Baking A Sweet Life

Sometimes simple is best.  Probably more often than not, right? I have had an itch to make a sweet and simple 6″ cake.  I thought an all-American classic of yellow cake with chocolate frosting would be perect! Unlike the past layer cakes I’ve done, I decided that this time I would bake three small separate layers.  This was so much easier than hoping I would be able to torte 3 slices out of one layer.  It worked beautifully!  Not only saving time, but it drastically reduced the crumbs that I had to battle with since there weren’t any created other than what happened to fall off the layers themselves. Each layer was just the right thickness.

Matt and I brought this cake over to a couple that recently moved into our neighborhood and just had a baby.  So, although I have no pictures of the inside, I hope they’re enjoying this as I type!

Both of these recipes came from Nick Malgieri’s Perfect Cakes.  This was the Golden Cake recipe, halved and placed into 3-6″ cake rounds, and the frosting was the Rich Chocolate Ganache that was cooled to spreading temperature and aerated slightly to smooth out.

I know this is a baking site.  This fact is not lost on me as I post this un-baked (savory, not sweet!) Thai coconut shrimp.  Charity and I are taking a hiatus from our SOB adventures and instead alternating picking ingredients and then making a recipe with that.  It can be sweet or savory, main feature or subtle flavor - the only rule is that the ingredient’s gotta be in there!

I was picking first, and I decided to go with coconut!  I love coconut - and ironically enough, that hasn’t always been the case!  I think its been in the last 2 years that I’ve come around.  I think it was helped along with Ina Garten’s Coconut cupcake recipe.  Hmm…
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I like to think of myself as someone who embraces challenging recipes… and I think I usually am that person.  But this latest edition of SOB that Charity, of Sweet Charity Pie, and I bring you had me seriously procrastinating.  I was scared of laminated dough.  I mean really scared. So I just put it off. And put it off some more.  The whole recipe seemed pretty daunting at first, too… two days, with frequent folds on day 2, proofing and baking… sounds just like bread.  And I DO bread… but still… this was LAMINATED DOUGH. I knew that I would eventually have to do it. So in my latest email to Charity, I promised her that the Pain au Chocolats would be completed by Thursday.  And there (or maybe here?) you have it - I was true to my word!
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Chocolate peanut-butter macarons, to be exact :)

This was the very first time I’ve ever attempted parisian macarons, and I’ve wanted to try to make them for a long long time. In our latest SOB installment, the pick was mine and I jumped on the chance to make these. Charity was game from the get-go, and we were off running!

I regret that I did this very last minute, as all things in my life have been lately.  To say life is crazy is by FAR an understatement!  I’m in the middle of changing jobs and its an all-consuming process, not to mention a lot of all-nighters at work lately, too.

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In our latest SOB installment, Charity chose - and lemon curd it was!  I won’t point out for too long that this was chosen around November or something (??) but with the holidays and other craziness, I just couldn’t get on the ball.  But the New Year is well underway and we’re back!  :)

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Oh my - was I excited about this one.  Here’s the next installment of SOB starring Charity of Sweet Charity Pie and myself :) It was my pick this time, and although we both already did a creme brulee for Tuesdays with Dorie, and although we had just done a vanilla sauce for the ice cream I was just so wanting to do this pumpkin creme brulee - since Thanksgiving was JUUUUST around the corner.  We had my in-laws over for a pre-thanksgiving dinner since we wouldn’t be spending the holiday with them, and this was the perfect dessert.  Everyone really enjoyed it.  It was fantastic! Read the rest of this entry »

In our third SOB installment, Charity (of sweetcharitypie) and I bring to you vanilla ice cream!  I was surprised about a few things -

1. I had NO idea how many egg yolks went into ice cream
2. How bad for you the-real-thing-from-scratch ice cream really is for your arteries
3. How cream colored the real thing is, and,
4. how much I enjoyed the taste of it.
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Like most things I attempt for the first (or second) time, the results are mediocre.  Sometimes I get lucky, and sometimes I get persistent.  The latter was the case with the truffles.  You see, Charity and I had chosen truffles to kick off our SOB baking bonanza.  I did the first batch exactly according to her directions.  And they were a hopeless failure.  The ganache never set up firm enough to withstand the warm (90F) melted chocolate, and I felt more like a child in the kitchen, making more of a mess than an edible creation.

I did some research in other books I have, including Truffles by Dede Wilson, and on youTube, and I got a few valuable lessons.
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Dorie may have gotten it right this time.  I’m willing to consider changing my opinions.  These pumpkin muffins were everything she promised.  They were fantastic.  I had hoped these would be sweet - but not too sweet; perfect for breakfast with a little butter and maybe a dab of honey.  I couldn’t trust myself with these, so I decided to make them as a thank you gift for my neighbors for dog-sitting.

Kelly of Sounding my barbaric gulp picked these for our weekly TWD recipe, and I’m so glad she did.  You can find the recipe at her blog.  I made only a few minor adjustments to the original recipe - I had no ground allspice on hand, so I withheld it.  Also, instead of using pecans I used candied walnuts, and lastly, instead of raisins, I used dried cranberries (I’m sorry - I’m just really head over heels for fall right now - sue me.) I also had leftover pumpkin puree that I had prepared from scratch when making my pumpkin cake, so it was nice to throw that in instead of the canned stuff that I’ve relied upon so heavily the last few years.
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I alluded to it in my last post - this so called buddy baking project.  HOW EXCITING! Charity, as you’ll soon meet, is my new blogging buddy, and together we’re going to work our way through Sherry Yards “Secrets of Baking“. This is a *fantastic* baking book with loads of useful instruction.  The best part is the way that its organized.  Its unlike any other baking book that I’ve ever seen.  Instead of having a cookie chapter, a cake chapter, etc, it divides desserts into their parent category, like ganache, vanilla sauce, brioche, etc, and then breaks these down into sub categories; and all this shows how these recipes are related.  Its a really fresh approach to the different categories of baking, and with her book, even the  most complex stuff seems boiled down into its most basic components.  I’m looking forward to tackling it - just in time for the holidays!

We both thought the idea of a mini interview would be fun so that’s what you’ll see here.  Charity’s answers are listed below, and my answers are at her blog, Sweet Charity Pie, so feel free to check them out!

And without further ado, here’s Charity!
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