Pear Upside Down Spice Cake

Mmmmmm pears and spice.... and honey... and lemon... and caramel.

When I was in Japan, I shared a room with an incredible girl whose obsession with food impressed even me.

She is one of the most entertaining people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, and the whole time we lived together I really wanted to bake something for her, but couldn't because we basically lived in a hotel room and I had no oven!

so, a year later, on her birthday, I finally made her cake!  and she absolutely loved it.  =)

Daring Bakers - Strudel!

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

It's summer now and I finally have time again to bake allll the time!  Yaaaay!

So I'm late with this challenge... but I made it today and it was delicious!  

I'm so awesome that I used a big t-shirt to spread my dough on.  It was the perfect size and it worked like a charm.  =)

Besides this being a delicious and fun challenge, I am especially elated because I was able to make it without a trip to the store.  I wanted to use pears and blueberries and cream cheese and I already had everything I needed. 

My filling is made up of pears, blueberries, cream cheese, grand marnier, honey, and cinnamon.  mmmmmm.

Thanks for another great challenge, Daring Bakers!

Staying in with Blueberry Muffins

My keybo_rd won't work, but yummy pretty muffin time!!  =)

Daring Bakers - Chocolate Valentino Cake with Rosemary Ice Cream

Look, look, I'm still here!  Barely so, and late with my post, but still here.  =)

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.  We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.  

At this point, I don't even know what to say about where I've been... this semester has been insane.  It's my last semester, so I'm taking more classes than I have time for, and I'm an editor on a film that just finished shooting last night.  And in film school, editors have to be on set.  So for the past month or so I have had no weekends (on set) and have spent most of my "free time" during the week in the editing lab.  I've actually been squeezing in a lot of baking, because I've  made it a point (to keep up both my own sanity and the morale on set) to bring baked goods to set every day.  But then once I'm there, they get eaten so quickly and I'm so busy that no pictures get taken, soooo.... I've made a bunch of cupcakes that you will never see.  Sorry...  Some of them were really awesome, so maybe I'll do a pictureless post sometime soon with recipes and descriptions.  =)

In any case, shooting is over, I have weekends again, and I did complete February's challenge!  yaaaaay!  It was awesome and easy, too.  I think the hardest part of this challenge was finding time to make it and people to eat it.  I couldn't bake it for set, because it's more of a plated, temperature sensitive dessert than it is a "lay out for the crew to ravage" dessert.  So instead, I persuaded my producer, editing partner, and the sound mixer to get together at 10 PM when we had finished shooting on Saturday, and they made sushi (yum) while I made the cake.  

Sounds simple... but this happened at the producer's apartment, so I had to re-locate my things to a new kitchen.  Then there was some business with improvising mixing bowls, realizing that I had brought the beaters from my electric mixer and not the mixer itself, then realizing that I had left my keys at my apartment with my mixer and so not only would there be no cake, there would be no sleeping in my bed that night.  

But it was ok, because eventually I was able to wake up one of my roommates and re-acquire my keys and mixer.  So I made the cake.  It just happened to be 2 AM when it finally came out of the oven.  And the people I had rounded up to eat it that night?  Filled with sushi and alcohol, and half asleep all over the living room, too lazy to even get up for cake.  I did manage to get a slice eaten, along with a good amount of my delicious rosemary ice cream (weee), and it was well-appreciated in a zombie-like manner.  As it should be.  

I'm glad I was able to do this challenge, because had I not done it, I don't think I ever would have attempted to make ice cream without an ice cream maker.  I've been spoiled by ice cream makers, but I don't have one currently, so its nice to know that I can still make lovely ice cream without them.  Thanks, Daring Bakers!  

Daring Bakers - French Yule Log!

Oh my gosh, it's already the end of December.... But the blogging clock inside my head tells me it's still barely November...  Where the heck have I been?  I haven't a clue.  But I'm sure it was delightful, though not nearly as delightful as sharing sweet delicious things with the internet!  So, it is indeed December, a fabulous month, and one of the most exciting things each new month brings is another Daring Baker's Challenge!

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.  They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.  

Different from the typical Yule Log of rolled up genoise and buttercream, this is a frozen mousse-based dessert composed of 6 different elements.  So many little things to stuff into one little log... It nearly drove me insane, to be quite honest.  (In a really, really fun way, of course!)  But really, it was pretty fun to try unsuccessfully to imagine how all the elements would come together and then be rewarded in the end with the discovery that the combination was definitely a magical one!

The rule this time was that we had to make all 6 elements, but there were endless variations on each one, and we were allowed to play around with the flavors as much as we wanted.  So here's what's in mine:

Chocolate Dacquoise

Dark Chocolate Caramel Cinnamon Ganache

Milk Chocolate Praline Crisp

Caramel Apple & Spice Mousse

Milk Chocolate Cinnamon Creme Brulee

Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Icing

Caramel Sauce for garnish

And yeah, it was awesome.  =)  Thanks so much to the hosts for another fab challenge!!

Also, it seems that a ton of the other Daring Baker's had awesome experiences with this challenge as well!  There are so many beautiful logs on other Daring Baker blogs right now, so please go check them out!  

Daring Bakers - Caramel Cake

Oh my taters. I love caramel. Love it. So much.

Ok _o I ju_t _pilled milk on my keybo_rd _nd _m mi__ing two very import_nt letter_.

Got _ little overexcited _bout the c_r_mel... it h_ppen_...

Due to technic_l difficultie_... picture_ now, coherent po_t l_terz. =)

Update: Here comes a coherent post!

So, my computer is now pretty much completely unusable and I am sitting in the library at school writing this. I can type As and Ss again YAY!!

In any case, this month's challenge was awesome!! It was hosted by Dolores of Culinary Curiosity, Alex of Blondie and Brownie, and Jenny of Foray into Food, and they chose the most sugar-tastic cake I have ever met... which is really saying a lot! This is of course Shuna Fish Lydon's signature Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting, as published on Bay Area Bites.

Now, I am a caramel fanatic. Really and truly. I love it more th an almost any flavor out there. So I have made my share of recipes involving caramel. I have even made before a cake such as this one, that incorporates caramel syrup into the batter. But I really loved this challenge, because this recipe wasn't just "more of the same" caramel stuff... in fact it seems that there are so many different methods of making caramel and incorporating it into desserts that to me, every recipe is a little different and has something new to teach me!

For instance, I learned that when you dilute caramel with water, the flavor is also diluted, so it is sometimes ok to throw out preconceived notions of exactly what color perfect-tasting caramel should be.

Also, I learned that when you combine caramel with browned butter, it makes a flavor that really I just want to marry and be with forever! I have never before baked with browned butter, but this frosting was a real eye-opener for me and I'm pretty sure it will be appearing in many of my upcoming creations! Cause seriously, I would bathe in that stuff.

I also learned a lot about powdered-sugar-based frosting in general. See, I made this recipe twice. The cupcakes in the photos are from the first time I made it. The first time, I didn't overcook my caramel, so it didn't really add much to the cake in the way of flavor. Also, I followed the recipe exactly when I made the frosting, and I hated it. I LOVED the flavor, but I hated that it was so sweet it made my throat burn. I don't think anything should make your throat burn unless it is hot and spicy... which this frosting was definitely not.

