Tag Archive for: cake

All done skiing- its time for Spring!

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We got back from Vail last night to 80 degree weather- a very welcome change despite the fact that I was still wearing my wool socks and my feet almost melted off walking to the car.  Vail was amazing!  I have not been to Colorado in over 20 years and never in the winter, and it is breathtakingly beautiful.  It certainly helped that the weather was excellent- it was in the 50s by mid morning of the first three days we skied which made the snow like mashed potatoes, and it was spring skiing at its finest.  The last day it was about 20 degrees, and I had not packed for 20 degrees.  Lets just say that Corby spent the majority of the last day skiing by himself while I walked around Vail village looking for a present for Walker and then hunkered down the awesome coffee shop the Yeti’s Grind (www.yetisgrind.com) which has the best cupcakes.  On St. Patrick’s day, we went in there before we hit the slopes and got an Irish Carbomb cupcake- holy amazing Batman, that cupcake set me right for the rest of the day.  One of other fun places we checked out was the Red Lion (www.theredlion.com).   This is probably the most famous apres ski place in Vail, and it is not to be missed.  Phil Long puts on a fantastic show while you are indulging in their GI-NORMOUS plate of nachos and sipping on your favorite cocktail.  It might be worth getting of the mountain early just to grab a seat.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, we spend one day skiing at Beaver Creek and had lunch at the Ritz Carlton.  This place is kind of silly it is so nice.  We had lunch on big couches (the couch in the picture is the one we sat on) in front of a huge window watching skiers come down the hill, and we sat next to Joe Kern from CNBC (I had no idea who he was, but Corby is a big CNBC watcher).  Corby and I spilt a turkey club and a bowl of tomato parmesan soup. Honestly, I am not sure it it was the setting or the relief of taking my ski boots off, but that was the best damn soup ever!

Now we are back in Charleston- it is full on Spring with the azaleas blooming everywhere and tank tops and flip flops have taken back over, and to put the ski season and winter behind me, I found this very spring time recipe on www.GoodHousekeeping.com for a Lemon Ricotta Cheese cake.  Enjoy!!

Lemon Ricotta Cheese cake

Ingredients:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
4 tablespoons butter or margarine,  softened
3 to 4 lemons
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 packages   (8-ounce)  reduced-fat cream  cheese softened
1 container   (15-ounce)  part-skim  ricotta cheese
4 large eggs
2 cups half-and-half or light  cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Wrap the outside of a 9-inch springform pan with heavy-duty foil to prevent batter from leaking out during baking.

In a springform pan, with fork, mix graham cracker crumbs and butter until crumbs are moistened. With hand, press mixture firmly onto bottom of pan.  Bake crust 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack, about 15 minutes.

Reset oven to 325 degrees F. Meanwhile, from 2 lemons, grate 2  teaspoons peel and squeeze 1/3 cup juice. In small bowl, stir together sugar and  cornstarch until blended. In large bowl, with mixer on medium speed, beat cream  cheese and ricotta until smooth, about 5 minutes. Slowly beat in sugar mixture.  Reduce speed to low; beat in eggs, half-and-half, vanilla, and lemon peel and  juice just until blended, scraping bowl often with rubber spatula.

Pour batter onto crust. Bake cheesecake 1 hour. Turn off oven; let  cheesecake remain in oven 1 hour.

Remove cheesecake from oven. To help prevent cracking during cooling,  run a thin knife between edge of the cheesecake and pan as soon as the cheesecake comes  out of the oven. Cool cake in pan on wire rack 2 hours. Cover and refrigerate cheesecake at least 6 hours or overnight, until well chilled.

To serve, remove foil and side of pan and place cake on plate. From remaining lemons, with a sharp knife, cut 8 very thin center slices; use to garnish the top of the cheesecake.

