, you can move the tray to the fridge
- If you're making cake pops, melt a little dipping chocolate, dip a lollipop stick in about 1/2", and stick it firmly into the ball - but no more than halfway or the cake will break apart
- I melted the chocolate in the microwave, which works fine, but it doesn't stay warm very well. I think melting it in a double boiler, then removing the double boiler from the heat but leaving the chocolate bowl over the hot water, would keep the temperature more consistent
- A small, deep bowl works pretty well. You want the chocolate to be deep enough that you can dip the pop in and submerge it fully. You have to work fast or the cake will fall off the stick. Also, as they warm up, traces of cake can get left in the chocolate, which isn't so good
- Dip the pop in the chocolate, making sure it covers evenly and completely. Shake off the excess, and quickly apply sprinkles. This time, I rolled the top half of the pops in a small bowl of sprinkles, but in the past, I've sprinkled them straight on
- Stand the pops in a thick piece of styrofoam until they dry. They actually harden within a few minutes. They keep well in the fridge for several days, though I don't recommend freezing the dipped pops

snickerdoodle bundt for national bundt day

2010-11-15T14:22:00.000-08:00

For the second year in a row, Mary the Food Librarian made 30 bundts in 30 days. She likes big bundts, and she can not lie, y'all. In the same busy month, she also managed to turn out an amazing dessert buffet for her good friends' wedding with no fewer than 8 million types of sweets.

Myself, I managed to make one bundt in one day, but I picked a good one: not only is November 15th my awesome brother-in-law's birthday, it's also National Bundt Day! I chose one of Mary's very delicious-looking cakes, the Snickerdoodle Bundt, figuring Josh's office would want to help me celebrate such an important holiday. The original recipe was from Dozen Flours.

It's a little hard to tell, but what you're seeing is a delicious vanilla cake with a cinnamon-sugar swirl in the middle, encrusted with cinnamon-sugar! By dusting the pan with cinnamon-sugar and sprinkling a liberal dose over the top of the batter (which becomes the bottom of the cake), the whole outside caramelizes into an amazing sugary crunch. A great bonus for the person cutting the cake who gets to munch of some of the crunchy crumbs that break off. You can see the crust a little bit at the bottom right of the cake.

The inside is soft and makes a perfect contrast to the crusty exterior. Plus, what's not to love about a cinnamon-sugar swirl?

Best of all, it's a super-easy recipe. The only ingredient I had to go out of my way for was sour cream, which is easy enough to arrange. This would be great for a dinner party, a tea, or just to have around the house as a snack.

Snickerdoodle Bundt
Cinnamon Sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup sugar

Cake
2 1/2 cups (10 5/8 ounces) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, at room temperature
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
1 cup (7 ounces) brown sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sour cream (the original recipe called for full-fat, but I used Daisy lowfat with no problems)

Stir together the cinnamon and sugar and set aside. You'll use this for dusting the pan, for the center swirl, and for sprinkling over the batter before baking.

I just noticed that the directions say to preheat the oven to 325F, but I actually baked mine at 350F. Oops. (A good reason to check the cake early: if the oven is hotter, it's going to cook faster, but it doesn't necessarily mean all is lost. The cake is done when it's done; not when the timer says it is!)

Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Whisk to combine, and set aside.

Beat the butter on medium speed for one minute. Add the granulated sugar and beat for three minutes. It will be very light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl, add the brown sugar, and beat for two more minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for one minute after each. Mix in the vanilla. Add the flour alternately with the sour cream. Scrape down the bowl once more, and give it a final few seconds to fully combine.

Now, prep the bundt pan. The recipe calls for a 9-cup bundt pan. I only have one pan - I'm pretty sure it's more than 9 cups - but it worked just fine. You can grease the pan with butter or shortening, but my favorite trick is cooking spray with flour. Spray the pan thoroughly, including the center tube, so the cinnamon-sugar will stick and the cake won't. Gently dust the inside of the pan with the cinnamon-sugar mixture, using about 1/4 to 1/2 cup. I sprinkled a few tablespoons around the bottom, then gently turned the pan, shaking the sugar around to coat it. I added more as needed, and I had to use the spoon to sprinkle the sugar mixture over the center tube. Shake out any extra into the bowl; you're going to use the rest of the cinnamon-sugar in a minute.

