I love pink! And these chocolate delights are pretty tasty treats. Logan had to do the honors with the "quality review process" (3 cupcakes later, he gave his final approval).
Showing posts with label Cakes and Cookies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cakes and Cookies. Show all posts
Monday, September 21, 2009
Cupcake Fun
I love pink! And these chocolate delights are pretty tasty treats. Logan had to do the honors with the "quality review process" (3 cupcakes later, he gave his final approval).
Monday, November 24, 2008
Perfect Pies
I went to another cooking class at my local William Sonoma store and they were featuring a class called "Perfect Pies" (in time for the Thanksgiving Holiday). The instructor of the course was a pastry chef at a local restaurant, Cafe Soleil. He was great and was very informative. A couple of things I learned were:
1. A pastry dough for a pie should be chilled when rolling it out. Chill it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so in a glass bowl (uncovered). It should go into the pan cool when adding your filling (or chilled alone with pie weights when blind cooking the crust).
2. You should prepare the dough with chilled (out of the freezer) butter slices. He pulled the butter out of the fridge, sliced it, and put it in the freezer until ready to blend with flour, etc. He said that a food processor works best when cutting the butter into the flour mixture.
3. You should blind cook your crust (double crust on the bottom) when making custard pies (or pies that you have pre-cooked the filling for). This would include any pie that you have a store bought filling for also.
4. Any decorative pieces looked best when brushed with a egg white prior to baking. We tested water, full egg brush, egg white with sugar, etc.
5. Any custard pie should have some 'wiggle' to it when fresh out of the oven. Don't forget that your pie will continue to cook in a pie tin/pie plate when it comes out of the oven. Sometimes the 'clean knife' trick isn't the best option when deciding to remove the pie from the oven.
6. Always make sure you turn your pie in the oven midway into the baking cycle. All ovens have a cool/warm spot and this helps even out the cooking of your pie.
I wasn't able to do the taste testing, but from the 15 or so there, both of these recipes are fabulous and really easy to make for the novice pie maker.
Classic Apple Pie
Follow these instructions to prepare the perfect crust for your apple pie. Decorative piecrust cutters are used to create the lattice top.
Ingredients:
For the dough:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. granulated sugar
16 Tbs. (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice
3 to 4 Tbs. ice water
For the filling:
2 lb. Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch
thick
2 lb. Pink Lady apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
4 tsp. cornstarch
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 egg white, beaten with 1 tsp. water
2 tsp. granulated sugar
Directions:
To make the dough, in a food processor, pulse the flour, salt, and granulated sugar together until combined, about 5 pulses. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 pulses. Add 3 Tbs. of the ice water and pulse 2 or 3 times. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. If it is crumbly, add more water 1 tsp. at a time, pulsing twice after each addition. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, divide in half and shape each half into a disk. Wrap the disks separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll out half of the dough into a 12-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Fold the dough in half and then into quarters and transfer it to a 9-inch deep-dish pie dish. Unfold and gently press the dough into the bottom and sides of the dish. Trim the edges flush with the rim of the dish. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
On a large sheet of lightly floured parchment paper, roll out the remaining dough disk into a 12-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Using leaf pie cutters, make rows of cutouts in the dough, spacing them 1/2 inch apart and leaving a 1-inch border along the edges, to create a lattice appearance. Reserve the cutouts for decorating. Reroll the dough scraps to make more cutouts. Refrigerate the lattice top and cutouts for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the filling: In a large Dutch oven, stir together the apples, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cornstarch. Set over medium heat, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are just tender but not mushy, about 20 minutes. Uncover and cook until the liquid has thickened and become glossy, 5 to 7 minutes more. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
Position a rack in the lower third of an oven, place a baking sheet on the rack and preheat the oven to 400°F.
