Oh Delicious Crepe Cake!

Ok, I don't want to brag, really, I don't. BUT, we have perfected the Crepe Cake (or Gateau de Crepes)! My husband and I changed up the recipe to our taste, because as he says, "everyone likes chocolate better than vanilla". I don't always agree with that, but hey, maybe the majority prefer chocolate...

Chocolate-Hazelnut Layered Mousse with Fresh Whipped Cream

Canard Hachis Parmentier (Minced Duck Topped with Mashed Potatoes)

Hi Everyone! We had a lovely dinner party with some of our good friends a couple weeks ago, and I've been meaning to share with you the main culinary characters. We made canard hachis parmentier with a stuffed tomato, and chocolate-hazelnut layered mousse (see separate post) for dessert. We just returned from France and had a fabulous time with my husband's family, and of course, there was lots of great food which provided inspiration for this dinner party. My brother-in-law's Aunt made hachis parmentier (which translates to shepherd's pie, according to a quick google search, but I believe that hachis alone means minced. I need my French family to help translate parmentier). Anyway, this was no shephard's pie, it was much more elegant than a simple peasants dish. I can't take credit for this dish alone, my wonderful husband and I did this together. He was responsible for putting the finished product together, and what an excellent job he did! I was reminded once again that I made the right choice for my partner.

Fun Cupcakes!

Personally, I think sprinkles make everything more fun! I always choose the desert that has the sprinkles on it, no matter if it's ice cream, a cookie, or cake. I made a vanilla cupcake with strawberry jam dropped in the middle (this part is really good), with a marshmallow frosting. The marshmallow frosting is mostly a meringue-like, no butter. I cut the sugar in half, since the I prefer these kind of things to not be too crazy sweet. I think it was pretty good, but I prefer buttercreams more on cupcakes, so since I probably won't be making the frosting again like this, I won't post the recipe. But, if anyone wants the recipe, I'd be more than happy to post something.

1st attempt at Cuban Opera Cake

This is my first attempt at making the complicated Cuban Opera Cake (recipe is on Epicurious, just do a google search and it would be the first thing to come up). There are a few things that I'd like to change, namely having even layers of buttercream, with less on the top. Also, it's better to really let the chocolate glaze cool completely, while still pourable, which will leave more glaze on top. Next time, concentrate on getting the layers really even before you put the cake layer of top.

Sangria

All the fruit your heart desires (mango is particularly good in here)
Juice of 1 orange ~1/2 cup (probably easiest to just buy OJ
¼ cup granulated sugar (I like to use superfine sugar)
¼ cup Triple Sec
One 750 ml. bottle inexpensive, fruity, medium-bodied red wine, chilled

put the sangria back in the OJ and wine containers (with funnel)
Serves 4 - so for a party of 80 people, multiply by 20!

Buns

3/4 cup (6 ounces) lukewarm milk
3/4 cup (6 ounces) lukewarm water
5 tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces) butter
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup (1 1/2 ounces) Baker's Special Dry Milk
1/2 cup (2 3/8 ounces) Hi-maize® Natural Fiber (I didn't add this...)
3 cups + 3 tablespoons (12 ounces) Flour
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast

Combine all of the ingredients, and mix and knead them—by hand, mixer, or bread machine—to form a smooth, supple dough. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl or dough-rising bucket, cover the bowl or bucket, and allow the dough to rise till puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased or floured work surface. Shape it into a 6" x 15" rectangle, and place it in a lightly greased New England hotdog bun pan. Grease the bottom of a clean baking sheet and place it on top of the pan so the rising dough will fill the pan evenly. Let rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until the dough has almost filled the pan.

Preheat your oven to 375°F. With the baking sheet still on top, bake the buns for 18 minutes. Remove the baking sheet and bake 5 minutes longer, to brown the buns. Remove from the oven, cool for 5 minutes, then turn the buns out of the pan to cool completely on a rack. When completely cool, slice each bun down the middle horizontally, without cutting through the bottom; then separate into individual buns. Yield: 10 buns (I made 4 buns...since I like big hamburger buns. Looks like I could have split it into 5 easily, maybe 6).

Easy Ginger Carrot Muffin

Here is the recipe, with my modifications in parentheses. These turned out perfectly fluffy and sweet. You could do any variation on this, even if you just have regular pancake mix. Add in whatever you want to make fruity or savory muffins! So many possibilities. I've had this Gingerbread mix laying around forever, b/c we don't like it as pancakes. Works great as muffins, though!

Apple Oatmeal Creme Brulée

2-1/4 cups old-fashioned oats (such as Quaker Oatmeal)
1/2 cup peeled and chopped Granny Smith apple (I don't peel them, and I put more apples than this)
1/4 cup granulated white sugar (I don't like as much sugar, so I decrease the total sugar to about 1/2 cup)
3-1/3 cups non fat milk
1/2 cup egg substitute (such as Egg Beaters) (you could use 2 eggs)
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 cup firmly-packed light brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 8-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Place oats, chopped apple and sugar in the prepared baking dish. Stir until well combined. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together milk, egg substitute, and vanilla extract. Pour over oatmeal mixture. Stir to make sure the oatmeal mixture is well-coated. Bake 40 to 45 minutes. Be careful not to over-bake. You want the center to still be moist, like a thick soup. Remove from the oven. Turn oven temperature up to broil.

Sprinkle with the brown sugar in a thin layer, making sure the sugar coats the entire surface of the oatmeal. Return to the oven and broil 2 to 3 minutes, until the top is browned and crusty. Serve warm, topped with bananas, raisins, walnuts and/or milk.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Per serving (based on 6): 251 calories, 2 g fat (0 g saturated fat), 3 mg cholesterol, 50 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 11 g protein, 2% vitamin A, 3% vitamin C, 20% calcium, 9% iron

Low-fat, but still delicious Banana Bread

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
2 slightly beaten egg whites
1 cup mashed banana
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cooking oil

Note: I don't add salt; and I usually use egg beaters or the whole egg because I don't like wasting the yolk.