Spread half the batter into the prepared pan. I dolloped it in in a few scoops and then gently evened it out with a rubber spatula. I didn't want the batter to rub the cinnamon-sugar off the sides of the pan. Sprinkle 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the remaining cinnamon-sugar evenly onto the batter. Top with the remaining batter and smooth it out. Finish by sprinkling on any remaining cinnamon-sugar. If you've run out, mix up 1/4 sugar with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.

Bake for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Mine took just 55 minutes, but then, my oven was set 25 degrees higher! Cool for 10 minutes. Place a wire rack on top of the cake and invert a rimmed cookie sheet on top of it. You're going to invert the pan to take the cake out, but if you don't use the cookie sheet, you'll end up with cinnamon-sugar all over the floor and counter. You could try doing it over the sink, but I wouldn't want the cake to end up in the sink. The cookie sheet is a little unwieldy, but it ultimately caught all the loose sugar. Cool completely. Serve with coffee, tea, or milk!

Print this recipe.

candy corn cookies

2010-11-02T22:18:00.000-07:00

The week leading up to Halloween was pretty busy, so regretfully, I didn't volunteer any treats for the Halloween fair bake sale. By midweek, I realized I would have enough extra time to make cookies, IF I kept it easy. The parents at our school tend to go all out and make really fun, creative desserts. I thought sugar cookies shaped like candy corn would be really cute. I used a tried-and-true recipe with a super-easy assembly method I saw online, and I packaged up a few cookies with some candy corn and mellowcreme pumpkins. Simple, but appealing to kiddos.

The cookies came out really well. They're small, two- or three-bite cookies, which I think is perfect for kids.

You can use any sugar cookie dough you like; just make sure it's a recipe that holds its shape well. I made a double batch of the lemon-vanilla sugar cookies I used for cookie pops. (Note: I think a single batch would have made really skimpy cookies, so go for the double batch. You'll end up with about 8-9 dozen small cookies, so you can feed a small army.) Divide the dough into thirds, and color one third orange and one third yellow. Line a standard loaf pan with parchment or waxed paper. Press the yellow dough evenly into the pan. Top it with the orange dough, also pressed down evenly, and then finish with the white dough. Cover the dough and refrigerate it until firm, about two hours, or even overnight. You can see I didn't follow official candy corn protocol for the order of the dough, but I kind of wish I had put the orange in the middle; it is a nice offset against the yellow and white. The dough will look like this:

Slice off a few 1/4" slabs of dough from the short side of the loaf. Refrigerate the dough again while you work with this portion. It's hard to work with if it gets soft.

Cut the slab into triangles. I found I had to slice off a tiny bit from the edge to get a nice, clean cut. You will want to cut about 5 triangles. Six triangles per slab will make pretty small cookies, so stick with 5. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with a silpat or parchment, and bake according to the recipe directions. They don't spread much, so you can fit about 20 cookies on a sheet. The baked cookies should be very pale, but set.

Hang onto any leftover bits and pieces that aren't quite big enough for cookies. You can nibble on some, then lightly knead the rest together to marble the dough, re-roll them to 1/4" thick, and cut them into pieces and bake them.

These would also be really cute sprinkled with white sanding sugar. Brush the cookies lightly with water or egg white and sprinkle with sugar before baking.

Enjoy! Happy Halloween!

Print lemon-vanilla sugar cookie recipe.

dinos, bears, and cars

2010-10-30T16:52:00.000-07:00

I've been taking a fondant class (pictures coming soon!) and I've learned some great tricks. One is to minimize the amount of powdered sugar I use when working with fondant. Too much sugar causes the fondant to dry and crack. Another trick is to use a very tiny amount of shortening to smooth out any cracks or just if the fondant starts to feel very dry. I used both tips when sculpting the super-cute fondant cake toppers for this baby shower cake. The mom-to-be is having a baby boy, and the invitation, in shades of green, gray, and blue, was elegant, with her name written in a beautiful script. I was asked to color coordinate the cake with the invitation and to write her name in the same script as the invitation; I got to choose what kinds of baby boy toys to make for decorations. My mom requested the buttons around the base. I think they've kind of become my baby shower signature decoration.

