As I’m sure you’re all aware, the first trimester has come to a close. Sadly, this means no more desert elective classes. While we’ll all miss 8:15 deserts on Tuesday-Thursday, I know this elective went out with a bang! As my final project to test my newly acquired baking skills, I chose to make Pumpkin Spice Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting. Sounds delicious, right?! I’ll be honest. At first glance, this recipe scared me to death. So many skills I had never tried outside of the Woodlawn Kitchen! I was sure I was going to put in to much sugar, drop my cake batter while attempting to get it into the oven, leave out an ingredient, easy mistakes to make! It was Tuesday November 16 that I finally decided to, as Soy Sauce would say, “face my fears” and the result…? Well, I guess you’ll see!

Getting started with the Mis en Place! (Notice the light on in the oven... PREHEATING!)

After preheating the oven to 350 degrees F, the first step to beginning cake is to cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. I’ll admit, I was pretty skeptical about being able to make my butter “fluffy”… but hey! We learned to make it work!

It's getting fluffy!

When my sugar and butter mixture was fluffy, I added eggs one at a time. Once again, I “faced my fears” and pulled off cracking the eggs ON THE TABLE. Oh yes. It was glorious.

The look of "Oh my gosh I just cracked an egg on the table"... with my baking partner Sonic the Hedgehog for support.

Once the first egg was added, I mixed it thoroughly before adding in the second egg. The end result was something along the lines of this:

Scraping the sides of the bowl like a champ!

Once the eggs were completely incorporated, the recipe calls for pumpkin puree and vanilla extract. Sadly, I’m not hardcore enough to grow my own pumpkins, so store bought pumpkin will have to do. I added the pumpkin and vanilla, mixed thoroughly, then set this bowl off to the side to begin working on the flour mixture!

Adding the pumpkin and vanilla

Then I began the flour mixture. I whisked together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.

Leveling cinnamon!

The spices are ready to be mixed!

Then I had to add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

First addition of the flour mixture (there were two identical pours after this one).

Adding the first bit of buttermilk (there were two more pours identical to this one).

After each of the three additions, this was the final cake batter!

I put this into two separate 8-inch cake pans, put it in the oven and set the timer for 25 minutes, and got started on the icing. The icing was simply a blend of cream cheese, butter, maple syrup, and confectioners’ sugar. Normally it turns out white, but I decided to make my cake a little bit more festive. I got a bit carried away with the food coloring…

I got a little carried away with the food coloring.

Before I knew it, It was time to check my cake with a toothpick!

The toothpick came out clean, and I then proceeded to level, fill, frost with a crumb layer, frost with a final layer, and decorate with a pipe bag.

My final frosting layer left my cake with a spiral design on top. I decided to take advantage of that and add edible silver decorations! Overall, this was an incredible trimester. Not only did I learn so much about baking, I also gained the confidence to try a recipe for myself!

Cake Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup fresh or canned pure pumpkin (about 1/2 of a 15 ounce can)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups sifted cake flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 3 – 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Success!

Thanks for a great trimester, and happy baking!

-Lady Lettuce

A Fulfilling Close.

Hello everyone! Baconator here, back again bringing you an exciting creation that I made yesterday! So our first trimester has finally come to a close, and our desserts at home class has come to a close. However, I couldn’t simply end the class without baking something delightful, so I decided that it would be perfect to make some cake for Thanksgiving! Like my fellow classmates cupcake and the blender, I made some delicious yellow layer cake with chocolate ganache frosting. Since they’ve covered the ingredients you’ll need, I thought I’d talk about my own experience and process in making this treat.

I slipped on my lucky Superman shirt and I was set to go! As you can see, I took a while to make sure that I had everything, and I began to run out of kitchen space… But thankfully I was able to start moving things around since the frosting and the actual cakes are they’re own processes. So I began by making the ganache frosting.

Man, I will tell ya, sifting flour can really give you a work out, along with mixing the chocolate chips with the heavy cream. The heavy cream has to be pretty darn hot to get them to melt. I was using Ghirardelli  chocolate chips, because I mean come on, what’s better than Ghirardelli?

Once the frosting was mixed, I set it aside to cool while I preheated the oven and began separating eggs. Soy Sauce always talks about learning to face your fear, and I definitely did with separating the eggs. It’s one of the scariest things in my opinion, but I faced my fears, and managed to do it flawlessly.

I immediately then began working on the cakes, mixing all of the dry ingredients with my handy whisk. I was as ready as ever to get the cakes into the oven, so I used my trusty mix and pour technique to make things faster.

Incorporating the eggs in bit by bit, I was able to mix and do that at the same time, of course making sure to scrape down the bowl so everything could be incorporated. At this point I noticed that my dog, Tess, began enjoying the smell, and started to camp out near the oven. I felt bad moving her, but simply keep laying back down there after I’d close the oven (maybe she liked the heat of the oven?)

It was pretty late, and I was getting hungry. I began pouring the batter into my cake pans and spreading it. Waiting for them to be done was pretty tough, but luckily cleaning up some of the messes I made earlier took up a lot of the time.

It took a little while for the cake to get to the perfect texture, for I used the toothpick test almost 4 times before it was ready (maybe I was just being impatient). Tess as you can see clearly wanted a piece of the cake. She became a little helper shelf with crumbs for the rest of the night.

