Eggnog Gingerbread Tart

The garnish on these tarts is my favorite part. They are darling to look at and surprisingly easy to make. The hardest part is messing up two mixing bowls: one for the vanilla cookie batter and one for the chocolate.

Bake just a few - like three or four - cookies at a time. When they come out of the oven, drape them over something lickety-split. I put them on two wooden spoons. I wanted the banner cookies to have a gentle drape and give the suggestion of them blowing in a light wind.


Gingerbread Sable Tarts (recipe from here)

- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
- 3 teaspoons ground ginger (adjust spices based on your personal preference)
- 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons dark molasses + raw rice or beans for weighting the crust

1. Using the paddle attachment, lightly cream together butter, sugar, vanilla and molasses in a mixing bowl.

2. Scrape down sides and add egg and mix until combined. Sift flour and spices together, and add to the mixture just until incorporated. Do not over mix or you will end up with a tough dough.

3. Bring dough together on a lightly flour dusted surface. Divide the dough into two, shape into disks, and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least half hour before you move on to the next steps. You can freeze the dough for up to two months if you want to use it at a later time.

4. To roll out the dough: sandwich the dough between two pieces of parchment paper (or plastic wrap), and roll out to 1/8″ thick. Make sure that your dough is rolled out enough to fit the size of your tart pan. The dough should be used as soon as it has been rolled out.

5. Mold your pastry into your tart pan and refrigerate– refrigerating the dough prior to baking guards against excessive shrinking during baking. Using a fork, gently prick the bottom of the dough. Be careful not to fully puncture the dough or else any fillings might leak through. Refrigerate for 15 minutes, while your oven preheats to 350′F

6. Line tart with parchment paper (or cupcake liners if they fit), and fill with dried beans, rice, or pie weights. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove the shells from the oven, allow to cool for 3-5 minutes and remove the parchment paper and beans. Return to the oven for 8-10 minutes to fully bake the base.

Filling (recipe from here)
Just so you know, this recipe calls for instant vanilla pudding. I know. Me, too. I tried this filling recipe first, with its 7 egg yolks and sheets of gelatin. The result was a chewy filling. I don't know if there is anything more terrifying than chewy filling for a tart.

3/4 cup cold heavy cream
1 cup eggnog
1/2 cup milk
1 box instant vanilla pudding
freshly grated nutmeg

Whip cream until stiff peaks form. Set in refrigerator until ready to use.

Whisk eggnog, milk and instant vanilla pudding together until smooth. Let it thicken 3-5 minutes.

Fold half the whipped cream into eggnog pudding and pour into cooled pie shell. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 or more hours.

Banner Tuiles Recipe by Martha Stewart.

• 7 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 6 large egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups superfine sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• Pinch of salt
• 5 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
• Nonstick cooking spray

Draw a banner onto 12-by-18 inch piece of foam board (I used leftover posterboard from a reading fair project); cut out with a pair of sharp scissors. Set template aside.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat (a French nonstick baking mat) (Good grief, Martha. You can use parchment paper from the Kroger and not an imported kitchen accessory). Coat with cooking spray.

Melt 5 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over low heat; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 4 egg whites and 1 cup superfine sugar; beat on medium 30 seconds. Add 1 cup flour and the salt; mix well. Add melted butter, 3 tablespoons cream, and the almond extract; beat until combined, 1 minute.


Transfer batter to an airtight container; refrigerate until chilled, about 15 minutes.

 Meanwhile, make chocolate batter. For the chocolate batter, in a saucepan over low heat, melt the remaining 2 1/2 tablespoons butter; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine remaining 2 egg whites and 1/2 cup superfine sugar. Beat on medium until combined, about 30 seconds. Add remaining 1/4 cup flour and the cocoa powder; beat well. Pour in melted butter and remaining 2 tablespoons heavy cream. Beat on medium until combined, 1 minute. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a number 1 plain round tip; set aside.

Lay two rolling pins parallel to one another on work surface. Place the foam-board template onto the Silpat. Using an offset spatula, spread the chilled batter onto the template. Lift template, and repeat several more times on the Silpat, wiping the template after each use.

