Pink Ribbon Brownies

For our engagement party, we received a Cricut Cake!!!  If you are familiar with the Cricut machines for paper, it basically is a little plotter that allows you to cut out any shape you want.  The Cake version can cut sheets of frosting, fondant and gum paste and makes fancy cake decorating 900 million times easier.  We finally got to use our new machine when we made Brownies to be sold to benefit Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.

SMS: Roasted Cashew Brittle

This week, it's my turn to host Sweet Melissa Sundays!  Last time I hosted it was August 2, 2009 so I was so excited to finally host again.  We have been baking along to the Sweet Melissa Baking Book since April of 2009, so a good deal of the recipes from the book have already been selected and baked.  We've made so many delicious things over the past year and a half!   Can you believe we've been doing this that long already?

For the recipe this week, I selected the Roasted Cashew Brittle.  I've never made brittle before and I love cashews so I thought this would be a fun recipe.  I prepared the recipe word for word from the Sweet Melissa Baking Book, no substitutions or changes.  I'm hosting, so I didn't want to mess anything up!  It was actually a rather quick and easy process.

Cookies On Demand

There are two reasons I'm calling these chocolate chip cookies "Cookies on Demand".  

1- The recipe doesn't require softened butter.  So no waiting for butter to come to room temperature, you can use it straight out of the fridge.

2- I prepared the recipe, rolled the dough into balls and baked a few to have that night.  Then I froze the rest of the dough balls on a cookie sheet until they were hard, and placed them in airtight container where they stayed until I had a cookie craving.  Want a cookie?  Just grab two (because no one can eat just one fresh baked cookie) out of your freezer, pop it on a cookie sheet and bake it up.

These cookies have a nice sturdy, crispy exterior and a perfect chewy interior.  They don't flatten out all the way while baking and have a little bit of thickness to them.  Pretty close to perfect if you ask me.

Cookies on Demand, adapted from The Ultimate Stand Mixer Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe

makes about 25-30 cookies

11.25 ounces all purpose flour (about 2.5 cups)

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

3/8 tsp fine sea salt

8 ounces unsalted butter, cold

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

3/4 c granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 3/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 C white chocolate chips

1 C hershey's dark chocolate chips

Preheat to 400 F. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cold butter.  Add both sugars and continue to beat for 4-5 minutes on medium.

In a separate bowl, mix eggs with vanilla.  Very slowly (over about 4-5 minutes) add this to the butter mixture.  

Stir in the dry ingredients by hand.  Lastly add in the chocolate chips.

Shape the dough by the mounded tablespoon.  

--If you are making them right away, place dough balls on a parchment or silpat lined cookie sheet and bake for about 6-9 minutes, or until edges are golden brown but still pale in the center.  Allow to sit on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on the cooling rack.  

--If you are making them to freeze them and have On Demand, lay out the dough balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet and place in the freezer until completely firm.  When hard, place in an airtight container until ready to bake.  If baked from frozen, bake at 400 F, but for 8-10 minutes.

Buttermilk Pound Cake

Desserts don't always have to be elaborate or complicated.  Sometimes classics like a good vanilla pound cake are enough to make everyone happy.  Who doesn't like pound cake?  This pound cake is just right - not too dry, not too moist; not too light, not too dense.  It's right in between, and perfect when served with a scoop of your favorite ice cream on top.  


Buttermilk Pound Cake adapted from Alton Brown
Ingredients:       *the measurements below are by weight, not volume
6 ounces unsalted butter, softened (+ more for greasing pan)
8 ounces* cake flour
8 ounces* sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract (optional)
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 cup buttermilk, well shaken


Preheat to 375 F.  Grease a loaf pan with butter and coat in flour (I used a 9x5x3 loaf pan but a 8.5x4.5x2.5 would be ok).  
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium until mixture is very fluffy and very light in color (about 6 minutes!).  With mixer on low, add eggs one at a time.  Mix for 1.5 minutes.  Add vanilla and salt and continue to beat for 30 seconds.
With mixer on low, add flour and buttermilk alternately, beginning and ending with flour.  After the last of the flour is added, beat for 30 seconds on medium.
Spread batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth it out using a spatula. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes and then invert and remove from the pan to cool completely on a wire rack.  

