Thanksgiving Desserts (Number Two)

I also made an excellent trifle because, well, I always make a trifle for Thanksgiving. This year I made a chocolate, chestnut, tiramisu trifle. Let me say that again: chocolate, chestnut, tiramisu trifle. Or as my mom called it, a trifle-misu. It was so good, it was ridiculous. It's layers of chocolate-chestnut mousse, Marsala mascarpone sabayon, and lady fingers soaked with espresso and amaretto and dusted with cocoa powder. The latter two layers are, basically, tiramisu. But with extra mascarpone to thicken up the sabayon and, of course, the chocolate-chestnut mousse between the layers. Also the layer of whipped cream and dusting of cocoa looks like a tiramisu but is more trifle like in flavor.

Thanksgiving Desserts (Number One)

I made apple pie with a crumble topping. It was delicious. Sort of a cross between a crumble and a pie. The cinnimon-y, buttery topping was crumble-like and the apples were tender but held together in a pie-like manner. I served it with an apple caramel sauce. So good! Although it could have used some vanilla (or, perhaps, cinnamon) ice cream.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was just my mom and I for Thanksgiving this year so we made a relatively small meal. I say relatively because it's not a small meal by most people' standards but for us at Thanksgiving, it was practically minuscule. We had turkey--just the breast, no dark meat--stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, green bean casserole with porcini mushrooms and crispy onions, and biscuits. See? Only turkey breast, one potato, one bread, and no carrots or brussel sprouts. Not as bad as we could have been, right? Of course we had to save room of dessert. But only two desserts. Again, not as bad as we could have been. I'll write about them tomorrow-ish.

British Birthday Cake

Since I recently posted my aunt's old birthday cake I thought I'd put this on as well. I have a close family friend exactly 10 years younger than me. She's very sophisticated for her age so I made her this elegant (but still a little bit girly) cake for her 14th birthday. It's white cake with two layers of raspberry buttercream and one of chocolate; she's not quite as much of a chocolate fan as I am, so I limited the chocolate. It's topped with lovely shell pink fondant and a scalloped chocolate fondant polka dot border (it worked so well on the anniversary cake I made, after all.) It's pretty, I think. And she enjoyed it.

By the way I call this a British birthday cake because it's very common to use fondant on birthday cakes in England, unlike the traditional buttercream cakes we tend to consume in the US.

Chocolate Chip Brownie Cookies~With Recipe!

These aren't quite as brownie-ish in texture as the name implies, but the flavor is quite like a brownie. A brownie with chocolate chips. Who doesn't like that? I hope you like that because below is the recipe for these moist chocolate cookies.

Orange Pound Cake Bites

I'm still without a kitchen so I'm going to take the opportunity to talk about some of the desserts I never posted. In this case, I made it before I blogged. It was for my cousin's wedding shower. It had a purple theme and I was asked to make purple desserts--the cake was supplied by another family member.

I made purple spritz cookies, which I believe I previously posted, and this. This is orange pound cake (really delicious orange pound cake, if I remember correctly.) It's topped with little purple (they were more purple in person, I swear) royal icing flowers. The bowl is filled with a purple-ish, mixed berry dipping sauce. It was very nice! (Is it terrible to say that it was better than the official cake?)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Unfortunately I have no kitchen at all at the moment, so cooking isn't a possibility. See what I mean:

But I did get into the spirit. I was Vincent Van Gogh and Stella was a sunflower. Isn't she cute when she's perturbed?!

My Pantry

We are still working on the kitchen, but my pantry is (nearly) finished! I thought I'd share my two favorite fun touches. Look at all that candy and chocolate all neatly put away in mason jars.

And my favorite thing: a cork board for my cookie cutters. I think I need more cookie cutters now...

Birthday Cake with Kahlua Ganache

I made this ages ago. Seriously it's been a couple of years, but I didn't really have the blog going then so I didn't post it. It's just too good not to post here, so here goes. This was magnolia bakery white cake, filled with layers of chocolate ganache flavored with plenty of kahlua. The cake was decorated with vanilla buttercream and a couple of roses--gumpaste and modeling chocolate. I wish I'd done a thicker coating of buttercream (you can see the ganache layers through the buttercream) but I was running low on it and I wanted to practice my piping skills. Ah well, it was still delicious and my aunt (it was for her birthday) loved it!