Let the pie shell, lattice top and leaf cutouts stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Transfer the apple filling to the pie shell, scatter the butter pieces on top, and gently invert the lattice top over the pie. Trim the edges flush with the rim of the dish and press the top and bottom crusts together to seal. Brush the underside of the leaf cutouts with egg wash and gently press them onto the edges of the piecrust, overlapping the leaves slightly. Decorate as desired with the remaining leaves. Brush the entire top crust with egg wash and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.
Place the pie dish on the preheated baking sheet. Bake until the crust is crisp and golden brown, about 1 hour, covering the edges with aluminum foil if they become too dark. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 1 1/2 hours before serving. Serves 8.
Deep-Dish Muirhead Pecan Pumpkin Butter Pie
Be sure to use a deep-dish pie dish when preparing this recipe. The pie shell needs to be prebaked and cooled before you add the filling, so plan accordingly.
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. sugar
8 Tbs. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into
1/2-inch pieces
3 to 4 Tbs. ice water
For the filling:
4 eggs
2 cups (about 1 1/3 jars) Muirhead pecan
pumpkin butter
2 cups evaporated milk
Directions:
To make the pastry, in a food processor, combine the flour, salt and sugar and pulse to blend. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 3 Tbs. of the ice water and pulse twice. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. If it is crumbly, add more water, 1 tsp. at a time, pulsing twice after each addition. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and shape into a disk. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.
Position a rack in the lower third of an oven. Place a cookie sheet on the rack. Preheat the oven to 400°F. (The pie dish will be placed on the cookie sheet, which will help the bottom of the crust to brown.)
Let the chilled dough stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Roll out the dough into a 12-inch round about 3/16 inch thick. Brush off the excess flour. Transfer to a 9-inch deep-dish pie dish and press the dough into the dish. Trim the edges, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Fold under the excess dough and, using your thumb, decoratively flute the edges. Using a fork, gently poke holes in several places on the bottom of the crust. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 15 minutes.
Line the piecrust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Place the pie dish on the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Carefully remove the parchment and weights and continue baking until the crust is light golden brown, 5 to 10 minutes more. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes before filling the pie shell.
Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
To make the filling, in a large bowl, gently whisk the eggs. Add the pecan pumpkin butter and evaporated milk and whisk until well combined. Pour the filling into the prebaked pie shell and bake until the center of the pie is set, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. If the edges of the crust begin to brown too quickly, cover them with aluminum foil.
Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 4 hours before serving. If making in advance, cover the cooled pie with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve. Serves 8 to 10.
1. A pastry dough for a pie should be chilled when rolling it out. Chill it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so in a glass bowl (uncovered). It should go into the pan cool when adding your filling (or chilled alone with pie weights when blind cooking the crust).
2. You should prepare the dough with chilled (out of the freezer) butter slices. He pulled the butter out of the fridge, sliced it, and put it in the freezer until ready to blend with flour, etc. He said that a food processor works best when cutting the butter into the flour mixture.
3. You should blind cook your crust (double crust on the bottom) when making custard pies (or pies that you have pre-cooked the filling for). This would include any pie that you have a store bought filling for also.
4. Any decorative pieces looked best when brushed with a egg white prior to baking. We tested water, full egg brush, egg white with sugar, etc.
5. Any custard pie should have some 'wiggle' to it when fresh out of the oven. Don't forget that your pie will continue to cook in a pie tin/pie plate when it comes out of the oven. Sometimes the 'clean knife' trick isn't the best option when deciding to remove the pie from the oven.
6. Always make sure you turn your pie in the oven midway into the baking cycle. All ovens have a cool/warm spot and this helps even out the cooking of your pie.
I wasn't able to do the taste testing, but from the 15 or so there, both of these recipes are fabulous and really easy to make for the novice pie maker.
Classic Apple Pie
Follow these instructions to prepare the perfect crust for your apple pie. Decorative piecrust cutters are used to create the lattice top.