With the chocolate batter, pipe out desired words directly onto banners. Bake four banners at a time, until edges begin to brown, about 6 minutes.

Carefully remove from baking sheet; drape over two rolling pins to form undulating shapes. Remove when cooled, about 2 minutes. Repeat with remaining batters.

Store in a single layer, in an airtight container, until ready to use.

Frozen Peanut Butter Pie

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar
2/3 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup milk
8-9 ounces Cool Whip
Chocolate-cookie pie crust
Peanuts
Reese’s peanut butter cups
Chocolate frosting or syrup

Cream together cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar, and peanut butter. Add milk and fold in Cool Whip.

Pour into the pie crust. Garnish with peanuts, peanut butter cups, and chocolate frosting or syrup. Cover and freeze for at least one hour. Keep frozen.
Very sweet and very rich!

More springtime cookies

It's not hard to beat a good sugar cookie, especially when it's frosted, decorated, and packaged for fun.

I made my favorite sugar cookies (recipe below) and frosted them using the all new icing glaze I came across. Love that icing. Best thing since sliced bread.



Classic Sugar Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
2 3/4 cups sifted flour
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
dash salt

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until fluffy.

Add vanilla, sifted flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate. (Dough can be refrigerated for several days.)

When ready to bake cookies, preheat oven to 350°.

Roll small pieces of dough into balls and place them on an ungreased baking sheet.


Bake cookies for 9 to 11 minutes, or until cookies are just beginning to brown on the edges.

Cool on pan for a minute or two, then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

Now comes the fun part: decorating them with the magical cookie glaze.

Icing Glaze for Cookies

I love to bake rolled cookies. I love decorating them, too.


But I don't really enjoy making royal icing. It's a high maintenance ordeal: one batch to outline and do detail work, another batch to fill the cookies. It seems like a fair amount of trouble.

Plus royal icing doesn't taste good. It doesn't taste bad, exactly, but it's not good, either. It's kind of like fondant in that way: pretty to look at, not so much to eat.

This icing recipe is it. Easy, I mean, super easy. The icing dries hard enough so that cookies can be packaged in cellophane bags or stacked. The color stays true after the cookies dry, too.

1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons milk or water (I used water. I'm always leering of leaving anything that has dairy product out at room temperature for any amount of time.)
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
assorted food coloring

Put the water or milk in a small bowl and gradually add the confectioners' sugar. Stir until smooth. (I had to add another teaspoon or two of water.) Beat in the corn syrup and vanilla until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.

Divide the icing into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity.

Place wire cooking racks over paper towels. Dip cookies into the icing and place the cookies on the wire racks. Any excess icing will drip onto the paper towel.

While the icing is still wet, you can embellish them with sanding sugars and sprinkles. You can spoon a bit of other colors onto the cookie and use a toothpick to swirl the colors around. It makes a marbelized-tie-dyed effect.

The cookies need to dry several hours before they will be hard enough to package or stack.

But you can eat them right away.

Chocolate Brownies with Dried Cherries and Pecans

A day or so before baking, soak 3/4 cup dried Bing cherries, roughly chopped, in 1/3 cup coffee liqueur, such as Khalua

6 (1-ounce) squares of semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1/3 cup chopped pecans, walnuts, or hazelnuts, toasted

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Place the chocolate squares and the butter in large microwaveable bowl. Microwave on high for 2 minutes or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Add sugar; mix well. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, pecans, and cherries until well blended.

Spread into greased 8- or 9-inch square baking pan. Or into a dozen or miniature heart-shaped pans.



Bake 22 to 25 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. (Do not overbake.) Cool in pan on wire rack.

You can melt a handful of candy disks in a zip-top bag in the microwave, snip off one corner with a pair of scissors, and drizzle over the brownies.



These make neat teachers' gifts: put a brownie heart, drizzled or no, in a clear plastic bag, tie with ribbon, and attach a little card. This won't happen at our house until sometime Sunday, otherwise I'd post a picture.