 

Pinterest and Cheesecake Strawberries

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I admit that I am pretty slow to the game when it comes to new social media technology.  I am terrified of this new facebook layout and won’t even look at friends pages that have the new layout because I don’t understand it.  I don’t twitter or tweet or whatever you call it even though I probably should.  And until literally five minutes ago, I had heard of pinterest, but hadn’t ever looked at it.  Well I just did, and this is one of the first things I saw!   What is this amazing little treat???  It was put up by The Sweets Life (www.thesweetslife.com).  It sounds easy, delicious, and looks fancy- YAY!!  These are the directions I copied from the Sweets Life website- which I clearly need to read a lot more of!

Cheesecake Strawberries

Ingredients:
-1 lb large strawberries
-8 oz. cream cheese, softened (can use 1/3 less fat)
-3-4 tbsp powdered sugar (4 tbsp for a sweeter filling)
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-Graham cracker crumbs

Directions:

1. Rinse strawberries and cut around the top
of the strawberry. Remove the top and clean out with a paring knife, if
necessary (some may already be hollow inside). Prep all strawberries and set
aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla
until creamy. Add cream cheese mix to a piping bag or ziploc with the corner
snipped off. Fill strawberries with cheesecake mixture. Once strawberries are
filled, dip the top in graham cracker crumbs. If not serving immediately,
refrigerate until serving.

So, while I am still a complete novice at pinterest (I am actually waiting for an invitation to join), I am intrigued by what might be on this site or did I just find the best thing right off the bat?  Can’t wait to make these!

The Secret to a Red Velvet Cake??

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I made Red Velvet Whoopie Pies last night to take as dessert to a dinner party.  The recipe was a very simple recipe for the red velvet part- a box of cake mix, eggs, water and oil.  I made two different fillers: a marshmallow and a cream cheese icing.  Everything went very well, and they looked beautiful- I had rolled them in mini chocolate chips and red hots- it was just a fun dessert to make.  Then Corby came home.  And he tried one. And it was bad.  Corby loves red velvet cake, and as this was my first attempt to make this, I was pretty excited for him to try it and love it and think that I was the best baker in the world.  Needless to say, very disappointed.  What went wrong??  I, of course, tried one as well, and Corby was not lying- they were bad despite how pretty they looked.  Fortunately, I had enough time to make a Cheerwine Cake, which is always good.  So, my goal this weekend is to find and make a good red velvet cake.  I am not going to use a box mix because that clearly didn’t work.  The standard recipe that I am finding online seems to be:

Red Velvet Cake

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 2 ounces red food coloring
  • 2 1/2 cups cake flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar

There is some variations in the amount of baking soda and vinegar and cocoa powder, but I am going to be a master of this by Sunday so stay tuned!!

Peanut Butter Pie Fail

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I love The Local Palate (www.localpalatemag.com), the new cooking/food magazine in Charleston.  Yesterday, they put up a link to all of their recipes http://www.localpalatemag.com/recipes.html, and I tried the Peanut Butter Pie recipe.  You know those days in the kitchen where everything goes wrong- you drop eggs on the floor, you burn butter, your flour explodes everywhere into a disastrous mess- that was pretty much my experience with trying to make a Peanut Butter Pie.  You know when you have those days, and despite all the mess and frustration, your dish turns out marvelously- well, that didn’t happen.  Ok- here is the recipe from the Local Palate-

Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients:

2 cups peanut butter, smooth or chunky
1 pound cream cheese
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 pint heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split and seeded
3 large egg yolks
1 Oreo cookie prepared pie shell
4 tablespoons peanuts, toasted
4 ounces shaved bittersweet chocolate

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, whip together peanut butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar.

Pour cream into a second mixing bowl or stand mixer. Whip cream with vanilla bean seeds to stiff peaks.

Fill bottom of double boiler with water and place on medium-high heat on the stove. Place egg yolks in top of double boiler and lightly temper egg yolks until slightly thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let come to room temperature.

Fold eggs into peanut butter mixture.

Fold in whipped cream with peanut butter mixture. Combine thoroughly.

