My offering for the 2023 Friendsgiving Extravaganza! I love my pals, This cake got devoured! I served it with Bourbon Butterscotch Ice Cream which was a real crowd pleaser. Daniel Roberts (aka deep sea dan) hosted us and his house (his mom's house) is the coolest. It was a wonderful evening of awesome friends, awesome food, and a whole lot to be grateful for. As always! Apple Upside-Down CakeRecipe slightly adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum Caramelized Apple Top:
Meanwhile, prepare you cake pan! Spray a 9" pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with a parchment round. In a small heavy saucepan, melt the butter. Use about 1 tbsp to coat the parchment lined bottom and sides of the cake pan. To the remaining melted butter in the pan, add the reserved liquid and remaining brown sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a spatula. Once boiling, stop stirring and leave to bubble and cook for about 3 minutes until thick and deep amber in colour. Pour this mixture (Rose says "do not scrape") into the prepared cake pan, tilting the pan to coat the entire bottom. The mixture will probably harden, don't worry. It will melt back during baking and become all lovely and soft and hug the apples in a nice caramel coat. Place the apple slices in a decorative pattern, slightly overlapping, over the bottom of the pan. I like to start in the middle and work outwards. Whatever you place first will be what you see on top of the cake. Keep this in mind when arranging the apples. Set the pan aside. Cake Batter:
Cream the butter with the granulated sugar. Beat in the yolks and the vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, powder, soda, salt). Add half of the dry ingredients to the mixer and blend until barely combined, then add the sour cream, blend until barely combined, then add the remaining dry ingredients and gently mix/fold until everything is mixed but do not over-work the batter. Spoon the batter over the apples and gently spread with an offset spatula, ensuring the apples stay in place. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top springs back when gently pressed, and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Run an offset spatula around the outsides of the cake pan and invert the pan onto a cake stand or other serving platter. Allow the pan to sit on top for a minute or two before lifting off. If any apple slices remain in the pan, just gently remove them and place them back on the cake where they are missing. Serve warm or at room temperature, with toasted walnuts (Spread 2/3 cup (66g) walnuts onto a tray and bake for about 7-9 minutes, stirring once to ensure even toasting) and Bourbon Whipped cream:
Happy Thanksgiving :) ~Lari 2023
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Actually called Dutch Baby but also called Oven-Puff-Pancakes and also known as Crepe-Shake!! Fantastic variety of strange names but whatever you call it, I'm a fan! It's like a sweet yorkshire pudding that you can eat for breakfast. It's pleasantly chewy and subtly spiced with cinnamon and fresh nutmeg so all ya gots to do is top it with some berries, a dust of powdered sugar, a dollop of plain greek yogurt and a kiss of maple syrup and eat it right out of the pan... cuz this bebe serves one! (Double the recipe if you want to serve you and your bebe) Dutch Baby Pancakerecipe adapted from Renee Kohlman
April showers bring May cupcakes with flowers! Signs of spring are in the air and the trees and plants in the neighbourhood are starting to flower and the world needs a good dose of pretty!! I'm pretty sure these cupcakes were designed to be "Mother's Day" appropriate... but not for my mama. She would 100% go for chocolate or coffee over roses and pink... but these are still fun to make. Also I've never used rosewater before so that was something new and fun. The cupcakes are not overly rose-y flavoured... and to be honest I wish they had more raspberry-rose flavour to them! They are pretty mild. But very nice. I even added a little bit more rosewater than the recipe requires... Which I would recommend BUT IF YOU DO... flavour with caution! As you don't want cupcakes that taste like soap. We're going for floral-garden vibes... not grandma's powder room. Finished off with a dusting of rose petals because they are one of my new favourite garnishes! Not only does it make the cupcakes look pretty, but it lightly perfumes them with a pleasant floral-y scent. Super girly... but sometimes that is just fun, okay?! Raspberry Rose CupcakesRecipe from Food Network Magazine CUPCAKES
BUTTERCREAM
Never have I ever actually celebrated valentines with one significant romantically inclined other... The valentines that I have known and loved all my life involves baking cute things and sharing them with my mother, my friends, and my coworkers. This year was no different. However this year for the first time I hosted a bunch of my grand old pals for a "Pal-entines" party. There was a LOT of snacks and wine, lots of laughs, and lots of valentines themed stuff... including these festive cupcakes! What a fabulous treat to make for your pal's during this wonderful month of love! I used these cupcakes as an excuse to eat chocolate covered strawberries... one of my favourite little delicacies that I never ever seem to have, despite them being so incredibly simple! I suppose they take a little bit of effort... but there is something wonderfully festive about setting yourself up to dip a whole basket of bright red berries into a bowl of velvety chocolate. It's like making cookies at christmas. It helps to set the mood if you play some old-school love songs. Gosh I love Valentines!!! Chocolate Strawberry CupcakesRecipe slightly adapted from Food Network Magazine Chocolate Cupcakes
Do I really need to provide you with instructions for chocolate dipped strawberries? Probably not. But here you go.
