Recipe: Mrs. Robert's Italian Cream Cake

Italian cream cake is my FAVORITEST cake flavor.  And yes, I'm very much aware that 'favoritest' is not a word.  Bite me.  Or better yet, bite my cake.  It'll be your favoritest soon too!

Grammar aside, Italian cream cake is not just my most favorite cake flavor, it's also very special to my heart as it was my wedding cake flavor.  My husband's aunt's mother in law (let that sink in for a moment...got it?  Good!) Mrs. Roberts has the most fantastic recipe for the cake.  I've been begging my husband's aunt to get the recipe from her MIL and over Thanksgiving I gave up and just asked Mrs. Roberts myself. She graciously acquiesced and I now share with you the recipe.

You are forewarned: this recipe is RICH.  It's also a little labor intensive, so it's perfect for that special gathering.  The flavor and texture are dependent upon following the recipe instructions, which oddly enough, my copy did NOT have...I realized this mid-baking.  Whoops!  Thank goodness for Google!

Mrs. Robert's Italian Cream Cake
2 cups flour (250g)
1/2 cup butter (1 stick or 113g)
1/2 cup shortening (113g)
2 cups sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
5 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup buttermilk

1.  Preheat your oven to 325F and prep three 8" or 9" round cake pans with cooking spray and parchment.  Separate your eggs, setting the yolks aside.  Using a mixer, whip the egg whites until they hold peaks.
2. Cream the butter, shortening, and sugar together until fluffy.  Add in the egg yolks and the vanilla.
3.  In a small bowl, mix together the flour and baking soda.  Add this to the batter alternately with the buttermilk until everything is just combined.  Don't overbeat!
4.  Gently fold in the egg whites, pecans and coconut.  Pour the batter into your pans and bake for 25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter (1 stick or 113g)
1 - 8 oz  brick of cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar (225g), approx
1 tsp almond or vanilla extract
milk or heavy whipping cream as needed
1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional

1.  Cream butter and cream cheese together.  Beat in the vanilla.
2.  Gradually add the powdered sugar until frosting becomes thick.  You may need more powdered sugar or less.  Add in a tablespoon of milk or HWC until you reach spreading consistency.
3.  Spread in between the layers and sides of your cooled cake.
4.  Sprinkle pecans on top or press them into the sides of the cake as desired!

Some food for thought...

• For cupcakes, one batch of batter will yield 36 cupcakes.  For 18-24 cupcakes, cut the listed ingredient amounts in half, using three eggs.
• A poster at Cake Central suggested using almond extract in cream cheese frosting and I was too chicken to try it.  I don't know why!  Not only was my frosting whiter and brighter, but the almond flavor complimented the tang of the cream cheese beautifully.  I will never use vanilla in my CC frosting again!
• About nuts and coconut: I know there are people who do not like these items, or can't consume them for health reasons.  You could nix them from the recipe, but then it's not really an Italian Cream Cake.  If you're a picky/textural eater (no worries, I'm one too), you can reduce the particle size of the nuts and coconut in your food processor.  If you're allergic, please don't kill yourself!  (Although this would be a delicious way to go, if you ask me. Mmmm, death by cake...)
  
• While no one is really certain of the origins of Italian Cream Cake, it has all the hallmarks of Italian baking: eggs, nuts, and fruit!  There are many variations of the cake, and having tasted quite a few, this one is my favorite.  If The Food Timeline is correct, this recipe first appeared in the late 70's.

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I do!

Happy Caking,
Kelly

Happy 3rd Birthday Billa!

My daughter celebrated her third birthday on Monday.  Cue the sniffling and crying...she's getting to be so big!

Sybilla enjoying one of her fave foods, "cheese pops" while watching Busytown on Netflix.  They're actually Cheetos Brand Natural White Cheddar Puffs (those things are like crack...super addictive!)

We've decided to hold her birthday party about two weeks later than her birthday, but we wanted her friends at school to celebrate anyway.  I whipped up some cookies for goodie bags and some homemade green and blue oreos for the kiddos to munch on after lunch for a mini party.

Here are the cookies I made for the goodie bags.  The kids love these things so much!

The goodie bag cookies were simply sugar cookies that I decorated in Scooby colors: aquamarine, lime green, and orange.  I had thought about getting crazy and making some Mystery Machines or trying to recreate Scooby's head, but I ended up not doing it.  To be honest, it was way too much work for a small of three and two year olds.  I think the shapes I chose ended up being much more kid-friendly.

These were the cookies I made for the kids to eat at the mini party. The flower one I made special for Sybilla.  I dyed them to coordinate with the goodie bags and the Scooby color theme!