Pour mixture into prepared Oreo pie shell. Top with peanuts and shaved chocolate. Place in freezer for 2 hours. Use a warm knife to serve.

Now- here is what went wrong.  First of all- I could not find an Oreo pie shell as the store, so no big deal, I got a chocolate pie shell. Next, I decided to use my stand mixer to mix the heavy cream and my hand mixer to mix the peanut butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar together.  Bad idea.  Perhaps I might have used too small of a bowl, but mixing cream cheese, peanut butter and powdered sugar is not so easy- but mess aside- got it done.  Now to the heavy cream and the seeds of a vanilla bean.  I got some of the seeds out and the rest all over me, so I added some vanilla extract, but despite the work to get the seeds- my heavy cream did not whip… at all.  It just stayed very milky and spraying everywhere.   A phone call to my mother informed me that even though the recipe said heavy cream, I should have bought heavy whipping cream or just whipping cream and fortunately she had some at her house.  In the mean time, I did not have a double boiler for the egg yolks- it took five attempts to get the three yolks needed.  Not only that, but in my homemade double boiler of two pots on top of each other, are you supposed to have the bottom pot boiling before you put on the eggs- I don’t know, but I did not have the water boiling before I added the eggs, so I am not sure if the eggs turned out correctly.  I took the eggs off of the stove to let them get to room temperature and rode my bike over to my mother’s to get her whipping cream.  She only had 1/2 a pint, but it whipped beautifully, so I then added half of mine that I had been mixing for 15 minutes to no effect.  Well, of course that diluted the whole mixture but I added it and the eggs to the peanut butter mix anyway.  This part all went ok- and I put it in the pie shell and froze it and it looked very pretty.  It really didn’t taste very good, and it wasn’t that it was horrible by any means, but just not great.  I don’t know if it was the eggs or the bad heavy cream or what, but if I was to attempt this again, I would get some good whipping cream, and I would cut the amount of cream cheese in half as it was a very strong flavor and kind of hid the peanut butter flavor, and I would double the amount of powdered sugar to 1/2 a cup.  I think you could do this without messing up the recipe too much as I had a ton of the pie filling left over.  I will say the chocolate pie crust was very tasty, and if you can’t find oreo- this works just as well!  Here’s to feeling like a complete beginner in the kitchen again!!

Spiced Eggnog Pound Cake

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I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving!  I am still so full, but it was all worth it.  I remade a lot of recipes that I have put on this blog this past week for family members that I have not seen in a while.  We started off on Wednesday night, having my parents, all of my siblings and nieces over for dinner.  Corby served up his now-famous BBQ with coleslaw and a potato and bacon hash that was out of this world.  I made a salad and used the Pimento Cheese pop-overs instead of croutons.  Since we were having BBQ, my brother and his wife brought Bourbon Banana Pudding- I don’t have the recipe yet, but apparently it is from Joy of Cooking, and it was so so so good.

The next day,  I made the Prosciutto Cheese Straws for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner snack- fantastic and a huge hit with my brother and father, and for Thanksgiving Day dessert, I made the Chocolate Bread Pudding that was the Le Creuset recipe contest winner, and it was just as good as I remembered it!  We also got an Apple Crisp from The Co-Op on Sullivan’s Island (www.thecoopsullivans.com).  The Co-Op is a great little grocery/deli that serves up great sandwiches and amazing homemade desserts- definitely check it out!

So despite the fact that it is 80 in Charleston today, I am now gearing up for Christmas- how is that possible!!!  We are headed to NYC this weekend for a visit, and I am so excited to get some cold weather to get into the Christmas spirit.  We are also going to my sister’s annual gingerbread house building party on Sunday, before we head home, which we have not been to in a long time and should be so fun!  To also help get into the Christmas mode, here is a recipe I love from Christmas with Southern Living from back in 2005- Spiced Eggnog Pound Cake- enjoy!