I was successfully able to get both of the cakes out of their pans after waiting a while for them to cool. I came back to my creme after leveling the cakes and actually realized that it was a lot thicker than I thought it would be (I probably let it sit too long). However, it still tasted absolutely incredible, and I excitedly added the crumb layer, but luckily there weren’t too many crumbs to be found. I almost probably could’ve gone without one, it was very  interesting, but I did one for good measure.

I got many laughs from my camera man(brother) because of the mess I was making. I guess I went at it way too quickly in excitement. After adding my final layer of the cake, I realized I kind of made a mess with the frosting, and even got a little on the floor, which Tess managed to get… She enjoyed it a little too much and I wasn’t too happy about that… By the time I was done, I stood with disbelief that I made such an amazing treat in such easy steps.

Until this yellow cake with chocolate frosting, I had made as many things as Charlie Brown in the kitchen, some cold cereal and maybe toast. The first piece I had was absolutely amazing, and I had a great feeling knowing that it was all me. All my life I have wanted to make something like a layer cake. I always refrained thinking that it was impossible to do without being professional or something, but thanks to the desserts at home class, I learned it’s actually really simple. I really encourage anyone out there to try! If a complete klutz like myself can do it, then anyone can. Many of the techniques I used to make this cake I learned in the class, and I hope to use them later in life to make even more crazy dessert creations in college. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This is the Baconator, signing out.

Happy Thanksgiving, with a slice of pie!

What is better than a slice of cold streusel topped Pumpkin pie with whipped cream?….I can’t think of a SINGLE thing. I absolutely love this time of year, the leaves are changing color and the weather is getting colder and best of all, I have an excuse to make pies! Thank you Thanksgiving. Last week I was able to experience making one of the best pies that I have ever made, but let me tell you, it was quite a journey. In order to make one pie you will need to use this recipe:

Crust:

– 2 cups flour

– 1 teaspoon salt

– 1/4 cup shortening, chopped (you can also substitute butter for this)

– 1/2 cup cold butter, chopped

– 3-4 tablespoons ice cold water

Filling:

– 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

– 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk (1 1/2 cups)

– 1/2 cup granulated sugar

– 2 eggs, slightly beaten

– 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves)

– 1/4 teaspoon salt

Streusel:

– 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

– 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

– 2 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Whipped Cream:

– 1 cup heavy cream

3-4 tablespoons powdered sugar

It all started when I preheated the oven to 425 degrees (we have one of those old fashioned ovens where there is no preheat button, I just had to turn some knobs)…and from there I was ready to start!

Preheating the Oven

After I preheated the oven it was time to start on one of the best parts of the pie: The Crust!!!

To make the crust I pulsed the salt and butter together in a food processor (that Seltzer Sayre so graciously leant to me).

I measured out the flour and put it into the food processor.

Leveling flour

The ingredients out and ready to go

Pulsing the ingredients

I had to makes sure that the first time I pulsed the mixture it resulted in the texture of coarse sand. Then I added some more chunks of butter and pulsed until the butter pieces were about the size of small peas (which took about 10 pulses)

Coarse Sand

Small Peas

Next, I had to add in a minimum amount of ice cold water and pulse on low. I had the pleasure of using a nice green cup to hold my ice water. It definitely went well with my orange-brown pumpkin theme. I measured out 3 tablespoons of water and added it and then like magic, I had dough!!

Measuring the water

After the mixture came together to form dough (which is super exciting), I formed the dough into a disk shape and wrapped it in plastic and put it in the refrigerator for about 25 minutes (anywhere from 20-30 minutes works, just make sure its cool enough).

Disk of dough!

When the dough was ready, I took it out of the fridge and began to roll it out. It had to be about 2 inches larger around the edges than my pie dish. After I had finished rolling the dough out, I transferred it to my pie plate (this was a scary process, but it turned out very successfully) and folded the excess dough under and began to crimp. In order to crimp I pressed two fingers on one side and used my thumb on the other, to create an interesting pattern.

Rolling out the dough!

Crimp Crimp Crimp

The finished crust...all crimped and ready to be filled

Finally the crust is done!!! Time to start making the scrumdidlyumptious (is that even a word) filling. I LOVE anything to do with pumpkins and cinnamon, so I could not wait to get started on the filling. My first task was to get all the ingredients in a bowl and mix them together. I mixed all kinds of things such as sugar, pumpkin, cinnamon and even a couple of eggs.

Mixing away

By this point, the pumpkin pie mixture was smelling very good. Once the filling was made and poured in the pie crust, I put the pie in the oven for about 30 minutes. In the mean time, it was time to make the streusel. I had never made it before, so this was a first for me. In order to make the streusel, I had to cut the butter into my other ingredients (such as sugar and flour) until I had a nice crumbly mixture. I had to make sure the brown sugar was packed down.

Packed brown sugar

Cutting the butter in

Once the streusel was done I sprinkled it on top of the already somewhat baked pie and then baked for 15-20 minutes longer until the knife came out clean.

 

Sprinkle time

Did the knife come out clean………….. YES!

It's clean!!

Of course, I had to let the pie cool for about an hour and so in my spare time I decided to watch a little TV, maybe play a game or two with my dog, but then it was back to work, with the finishing touches!