I fell in love with a recipe for homemade oreos at my friend Anna's cookie party that uses cake mix, oil and eggs.  It's super easy and pretty darn tasty too!  The original recipe is here at The Sister's Cafe, where Anna snagged it, but instead of using the devil's food cake recipe, I used white cake mix and then dyed the batter in different colors.  It was easy and as you can see above, it made quite the impact!  Did I mention that it was easy? [wink]

The dots were really a test to see how the doughs would bake together.  They actually looked kinda cute!

Like, what is it Scoob!?  Tie dye and flowers, oh my!

The pictures above show you the different things you can do with the batter.  It's pretty thick once it's all mixed up, which made me think that I could maybe roll it out like cookie dough.  Yeah, not so much.  It's a little too oily for my taste when rolling (probably because it was white cake mix instead of chocolate...I bet the cocoa powder has something to do with it) and it stuck like crazy to the counter.  It also didn't hold the shape very well when I tried to peel it up off my floured surface.  Grrr.  Either way, the cookies came out alright in the end and there were none left when I picked up Billa from school.

Homemade Oreos

1 package cake mix, white or devil's food
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil (reduce this amount just slightly for white cake mix)

food coloring as needed

1. Heat oven to 300-350F degrees and line baking sheets with parchment.
2. Add oil, eggs and coloring (if using) to cake mix and blend together. 
3. Roll dough into balls (a little larger than a quarter). Place on greased cookie sheet and press down gently. 
4. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on sheet for a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. 
5. To assemble the cookies, add a small dollop of filling into the center of one cookie.  Place another cookie similar in size on top of the filling.  Lightly press them together, working the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

Cream Cheese Filling
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 block of cream cheese (8 oz)
3 - 4 cups powdered sugar (depending on desired consistency)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream butter and add cream cheese and mix well. Add powdered sugar slowly until you reach your desired consistency.

Some food for thought...

• If you use a white cake mix and color it, use a bit more color than you think you might need.  As the cookies baked, the colors seemed to fade a bit.  Boo :o(
• I didn't realize this until it was too late, but you need to watch these like hawks to prevent too much browning on the edges.  The sugar in the batter caramelizes as it cooks, giving the brown color.  I think the best way to combat this is to bake them low and slow: cook at 300F for about 12 minutes and go from there.  I baked mine at 325 for 10 minutes and I think that was too much.
• Chilling the dough will work wonders if you're going to attempt shapes like the flower.  Try to handle it as little as possible too, so that it doesn't 'melt' in your hands.
• If you wanted to jazz these puppies up even more, try adding sprinkles!  You can also (gently) swirl the doughs together to create tie dye, or place small balls together like the flower to create other shapes.  The possibilities are endless!
• A recipe note: in order to make sure that the batters were evenly divided, I measured the bag of mix before splitting it, then split the eggs and oil down the middle.  You could just mix the entire batch together and then separate and color, but due to the thickness of the dough, that may actually be harder.

I hope this gives you some ideas for your own homemade Oreo versions!  And of course, a big happy birthday to my little munchkin...I love you, Sugary!

Happy Baking,
Kelly

Sweet Valentine's Day!

Nothing says I love you like a baked representation of someone’s sweetness! While I personally loathe Valentine’s Day as a bunch of commercialized crock, I take full advantage of it as yet another excuse to blow up my kitchen and my kidneys with an excess of sugary love. This year was no exception.

Billa is obsessed with Scooby Doo and I found cute Scooby valentine cards and pencils. I’m saving the pencils for goodie bags for her birthday party (which will be Scooby Doo themed, natch), but the cards were perfect to slip on a cookie pop!   I mixed up some turquoise and apple green icing to coordinate the cookie pops (because I’m a freak like that) and they came out super cute. I had grand plans for these, but I saved myself a whole lotta trouble at the last minute when I remembered that they were for toddlers. No point in gilding the lily for an unappreciative crowd! I added little pink hearts on them to girly them up just a tad, which unfortunately ended up looking more like blobs, but whatever. The kids liked them and that’s all that matters!

The remaining icing and cookie dough became Valentine themed sugar cookies for an impromptu dinner party we had Sunday night with my little brother and his girlfriend. I’ve wanted to try new designs and I am in love with these little lovebirds. They were so easy to create too. I may have to use these for my sister-in-law’s wedding shower later this year…they’re so adorable! And I really like the color scheme of the turquoise, apple green, and pink for Valentine’s day; it reminds me of the current Valentine’s products at Target this year which are super adorable.