**for the cupcakes pictured above, I used my favourite chocolate swiss buttercream recipe which you can find in this recipe post... just swap the white chocolate for dark chocolate as necessary. I did this because I had it on hand, so much of it, and it begs to be used, and how silly it would be to not use it! However if you do not have your favourite frosting kicking around in your freezer... maybe try the recipe below. It is the one that comes from Food Network Magazine, though I have not made it. If you do, let me know how it goes!
Happy February! March 14th is one of my favourite days to celebrate! If you haven't heard of Pi Day before... here you go: March 14 = the 14th day of the 3rd month = 3.14 = Pi = Pie My kind of math. I have been wanting to try my hand at making an apple crumble pie for a while now... we sell one such pie at the cafe where I work and it is a thing of beauty. Or at least, it looks like a thing of beauty. I confess I've never actually had a whole slice but I have tried broken bits and pieces that were not fit enough to sell. I'm no pie connoisseur, but it looks picture perfect and that crumble topping is all I ever want to eat ever. I always hope that a big chunk will fall off as we are cutting it to serve, so that I can snatch it up and have a taste for myself :) You might say, "Why don't you just buy a slice?" But, if you know me, my style response is more along the lines of, "Let's go home and figure out how to make this myself" Here is my attempt to re-create that pie, mashing together a few recipes from one of my most trusted baking mentors... that's right I'm talking about Martha. She usually doesn't let me down, and in this case, she pulled through once again. I believe the pie was a success!! For two reasons:
I added a few of my own twists to make the pie of my apple-crumble-dreams by throwing in some chopped walnuts and toasted oats into the crumble mixture. I also made sure there was a good pinch of salt in there too, as the slight salt in the crumb is what keeps me hoping a big chunk will decide to stray from the pie and make for easy snacking ;) The apple filling uses both fuji and granny smith apples for a nice balance of sweet/tart, and the filling itself is not overly wet but still juicy. I highly encourage you to serve this with a big scoop of ice cream... a good quality vanilla OR if you are feeling sassy, salted caramel is my weapon of choice. (High five that a Village Ice Cream store is just a few blocks up the street from where I live) Happy Pi Day! Apple Crumble Pierecipe adapted from Martha Stewart Pâte Brisée:
For the sake of cakeI love cake! The strange part about me saying this is that I think eating cake is all good and fine, however I would probably rather eat cookies, cuz I am a COOKIE MONSTER and that's just me. Give me a choice between a chunky cookie or a slice of elegance and I will pick the cookie nearly every time. I could instead re-phrase "I LOVE CAKE" to a more specific "I love the concept of cake!" I love the way cakes look, how they are symbols for PARTY and CELEBRATION. They are food of happy times and meant to bring joy. I could also say "I love the act of making cakes", as it is an art form all on it's own!!! Cake decorating is one of those areas in life where the worlds of pastry and fine art collide... and it's a weird and wonderful zone. I've realized however, that I spend a lot of time looking at pictures of cakes and thinking about making them, more than the actual act of making them. I have learned and read enough to know how certain cakes are produced and the various fascinating techniques that are used. But, I haven't had much practice in actually making them. It's time to stop being the naive viewer in the art gallery saying "I could do that" and to actually get out there (or stay at home) and actually JUST DO IT. My problem is that I seem to be always waiting for the right occasion for which to bake a cake, because I have this mental block that says: you need an occasion to bake a cake. What if we flipped this? What if the opposite became true? What if... the cake created an occasion for itself? The cake is the cause! (Tiny epiphany, cue tiny fireworks and explosions of inspiration). I need to make time for cake. Resolution: Stop waiting for an occasion and just bake a darn cake. For the sake of cake! Try new techniques! Make ugly messes! Because this is how we learn things. My goal for 2019 (this is dangerous, now