1. In a medium mixing bowl stir togther the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl stir together the egg whites, banana, sugar, and oil. Add dry mixture to banana mixture, stirring just until moistened.

3. Spray an 8x4x2-inch loaf pan with nonstick coating. Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.

Putting it all together

This is my first idea to balance out the different colored cakes. All three cakes are cut in half (although you can't tell from this angle), and the top cake was cut to make a smaller-diameter tier. So, these aren't exactly even. If I were doing this for real, I would not have cut corners and it wouldn't be as messy-looking. But still, I think it looks yummy! My lovely taste-tester approves, and even said that it was the best cake that I've ever made :) The bottom cake is a chocolate cake with black raspberry filling and chocolate buttercream, and the top two cakes are white cakes with black rasberry filling and french vanilla buttercream. I love the flowers, they are from some Tucson plants just outside my place.

Chocolate Buttercream

This recipe is from http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/CUBAN-OPERA-CAKE-108593, which itself looks amazing and someday, we should try out the whole recipe. This time, I changed this recipe quite a bit, but next time, I think I will try to follow it more. I just didn't have all of the ingredients. This one still came out fine, but pretty sugary. If you use shortening in place of butter, I think you have to add some powdered sugar to stiffen it up. The combination makes the frosting easier to work with, and not melt so quickly.

Buttercream
8 ounces imported milk chocolate, chopped (I just used semi-sweet chocolate chips)
1/2 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks (I used 2 eggs)
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature (I used all vegetable shortening)
(+ I added some powdered sugar to make it firmer, just enough to get the consistency I want)

For buttercream:
Melt milk chocolate in top of double boiler over simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove from over water. Whisk sugar, egg yolks, 2 tablespoons water, and corn syrup in medium metal bowl to blend. Add 1/4 cup butter. Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water; whisk constantly until mixture reaches 170°F, about 4 minutes. Remove bowl from over water. Using electric mixer, beat until completely cool and thick, about 6 minutes. Gradually beat in 1/2 cup butter, about 1 tablespoon at a time, fully incorporating each addition and stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl. Beat in lukewarm melted chocolate.

French Vanilla Buttercream

This one came out really good, and I think it is a real buttercream that is easier to make than typical American buttercream. The consistency is much softer than Wilton's Buttercream that only uses shortening.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup Milk
1 cup cold butter (I used 1/2 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening)
1 teaspoon Clear Vanilla Extract
Makes: Icing serves 2 cups.

instructions
1. Place sugar, flour and salt in saucepan and mix thoroughly, stir in milk.

2. Cook over medium heat and stir constantly until very thick.

3. Remove from heat and pour into a medium mixing bowl.

4. Cool to room temperature.

5. Add 1/2 cup butter at a time (cut into several pieces) and beat at medium-high speed until smooth.

6. Add vanilla and beat well.

7. Chill icing for a few minutes before decorating.

8. Iced cupcakes must be refrigerated until serving time.

I always freeze the cakes before I frost them, I think this helps with the frosting not getting all soft before you are finished. Right after, I put the cakes in the refrigerator.

Rasberry Cake Filling

This recipe is adopted from www.wilton.com (by the way, they have a ton of great recipes on their website), but again, I changed it slightly.

Ingredients:

1 pkg (16 ounces) frozen raspberries packed in sugar thawed : I used 2 12 oz packages of black raspberries not in sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons Cornstarch
1 teaspoon Lemon Juice

Makes: Filling serves about 2 cups.

instructions
1. Drain raspberries, reserving liquid. Since I got the kind that didn't have sugar in it, I added a little sugar as it was thawing, which helps the raspberries drain. Mine sat out on the counter for several hours, and I got about 1/2 cup of liquid.

2. Add enough water to liquid to equal 1 1/4 cups.

3. In large saucepan, combine liquid, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice; mix well.

4. Heat and stir until mixture boils and thickens. (note: The thickness of mine was like a dense syrup)

5. Cool completely.

6. Stir thawed raspberries into cooled mixture. Mine still contained a lot of liquid, so I boiled the mixture again.

7. Fill cupcake or cake.

Note: This reminds me a lot of a jam, which may be another use for this recipe...what do you think?

White Cake

This is my favorite recipe for white cake so far, and it is indeed very rich, elegant, and perfect for a wedding. This recipe is adopted from "The Wedding Cake Book" by Dede Wilson, and changed slightly. The recipe here is for two 6x2 inch cakes.

2 1/3 cups unsifted cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
4 large egg whites (this is the only thing I changed - instead I used Wiltons Meringue powder, following their recommendations)
1 cup whole milk (oh yeah, I used skim milk with a little heavy cream)
5 1/3 ounces (slightly more than 1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare pans with cooking spray (I use Wiltons Cake Release, which works wonders). Combine flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. Whisk together the egg whites and milk in a small bowl and set aside.

Place the butter in the bowl of your mixer, and with the flat paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed. Add the sugar gradually and beat until well blended. Scrape down the bowl once or twice and beat in the vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients and the egg white mixture alternately, scraping down the sides several times. Continue to beat on medium speed just until smooth. Scrape the batter into the pans and bake about 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick tests clean. The edges will be slightly brown and will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool, place on cardboards, and wrap with plastic and/or foil.

Note: I do not recommend filling the cake pans up past halfway. These cakes will rise in the oven.