The Cake

 

Okay, first I want to make sure you’re not intimidated by the length of this recipe. It’s not at all difficult and you can make it all the day before you mean to serve it. In fact, you have to make it the day before, the cake sits in the fridge for at least 10 hours so all the components can cozy up, tell campfire stories, have pedicures and generally get to know each other better.

This really is a lovely cake. Lovely. And rustic looking. (Read: imperfections rule!) The sponge cake is brushed with a rum flavored syrup and then filled with coconut custard before being cloaked in a luscious whipped cream frosting and sprinkled with toasted coconut. De-li-cious!

P.S. The cake part of this recipe is just a really great sponge cake. Easy to make and well behaved, with a light, fluffy crumb. It would be a great addition to your cake repertoire :)

 

 

Coconut Custard Cake

Adapted from Country Living

For the custard: 3 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup milk

5 egg yolks

1 cup milk

1/2 cup sugar

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped, pod reserved

1 cup sweetened coconut OR 1 teaspoon coconut extract (I followed the recipe and used the coconut, but I wasn’t super-thrilled by the texture. In future, I plan to omit it and use the coconut extract.)

 

In a small bowl, whisk the flour and 1/2 cup milk until smooth. Set aside.

In a medium sized heatproof bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the 1 cup milk, sugar, vanilla seeds and pod.

Cook over medium low heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved.

Whisk in the flour mixture and cook until thickened – about 3 minutes.

Slowly add 1/2 the milk mixture to the eggs, whisking constantly.

Return the mixture to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until mixture begins to bubble and thicken – about 3 minutes.

Strain through a mesh sieve and stir in either the coconut or the coconut extract.

Place a piece of saran wrap directly on top of the custard (to prevent a skin from forming) and chill in the fridge.

 

For the cake: 1 1/2 cups cake flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 eggs, separated

1/2 cup cold water

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9” Springform pan with baking spray.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In your mixer, beat together the egg yolks and water for 1 minute.

Gradually add the sugar.

Add the extract and increase the mixer to high. Beat the eggs until thick and pale, about 4 minutes.

In a medium bowl, use your hand mixer to beat the egg whites on high until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes.

Add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture and fold to combine.

Fold in the egg white mixture.

Pour batter into the pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

Set the pan on a wire rack to cool.

 

For the syrup: 1/2 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 teaspoon rum or coconut extract

 

Bring the sugar, water and extract to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat.

Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat.

 

To assemble the cake: Cut the cake into three even layers. (Ha! Good luck with that! I can’t do it to save my life! But it’s okay because this cake is RUSTIC! Plus all the layers meld together and uneven layers are all but invisible.)

Set the bottom layer on your cake plate.

Generously brush the cake with the syrup. Generously.

Add 1/2 of the chilled custard to the cake and spread it out evenly.

Add the middle layer of cake.

Generously brush the cake with the syrup.

Add the rest of the chilled custard to the cake and spread it out evenly.

Add the top layer of cake.

Very generously brush the cake with the syrup.

Wrap the cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 10 hours and up to 24 hours.

Remove cake from fridge and top with whipped cream frosting and sprinkle with toasted coconut. Recipe follows.

 

For the frosting: 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 tablespoons sugar

 

Add the cream and extract to the bowl of your mixer.

Whisk on low for 2-3 minutes.

Sprinkle in the sugar and turn the speed up to high for about 4 minutes, or until you reach soft peaks.

 

For the toasted coconut:

1 1/2 cups sweetened coconut

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spread the coconut on a baking sheet and bake for 7 minutes.

Stir the coconut and bake for another 7 minutes or until golden brown and toasty!

Not Oreos

 

These are not Oreos. These are better than Oreos. Oreos are very good in their own way, there’s still nothing like pulling one apart, licking out the vanilla center, putting the wafers back together and dunking them in milk. But sometimes that vanilla frosting in the center leaves a funny film on the roof of your mouth and then you usually have to go brush your teeth immediately afterwards or risk having little specks of black wafer lurking, just waiting to wedge themselves between your front teeth and embarrass the heck out of you.

These cookies don’t want to embarrass you. And, while a tall, icy glass of milk is a perfect complement to these cookies, they don’t need it to camouflage the store-bought taste of them. Because they’re not Oreos. They are Homemade Chocolate Sandwich Cookies.

You’ll want to make these today. Really. Truly. Today.

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

For the chocolate wafers:

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 large egg

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder (You know how much I love King Arthur’s.)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

For the filling:

4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup shortening

2 cups sifted confectioners sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Set out 3 baking sheets.

In your mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and mix well.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Add to the batter and mix very well.

Drop by tablespoonsful onto the cookie sheets, 12 to a sheet. Dampen your hand with a little water and press down slightly on each ball of cookie dough.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove to cooling racks.

While they’re cooling, make the filling!

