Posts Tagged ‘baking’

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Whipped, Layered and Glazed: Twenty-one Cakes

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Dessert heaven. During my trip to Germany last month, I attended the wedding of friends who had 21 cakes at their reception.  The more amazing thing is that the groom’s mother made ten of them. What a phenomenal woman. The funny thing is she kept insisting that she wasn’t a professional baker. Whatever. I’m going to try to interview her for the blog, but in the meantime and without further ado here are the photos.

Tiramisu

Bûche de Noël: My favorite cake of all time made in the traditional way with Genoise rolled with espresso buttercream.

How did I miss this one?

Just as beautiful on the inside:

Oh yeah, and then they served dessert.  Raspberries and strawberries in Quark with white chocolate leaf:

A blessed union:

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Sunshine Lemon Cake

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Sunshine Cake 1

Sunshine Cake 2

Here is a sunny dairy-free cake I made for my friend’s birthday.  I used Bob’s Red Mill lemon poppy seed cake mix, the icing recipe from the back of the packet, and garnished with fresh lemon slices in the shape of a sunshine.  It’s a whole-grain mix, but still lighter in texture than most from-scratch recipes.  Here’s the lemon glaze recipe (I subbed Earth Balance DF Margarine for the butter):

“Whisk together 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 3 Tbsp. melted butter, and 3 Tbsp. lemon juice.  Pour glaze over cake immediately.”

What’s the filling?  Ha, ha.  Well, I thought I could use a vanilla pudding mix with rice milk and just add some lemon juice and zest.  I use rice milk with this brand (Dr. Oetker’s) of chocolate pudding all the time and it comes out fine, but the vanilla pudding wouldn’t set.  Not having enough time to run to the store for ingredients for another filling, I just added gelatin.  It worked  out okay - although I wouldn’t do it again – and made for a very jiggly cake!

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Happy Father’s Day Cookies

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

Oatmeal… Hazelnut Butter… Double Chocolate Chips

Hazelnut Cookies

I have to give my husband serious props for this one.  I was making my usual 100% whole grain oatmeal cookies with walnut meal and he said, “You know what you should do… you should use hazelnut butter instead of walnuts.”  So that is exactly what I did and the result was a really gourmet treat. 

They’re called “Happy Father’s Day Cookies” instead of just “Father’s Day Cookies,” because I doubled the chocolate chips for my chocoholic hubby to enjoy on his first father’s day.  So here is my gift to all of you gourmet dads out there.

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY COOKIES

You will need:

  • 1 1/4 cups butter (2 1/2 sticks)
  • 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 cup hazelnut butter
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 
  • 3 cups rolled oats
  • 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Put it together:

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  • Cream butter and sugar, mix in egg, then mix in hazelnut butter
  • In small bowl, mix flour, baking powder and cinnamon
  • Slowly beat flour mixture into wet ingredients 
  • Scrape bowl and mix a few seconds longer
  • Add oatmeal and chocolate chips, mixing only until combined
  • Scoop batter onto cookie sheets and bake for 14 minutes (for chewier) to 17 minutes (for crunchier) or until light brown
  • Remove sheets from oven and allow to cool a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack

Makes about five dozen.

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