Happy Birthday Uncle Matt~~

Albie and I wanted to make a FUN cake for our very fun uncle, Matt! Matt just moved into town and decided to have a birthday. He's a funny, childlike, silly guy who needed a cake that reflected that. We decided to make a monster cake. Albin helped a lot by putting in teeth and eyes and gummy worm hair.

We also managed to make a few cupcakes for pre-birthday consumption.

CAKES!

It's been months since I posted, but I have been cooking! Here are some cakes I've made recently!


My mom turned 50! She's a Chocolate fan, so here is one of the richest chocolate cakes ever. We served it with a choc. mousse.

Uncle and Aunt Williams celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary. The cake was so pretty, but was stored in the cellar where it was very damp, so the colors from the frosting bled a bit. Sad!
Albie turned 3! We had two birthday parties, one w/ cupcakes and another with cakes.

We also had a going away party for a girl from work. She is an amazing paerson, so I wanted to make her a great cake in her fav. colors!

Happy Birthday

Christy from the office asked me to make two cakes for her mom's birthday. Her mother likes German Chocolate cake and her other guests aren't crazy about coconut, so she wanted a cherry-chip cake.

Chocolate chocolate chocolate!

It's another birthday in the family. My aunt Kathleen is turning 65 and we are getting together to celebrate. I make Kathleen a stately cake with just enough whimsy, much like her own personality. I've been getting in to trying to design a cake around a person lately.

For Kathleen we (Albie and I) did a dark chocolate sour cream cake with ganache and cream cheese filling between the two thick layers. I frosted it by myslef as I lost my dear helper to a nap time. I used dark chocolate ganache and a bit of the cream ches filling for a contrast on top. Then I used the "dusted letter" trick that I picked up some months ago from working on a Christy's cake. This time I dusted with dark choc. shavings. It looks pretty enough to eat!

Grandma Great turns 94!!!

Today is my Great Grandmother's 94th birthday! My grandmother, Anita, had all of the local family over for a wonderful brunch. She made waffles and Spanish chorizos in eggs. Yum! My family has a strong Spanish heritage and as far as I know we have always eaten these Basque chorizos. My great-grandmother is not Basque herself, but Castillion. Her father carried the title "De Van Espre". Now that Spain has no noted royalty none of this matters, but the love of the chorizos lives on through generational cooking.

There isn't much I could add to such a wonderful meal but I asked if I might bring a cake. I have really been liking making cakes lately, since Christy's birthday was so nice. To make a cake for a woman of 94 who has eaten many, many wonderful things is a little nerve-racking, but hey, it's the thought that counts!

I didn't have the ingredients for my signature yellow pound cake so I tried a Martha Stewart "moist yellow cake" recipe. I followed it to the T, but still it was NOT moist. The lemon curd, however, was perfect (also thanks to Martha's web-site) and added the moisture needed to save the cake. I won't use the cake recipe again and I won't offer it here either.

I used a brown sugar meringue buttercream frosting and had a ball decorating the cake. My great grandmother is named Flora (meaning "flower/plant"). She is an amazing gardener with many awards to her reputation as well as a private garden plot at her home-away-from-home senior residence. I tried to deck the cake with flowers and vines in her honor. So fun!! She loved the flowers and had a little help blowing out the candles from my son, Albie.

Brown-Sugar-Meringue Buttercream
Makes 6 cups
1 1/4 cups lightly packed light-brown sugar
5 large egg whites
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1. In the heat-proof bowl of an electric mixer, combine light-brown sugar and egg whites. Place the bowl over a pot of gently simmering water; whisk until mixture becomes hot to the touch, about 5 minutes.
2. Return bowl to mixer stand. Whip mixture with the whisk attachment until cooled, about 12 minutes. Switch to paddle attachment; add butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Stir in vanilla. If not using immediately, transfer to an airtight container, and store at room temperature up to 8 hours.

LEMON CURD
Makes 1 1/2 cups
3 large egg yolks
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, (2 lemons)
6 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
Combine yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a small saucepan. Whisk to combine. Set over medium heat, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure to stir sides and bottom of pan. Cook until mixture is thick enough to coat back of wooden spoon, 5 to 7 minutes.
Remove saucepan from heat. Add the butter, one piece at a time, stirring with the wooden spoon until consistency is smooth.
Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to avoid a skin from forming; wrap tightly. Let cool; refrigerate until firm and chilled, at least 1 hour. Store, refrigerated in an airtight container, up to 2 days

Christy has a birthday.

