Birthday Bunny Cake

Every year for as long as I can remember, my mom has made me a bunny cake for my bridal. Some years this was my official cake for my party, but more often than not it was just for us with a separate party cake. This year was no different, although my party isn't for another few weeks so there wasn't much of a choice in the matter. Regardless of how many cakes I have, I love my birthday bunny cake.

This year it was a coconut cake with vanilla buttercream and shredded coconut "fur". How cute? And it was certainly delicious. The cake was moist and light with just the right amount of sweetness and only a hint of coconut. The buttercream was creamy and the coconut, while a bit on the thick side (the shredded coconut pieces are much thicker than sweetened coconut but it looks furrier and unsweetened, which was good with the sweet cake and buttercream), complemented the coconut in the cake nicely. Yum! (Stay tuned for my party cake...it's going to be chocolate!)

Quasi Birthday Cake

Well technically this isn't a birthday cake--it isn't even a cake. I decided to practice some cake decorating in advance of my birthday because I couldn't decide what to make for my birthday cake. It hasn't actually helped me make up my mind but it was fun!

This is a cake dummy covered with white fondant and decorated with fondant cutouts and silver dragées. It was really very easy to make. The decorations are just 3 sizes of flowers cut from two colors of fondant. I didn't use and shaping tool or anything fancy, just stuck them right on the cake (with a bit of water). Then just a drop of water to stick the dragées onto the flowers and voilà! I think it's pretty and quite fun!

Marble Loaf Cake

This marble loaf cake from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook is just delicious. The chocolate is richly, deeply, almost bitterly chocolaty. The vanilla is warmly sweet. The cake generally is moist and dense but not too heavy. The glaze is rich with white chocolate and sets very nicely. Plus it's remarkably simple to make and I think swirling the cake batter is a ton of fun (I like the method that Martha suggest of spooning in the batter in 2 layers both with a sort of checker board pattern, it helps distribute the chocolate and vanilla without risking over swirling the batters and blending them.)

The cake before swirling and after I took it out of the oven

Almond Cake (and a quick discussion of gluten free food)

This delicious, gluten free, almond cake is technically a Passover cake  (and that's why I made it this time) however I make it all year round. It's absurdly moist and delicious. It's easy enough to make and there's no need to decorate it with anything more than a dusting of powdered sugar. Finally, it's gluten free by design (rather than by substituting gluten free flours for wheat flour) which makes it perfect for people with coeliac disease (like my cousin).

The thing about gluten free baking is that baked goods that are gluten free by design (typically recipes designed for Passover because of the restrictions on grains/leavening/etc., as well as many cream and fruit based desserts) are almost always better than ones that are forced into being gluten free. Think about it:

• flourless chocolate cake
• coconut macaroons
• French macarons
• meringues and dacquoise
• mousses
• ice cream/sorbet/frozen yogurt/granita/semifreddos/mendiants/parfaits/etc (as long as they don't have additives like cookie pieces or any glutenous cake bases, which some of mine did, but you get the point)
• many candies (such as caramels) and chocolates (such as bonbons), 
• soufflés
• fruit and sabayon gratins
• panna cotta/creme caramel/creme brûlée/pots de creme/etc
• fruit salads and soups

All of these are naturally gluten free and delicious! 

Coconut Macaroons

This is by far my best batch of coconut macaroons ever! And just in time for Passover! I used finely grated coconut rather than the long, thickish strands of sweetened coconut. I know this helps with shaping and you don't end up with stray strands sticking out of the bottom edges of the cookie that brown first. I think that helped. The other thing that helped (and this is the big thing) is my new method for shaping them. I packed the eggy coconut tightly into a small ice cream scoop--one of the springy ones, so that I could get the perfectly packed mounds out without messing up the lovely shape. I think the firmly packed heaps of coconut browned evenly because they were packed and shaped evenly. Of course they tasted delicious as always, the texture was perfect (lighter than the traditional Manischewitz ones but still nice and moist with that distinctive coconutty chewiness) and they just looked so lovely and golden.

Chocolate Chip Macaroons

My favorite food for Passover is coconut macaroons. They also happen to be one of my pop's favorite cookies for any time of year. Since Passover is coming up I thought I'd perfect my technique and appease Pop's sweet tooth.

I usually used shredded sweetened coconut for macaroons, but this time I used unsweetened coconut (which is drier and has a finer shred.) It's actually much easier to shape the macaroons because it's much smaller pieces of coconut and they are slightly less sweet (I upped bthe sugar significantly, but it's still less sweet) in a good way. For a little change, I mixed some finely chopped bittersweet chocolate into the "batter" of egg white, coconut, and sugar. It was very nice!

I should point out that coconut macaroons (as well as traditional French macarons) are actually gluten free, so for those who can't or don't eat gluten, these are a lovely cookie to make and eat.