Ingredients:
For the dough:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. granulated sugar
16 Tbs. (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice
3 to 4 Tbs. ice water
For the filling:
2 lb. Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch
thick
2 lb. Pink Lady apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
4 tsp. cornstarch
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 egg white, beaten with 1 tsp. water
2 tsp. granulated sugar
Directions:
To make the dough, in a food processor, pulse the flour, salt, and granulated sugar together until combined, about 5 pulses. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 pulses. Add 3 Tbs. of the ice water and pulse 2 or 3 times. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. If it is crumbly, add more water 1 tsp. at a time, pulsing twice after each addition. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, divide in half and shape each half into a disk. Wrap the disks separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll out half of the dough into a 12-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Fold the dough in half and then into quarters and transfer it to a 9-inch deep-dish pie dish. Unfold and gently press the dough into the bottom and sides of the dish. Trim the edges flush with the rim of the dish. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
On a large sheet of lightly floured parchment paper, roll out the remaining dough disk into a 12-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Using leaf pie cutters, make rows of cutouts in the dough, spacing them 1/2 inch apart and leaving a 1-inch border along the edges, to create a lattice appearance. Reserve the cutouts for decorating. Reroll the dough scraps to make more cutouts. Refrigerate the lattice top and cutouts for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the filling: In a large Dutch oven, stir together the apples, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cornstarch. Set over medium heat, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are just tender but not mushy, about 20 minutes. Uncover and cook until the liquid has thickened and become glossy, 5 to 7 minutes more. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
Position a rack in the lower third of an oven, place a baking sheet on the rack and preheat the oven to 400°F.
Let the pie shell, lattice top and leaf cutouts stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Transfer the apple filling to the pie shell, scatter the butter pieces on top, and gently invert the lattice top over the pie. Trim the edges flush with the rim of the dish and press the top and bottom crusts together to seal. Brush the underside of the leaf cutouts with egg wash and gently press them onto the edges of the piecrust, overlapping the leaves slightly. Decorate as desired with the remaining leaves. Brush the entire top crust with egg wash and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.
Place the pie dish on the preheated baking sheet. Bake until the crust is crisp and golden brown, about 1 hour, covering the edges with aluminum foil if they become too dark. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 1 1/2 hours before serving. Serves 8.
Deep-Dish Muirhead Pecan Pumpkin Butter Pie
Be sure to use a deep-dish pie dish when preparing this recipe. The pie shell needs to be prebaked and cooled before you add the filling, so plan accordingly.
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. sugar
8 Tbs. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into
1/2-inch pieces
3 to 4 Tbs. ice water
For the filling:
4 eggs
2 cups (about 1 1/3 jars) Muirhead pecan
pumpkin butter
2 cups evaporated milk
Directions:
To make the pastry, in a food processor, combine the flour, salt and sugar and pulse to blend. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 3 Tbs. of the ice water and pulse twice. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. If it is crumbly, add more water, 1 tsp. at a time, pulsing twice after each addition. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and shape into a disk. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.
Position a rack in the lower third of an oven. Place a cookie sheet on the rack. Preheat the oven to 400°F. (The pie dish will be placed on the cookie sheet, which will help the bottom of the crust to brown.)
Let the chilled dough stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Roll out the dough into a 12-inch round about 3/16 inch thick. Brush off the excess flour. Transfer to a 9-inch deep-dish pie dish and press the dough into the dish. Trim the edges, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Fold under the excess dough and, using your thumb, decoratively flute the edges. Using a fork, gently poke holes in several places on the bottom of the crust. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 15 minutes.
Line the piecrust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Place the pie dish on the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Carefully remove the parchment and weights and continue baking until the crust is light golden brown, 5 to 10 minutes more. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes before filling the pie shell.
Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
To make the filling, in a large bowl, gently whisk the eggs. Add the pecan pumpkin butter and evaporated milk and whisk until well combined. Pour the filling into the prebaked pie shell and bake until the center of the pie is set, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. If the edges of the crust begin to brown too quickly, cover them with aluminum foil.
Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 4 hours before serving. If making in advance, cover the cooled pie with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve. Serves 8 to 10.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Cookie Fun
I call these two "Hiking in the Woods" and "Playing in the Snow". Logan thinks I'm crazy. I call it, 'playing with your food'.
