Day Off Cake!

Today I have the day off from my student teaching position at Columbia Middle School AND no SJSU classes AND I've just finished 6 weeks of long-term substituting and a weekend at the Western Cup Quidditch Tournament. In short, it is a day for relaxing and doing some tasty baking to reward myself for several jobs well done. I decided to combine a few different recipes I read about and create a tasty layer cake, half vanilla and half chocolate, with rose filling and a chocolate ganache frosting. All my favorite things! Introducing: The Black and White Rose Cake.

Vanilla Bean Cake Recipe

(makes one round 9" cake)
Original recipe here

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare pan. I like to cut a piece of parchment paper for the bottom but if I don't have any, I grease it with butter or Crisco and sprinkle flour on it.



Combine in a small bowl and set aside:
3 egg whites (room temp)
2 tbsp milk (room temp)
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
Innards of 1 vanilla bean*  






In a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment, mix:
1 1/2 cups of cake flour
3/4 cup, plus 2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Such! Pretty! Batter!

Add and mix on medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes:
6 tbsp butter, at room temperature and cut into cubes
1/4 cup, plus 2 tbsp milk

Scrape sides of bowl. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla mixture in three separate batches, mixing at medium for 20 seconds after each.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes.

Cool for 10 minutes in pan and then slide knife around edges and turn cake out onto plate or your hand. Flip onto rack to cool all the way.

*Not sure how to get at the tasty vanilla bean goodness? Take out a cutting board and push the bean down, straight and flat. Take a small knife and slice it long-ways, down the center. Open in up with your fingers and scrape out all the bean-y goodness into your bowl with the back of the knife. When you're done, you can throw away the bean OR you can use it to start making your own homemade vanilla extract. Save it in a little spice jar (cut it up if you need to). Once you have 6-8 beans in there, add clear vodka and let it sit for 5-6 weeks. When it smells more like vanilla and less like vodka, use it :)

Chocolate Cake Recipe

(makes one round 9" cake)
Original recipe here


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare pan. I like to cut a piece of parchment paper for the bottom but if I don't have any, I grease it with butter or Crisco and sprinkle flour on it.

Chop up:

1 12/ oz semi-sweet chocolate

Fill a saucepan with about 2-3 inches of water and place a metal bowl (larger than the saucepan) in/on it. Fill the bowl with chopped chocolate and place the whole thing on the stovetop. Turn on the heat and let the chocolate melt, scraping the bowl occasionally with a silicon spatula. When the chocolate is melted, remove it from the heat and let it cool somewhat (but not too much - remember, it is solid at room temperature).

Whisk in a bowl:
1/2 cup, plus 1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Mix in a stand mixer, 4-5 minutes:
1/2 cup butter (room temp, cut in cubes)
1 1/2 cup sugar

Add, one at a time:
2 eggs (room temp)

Add the melted chocolate to the stand mixer. Be careful that it isn't hot enough to cool the eggs.

Combine in a small bowl:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water

Alternate adding to the stand mixer the bowl of milk/water and the bowl of dry ingredients, mixing between each addition, and beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.

Pour batter into pan and bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees. In this recipe, I thought it was a bit much batter for one pan. I only used about 2/3 of the batter for the cake and the rest I poured in a donut pan and made 6 donuts with it.

Cool for 10 minutes in pan and then slide knife around edges and turn cake out onto plate or your hand. Flip onto rack to cool all the way. Be careful! This cake was a bit crumbly for me and I was really worried it would fall apart. If it does, do not despair! You can put it back together when you make the layers by gluing it with frosting :)

Rose Buttercream Filling Recipe 

(I made 2 batches of this to fill the cake and have a crumb layer)


Mix in stand mixer:
1/2 cup (2 sticks) butter (room temp)
4 cups confectioners sugar

After 2 minutes, scrape sides of bowl and mix in:
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
pinch of salt

After 2 more minutes, scrape sides of bowl and add:
1/2 tsp rosewater
A few drops of food coloring (until you have desired shade of pink)

Mix until combined.

Freezer ready cakes

Assembly:

Wrap cooled cakes in plastic wrap and place in freezer for ~30 minutes. This makes them easier to trim.





