The Mysterious Explosion of Chocolate Cake, Cheese Cake, and Peanut Butter Mousse

Today I ate the most delicious bagel of my life. Surprisingly, it was a dempsters bagel. The 12 grain ones. I slathered that tasty thing in peanut butter and a bit of honey. So good.

But that’s only mildly important! On friday I made a wicked cake, because it was my brother’s birthday, he is now 28. What an old pants! Obviously I had to make a cake, right? Right. I wanted to make something ridiculous and decadent. So then what’s better than chocolate+peanut butter+cheese cake? Probably not too many things. I don’t really have any nice pictures of it, I got lazy and was too excited to eat it to take the time to attempt to take a nice picture, ha. There’s a picture of the inside at the very bottom of this post, once you get passed all the recipe junk.

I went with one of my favourite chocolate cake recipes that I forget where it’s from. I used the liquid cheesecake recipe from the book Milk of the Momofuku Milk Bar, and the peanut butter mousse I kind of just made up…our little secret okay?  I only used one of the 8″ chocolate cakes, and used two 3/4″ thick pieces of it. I remember trying to halve this recipe previously with sub-par results. You can always freeze the extra cake, or make more of the peanut butter mousse and liquid cheesecake and make a super dooper tall cake. Or two cakes. Or cupcakes? Do whatever your heart desires! I’m going to list all the ingredients of the components first, then go through all the assembly so it’s easier to follow. Here we go!

I need to work on my piping…so crooked! I blame it all on the chocolate though, low quality chocolate isn’t as fluid as higher quality chocolate okay..so it doesn’t pipe as well..yeah..that was the problem..Look at that meticulous coloured sprinkle placement though, these shaky hands can still do a good job on some things. Err, let’s get back on track here now Tara.

Dark Chocolate Cake

3 cups of flour
2 1/2 cups of sugar
1 cup of cocoa
1 tablespoon of baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 cups of buttermilk
1 1/3 cups of canola oil
1 cup of cooled coffee
1 tablespoon of vanilla paste
3 eggs

Liquid Cheesecake -from Momofuku Milk Bar

225 gms full fat cream cheese (or 1 8oz pkg)
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
2 tablespoons of milk
1 egg

Peanut Butter Mousse

2 1/2 gelatin leaves, bloomed in cold water
3 cups of heavy cream, divided
5 yolks
1/3 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup of peanut butter chips

For the cake! 

Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease and line two 8″ round pans with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs with the oil. Then whisk in the buttermilk, coffee and vanilla paste. Pour the liquid into the dry and whisk on medium speed for about 2 minutes.

Divide the batter equally between the two pans and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the cake springs back when gently pressed in the centre. Or if a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Or if elephants come stampeding through your kitchen in which case you would probably be running away so for sure remember to take the cakes out of the oven then…or at least turn the oven off.

Let the cakes cool!

Liquid Cheesecake!

Preheat your oven to 300F.

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese for about 2 minutes on medium speed until nice and soft. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the sugar and mix until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and salt and add the milk slowly until it’s all smooth and homogeneous.  Then whisk in the egg. Stream this mixture into the cream cheese/sugar mixture while beating on medium speed for about 3-4 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Line a tray with parchment paper, then place an 8″ cake ring in the middle. Cut a strip of parchment to line the inside of the ring. Pour the cheesecake into the ring, and bake for 15 minutes. When it’s done, the sides will be set but the middle will be slightly jiggly still. Perfect!

Cool the cheesecake and then place in the freezer, otherwise you’ll have a very difficult time during assembly.

Peanut Butter Mousse!

Whip the yolks and sugar over a bain marie until light and fluffy, and when you stick your finger in it it’s too hot to keep in for more than a few seconds. About 55C. Let cool. Melt the peanut butter with the peanut butter chips and 1 cup of the cream. Dissolve the gelatin into this mixture. Gently fold the yolks and peanut butter mixture together. Stir this gently over an ice bath until cooled, it will also slightly thicken. Meanwhile, whip the remaining cream to medium-stiff peaks.  Sacrifice a little bit of the cream into the peanut butter mixture to lighten it up a bit and make it easier to incorporate into the fluffy items. Now fold everything together, gently. Make sure there are no streaks.

