Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

This cake is easy. And tasty. And moist. But not gummy like pumpkin things can sometimes be. Some of us ate it as breakfast cake. Some of us ate it as dessert cake. Some of us ate it as both. All.

Pretty, too, right?

Take a look at the other side:

Here's what you need to know...Baker's Joy is a superior product to Wilton Cake Release (even when carefully used according to directions). I'll give the Cake Release one more chance (because, frankly, I prefer the idea of brushing pan coating on to spraying it on) to prove itself and if it doesn't play nicely then...never again. No time for cakes not coming out of pans.

TGIP Rating--Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake--KEEPER. I might even try it as muffins. Perfect for breakfast, right?!

Next up: It's Chocolate Adventure Contest time again! This time around it's bars. Time for me to put my thinking/inventing/baking hat on! Ideas are welcome!

I Made a Rose Cake!

So, yeah, I've wanted to learn how to properly decorate cakes forever. I've longingly noticed Wilton class announcements at craft stores and baking supply stores for years, and never had the time to actually take one. And there's been this other thing sort of niggling in the back of my brain--the shortening issue. I know the reason that those lovely decorated cakes look as good as they do is because the decorators have used shortening in their frosting. Pure buttercream tends to melt easily and even in perfect temperature conditions, just doesn't have the stiffness to get away with the things shortening frosting can. So, honestly, that information has held me back from taking a class as well--knowing that any skills I learn would be virtually useless to me because I won't make (or eat) shortening frosting.

And then I came across this cake and tutorial. I figured this was my way in. A lovely, sort of old-fashioned rose look. No stiff frosting required. Of course, the recipe used in the link does contain shortening. So I hunted all over the web and found several examples of successful uses of this technique with pure buttercream. Of course, this was for the birthday of a particular 14-year-old,

so I couldn't risk having my roses droop and fall down the sides of a tall cake. For this first attempt, I decided to make two layers, but keep them separate--two short cakes, each a perfect one-rose height. One colored with autumnal tones,

one in its natural state, beautifully creamy.

I was really happy with the results. Not perfect, by any means. But I think the imperfection of it is sort of lovely.

 A couple of things (for me to remember in the future):

• It's a lot of frosting. One-layer of cake with that much frosting causes imbalance in the cake/frosting ratio. Don't fret. The roses will work just fine (i.e., won't slide down into a puddle like they do in your imagination) on a two- (or more) layer cake.
• I tried the saran wrap trick for coloring my frosting. 

I liked the results, but it wasn't as clean and neat as the link makes it look. I like the idea, though. I think next time I just paint the colors right inside a disposable pastry bag (so as not to stain my good pastry bags). Like so.

TGIP Rating--Rose Cake--KEEPER. So pretty and so many ways to vary it with color.

Next up: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake. It's Fall, after all!

Birthday Prezzies

My people take such good care of me. Seriously. Beautiful cookbooks with all sort of new recipes for me to try!


Look at these pies and tarts. So gorgeous and delicious looking.

Pie contest in a box! Who will take me on?


Marble rolling pin! Put it in the fridge for a 1/2 hour before rolling pie dough and the chill makes rolling easier (especially in these ridiculously hot summer months).


And this teeny tiny pie necklace! Have you ever seen anything so adorable?


Birthdays are awesome!

Sweet Potato Pie (and also LARD)

Okay, so we had a little change of plans. Necessity is the mother of invention, right? We've been getting a lot of sweet potatoes this Spring through Bountiful Baskets. Prima and Seconda (and, frankly even mr. and I) have gamely tried vegetables that are not our usual fare, and found some new things that we like. A lot. Sweet potatoes have been kind of a sticking point. We've tried making french fries with them (somewhat successful), we've tried using them in curry, like we do regular potatoes (too sweet), and we've tried making hash browns with them (complete failure). Seconda is not interested in any of these formats for sweet potatoes. So, I told her next time we had sweet potatoes we'd try pie and see if we liked that. And now was the time. Mind you, I have an aversion to candied yams. I won't go anywhere near that nonsense on Thanksgiving. And I was afraid that sweet potato pie would be just like that. Well, I was wrong.