In your mixer’s bowl, beat the butter and shortening together until well incorporated.

Add the vanilla and mix well.

Sift in (using a mesh sieve, for Heaven’s sake, not an obnoxious, old fashioned sifter!)  the powdered sugar and mix to combine.

Scoop the frosting into a pastry bag and pipe onto the underside of a cookie. Place another cookie on top and press lightly to seal them together. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Serve to your newly turned six year old, alongside a tall, icy glass of milk, and hear all about how he gets to marry the princess the next day at recess, but only if he can save her from the robots and swamp monsters.

Wilton Review, Gorgeous Buttercream, and a Winner!!!

Along with the cupcake kit giveaway, Wilton generously let me pick a few things to review! I was smitten with these cupcake liners, I looooove cupcake liners! Pretty ones like these sort of take the pressure off of you to do something tremendous with the decorating, you know? You wouldn’t want to detract from the pretty liner, now would you? I loved these ruffled cups! So girlie and sweet! They are nice and thick too, and they come off of the cupcake beautifully!

I also picked these liners. I really loved them, with all the ingredients printed on the sides! They really dressed up the muffins I made in them. Unfortunately, I used them all on a test run of a new recipe. Dumb idea. The muffins didn’t turn out at all well (they were chewy! Muffins should NOT be chewy!!! Ew.) and bubbled up and out of the pretty muffin cups. I was so disappointed, I didn’t even take a picture of them. So, recipe fail. Sorry.

So, here is the recipe for the buttercream I used on the cupcakes. The cupcakes themselves are from this chocolate cake recipe. I usually use American buttercream when frosting cakes and cupcakes, but decided to tackle a fancy one again. I had a run of bad luck with Italian buttercreams a while back (the kind made with a sugar syrup) and had shied away from them and their Swiss cousins. But this recipe really was easy and the softness and delicateness (is that a word?) of this buttercream has made me a believer again! I might even get brave and tackle another evil sugar-syrup Italian version again. Or the French variety made with whole eggs! Who knows? I might also climb Mt. Everest or swim across the Atlantic! Just kidding ;) Anyhow, they’re a nice, grown-up alternative to sugary sweet American buttercreams.

Beautiful Swiss Buttercream

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours

1 cup sugar

4 large egg whites

3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

pinch of salt

flavoring of your choice: a squeeze of lemon, 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Optional: food coloring

 

Set a pan of water to boil on the stove. Turn it down to a simmer.

In your mixer’s bowl, combine the sugar and egg whites.

Set this over the simmering water and, using a hand mixer, whisk constantly, until the mixture becomes hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. (The sugar will be dissolved and the mixture will be nice and shiny.)

Remove the bowl from heat and attach it to your mixer. Using the whisk attachment, beat the meringue at medium speed for about 5 minutes, until it has cooled.

Switch to the paddle attachment, mix in a pinch of salt, and add the butter, a few tablespoons at a time, beating until smooth.

Once all the butter has been added, beat the buttercream on medium-high unitl it is thick and very smooth, about 6-10 minutes.

Turn the speed to low and add the flavoring and coloring if you’re using it.

Scoop into a pastry bag and pipe onto your cupcakes!

Make enough for a dozen cupcakes, more if you’re more frugal with your buttercream than I am ;)

P.S. Don’t panic if your buttercream falls apart and/or looks curdled when you add the butter. Turn the mixer up to high and keep whipping it, it will come back together! Don’t be scared!

 

And now for transportation of your beautiful treats . . . . . . . 

Wilton also let me try out their adorable cupcake boxes! I really like to keep a stash of cake boxes around, then I can take goodies to someone on the spur of the moment without the worry of how to transport them safely! I keep a few square cake boxes and a few of the long, rectangular ones, along with cake boards for each. The rectangular ones are great because you can carry a sheet cake or a few dozen cupcakes in them. Just don’t forget the cake board to go on the bottom or you’ll end up with cupcakes dancing all over inside the box! When I can’t get a hold of the cupcake holding inserts, I just dab a little dot of royal icing to the board, then set the cupcake on top of it. It works like glue to hold the cupcake in place and when you want to take them out of the box, the ‘glue’ comes right off again. Easy!

Anyway, I am definitely going to be keeping a stash of these around! They come with the little inserts to keep the cupcakes in place! And they’re perfect when you just want to take a few cupcakes to a friend. They have solid white ones, fun prints and seasonal boxes too. It would be nice to have a selection on hand!

Thank you, Wilton, for sponsoring this review and giveaway! I really enjoyed playing with some new products and loved hosting your giveaway!!!

Speaking of giveaway. . . . . we picked a winner! Amelia and her herd of ponies helped me out! Click the video to see who won the cupcake kit!

New Look and a Giveaway from Wilton!!!

TA DA!!!!