Assembly! 

In a 9″ cake ring lined with tall acetate or parchment paper and a cake board on the bottom, place one of the cake rounds in the centre.  Pour about 1/3 of the mousse. Give the pan a gentle tap to jiggle things into place. Place the semi-frozen cheesecake on top of that. Don’t press down too much or you’ll just be squishing it onto the top of the cake layer. Then pour another third of the mousse. Gently tap the pan on the counter again, then place the last cake layer. Pour the rest of the mousse, another tap on the counter, and then gently smooth/level out the top with a small offset spatula if needed. Place the cake in the fridge to set up!

If you want, you can make a glaze of sorts for the top. Here’s the one I made.

1 1/2 teaspoons powdered gelatin or 2 leaves gelatin
1/4 cup heavy cream
5 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Bloom the gelatin in some water and bring the rest of the ingredients to a boil on the stove.  As soon as it boils, take it off the stove and stir in the gelatin. Strain into a bowl and cover directly with plastic wrap. Let cool to a neutral temperature before using. You don’t want to be pouring a hot glaze on a cake that’s just been in the fridge or it will melt, nor do you want to pour a cool glaze on a frozen cake, or it will set up way too fast right? right. CAKE!

I also got a new tattoo the other day. A friend and I woke up feeling in the mood for new tattoos. So we went and got them done. Cool beans!

Funfetti/Rainbow Chip Cupcakes?!!?!

16 degrees in March, eh? I’m cool with that, weather man. So down. I knew it was going to be a good day from the moment I woke up. I could hear birds chirping! The first morning bird chip in a while, it made me pretty happy.  Baking day!

The cupcakes themselves turned out pretty delicious. They have a soft and moist crumb and they’re pretty light and fluffy. Basically they taste like a cake mix, which I am super okay with because while I am all for making everything completely from scratch, I love the taste of cake mix! It reminds me of when I was little and didn’t know how to actually make anything yet so I just made box cakes all the time. Awesome.

I chose to make a meringue for the top instead of a buttercream or anything, mainly because I had no butter left. Ha, so meringue it is! But plain is just so boring…strawberry? Yes! It’s just a basic italian meringue with some strawberry flavouring in it. Pretty tasty!

Look how fluffy! Nomnomnom

Yellow Cake (from ChefTalk)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (do not sift the flour)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups milk
Vegetable oil
1 stick butter (not margarine), softened
1-tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350°

Cut wax paper to fit the bottom of (3) 9 x 1 1/2-inch round pans. Spray the pans with cooking spray, place the wax paper in the pans and spray the paper.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, mixing well.

Measure the 1-1/4 cups of milk in a 2 cup measuring cup….then add enough vegetable oil to bring the liquid up to 1-1/3 cups.

Add the milk/vegetable oil mixture, butter and vanilla to the flour mixture and beat with an electric mixer on medium to medium-high speed for 2 minutes, scraping sides of bowl as needed.

Add the eggs and continue beating an additional 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared pans.

To make this into cupcakes, it makes about 24 of them. Bake for about 15-20 minutes.

 

This will make you happy

Pistachio Cardamom Cake with Rose Buttercream

Well, I obviously haven’t been updating much as of late. Since moving back home I did manage to find a job, and at a pretty neat place too. It’s called Langdon Hall. Mostly all of the other peeps working there are fantastic. I do bread two days a week and then work the pastry station a few days a week also. I love that I get to do different things. It’s basically wicked awesome. But it’s also the reason I haven’t been updating that much, because it gets my sleep schedule all out of whack when I switch between the shifts. Let’s not pretend here, I am a lazy bum so after work I generally don’t want to do anything.

But today! Today my pretties, I made you a lovely cake! We all know I love me some cake. I made a pistachio cardamom cake with a rose buttercream. It’s super simple to make, awesome delicious, and the colours are really pretty! I had the whole thing made and assembled within 2 hours. Wicked!

