Today was a Snow Day of the best kind; we woke up to huge clumps of snow accumulating as a record-breaking snowfall that slowed everyone down almost to a halt. My morning meeting was cancelled. I took it as a sign (or really, more of an excuse) to lounge around all day, something I haven’t even been doing on the weekends for a very long time. I suppose it wasn’t so much lounging as puttering, doing laundry, cleaning up my blog and photo files, answering emails and playing and reading books with W. All the stars fell into alignment: there were two full Tim Horton’s coffees in the fridge, some leftover shortcakes for breakfast with the last of the vanilla-cherry jam my friend S brought back from New Zealand, and the latest issue of Cooking Light arrived in the mail. The cherry on top: the first new episode (in ages) of The Office is on tonight!
And because there are so many leftovers from last night, I didn’t even need to cook.
I said I didn’t need to. I am hard wired to want to bake on days when it feels like Sunday and the snow is a foot deep. Besides, the leftovers included a bowl of whipped cream, a dangerous thing to have snowed in with me. I remembered a recipe for whipped cream pound cake in Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts, and looked it up, wondering if it would make a suitable poppyseed cake. (My friend A mentioned how much she loves poppyseed cake a few weeks ago after seeing it on the dessert menu at the Highwood, and when I stumbled upon a bag of poppyseeds in the depths of my cupboard last week I pulled it out thinking I’d make one for her.) It seemed strange to me that a cake made with only 2 cups of flour would call for two loaf pans or a 10″ tube pan, so I did my own thing with it, cutting out a third of the sugar while I was at it, and it worked out beautifully.
Whipped cream cake sounds outrageously rich, but this pound cake contains no butter. (Or shortening, or oil.) Because cream is 35% butterfat, in this case it’s a lower fat option, providing this cake with half the fat of other pound cakes.
Lemon Poppyseed Whipped Cream Pound Cake
1 cup whipping cream, chilled
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
grated zest of a lemon or two
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup poppyseeds
Preheat the oven to 350F.
With an electric mixer, whip the cream until stiff; set aside. In a large bowl, beat the eggs for a minute, then slowly add the sugar, beating until the mixture is thick and pale yellow. Beat in the vanilla and lemon zest.
In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Sprinkle half over the beaten eggs and fold it in with a spatula; then fold in the whipped cream and then the remaining flour, along with the poppyseeds.
Spread into an 8″x4″ loaf pan that has been sprayed with nonstick spray, and bake for 45-50 minutes, until golden and the top is springy to the touch.
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April 10 2008 | cake | 7 Comments »
My craving for pizza has not been satiated since the disappointing pizza I brought home last week. A few days ago I mixed up a batch of no-knead bread dough with the intention of making a pizza. Yesterday, when the dough had already been sitting patiently on the counter for 24 hours when it became apparent that I wouldn’t be able to use it, I put it in the fridge - this slows the yeast-rising process, so it was fine to use today and hadn’t morphed into some form of sourdough. I sauteed some mushrooms and wilted some spinach, and turned out our usual big rectangular pizza on one of my rimmed cookie sheets.
Happily, I did need to test a recipe for an article on honey I’m working on for City Palate, so we made Chocolate-Honey Cupcakes with Honey Ganache. They turned out incredibly well; not overly sweet despite their name, with a fine, dense texture. Although I’ve never been one to turn down a Crave cupcake, it was refreshing to have one that wasn’t top-heavy with a swirl of fatty frosting. The ganache is easy to make and even easier to apply; the result elegant even when the chocolate escapes in a glob down the side. I scattered a few with multicolored sprinkles and popped them in the freezer for Ben and Emily’s next visit on Monday. Next time I’ll have some fresh raspberries and stick one upright in the middle of each cupcake before the ganache has a chance to set. Maybe for W’s third birthday. I do love ganache.
Except that I remember why I never make it: most of it makes its way into my mouth, instead of onto the cakes.
Honey Chocolate Cupcakes with Honey Ganache
Ganache is just a fancy word for chocolate melted with cream, and in this case, honey. It’s the same mixture you’d use to make truffles, only more liquidy. It’s actually easier to make than frosting.
