Wedding Cake

Tis the season of weddings!

This weekend I was very fortunate to be able to contribute to the celebration of S & J‘s special day.

S had a good idea of what she wanted: classic styling, vanilla buttercream, chocolate cake, quilted pattern, and of course her wedding color of purple.

I really loved how this cake turned out! The cake topper that S provided me with really tied everything together nicely. Unfortunately, my camera didn’t really capture the color of the ribbon properly (It’s purple, not navy) but you still get a good view of the cake.

A big congratulations to S & J!

To check out some of the other weddings I’ve done please click here.

Peanut Butter Cup Crunch Brownie Bars

If there is one constant I see in baking, it’s that a good brownie will always be a hit. These delicious squares of chocolate goodness are always the superstar of any sweet plate or a welcome offering. There are so many brownie recipes out there and so many variations, the possibilities are really limitless.

At a recent soiree with my boyfriend’s cousins, I decided to try a brownie that incorporated one of his cousin’s favorite ingredients: peanut butter.

I had originally seen this recipe on Brown Eyed Baker and it definitely got my mouth watering! What’s not to love? Brownie, peanut butter, chocolate chips, AND peanut butter cups? Sign me up!

Now the recipe calls for whatever brownie base you prefer and then basically layer everything else on top. Doesn’t get any simpler then that!

They turned out well and were thoroughly enjoyed by all. The only comment I have is about the peanut butter cups: I didn’t really find that they added anything. Obviously, they’re there to add peanut butter taste but why not just use peanut butter itself? I didn’t find the squares had an overly ‘peanut buttery’ taste so I think regular PB would have helped. Also, the brownie recipe I chose was not fudgey enough (Contrary to how dense they look in these pictures!!). I’d probably aim for a denser/fudgier recipe next time. Although these brownies were good my quest for the best peanut butter brownie continues on!

Red Velvet Throwndown

I’ll come right out and say it: I am a cake mix snob. Having being raised in a household where everything was baked from scratch and store bought baked goods were rare: cake mix never made an appearance.

What’s with the sudden confession you wonder? Well recently in my area, a new cupcake store opened. The cupcake craze never really hit Montreal to the level that it did in the rest of North America. When I was living in Toronto, it was quite common to see cute cupcake boutiques throughout the city. Every review I ever read of Montreal cupcake places were always mixed and never really inspired me to go out of my way to sample them. But this time, I bought into the hype and decided to try it. My primary intention was to do a review and maybe even some reconnaissance for my own future aspirations. So, after our visit, I returned to work and opened the box with my two cupcakes with anticipation. My first indication that something was ‘off’ was the color of the red velvet. Red velvet is known to be a deep red color, this cupcake was distinctly pink. I put this aside and took a bite. As I chewed, a realization hit me: this was definitely cake mix. I came to the same conclusion after sampling the chocolate cupcake as well.

I’ll be honest, I felt let down. When paying 2.75$ a cupcake, I expect a product that’s worth that much. When I splurge on baked goods I want to be happy with my purchases. In this case, I definitely wasn’t.

Can you tell which is which?

So, in the spirit of the competitiveness of super bowl weekend, I decided to have a cupcake throw down. I would make a batch of cake mix red velvet cupcakes and one from scratch. The purpose was to see if my family could pick out which of the two were homemade and which were not. An immediate issue was that red velvet cake mix is not readily available in Canada. Luckily, a co-worker was going down to the States and was able to get a box for me. For the first time ever, I went into the mix section of my grocery store and searched for cream cheese icing in a can. I have to admit, I was crossing my fingers that no one would see me carrying it. I was treating it more like a bomb then a container of icing!

So, as the color had been the first alarm bell when eating my original bought cupcakes, the color of the mix immediately stood out. The batter came together very red, which immediately proved that this was not the mix that the shop had been using. I had no problem matching the mix to my homemade batch which was helpful. I iced mine in a cream cheese icing from scratch and the stage was set.

Now, before I let you know what the results were: let’s discuss the usage of mixes in the baking industry. It actually is quite a normal practice. Your local bakery may be using mixes and you wouldn’t even know. They’re much more cost and time effective then buying the ingredients and the labor for putting it all together. I found some interesting articles about this debate that you can read here.

Also, as I had to remind myself: if cake mixes didn’t taste good, people wouldn’t use them. Many people may have been raised with this as the norm and this is what they think of when they think of baking. Plus, a mix will ensure a more consistent product then when you are making something from scratch. I don’t think that cake mixes taste bad, I can just identify when they are being used. The Ghirardelli brownie mix available at Costco makes a pretty awesome brownie that I won’t turn down if offered! A friend of mine had a family tradition of making cherry chip cupcake mix for her birthday every year and they were quite good. Another plus? One of the major differences I noticed when using a mix was the efficiency in time. It only took me 5 minutes to put together the mix versus 30 minutes for my home made ones.

Which ones are made with mix?