Pistachio Cardamom Cake (adapted from food52)

1/2 cup ground pistachios, plus 1/3 cup roughly chopped pistachios
1 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 pkg pistachio pudding powder (this is completely optional and the original recipe doesn’t call for it)
1/2 cup butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract

Preheat your oven to 350F and line a half sheet pan with a silpat or parchment paper and spray the whole thing with nonstick spray, or use butter. Whatever you fancy. If you can’t find ground pistachios, just quickly pulse them in a food processor but not too much as to bring out the oils and make a paste. In a bowl whisk together the ground pistachio, flour, salt, baking powder and cardamom (and pudding powder if using) and set aside. In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, and then the vanilla and almond extract. On medium speed, add the milk and dry ingredients alternately just until combined. In a separate bowl quickly whisk the egg whites to semi-stiff peaks. Gently fold into the batter. They will deflate some since the batter is so heavy.

Spread the batter evenly into the pan and sprinkle with the chopped pistachios. Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until the cake springs back when gently pressed. Let the cake cool completely before removing from the pan. Thanks to mother nature and the cold day we had today for cooling my cake down in 15 minutes. Awesome!

Now start the buttercream!

Rose Buttercream

1 1/3 cups sugar
6 egg whites (180 grams)
12oz soft butter
rose water to taste
1/2 split vanilla bean

In the mixing bowl over a double boiler, whisk the whites with the sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Transfer to the mixer and whip until stiff peaks have formed and it’s cooled down. At this point add in the butter and whip until it comes together. It might look separated for a bit but just continue to beat it at high speed and it will come together. At this point add in the vanilla and start with 1/2 tsp rose water. Beat and taste! Needs more rose? Add more! Add until you love it! The flavour does deepen as it sits so keep this in mind dear folks.

Now for assembly!

When the cake is completely cool, use a ruler or measuring tape to cut the cake into three 5″ wide rectangles. Or cut it into four, or however many you want! Just make sure they are the same size. Layer them with buttercream! Yum. Save some and ever so slightly tint pink if you want to pipe a silly border like I did. Or a pretty one. Do what you want!

The reason I used pistachio pudding mix in my cake is because before I had caved in to going to the store, I didn’t have any actual pistachios. So I just added that in and used ground almonds instead (cheater!!). But then I realized I didn’t have enough butter for the buttercream so off I went to the store!

I started off today in a terribly bitter mood but then when I started making this everything was cool. And now that it has turned out mega awesome I’m even happier!

I ♥ baking, when it goes well…ha. When it doesn’t, well that’s another story now! (I recall yelling out I’M NEVER BAKING AT HOME AGAIN” a few weeks ago)

Pumpkin Cake with Vanilla Brown Butter Icing and Red Anjou Pears

Yesterday I was once again in the cake baking mood (surprise!). I rummaged through the cupboards looking for inspiration and found a can of pumpkin puree. Yum! I haven’t made a pumpkin cake at home before so I thought I’d give that a go. The usual search on the internet for the perfect recipe that made sense commenced, and I spent about 2 hours before finally choosing one. I didn’t want it to be a heavy cake, I wanted it to be light and fluffy and moist and dreamy. Once I had chosen my recipe, I realized that I didn’t have any butter. Of course! So I had to take a little trip to the grocery store.

Let me just tell you that driving in even the slightest bit of snow, even with snow tires on, results in fish-tailing all over the damn road when starting from a stop sign. It’s kind of hilarious, I don’t even go fast. I can see how rear-wheel drive would be fun in the summer but in the winter I hate it. I risk my life for a few pounds of butter to fuel my baking addiction.

So back on track, at the grocery store I see the most perfect pears and realize I have to buy them. They were red anjous and so perfectly ripe that I could smell them from my basket during my grocery-store-trot. I also saw mascarpone cheese and realized I obviously had to get that too (didn’t end up using it haha). So far so good. Except wait, I came here for butter. So off to the dairy aisle I go. Oh look! There is only one brand of unsalted at the moment, and it’s the most expensive one. I ponder it for a moment and decide that I’m not going to risk death and drive to another store to save a dollar or two. There were these two girls staring at me while I pondered. I grit my teeth and throw two pounds in the basket and quickly prance away with my heavy basket like a weirdo. Here’s a picture from google of some red anjou pears! Aren’t they beautiful?

Back at home, I decide to brown one pound of the butter for the icing. Throw in a vanilla bean? Why not! The house smells amazing as the pumpkin cake is baking and the brown butter is brewing. Delicious. My dad asks if the only reason I came home was to kill him.