Of course, I used a recipe from Alton Brown (who, if you haven't heard, is ending the glorious Good Eats that has been a source of unspeakable joy for us) (was that too much?). He just knows how to balance flavors right, in my opinion. And he may be the reason why we will be fans of Sweet Potato Pie henceforward. If I had tried any other recipe, I think I would have been disappointed. This was not as sweet as I imagined (was afraid) it would be. In fact, it was tangy (plain Greek yogurt). And light. mr. said it tasted like Springtime Pumpkin Pie. Which it did. Not as spicy, not as heavy, but equally delicious.


I don't know that I could eat buckets-full of the filling on its own, but combined with the crust and the nuts (I didn't do the maple syrup drizzle--because I don't believe in maple) it was perfect. Crunchy and sweet and tangy and a little spicy (I added maybe a 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger along with the other spices--and probably a full teaspoon of salt).


Yum. Naturally, we had freshly whipped cream on top, but we thought it would also have been fun and delicious to top the pie with marshmallows and toast them a little with the kitchen torch. Playing on the idea of candied yams, but without all the overly sweetened-ness.

Now, here's the only problem I had with this pie: the crust. My crust. WHAT? You may (or may not) remember my hunt for leaf lard. I wasn't able to find a local source, but I did find some available to purchase on the internet, and paid more to ship it (in refrigerated packaging) than I paid for the lard itself. And I would have been willing to continue doing that if the lard had turned out to be everything I'd heard it could be. If it had changed the flavor and texture of my pie crust in magically delicious ways. But it just hasn't. In fact, it has made the dough harder to work with (less elastic) and not as tasty. I think I like the slightly savory flavor that regular lard gives my crusts--the saltiness balances with the sweetness of whatever filling I'm using. So, yeah, disappointed by that a little bit. But, BONUS, I won't have to take out a second mortgage on my house to buy lard in the future.

TGIP Rating--Sweet Potato Pie--KEEPER. Who knew?!

Next up: I really will be making hand pies next. Cherry and apple. Just like the Golden Arches. Except delicious. And real.

Lard and Measuring Tools

So, I've been threatening to do it for a while and today I...almost did. I would like to start using leaf lard in my pie crusts. I've read that it is far superior to the lard that can be found in the grocery store. And I've heard great things about a couple of online sources. Here's the rub: one of them requires a phone call (really?? It's 2011 and my boss would overhear the conversation and lard has nothing to do with my job), and the other charges more for shipping than for the lard itself (insulated packaging--also, really?? It's the dead of winter. I dare the lard to get melty between Minnesota and here). My search will continue. I'll try some local places and see if they have a source. Although, I'm skeptical. So, if you know a hog butcher who doesn't know what to do with all that kidney fat...send him my way.

At any rate, here's the best tool I've found for measuring lard. Obviously, these work equally well for other sticky substances: honey, molasses, peanut butter, shortening, you get the idea.


Because you load up the dry measuring side and then just plunge it right out. I have the somewhat less fancy version of this kind of tool. And the markings are starting to disappear. So, now you know what to get me for...St. Patrick's Day.

Shaker Lemon Pie

There is nothing more disappointing than a pie that turns out…less than delicious. All that time and effort, not to mention ingredients—gone to waste. I try to mitigate these kinds of results by choosing recipes that come from trusted sources and/or have excellent reviews (if they are online). Martha is usually a pretty trustworthy source. But this pie. A big fat yellow disappointment.

I don’t think I did anything wrong, I think it’s just not a pie that I like (nor does anyone in my family). It’s possible that my lemons weren’t sliced quite thin enough.


It’s possible that they weren’t large enough, yielding too little lemon in relation to sugar/eggs. But I don’t know that perfectly sliced lemons or the perfect proportion of lemon slices would have made the difference for me. The taste was just really uneven. Some bites were very lemony, some very eggy, some tooth-achingly sweet. Everything was stirred together completely, as it should have been. And even though the lemon slices sat, coated in sugar, for almost 24 hours, they still had a bitterness that was right on the verge of metallic.


It just…didn’t taste very good. And wasn’t the lemony dessert I was craving.

