TWD: Perfect (Birthday) Party Cake
June 30, 2009 at 8:16 am | In Tuesdays with Dorie | 16 CommentsTags: blueberries, cake, Tuesdays with Dorie
While you never stop learning in life (and boy some of the lessons are fun, aren’t they?), you do pick up a few tips as you muddle through.
1. Play to your strengths. In other words, avoid your weak areas. Run from them. After over a year of seeing my how my interpretations stack up against a host of others’, I think we can all agree that my decorating/construction skills are lacking at best. There was the leaning tower of tiramisu cake and who can forget the saddest little jack-o-lanterns ever? Considering those masterpieces, I wasn’t about to attempt to slice a cake this thin in half. Fool me 837 times and I finally get it. We enjoyed a two-tiered cake.
As for layering frosting and jam? Yeah, right. You let me know when mangled goo looks appetizing and I’ll try the layering. Fresh blueberries all the way.
2. Know your audience. It was Patty’s birthday and Patty…LOVES whipped cream. Really loves it. This gave me the perfect excuse to skip buttercream which 1) is complicated and 2) is not my favorite. Despite the pounds I rip through baking, I don’t really love the taste of butter. But we’ll tackle that paradox another time. I tried to make a chocolate whipped cream to account for the glaring lack of chocolate in Patty’s birthday cake. I didn’t have the 4+ hours to tackle the version in the back of BFMHTY so I opted for a Maida Heatter version. It was good but decidedly not very chocolatey.
Overall, I liked this cake. I taste tested the batter (natch) and it was better than I expected. I went with lime zest because I thought it would go well with the blueberries. In the end, however, it was still white cake, which will never make my heart sing. I offered a small layer of white at our wedding for the purists but I didn’t go anywhere near it. I suppose there are occasions where this would be the perfect cake but those occasions probably call for elegant cakes. If there is one thing my cakes aren’t, it is elegant.
My “helper.” He is only in it for the sink “concoctions.”
The full recipe is at mix, mix…stir, stir by Carol.
Next week: Brownies! I don’t want to jinx it but I haven’t been disappointed by a Dorie brownie yet…
TWD: Not so fast…it’s a Whopper Cake
June 23, 2009 at 8:18 am | In Uncategorized | 11 CommentsTags: cake, chocolate frosting
Happy Father’s Day to two great dads!
Well, it’s not exactly Roasted Coconut Pineapple Dacquoise. I didn’t have an opportunity to make this ahead of time so it fell on father’s day weekend for me. I have known the father I live with (Jamie) for almost 15 years and, in that time, I have never seen him eat anything coconut or profess any opinion about it whatsoever. No german chocolate cake, no pina coladas. Nuthin’. For all I know, he could be a total coconut snob who will only deign to eat it within minutes of it falling off the tree (not likely here on the plains). Or, he could be allergic. Maybe he ate 15 Mounds bars in one sitting in junior high and hasn’t been able to look it in the eye since. It’s anyone’s guess…I do know he isn’t so into meringue. My dad likes coconut but I couldn’t see him drooling over the rest of it. The final kicker was the kids’ ardent and vocal desire to make a “whopper cake” from the back of a library book.
Whopper cake in; dacquoise out. I really hate to skip a week and try my best not to. This is my 3rd miss out of 63 (63!!) weeks. If it hadn’t been father’s day, I probably would have sucked it up and made this sans coconut. While I would like to promise that I will get back to this one, that may be wishful thinking. But, who knows, when we get to the end of the book I might be tormented by those few recipes I didn’t get to. If the dacquoise becomes my telltale heart, I’ll find some willing recipient.
Helpers extradordinaire
As for the whopper cake, I sadly admit there are no Whoppers or equivalent malted candies anywhere in the cake. The title refers to the cake in the book, which is baked in the back of a truck bed. Silly Grandpa gets a little crazy with the measurements for his wife’s cake. It was very easy and good, but not my favorite chocolate cake. I did, however, use a recipe I found in my clippings book (so last century) for Satin Frosting. It was in a NY Times article in 2006 and they “borrowed” it from the Joy of Cooking. SUPER easy and a great glossy finish. I will definitely be making it again.
