Coconut-free Santas

And, the white cotton candy has only two ingredients: Sugar and artificial flavor. Strawberry flavored. The kids are so excited. Personally, I prefer the coconut beard.

Happy Love Day!

Heart-shaped orange-glazed cinnamon rolls and strawberry milk for a quick Valentine's breakfast before school... Happy Love Day!!

Bûche de Noël 2012

I've been meaning to try the flour-less chocolate cake roll from Smitten Kitchen since I spotted it on Deb's blog, then I decided that it would be perfect for our annual Bûche de Noël. We've been doing them for about five years now, and the kids love to help (especially with the candy decorating...) 

The verdict? This "Heavenly Chocolate Roll" is divine – rich chocolate that's light as air, delicious cream filling with just the right amount of sweetness. Really nice, much less rich than other recipes from year's past, and it turned out looking like a pretty log without any frosting at all! 

Enjoy! 

Heavenly Chocolate Roll 

(adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen)

1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 Tbs. hot water
6 large eggs, at room temperature, separated
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt

Spray parchment-lined jelly-roll pan with baking spray, preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Melt the chips in the microwave on 1/2-power for about 90 seconds, stir, 30 seconds more with hot water, stir and let sit to cool slightly. Beat egg yolks until pale and creamy, then slowly add in sugar and keep beating until "pale and ribbony." Eventually, add the melted, cooled chocolate. 

Meanwhile, beat the 6 egg whites with the salt until stiff peaks form, then add 1/4 into the yolk/chocolate mixture. When combined, fold the rest of the whites into the yolk/chocolate mixture, then pour into prepared pan. Bake for 15-17 mins. until soft and dry, but pick comes out clean. May seem undercooked. 

Remove from oven to cooling rack (in pan) and cover with a damp towel (I sprinkled mine with 360-degree Double Chocolate vodka), and let cool 10 mins. Remove towel and sprinkle with:

1 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder (sift over the cake), cover with towel and flip over, then sift another 

1 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa over the other side 

Then, use the towel (re-sprinkled with water or vanilla or... Double Chocolate vodka) to roll the cake up. I rolled it lengthwise to get a longer, thinner roll, but rolling from the short side would be excellent with this recipe). Let cool (rolled up in the towel) until you're ready to fill.  

Filling: 

1 c. whipping cream
3-4 Tbs. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 Tbs. Double Chocolate vodka

Beat all ingredients until it holds stiff peaks.

Carefully transfer the cooled roll to a serving plate, fill with cream and decorate festively! Happy New Year!! 

Wordless Wednesday: Save A Turkey... Eat More Cupcakes!

iLove

I LOVE Family Fun magazine's crafts and ideas... so fun! We made a few of these iLove Valentine's for ♥-day! You just need conversation hearts (in boxes), Reese's mini-size peanut butter cups, paper, string, foil, glue/tape, scissors and their cut-out template... easy, fun and sweet!

Bûche de Noël - 2011

Key-lime filled, tinted-whipped-cream frosted jelly-roll Bûche de Noël this year for 2011. I decorated it solo, since the kids were busy playing games with Grammy, Ukki and Papa.

It really is the very best recipe for a jelly roll, is from Daisy Martinez, and rolls nicely from either the short or long end (I used the long end for the Yule Log). I also trim the sides before rolling, which makes everything nice and neat.

Santa in Ski Goggles & Nutcracker Mice

Baked all weekend, and am just ready for some R&R now. Will post recipes (including one for the perfect Madeline cookies) when I have time (which might not be this week, judging from the calendar).
Italian Cucidatti (filled fig-orange-cocoa) cookies, Rugelach, Chocolate Cherry cookies, Play Dough cookie cutouts, Light Chai Shortbread Slices, Nutcracker Mice and Santa, Coconut Macaroons, Snickers-filled Peanut Butter cookies, Play Dough shaped-trees cookies, Madeline cookies, and Oatmeal Coconut cookies. That's all for now.