I was almost convinced that the idea of powdered-sugar-based frosting was just a horrible one in general, since I had never before made or eaten any that did not have that gross burning sweet effect on me, and I was planning on remaking the cake using a frosting that incorporated all the same flavors, but was based in meringue instead. But then the day came to remake the cake, and I looked in my fridge at the eggs, and I already had about 10 egg yolks sitting in bowls crying out to me that they needed to be used soon, and I just couldn't bring myself to make meringue and add to the pile...

So I decided to try the same frosting again, but to be really careful about how much of everything I was adding and do it completely to taste rather than by the recipe. I ended up using only about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, letting the browned butter set up a little, and using a lot more cream and caramel than the recipe called for.

It was soooo dreamy... so perfect. I was in love. Happiness. I will upload pictures of the second cake as soon as I get my computer back! =)

Thank you once again for an amazing challenge, Daring Baker's, and for opening my eyes to the wonders of browned butter and the potential for powdered-sugar-based frostings! <3>

Muffins for Mixing (mixing sound, that is...)

I mentioned before that I've been blog MIA this semester because of the film I was busy pouring every hour of my life into for 2 months. Well, that's pretty much over now, because its a class involving partnerships, where each partnership makes 2 films during the semester, and takes turns directing. So I directed the first one (ugh!) and am now working on the second one, which my partner is directing. It's still a ton of work and time, but it's much, much less stressful than directing.

The thing about these films is that we want them to be good. And we technically have the means to make them good. We get 1 week for pre-production, 3 weeks to shoot, 1 week to edit picture, and then 2 weeks to edit sound. That's a lot of time spent on one 5 minute film. And of course, we have professional actors who donate their time to us, a bunch of people who help out with the dirty work on set, and our professors and student assistants who are helping us with insane problems every step of the way.

By the time my film was nearly finished, I was so unbelievably grateful to everyone who had helped me along the way, that the least I could do was bake some of them a good breakfast on sound mix day! After our 2 weeks of building sound (we don't record production sound at all, so we have to build the whole soundtrack from scratch), there is one day during which 2 amazing sound mixers work from 8 in the morning to 6 at night, spending 2 hours with each of us, making sure that our sound is basically perfect and finally locking everything in and making us finished for good.

It's a long day, a stressful day, and a relieving day all at once, and my 2 hours happened to be the very first, starting at 8 AM. So naturally I brought breakfast, in the form of these delicious muffins!

Strawberry Lime Muffins

(adapted from this recipe)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 cups uncooked oats

1 cup sugar

2 cups milk

1 cup butter, melted

2 eggs, beaten

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups sliced fresh strawberries

zest and juice from 3 small limes

1. Preheat oven to 425 F and line muffin tins with paper cups.

2. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, oats, sugar, and lime zest in a large mixing bowl.

3. Whisk together the milk, butter, eggs, vanilla, and lime juice in a separate mixing bowl.

4. Stir the milk mixture into the flour mixture until just combined.

5. Fold the strawberries into the batter.

6. Fill the prepared muffin cups about 2/3 of the way each.

7. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. This makes about 24 muffins.

They are hot and delicious right out of the oven, but just as delicious at room temperature the next day! =)

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes of Creamcheeesyness! A.K.A. Alex Cupcakes!

You may have noticed that I've named these cupcakes after a person called Alex.

This is because Alex is an amazing person who did something amazing for me - so amazing that there was absolutely no way I could thank her enough short of making her cupcakes and then naming them after her.  Which I like to think is somewhat of a high honor? 

(Although really, I'd do it for anyone if they asked me to... or even if they just mentioned that they enjoy cupcakes... yeah, I'm really just a compulsive cupcake giver.  There are worse things in this world to be.)

I know you're wondering now what exactly it was that Alex did to merit this delicious gift, but it is something SO incredibly sweet that honestly I can't describe it on this blog because, well, there are enough sweet things on here as it is.  But I will say that because of her, I was able to attend one of the best concerts of my entire life, and there I got to meet (and hug!) Jimmy Gnecco, of whom I have spoken before.  

It rocked.  And so does Alex.  And so do these cupcakes that bear her name.  

These are chocolate cupcakes with orange zest added to the batter, which brings a surprisingly powerful and fragrant orange flavor to them... after tasting these, I think I will be using orange zest much, much more often in my baking!  They are filled with a honey cream cheese mixture, and topped with a whipped chocolate orange ganache.  Soooooo goood!

Oh, and Alex loved them.  She said that they were gone after a day and even accused me of flavor altering wizardry, which I took as a compliment.  =)

So if you have someone you need to thank exuberantly, these cupcakes certainly do the trick!

For the cupcakes:

(adapted from this recipe)

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup cake flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

zest of half an orange

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and line cupcake tins.

2. Cream the butter with the sugar and orange zest and beat until light and fluffy.

3. Add eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla, beating after each addition.

4. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.  Add 1/3 of this mixture to the batter, and mix to combine.  Then add half of the milk, followed by another 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by the last of the milk and then finishing with the last of the flour mixture.

5. Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way full with batter, and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.  

For the filling:

4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp heavy cream

1. Beat together all 3 ingredients until smooth and well combined.

For the topping:

3/4 cup finely chopped semisweet chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

2 tsp grand marnier

1. Place the chopped chocolate in a mixing bowl.
2. Heat the cream until it begins to boil, then immediately remove from heat and pour over the chopped chocolate.
3. Let sit for a couple minutes, then whisk until smooth and mix in the grand marnier.
4. Cover and chill.
5. When the ganache is set, whip it with an electric mixer until it is a stiff, spreadable consistency.  

To assemble:

1. Once the cupcakes are cool, cut out a small bit from the center of each one.

2. Spoon the cream cheese mixture into the newly hollowed cupcake centers.

3. Pipe or spoon the ganache onto the cooled, filled cupcakes, and then they are finished and delicious!

Daring Bakers - Pizza Dough!!

Shhhhhhhh... my dough is sleeping.  Ok well actually it's resting... in the fridge... waiting to be made into pizza.  Proving that there will indeed be pizza on this blog within the next day.  And oh my, I have some intense plans for this dough.  This beauty sleep is welllll needed.  

So, I've been a pretty terrible blogger these past few months, and its all because of a film.  A film for which I spent 7 weeks eating nothing but bagels and cereal and sleeping no more than 4 or 5 hours a night.  

BUT I finally screened the finished thing this past Sunday, which means that I'll be bringing much deliciousness back to this blog in the coming months.  Starting here.  Starting tomorrow. With an amazing Daring Bakers' Challenge hosted by Rosa of Rosa's Yummy Yums.  

Update:

I have made 2 out of 4 pizzas, and they were INCREDIBLE.  Sorry for the awful pictures, though... I was in a crazy rush.

This pizza has on it a white wine cream sauce with shallots, zucchini, mozzarella, calamata olives, brie, and lots of garlic.  It was so good... completely gone in less than 10 minutes.  

And THIS pizza, for dessert, is covered in honey-sweetened mascarpone, fresh strawberries, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.  Ridiculously delicious.