My blog has a new look! What do you think? I really loved my old blog template, but I felt like it didn’t actually fit my blog. I contacted Dena at The Photo Spot on Etsy and she made me this gorgeous header! Isn’t it lovely! If you’re in the market for a new header, I highly recommend her. She is such an amazing artist, she’s a pleasure to work with, and her prices are great! I changed a few of my settings to make my blog a little easier to read too. And I added pictures to my recipe list to make it easier to find things. So, what do you think of my little makeover???

I’m still sort of ‘trying to find myself’ in the kitchen. I don’t really know what I think my baking specialty is, I love baking everything! Cookies, cakes, breads, cupcakes, pastry, pies, tarts . . . I’m not saying I’m a pro at any of them, mind you. Just that I get enormous pleasure out of baking them! Jay thinks my specialty is cupcakes. I did get a bit obsessed with them about the same time I started my blog. I mean, I’d made them before, lots of times even, but I’d never really given them a whole lot of thought. Then Amelia got Crumbs Bake Shop in a Box for Christmas from her Auntie Kristi. She loved the story it came with and immediately asked me to make the cupcakes for her. So we put on our matching aprons and got started.

Isn’t she cuuuuuuute? Anyway, we LOVED these cupcakes. And then I went a little nuts making them. I made them for any and all occasions! First, the batch for Amelia. Next for Reese’s birthday, and again for him to take to preschool. Then my friend had a baby, so she got a batch. Then another friend had a baby. Then is was a Wednesday, or cloudy, or sunny . . . any reason was a good reason to make some more cupcakes!

To frost them, I broke out a cupcake kit I’d recently bought from the Wilton aisle at Walmart. (Thank Heaven for the Wilton aisle at Walmart, by the way! The closest thing to a baking shop I had when I lived out in the middle of NOWHERE! I think I have one of every Wilton product that Walmart carries!!!) Anyway, I promptly fell in love with the large star tip in the kit. I think it’s so much easier to frost a cupcake with a big tip than it is to use a knife and spread it on by hand. You can just fill the bag with frosting, make a few big swirls on top of the cupcakes and you’re done in no time!!!

The other thing I love in the cupcake kit is the Bismarck tip. You fill things with it. Like cupcakes. Or doughnuts. Or cream puffs. It. Is. Awesome!!!! I’ve used it to fill cupcakes with frosting, jam, caramel, ganache, pastry cream, marshmallow, custard cream. . . . . seriously, you’re going to LOVE IT!!!

Wilton has graciously offered a cupcake kit to one of my readers! How cool is that!?!?!?! I was SO doing the happy dance when I got the email! This cupcake kit really started me on the road to making awesome cupcakes! And since you’re going to need a great recipe to go along with the cupcake kit, I’m going to give you the recipe that launched a thousand cupcakes (in my house, anyway)!!! It’s the one from the Crumbs baking set. It’s SUPER sweet and kids just gobble them up! (I’ve moved on to a different recipe for grown ups.)

The Crumbs Cupcake

3 sticks of butter, room temperature

2 1/2 cups sugar

5 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup buttermilk

 

Preheat the oven to 325 and line two 12 cup muffin tins with paper liners.

In your mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.

Add the eggs, vanilla and almond and mix thoroughly.

In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Then add a third of the buttermilk.

Continue with the next third of flour and buttermilk. Repeat with the remaining bits.

Scrape the mixing bowl well, them mix for another minute to make sure everything is incorporated.

Fill each liner up 2/3s of the way to the top.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

 

Crumbs Frosting

1 pound of butter (4 sticks)

1 pound of cream cheese (2 bricks)

2 pounds of powdered sugar (a whole bag)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

In your mixer bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese.

Sift in the powdered sugar. Cover the mixer with a towel and turn the power on to the lowest setting until the frosting starts to come together. This will avoid the inevitable mushroom cloud you’d get from adding that much sugar all at once!

Scrape the mixer bowl down, add the vanilla and mix for another minute to incorporate.

*If you’re going to fill your cupcakes, now’s the time! Then proceed to the frosting instructions.*

Insert the large star tip from the Wilton Cupcake Kit into one of the included disposable bags. Scoop frosting into the bag and squeeze it all down to the end, making sure to expel any air bubbles. Start at the outside of the cupcake and swirl frosting onto the top, applying even pressure to the frosting bag. When you get to the center, stop applying pressure and lift the bag up and away from the cupcake. Done! Easy peasy, right???

 

P.S. The cupcake pictured is a mini. I really like making mini cupcakes from this recipe. Beware that you will get about 500 cupcakes per batch. (I exaggerate, but just a little.)

P.P.S. Little ones will love you forever and ever if you make them mini cupcakes. And there’s less guilt in eating a dozen minis than there is in eating a dozen regular cupcakes. Just sayin’.

 

*********The giveaway is now closed! Thanks for playing!**********

And now. . . . . . .

The Wilton Cupcake Kit Giveaway!!!!!

