Hello Lover....

Yes, I too have fallen. It took coaxing, but now I am hooked. I fear I will not be able to live without it. So, so wonderful. I look forward to our time spent together.

Butter Pecan Clown Cake

I am taking a Wilton cake decorating class and as all good students do in Lesson 3, I made a clown cake. You can't see the whole cake here, but this picture is the top before it was totally done. I'm still in new blog mode and forget to take pictures. I added more balloons and balloons to the side.

The cake itself is from the Taste of Home website, but I cut the recipe in half which still made one pretty tall 9" layer, especially when I cut it in half and filled it with buttercream. The flavor was pretty good, not a real sweet cake, more like a nut cake, which went well with the sweet buttercream.

I used a different buttercream than the Wilton one, since I don't like the way it tastes. My recipe is below. You can find the cake recipe here.

BUTTERCREAM ICING (makes a medium consistency icing)

1 cup shortening

1 cup butter (salted or unsalted)- softened

1/3 cup hot water

1 Tbl powdered coffee creamer

1 tsp popcorn salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

1 tsp butter extract

8 cups powdered sugar

Using a stand-up mixer, cream together the butter and shortening until nice and fluffy. Measure out the water in a standard measuring cup and dissolve the creamer, the salt in this water. Add the extracts to the cup. Stir well with a spoon.Turn your mixer speed to the lowest possible setting and add in the powdered sugar slowly. Alternate back and forth with the water mixture. Keep the mixer on low until all liquid and powdered sugar are combined. Once combined, turn the mixer up a notch and mix well. Approximately 2-3 minutes.

Not a Good Cake

OHHH! Tomorrow, Tax Day, is Mark's birthday. His favorite is Duncan Hines Chocolate Cake with my Aunt Mary's Almond frosting. A hit every time.
Of course, as I am wont to do, I decided to make a cake from scratch. The only chocolate cake I ever made from scratch before is Famous Chocolate Cake. We loved the rich, moist cake, but I made it with ganache frosting and it was over the top sweet. So I guess I thought it would be too rich for the frosting and I would try another.
I decided to try Martha Stewart's Luscious Chocolate Cake. It baked up as planned and looked very pretty when iced. Mark couldn't wait until tomorrow to cut it, so tonight we had early b-day cake.
Gotta say, we were really disappointed. The cake itself is not a moist cake, but more like a bakery cake from the grocery store. Not at all what I wanted. Not a cake I will make again. Thinking 'bout pitching the whole thing and starting over!
I will however try my frosting with the famous choc. cake one day. And keep searching for the perfect chocolate cake for my icing.

Chicken in Mushroom Wine sauce

I picked up a package of cut up chicken at the store and had lofty goals. I was gonna make cattiatore. Sometimes you think you are gonna make a dish and when it comes time to get down to business, you find that maybe you want something different. That's how it was today. I didn't want any tomato taste.
So, after looking at recipes for awhile and not finding anything that was exactly what I wanted to do, this it what I came up with. Pretty darn tasty!

Chicken in Red Wine Mushroom Sauce
1 Chicken cut into pieces, skin removed
(I used only Breasts, Thighs and Legs- freeze the rest for another time)
1 lg onion - sliced
1/2 to 3/4 lb fresh mixed variety mushrooms
1 cup dry red wine
1-2 cloves of garlic -minced
Seasoned salt to taste

In a large fry pan (or large heavy bottomed pot) I put about 1 T of bacon grease (or you could use the oil of choice). When the oil is hot, place the chicken in the pan to brown on both sides.

Meanwhile in a saucepan, place the wine and boil 15 or so min until reduced by at least 1/2.

While the wine is cooking, go back to the chicken and continue to cook on low/medium heat until chicken is golden and lightly browned. Add the onions and mushrooms to the pot, pushing to fill the spaces between the chicken and to cover the chicken. Add the garlic.
When the wine is reduced to your liking, pour it over the chicken and mushrooms. Continue to cook about 25 min more until chicken is cooked through and mushrooms and onion are soft.
I cooked until the sauce was very reduced.
Place chicken on a platter, top with the mushrooms and onion and serve.

