Archive for the 'cake' Category
What I made for dinner was chicken tagine with chick peas and preserved lemon, with chopped cilantro stems tossed into the rice when I opened the lid to fluff it, then cover again to let it steam a bit before it was called into service. I didn’t eat with the boys, though; I’m heading out to the “Bum Ball” – the Bill Brooks 12th Annual Prostate Cancer Benefit at the Hotel Arts tonight – a date with K.
The theme: gloves – meaning we are asked to don our fanciest (or most latex) gloves – which of course I have none of, unless you count the rubber gloves under the sink I never use – so it was off to Winners this afternoon for a pair. (And they’re on sale! They had some funky long ones to choose from. I got black cable knit cotton ones with the fingers cut off – not exactly glitz but very me, and functional when hors d’oeuvres are involved – then painted my nails brilliant pink. I’m trying not to wreck them as I type.)
Funny story: the dollar store is next to Winners, and so I popped in to buy chew toys for Lou. By the till there was a bin of socks, and so since we go through approximately three times as many little boy socks now, who conversely grow out of them three times as quickly, I bought a couple 3-packs. (You do the math- it’s a good deal, right? Except that I don’t want to think about exactly why they can sell socks for 33 cents a pair.) On the way home, stopped at a light with the open Dollar Giant bag on the seat beside me, I started popping off the packaging. And then, as one might do, mindlessly started tucking together the socks in twos, having just liberated them from their cardboard band. I wish I could have captured the expression of the lady in the SUV beside me, looking down into the window of my Subaru Outback, where I was folding laundry at a red light. Now that’s multitasking.
But right – the cupcakes. It was my Mom and sister’s birthdays last night, and we made them using a spice cake recipe that at some point became traditional for their day. My mom loves penuche icing, which I learned upon growing up no one has a clue about – it’s a brown sugar frosting, made with both brown sugar and icing sugar. I added cream cheese as well this time – a big blob of it, and half as much butter, with a handful of brown sugar, a squirt of Roger’s Golden syrup and as much icing sugar as I needed to make a spreadable frosting.
Or, one that could be easily scooped into a ziploc baggie and squeezed out through a snipped-off corner to make squiggly swirls instead of the traditional star-tipped twirl. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Mom & Anne’s Birthday Spice Cupcakes
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg and/or allspice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter or non-hydrogenated margarine, softened
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray two 8” or 9” round cake pans or one 9? x 13? pan with nonstick spray.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. In a larger bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer for about half a minute, until it’s pale and creamy. Pour in the sugar and continue to beat for 3-4 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl whenever it needs it.
Stir the vanilla into the milk. Add about one-third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir it in by hand or with the electric mixer on low speed, just until it’s combined. Add about half the milk in the same manner, then another third of the flour, the rest of the milk, and the rest of the flour, mixing just until the batter is blended.
Divide the batter between the prepared tins, filling them about 3/4 full, and bake for 20-25 minutes until the cupcakes are golden and tops are springy to the touch. Makes 1 1/2 dozen cupcakes.
Yes, I have something for you this Free Stuff Friday – not much, but in keeping with the cupcakes theme. It’s a 2010 cupcake calendar. (And who, truly, doesn’t love them?) If I don’t give this away soon we’ll blow through 1/12th of the year and it won’t be of as much use. It’s very cute – consider it the Do-It-Yourself-Cupcake-of-the-Month-Club.
Leave a comment to enter; if you want to tell us what was for dinner, that’s great. If there’s something else on your mind, let’s have it.
January 23 2010 | cake | 51 Comments »
(Apologies for the photo; it was taken just after 6 am, held on a shaky arm in the dark of the kitchen. It was destined for the CBC studio.)
I’ve made a Yule Log (Bûche de Noël) only once before, for a friend who was visiting from Toronto and acting as a spokesperson for Betty Crocker, promoting their then-new Christmas cookbook. I was her food stylist, and as such made and hauled a chocolate log (among other things) garnished with chopped pistachios and little meringue mushrooms to BT, then ran home to do some switching around before the noon news. Not wanting said log to freeze in the car (I can only assume this was my motivation), I brought it in the house. Or rather tried to; I must have set it down when I went for the keys, because when it came time to leave again I couldn’t find it. How does one lose a chocolate pistachio-covered Yule Log? After half an hour or so of frantic searching I opened the front door and found it on the front porch, massacred… around it, squirrel footprints in chocolate icing. They must’ve thought they hit the jackpot – a log, only chocolate, and covered in pre-opened and chopped nuts?? Hello! I scrambled to pretty it up again with frosting and made sure none of the CTV crew dove in after the show.
