cakejam

movin!

2010-04-18T22:58:00.002-05:00

cakejam has moved! update your bookmarks, friends

LIFE SUCKS I NEED BISCUITS

2010-04-08T17:58:00.008-05:00

So, it's April. Which is usually my favorite month, aside from all the crap in the air suffocating me. But man, this April. It's cold! Cold and dreary and disgusting. Everyone here thought winter was over; we all ditched our coats and the plants were budding and the birds were singing and life was happy and THEN IT WAS 41 DEGREES AGAIN.

It's enough to make you want to die. I was going to stick my head in the oven, but then I made these sweet potato biscuits in there instead. Much more delicious!

Minimal in effort but maximum in starch, they are lopsided and ugly but somehow that makes them better. You guys get an iphone picture because I was just that lazy.

Rolled Sweet Potato Biscuits

2 c AP flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 c olive oil
3/4 c vanilla soymilk
1 med sweet potato, baked and mashed

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the wet ingredients in a well in the center and mix just until combined. Roll the dough out into a rectangle and sprinkle generously with brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up into a log and cut slices with a serrated knife. Bake at 450 until lightly golden. Eat warm with some honey butter and coffee. And then snuggle.

check this out

2010-04-04T16:03:00.004-05:00

http://oddpairs.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/congrats-tastemaker-winners-spring-2010-odd-pairs/

That's me hiding from the camera on the right there. I can't take credit for the awesome food that won the contest (the soup and savory marshmallows pictured on the top left), but I did spend a good portion of my youth peeling and cutting those marshmallows (garlic, bacon and ginger ones... so effing good).

two quarters down

2010-03-20T18:46:00.003-05:00

I suck at updating this lately, I know. I've been working a lot (sometimes even for money!) and I've discovered a new outlet for my OCD:

CAKE DECORATING. SOOOOO SATISFYING

plated desserts

2010-03-03T18:28:00.004-06:00

Plated desserts are tricky. Done well, they can be really elegant:

Done badly, they can look like the art deco movement pooped all over your plate. Or like Freud took a shift in the kitchen:

I'll admit that at the start of this class I kind of thought I'd be an instant genius at this shit. I mean, I went to art school! I eat out and make snobby comments about the food all the time! I can make up smart-sounding crap about balance and harmony IN MY SLEEP!

Turns out, like most things, it's a lot harder than it looks. Funny how that works.

Anyway, our final was today and we had to come up with four platings for some surprise ingredients, iron-chef style. We ended up getting pear, dark chocolate, mascarpone, and phyllo.

I made chocolate ice cream, caramelized pears, a mascarpone cream with creme fraiche, and did as little as possible with the phyllo because I hate working with it. Here is the evidence...I wish I'd gotten better shots but Chef was waiting and my ice cream was melting.

Chef's favorite was the one I thought was the goofiest. I guess I'll never be a plated dessert genius. Crepe stand here I come.

bacon is dead. long live blue cheese

2010-02-20T22:09:00.005-06:00

...and chocolate. Apparently this combination is starting to pop up everywhere... I guess it was the logical next step after bacon and chocolate. That trend is still going strong here, by the way, but then pig fat in general has a mighty following in this city.

Anyway, as much as I want to roll my eyes at food trends sometimes, anything that involves chocolate and salt gets my automatic support. Combining these two will definitely get you a mixed reaction-- about 50% OMG THAT SOUNDS DELICIOUS and about 50% I AM VOMITING IN MY MOUTH AT THE MERE THOUGHT. I bet even your more skeptical friends might be convinced, though, if you can just get them to try it. I find that taunting people and calling them pussies usually does the trick.

Flourless chocolate cake with blue cheese whipped cream

10 oz dark chocolate (anywhere from 58-70%)
5 oz butter
5 eggs
3.5 oz sugar

Whipping cream
A tasty but mild blue cheese (I used Roquefort)

1 Preheat the oven to 350.
2 Heat the cream and blue cheese together gently, just enough to melt the cheese into the cream. The ratio is pretty much to taste-- but start with a small chunk, if only because you'll have an easier time getting a nicely-textured whipped cream. Chill.
3 Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler.
4 Whip the eggs and sugar until very light and thick. Spoon out some batter and let it fall back in the bowl; it should make a "ribbon" or hold its shape for just a couple seconds before it melts back in.
5 Fold the chocolate and whipped egg mixture together.
6 Pan and bake for about 20-30 minutes, or until the center springs back lightly when touched. The cake will sink a little after baking.
7 Whip the cream to a soft peak. I found that it had a tendency to start to curdle with all the extra fat from the blue cheese-- if this happens (and you haven't made butter yet), just add some more liquid cream and fold it in gently until it's a good texture again. If you have made butter, just start over.

so my chef tells me

2010-02-18T09:18:00.003-06:00

that supposedly one meal at Alinea is enough additives for one person, for THE ENTIRE YEAR.

My hippie organic anti-artificial-shit half and my ooh! science! half are fighting. What say you, people? Should food just be food already, or would it be WAY AWESOME to eat what amounts to some guy's food science experiment?

happy valentine's day, ya'll

2010-02-11T20:56:00.003-06:00

My February contribution to Dessert of the Month Club... the sexiest combo I could think of: dark chocolate + salted caramel

FOOD CITY, USA

2010-02-04T10:00:00.004-06:00

I am determined to work my way through everything on this list.

I think I'm off to a good start considering I've only been here a few months. My favorites:

Lula: I kind of moved to Logan Square to be close to this place. The dinner is a little spendy ($25 entrees) but completely worth it. Brunch is awesome too, if you go early enough to avoid the 1-2 hour wait.

Hot Chocolate: Miss Katie is over there slaving away so you know it's good.

Fox & Obel: They gave me a job. So +2 points for them.

Floriole, Hoosier Mama, and probably some of the others: Grads of my program (along with Mindy of Hot Chocolate and Doug of Hot Doug's), so they need your business to pay off their outrageous student loans.

and then of course there's Alinea, with their $150 tasting menu (and that's the cheap one). I have it on good authority that this place is a "total mindfuck" and maybe I'm a chump but I'M SORRY BUT I JUST HAVE TO GO.

roasted white chocolate

2010-02-03T08:12:00.003-06:00

On Friday a bunch of my classmates went to a plated dessert demo here in Chicago...which I am still kicking myself very very hard for missing.

One of the things the chef showed them how to do, and WHY DIDN'T I EVER THINK OF THIS BEFORE, is "roast" (aka caramelize) white chocolate.

