Week 19, December 27, 2010: Chocolate Cheesecake

If there is one recipe that you look up on joyofbaking.com out of all of the recipes I've used it should be this one, http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateCheesecake.html, for chocolate cheesecake.

It wasn't hard to make and it was the biggest hit this holiday season.  I was commissioned by my aunt to make a cheesecake birthday cake for my cousin, who is a cheesecake aficionado.  I was a little nervous at the outset, especially since I didn't leave myself enough time or extra ingredients for a redo if this one didn't look right.  It required like a pound of chocolate overall, three eggs, three packages of cream cheese and sour cream for the filling... and the topping was chocolate ganache.  The only thing I'm realizing more and more with these cheesecakes is the necessity of parchment on the bottom of the pan.

I had company both the day I made it and the following day when I did the ganache, so I didn't get to do many pictures of the making process.  It was quite simple.  The cake was delicious, very rich, but not overly so.  I don't know if I'd do the ganache again, I might add a raspberry sauce or mousse on the side to complement the chocolate.

For Christmas day, I made another cheesecake that I've been dying to try: Cranberry Cheesecake.  The recipe again from joyofbaking.com

The house smelled amazing for this one.  You start off by making cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries, water, sugar and lemon zest.

Then, allow it to cool, making the cheesecake filling.

Mine doesn't look nearly as good as their online version does: to get the swirl look, it goes layer of cheesecake, layer of filling- pull through to swirl with knife, then another layer of cheesecake and another of cranberry, knife through again.

It got good reviews, but I was concerned- it didn't seem to bake well- with cheesecakes you pull them out when the outside is set, but inside is still a little wet and wobbly.  With this one, the very outside was set, but it looked too wet.  I wound up cooking it for an extra 20-30 minutes at 250.  I'm wondering about the change in temps that some cheesecakes require, i.e., instead of 30-40 minutes at 350, they do 15 minutes at 350 and then 60-70 at 250... It doesn't seem to help with the cracking... I'll fight this one another day.

Baking was busy, but the biggest job of the holiday was assisting in the art of naming the new stuffed animals.  I named Kevin in October... and she received at least four more animals this week.  Joining Kevin on mom's stairs are (GL)Olivia the glow-worm and Felipe, the elephant.  Missing are Manny, the first christmas pink dog and Francesa: Emmy's new textured doll.

In addition to naming the new animal, I had some shopping to do for Em, her parents and even Kevin.

I think he liked his present.

Ker got a few doozies- his wife was thoughtful enough to get him a professional grade tool belt to finish the work she needs done around the house.  Of course he filled it with the real necessities.  Need a bottle, he's got one.  Just wish we had seen if Em would've fit in one of the tool belt pouches.

I never thought I'd be a baby person, but I bawled for twenty minutes after they packed this one into her car seat and headed out.

The best gift we got this Christmas, hanging out with Kevin under the tree.

Next week: Gingerbread Cake and Angel Food Cake

Best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Week 18, December 20, 2010: Cuccidate

Hi all,

Merry Christmas or a very happy belated Hanukkah... the holidays at cake:30 were super busy and very delightful, so I haven't had much time to write.  I've been too occupied with cooking, baking, cleaning and hanging out with...

My favorite person on earth.

Being a fairy god-mother/ crazy aunt is awesome, but has several responsibilities.  You have to know quality stories, be comfy for nap time, have bath time songs, make delicious desserts and of course, know where that naughty Kevin is at all times.

This week's recipe was cuccidate: an Italian fig cookie.  The recipe was my great-grandmother's, passed down to me from my Nana... not sure how long it's been in the family, but I can safely say 100 years... I can give you an outline of the ingredients-- the original recipe didn't have any amounts written on it, except for figs- you need about three pounds.

For the dough, mix leaveners, flour, sugar and crisco.  Add milk as needed to get it to rolling consistency.

The filling:

Roll your sleeves up and prepare for the arm workout of a lifetime.  Ground together figs, walnuts, raisins, cherries, chocolate chips and whole oranges.

They'll look like this:

 Add cherry juice, honey, and spices...

This is over a five hour process normally, from starting the dough and filling to frosting the last, so Ang (Mom) and I spread it out over a two day period- this year, we made the mixes the night before at her house and baked at mine.