Spiced Eggnog Pound Cake

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 6 large eggs
  • 3 cups sifted cake flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup eggnog
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons brandy (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • Powdered sugar
  • 1 cup sifted powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon whipping cream

Preparation

  • Generously grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan; set aside.
  • Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer about 2 minutes or until creamy. Gradually add granulated sugar, beating 5 to 7 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until the yellow disappears.
  • Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture alternately with 1 cup eggnog, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla and, if desired, brandy.
  • Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan. Stir cinnamon and the next 3 ingredients into the remaining batter. Spoon spice batter over plain batter. Swirl batters together, using a knife.
  • Bake at 350° for 50 to 55 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack.
  • Place cake on a cake plate; dust with powdered sugar.
  • Combine 1 cup powdered sugar and whipping cream, stirring until smooth. Drizzle glaze over the cake

 

My Bakery Wish List

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Since I started writing this blog, I have been making a wish list of bakeries I want to visit.  Red Truck Bakery (www.redtruckbakery.com) in Old Town Warrenton, VA is definitely at the top of the list.  First off, I really love that they turned an old Esso Station into a bakery.  Second, I really love the truck- an old 1954 red  Ford farm truck- while I would not have the first clue how to drive it and would surely kill the transmission, clutch and any thing else in the engine, is really my dream truck.  Third, and most importantly, I am obsessed with their menu- I look at it every day and wish that I could be there right when the bakery opens and smells so amazing.  Today’s soup for example is potato with apple wood smoked bacon- heaven.  If you live in the neighborhood or have the chance to be near the area, please check it out for me as it doesn’t seem that I will make it there any time in the near future.  Fortunately- they ship nationwide (http://www.redtruckbakery.com/store)!! Here is some of the press from my favorite magazine- Garden & Gun:

“Leave it to a baker in moonshine country to create a dessert that rivals the Kentucky bourbon ball. The Double Chocolate Moonshine Cake from Red Truck Bakery in Virginia is made with legal hooch and enough rich chocolate to give you a food buzz. ”
  ~ Garden & Gun Magazine

All the Buzz- Caramel Cake

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I read the book, “The Help” when it first came out and absolutely loved it!  I have not had a chance to see the movie, but it is on the long long to do list.  However, I have had a chance to sample the actual Caramel Cake that was featured in the movie which is clearly the most important part!  The cakes in the movie were provided by Caroline’s Cakes in Annapolis, MD.  She is a native of Charleston, SC and will hopefully be opening a shop here soon!  Her bakery is centered around her Caramel Cakes, and they are phenomenal!!  She has over 120,000 people on her list that order them every year!  She obviously keeps this recipe pretty well guarded, so I am going to post another and quite tasty recipe for a Caramel Cake that comes from Eudora Garrison’s Favorite Carolina Recipes.   Eduora Garrison was food critic and editor for the Charlotte Observer.

Caramel Cake

1/3 cup plus 1-1/4 cups granulated sugar, divide and use
1/3 cup boiling water
3/4 cup butter
3 eggs
3 cups sifted cake flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Melt the one-third cup of sugar in a heavy skillet, stirring constantly until a deep-brown syrup is formed- a process called caramelization.
Remove from heat and slowly stir in boiling water, being careful that steam does not burn your hand. Set the syrup aside to cool.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease two 9-inch cake pans, place parchement paper in the bottoms, then grease and flour the cottoms and sides.
Cream butter in bowl with electric mixer. Add 1 and 1/4 cups sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating until each is well incorporated.
Stir in 4 tablespoons of the reserved syrup.
Sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt.
Combine milk and vanilla.
Add flour mixture to the batter alternately with the milk mixter, beginning and endin with the four mixture. Beat until smooth.
Divide batter evenly among the two prepared pans and bake for 25 minutes, or until wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove pans from oven and let stand about 10 minutes, then turn out cakes onto wire rack, peel off paper and cool completely.