Looking forward to 2 more pizzas tomorrow!  =)

UPDATE #2:

I made the other 2 pizzas and took pictures of them, but my camera ran out of battery during the import to my computer, and the result of this was that they were deleted from the camera without being imported.... SO there is sadness and no more pizza pictures.  =(

But they were REALLLLLY delicious, so I shall describe them to you now.

One had a tomato sauce with balsamic vinegar, baby portobello mushrooms, ground beef, spinach, mozzarella, and more balsamic vinegar drizzled on top.  This was so ridiculously amazing, I ate 3 pieces in one sitting, and then had the rest as breakfast the next morning... cold and still amazing!  =)

And the last pizza was the most extravagant of all - tomato balsamic cream sauce, caramelized onions, mozzarella, corn, goat cheese, honey, and fresh basil.  Sooooooo good.  Every ingredient worked so perfectly with the others, and the basil was the absolute most perfect finish ever.  So yeah, wonderful wonderful it was.

AWESOME CHALLENGE!  Go Daring Bakers!  =)

Avocado Birthday Cake

I had a very special roommate last year, and one of the first late-night kitchen conversations we ever had was on the subject of school clubs.  She told me that she discovered that if you found 5 people to say they were interested in a certain club, the school would give you $200 to start it.  She thought this was the most exciting thing in the world, because, and this is in her words:  How many people love avocados?  All I'd have to do is find 5 people who love avocados, and then they'd give us $200, and we could spend it all on avocados!!!!

Well, we never started the club (I guess we're too lazy for the paperwork), but we certainly consumed a lot of avocados anyways in the time we lived together.  And when the time came to make her a birthday cake, I could think of nothing more fitting and special than an avocado cake.  And here it is!! 

It took the birthday girl a while to figure out what kind of cake she was eating, but once she did, she ate 2 big slices right there, licked her plate clean, and then proudly carried the rest of her cake home.  

I made a big cake for her, and then 3 little individual cakes that I brought over to a few of my gourmet-food-obsessed man friends.  One of them ate his and then sent me this e-mail:

I had the cake tonight...words cannot describe the interactions my mouth had with that dessert...it was orgasmic, you can just ask Craig...it brought tears to my eyes...it was "les plus delicieux"(the most delicious) and I don't even speak French, I just felt like putting that, I had to look it up...I'm basically speechless right now, so I'll just let you imagine the euphoric state I'm experiencing in the aftermath of the taste explosiveness, the mind-blowing eruption of pleasure in my palate, the sweet, sweet love that occurred in my mouth at 11:40 PM PST tonight.

And hahaha I don't think I even have to say anything more than that.  =)  I guess everyone really does love avocados!

 

I based this cake on the recipe the Daring Bakers used for Strawberry Mirror Cake in July of 2007, so basically it is an avocado bavarian cream layered with vanilla genoise brushed with lime syrup, and with some chocolate ganache drizzled on top.  

Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies with Raspberry!!!!

So after all the flaming desserts at the beach, I was left in my apartment with a bad sunburn, leftover marshmallows, and a script hanging over my head that needed to be written.  

Since I had the script, I of course hadn't planned on baking anything but of course was suddenly very, very compelled to do so.  (I'm not the best at being a responsible student)  I looked around my kitchen and chocolate and marshmallows were really the only things I had, so I searched on the internet for chocolate marshmallow cookies.  I came across these lovelies at Stephanie's Kitchen, and had to have them.  And have them I promptly did.  Except I've never been fond of using that much confectioners sugar in frosting, so I used some leftover ganache I had sitting around instead of frosting.  Annnnd I added some raspberry jam as a little kicker underneath the marshmallows.  

Oooooh man they were sooo good - this was one of the rare occasions in my life where I end up eating more of something I baked than I give away to other people.  Yeah, I totally hoarded these cookies and they never even left my apartment.  My roommates had some...  hehehe.  

And here is the recipe, adapted from this one:

For the topping:

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/3 cup heavy cream

To make the ganache, place the chopped chocolates in a small mixing bowl.  Heat the cream until it begins to simmer, and then pour the cream over the chocolate.  Let stand for a couple minutes, and then whisk until smooth.  Use on the cookies while still warm, or make beforehand and warm it up again before using.  

For the cookies:

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup whole milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

about 15 marshmallows, halved

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.  

In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the egg, milk, and vanilla to this.  

Add flour mixture to this about 1/2 cup at a time until it is all incorporated.  

Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing the drops about 2 inches apart.  

Bake cookies for 8 minutes or until firm.  Then, without fully removing them from the oven, quickly spoon some raspberry jam in the middle of each cookie, and follow the jam by pressing half a marshmallow into each cookie on top of it.  

Return to the oven and bake for 2 more minutes, or until the marshmallows are puffy and gooey.  

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes.  Then remove from baking sheets and spoon the ganache over each cookie, making sure to completely cover the marshmallows.  

Make sure to eat a couple while they're still warm, because the marshmallows and ganache will be gooey and warm!!  Once you've had your fill of that, store them in the refrigerator and see how long they last...

Daring Bakers - Pierre Hermé's Éclairs

Mmmmm this Daring Baker's challenge was one of the most delicious and awesome ones I have had the pleasure of experiencing!  This month was hosted by Meeta and Tony Tahan, and they had us all make Pierre Hermé's incredible Chocolate Éclairs.  

I was so excited to make these because I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE éclairs but I had never made any before.  I had never even tried my hand at choux pastry.  I'm almost ashamed to say it, considering just how much I enjoy éclairs and cream puffs and anything else in that variety of sweets.  I had always meant to try to make choux pastries... but something else to bake always seemed to come up.  And these situations are exactly what Daring Baker's challenges are for, right?  Right!  So this challenge was so right for me!  Thanks, hosts!

The challenge recipe was for an eclair filled with chocolate pastry cream and topped with a chocolate glaze, and we had the option of using both or either the filling or glaze recipes given.  

I mentioned that I LOVE éclairs, and what I love most about éclairs is the burst of cold, refreshing, lightly sweetened vanilla custard you get when you bite into them.  To me, éclairs are allll about that perfect custard cream filling.   So I was a bit apprehensive of a chocolate filling.  

But I decided to try it anyways, just because it was something I had never done, and I made little chocolate cream puffs that I sprinkled with powdered sugar.  They were pretty ridiculously delicious, but they weren't the refreshing perfection that I craved.  So I made some more choux, and whipped up these traditionally flavored éclairs!  

They were absolutely incredible, and so fun to make!  All the piping, and dipping, and finger-licking... oh my...  I filled some with vanilla pastry cream, and I guess I was getting a little heavy handed with that because I ran out of pastry cream.  So I filled the remaining few with whipped cream and those were incredible as well!  I think I'm just obsessed with all kinds of cream...

I will absolutely make these again, and I'm excited now to perfect my éclair making skills and make myself ridiculously fat.  =)

Don't forget to check out the blogs of all the other Daring Bakers, because they all made some beautiful and mouth watering pastries this month!  

Beachy Delicious

Are you intrigued by this burning donut of a plate?  

I could say something profound right now about how behind every spectacular dessert, there are spectacular burns and spectacular damage, but it wouldn't be true.  

The truth is simply this:  fire + girls + yummy things to cook on fire + things to destroy = severe banana induced burns.  