The LAST step. Are you ready, it is time to face the whipped cream! Not only is it creamy but it is also very whippy and delicious! To make it, I had to beat cream and sugar together until I got soft peaks. This only took about 20 minutes and then it was perfect!

Mmmm, whipped cream is the best. So smooth...so creamy

My dog was getting so hungry by this point! He wanted some pumpkin pie very badly. The smell was taunting him and he had that devilish look in his eye.

My dog, hungrily sitting near the pie

Finally! The pie was finished. Time to enjoy a slice of heaven. Yum! With a dollop of whipped cream and some hot tea, this pie was ready to eat. Need a visual, check this link out: http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=HY27482779

All ready to devour!

Thanks everyone, Sophia Pizzeria!

Flashback!

Imagine this, a little boy excitedly blows out the candles on the chocolate iced cake, eagerly awaiting his mom to slice into the homemade yellow cake she has made. He gets the first piece, and happily digs in.  The moist cake is mouthwateringly delicious. After shoveling a few pieces into his mouth, the boy is full. Content to play with his newly opened presents.

Thats how its been for just about every birthday I can remember.  Every year my mom asks what kind of cake I want, and every year I ask for a yellow cake with chocolate icing, so of course I jumped on the opportunity to make my favorite kind of cake on my own.

My 16th birthday cake, you guessed it, yellow cake with chocolate icing.

After a little bit of planning, which included sketching out my mise en place and annotating my recipe, I headed over to Blender’s house for an evening of baking and eating.

I started out the recipe by laying out my mise en place for the ganache frosting. Then I popped the cream in the microwave for few minutes to heat it up to a simmer.  After the cream had been heated up I poured it over the chocolate chips and let it sit for 2 minutes so the chocolate could melt.  I then whisked the mix together until it was a smooth texture and set in the microwave to cool (this isn’t necessary, but I didn’t have enough workspace to leave the ganache out on the counter to cool).

Whisking the ganache. Blender got me with my eyes closed.... Grrr.

Next I set out to make my cake.  I preheated the oven then set out my mise en place. I then mixed together my dry ingredients and 3/4 of a cup of milk.

Preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Remember to turn on your oven light!

My mise en place.

Then I went about separating my eggs, but not without a bit of an issue.  There were 6 eggs left after Blender made his cake, but one of them was already broken in the carton.  We didn’t want to run out to the store again for just one egg, so we called Blender’s next door neighbor. No luck. We tried another neighbor. Once again, no egg.  Then, finally, the third house we called had an egg we could borrow.  Thank goodness for Blender’s friendly neighbors!

Separating eggs like a boss.

I whipped up my eggs with a fork and added 1/4 cup of milk and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to the egg mixture. I added the egg mixture to my dry ingredients in Blender’s oh-so-handy stand mixer in 3 additions. I mixed the batter for 30 seconds between each addition of the egg mixture. I often had to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything was mixed properly.

Scraping the side of the bowl. Interesting camera angle, huh?

After the batter was mixed, it was time to put it into my cake pans. I had to smooth out the batter using a spatula before I was able to stick it in the oven.

Smoothing out the batter.

After I smoothed out the batter, it was time to put my precious cakes into the oven.  Now it was a waiting game. I set the oven timer for 25 minutes, not wanting to wit that long, but knowing I’d have to if I wanted a piece of this cake.  When the time went off, it was time to check the cakes. For this I would need a toothpick.

Checking the cake with a toothpick.

The toothpick came out of the cake almost clean, except for a few moist crumbs clinging to the thin wooden splinter. It was perfect, this is exactly what I was looking for, moist, but not liquid. I pulled the cakes out of the oven (remembering to use my oven mitts!) and set them out on a cooling rack for ten minutes.  Then the time came to turn the cakes out of their pans. I was slightly worried when the cakes stayed in the pan, seeming to cling on as if their lives depended on it. But finally, after running a knife around the edge of the pan and a little bit of shaking, I was able to get the cake out of the pans and onto the cooling rack.

Next came the leveling. I’ll admit this seemed like a daunting task, I didn’t want a lopsided cake after all the work I had put in thus far.  I grabbed a nice long serrated knife from Blender’s knife block and set to it. For all the worrying I did, it wasn’t that hard. I was able to pretty easily level off my cakes.

Making sure my cake was nice and level.

Now, it was time to ice and decorate my cake.  I took my ganache out of the refrigerator and let it sit for a bit while Blender and I ate a meal of pasta. Sounds pretty boring doesn’t it? WRONG. This pasta was different. We decided to color our pasta red and blue. Why, you might ask. Just for kicks. After finishing dinner, I re-beat the ganache until it was at a good consistency for icing and went to work.

First, I had to put a layer of icing between the two layers, this is called filling the cake. Then I applies a crumb layer. This is a thin layer of icing used to keep all the crumbs inside the icing, not on the outside, that just wouldn’t look good.  After the crumb layer, I did the final icing.

Filling my cake.

My crumb layer. Definitely doesn't look great... but it does what its there for.

Applying my final layer of frosting.

Finally, I did a little bit of decorating with a piping bag. I decided to put on a few peaks (I have no idea what to call them…) of frosting around the outside edge of the cake.  I did this by squeezing out some icing then pulling off. Heres my final product, and you can take my word for it, its delicious.

Yum!

I’ve had a great time throughout our Desserts at Home class.  We had a great group of people and I learned to make some incredible desserts.  I’ll definitely use my new found skills in the future. I’d also like to give a big thank you to Mrs. Ruble!

