January 20th: Underwater Cake

Technically, I made this cake on January 18th and we ate it on January 19th, but its purpose was to celebrate Olivia's birthday on January 20th, so I'm going with that. And I'm still two days late posting about it. You've all already seen my Facebook and/or Twitter posts about it, so I'll get to the nitty gritty:

Back at some point in late 2009, when Olivia wasn't yet two, and certainly wasn't eating cake (oh, that I could say the same for Sadie...), I pulled a number of cake decorating ideas out of a Today's Parent magazine and stuck them in my recipe collection for some day. The first one I made in 2012, for her fourth birthday:

It was supposed to look like a bear's face, and it certainly wasn't as good as the one in the magazine, but it was my first-ever attempt at making a decorated cake, the three year olds attending the party were impressed, and of course, more important than anything else, it tasted fabulous.

Last year, for her fifth birthday, I made her chirp cake.

This year, I returned to the Today's Parent magazine for inspiration. They had three decoration ideas for flat cakes (my favourite!): Princess Castle, A Day at the Zoo, and Edible Aquarium. I let Olivia choose the one she wanted, and to my surprise, she chose Edible Aquarium over Princess Castle. She decided to call it the "underwater cake," so that's what it has become. We made the cake base together on Saturday, and she wanted to help decorate it, but it was still warm at bedtime, so we made the blue icing together and she went to bed and later, I iced and decorated it myself. It had to be done Saturday night, because her birthday party was 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning, and we are not early risers. FATAL MISTAKE. I should have planned ahead so that she could help me decorate, because if I had perhaps she wouldn't have been SO BLOODY CRITICAL. I was excited to show it to her Sunday morning and she was all, "I think these were straight up in the picture. You forgot white rocks. Well, it wasn't quite like this blah blah blah blah blah..." Hurt my feelings. :(

Anyway, she got over it. Partly because Greg tore a strip off her. And here's the end result:

Both the bear cake and the underwater cake had the same base, my favourite chocolate cake recipe, from Epicurious. Here's my version:

Chocolate Cake

3 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli)
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee (I used instant)3 cups sugar2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)2 teaspoons baking soda3/4 teaspoon baking powder1 1/4 teaspoons salt3 large eggs3/4 cup vegetable oil1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 300°F and grease 2 10-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with rounds of parchment paper.

Combine chocolate and hot coffee in a medium bowl. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Set aside.

Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In another large bowl with an electric mixer, beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon-coloured (about 3 minutes with a stand mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well. Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove parchment paper and cool layers completely. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature.


I adapted an icing recipe from The Joy of Cooking:

Icing

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 lb icing sugar
5 to 6 tablespoons milk or cream

Beat butter until smooth and creamy. Beat in vanilla. Alternately beat in icing sugar and milk, adding milk a few tablespoons at a time until desired consistency reached.

I beat in blue food colouring until Olivia and I liked the colour. We made several trips: to the grocery store, Candy Mountain, and Bulk Barn to find all the best fishy toppings: graham crumbs for sand, "edible sparkles" (for effect?), Jelly Belly beans for rocks, fruit roll ups, twisted, for seaweed, candy strings for coral, fish, shark, whale, plus gummies for an octopus.

January 20th: Chirp cake

This one comes a bit late! Kept thinking I should talk about Olivia's birthday. Let's back up.

For Christmas, I received Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. After flipping through it and finding some recipes that didn't look too crazy elaborate, I decided cupcakes would be a good way to go for Olivia's birthday. When I approached her with the idea, however, she had her own thoughts:

"I was thinking I would have a cake with a face on it."

"A face? What kind of face?"

At this point, I am picturing Ariel or Dora. I will have to rent a cakepan from Bulk Barn and try my hand at decorating. Oh no.

"A Chirp face?"

"Chirp! What a great idea!"

What a relief.

Let's back up more. Last September, Chirp magazine celebrated 15 years with a birthday issue, including, amongst other birthday articles, how to make a Chirp cake! Smarty pants Olivia remembered this, and so I made a Chirp cake for her birthday. It was easy to make, easy to decorate, and tasted pretty good too.

Chirp cake

1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

dried mango slices
2 doughnuts
yellow and blue icing*
1 pretzel

Preheat oven to 350F (180C).

In a small bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the sugar and eggs together until thick. Whisk in milk, oil and vanilla, then flour mixture. Whisk until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

Pour the mixture into a round, greased baking pan, and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Let the cake cool.