Shortly after this picture was taken, we poured coke over a towel to save it from burning.  We're smart girls.  =)  And shortly after that, we ate theeessseee burning babies of yum:

They're bananas that we stuffed with chocolate and marshmallow, wrapped in tin foil, and let sit in the embers of our campfire.  Kind of like banana s'mores, only not really.  

Seriously, these were sooo good, and I don't even like bananas.  I think this must be a really common camping dessert, because I remember that we always used to make these on our girl scout camping trips when I was a little girl.  I think they're so much fun to make, just for the fun of wrapping up your dessert, sticking it in a nice fire, and then getting to unwrap it and see what it's become!  And sooo delicious!  I did put a little bit of cinnamon on mine, though... shhh don't tell!

And speaking of cinnamon, allow me to introduce you to my all-time favorite campfire dessert:

It may not look like much, but after one bite, you'll be hooked like a yummy salmon fish.  

Of course, this is another treat from my childhood camping times.  I used to go to summer camp, and at camp we called these Dough Boys and ate them all the time.

It's very simple to make.  You get some pre-made biscuit dough and mold it around the end of a roasting stick so that it won't fall off.  Then you roast it until the outside is mostly crispy and golden-brown.  Think that sounds good?  Here comes the real good part...

Once they come off the fire, you roll them around in butter!!!!

And then you roll them around some more in cinnamon sugar!!!!!!!!!!

And after that you die, because once you have 1, you'll have to have 6, I swear.  

And that is what I did this past Sunday.  The day before our first day of classes was a day at the beach.  I got my first sunburn in ages and I made myself sick on doughboys.  What a perfect start to a semester.  =)

Honey Soufflés with Pomegranate Glaze

Breakfast?  Indeed.

I totally made this on a whim, which means that the recipe below is less of a real recipe and more of a "what I did."  But it worked!  And it was soo delicious.  The tartness of the glaze went perfectly with the smooth, intense sweetness of the honey.  If I made this again I would probably change some things in the soufflé recipe, for experimental and perfectionist purposes, but to be honest it was really delicious as it was!

Pomegranate Glaze

1/2 cup pomegranate juice

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp lemon juice

Combine all 3 ingredients in a small saucepan, and heat over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture reduces.  Take off the heat and set aside.  You may need to warm up the glaze again before serving, to get it to a pour-able consistency.  

Honey Soufflé

1/4 cup honey

1 egg yolk

1 egg white

1 tbsp flour

1 tsp granulated sugar

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 425 F.  Butter and sugar 4 ramekins, and prepare a water bath.  

In one mixing bowl, whisk together the honey and the egg yolk, and then mix in the flour.

In another bowl, whip the egg white with a pinch of salt until you get soft peaks.  Add the granulated sugar and continue whipping until you get stiff peaks. 

Add a little bit of the whipped egg whites to the honey mixture to lighten it.  Then fold the honey mixture into the rest of the egg whites, carefully, just until no streaks are left.  

Pour the batter into the four ramekins, filling them about halfway.  Place the ramekins in the water bath and into the oven.  

Immediately lower the temperature to 400 F.  Bake for 10 minutes at this temperature.

Lower the temperature to 350 F and bake for another 10 minutes.  

Lower the temperature to 300 F and bake for another 10 minutes.  

Then turn the oven off, and leave in the oven with the door closed for 15 to 20 minutes.

When they come out of the oven, invert the soufflés onto plates and drizzle them with the pomegranate glaze.

Daring Bakers Cake turned MACARON! weeee

What to do with leftover buttercream, preserves, nuts, and ganache?  

Seriously, this cake's leftovers were screaming macarons.  

So we get cashew macarons with peach preserves, cashew praline buttercream, and dark chocolate ganache with grand marnier.  Tastes just like the gateau.  But much more fun.

=)

Daring Bakers - Filbert (read: cashew) Gateau with Praline Buttercream!

This is what happens when Allison is reunited with an oven after two months of basically living in a hotel.  I like to think it was a magical reunion.  =)

I got back from Japan Wednesday night, when alll the other Daring Bakers were posting about this wonderful cake, brought to us by July's host, Chris of Mele Cotte, and all I could do was pass out in bed and dream about it since I had been up and riding planes for the previous 30 hours.  4 countries in 1 day, baby!!!!  But no cake to show for it... yet!

So naturally the first thing I did when I woke up yesterday was plan out my baking schedule for the next week.  I decided this cake should come first because, even though I missed the posting date, it's close enough that this can count as a late post rather than a skipped month... hopefully?  And also because my grandmother's birthday was in June, and I know she loves praline and chocolate, and she happens to be visiting us in Canada this week.  

I had my doubts about this cake before starting it... I wasn't really sure how all the flavors would work together, and while I know hazelnuts and chocolate to be a killer combination, the idea of hazelnut praline with apricot and chocolate was kind of rubbing me the wrong way.  So I decided to use cashews instead, since I had never used cashews in anything before, and I guess I was just in a cashew mood.  I am generally not a fan of apricots, and my mom had about 40 peaches in a huge basket in our kitchen that she was begging me to do something with... so I made a year's worth of peach preserves and used some of that for the cake!  And ooh it was peachy.   Also, my grandmother doesn't like rum, so I just used grand marnier and vanilla throughout.  However, in the peach preserves, I added some lychee liqueur and cinnamon.  

Every Friday, my dad's band comes over and they practice their rockin' music in our garage.  Lucky for my cake, today is Friday!  So it was eaten and well appreciated after band practice, and then was packed up in yogurt containers and sent off to the band members' wives.  

Everyone loved it, even my mom who always says she doesn't like buttercream (but who eats it every time I make it!).  I was actually surprised at how awesome it was!  I think I will definitely make this cake again in the future - definitely.  Cause it was prettty ridiculously wonderful.

So thanks Chris!  I don't think I would have made this cake normally after just looking at the recipe, but I'm so glad you gave me a reason to because it turned out to be incredible!!  YAY for Daring Bakers!!  

If you're interested in making this cake, get the recipe from the host's blog here!

I've Lost Myself in Tokyo

Ok so I know I said that I would still update this blog while in Tokyo.  And that I haven't, at all. 

Ahaha what can I say?  I have never been as in love with a place as I am with this one.  I have never felt at home or like I really belonged anywhere, and that is what I feel here after only 2 months.  

Above: Ajisai in Kamakura

Below:  Adorable boy at a Japanese baseball game

So I've completely been neglecting the internet, since I spend all of my time out in the city doing things, trying to make the most of my time here.  But I have uploaded the pictures I have taken so far of this amazing place onto flickr, so anyone interested in seeing them may do so.

And rest assured, when I get back home in 2 weeks, I will go on a mad baking rampage.  MAD. BAKING. RAMPAGE.  Because regardless of how amazing Japan is, going 2 months without a kitchen can really just drive a girl insane, you know?  Especially now that I've been exposed to so many inspiring Japanese sweets.  I neeeeeeed to recreate them!!!!!

Daring Bakers - Opera Cake

Cake Love.

=)

What a wonderful month this was - apart from the bliss of being in Japan, this has been my favorite Daring Baker`s challenge so far!  It was hosted by our wonderful co-founders, Lis and Ivonne, as well as Fran of Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie and Shea of Whiskful, and they chose to have us make Opera Cake!  This is a cake that is traditionally made with chocolate and coffee, but the hosts specified that we keep the cakes light in color and flavor.  Apart from that, the flavors and decorations and all that were up to us!  And oh... what that led to... a ton of amazing and very unique cakes!  