Let’s make this easy, shall we??? All you have to do to enter is. . .

leave a comment on this post!

That’s it. Easy peasy! I’ll pick a winner on Friday, so get your comment it by 11:59pm Thursday evening. Be sure to keep checking in with me this week, I have some other surprises too!

My Idea of Heaven

Can I just take a second to say: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

My mom used to make this pastry for Sunday breakfast when I was growing up. It’s divine. It’s like one part cream puff and one part pie crust, slathered in a yummy vanilla glaze. Only better. I used to make it all the time and bring it to work or to a friend’s house and people would think I was amazing :) But it’s really not hard to make, and I’ve made it even easier here.

I’ve been thinking of these pastries since I made chouquettes the other day. After making the pate a choux in the mixer and having it turn out so well, I wanted to try the same thing with this recipe. Then I decided to make it even easier by making the base in the food processor. (Since it left the same amount of dirty dishes anyway!)

This recipe is so amazingly yummy, and now amazingly easy, you should make it today! Your family will think you’re a rock star! I timed myself the last few times I made it and I had it in the oven and the kitchen cleaned up in under 15 minutes. Awesome!!!

 

Carol’s Danish Pastry

Adapted from Songberries

For the crust:

1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces

1 cup flour

a pinch of kosher salt

2-5 tablespoons cold water

 

For the pate a choux:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup water

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon almond extract

3 eggs

 

For the glaze:

1  1/2 cups powdered sugar

1  1/2 teaspoons vanilla (or the seeds scraped from one vanilla bean)

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1-2 tablespoons cream/milk

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Set out a baking sheet.

In the food processor: (or you could do this by hand with a pastry cutter or knife) Pulse the flour and salt a few times to combine.

Add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add the water a few tablespoons at a time and pulse until the dough comes together and forms a ball.

Divide dough in half. Form each ball into a long ‘snake’. Lay each ‘snake’ on the pan and pat it out into a long wide rectangular shape.

Keep in mind that this is like a pie crust and it’s not going to bake up any bigger, this will be the size of your finished product. And it doesn’t have a ton of flavor, so you’re not going to want it very thick. Just thick enough to handle the weight of the pastry on top of it. So spread that dough out!

Okay, enough with the crust, onto the choux! Put a cup of flour and the almond extract into the bowl of your mixer, attach the paddle to the mixer. Crack the eggs into a bowl.

In a medium saucepan, bring the water and butter to a boil. As soon as it boils, take it off the heat and pour it into the mixer. Mix on low until the flour gets incorporated.

Add the eggs all at once and turn the mixer up to medium. Beat until the batter looks shiny and smooth.

Scoop the batter out onto the crust, use a spoon to spread it out. I spread it just  shy of the outer edge of the crust.

Bake for 60 minutes, or until golden brown and delicious.

While you’re waiting . . . add the sugar, butter, vanilla and milk/cream to a bowl and whisk to combine.

Oh, and take a minute to, at the very least, rinse your dishes. That stuff will turn to concrete if you leave it!!!

When the pastry is ready, remove it from the oven and drizzle the glaze over it. Let it cool a few minutes before cutting into 1” wide pieces and serving. You can serve this hot, warm, cold, room temperature, etc. It always tastes awesome!

Reese’s Birthday

We had a pirate party for Reese today. He’s five years old, I cannot believe it!

I had so much fun putting together his pirate party! I just don’t have it in me to go totally all out for a kids party, but we had some cool things! When the kids arrived we marched them upstairs and had them ‘fish’ through this vent we have (essentially a hole in the floor) for a bandana, eye patch, tattoo and mustache. (The birthday boy got a Captain’s hat too.) Then we came down and tried to get their pictures in front of the flag. Being as we had 7 kids between ages 8-2, well, that didn’t go over real well.

I just have to show you this again. I’m just so please with how it turned out :) P.S. It really is centered in the middle of the fabric, it’s just scrunched over to the left in this picture.

I made the flag from a 2 yard long piece of black twill. I went online and found a picture of a skull and crossbones and just blew it up on my printer. Then I traced it onto freezer paper, cut out the stencil and ironed it onto the fabric. Then I used regular acrylic craft paint and filled in the stencil. (I did two coats because I wanted it really bright.) The freezer paper just pulled right off afterward and left me with a perfect skull and crossbones! I’ve seen people all over Blogland do cool projects with freezer paper and was a little skittish about trying it, but MAN! It was a piece of cake! It probably took me about 2 hours start to finish, including the time it took to hem it and make it into a curtain. (It’s destined for the window in Reese’s room.)

After the kids were all pirated up, we played a really clever version of ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’. I found the directions online somewhere, I’ve already forgotten where, sorry! Anyhow, you draw a treasure map. . .

Disclaimer: I did not draw this. I can draw stick figures. . . poorly. It’s awesome having an artist in residence!! Thank you, Jay!