For anybody that wants to give this wonderful cake a try, heres the recipe:

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting
Makes one two-layer cake.

Yellow Cake Ingredients:

6 large egg yolks

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3 cups sifted cake flour

1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into pieces

 

Ganache Frosting:

16 ounces semisweet chocolate (or half semi- and half bittersweet) (this is about 1 bag and most of another bag of chocolate chips)

2 cups of heavy cream

Directions:

Make the frosting: Place the chopped chocolate into a mixing bowl.  Place the heavy cream in a quart-sized, microwavable container and microwave for 3 to 4 minutes on high, or until it just begins to simmer; be careful not to allow cream to boil over. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let stand for 2 minutes. Whisk in small circles until the ganache is smooth and dark.  Allow this mixture to cool to room temperature (about 2 hours) while you make your cake.  Then, using a hand mixer, beat it for 2-3 minutes until it reaches the consistency you want.  You can refrigerate this overnight, but if you do, you’ll probably need to let it stand out for a half hour and re-beat it before using.

 

Make the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray two 9-inch cake pans with Bakers’ Joy or cooking spray. Set aside.

 

In a medium bowl, lightly combine the egg yolks (get photo of separating eggs), 1/4 cup of the milk, and vanilla extract.

 

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder and salt) and whisk together until well-blended.  Add the butter and remaining 3/4 cup milk to the dry ingredients.  Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened.  Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for about 2 minutes to aerate and develop the cake’s structure.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Gradually add the egg mixture, in 3 additions, beating about 30 seconds after each addition to incorporate the egg.

 

Divide the batter and pour into the prepared pans, smoothing the surface with an offset spatula.  (Pans will be about half full.)  Bake 25 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in center.

 

Place the cakes on a wire rack to cool, in their pans, for about 10 minutes.  Then invert the cakes onto a cooking rack sprayed with cooking spray.  To prevent splitting, reinvert cakes so that tops are right side up (do this by placing a plate on top of the upside down cakes and carefully flipping over).  Cool completely before leveling, filling, frosting with a crumb layer, frosting with a final layer, and decorating with a piping bag.

 

Recipe by: Joy of Baking, Alton Brown

 

-Cupcake

 

Festive Finale

 

Side-view Slice of Streusel-Topped Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Cream

Baking should legally be a sport. I have plenty of evidence and various photo documentations to prove it. 1) Like any sport, baking requires commitment, training, pre- and post-stretching, and technique. 2) There are rules. If you don’t follow the directions, you can get very lost very easily. [but still find your way] And 3) The point is to have fun. It’s all an experience.

During my personal baking experience, I decided to go all out: It was time to bring out the Christmas music. I baked and baked through 4 different CD’s. So technically, this wasn’t totally independent: I had Johnny Mathis, Perry Como, Harry Connick Jr., and Nat King Cole to help me out. To be honest, there was a lot of humming, second guessing about correct measurements, puzzled expressions, and occasional but brief swearing going on. At one point, I got so much into the Christmas spirit that I pretty much smashed one of my two eggs on the counter instead of gently cracking it. That’s when I cursed- Right as the song “O Holy Night” was softly playing in the background. I quickly apologized and began to clean up the yolky mess.

The Infamous Smashed Egg

I am happy to say that my crust finally turned out right this time. Just the right consistency: Not too damp, not too dry. The crimping, however, was a little sketchy, as the dough was getting a little warmer. But after baking in the oven, the dough seemed to take shape. My dog, Rosie, really enjoyed the dough that had managed to escape on the floor. As I was very carefully crimping, flour coating my apron, Rosie tilted her black, fluffy head up and stared at the dough. Of course by now, with this audience, the pressure was on. I tried to shoo her away, but they always come back…

Preheat to 425 degrees

Measurement of Flour

Crumbly butter and flour

Chilled Dough

Rolling Pie Dough

Flipped Dough

Crimping

The pumpkin filling was the fun part. What makes a pumpkin pie a pumpkin pie is the spices. For my recipe, I doubled them. In most recipes, you can double or triple them to make your pie more flavorful. Even when doubling mine, the flavor was not overwhelming at all. I used ginger, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, and nutmeg. The pepper sounds weird, but it totally goes. From my dessert class baking experience, I knew to fully blend the dry and wet filling ingredients separately before mixing them together with a whisk (it makes all the difference). I would also like to announce that I finally figured out how to correctly use a can-opener without looking like I had no idea what I was doing. Yay!

Measured Brown Sugar

Once I poured the filling into the crust-lined dish, I (carefully) popped the pie onto the middle rack of the oven (with oven mitts, of course). It would be only a matter of time. I was getting pretty tired at that point.

Baking Time

Unfortunately, I would not be waiting during that matter of time. I had to measure ingredients for the streusel, whisk them, then make the whipped cream. The streusel- well, I don’t think the streusel turned out the way it was supposed to. Maybe I should have added oats or pecans so the brown sugar, flour, and butter could stick to something, but the taste of the streusel was yummy anyway. It just made the pie looked like it had strange splotches or pimples. Thank goodness for the whipped cream.