I’m tempted to make a Cherry-Chocolate pie to make up for the fact that I didn’t get to enjoy the pie treat I was looking forward to. But that would still leave me down one lemon dessert. Maybe I’ll make lemon bars using a trusted recipe from my dear friend Tita Rax. Which should I do? Help me decide.

And maybe one of you should try this recipe. One of you who owns a mandoline for slicing things super thin. And report back on how it turns out for you.

TGIP Rating--Shaker Lemon Pie--NEVER AGAIN. Not worth even 5 minutes of effort.

Next up: mr. is celebrating his 40th birthday in a week and a half. Per his request, I'm combining a couple of recipes to make a Dark Mocha Cake. And I think it will turn out beyummy (beyond yummy).

Salted Toffee Fudge Cookies

Not an epic fail. But not my best recipe either. I really like the combination of salt and chocolate. It's become pretty popular in fine chocolates and in ice creams. I wanted to see if I could use the combination in a cookie. I tried this a while back but didn't blog about it because I knew I would try it again, and I was confident that the second time would result in perfection. Well.


It's a good cookie in theory--a sweet chocolate cookie with almond toffee pieces in the dough, a sprinkling of kosher salt on top. Here's the problem--toffee melts. Yep. Which I figured out the first time I tried this. So, this time, the plan was that I was going to stabilize the toffee by stirring the almonds into it, bake the cookies at a lower temperature and there would be no meltage. *nodding* Rrriiigght. I tried. I admit I like the toffee itself this way, but it's not so much with the stable.

At any rate, here's the recipe. The dough is pretty much the recipe for Chocolate Crackle Cookies, with a little more flour. Give it a try. Seriously. They're very delicious. Sweet, crunchy, salty, buttery. Just strangely delicate and difficult to manage from pan to cooling rack.

Salted Toffee Fudge Cookies *click here for printable version*

Makes about 6 dozen

For Toffee:

1/2 lb. butter

1-1/2 c. sugar

3/4 c. roasted chopped almonds

Melt butter and add sugar stirring constantly until golden brown or 290 degrees. Stir in almonds. Spread on greased cookie sheet and cool. Break into small (no larger than 1/2") pieces.


For Cookies:

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

2 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 cup Dutch cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

8 tbls. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1-1/3 c. light brown sugar, firmly packed

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/3 c. milk

Kosher salt or sea salt for sprinkling

Heat oven to 300 degrees.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and light-brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until will combined. Add melted chocolate. With mixer on low speed, alternate adding dry ingredients and milk until just combined. Stir toffee pieces into batter by hand (use as much of the toffee as you like--up to the full recipe).

Drop by large spoonfuls onto lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt. Bake for approximately 15 minutes. Allow to cool on pan for at least 5 minutes, then remove to rack to cool completely.

So, a couple of things about this recipe.

First, about the toffee:

If you haven't made toffee before, you're going to think it's not going to come together, the sugar and butter will separate and you'll think you've made a mess of it. KEEP COOKING (and stirring). Trust. You'll start to see some caramel-colored ribbons going through the mass of sugar and then it will all change to the right color, it won't be grainy, it will be smooth. And THEN AND ONLY THEN take it off the heat.

Now, about the cookie/pan/removal situation:

The toffee will melt when you bake the cookies. It just will. But it will resolidify as the cookies cool. You just have to give it time. The longer you can leave the cookies on the pan (or liner) before trying to move them, the more success you'll have. It might be a good idea to use parchment and just slide the parchment, with the cookies on it, off the pan to allow for more cooling time. Assuming you're adept with sliding things--which, frankly, I'm not. If you don't want to do that, leave the cookies on the pan to cool for 5-10 minutes. When you are ready to remove them to a rack, use a spatula that has a rather sharp edge like this.


And try to get under a chocolate portion rather than a toffee portion. That way, you'll have a lot more success getting under the entire cookie without it bending and breaking.

I like the idea of this cookie so much that I'm going to try some other possibilities for the cookie dough itself to see if that changes the results. And if anyone has ideas about how to stabilize the toffee, I'm all ears.

TGIP Rating--Salted Toffee Fudge Cookies--Delicious. A good recipe in theory, but it still needs some work.