Espresso Chocolate Shortbread

Recipe by Dorie Greenspan
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon boiling water
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (plain, or a toffee variety), finely chopped, or 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional)

1. Dissolve the espresso in the boiling water, and set aside to cool to tepid.

2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and confectioners’ sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in the vanilla and espresso, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it disappears into the dough. Don’t work the dough much once the flour is incorporated. Fold in the chopped chocolate with a sturdy rubber spatula.

3. Using the spatula, transfer the soft, sticky dough to a gallon-size zipper-lock plastic bag. Put the bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9 x 10 1/2 inch rectangle that’s 1/4 inch thick. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it doesn’t cause creases. When you get the right size and thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or for up to 2 days.

4. Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

5. Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the firm dough out onto the board (discard the bag) and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch squares. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets and carefully prick each one twice with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies until they hit the sheet.

6. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The shortbreads will be very pale–they shouldn’t take on much color. Transfer the cookies to a rack.

7. If you’d like, dust the cookies with confectioners’ sugar while they are still hot. Cool the cookies to room temperature before serving.

Makes 32 cookies

Miniature Pumpkin Pies with Streusel Topping and Vanilla Buttercream

I made these for the bridal shower. They were a hit, the little pockets of creamy pumpkin topped with crunchy brown-sugary goodness. I really liked them, especially since they could be made ahead of time. All I had to do the morning of the shower was pop them in the preheated oven.

Thinking about the holidays: A batch of these, frozen, would make a great gift for someone who likes to entertain. She could stash them in her freezer and have on hand for last-minute guests.

For the miniature pies:

refrigerated pie pastry, homemade or purchased; I don't judge
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 egg whites

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Roll the pastry dough to about 1/4-inch thickness. Using a round cookie cutter, cut 2.5- or 3-inch circles and press into miniature muffin tins. (I can't remember if I greased them or not. Maybe I sprayed them with Pam.)

In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks. Stir in the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. In a large glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold into pumpkin mixture.

Fill each pastry-lined muffin cup about 1/2 to 2/3 with the pumpkin mixture.

To bake and freeze for later:
Cover with freezer-grade aluminum foil and freeze. To bake, remove from freezer and bake without thawing as directed below.

To bake and enjoy now:
Bake for about 8 minutes, remove from oven, and top with the streusel mixture:

Streusel topping:
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoon butter, chilled
1 cup chopped, roasted pecans

Combine the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. Add the roasted pecans and toss the mixture. Top the little pies with a bit of the streusel mixture.

Bake for another 5 to 8 minutes, or until the pastry begins to turn golden. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.

Vanilla buttercream:
1 stick butter, softened
4 cups or so of confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
milk

Cream the butter and add the confectioner's sugar a cup at a time. Add the vanilla and milk, one tablespoon at a time, until it's a good, thick consistency. Pipe or dollop onto cooled pumpkin pies.

This icing was a bit sweet. The next time I make these I'll make a cream cheese frosting. Or leave off the frosting altogether; the miniature pumpkin pies are really good on their own.

Yields about 4-5 dozen miniature pumpkin pies

Halloween Cupcakes

I love this time of year.

I made cupcakes for my son to take to school to share. Really, I wanted to experiment with chocolate spider webs as garnish for a cake. If I was going to do that, I'd need to get them out of the house fast. So. Good snack for the 3rd grade.

To make:

Bake your favorite cupcakes a day or two ahead.

Cover a couple of baking sheets with wax paper or parchment paper. Or silpats. Just cover them, to help make cleanup easy later.

In the meantime, melt some chocolate or almond bark, which is what I used. It's cheap and melts easily. I used three squares that I cut off the block 'o almond bark.

Spoon the melted chocolate into a zip-top bag. Snip the very end off of one corner. We're crafting a pastry-bag-type implement.

Make circles with the melted chocolate.



Draw "spokes" out from the center to the edge of the farthest circle.



But Keetha! They look like wagon wheels! Not spider webs!