Basically you take a bunch of good-quality white chocolate and put it in the oven on a sheet pan covered with parchment... 250 degrees or so. Check and stir it often (every 5-10 minutes) and as the chocolate melts and continues to cook the sugar and milk sugars in there will caramelize and turn a nice golden brown.

hastily-snapped pic of the chocolate in the oven

Then when it's done you can use it wherever you would use white chocolate... temper it and use it for candies, make a ganache, etc. It tastes like a very sweet caramel, maybe a little much by itself but I bet you could find some tasty things to pair it with to tone down the sweetness. David Lebovitz has a fabulous blog post about making it, if you want more in-depth explanation.

my cholesterol WAS good

2010-01-30T20:02:00.017-06:00

I'd been wanting to go to Hot Doug's since I got here, but somehow had never gotten around to it. Lots of things suddenly seem pressing when you have piles of work staring you in the face, though, and so at about 3:00 on Saturday, when Rosy and I were sick of staring at our computers, we decided we couldn't go another day not having eaten there.

For those of you who don't know, Hot Doug's is sort of the ultimate in Chicago hole-in-the-wall places...a tiny place in a rando building on California that serves fancified hot dogs. It's particularly famous for having a foie gras hot dog, which was on the Chicago episode of No Reservations and which also got Doug a nice fine (or so I hear) for continuing to serve it when the city outlawed foie gras a while back.

Anyway. I don't really eat meat but my food curiosity usually trumps my pseudo-vegetarian-pescatarian-whateverism, and besides they have a veggie dog, so we got in line to wait. (The line on Fridays and Saturdays, when they have duck fat fries, usually snakes around the block.)

And we waited. And we waited. Dudes, if you're trying to check out this place, wait until it is above freezing at least. Waiting outside for an hour when it is freaking fifteen degrees outside is miserable and pointless (duh, I guess, but you know, once we had committed...). Go in the spring, go on a weekday (the duck fat fries aren't anything special in my opinion), go prepared for an unimaginable level of food coma, and you will leave satisfied.

But take your vegetarian friends to Earwax, for god's sake, that veggie dog was a piece of rubber.

I can't believe I'm admitting I ate this... "saucisson alsacienne": sausage with grilled onions, creme fraiche, and camembert.

Duck fat fries... meh.

chronically late to the party

2010-01-24T20:04:00.008-06:00

I am probably the last person on Earth to try these (much like I only discover bands 6 months to a year after everyone else), but if by chance you have not had the following parties in your mouth, you need to change that:

UMEBOSHI
Japanese pickled plums, salty and sour. I had heard of these as health food tonic (an umeboshi a day! good for your liver! cleans out toxins!) but had never actually EATEN one until the other day. My very smart friend Rosy tells me these are a traditional filling for onigiri. I had the paste wrapped with cucumber in a maki roll and it pickled my mouth, which I mean in the best way possible.

CARMENERE
A varietal they thought was wiped out by some plague or another, til everyone was like, HEY WHY IS THIS MERLOT FROM CHILE SO GOOOOOD? and some scientist was like, HEY DUDES IT'S NOT MERLOT, IT'S THIS 200 YEAR OLD VARIETY OF GRAPE NO ONE THOUGHT EXISTED ANYMORE. If you're trying to buy some, I like Root 1 because their label has a rad design (aside from the small caps) and it's tasty and under 15 bucks.

I will be enjoying these flavors while listening to Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, xx, and other albums which hip people are already bored with.

learnins

2010-01-18T20:19:00.015-06:00

I realize I haven't reported anything on school since it started last week-- in part because after a full day of making things and then another couple of hours working on my food portfolio, I'm pretty much over whatever recipes we've been working on; but also because I'm growing new eyes for this stuff but not the skills to match them yet. And now when I look at the pictures of my imperfect cakes I start getting that twitchy feeling that was previously reserved for really poorly kerned type or crooked picture frames.

Pastry chefs have a reputation for being the weird, neurotic, perfectionist OCD types of the culinary world (not unlike, say, graphic designers...ahem). And while it's been pretty obvious since birth that I lean towards this personality, erm, quirk, judging by the number of pep talks my chefs have had to give my class on the subject of "don't give yourself a coronary, you'll get it eventually," it's not just me who wants to flip the table when the chocolate seizes.

So it is with great restraint that I don't delete pictures of things that haven't come out perfectly. And if you promise not to judge my heavy-handed caramel application or my inconsistent rosettes or the piece of cooked egg that ended up in my creme anglaise... I'll share a few things we've been working on:

The beginnings of a strawberry cake with vanilla bavarian cream

Dobos torte (five layers of sponge cake with chocolate buttercream, topped with a final layer covered with caramel and cut into triangles)

Strawberry charlotte

PS: if you know anyone in Chicago that likes cake, send them my way. Seriously. Jesus. I need to get rid of all this cake.

dessertavore

2010-01-16T20:29:00.012-06:00

The best thing about living in Chicago is that there is always an opportunity to do my two favorite things in life: complain about the weather; and talk about food.

Other people here love this as much as I do. They love it so much that they host indoor farmer's markets all over the city in winter so they can gather to talk about horrible, horrible weather and delicious, delicious food AT THE SAME TIME.

It was at one of these markets that I met Kris Swanberg who makes nicecream, awesome local handcrafted ice cream made in small batches with organic ingredients.

Backstory: I like to stalk the people who sell baked goods and desserts at farmer's markets and submit them to the following: "YOU MAKE SWEETS! I LIKE SWEETS! I QUIT MY JOB TO GO TO PASTRY SCHOOL AND NOW I MAKE SWEETS TOO! HOW DID YOU GET STARTED MAKING SWEETS? DID I MENTION I GO TO SCHOOL AND MAKE SWEETS?"

Usually they're very nice and polite and talkative and put up with me; sometimes it's a little more like, hey lady, you're eating all my samples.

Kris was the former, so while I ate up all her free ice cream we chatted about how she got started. She offered to show me a little about making ice cream, I offered my free labor, and a few weeks later I was separating eggs in the kitchen space she rents from a nearby bakery, where we cooked custard and talked about office jobs and school and earl grey ice cream.

So long story short, I have yet another dessert addiction which brings my total daily consumption of sugar up to, oh, 100% or so.