Here's the cake. I think the toys - especially the dinosaurs - came out really cute!

Here's a closer look:

I know the red car doesn't fit the green/gray/blue scheme, but I liked the pop of color. And don't all little guys need a red car?

The bear was modeled after a cute wedding topper I saw. I liked how tall and skinny he sat, though mine is more short and round.

And these dinos are my favorites. SO cute! Boy-o already asked if he can have them for his next birthday cake, even though that's not for another 50 weeks. Here are the great photo tutorials I used for the T-Rex and Stegosaurus.

The mom-to-be requested any kind of cake with cream cheese frosting, and the hostess picked red velvet. I used the same recipe I have used before for cupcakes, and I actually thought two of the layers came out a little dry (I may have overbaked it by a minute). To compensate, I cooked up a little simple syrup (50/50 water/sugar; boil for a minute or two until the sugar is dissolved) and brushed it on the layers as I assembled the cake.

I used Pinky's cream cheese frosting, which really tastes delicious. It is fabulously easy to frost with, and smooths out beautifully. BUT. You can't futz with it. Every time I decided some little part wasn't perfect, and tried to fix it, I dug myself in deeper. For the writing, I just colored some frosting dark grey to match the invitation. Oh - one more weird thing: I intended for the frosting to be a very pale blue, and even though I used only blue food coloring, it totally came out green! The cream cheese frosting must have just enough yellow tint to affect the color. It actually matched the invitation just right, so I didn't adjust it, but it was so strange to put in blue and get green out.

I hope the mother-to-be had a wonderful shower and loved her cake! I had fun making it!

Print red velvet cake recipe.
Print cream cheese frosting recipe.

superhero boy-o turns 4!

2010-10-12T21:46:00.000-07:00

My little guy turned four today! He's the very best mix of silly, and sweet, and funny, and adventurous. He throws out spontaneous, "I love you, Mama," and "Thank you for [xyz], Mama," that are sincere and so delicious. He can talk your ear off. No, really; he never stops talking. He is passionate about his toys: cars, dinosaurs with sharp toenails and sharp claws and sharp teeth, and superheroes top the list.

To celebrate, we had a costume party. He planned to dress as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, until it turned out to be 95 degrees in October. Most of his friends came in costume anyway, but thankfully stripped down to the shorts they wore underneath before they sweltered in the bouncy house. We decorated with Iron Man, Spider Man, and Batman tablecloths, and I even braved my first superhero cake. (I've sort of been dreading this, as drawing is not my strong suit. Since I wasn't willing to tackle full body renderings - including a flying Superman - headshots had to suffice. Luckily he's easily impressed.)

Zap! Boom! Bam! Pow! Pop!

Gotta tell ya, as soon as I was done making the fondant superheroes on Friday, I was seriously excited! (Perfect busy-work during conference calls, by the way!) I printed out images in approximately the right sizes, colored the fondant, and sort of freehand rolled, cut, and layered together the pieces to get the shapes I wanted. Batman and Superman actually have peach-colored fondant under their costumes... less for authenticity, more so I could get the shapes right. I didn't think I could cut fine enough pieces of black for Spidey's web, so that's actually piped with black decorator frosting. And if someone wants to give me a tutorial on fondant eyes (for Superman), well, I'm all ears. His eye was probably my least favorite part (but I do love how the curve of his ear came out - I used the back of a paring knife to make the indentations!).

I had planned to pipe the "Happy birthday" message onto the speech bubble, but when I started doing the lettering for the sides of the cake, I knew it was the right look for the happy birthday letters, too. I did those freehand, and they took a while. Suffice it to say, letter cookie cutters would have been handy, but it was fun figuring out how to get the shapes I wanted. I cut equal height strips of fondant so the letters would be approximately the same height, and that seems to have worked well. Speaking of the traditional superhero words on the side, those were an extra touch I threw in at the last minute to kind of bring the cake all together, and I thought they looked really fun and kind of pop-arty. Josh helped me decide what words to use. (I nixed "shazaam!" for being too long.)