Almost-Healthy Breakfast Sandwich

I like breakfast for dinner--waffles, pancakes, french toast, etc. But of course one can't (or rather shouldn't) eat those things for dinner very often. So this is breakfast for dinner in a healthier fashion.

This is toasted Pullman bread with Dijon mustard and Parmesan spread (I made that), some crumbled cheddar (because you can't have too much cheese), crispy bacon, egg, and spinach. By the way, I fried the egg and, just before it was done, I broke the yoke so that it was still soft but not runny. It wasn't really as filling as it could have been for dinner, but I'd definitely do this for lunch in the future.

Pumpkin Bundt

See?! I'm really on a pumpkin kick. This pumpkin bundt was so insanely moist. And the glaze was very simple. Just warm cream cheese, powdered sugar, and a healthy dose of vanilla extract. That's it. Simple and yummy. (I promise I'll write more one of these days, but things are so hectic right now I'm happy I'm just getting photos on here.)

Coconut Fudge

It's been years since I made my very popular almond joy fudge. This is a nut free version. Just dark chocolate fudge with plenty of toasted desiccated coconut (not sweetened shredded; it's too sweet and the pieces are too large). Delicious!

Chocolate Cake with Pumpkin Frosting

Apparently I've been on a pumpkin kick lately. Here's a lovely chocolate cake I made topped (and filled) with pumpkin, cream cheese, white chocolate frosting. It's a bit like a simpler version of the pumpkin spice mocha cake I made last year. Simple but still delicious. And pretty too--I like the color that the pumpkin gives the frosting.

Pumpkin, Sage, and Brown Butter Cakes

I've made this quick bread before, but I decided that I'd give it a try with my pumpkin cakelet pan. Cute right?

Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Cream Sauce

I have no kitchen at the moment. Well I have a kitchen, but it's terrible and only a few weeks from being gutted so I don't really want to use it very much. Hence my featuring pasta on here. It's good pasta, don't get me wrong. It's fresh pumpkin ravioli (store-bought not homemade), topped with chicken, and a nice (homemade) sage cream sauce. Sage and pumpkin go together so well. Yum!

Gluten Free Desserts, Sightseeing, and my Dissertation

I stayed with my cousins for the last couple weeks of dissertation writing. I can't thank them enough for putting me up and putting up with me during such a stressful time. In an attempt to thank them, I baked quite a bit for them. Below follows a stream of consciousness post including some gluten free baking and some miscellaneous non-food photos.

 

Circus Cakes

I clearly have a mental block about posting these, seeing as I made them just about 2 years ago. They were for a Diabetes UK fundraiser. Yes, I know, cake for an event about diabetes... The event was for children with Type I diabetes and their families. And what kid, diabetic or not, doesn't want cake?

The challenge was twofold. First, I had to make at least some of the cake gluten free since type I diabetics are more likely to be ceoliac than the rest of the population (also the carbs in flour aren't great for the blood sugar.) Second, the cake had to be circus themed.

Happy Bastille Day!

Yes, I know Bastille Day is in July. I completely forgot to post this...whoops.

I'm not French and, while I like France and speak a bit of French, I'm by no means a Francophile. But I really can't pass up celebrating a holiday that screams for French food (plus in London's Borough Market they have snail races and a full size guillotine slicing watermelons...how can you not get into the holiday?)

Chocolate, Blackberry, Coconut Cake

Every year, my mom asks for a chocolate birthday cake. Past that, I get to do what I want. So I decided to try an idea I'd seen on the food network: using jam to flavor buttercream. In this case I used a high quality blackberry jam. For the filling I made a coconut buttercream by adding creamed coconut to the buttercream. Two delicious, flavored buttercreams with minimal effort.

Flower Arranging

I make bouquets now. Bouquets are cool. Actually, I've been making bouquets for years. The first 'grown-up' craft I got into was flower arranging. I bought books on it. I watched florists working. I stocked up on florists wire and tape (which comes in very useful when I make sugarpaste flowers, but that's beside the point.) I even befriended a local florist (a very nice woman) who gave me left over flowers to practice with and showed me how to use chicken wire instead of florist foam as a base for non-posy arrangements.