So that’s the story of the Bûche de Noël ravaged by squirrels. I’ve not made one since, until last night, and it was just as simple of the first. This time it was consumed by media types, not rodents.
Chocolate Bûche de Noël
Cake:
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
Filling:
1 cup whipping cream
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. instant coffee or espresso powder
Frosting:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup cocoa
2 cups icing sugar
1 Tbsp. water
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup chopped green pistachios (optional)
Preheat oven to 375°F and line a 15″x10″ (or similar – I used a half-sheet) rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat mat.
Beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until thick and pale yellow; beat in the water and vanilla. Add the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt and beat just until blended. Spread into the prepared pan, spreading the batter evenly into all corners. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until springy to the touch. Let cool for a few minutes in the pan.
Invert the pan onto a tea towel that has been generously sprinkled with icing sugar; peel away the parchment and roll the cake up gently (you want to do this while it’s still quite warm) starting from a short end. Leave the cake to cool completely, rolled up in the towel.
Meanwhile, beat the whipping cream with sugar and instant coffee until stiff; unroll the cooled cake, spread it with the cream and roll it back up. Place it on a piece of plastic wrap and wrap it up; freeze for a couple hours or up to a few months.
Beat the butter, cocoa, icing sugar, water and vanilla until smooth, adding a little extra icing sugar or water as needed to produce a spreadable frosting. When the log is frozen, slice about 1/5 off the end at a diagonal, then set it alongside the log, as if it were a branch coming off. Spread the whole thing with frosting, not covering the cut ends; run the tines of a fork through the surface to make it look like bark. If you like, sprinkle with pistachios.
Serves 10.
And I probably shouldn’t have done this; opened the door wide when those little chocolate wafer cookies layered with whipped cream came a-knocking. Remember those logs made with chocolate cookies spread with whipped cream, then stuck in the fridge for hours until the previously crisp cookies softened to something sliceable? Genius. I turned one into an easy Bûche de Noël (Yule Log) by spiking whipped cream with sugar and instant coffee to add a log-ish hue, but to be perfectly honest the coffee cream was almost better scooped straight from the bowl with a chocolate wafer. There was a lot of moaning going on, let me tell you. I’m sorry I missed the boat on photographing the finished product; I dragged a fork along the surface and it looked exactly like a little log you’d throw on the fire. Only don’t.
Chocolate Cookie Mocha Bûche de Noël
1 pkg. chocolate wafer cookies
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
2 Tbsp. sugar, divided
2 tsp. instant coffee or espresso, divided
chopped toasted hazelnuts and pistachios, for garnish (optional)
In a medium bowl, beat half the whipping cream, half the sugar and half the coffee until stiff. Line a long plate with a piece of plastic wrap and spread about a teaspoon onto each cookie, stacking about 6 at a time; once they are assembled start gluing each stack together with more cream to make a log. Wrap the plastic wrap around it and chill for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
When you’re ready to serve it, whip the remaining cream, sugar and coffee and spread over the outside of the log, dragging the tines of a fork down the length of it to simulate a log. If you like, slice a piece off the end at an angle and set it on the side, then add the whipped cream, just like a traditional Bûche de Noël. Sprinkle with nuts, if you’re using them.
Serves 8. (Or 2, if it’s just my sister and I.)
One Year Ago: Mincemeat Cake (and look how cute W was!)
December 22 2009 | cake | 25 Comments »
Early Friday morning, before we had even put the coffee on, the FedEx guy rang our bell with a box of stuff. W was understandably excited as gifts have begun to appear under the tree, but was perplexed when he opened a box packed with avocados and tiny chocolate cupcakes. Who would mail us avocados, he asked – did Santa send them to us? No, Miss Ava Cado did. You see Virginia, I sometimes get food products in the mail. (Not often, but sometimes.) Just because I get something doesn’t mean I’m going to write about it, but I do love avocados, and this was a most creative package – fresh jalapenos, garlic and cilantro, even, to make up my own guacamole, which we did over the weekend… but I was intrigued by the cupcakes.