The recipes are from my usual arsenal. Boy-o is a chocolate fiend, though he did ask specifically for chocolate cake, chocolate frosting on the outside, and vanilla frosting on the inside. I used Martha's one bowl chocolate cake, chocolate fudge frosting, and vanilla buttercream, plus plain ol' Pettinice fondant.

I think this cake is making me brave for years of superhero cakes that are sure to follow. Whoohoo! Wake me in April to see if I'm up for Hannah Montana yet. Oy vey.

Print Martha Stewart's one bowl chocolate cake recipe.

Print chocolate fudge frosting recipe.

Print vanilla buttercream recipe.

cinnamon swirl bread

2010-10-02T23:02:00.000-07:00

I've talked about my friend Anna before. She's a great baker and often tackles projects I find intimidating, like homemade danish. We love to talk shop, and I know if I get a baking tip from her, it'll be a good one. Anna happened on the Cook's Country recipe for Cinnamon Swirl Bread, which had a very cool hint: if you spray the dough with water, then sprinkle it with cinnamon-sugar, and then spray the filling again with water, before rolling up the dough, you won't get huge air pockets around the filling. Anna's no stranger to rolling up dough with cinnamon-sugar filling: cinnamon rolls are one of her signature baked goods. But she tried it and reported back, and it totally works!

You can see the roll stays nice and tight, and the only places where there are gaps, I probably didn't spray it thoroughly. (We're not talking about drenching it, just misting lightly and evenly.)

The bread was tasty and had a nice crumb. It made really fragrant, delicious toast, and it's perfect for French toast, especially if you slice it a little thicker. For all the time it takes to make bread, I'd probably prefer a recipe that could also have a savory use, but this is definitely a great bread to make as a sweet treat. It also made a pretty huge (tall) loaf, so I might use a small (even a disposable-size) loaf pan next time and make two loaves.

Cooks’ Country Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Cinnamon Sugar
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) light brown sugar
5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Bread
1 1/2 cups milk , heated to 110 degrees
1/2 stick butter, divided
3 large egg yolks
4 1/4 cups (18 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
1 envelope (2 1/4 teaspoons) rapid-rise yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

To make the cinnamon-sugar, combine ingredients in small bowl, breaking up clumps. Cover tightly with plastic wrap.

For the bread: Whisk milk, 3T melted butter, and yolks in large liquid measuring cup. (Reserve the egg whites for another use.)

In bowl of stand mixer fitted with dough hook, mix 1/4 cup cinnamon-sugar, yeast, sugar, flour, and salt. Turn mixer to low and slowly add milk mixture. After dough comes together, increase speed to medium and mix until dough is smooth and comes away from sides of bowl, 5 to 6 minutes. (If dough seems too sticky, add up to 1/4 cup more flour during kneading.) Turn dough out onto unfloured counter and knead to form smooth, round ball. Transfer dough to a greased bowl and turn to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour. (Do not place in warm oven or sugar in dough will melt.)

Spray 9 by 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. On lightly floured surface, press dough into 20 by 8-inch rectangle, with short side facing you. Using a spray bottle, lightly and evenly spray dough with water. Sprinkle 1/2 cup cinnamon-sugar over dough, leaving 2-inch border along top edge. Lightly spray cinnamon sugar with water until damp but not wet. Starting at edge nearest you, roll up dough, then pinch seam and ends closed. Place loaf seam side down in prepared pan, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise at room temperature until 1 inch above rim of pan, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Remember, the timing is approximate; it's more important that the dough gets to the right height.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350F. Melt remaining tablespoon butter and brush over top of dough. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar and bake until top is deep brown and center of bread registers 185 to 190 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 45 to 60 minutes. Turn bread out onto rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. Slice as desired. (Bread can be kept in airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.)