Glazed Sugar Cookies
Can you say, "Delicious!"?
Here's some fun I decided to have yesterday while I was bored. I love to make and decorate cakes, so I figured I could take my fun to cookies too. The holidays are around the corner, so I figured I would make and decorate some sugar cookies. I tried a new glaze recipe to cover them. I mixed the colors on a few. I think they turned out cute. Thanks to Betty Crocker for the cookie recipe and the glaze off the internet. Frosting is a Wilton specialty.
Jeff likes them warm out of the oven, I guess... (notice him stealing them right off the cooling tray)
Friday, November 14, 2008
I'm not sure how to classify these
Here are a couple of baby shower cakes that I found online when I was doing some searching around (to get ideas for a cake I needed to do). "Would you like a breast or a piece of womb?", or how about the babies riding the carrots?, and what is the third one and how does it relate to a baby shower? Maybe I don't want to know.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
The making of cupcake pops
I made some of these pops to go with a baby shower cake. I saw these on Bakerella and fell in love. I hope you do too!
Here are some of the things you may need to do the cupcake pops:
1 13X9 baked cake (from a box cake mix or from scratch … any flavor)
1 can cream cheese frosting (or about 2 cups equivalent from scratch)
1 flower shaped cookie cutter (1.25" wide X .75" tall)
1 package chocolate bark
1 package white chocolate bark
food coloring for the white bark, if needed
bowls for dipping
wax paper
aluminum foil
lollipop sticks
sprinkles, m&ms or something similar for top of cupcake
small plastic treat bags and ribbon to package the Cupcake Pops
candy cups and truffle boxes to individually package the Cupcake Bites
Styrofoam block (to help stand the pops up)
Directions:
1. Bake cake in 13X9 pan as to directions. Cool completely.
2. Crumble cake into big bowl, making sure that the cake is very crumbly.
3. Mix the cream cheese frosting and the cake bits until smooth.
4. Form this mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls (on wax paper). This should make about 50 balls.
5. Cover with wrap or foil and freeze for 30-45 minutes until pretty firm.
6. Take the frozen balls out of freezer and work them into ovals and them into a rough cupcake (mushroom) shape with your hands. You can even use a flower shape or circle shape cookie cutter to help shape the balls faster. About half of the oval should form the bottom of the cupcake and the other half should form the top of the cupcake.
7. Put these back on the wax paper, cover them with foil and put back into the freezer for another 30-45 minutes.
8. Once they look firm again, warm up the chocolate bark in the micro according to package directions.
9. Dip the bottoms of the cupcakes into the chocolate bark (only cover the bottom of the cupcake - up to the rim).
10. Place a lollipop stick into the bottom of the cupcake (into the warm chocolate bark) and place onto the wax paper (cupcake top side up) to dry/cool. The sticks will be in the air. Let them cool completely on the wax paper, about 20-30 minutes.
11. When ready, warm up the white bark (or any color- just add a little color to warm white bark if you would like) for the tops in the micro.
12. Let this bark cool just a little so it's not too runny when you put it on the pop tops. You don't want this bark to run onto the brown bottoms.
13. Hold onto the sticks and dip the pop tops into the bark to cover the remaining pop tops. You can use a toothpick to help cover any bare area.
14. While the pop tops are warm still, sprinkle the tops. You can put M&Ms on the the middle of the tops too for decoration.
15. Let cool completely again- this time in the Styrofoam blocks. I needed three green blocks (founds at Joann Fabrics). I let them cool this time for an hour.
16. Put the wrappers and ties on when cooled and ready to eat.
17. You can cool in fridge if you like to eat them that way. Also good at room temperature.
These would be fun for any occasion and can be decorated however you would like. You can even make them without the sticks and package them in little decorative boxes for holiday gifts. These little pops/cupcakes are very cute and fun since they are bite sized.