I was so excited to make this that I couldn`t decide on what flavors to use, so I kind of just gave in to my indecisiveness and made two.  And what a delicious indecision it was...

I made the first cake with a pistachio jaconde, a vanilla and lemon buttercream, a strawberry lemon syrup, a strawberry glaze, fresh strawberries in the layers, and chopped pistachios on top.   

The syrup for the buttercream looked so cool when it was boiling that I had to take a picture...

I had been wanting to try pistachios and strawberries together for a long time, and thought this was a perfect opportunity because of the nut based cake and... strawberry season!  Also, I wanted to use a fruit glaze instead of white chocolate because my mom is one of those white chocolate haters, and I was actually at home and baking for my parents when I made this.  

But of course, I love white chocolate, and of course, there was another flavor combination that I have been wanting to try forever that works so perfectly with this cake.  Yes, it's green tea and white chocolate...  I think a ton of other people have done this, too... as well they should, because it is seriously amazing.  And what can I say, I made this the day before I left for Japan, so it was probably the Japan excitement that made me do it.  (mmm Japan excitement is a glorious thing!)

I did an almond and green tea jaconde, a white chocolate and green tea buttercream, a vanilla and jasmine syrup, and the white chocolate mousse and glaze. I actually finished this cake 2 minutes before bolting out of the door to catch my flight to Japan, so I was only able to taste one bite of it, but it was an amazing bite! The green tea went perfectly with the white chocolate, and the jasmine gave the whole thing a wonderful flowery essence underneath the big flavors.

mmmm green tea buttercream.... amazing.  

I said that this was my favorite Daring Baker's challenge to date, and that's because I feel like I have accomplished so much with it!  I made both cakes without any problems, they tasted amazing, and I think they are pretty much the most aesthetically pleasing things to ever come out of my kitchen (I'm always so bad at making stuff pretty...).   

Plus, I had never even heard of an opera cake before this challenge, so it opened my eyes to a piece of pastry I had never before known, and I always love it when that happens!  It's happening every day I'm here in Japan, by the way. =)

So thank you, wonderful hosts, for another fantastic Daring Baker's challenge!  I loved it, and I look forward to seeing everyone's cakes!

If you want to try your hand at opera cake, see here for the recipe!

Spicy Sorbet and Goodbye for Now!

I have some really good news, some mildly bad news, and some ridiculously delicious sorbet to share with you today...

Let's start with the good news - in two days, I'll be going to Tokyo where I'll be living for two months to intern at a TV station! Wooohooo!! I'm going to eat so much sushi that I may actually turn into a fish! A cute fish. A salmon, probably. But not for eating.

The mildly bad news is that I won't have a kitchen to bake in while I'm in Japan! Sadface... This means that while I'll probably do a few blog updates about the amazing food in Japan, this blog won't see any of my own baking projects until August.

Sorry to all the people who love desserts... but I promise I will make up for it by sharing some of the amazing Japanese foodage I encounter! And I'll still post my May Daring Baker's challenge on the post date - I've already baked my challenge and set blogger to post it at the appropriate time. Go me!

And now for some deliciousness!!!

It started because I wanted to make something delicious for my mom for mother's day. I ran through a lot of options... and shot down all of them because not only is my mom pretty picky about desserts, she's also lactose intolerant and a health freak. Then I remembered having seen the same thing on multiple blogs a while back - a few people all raving about dark chocolate sorbet. And when I say raving, I mean raving - Joy the Baker even said she wanted to bathe in hers! And then I thought about the sweet things that I know my mom really loves, and realized that two of her favorite things ever are any kind of fresh fruit and good dark chocolate.

So I went and bought a ton of fresh fruit, and then raided our chocolate stash to find that my mom hadn't touched the bar of spicy chili and cinnamon dark chocolate that I had bought last time I was in town. She proceeded to tell me that I should use it in the sorbet... so I said, "OK!" and the result was magic. I used regular dark chocolate for 3/4 of the chocolate called for in the recipe, and replaced the other 1/4 with the spicy stuff. I ended up with a sorbet that didn't taste spicy, or hot, but that was pleasantly warm. If warm isn't a term that makes sense to you when talking about sorbet... then just trust me that it was perfection. Everything I thought it would be and more. My mom even went so far as to say, "there's nothing better than this!" as she was licking the removable part of the ice cream maker! She especially loved the complexity I got from mixing two different chocolates, and I loved it too!

Here is the recipe I used - its a David Lebovitz recipe and I found it on Chocolate & Zucchini.


Spicy Dark Chocolate Sorbet


1 cup plus 2 tbsp water
1/3 cup packed cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/4 oz dark chocolate, finely chopped*
3/4 oz chili and cinnamon spicy dark chocolate, finely chopped*
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
fresh fruit (I used blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and kiwis)
*you can change the ratio of chocolates for a sorbet that is more or less spicy, or you can just use 3 oz of the same chocolate. have fun!


Whisk together the water, cocoa powder, and sugar in a saucepan.
Heat the mixture while continuing to whisk.
Once it comes to a boil, remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate.
Add the vanilla and salt.
Whisk until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.
Let cool, and then refrigerate until chilled.
Whisk the mixture once more right before using, and then churn using your ice cream maker.
Once the sorbet is ready, serve with the fresh fruit and enjoy!
=)




And with that, Allison's kitchen says "Bye for now, and I'll see you again in August!"


But don't worry, I'll still be around, even if my kitchen isn't. And don't forget to check back on May 28th for my Daring Baker's challenge!

Baking Montage? Oh yeah...

So, the end of the semester has been crazy, and I haven't had much time to bake. And unfortunately, I get sad when I don't bake. I can't help it, my kitchen makes me happy, and when I'm not in it, I miss it.

I'm a film student, and I took a class this semester in which I had to make 5 short films, doing all the pre-production, shooting, and post production on my own for each one of them. While making movies is awesome and fun, there's a lot that goes into making a movie, hence the long list of people credited in even the simplest seeming films. Doing everything on your own is a huge bitch. So I was pretty burnt out when it came time to start planning my 5th project. I kept saying to myself, "what do I want to make a movie about?" Eventually I answered, "baking, of course!" and ran back into the kitchen for happy times.

I generally hate pre-production, but when "pre-production" involves baking cake layers, making dulce de leche, and measuring sugar and flour... well, I am so there. I wish I could show you the finished product, but alas, I go to a snobby film school and legally they own the rights to all the work I create there as a student, so I'm not allowed to publicly post it on the internet.

But please enjoy the stills I've posted of the baked goods as they appeared in the movie. And if you're curious, the movie was 8 minutes long, total, and 4 of those minutes were nothing but a baking montage of a man making brownies and cake while dancing to Michael Jackson's "Beat It" Yeah, I went there. And it was awesome.

Daring Bakers - Cheesecake Pops

Yay! It's Daring Bakers time again! This month's challenge was hosted by Elle of Feeding my Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell. And they chose cheesecake pops!