Lastly, I sugared up my coworkers with some homemade Valentine-themed Hostess cupcakes that I saw over at Bake at 350. I LOVE Hostess cupcakes, even though they’re probably one of the worst things a human being can consume. These are waaaaaay better than their inspiring counterpart. I was lazy and did the cupcakes from a mix (hey, I was supermom the past week and took care of a sick little girl and her daddy, not to mention fought off the plague myself, so I think I’m allowed some leeway once in awhile!) and I have to say, it’s entirely unfair that the box mix created such perfectly domed cupcakes.; The yummy filling and frosting recipe is from scratch, and I used leftover royal icing to create the swirls on top with the word ‘love.’

They were incredibly delicious and my coworkers loved them. If the word is short enough, these could be used for lots of different events. And imagine changing the color of the cake and frosting! I may bake these again next year but with red velvet cake, cream cheese frosting, and red lettering. Shoot, I might even do these for my daughter’s birthday party too. Recipe for the filling and ganache are below or you can follow the link for the original cake recipe and blog entry from Bake at 350.


Instructions for constructing the Hostess cupcakes:

1. Bake chocolate cupcake according to package directions.
2. Use a piping bag fitted with a filler tip (or wide tip) and insert it into each cupcake, squeezing gently until filling is just beginning to ooze out.
3. Let sit in the fridge for a few minutes, while you mix up the ganache.
4. Once the ganache has cooled a bit, gently dip each filled cupcake into the chocolate and set aside to set up.
5. Put your choice of icing into another piping bag and pipe the trademark swirls and word of your choice across the top.

For the Filling
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup marshmallow creme

Using a mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar. Add the vanilla and 1 tablespoon heavy cream; beat until smooth. Beat in the remaining 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar and 2 tablespoons heavy cream in batches, alternating after each addition. Beat in the marshmallow creme; set aside or refrigerate.
For the Ganache
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract


Place the chocolate in a stainless-steel bowl. Heat the cream and 1 tablespoon butter until just boiling, then pour over the chocolate; let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Add 2 teaspoons vanilla; let stand until cool but still glossy and liquid.



I hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s Day with your loved ones, and that this post inspires you to be a ‘sweet’heart to all you meet!

Happy Valentine’s Day!
Kelly

Recipe: Homemade Oreos from Scratch

If there's anything you've learned about me by now, let it be this: I LOVE COOKIES.  So does Billa.  I love that hand-held portion of sweet, sweet goodness right in the palm of your hand.  Cupcakes come close, but there's the wrapper and other accoutrements one must deal with.  Cookies are infinitely better.  No mess, no fuss.  Just simple sweetness wrapped up in a couple of bites.  Heaven!

Ever since Billa and I went to the cookie party a couple of weekends ago, I've been obsessed with the homemade Oreo cookies the hostess made.  They were soft, like whoopie pies, but they tasted just like the real deal.  I was in LOVE at first bite.  She promised to post the recipe on her blog, but I'm not very good at being patient, so I went scouring for one on my own while I waited.  Y'all, I need to be more careful about adventures like that...I was afraid my keyboard might short out from all the drool!  I found the following recipe on Smitten Kitchen, which apparently came from the book Retro Desserts by Wayne Brachman. 

If I'm being perfectly honest, this recipe was not what I expected.  The cookies are crunchy, not soft, so I ended up being a little disappointed.  But they were still tasty, so it's only fair to share the recipe anyway.  If you ever wanted to make homemade Oreo cookies, crunch and all, this recipe is the way to go!

Homemade Oreo Cookies
For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (156g)
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa (48g)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar (188g)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks or 142g) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick or 58g) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening (58g)
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (250g)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1.  Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375F.

2.  In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.  You may need to get your hands in the mix and knead it all together.  It will be a very stiff dough.

3.  With your hands, roll the dough into small balls and place on a baking sheet, about two to three inches apart. Using slightly moistened fingers, flatten the dough a little bit.  Bake for 8-9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Place on a rack to cool.

4.  To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

5.  To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

Some food for thought...

• Smitten Kitchen made a note about the amount of sugar on her blog; she said that the wafers come out sweet, unlike real Oreo wafers, so she gave a range of 1 to 1 1/2 cups of sugar.  I personally am on a quest to reduce the amount of sugar in my life, so I have re-posted this recipe with a smaller amount of sugar.  Feel free to use the original amount as you please!
• As I noted before, the cookie itself is crunchy rather than soft.  Don't over bake the cookie, otherwise it will burn quickly.You could probably add things like chili powder and cinnamon to the wafer recipe if you wanted to mix things up a bit.  You could also add mint extract and green food coloring to the cream filling to make your own mint Oreos.  Add other extracts and colors to be more adventurous!

