This cake is one of the reasons why I was away from this blog over the weekend. One of our neighbors turned 40 on Sunday and we all gathered to steam some oysters, eat some pulled BBQ pork, cheeses, drink a lot (like a truck ran over me 5 times already)and eat this cake. I made her a 2 tiered dark chocolate cake filled with cream cheese frosting and covered in fondant. I had a great time making it and it was a big hit. I can’t believe we almost ate our way through the whole thing!

I’ll be back later for recipes and instructions.

For the cake layers, I used this recipe I found on Lisa’s blog, La Mia Cucina. I made 5 batches as I’d rather be on the safe side and I am OK with recycling what’s left over. I made a couple of changes though. You can find her recipe here, below is the one I used.

Dark Chocolate Fusgy Cake:

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter
1 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
8 oz. good quality bittersweet chocolate melted
1 cup sour cream
1 c. boiling water
2 TBS. instant espresso powder
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat 1/2 cup butter and sugar until well mixed. Add eggs one at a time. Beat in the vanilla and melted chocolate. Add 1/2 c. of the sour cream and then 1/2 the dry ingredients to the butter mixture until well blended. Add the reamining sour cream and remaining dry ingredients to the batter. Stir in boiling water with espresso powder.
Bake in a 9 or 10 inch cake pans.

As I said I made 5 batches and I filled 3 10 inch pans and 2 8 inch pans.

For the frosting I made 2 batches of the following recipe, and before you scream and send me to Pastry Hell, yes I used Crisco! I found that in SC where the humidity is very high 99% of the time, Crisco helps my buttercream set and prevent my cakes and fondant from sweating, shifting, and ultimately collapsing. I did use the trans-fat free one though.

2 lbs. of powdered sugar
1/3 C. warm water
3 1/2 oz. cream cheese , softened
7 oz. trans-fat free Crisco

In stand mixer, cream Criso and cream cheese until very smooth. Add sifted powdered sugar and water. Mix until well incorporated.
Fill and cover the cakes with this. Refrigerate until ready to cover with fondant.
You can find the original here.

For the fondant, I usually go 2 ways: either I run around town and look for glycerin and glucose to make my recipe or I call C. who runs the pastry department at the restaurant across from the one I used to work for. She is my to go source when I am lazy and hers is always perfect. I decided to go another route this time again and decided on this recipe after seeing Monisha’s cake last week. Amazingly easy and fun to make and so smooth to roll and handle, no tear which meant no tears for me saturday night when I used it.
I made 2 batches since I plan on using some next week for another cake. For the dots I used pastry decorating tips and used the openings or bases to cut different size circles.

It got so humid overnight and it rained all day long sunday, I started worrying as the fondant might sweat and stretch, get gooey or gummy and start chnaging the overall appearance of the cake. I think I was the only one to notice the little shifts and things but the birthday girl was extremely happy with it. It looked and tasted good, you would expect it to be sickenly sweet but it wasn’t that much. So it was a shock full of sugar! Hey, it was a birthday after all!

I guess I owe this to my upbringing but I am known in my family as the Queen of Recycling. At the restaurant, the executive chef and the owners loved me for that: failed cheesecake? No problem, we’ll have cheesecake mousse in parfaits glasses! Leftover pastry cream? No problem, we’ll have Bavarois! Dry chocolate cake? I’ll pulverize it and use the crumbs for crusts, decorative crumbs or something…Hey! I could even use it in those parfaits glasses to layer my mousse with! You get the picture. Mind you, not everything got recycled, in spite of my best effort.

I was reorganizing the pastry/baking drawer of my freezer the other day when I found some Sour Cream Pastry Dough that needed to be used by the end of the month. I had made a cheesecake for a friend during the week and had some leftover filling. I was also staring at a half jar of Blueberyy Tea Jelly which color looked like a gem stone in the sun. I had a vessel, a filling and a crown! I had been craving small bites to go along my tea or my coffee in the afternoon so I decided to make tinsy mini tartlets using my min muffin tins.

Sweet Cheese Tartlets with Blueberry Tea Jelly Crowns.

Sour Cream Pastry, adapted from Flo Braker’s Sweet Miniatures.

