Everythings Better With Cream

Tis the season for crazy produce sales. Over a pound of Oregon grown blueberries for 5$. And even more strawberries to match. Theres only one thing to do with the natures fruity bounty - first batch anyway - set it swimming in sweet sweet cream. The perfect breakfast.

Baking Up A Burning Ring Of Fire

If one were not a creature or habit... If one didn't prefer round cakes... If one would pause to read the instructions, nay, if one would only pause to think, one would realize that a 13x9 cake mix would have difficulty fiting into a less than 2 inch tall 9 inch cake pan. That one, dear friends, would not be me.

Caramely batter bubbling over and oozing between oven rungs outline my pan on the bottom of the oven. So close to the heat sourse they quickly burn and smoke profusely. Every time I make this cake.

Much panic has been caused by this mistake. Perhaps next time I shall remember to remedy it. The day my sister got married, we dined on the Blue Birds rather famous turtle cake. The day being as it was (wishes for a blog to link to) I didn't get to fully appreciate it, but only remembered the bit I did try longingly. Cool and moist lightly flavored chocolate cake filled, with little pockets of cool slick caramel and... well thats most of what I rememberd. And it was fantastic. And I live 6 hours away or so. Realizing this I knew something had to be done.

Enter wonderful amazing food unmasking skills! Well I dont have those very well developed. I got as far as, "I bet devils food cake..." and "maybe they piped the caramel in?" and was out of ideas. Luckily I stumbled upona recipe in a Betty Crocker mini magazine/cookbook at the checkout. Chocolate turtle cake! And I was right about the devils food cake part!

Basically you whip up some nice caramel sauce about honey consistancy...

1 C sugar
1/4 C water (maybe a lil extra I'm not sure)
1 T corn syrup (because it helps prevent crystals and I'm afraid to mess it up)
1/2 - 1 C cream warmed (depends on the consistancy desired. For this I start at 3/4 C)
vanilla and 2 T butter (cuz why the heck not?!)

Sugar and water (and corn syrup) in a medium saucepan, stir till about dissolved. Let boil (no stirring) for about 7 minutes. About this time the bubbles start looking different than they have been before, and eventually it will start to brown. Swirl the pan to get an even color, I look for a medium amber. I burn it frequently though going to dark and then its all bitter.... Once you get it to the desired color remove it from heat and ad in the hot cream. It will bubble and sputter... and then I stir it with a wisk so it all turns into the right consistancy. I add more cream if its not as thin as I want (note it does thicken while it cools) and add the butter and vanilla and call it good.

Its great on brownies by the way. Warm with some cold thick cream for contrast.... But I digress. For a small round pan I like to use almost this whole recipe, the more the better. So for the actual 9x13 pan I think I'd double it... or make separate batches twice to be safe.

Now for the cake...

1 box -9x13 devils food cake mix with ingredients to prepare (eggs, oil, water)
Caramel sauce (lots and safe some for garnish)
1 C or so - pecans (toasted chopped and maybe some whole for garnish)

Make a 9x13 cake mix to the directions. (One day I will make my own scratch batter and try it out) Pour half of the batter into a prepared cake pan, (parchment and greased for easy removal) and bake for about 20 to 22 minutes. Take it out, pour on the caramel (save some for topping though), sprinkle on some toasted pecans(save some for topping here too) and pour on the rest of the batter. Bake for another 25 minutes. Let it cool for a bit, about 15-20 and then I invert it, drizzle on some extra carmel and top with pecans.

Tasty dang stuff. Caramel saturating the top half gooey and delicious.

Gotta Blog Gotta Blog Gotta Blog Right Now

Shwooo. I'm back. Maybe. For a little bit. And by back I mean that this is the first non required post I've actually completed in a few months. Where have I been you might wonder? A sudden onset of obsessive compulsive gardening for a couple months and then off to the land of lazy. Have a tasty garden a growing complete with heirloom tomatoes, squash and gourmet peppers, and the rest of the usuals. The currant bush planted and 6 wonderful blueberry bushes a starting out.

But I digress. For the last month I’ve just been lazy lazy lazy. Even my few good dinner forays have been neglected, (though photo evidence does exist...). Well today I change... some of this. I break my silence and bake some dinner! That was the plan anyway. Bout an hour to dinner it occurred to me that the dough I had rising was at least 3 hours away from the oven, let alone the 30 minute cooling time. So we had pizza, and here I am at one o’clock finishing the rolls.

Kaiser rolls that is. A wonderful hearty sandwich roll From Peter Reinheart's amazingly detailed and thorough book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I'm going to make some turkey burgers and wanted a bun that tempted the palate in place of the foamy bits they sell at the store.

