Tiramisu

If you are a coffee and chocolate lover like I am, then I am sure you are in LOVE with this popular Italian dessert.  Layered Mascarpone cheese mixture layered with coffee flavor induced lady finger cookies with a dusting of cocoa between the layers – a taste of heaven (I hope I can get it in heaven)!  Be sure to use really fresh eggs (yes they are used in the raw form – but so far I have not had any issues with it.)

As for lady fingers: Try to find the hard ones, but in a pinch you can use the soft ones (I did this time).  I found mine at Trader Joe’s, that is also where I bought my cheese.  I have a friend who has chickens and I lucked out with really really fresh eggs that way! It also has a little alcohol in it, so I don’t let my kids eat it (bummer for them!)

I use the recipe that is provided by Bel Gioioso.  They make a quality Mascarpone cheese and this is the recipe from their cheese container – if you cannot find that brand you can use any other brand.  I am just telling you where I first found the recipe.  The first time I made Tiramisu was in Washington State when my son was just an infant.  Now he is 8.  How time flies!

Tiramisu

adapted from Bel Gioioso’s Tiramisu recipe

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 8 oz Mascarpone cheese
• 1 package Trader Joe’s soft lady fingers (or hard if you can find them)
• 1 cup strong coffee or espresso
• 2 Tbsp cognac (or brandy)
• 1/8 cup cocoa powder (dust using a fine mesh sieve)

Instructions:

Separate your egg white and egg yolk into two separate bowls.  Add the sugar to the yolks.  Beat on medium for about 3 minutes.  Add the cognac, Mascarpone cheese, and 1 Tbsp cooled espresso or strong coffee.  Beat another 3-5 minutes on medium speed until it is well combined.

Add 1 Tbsp of sugar to the egg whites.  Beat on medium high until it is stiff and soft peaks form.  Fold the beaten egg whites into the egg and cheese mixture.  Use a rubber spatula to fold the cheese over the whites carefully, so as to not deflate the egg whites, but still well enough to combine the two into one nice filling.

Dip one side of your lady fingers into the remaining cooled coffee or espresso.  Do not drench them – just a quick dip will do the job.  Line a small (8×8 inch baking dish) with a layer of the coffee flavored lady fingers.  Top with 1/3 of the Mascarpone mixture.  Sprinkle the cheese with a dusting of cocoa.  Repeat with lady fingers, Mascarpone filling and cocoa two more times.  Topping it with the cocoa and then cover the dish with plastic wrap or foil (I used foil and tented it so that it would not touch the top of the tiramisu- because it filled the dish nearly to the top) and refrigerate at least 1 hour for it to set up.

Enjoy!

Printable Recipe

Choir Cake

It is Birthday night at our church choir, and I signed up to bring dessert, which translated into I am bringing the cake!  Oh.. the cake.. I don’t bake all that often, my heart is in cooking, but I don’t completely stink at baking, it just means I don’t enjoy it as much as cooking.  The cakes turn out fine.  I made this cake for my mother’s birthday a few months ago (link)- well, not this cake.. I made a new cake using the same recipe!  I liked the cake, but was not a fan of the frosting, so this time I made a different frosting.  It was much better.  I found the recipe on a blog named “savory sweet life” and here is the link to the frosting.  I made a 1 1/2 recipe to be sure that I had enough frosting and in retrospect I am glad that I did.  It would otherwise have been tight.

Classic Vanilla Butter-cream Frosting

adapted from savorysweetlife

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened (not melted!)
• 4 1/2 – 6 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 4 1/2 – 6 Tbsp heavy cream (or milk will work too)

Preparation:

Beat the softened butter with a mixer for a minute or two.  With the mixer on low speed, add 4 1/2 cups of powdered sugar to the mixing bowl and beat until it is incorporated.  Add the salt and vanilla extract and mix to combine.  Add 4 1/2 Tbsp cream and combine.  Add more powdered sugar to thicken the mixture, or more cream to thin the mixture out.

Frost your fully cooled cake.  Decorate as desired.  In this case I piped melted chocolate onto wax paper with a musical theme and after they had fully set (in the refrigerator) used them to decorate.

Birthday Cake

My Mom and Dad are out from NJ for a two week visit.  My Mom’s 71st Birthday was during her visit and we wanted to celebrate her birthday right with a homemade cake. My daughters decorated it with a theme they found in the book “Hello Cupcake” using Oreo cookie crumbs and candies they made a garden theme for her.  She was thrilled!

I found this great recipe on the site of fellow blogger smitten kitchen.  It is listed under her recipes and category of celebration cakes (best birthday cake).  It is a wonderfully easy cake to make and is not super sweet like so many out there.  It is much better than the box mix cakes.  I like to cook more than bake, but I must say this is a recipe I will make again.  I was not a fan of the sour cream chocolate frosting, but I used cool whip and freshly sliced strawberries as a filling and it went really well with the cake!  Next time I will add another layer of cool whip and strawberries between another layer and frost it with cool whip. Also, I did not have cake flour and used the unbleached all-purpose flour instead and it turned out beautifully!  My girls decorated it with a theme they found in the cookbook Hello Cupcake.