2 cups all purpose flour
1/8 tsp. salt
8 oz. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup sour cream

In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Add the butter and cut in with a pastry knife or your fingers until you get pea sized crumbs.Add the sour cream and blend in quickly into a ball. Don’t over work the dough or it will be too elastic. Divide in half, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Cream Cheese Filling
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest

In a bowl, blend the cream cheese and sugar. Add the egg and lemon zest. Blend well. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut 3 inch circles. Fit them into the cavities of the mini muffin tin and divide the cream cheese filling evenly among them. Bake at 350, for 10-15 minutes. Let cool completely.

For the Glaze:
Melt 1/2 cup of your favorite jelly. I used Blueberyy Tea that I made over the summer. Divide evenly on top of the tartlets and refrigerate until set.

Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee and pop a few into your mouth!

Today I learned that a friend had breast cancer. Today I learned that a family member had passed away. Today I learned of a couple getting married. Today I learned a friend had her baby. Sorrow and happiness were overwhelming and I dealt with them the only way I know how: I am not an emotion eater, I am an emotion baker.

Faced with life’s joys and pains my preservation system is to put on some music and get myself in the kitchen. I baked non stop this afternoon. I found myself wanting round small things, Fall flavors, butter, eggs: familiar things that I knew how to control.By the end of the day my apron was covered in sugar, my slippers dusted with flour, my kitchen sink overflowing with pots and pans. I was calmer, I was tired, I was happy. Did I make all these baked goods for us? No. You see, part of my emotion coping system is to make sure everybody else around me is well fed, hydrated, and happy. I packed some of the stuff in containers, got some milk and rang the neighbors' doors. That’s when hubby said: "you are like the woman in the book you just read!" and then I knew I had my entry for Stephanie’s Blog Party 15.

The theme this month was to make something from one of our favorites books. I baked a recipe for a cake I found in this book I just finished, Eat Cake, by Jeanne Ray. I know she said an appetizer and a drink but I blog about sweets, so I hope she’ll accept my entry as a "if you still have room for dessert" one as far as the cocktail part, there is rum in the glaze! Although it is not my favorite book, it is an easy read and I found a lot of similarities with the main character. When faced with difficult decision or stressful situation, Ruth calms her nerves by picturing herself inside a cake. She then proceeds to bake one and gives ot to her family or friends. This afternoon I was Ruth by making one of her famed cakes. The author was gracious enough to include the recipes for the featured cakes at the end of the book and I picked the Sweet Potato Bundt Cake one, minus the raisins as my husband dislikes them, and made mini ones.

Sweet Potato Mini Bundt Cakes and Spiked Sugar Glazed, adapted from "In The Sweet Kitchen" by Regan Daley:
Makes 12 small cakes or a large one

Cake:
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup rum, divided

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a mini bundtcake pan (used twice) or one large pan.In a large bowl of stand mixer, beat the eggs a little to break them up. Add the sugar and beat 2 minutes until thick and pale. Add the oil and vanilla. Add 1/4 cup rum and sweet potatoes. Mix thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the flour mixture to the batter in 3 additon, alternating with the buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
Divide into the pan cavities and bake for 30-45 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes, invert onto a cooling rack set over a baking sheet to catch the excess glaze.

Glaze:
Combine 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (I used light), 4 Tb. butter and 3 Tb. whipping cream in a saucepan over medium high heat until it comes to a boil. Continue to boil until it thickens a bit, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and add 1/4 c. remaining rum.Poke holes in the cakes with a skewer and spoon the glaze all over the cakes. Wait 15 min utes. Scoop the glaze that has dripped into the baking sheet and repeat the procedure.
These are good!

Well, the macarons are just going to have to wait because today is one of my new favorite days: World Bread Day! I don’t really need an excuse to celebrate bread but it is sure good to stop and smell the grains once in a while. Thank you Zorra for launching this event!

When I first moved to the US, one of my first quests was to find a decent bakery in downtwon Charleston, preferably specialized in European breads. I was not being a snob, just too far away from home for comfort and trying to find familiar foods and ingredients. That lasted for about a month…every visit to the grocery store or farmer’s market was teaching me more and more about local specialties. It is also thousands of miles away from home that I became more acquainted with other cultures' foods, isn’t that ironic? I ate more lasagna, empenadas, kebabs, bagels, pastillitos, curries in one year than I had in 20 years in France. My senses were awakened and my horizons expanded everytime I would open my mouth and eat.