Ang rolls the dough so fast she's like a blur.

Mom made the majority of the cookies- there were 271 in total (including gigilana that were made with the left over dough).  I was in charge of baking, making frosting and more dough when needed.

Our set up was pretty simple: making table in the diningroom with the cooling/ frosting table set up behind it.

After rolling the dough into strips, Ang added filling, folded them over and cut them diagonally.

When we ran out of filling, she made gigilana with the leftover dough and sesame seeds.

The frosting is my absolute favorite in the world: powdered sugar, melted butter, vanilla and milk.  So simple, but so tasty.

 We started with green...

 Then did yellow...

 And pink and blue followed.

 Angie had a good time frosting and adding the nonpareils-- it took four sweeps of the living room, dining room and kitchen to get them from attempting to hang out with my socks.

This was the monster one, Ang called the log-- we shared it with some tea after our hard work was done.

Next week: chocolate cheesecake and cranberry cheesecake.... Responsible for a birthday cheesecake and a Christmas day cheesecake-- I'll let you know how they went over.

Week 17, December 13, 2010: Clementine Torte

I'm willing to admit that I have a problem: I'm obsessed with clementines. I have welcomed at least 25 pounds of them into my house so far this season.

I love them for so many reasons: the ease of peeling, the tart and sweet complexity of the fruit and the squirt ability. Who doesn't love food that can make a mess?

I had a busy weekend- the last paper of the semester was due on Tuesday, tutoring started up again and we had some company...

   

My gorgeous niece, Em and her very dear friend, Kevin arrived with Em's parents. Baby E is nearly 11 weeks old and is now a huge fan of ceiling fans, bath time, 80s music, telling stories to GG and Pap, and thanks to my mother's good influence, sticking her tongue out. Kevin likes talking on the phone, long walks on the beach and hiding in my mother's Christmas tree.

I needed a low fuss cake because of how much we had going on and was fascinated with the idea of clementines and almonds in a cake together... yum!  The cake did not disappoint!
Recipe from joyofbaking.com

I made two cakes at once- started with just over 2 pounds of clementines, about 7. I covered them with water and set them to boil.  They needed to simmer for two hours.  I cleaned, worked on a paper and enjoyed the orange scent pervading the house.

 

My three cup food processor got a work out with this one. First, it took care of 2 1/2 cups of almonds per cake, then I sprinkled on the baking powder, salt and sugar, whisking until they looked like this:

I have nearly no patience in the world, so the clementines weren't completely cooled when I started cutting them in half, removing the seeds and tossing them in the processor with some eggs.  Each set of clementines had to be processed in two batches, the food processor is so small.  

I dressed the spring form pans....

  

 Mixed it all together and poured into the pans... the mixture didn't seem fully incorporated, which worried me a bit, but I popped it into the oven and waited.

 It was one of my favorites and received the best reviews from the faculty- I got requests for the recipe, high fives and was told to quit my phd program and start baking for a living... tempting, but I don't think my waist line could stand it. The family was eh on it, but we had a lot of sweets and food this weekend. It was too orangy for mom, but everyone thought it was pretty tasty.  It's going in the files...

 I have cuccidate to make this weekend, along with a portfolio to begin, so you'll either get a play by play of my family's two day cookie recipe, or a relatively low fuss cake... either way, enjoy the snow and the shopping and the holiday cards... it's a stressful time of year, but it's not without its magic.

Week 15, November 29, 2010: Coffee Cake

Ok, I had a special surprise for you today-- actually I had started the surprise on the 29th of November and I've been trying to figure out how to edit and upload it since, but no dice... Let me explain.

For this week's cake, Coffee Cake (recipe from joyofbaking.com), I really wanted to do a vlog: record and edit and upload a video of the higher points of my cake baking.  Instead of being really cool and simple and done, it's been a week and a half pain in the hinder.  1st, I couldn't figure out how to edit- I still can't. I'm going to play with garage band on the mac-aroo when I get the chance, but so far, it's 20+ minutes of me, spouting randomness.

2nd, I had video 1, a four minute starting spot trying to upload for over 4 hours.  I finished the week 16 blog, photos and all, cooked dinner, did the dishes and two loads of laundry and it still didn't load... I'll have to figure this one out, but in the meantime, let me tell you the highs and lows of coffee cake.

