confectionaries

Football Cake  

Sometimes you make a cake that you’re sad to see get devoured. This is one of those. It looked to awesome and was a lot of fun to make that I hated to see it get hacked up and eaten at work. Kyle celebrated the big 2-5 a couple months ago (quarter century is a difficult one to handle). Since he was born around superbowl weekend and is a huge Kansas City Chiefs fan what better to make but a football cake. 

The cake under that football field is a classic vanilla cake with a buttercream icing. This boing vanilla-vanilla cake was requested otherwise it would have been something more exciting as I like to experiment and try new things all the time.  

martha stewart recipes: cake: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/old-fashioned-vanilla-cake and buttercream icing recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/swiss-meringue-buttercream-frosting

Adjustments:

1) I added the beans from a vanilla bean to the sugar and egg mixture for the cake in addition to the vanilla extract. I wanted that real vanilla flavour. 

2) I had to make 2 recipes of the butter cream as I needed to crumb coat the cake and use some of the icing in the middle of the cake as a filling. 

3) To create the grass I used a multi-tip which has a bunch of holes in it so you can pipe a lot of grass at once. I always put a layer of green icing under the grass as sometime the white icing shows through.

4) For the logos I made a stencil and swiped icing over the stencil for the crisp look. Using sugar paste would also work. 

Fattigman (Klejner) 

My bestemor used to make a variety of baked goods and breads. Often one of my Aunts or my mother mention something that she used to make and I will try to replicate it. Recipes usually arrive from one of my Aunts out of a Danish cookbook they have. 

I got 2 Danish cookbooks for Christmas from my man. One is a newer edition while the other is a vintage original print. I’m excited to break into them the next time I need to make an authentic Danish treat. 

Fattigman are also known as poor mans doughnuts and are just that. A very basic doughnut dough that is fried and dusted with cinnamon sugar afterwards. The hardest part was trying to figure out the shaping of them which I tried my best to explain below. 

The recipe for these is from a cookbook of my Aunts:

*makes about 60 doughnuts

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup butter

6 tbsp heavy cream

1 egg

1 tsp cardamom

1. In a food processor combine flour, sugar, and baking powder. Slice the butter and add to the dry ingredients. Process or blend until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

2. Add the cream, egg, and cardamom and mix until dough forms. Add more cream if needed to make the mixture into a dough. 

3. On a lightly floured counter, roll dough out to 1/8 inch thickness and cut into strips 1 1/4 inches wide and diagonally into diamonds about 3 1/2 inches long. Make a lenghtwise slash through the center of each diamond. Pull one of the pointed ends through the slash to form a half-knot. 

4. Heat fat to 375F. Drop the knots into the oil (vegetable oil, lard, or shortening) and cook until golden on both sides, turning once or twice. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel.

5. To make the topping, melt 2 tbsp butter and brush over the fattigman when they are still warm. Sprinkle them with granulated sugar and cinnamon. 

Chocolate Crackles

These cookies were made to take into work for Christmas. I hadn’t made these cookies before but read the recipe and it looked really easy and like they would be a great sturdy cookie to package up.

To make the lovely snow-dusted look you need to roll the cookie dough in granulated sugar and then icing sugar (if you skip the granulated sugar step, the icing sugar will bake into the cookies and not provide the cracked look). The recipe does not call for you to roll them in granulated sugar, this part is something I saw in another similar recipe. You place them on the baking sheets in their sugared ball form so when they spread during the baking process you end up the cracks where there is no sugar. 

martha stewart recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chocolate-crackle-cookies

The only adjustment has been noted above. 

Almond Butter Crunch Popcorn 

At Christmas time I like to make a few different items to take in to work and give to my co-workers. This 1st post if one of the 4 different items I made. To go with the popcorn I made biscotti, sugar cookies, and chocolate crackle cookies. Those posts will follow. 

I had made this popcorn before but it was a few years ago. I thought it would be easy to make for work and something that could be made in advance. I love this popcorn and the reason I don’t make it often is because I would eat an entire batch of it in one sitting. I had enough trouble keeping B from eating all of it…

martha stewart recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/macadamia-butter-crunch-popcorn

The only adjustment I made was to double up the recipe for the topping and I substituted slivered almonds for the macadamia nuts. 

Danish Pastry

My Aunt and Uncle celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary and I was asked to make a few Danish pastries for their celebration. I made a little extra dough to play around with. 

I’ve made the pastry many times before and posted different variations of it so I won’t bore you with the details. This time I tried a more traditional treatment with some of the extra pastry and turned the danish into raspberry pinwheels. 

I also made a few (in the 3rd photo) for Bryan with the marzipan filling just the way he likes them. 