If you live in Chicago you can buy nicecream at the Green Grocer, Provenance Food & Wine, the Dill Pickle, and lots of farmer's markets around. My favorite is the cinnamon and spice, it's got just a little cayenne or something in there and it's soooo delicious. Plus I helped make it :)

mexican chocolate butter cookies

2009-12-26T09:32:00.009-06:00

So while looking for a a good shortbread recipe, I stumbled across these, a variation on the chocolate butter cookies featured in the holiday baking issue of Cook's Illustrated.

I used to feel sort of BLEH about Cook's Illustrated-- I like gigantic food-porn photos to go with my recipes-- but I have come around. This is a GREAT. MAGAZINE. Their recipes are so well tested and they tell you exactly why you're doing what, and how to sub ingredients, and everything I've made from their recipes so far has come out great.

Anyway. These cookies were given the thumbs-up by everyone in my family, even my dad (who's not a fan of chocolate) and my uncle (who's suspicious of anything I make on the basis that it might contain weird organic hippie ingredients). So if it can please them, you know it's DANG GOOD.

I couldn't really taste the cayenne though, so you might want to experiment with adding more if that's your thang.

I decorated them with some dark chocolate glaze, slivered almonds, and the somewhat dubious "white candy melts" I found in the cupboard-- but they are quite good on their own if you're not feeling motivated to make them look fancy.

Mexican Chocolate Butter Cookies
from Cook's Illustrated magazine

20 T unsalted butter (2.5 sticks), slightly softened (about 65 degrees)
1/2 c Dutch-processed cocoa powder (you can sub regular cocoa powder here and they will still turn out fine)
1 t espresso powder (or instant coffee)
1 c sugar
1/2 t salt
2 large egg yolks
1 T vanilla extract
2.25 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 c sliced almonds
1 t ground cinnamon
1/8 t cayenne pepper

1 In a skillet toast the almonds, cinnamon and cayenne until fragrant. Set aside to cool.
2 Melt 4 T of butter. Add the cocoa and espresso and whisk to a paste. Let cool.
3 In a food processor grind the almond mixture until fine. Combine with the flour.
4 Cream remaining butter, sugar, salt and cooled cocoa mixture til well combined and fluffy (about a minute). Add yolks and vanilla and mix until combined. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, scraping bowl after each. When dough forms cohesive ball, divide into 3 disks and refrigerate for about an hour.
5 Roll out chilled dough between 2 sheets of parchment until an even 3/16" thick. Cut into shapes and bake at 375 degrees for about 10-12 minutes (if the dough starts to get sticky and hard to work with, just re-chill it for a bit). The cookies are done when they offer slight resistance when gently pressed. If they start to darken at the edges they're overdone. Let them cool completely before decorating.

Bittersweet Chocolate Glaze
from Cook's Illustrated magazine

4 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used 72% dark chocolate)
4 T unsalted butter
2 T corn syrup
1 t vanilla extract

1 Melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler. Whisk in corn syrup and vanilla until smooth. (The corn syrup is there to give it a thinner texture and nice shine. I used brown rice syrup instead which worked fine.)
2 Spread glaze on cookies and allow them to dry for at least 20 minutes. You can marble the icing by topping the glazed cookie with a few drops of white chocolate and dragging a toothpick through while the glaze is still wet.

shortbread cookies with butterscotch

2009-12-21T08:52:00.007-06:00

I looooove sweet + salty. Chocolate covered pretzels, salted caramels, you name it-- and no, I am not above salting my fruit, either.

My lovely friend Katie shares my obsession, so when one day she was waxing poetic about salty chocolate shortbread with cocoa nibs, I knew I had to ~~steal~~ try out her idea.

And then somewhere along the way I stumbled across this, so it became regular shortbread with butterscotch.

Unfortunately the actual shortbread recipe I used turned out cookies that tasted kind of bland and wheaty (ever eaten one of those cookies from the dog bakery? yeah), but I'm going to try again and hopefully have a good recipe to share with you guys. In the meantime, please make this butterscotch sauce from smitten kitchen and put it on everything. Seriously. Just do it.

Ridiculously Easy Butterscotch Sauce
from the smitten kitchen

Yield: About 2/3 to 3/4 cup sauce

1/4 cup (4 tablespoons, 2 ounces or 1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed dark or light brown sugar (I used dark)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt (or 1/4 teaspoon regular salt), plus more to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, plus more to taste

Melt butter in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar, cream and salt and whisk until well blended. Bring to a very gentle boil and cook for about five minutes, whisking occasionally.

Taste it and add more salt or vanilla as needed. I added a little whiskey. Goddamn that's good.

Footnote: You know what that sauce would be freaking amazing on? Buttermilk ice cream. Which, incidentally, she has an amazing recipe for as well.

Footnote sidenote: The midwest is a BUTTERMILK WASTELAND. Not only do I have to make a special trip to Whole Foods to get it, but half my class had never even tried it before enrolling in school. BLESS THEIR HEARTS.

done!

2009-12-12T09:50:00.004-06:00

Aaaaand my first semester of pastry school is finished!

I hastily snuck a pic of our final practical exam with my phone. We had to make baguettes, marble pound cake, spritz cookies, and orange chocolate scones.

I can see about 1,000 mistakes every time I look at this photo and it makes me cringe, but hopefully it's all good enough to pass.

Now comes the best part of being a student again... winter break! I have big plans, big big plans... reading, catching up on dexter, SLEEPING PAST 4AM....I'm also hoping to try out some of the stuff I've been doing at school at home, so recipes are a comin!

HOORAY YA'LL

put that in your pipe and smoke it

2009-12-06T15:22:00.001-06:00

straight baguettes, hah!

apple cinnamon hand pies!

2009-12-05T12:53:00.014-06:00

Why am I obsessed with these? I don't know. Maybe it's because I love miniature food, or maybe it's those peanut butter and jelly things, or maybe it's because the lovely Nicole Lang talks about them all the time and I'm jealous. But at any rate, I've been desperate to try making them FOR EV AH and I finally got my chance on Thanksgiving. Since I was flying in the same day, I didn't have time to do anything fancy. So I went for classic apple pie. And they were freaking delicious. If I do say so myself.

Apple Cinnamon Hand Pies

Pie dough
Pastry flour* 1 lb 4 oz
Butter, cold 14 oz
Water, cold 6 oz
Salt 2 t
Sugar 1 oz (even if you're not making a sweet pie, this will help give the crust a nice color)
*all-purpose works too, but it seems to absorb more water, so you might have to increase the quantity of water a bit.