On the back of the picture you affix a large X. Then you make little Xs for the kids with their names on them.

You can blindfold them or not, doesn’t matter. They put their Xs on the map and then you take it off the wall and hold it up to a window or a light. The X on the back shows through and the kid with the closest X wins! Isn’t that super clever? I wish I HAD thought of that on my own :) This game was a HUGE hit with the kiddos!

 

Then we played a version of Musical Chairs. We just slapped some construction paper squares on a board as a plank and put down a blue towel as the ocean. Then when the music started they had to Walk the Plank and run around and walk the plank again until the music stopped. The kid in the ‘water’ was out and we went again and again. Once they got the hang of it they had a great time!

 

This is the kids hunting in Tick-Tock Croc. I especially liked this game. It was quiet!!! I made a little croc out of felt and left an opening in his tummy. Then we put a kitchen timer in it and hid it in the living room. (So it’s like the croc in Peter Pan, get it?) The kids had to come in and listen for the tick-tock and find the croc! They really liked this game, more than I expected. And I liked the brief hiatus from all the noise!

That blurry thing is the croc ;)

 

But I think the best game was the treasure hunt. I’d given Reese a couple of riddle clues earlier in the week and he just looked at me blankly like I was some kind of idiot. So I dropped the riddle idea (I’m not great at coming up with that kind of thing anyway) and took close ups of the places I intended to hide the loot. There were 7 kids playing and I took pictures of 10 spots, so three of the spots had little, hmmm, I don’t know, neiner neiner cards that said to keep on looking.

I printed all the pictures out onto cardstock and then burned the edges. (with my creme brulee torch, haha!) They actually ended up looking pretty cool and the clues were just the right toughness for the kids.

I went online and found a site with pirate lingo and borrowed heavily from that for these cards!

I had so much fun with their treasure boxes. I loved things like this when I was a kid, little treasure chests and jewels and things! These had pirate coins, chocolate coins, plastic jewels, a pirate pouch, a skull ring, extra moustaches and tattoos, and beads for the girls. I sprung for some really yummy chocolate coins from Honest Foods, but I probably could have gotten away with the cheaper more cost efficient ones. Most of this stuff came from Oriental Trading.

 

This is Reese’s cake. It’s chocolate on the inside and and my favorite frosting on the outside. I used some really wonderful cocoa powder from King Arthur’s Flour that my sister-in-law’s mother-in-law gave me (you follow? Good!) and it was to die for. The cake was almost black with chocolate! My kind of cake!!! I had grand plans of forming a pirate ship out of rice crispie treats and covering it in fondant for a cake topper. But when we went to my friend April’s son’s birthday (you follow? Good.) he had a cake with a real Lightning McQueen and Mater toys on it and all the kids thought it was SO COOL. “You get to keep the Lightning McQueen!!!!” So I decided to just slap on the pirate I had bought Reese as a gift so he could keep the pirate!!!!

Then I stumbled across a set of pirates at a local shop. $6 for 12. Sold. They look like cupcake toppers to me!

 

Super cool cupcake toppers!!!

 

The birthday boy was thrilled with his cake! And he got to keep the pirate!!!

 

So I’ll leave you with the cake and icing recipe. This icing is really wonderful. It’s got cream cheese in it and it really cuts the sweetness and gives it a nice tang. The cake is my go-to chocolate cake recipe. I’ve used it for years. I think it’s originally from Martha.

Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pans

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 1/2 cups hot water

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8” round cake pans (or two 6” round pans and 24 cupcakes) with Baker’s Joy and parchment paper.

Sift cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into mixer bowl.

On low, stir in eggs, buttermilk, hot water, oil, and vanilla; beat until smooth, about 2 minutes, scraping bowl as necessary.

Pour into prepared pans and bake, rotating the pans once, 35-45 minutes. (Less for the cupcakes)

Remove cakes to a cooling rack and let cool in the pans for 15 minutes before unmolding.

When the cakes (and cupcakes) are completely cool, frost with icing.

 

Best Frosting Ever

1 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 bricks (16 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature

2 pounds confectioner’s sugar

1 TABLEspoon vanilla

food coloring of your choice

 

In your mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth.

With a mesh sieve, sift the powdered sugar into butter mixture and mix on low to incorporate.

Add vanilla and food coloring.

Enjoy!

(This makes plenty of frosting. Enough for my 6 inch cakes and cupcakes with a little leftover. Leftovers are yummy smeared on graham crackers. Just sayin’.)

Mama’s Little Baby Loves Shortnin’ bread!