I was ecstatic when I saw the selection at the beginning of the month, because I absolutely love cheesecake! So creamy and cheesy and mmmm.... yeah. I'm also kind of obsessive about cheesecake quality, and am on a neverending quest for the perfect cheesecake recipe, so I always jump at the opportunity to try a new one! And this was more than just a new cheesecake recipe, it was an entirely new method of preparation and serving! See how cute each pop was on it's own little stick?

Awww. So happy. We were allowed to dip the pops in any kind of chocolate we wanted, and then decorate with anything we could think to stick on it! Needless to say, mine look rather plain compared to some of the pops those other Daring Bakers made. But they still make me really happy. I chose to dip them in white chocolate, because I was feeling like I wanted something that would add mild sweetness without too sharp or overpowering a flavor. After all, the cheesecake is the most important part in my book! And also because white chocolate was all I had in my freezer at the time... hehe. And since it was all I had, I decided the least I could do was make it colorful... so I made purple and blue cheesecake balls.

They had so much personality, though. See, this one is the "Allison ran out of sticks and dipped me with her fingers and then ate me so that no one would know" ball:

And this one is the "I'm so swirly and it makes me cool, even though it's really because the chocolate cooled too fast on me" texture-happy ball:

Haha I had way too much fun with these...

In the end, they all tasted amazing. I carried them around with me everywhere I went the day I made them, and received more than one marriage proposal in response. And seriously, I can't ask any more than that from any dessert recipe... =)

So thank you, Deborah and Elle, for a seriously fun challenge! The Daring Bakers are fabulous!

Strawberry White Chocolate Mocha Macarons

So, one day a couple months ago, I ran into my friend Amy as we were both on our way and running late for the same class. She offered me gum, and while I don't normally enjoy gum, this was strawberry gum, and it's hard to pass up any kind of strawberry sweetness that's being offered to me... So I accepted, and began to chew it just as we walked through the cinema courtyard (where they have a small coffee stand). I paused, "Why does this gum taste like coffee??" Amy looked at me like I was insane. The conversation that followed was something like this:

"omg it does taste like coffee!"

"I'm pretty sure there's no coffee in the gum."

"mmmmm strawberry and coffee..."

"that sounds disgusting."

"I am now inspired to make cookies."

But I didn't actually make the cookies... I had this idea that white chocolate would be a good cohesive flavor for the strawberries and coffee, and it took me forever to procure decent white chocolate. And I got caught up in other things to bake... but these were always lurking in the back of my mind. So when I went to the grocery store last week and saw a ton of beautiful strawberries under a sign that said 69c/lb, I knew exactly what I had to do.

I have made macarons before, with much success, but this was my first time making plain shells. The macarons I have made in the past have always been chocolate or pistachio. So I tried a recipe that I had not used before, and was very happy with it! The shells baked perfectly, and any macaron baker will know that perfectly baking shells equals love. You can find the recipe here at à la cuisine.

As for the filling... it ended up a product of much improvisation, when I couldn't for the life of me get my white chocolate ganache to set. I wanted to have a coffee buttercream and incorporate the strawberries into a white chocolate ganache, and then just have both fillings in each macaron. But apparently strawberries equal liquidy ganache? I even tried this twice, reducing the cream content to barely anything the second time, and the ganache still would not set. Soooo I kind of just dumped it all into the buttercream (half expecting a disaster) and danced around happily when it all came together and tasted lovely. The result of this was delicious filling and a ridiculous Frankenstein recipe for it. But here is the recipe, nonetheless.

Strawberry White Chocolate Mocha Buttercream Filling

1 cup chopped white chocolate

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 medium/large strawberries

1 tsp granulated sugar

2 egg whites

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup butter

3/4 tsp instant coffee granules

3 tsp water

Whisk the egg whites with the 1/2 cup sugar over a pan of simmering water until they are warm and the sugar has dissolved.

Beat until stiff peaks form.

Add the butter a tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition. Continue to beat until buttercream is smooth.

Dissolve the coffee in 3 tsp water, and gradually beat this into the buttercream.

Dice the strawberries, sprinkle the tsp of sugar over them, and toss to combine. Set aside.

Heat the cream in a saucepan. When it reaches the simmering point, pour it over the white chocolate. Let sit for a minute or so, and then whisk to combine. When the mixture is smooth, stir in the strawberries. Cover and refrigerate, and hope that it will set up like ganache is supposed to. When it doesn't do this, chuck it in the buttercream (gradually), and beat it in until the mixture is uniform and smooth.

Pipe the filling into the cookies and refrigerate overnight. Let the cookies come to room temperature before serving.

And see how beautiful those strawberries were? This is what I had for breakfast. Me and my toast with nutella and fruit.... =)

Obsessive much?

I have a confession to make.  Kind of a big one.  I'm kind of ashamed, but not really.  

I'm in love, and it has nothing to do with food.  His name is Jimmy Gnecco and for the past month or so I have been watching youtube videos of him perform in the time that I normally reserve for baking.  He's part of the band Ours and their new album was just released today.  I've loved them for years, but they haven't put out an album since 2002, so for a long time they were kind of on my musical back burner.  But I recently rediscovered them and fell madly in love.  I wasn't going to post about this, because... well, it doesn't have anything to do with food.  But then I realized that I hadn't posted about anything for about 2 weeks, and then I realized that besides my being incredibly busy with film stuff, Jimmy Gnecco was the reason why.  

So, for exactly this one post, I will use this blog as a way to say "OMG GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN NOW AND GO LISTEN TO THIS FREAKIN BAND! cause cake can wait for this."  

Yeah.  Honestly, I could write pages and pages on why they are so amazing, and am intentionally restraining myself from doing so.  So I'll just say that their music is very melodic, beautiful, and powerfully emotional.  In fact, it's powerful in general, which is what I love most about it.  

Also, if you like them, I can not stress enough that you should go watch youtube videos of them performing live.  I am of the opinion that, in many cases, the live recordings of their songs are actually way better than the album mixes.  Also, Jimmy is such an incredible performer (for many reasons) that I don't even consider the experience of listening to their songs complete unless I can see him singing (because it's so wonderful to see someone put so much energy and emotion into a performance).  

So go check them out!!

And don't worry, I promise I will post more dessert soon.  =)

Daring Bakers - Dorie's Perfect Party Cake

March brought me my second challenge as a Daring Baker... in the form of CAKE!

Ahahaha I heart cake. And we were allowed to make a ton of modifications with regards to flavor and such - fun times. The original recipe was a lemon flavored cake with lemon flavored buttercream and raspberry jam. Many of the Daring Bakers chose to make the recipe as it was written, and all of their cakes looked delicious, so I'm sure I'll try it that way sometime in the future.

But when I made the cake, I had a ton of blueberries lying around and no raspberry jam! I actually consume a pretty inhuman amount of raspberry jam daily, so naturally my jar was nearing empty on cake baking day... So, out came the blueberries. And because there were blueberries, I really just couldn't resist adding cinnamon.

Well, it doesn't look much like any of the refined, beautiful party cakes that the other Daring Bakers made... First, I didn't exactly have a 'party' to bake for, so I halved the recipe. Hence, 2 layers instead of 4. Also, I kind of ran out of buttercream (next time I'll make a double recipe) halfway through. But, when you have as much blueberry amazingness as I did, who needs frosting on top of a cake? Not me. I just poured and poured and poured with the blueberries. Yum.