Measurement for Whipping Cream

Whipped Cream

For the whipped cream, I decided to add only 3 tablespoons instead of 4 to make sure it wouldn’t be too sugary. The texture came out nice and fluffy with soft white peaks, and tasted mildly sweet with a hint (1/4 teaspoon) of vanilla. With one or two nice, big dallops of whipped cream, the unaesthetic streusel situation was taken care of while the outer crust turned out brown and crispy. As I sliced big pieces of pie for my family, each plate disappeared to the kitchen table and my mom quickly, with no hesitation, ate the first bite. Again. But, that’s okay. When I took my first bite, I thought it tasted pretty good. My parents were ravenous and kept commenting on the spices. Another odd lesson about baking: When you are the one making the dessert, you usually aren’t (for some reason) as hungry to eat it and don’t taste the spices as much since you’ve been around them. I have no idea why, but I could not even finish my piece of pie. That has definitely never happened.

Testing pie consistency

Cleaned Dishes

I hope you have enjoyed seeing (and laughing) at my photos and reading my blogs over the last couple months. I have had a lot of fun coming up with and writing them. This Thanksgiving and over the upcoming holidays, I am so excited to start making tons of my favorite desserts and try some new ones, too. (Crocquembouche, chocolate crackles, homemade apple pie, etc.) Hopefully you are encouraged and excited to have your own baking experiences now! (the reward is never-ending. Baking your own desserts has infinitely better rewards than buying what you assume to be a cookie or a questionably soggy pumpkin pie with all ? and no flavor. Another awesome part about baking: If you bake it, you’ll know what’s in it!

~Serena Sundae

P.S. Happy Holidays!

Rosie (a.k.a. my vacuum)

Cake = Yum

Before studying for my last final enslaves my attention for the rest of the night, I’m here to tell you the story of my final project; a delicious yellow cake with chocolate ganache frosting. Lets begin…

It was a dark and stormy night when the Blender removed the mixer from its shelf and began slaving away in the kitchen, creating a masterpiece. Lightning flashed, illuminating the Blender as the hunched over the scalding hot cake rounds, sweat dripped down his forehead, he was nearly finished. The cake had taxed him drastically thus far, he had been on the verge of defeat but he gathered his strength for the final steps…

Just kidding. It wasn’t that bad, it wasn’t bad at all. This cake was pretty fun to make, I especially enjoyed icing the cake which was something that required meticulous handwork and patience. Anyways, Cupcake was over so we could bake our cakes and trade off photographing each other’s creations. So I had someone to joke with and share the fruits of our labors.

I began by mixing the ganache frosting. First I set out my mise en place according to my sketch.

Next I heated the heavy cream until it began to simmer, this I poured over the chocolate in a mixing bowl. After two minutes of allowing the cream to slowly melt the chocolate chips, I began to whisk the chips. The whisking quickly turned the chunky brown mixture into smooth, nearly black, ganache. I set this aside and began my cake.

 

I yet again set out my mise en place and this time preheated the oven to 350 degrees. I mixed my dry ingredients together and added my butter and 3/4 cup of milk.

My awesome oven, I would like to thank him for his monumental role in my project...

 

I separated six eggs, utilizing only the yolks. The yolks give the yellow cake its yellow coloring, without the yolks the batter is nearly completely white. To these eggs, I added 1/4 cup of milk and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Yum... reminds me of Rocky...

If there was one thing that I was glad to have been blessed with for this project, it would have to be a standing mixer. The standing mixer was invaluable, it allowed me to clean and complete other tasks while mixing. I also didn’t have to worry about where to place the handheld mixer after mixing, which usually leads to dirty, dripped-on counters.

Here I am scraping the sides of my delicious batter before the addition of the egg mixture.

I next added my egg mixture to the relatively dry mix in the stand-up. My cake gained its color when I added the egg yolks, it adopted a beautiful shade of yellow. I began to drool. After beating for two minutes straight, I poured the batter into two 9 inch cake pans. I smoothed out the imperfections of the batter with small circles of a spatula.

Leveling my babies with a spatula... I'm too quick for the camera 😀

I placed my two babies into the oven. It was hard letting go, but I knew they’d come back to me; grown up and even more delicious. After about 23 minutes I inserted a toothpick into each of the cakes.

Poking my cakes...

They were perfect, only a few soft crumbs came out on the toothpick. I pulled them out of the oven. After a few minutes I turned them out onto cooling racks and flipped them over so they wouldn’t split. The next part was pretty difficult, but not as bad as letting them cool completely! I took a knife to my two cake rounds. I hoped they would forgive me… It was worth it. After leveling their tops, I quickly consumed the cake scraps.

Before and after shots of my murderous activities... hehe

I chose one of my two sheets and placed it in the middle of a tray, on top of a dot of ganache frosting (which I had whipped up; creating light fluffy icing). I applied a generous heap of icing to the center of the cake and spread it to the edges, touching up with a piping bag so the icing would reach all 360 degrees of the cake. I then placed my other cake round on top, keeping in mind the curves and flat spaces that were unique to each cake. This gave me a completely level cake.

Here I am, filling complete.

Gently I spread ganache across the cake, this layer would be my crumb coat and would keep cake crumbs in control, holding them out of my exterior icing.

Keeping those pesky crumbs where they belong...

Then the fun began… I piled icing on the tops and sides. Using small semi-circles I spread the icing to the edge of the top of the cake and slightly over the sides. With a little spinning of the tray I was able to create smooth sides. I gave the top a small a small swirl design to make up for not being able to get the top completely smooth.