Cupcakes:
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk or thin plain yogurt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
Ganache:
1/2 cup whipping cream or half & half
1/2 cup honey
8 oz. (8 squares) semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners, or spray it with nonstick spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, canola oil, honey, eggs and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients and whisk just until combined.
Fill the lined muffin tins 3/4 full and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until tops are springy to the touch. Repeat with remaining batter. Set on a wire rack to cool.
To make ganache, combine whipping cream and honey in a small saucepan and set over medium heat until it begins to simmer around the edges. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate. Let sit for a few minutes, and then stir until smooth. Set aside to cool for about 5 minutes before pouring over cooled cupcakes. If you like, top each cupcake with sprinkles or a candy or raspberry before the ganache sets.
Makes about 20 cupcakes.
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March 08 2008 | cake and dessert and sweet stuff | 3 Comments »
I suppose at least my current crazy schedule is making this project more interesting. Or more dull?
Today I taught a homemade pasta class at the Cookbook Company with Lina deGaeta, master pasta-maker and the wife of the owner of the Italian Supermarket on the corner of Edmonton Trail and 20th Ave NE. (Who makes, by the way, the best pizza in Calgary - Saturday afternoons only they fire up the wood-burning oven and you can order pizza any way you like it, with real Italian ingredients and chewy, bulbous crusts.)
Tonight though, my call time to the set of It’s Just Food is 10:30pm, and we’re going to shoot all night. So I had a bit of a nap, and then, technically, it was dinnertime. Because I was assembling a sort of “lasagna” made out of fresh ravioli as a beauty shot for the show, I assembled another small one for Mike and W. (I got the idea from a cookbook put out by Real Simple magazine.)
I ate a wedge of frozen chocolate zucchini cake. That counts as dinner, right? After all, it does contain a vegetable, and was made with canola oil - a healthy fat.
Ravioli Lasagna
This is as fast and easy as it gets. The ravioli is already filled, so you don’t need to layer your noodles with filling. Also great when cooking for one – you can make individual sized lasagnas, which isn’t possible when using pasta sheets or lasagna noodles.
If you like, use any kind of cooked veg as well as or in place of the spinach – a container of roasted tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and eggplant from the Italian market works especially well.
1 large jar good-quality tomato sauce
2 16-18 oz. bags fresh or frozen large ravioli - any kind
1 pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 cup grated part-skim mozzarella (or as much as you like)
½ cup grated Parmesan
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Spray a 9”x13” baking dish with nonstick spray, and spread about a third of the tomato sauce over the bottom. Lay half the ravioli in a single layer overtop. Sprinkle with the spinach and half the cheese, another third of the sauce and then the remaining ravioli, sauce and cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake another 10 minutes, until golden and bubbly.
Serves 6.
(Low Fat) Chocolate Zucchini Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup cocoa
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup strong coffee
1 zucchini, unpeeled & grated
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add buttermilk, brown sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla and beat for 1-2 minutes, until well blended and smooth. Stir in coffee and zucchini. The batter will be fairly thin.
Pour into a bundt pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the top is springy to the touch.
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March 02 2008 | cake and dessert and freezable and one dish and pasta | 8 Comments »
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On my way home from some assorted errands today, I was starving and thought I’d try my luck at Thi Thi - the best Vietnamese subs possibly anywhere - these things are so good, when my friend Rachael used to visit from Vancouver it was her only Calgary must-do. Come to think of it, I haven’t been back there since she died in November.
Anyway, being teeny and located downtown, across from the government building no less, it’s near impossible to find parking. Usually we have to double park or pull up beside the fire hydrant and Mike sits in the car while I run in to wait in the inevitable lineup that typically goes out the door.
Not today. I pull around the corner, and there is the golden ticket, rock star parking spot directly out front. We’ve never had this spot before, not in the years since discovering Thi Thi. I pull in. There’s time on the meter. I go inside, and there is no one there. This has never happened. The friendly couple who owns the place are at the ready to prepare a satay chicken sub for me. I wonder if there is a hidden candid camera somewhere, or if I should run out and buy a lottery ticket.