I enjoy coffee cake normally- any cake that can masquerade as breakfast is all right by me.  I've done the strudel toppings before, so when I saw this recipe being a little different, I thought, why the heck not?

It was a quick cake. Mix topping, mix cake, layer cake, topping, cake, topping.  The layering and figuring out bake time were the two most tedious tasks.  The second layer of cake didn't want to spread over the middle topping layer.  It was messy and it took a loooong time to bake.

I actually made a squash soup while I was awaiting the baking.  BTW, the 50+ pounds of squash from the garden are officially all baked- I've made three varieties of soup, given away a ton and have a freezer full still.

I didn't try the cake- I know, this is a first, but I have very good reasons: 1, I don't like chocolate chips in things.  I like chocolate for frostings and for the cake flavor, but chunks of chocolate in something inherently not chocolate is just not tasty to me. 2, I'm attempting to get in shape with eating and moving more.

I've gained 15 pounds since starting this blog and can't keep it up... to combat the bulge, I've taken up a 100 days challenge.
100 days was the London Word Project's large "festival" last year, where people blogged, etc on one small thing they did every day for 100 days to make themselves a better person.  They started on December 1st and ended on March 10th.

I planned on doing the same.  December 1st marked what would have been my dad's father's 90th birthday.

Grandpa and Dad on Grandpa's 86th Birthday

He died New Year's Day 2008 and was a remarkable man.  He embodied perseverance and he and Gram taught me so much about the tremendous ability for change that people have.  I believe that we all have the ability to refashion our worlds if we are willing to act and have the proper motivaiton.  My 100 day pledge has become a 113 day pledge- December 6- March 28th. I'm deciding to "divide and conquer" to achieve the other goals I have at hand, knowing that it's the attention to parts that can make the whole more than their sum (and in some cases, the only way of achieving the whole).

So, there you have it.

More baking to come!

My Christmas tree- j/k Galleries Lafayette- Paris

My actual Christmas tree- It's 4 years old this week (I got it as a sapling at my Master's graduation luncheon).

Still trying to figure out how to do this under the aluminum awning at my casa...

Week 16, December 6, 2010: Red Velvet Cake

Howdy!

We are half way through our journey together- inadvertently, this may post before my week 15 blog (I'm having problems with the video editing and uploading, but I haven't been neglecting my baking).

Between final papers, holiday shopping and decorating, things have been tight as far as blogging goes, but I promise to try harder!  So, without further ado: Red Velvet Cake. Recipe from joyofbaking.com

This week was red velvet cake.  I've always wanted to make one of these- there's something about the name and the color that makes them so seductive.  The classic grooms cake in everything I've seen and read... not sure why, but still, seductive.

What a festive looking cake with an interesting process.  The basic beginning had separate dries and wets and then, buttermilk + lots of red food dye (thinking about using beets if I ever do this one again).

 To mix the butter/eggs with the dry, I added the red buttermilk between dry additions.

Now, the exciting part: the rising action.  Remember those science experiment volcanos? Yes, guys: this used vinegar and baking soda!

 The cake looked brighter than this pic came out- super pinky red with cocoa striations.

 The frosting was delightful- cream cheese, marscapone, heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla.  It needed something, but the texture was divine!

 In classic layer cake style, I cut into each cake...

 And frosted the heck out of them!

It did look pretty stunning... I shared it with the fam on Sunday.  Mom, Nan and my cousin Julie came over after Nan treating us to lunch to celebrate Julie being done with another semester and my pilot study getting approved (I love good news!).  The eggplant I had for lunch was lackluster and the cake followed suit... very little chocolate, very bland and the texture was interesting... It was moist, but not too heavy.

The cake reminded me of meeting cute guys out- super pretty, but nothing else.  Not a keeper- it's on the list to refigure.

Psyched for next week- My favorite niece will be up on Saturday and I plan on doing nothing but spoiling her and my sister-in-law rotten once my last paper is done. The resolution is going well too: I've been clearing the garden, cleaning and walking- including an hour and a half around town to do errands during the snow storm this evening. I had the pleasure of running into two of my students while I wore my ridiculous winter hat with ear flaps- pictures to follow!

 I'm also dying to try out the Clementine cake recipes I've been reading- they're gluten-free, which is going to be a nice change of pace.

Enjoy the snow!