Daring Bakers Make Dorie's Cake

Wow! My first Daring Bakers challenge completed! I am proud to be a part of the group, now over 1,000 strong, started by Lis and Ivonne. Reading other blogs posting about these Daring Bakers got me interested in finding out more. So I signed up for the group and thought- what the heck- might as well start blogging instead of having someone else doing the work of posting about my exploits in the group. Which lead me to thinking that maybe blogging was a good idea also in the fact that I would have a record of what and when I made something to refer back to.
The challenge for March - picked by the host of the month, Morven - was Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake. It's a very pretty lemon cake layered with hot meringue buttercream frosting and raspberry jam. It is a visually beautiful cake. For some reason in the past, I have shied away from recipes that called for egg whites or yolks. Maybe its lack of time, for separating eggs is easy, but sometimes the recipes that call to do that step are a little more involved. But the cake itself was a cinch to make and is light and lightly lemony in flavor. The frosting is very rich and buttery. I took the cake to work, where our office of 6 left just a quarter of the cake to bring home.When I told Mark of the cake I was baking, he claimed that because he didn't like jelly donuts, he wouldn't like the raspberry part. (Hmm- took me 26 years to find that out!) The raspberry layer does make the cake a very appealing sight, with the contrast of the red against the white cake. But to make him happy, I used lemon curd in place of the raspberry, and the cake was very yummy with an extra lemon kick.I would use the cake recipe again in a heartbeat, but personally the frosting was not to my liking. Maybe it was the thought of the 3 sticks of butter in it, but I would have liked a lighter frosting. I may be in the minority, cuz at work they liked the play of the rich frosting and the lighter cake. I would like to try the hot meringue idea without all the butter.

PERFECT PARTY CAKE
Courtesy of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours (page 250).

Words from Dorie
Stick a bright-coloured Post-it to this page, so you’ll always know where to turn for a just-right cake for any celebration. The original recipe was given to me by my great dear friend Nick Malgieri, of baking fame, and since getting it, I’ve found endless opportunities to make it – you will too. The cake is snow white, with an elegant tight crumb and an easygoing nature: it always bakes up perfectly; it is delicate on the tongue but sturdy in the kitchen – no fussing when it comes to slicing the layers in half or cutting tall, beautiful wedges for serving; and, it tastes just as you’d want a party cake to taste – special. The base recipe is for a cake flavoured with lemon, layered with a little raspberry jam and filled and frosted with a classic (and so simple) pure white lemony hot-meringue buttercream but, because the elements are so fundamental, they lend themselves to variation (see Playing Around), making the cake not just perfect, but also versatile.

For the Cake
2 ½ cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut

Getting Ready
Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Buttercream
Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.
The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.
Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.
During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla.
You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake
Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half.
Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.
Spread it with one third of the preserves.
Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream.
Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover).
Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top.
Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Serving
The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing
The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.

Playing Around
Since lemon is such a friendly flavour, feel free to make changes in the preserves: other red preserves – cherry or strawberry – look especially nice, but you can even use plum or blueberry jam.

You can view all the Daring Bakers' Party Cakes here.

Spaghetti Sauce w/Olives

A few weeks ago we went to one of out favorite Italian restaurants, Stino DaNapoli. I had Lasagna Alla Meridionale and Mark had Linguine Alla Posillipo. Mark especially liked his meal, the sauce in particular, so I thought I would try to see how close a version I could make myself. We both thought the sauce had the flavor of olives. I came pretty close, with maybe the only change would be pureeing the olives instead of a fine chop.

Spaghetti Sauce with Olives

2 Tbl. olive oil
1 1/4 cups mixed olives, pitted and finely minced (or pureed)
1 c. chopped onion
1 celery rib, chopped
2 T chopped garlic
1/4 t basil
1/8 t oregano
1/4 t garlic salt
1 lg can crushed tomatoes
1/4 tablespoon red pepper flakes, plus more if desired

Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan. Add onion and celery, cook a few minutes then add garlic and olives (if minced-if you puree them add them later with the tomatoes). Cook a few minutes more then add the spices, then tomatoes and pepper flakes, then the salt. Bring to a low boil and turn heat down to simmer for a bout 15 minutes.

Impossible Bacon Pie

This recipe has been one of my family's standards ever since the kids were little. Impossible pies were quite popular back in the 80's and with good reason. They are really quick and easy to make and it takes little effort to put a comforting meal on the table. The basis of the pies is Bisquick, but feel free to use your favorite baking mix. There are many "Impossible" recipes to choose from, some are main dish, some are dessert.
This is a good recipe for any meal of the day; we serve it mostly at dinner.

Impossible Bacon Pie
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 10 inch quiche pan or pie plate with cooking spray.

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
12 strips crisped bacon, crumbled
1/4 cup onion or green onion
Layer these 3 items in the pie plate.

1 cup Baking mix
2 cups milk
4 eggs
1/8 t salt
1/8 t pepper
Whisk these 5 items together in a bowl till well blended and pour over the ingredients in the pie plate. Place in oven and bake for 35-43 minutes. Remove from oven and let set for 5 minutes, then serve.