TGIF: Monstertini

Ooooohhh.... OK, so this drink isn't really blue, but inverting the colors on the image gave it a fun, spooky look. If you want a frightfully delicious martini for your Halloween party, try a "Monstertini" (or maybe "Sour Pear Monster" is a more accurate name). I think I made this up, although I haven't searched for recipes yet... I was inspired by an orange rock-candy swizzle I picked up recently, and a sale on Odwalla Monster C, so mixed in a martini glass:

Monstertini (AKA Sour Pear Monster)

1 part Sour mix
1 part Absolut Pears
1 part Odwalla C Monster - Citrus C

In this case, the sour and Citrus C were cold from the fridge, so I skipped the shaker. I used one shot of each, but you could mix in larger quantities, and the rock candy swizzle was orange flavored, so that added to the drink. Tasty. Happy Friday, and you're welcome.

Wordless Wednesday: Margarita Cupcakes!

Move Over Martha!

Move over Martha, Madeline's in town! I told Miss M to arrange the starfruit (her fave) and strawberries however she wanted on this platter, and here's what she did...

... makes a Mama proud! She's got the eye. And, E's busy sampling the fruit as well...

And, at Grammy's the day prior, M was thrilled to practice her knife skills ala Jamie Oliver!

Erik is always the first to volunteer for sous chef duty, and hopped up to the sink to wash scallions.

Cat In The Hat Cake

Well, of course there was a cake for the Dr. Seuss party! Although, technically it was a jelly roll (thank you for the inspiration, Amelia Bedelia ala Peggy Parish!). The frosting is tinted whipped cream (with powdered sugar and vanilla), and the brim of the hat was formed from my favorite Play Dough cookie recipe.

Cat In The Hat Cake adapted from
Daisy Martinez (Daisy Cooks!) Brazo de Gitano, or "Gypsy's Arm"

Vegetable cooking spray
¾ cup sifted cake flour (you can make your own with corn starch and flour*)
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, at room temperature
¾ cup sugar
For the filling
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whipped cream cheese at room temperature
One 17-ounce jar guava jelly or 1.5 cups strawberry jelly

1. Make the cake: Preheat the oven 350° F. Grease a 13 x 18-inch jelly roll pan with vegetable cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper or waxed paper. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Beat the eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer (or in a bowl with a handheld mixer) at medium-high speed until foamy. Add the sugar gradually in three batches and continue beating until very fluffy and pale yellow.

2. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the eggs in three batches, folding each one into the egg mixture with a rubber spatula until just a few streaks of white remain. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it into an even layer, making sure to poke it into the corners. Bake until the cake is golden brown and it feels spongy not tacky to the touch, 14 to 16 minutes. After the cake cools to the touch, roll it up (starting at the shorter end) and let it continue to cool rolled up (makes it easier to roll with filling later).

3. Make the filling: Beat the heavy cream and confectioners' sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer (or in a bowl with a handheld mixer) until it is fluffy. Add the vanilla and continue beating until the cream holds soft peaks when the beater is lifted from it. Add the cream cheese half at a time and beat just until blended into the cream. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

4. Line your work surface with a sheet of waxed or parchment paper. Invert the cake onto the paper and lift off the pan. Peel the paper off the top of the cake. Spread the jelly in an even layer over the cake, leaving a ½-inch border around the edges. Do the same with the cream cheese mixture. Starting at one of the short sides, roll the cake up into a compact roll, working gently to avoid tearing the cake or squeezing the filling out. Set the cake seam side down on a serving platter. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or up to 1 day before serving.

5. To serve, pipe tinted (and sweetened) whipped cream onto the "hat" in alternating red and white stripes. Add cookie brim. Enjoy!

*Basically, sift all-purpose flour, then measure out 1 cup. Remove 2 Tbs. of flour and replace with 2 Tbs. of corn starch, then sift several times. Measure out the amount you need. To make 2 cups of cake flour, it would be 1.75 cups all-purpose and .25 cups of corn starch.

I do! I like them, Sam I Am!!

The coolest Green Eggs around... from Jamie & John's chickens (from CC I think...) — we get eggs, the chickens get our slugs, and everyone is happy!

Dinner tonight: Green Eggs & Ham (I used neon green food color since any other "green" wouldn't fly with E), turkey ham and baked sweet potato fries.

They did! They liked it, Sam I Am!!!

Spring Preview...