Remove the cake from pan. Spread yellow icing over the top and sides of the cake. Decorate the cake with dried mangoes for the beak, a pretzel for Chirp's feather and doughnuts filled with blue icing for his eyes.

I did end up using Martha's buttercream icing recipe. I thought the directions were a bit over the top, but followed them, and it appears Martha knows what she's about. It was delectable. I made the full recipe, then divided it into two bowls and added food colouring till I had decent blue and yellow icing for decorating as above.

Word to the wise: all the kids wanted eyes, so I ended up making extra eyes on the spot.

BTW. Next year, she might be too old for Chirp. But maybe not. And maybe I'll make Chirp (and Tweet and Squawk) CUPcakes!

Birthday girl, turning 5!

July something: berry popsicles and apple walnut cake

I have lost track of when things were made. I used to know by the date the picture was taken, but things like popsicles and cake can be made and eaten over a period of time. At some point in the last week or so, I have made berry popsicles and apple walnut cake. Both were good. As time is of the essence in my life these days, enough chatter, here are the recipes:


Berry popsicles (from Best Summer Weekends Cookbook)


1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 strips lemon zest (approximately 1/2" x 3")
2 cups fresh berries (I used strawberries, raspberries and blueberries)
1 cup apple juice


Combine sugar, water and lemon zest in a small saucepan and bring to a boil for 1 minute, or until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool. Remove zest.


Rinse berries. Sort through them to remove any stems or leaves, and hull strawberries (if using). Place the berries in a small saucepan, crush gently and bring to a boil over medium heat. If you're making the syrup with blueberries or blackberries alone, add 1/4 cup water to the pot; no water is necessary if you're using strawberries, raspberries, or a mixture of red and blue berries. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 5-7 minutes.


Push the cooked berries through a fine mesh sieve (to puree them, leaving the seed and skins behind), then add the cooled sugar syrup. Or puree the berries in a blender or food processor with the sugar syrup, then strain through a fine mesh sieve.


Combine 2 cups of the berry syrup with 1 cup of apple juice. Pour mixture into moulds and freeze overnight.


Makes 6 - 9 pops.


These are super sweet. I might cut back on the sugar next time.


[for Patricia:

Mold is the American spelling for all senses of the word meaning, among other things, (1) a frame for shaping something, (2) to shape in a mold, and (3) any of various fungi that commonly grow on organic matter and are often associated with decay. Mould is the British spelling. American English has no mould, and British English has no mold.

Australian and Canadian English favor the British spelling, though mold is fairly common in Canadian publications.


from Grammarist]

Sadie would rather suck on her hand.
Wise choice, oh young one.

Apple Walnut Cake (from Lost Recipes)

Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 apples, peeled and grated

1 cup walnuts, chopped

1 cup raisins

Glaze

1/2 cup buttermilk

8 tbsps unsalted butter, cut into chunks

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325F. Grease 13 by 9-inch baking dish.


Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in large bowl. In sparate bowl whisk sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla together until sugar is mostly dissolved. Stir sugar mixture into flour mixture until just combined. Gently fold in apples, walnuts, and raisins.


Scrape batter into prepared pan, smooth top, and gently tap pan on counter to settle batter. Bake until golden brown and toothpick inserted in centre comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Let cake cook in pan for 10 minutes.


Meanwhile, bring buttermilk, butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt to simmer in medium saucepan, and cook, stirring often, until butter is melted and sugar is completely dissolved, 1 to 2 minutes. While cake is still warm, poke holes all over top with wooden skewer. Slowly pour glaze over cake in even layer. Let cake sit until cooled completely and glaze has been absorbed, about 2 hours. Serve.

Serves 15-18.


Is it just me? This cake is also super sweet and I will be cutting back on the sugar next time.

January 2nd: Fig Muffins, Vanilla Pudding Cake

New Year. New you. New me. Much to look forward to in 2012!


What is a food blog without a camera? That is my question this week. My camera has died, for real this time, and I don't know when a replacement will be purchased. Current funds need to go towards things like skates and helmet for daughter #1, nursery set up for baby-to-be, and pre-natal yoga classes for yours truly.


At times that Greg is home, I will make do with his iphone. At other times ... my blog will be sadly picture-less. I apologize.


Facing the return to the grind tomorrow, I decided to cook up a last fancy meal before weeknight reality sets in. Then I got really inspired, and made muffins for breakfast and cake for dessert. It was a good last day at home.