Satin Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 c. heavy cream
- 6 oz. unsweetened chocolate chopped
- 3 c. powdered sugar
- 6 tbsp butter (I let mine soften)
- 1 tsp. vanilla (I forgot this)
Boil the heavy cream. Add the chopped chocolate and wait 10 minutes. Scrape into food processor. Add melted butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Process until smooth and then process one minute more. Let sit at room temperature until desired thickness. I don’t know exactly how long that would be. I processed mine, ate a quick lunch and frosted away.
TWD: honey peach ice cream
June 17, 2009 at 12:10 am | In Tuesdays with Dorie | 9 CommentsTags: ice cream, peach, Tuesdays with Dorie
OK.
- My original post was going to be something along the lines of a celebration of summer. I was making the ice cream on Saturday and it was supposed to be low 80s and sunny. Perfect summer day. I had visions of peach ice cream after the pool. Of course, it was mid 70s and cloudy…great for gardening, watching a movie, hiking, plenty of things really…none of which remotely scream peach ice cream.
- Take 2. The next post was going to somehow involve ice cream preferences (big hunks, no hunks, cone, cup, etc – you get the idea). For the record, I pureed all my peaches. Then I got sick Saturday night after eating a giant peach ice cream sandwich. I hope – really hope – the two were not related. But, tolerance for any long post about ice cream was gone. GONE.
- So, by strange circumstance, I was the only one who happened to eat the ice cream on Saturday. I have banned it from anyone else until I take another test (probably tonight). Wish me luck. Cuz the peach ice cream stuffed between two peanut butter oatmeal cookies was good. So good I am willing to test it again after Saturday night’s fiasco.
You wouldn’t hurt me, would you?
Thanks to Tommi of Brown Interior for forcing us to dust off the ice cream maker and embrace summer. The recipe is at Brown Interior.
Next week: Coconut Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise. I am trying wrap my brain around how I am going to make this the same week as father’s day. This isn’t what either of the dads in my life would order. And, of course, I haven’t baked ahead. Stay tuned.
TWD: Not-so-apple Parisian Tart
June 9, 2009 at 12:50 pm | In Tuesdays with Dorie | 19 CommentsTags: tart, Tuesdays with Dorie
Let’s get one thing straight. I love apples. Truly. If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, I figure I’m good til about 138. But, and there is always one isn’t there, it’s June. I have been surviving on apples, pears and the occasional orange for months upon months now. To say I am ready to move on would be an understatement. The second other fruits starting appearing regularly in the grocery, I start buying them (even though I know their arrival is always a bit premature). Come late August I will be salivating over Pink Ladys, Jonagolds and the sheer beauty of a McIntosh. But that is August (and through what always seems like the never ending midwestern hell some people politely refer to as winter).
Cherry, nectarine, mango, combo
So, with Dorie’s stated approval, I ventured forth in other directions. I had three tarts to make and a mango (sigh), cherries (double sigh) and a nectarine ready to go. It being summer (hooray! it just can’t be said enough), I had a date with the pool and not homemade puff pastry. Pepperidge Farm at the ready.
This is the kind of dessert that seems deceptively difficult if you don’t spend much time in the kitchen. It is a lot of bang for your buck without a lot of effort on your part. I am not sure this is something I would make a special trip to the store to get puff pastry for, but it is definitely something I would make again if there are leftovers in the freezer (as there are right now). You will have to check out those who persevered through the homemade puff pastry to see if their efforts were rewarded.
I cut all the variations (cherry, mango, nectarine and cherry-mango) into little slices and we all agreed the cherry was the best. Pitting the cherries increased the effort required but, since a miniscule amount fit on each tart, don’t let it scare you off.
The full recipe is on Jessica’s blog My Baking Heart. Next week: honey peach ice cream. Now, we are really talking summer.
TWD: Cinnamon Squares (aka Cappucino Cake)
June 3, 2009 at 1:48 am | In Tuesdays with Dorie | 12 CommentsTags: cake, cinnamon, Tuesdays with Dorie
Car-in-shop + AC-on-the-fritz + last-day-of-school + yard-torn-up-from-front-walkway-repairs + usual-adult-responsibilities = lack of real post. (I am barely even making it on Tuesday)
I made the cappuccino version (the alliteration of Cappuccino Cake appeals to me). Hubs and I liked it. Too sophisticated for Will. Unappetizing (surprise) to Colin. The chocolate frosting is *required* if you going for dessert. If you are going for coffee cake, I would give it at least a struesel topping. But I am not much one for plain jane desserts.
Recipe is at Tracey’s Culinary Adventures. Next week: Tarts for the tarts!
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