"Spears" - AKA asparagus... Erik actually ate two spears of this. Victory!! He also inhaled two bowls of "Grumbly Bean Soup" this week. He like edamame (or Grumbly Beans) so that's what I called the Split Pea Soup I made on Tuesday. It has no edamame in it, but he doesn't know that. He LOVED it. Sweet. He also isn't aware that I discovered a sneaky cauliflower recipe in one of the Moosewood cookbooks today at the library, which I'll be making next week. Bwahahahaha!!
We ate the Grumbly Bean Soup (or Hernesoppa in Finnish) on Laskiaistiistai (Shrove Tuesday/Fat Tuesday) along with Shrove Buns. These tasty treats are called Laskiaispullat in Finland and are cardamom sweet rolls (similar to Challah) sliced in half and filled with almond paste (or raspberry jam) and sweetened whipped cream. In turns out that Erik adores almond paste, and there is zero problem getting him to eat that.

Heart-y Scones

The kids helped whip up some heart-shaped orange-vanilla scones for Valentine's Day brunch. Along with bacon and fruit, it was a tasty little meal.

The finished product! Mmm...

Ready for the oven...

Mixing...

Erik loves the pastry blender... and the Microplane (he's irritated that I won't let him us the Microplane alone).

Using It All...

This is the "greenest" recipe ever. Seriously. Candied orange peels. You candy the peel, you eat the orange, and you make orange syrup out of the sugar and water you use to candy the peel in! Beautiful. This is going to be a keeper for Christmas treats.
Candied Orange Peel Slices
5-6 large navel oranges
water
3 cups sugar

Cuts ends off and score the oranges lengthwise, then peel. Slice lengthwise in 1/4-inch slices. Put in pot and cover with water. Boil and drain water three times. Then, add the sugar, and cover peels with water again (just cover, don't fill the pot up). Boil for 35-45 minutes, until the peels are transparent. Drain (save the liquid to boil down for syrup too!) and dump onto a wire rack to cool and dry a bit.

To finish, dredge in sugar, or dip in white or dark chocolate. They are AMAZING!!!

Mini Gingerbread Houses? Check.

Good decorating with royal icing, candy melts, frosted mini wheats, sunflower seed drops, dried blueberries and cranberries, Reese's Pieces, almonds, Red Vines, coconut, and snowflake "sprinkles."

My favorite thing... my new decorating bottles by Kuhn Rikon that the kids can easily use (Sur La Table, Jen, in a big basket near the front door... in case you need some too). Merry Little Christmas to me!
Gingerbread House Glue (AKA Royal Icing/Frosting)

5 Tbs. Meringue powder
1/2 c. warm water

Whip until stiff peaks form, then slowly beat in...

almost 1 lb. of powdered sugar;

until a thick icing frosting forms. Load into bags, frosting bottles or just spread.

Thankful... Mmm...

Grilled turkey, balsamic-glazed onions (made by Ro), sauteed green beans with caramelized onions, green beans with toasted hazelnuts (made by Ro), brussel sprouts with pancetta, mashed sweet potatoes (made by my mom) and mashed baby reds, gravy, cornbread apple cranberry giblet stuffing, cranberries, red chile (made by Ro, um or Vince?), lime Jello with pineapple, rosemary rolls, a rainbow platter of fresh veggies... bottles of red, white and cranberry wine, and spiced cider. Really? Yes. Really. And, six pies to choose from, plus pumpkin cookies and cute little turkeys.

Pumpkin Floats

That's right, Pumpkin Floats... festive and tasty. Try 'em!!

Pumpkin Floats
(created by me, and they are delicious!)

1. Dreyer's Pumpkin ice cream
2. Henry Weinhard's Orange Cream Soda
3. Glass

Scoop ice cream into glass, pour orange cream soda over top, and serve.

Tastier than pie, my friends! Be brave, Sam I Am.

Happy New Year!

Jewish New Year, that is, and boy is this a wonderful cake to celebrate the occasion. Joel mentioned that his boss, Mike, was hunting down stores in the area that sold Honey Cake for Jewish New Year, and had only found a couple. I was intrigued. Clearly, I needed to hunt down a recipe.I found a very promising version on Epicurious.com from Marcy Goldman's book; A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking. The recipe got a 97% approval rating on the site, and that's impressive, so I made it this week. It's a lightly spiced (cinnamon, allspice, cloves, vanilla) zucchini bread-type cake, but better—orange juice, coffee (or brewed black tea), oil, honey and whiskey (optional) all add to the moistness of the cake too. It was delicious, and Mike agreed. Apparently, the Honey Cake that he's had in the past had a courser crumb, and was not as sweet. But, he prefers this recipe, so here it is. Definitely a keeper!

Happy Easter!

A simple, sweet dessert to balance out the other sweets of the holiday...