Category Archives: Desserts

A Plague of Frogs… and its not even Passover!!

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Some time ago Fran bought me a book on decorative cakes and cup cakes. A week or so ago she sort of threw down the gauntlet and more or less challenged me to make something from the book. Here is the result – a family of frogs. They are made with white velvet cake that was lightened some by incorporating some meringue into the batter (I took one egg white and 1/3 of the 1 1/2 cups of sugar and beat them into a meringue which was added at the end of mixing.) Otherwise the recipe is the same as listed elsewhere. The frosting was store purchased vanilla dyed with the appropriate shade of green. The adults eyes are yogurt covered raisins and the kids eyes are white jelly beans. The eye pupils are dots of chocolate cake decorations. Warts are either the ends of green jelly beans or the ends of dark chocolate coated raisins. The lines around the eyes and mouth darker green dyed frosting which was piped from cutting the corner from a zip-lock bag. Next time I would use a real piping tip to make the lines smoother.

Two sets of cupcakes are made and the tops cut off squarely. The wrapper (should have been green) was removed from one and it was “glued” onto its mate, upside down, and frozen. After about 20 min in the freezer the tops were cut slightly to round off two opposing sides to shape the head. The cupcake was dipped into dyed and slightly nuked frosting (to make it about the consistency of whipped cream) and the eyes, warts etc were added. Cut a wedge about 1″ deep to make the mouth and glue some red fruit by the foot which was cut into semi circles into the opening. Another piece with the ends cut was put in the mouth for the tongue.

How Would You Like to be Queen for a…

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Double birthday celebration tonight!! Esther and Ilayne are just a day apart and as tonight was Book Club night it was a perfect time to celebrate both. In keeping with the theme of the event (no woman considers herself less than a princess) I thought a tiara on a pillow cake would be perfect.


First the tiara as it takes a couple of days to make. I found an online tutorial which showed how to make the tiara. I found a pattern that I liked, copied it and enhanced and printed it.I wrapped it around a plastic Tupperware type bowl and covered it with waxed paper, piped Royal Icing (appropriate, I think) using a #1 tip to follow the lines. Letting it dry for at least 2 hours I added a second layer being sure all the contact points were well connected. If you don’t do that the tiara will be to fragile to move. When the second coat is complete, leave it on the bowl for at least a day to dry completely. Carefully remove it and airbrush it with a silver edible paint. When that is dry I added the rubies by painting the areas with red gel food coloring. When everything was dry I dusted it with some silver to make it sparkle.Make two 9″x2″ cakes and bind them together with some chocolate ganache.Freeze the cake overnight. To sculpt the cake place tooth picks in the center of each side, about one inch from the edge and cut a smooth curve from each corner, through the toothpick to the next corner. When completed, shave some of the cake away from the edges to make the rounded pillow look. Use some buttercream frosting to crumb coat the cake then put it back in the fridge to set. After a few hours I like to smooth it off with my gloved hands so the cake will have a very satiny finish.

Knead coloring into a large piece of fondant (about the size of your fist.) Roll the fondant until it is very thin and drape around the cake. Overlap the bottom to be sure it holds together and trim the rest. I used the remainder to cover the small 6″ crumb coated cake I used as the base. I airbrushed some pearl dusting to give the fondant a satin finish.

Let this sit for a while to dry, then using some more butter cream frosting (dyed pink this time) I piped the seams and tassels of the pillow. Finally with white butter cream I piped the names of my two royal princesses, Esther and Ilayne.

From what I heard it was well received. They seemed to love that they could eat the tiara… go figure!

Tropical Get-a-way Dinner

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Neil is here for a visit!! We live in a resort area and sometimes we drive down A1A through Ft. Lauderdale beach, just to remind ourselves of this fact. The Bahamas are just about the same distance from us as Orlando. Did I mention that Neil is here? We invited the Fink and her Folks over for dinner to welcome Neil home (he is here for a visit) and I decided to make it a Tropical Bogandanza!! One of the fruits found throughout the tropics are mangoes so it seemed like a good idea to make a mango themed dinner.