I found that four circles looks more spider web-ish than three. I was going for the affect rather a literal interpretation of a spider web.

Let the chocolate harden up, which takes just a few minutes. When the cupcakes are frosted, peel up the chocolate spider webs.



For the buttercream:

Cream together two sticks of unsalted butter. Add 5 to 6 cups of powdered sugar and a couple of teaspoons of vanilla. Add milk, a tablespoon at a time, until it's the consistency you want. Then tint with food coloring or food paste color.

My cupcakes have orange frosting - really - only it looks yellow in the photos.



Happy Fall!

Chocolate Cake with Coffee Meringue Buttercream

The icing is so good that I wish I could slice each one of you a piece of this cake, right here, right now.

It is my favorite of the three cakes I made for Jeffrey's birthday.

For the cake, I made one from a mix - devil's food, I think. It was good - chocolately and tender.

This buttercream is heaven - satin. It's rich and very buttery but not so very sweet. It's the bomb.

The recipe from Rose Levy Berenbaum's The Cake Bible.

Coffee-Flavored Classic Buttercream

Ingredients:
6 large egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons instant espresso powder or instant coffee, dissolved in 1 teaspoon of boiling water

Have ready a greased 1 cup heatproof glass measure near the range.

In a bowl beat the yolks with an electric mixer until light in color.

Meanwhile, combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan (preferably with a nonstick lining) and heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup is boiling. Stop stirring and boil to the soft-ball stage (238 degrees). Immediately transfer the syrup to the glass measure to stop the cooking.

If using an electric hand-held mixer, beat the syrup into the yolks in a steady stream. Don’t allow syrup to fall on the beaters or they will spin it onto the sides of a bowl. If using a stand mixer, pour a small amount of syrup over the yolks with the mixer turned off. Immediately beat at high speed for 5 seconds. Stop the mixer and add a larger amount of syrup. Beat at high speed for 5 seconds. Continue with the remaining syrup. For the last addition, use a rubber scraper to remove the syrup clinging to the glass measure. Continue beating until completely cool.

Gradually beat in the butter. Then add the vanilla and finally, the coffee. Place it in an airtight bowl. Bring to room temperature before using. Rebeat to restore texture.

The icing can be made ahead. It will keep at room temperature for six hours, refrigerated for one week, and can be frozen for eight months. And let me tell you: I had icing leftover so it will go in the freezer. I will be dreaming up ways to use it, besides sticking my face into the container and eating it all.

Coconut Cake

This is what Jeffrey wanted as dessert following his birthday dinner of lasagne on Saturday with the family.

1 (18.25-ounce) package white cake mix
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cream of coconut
1 (8-ounce) container sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour (or use butter, parchment paper, and more butter) two eight- or nine-inch cake pans. Or two six-inch cake pans plus about a dozen cupcake rounds.

Combine all ingredients and mix for two minutes. Pour into prepared pans and bake according to package directions.

Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely. At this point, I split the layers in two (because the more layers, the more frosting in between), wrapped them well and put them in the freezer for a week.

Frosting
8 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cream of coconut (there should be just that much left in the can, if not, use milk)
4 cups confectioners sugar
shredded coconut*

Unlike last time, we could not get our hands on a fresh coconut. Instead, we got dried, unsweetened coconut from Fresh Market. We freshened it up by making a simple syrup of sugar and water and pouring it over the dried coconut. It got plump and sweet.

To assemble:
I toasted a couple of cups of the dried coconut at about 325 degrees, watching it v-e-r-y closely, and stirring often.

I spread icing on a cake layer and topped it with the sweetened coconut.




And repeated, until all four layers were stacked.

I frosted the sides of the cake and then the top with the remaining icing.



Per request, I pressed the toasted coconut into the sides of the cake. This way, it looks like the famed coconut cake at The Peninsula Grill in Charleston, South Carolina.

German Chocolate Cake

This the cake pictured here on the right, a tower of chocolate, pecans, and coconut.