 

I know. Shortnin’ bread is a fried batter bread, the ingredients of which include corn meal, flour, hot water, eggs, baking powder, milk and shortening. (Well, I didn’t know that until Wikipedia told me.) And this post is about shortbread cookies. Not the same thing at all. So sue me. :)

About halfway between Moses Lake (where we lived) and Seattle there is this wonderful place called Thorp’s. The top two floors are chock full of antiques. (SO fun!) The bottom floor has wonderful local produce and lots of specialty food items. Like the most delicious sour cherry preserve I’ve ever tasted. And some really terrific lemon shortbread cookies. They aren’t cheap, two palm sized cookies for $4. $4!!!! But they’re wonderful. I made the trip over to Seattle every month (at least) during my last pregnancy, and I’d almost always get those cookies. And as I drove away I’d think to myself . . .

Me: you dolt. You can bake! Why aren’t you baking your own shortbread, instead of paying through the nose for theirs?

I: Yeah! They’re just shortbread and a lemon glaze!

Me: Well, why don’t you make a batch when we get home?

I: Okay! I’ll make my own when we get home! Then I can have these whenever I want! I can even freeze the dough and keep it on hand!

Me: We’ll see. . . .

Um, yeah. Only after I had my baby and didn’t have to make the monthly trip to Seattle did I finally get off my kiester and make my own shortbread. I’ve been racking my brain to recall where I found this recipe, but I can’t remember. Anyhow, it’s the best. It makes the most fantastic shortbread. Which is what I now make when the kids want to decorate cookies! The dough is sturdier, and tastier, than regular sugar cookies, and the cookies bake up to be much firmer. So they won’t snap into a thousand pieces when eager little hands try to smear a cup of frosting on top! My favorite combination is a vanilla shortbread with lemon glaze, but this recipe lends itself to a plethora of combinations. Add ginger, clove and cinnamon and top with lemon frosting for a yummy gingerbread flavor. Or substitute butter flavoring (the only application I’ve ever found for that bottle that I don’t remember how I came by!) for the vanilla and smear Nutella on top. OMGravy. Peppermint extract in the cookies and a vanilla glaze with crushed candy canes sprinkled over the top makes them perfect for Christmas. The latest incarnation was almond extract and raspberry buttercream. Mmmmmmm. So, I’ll leave you with the base recipe and the lemon glaze I like with it, and you can tweak it to your heart’s content!

Perfect Shortbread with Lemon Glaze

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon of salt

 

In a mixer bowl, combine the sugar and the butter and beat until light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla extract and mix to incorporate.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and slowly mix to combine.

Lay a piece of plastic wrap on the counter and dump the dough onto it.

Shape it into a flat disk and wrap tightly.

Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Roll the dough out (I use a silicone mat, but you could just lightly dust a countertop with flour) to 1/2 inch thickness.

Cut out with whatever cookie cutter your heart desires. Alternately, you could just use a knife and cut into squares or rectangles. Or triangles. Or octagons. Or octopi. Or orangutans. Or ostriches. You get the idea.

Place cookies on baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cookies are set and juuuuust starting to get a little color. Not brown. Usually 10 minutes for small cookies and 13 minutes for palm sized cookies. I just hover over the first batch and then I have a reference for subsequent ones.

When the cookies are cool; dip in chocolate, frost or drizzle with glaze.

 

Lemon Glaze

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

zest and juice from one medium sized lemon (about 3 tablespoons of juice)

With a mesh sieve, sift the sugar into a bowl.

Add the zest and juice and whisk to combine.

Let the glaze set for about 2 hours before attempting to stack cookies. Even then I like to insert little squares of parchment paper in between them so they don’t stick together. Just wipe down the paper you used to bake them with and cut that up into squares. Reduce, reuse, recycle! Thanks, Bob the Builder.

Note: In our house, we prefer buttercream to royal icing for our decorated cookies. To store them, I just stack them on a cake plate with parchment or wax paper layered between them. Then I cover the whole thing with saran wrap. 

 

Oh, I wanted to show you something. This is what inspired me to get baking the other day, I went from this method of getting my kitchen clean (please excuse the miscellaneous crap all over the place.) . . . . 

 

to THIS!!!!!!

Jay is planning on building a little panel to go in that excess space to the left of the BRAND, SPANKING NEW DISHWASHER!!!!! I have the most awesome landlord! I was in love with this house but a little skittish about living without a dishwasher so he had one installed for us!!!! Seriously, how awesome is that??? Anywho, as soon as it was installed I had an urgent desire to dirty up some dishes, so Amelia and I made those cookies :)

Happy Birthday, Little Baby!

I love that scrunchy little face!

My little Jilly-Bean turned one year old last Saturday. *sniff sniff* She’s my last baby and I had a really hard time letting her turn one, but she went ahead and did it anyway! She has been such a joy in our lives. She’s beautiful, happy, mellow, playful, and just as sweet as can be! She’s had the typical run-ins with new teeth and separation anxiety, but we’ve come through it into the lovely state of toddlerhood. (Even thought she’s not quite toddling yet.)