Apart from not having enough buttercream, I was pretty impressed with this recipe - the cake was nice and fluffy and was good at soaking up blueberry juice (hehe), and the buttercream was divine (lemony and cinnamon-y oh my!). This turned out to be a nice breakfast cake, actually... yeah, I had some for breakfast 3 mornings in a row. So, next time I have an actual party to bake for, I'm excited to try the unadulterated recipe and see how it turns out! It was a wonderful challenge from a wonderful hostess, Morven! Check out her blog for the recipe!

Honeyed Fluffer Nutter Cupcakes

If I have ever met a cupcake that defined "finger-licking good," then this is surely it.  Sticky, gooey, moist, fluffy, completely drenched in marshmallow, laced with honey... yeah... holy taters.

When I saw that the theme for Quirky Cupcake's March Cupcake Hero Challenge was Marshmallow, the first thought that came to my mind was, "aaahh fluffer nuttersss."  Though I knew that many people would probably take the same path (since come on, it's a classic!), I really just had to do it.  And I am so glad I did, because seriously these cupcakes were amazing!

And as I was planning out my recipe, I kept on fantasizing about having the peanut butter and marshmallow cupcakes, and then drizzling honey all over them!  Oh, the scandalous fantasies I have sometimes...  What can I say, I am as big a fan of peanut butter and honey as I am of peanut butter and marshmallow!  So, why not combine them?  Instead of drizzling the finished cupcakes with honey (I thought this would be too messy and the sweetness would be unbalanced), I decided to add honey to both the cake and the marshmallow.  This proved to be a fabulous idea - the honey gave the cake extra moistness and deepened the flavor, and it just made the marshmallow about 10 times more decadent than it would have been otherwise.  I mean, just the thought of honey marshmallow almost puts me in a sugar-induced coma.  

So the cupcakes ended up being peanut butter honey cake, filled and smothered in honey marshmallow fluff.  As you can see above, I played around with different ways of topping these.  First I tried a peanut butter/marshmallow swirly piping, which looked nice, but in the end, the cupcakes tasted way better with just the marshmallow on top.  As you can see below, they weren't as pretty this way... but oh it really didn't matter.  The next day, most of the marshmallow topping had melted into the cupcakes (omg YES!).  Sooo I just spooned some more over right before eating them, and enjoyed the marshmallow soakage heaven.  

There's really not much more I can say about these cupcakes besides that I urge you to try them if you like peanut butter and marshmallow.  Every bite is packed with flavor.  I've described them as well as I can, but really you just have to taste them to get the full effect!  So on with the recipe!

Honeyed Fluffer Nutter Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

2 cups cake flour

1 cup boiling water

1 cup sugar

1 cup peanut butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup honey

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375 F.  

Whisk together the eggs with the sugar.  Then add the honey and peanut butter and whisk to combine.  Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and then add them gradually to the wet mixture.  Once everything is incorporated, slowly pour the boiling water into the batter while whisking.  When incorporated, the batter will be very liquidy.  

Pour into lined cupcake tins and put in the oven.  Bake for 5 minutes at 375.  Turn the oven down to 350 and bake for 3 more minutes.  Turn the oven down to 325 and bake for 3 more minutes or until the tops are golden and an inserted knife comes out clean.  Let cool.

For the marshmallow filling/topping:

(adapted from this recipe)

2 egg whites

1 cup light corn syrup

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup honey

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

Beat the egg whites with the corn syrup and salt until soft peaks form.  

Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating until combined.  

Beat in the honey and vanilla extract.

This makes way more fluff than you'll need for the cupcakes, so you might want to halve the recipe.  I like having the extra so I can add more to the cupcakes right before eating them.  Also, I used the rest of my extra fluff in another delicious creation that is in my oven as I write this!

Caramel Soufflés

And this is what I made the night after the pie...

Because I did not have access to internet on this trip, and because I packed and left home in a huge rush, took with me only one cookbook, and didn't have time to put together any recipes before I left...  because of all this, I ended up making dessert from that same cookbook two nights in a row; oh my!  But oh, it is an amazing book.  And oh, they are amazing desserts!

Though it may look complicated, I assure you, this is a very simple recipe!  There's some crème anglaise, some hard caramel, some almonds... and the caramel soufflé itself is nothing but egg whites and caramelized sugar.  Ok, I admit, I was supposed to put some other stuff in it and kind of forgot... I'm a terrible baker, I know.  But in my defense, I was caught up in the glory of two of my favorite things in the world - meringue, and melted sugar.  Combine those two and Allison is sure to lose her wits.  So I completely forgot that other things were supposed to go in the mix... oh well, they clearly weren't all that important, because my results were fantastic!  So the recipe I'm giving has been modified to disclude anything that Allison forgot to include in her caramel meringue distracted state.  These things happen.  If you want the complicated version, I suggest you buy the book (I suggest you buy it, anyways), Lost Desserts by Gail Monaghan.  

Caramel Soufflés (adapted from Lost Desserts by Gail Monaghan)

For the soufflés:

4 egg whites

a small pinch of salt

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 425 F.  Butter and sugar 4 ramekins. 

Beat the egg whites with the salt until stiff peaks form.

Place the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.  Let boil, covered for 3 minutes.  Uncover and continue to boil until the syrup becomes caramel in color.

Once it is ready, immediately remove caramel from the heat and pour slowly into the egg whites, beating constantly.  

Once the caramel is incorporated, gently spoon the mixture into prepared ramekins and place in a bain marie.

Put in the oven and immediately lower the oven temperature to 400 F.  After 5 minutes, turn off the oven, keeping the door closed.  After 15 more minutes, remove from the oven and place the soufflés on a wire rack to cool.  

For the crème anglaise:

1 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream

4 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the egg yolks until they are lightened and thick.

In a saucepan, heat the milk, cream, sugar, and salt.  Once it is simmering, slowly pour it into the egg yolks, beating constantly.  

Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and the mixture coats the back of the spoon.  

Strain into a bowl, add the vanilla extract, and refrigerate.

To assemble:  When both components are cool, spoon the crème anglaise onto serving plates.  Carefully invert the soufflés onto the plates.  Sprinkle with sliced almonds, if desired.  

To make the hard caramel drizzle, cook 1/2 cup sugar with 3 tablespoons water as described in the soufflé recipe.  When the mixture is ready, pour it directly over the plated soufflés in a decorative manner.  Let harden.  

Chocolate Raspberry Angel Pie

Meeeep it has been so long since my last post, hasn't it?  Oh well, such is the price I pay for being busy making films and preparing for the Summer.  I extend my sincere apologies for my absence to anyone I may have left in a sad, sugarless state.  I assure you, this pie is more than enough to bring anyone into a happy, happy, sugar-filled state!  

I have been on Spring Break this past week, and I spent much of it relaxing in an internet-less condo in the snowy mountains with three of my friends (one other female and two male).  Since there was no internet, and since the men spent every minute of every day practically glued to their video games, the other girl and I basically spent all of our time in the kitchen!  I made a dessert every night, she made breakfast every morning, and we rotated and collaborated on the dinners.  And when I wasn't in the kitchen, I was out taking snowy mountain pictures!  It was wonderful; it is very, very rare for me to have the leisure to spend so much time in the kitchen, so I made sure to take full advantage of it.  

