Danish Braid a la Daring Bakers

I'm going to start out by saying right off that baking with yeast is not my favorite thing to do. Oh I have made bread in a bread machine with no problem. But this recipe for the June challenge, chosen by our hosts, Kelly of Sass and Veracity and Ben of What's Cooking started out scary because you do not proof the yeast. And it appears to be a recipe that requires patience, of which I have none. This recipe calls for making a dough, laminated with a butter block. No, I have not had the pleasure before.
I made my danish on a Saturday and baked it for a Sunday breakfast. I made the dough recipe as written. It gave me a chance to try my mortar and pestle that my friend Kim picked up for me during an Ikea trip. I opened the cardamon pods and tried to crush the seeds but couldn't get them fine enough so I used my coffee grinder first and then used the mortar and pestle. I didn't have an orange left in my fridge like I thought, so I used water and orange extract instead of orange juice and zest. I had a little fun incorporating the butter into the dough, because it actually seemed to come together like it was supposed to! I did sneek little unbaked bits and it seemed tasty enough.
For my filling I used 8 oz of cream cheese, 1 egg and 1/2 cup sugar. Next time if I fill with cream cheese I will double the filling as it seemed not enough for our tastes.
I think I may have voodooed the dough into not rising to my satisfaction or maybe I was hasty and baked too soon. I also think my dough could have used more flavoring, but maybe more filling would help. I have the second slab of danish dough in my freezer to try again later. I'l try to be more patient!
Daring Bakers are such a fun group. Always something to learn and stretch our cooking skills. Anyway, you can find the long recipe at the hosts' blogs.

Berry Trifle

I needed a quick dessert for a get together and had no time to bake. ACK! Well, I turned to a solution that many have done before me- a berry trifle.
I forgot I even had a trifle bowl, until I came across it recently while I was searching my cupboards for something else! It used to belong to my mother and I have never used it.
This dessert is light and fairly low in calories compared to others. Fresh berries are layered with angel food cake and sweetened whipped cream. (In my haste, I overbeat the whipped cream.) Calories can be cut further by using a low calorie whipped topping.

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

My father in law is a big PUSD cake fan. So for Father's Day, I baked these cute little cupcakes for our cookout. They are great for a small taste!
My silicone cupcake pan worked great for this recipe. I used this recipe from Crazy Cupcake for the topping, but since I was also making 4 other kinds of cupcakes for the cookout, I used a boxed yellow cake for the cake part.
Sometimes I really think you can't tell it's from a box, depending on what recipe you are doing. Especially with this recipe, since the topping sinks into the cake somewhat.

My first "Wedding" Cake

My friends, Barbara and Gary were married in a small ceremony at our church last week. We were having our Bible study tonight and it is the first one since their wedding so we had dinner at Gene's home. My contribution was the celebration cake!
I wish I would have taken a picture of the cut cake. I layered my Madagasgar Vanilla Bourbon buttercream inside with fresh strawberries, so it was very pretty. Apparently very tasty, too. All the men had 2 pieces each! :D I love it when that happens.
I used a new cake recipe that I found. It is a cake mix based recipe called White Almond Sour Cream Cake. You can find the recipe here. I used a new recipe for the buttercream icing also. All in all a perfect combination which I am certain I will use again and again. The cake is tasty and perfect in texture for a wedding cake. It can also be flavored differently if you wish. The icing is now my favorite to use for decorating- not too sweet, but just sweet enough with a light butter flavor.
Best Wishes to the newlyweds!

Golly Gee I've been Tagged!

Tag- I'm it! ;)
I have been tagged for my first meme by Renee of Cafe NayNay! Dang, it has been many years since I've actually played tag and this version means when you are tagged you answer a few questions about yourself. It's a good way to learn a little about our fellow bloggers.

The rules: Each participant answers questions about himself. At the end of the post the participant tags 5 people. Their names are posted letting them know they’ve been tagged. They then have to read the participant’s blog. The tagged let’s the tagger know when he’s posted his answers. Here we go!

What was I doing ten years ago?
Hmm 10 years ago 1998.... oldest daughter was 15 and involved in travel softball and youngest was 13 and playing rec league softball, so we were sitting at lots of softball games! We lived in our previous house in the same town and I worked in the same place I do now.

What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:
Laundry!
Call the cable company to fix my bill they screwed up.
Call my Dentist.
Plan a cake I have to make for a wedding party for some friends.
Plan our Father's Day picnic.

Five Snacks I enjoy:
Bugles
I LOVE greasy potato chips, but try not to eat them or keep them in my house.
Sour Cherry Jolly Ranchers
Heavily Buttered popcorn.
Utz Special Dark Pretzels (which, alas, I can not get where I live)

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Sell our home, move to the mountains near a lake, travel, give some money to family and charity.



Places I have lived:
Northern Ohio
Asheville, NC
Henderson, NC


Jobs I have had:
I grew up working in my dad's grocery.
First real job was folding sheets in a hotel laundry.
Bank Teller
Retail Dept Store
Police Dept Records Clerk
Respiratory Therapist (til we moved in 1983 and the only hospital was 50 miles away- now there are so many opportunities in other venues.)
Insurance Mgr/Lasik Coordinator @ Optometrist's Office

I tag:
Michelle of Cleveland Foodie
Prudence of Glass Slipper Cakery
Pei Lin from Mrs Ergül in the Kitchen
Laura of LOR in the Kitchen
Bunny from Bunny's Warm Oven

