April 29th, 2008
Again from the Baking Bites blog, I was quite taken with the Dark Chocolate Tartlet. They’re so cute!
I bought tartlet pans a while ago and finally made these this past weekend. Even though this recipe reduced the number of pans from the original from 8 to 6, I still had problems getting the tart dough to really spread. I think if I were to make it again, I would make 1.5 the amount of dough and throw away any that was too much.
Also, the recipe calls for dark chocolate that’s 54% cacao…which really isn’t all that dark. Next time, I’d go 60% or higher since it adds sugar.
In any case, they were pretty good. I gave them to some co-workers with the warning, “I’d highly advise not trying to eat all of it at once.” Because, you know, I did that and it was just a little too much. ;)
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April 29th, 2008
As part of the King Arthur Flour Mix ‘n’ Magic Baking Club this month, I got a mix for Chocolate Indulgence Cake. With a name like that, who can resist? :D
I messed up a little bit when making it. It calls for an 8″ cake pan and I used a 9″ one, so it was slightly overcooked. I think it will be just fine, though. I had a heck of a time getting it out of the pan, though. It said to let it cool for 2 hours and then let the pan rest in hot water for a few minutes. I not only did that but I also had to poke at it with a tiny spatula to get it to release enough to come out of the pan and onto the plate! I was almost ready to just take the whole pan in.
In any case, I haven’t taken it to work yet to share with the co-workers. I might pre-cut it into tiny squares since it looks quite decadent. Mmmm…
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April 29th, 2008
I think I heard of this from the Baking Bites blog, but I made Bacon and Egg pies over the weekend. I didn’t have anything that looked like what they baked theirs in, but I did have disposable aluminum mini-pie pans.
My variation: no mustard, used cheddar cheese, and only 2 slices of bacon per pie.
It turned out pretty yummy. I think I only baked it for the 18 minutes…I probably would bake them the full recommended 20 next time since the egg yolks were a little runnier than I like them.
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April 29th, 2008
Another one from the most recent issue of King Arthur Flour’s The Baking Sheet newsletter. Who could resist a chocolate chip cake?
Unfortunately, I messed up on the crumb topping, which is why it looks really dry. It’s 2 ounces of butter, which my brain messed up and thought it was 2 tablespoons. Needless to say, it didn’t crumb very well and I got a powdery mess. It was still tasty.
The inside ended up being pretty much chocolate buttercream icing. Mmmm.
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April 29th, 2008
As the temperature starts to get warmer, I’m less inclined to leave my cellphone in the car when I’m at work. At my particular workplace, iPods and cellphones are not allowed in certain areas, my cubicle farm being one of them. They have little cubbies right in the doorway where one can stash stuff. My stuff is usually pretty easy to distinguish since I’m one of the few folks that has a trinket hanging from my cellphone. However, since I have my cellphone, iPod, and Bluetooth headset, it’s a bit of a juggle to carry everything.
Thus, the cellphone/iPod cozy was born. Really I just knitted up a swatch and sewed it up on the sides and added a crochet chain rope to tie it all together, but it gets the job done and I played with cables in the pattern.
Tags: knitting
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April 29th, 2008
The latest issue of King Arthur Flour’s The Baking Sheet newsletter has some pretty tasty treats in it. Among them: cold strawberry pie. Basically, you make the pie crust, blind bake it, then put fresh strawberries in and coat it with a cornstarch/gelatin mix that cools into a glaze.
The crust didn’t quite turn out the way I thought it would. I used the recipe in the newsletter rather than from one of their cookbooks and it didn’t quite work for me. It’s probably because the one from the newsletter was made for a 9″ diameter pie pan and I was using a 9.5″ one. Also, the glaze ended up much thicker than I thought it would so the top layer of strawberries got a thick coating of glaze while the bottom got none. It was weird and a little too sugary for my taste, but still yummy.
I took it to work with some whipped cream on the edges for decoration.
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April 29th, 2008
I got the King Arthur Flour mix for Maple Oat Scones a while ago and I finally got around to making them. Since the oats are part of the mix, I’m pretty sure the ones in the picture on the box were put on afterward. ;) In any case, they turned out pretty well and were darn tasty and not overly dry, which scones can be if you’re not careful.
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April 29th, 2008
Class 3 of the Wilton Cake Decorating cupcakes was about flowers. I could bring a full cake or cupcakes. I opted for Red Velvet cupcakes, again from a leftover box of mix.
Flowers have always been something I wanted to do, cake decorating-wise, I just am not very good at them, the drop flowers, especially. Something about the turning of the wrist gets me. Also, I still have issues with icing consistency. In any case, I did ok and managed to get all the cupcakes done. The mix said they made 24 but I ended up with 27. My Dad ate one, so I had to ice 26 of them when all was said and done.
I also used too much color for some of it so they look kind of weird. ;) Luckily, the Cupcake Courier I’d ordered from Amazon arrived the day before so I was able to tote them all to work easily.
Some of the pictures are blurry…but you get the idea.
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April 17th, 2008
Today, I ordered a few items I’d been wanting/needing.
For my KitchenAid Stand Mixer (I have a 5 Quart Pivot Head Artisan in Cobalt Blue), I bought:
- another paddle – mine is the ceramic one and the coating is starting to wear
- another mixing bowl – because it irritates me when a recipe says to use more than one mixing bowl and I have to do part of it by hand ;)
- a stand mixer cover/cozy – to keep dust out/off of things when it’s not in use…which isn’t often, but still
From one of my favorite places, King Arthur Flour, I:
Finally, from Baking Bites, I learned about and ordered a Cupcake Courier, which holds 36 cupcakes. I’d seen some 24-cupcake ones, but 36 appealed to me since I tend to make double batches and what not.
Can you tell my billing cycle flipped over? ;)
Tags: baking, gadgets, shopping
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April 15th, 2008
For the second class, I had to bring a cake with a coat of icing on it. I made some French Vanilla cake from a mix (I think it was Duncan Hines) in 2 9″ pans and then split each in half effectively making a 4 layer cake. Alas, I still haven’t perfected the whole “put an inch of frosting between the layers” thing so it looks like a regular 2 layer cake.
I can’t quite figure out how to make it perfectly smooth, but that will come with time. I also could have spent some time cleaning up the base so the icing wasn’t all over the place.
In class, I did practice on the practice boards. That’s really a handy thing. You just drop icing right on the clear page over the design. It helps you figure out where to put the tip and what the thing is supposed to look like. It’s a little bit misleading, though, since you get used to leaning all over the thing and you can’t really do that on a cake. ;)
Anyway, it was all about stars, groups of stars (I still make mine gappy), lines wit the star tip, dots, lettering, outlines, and the base of the Wilton Rose. Then, I made a template with piping gel on parchment paper and put it right on my cake to do a rainbow design. I was running out of couplers, though, so I only made mine a 3-color rainbow and I had to finish up with the clouds when I got home.
Next class does more with drop flowers and making some designs. I’m to bring small cakes or cupcakes. I’ve still got a box of red velvet cake mix lying around so perhaps I’ll make those.
Tags: baking, cake, classes, decorating, Wilton
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