I had heard of chocolate avocado cupcakes, but never tried them. These were cute, but so naked – I quickly became distracted by the thought that a perfectly ripe avocado might make a fine base for a frosting. (Turns out I wasn’t the first to think it, of course.) So when I should have been doing other things – wrapping up end of the year assignments or wrapping gifts or shoveling the hairdrifts Lou has been leaving in every corner of the house – W and I mixed up a batch of avocado frosting. Turns out, pale green frosting is very festive. It also turns out green isn’t at all offensive to four-year-old boys when it’s on the top of a cupcake the way it is when it shows up in pasta or in a casserole or invades a burger.
This frosting is for any kid who, like mine, licks the top off a cupcake and leaves the stump. W devoured the tops of about half this batch and asked for more. Others might not like it as much – when I asked my sister (who adores avocados) if she had tried some, she was all “yes I did, I ate half of one, and it got all over the inside of my mouth.” (Translation: not a fan.) But they’re worth a try – the cupcakes and the frosting.
Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes
adapted from MissAvacado.com (warning: Mexican music will kick in when you click on this!)
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 medium Mexican avocado, mashed well
3 large eggs
3/4 cup canola or mild olive oil
3/4 cup milk
1 Tbsp. vanilla
Preheat the oven to 375F and line 12 muffin tins with paper cups.
In a large mixing bowl, sift flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt. In separate bowl combine the avocado, eggs, oil, milk and vanilla.
Add to the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula until just combined; don’t worry about getting rid of all the lumps. Divide among the lined muffin tins, filling them almost full.
Bake cupcakes for 20 to 25 minutes or until cupcakes are springy to the touch. Tip the cupcakes in their tins to allow them to cool. Allow them to cool completely if you’re going to frost them.
Makes about 1 dozen cupcakes.
Avocado Frosting
To make chocolate frosting, add about 1/4 cup cocoa, too.
1 ripe avocado
2 tsp. lemon juice
4 cups (ish) icing sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
In a medium bowl, mash the avocado as much as you can; add the lemon juice and about a cup of icing sugar and beat with an electric mixer to get rid of as many lumps as possible. Add a couple cups of icing sugar and the vanilla and beat until as smooth as you can get it. Add more icing sugar until you have a spreadable frosting.
Use it immediately; it sets up pretty quickly. If you’re going to add sprinkles, do it quick or they’ll just roll off.
So THEN I got the idea to turn the rest of the batch chocolate, which would of course mask any evidence of avocado content, and it worked brilliantly, too. Beat in some cocoa, and that’s it.
Brilliant! I’d rather W eat icing made with heart-healthy fresh avocado than butter or shortening.
December 21 2009 | cake | 13 Comments »
Good news! We have a ton of freezer space now. Bad news! Mike unplugged it last week when he had to replace the stairs he had to tear out in order to get the new furnace in.
I’ve been digging stuff out of the upstairs freezer a lot this week, mostly in order to feed the boys before ditching them and heading to Red Deer. Tonight was my third of four classes at The Cooking Room, and I timed it just exactly so that I would be one of hundreds detoured off the main highway to the 2A so that they could clear up the 40 or so (I’m not even exaggerating) collisions and pull vehicles from the ditch. I left Calgary at 3, and arrived in Red Deer (typically an hour and a quarter away) at 7:20. At one point I didn’t make it out of first gear for 2 1/2 hours. Bored, I ate everything within reach in the car – Jelly Bellys from the console, half a peanut butter granola bar and a slab of this pumpkin loaf, made with a glob of what turned out to be pumpkin salvaged from the freezer.
It was the product of a blissful hour W and I spent in the kitchen together this week. He came up to me a few mornings ago in his Buzz Lightyear PJ bottoms and said, completely out of the blue, “Mom, I love you. And cake.” How could we not bake one?
Really, that’s what most muffin and loaf recipes are – loaf cakes and cupcakes. The biggest difference (although some may argue there are two distinct mixing methods) is quantity of sugar – cakes tend to have more – although those rules have been blurred over the years and now it seems that even double chocolate chunk cakes the size of a cat’s head can be innocently labeled a “muffin”.