The Husband's birthday was Tuesday. I asked him what he wanted for dessert on his birthday-birthday (as opposed to last Saturday's birthday celebration in Starkville and this past Saturday's birthday celebration at home with family). He asked for German Chocolate Cake.

I found this recipe online. It bears a striking ressemblance to the one printed on the box of Baker's sweet chocolate.

1/2 cup water
4 (1 ounce) squares German sweet
chocolate
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 egg whites

Filling:
1 cup white sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
3 egg yolks, beaten
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon shortening
1 (1 ounce) square semi-sweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour three 9-inch round pans. For my cake, I baked it in two 6-inch cake pans and used the leftover batter to make German chocolate cupcakes. Winner!

I buttered the bottom of the cake pans, then lined them with parchment paper circles and buttered them, too. Probably overkill but I've had that sickening feeling that comes from turning a cake out and half of it plop out and the other half stick to the pan. Parchment paper helps ensure that doesn't happen.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In a small saucepan, heat water and 4 ounces chocolate until melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

In a large bowl, cream 1 cup butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in 4 egg yolks, one at a time. Blend in the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla. Beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture. Add half of the buttermilk and stir. Add another third of the flour mixture, the rest of the buttermilk, and then the rest of the flour mixutre, mixing until just combined.

In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter, then quickly fold in remaining whites until no streaks remain.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes*, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto wire rack.

*The cupcakes took about 25 minutes or so to bake. Honestly, I can't remember how long the six-inch cakes took. I baked them until the batter was just beginning to pull away from the pans.

After the cakes were cool, I split both layers in half, so that there would be more layers to separate with lots of that pecan-coconut filling.

To make the Filling: In a saucepan combine 1 cup sugar, evaporated milk, 1/2 cup butter, and 3 egg yolks. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened, which takes way longer than it should. Remove from heat. Stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla. Cool until thick enough to spread.

Spread filling between layers and on top of cake. In a small saucepan, melt shortening and 1 ounce of chocolate. Stir until smooth and drizzle down the sides of the cake.

I laid it on thick - the filling, I mean. I still had some leftover, which I topped a few of the cupcakes with.

The Birthday Boy liked it!

Butterscotch Oatmeal Lunchbox Bars

I came across this recipe last year and it's been a standard ever since. When I make a batch, I freeze most of them so that I can one out for my son's snack at school. Or a snack for me. It's a Cooking Light recipe and has oatmeal. It's totally healthy.

Cooking Light's Lighten Up Butterscotch Oatmeal Bars

1 cup packed brown sugar
5 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
2 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Cooking spray
3/4 cup fat-free sweetened condensed milk
1 1/4 cups butterscotch morsels (about 8 ounces)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine sugar and butter in a large bowl. Stir in vanilla and egg. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, oats, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and baking soda in a bowl. Add oat mixture to sugar mixture; stir with a fork until combined (mixture will be crumbly). Place 3 cups oat mixture into the bottom of a 13 x 9–inch baking pan coated with cooking spray; press into bottom of pan. Set aside.

Place sweetened condensed milk, butterscotch morsels, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave at high 1 minute or until butterscotch morsels melt, stirring every 20 seconds. Stir in walnuts. Scrape mixture into pan, spreading evenly over crust. Sprinkle evenly with remaining oat mixture, gently pressing into butterscotch mixture. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until the topping is golden brown. Place pan on a cooling rack; run a knife around outside edge. Cool completely.

I stack two bars and wrap them in cling wrap. This way, I can pull out just two if that's all I need. If I need just one butterscotch oatmeal bar, I somehow manage to consume the other one, too.




I put those packages in a freezer zip-top bag.


Then my freezer is stocked with homemade goodness.

Mom's Birthday Cake

We celebrated my mother's birthday with a big Sunday dinner. We had Shrimp and Gravy over Asiago cheese grits.

For dessert I baked and decorated a cake. After the last time, I made a box from a mix. And it was good.

While the cake cooled, I mixed up the icing:

1 stick butter, room temperature
about 4 cups of sifted powdered sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla
a few tablespoons of milk

I creamed all that together.