The icing I used on this cake was a german buttercream. You probably know what it is, but didn’t know it had a real name like me. Those buttercreams that start with a cooked custard base are german buttercreams! And they are delicious. Now that I think about it, they are basically mousseline buttercreams. Pastry cream+butter=yum! I love winter, because when I’m baking and am in need of a blast freezer I have a huge one right outside the door. Need to cool down  some brown butter? Put it in a dish in the snow! Need to cool down pastry cream? Wrap it up in saran wrap and put it in the snow! Just make sure no nosey dogs are trying to eat your products. Foster really likes butter and pastry cream.

Almost forgot about the pears! So while things were chillin’ out in the snow I diced up two of the pears and..semi-poached-semi-steamed them in a bit of white wine. I had no idea what the hell I was doing all I knew was I wanted them in wine. I let them hang out in the pot for about half an hour until they were tender but still had a bit of crunch to them to add texture to the finished cake. Yum.

I’ve noticed lately that I am liking the looks of not icing the sides of cakes. Maybe it’s just laziness though..haha. I like how it looks more rustic and easy going yet pretty at the same time. Can a cake be easy going? Well they can now.

I waited until this morning to take pictures of the cake so that they wouldn’t look like complete crap. I may or may not have had cake and coffee for breakfast. What. Don’t look at me like you’ve never done it. The cake by itself is so awesome, you could eat it with just a dusting of icing sugar on top. So moist, so flavourful, so awesome. When I tasted the buttercream after first making it I wasn’t sure I made the right choice of browning the butter. Don’t get me wrong it tasted amazing, but it felt too rich, too heavy. But then I doctored it up a little bit and when paired with the cake it’s actually quite awesome and not heavy at all. I’m not sure if letting it sit over night did anything but I like to think that it allowed the flavours to mellow out a little bit. I also really love the texture that the pears give to every bite.

Pumpkin Cake

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

2 cups of sugar
1 1/4 cups of grapeseed oil (or canola or vegetable)
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
2 cups of pumpkin puree
2 cups of all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp fresh grated nutmeg

Preaheat oven to 350F. Grease and line the bottoms of two 8″ round pans with parchment.

In a mixer with the whisk attachment, whip the sugar with the oil, eggs and vanilla on high until light and fluffy. Add the pumpkin and whisk til combined. In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Switch to the paddle attachment and add the dry ingredients and mix just until everything is combined. Finish with a spatula if you need to but don’t overwork the batter.

Divide between your two pans and bake for about 30-35 minute or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean and the cake springs back when gently pressed in the centre. Let cool in the pans for about 10 minutes and then invert them onto a cooling wrack to finish cooling.

Brown Butter German Buttercream

(adapted from BraveTart!) **Double the recipe if you want to mask the outside of the entire cake.

8oz whole milk
6 oz sugar
3/4 ounce of cornstarch
1 egg
1 egg yolk
16 ounces of unsalted butter
1 vanilla bean
pinch of salt

In a pot melt the butter and add one vanilla bean, split and seeded and continue to cook until it turns a nutty brown. Keep an eye on it because it can go from brown to black pretty fast. You can strain the butter into a bowl if you want but straining isn’t required. Set aside until solid again and room temp.

In a pot heat the milk with one tablespoon of the sugar until almost boiling. In a bowl, whisk together the rest of the sugar and cornstarch. Whisk in the egg and yolk until smooth. Once the milk is just about boiling, pour into the egg mixture and whisk til combined. Return to the pot and continue to whisk over medium heat until the mixture boils and thickens and then continue to cook for about half a minute more. Pour this mixture into a bowl and cover the top directly with plastic wrap and cool in the fridge until cold.

Once the mixture is cool, whip until creamy and then add the butter. Whip until light and fluffy. Add the salt. Yum!

I also threw in about 5 ounces of cream cheese, a tiny bit of orange zest and a tiny bit of icing sugar to get it back to the consistency I wanted.

If you want to make this without brown butter, steep the vanilla bean in with the milk instead and continue with the recipe as normal with just plain soft butter.