When they are cold, use a long serrated knife to slice off the rounded top. My cakes turned out pretty flat, so I didn't have to do this. I did, however, have to trim the edges of the vanilla cake, because they were a but dark and crusty. So I trimmed the chocolate cake too, to fit. Then, cut the cake across the middle, creating two 9" circular layers. Do this to each cake.

Next, place the bottom layer of vanilla bean cake on the cake plate, cut side up. Spread a layer of rose butter cream on top, making sure you take it to the edges and try to keep it level.

Place the top layer of chocolate cake on top. Spread a layer of rose butter cream on top.

Place the other layer of vanilla bean cake on top and spread on more rose buttercream.

Finally, place the bottom layer of chocolate cake on top, cut side down. Patch up the side of the cake so there are no buttercream-less holes and there is no buttercream sticking out where it doesn't belong.

Crumb layer! So important! So helpful!

Now, use the remaining frosting to make a crumb layer on your cake - a thin layer of frosting all around that will allow you to spread the ganache evenly without the cake crumbling and ruining the smooth look. When you are finished, wrap plastic wrap around the cake and refrigerate it for another 20 minutes or so while you make the ganache.

(For more detail instructions on layered cake building, with more and better photos, check this site out).

Chocolate Ganache Recipe

Chop up:
8 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate

Set aside in a heatproof bowl.

Heat in a saucepan, while stirring:

In the middle of ganache-spreading

3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream


When the whipping cream is boiling, pour it over the chopped chocolate and stir with a spatula, until the chocolate is melted and combined. Let is rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. Then remove your cake from the refrigerator  take off the plastic wrap, and pour the ganache on top. Spread it with a knife so it runs down the sides of the cake and make sure the cake is evenly covered. You can eat it immediately, but I like to let it sit until it firms up a bit (you can speed this up by putting it in the refrigerator again, but don't plastic wrap it this time).


And we're done!












Ta-Da!

Fall Cookie Week Finale! Persian Love Whoopie Pies

Cooking!

Yes, Persian Love Whoopie Pies. You know, like Persian Love Cake. Only, in the delightfully American format of the Whoopie Pie (which, really, is basically a cookie and therefore eligible for Fall Cookie Week). For those of you unfamiliar with this delightful cake, Persian Love Cake is a tasty blend of rose, cardamum, saffron, lemon, and pistachio flavors. I have no idea about the history behind it, but it tastes delicious.

The Whoopie Pie is a pleasingly soft cookie sandwich, traditionally chocolate, with a sweet butter cream, traditionally marshmallow in the middle. I decided to use the Whoopie Pie format for my Persian Love flavors because a friend gave me a book a long time ago devoted to exploring the wonders of the Whoopie Pie (exclusively! that is all that is in the cookbook!) and I haven't used it.


Persian Love Whoopie Pie
(makes 15 pies/cookies/whatever)

Beat in a stand mixer, until fluffy:
1 stick butter
3/4 sugar
3/4 brown sugar

Mix in:
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon zest

In a separate bowl, sift:
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cardamom (you can use 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp nutmeg instead, if need be)



Alternate adding the flour mixture into the mixer with adding:
1 cup buttermilk

as well. Remember, you can make a cup of buttermilk by putting 1 tsp lemon juice in a cup measurement, filling it the rest of the way with milk, and waiting five minutes. Kitchen chemistry! Mix everything until just combined.

Finally, mix in:
3/4 cup ground pistachios

Now take an ice cream scoop or a large spoon and scoop globs of dough on to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Try to make them uniform and relatively roundish, as you will need to pair them off to make your sandwiches. Put them in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.

While those bake, you can make the cream. As you make already know, I am not a fan of buttercream. Way too sweet. For the filling, I used my standby vanilla cream with a bit of rose water and pink food coloring.


Rosey Saffron Cream Filling
(fills 15 pies)

Pour into the mixing bowl:
1 tbsp vanilla pudding powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 cups whipping cream

Beat on low for a couple minutes, then scrape the bowl and add:
1 tsp rose water (available in Indian groceries stores)
1 tsp vanilla extract
A good pinch of saffron (if you live near a World Market, it's pretty affordable there)
1-2 drops of red food coloring if needed

Continue to beat until filling begins to stiffen and leave the side of the bowl. When the cookies are done baking,
let them cool for 5 minutes on the pan and fully off the pan before assembling (leave the filling in the fridge during this time). For perfect little puffs of filling, you can use a pastry bag, or you can just spread the filling on with a spatula. Enjoy!