that I am officially announcing it as a goal,) is to each month make one cake, using a baking or decorating technique that I have never tried before, or one that I need more practice with. I figure this will be fun, because cake is fun. It's like painting or any other hobby, only you can eat it. If I mess up, it's just cake. I will be learning and growing as a baker, and I will have delicious treats to share with family and friends. Please help me eat all this cake that's about to happen. January: A cake for a FiestaIt's 2019, it's a new year, it's a new dawn, it's a new day! And... I have a new home! Naturally, my roomies and I wanted to throw a housewarming shindig to make things official, and to brag to our friends/show off our new digs. After rejecting my suggestion that the party be themed "House" or "Warm" (appropriate, yes! But also lame? kay fine) we very quickly agreed to having a fiesta themed housewarming party. My favorite theme. And so with this in mind, along with the long-time desire I've had for wanting to make succulents out of frosting... I designed the Paloma Cactus Cake! If you are thinking "What in tarnation is a Paloma?", let me tell you... Firstly, it is amazing. A Paloma is a cocktail with a fun name and even more fun ingredients: tequila (my spirit-spirit), grapefruit and lime. SO, I wanted to let these flavours set the stage for my fiesta-party-cactus-cake. This is a triple layer cake, using grapefruit and lime zest and juices AND TEQUILA to flavour the sponge and the frosting. To really bring it home, I (generously) soaked each cake layer with a dousing of tequila-grapefruit-syrup. This adds flaaaayyyyve and helps prevent the dreaded dry-cake-phenomena. Between the layers is a grapefruit curd, then the whole shebang is frosted with paloma frosting, and decorated with little buttercream succulents. I giggled a lot when making these tiny guys cuz they're just so darn cute! Buttercream decorating like this takes a decent amount of time and preparation and makes a decent sized mess. However, being able to pipe the succulents then keep them in freezer until you are ready to decorate makes life that much simpler and tidier. And remember the golden rule of kitchen: clean as you go. The "sand" crumbs that you see are made from leftover cake scraps that I toasted until crisp in the oven, snacked on a few, then blitzed them up in the food processor. Definitely room for improvement, but I'm pretty happy with how this first attempt worked out :) So glad I finally made the time to try this! If a grapefruit-lime-tequila cake speaks to your soul, then lucky you, here is the recipe! It tastes just as tropical without the tiny cacti, but they do make life fun. Happy Baking! Paloma Cakerecipe from Wilton
Paloma Frostingrecipe from Wilton *note:when I made my cake, I only used half this recipe of frosting, and it worked, however I had absolutely none left over and probably could have used a little more to cover the sides of my cake better. If you want to be safer and have some frosting leftover, use the full recipe.
Grapefruit CurdRecipe adapted from Martha Stewart
CAKE ASSEMBLY!
Buttercream SucculentsSwiss meringue buttercream is my favourite for piping, because it is so silky smooth. Below is a favourite recipe of mine that has the addition of white chocolate, which I believe does two wonderful things: helps stabilize the buttercream, and also helps it taste delicious. You can use your own buttercream recipe if you have one you like, or you can even use the paloma frosting if that feels simpler, however you may have to adjust the consistency by adding milk or icing sugar as needed. I liked the contrast of the two frostings on this cake, for their different appearance, textures, and flavours! White Chocolate Buttercream
I would be silly to try and leave instructions here, for I am certainly no expert on this topic. Instead, here is a link to a video that helped me as I endeavoured on this time consuming but deeply satisfying procedure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRTNu-8026k High five to Wilton, thank you! And there we are! Easy right? Get ready to make a mess :) Speaking of which, I can't help but include this beautifully grotesque image of the cake-eating-aftermath: Nobody wanted me to cut into the cake, however I am happy to report that it was worth it as the cake itself was in fact delicious as it was pretty. Yay for cake! We are off to a grand start.