So really, this pumpkin loaf, particularly since it’s studded with chocolate chips, is referred to as “cake” in our house. It’s made with canola oil and less sugar than many cakes, but you could still probably take it down a few more notches if you like.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar (white or brown)
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup buttermilk, thin plain yogurt or milk
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2-1 cup chocolate chips, chopped walnuts or pecans, or a combination
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9″x5″ loaf pan with nonstick spray.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, oil, milk, eggs and vanilla.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry along with a few handfuls of chocolate chips and/or nuts, if you’re so inclined, and stir just until the batter comes together. Scrape into the prepared pan and bake for an hour, until the top is cracked and springy to the touch.
Sorry, I completely blew past Free Stuff Friday last week. I’m still disoriented, in a (seedyish, but then again I’m spoiled by the Faimont JPL) hotel in Red Deer listening to the guy in the next room cough (I hope) from under my 100% polyester covers. And I do have a little loot bag to give away – it was the swag from The Cookbook Company’s 25th Anniversary soiree last week, and the only thing I ate from it was the Hardbite potato chips. Still in there: a copy of the Dishing cookbook and a bunch of interesting edibles from the store – to be honest I can’t even remember them all now. Suffice to say it’s a delicious little bagful of loot.
So what did you have for dinner this week that was memorable? Any turkeys?
November 28 2009 | breakfast and cake | 56 Comments »
I’m back from Toronto. I miss my clean, empty hotel room with its crisp white sheets and view of the city.
This afternoon I spent a blissful 2 1/2 hours wandering down Queen Street, through Chinatown, past the Ontario College of Art & Design, where everyone wore great-fitting jeans and cute blazers with hip, poufy scarves and rode bikes and had perfect skin…
to Kensington Market.
I bought cheese – Wensleydale, as a coming-home gift for W, who adores Wallace and Gromit and loves to say Wensweydale in the cutest sort of way, and a thin wedge of emmental – at the same cheese shop my mum brought me to when I was little and we lived there. I bought a glossy, tawny sesame seed bagel at the Market Bakery, and walked past the fish mongers, recalling having walked through that same stretch when I was pregnant and had a bionic sense of smell, and the aroma coming from that cluster of fresh fish shops had me hunched over the gutter.
And I’m pretty sure I saw Bob Geldof running to get into his car before he got a parking ticket.
I also saw a bright orange squid bra in Chinatown. Honestly – doesn’t this look like it would feel ultra-realistic? And with tassels! You’d just have to get past the smell…
And impossibly cheap produce – 5 pomegranates for $1? Three heads of lettuce for $1?
I stopped for lunch at Little India on Queen Street, temptingly close to John Fluevog, and ate spinach paneer, curried chick peas, sweet, almost ketchupy butter chicken, lamb something or other and crispy zucchini pakoras. A great deal for $11.
Back home past 7, the boys had eaten so I settled on a wedge of gingerbread I made earlier in the week using pumpkin puree and stout (like Guinness, or any dark beer) and topped with cream cheese frosting. Time to unpack, repack, and get some stuff done before heading to Vancouver tomorrow before dawn.
And wow, look at that, well past midnight already!
Pumpkin Stout Gingerbread with Cream Cheese Frosting
1 cup dark stout, such as Guinness or Wild Rose Alberta Crude Oatmeal Stout
1/2 cup molasses
1 tsp. baking soda
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
Cream Cheese Frosting (optional):
1/4 cup butter, softened
half an 8 oz. (250 g) pkg. regular or light cream cheese
2-3 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a Bundt pan really well with nonstick spray.
In a medium saucepan (you need room for the mixture to foam up), combine the stout and molasses over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then remove from the heat and stir in the baking soda. Set aside until the foam subsides and the mixture cools slightly.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugars, oil, pumpkin puree and ginger. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ground ginger, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and salt.
Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and stir just until combined. Add half the molasses mixture, then another third of the dry ingredients, the rest of the molasses mixture and the rest of the dry ingredients, stirring after each addition just until combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for an hour, until the top is springy to the touch. Cool for a few minutes, then invert onto a wire rack while still warm. Cool completely before spreading with cream cheese frosting.
To make frosting: In a large bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add the icing sugar, milk and vanilla, beating until the mixture is creamy and well-blended. Add a little more sugar or milk if necessary to achieve a spreadable frosting.
One Year Ago: Bean Cookies
October 09 2009 | cake | 28 Comments »
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