One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Icing

After making these in September for a Birthday at work and getting to have one I decided that I enjoyed them so much I could make them again and again. Having a recipe so easy made them a perfect dessert for a busy Halloween day.

The last time I made them I used a cream cheese frosting on them but I needed a more versatile and easy-to-pipe icing this time. Both icing worked well for their individual execution.

I wanted to try a few different treatments for the cupcakes. Some were ideas I found and some were a few that I came up with. Below is a breakdown of the different ideas I tried:

1) Halloween Sprinkles: I piped a ton (literally) of icing onto the cupcake in a swirl and then added the Halloween sprinkles on top.

2) Mummies: These were from Martha Stewart. Cover each cupcake with a thin layer of icing and place 2 pieces of candy to act as eyes for the mummies. Use a flat piping tip and pipe ‘mummy cloth’ in different directions over the cupcake.

3) Webs: I iced the cupcakes with a lot of icing and made the tops slightly flat. I piped 3 circles inside each other in black icing. I then dragged a tooth-pick through the black icing circles to create the web look.

4) Coloured Sugar Stencils: I iced a cupcake with the white icing and made it flat like I did for the webs. I placed the stencil in the icing and put the black and orange coloured sugar over the stencil. I carefully removed the stencil and left-over was the coloured sugar stencil of a bat and/or cat.

I also included a photo of the table set-up I had in the dining room for dinner.

martha stewart recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/one-bowl-chocolate-cupcakes and http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/vanilla-buttercream-for-potted-mums

I made no adjustments to either recipe. 

I work at Shaw Media which owns the Food Network in Canada. Food Network is celebrating their 10th Anniversary this year. To celebrate this milestone there have been many events for people to take part in. One of the events, lucky for me, was directed at staff. We were given the opportunity to decorate a cake. 

My group allowed me to take the lead on this challenge and I offered to make some items our of marzipan that represent the Food Network. The rules stipulated we were able to use items provided to us as well as one additional unique item. Our group checked with the rule makers and confirmed that many objects made out of one object was allowed. 

We decided to depict the Countdown to Dinner group of shows that air on the Food Network, Pitchin’ In, and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. We knew Lynn Crawford was going to be one of the judges and her current program on Food Network is Pitchin’ In. We were hoping for some favouritism. Roger Mooking is the host of Everyday Exotic and his program runs in the Countdown to Dinner rotation.

All in all it was a great time and I got to work on something fun. A friend at work is responsible for the photos. He and his wife (who are expecting their first child) are avid cooks and bakers and have their own wonderful blog. Check it out for some great food ideas and reads here: http://lifeatnumber71.wordpress.com/

I guess I should tell you we didn’t win. The winning cake is pictured above, I’ll let you be the judge of which you think is best as I’m partial to my own groups creation…. I should also mention that Lynn came by and took a photo of OUR CAKE with her cell. Awesome!

Pecan Pie

I needed to bring a dessert to a Thanksgiving dinner and wanted to take something that reminded me of fall but wasn’t pumpkin or apple flavoured. While I know most people love both of those flavours at Thanksgiving I thought everyone probably had enough of both at various family gatherings.

Since I’ve started this blog I’ve been looking for new recipes to make for posting and went searching through my cookbooks to find something never before tried. The result was a pecan pie. Surprisingly I’ve never made one of these before and given my love of pecans thought I would probably enjoy making (and eating) one. 

It turned out really well and was delicious. For my first pecan pie everything went smoothly. You use a regular pie crust recipe and build it in a cake pan because a regular (or deep dish) pie plate isn’t deep enough for all this pie and filling. As with a lot of different types of fruit and savoury pies the crust is pre-baked before adding the filling. We left the rest of the pie with Bryan’s parents but I could have easily brought it home and ate it all for dinner the next day. It was that good. 

martha stewart recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/favorite-pecan-pie

I made no adjustments to the recipe. Didn’t want to mess something I’d never made before.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

I make these cookies each year for Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving falls in early October) and I think that if I were to forget or be too busy there would be a riot at the family dinner! They are the only thing I am asked to bring to the family potluck dinner. They are well loved by everyone and I always make a lot of them to share around with co-workers as well as family. As you can see from the photos I make a lot, 161 this year. Not as many as I have in some years but still a LOT of cookies.