Muffin Monday!!! There is nothing quite like alliteration to encourage one to bake. Although I have often worked on Mondays, this particular Monday was a DAY OFF for me, and so a perfect muffin-making-monday opportunity. I have recently acquired a GORGEOUS NEW HARD COVER SHINY COOKBOOK, of which is bursting with handfuls of recipes that I am so very excited to try. It's rather difficult deciding where to begin when one is so inspired by so many ideas... but seeing as it is blueberry season, (and muffin monday) these blueberry muffins seemed appropriate enough, and so I stopped thinking about it and just MADE MUFFINS. These are not your usual blueberry muffins however... See how yellow they are? That is not just me putting some hipster filter over the photo, no, the yellow is for real! The colour comes naturally from one of my favourite spices... turmeric! I've had turmeric in savoury foods and in tea before, but never have I ever seen turmeric in muffins. I love turmeric because people claim that it is healthy for you and I claim that it is delicious. Both turmeric and blueberries have anti-inflammatory properties, and with all the biking and on-my-feet-all-day days, I could use some of that healing power. Topped off with a honey-oat-sunflower streusel because streusel makes muffins more fun! The turmeric in these muffins is intriguing but not overpowering and they are sweetened only with a bit of maple syrup and banana, so a lovely option when you want muffins but don't want a lot of refined sugar for breakfast. But I must say they taste delicious with a bit of butter and honey fresh and warm from the oven ;) This recipe comes from "All The Sweet Things" by Renee Kohlman, and at first glance the book appears beautiful and the recipes divine. Upon closer inspection, Renee, who is also known as SweetSugarBean, is my new hero, as her interests and career path align with my interests and life goals and her words and stories both give me encouragement and inspiration. Also, there are so many wonderful photos in this book, and she does all of her own photography. Let's just say I am a huge fan and I look forward to my future days off when I can try out more of these creative, scrumptious sounding recipes. Blueberry-Turmeric Muffins with Honey Oat StreusalRecipe from Renee Kohlman's (Sweetsugarbean) All the Sweet Things cookbook muffin inngredients:
Peach! For the past couple weeks or so we have had a rotating stash of fresh BC peaches sitting on our kitchen counter, blissfully reminding us that HEY Y'ALL IT'S SUMMER!!! and we have been enjoying them every day. I love fresh peaches with yogurt in the morning, or as an afternoon snack. They are so fresh, sweet and juicy naturally that it really feels like a shame to do anything to them. UNLESS you are a cookie monster like me and you remember that you have had this recipe on the back-burner of your baking brain that you have been wanting to test run but could not because you never had both fresh peaches AND peach jam in your possession at one time... But hey! Now the stars have aligned and we have the proper resources (and time!) to make these fresh summery cookies! A great way to use up that peach jam that has been sitting in the fridge... and another way to each more peaches during these late summer days. Amen. These cookies are soft and cakey and are sprinkled with cinnamon sugar (YES!) before baking, making them all the more delightful. PS I bet these would make a smashing accompaniment to vanilla ice cream... like a fun little spin on peaches and cream. Please do try and let me know how it goes. Happy summer baking! Peach CookiesRecipe from Martha Stewart
And it's MAY! That's right folks, let's pretend it's still springtime when the grocery stores are bursting with big juicy ruby-ripe strawberries and everybody is talking about the rhubarb in their garden. But you don't mind, no not at all. Our garden always EXPLODES with rhubarb each spring and it always seems to be so much that one cannot possibly use it all. This is why I love to find new and delicious ways to get it out of the garden and onto my plate/bowl/spoon/glass etc. Good thing I finally started liking the stuff a few years ago. It makes this adventure all the more enjoyable! A fun fact I learned while making this ice cream: if you stew/boil rhubarb on the stove in a pot as many of us do, it is delicious. However, it will loose it's beautiful pink hue and turn into a sort of greeny-brown stringy mush. The way to keep its pretty-pinkness is to roast it! Yes, I'm still not sure why exactly this happens, but baking or roasting rhubarb (with lots of sugar, of course) in the oven keeps it's colour. Also, any chance for alliteration is nice. This is really nice on its own, or even mixed with chocolate :) But what isn't? Cheers to springtime and MAY! (even if I'm a little late) Roasted Strawberry Rhubarb Frozen Yogurt Recipe slightly adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams For the Fro-Yo Base:
Prep the Yogurt:
xxx I was on a "can't stop won't stop" feeling with rhubarb and I wanted to put it in everything. I brought some from my garden to put on top of the cheesecakes I make at work. I got together with my dear friend and we used her entire lil backyard bounty to make jars of homemade rhubarb jam! You could say I was on a roll. A JELLY ROLL. WHAT! Rhubarb Jam in the making. It takes a lot of sugar, and a lot of laughing to make a fabulous jam. Melissa did most of the work. I sat and watched and occasionally tried to help until i discovered I was doing the wrong thing. Somehow she still gave me a few jars of the sweet ruby pink sludge that I so love to spread on my toast in the morning :) It was also delicious rolled up into a soft spongey cake dolloped with vanilla whipped cream! My first Jelly Roll cake. I made it a little small so it was tricky to roll, but I think it turned out pretty darn great anyways. It will not be my last jelly roll. You can use whatever jam or jelly or spread you like or have on hand. But over here, it's Rhuby Season :) Also a wee bit of ginger, because a little spice is nice. YUM! Rhubarb Ginger Jelly RollRecipe adapted from Fika
enjoy :) |
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