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peanut butter cup brownies

2010-09-30T11:54:00.000-07:00

Let's just start here:

Do you see that peanut butter? Frankly, I'm not sure much more needs to be said. Thick, tall brownies, slightly cakey on the outside and incredibly fudgy on the inside, surrounding dark chocolate peanut butter cups. In this warm weather, the peanut butter cups don't really re-solidify after baking, but in cooler temps, they do. The chocolate of the peanut butter cup, however, stays oozy. Dark chocolate melts more easily than milk, and you can just discern that chocolate taste from the brownie itself.

These are SO good, and SO easy. They can be made with any favorite brownie recipe. Bake 'em in an 8" or 9" square pan, but prepare enough batter for a 9x13" pan. I doubled my standard recipe. Line the pan with foil and spray it with cooking spray. Pour in half the batter or a little less. Dot with peanut butter cups. You can use big or small ones, and they don't need to be cut up. Leaving them whole is what gets you the nice, peanut buttery middle layer. I used Trader Joe's dark peanut butter cups, and I offset them a little so you get a bite of peanut butter in every brownie. Pour the rest of the batter over, and bake. These will take longer than your usual bake time because they are so much thicker. When they are reasonably firm on top, and not jiggly, they're probably done. Don't leave them in too long, at the risk of over-baking. However, the first time I made them, I significantly under-baked them to the extent that they were pure fudge all the way through. While I did bake them a few minutes longer this time, don't think there was a crumb left of that first batch: we soldiered through.

This is my standard brownie recipe: Steffi's Brownies. I could swear I'd posted it here before, but I can't find it, so I'll repost it for your convenience.

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies
Makes an 8" or 9" square pan, about 25 brownies

2 sticks butter
4 ounces (4 squares) unsweetened chocolate
2 cups (14 ounces) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups (5 1/4 ounces) flour
2 pinches of salt
18-20 mini or 9-10 regular-sized peanut butter cups
*1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chips (or 1 cup chopped nuts, but that's not my preference)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8" pan, 9" pan, or 9x13" pan with foil, and spray it lightly with cooking spray. (See notes below about which pan to use.)

In a large, microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate. Stir to incorporate fully, and set aside to cool for three minutes. Stir in sugar, then vanilla, and mix well. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition. Stir in the flour and salt.

If you are making peanut butter cup brownies, pour about half the batter into the 8" or 9" pan. Dot with whole peanut butter cups. Pour the rest of the batter over. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until brownies are relatively firm and not jiggly. You can try the toothpick test (it should come out clean, but not dry), but you may hit a peanut butter cup and have a hard time telling if they are done. Cool in the pan, then use the tinfoil to lift the brownies out of the pan. Cut with a thin knife. These are so tall and rich that even a small pan can easily yield 25 brownies.

*If you want to make regular brownies, omit the peanut butter cups. Stir the chocolate chips into the brownie batter, then pour into the 9x13" pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, and err on the side of underbaking. I usually start checking them around 18 minutes. Let the brownies cool in the pan until they are cool to the touch, then use the tinfoil to lift them out onto a cutting board and cool them completely. Cool in the pan, then use the tinfoil to lift the brownies out of the pan. Cut with a thin knife.

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ETA: I entered these in Meg's Valentine's brownie contest. They are definitely not cakey!

pop! goes the popover

2010-09-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

Around 5:15 last night, I invited my in-laws to dinner on the spur of the moment. They just returned from three weeks in France (lucky ducks!), so they couldn't possibly have any food in the house, plus it was a good chance to catch up. I hadn't planned much in the way of dinner - grilled chicken, cous cous, and salad - so I decided to throw together some popovers to round things out a bit.

Popovers are great. They're incredibly easy to make, use common ingredients, and because they're not served often, I always think of them as a special treat. I'm not sure how the science works, but the very thin milk/egg/flour batter puffs up into a hollow, eggy roll. They taste best just out of the oven, and they're delicious plain or with butter, honey, or jam. Leftovers don't really hold up, but they can be revived with a minute or two in the toaster.

You can see how dark brown these are. They were just this side of too done, but luckily, they tasted great. In my defense, the recipe says to set the timer for 30 minutes and don't open the oven. I set my timer for 28 minutes, but apparently even that was too long. Next time, I'll at least peek through the window around 25 minutes.