The cookies are very cakey and have a nice layer of delicious frosting on the top. They are very moist and always ‘sweat’ a little after the first day, which has proven to be unavoidable. I don’t put them in the fridge as that puts even more moisture into them. I also don’t seal them up in an airtight container as this makes them sweat even more. The best is to leave them at room temperature loosely covered with plastic wrap or in a pastry box. If you are going to layer them make sure to place parchment paper between the layers of cookies.

martha stewart recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/pumpkin-cookies-with-brown-butter-icing

Adjustments:

• When making the icing you will need to cook the butter for more than 3 minutes. I cook it until there are lots of brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan and the liquid is brown. If you don’t brown the butter well enough you won’t get the right flavouring in the icing. 
• To make the 161 cookies that I did, you will need to make 1 1/2 batches of the cookies. 
• Make sure you don’t use pumpkin pie filling and that you buy just canned pumpkin. The difference between the two is that pumpkin pie filling is already spiced and there are a few other added ingredients as well. 

Birthday Cupcakes

It was my Managers birthday at work and as I always want to find an excsue to bake. I thought this was as good of one as any. I especially love eating cupcakes so getting to make them for someone else and share in the benefits couldn’t have been better.

I’d seen the recipe for Martha Stewart’s ‘One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes’ for years but had never actually tried making them. I have no idea why because the simplicity of throwing everything together quickly really appeals to me. As the name suggests you really only dirty one bowl. (This is not like the trick 7 minute frosting recipe that actually takes about 30 minutes. The 7 minutes refer to the last round of beating which you have to do for 7 very long minutes).

For the frosting I opted for a cream cheese frosting as I thought it would be perfect with the chocolate cupcakes and appeals to everyone. 

I saw the treatment for piping letters to spell out a message on cupcakes from the Martha Stewart Cupcakes cookbook which I’ve used often. The piped letters are made with royal icing that is left overnight at room temperature to harden. 

I had to transport the cupcakes unassembled to work and put the letter on once I got there. The only thing I didn’t think about is something to serve them on. We improvised with a paper box lid. The cupcakes ended up looking really good and were delicious. 

As you can see in the photos 2 were given up as taste testers. You can’t serve somthing without tasting it first. ;)

martha stewart recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/polka-dot-cupcakes?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/birthday-cupcakes#slide_1

I made no adjustments and wouldn’t suggest any either. 

Fall Fair

I decided to enter some of my baking in the Port Hope Fall Fair this year. I’d never entered anything in a baking contest before so was curious about how I’d ‘fair’.

On my entry list were gingersnaps, cowboy cookies, oatmeal cookies, banana chocolate chip muffins, raspberry muffins, glazed lemon loaf, apple pie, a baked pie shell, buns, raspberry jam, strawberry jam, tomato sauce, apple pie filling, and jalapeno peppers that Bryan grew over the summer for us.

Placing:

1st - Ginger Cookies, Oatmeal Cookies, Apple Pie Filling

2nd - Fancy Yeast Buns, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Apple Pie

3rd - Glazed Lemon Loaf, Raspberry Muffin, Tomato Sauce

I didn’t expect to win any ribbons for my jam as I make my jam tart and not as ‘jellied’ as most people and therefore knew it wouldn’t meet to the judges expectations. As far as the other wins go I was very pleased to get a ribbon in 9 of the 13 baking categories I entered.

I was robbed in a few categories, the apple pie category for sure. In the photo that was uploaded with my pie next to the winner you can see that the winning pie looks undercooked and like it has a soggy crust. I’m glad I didn’t have to taste it for judging. I also placed 3rd in the lemon loaf category, I assume because I didn’t add any yellow food colouring to my loaf. Honestly who adds yellow food colouring? Have you ever cut into a lemon and juiced it to receive fluorescent yellow juice? I didn’t think so. So how could a lemon loaf naturally turn out that colour? Oh well, maybe next year the judges will come to their senses and understand what colour a lemon really is. 

A few people have asked me if I’ll cater to the judges and cook my pie less, add colouring to my loaf, make a sweeter more jelly jam. I’ve decided that I won’t. I don’t think I’d be happy winning if I changed how I made things to please a judge. I know the way I make pie/jam/cookies/loaves/muffins/etc. is loved by the people I bake for and don’t want to go messing with that. 

Gingersnaps 

Generally I make soft cookies but I had made ‘gingersnaps’ a long long time ago and thought I’d give them another try. I get worried making crunchy cookies because I don’t want them to burn or brown too much, just dry out and crunch. I find there is a perfect time at which you have to pull them out of the oven. When crunchy cookies are done right they are delicious.

These cookies have a whole bunch of fresh ginger in them along with ‘pumpkin pie’ spices and molasses. The molasses helps them get that deep dark brown colour and the spices make your kitchen smell wonderful and bring memories of fall.

martha stewart recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/molasses-ginger-cookies

i made no adjustments to the recipe at all. it’s perfect.