Isabel lived in the downstairs apartment and she was a beautiful, graceful woman in her fifties. She loved and lived to cook and the smells coming from her kitchen were enough to make everyone miss the sidewalk passing under her window. My room was right above her kitchen and the wonderful aromas of freshly baked breads and pastries were an awful distraction. I remember taking my books to her apartment and lying in the hamoc while she was mixing, kneading, swirling…If I were a man I think I would have had the biggest crush on her. She spoke Portuguese all the time so that nobody would disturb her, but one day I begged for hours on hand for her to speak English long enough so I could copy down her Portuguese Sweet Bread recipe.

It is similar to a brioche but less buttery and the consistency is a little bit denser. I love making it and freezing half for French toasts on sundays.
I saw Isabel the other day at the market and realized it had been months since I had made a batch so it was a great way to celebrate friendships, cultural differences and World Bread Day

Isabel’s Portuguese Sweet Bread:
1 package yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
3/4 warm milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Dissolve yeast in warm milk and add the sugar, butter and salt; stir until butter is melted. Add the eggs, previously beaten slightly.Add 1/2 the flour to the milk/sugar/butter/salt, and mix until smooth. Continue to add remaining flour to make soft dough. Remove it from the bowl and place on floured board. Knead until smooth and satiny (about 15 mins.). Shape into a ball and place in buttered bowl. Cover and let rise until double in size (2 hours). Punch risen dough down and divide it in 10 pieces Place in a greased pan (8-9 inches round). Let rise in warm place until double in size (1-1/2 to 2 hours). Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

I was playing around with different picture sites…

Too tired to post tonight after the Hub’s family shinding, but tune in tomorrow for World Bread Day.

I meant to finish these little babies earlier but the weather has been too gorgeous not to spend the day outside. My fillings are made and ready to go but we are out of town tomorrow. Gonna have to wait until monday to know what I have done with these macarons…

This is what my parents were supposed to have for breakfast this morning….but I forgot and pulled a brioche out instead…so next time they come I will do these pastries again.

I drove my parents to the airport earlier this afternoon. Every time they come we have a different experience depending on where we are in our life, but it seems like they had a nice visit. There was quite a good amount of wine poured and food enjoyed. There was laughter and sight seeing, a good deal of shopping for the rest of the family. Some clashes did take place, some strong opinions were exchanged, some things were left unsaid.
Each time I wait with them under the Arrival/Departure screen I cannot help but feel a pinch in my heart. I wish I had not said some of the things I reacted to or hugged my mother more instead. Such is life and human nature, I guess. I feel like each time they come I am 16 again, but has grown 10 years by the time they leave. They help me remember who I am and help me get better at the same time. I have wonderful parents: je vous aime Papa et Maman.

One habit they have started for my brother and myself is to load up the fridge and freezer before they leave…"just to help, you know". Their reason is that we provide lodging and transportation and deal with them for 3 weeks. They are the easiest guests to have around! I appreciate them funding my foodie and blogging tastes and take this opportunity to get some lamb, cheeses, blocks of European butter, free range chicken and eggs and other delicacies that I usually try to budget for.
Before we headed out on our (big) food outing I noticed I was out of a few staples, especially puff pastry. Mom suggested we buy some at the store …oh boy! you should have seen the look on my face! It costs nothing to make, only time and a few dough turns on a rainy afternoon while watching your favorite old movies. She gave me "the" look : proud, shocked, worried…. Had I turned into Martha Stewart?

See, it really makes me mad to buy puff pastry when I know how easy and unexpensive it is to make at home. I usually make a big batch and divide it in 4 so I know I’ll have plenty for a while, vaccuum seal it and freeze it. I decided to try a new recipe for a change and did, indeed, for the time of recipe turned into Martha by using hers. It is very straightforward and easy but I somehow prefer the one I usually use from Bo Friberg. I decided to use some right away and got inspired by Cheryl wonderful pastillitos, and folded square of puff pastry and put some cherry preserves in the middle.