1 Chop the butter into chunks and chill it along with the water. You want this to be very cold. Working in a cooler room will help you out too.
2 Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
3 Rub the cold butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers until it is about the size of halved walnuts. You can also use a food processor or a pastry blender for this, but doing it with your hands is so much more FUN
4 Add the cold water in a well. Reserve a little; if the mixture is too dry as you're mixing, add the rest.
5 Mix just until the dough comes together. It will be a little floury and look kinda crappy but don't keep kneading it! Put. the. dough. down.
6 Flatten into a disk, cover in plastic, and chill, at least 30–60 minutes. While it's resting you can make the filling:

Apple filling
Apples, sliced* 2 lbs
Butter 1 oz
Sugar 3 oz

Cold water 2 oz
Cornstarch .75 oz

Sugar 3.5 oz
Salt 1/5 t
Cinnamon 1 1/2 t
Ground ginger 1 t
Nutmeg 1/4 t
Lemon juice 2 t
Butter .25 oz
*some apples are better than others; you want ones that have plenty of acidity and hold their shape well when cooked. I used granny smith and they were perfect. I peeled them, but you don't have to.

1 Sauté the apples in the first quantity of butter until slightly soft. Add the sugar as they cook to draw out the juices.
2 Make a slurry with the cold water and the starch. Add to the apples and bring to a boil. Cook until thickened.
3 Remove from the heat. Taste and add the second quantity of sugar if needed. Add the remaining ingredients and cool. If you fill the pies while the filling is still hot you'll melt the butter and annoy yourself, so just wait.

Forming the pies

1 Once your dough is nice and firm, get it out and knead it just a couple of times to bring it together.
2 Roll it out to about 1/8" thick. Cut circles (mine were about 5" in diameter; I just used a bowl that was handy for tracing purposes).
3 Add a bit of filling in the middle of the circles and fold them in half, sealing the edges with a little water and then pressing them with a fork. Re-rolling this dough will make it kind of tough, but you can use the scraps to make funny-shaped hand pies if you want.
4 Egg wash them and sprinkle with a little coarse sugar if you want.
5 Bake at about 400 degrees until golden brown.

baguette fail

2009-12-03T19:49:00.005-06:00

This is what happens when you don't load them in the oven correctly, a maneuver that requires, you know, a normal amount of hand-eye coordination. But as anyone who has been near me and a full glass of wine can attest, I am a giant spaz, and so all my baguettes have been looking like this lately.

I have anxiety dreams about these goddamned baguettes: the chef counting to ten dramatically as she steams the oven, then yelling GO! as we all slide them onto the deck together, with only one chance to get them in there without their stupid doughy bodies squooshing up on you. And then everyone laughs and points at your misshapen baguettes, and calls you names, and you look down and realize you've forgotten to wear pants.

Anyway. EFFING BAGUETTES, MAN.

born and raised in the south

2009-11-12T18:54:00.001-06:00

and i had to move to illinois to make my first pecan pie.

buckles, betties, cobblers, crumbles & crisps

2009-11-07T21:00:00.013-06:00

Apricot cobbler

Ohhh man, I know it's been a while since I've posted. Life here has been going at breakneck speed, and the amount of information on ingredient functions, costing, sustainability and sanitation that has been funneled into my brain in the past two weeks was almost enough to kill me dead. Almost.

Instead I'm coming down with a nice cold (I refuse to even entertain the possibility that it's the flu). But! Being on my deathbed (have I ever told you I'm a whiny sick person?) gives me a good excuse to lie around and catch up on my internets.

So after "pastry theory" comes "intro to baking," and I get to be back in the kitchen once again. So far we've made biscuits, scones, muffiny muffins, cakey muffins, and then on Friday these:

Rhubarb cherry crisps

Yaaaay rustic fruit desserts! I love fruit crisps, cobblers, whatevers...they are some of the most delicious things on the earth and yet all you have to do is slop some overripe fruit in a pie tin and add some stuff on top. Basically.

If you want more direction than that, I've posted the recipe for those little rhubarb and cherry guys up there on Dessert of the Month Club. DELISH.

Blackberry banana bread. I gave a CTA lady one of these because I didn't know what else to do with it. I am now the Santa Claus of quickbreads

...but not as strange as this

2009-10-23T14:00:00.002-05:00

I'm swimming in papers right now, but my trips to the library seem to end up with me forgetting what I went in there for and coming out with things like this instead:

Instead of cookies this Christmas you are all getting reindeer canapés.

strangest meal ever

2009-10-22T20:23:00.003-05:00

Mr. Celery Root from the farmer's market was sitting in my fridge looking sadder and sadder by the day, so I finally decided it was time to cook him.

Because I've been up to my eyeballs in food costing and the principles of heat transfer, though, I really had very little in my fridge BESIDES Mr. Celery Root. So all the tasty-sounding recipes I found for celery root soup and celeriac and carrot salad were kind of moot. Mashed celery root it was. I peeled it, boiled it, and mashed it up with a little salt, butter and a smidge of half and half (no milk in the fridge). The results were a little disappointing-- chunky and kind of watery, not starchy and creamy --but then I whipped out my immersion blender and success! It reminded me very much of mashed cauliflower or parsnips, with a light celery flavor. PS I highly recommend buying an immersion blender (they're not that expensive!) if you're at all into mushy/creamy food. PUREEING THINGS IS FUN AND DELICIOUS.

There were a few little baby bellas in there, so I sauteed them in a little butter and salt and threw them on top. Not half bad for a baking and pastry major, although I admit I probably wouldn't have fed this to anyone but myself.

The Handlebar

2009-10-19T07:08:00.002-05:00

Despite my busy and exciting life of screwing up pie dough and going to bed at 8pm, I have found a little bit of time to start exploring Chicago. "Chicago" meaning all the places within a mile of my house that serve alcohol, caffeine, or brunch. This place is one of my favorite spots so far to spend my nonexistent disposable income, mostly because of these:

Peanut butter and jelly handpies!! As in, little pockets of PIE DOUGH filled with PB&J and then FRIED, and served to you with their insides all warm and gooey. I am a woman obsessed. I actually DREAMT of these the other night. A little sad, maybe, but at least I am easy to please, right?

The rest of Handlebar's menu, especially for brunch, is equally amazing, but we won't talk about the fact that I preceded fried pie with a ginormous bowl of vegan biscuits and gravy.