White Wine Anjou Pears

3-4 red anjou pears
1/2 cup of tasty white wine
1/2 vanilla bean if you want

Cut the pears into a small dice, keeping in mind that the pears go in between layers of cake. Throw into a pot and add the white wine (and optional vanilla bean), put over medium-low heat with a lid until the pears are soft but still have a slight bite to them. When mine were done there was about a tbsp of pear/white wine syrup in the bottom of the pot. So good.

Assembling the cake!

Cut each cake layer into two so there are 4 layers. Layer them with buttercream and then 1/3 of the pears, make sure you press them flat into the buttercream. Continue layering. Eat!

Chocolate Cake and I

Guess what I maaaaaaaaaaade!!!

Cake!

Chocolate cake, with chocolate peanut butter frosting. I was going to make a peanut butter mousse for the filling but realized I didn’t have most of the ingredients I needed, boourns. Next time!

While these cakes were baking, they had the absolute best smell. Maybe from a combination of the whole wheat flour and new cocoa. I almost died. Literally. I could smell that the small ones were done so walked in to the kitchen to get them out of the oven and slipped on the tile and practically smashed my head open, derp.

At least I was right that they were done. You can’t really tell by these pictures, but the cake itself was such a deep dark black. These little guys were just sittin’ there, on the cooling rack, looking all seductive-like. Staring at me with their soft interiors and gently whispering my name. I obviously had to eat one. It was divine.

Cute and shiny. Super moist, too. The fully assembled cake, I must say, was amazing. The subtle hint of peanut butter in that satiny smooth frosting was ridiculously good. I’m pretty sure someone had 3 pieces after dinner tonight.

That one speck of cake in the icing there is really bothering me. DAMN YOU CRUMB! Oh well. It’s not like this is a fancy shmancy cake. If I took the time to make this fancy shmancy though, oh dear mother of pearl would it be a classy cake.

Here’s the recipe!

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

3 cups of all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup of all purpose, and 2 cups of whole wheat)
2 1/2 cups of sugar
1 cup of cocoa
1 tbsp +1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups of buttermilk
1 1/3 cups of canola/vegetable oil
1 cup of hot coffee (it’s okay to add the coffee hot, it doesn’t need to be cooled if you freshly brewed it)
1 tbsp vanilla
3 eggs

Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting

1 cup of soft butter
2 cups of icing sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup of heavy cream
3/4 cup of smooth peanut butter

chopped peanuts (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and line two 8″ cake pans with parchment paper.
In the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, combine the flour with the sugar, salt, cocoa and baking soda.
In a separate bowl mix together the buttermilk, oil, coffee, vanilla, and eggs. With the mixer on medium-low, add the liquid ingredients until fully incorporated. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl. It will be a very liquidy mixture. Like a really super thick hot chocolate. Pour into the prepared pans, and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in their pans for about 20 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.

In the meantime, make the frosting! Combine the butter, icing sugar, and cocoa in a food processor or blender. While that’s running, add in the liquid ingredients until smooth. Then add the peanut butter and blend til smooth. You can use a regular mixer for this but you’ll end up with a more fluffy frosting, not a satiny smooth one. And that’s fne too!

Once the cake has cooled, split the layers into two, or leave them for just a two layer cake. I had to split my one layer since I only baked one layer (confession: I only have one of each of all of my baking pans boooo). Then divide the frosting up equally depending on how many layers you have. You can ice the sides if you want, but you don’t have to.

Sprinkle on some chopped peanuts, or coat the sides of the cake for a more elegant look with a smooth flat top. Pretty!

Cranberry Orange Angel Food Cake

You know, the funny thing about having a lot of cream in your fridge is that you usually end up using egg yolks to go with it. Best friends they are, cream and egg yolks. However, then this leaves you with a supply of egg whites  in the fridge. And you’ve got to use them! It’s too sad to just let them sit there and sit there. You feel guilty. This is what happened to me today. I feel guilty about lonely things sitting in the fridge. I wonder how they feel about their lives, waiting and waiting until they finally get chosen as the star of the day.