Happy Pi Day

I'm a nerd at heart. I'm also a pastry chef (in case you didn't know). So Pi Day is one of my favorite holidays. It combines math (March 14th --> 3/14 --> 3.14, which, of course, is pi) and dessert (pie) into one great holiday.

I happen to be on vacation and am staying with a friend. I didn't want to go crazy in her kitchen (which is a lovely kitchen, but still) so I opted for an ice box pie. This particular recipe comes by way of the William's-Sonoma pie cookbook. It's a cream cheese pie with oranges and a graham cracker crust. I admit the crust is store bought, like I said I didn't want to make a mess in the kitchen. I used heirloom navel oranges on top. they were sweeter and more flavorful than usual navel oranges, perhaps because the were organic and heirloom or perhaps because it's citrus season right about now. The filling's a mixture of cream cheese, lemon juice and condensed milk. It's a delicious, sticky mixture, but it did not thicken or set at all, so it was very messy!

The pie really didn't hold together like a pie when you cut into it (because the filling was too liquid) but gosh was it good! You don't even have to take my word for it: everyone loved it (and ate large helpings). I believe one word bandied around was "refreshing." I think that's a very accurate description of this yummy, citrus-y pie.

I had a little left over filling so I made a few mini pies.

Peppermint White Chocolate Fudge

Based off Paula Deen's dummy fudge recipe, this peppermint white chocolate fudge is absurdly easy to make. It also happens to be the smoothest fudge you will ever try. As you may have noticed, I much prefer dark chocolate over white chocolate; but there is something about the sweetness of white chocolate with peppermint that I love. Yum!

White and Dark Chocolate Brownies

I'm sure you recall that I love the Fat Witch Bakery regular brownie (and for that matter most of their other brownies). Well my pops was demanding chocolate brownies so I made a batch of regular Fat Witch Brownies. I wanted to make something new so I decided to make a second batch of brownies and ended up making white chocolate "Snow Witches."

The chocolate brownies were good as usual. Actually I used better quality chocolate (I've started buying Belgian chocolate in bulk so it costs about the same as Ghirardelli from the store) so they were as good as usual but a bit better due to the richer chocolate flavor. The white chocolate brownies were delicious! They look like blondies but were not really like a blondie at all, which was a pleasant surprise. They were sweet with a surprisingly strong white chocolate taste and pungent vanilla flavor. And the texture was superb. They were chewy and soft and not caky but not fudgy--just perfect

Don't they look nice together?

Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Scones

These scones are based on the traditional scone recipe I learned at the FCI. Basically I added cocoa powder (instead of some of the flour, plus a bit more) and a bit extra sugar to the dough to give a delicious bittersweet chocolaty dough. Then I just substituted chocolate chips for the dried currants or raisins. Yum!

Plum Muffins, revisited

Remember these? They were great the last time I made them. They were great this time too! There's something about the fresh plum with the coffee cake-y muffin that is just amazing. Yum!

Cake Inspiration

About a month ago I was wandering around Fortnum and Mason in London. They have a display case filled with sample wedding cakes. I snapped some pretty bad photos of them but hopefully they will serve as good inspiration at some point. Here they are:

I love the the flowers go from bottom to top rather
than top to bottom as is typical

The brush embroidery on this is beautiful and
I like the colors (although I'm not sure about
the top being so plain.)

Pretty and elegant and I love the matching
cookies. Plus the silhouettes are a nice
substitute for a traditional cake topper.

There is a lot going on with this cake,
but the elements are all done perfectly
and I really do like all of them
(I especially like the way the stripes start
halfway up one layer and go halfway up the next)
albeit I'd prefer them on multiple different cakes.

I think this is the most elegant ruffle cake
I've seen. I love the flower topper.

Chocolate, Orange, Espresso Brownies

These are based on a recipe by Marian Burros from the New York Times Dessert Cookbook. I've always liked Starbucks mocha Valencia (which they long ago discontinued, now it's just a mocha with a shot of orange syrup) so I figured these would be good. They weren't good. They were GREAT! The orange stood up for itself but didn't overwhelm the coffee flavor that stays in the background a bit. The chocolate, of course, was the predominant flavor and, because I was using really good chocolate, it was a particularly deep chocolaty flavor. They were very fudgy, I may actually bake them a little more next time--and I already baked them about 10 minutes longer than the recipe says--but as long as I stored them in the fridge they were fudgy and delicious (at room temp they started to get a little too gooey).

It was a little late for Valentine's Day, but we were having friends over and I decided what the heck, it's only a few days late! So I got out my new heart shaped cookie cutter (which I had yet to use) and cut out a dozen heart shaped brownies. I saved the scraps in the freezer for snacking on and putting on top of ice cream. A fun shape for the brownies and a good use of the scraps (who doesn't like frozen brownie on vanilla ice cream?)