Alright, times up, lets do this! Iiiiiiiiiicing time!

With a piping bag I decorated the top, through slight squeezes and pull offs I created the small tufts of icing that can be seen in the picture below.

Lovely tufts of chocolate.

With my cake completed I began the laborious process of cleaning the dishes… Of course you can never forget to prewash!

Anyone see a resemblance to little Blender?

Now, with my story complete, it’s time I bid you farewell as I retreat to my lair to study for tomorrow’s exam…

-the Blender

 

‘Tis the Season…

The Final Masterpiece!

Setting up for the bake-off!

I’ve always felt that Thanksgiving gets the short end of the stick. I mean, by the time Halloween is done, Christmas supplies are already out! This is just plain wrong, but this year I made a vow to save Thanksgiving, at least in my household, by making a pumpkin spice layer cake with cream cheese frosting.

Back in my day...

I figured that Thanksgiving should combine the best of Halloween and Christmas, therefore, I chose to make a pumpkin layer cake. It had a Halloween theme and the quality of a Christmas dessert! (I also chose pumpkin because I’ve held that beautiful orange sphere of deliciousness close to my heart ever since I was a wee little tot.)

Preheating the Oven

I won’t bore you with the tales of my glory days, though back in my day I was quite the character… Anyway, we’re here to bake this cake, so let’s get started! First and foremost, preheat that oven! This is crucial if you actually want to bake something.

Creaming the Butter and Sugar

After spraying down two 8 inch cake pans, cream your butter and sugar together. The result should be light and fluffy like a cloud, only brownish. You should cream between 2 to 3 minutes.

Carefully Adding the Eggs

Next, go forth with confidence and add the eggs in one at a time. (This is for minimal splatter, or to prevent the dog of the house from vacuuming the scraps off the floor and getting sick later…).  I used the counter method, but feel free to use the bowl method for cracking your eggs.

Scraping with a Spatula

Also, keep in mind that you can scrape down the sides of your bowl every now and then with a rubber spatula. This ensures that some of the ingredients don’t get left out. On that note, add in the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract, and beat them until it’s fully incorporated.

Measuring and Leveling

Whisk = weapon of choice

Measuring the Buttermilk

With the beating done, turn towards the dry ingredients. First, measure the flour (remembering to level!), baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spice into a large bowl. Then, arm yourself with a whisk and have at it! Don’t forget to measure the buttermilk as well (in a wet measuring cup).

Adding the flour mixture

Adding the milk

Now, take a moment and appreciate how far you’ve come. After that small break, add the flour and buttermilk to the pumpkin batter in three alternative additions, starting and ending with the flour mixture.

Dividing the Batter

Look at those puppies!

After mixing those ingredients in, take your new batter and pour it evenly in between the two cake pans. With that, go ahead and set those puppies in the oven for about 25 to 30 minutes.

Mixing the frosting

While those two bad boys are baking in the oven, let’s turn our attention to the frosting. To make the perfect maple cream cheese frosting, first mix the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Then add in the maple syrup and confectioners’ sugar. (If you’re not happy with the consistency of the frosting, keep in mind that the sugar will thicken, and syrup with thin it out).

Oh Snap!

Testing with a toothpick

Oh snap! Looks like the baking time is up! To double check our cakes, let’s stick a toothpick in both of them. If it comes out relatively clean (a few crumbs are good), the cakes are ready to go. Before we get started though, allow the cakes some time to cool in their pans. Then flip them over gently and set the cakes right side up to prevent splitting.

Leveling the cakes

Typically, I let the cakes cool even more (sometimes in the freezer) so it’s easier to level them. This is just a matter of preference. Anyways, take that serrated knife and cut away. (Those scraps are where the saying “The journey is the reward” comes from.)

The beginnings of a filling layer

Now, go ahead and transfer your bottom layer to a cake plate. Spreading some frosting on the top of this cake will make a nice filling for your cake.

Finalizing the crumb coat

After completing the filling, bring over the top layer and stack ’em up! Hopefully the cake doesn’t resemble the leaning tower of Pisa, but if it does, that’s a-ok. (Ever heard of the saying, “it’s the inside that counts”?) Now take a bit of frosting and spread it out thinly to create a crumb layer. This traps all of the crumbs and prevents them from showing up on your beautiful frosting later on.

Getting intense... If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!

With this over and done with, plop a big ol’ glob o’ frosting right in the center of that top layer. Spread outward with semicircle motions so that the frosting just crests over the edge. Then, use that frosting to spread around the sides. I find myself doing a variation of a ritualistic dance around the cake as I frost, but you could just as easily turn the cake around rather than going around it. (Be sure to act like you’re getting fancy with it. Large sweeping motions tend to impress an audience.)

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!

Finally, after a painstakingly, excruciatingly long process of frosting the cake to perfection, it’s time to go above and beyond with decorations. I went back to the frosting and added in some food coloring. (I mixed yellow and red to get orange, which I thought was fitting considering that the cake is pumpkin.) Then, I filled my piping bag with this colored frosting and added nice star-shaped spots around the edge of the cake and in the middle.

Just after completion!

And that, my friends, is how you make a pumpkin spice layer cake with maple cream cheese frosting.