Yellow Birthday Cake

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk (475 ml), well-shaken

Instructions:

Cut out two rounds of parchment paper the same size as your cake pan.  Butter the bottom of your cake pan and place a parchment paper round on the bottom each pan.  Butter the parchment paper and the sides of the cake pans.

Preheat the ovens to 350F.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium sized bowl.  Cream the butter and sugar with your electric mixer at medium speed until the butter mixture is pale and fluffy and add vanilla.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping down the batter with a spatula to combine properly.  Add the buttermilk and mix into the batter.  The batter will look curdled, but don’t worry- this will turn out great!!! Gradually add the flour mixture in smaller batches (3-4).  Mixing just until combined.

Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans and smooth the top with a spatula.  Tap the cake pans on the counter several times to remove any bubbles from the batter.

Bake at 350F for about 35-40 minutes until the cake tests done when you insert a toothpick or skewer (it should come out clean and not have clumps of batter on the skewer or toothpick).  Cool the cake  in their pans for about 10 minutes before removing them.  Gently run a butter knife along the edge of the pan to loosen any cake that is stuck to the side of the pan before removing it.  Allow to cool completely before frosting.

If you are making a layer cake use a serrated knife to cut the top of the cake to make it level.  I filled mine with cool whip and sliced strawberries and frosted it with homemade chocolate frosting.  This cake pairs especially well with strawberries!  It would be great in cupcakes topped with strawberries and cool whip too.  Just reduce the cooking time for the cupcakes to around 15-20 minutes.

I will certainly be making this cake again!  It is really good.

Printable Recipe

Simple Vanilla Cupcakes

My 14 year old daughter surprised me for Mother’s Day by making these for me.  She took a lot of time decorating them as well.  She found the recipe at: food.com

They turned out nicely I thought.

Lemon Yogurt Cake

I love cookbooks.  I have more cookbooks than is legal in the State of California.  Shhh please don’t tell!  I first discovered Ina Garten by watching the Food Network on TV.  Her show is “The Barefoot Contessa”.  After watching her on tv and trying some of her recipes, I purchased several of her cookbooks (okay, I admit I have all four!)  In one of them was a recipe for Lemon Yogurt Cake.  This sounded a lot like the lemon loaf that is sold at the local (large chain) coffee shop.  I made a few changes to the recipe.  Since I like a strong lemon taste in the frosting, I added lemon zest to the glaze.  I also increased the powdered sugar in the glaze so it is thicker.  I had to bake it 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for as it was not done after 50 minutes.  Every oven is different though, so your loaf if you try this recipe may be done at the 50 minute mark.  Use a large skewer to test the cake in several places, if the skewer is wet, bake it longer and re-test.  I also changed the yogurt from plain to Vanilla and omitted the vanilla in the cake the second time I made it.  It was good either way.

Okay, confession time:  The first time I made it – I didn’t check if the loaf was done, so as I removed it to cool on the rack the whole loaf fell completely apart.  Splitting in the middle, and the center oozing onto the rack. I had to carefully wrestle the hot loaf back into the pan, because there was NO WAY I was going to throw it away.  I returned it to the oven to baked it more.  After 10 more minutes in the oven I checked it and discovered it was no more cooked than before!  What?  Yes, that is right I had turned off the oven, so I turned on the oven and baked the poor loaf 10-15 minutes and then I glazed it.  It was great!  I took pictures of the second loaf that I made and glazed.. don’t do what I did okay?  Test your cake when you pull it out of the oven to see if it is ready!!  Shortcuts are not short!  Here is the link to Ina Garten’s Book.

What makes this cake unusual from other cakes I have made is that you bake the loaf and then slowly pour a syrup into it for flavor and then after it has cooled, glaze it.  It makes for a moist and flavorful cake that will quickly become a family favorite.

Lemon Yogurt Cake

Serves 12

adapted from Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa at Home Copyright 2006 page 168)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 cup whole-milk plain or vanilla yogurt
• 1  cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tsp grated lemon zest (1-2 lemons)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, (omit if you use vanilla yogurt)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Syrup:

• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon
• 1/3 cup sugar

GLAZE:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• zest of one lemon
• 2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Grease a glass 4.5×8.5×2″ pan (meatloaf pan size) with butter.  Cut a piece of parchment paper for the bottom of the pan and line the bottom of the pan with it.  Butter the parchment paper.  This will aid in removing the baked loaf from the pan.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl.

In a separate bowl, use a whisk to combine the yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla (if you are not using a vanilla yogurt).  Stir in the dry ingredients until well blended.  Add the vegetable oil and stir until well incorporated.  Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake at 350F for 50-60 minutes.  Test the cake, and bake longer if necessary. (Mine took 60 minutes, but test at 50 minutes).

Meanwhile combine the lemon juice and sugar for the syrup in a small saucepan.  Whisk over medium heat until combined and turn off heat.

After you remove the cake from the oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing the cake from the pan to a wire rack over a sheet pan.  Slowly pour the syrup onto the top of the loaf, pausing from time to time to allow the cake to absorb the syrup.  Pour more after it is absorbed until the syrup is gone.  There may be some on the cookie sheet below the rack.