Next up: German Chocolate Cake. Strangely, I don't think I've ever made one.

P.S. Please bear with me while I try to learn how to use mr.'s new camera. F stops and depth of field and ISOs are all Greek to me.

Red Hot Velvet Cake

Second time around. I got past the Shortening Sabotage. I survived moving out of our house. I managed the cleaning of our newly vacated house. And today I tackled Red Hot Velvet Cake again. And it was sooo worth it.


Once again (and I guarantee it won't be the last time) I shall sing the praises of this book. This recipe is a lot of work. It does make for a lot of dishes to wash. And your kitchen may look more like a crime scene than anything else.


But I wouldn't call it difficult at all.

To be honest, my second attempt wasn't as red as the first (foiled--maybe from now on I'll call it "shorteninged") attempt. I'm not sure why. I used more red gel food coloring, but still not the 2 tablespoons called for in the recipe (note: the tubes of gel food coloring sold in the baking aisle don't contain a total of 2 tablespoons). I did as instructed and resisted the urge to make the cake super red. But I'm a little disappointed with the color I ended up with. It doesn't have the brick-y red color I was hoping for. Is it because the recipe calls for dark unsweetened cocoa and I couldn't find such a thing? If you have a source or suggestion for this let me know.

The frosting...where shall I start? I have been looking for ages for a buttercream frosting that doesn't require shortening or cooking sugar to some magical "soft ball" stage. The first stage of the frosting does involve cooking, but it's not delicate by any means. This may well be the one. My one and only.


In spite of the 3 sticks of butter involved, the frosting is light and fluffy. You could skip the cinnamon added to it in this recipe and just use vanilla (or some other extract) and it's a perfectly good buttercream for any kind of cake. The Pie Queen and I have many experiments to conduct involving rum.

This was (if memory serves) my first 3-layer cake. Also the first time I've crumb-coated a cake. I've always been concerned that I wouldn't end up with enough frosting for the cake. But this recipe makes the perfect amount.



I wanted to make the pretty design in the pictures in the cookbook: the top of the cake ringed with chocolate discs with red hots on top. But I couldn't figure out what to use for the chocolate discs. I contemplated using the bottom half of a chocolate kiss, but then I ate all the kisses. Wouldn't you know it, the Pie Queen had the perfect solution: semi-sweet chocolate wafers made for melting.


I melted a few to use as "glue", turned the others upside-down on the top of the cake and stuck red hots onto them. Almost picture perfect.


The recipe definitely delivers on its promise: "The buttermilk and shortening give this cake a "springy" crumb that pairs beautifully with our cinnamon frosting." What's more--Seconda ate a whole piece. Gobbled it right up. That's the sign of a good dessert.

TGIP Rating--KEEPER--find a way to make it more red and/or find some dark unsweetened cocoa. Try this buttercream frosting recipe without cinnamon on other cakes.

Next up: An ancient family secret: Wine Cake.



P.S. If someone can figure out where I can buy NEW Tupperware tubs like the one pictured above, I'll owe you. Big.

Midweek Kitchen Confessions 7: It's not heavy, it's my batter bowl

#1 I have too many irons in the fire. Seems to be a running theme. If you read my other blog, you know that I'm scheduled for surgery a week from today. I shouldn't lift things or do any heavy exercise for probably 4 weeks after that. And yet, my house is just now under contract and we're scheduled to move out no later than February 20. So, I have a few things on my mind and on my schedule. Which is not a good state in which for me to bake. Lack of focus and whatnot. But, I bake anyway. And sometimes when I'm not paying enough attention, I drop the very heavy bowl of banana bread* batter on the floor (actually put a small dent in the linoleum) and part of the batter spills out onto the floor. And what's left is too much batter for one pan, but not quite enough for two. So I make two short loaves of banana bread...


#2 ...with chocolate chips in it. And when I'm preheating the oven I smell something. And I open the oven to find leftover pancakes from last night's dinner. And what is in those pancakes? Chocolate chips. Of course. And what am I making to celebrate National Pie Day on Friday? Chocolate pie. My single-mindedness knows no bounds.