I used Paula Deen's recipe (which, surprisingly, contains no butter! I didn't think she had any no-butter recipes), but I looked at several recipes around the web and the ingredients and proportions are very standard. It claimed to make 12 popovers, but I got 16 using a standard muffin tin.

Popovers
12-16 rolls
4 eggs
2 cups milk (I used 1%)
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) flour
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 450F. It's really important that the oven is hot.

Beat the eggs well with a whisk. Whisk in milk, then flour and salt. Mix until the flour is incorporated, but do not overmix. Just try to break up any large lumps of flour.

Grease muffin tin cups and fill 3/4 full with batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes without opening the oven door. Remove popovers from tin right away and serve hot. They can be served plain or with butter, honey, or jam.

Notes:
There are all sorts of tips and tricks to be found online. Take 'em or leave 'em.
- Some people say baking with nonfat or lowfat milk can make the popovers brown more quickly, so they suggest reducing the oven temperature by 25 degrees.
- Another recipe calls for baking for 15 minutes at 450, then reducing the heat to 375F for another 20ish minutes. Given that mine were so dark, I might try that next time.
- Others debate the best way to grease the tins. I used cooking spray, which worked fine, but you can use butter or oil, too. They also recommend preheating the tins.
- One recipe suggests piercing each popover with the tip of a knife to keep them from collapsing. I didn't have an issue with this, but it's an interesting idea.

Print this recipe.

muno is famous!

2010-09-19T22:16:00.000-07:00

The lovely Nanette submitted a photo of my Muno (from Yo Gabba Gabba) cake to a gabbafriends.com, a Yo Gabs fansite that posts a weekly web roundup of YGG-themed cakes, and they posted it this week! Take a look... some of the cakes are just incredible. I'm still in awe of other bakers' fondant-sculpting talents. That's definitely a skill I'm working on and hoping to get some more (professional) guidance in.

Click here to see all the cakes!!

I was so happy to be included, especially in the company of these adorable cakes, cupcakes, and cake pops. Thanks to Laurie, for choosing my photo, and thanks to Nanette for submitting it!

salty-sweet butter pecan cookies

2010-09-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

These cookies are somewhat of a mystery. I shouldn't like them: they have nuts, and butterscotch chips, which I generally hate, and they're made with half/half butter/shortening. And yet... oh my.

Salty. Sweet. Buttery. Nutty. Crunchy. Chewy. Sometimes the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Holy cow, these are good. They're from King Arthur, so perhaps I should have known. Resident baker PJ Hamel even ranked them tied for first as her favorite cookies.

Here they are with some demerara shortbread I made for a party my mother-in-law threw.

Just look at this pecan...

I didn't love the raw cookie dough (please - I had to taste it!). I don't usually like cookie dough made with shortening, but in this case, I think it was the butter rum flavor that turned me off. The flavor either cooked out or just worked well in the cookie itself, as I didn't notice it in the baked cookie, but in the future I might just use extra vanilla instead. I happened to have some of this special extract in my cabinet, but I'm not sure it's worth a trip to a specialty store to find it.

Because I can't leave well enough alone, I used this recipe as a variation on chocolate chip cookies, subbing out the butterscotch chips for chocolate and leaving out the butter rum flavor entirely. You know what? They really weren't as good. A commenter on the KA blog noted that they were good with toffee chips, so that might be worth a try. It is absolutely worth making these as written, and the only drawback is that the dough is best if left to rest in the fridge for 24 hours. Who has that kind of time? Get started now!

Salty-Sweet Butter Pecan Cookies
Makes about 4 dozen 3" cookies

1 1/3 cups (5 ounces) pecan halves
2/3 cup (4 2/3 ounces) light brown sugar, firmly packed
2/3 cup (2 1/3 ounces) granulated sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 cup (3 1/4 ounces) vegetable shortening
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder (include this! it enhances the flavor and absolutely doesn't make the cookies taste like coffee)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon butterscotch, vanilla-butternut, or butter-rum flavor (or omit and increase vanilla to 1 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon vinegar, cider or white
1 large egg
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) flour
1 1/3 cups (8 ounces) butterscotch chips
1/3 cup (2 3/8 ounces) granulated sugar mixed with 1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons table salt (not kosher salt, which is too coarse for this), for topping*

*If you're making smaller (teaspoon cookie scoop-sized) cookies, increase the coating to 1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar mixed with 1 3/4 to 2 teaspoons salt.