Happy Baking,
Kelly

Recipe: Banana Blackberry Muffins

I really hate it when bananas get all brown and soft.  I know a lot of people love them the most at that stage because they're sweeter, but it just makes me gag.  I buy my 'nanas green and if they're still hanging around at the brown stage, I peel them, mash them up in a baggie and freeze it for baking later on.  It's pretty handy and makes sure that it doesn't go to waste!  The following recipe makes use of some of those bananas, along with blackberries, which happen to be on sale at our grocery store the last couple of weeks.  I hope you enjoy them as much as my family did!

Banana Blackberry Muffins
2 cups AP flour (250g)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt (nix this if you use salted butter)
2 eggs
1 cup yogurt or sour cream
3/4 cup sugar
4 Tbsp melted butter or veg oil
2 mashed bananas
6 oz blackberries, chopped in half

1.  Preheat the oven to 400F.  In a small ziploc bag or bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and mix well.

2.  In a large bowl, mix the butter, eggs, and sugar together.  Add in the yogurt or sour cream and bananas.  Mix until well combined.

3.  Add in the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened.  Don't overmix!  Add in the blackberries and spoon into greased muffin tins or cupcake liners.  Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean.

Some food for thought...

• I originally made these with a 1/2 cup of sugar thinking that the bananas would sweeten the mix more, but they didn't.  I'm guessing my bananas were not as ripe as I thought they were! Just keep that in mind when you make these.
• My batter made enough for 12 muffins and a very small 6" round.  The recipe will probably make enough for 18-24 normal muffins, depending on how much you put in each cup.

Happy Baking!

Rice Krispy Wreaths

One of my favorite things about the yuletide season is the baking.  Every year, I bake a ton of cookies and cakes and other sweet goodies to give as gifts or keep for ourselves.  My most favorite treat from my childhood are Holly Wreaths (and apparently I'm not the only one...I just saw them featured on Cakespy in their original corn flakey glory as I was putting this post together.  Talk about the universe aligning, eh?).

Every year, my mom would make them and every year, my brothers and I would stuff ourselves silly on them.  As we got older, my mom would let us help her make them until eventually, I was delegated with the task (she had more important things to do, like make my great-grandmother's recipe for pralines!).  Her version uses corn flakes because they look more like holly leaves.  A lot of people are turned off by that sadly, so I switched to rice krispies instead.  I hope you'll enjoy making these as well and that they too, might become a fun tradition in your family during the holidays.

Holly Wreaths
6 cups of rice krispies
1 package of large marshmallows
1 stick of butter, plus a bit more for greasing your hands
green food coloring
red hots or red m&m's

1.  Prep the work surface by laying down pieces of parchment paper.  DO NOT use wax paper or foil!

2.  Melt the stick of butter over low heat in a large non-stick saucepan.  Add in the marshmallows and stir it gently with a spatula until the marshmallows are almost completely melted.  Add in the green food coloring.

3.  Add the rice krispies a little bit at a time, coating each bit thoroughly before adding more.  You may or may not end up using all six cups.  Once the krispies are coated, remove from heat.

4.  Grease your hands with some butter and begin to shape wreaths out of the mixture, laying them on the parchment to finish setting.  Gently push in red hots or m&m's to make holly berries.

Billa helps me put on the cinnamon imperials holly berries

Some food for thought...

• I recommend not using wax paper or foil for a reason.  Unfortunately, their anti-sticking properties are not nearly as effective against hot, melted marshmallows like parchment paper!  Also, using a non-stick pan makes for super easy cooking and clean up.  If you don't have one, don't fret, just be prepared for a really sticky mixture!
• If you don't feel like shaping the mixture by hand, you could always spread it out on a cookie sheet and then use biscuit cutters to cut wreath-like shapes.  Better yet, you could cut trees and then ice them like you would a cookie!
• Should you choose to use the traditional corn flakes, you'll need to make sure to cut back on the amount you use.  My mom's recipe says 6 cups, but I say drop it to 4 cups and go from there! 
• Also, this kinda goes without saying, but remove all jewelry from your fingers before getting going on these...it's messy!

Happy Holidays,
Kelly

Oreo Balls

Recently a coworker introduced me to these delicious little balls of goodness and now I'm introducing them to you! If you're like me and enjoy giving edible treats at Christmastime, or need something quick and easy to bring to the holiday party, look no further.  These delectable little bon bons are creamy and chocolatey on the inside and crunchy sweet on the outside.  Oreo balls are not only yummy and pretty looking, but they are ridiculously easy to make too!