After the cake was completely cooled, I coated the cake with a thin schmear of icing. This is the crumb coat.


It's not pretty but it is effective.

After I got it on, I put in the fridge to set up. The icing hardens a bit, making the cake much easier to thoroughly frost.

I sketched out an idea of how I wanted the cake to look.



Mixed up frosting in various colors - love that part - and got to decorating.



It's far from perfect but it made Mom happy and tasted pretty good.

Nutella Pinwheels

Two of the easiest, tastiest, most convenient products: Nutella spread (chocolate and hazelnut near the peanut butter at the grocery store) and puff pastry.

True love!

Follow package instructions to thaw puff pastry sheet, roll out slightly on a lightly floured surface. Then spoon over the Nutella. Nom nom nom.

Roll up lengthwise, let chill for easier slicing, and cut into spirals. If you have hazelnuts on hand, you can chop a handful and sprinkle on top.

It doesn't matter if the pinwheels aren't pretty.



They bake up nice.



Nutella Pinwheels are perfect make-ahead treats, too. Roll up, wrap well, and freeze. They're good to have in the freezer so they'll be handy if you have a sugar and carb emergency. Thaw the puff pastry logs slightly at room temperature, slice, and bake.

Disappointing yet delicious-sounding: Homemade Yellow Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

It's not even that pretty, just a poky little cake.

I understand that when cake mixes first came out, ads touted their efficiency qualities, how they'd make things easier for the little woman in the kitchen.

No woman wanted to that woman, the one talked about in the coffee klatch because she is too lazy, too selfish, and too cold to her husband and her poor children to make a cake from scratch.

Food marketers wised up and changed their ads so that they emphasized the yumminess that was cake from a mix; then cakes baked from a mix became something special and delicious, not just the same old, same old that any woman can mix up.

I'll tell you; I was raised mostly on cake mix cakes. They're good! Yes, they are.

I'll tell you something else; I've never baked a homemade from scratch cake (that wasn't chocolate) that tasted good. They're edible but only just. They always turn out packy and dense and unappetizing.

I like to bake. I like to sift flour and get out my measuring cups and measuring spoons. I enjoy getting to use a whisk. I like having that red box of Swans Down Cake Flour in the kitchen.

When I offered to bring a dessert for my mother's house for Sunday dessert, I decided to bake a homemade cake for fun.

Baking it was fun. Eating it? Not so much.

The cake was packy and dense and unappetizing, like the others I've made. They're all different recipes but I have to wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

I have this recipe saved and no idea from whence it came.

All-American, All-Purpose Yellow Cake

Butter and flour for preparing cake pans
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Remove butter and eggs from refrigerator about 2 hours before starting recipe. Heat the oven to 350*F (175*C). Adjust oven rack to the middle position.

Butter two 9-inch cake pans, cover the bottom of each pan with a circle of parchment, butter the parchment and coat the pan with flour, shaking out the excess.

2. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.

3. Beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed for 30 seconds. Continue beating and gradually add the sugar. Beat until light-colored, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. The mixture should appear thick and dull. If it appears separated or grainy and shiny, the butter and/or eggs were too cold. To remedy this, wrap the bowl with a kitchen towel soaked with hot water and continue mixing. Scrape down the sides of the bowl when necessary.

4. Add about 1/3 of both the flour mixture and milk and beat on low speed or by hand until just incorporated. Add the vanilla and then the remaining flour and milk in two batches, beating between additions. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and stir by hand to finish.

5. Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Twist the pans back and forth on the work surface to distribute batter and then smooth surface with a rubber spatula. Place pans in oven a few inches apart, and bake for about 30 minutes, rotating the pans 180 degrees after 15 minutes. Check the cake after 22 minutes. The top of the cake should be golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed in the center, and a cake tester should come out clean. The cakes should start shrinking back from the sides of the pan.

6. Remove the pans to a cooling rack. Let rest for 5 minutes. Run a small knife or metal spatula around the sides of the pans and invert cakes onto lightly greased racks. Remove parchment paper.

These cakes smelled so good while they're were cooling - all luscious and vanilla-y.