Cake Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup fresh or canned pure pumpkin (about 1/2 of a 15 ounce can)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups sifted cake flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (can be replaced by pumpkin spice)
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 3 – 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

Recipe by: Joy of Baking

Easy as Pie…?

 

Streusel Topped Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Cream

I LOVE pumpkin.  I have this special talent that enables me to devour anything pumpkin flavored quite rapidly.  Whether it’s my mom’s palatable pumpkin bread, Starbucks pumpkin muffins, the new pumpkin flavored Hershey’s kisses, or roasted pumpkin seeds drizzled with salt, I’ll eat it all in record timing.  So when I found out that we had the option of baking a streusel topped pumpkin pie with whipped cream, of course I chose to do that.

Leveling the Flour

 

Measuring a Wet Ingredient

Preheating the Oven

The first step of my process was meticulously drawing out and then setting up my mise-en-place. Since there were four different processes in total (making the dough, the filling, the streusel, and the whipped cream), I easily took up the entire counter space.  I started with making the dough. As I explained in an earlier post, my classmates and I are dough-experts.  I combined the flour, salt, butter, and water in the food processor and did the correct combination of mixing, pulsing ten times, and then just pulsing for ten seconds in order to watch the mixture magically turn into dough. (Yes, this is still my favorite part of baking…).

Pulsing!

Coarse Sand

Small Peas

After I formed the dough into a circular disk, I put it in the fridge to chill while I began the filling.  As I mixed the pumpkin, evaporated milk, sugar, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in my mom’s favorite mixing bowl, the house began to have an aroma of Thanksgiving.  Every Thanksgiving, my mom bakes loaves and loaves (and we’re talking multiple dozens) of pumpkin bread, and the house smells like pumpkin for days.  Thinking that she was making pumpkin bread, my father and two brothers eagerly ran into the kitchen to see when we were going to eat pumpkin bread. They were slightly confused to see me concocting something instead of my mom…But their confused expressions quickly changed when they learned that pumpkin pie was in their near future.

Dough Wrapped in Plastic

Mixing the Filling

Now the dough was ready to be rolled.  I had no troubles dusting flour, rolling, flipping, or checking to see if the dough was sticking. It was the transferring of the dough to the pie plate step that truly became troublesome.  I did all of the normal steps and rolled the dough onto the rolling pin, but a perfect transition just wasn’t in the cards for me…As you can see in the picture below, my crust was in quite a few pieces. It was SO DEVASTATING.  You know that saying “easy as pie?” It’s not “easy as pie CRUST” for a reason.  Oh well—in the grand scheme of things, this one transition from parchment paper to pie plate isn’t a huge deal, but still. It was kind of heartbreaking.

Rolling the Dough

RIP Beautiful Pie Crust (Tear, Tear)

I attempted to the best of my ability to fix the piecrust, crimped the edges, and then poured the filling into it.  It was a relief to get it into the over, so I could take a second and mourn my ruined piecrust. Just kidding. After it went into the oven, I immediately started the streusel.  To do this, I got to show off my “cutting-in” skills to my photographer, Alexander (the poor guy was gracious enough to take pictures of me for a few hours).  When the pie was almost done baking, I sprinkled this streusel over the top of it and put it back in the oven for about 20 more minutes.

Crimping Away!

Packing down the Brown Sugar for the Streusel

Cutting the Butter into the Streusel Ingredients

Sprinkling the Streusel

Then I cleaned. And cleaned. And cleaned.  My former babysitter, Jamie, and her husband, Mike, were coming over for dinner.  Jamie and Mike got married a few years ago, and all three of us Weir kids were in the wedding. They recently moved back to Davidson, so we invited them over for a mini Thanksgiving dinner.  I realized that this would be the perfect time for me to make the pie, so that I could share it with all of the people that I love.

The "Knife Test"

Somehow I miraculously managed to clean the kitchen, shower, and look presentable before they arrived.  I left the dinner table a few minutes early so that I could prepare the whipped cream.  Everybody had to speak a little bit louder while I was whipping to soft peaks…but was definitely worth it.  Personally, I am not a huge whipped cream fan, so I put a little dabble of whipped cream on the pie for photography’s sake, and brought it over to the table.  I then cut the pie, passed it around, and then made everyone wait so that I could take a few pictures. Bradford and Alexander were especially impatient. It was like I was dangling treats in front of a dog.  After what seemed like a decade to them, I finished taking the pictures, and they dug in.  Despite my crust-dilemma earlier in the day, my pie turned out deliciously.  Everyone complimented me on the pie, but personally, I was most happy to know that I was sharing these baking skills with close family and friends.

Soft Peaks! (note the new, orange sweater for dinner...)

Everyone around the table (Bradford and Alexander were drooling at this point...)

It’s been fun! Have a fabulous Thanksgiving, Everyone! –Seltzer Sayre

Sunday With a Chance of Mousse

Finished Chocolate Mousse Pie with Garnish

Well, it’s taken time. Over 5 hours. Quite frankly, the pie is still cooling. After I popped it into the fridge, the pie would need to cool for 2 more hours. An hour until I can eat it. Everything was going surprisingly smoothly earlier, so I probably should have seen this coming. At the very least, I can safely say that no pie looks quite like mine. (see below)

I planned it all. I sketched my mise-en-place, arranged my mise-en-place, read through the lists of ingredients and directions ahead of time. I guess you could say the problem started with the crust. I added the minimum amount of ice-cold water instructed to pour in, but the dough wouldn’t clump together. So I added 1 more tablespoon, like the recipe said. Then, the dough’s consistency got too wet. So, I added a little flour. Then a little more, but the dough was still too damp. When I refrigerated the dough for 30 minutes, it refused to stiffen. Good thing the dark chocolate mousse was turning out well….