Daring Bakers: Chocolate Pavlovas

Hi everyone!  Time for another DB Challenge Reveal!  The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious.  Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse.  The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

So what is a pavlova?  It's a meringue based dessert that was named Anna Pavlova, a famous Russian ballerina.  It has a crispy crust with a soft interior that is akin to marshmallow.  Australia and New Zealand have been arguing for years over who created the dessert first, but most of the research points to NZ.  Either way, whoever is responsible created one heck of a yummy and elegant dessert!  The version here is chocolate flavored with a chocolate mascarpone mousse on top.  There are technically four components: the pavlova, the mascarpone mousse, the mascarpone to make the mousse, and a creme anglaise (which is a type of vanilla pastry cream).  This is my version:

You know you want some!

Recipe: "Kahlua" Cheesecake

I've probably mentioned this before, but I'm rather quite famous in my circle of friends and family for my cheesecakes.  Every year at Thanksgiving I am asked to provide my pumpkin cheesecake, which is a breath of fresh air to the traditional and sometimes boring pumpkin pie (although I LOVE me some pumpkin pie for breakfast).  And every year, my husband requests a cheesecake for his birthday.  Truth be told, it's actually been two years since I made him one.  I was horribly ill on his birthday last year and couldn't bake anything at all, and the year before that he wanted a pirate birthday party, so I made my pirate cake.  So it was about time I made him another one.  I think it was over avocado margaritas with my cousin that the words "kahlua cheesecake" were uttered and Michael's eyes widened as he leaned over to me and whispered, "That's what I want for my birthday this year!"  Okey dokey, honey.  You want it?  You got it!

Recipe: Honey Serrano Cornbread

What do you get when you pick a peck of pickled peppers?  Why, Honey Serrano Cornbread Muffins of course!  My serrano pepper plants were ready to harvest their first crop when I checked on our garden boxes on Friday.   I got five of the hot little ladies and I had visions of salsa swimming in my head.  But salsa can be a bit boring, so I decided to try something a little different: honey serrano cornbread!  Sybilla and I spent Saturday afternoon and evening with my parents and I requested fried fish for dinner.  Fried fish is also the perfect accompaniment for this cornbread recipe, but so would any Southern entree.

What makes this recipe so delightful is the contract between sweet and spicy.   I've always liked my cornbread sweet, so using honey within the recipe adds a depth to the sweetness that regular sugar just can't add.  And you can adjust the spice to suit your needs; in this case, I removed all the veins and seeds and we still had a subtle level of heat that was pleasing and comfortable.

Daring Bakers: Croquembouche

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

May is a very special month for me–not only do I celebrate my birthday every May, but my dad's, my father-in-law's, my husband's grandmother's, as well as several cousins and friends.  What can I say?  September was apparently a busy month!  It is also the month in which I celebrate my wedding anniversary and this month's challenge is especially close to my heart because it was this very same cake that inspired my own wedding cake.  My husband and I both share a love for medieval history and while our wedding appeared very traditional at first glance, everything was influenced and inspired by medieval culture and history.  In fact, here's a little historical tidbit for you: the wedding cake as we know it comes from a medieval tradition in which wedding guests would bring small cakes and stack them up upon arrival.  The bride and groom were then required to kiss over the top of said cakes and it was a good sign if none of the cakes were knocked over.  Eventually, it morphed into the cake we know and love today.  The croquembouche is about as close as you can get to that tradition and they are very common as wedding cakes in France.  Our version were mini cheesecakes for the groom and Italian cream cake for the bride - our favorite flavors!

But I digress.  This blog entry is about the croquembouche, or piece montee as Cat calls it.  In a nutshell, it's a bunch of little cream puffs all stacked up on each other to form a tall mountain of creamy puffy goodness.  Yum!  You start by making a pate a choux (pronounced 'pot ah shoe')which are the puffs.  You then make a cream filling and fill the puffs.  Finally, you use a glaze to glue them all together and voila!  Croquembouche.

Recipe: Cherry Almond Wedding Cookies

Hello, everyone!  I just realized that I have been remiss in not posting this on my baking blog (I originally had it on my family blog) and since I am making these for a dinner party tonight to honor the departure of a friend, I figured better now than never!

This recipe is a slight adaptation of one I gleaned from CookingLight.com and originally called for pistachios.  I'm not a fan of pistachios and they're a little expensive, so I used the next best thing: almonds!  And seriously, dried cherries are so great, they're like the original fruit snack.  I have to hide them from myself, they're so addictive and yummy.  I really hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do; it was delightful and weighing in at a mere 86 (roughly) calories per cookie, you don't feel so bad for eating more than just one!