Puff Pastry, adapted from Martha Stewart:

Makes about 2 1/2 pounds
For the dough package:
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
3/4 cup cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, well chilled
1 1/4 cups cold water

For the butter package:
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups (3 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, well chilled

Make the dough package: In a large mixing bowl, combine both flours with the salt. Scatter butter pieces over the flour mixture; using your fingers or a pastry cutter, incorporate butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.
Form a well in center of mixture, and pour the water into well. Using your hands, gradually draw flour mixture over the water, covering and gathering until mixture is well blended and begins to come together. Gently knead mixture in the bowl just until it comes together to form a dough, about 15 seconds. Pat dough into a rough ball, and turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Wrap tightly, and place in refrigerator to chill 1 hour.

Make the butter package: Sprinkle 1/2 tablespoon flour on a sheet of waxed or parchment paper. Place uncut sticks of butter on top, and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 tablespoon flour. Top with another sheet of paper; using a rolling pin, pound butter to soften and flatten to about 1/2 inch. Remove top sheet of paper, and fold butter package in half onto itself. Replace top sheet of paper, and pound again until butter is about an inch thick. Repeat process two or three times, or until butter becomes quite pliable. Using your hands, shape butter package into a 6-inch square. Wrap well in plastic wrap, and place in refrigerator until it is chilled but not hardened, no more than 10 minutes.

Assemble and roll the dough: Remove dough package from refrigerator, and place on a lightly floured work surface. Using a rolling pin, gently roll the dough into a 9 inch square. Place butter package on the center square. Fold corner of dough over the butter package so that it is completely enclosed. Press with your hands to seal.
Using the rolling pin, press down on the dough at regular intervals, repeating and covering the entire surface area, until it is about 1 inch thick. Gently roll out the dough into a large rectangle, about 9 by 20 inches, with one of the short sides closest to you. Be careful not to press too hard around the edges, and keep the corners even as you roll out the dough by squaring them with the side of the rolling pin or your hands. Brush off any excess flour. Starting at the near end, fold the rectangle in thirds as you would a business letter; this completes the first single turn.Wrap in plastic wrap; place in refrigerator 45 to 60 minutes.
Remove dough from refrigerator, and repeat process in step 5, giving it five more single turns.Always start with the flap opening on the right as if it were a book. Mark the dough with your knuckle each time you complete a turn to help you keep track. Chill 1 hour between each turn. After the sixth and final turn, wrap dough in plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight before using.

For the pastry: cut the dough into 4 inch squares, fold the corners to the centher, create an indentation, brush with egg wash and fill with your favorites: jam, cream cheese, curds, etc…Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

My father loves cheesecakes as much as he loves crabcakes. He is getting used to (not to say tired) to the latter but will probably never lose his sweet tooth for a creamy slice of cheesecake. Usually he would come into the restaurant and order a slice of the one I had prepared that day. He was always curious of my combinations or fillings, whether it be fruits, liqueurs or curds. My parents have been visiting for almost three weeks and I realised Friday that I had not made one for him yet. It is really no big deal for me to make one, I have used the same recipe gazillion times and even tired after a long outing I really don’t mind baking one.

When I asked him about what flavor he wanted, he simply answered "coffee". What? no extravagant or decadent concoction? No. Just coffee. Allright, as a good daughter I would oblige but only if I can use real espresso and some Kahlua.

I can’t tell you where the original recipe comes from, it is a sort of "I got it from a chef who got from a chef who got it from a chef" kind of story. I love it because you can use the fillings and toppings of you choice and you can be as creative as you wish and it never cracks or fail.

Coffee Cheesecake, original source unknown.

For the Crust:

16 Oreo cookies, crushed up

3 Tb. melted butter

Mix the butter and cookies and pat them into a springform pan, previously lined with parchment paper.

For the cheesecake:

2 pounds cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1/4 cup espresso

1/4 Kahlua

Mix together the cream cheese and sugar until well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time an mix well after each addition. Add the espresso and liqueur.

Pour into prepared pan. Wrap the pan with foil and set it into a large roasting pan, fill halfway with water and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, the middle needs to be wiggling a little. Remove from water and cool completely. Better made the day before you plan to serve it.