Hilarious pictures of the goofy humans on my bookshelf
rejecting my delicious cookies 

Reading!

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

I know my book reviews have been rather few and far between lately, but unfortunately, school is pretty time-consuming and, since I am now studying teaching rather than studying literature, my readings are a lot drier and a lot less novel-y.

However, I did just finish Margaret Atwood's little novel The Penelopiad, which is Penelope's point of view on the whole clever, adventuring Odysseus story. It took me a little bit to get into the story, probably because I am a huge fan of the Greeks and Trojans and their antics and have therefore read a lot of fiction revolving around that time period, which causes me to find some choices that a lot of authors make rather tired after awhile.

An example: Helen is a self-absorbed, man-killing snob. What else is new? Helen is always a self-absorbed, man-killing snob. Just once, I'd like to read a story that explores Book VI in The Illiad, when she deplores of Paris's cowardice, flirts with Hector, and refers to herself as a "bitch" and "slut" (seriously, in the Fagels translation in my Norton!). Now that would be an interesting character exploration!

Anyway, my irritation with Helen's portrayal aside, I enjoyed The Penelopiad. A big theme (as usual with Ms. Atwood) was gender politics and inequality. She explores Penelope's marriage, her 20 years of waiting and fending off suitors, her reputation as the ideal, patient wife (often compared in the Odyssey with the murderous Clytemnestra, especially by a cranky Agamemnon in the underworld).

Another theme was the subjectivity of history and the impossibility of knowing with certainty the full story. Penelope's narration is not entirely reliable, as she admits, and the chorus of the 12 maids (who are killed by Odysseus for having sex with the suitors) often elaborates on, confused, or outright contradicts Penelope's account. In fact, the maids are probably the most interesting characters, in either of these themes.

In short, don't let a two-dimensional Helen distract you from the unique perspective that is Atwood's Penelopiad.

Fall Cookie Week! Snickerdoodle Croissant Cookies

Our third Fall Cookie Week adventure involves some deliciously soft and cinnamon-y snickerdoodles! This recipe came from an odd little cookie magazine that did fun twists on classic cookies. For their snickerdoodle recipe, they add some cream cheese and have you roll the dough in a croissant shape with pecans (I used walnuts). The result is a deliciously moist, mature-tasting cookie.





Snickerdoodle Croissant Cookies
(Makes 30 cookies)

Beat in a mixer:
6 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup butter

Add to the mixer and beat until combined:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Beat in:
1 2/3 cup flour

Then, separate the dough into three equal parts and refrigerate for one hour.


Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll out each disc into a 9 inch circle.

Fill a bowl with:
1/3 cup milk

Fill another bowl with:
1/2 chopped and toasted walnuts
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice mix

Use your fingers or a brush to spread the milk and then the nutty spice mix on the top of each disc.







Next, use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut slices to roll into croissants. It's a good idea to dip the knife or cutter in some flour, so the dough doesn't stick. Roll from the thick end of the slice to the point, placing the croissant with the point tucked underneath, so it doesn't come unrolled.









Bake in a 350 degree oven for 14-16 minutes. The tops will still be a bit pale, but the bottoms should be a light brown. Let cool on a rack for 2 minutes and enjoy! You can even dust them with powdered sugar or cinnamon if they stick around long enough.

Fall Cookie Week! Muddy Buddy Cookies

It is Day Two for Fall Cookie Week! Well, actually I guess it is Day Four, but we're busy people and since this is the second day that has actually seen the completion of cookies, we'll go with Day Two.

That's Joe's hand in the background grabbing one.
Because they are DELICIOUS.

In this house, we have a Thing about Chex Muddy Buddies. A love affair, you might say. We have made them in many iterations: Mexican Chocolate style, S'mores bar style, the ole fashioned way. For Cookie Week, I decided I wanted to create a Muddy Buddies Cookie.

The outside, obviously, would have to be chocolate dipped and covered in powdered sugar. But what would the cookie be like? How could I make Chex cereal into a cookie? In the end, I just made peanut butter cookies (any old recipe will do, I happened to use this one because I haven't found a favorite yet) and crumbled a bunch of Chex cereal into the dough. It worked perfectly!