Recipe: Blackberry & Strawberry Spiced Cobbler

Texas is one of those states where you have a love/hate relationship with the weather. Summertime lasts from mid-May to early October and while some of you northern folks might love a long warm period like that, you certainly won't love it when you have 68 straight days of triple digit temps. HUMID triple digit temps, I might add. But before the dread of summer sinks in, we get to enjoy spring in Central Texas and that, my friends, is what's it all about! We get wildflowers out the wazoo and the weather is perfect 99.9% of the time. Another great thing about spring in Central Texas? Berries! April and May are prime time for strawberries and blackberries and today's recipe captures those colorful little fruits perfectly. Best of all it's quick, simple, nutritious and delicious!

Daring Bakers: English Pudding

It's time for another Daring Baker's reveal!

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.   The goals of the challenge were to 1) make a suet pudding using real suet or as close a replacement as one can manage or is acceptable; and 2) to cook it by steaming or an even more traditional method by boiling tied up in a cloth.  I've been on a quest to lose the remainder of my baby weight, so I opted not to use suet.  In addition, it's actually a bit harder to find here in the US as opposed to places like the UK or Australia.  For those not familiar with suet, it's the back fat of an animal, typically a pig or cow. You can usually substitute lard, shortening, or butter for the suet in most pudding recipes.  Also, pudding in this instance refers not to the yogurty textured stuff made with milk and sugar and flavorings, but a dense moist cake, or a filled pastry.

The closet thing in the States to a traditional savory pudding is a casserole or pot pie, but I prefer the sweeter side of life.  I chose to make the classic Spotted Dick for two reasons: 1) it sounded relatively tame ingredient-wise, and 2) it's a funny name that elicits the best faces from people when you talk about it.  Now before you start taking me to task for my language, "dick" is aparently the traditional colloquial phrase for pudding and the spots of Spotted Dick are from the dried fruits that stud the pudding.  You can draw your own conclusions from the shape of the pudding, you dirty birdie!

Recipe: Chocolate Orange Cake and Orange Cream Buttercream

Growing up, Terry's Chocolate Oranges were one of my favorite things to get in my Christmas stocking.  I loved the pairing of orange and chocolate and the way the flavors melded on my tongue.  Those chocolate oranges are the inspiration for today's cake recipe.    I first did this recipe for my husband's birthday cake last year and it was a huge hit! This time around, we were celebrating the birthday of one of his coworkers, Becky.  Originally this recipe was just the cake and the chocolate ganache, but I decided to add an orange cream buttercream to the mix this time and lemme tell ya, this will rock your socks, friends!

Recipe: Black and Tan Brownies

I love all things Irish.  And even though my grandfather gave up his birthright to the motherland thus causing it to be ridiculously hard for me or my own to claim legal citizen status there, I still claim my heritage.  Silly, I know.  My family's been removed from Mother Erin for four generations now, but that doesn't stop us.  My cousin married a fine Irish gent by the name of Barry and now she spends half a year there (and yeah, I'm super jealous).  I have never been to Ireland, but that doesn't mean I won't make it someday.  In fact, my favorite Irish cookbook author, Margaret Johnson, didn't make it until she was 40 and she's been there over 50 times now!  If she can do it, so can I.  And the recipe today is one of hers, that was in this month's issue of Cooking Light.

I made these for our annual St. Patty's Day dinner with my husband's cousin and everyone really liked them.  The flavor is very different from a traditional brownie and you could taste the stout in them.  They weren't bad tasting by any means, but it was a taste unlike anything we'd ever had before.  It was rich and deep, and did I mention very rich?  Most of us had a hard time finishing just one brownie!  I highly recommend these for any time of year, but definitely for St. Patrick's Day!

Daring Bakers: Tiramisu

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

Ta da!  My tiramisu charlotte

Our challenges for this month were to make:
A. Tiramisu (includes zabaglione and vanilla pastry cream)
B. Mascarpone Cheese
C. Ladyfinger/Savoiardi Biscuits

Recipe: Cherry Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

We had a get-together with our close friends this evening for homemade hot wings and beer.  Typically, we provide dessert and beverages while our friends provide the hot wings, sauce, and anything else and tonight was not unlike any other night in which we do this.  I did however, bring something new to the table to try: cherry double chocolate chip cookies!

I've been hankering for some homemade chocolate chip cookies lately, but that seemed kinda blah to me, so I decided to jazz things up a bit.  I had some leftover dried cherries from an earlier recipe this week (I'll post it soon, promise!) and I saw chocolate covered cherries on sale at my local Sprouts which made me practically drool over the weekly ad.  I love chocolate, and I love cherries.  So what could be better than combining the two into cookies?  Not much actually!