We started with baked brie and mango chutney wraps appetizers, followed by a 100% home grown garden salad and the main course of: mango steak; my famous rosemary roasted potatoes; tomato-pepper-green bean (home grown) casserole (I have to hide the green vegetable so Fran will eat them) and personalized chocolate souffle’s for dessert. (PS, Neil is home for a visit.)

The baked brie and mango chutney is very easy, once you have some chutney. Wait… you don’t BUY chutney, do you? No, I didn’t think so. Winners never cheat and cheaters never win. Fist make the mango chutney:

MANGO CHUTNEY

INGREDIENTS:  (makes about 2 cups)

  • 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 small red hot chile peppers, seeded and chopped
  • 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/8 large onions, chopped
  • 1/8 clove garlic, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons golden raisins
  • 2 teaspoons raisins
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger root, chopped
  • 2/3 cup sliced, semi-ripe mangoes

DIRECTIONS:

  1. In a large saucepan combine vinegar, white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, ground ginger, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, chile peppers and salt. Bring to a boil; boil covered for 1/2 hour.
  2. Stir in onions, garlic, golden raisins, raisins and ginger and boil covered for another 1/2 hour.
  3. Stir in mangoes, keep heat high enough to reduce some of the liquid (about another 1/2 hour.)

BAKED BRIE
INGREDIENTS  (makes about 20 pieces)

  • phyllo dough, thawed
  • melted butter
  • 1 (8 ounce) round Brie cheese
  • 1/4 cup mango chutney

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Cut the phyllo dough into about 3″ squares and stack 5 sheets, coating with a thin layer of butter
  2. place equal amounts (about 1/4 tsp) of brie and chutney in the center
  3. wet the edges with water and fold into an interesting shape. (I like making them look like turkish taffy candies)
  4. broil on low until the tops are brown. (4 minutes in my oven…don’t burn the brie!)

MANGO STEAK
I made a marinade from mangoes, apples, honeydew and spices. The steak (I used a nice sirloin, but most any good cut would work fine) was marinaded for 3 hours before grilling. When finished it was cut into strips, the width of each determining the serving size, but assume a 6-8oz portion for each person. The steak was placed cut side (red side) up between two rows of honeydew, veggie casserole and roasted potatoes to the side. Neil is here for a visit!!

INGREDIENTS (this amount serves six)

  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup minced apple
  • 1/2 cup diced honeydew
  • 1/2 cup diced mango
  • 1 tablespoon garlic salt
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
  • 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
  • 3 pounds boneless steaks (again, I used sirloin)

DIRECTIONS 

  1. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the oil, apple, honeydew, mango, garlic salt, Worcestershire sauce, kosher salt, hot pepper sauce to taste and ground black pepper.
  2. Heat for about 5 minutes to get warm. Place the steak in a shallow nonporous dish. Cover with the marinade and refrigerate, covered, for at least 3 hours. Flip steak over halfway through marinating.
  3. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat and lightly oil grate.
  4. Grill steak for 10 minutes per side, dousing with remaining marinade, if desired. Steak is done when internal temperature reaches at least 145 degrees F (63 degrees C).

TOMATO-PEPPER-GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE
In a small skillet heat a couple of tbsp of EVO, add skinned, cubed tomatoes, slided and diced peppers. Add garlic, salt and pepper to taste. After the tomatoes cook and reduce add the green beans and simmer for 15- 20 min, until the beans are tender.

FAMOUS ROASTED ROSEMARY POTATOES
Cut wedges of red potatoes and put in a plastic bag. Add some EVO (enough to coat the amount of potatoes, fresh rosemary (from my garden) some fresh chives (from my garden, hehehehehe) and salt and pepper to taste. I use Kosher or sea salt here. I don’t know why except I like the big grains of salt. Roast at 350 deg for 20 min and if necessary to brown nicely broil for 3 minutes at the end.

CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE
see previous posting at Except Parfaits, perhaps the bestest dessert there is

Neil is here for a visit!!

Brinnnnggg… Brinnnnggg… Brinnnnggg… No wait!

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It was a bee-dup, not a brinnnngggg, yeah thats right bee-dup. Hold on, it wasn’t a bee-dup either it was definitely a deedle-deee, yes that’s it, a deedle-dee. Marc send me an email not a phone call or text, requesting a cake for his mom’s 80th birthday party. He wanted one cake shaped like an eight and the other like a zero. After some serious investigative questioning of the client I discoverer his mom likes hazelnut and black and white. So the plan was set. One chocolate cake shaped like an eight with hazelnut butter-cream frosting, and one round white cake for the zero with white hazelnut cake and butter-cream frosting. Through various devious and nefarious means I also discovered the cake would need to feed about 45-50 ravenous 80 year-olds.

Now that the cake(s) were designed, the logistics needed to be planned. I decided one two layer 12″ cake for the zero and two 8″ two (I love numbers) layer cakes with the bottoms of each cut off and the flat sides set together to make the eight.

The 12″ cakes should take about 90 minutes to make and bake, then another 30-45 min to cool. (Wrapped in the heavy duty plastic wrap I use it will stay fresh for at least a week.)  The chocolate cake is pretty easy, but as I only have three 8″ cake pans I knew I would have to make 2 batches. If I had one set of cakes made and cooled, I could frost/decorate it while the other cakes cooled. Make one cake Thursday, one Friday and frost/decorate Saturday, no problem.

I made the hazelnut cake Thursday night after work in one single LARGE batch. Friday night I made two of the four chocolate cakes before dinner and the final two after. Saturday morning I leveled the first of the two 12″ and would you believe it the *#&%#@ of the  12″ cake wasn’t cooked at all. *#&%#@ !!. It’s Saturday morning and now I have to make two more *#&%#@ 12″ cakes, cool them, frost and decorate before 5:30 when its time for our traditional New Year’s pizza and a movie. I decided to make the hazelnut cakes one at a time, it takes longer but is safer and I didn’t have time for any more *#&%#@ errors. *#&%#@. While the first cake was baking I made a double recipe of butter cream frosting, crumb coated and cut the chocolate cakes, putting them in the fridge to set. I baked the second set of hazelnut cakes at a lower temperature for a longer time, covering the cakes with aluminum foil to keep them from over-browning. (While the first cake was cooling and the second was baking, Fran and I went and upgraded our iPhone 3’s to iPhone 4s’s, a good move at a great price. The new phones are much faster and we probably wont complain about the speed for a month or two.)

After lunch (note Wendy’s cup in one picture) I frosted the two now cooled hazelnut cakes which were baked perfectly. The white cakes did not need a crumb coat (thankfully) so I could frost and decorate them fairly quickly. My piping is definitely improving, but as I can barely read my own handwriting I do not hold out much hope for my lettering. The ribbons and flowers really set the cake off nicely.

Now, for the mechanics: White Hazelnut Cake

Ingredients (for one 12″ round cake)

  • 3 cups white sugar
  • 1-1/2 cups butter
  • 6 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup of hazelnuts. (I used a blender on “food processor”) level and beat the *#&%#@ out of them, then sifted the lees through a strainer leaving essentially hazelnut flour)
  • 1 tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1-1/2 cups milk

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 12 inch round cake pan. Fran bought these exceptionally cool silicone liners which i cut to fit the bottom of the cake pan, parchment paper will also work and both make the cake release from the pan very easily.
  2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. (Be sure they are well creamed, 7-8 min at level 2 on my KitchenAid mixer. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, alternately add these dry ingredient and milk to the creamed mixture starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 60 minutes, covered with aluminum foil, in the preheated oven.  To keep the bottom from over browning try setting the cake pan in an inch of water as it bakes. I did not try this, but will next time.