Best Buttermilk Pancakes

For last week's Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pie, I bought the smallest size of buttermilk the grocery store had to offer, but I still had quite a bit leftover with nothing to do with it.  So what do you do when you have extra buttermilk on a Sunday morning?  Make buttermilk pancakes of course.  I used Aida Mollenkamp's recipe for Cakey Buttermilk Pancakes and I think I've found a new favorite pancake recipe.  No other from scratch pancake recipe I've prepared has come out this good.  Plus, you can prepare it the night before, re-stir it in the morning and pour it on your hot griddle for ready-to-eat pancakes in minutes.  Sunday morning breakfast heaven.

This scaled down version made about 5 or 6 good sized pancakes, enough for two people.  For the full scale recipe, visit Food Network's site here.

Favorite Buttermilk Pancakes adapted from Aida Mollenkamp

• 5/8 C all purpose flour
• 5/8 C well shaken buttermilk
• 1/4 C melted unsalted butter (plus more for greasing the griddle)
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

In a medium bowl, whisk all ingredients together until combined and moistened thoroughly (some small lumps remaining are ok). Cover and store in the refrigerator to rest up to 12 hours before using. Right before using, stir briefly before using to loosen it up a bit - batter will have thickened up during rest time.

Heat a griddle over medium heat.  Melt 1 tablespoon butter on the griddle.  Being generous with the butter is what gives them their slightly crispy exterior.   Pour 1/4 cup batter for each pancake and cook until bubbles cover the top, about 3 minutes. Flip and cook until golden brown, another 1 minute. Repeat with remaining batter.  Serve immediately with maple syrup, powdered sugar, whipped cream, fresh fruit or anything else you can possibly think of.

SMS: Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pie

This week, Melissa of Lulu the Baker selected Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pie as the recipe for Sweet Melissa Sundays.  Thanks for picking this recipe, Melissa!  This was a fun one.  I don't think I'd ever made a buttermilk pie before!


I prepared this recipe exactly as Melissa Murphy says in the Sweet Melissa Baking Book - no substitutions and alterations!  In fact, it was the first time I baked with actual buttermilk instead of substituting buttermilk powder. It was almost a success!  (and the buttermilk pancakes that were the result of having left over buttermilk were VERY much a success... I think I may have found a new favorite pancake recipe! More on that later!)   I simply decreased the amount of blueberries for the topping to 12 ounces because I thought 1.5 pints was a bit of overkill.  


Everything went very well, though there was a significant amount of clear liquid (butter maybe?) flowing out of the pie and onto the cookie sheet during the last minutes in the oven.  And I think the liquid made the crust a bit too soggy, because it wouldn't come out of the pie plate!  It did wind up being quite a mess, but it was a DELICIOUS mess.  Everyone enjoyed it at dinner tonight!


Thanks for hosting, Melissa!  I liked this one quite a bit.  Go to Melissa's blog Lulu the Baker for the recipe.  And be sure to visit the list of this week's participants to see if the other bakers had a less messy experience than I did!

Chocolate cake with Raspberry & Ganache filling

There is a sense of accomplishment when a completed cake makes it to the table.  I prepare the batter while the fiancee usually greases and flours the pans.  I keep a watchful eye on it in the oven and prepare the frostings and fillings while leveling the layers and applying the frosting is done by the boy (or else there is generally some screaming and crying going on from my end).  So cakes are a task we complete together.  After it is all done, the garnish is put on top and it is ready to be served, we're both pretty proud to show off the finished product to the family.  The process is sometimes frustrating, usually messy and always fun.  So while cakes take a bit more time and effort than say, cookies or brownies, making a big fancy cake from start to finish every once and a while is a welcome request.  