So here is the recipe for what I came up, I hope you like it.  You can increase the amount of cherries if you prefer; everyone thought the amount I had was good enough, but I kinda craved more.  I must also mention that I will not eat a chocolate chip cookie unless it is chewy and puffy, which these are, so this recipe is also loosely adapted from Alton Brown's Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

Cherry Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 sticks of butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup of white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (or cherry liquor if you have it on hand!)
2 cups of AP flour
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp of kosher salt
1 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips (about 12 oz)
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped finely

1.  Preheat oven to 350F and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
2.  In a large bowl, combine the melted butter and sugars and mix for about 1 minute.
3.  Add in the eggs and the vanilla, mix to combine.
4.  Add in the cocoa and salt until incorpaorated.  Scrape down the bowl as needed!
5.  Add in the flour and baking soda until flour is mixed in.  Fold in the chocolate chips and dried cherries.
6.  Roll into 1" balls, chill for about minutes in the fridge and then bake for 12-14 minutes.  Allow to cool on pan for about one minute and then remove to racks.

Enjoy with a tall glass of milk, or for an even more sinful treat, ice cream on top.  We had a Culver's Turtle ice cream cake with ours as well, and it was sooooo super delicious!

Some food for thought...

• Dried cherries can be expensive so to make them stretch a bit more and get more cherry in every bite, chop them finely.  I recommend tossing them in a pinch of flour first though to keep them from sticking.  Repeat as needed!  The amount of cherries here will lend a very subtle taste, you can increase the amount as desired, or skip them entirely for a different kind of dried fruit!  Strawberry, raspberries, even dried blueberries would be tasty in this cookie!

• The batter will be very soft and almost like thick brownie batter.  Allow it to chill for about 15 to 20 minutes before rolling it to ensure that you don't have too many problems with it sticking.
  

• Cookie dough always freezes well, so you can pre-roll the balls and place them on a cookie sheet, freeze them, and then put them in a bag for single baking as you desire.  If you're trying to cut out some of the calories, you might be able to get away with cutting out half a stick of butter and not adding the entire bag of chocolate chips, but these are so rich, that you probably will feel satisfied after eating just one of them!

Happy Baking,
Kelly

Dried Cherries

Recipe: Cookies and Cream Cake

UPDATE June 2011:  A poster alerted me to the fact that while my ingredients didn't include baking soda, my instructions did.  Oops!  Thanks Fourmadcats for pointing that out; the post is corrected now!

This weekend I posted about an airplane cake that was a cookies and cream cake and I promised to share this delightful recipe. I searched all over until I found a suitable recipe that didn't involve a cake mix, because that's how I bake.

The person who posted the inspiration recipe claims it is a butter cake, but while this does have butter in it, I disagree. I think it's more along the lines of a WASC (white almond sour cream) cake since the amount of butter is so small. Her mixing instructions were also kinda whack; she had you dump everything in a bowl and then whip it for about 2-3 minutes straight. Anyone who is a fan of Alton Brown will understand that this violates one of the cardinal rules of baking: NEVER overmix flour. Mayhaps she assumed you would automatically understand the natural order of things with a cake, but I'd be willing to bet that plenty of folks had terrible cakes following those instructions to the letter. (I would like to point out that a mix cake has all sorts of additives and preservatives in them to keep the cake texture fluffy and fail-safe, so beating THOSE for 2-3 minutes is completely appropriate!)

Also the cake did not rise terribly well, so I removed the baking soda from the recipe entirely and made the leavening agent all baking powder. I just don't think there was enough acidity in the sour cream to make the baking soda work effectively. Baking powder, to my understanding, simply requires "wet" to work.

So without further ado, here is the recipe, slightly altered and restructured for clearer instructions.

Cookies and Cream Cake
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup fat free sour cream or Greek yogurt
1/4 cup skim milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup cake flour
7 Oreo cookies, roughly chopped

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Prep a 9" round pan with parchment and spray; set aside.
2. In small bowl, combine flour and baking powder and whisk together and set aside. Combine the milk and sour cream together in a measuring cup together; whisk together briefly and set aside.
3. In large bowl, use a hand mixer to mix together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and continue to mix until creamy.
4. Alternating between dry and wet, add in flour mixture first, then milk mixture, then flour, until all ingredients are combined.
5. Fold in the chopped cookies and pour the batter into prepared pan.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and springs back when touched in the center. Cool on wire rack.
7. Frost with cream cheese icing and crumbled Oreo cookies.

This recipe makes one 8-9" cake. Suggested frosting is cream cheese frosting!

Some food for thought...

• I think this recipe works best with a hand mixer. Yes, that seems like more work, but trust me on this one, it's really not. I whipped it up in a stand mixer for my mom's birthday and it came out tough and chewy because it's easy to overbeat flour in a stand mixer. And like I said, it's really not that difficult to whip this with a hand mixer, even in bulk amounts.
  