Chocolate Cake and Butter Cream Frosting

Both are described elsewhere in abatteredoldsuitcase so I won’t re-iterate here. I did substitute 3 oz of Frangelica for the vanilla to give the frosting the hazelnut flavor.

Hold the Phone!! Stop The Presses!!!

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New Flash!! Dateline Coral Springs Florida!!

After last nights dessert I decided that while the marshmallow topping made a good, authentic S’mores, it was too much work for the result, and was way to sticky and stringy to eat with guests. Instead last night I replaced it with a vanilla meringue. The torch browned it perfectly, it was easy to eat and delicious!

S’mores the S’merrier!

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I had this idea to make s’mores in our new dessert dishes. The bottom layer is crushed graham crackers, the middle some kind of chocolate custard and the top would be melted marshmallow with the top burned with a torch.

I put 2 graham crackers in a zip-lock bag and crushed them with a rolling pin distributing the crushed cracker with 2 tsp in each 3 oz. dish. The chocolate cream is from a recipe I found for chocolate pastry filling:

(Yield 2 cups)

  • 1 ¼ cups whole milk
  • 2 oz. semi-sweet, melted
  • 3 egg yolks
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cocoa powder
  • 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, warm the milk over low heat until it is just hot enough to steam. While the milk is warming, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, and cornstarch until the mixture is completely smooth.

Once the milk is steaming, add the melted chocolate to it and whisk until it is fully incorporated into the milk. Add half of the chocolate milk, whisking constantly, to the egg mixture. Add the milk and eggs back into the hot milk, continue stirring, and heat it for 1-2 minutes, until the custard reaches 170F on a digital thermometer and is very thick. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract. When it has cooled slightly but has not gelled, pour about 2 oz into each of the dessert cups.

Once the filling has set, add the marshmallow topping, spread to make peaks and use a blowtorch to burn the tips.

CAUTION: Weekdays off can be dangerous

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Having Tuesday off was good. On the other hand it was very good. I wanted a new dessert to have for the occasional dinner. I have some new small glass flared dessert dishes and in my world the glass or dish is always full.

The dessert is a dark chocolate mousse, layered with a light chocolate mousse and topped with a Bavarian cream, shaved dark chocolate, dusted with cinnamon with a sugar/cinnamon stick for garnish.

Dark Chocolate Mousse:

  • 4 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
  • 2  tablespoons (1 ounce) salted butter, diced
  • 2 tablespoons hot water
  • 1 cup cold heavy cream
  • 3 large eggs  separated
  • 1 tablespoon sugar

Combine the chocolate, butter, and espresso in the top of a double boiler over hot, but not simmering, water, stirring frequently until smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool until the chocolate is just slightly warmer than body temperature. To test, dab some chocolate on your bottom lip. It should feel warm. If it is too cool, the mixture will seize when the other ingredients are added. Meanwhile, whip the cream to soft peaks, then refrigerate. Once the melted chocolate has cooled slightly, whip the egg whites in a medium bowl until they are foamy and beginning to hold a shape. Sprinkle in the sugar and beat until soft peaks form. When the chocolate has reached the proper temperature, stir in the yolks. Gently stir in about one-third of the whipped cream. Fold in half the whites just until incorporated, then fold in the remaining whites, and finally the remaining whipped cream. Pipe the mousse into a serving bowl or individual dishes.

Put the bowls on a small cookie sheet ( I used a 9″x12″ jelly roll pan.) Tip the pans at a sharp angle. I used a beer bottle under one end (I wonder where that bottle came from?)  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Light Chocolate Mousse (6 servings)

  • 1/2 cup water, boiling
  • 2 tsp gelatin (powdered)
  • 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 4 large eggs separated and at room temperature
  • 1/3 cup sugar

Combine water and gelatin in a small bowl and whisk until gelatin has completely dissolved. Whisk in cocoa powder and set aside to cool for 15 minutes. Place the egg whites in a medium bowl and, using an electric mixer, beat until soft peaks form. Add sugar gradually, working with 1-2 tbsp at a time, while you beat the egg whites. Once the egg white mixture has reached soft peaks, beat in the egg yolks one at a time at high speed. Slowly pour in the gelatin mixture and mix until uniform in color and well-combined.