For breakfast, I made, from the 2012 Milk Calendar: Walnut-Fig Muffins. These are healthy, with whole wheat flour, ground flaxseed, and just figs and honey for sweetener. They are tasty too. I'll be eating these for breakfast at work this week, which should make the return a little easier.

I found my fancy supper recipe in the Ottawa Citizen in November, although it originally comes from Ruhlman's Twenty, by Michael Ruhlman: Weekday Coq au Vin. Despite its "weekday" name, I figured it would take too long for a normal weeknight, and that was good thinking. This took forever, didn't cook according to plan, and after all the work that went into it, I'm tossing the recipe. Really, it's just chicken legs, and they don't even have that much meat on them. Not enough reward for the effort.


For dessert, I made another recipe from the 2012 Milk Calendar: Vanilla Pudding Cake, served with a sprinkle of icing sugar and strawberries from the freezer (and wow, these taste so much better than the fresh ones available this time of year). After all the excess in our lives since Halloween, I told Olivia yesterday that there would be no more treats. She protested some, but not too much. Then tonight when I told her I was making cake, she gave me the most confused and quizzical look and said, "But you said no more treats!" What a smart cookie. I told her homemade treats occasionally will still be okay. She's down with that.

October 16th/19th: pumpkin cake

In our last trip to the farm, we picked up a blemish free, perfectly round pie pumpkin. Olivia requested pumpkin pie; I suggested pumpkin cake. She wasn't sure at first, but came around to the idea eventually. We ended up making pumpkin cake, roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin orzo, pumpkin gnocchi and still had pumpkin left over. That little pumpkin had some bang for its buck.


First up: cake from epicurious: Spiced Pumpkin Layer* Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. (*Layer cake too much bother. I made two 8" square cakes and froze one.) I altered this recipe ever so slightly, reducing the sugar from 2 cups to 1 1/2 cups and replacing 1 cup oil with 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce. Everyone who had this cake raved about it. I thought it was good too. The icing doesn't have a tonne of sugar, and tastes more cream cheesy than sweet. It's good though.


But just so we're clear. Nothing is as good as Shannon G's carrot cake.


Day 1

First, one must start with a pumpkin.

Scrub pumpkin. Slice in half. Remove seeds; save if wanted. Discard pulp.

Bake. Water 1/2 " up the sides of pumpkin. Oven at 450°F. 45-60 minutes. 
(Please don't judge my oven. I'm a cook, not a cleaner.)

Cool. Scoop out flesh. Purée.

Strain. You are now ready to cook.

Day 2

Gather supplies.

Bake cakes (see link above for recipe, plus modifications).

Set child to work making icing.

Completed product: note flecks of orange (pumpkin) in icing.

Ratio of icing:cake not too shabby.

Eat for days on end. Reap the praise.

May 28th: upside down pineapple cake

Quick mention of this yummy cake I made for dessert, from smitten kitchen: Pineapple upside-down cake. It's supposed to be made in a 10-inch skillet, which I don't have, so I went bigger, about 12 inches. I had to reduce the cooking time a bit for this reason, but it turned out beautifully. As you'll see, my bigger pan made it so I didn't have enough pineapple to cover the bottom, but that's okay, as the pineapple bits are super sweet so it's alright to have bites here and there with no fruit. I might reduce the sugar next time around.

March 5th: Happy Birthday to Moi: carrot cake, portos + goat cheese, loaded baked potato skins

Happy Birthday to me! (From Kat)

I first tried this Epicurious carrot cake in the summer of 2008 when I was home in Nova Scotia. Shannon's friend Shannon made it and I thought it was the best carrot cake I had ever eaten. I tried making it once myself before and it didn't taste as good as I remembered. I had faith in the recipe though, so for my 32nd (gulp) birthday, I thought O and I should give it another go-around. There's a lot in this recipe besides carrots: candied ginger, pineapple, coconut and macadamia nuts, and we topped the whole deal off with cream cheese icing. Yum yum yum. I skipped the three-tiered dealio and just made a 13x9 inch cake. I SHOULD have divided the batter between the big pan and one small or two mini pans. In retrospect, I remember that was the problem last time around: there is so much batter in the pan that the cake starts to burn around the outside before the middle is cooked. But it was still delicious and the best carrot cake I've ever eaten. My goodness, I've been eating A LOT of it this weekend!

If you don't like ginger, I recommend leaving it out. I love ginger and love coming across chunks of it in the cake, but I know that's not for everyone!