• The original recipe called for full fat sour cream; to reduce the fat, I used fat free sour cream or even fat free Greek yogurt. I drink 2% milk, therefore that's what I use in everything, but you could use 1% if you wanted. Reduced fat Oreo cookies are also available to further reduce the fat. Cutting more fat helps to cut the calories some and by my calculations, you actually drop this down to about 200 calories per serving by using lower fat ingredients, even with frosting (assuming you are using reduced fat or low fat cream cheese, natch). Lastly, I chopped my cookies by hand, I'd be willing to bet that the number of cookies could be reduced by chopping them finer or using a food processor, but I like the larger chunks.
  

• A tip on efficiency that I picked up from baking dog biscuits: when you're measuring a thick, messy semi-liquid ingredient like yogurt, sour cream, or peanut butter, displacement works wonders! If you were baking one batch of the above recipe, you'd pour in 1/4 cup of milk, and then scoop in enough sour cream until the milk reached 3/4 cup in your measuring cup.
  

• Don't worry about the small amount of sugar; the cookies makes up for it! Also, this cake has a fluffy mouth feel but it comes together very well. It created very few crumbs when I was carving it for the airplane cake which was very nice indeed. However, I would not recommend using this cake for sculpting unless you use buttercream instead of cream cheese frosting.

Happy Caking!
Kelly

Recipe: Apple Pear Gallette

I actually posted this a couple of months ago on my family blog.  One of my resolutions this year is to expand my blog some by including more recipes and tutorials, and post more pictures of things I've done, or that other people have done that I think provide inspiration or learning opportunities.  I love baking and I love blogging and I hope to marry those two and create a blog that showcases my work, but also teaches my readers something too!  So while this post might be old hat to my Lapiz de la Guerra readers, it's new to Billa Cakes and I hope you enjoy the recipe!

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I love baking. I love the smells, I love the taste, I love how it looks, but most of all I love how it makes me feel. Baking is good cheap (not to mention darn tasty) therapy. But I'll admit it, there are days when I am super lazy and want a baked good but don't want to work hard or clean the kitchen just to get my sweet fix. The following recipe was something that I just whipped up, inspired by many things and it takes almost no time or extra cleanup required. Of course, you still have to clean up afterwards, but at least you don't have to clean the entire kitchen just to bake! In case you were wondering, a galette is free form pastry tart. I always keep pre-made pie dough in the freezer for just such an occasion and this is a great way to use up those apples and pears in the fall!



Apple Pear Galette
1 pre-made pie dough round, thawed
2 apples (I think I used Pink Lady or Gala for this one)
2 pears (I like to use Bosc)
about 1/4 cup lemon juice (a couple of good splashes)
a small palmful of flour
a healthy palmful of brown sugar
a pinch of cinnamon
a pinch of ginger
1 egg, blended
Gallon size zip top bag
Parchment paper

1. Preheat oven to 350F and place a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet or pizza pan.
2. Roll out the pie dough a little bit bigger than it is and dock it with a fork, very lightly (Docking is the term used to poke holes in the pie dough). Place it on your pan and set aside.
3. Core and slice the pears thinly, about 1/4" thick. Dump them in the zip top bag with the lemon juice and drench thoroughly. Be careful if your pears were close to expiration, because they might turn to mush if you shake them around too much!
4. Dump in the sugar, flour, and spices and toss to coat. Let sit for about 5 minutes.
5. Carefully spoon the apple pear mixture into the middle of your pie dough. Move it out towards the edges making sure to leave about 1-2" of pie dough all the way around.
6. Fold up the outer edges of the pie dough over the filling and pinch together as needed to hold it in place.
7. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the egg on the crust. This will give it a nice golden crust and color while baking! Feel free to sprinkle sugar on the crust if you choose. You can also sprinkle a bit more cinnamon on top of the pastry too if you would like.
8. Pop it in the oven for about 30 minutes, making sure that the fruit is cooked all the way through and a nice golden crust has formed. Allow to cool for a few minutes before diving in.

Some food for thought...

• You can freeze pre-made pie dough for several months, just make sure that it's thawed thoroughly before trying this or you'll have torn dough on your hands.
• The point of this recipe is to be lazy, but if you must, I use about 1/3-1/2 cup sugar and 1-2 TBSP of flour, and about 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ginger. You can add more or less sugar if you like, I tend to like my apple pie on the sweet side.
• If you don't have lemon juice, lime will work too. You need this to keep the fruit from browning, so adjust the amount as needed; you don't want to saturate it.
• I suggest serving this with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Yum!
• And lastly, if you don't have a pastry brush, use a wadded up paper towel or your fingers to get the egg on the crust.

Bon apetit!
Kelly