Cake Dreams

This past month I've been a volunteer several fondant cake classes at Orson Gygi. Christina Miller taught the class and did a great job. Although I was just the "help", I learned a lot and now am very excited about making and decorating cakes. This has been a strange departure from my normal range of baking. I have always been more of a pie & pastry enthusiast than a cake one, but decorating cakes has allowed me to tap into any creative artistry that has more or less lain dormant all these years.

I now lay in bed at night and think of cake. I think of excuses to make them, and how to decorate them. I dream of fondant. I peruse the classifieds for used bakery equipment. I think I'm making my family crazy.

This is a cake I did for my sister-in-law Jerrea's parents' 50th wedding anniversary. It was my first "tiered" cake and was a lot of fun to do.

This cake was for Jessica's birthday. She served an LDS mission to Hong Kong, so I wanted to do something Chinese-themed.

This was a last minute birthday cake for Emily. I had a leftover tier from another cake I dried to replicate her cute wedding colors of green and pink.

This was my very first fondant cake made for my sister Laura's birthday. Go Utes!

A Place for Pears

Two 36-lb cases of Bartlett pears layed out on my basement floor to ripen: $18Extra lids, rings, and lemon juice: $8
Washing and sanitizing 33 quart jars: 2 hours of hard work for my dishwasher

About 8 gallons of light sugar syrup: $2

Peeling, coring, slicing 72 pounds of pears: 6 hours

Finishing 33 quarts of pears: priceless

Spending the afternoon doing pears with my mom: even more priceless
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"I'm coming over to help you do pears," my mom said, upon hearing me worry outloud that I wouldn't get to the over 70 lbs of rapidly ripening pears on my basement floor. I knew she'd come over. She loves to do pears.

There is a quietness to doing pears. The silence of peeling the fruit as its juice runs down your wrists. The whisper of a spash as the pears get a lemon juice bath. There is no frantic chopping as for salsa, no whine of the food processor, no vinegary sharpness in the air from chili sauce. Just the warm mellow smell of the pears, the simmer of the sugar syrup and the the distant click of a sealing jar.

My mother's hands can no longer quilt, and her mind struggles with the complications of daily life. Standing is hard. Walking is harder. But we can sit at my table and do pears, her tremoring hand now firm and steady as the peels fall from the fruit.

Key Lime Cheesecake

I don't have much to say about this one, other than it is smooth, creamy, tangy, rich, and just magically delicious. Okay, I'll say a little more: you start with a generously thick, buttery, sweet, graham cracker crust, then add some tart and tangy lime custard. Then comes the cheesecake layer, spiked with lime juice. Top it off with a smooth, rich layer of sweetened sour cream. Oh yeah.
I lay awake at night thinking of variations. Cranberry/orange? Raspberry/lemon?

key lime cheesecake from Epicurious.com.

Pumpkin Bread

It must be time for pumpkin bread because the first two stores were fresh out of canned pumpkin. Not to be deterred, I soldiered on and found one of those giant 29-oz cans. Looks like we're going to be making a lot of pumpkin bread.

Okay, so I love pumpkin bread but I feel that many recipes really use too much oil and sugar, and that results in a bread lacks texture and complexity. This pumpkin bread is different. It contains chocolate chips (yay!), golden raisins (huh?), and nuts (but only if you want your kids not to eat it). It also uses part whole wheat flour, and that lends a nice sturdiness to the bread without being dry. And you raisin snobs of the world, stop freaking out - they added a nice contrast to the bread. Just try it!

I had to eat some right out of the oven, but to be honest, this bread is better the next day. It "sets up", doesn't crumble as much, and the flavors have had time to develop. Oh, and I really don't know how many loaves it makes. I just got out 6-7 pans of varying sizes and filled them up halfway.

This recipe is adapted from CIA's Baking at Home. This is not the beauty shot I was hoping for, but trust me - it's good.

Pumpkin Bread

1 c. golden raisins

1 c. hot water

4 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

3 3/4 c. whole wheat flour

1 T baking powder

2 t. baking soda

1 1/2 t. salt

1 1/2 t. cinnamon

3/4 t. freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 t. ground cloves

3 1/2 c. canned pumpkin puree (about 1 29 oz can)

2 1/4 c. sugar

6 lg. eggs, room temp

1 1/2 c. vegetable oil

2 c. mini chocolate chips (optional)

1 1/2 c. walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (If you're not at high altitude, you may want to do 375). Grease and flour your pans. Pour 1 c. hot water over raisins and let plump for at least 10 minutes.

Sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves and set aside. Reserving soaking liquid, remove raisins and chop roughly (this step is optional). Combine the raisins and soaking liquid, pumpkin, sugar, eggs, and oil in a large bowl and mix well.

Pour the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in walnuts and chocolate chips if using. Pour the batter into prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out with a few moist crumbs and sides are light golden, 25-45 minutes. (Smaller loaves will be done quicker, so keep a close eye.) Let loaves cool in the pans on wire racks for 10-15 minutes. Turn them out and continue cooling on racks before serving. Wrap in foil and give to your neighbors.

Cranberry Blondies

After watching a blondie throwdown (no Ed, it's not what you think) on Throwdown with Bobby Flay, I've developed a hankering for buttery, brown-sugary blondies. The only thing I sometimes don't like about them is that they're very sweet and can often be doughy. I like these because the cranberry adds a nice tang and the almonds give a good texture. The almond is backed up with a shot of almond extract, which I love.

Cranberry Almond White Chocolate Blondies

1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temp.

1 2/3 c. flour

1 t. baking powder

3/4 t. salt

1 cup packed light-brown sugar

2 large eggs, room temp.

1 t. vanilla

a few drops of almond extract

1 cup sliced almonds, (3 ounces), toasted

3/4 c. cup dried cranberries (soak in a few T. hot water if needed to plump up; could also use fresh cranberries, sliced)

1 c. white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a buttered 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, allowing 2 inches to hang over sides. Butter lining (excluding overhang); set pan aside. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer; cream on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla; beat until well combined. Add flour mixture and stir until just combined, scraping down bowl as needed. Reserving some of each to sprinkle on top, stir in almonds, cranberries, and white chocolate chips into the batter.

Pour into prepared pan; spread with a rubber spatula. Scatter remaining nuts, cranberries and white chocolate over batter in pan. Bake until a cake tester inserted into blondies (avoid center and edges) comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet, 30-40 minutes (don't overbake!). Dust with confectioners’ sugar before cutting into squares.

Salsa Week

Who knew that my piddly side yard could produce so many tomatoes? And why oh why does canning season seemingly coincide with the busiest time of the year? And why does canning make me so tired?

I have my friend Alison to thank for the salsa recipe. She was the one that first showed me the ropes when I started baking bread, and she is quite the homemaker. If she can make cookies from bean flour, then I would imagine that her salsa recipe would be pretty good. I was right.

Alison's Homemade Salsa for bottling

24 large tomatoes

4 large green peppers (I used a mix of different colored peppers, and threw in a few jalapenos as well)

4 large onions

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup apple cider vinegar (I used part lime juice b/c I happened to have some)

3 tsp salt

1/4 cup taco seasoning (I used the "hot" variety)

1 6 ounce can tomato paste

3 4 ounce cans green chilies

Dash garlic powder (I used 6 fresh garlic cloves, minced)

Prepare tomatoes, remove skins and cores. (At this point I put them in the stockpot and blitzed the tomatoes with my immersion blender.)Chop onions and green peppers. Place all ingredients in a large saucepan and simmer for 2 1/2 hours. Place in pint jars and process for 25 minutes. Makes about 14 pints.

Italian Plum Crumb Cake

My sweet neighbor brought me a bag of Italian plums, and I was immediately thrown back to my childhood. I think my Grandma Clark must have had these kind of plums: dark purple with the light blue smudges on the skin, with the yellowish-green flesh. I remember eating them straight off the tree, one after another. And if Grandma Clark had them then we know there had to be something truly redeeming about them. 

Grandma Clark, queen of spice cake, applesauce cookies and low-sugar jam, never had much much use for candy. There was a story circulated that she would insist on not adding the recommended amount of sugar to the batch of homemade jam. Not convinced, grandpa snuck in a whole cup of sugar to the batch and quickly stirred it in before it could be discovered. Upon tasting the finished jam, she would declare, "You see, Ellsworth, it tastes just fine without it."

Once, grandma was babysitting me. I must have been desperate for some candy, because I scaled the countertop, along it and somehow opened the tall cupboard without falling off. I discovered, much to my delight, a teacup with a few small, round candies inside. Just then, grandma entered the kitchen as I was about to pop them in my mouth. "Oh, no!", she cried. "Those are my heart pills!". Dang.

So grandma, I'm sorry for not being able to eat all these plums myself, but rather attaching them to a rather rich cake. I'm sorry I did not halve the sugar, nor did I swap out the butter for applesauce. But I'd like to think you'd like this anyway.

This recipe is adapted from Nick Malgieri's How to Bake.