So, drumroll please: my whole family picked out the ones made from mix right away as the one they didn’t like. To be honest, I was surprised. I thought I would have atleast some people preferring the mix. The difference came down to the mix ones being oilier, not tasting as good, and the icing leaving a ‘greasy’ mouth feel.

Now, this was a small experiment of 7 people. After the research I had done I was ready to let my first negative thoughts go. Mixes are part of industry practice and socially accepted, so why should I hold it against this place? Plus, I wasn’t able to exactly replicate the cupcake that I had bought due to the color difference of my mix version.

The thing that would stop me from going back to this place was apparent after I visited their website. They advertise that they bake everything from fresh ingredients. What it comes down to for me is: using mixes is one thing but false advertising is another. 2.75$ to be mislead that a product is made from fresh ingredients is a little bit too much for me to swallow.

What are your thoughts on cake mix? Do you have a favorite?

Birthday Cake

Anyone who follows this blog knows that I am not really enamored with making sculpted cakes. There are other aspects of baking that I enjoy much more then making a sculpted cake: classic baking has always had a greater appeal.

All of this to say, when presented with a challenge I don’t often say no. Take the above cake for example. I’m sure your first thought was ‘cool’, shortly followed by ‘What’s on top?’ It is quite a random assortment of cake toppers but I really enjoyed making them.

My brother is currently doing his PhD in food sciences. For his supervisors birthday he wanted to have a cake that represented each item he and his colleagues were currently experimenting with. So you get: banana, apple, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, and an egg.

Several of his colleagues abstain from eating eggs which presented a challenge for the actual cake. I did some research online and was surprised to see several sites claimed that the absence of eggs made no difference: as long as you replaced the missing moisture with water. This is what I did and there was a definite difference in the rise of the chocolate cake. But I was told that during consumption, texture wise, it was still very good. Next time I would probably go and buy an egg substitute instead of taking my chances!

I finished it was a classic chocolate buttercream decorated by the fruit and vegetable shapes. The toppers themselves are made out of marzipan that I dyed by hand (Yes, I was walking around with pink hands the day after: all part of the trade!).

This cake was a lot of fun to make and almost made me think I enjoy intricate cakes. Almost:).

S'more Hand Pies

The crisp fall air is giving me fond memories of huddling around a campfire and enjoying the BEST of all campfire treats: s’mores. Sure, you can make s’mores in the microwave but nothing can beat the taste of a marshmallow fresh out of the fire, sandwiched with chocolate and graham cracker.

I kept this in mind while I decided what I was going to bake this week. Now, as anyone who follows my blog regularly knows, my baking schedule has been a ‘little bit’ off. And by ‘off’, I mean not regular at all. But at work we are having a bake off and my number was up this week.

The contest was simple: weekly groups of three competing over creating baking standards. We’d had a week with: brownies, cookies, cakes, cupcakes, muffins, and squares. I actually (completely randomly!) chose ‘Baker choice’. I was happy to have the freedom but with so many baking categories already completed, I was kind of pulling a blank on what I wanted to do.

Hand pies have been on my radar for a while. They’re popping up in a lot of magazines and a recent episode of the Food Networks Eat Street featured Oh my! Pocket pies. They’re very trendy right now although my Mother does like to point out that they’re an over glorified turnover (Yes, I have pointed out the different pastry: pie vs. puff). Whatever way you want to look at it (Or what your opinion may be), they’re still something worth trying out. You can pick whatever classic pie flavor you’d like or try something more updated which is the route I chose.

So I set out to find a recipe similar to that served by Oh my! Pocket pies! I was surprised to see that many blogs hadn’t tackled hand pies yet. The few recipes that I could find were just based off the Betty Crocker recipe. I would much rather prefer to make my own pie crust. I also, as always, did my own spin on the recipe which I’ll write below. I made my Mother’s traditional pie crust recipe which includes such ingredients as a ‘pinch of sugar’ and ‘a little salt’, not very helpful for someone trying to recreate. So I’ve written out Dorie Greenspan’s recipe below.

The pastry on these hand pies turned out so flaky and light. It was a lot lighter then a turnover would be (See Mom? Kidding!). I thought they looked like little pierogies which I hope will make my polish boyfriend proud:). I cut the hand pies out with a 3 inch cookie cutter but if you are going to fold them over like I did: you can definitely use a 4 inch cutter or larger. I sampled the one I cut for the picture below and was disappointed that it just tasted like chocolate. But I later tried another, after is had cooled, and you could definitely taste some of the marshmallow.

I will definitely experiment more with hand pies in the future. I loved the way these turned out and will be looking forward to hearing if my co-workers enjoy them as well.