#3 When did this happen to me, anyway? Today, I drove by Lehi Roller Mills and noticed they're having a sale on all 25 lb. bags of flour. Woo-hoo! (this is my brain on baking) I'm going in tomorrow to pick up All-Purpose, Strong Baking (bread) and Pastry. 6 months ago, I wouldn't even have glanced in that direction. And yeah, some strong man is going to have to lift those 25 lb. bags for me in the move. Sorry, honey.

*I use (and love because it's SO simple) the Fannie Farmer recipe, which can be found here. Apparently it's one of Judy Hallman's favorite recipes too. *shrug* I occasionally (okay, always) replace the nuts with an equal amount of chocolate chips.

Midweek Kitchen Confessions 5: I'm impatient, my husband is better than yours, and I sometimes change my mind

I couldn't wait until midweek to post this. It came to my door yesterday (a late Christmas present from my adored mr.).


Look! It's on my very own kitchen counter!


Isn't it the most beautiful thing?! It is almost exactly the same color as the inside of cherry pie. Which means...I can't resist making cherry pie this week. Pound Cake be damned. Or maybe I'll make both. If I do, Pie Queen and Quilter, you're getting desserts this weekend.

Midweek Kitchen Confessions

# 1 You know how a recipe will say something like "4 oz good quality chocolate"? Yeah. I never use "good quality" chocolate. As you can see from the picture below of my ganache ingredients for last weekend's Black Bottom Banana Cream:


I use chocolate chips. In my defense, I don't buy generic--Nestle only. They are so reliable. I don't have to chop chocolate. I don't have to spend a month's paycheck on one 8 oz package. They melt quickly and smoothly. I know, they're full of preservatives and waxes and what-not. Right now, it's worth the trade off. When I'm wealthy (which, another confession, I almost just spelled whelthy--that's how far away I am from it), I'll always use this:



#2 Do you see what that is there waaaay in the back of my fridge?



Uh-huh. That's a bottle of champagne. I keep waiting for something to celebrate. Maybe I should give up and instead find something fabulous to drink it with just for good eats.

Pear Gruyere

Look! My oven's clean!


But this is supposed to be about pie. Here's the recipe for what I made this week.


I love pears. mr. waited until I had finished making the pie to inform me that he's not that big of a fan (how did I not know that after all these years?). But he still liked the final result. The recipe calls for fresh nutmeg, but another source recommended cardamom (an idea I thought sounded good). So, I enlisted Prima's help in deciding which spice to use. We put some grated gruyere and sliced pears together in the same smelling vicinity with (by turns) cinnamon, fresh nutmeg, and cardamom...and then we sniffed to see which combination we liked the best. Fresh nutmeg won. Looked good going in:


But when I cut into the cooled final product there was an astounding amount of liquid. The pears kept a lot of their bite, they weren't mushy at all, but WOW was there a lot of liquid.

I resumed crust experimentation this week. This time I used 2/3 butter and 1/3 lard.


I also used some of the suggestions here for adding gruyere* to the crust (I used about 2 oz). The dough was very easy to work with. Rolled out nicely, easy to move from rolling to pan, even easy to weave into a lattice. I was very impressed with myself.


I thought the taste of the crust was good, though a little salty (see notes below). Prima is still nonplussed by the whole "animal fat crust" thing.

Mmmmm. Food porn.

*In case you aren't aware, gruyere is a little expensive. I paid $11 for half a pound.


Notes for next time:

• Use a combination of apples and pears. Might that mitigate some of the liquid factor?
• Might using less sugar cause the pears to give up less of their liquid? (I need to take a food chemistry course.)
  
• Use at least part unsalted butter when adding something salty (like cheese) to the crust.
• Roll the dough thinner. It will still be workable, but less intense when you eat it.

In pie tool news, I love my new Emile Henry pie pan. It's perfect. But I still want a green one like they use in The Pie Hole. This week I need to purchase these items:

Next up: I'm conflicted. I saw some beautiful raspberries last time I was at Costco. If they are there when I do the shopping Wednesday, I may make a fresh raspberry pie. If not, I'll make a breakfast pie (quiche lorraine) for Saturday morning.

P.S. Sometimes I am very impressed with my camera. If you double click on any of these photos and see them full size, the detail is amazing.