And as the smoke billows from the oven and I fan the smoke alarm, praying it wont go off as everyone’s in bed, I'm pretty sure they (and the dang chocolate turtle cake that overflowed earlier (hence the smoke)) are/were totally worth it. Just look at em.

Taste of Springly Opera

Now I'm not one to habitually bag on myself. I'm actually usually the first to admit I'm totally awesome. That being the case, all the rest of the Daring Bakers kicked my butt royally last challenge. Not even comparing mine to the neatly prepared masterpieces, I realize they look like they may have fallen down the stairs a couple times. So kudo's to you all!

And in the proud tradition of scapegoats and blame shifting, it was the chocolate chips fault. Shoulda used bars. Secondly... I seriously procrastinated. Its bringing my own style to the daring bakers! Thats how I roll *dramatic gansta pose with wisk and rolling pin* Staying up late into the wee hours of the morning to finish whatever I need done the next day... and then ariving two hours late regardless.

Well this month I'm trying a slightly new style. Ya know... the one where I don't fall flat on my face. And so, a week to show time, I prepared the buttercream! Yes yes! I know its shocking.


Trying or not, it still wasn't done till my birthday... A.K.A today!

So here's how it went down.

Light flavors I like... Lemon was out. I really don't like most lemon flavored things. So spring... light... blog... Lavender! And so it was. Lavender buttercream. I sort of made a tea using the water for the buttercream sugar syrup flavored with lavender flowers. And to cut some of the sweetness, I tossed in a sprig or two of rosemary(from my recent pruning). They went so wonderfully together, a sweet but peppery herbal flavor.

The buttercream looked so beautiful. The creamy white speckled with little black vanilla bean... And when I mixed some jell dye with some to color the rest, the contrast was even prettier.


As for the jocond bit, Date Line ruined it. I had originally planned to do cardamon with orange zest flavoring, with a touch of vanilla to round it out. Well there was a dateline special on that I was a bit more interested in that than my egg whipping... Luckily the actual egg whipping turned out fine, I just spaced the flavoring all together. Guess thats where the sugar syrup came in.My very first acceptable idea for a taste of spring(lemon being rejected) was lemon balm. A minty herbal flavor with just a springly taste similar, but wonderfully not, lemon. The difficulty, my lemon balm is 2 inches tall at this point in the year, two short to risk a heavy harvest(I would need all the plant there...). I did end up swiping a couple leaves for the syrup though. Once again I made a sort of tea with the sugar with Lavender, almond extract, rosemary, lemon balm, and black pepper corns. I'm not sure if you could taste all the elements, but I thought it was fun.
I put it all together, (tricky since my jelly role pans are huge, 13x17. I rigged the parchment with folds and rolls of tinfoil to cut the size some.) Cake syrup buttercream, repeat. Cake. syrup, mouse n' glaze. Sprinkle with lavender and set. I trimmed the edges square (resulting in that spiffy cake canyon) and was done.
I was amazed at how nice it turned out. I really really really wanted to produce something of comparable beauty to the rest of the daring bakers works. And it worked! This one didn't look like it fell down the stairs, and I am proud.

Procastination As Usual

Now, if I was on the ball these last two weeks, this blog would already be written. The cakes rolled and pictures post-able.

Well... as usual I'm showing up to the party late. Why the need for punctuality you ask? Well, today I post my first (mostly completed) Daring Bakers challenge. Chocolate covered Cheesecake pops.

Here's how the recipe reads :

Cheesecake Pops

Makes 30 – 40 Pops

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature

2 cups sugar

¼ cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

5 large eggs

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¼ cup heavy cream

Boiling water as needed

Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.


Now here's how I messed it up...

• Completely forgot to add the cream.
• Dont have a big enough cake pan, used a springform putting the water bath below.
• I dropped the temperature down to 250 after the first 20 minutes and baked it for about two hours til 160 degrees.
• There are no lollipop sticks in this town. No way.
  

I dont know how the lack of cream is affecting it. The springform worked ok. The baking temp tampering made the cake wonderfully smooth and creamy (which I demand in cheesecake) so I'll try it again next time I bake one, but alas, it did not set up quite firm enough for hand rolling. So it got frozen.

Now for my greatest pride with this recipe, having failed to find lollipop sticks and settling for short and sharp bamboo skewers, I dreamt a dream. A baking dream, where in I was finishing my cheesecake pops, and was looking for my sticks. My chocolate covered biscuit Pokey sticks. Thats right. Eatable chocolate covered lollipop sticks. Score one for the subconscious... but as it turned out the size of the cheesecake balls was a tad bit large for them. Most of them broke down the the chocolatey part, making it a bit of a mess to eat.