Caramel Frosting

3 cups (light) brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons half and half
1/2 stick of butter (4 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mix sugar and half and half in a heavy saucepan and cook, stirring over low heat until syrup reaches the soft-ball stage,
235 degrees on a candy thermometer. If lacking a thermometer, check doneness by dropping a tiny bit of syrup into a cup of cold water. When the syrup can be gathered up in fingers and will almost hold its shape, it has reached the soft-ball stage.
Remove pan from heat.
Stir in butter, then let syrup cool.
Add vanilla and beat until frosting reaches spreading consistency. A little cream (or half and half) may be add if mixture is too thick.

Cheerwine Cake- who knew cooking with soda could be so good!!

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This past week was the first week of third grade for my 8 year old son, Walker.  As a, “yay school is back in session” celebration, I decided to try a new recipe I was sent by The 1861 Farmhouse Restaurant in Valle Crusis, NC.  They just added this cake to the menu and were so generous to share the recipe with us!!  It is a Cheerwine Cake, and it is amazing!!  My mother has a recipe for a Sprite pound cake, and I have a recipe for apple fritters using Mountain Dew, but this was the first I had heard of baking with Cheerwine.  Needless to say, I think the people at the 1861 Farmhouse Restaurant are incredibly smart.  For more of their yummy goodness, go check out their restaurant at www.1861farmhouse.com.   Here is the recipe and a picture of how it turned out.  I didn’t use the nuts in the icing because I don’t like them, but I would think that if you did, it would be delicious.

Cheerwine Cake

1 box chocolate cake mix
1 cup Cheerwine
1 tsp. almond extract

Icing:
1/3 cup Cheerwine
21/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 cup chopped nuts
1/4 cup cocoa

Directions

Prepare cake as directed on box, except substitute the water for the Cheerwine. Add almond extract, mix well. Pour into greased bundt pan.

Icing: 

Heat Cheerwine, margarine and cocoa until it comes to a boil. Pour mixture over powdered sugar, blend til smooth. Stir in almond extract and mix in nuts. Let cool, pour over cake.

Sour Cream Blueberry Cake

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We used to have blueberry bushes on the hill at my grandmother’s mountain house, and it was so marvelous to have blueberry pie, blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins etc. all from blueberries that we had picked that morning.  The bushes have unfortunately gone away, but I still have kept my love for blueberry treats.  I came across an old recipe for a Sour Cream Blueberry Cake that is delectable.  If you decide to make it, please let me know what you think!!

Sour Cream Blueberry Cake

1 stick butter
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup blueberries

Directions

Beat the butter, sugar and eggs together until the sugar is dissolved, and it is a light creamy mixture.
Then add the vanilla.  Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
Add half of the dry ingredients to the mix then half of the sour cream and stir.
Then add the remaining dry ingredients and sour cream and stir.
Pour half of the batter into a large greased and floured pan.
Cover with blueberries and top with remaining batter.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and enjoy!!

Southern Coconut Cake. It’s Worth It.

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I feel lucky to have randomly found Tender Crumb, a well-named baking blog with recipes and photos so compelling it makes one want to rush to the kitchen to preheat the oven. The mistress of Tender Crumb, Linda, is involved in a wonderful mass-baking-hysteria called The Cake Slice. This month’s installment of The Cake Slice features Southern Coconut Cake.

From Linda/Tender Crumb:

So far, every recipe that I’ve made out of Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes has exceeded my expectations, and I highly recommend that you go out and treat yourself to this cookbook.

Impossibly moist white cake layers are subtly flavored with unsweetened coconut milk, enveloped by a cream cheese buttercream frosting (I gained 5 pounds just typing those words) and covered with sweetened flaked coconut (oops, another 5 pounds).

With all of the cake-making happening in my kitchen this month, I cut the recipe in half and baked the cake layers in two 6″ round pans. The instructions for the cake were pretty straightforward, and the layers were baked without a hitch.

For the coconut cake recipe and a whole lot more, please visit Tender Crumb here.