Hard at work

I simplified the cream cheese icing a bit:


Cream Cheese Icing


1 250 g (8 oz) package cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp each vanilla and coconut extracts
3 1/2 cups icing sugar


Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add extracts and beat again. Beat in icing sugar and, if necessary, chill until spreadable. Spread over cake and keep the whole deal refrigerated. Or just eat it in one sitting (not really!!).

For my birthday supper, I made two of my favourites: garlic-roasted portobello mushrooms and goat cheese, and loaded baked potato skins. The former comes out of my head and the latter is adapted from Crazy Plates. Here's my version of both:


Garlic-roasted Portobellos with Goat Cheese


1 portobello mushroom
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp each dried thyme, rosemary and parsley
2 tbsp goat cheese


Preheat oven to 400°F.


Remove and discard portobello mushroom stem and clean mushroom cap. Place gill-side up in oiled baking pan.


In a small bowl, combine garlic, oil and herbs and spoon mixture over mushroom.


Bake for 10-15 minutes, until garlic starts to get brown and crunchy (that's how I like it, anyway). Remove from oven and crumble goat cheese over top.


Return to oven and turn on broiler. Broil until cheese starts to warm up or gets browned, however you like it!


Makes 1 serving. Simply multiply the recipe amounts for each person you are feeding!

Loaded Baked Potato Skins


3 baking potatoes, scrubbed and bad spots cut away
1 tbsp butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp olive oil
Cajun spice, to taste
4 bacon slices, cooked and chopped
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 green onions, sliced
salsa and sour cream to top


Preheat oven to 400°F. Poke holes in potatoes with fork or sharp knife. Lightly coat potatoes in butter. Bake for one hour, turning over halfway through, or until done. Remove from oven, split lengthwise, and let sit until cool enough to handle.


Carefully scrape out potato flesh, leaving a 1/4-inch border. Lightly brush both sides of potato skins with olive oil and place flesh-side up in baking pan. Sprinkle on Cajun spice to taste. Place under broiler for 5 minutes.


Remove from oven and top with bacon, cheese and green onions. Return to broiler and broil 2-3 minutes, until cheese is melted and potato skins are hot.


Serves 2-3. Serve topped with salsa and sour cream to taste.

I liked them better without bacon, and Greg was happy to eat my bacon for me.

To accompany, I made sugar snap peas, pan-fried with a finely diced shallot. I squeezed lemon on mine but left G&O's lemon-free. They eat enough lemon on my behalf as it is!

Awesome birthday supper. Great birthday weekend. Happy Kirsten. :)

Happy Olivia, cleaning out the icing bowl.

January 29th: applesauce cake, pork tenderloin en croûte

Winners all around today. All my Saturday plans were cancelled, which meant I had a lazy day to spend at home. It's been awhile and I've been wanting one. Lazy means doing load after load of laundry, of course. O and I spent our Saturday morning making applesauce cake, a recipe I pulled out of the Ottawa Citizen in November 2009. I had originally planned to make it for O's birthday in 2010, but didn't, and then this year, when I asked her whether she wanted apple, carrot or chocolate cake for her birthday, surprise, surprise, she chose chocolate. Of course, on the day of, after her cake was made, she told me she wanted strawberry cake. Too little, too late, my dear.


So, applesauce cake. This recipe makes two loaf pan cakes, and I though it might be more like an applesauce loaf, but oh no, this is cake all the way, and it is delicious. Between the three of us (mostly me and O), we ate almost one whole cake over the course of the day. Really, really good. We'll definitely try this one again.

Applesauce Cake

3/4 cup (175 mL) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups (375 mL) sugar
3 eggs
2 cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour, sifted
3/4 cup (175 mL) whole wheat flour*
1 1/2 tsps (7 mL) salt
1 1/2 tsps (7 mL) baking powder
1/2 tsp (2 mL) baking soda
1/2 tsp (2 mL) nutmeg
1/2 tsp (2 mL) cinnamon
114-oz (398 mL) unsweetened applesauce**
3/4 cup (175 mL) chopped walnuts, optional***

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs.

In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Add to creamed mixture, alternating with applesauce, beating after each addition. If you like, stir in walnuts. Divide batter between 2 greased loaf pans.

Bake for one hour or until done (start checking at the 50 minute mark). Remove and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans and putting on rack to cool completely.

Makes 8 servings.

Sugar glaze:

Combine 1/2 cup (125 mL) icing sugar, sifted, with 1 tbsp (15 mL) water. Pour over cakes.