And note to everyone working with dipping or drizzling chocolate, don't use chocolate chips! They don't drizzle, they glob and plop, hence the giant drizzles on my two tones.


So for being a bit soupy in the middle, and thickly covered with chocolate chip chocolate... they were pretty good. Definitely not something I would do on my own, but heck, Daring Bakers are pretty inspiring.

Current Currants

St Patrick's day got me thinking about Irish cooking, and while I didn't prepare anything special for the occasion, I did pull out my Irish Food and Cooking cook book. As I was flipping through it I noticed, as I had often before, the beautiful black currant fool. The step by step pictures show a beautiful deep purple pink puree being folded into satin white whipped cream, the effect a beautiful striking swirl of color and cream. I look to the ingredients ready to buy a little batch of beauty for my self and am then deeply puzzled. Black currants... huh. Never seen those before.
Or had I? Looking through my seed catalog, passed the yesterdays news novelty plants, after the blueberries and raspberries and just before the fruit trees I find them. Sort of. Red currants. That wont create the heavenly swirl. It would be like pink sauce. Cant have that. Gooseberries, just under them, are almost translucent, so those wont work. either. Then I look to the curious variety 'Jostaberry'. Its darker, but not a black currant. Its a mix between black currants and gooseberries, but where, pray tell, is the other parent?

I then proceed to comb the net. None of my usual nurseries have them. I find some in the UK. Big breakthrough. I'm then combing the US importation website and lists of banned plants. Maybe its illegal to import it, who knows.

Now the real breakthrough is when I come across the Currant Company's website. They have a history of the Black Currant in the United States. The title of the article? "Forbidden" U.S. History of the Black Currant. Turns out its been banned for somewhere around 100 years due to its connection to white pine rust disease. Black currants pass along the disease, along with red currants, native currants and several varieties of gooseberries. The list goes on, but only Black Currants were banned.

Well, no longer. In New York then ban was recently appealed, and so started the Currant Company. They've been selling both currant juice and whole currants for a while, but their goods are not widely available, usually shipped, and they tend to be expensive as well. The lucky part? They've started selling plants too. Mail order. In this one site I hit the mother load.

A long and boring story made shorter, I ordered two for about $40 with shipping (the two day shipping is over half of that). Now I must wait for them to come. They dont ship for a while yet bare root. After that, I must find a place to plant them, prune them, and wait for berries that might not come till next year.
Till then... there should at least be some good tomatoes to eat.

Unicorn of Trial

I baked a cake. That is not the important part however. The cake was just a mix. Two cake mixes, to be quite exact. The important thing here was the goo that went on top. Now don't jump to conclusions. I took the lazier still rout, and used store bought frosting too. It was specifically the goo on top of that that is of note. Yes, I made fondant.


It isn't a true fondant, being made primarily of marshmallows and powdered sugar. The marshmallow fondant, or MMF, is much easier to make than regular fondant and more user friendly. It requires 3 cheap and easy to find ingredients likely in the pantry already. I got the recipe, and tons of helpful hints from Peggy Weaver, at WhatsCookingAmerica.net .

So what did I accomplish? Just about the coolest unicorn cake the world has ever seen.

Happy birthday Alex!

The assembly of the two cake mixes. I used my ample winging-it skills, an 8" cake, a 9" cake, and a 9" by 13" cake. I realized sometime after I had removed all the cakes from the pan that I had nothing large enough to encompass them all. Except my marble work slab!
Thanks Grandma!

The most worrisome aspect of working with cake mixes would be their texture. They are so incredibly fragile and fluffy. All of my experiences frosting cakes from a box have been less than pleasant. I'm applying a crumb coat, which rolls up into a crumb lump which then snowballs into the entire cake, picking up frosting crumbs and denting the whole shebang. This time it worked. Don't ask me how. I believe in miracles.

I was unsuccesful in commanding the fondant. I couldn't get a big enough solid piece to cover without seems. So after crumpling my failed attempt into a ball slamming on the table and shouting and hopping around in fit of incandescent rage and frustration, I reassessed. I had been working on wax paper. That went away. That alone I now believe might have made it work, but I also decided to work in sections. It was actually really fun to work with. The way it sat almost perfectly, and its pretty plasticine surface as I tucked it under the edge really pleased me. Ignore the fit. It was fun... seriously. After I tossed the wax paper.

And then it got REALLY fun. Sure my hands are now a grayish blue tie-dye from making all those colors of fondant. That hardly matters. The hair is what made the unicorn... other than the horn. That too made the unicorn... but look at that hair!

Over all... once maybe twice a year will I do this. Started at noon today and worked till right about 6. My feet hate me, it tasted like cake mix cake and sugar, and I definitely liked the Pecan Pie birthday better... but darn it, I made a pretty cake!