Place the pecans in a single layer in a pan, and toast till they've darkened a bit and smell toasty, about 5-8 minutes. You can do this in the toaster oven if you want, but set the timer! You will start to smell them toasting. (If you don't set the timer, you will start to smell them burning, and then you'll have to start again.) Set them aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the sugars, butter, shortening, salt, espresso powder, baking soda, vanilla, flavor, and vinegar, beating until smooth and creamy. Beat in the egg, again beating until smooth. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl, and then mix in the flour. Gently stir in the chips and toasted nuts. You don't want to break up the nuts, so just use a rubber spatula and go easy.

Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 4 to 5 hours; preferably overnight. Cookie dough refrigerated for 3 1/2 to 4 hours will spread moderately; chilled overnight, it will spread much less.

When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375F. Mix the 1/3 cup sugar and salt for the coating in a bowl. Scoop 1 1/4" or 1 1/2" balls of dough and roll them in the sugar/salt mixture to coat. Transfer these to cookie sheets lined with a silpat or parchment leaving 2" between them on all sides; they'll spread quite a bit.

Bake the cookies for 9 to 11 minutes — less time for smaller cookies, more for larger ones. Their edges will be chestnut brown and their tops a lighter golden brown. (You may need to add 30 seconds to 1 minute to those baking times for dough that's been refrigerated, but it's most important just to keep an eye on them and see what your oven does. They're done when they're done. I like to let them get a little deeper brown than I usually do with cookies, but you still don't want them overdone.) Remove them from the oven, and cool on the pan till they've set enough to move without breaking, then move to a cooling rack to cool completely.

As with many drop cookies, the baked cookies do very nicely in the freezer, but let them come back to room temperature before you eat them so you can best enjoy the flavors and textures.

Print this recipe.

Night Baking

holiday treats for the neighborhood (a glance back to 2011)

marshmallow dreidel spin, dance, and turn

tinkerbell doll cake

peanut butter pretzel chocolate chip cookies

eric wolitzky's chocolate chip cookies

mars cake for a special 5th birthday celebration

stiletto slipper cake topper

cranberry tea cookies

Roasted Carrot and Orange Lentil Soup

zebra cake with stiletto slipper

colorful flower garden birthday cake

mini animal cupcakes

two are due! beach-themed twin baby shower cake

3rd birthday bumblebee cake

5th birthday elephant cake

o's first birthday cookies

a family birthday and anniversary celebration: *that* chocolate cake

school-spirited wedding cake toppers

jessica's bridal shower cake

baked success! chocolate and vanilla marble bundt cake

lemon-molasses bundt cake

5th birthday chocolate dinosaur cake

ladybug sugar cookies

silly face cookies, part deux

happy birthday, gina!

m&m frosted brownies

chocolate buttermilk frosting

hi-hat cupcakes

chocolate rose wedding shower cake with pastry cream filling

chocolate brownie roll-out cookie ice cream sandwiches

bad blogging biscuits

my girl turns 7 with a rainbow, chocolate marble cake

party tray: assorted deliciousness

plaid cheesecake bites

gymnast birthday cake

silly face cookies

welcome, little man! raquel's baby shower cake

mexican hot chocolate snickerdoodles

3rd blogiversary fondant flower garden cake

elinor klivans' essential chocolate chip cookies

milk dud cookies

julie's baby shower cake

baby shower animal cookies

penguin cookies

penguin anniversary cake

cookie brittle. seriously addictive stuff.

homemade marshmallows to accompany seriously sinful hot chocolate mix

chocolate-peanut butter fudge

chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons

cake pops

snickerdoodle bundt for national bundt day

candy corn cookies

dinos, bears, and cars

superhero boy-o turns 4!

cinnamon swirl bread

peanut butter cup brownies

pop! goes the popover

muno is famous!

salty-sweet butter pecan cookies

a family birthday and anniversary celebration: that chocolate cake