Chex Muddy Buddy Cookies
(makes about 30 cookies)

Follow the recipe above or any peanut butter cookie recipe to prepare the dough.




Crush with your hands:
5-6 handfuls of Chex cereal (I used Apple Cinnamon cause it's the tastiest)

Work the cereal into your dough with a spatula, spoon, or your fingers. be sure to do this step before refrigerating the dough, cause otherwise it will be difficult.













After refrigerating (usually 2 hours or so), form the dough in balls on your cookie sheet and bake according to recipe directions.



Let cookies cool completely before dipping them. I left mine overnight, even. You don't want them soft at all.








Now the dipping!

Pour in a microwave-safe bowl:
1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips
1 stick butter

I messed around with the proportions until I got a nice thin consistency. You can always add more butter or more chocolate as needed. Microwave and stir in between rounds until you have warm, thin chocolate.

In another bowl, pour about 2 cups of powdered sugar.

For dipping, I used my left hand to dip the cookies in the chocolate and my right to cover them with powdered sugar. This helped keep things a bit tidier. I'm sure you can figure out a good method for yourself.

I dipped each cookie, then placed it back on the tray and parchment paper to set. I also ate one or two right away :)

Tasty plateful of the finished product!

Look at that tasty little Chex in there!

Fall Cookie Week! Chocolate Caramel Cookies with Sea Salt

Apparently, everyone, it is Fall Cookie Week. That this is even a thing, let alone a thing that is happening THIS VERY WEEK is news to me, but I read it somewhere on Pinterest and I'm running with it!





I'm going to bake 5 different types of cookies this week and tell you about ALL OF THEM, which will presumably be thrilling for us both and delicious for me, at least (and for you, if you choose to make some yourself or if you live in my house or work with my boyfriend). So, on to Fall Cookie Week Recipe #1!

I used these Trader Joe's Caramels - yum

Packing that guy in there!

Chocolate Caramel Cookies 

with Sea Salt

I copied this recipe completely from Two Peas and Their Pod, a cute lil blog with the tastiest of treats. Since I used their recipe exactly, I won't bother retyping it (just click the link above). Instead, I'll post lots of yummy picture to entice you into making them yourself.





You really should, too, because these are really easy (I didn't even get to use my KitchenAid mixer) and unbelievably tasty (as in, I-got-full-before-they-were-done-from-eating-too-much-dough tasty).







Seriously. Do it.

   



Psst! Boyfriend Joe is going to write a guest blog this week about making these crazy delicious fried rice patty teriyaki madness sandwiches! Look forward to it with me!

Jennifer's Birthday! Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes, Blackberry Lavender Cupcakes, and Mint Julep Cupcakes

A couple weekends ago was my dear friend Jennifer's birthday. She asked me to make some cupcakes for her backyard BBQ party and picked two past favorites: Lavender Raspberry Cupcakes and Mint Julep Cupcakes. She wasn't sure what she wanted for a third flavor, though, so she had me come up with suggestions. I thought a peanut butter chocolate would be good, but when I remembered a tupperware full of already peeled hazelnuts that had been waiting for me in the freezer, I knew it had to be chocolate hazelnut.

Side note: Hazelnuts are my absolute favorite nut flavor and they also happen to be ridiculously obnoxious to peel. That is where the freezer comes in handy; you can get all that peeling over with and freeze them to use in the future, when you want a hazelnut-y treat NOW.

As is my way, I poked around Pinterest to find a recipe that incorporated a lot of different hazelnut flavoring opportunities. I found this lovely recipe from the Food Network website, called Tall, Dark, and Handsome Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes. It included in its ingredients list Frangelico (hazelnut liquor), Nutella, and whole hazelnuts. I substituted hazelnut extract for vanilla extract and called it a day.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

All my hazelnut products!

(makes about 28 cupcakes)

First, cream in the mixer:
1 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar

Add, one at a time:
3 eggs

Then add:
1 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp hazelnut extract (or vanilla extract)






In a new bowl, whisk together until combined:
1 cup Frangelico
1 cup cocoa powder

In a third bowl, sift together:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Alternate pouring the contents of these last two bowls into the mixer, beating each time until everything is just incorporated. You should begin and end with the flour. Set the bowl aside and prepare your filling.