There was something else in the fridge I noticed. Cranberry sauce. I really, really love cranberry sauce. Really really really love it. Hell, I just love cranberries in general. The way they explode in your mouth when you bite them is so fun (must… resist… urge… to make joke). I also like oranges. The way they smell and taste. Yum yum. So essentially I realized I had some sad lonely egg whites, cranberry sauce, and oranges. Now what in the world can I make with those three ingredients? A cranberry orange egg white omelet? Oh god that would be disgusting. Add some flour, sugar and vanilla though and BLABOW you got yourself a tasty angel food cake.  A soft, delicate, orangey cranberry-ey cloud of happiness in your mouth. I dare you to make one and not eat it with vanilla ice cream.

Here’s what you need to make one of these suckers.

Cranberry Orange Angel Food Cake

(adapted from food.com)

1 cup of cake flour
1 1/2 cups of sugar, divided
1 1/2 cups of egg whites (about 12)
1 tsp  vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp orange zest
1 cup of cranberries (I used cranberry sauce, but because of the extra liquid this makes the cake a little bit less light than a normal angel food cake, just so you know. Use whatever you have on hand!)

Preheat your oven to 375F.
In a small bowl mix together the flour and 3/4 cup of the sugar. Set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites with the salt and vanilla on medium-high speed until foamy. Slowly pour in the sugar while still whipping until it’s looking thick and shiny and has stiff peaks. Using a spatula, gradually fold in the flour/sugar until just incorporated. Then add the orange zest and cranberry and fold until also just incorporated. Spoon this mixture into an un-greased angel food tube pan and bake for about 35-40 minutes.

Once it comes out of the oven, invert it on something until cooled. I used a shot glass. How classy!

Creme Brulee

I noticed there was a big ol’ container of 38% cream in the fridge left from Christmas, and I decided that like a productive human being I should probably use that before it goes bad. What better dessert to make with heavy cream than creme brulee? I know I know, I’m so smart. Also, I have a terrible weakness to a really good creme brulee. The creaminess and delicious vanilla flavour…other flavours are good too though. Ginger, strawberry, maple blueberry OH GOD I have an addiction! Thank god I don’t make it that often. This stuff is terrible for you. Just absolutely terrible. But it will make you happy. I promise.

Behold the giant creme brulee! In my cute little retro-green square ramekins. So cute. I love. I’ll be honest, in the past when I’ve made creme brulee at home it hasn’t been up to my standards. Even using recipes that I know work out awesomely when I make them at work. It drives me crazy, so today I randomly decided to be adventurous and take the path of a new recipe. I got this one from epicurious, hurray.

It turned out really really well! I am very happy with the results. My mom was, too. She never, hardly ever, eats dessert let alone an entire item of dessert. Initially I just torched up one creme brulee for us to share but my mom made me prepare one just for herself.  That means I must have done something right! Yeaaahh yeahhh, uh uh, get it get it I MADE IT GOOD. That was supposed to be some sort of weird song thing I don’t really know what happened. I got a little out of control.

Okay, in the above picture the creme brulee looks a little bit runny but I promise you that it isn’t at all. It’s rich, and creamy, and thick, and dreamy. It will be your best friend. Your very best friend that takes you shopping and tells you that you look awesome in something that really makes you look terrible. That’s the kind of friend that creme brulee is. Not a very good one. It’s just so irresistible but you know that the relationship isn’t good for you. Sigh.

Well, here’s the recipe dudes.

Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee

(makes 6 ramekins of the 3/4 cup size, or use whatever dishes you want, I don’t care, go crazy)

2 cups of heavy cream
1/2 cup of sugar
1 vanilla bean split and seeded (or  1/2 a bean if they’re really plump like mine were, again THANKS CAM!)
5 beautiful little golden egg yolks

Preheat your oven to 325F, and prepare a 9×13″ dish with the ramekins arranged inside and hot water coming up just a little over halfway to the ramekins.

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan combine the cream with sugar and the vanilla beans and pod. Heat over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Continue heating over medium until hot and you feel the vanilla has steeped long enough.  In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks just a little bit until smooth. While whisking, slowly pour in the hot cream mixture. Then transfer this back to the pan and gently stir for just a minute or two.  Strain this mixture into a big ol’ measuring cup and then divide amongst the ramekins. They shouldn’t be  filled to the top, that will make your life difficult what with the water and sloshing around and whatnot.