Handlebar
2311 W North Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 384-9546

spoils

2009-10-18T16:32:00.004-05:00

It's beautiful here today! I got celery root at the farmer's market:

I have never tried to cook celery root before but the nice lady at the stand assured me that I should not be put off by its gnarly appearance.

Only two weeks left til our farmer's market goes away, which in my mind is the real end of fall and the beginning of winter. I'M NOT READY

PIE

2009-10-17T18:56:00.014-05:00

Our last class before our exam was based around pie and tart dough. While part of me would like to continue the myth that pie crust from scratch is a laborious and easily-effed-up affair, especially because I over-baked one crust and thoroughly mangled the other, it really is quite easy to make. And even if, like mine, it doesn't look so perfect, it will still taste good. Just call it "rustic" and be done with it. SO DO NOT BE AFRAID MY FRIENDS, GO FORTH AND MAKE YOURSELF SOME PIE:

Pâte sucrée
This crust is sweet, good for dessert tarts, and super forgiving. You can re-roll it, patch holes, even make cookies with the scraps. And no chilled butter required.

7.5 oz softened butter
3 oz confectioner's sugar
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 oz eggs, beaten
12 oz flour (pastry if you have it)

Cream the butter and sugar to a paste in a mixer. (It should be toothpaste consistency- not til it's fluffy.)
Add the eggs gradually and then add the sifted dry ingredients. Mix just until it comes together nicely.
Flatten the dough into a disk and chill for at least 30 minutes. Then roll it out, drape into your pie tin, and let chill again.
Bake at 350 til GOLDEN DELICIOUS.

cookie day

2009-10-11T23:59:00.005-05:00

Friday was "cookie day," our first real chance at actual baking (unless you count meringues). After a lecture on the purposes of various ingredients in a basic recipe like chocolate chip cookies, we were sent into the kitchen to make four batches: one normal chocolate chip cookie recipe, one normal peanut butter cookie recipe, and two jacked up batches with one ingredient substitution each.

And then we tasted them. All of them. I don't care how much you love cookies, that shit was a test of spirit. You haven't lived until you've eaten so many bites of cookie in one sitting that you are actually high. I ate cookies made with bread flour, cake flour, hi-gluten flour, whole wheat flour; cookies with baking powder instead of baking soda; cookies with all brown sugar, with corn syrup added, with confectioner's sugar, with molasses; cookies with all shortening vs. all butter, all egg yolks... Holy God.

and now i own a pair of crocs

2009-10-09T21:40:00.004-05:00

So. Pastry school. The first two weeks here have been a cluster-- I arrived in Chicago the day before I started school, and since then I've been juggling classes, a new city, and an apartment full of boxes.

Class for me begins at 6am sharp every day, and from there it's six hours or so of basic skills-- meringues, knife skills, piping, and an endless stream of information on how fat shortens gluten strands and eggs leaven. In my sleepy state I've already taken several chunks off my fingers, which might beat the X-acto blade damage I did finishing projects in design school (probably at approximately the same time in the morning). It's intense-- I wear a cravat (that's French for "fancy tie that is hot and scratchy") and say "yes, chef" a lot-- but I'm definitely, well, immersed.

here's some of the fun stuff i've been doing while you guys are asleep:

fruit plates-- they came out a little fussy but they were fun despite my utter lack of knife skillz

meringue cups (filled with nutella)

and lots and lots of piping practice.

People keep asking me what we do with the leftovers. Most of the stuff goes to our cafeteria (everything we eat is made by the culinary and pastry students). But the uggos we get to keep, of which there are many. So be looking for your jacked up cookies in the mail.

GUESS WHAT YA'LL

2009-08-30T15:25:00.003-05:00

I'm going to pastry school!

Yep, I'm off to spend a year in Chicago, getting up at 5am and learning to make fancy sweets. Wish me luck. Updates will probably be scarce until I'm settled, but I promise to post as much as I can starting in October.

XO

lemon butter cake with sugared strawberries

2009-06-30T11:22:00.007-05:00

Eat this cake on your porch with some pretty ladies in big hats.

Lemon Butter Cake
adapted from Sky High's marbled lemon-blueberry butter cake

for the cake
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, room temp
2 cups sugar
2 tsp lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp lemon extract
7 egg whites
3 cups cake flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups milk

for the frosting
2 pints strawberries
1/4-1/2 cup sugar
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 eggs
3 sticks (12 oz) unsalted butter, room temp
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 8-inch cake pans and line with parchment.
2 Cream the butter, sugar, lemon zest, and lemon extract until light and fluffy. Add the egg whites a couple at a time, beating well between additions.
3 Combine the dry ingredients and whisk to blend. Add to the batter, alternating with the milk, in 2-3 additions.
4 Beat on medium-high speed for about a minute to aerate the batter.
5 Divide among the prepared pans and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool completely.

1 Cut up all the strawberries and place in a bowl with some of the sugar (if they're very ripe, you won't need much). Set aside to get saucy and delicious.
2 In a small (nonreactive) saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Continue to boil without stirring until it reaches the soft-ball stage (238 degrees). Remove from the heat.
3 In a mixer, beat the eggs briefly. As it's going, add the syrup in a thin stream. When it's all added, raise the speed to medium-high and beat until the mixture is fluffy and cooled to body temperature. (This can take a while.)
4 Reduce the speed to low and add the butter, a few tablespoons at a time. Beat in the lemon juice.

gougères

2009-06-15T10:04:00.012-05:00

Goddamn these things are good. While gougères may technically be cheese puffs, you'll sound much smarter and sexier if you call them by their French name. Thanks to the Magic of French People, these balls of flour, butter, eggs and cheese (pâte à choux, the same basic dough used for profiteroles, eclairs, and beignets) turn into melty eggy delicious appetizer goodness in the oven. AND THEY'RE SO EASY TO MAKE, DUDES:

Basic Gougères

1 c water
3 tbsp unsalted butter, diced
3/4 tsp salt
1 c all-purpose flour
4 large eggs, chilled
1 cup grated cheese (gougères are traditionally made with gruyère, but I generally use whatever I have on hand)
freshly ground black pepper

1 Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment.
2 Bring the water, butter and salt to a simmer in a saucepan, whisking while butter melts.
3 Add the flour, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon.
4 Continue to stir. The dough will form a ball and change texture slightly. It will begin to leave a slight film on the bottom of the saucepan. Remove from the heat and let the dough cool a bit (so you don't accidentally scramble the eggs).
5 Add the eggs one at a time with an electric mixer.
6 Once the eggs are fully incorporated, stir in the cheese and pepper.
7 Drop by spoonfuls (or pipe with a pastry bag for prettier puffs) onto the baking sheets. Leave a few inches between each one so they have room to get all nice and puffy. Press down any large peaks with a wet finger.
8 Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking, until golden brown and delicious.