Reinvent cakes onto cooling rack. Let cool for at least 1 1/2 hours or until completely cooled.

Makes one 2-layer cake; serves 12.


Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
dash salt
milk

Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave if you know your microwave well.



Chocolate + cream cheese. How could that go wrong. I ask you.

In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Pour the melted chocolate over the cream cheese.



Mix on medium speed until well blended. Add the vanilla and salt and slowly stir in the confectioners sugar.

Scrape the sides of the bowl and increase mixer speed to medium-high. Slowly add a tablespoon or two of milk if needed.

This should have been dreamy but it wasn't. While I was shopping for the ingredients I had an inkling that bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate would be better. I should have paid attention to my intuition. It was trying to help.


This frosting I would make again. The cake, I doubt it. Seriously.

Coconut Cake

Sunday afternoon at my grandparents were spent around the dining room table. From the time I was a little girl, I remember being drowsy with good food, sunlight streaming in through the curtains, the hum of grownups’ voices. The women talked about garden club meetings, recipes exchanged in the grocery store, bridge club, bake sales, funerals. When a coconut cake was mentioned, it was with hushed and reverent tones.

I didn’t – and still don’t - like coconut so I didn’t understand the awe associated with coconut cake.

When I was old enough to bake myself, I still didn’t get it. How hard could it be? What was the big deal?

Now I get it. I see what the big deal is. I know why baking a coconut cake using fresh coconut is a very big deal indeed.

I learned this Saturday when I made one to celebrate Easter.

The Husband poked the three “eyes” of the coconut and drained the coconut water.

He used a chisel and a hammer to crack the coconut open.


That took some doings.


Finally, success!


That was the easy part. The halves then had to be broken into pieces. The Husband broke the halves into shards. Next you’re supposed to peel off the shell. Just peel it off.

It didn’t go that smoothly. You had to take off small pieces of the shell, bit by bit. It was about as efficient, fun, and easy as peeling off old, stubborn wallpaper.



We grated the coconut and lost count of how many times we scraped knuckles and fingers on the grater.

For all that work The Husband did, this is how much coconut he got:


Seems like a lot of sugar for a dime.

I traced a six-inch cake pan onto parchment paper and cut around the circles.




I love cake pans. So pretty and shiny.

I buttered the bottoms of two six-inch cake pans, lined them with the parchment paper circles, and buttered the parchment paper. (I keep the wrappers sticks of butter come in for just this purpose.) That may be one extra step too many but that way, I don't have to worry about the cake sticking to the bottom of the pan, no matter what.

The cake:

1 (18.25-ounce) package white cake mix
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cream of coconut
1 (8-ounce) container sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line about two dozen cupcake pans with paper liners.

Combine all ingredients and mix for four minutes. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake according to package directions and cool on wire rack.

(This yielded enough batter for two six-inch round cakes and about a dozen cupcakes.)

I let the cake cool a bit before brushing the tops of the cake layers and cupcakes with the reserved drained coconut water.

While the cake soaked up the coconut water I did the first round of unloading the dishwasher, loading it back, and washing the mixing bowl and my favorite measuring cups.

The frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cream of coconut (there should be just that much left in the can, if not, use milk)
4 cups confectioners sugar
shredded coconut

The fun part: icing the cake.



And the cupcakes


The cakes got a thin layer of icing, a crumb coat. I refrigerated the cake for a few minutes to let the crumb coat set up. I took it from the fridge and slathered on the icing. With the crumb coat nice and chilled, the rest of the frosting goes on smoothly and easily because I don't have to worry about snagging a bunch of unslightly crumbs and dragging them into the icing. The icing is topped with the grated coconut.



Those flecks of brown are from the paper-thin layer surrounding the coconut. The fact that it’s not pristine white shows that an actual coconut was used and should be viewed as a good thing, a sign of authenticity.

Is what I tell myself anyway.


The Husband, who loves coconut cake, and the reason I made the cake, loves it. My grandmother said she thinks that’s the best coconut cake she’s ever had. High praise.