**UPDATE ON THESE POPS: I can't eat them myself, but my taste testers all agree that these are the BOMB and my 2 guys have talked me into making them for the holidays. I guess these are pretty addictive.
Here's another cake for my portfolio
One of my co-workers is having a baby (due on Dec. 28th). I went with a pink/brown/white theme since Amanda is having a little girl (Sydney). I hope you love it too!
For the cake itself, you will need:
1 cake mix that makes 2 9-inch cakes to layer, and all the ingredients for the cakes
pudding to layer between the cakes, I went with vanilla this time
stiff Walton buttercream frosting to rim the layers together (white or whatever color your main frosting will be)
thin Walton buttercream frosting to frost the layered cakes (prior to, or in place of, fondant)
cookie cutters work well for cutting the fondant circles (I used a variety of sizes)Fondant, I used white fondant and colored some to make the brown parts
2 cake pans (9 inch)
**I went with buttercream pink frosting and white/brown fondant flowers. Not too many people from work like the fondant taste, so toning it down on this cake was essential. I made the flowers different thickness and shapes for contrast purposes. But, that's the great thing about decorating with buttercream and fondant, there's lots of options.
Directions:
1. Bake 2 9-inch cakes.
2. Cool completely.
3. Cut off the top of the rounded cakes to make them flat on top.
4. Rim the bottom cake with stiff frosting to make a dam for your filling. This will help your filling to stay inside and not run into your main frosting. Filling can run and ruin frosting.
4. Place filling inside the stiff rim.
5. Place top layer cake on top.
6. Frost with thin frosting (main frosting color).
7. Place outside fondant on cake or decoration fondant pieces.
8. Fondant will stick to frosting without help. Fondant will stick to other fondant when it has been lightly moistened with vanilla flavoring (I use a small brush and my vanilla flavoring- a very small amount is needed to do this). Too much moisture on your fondant can be dangerous.
9. Take lots of photos of your masterpiece and email them to me @ jess_n_1@hotmail.com. I would love to see all the artisan's work out there. And most important, have fun and be creative! Most 'mistakes' can be fixed and or covered up with frosting or fondant.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Halloween is right around the corner... Boo!
These little cakes make delightful individual desserts for any Halloween buffet table.
Ingredients:
12 baked chocolate or red velvet cup cakes (follow recipe on cake mix box)
Chocolate Buttercream icing
white, yellow and black fondant
Instructions:
Make, bake, cool and frost the 12 cupcakes using your favorite Chocolate Buttercream Icing. Using white rolled fondant, cut strips of bandages, place randomly on cupcake, leaving an area for eyes. Using the yellow fondant, make eyes and using the black fondant, make pupils for the eyes and attach with a teensy bit of water (to act as glue).
Make, bake, cool and frost the 12 cupcakes using your favorite Chocolate Buttercream Icing. Using white rolled fondant, cut strips of bandages, place randomly on cupcake, leaving an area for eyes. Using the yellow fondant, make eyes and using the black fondant, make pupils for the eyes and attach with a teensy bit of water (to act as glue).
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Birthday Cake for my "not so little" guy
Ok, my Logan turned 13 this year so I needed to make him the coolest cake that I could think of. It was a big surprise and Jeff even took him out of the house for part of the decorating process. It was pretty labor intensive, but worth every minute. Boy, I think I even worked up a sweat on those sushi pieces. They were pretty tasty I hear. I made a bunch of extras for the boys to snack on all night. They needed all the energy they could muster to stay up late and play video games.
The cake decorations are mostly made of fondant and the sushi pieces are made with rice krispie bottoms (rice), fruit roll up (nori), and I used swedish fish and or cut up sour sticks and gummy worms (fish). The soy sauce is a mixture of corn syrup and edible food coloring. I made a chocolate cake under it all (Logan's favorite). My cake decorating class paid dividends on this one. I don't know how I'm going to top it for next year's cake. At least I have a year now to come with a design. Later on, I will post some more pics of some of the other cakes I done.
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