But wait, I quickly scan for an Interac logo as I order. Panic. There is none. I’m afraid to ask, but I just ran out of cash.
“Sorry, cash only!” (And no machines in sight in every direction.) NOOO!
So that bummed me out quite a bit. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to get over it anytime soon.
It was a birthday dinner tonight, the first night since January 21st (my Mom and sister’s birthdays) we could all coordinate our schedules, and no one was sick. We all met at Mom & Dad’s for takeout sushi. The tradition to serve spice cake for their birthdays started so long ago none of us can remember when or why, but they have always had spice cake with penuche icing - a brown sugar icing - and last year I tried to incorporate the bananas sauteed in butter and sugar that used to be my Grandad’s favorite. It went over pretty well, so I did it again. All that is required for this is a pair of bananas, fairly ripe, a blob of butter and sprinkling of sugar. Put the butter in a hot pan and as it melts, add the bananas, sliced lengthwise. Don’t crowd the pan, or they won’t have the opportunity to brown properly. Sprinkle with sugar and cook until the sugar melts and the bananas start to brown, but don’t turn to mush. Lift them out and lie them on top of the bottom cake layer, and top with the second. I imagine caramelized bananas would be exquisite between layers of chocolate cake.
Any white or yellow cake can be turned into a spice cake by the addition of cinnamon, ginger (I rarely use ground, but for some reason I do on this occasion) and perhaps some nutmeg and/or allspice. I like to use brown sugar instead of white, too.
To be equally vague about the icing (I never use a recipe when making butter icing - only when I make the cooked 7 minute frosting you do with egg whites and sugar in a double boiler on the stovetop) - all you need to do is add some brown sugar to a regular buttercream icing. I could instruct you to cook it with the butter on the stovetop, but then you risk producing caramel. What I did today, purely as a result of circumstance, was beat a blob of butter (about 1/4 cup) until it was creamy, add about a cup of brown sugar (dark is better) and then poured a bit of boiling water over it to instantly dissolve the sugar - something I didn’t plan, but I was making a cup of instant espresso and the kettle started to whistle at precisely that minute. So I beat that, and then beat enough icing sugar into it to make a spreadable frosting. That’s how you make icing - start with butter or cream cheese and sugar, and add liquid - water, lemon juice, milk, coffee - and any sort of extract - vanilla, coconut, maple - and beat until it’s right for spreading. Add more sugar or more liquid as it needs it.
Mom & Anne’s Birthday Spice Cake
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 greased cake pans and tap the bottoms a few times on the countertop to remove any air bubbles. To prevent a domed top, spread the top of the batter with a spatula, creating a slight dent in the middle and a raised edge. This compensates for the way a cake tends to rise higher in the middle.
Bake for 30-35 minutes for round layers or 40-45 minutes for a 9-x 13-inch cake, until golden, the edges are pulling away from the sides of the pan, and the tops are springy to the touch. Let them cool for about 10 minutes before running a knife around the edge of the pans and inverting them onto a wire rack. Cool completely before you frost them. Makes 1 layer cake.
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February 02 2008 | cake and dessert and sweet stuff | 2 Comments »
Today was a Snow Day of the best kind; we woke up to huge clumps of snow accumulating as a record-breaking snowfall that slowed everyone down almost to a halt. My morning meeting was cancelled. I took it as a sign (or really, more of an excuse) to lounge around all day, something I haven’t even been doing on the weekends for a very long time. I suppose it wasn’t so much lounging as puttering, doing laundry, cleaning up my blog and photo files, answering emails and playing and reading books with W. All the stars fell into alignment: there were two full Tim Horton’s coffees in the fridge, some leftover shortcakes for breakfast with the last of the vanilla-cherry jam my friend S brought back from New Zealand, and the latest issue of Cooking Light arrived in the mail. The cherry on top: the first new episode (in ages) of The Office is on tonight!
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