Keep them in their happy little water bath for about 30-35 minutes until just the centre jiggles a bit when you tap on the side of the ramekin. You’re looking for more of a gelatin-like jiggle rather than a liquid jiggle. Remove them from the oven and oh so carefully remove them from their happy water bath. Be careful not to knock one over and onto the floor and the dog like I did today (he was a happy puppy!). Cool those little babies for about 30 minutes then transfer them to the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours or overnight.

To caramelize the top, sprinkle a thin even layer over the top and use a blowtorch to melt and caramelize the sugar. Or if you don’t have a blowtorch you can use the broiler method which I have never tried so I don’t really know how that works. I would assume just sugar all the tops, then pop them under broiler in a pan keeping a close eye on them and taking them out once they turn deliciously golden brown. Done!

New Years Eve Already (and a bunch of pictures!)

How? How did it get here so fast? I just had to adjust my wording as to avoid a “THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID” moment (teehee!).

Well I guess in a few hours we’ll all see if we’re still alive or if the Mayans were right. In the meantime, I’ll be eating a bunch of oliebollen and practicing Nutmeg, my little ukulele.

Why, what’s that you ask? What are oliebollen? Oliebollen are like little dutch doughnuts that my mom has always made on New Year’s eve and so that’s what I do now, too! Traditionally they have apples and/or raisins in them, but I don’t like raisins so I just put apple and scraped a vanilla bean (thanks Cam!)  in. So good. (scroll all the way to the bottom for the recipe!)

I can’t remember a year where we haven’t made them. It’s a fun tradition and one that I will carry on into my own family one day. Sweet baby jesus are they ever good!

I think these are the best ones that I’ve ever made. Look at that fluffiness! They don’t feel greasy or heavy at all, and they aren’t overly sweet. There’s only 3 tablespoons of sugar in the dough and the other sweetness comes from the apples and the sugar that they get rolled in, but if you’re crazy for some reason then you don’t have to roll them in sugar. But I will tell you that you’re crazy. ‘Cause if you’re deep frying doughnuts, you might as well go all the way. Nomnom.

Oh yeah I also made those maple bacon doughnuts again on Boxing day. Weee!

And a strawberry tart as well as a vanilla buttermilk custard cake for Christmas dessert! I’ll type out the recipes and whatnot in a later post so this one isn’t a million words long.

Aaaaaaaaand a bunch of other little things, like cookies and gevulde speculaas. Oh wait I have a picture of that one!

Gevulde speculaas is essentially almond filled speculaas and has a nice spicy taste to it.  If you’ve ever had those dutch windmill cookies, those are the same spices. Omnomnom.

Well here’s the recipe for the Oliebollen!

New Year’s Eve Oliebollen

2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
3 tbsp white sugar
3 eggs (put them in a bowl of hot tap water to warm them up)
1 1/2 cups lukewarm 2% milk
1 vanilla bean and a splash of vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 apples, peeled and diced
oil for frying
icing sugar for rolling or dipping

Dissolve the yeast and the sugar in 1/2 cup of the lukewarm milk and let it sit for about 10 minutes until it’s foamy and happy. In a big bowl with a wooden spoon, or in a stand mixer with dough hook attached, mix together the warmed eggs, the rest of the milk, the vanilla, vanilla bean and the salt. Mix in 1 cup of flour (don’t worry if it’s a bit lumpy). Once the yeast is happy, add it into the bowl and mix. Slowly add the rest of the 3 cups of flour, then add in your apples (raisins too if you want, I suppose. Dried cranberries would be good too. Or currants!).  Make sure everything is evenly mixed and then cover the bowl and let it rise in a warm place for 1 and a half hours until it’s huge. Once it has risen, give the bowl a good tap on the counter to deflate it a bit, then start warming up your oil to 370 degrees F. I used a mixture of canola oil and sunflower oil. Once the oil is the correct temperature, try your best to drop the sticky dough into the oil using two tablespoons. Most of the oliebollen will flip themselves over when they are ready, I love watching that happen! Continue to fry the other side until they’re lightly browned. They shouldn’t get too brown. Remove them with a slotted spoon or a spider and place onto a cooling rack with paper towel underneath. Once they are cooled enough you can roll them in sugar and eat them!

