one more post for January.

Is it really February as of tomorrow? Where did this month go? I realized that I only posted about 4 times this month, compared to my average of about 6 or 7 a month. I am going to try to bump that number up a bit. I usually post (food) articles that I like to my twitter account, and I got a suggestion a while back about posting the links on here, so I might start doing that. Anyway, I made a Hot Toddy Pudding Cake this weekend.

I didn’t try it, but I was told that it was good. It took a couple of tries to make it because you really need a shallow pan to bake it in. It is kind of like making a souffle, with whipped egg whites and everything. The mixing method is different from any other cake that I’ve made, and it is very low in flour, and there is no leavening agent except the air that is whipped into the egg whites, and I suppose there’s a lot of steam from all of the liquid added to the mix. So, it should be eaten right when it comes out of the oven, which also makes sense, since it is a HOT Toddy Cake. If you try to make this, let me know how yours turned out!

I promise it is worth the wait…

I’m sorry for the lack of posting lately. But I have been baking. This post features dessert that I made for the dinner Benjie hosted on Saturday (I’m always there to help and semi co-host.) Anyway, I made vanilla souffles with chocolate sauce. Also, in case those didn’t work out, I made a brown butter pound cake.

The souffles turned out okay, and for those of you who were at the dinner, and didn’t get a chance to try the pound cake the next day, I am sorry you missed out, because that was also good. I promise I will make it for you some time! 🙂

I had not made a souffle since my second year of pastry school, so I was tempted to try them, especially since I got the ramekins to make them in for my birthday. (Thanks, Mom!) I am so happy they turned out tasting okay, even if they were a little bit crooked (they didn’t rise straight).

The pound cake was a little bit dry, but I’ll admit to over baking them slightly, because I was distracted while they were in the oven, because I was watching Dexter, which, is a really addicting show. I almost went straight to watching it instead of posting this, but I figured you’ve waited long enough for a new post… 😉

Click on the link for the recipes and more pictures.

it’s all about what I have on hand…

okay, so another baking-with-what-I-have-on-hand-post post. This time, I am waiting for a chocolate, chocolate chip bundt cake to come out of the oven. (yes, somehow, I always have some chocolate on-hand.) This recipe is slightly changed from the “Mocha Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake” recipe from Gourmet that I saved. Since I didn’t have instant espresso powder on hand, and I didn’t feel like making icing, this cake isn’t mocha, and it doesn’t have icing. If you look closely at the ingredients, and then at the directions, you will notice the changes I made. I also had regular-sized chocolate chips at home, so that’s what I used.
Here is the full recipe:

so, as you can see, to imitate the cake that I made, you just take out the butter, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, and the espresso powder used to make the icing and the flavor mocha. Also, I just used a whisk, and my (wo)man power to mix all of the ingredients together. I think it turned out okay. There will, of course, be pictures of the cake posted later.

*EDIT* I just added the photos, sorry for the very long delay.*

Four weddings and…a birthday!

This year was full of weddings (and one “wedding”) and of course, my birthday!
First up was Jenessa and Mike’s on July 4th weekend:

lovely summery cake with all of those sunflowers!

After that, in the middle of August was my sister and (now) “sister-in-law” ‘s “wedding” celebration. They didn’t have cake, just some refreshing mint ice cream. I heard it was very minty, and therefore, I did not try any, as I don’t like mint. However, it was a nice party, and it was nice to see my whole family together.

Next was Gur and Hilary’s small wedding, in the middle of October:

a very elegant cake-I just noticed how it matches the decor in the place that the reception was held-nice!

Fourth was recent, in the beginning of November, Adina and Ned’s very Jewish wedding:

they had a lovely wedding (bride’s?) cake and a lovely groom’s cake

and, lastly, my birthday. no big cake, but there was a tasty dessert with my name on it:

the chocolate bites at Farallon. yum!

and I took a picture of what Benjie had, the “caramel apple sundae”:

I had the last bite-it was pretty good!

overall, a great year full of celebrations! next year will also be full of weddings. crazy how life changes from going to all of your friends’/family’s birthday/bar/bat mitzvah parties to all of your friends’ weddings. just shows that we are all growing up!

chocolate bundt cake

I bought a bundt cake pan the other day, so it was time to test it out.

I got the recipe from allrecipes.com. It’s a good site, especially because it has a calculator right on the screen. Just put in the number of servings, and it re-calculates the recipe for you. Of course, since I was making cake, there was no need for this feature this time, but nice to know it’s there. Also, I had to choose a chocolate or chocolate chip cake because I am, after all, a chocoholic. This cake recipe was easy, and I am glad I found it because most of the other recipes I found involved cake mix and sour cream, and I wanted one that was made entirely from scratch. I had a slightly smaller pan (9 inches vs 10) but I think it’ll be okay. It takes a little over an hour to bake, so I am typing this while waiting for it to come out of the oven. (Pictures obviously added later.) I made the recipe almost exactly as on the site, but instead of shortening, I used all butter. This resulted in 3 sticks of butter, but that just adds more flavor and richness. I thought about adding in chocolate chips as well, but I wanted to see how it came out first, and will maybe add them next time.

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 eggs
• 1 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter, shortening, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add flour mixture alternately with the milk. Mix well.
3. Pour into 10 inch Bundt pan. Bake at 325 F (165 degrees C) for 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. 

Pretty straight forward, simple recipe. I can’t wait to try a piece!

I tried some and it is good and moist. Not much of a chocolate flavor, though. I guess using all butter instead of some butter, some shortening changed that because the shortening would have let the chocolate shine through more. I guess I will add chocolate chips next time. Or, I can make a vanilla cake with chocolate chips, hmm…