Dark Chocolate Drizzle

Fully Combined Mousse

The mousse actually did turn out perfectly. The taste or texture of it was not the problem. I just happened to forget that the crust is what’s supposed to be baked, then you put in the chocolate mousse to cool. Oh, yes. After I crimped the dough (I thought I did a good job), I scooped in the mousse, smoothed it out, and carefully set the pie on the middle rack of the oven. Then it hit me. Wasn’t I supposed to place the pie in the fridge? Why did I preheat the oven?? So I took the pie out, put it in the fridge, and turned off the oven. At this point, I just wanted my pie to work its magic.

Let's Roll!

Then my Dad noticed something I was too busy to: The “crust” is raw and technically….not crust. Nevertheless, I remained determined to “make it work!” After delicately ladling out the mousse and brushing off the rest, I baked the crust for a total of 40 minutes. After allowing the crust to cool for 30 minutes, I successfully filled the golden brown (baked) pie shell with the mousse and placed the pie into the fridge. A mousse pie will need to be refrigerated for at least 1-2 hours in order for the filling to set. When the pie had been fully cooled, I sliced a square of dark chocolate into thin shavings to arrange as the garnish in the center. Yum!!! Here’s the recipe for Chocolate Mousse Pie filling:

Ingredients

• 4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1-1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 whole eggs
• 1 baked pie shell

Directions

In small microwave safe bowl melt 4 ounces of unsweetened baking chocolate until stir-able (about 45 seconds on high). Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat 1 cup (2 sticks) of regular (salted) butter and 1 1/2 cups of white sugar until fluffy (about 1 to 2 minutes). When melted chocolate is cooled, drizzle it over the butter/sugar mixture. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Beat the mixture thoroughly until combined (on a Kitchen Aid mixer, you will be using the whisk attachment).

Turn your mixer to a medium speed and over a period of 15 to 20 minutes add in the four eggs, one at a time, leaving about 5 minutes between each egg addition. Once the pie filling is well mixed, pour it into the baked pie shell, scraping every last speck of it out of the bowl. Smooth out the pie filling and place pie in the refrigerator to chill for at least two hours (preferably longer).

 

Well, I learned yet another baking lesson: Any time you bake a dessert, it might not be exactly what you had in mind or planned, and mistakes, even very little ones, are inevitable (sigh.) Yet no matter how deformed or eccentric (there’s a difference between eccentric and iffy) it may appear, you better believe it will taste out of this world, nevertheless (it’s chocolate!). But that’s just my crazy experience.

~Serena Sundae

Plenty o’ Pies with a Dishwasher Dilemma…

Hello everyone! Baconator here, and let me tell ya, this week has been one of our busiest yet! As you know, we have been working with pies a ton in the past couple weeks, from blind baking to making delicious fillings. We ended up putting a creamy chocolate mousse filling with whipped cream into the crust we blind baked last week, and it turned out to be one of the best pies I’ve had in a while. The pie actually reminded me of a time when my grandma made a chocolate chip cookie dough pie for my family.

Mmmm… Mousse pies. A delicacy that’s near impossible to resist.

She never told us her recipe, because she kept it a secret, but that pie’s taste really couldn’t be put into words. I was reminded of that pie as I dug my teeth into some of the wonderful Mousse pie we ate, and I immediately began to realize something extraordinary about pies. Before I even learned about blind baking, I always thought there was a very strict process to making pies, but I’ve come to learn that you can really make whatever you want with techniques like blind baking. Maybe one day I will actually try to just simply put cookie dough into a baked crust to see what happens (its most likely not the way my grandma used to do it, but I feel it’s worth a try).

So anyway, we decided this week that since we had a lot of leftover crust and materials to make more crust, we thought it would be a great idea to give our food to others rather than gobble it all up ourselves. To keep in the spirit of Thanksgiving (which is right around the corner), we made over 4-5 pumpkin pies this week, which is seriously one of my favorite pies of all time (not too shabby for little more than 3 hours of time). We are going to give them to the Brian Center now for the seniors to enjoy! I’m sure that they’ll be very excited to try some of the pie we made! 

However, with a lot of hard work comes a lot of dirty dishes, and oh my goodness, there were many. We came in Thursday morning and went right to work with the pies. We soon came to realize that the dishes from the day before were um… Still dirty. Almost dirtier than they were before we put them in. 

How this happened? Our best guess is from the blender, who claims there might have been some kind of clog in the dishwasher, which probably made grime be thrown around rather than having it cleaned off. All in all, everyone chipped in and we managed to get all of the dishes cleaned with many successful pumpkin pies made, so it turned out to be a productive week indeed.

Sadly, this was our last full week of our baking class, and it has been quite a journey. Not having any knowledge with baking desserts at all, I feel that I’ve learned a lot since the start. I will be making a yellow cake with chocolate frosting in the upcoming week to show many techniques that I have learned from the class, so stay tuned!

Until then, this is the Baconator, signing out.