Somehow, when she was still a tiny baby, she acquired her own personal style. Or at least, her own personal color scheme! When I see pink and brown together I immediately think of Jilly-Bean. So, the color scheme for her birthday party was easy enough! I couldn’t think of anything (besides jelly beans) that reminded me of her enough to use for a theme, so we just went with those colors.

So, the thing about the jelly beans. . . . when Jillian was born, my dear friend, Claudia, brought the CUTEST thing to the hospital. She’d glued (with royal icing) jelly beans to a cake board in the shape of a baby’s face and spelled out Jillian’s name and birth date with more jelly beans. SO CUTE! And I don’t have a picture of it, I could just kick myself! Also, the wonderful woman brought me all the extra jelly beans to munch on. Just one more reason why I love Claudia so very much! Ever since then, Club Soda and Cotton Candy Jelly Bellies have been my favorite. So, when planning Jilly’s party I knew I had to order some Jelly Bellies! I popped online and started browsing their website. I picked out the kinds I wanted, Club Soda, Cotton Candy, and Rootbeer. (because it was brown and matched the theme.) Turns out that with shipping my total was going to be $36. They run a continuous special that if you order $50 they’ll ship it for free. That’s only $14 more than I was going to be spending and I would end up with twice as many beans. That sounds like a good deal, right? It must have been a good deal because I ran it past Jay and he gave me the go ahead! (And he dislikes spending money.) So I picked out three more flavors. All from Cold Stone Creamery, YUM! Apple Pie, Strawberry Blonde, and Birthday Cake Remix. They arrived in no time and of course we had to make sure they tasted just right!

What patient little hands!

I kept the decor very simple, since I'm completely capable of stressing myself out enough before a party without adding complex decorations to the mix! I like to cover the table with mailing paper (it’s fun for kids to color on while they’re waiting for cake!) and I made easy and inexpensive pom poms and hung them from the ceiling. (I did string a few pretty glass beads on the fishing line I used to make them a little more special.) I wrapped ribbon around small canning jars (4 oz. size) and affixed it with double stick tape, (since I’d like to use the jars for actual food again and I might be able to salvage the ribbon ;)  and distributed the jelly beans. (Turns out, the Cotton Candy was the most popular! I was really surprised, I would have guessed the Strawberry Blonde!)

Jillian’s cake was just delicious. An almond cake, made from the best cake recipe ever (I just swapped a really nice almond extract for some of the vanilla), brushed with raspberry puree, filled with almond pastry cream and coated with an absolutely DIVINE raspberry buttercream.  To be very honest, I’m not as pleased with the fondant I made for it as I’d like to be. I had to make the pastry cream three times before I got it right, which kept me up pretty late and depleted my drive for decorating the cake. Jay came through like a champ and helped me finish up with the fondant. He made that rose for the top of her cake and did some cool things on the top of some of the cupcakes! I just loved his curly-cues!

   

So, before I go snuggle up with Jillian and cry like a baby (seriously. Someone make her STOP GROWING UP!), I’ll leave you with the frosting. It’s simple enough, but just so unbelievably scrumptious. It was incredibly difficult not to just eat the whole batch with a spoon! Really. No, really.

Raspberry Buttercream

2 sticks butter, room temperature

1/2 cup SEEDLESS raspberry jam

LOTS of powdered sugar. At least 2 pounds. (Sorry about the inaccurate amount, I keep mine in a LARGE container and I just kept adding until I got the right consistency.) 

2-3 tablespoons cream

In a mixer, beat the butter for a minute until it’s all fluffy.

Add the jam and mix until incorporated.

Stop the mixer and sift (you know, through a mesh sieve)  a few cups of the powdered sugar into the bowl.

Mix in little bursts on the lowest setting, until the sugar starts to get incorporated. 

Add the cream.

Sift more powdered sugar into the bowl until you reach the consistency you desire.

Frost something. Frost something quite large, like a cake. Or lots of cupcakes. Or sugar cookies. Or graham crackers. Or white bread. Or a waffle. Or a stack of bills. Or a cardboard box. Or . . . .

 

Just a couple of pictures for my mom! Isn’t Jilly-Bean just a little doll? I just love her Who-hair! (You know, like those ‘Whos down in Whoville’?)

Her Daddy picked out this dress while he was out birthday shopping with the kidlets. Isn’t it darling??? And look what he did. . . .

He bought a matching one for Amelia!!! How sweet is that????

She’s holding the little fairy princess that came with her new dollhouse. I think it was her favorite present, she just kept coming back to it over and over!

Pumpkin Spice Scones

Pumpkin Spice Scones

Well, I hope you’re ready for a flood of pumpkin recipes, because it happened. I opened my first can of pumpkin of the season. Now I’ll be making pumpkin recipes until I find myself without a partial can of pumpkin in the fridge! Actually, Michelle had a great idea to use leftover pumpkin in a smoothie, but when I went to her blog to find the recipe I found a recipe for pumpkin PANCAKES, so now I have to make those too!