Italian Plum Crumb Cake

Cake

1 stick unsalted butter, room temp.

3/4 c. sugar

1 egg plus 3 egg yolks

1 t. lemon zest

1 t. vanilla extract

1 1/4 c. flour

1 t. baking powder

pinch of salt

Topping

1 1/4 c. flour

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 t. cinnamon

6 T. butter

about 12 Italian plums, quartered and pitted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and prepare a 10-inch springform pan by buttering it and lining it with a disc of parchment paper.

For the cake, cream the butter in large mixing bowl until soft and light. Gradually beat in sugar and continue beating for about 5 minutes, until very light. Add the egg and continue beating until lighter. Add the yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping the bowl occasionally. Beat in the lemon zest and vanilla. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together, and gradually mix in, just until blended.

For the topping, mix the flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl. Melt the butter and stir it in evenly. Rub the mixture to coarse crumbs by hand.

Rinse, halve, and pit the plums. Cut into quarters. Spread cake batter into prepared pan. 

Arrange plums on top.

Add crumb topping.

Bake the cake for 50 t0 60 minutes, until crumbs are well-colored and batter is no longer liquid. Cool the cake in the pan and then run a knife around the edge to loosen it. Remove pan side and slide from base to a platter. Dust lightly with confectioners sugar.

Recipe notes:

Mine was done between 45 and 50 minutes. Don't let it go to long or else it will be dry. If your plums are on the dry side and not juicy, consider soaking them or adding a little more liquid to the batter - perhaps a tablespoon or so of the plum soaking liquid.

If You Give Paul a Pie

(A lyrical account in the style of Laura Numeroff of our recent Chamberlain girl Estrogen Summit at our dear sister Linda’s home in Victoria, B.C. )

If you give Paul a Pie
He might just lick the plate
And if he licks the plate, then Linda will do, too.
After so much plate licking, you might need a walk to the beach.

To admire the wildflowers

And find strange sea creatures

And watch the sunset from the breakwater.

And if you watch the sunset from the breakwater, you might feel a little melancholy. And if you feel melancholy, you might just need a little bridge mix.

And if you’re eating bridge mix, you might just need a good book.

So you peruse the bookshelves to find this:
But settle on “The Power of One” by Linda’s recommendation.
And after eating bridge mix and reading you need to get the blood going, so you take a bike ride.
And if you go on a bike ride, your chain might come off.

If your chain falls off, you’ll have to ride down to a beautiful beach

And get in the water

Or not.

And if you go on a bike ride and get wet, you’ll have to ride through the forest on the way home. And if you ride through the forest you’ll have to pick wild blackberries.

And if you pick blackberries, you’ll have to make Lemon Blackberry Pavlova.

And if you eat pavlova, you might just need to lay on the couch and look out the window.

And if you lay on the couch and look out the window, you might just see a stormy sunset brewing.

And if you see a stormy sunset brewing, you may need to run down to the beach through the rain, defying all reason and almost getting killed by a taxi.

And if you make it to the beach alive, you’ll get to see the cruise ships casting off.


And that will remind you to return home and try and finish your book.

And if you finish your book you’ll need to walk downtown to the Munro’s Bookstore. You’ll pass by The Empress.

And Chinatown. If you’re in Chinatown, you need to have some Dim Sum.


After Dim Sum you'll need coconut buns.


And eat one right away.
After all that eating, you’ll need to do some kayaking.
Where you terrorize the wildlife,Take pictures of your feet,

Dodge the landing seaplanes,

And paddle around the Inner Harbour.
After all of that work, you might just need a snack, so you make some mixed berry crumble.

And eat while admiring Paul’s artwork around the house.

And take in the flowers

While thus relaxing, you remind yourself that you haven’t yet been to Pagliacci’s, the best Italian joint around. So you go.

And eat the best Caesar salad you've ever had, plus multiple bowls of lentil or minestrone soup
And if you eat a lot of soup...

You deserve a little turtle pie.

Ordered from the suggestive menu.

And if you eat turtle pie for lunch, you’re going to have to eat sushi for dinner. (You know, yin and yang.)

So you try sashimi
And the “special”

And lots of sushi

And if you eat a ton of sushi, you're going to have to redeem yourself. The best way to redeem yourself is to make a really nice, fresh dinner (the next day, of course.)

You make panzanella
And feast on stuffed grape leaves, hummus and antipasti

And if you've stuffed yourself beyond belief, laughed until you peed your pants, cried profusely, exercised until your legs burned, and played speed Scrabble until it was very, very late, it might just be time to go home.

And if it's almost time to go home, you might just need to make one more pie.