Valentine's Day Pancakes

I didn't want to go out to a restaurant on Valentine's Day. My pops was out of town so my mom felt the same way. So we decided to do Valentine's Day dinner at home (after a lovely Valentine's Day lunch at my new favorite burger place). For fun we had breakfast dinner! I made sautéed pink lady apples (very much like my stove top baked apples but without the vanilla and a bit less sugar) and homemade chocolate pancakes. Pancakes are actually surprisingly easy to make from scratch and they really a better than when they're made from a mix. I decided to make them heart shaped. It wasn't terribly easy since I don't have a mold (I used to have a heart shaped pancake shaper/mold thing, but it disappeared a year or two ago.) Basically I just used a spoon to carefully drop/drizzle the batter in a heart shape. It was tedious and time consuming, but it wasn't too tough and it was worth it because they looked incredible! The cocoa-y pancakes and the sweet yet tart apples were delicious together with just a drizzle of pure maple syrup.

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

Pink rose cupcakes

I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day. I don't mean that to imply that I'm bitter about being single on Valentine's Day--I've had dates for it in the past and it still didn't thrill me. It's just an odd sort of holiday that makes single people feel a bad and puts pressure on couples to do something extra special for no real reason. That said, I totally stand behind Valentine's Day desserts. Chocolate and more chocolate with the occasional red berry and a hint of pink. What could be better?!

Anyway, in keeping with tradition, these are dark chocolate cupcakes and the vanilla buttercream is a lovely pale pink. To decorate, I used different tips to get a rose-like swirl and a couple other simple swirls. I'm not sure how I feel about the rose swirl. I know they are in right now, and they are very pretty, but they are a bit flat so there isn't as much buttercream as with a normal swirl. Then I sprinkled them with beautiful vintage-y colored coral, pale blue, and white jimmies. I think they are quite pretty for Valentine's Day but still sufficiently un-Valentine's-y to work for any time of year.

All three different icing swirls

Grapefruit Tart

I love fruit curd. I usually make lemon curd tarts, but I decided to do something different and went for grapefruit. I couldn't find gelatin at the local shop and I didn't have any at home so I used a couple extra egg yolks but it didn't make it thicken quite as much as I would have liked. It would have been a fine consistency for individual tarts, but it got a little messy when we were slicing the large one. Ah well, it tasted amazing. The grapefruit has a bit less tang than a lemon curd but it was a bit more bitter...in a good way.

I made the crust out of shortbread dough, which was sweet and balanced out the bitterness of the grapefruit. To decorate, I just topped it with a bit of whipped cream around the edge and some homemade crystallized grapefruit zest. Delicious and elegant!

Walnut Stilton Scones

These savory, walnut and Stilton scones from Alice's Tea Cup's cookbook are delicious! They resemble a really nice, flakey, buttermilk biscuit more than a traditional scone. The veins of blue cheese in the scones are strong but not overpowering. The walnuts are relatively soft, as nuts go at least, so they add texture without being so crunchy as to distract from the normal scone texture. The scones are perfect for an afternoon tea if you are also serving a sweet scone (such as pumpkin scones) but they are really lovely on their own with a cup of strong tea or even on the side of tomato soup.

Clementine Mini Loaves

Remember the lemon loaf I made at the FCI? These are the same recipe, except instead of lemons I used clementines (they are more wintery) and just a dash of orange extract. I also broke in my new mini loaf pan and made a half dozen mini loaves instead of a normal size loaf. I think they look very nice in miniature and the clementine gave the loaves a slightly sweeter and milder flavor than the lemon one did. Delicious!

Chocolate Chip Cookies, revisited

These are my chocolate chip cookies made with my secret recipe. They really haven't changed much since I last made them except that I was out of my usual baking powder and the stuff I got when I ran to the local store to get it was cut with flour instead of a proper starch. That and the ridiculously dark, dark brown sugar I have--it's organic and free trade, so I guess it's just more flavorful like so many organic products--changed the flavor and texture ever so slightly. And they were good! They were crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside and richly earthy from the higher molasses content in the sugar. (You can see how dark they are from the dark brown sugar in the photo.) Also I used really good quality chocolate chips (Belgian chocolate instead of my usual domestic brands) that happen to be significantly larger than normal chocolate chips (you can see that in the photo also), so they were chocolaty-er too! I do think I'll switch back to my usual baking powder and brown sugar, but I'm sticking with these (or similar) chocolate chips.

Pan Fried Ravioli

I'm not sure fried is the best word for these; they are really sautéed ravioli. Basically, I cooked lovely, fresh, asparagus ravioli very al dente--about 2/3 of the normal cooking time. Then I gently drained them, put the still steaming hot ravioli in a pan with just a thin coat of olive oil, and cooked them on one side then the other until they were just golden and a bit crispy. Then I just drained them on a paper towel and served them with some marinara sauce. I think the tiny amount of oil I used means they weren't fried, but it didn't really feel like sautéing. They really don't teach you the exact definition of either in pastry school. Whatever I did to them, they were delicious and a really lovely appetizer! I think I will try this with different ravioli--perhaps pumpkin--soon.