To remove the cake from the springform bottom, invert on plastic wrap, using a hair dryer or a blowtorch, heat the inverted pan bottom. The cake should losen up from the base. Remove the bottom and invert the cake onto a serving plate. Discard the plastic wrap.

Note: I had a wonderful visit with Cheryl and Griff in Savannah, and plan to post about it soon, I just want to make sure the are allright with the pictures I took.

These little things are really not supposed to be muffins but rather banana bread. Anybody who knows me also knows that I love things that should not be what they are intented to be. I like to twist and divert, although never to the point of creating a diplomatic incident!

I have made this recipe so many times to use up over ripe bananas that I don’t need to open the cookbook anymore. I thought that for the sole purpose of practicing my photography, the batter could be turned into little cakes and decorated for a nice photo shoot.

I also have to confess that with my family still visiting, my recipes have to remain simple and easy to assemble because we do a lot of sightseeing and shopping. However, I would not want to make you miss your weekly episode of the "Banana Post"!This original recipe comes from Cooking Light and is quite easy and light, but full of flavor. I adapted it by adding some rum and replacing the milk with buttermilk. I sometimes add nuts or coconut, sometimes mini chocolate chips.

Banana Bread and Honey Banana Topping, adapted from Cooking Light:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup light butter, softened
1 2/3 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup low-fat sour cream
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners and spray with cooking spray.
Combine sugar and butter in a bowl; beat at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended. Add banana, milk, sour cream, and egg whites; beat well, and set aside.
Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; stir well. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, beating until blended.
Divide evenly among the muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes.

For the Honey Banana Topping:
Slice 3 bananas. Melt 1 TB butter in a large saute pan and saute the bananas until they start to get some color. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of good honey. Remove the bananas and let the honey reduce some. Divide the banana slices on top of the muffins and drizzle with the honey.

I probably won’t be around much this weekend as we are going down to Savannah to play tourists and stroll around town. No visit planned to see Paula Deen, but I am definetely going by the Back In The Day Bakery to see Cheryl. Yeah!!

Well, obviously I can’t be trusted! I said a few days ago that I was done with citrus for a while and there I go again! I was reading one of my favorite blogs, What’s the recipe today, Jim?, and there it was in plain view: a decadent looking Iced Lemon Curd Layer Cake from Delia Smith. Instead of making one cake, I poured the batter in muffin tins. I also adapted the recipe by replacing the lemon curd for lime curd. I did a simple cream cheese frosting instead of a glaze and pipe more lime curd on top. I basically only kept the main body of the recipe, the cake. It has a nice light crumb .

ICED LEMON CURD LAYER MINI CAKES, adapted from Delia Smith,
Makes 12 mini cakes

6 oz (175 g) butter at room temperature
6 oz (175 g) sugar
grated zest 1 lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
6 oz (175 g) self-raising flour, sifted
1 level teaspoon baking powder
3 large eggs, beaten

For the lime curd:
grated zest and juice of 2 limes
3 oz (75 g) caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 oz (50 g) unsalted butter

Cream cheese frosting:
8 oz cream cheese
2 oz butter
1 cup powdered sugar
juice of 1/2 lime

Just measure all the cake ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat – ideally with an electric hand whisk – till you have a smooth, creamy consistency. Then divide the mixture evenly between the muffin tins and bake them on the centre shelf of the oven for about 35 min.

While the cakes are cooking, make the lemon curd.Place the sugar and grated lemon zest in a bowl, whisk the lemon juice together with the eggs, then pour this over the sugar.Then add the butter cut into little pieces, and place the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir frequently till thickened – about 20 minutes. Remove 2 Tb. to decorate.
When the cakes are cooked, remove them from the oven and after about 30 seconds turn them out on to a wire rack.When they are cold, cut a hole in the center of each mini cake, fill with lime curd and put the lid back on.

For the frosting:
Cream the cream cheese and butter, then add the powdered sugar and juice.
Frost the mini cakes with it and pour the remaining 2 Tb. of lime curd in a pastry bag fitted with a small tip, drizzle or swiggle over the frosting.