Wilton Course 2 Finale- Banana Cupcakes

Ha Ha Had to post my cake! It actually came out not looking TOO bad.
I baked a banana cake and had to use class buttercream to ice it. I was burned out on chocolate and decided to make banana, but Mark hates bananas so I made just a little cake to decorate. But I chose to make a 3 layer 4 inch cake and make cupcakes to take to work. Yes there are 4 inch cake pans. HeHe So cute. The cake is pictured above.
Anyway, Mark told me no one would eat nasty banana cupcakes. He thinks no one likes banana. Of course he was wrong. I iced the cupcakes with buttercream I made using the recipe from the Opera cake, but flavored with bourbon vanilla. Fantastic! I took a dozen cuppies to work and brought home the empty container! Everyone had more than one! The cupcake and the buttercream combo was really a winner. Here are the recipes.
Banana Cupcakes

1 (18.25 oz.) box yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 oz.) box instant banana pudding
4 eggs
1 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup mashed banana
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with papers.
2. In a large bowl combine cake mix and pudding mix. Stir together and create a well in the center.
3. Add eggs, banana, water and oil to the center. Use a mixer to combine. Scrape sides down, and mix for about four minutes on medium speed.
4. Pour batter into muffin tin, until about 2/3 filled with batter.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until tests done.

French Buttercream

2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
½ cup (60 grams) water
1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1¾ cups (7 ounces; 200 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
flavouring of your choice (a tablespoon of an extract, a few tablespoons of melted white chocolate, citrus zest, etc.) I used Madagasgar Bourbon Vanilla.
Combine the sugar, water and vanilla bean seeds or extract in a small saucepan and warm over medium heat just until the sugar dissolves.Continue to cook, without stirring, until the syrup reaches 225^◦F (124^◦C) on a candy or instant-read thermometer. Once it reaches that temperature, remove the syrup from the heat.While the syrup is heating, begin whisking the egg and egg yolk at high speed in the bowl of your mixer using the whisk attachment. Whisk them until they are pale and foamy.

When the sugar syrup reaches the correct temperature and you remove it from the heat, reduce the mixer speed to low speed and begin slowly (very slowly) pouring the syrup down the side of the bowl being very careful not to splatter the syrup into the path of the whisk attachment.
Raise the speed to medium-high and continue beating until the eggs are thick and satiny and the mixture is cool to the touch (about 5 minutes or so).While the egg mixture is beating, place the softened butter in a bowl and mash it with a spatula until you have a soft creamy mass. With the mixer on medium speed, begin adding in two-tablespoon chunks. When all the butter has been incorporated, raise the mixer speed to high and beat until the buttercream is thick and shiny. At this point add in your flavouring and beat for an additional minute or so.Refrigerate the buttercream, stirring it often, until it’s set enough (firm enough) to spread when topped with a layer of cake (about 20 minutes). Note-This buttercream will not hold up well in warm weather.

Daring Bakers go to the Opera!

A few months ago, in the wintertime, I was searching food blogs for something interesting to eat and stumbled upon a post of one of the Daring Bakers. The DB's started as "just a lovely group of ladies who enjoyed baking the same recipe together, as written, and then showing off our finished delights to each other and the rest of the "blogosphere"". ( It has expanded to include men and women from all over the world!) Hmm -I thought this sounded like a way to increase my baking skills and have fun at the same time. Right I was! But little did I know that all too soon I would get to actaully co-host the challenge for May as one of the "newbies". YYYYIpppppEEEEE!
So- this month's challenge is hosted by the the 2 founders of DB, Lis and Ivonne, along with myself and Shea (fellow lucky newbie!).

The Daring Bakers challenge for May is Opera Cake. Opera Cake traditionally is a joconde (cake) of Paris origin flavored with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache. Our recipe uses light colors and flavors. After much back and forth, I chose to make a coconut version.
We decided to lighten up the cake to reflect partly the time of year, but also to honor those battling cancer for their perseverance. I have a good friend and former neighbor, Cheryl, who is dealing with what began as colon cancer, but has since advanced to other areas. Also, Barbara at Winos and Foodies for has impressed many with her courage.
At first glance, it looks like this recipe is gonna be another all day show. But actually, it was pretty easy! I broke it down into parts to make it even more simple. One night I made the syrup. No problems there, simple as boiling water! The next night I made the buttercream (coconut was my flavor of choice). I got kind of a late start do the the fact that I was putzing around and my butter was frozen. I got started cooking and set to beating my eggs.

Whoops, I let the syrup get slightly higher than 225 degrees. Oh well, keep on plugging through and SLOWLY pour the hot syrup into the egg mixture. All seemed well, except when I stopped beating I had some strings of egg on the whisk even though I was very careful to pour it down the side of the bowl. So I pull off the strings and continue on to step 5, but this is taking longer than 5 minutes, with no sign of cooling down. So I elect to give it some help.
I hold a bowl of ice under the mixer bowl for a few minutes and that works well to cool it down.
I add the butter and beat it in.
But then I tasted it. Holy moly- this has to be some of the tastiest buttercream I have ever had. Coconut buttercream crack!! Hope it lasts to put in the cake.
The next day, it's time to tackle the baking the joconde. Quite a lot of eggs to crack. My jelly roll pans are a tad small, 10x15, so I make a 4" springform with the extra batter. All goes well, and the cakes bake up quickly, a little longer than 7 minutes (check pan size) as the center took longer to set. I lay them on the counter to cool as stated in the recipe.
I had no real issues assembling the cake. I layered as the recipe stated, but added some coconut flakes on top of the second buttercream. But when it comes time to make the white chocolate glaze, I decide , due to my family's objections, to not glaze the cake as stated, except for my little round cake. I finished the top of my square cake with more buttercream. I added a little raspberry syrup on the plate for presentation.
The finished Opera cake is pretty tasty, I should have used a little more syrup brushed on the layers, but I was afraid it would be too soggy. The layers are impressive and look pretty when cut. Of course the buttercream is beyond fabulous.
If you would like a copy of the recipe, please email me- it is 7 pages long!