And here is some of the fruit of my labors (leisures?)

The crust is meringue, the filling is chocolate raspberry, and the topping is rose flavored whipped cream.  My friends loved it, and the four of us ate almost the whole thing in just two days.  Which is saying a lot considering the enormous amount of other food the other girl and I were forcing everyone to eat daily!  

Here is the recipe, which I adapted from the amazing cookbook, Lost Desserts by Gail Monaghan.  This is the first recipe I have tried from this book, but from the looks of it I will definitely try more in the near future!  You'll find this pie in the book without the raspberry and rose, but with espresso and kahlua.  

Chocolate Raspberry Angel Pie (adapted from Lost Desserts)

For the meringue crust:

4 egg whites

pinch of salt

1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 275 F.

Butter a 9-inch springform pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, and butter the paper.

Beat the egg whites with the salt to soft peaks.  

Add the sugar gradually while continuing to beat.  Once all the sugar has been added, add the vanilla.  Beat on high speed to stiff peaks.  

Spread the meringue over the bottom and sides of the pan, building the sides about 2 inches high.

Bake for an hour and 15 minutes.  Let cool.

For the filling:

12 oz. chopped semisweet chocolate

pinch of salt

4 egg yolks

1 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup water

1 tsp raspberry extract

Gently heat the chocolate, salt, and water in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring constantly, until all the chocolate has melted.  

Remove from heat and whisk in the egg yolks, one at a time.  Add the raspberry extract.  Let cool completely.

Whip the cream until soft peaks form, and then fold into the cooled chocolate mixture.  

Spoon the mixture into the cooled meringue crust, cover and refrigerate until set (at least 4 hours).  

For the topping:

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp rose water

Fresh raspberries

When ready to serve the pie, whip the cream with the sugar and rose water until stiff peaks form.  

Carefully remove the pie from the pan, and spread the whipped cream over the top.  Garnish with fresh raspberries and serve.  

Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Kiwi... Best Breakfast Ever.

The best grocery shopping days are always the ones when I find good kiwi.  Yesterday was one of those days.  =)

Usually, when I come home with kiwi, I eat some of it right away straight with a spoon.  Sooo delicious.  And then for the next few days I'll have toast for breakfast, and I'll top the toast with nutella and kiwi slices.  It's an amazing way to start the day... and kiwi is healthy, right?

Yesterday I needed to bake cupcakes for my actors (I'm a film student, so I don't pay them with money haha), and I saw the kiwis, and I thought, "hey, if it's good on toast, it can be awesome on a cupcake!"  And it was.  Except I didn't have any nutella (because I thought I did when I was at the store and then once I got back I realized I was out and didn't have time to go back.... argh).  So I just added a ton of frangelico to everything, and I think it worked pretty well!

These are chocolate hazelnut cupcakes, topped with whipped milk chocolate hazelnut ganache, and kiwis.

For the cupcakes:

(adapted from this recipe)

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup cocoa powder

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup frangelico liqueur

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in one mixing bowl. Combine the milk, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and liqueur in another bowl.  Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the milk mixture into it.  Mix until combined.  

Pour the batter into lined muffin tins, filling the cups 3/4 of the way.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean and the tops spring back when touched.  

Makes about 25 cupcakes.

For the ganache:

1 cup chopped chocolate  (I used about 3/4 milk and 1/4 bittersweet)

1 cup heavy cream

3 tbsp frangelico liqueur

Heat the cream in a saucepan until it begins to simmer.  Pour over the chopped chocolate.  Wait for a few minutes, and then whisk the mixture until it is smooth.  Mix in the frangelico.  Cover and chill until set.  This takes a long time, but I put mine in the freezer since I was in a hurry.  So, in the freezer, it took about 2 hours.  

Once it is set, whip it until it is light and fluffy.  Immediately spoon, pipe, or spread over cooled cupcakes.

Slice up some kiwi and put it on top, and it's ready to eat!  YAY!

Bears are Fierce, but Ginger-Honey Bears are FEROSH!

Bears maul people.  ...Fierce?  Maybe.  

These bears will maul you with ginger.  And honey (they're bears!).  And they'll look fabulous in the process.  Now that is some Feroshity.  

But not all bears are made for mauling.  Meet Flowery Bear.... (*cough* RAMI-BEAR)

Flowery Bear is so not fierce.  (Tranny mess, indeeed)

Flowery Bear gets BEARCLAWED!

Muahahahaahahahaha.  He was delicous.

But the other bears were delicously:

Weeeeeee....

For Fierce Ginger Honey Bear Cupcakes:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup boiling water

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup oil

1/2 cup honey

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Whisk together the sugar and eggs in a mixing bowl.  Add the honey and oil, and whisk until well combined.  

Sift together the flour, ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Gradually add this to the egg mixture, mixing until incorporated.

Slowly pour the boiling water into the batter, stirring constantly until fully incorporated.  The batter should be liquid.

Pour the batter into lined muffin tins, filling the cups 3/4 of the way.

Bake for 30 minutes and let cool.

Makes about 18 cupcakes.

Creme Anglaise (ok, so I really just needed to use some egg yolks... but this worked really well with the cupcakes!)

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk the yolks with the sugar in a bowl.  In a small saucepan, heat the milk and cream until it begins to simmer.  Slowly pour the heated milk mixture into the yolk mixture, whisking continuously.  When it is fully incorporated, return the mixture to the saucepan, add the vanilla, and cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.  

When cooled, spoon over the cupcakes.

To decorate the cupcakes, just melt some chocolate, put it in a pastry bag, and have at it!  Have at it in a ferociously creative way, that is.  

Bunnies get claw pwned by bears.  Fact.  =)

Created for the best blogging event ever, hosted by CB of I Heart Cuppycakes.

Chocolate Mint Pudding in Tuile Cups

Looks good, right?  Well it didn't look that good for long.  What the title should read is "Chocolate Mint Pudding in Soggy Tuile Cups."  Maybe I was asking for it, making them on a humid day and then filling them with... pudding.  But I had never made tuile before, so how would I have known?  

I just had an innocent chocolate mint craving, and thought that chocolate and mint needed to be in cold, creamy form (pudding!), and then I happened upon a recipe for mousse-filled almond tuile cups in one of my cookbooks, and thought that chocolate tuile would compliment the pudding perfectly.  Well, it did - it tasted amazing.  But after about 10 minutes the tuile just became the "crepe formerly known as tuile".  Yeah, totally flat and crepe-like.  And we ate these with forks.  Lame.  Delicious, but lame, indeed.  

Oh well.  Update with recipe to come when I figure out a better way to do this.  I'm thinking oreo crust.  Oh yeah, baby.  

Update:

Oreo crust worked (of course).

But I'm a dork and didn't write down anything when I made the pudding (typical 3 AM Allison retarded baking moment), so I'm not giving a recipe because I'll probably remember something wrong and then anyone who tries this will fail miserably and it will all be my fault.  Not that pudding is really that fickle of a thing... but still.

So I will leave you with this picture of minty goodness.  Yummmmm.

Ugh, I take that back.  Blogger is being really uncooperative and I have to go to class.  Picture will come later...