Pie Crust:

3 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups cold butter, cubed

6 - 8 tablespoons cold water

Coating:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

½ cup sugar

6 tbsp melted butter

Filling:

1 cup marshmallow cream

4 tbsp softened cream cheese

4 tbsp sugar

1 cup dark chocolate chips

For the pie:

Put flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Using a pastry cutter, cut the cubes of butter into the flour mixture. You should be left with pea sized pieces of butter when fully cut in. Begin adding water in until dough forms a rough ball. Put into an air tight container and refrigerate overnight.

For the filling:

Mix together softened cream cheese and sugar. Add marshmallow cream and chocolate chips.

For the coating:

Put the graham cracker crumbs and granulated sugar in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a separate bowl.

Directions:

I rolled my pie crust out and cut them with a 3 inch round cookie cutter. Brush only the outside with melted butter then dip the side coated in butter into the graham cracker mixture. Place a small amount of filling in the center of the pastry disc (Do NOT overfill: the pies will pop open while they are baking. I know it's tempting to stuff 'em full of the good stuff!). Gently fold over so that dough forms a small pocket. Seal edges using a small fork or with your fingers.

Bake at 425°F for 9 to 12 minutes or until pies are browned.

Yields about 24 mini hand pies.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

The fall season has its own range of ingredients and spices. One of these staples is: pumpkin.

Pumpkin has been stereotyped as something that can only be had in the fall which is a shame. There are so many baked goods with pumpkin that are just delicious!

I was in the grocery store and spotted some pumpkin puree. It’s not always easy to find it year round, so I picked up two tins. It didn’t take me long to find a use for it. In this months food network magazine there was a recipe for pumpkin bread pudding. Sold! I cut down the cream to half of what was called for (replaced by milk) and used challah bread. The result was a classic bread pudding, warm with pumpkin and spices, and given a kick with the ginger. We served it with some praline and cream icing and it was definitely a hit.

Homemade Oreo's

This recipe had been popping up on a lot of blogs and I was very eager to try it out. I am not a very ‘store bought’ baked goods person. I’ve had way too many experiences when something that looks really good in a package: greatly disappoints when consumed. If I’m going to be ‘bad’ and treat myself to something sweet, I want to make sure it's well worth my while. There are of course a few exceptions to this statement, one of them being Oreo’s. I have loved Oreo’s since I was a kid. Remember back in the early 90’s when the icing was dyed neon? We rarely had store bought sweets in the house when I was young so whenever my Mom brought home a bag of Oreo’s it was a source of great excitement.
Above: Batch 1, Batch 2. and Batch 3.

For this recipe, I met a challenge immediately. Dutch process cocoa is not readily available in Canada. The difference between Dutch process and natural cocoa is the bane of many bakers’ existences. What is the difference? Dutch process cocoa has been treated with an alkali which neutralizes its acids. For this reason, any recipe that calls for Dutch process cocoa will always have baking powder in it unless there is another acidic ingredient in the recipe. Natural cocoa powder still posses its acids which means that when you’re making a recipe with this form of cocoa, you don’t require a baking powder: only a baking soda.

Now the recipe that I chose to make unfortunately called for Dutch process cocoa. I tried researching what alternatives could be used. One website suggested that if the quantity used in the recipe was less then ¾ of a cup, there would be no variation to the outcome. To me, this didn’t make a lot of sense but I decided to try it anyway. The first batch had a lot of spreading and all of them ended up cracking. I’m assuming this is because of the presence of both baking powder and baking soda, when my natural cocoa didn’t need it. I wanted to test what the final product would be before I started tweaking the recipe because I deal with many recipes that call for a type of cocoa I don’t have access to. So for the second batch I decided to eliminate the baking soda completely and double the baking powder. They turned out a lot better. There was very minimal spreading which was better for the overall Oreo effect. There was nothing wrong with the large first batch: they still tasted great and were crispy like an Oreo cookie should be. But the cracked appearance took it away from the look I was going for that the second batch accomplished. These two cookies came from the exact same recipe except for one had baking soda and one didn’t: look at what a difference that makes! Also, the second batch tasted a lot better then the larger cookies did. They were a lot fudgier on the inside, while the larger ones didn’t have an overly chocolate taste. Interesting!

So finally, I decided that there was one last variation that I had to try before this recipe was retired for a bit. My second batch still had too much rise for my liking, so for the third batch, I cut out the baking soda completely and put the original amount of baking powder that the recipe called for. This batch still had a little bit of rise to it but I liked the over all outcome much better. The cookies were still fudgy but had a good crispness to them. The cracked a little bit on top but not nearly as much as the first batch.

So the final verdict? These are not your store bought Oreo cookies. Crisp chocolate fudge cookies with a ‘very similar to the original’ vanilla icing. Consider them a gourmet version of your store favorite. I would still like to try the recipe with Dutch process cocoa but for now I’m satisfied with my 3^rd attempt variation on the recipe. I think one of the most interesting aspects of this kitchen experiment was when I took the three variations of cookies to work: everyone like a different one. There was no unanimous favorite to be had. Grab a tall glass of milk and try it out yourself!