Side note: I am extremely suggestible. (I’m also fond of run-on sentences, but that’s neither here nor there.) And I get songs stuck in my head with mind-numbing (don’t I wish) swiftness. My family is well aware of this, of course. So I go along, minding my own business, when all of the sudden I get a random phone call, usually from my dad. I pick up and hear, ‘this is the song that never eeeeeeeends, it just goes on and on my frieeeeeeeeeeeends, somebody started singing it not knowing what it was, and they’ll continue singing it forever just becauuuuuuuuse, this is the song that never ends’, and then my head explodes. 

So, in case you were wondering (although I don’t know why you would be) when I see a lonesome, half used can of pumpkin in the fridge, there is a soundtrack that starts playing in my head, and it goes like this, ‘ this is the pumpkin that never ends, it just goes on and on my frieeeeeeeends. . . ‘

Well, enough about me, let’s make some scones.

 

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Do you use that cutting edge on the box? I don’t. I use scissors. I have wasted SO much paper because it won’t tear straight. And that stuff is pricey! Grab some scissors!

In a large bowl, measure out 1 cup AP flour, 1 cup cake flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon allspice, and 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger.

Whisk it all together and put the bowl in the freezer. (I also put my pastry cutter and bench scrape in the freezer.)

In a medium bowl, measure out 1/3 cup pumpkin puree, 1/3 cup cream, 6 tablespoons brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. (Aren’t those little balls of sugar cute?)

Mix well and put the bowl in the freezer.

Cut up 6 tablespoons of butter.

Take out the bowl of dry ingredients and the pastry cutter and cut the butter into the flour. . .

 

. . until you get coarse crumbs.

Hopefully you already quartered your macadamia nuts. If you didn’t, just put the butter/flour mixture back in the freezer while you cut those babies up.

Add the nuts to the flour mixture and pour the wet ingredients over the top.

Mix until your dough starts to come together. It will be dry and sticky at the same time. It’s weird like that. Dump it onto a floured countertop.

Pat it out into a circle about 3/4 of an inch thick.

Use the pastry cutter to cut the circle into 8 pieces. (You could also use a sharp knife.) I find that if you make 8 separate cuts you get nicer points on the scones, as opposed to making 4 big cuts.

Set the pieces on the baking sheet.

I thought they looked a little dry, so I made a quick egg wash from a yolk and a little water.

The four on the right have egg wash. And it’s nothing short of a miracle that they did not get a sprinkling of crystallized sugar. That’s my favorite topping on a scone. I had a really hard time not putting some on!

Bake for 15 minutes.

That should be enough time to brew a pot of coffee. . . . .

And clean up the disaster you made while putting the scones together. Not to mention the mess made by two hungry hunters that left the house at the buttcrack of dawn.

See! You should even have time to whip up the glaze! (That’s what is sitting on the cutting board.)

Freshly baked scones = instant aromatherapy.

Put them on a cooling rack. The four on the right are the ones with the egg wash. I’ll leave it up to you (do I have much choice?) but I prefer the look of the ones with the egg wash. Oh, and here’s a little trick. . . take the piece of parchment and slide it under the cooling rack. Then, if you’re careful, when you glaze the scones the excess will fall onto it and you’ll have less of a mess to clean up!

Drizzle on your glaze.

See! What did I tell you! Easy-peasy.   

            

Pumpkin Spice Scones

Adapted from Pinch My Salt 

1 cup AP flour

1 cup cake flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

2/3 cup macadamia nuts, quartered

1/3 cup pumpkin puree

1/3 cup heavy cream

6 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg yolk + 1 tablespoon of water for egg wash

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Get out a baking sheet and line with parchment paper.

Cut the butter into small pieces, put it in a small bowl and put it back in the refrigerator.

In a medium bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, salt, and spices. Whisk together well. Place bowl in freezer .

In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, heavy cream, brown sugar, and vanilla. Whisk together well. Put this bowl in freezer and take the other bowl back out.

Get the butter pieces out of the fridge and dump them into the bowl with the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender or rub it in with your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the macadamia nuts.

Get the pumpkin mixture out of the freezer and pour into the flour mixture all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is just moistened. The dough will be very crumbly, this is the way it should be. Turn the mixture out onto the counter and push the pile together with your hands. It should stick together fairly well. Knead it just a couple of times until everything is together. Don’t knead it too much or the dough will get too sticky.

Pat the dough out into a rough circle, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Cut it into 8 pieces. Place pieces on the baking sheet so that they are not touching. Brush with egg wash. Bake scones for about 15 minutes.

Ginger Molasses Icing

1 tablespoon molasses

2 tablespoons cream

4-6 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Stir together molasses, cream and ginger until combined. Add in powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time until you get a thickish consistency.  Drizzle over scones and enjoy!