Last weekend we made this one and it received great reviews from everyone who tasted it.  It was a birthday cake for a friend who likes chocolate and raspberry.  I made a two layer moist chocolate cake, put a generous amount of red raspberry preserves and some rich chocolate ganache in the middle, and frosted the whole thing with vanilla buttercream.  I'd say it was a success.  If you have a chocolate raspberry lover in your life, you might want to make this cake for them.

Chocolate cake with Raspberry & Ganache filling

Chocolate cake, adapted from Cookie Madness

ingredients:

1 cup boiling water
3/4 cup (75g) natural unsweetened cocoa
2 cups (260g) all-purpose flour

3 Tablespoons buttermilk powder (in place of actual buttermilk)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
1 cup (240g) golden brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
4 large eggs, room temp
3/4 cup (6 ¼ oz) water, room temp (also in place of actual buttermilk)**
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

directions:
Preheat to 350 F or 325 F if using black cake pans. Grease and flour (2) 9 inch round pans and line with parchment
Combine boiling water and cocoa in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, sift together dry ingredients (flour, buttermilk powder**, baking soda, and salt). Set aside.  In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the vanilla and set aside.
In large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars together.  Beat in eggs/vanilla mixture. 

Stir room temperature water** into cocoa mixture.  Add this cocoa mixture alternately with dry ingredients in 3 additions, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.
Divide evenly between the two prepared pans.  Lightly spin the pans on a hard surface to distribute the batter.
Bake 28-38 minutes (see note) or until a toothpick comes out barely clean. Cool and frost.

**If you happen to have buttermilk, which I never do, you can omit the buttermilk powder with the dry ingredients, and then use 3/4 (6 1/4 oz) of buttermilk instead of water called for at the end of the ingredients list.

Raspberry and Chocolate Ganache Fillings:

ingredients:

for raspberry layer:

10 ounce jar raspberry "spreadable fruit" (I used Smucker's Simply 100% Fruit Seedless Red Raspberry Spreadable Fruit, but you could you could just use preserves also)

for ganache layer:

9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/8 cup heavy whipping cream

directions: 

Place your leveled bottom cake layer on a cake plate.  Spread the red raspberry preserves onto this bottom layer to taste.  I used about 3/4 of the jar.

Place chopped chocolate in medium bowl. Bring heavy cream just to a boil in heavy medium saucepan.  Pour hot cream over the chocolate and let stand 1 minute, then stir until ganache is melted and smooth. Transfer ganache to medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ganache is thick enough to spread, stirring occasionally, for about 1 1/2 hours.  It should thicken to about the consistency of a heavy pudding and should not be runny.

Using an offset spatula, spread the ganache over the preserves, careful not to mix the two together too much - you want two separate layers.  Use as much ganache as you want - we probably used about 2/3 of the ganache recipe in this middle layer.  We froze the rest for later, but you could find other places to use it on this cake if you wanted.  For example, for some added chocolate, you could spread the remaining ganache on the top of the top layer and place the whole cake in the freezer for about 30 minutes until the ganache is set enough to be able to put buttercream frosting over it.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

4 c sifted confectioner's sugar

2 tsp clear vanilla

pinch of sea salt

1/4 c milk, optional

Fresh raspberries and Raspberry preserves for garnish

directions:

Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and turn on the mixer.

Add all confectioners sugar and keep speed on low.

When all sugar is incorporated in, add vanilla and salt. Let mix for 5 min. If frosting is too stuff, add the milk by the tablespoon until the desired consistency is achieved.

To garnish:

After frosting, pipe a thin line around the edge of the top of the cake.  This will act as your glue to put the fresh raspberries on.  For extra raspberriness, spread a thin layer of preserves across the top of the cake, inside the ring of raspberries.  This will be easier to do after the cake has been refrigerated for a bit and the frosting is set.

Keep the cake in a cake dome in the refrigerator.  Remove from the fridge about 2 hours before serving.

Raspberry Preserves and Chocolate Ganache

Adding the garnish