My friend at work decided to get a year older and so I decided to bake. We all cope in different ways. Christy getting a year "wiser" reminded me that my birthday is just two weeks away and, while looking forward to celebrating, it's never easy to admit I'm growing up.

For Christy's B-day I asked her what her fav. cake was. She is an honest, clean-living yellow cake with chocolate frosting kind of girl. That I could handle! I had a hard time deciding how to make a yellow cake and still add glamour. Unlike Christy I am not satisfied with the purity of the yellow cake. So I made a yellow pound cake with lots of sour cream and density and then added cream cheese and dark choc. ganache filling to her simple eden. I can't leave it alone..... have to eat the apple...

It was fun and it came out pretty. Pretty is the hard part for me so I'm glad I did it. She seemed happy and I was touched that she liked it so well.

Albie, in true 2 year old form, had a very hard time with the idea that all of the cake was walking out the door to go to mommy's work. So Albie got a little "scraps" cake of his own with left-over batter and cream cheese filling on top. He requested sprinkles and lo-and-behold! The cupboard provided!

Friday Night Food

Friday nights are always fast and furious... even when we don't do anything. This friday was no different. Red beans and rice is a great dish that can be done ahead of time and served up whenever the mood strikes. Not only is it great for you and low in calories and fat, but it's yummy and kid-friendly!

Red Beans and Rice:

(American Cancer Society's Healthy Eating Cookbook)

3/4 lb ham hocks, washed

1 Qt. Water

1 lb dried red beans, sorted and washed

1.5 c onions, chopped

1 c fresh parsley, chopped

1 c green bell pepper, chopped

1 8-oz can tomato sauce

1/2 c green onions, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 T Worcestershire sauce

1t pepper

1/2 t red pepper

1 T fresh oregano
1T Fresh thyme

3 dashed hot sauce of choice

Serve with 5 c cooked rice

Place ham hocks and water in large saucepan, bring to a boil, and cover. Reduce heat to a simmer for 30 minutes, until tender. Remove and discard ham hocks. Strain broth and chill overnight. Remove surface fat from cold broth and set broth aside. Place beans in enough water to cover in a stck-pot and let stand covered over with lid overnight. Drain beans and add ham broth. COver and cook over low heat for 45 minutes. Add all ingredients remaining. Cover and cook over low heat for 2 - 2 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally and adding additional water if desired. Serve over rice. Makes 8-10 servings. 282cal per serving with 1/2c rice; 1g fat

Don't forget dessert! I am on a perpetual diet. It is much more important to me in the month of January than it is all year round. I guess that's why it's perpetual! So... low-fat low cal is the way I've been cooking lately and this dessert fit the bill: Angel food cake with dark choc. ganache and whole raspberry sauce. Yummy and REALLY low-cal. However... it has so little sustenance that the chocolate I used hadto be good. I tried Guittard. It was yummy, but not as pretty as I hoped it would be. Some cooks just make the food so pretty it's a shame to eat. I think I would be better on the diet if my food were THAT pretty!

Angel Food cake:

1 1/2 cups egg whites (10-12 large), room temperature
1 1/2 cups superfine sugar, divided
1 cup sifted cake flour
1 tsp cream of tartar1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste
1/2 tsp almond extract
Preheat oven to 325F.
In a small bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup sugar and the cake flour. Set aside.
Beat egg whites until frothy, the add cream of tartar and salt. Beat until fully incorporated then begin to add the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar 1-2 tablespoons at a time. When sugar has been added, beat egg whites to soft peaks. You will know when you have soft peaks because the egg whites will look like soft waves and when you lift the beaters, the peaks will droop back down into the batter. If your batter is falling in ribbons, it is not quite down. Once you have soft peaks, add the vanilla and almond extracts and beat for a few seconds to evenly distribute.
Sift the flour/sugar mixture over the egg whites in 6-8 additions (depending on your proficiency with folding flour into egg whites) and gently fold it in after each addition
Spoon batter into an ungreased 9 inch tube pan with a removeable bottom. Smooth the top with a spatula and tap the pan on the counter once or twice to ensure that there are no large bubbles lurking beneath the surface.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the top springs back when lightly pressed. Mine took 55 minutes.
Remove from oven an invert pan over a bottle. Allow to cool completely or overnight.
Gently run a thin knife around the sides, then around the bottom, of the pan to release the cake when you are ready to serve it.