The dough, ready to have the eggs mixed in.

A batch ready to go in the oven.

and now gwen stefani is in my head

2009-06-13T23:58:00.029-05:00

Banana desserts = amazing. I've made banana cake with vanilla pastry cream and chocolate ganache, banana cake with chocolate chips and vanilla frosting, and this cake: a simple banana cake with fresh whipped cream and a little swizzle of caramel.

The basic recipe comes from the book Cake Love, which to be honest, I don't refer to that often, but this recipe is one to save. I've included approximate measurements for those without a scale, but scaling is way more accurate if you have one. Using all-purpose flour may offend some, but I honestly kind of like the slightly heavier texture you get from it.

Warren Brown's Banana Cake, aka Banana Snake Cake

For the cake
10 oz (2 cups) all-purpose flour
1 tbsp potato starch
1 tbsp turbinado sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp nutmeg
6 oz (about 3) very ripe bananas, peeled
3/4 cup half and half
1 tbsp rum
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temp
21 oz (2 3/4 cups) superfine sugar
4 eggs
3 egg yolks

For the whipped cream layer
2 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
sugar to taste

For the caramel sauce
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy cream

1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottoms of 2 9-inch cake pans with parchment.
2 Combine the dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg) and whisk to blend.
3 Blend the liquid ingredients (bananas through vanilla extract) in a food processor.
4 Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes on low speed).
5 Add the eggs and yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6 Alternate the dry ingredients with the wet in 3-5 additions.
7 Once incorporated, mix on medium speed for 15-20 seconds.
8 Fill the pans and bake for 26-28 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool completely.

Caramel sauce
1 While the cake cools, you can make the caramel. Combine the sugar, water and corn syrup in a saucepan. Stir until sugar dissolves.
2 Once sugar has dissolved, stop stirring and bring to a boil. When the mixture turns a deep amber color, remove from the heat.
3 Add the cream (carefully, it will bubble up a lot). Stir until smooth.

Whipped cream
1 Combine the cream, vanilla and sugar and chill with the bowl and beaters for about 15 minutes.
2 Whip the mixture until stiff peaks form. Add more sugar, slowly, if needed.
note: whipped cream frosting will not keep very long, so frost this cake fairly soon before you plan to eat it.

coconut cake with vanilla pastry cream

2009-06-09T15:53:00.018-05:00

Even coconut haters love this cake. It's just that good. I first made this cake for my Creative Director's birthday, and since then I've been asked to make it roughly 8 zajillion times. I have not had the heart to throw the scraps away even once. Seriously. Just try to dump a piece of this into the trash without weeping. Impossible.

Actually, pretty much all the recipes in this book are that good: Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes. Buy it.

Coconut Cake (adapted from Sky High)
Makes an 8-inch triple-layer cake (supposedly for 12-16 people)

For the cake
5 egg whites
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups cake flour
2 1/3 cups sugar
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, at room temp.
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

For the pastry cream
1 1/2 cups half and half
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
2 tbsp flour
2 tsp vanilla extract

For frosting
fresh whipped cream (1 cup heavy cream, 1 tsp vanilla, and sugar to taste, whipped in a chilled bowl)
sweetened shredded coconut

1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter 3 8-inch cake pans and line with parchment.
2 Whisk the egg whites slightly. Add the milk and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
3 With a mixer on low speed, beat together the dry ingredients to mix well and break up any lumps. Add the butter and coconut milk and beat until light and fluffy, on medium speed.
4 Add the egg white mixture in 2 or 3 additions, mixing just to incorporate. Divide the batter among the three pans.
5 Bake for 30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes for 10 minutes in their pans, then turn onto a rack.

6 To prepare the pastry cream, bring the half and half to a simmer in a saucepan.
7 Whisk together the sugar, eggs, egg yolk and flour in a separate bowl.
8 Pour the hot half and half into the bowl in a thin stream, whisking constantly. Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan.
9 Whisk over medium heat until mixture thickens and comes to boil, about 5 minutes. Boil 1 minute. Pour into a bowl, mix in vanilla, and chill in the fridge (give it a few hours to set).
10 Once everything's cool, I like to assemble this cake with the pastry cream in-between the layers, frost with fresh whipped cream, and cover the whole thing with sweetened shredded coconut. YUM

farmer's market fruit crisp

2009-05-30T13:26:00.003-05:00

The farmer's market is open!

Which means now, on SATURDAYS, I rise and dress BEFORE NOON and make my way over to the park to ogle all the goods. Farmer’s markets always play to my Alice Waters fantasies. The potatoes are purple, the tomatoes are striped, it’s all heirloom this and heirloom that, there are baskets of fancy squash I’ve never seen before, and the people are happy and everyone is socializing and talking with the farmers, and the dogs are smiling, and all I can think about is all the fabulous dinner parties I’m going to have! And all the delicious healthful sustaining dishes I will cook for my friends!

And then I return with enough food to feed four people for the week. And wonder what the hell I’m going to do with it all.

The answer: I cook big pans of stuff, and pawn it off on my coworkers. My favorite is this fruit crisp. It’s super, super easy to put together, incredibly versatile, and will make people fall in love with you. Forever. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I added very little sugar because the peaches were so ripe, but you can add as little or as much as you like, depending on how tart your fruit is and how sweet you want the end result to be. I like to eat mine for breakfast with some greek yogurt, so I keep it on the low-sugar side, but for dessert (warm, with vanilla ice cream of course) you might want it sweeter.

Farmer’s Market Fruit Crisp
(adapted from Cooking Light’s Cherry Crisp recipe)

Filling
1 pint blackberries
4-5 ripe peaches, cut into pieces
Sugar to taste (anywhere from 2 tbsp to 1/3 cup)
1/4 c. cornstarch
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

Topping
1/2 c. whole wheat flour (about 2.25 oz)
1/2 c. rolled oats
1/4-1/2 c. brown sugar
pinch of salt
6 tbsp chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 c. chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

1 Preheat oven to 375.
2 Combine filling ingredients in a large bowl and toss. Spoon mixture into a tart pan or baking dish coated with cooking spray.
3 Combine flour, oats, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Cut in chilled butter with a pastry blender or a couple knives until the mixture is crumbly.
4 Spread topping over fruit and bake for 45-50 minutes, until topping is golden brown and fruit is bubbly.

the. best. frozen. yogurt. ever.