I tried pouring a bit of batter in, then adding the filling, but
that burnt the filling slightly. Try filling the cupcake liners,
then pushing the filling balls in so they sit in the center.

For the filling, you want to run through the food processer:
1 1/2 cup whole hazelnuts (peeled)

Then, you want to mix the ground hazelnuts with
1/3 cup Nutella
2 tbsp Franglico

At this point, the filling should be a consistency that you can pick up and roll into a ball with your hands. Roll about 28 balls and they should be the perfect size. Feel free to make them bigger or smaller to your preference.

Prepare a cupcake tin and pour the batter 3/4 of the way to the top. Then place a ball in the middle of each cupcake tin. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

I used my favorite vanilla cream frosting recipe, mixed with Nutella, to frost them.

Nutella Vanilla Cream Frosting 

(frosts ~24 cupcakes)

Beat until stiff:

3 cups heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup instand vanilla pudding mix

Then mix in: 

2/3 cup Nutella

Let cupcakes cool, then pipe on frosting. Refrigerate the cupcakes after frosting to ensure the frosting stays somewhat stiff.

Though you can find my recipe for Lavender Raspberry Cupcakes through the link above, I wanted to take some picture of the Lavender Blackberry Cupcakes I made for the party. Same recipe, just blackberries instead of raspberries. 

Strawberry Basil Creamsicles and Game of Thrones

Cooking!



We've been having a delightful time with our little Ikea popsicle molds and the delicious, fresh, summertime fruits that are available to us these last few months. Yesterday at the Farmer's Market, there were some tasty, organic strawberries, three baskets for $5. We brought them home and have been enjoying them in smoothies, with Nutella, and, of course, as popsicles.

I've also been really excited by the sweet/savory flavor combinations that are popping up (haha no pun intended) now with sweet fruits and herbs. Strawberry basil is one of these combinations, so I thought we would put some of our budding basil plant in the mix, and Joe wanted to add some heavy cream for a creamy element. We had half a lemon too, so we threw in some lemon juice, and some honey to sweeten them.




Strawberry Basil (and Honey, and Lemon) Creamsicles
(fills 6 3 oz popsicle molds)

Cut and blend in the food processor:

2 cups strawberries
1 1/2 tbsp basil leaves

You want the mixture to be a nice puree. Then stir in:

2 tbsp honey
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
6 tbsp heavy cream (half and half is okay too; it was all we had at the time)

Once it is all combined, just pour the mixture into your popsicle molds, place them in the freezer, and let them harden for about two hours.

Yum!

Reading!

Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

I have been a big fan of the Game of Thrones HBO series for both the seasons and had heard that the books were a slightly less whimsical and fantastical, slightly more warlike and human version of Lord of the Rings. I was a bit hesitant after trying to read the books that one of my former HBO loves, True Blood, was based on, but I saw a copy of the first book in a used book shop and figured, for $6, why not?

It was a good decision. Like the series, the chapters of the books move between the stories and points of view of a wide variety of characters. There's Ned Stark, lord of the northern kingdom and too honorable for his own good. There's his children: dreamy, enchanted Sansa, tomboyish Arya, the eldest and heir Robb, young and playful Bran, and his troubled bastard, Jon Snow. We see into each of their heads, but we move outside them too; the king's brother-in-law and despised dwarf of the ambitious Lannister family, Tyrion is as interesting a narrator as he is in the show (portrayed by the talented Peter Dinklage). Daenerys, exiled daughter of the deposed and murdered Mad King is also fascinating to watch, as she is forced by her frightening, repellent, pathetic brother to marry a barbaric warlord in exchange for an army. In short, the first novel is as interesting and fast-paced as the first season of the show. Like Middle Earth, it is a world to thoroughly immerse oneself in, complete with maps, entire populations with different cultures, and a rich and detailed history and lore that manifests itself in complex side characters and plots.

A word of warning: the plot of the first season is almost an exact mirror of the first book. This did not bother me at all, as the plot and characters are difficult to keep up with in the show, and I loved getting the deeper insights through the novel. I can see how the 800 pages could drag a bit, though, if you already know what's going to happen. If you love getting lost in a fantasy world, though, the Song of Ice and Fire series is an excellent choice, especially as it is clearly Martin's favorite project and he intends to continue it until he dies.