Word of caution: being too eager to eat freshly sugar-rolled oliebollen will result in the accidental inhalation of icing sugar, I’m not even kidding. I do that every year on my first one and cough for a good minute or two, haha.

Enjoy!!

Cuppa Cuppa Cuppa Cake

I’m a sucker for easy old-fashioned recipes, lemme tell ya. The kinds that you’d find at a pot luck years ago, and still to this day. Meatballs in a grape jelly and chili sauce? Awesome. Watergate salad? Holy eff yes. Cuppa cake? UGH, SO GOOD.

Do you know what the cuppa cake is? It’s in Steel Magnolias, and variations on it are called a dump cake (haha dump), and it’s awesome. It’s so easy. And so oddly tasty although really sweet. Now, I have never actually made this cake until tonight, but I’m sad that I lived the last 22 years of my life without it, but also glad because I’d probably be at least 2 thousand pounds heavier.

The finished texture is slightly addicting. It gets really crispy and kind of chewy on the top (the best part), but the inside stays really moist and I might even go so far as to say slightly gummy (probably because I added a bit more than 1 cup of the cocktail+juice). Not in a bad way though. A lot of fruit in a cake will do that, all that moisture hanging around in there affects the batter around it.  Here’s a picture of a mass of it scooped out onto a plate after I took it out of my trusty toaster oven.  (love you toaster oven!)

Here’s the recipe!

Cuppa Cake

1 cup of self-rising flour (or 1 cup of all-purpose with 1 1/4 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt added)
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of fruit cocktail with juice

Preheat your oven to 350°F, butter an 8″ pan (I used a small 6″ square casserole dish since I don’t have any real baking pans at the moment and it was all I could find, and I like the thickness of the cake more than if it were in an 8″ pan I think). Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, eat some batter, pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until it’s golden brown and not squishy when you poke it gently with your finger. Serve it warm with some vanilla ice cream, or unsweetened whipped cream. So tasty!

Look how perfectly smooth I got that ball of ice cream. Awwwww yeah, you know how satisfying that is.

The melty cold of the ice cream is necessary with every bite, since the cake by itself seems almost too sweet. You could definitely use brown sugar and pineapple (squee!) , and maybe not use an entire cup of sugar if you wanted it less sweet. I probably wouldn’t use splenda either since that stuff is disgustingly sweet, but I reccomend making it per the recipe the first time you make it so that you can judge accordingly to your tastes! It’s not like this is an expensive thing to make. I’m poor as heck and I only had to spend $1.47 on a 14oz can of fruit cocktail (with extra cherries!). You could use any canned fruit you want! Or fresh fruit! But you’d need to add some sort of juice to replace the liquid of canned fruit.

Come on people, this is easy. And tasty. Sometimes you just gotta go back to the basics.

Ahhh, how I ♥ cake.

Cupcake Lounge Review

 

Hi! I did this a really really long time ago. Sam and I went to the cupcake lounge and got tons of cupcakes, tried them all, and put together our thoughts on them!

The Cupcake Lounge is exactly what it sounds like. A cupcake bakery, in the heart of the byward market in Ottawa. I lived literally 2 blocks from it and wished I worked there every day since it was so close…but I think I would get bored of making cupcakes every single day incredibly quickly.

Anyways, on to the cupcakes. We tried 8 of the flavours they had that day. Strawberry, Vanilla, Maple, Chocolate, Coconut, Red Velvet, Carrot, and Chocolate Hazelnut.

 

Overall we weren’t too impressed with the cupcakes. They were decent, but they were expensive, and most of them too dense for our liking or just a little bit too dry. We just prefer a lighter cake with less grainy/sugary icings. I think the favourite out of all of them was the strawberry, just because it was pink. The icing on the vanilla one was good too though. I wanted the red velvet one to be the best but for me it was the most disappointing, I guess just because I’m really in love with the ones that I make. You can guarantee that we felt mighty sick after tasting all those cupcakes. It took us a good 3 days to get rid of them.

 

 

On another note, Good News Everyone! I’m moving back home so I will be able to bake and update way more often. And way better things than just awesome cakes and cupcakes. Doughnuts! and the like! It’s gonna be so good.