2009-01-13T20:23:00.004-06:00

MAKE THIS IMMEDIATELY. You're welcome.

CHRISTMAS BAKING

2008-12-15T08:59:00.014-06:00

Internet, this is what I've been up to for the past two months:

My "Christmas card" for this year... little boxes full of tasty stuff. It was tough to find a recipe that would taste good, look cute AND ship well, but I think I finally did. They're even vegan.

Vegan Peppermint Brownies
(adapted from Vivacious Vegan)

1/2 cup canola or grapeseed oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup unsweetened soymilk
1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly oil an 8-inch square glass pan.
2 In a large bowl whisk together the oil, maple syrup, soy milk, vanilla and peppermint.
3 Combine flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.
4 Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and mix until just blended.
5 Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Vegan Ginger Bars

3/4 cup non-hydrogenated vegan margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg replacer or 2 tbsp mashed silken tofu
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
pinch of cardamom
pinch of nutmeg
zest of 1/4 orange
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup molasses
3 tbsp water

1 Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly oil an 8-inch glass pan.
2 Cream margarine with sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg replacer and citrus zest.
3 Combine flour, baking soda, spices and salt in a small bowl. Add dry ingredients to margarine mixture and mix until just blended. Mix in molasses and water.
4 Spread in prepared pan. Bake 28-30 minutes or until batter begins to pull away from edges and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Decorating the Bars

I wanted these to look special, so before decorating I cut them into circles with a small biscuit cutter. This also means you get to eat the scraps. Now you know how unbelievably smart I am.

For the peppermint brownies, I spread a little melted chocolate on the top of each one and then covered it in crushed candy canes.

For the ginger bars, I first made candied orange peel (Giada de Laurentiis has a great recipe for it), and glued each piece on with a little dot of (store-bought! shh, don't tell) icing.

See? Easy. and FANCY.

chai spice layer cake with cinnamon whipped cream

2008-11-07T08:57:00.011-06:00

The delicious taste of Christmas in your mouth.

Chai Spice Layer Cake with Cinnamon Whipped Cream

For the cake
6 chai tea bags
1/2 cup boiling water
4 oz (8 tbsp, 1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup canola or grapeseed oil
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

For the cream cheese filling
1 block cream cheese
1/2 block silken tofu, drained
Sifted confectioner's sugar, to taste

For the frosting
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp confectioner's sugar, sifted
1 tsp cinnamon

To prepare the cake:

-Preheat the oven to 350 F.
-Butter the inside of the cake pan and dust with flour.
-Place the tea bags in a medium bowl. Pour the boiling water over the tea bags and leave to steep for 5 minutes.
-Remove the tea bags and cool the tea in the fridge.
-Cream the butter, brown sugar, and 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar. Add the oil and the cooled tea.
-Sift together the flour, spices, baking soda, and salt.
-Alternately add the dry ingredients with the buttermilk to the butter mixture in 4 stages, starting and ending with dry ingredients.
-Whip the egg whites in a clean, grease-free bowl until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and whip until soft peaks form. Gradually, working on medium-high speed add the rest 1/4 cup sugar, beating well after each addition. Whip until the whites hold glossy and firm, but not stiff, peaks.
-Gently fold the whipped whites into the batter in 3 to 4 stages.
-Transfer the cake batter to the prepared pan. Using a rubber spatula even the top. Bake for 1hr 5 to 1hr 15 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Make the filling

Beat the drained tofu with cream cheese until smooth. Begin adding the sifted powdered sugar, tasting as you go until it's as sweet as you want it.

Make the frosting

Combine cream, sifted powdered sugar, and cinnamon in a chilled mixing bowl. Whisk on medium-high speed until it's a good, spreadable consistency.

Assembly

When the cake has cooled COMPLETELY, cut into two layers with a serrated knife. Spread the cream cheese mixture on top of the first layer, and top with the second layer. Frost with the whipped cream.

Note: I added candied pecans to this cake, which are super easy to make:

Combine 1/2 cup of pecans with 1/3 cup of granulated sugar in a pan over medium heat. Stir over the heat until the sugar melts and coat the pecans. Remove from the heat and cool. After they're cool, they will be easy to break apart. (Don't try to do this until they're COMPLETELY cool, or you will burn the living hell out of your fingers.)

halloween ghost cupcakes

2008-11-01T19:45:00.009-05:00

cute as hell halloween cupcakes. the pumpkin plus chocolate might not be for everyone, but they would be equally good with nuts subbed for the chocolate chips and a cream cheese frosting.

this recipe made about three dozen cupcakes and enough ganache to frost them all:

martha stewart's graveyard cake

and two egg whites will give you about twelve ghosts:

spooky ghost meringues from 101 cookbooks

note: if you don't have cream of tartar (i didn't), a squirt of lemon juice will work as well.

happy halloween!

Baby Cassata

2008-09-25T10:35:00.016-05:00

Cassata Alla Siciliana, by Tartelette: sponge cake layered with a ricotta/pistachio/bittersweet chocolate filling and frosted with fresh whipped cream.

brown sugar and jam cake

2008-09-10T07:50:00.004-05:00

from 101 cookbooks.

jam cookies from 101 cookbooks

2008-08-19T06:41:00.003-05:00

butter heaven from 101 cookbooks.

love sweat cupcakes

2008-07-09T22:21:00.000-05:00

no one else seems to think that name is as funny as i do, but that's ok. people just don't get me, man.

really, these cupcakes are the flourless ancho chili cupcakes from vanilla garlic, but i felt a renaming was in order for my own amusement. they are a delicious, gooey cake that's all chocolate and whipped cream (the love), with just a dash of chili powder (the sweat, of course).

they're also wheat-free, which is nice if you, like me, have a friend who can't eat wheat and thus usually misses out on all the good things in life like bread, cake, and chocolate-covered pretzels.

the recipe is pretty straightforward, but a couple tips before you go on:

to get a nice whip from your egg whites, be sure they're at room temp and your bowl and utensils are squeaky clean. if you mistakenly get a bit of yolk in your whites when you're separating them, just fish it out with a clean spoon or bit of eggshell. start on low speed and gradually bring it up-- patience!