*Whole wheat flour is my addition; the original recipe called for 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour.
**The original recipe called for sweetened applesauce; I don't think the cake needs the added sugar.
***I didn't see this option until I was making the cake, and I didn't have walnuts on hand, so can't vouch for the flavour with their addition.

Olivia sifts.

Blending together wet and dry ingredients.

Finished product!

For supper, I made a Beef Wellington look alike: from January 2004's Chatelaine: Pork tenderloin en croûte. This is pork tenderloin, wrapped in prosciutto, wrapped in puff pastry. Yum yum. The flavouring is Dijon mustard, rosemary, salt and pepper. Simple stuff. I skip all the fussy steps requiring you to make fancy cut-outs to put on top of the pastry, and I used pre-rolled pastry, just because that's what I had. This was a second go-around for us, and definitely a keeper. Delish. We would have eaten the whole tenderloin if I hadn't foreseen that and overloaded our salad bowls and roasted multi-coloured baby potatoes and garlic for the side.

We've been eating with a Doozy candle on the table recently, which Olivia thinks means we're having a fancy supper. This meal was a bit of a fancy supper (but simple, really). Oh, Saturday night, if only you could last forever...

Prior to rolling.

Ready to go in the oven.

Finished product!

Complete meal/fuzzy pic.

Cutest kid in the world/biased mother.

September 20th: balsamic vinegar everything followed by chocolate heaven

Verdict:
Keepers: salmon, tomatoes, cake (everything!)


Tonight I tried out Yin Yoga for the first time. That was an experience and a half. After an hour and a half of that, I managed to drive home, stop for gas, take in the garbage bins and eat supper, all before I woke up, which was thanks to the chocolate and coffee delight that was cake for dessert. But more on the cake later.


Greg made supper: two delicious balsamic vinegar-filled dishes. From the Heart and Stroke Foundation website: Salmon with Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette. This recipe is no longer available online (my copy was printed in 2003). Greg loves this one; I might like it if the salmon were not overdone every time we make the recipe. That may be because I leave it to Greg to cook and he doesn't obsessively watch the fish to get it just so. Here's the recipe:


Salmon with Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette


4 salmon fillets (about 4 oz/125 g each), skin removed
pinch each: salt, freshly ground black pepper
3 tsp (15 mL) butter or soft margarine*, divided
3/4 cup (175 mL) orange juice
1/4 cup (50 mL) balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp (30 mL) minced onion
2 tsp (10 mL) each: coarsely chopped fresh parsley, basil, mint
 
Preheat oven to 450ºF (230ºC). Season salmon with salt and pepper. In a large, non-stick skillet, melt 2 tsp (10 mL) of the butter over medium-high heat. Place salmon in pan and cook for about 2 to 3 minutes per side until lightly browned. Transfer salmon to an oven-proof dish and roast for 5 to 7 minutes or until cooked through. Wipe out skillet and stir in orange juice, balsamic vinegar and onion. Boil 2 minutes or until sauce has thickened slightly. Remove from heat and stir in remaining 1 tsp (5 mL) butter until melted. Stir in fresh herbs. Season to taste with pepper. Spoon over salmon and serve immediately.
 
Makes 4 servings
 
Nutritional information per serving (*based on using Becel margarine)
Calories: 226
Protein: 22.9 g
Fat: 10.1 g
Saturated fat: 1.5 g
Dietary cholesterol: 62 mg
Carbohydrates: 9.5 g
Dietary fibre: 0.3 g
Sodium: 148 mg
Potassium: 657 mg


Side dish of the night, from September 2006's Chatelaine: Minted summer tomatoes. Already a keeper, a no-cook, simple dish, which I see now is supposed to have goat cheese on top and my serving definitely didn't! That would have made it so much better. Served up with a whole wheat baguette, supper was complete!

For dessert, from Epicurious: Double Chocolate Layer Cake with Chocolate Buttermilk Frosting. The cake recipe was recommended to me by Patricia in 2005 and this is the first time I've made it. I skipped the suggested frosting recipe and used my own personal favourite chocolate frosting recipe. This cake is heavenly. Seriously delicious. Worth noting: the recipe calls for using "fine quality" chocolate. I used Baker's squares and instant coffee and it turned out just fine. I didn't even chop the chocolate. I don't have the patience for such baking details. Here is my frosting recipe:

Chocolate Buttermilk Frosting

6 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
16 oz icing sugar

Combine butter, buttermilk and cocoa in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Turn off heat, add vanilla and icing sugar and blend until smooth. Easier to spread when warm, but possible to spread when cooled.

A good night.