Remove the dark chocolate filled dishes and tip them the opposite way on the counter. Evenly distribute the mousse into then and refrigerate keeping the same angle until set, at least 3 hours.

Bavarian Cream (2 Servings )

  • 1-1/2 teaspoons Unflavored gelatin
  • 2 tablespoons cold water
  • 1 egg yolks
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1/4 pinch salt
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream

In a small bowl, stir together the gelatin and cold water. Set aside to soften. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt until smooth. In a medium saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. Pour the hot milk in a steady stream into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and pour the custard through a strainer.  Stir in the softened gelatin and vanilla and stir to melt the gelatin. Allow to cool. When the mixture has cooled almost to room temperature, whip the heavy cream to medium stiffness and fold it into the custard. Immediately transfer the Bavarian cream to the dessert cups laying level on the counter, as it will firm up quickly as the gelatin sets. Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.

Before serving, I grated some dark chocolate over the Bavarian cream. I also rolled some gum paste that I had in a combination of sugar and cinnamon to offset the sweetness of the mousse. Cut the gum paste into rectangles about 1″ x 2″ and roll into a tube with the sugar/cinnamon coating on the outside.

Except Parfaits, perhaps the bestest dessert there is

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Chocolate Souffle, need I say more? This is the first  try. I sprinkled powder sugar over the top as I thought perhaps all the sugar inside and chocolate would be a bit tart?
The second version used some vanilla ice cream to enhance the calories. The last version used the vanilla ice cream again but then balanced that with a chocolate glaze drizzle.

You know, Donkey may have been wrong.

2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons (1 oz.) unsalted butter
2 large eggs, separated
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup (1 oz.) confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon chocolate liqueur

1. Lightly butter two 6-ounce souffle dish and dust with granulated sugar, tapping out excess. Set the ramekins on a small baking sheet.Set aside.
2. In bowl over saucepan of hot water (not boiling)or in a microwave, melt chocolate with butter.Remove from the heat and whisk until glossy and smooth. Stir in the chocolate liqueur and the salt.
3. In separate bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form, and beat in 3 tablespoon of the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until stiff peaks form.
4. In another bowl, beat egg yolks with remaining sugar until thick and pale yellow. Beat in chocolate mixture until incorporated. Fold in one-quarter of the egg whites; gently fold in remaining whites. Divide into prepared container. (Can be prepared to this point and refrigerated for up to 4 hours or freeze for up to two weeks.)
5. Place dish on baking sheet. Bake in lower third of 375°F oven for 18 minutes or until puffed and the exterior is set but interior is still a bit loose and creamy and risen about 1 inch above the ramekin. Careful not to overbake. Dust souffles with powdered sugar (or ice cream or ice cream and chocolate drizzle) and serve immediately as is. (To bake straight from the freezer, unwrap the ramekins and set on a small baking sheet or jellyroll pan. Let them sit for 20 min. while heating the oven to 400°F. Bake on the baking sheet until puffed and risen about 1 inch above the ramekin, 18 min.)

Pies, Pies, Pies, Pies….

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Raspberry

What do you do when left home alone for a week? It obvious isn’t it? You cook whatever you want! I decided this would be desert week (plus one “Dave’s Dinner” that I only make when Fran is not home.)

This week was pies. To not be gluttonous, I decided to make mini-pies in little 5″ pie plates. The recipes all come from Allrecipies.comand I did not change them at all. I made a raspberry, a blueberry, a raspberry/blueberry and

Granny Smith Apple

an apple pie. It was a good time to learn how to lattice the crust of a pie. (Alone time is good for experimentation and practice, practice practice.)  Double wrapped in  Darnel wrap, they froze perfectly. I defrosted at 350 until no longer frozen, then nuked the serving for that night separately.

Blueberry

Blueberry/Raspberry