these cakes will end up with big ol sinkholes in the middle (no flour), but that's ok, that and the crackliness are part of the charm, in my opinion. if it bugs you, you could level off the top and cover the whole shebang with frosting.

love sweat cupcakes
recipe from vanilla garlic

8 oz. semisweet chocolate (i used Ghirardelli, 60% cacao)
3/4 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c. sugar
4 eggs, separated, room temperature
2 1/2 tablespoons of ancho chili powder
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the chocolate with the butter.
Beat the egg yolks with half of the sugar until light and creamy.
Fold in the melted butter and chocolate mixture to the egg mixture. Fold in the ancho chili and the salt.
Beat egg whites until frothy; gradually add the remaining sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.
Fold in the beaten egg whites to the chocolate mixture.
Spoon into cupcake papers. Bake at 350 degrees until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 30 minutes.

for the whipped cream: stir together 1 cup heavy whipping cream, a couple spoonfuls of superfine sugar, and a dash of vanilla extract. chill the mixture, the bowl, and beaters for at least 30 minutes. whip until fluffy and voluminous! when stiff peaks form, you're done-- taste and make sure there's enough sugar/vanilla.

thin mints

2008-07-09T20:34:00.001-05:00

that damn DQ commercial has been running during my scrubs episodes, and it's got me craving thin mints. BAD.

Heidi Swanson to the rescue! She has a wonderful + delicious all-natural thin mint recipe in her cookbook Super Natural Cooking as well as on her blog, 101 cookbooks.

make them. put them in the freezer. eat them with ice cream. now.

an attempt at fourth of july cupcakes

2008-07-04T16:37:00.000-05:00

i had big plans in my head for my new kitchen-aid mixer. big plans. two kinds of filled cupcakes: blueberry-lemon, and raspberry-ginger, both with whipped cream on top. and little blue & red stars, of course.

well, plans go awry, we leave our most important ingredients at work, and then our caffeine-withdrawal-induced zombie state leads us to forget them a second time at the store, and we have to make do.

fortunately, it is very hard to make sugar + butter + blueberries taste bad, and so i bring you: lemon blueberry cupcakes. (i'm saving the raspberry-ginger ones for another, more prepared day.)

lemon blueberry cupcakes with raspberry whipped cream

adapted from the basic vanilla cupcake at joy of baking

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (i actually forgot this, and they tasted ok, but you prepared types should leave it in)
Zest of 1 large lemon (or a generous squirt of lemon juice, to taste- added at the very end only, keep it away from the milk)
1 1/2 cups (210 grams) all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (60 ml) milk
6 oz. frozen blueberries

1 cup heavy whipping cream
couple handfuls frozen raspberries
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or some vanilla bean scrapings
1 tbsp superfine or caster sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and lightly butter or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

For the Cupcakes: Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Fold in the blueberries. (I tried to cook them with some jam and turn them into a filling, but it ended up just mixing with the batter anyway, so save yourself the trouble and just dump them in now. Tastes just as good.)

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

For the whipped cream: Thaw the raspberries in a fine mesh strainer over a bowl. Once they're thawed, smoosh them through the strainer and discard the seeds and especially pulpy stuff that's left over.

While the raspberries are thawing, stir together the cream, sugar, and vanilla, and chill mixture, bowl, & beaters all together for at least 30 minutes.

Whip until soft peaks form, then slowly add the raspberry puree. Taste and add more sugar if needed.

When stiff peaks form, frost your (completely cooled!) cupcakes. Try and fail not to eat the rest of the whipped cream with a spoon.

HELL YES

2008-07-03T22:00:00.000-05:00

I HAVE A KITCHEN-AID MIXER. IT COST ME EIGHTY DOLLARS.

i haven't used it yet. but i hear you can buy an ice cream maker attachment, and i am already dreaming of this. there is nothing like tangy, real yogurt-y frozen yogurt. i love frozen yogurt almost as much as i love cake.

almost.

double-decker chocolate-cherry destruction

2008-06-27T15:27:00.001-05:00

so-named because this was the aftermath:

i take great pride in that.

other suggested names if you make it yourself: Chocolate-Euphoria Cake; Way Better Than Sex Cake; PMS Rampage Cake.

i made two layers, stacked them together with a thin layer of cherry preserves in-between (though ganache would be just as delicious), and covered the whole thing with a bittersweet chocolate glaze. sadly, the cakes sank quite a bit in the middle while baking, which i'm told can be due to about eight hundred different small things that might have gone wrong before it went in the oven, or even just the oven itself not being the right temperature. fortunately, it still looked (and tasted) delicious, though a bit lopsided:

here's the recipe. it's adapted from one of my favorite cake recipes ever, and features whole wheat pastry flour. i used regular sugar for the final product, but had success with an agave syrup substitution too. it'll be a slightly different consistency (denser, and a little moister), but i actually didn't reduce the other liquids at all and it still turned out ok. just reduce the amount of syrup a bit as it's sweeter than sugar.

chocolate-cherry destruction cake
(makes two layers)

cakes:
4 oz unsweetened chocolate (I used Ghirardelli, but if you really wanted to make it special you could go with something nicer)
2.5 cups sifted organic whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened at room temperature
2.5 cups sugar (or about 1 1/3 cups agave syrup)
4 eggs
3 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
1 1b. sweet cherries, pitted (reserve a few for garnish)
cherry preserves
chocolate glaze:
12 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) chocolate chips
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon agave syrup (you could also use 1.5 tablespoons of corn syrup or honey)
bake it:
Preheat the oven to 375. Grease and flour two 9” cake pans.
Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.
Melt the chocolate and then allow it to cool slightly. Be careful to not allow it to harden.
Beat the butter and sugar for two minutes. Add the eggs and beat for an additional two minutes. Beat in the vanilla and cooled chocolate.
Gradually stir in the sifted flour mixture in approximate thirds, alternating with the sour cream.
Fold in the pitted cherries, and pour the batter into the pans.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
assemble it:
make the glaze: stir chocolate, butter, and syrup over low heat until smooth. cool glaze until lukewarm but still pourable.
cover the bottom cake layer with a thin layer of cherry preserves.
stack cakes and pour the glaze on top, in the middle. spread out over top and sides.
refrigerate until glaze is set a bit, then add the remaining cherries and whatever other decorations you have. i added some chocolate shavings as well.
put the whole thing back in the fridge to finish setting, then take it out about an hour before it's to be served.