For the glaze, combine the lemon juice, lemon zest and powdered sugar and stir to combine.  After the loaf has cooled completely, pour the glaze over the loaf.  Slice into 12 slices.  Enjoy!

TIPS:  To remove lemon zest (grated lemon peel) invest in a good microplane and you will have quick work of removing the zest.

Printable Recipe

 

Turkey for Dessert!

No, I did not make turkey ice cream — you will need to watch Iron Chef to see that happen!  My kids got crafty and used Fudge covered grahams, shortbread cookies, Reese’s peanut butter cups (mini), Rolo Chocolate Caramel candies and candy corn and melted chocolate to make these cute little creations.  I found the idea in a Pillsbury booklet.

Zwetschkenkuchen (Austrian Plum Cake)

Yes, I know too many consonants and not enough vowels – but that is German for you! Here is a recipe my Mom would make frequently, when I was growing up.  Recently I had beautiful organic plums that I wanted to use up and asked my Mom for the recipe.  Now I can share it with you.  It is not a very sweet dessert – I find American’s use way too much sugar in desserts anyway. This is best enjoyed with a nice cup of coffee.  The batter is pretty thick, and plums are cut and placed on top of the batter and baked.  A dusting of powdered sugar and this simple dessert looks attractive.

You could make a variety of Kuchen (Cake in German).  Cherry (Kirschkuchen); Apricot (Marillenkuchen).  Cherry is my all time favorite, however because they are so small they leave the pit in the cherries which complicated eating the cake – I remember accidentally biting down on a cherry pit, which was not pleasant.  You could probably even use pineapple as a topping too.

Zwetschkenkuchen – Austrian Plum Cake
Serves 12

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 Tbsp water
• 1 lb plums, cut in half
• powdered sugar

Directions:
Beat eggs and vanilla well, add sugar, beat, gradually add dry ingredients, add water, mix well.  Pour into a greased 13x9x2″ baking dish.  Press the plums (cut side down) on batter.  Bake at 350 F for 20-35 minutes or until lightly browned.  When cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut into 12 squares.

Printable Recipe

Homemade Brownies

I have been laying in my bed recovering from a back injury that I gave myself falling down the stairs in my home.  As a stay at home mom, I would call that a work related injury but it does not work that way!  No workman’s comp for me!

Well, here I was looking at my iPhone to find signs of life beyond the walls of the bedroom I was recovering in.  I found signs of life on facebook and twitter.  I have been following other cooks and foodies on twitter and frankly by now I was downright hungry.  The craving:  brownies!  Did I have a simple mix that I could just have my kids whip up? NO, of course not!  But that’s okay. Child labor (when brownies are involved) make willing hands to help.

I dug out a recipe book that was published by Family Fun Magazine. The Family Fun Cookbook and made their Chocolate-Lover’s Brownies (pg 194).

Here is my adaptation:

Chocolate Lover’s Brownies

Serves 20 small squares

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 8 oz semisweet chocolate
• 4 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 cups nuts (I used one cup pecans and one cup M&Ms)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Spray a 9x13x2 inch baking pan with pam or a cooking spray
3. In the microwave, melt the butter and chocolate for about 3 minutes or until the mixture is completely melted.  I microwave f or one minute, stir and then heat in 30 second increments until it is melted, stirring after each time to combine.  Allow to cool for about 10 minutes after it is combined and melted.
4. In a bowl, using a mixer on medium high speed combine the eggs and sugar and beat for 3 minutes until the egg mixture is pretty light in color.  After the chocolate mixture has cooled add it to your egg and sugar mixture and combine.
5. Add flour and salt to the mixture and slowly combine.
6. Last minute: throw in your nuts and M&Ms if desired and just stir to combine.
7. Pour into the prepared baking dish and bake for 28-30 minutes.

Allow to cool completely (if they make it that long).  Can be stored in freezer if desired.

Printable Recipe

Happy 11th Birthday

Debra turns 11

My daughter, Debra turned 11 today.  I am making her favorite soup: Avgolemono Soup (already posted on this blog) and I made a cake (from a cake mix) and decorated it myself.  I am not the best baker — I like to stick to cooking, but she requested it, so I made her one.  I think she was pretty happy with the result.  One of Debra’s things to do is to walk into a room and say “Hi” even though she saw you 5 minutes ago (and probably said “Hi” then too).  It has become a joke in our family, so I wrote “Hi” on her cake as well to personalize it.

So Happy Birthday Debra!  Enjoy your special day!

I had a special day too!  I had my first photo published on TasteSpotting. I had submitted a picture that had been declined by Foodgawker.  I was thrilled to have it accepted.

More “Hello Cupcake Fun”

As I mentioned before the “Hello Cupcake” book is a delight to have around to  stimulate the creative brain cells in the baking department.  Their “bunny motif of rabbits disappearing into their burrows and all you can see is the bottom of their feet and bunny tail is one such.  My children had a lot of fun helping make this one.

Page 148-150 has the instructions.  I don’t want to post the exact directions here.  I will say green frosting, chocolate frosting, miniature marshmallows, assorted eggs or jelly beans, oreo cookie crumbs..