Cake Gallery

More recent cakes below...

Lego Cake 

Chocolate cake w/cookies and cream filling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cupcakes for boy and girl twins having a king and queen themed party.

Red Velvet w/cream cheese frosting & yellow cupcakes w/ milk chocolate buttercream

Momofuku Strawberry Milk

Here is another way to use the elderflower syrup I talked about here and here.  This is Christina Tosi's recipe for Strawberry Milk.  She is the pastry chef at Momofuku Milk Bar.  I have gushed about her numerous times, having said I'll be first in line to buy her cookbook if she ever writes one.  Well...she has inked a deal to write a cookbook.  The word round the internet is that it should be released in the fall of 2011.  Giddyup!

Now, this Strawberry Milk.  It's like a melted strawberry milkshake with amped up strawberry flavor and the sweet, citrusy, floral hint that the elderflower syrup adds.  If you can't find the elderflower syrup, you can make your own by combining elderflower liqueur with a simple syrup.  Simple syrup is equal amounts of water and sugar, warmed until the sugar is fully dissolved. 

I think this would be great as part of a dessert course.  It is sweet so it could stand alone as a dessert but how great would it be to pair it with a grilled banana bread sandwich with chocolate ganache in the middle?!

Besides the elderflower syrup, the only other things you must have are a food scale and patience.  The recipe uses weights and ratios which is why you need a food scale.  You need patience because straining the strawberry puree through a fine mesh strainer is laborious.  (Promise me every time you say "lah-BOR-ious" you'll say it with a Transylvanian accent a la Dracula.)  In fact, I should have made my intern handle the puree.  If I had one that is...

Enough chit chat, let's make some strawberry milk!

Momofuku Strawberry Milk
Courtesty of Christina Tosi, Momofuku Milk Bar and Bakery & The Dairy Show


1 quart whole milk
180g elderflower syrup (or make a simple syrup and flavor it with elderflower liquor)
665g strawberry puree (put strawberries in a blender add 10% sugar by weight, blend, and then strain)
sugar
65g plain yogurt
pinch of salt

1. Wash and hull strawberries and weigh.
2. Take the weight of your strawberries and calculate 10% of that weight to determine how much sugar you'll need to add.  (I had 22 ounces of berries, therefore my sugar in weight should be 2.2 ounces.)
2. Put strawberries in blender and add your sugar.  Puree.
3. Using a fine mesh strainer and the patience God gave you, pour the puree into the strainer.  Use a rubber scraper to keep pressing the puree back and forth down through the strainer.  Continue until you can't take it anymore or until only seeds remain.  (I ended up with 2 1/2 cups of seedless puree.)
4. Combine the seedless puree, yogurt, elderflower syrup, pinch of salt and milk in a large pitcher.  Whisk to combine.

This is before I started to resent the lovely puree.

This is where I said, "I'm over it."

This is where I said, "Yum." And then apologized to the puree.

Elderflower Fruit Salad

I'm a girl who likes a good bargain.  If I'm going to buy a new exotic-ish ingredient I want a few ways to use it.  Remember when I posted about this cocktail?  And I told you to go buy this...

Rather than have this lovely citrusy, floral syrup languish in your refrigerator after you've made your cocktails, here are a few other uses for this Ikea Elderflower syrup.

Drizzle a teaspoon or two over the freshest, most beautiful berries you can find right now.  Throw in some mint and gently toss with your fingers.  The Elderflower syrup adds a mysterious floral sweetness to the mix that takes the fruit to a new level.

If you're not in a cocktail mood, mix some of the syrup with seltzer or club soda for a bubbly fruity soda.

I have one more use for this syrup coming your way this week that I'm excited to try.  Stay tuned...

Vietnamese Iced Cinnamon Coffee

What is it with me and cold beverages?  You'd think I've been on  a liquid diet lately.  When it's been the hottest summer on record your mind tends to gravitate toward cold beverages.  Thus, I bring you this one.  This is not your every morning coffee drink.  It's almost like a dessert so go easy there, tiger.

But when you're turning on the a/c by 8a.m. you're allowed to treat yourself to this icy cold, sweet, morning pick-me-up.  The coffee is cold-brewed (that will impress your coffee snob friends).  And when people marvel at how fresh and unwilted you remain in this heat, you can casually remark, "Oh me? I cold brew my coffee and drink it Vietnamese style."

Vietnamese Iced Cinnamon Coffee
Barely Adapted from Food & Wine

Coffee Concentrate
1/2 pound coarse grind dark roast coffee 
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon 
4 1/2 cups of cold water

Combine cold water, ground coffee and cinnamon in a pitcher. Stir and let sit, covered, on countertop for 24 hours.  Then strain liquid through a fine mesh strainer (or through cheesecloth or a coffee filter).  Discard grounds and refrigerate concentrate.

Iced Coffee
6 ounces of coffee concentrate
up to 3T sweetened condensed milk
up to 4 ounces of milk

In a tall glass filled with ice, combine the coffee concentrate and sweetened condensed milk.  Top with milk and combine.  Make sure to start with 1T of sweetened condensed milk and taste as you go.  Add more depending on how sweet you like it. 

Pimm's Cup...My Way

Hello, anyone there?  Anyone?  Didn't mean to leave you hanging.  It's just that it's summer.  Time to vacation, swim, grill a beef tenderloin, read, be lazy.  I have done all of the above.  I hope you understand and I hope you've done the same. 

Rest assured, you've been on my mind.  I have selflessly volunteered my summer to finding the perfect Pimm's Cup recipe.  Pimm's No. 1 Liqueur is a gin based, mystery-spiced liqueur.  It's popular in England where they mix it with their version of "lemonade" ( a carbonated lemon beverage).  Then they throw in some cucumber, lemon slices and plenty of ice.  It is so light and refreshing, the perfect summer drink. 

Since we don't have the same "lemonade" that the Brits do, I have been experimenting with different mixers.  I have tried ginger beer (too much spice), gingerale (again, too many spices), 7-UP (ok, but didn't enhance anything.)  I have made it with cucumber and mint, with cucumber and lemon.  I've even thrown in strawberries. C'mon England, you know we Americans do things our own way.  (See July 4, 1776 for examples.)

After selflessly sacrificing myself to this cause...Eureka!!!  I discovered San Pellegrino's Limonata (lemon soda).  I'm guessing this may be close to English "lemonade".  This made the perfect Pimm's Cup for me. 

Here is my ultimate Pimm's Cup recipe.  Cheers!

Pimm's Cup
Serves 1
  
1 1/2 ounces of Pimm's No. 1
6 ounces of San Pelligrino Limonata soda**
2 strawberries, sliced
a generous sprig of mint
lots of ice

Fill a tall glass with ice.  Add Pimm's, limonata, mint and strawberries.  Stir and enjoy!

**Note: San Pellegrino also makes an orange flavor.  I buy both flavors for my kids so that they can feel like they're drinking soda but these contain no caffeine and no high fructose corn syrup. I love these!

How to Seed a Pomegranate

I like things neat and tidy.  I also like pomegranates.  Therein lies the rub.  Dissecting a pomegranate is not so tidy if you either a) cut it in half and bang on it with a wooden spoon until all the seeds come out or b) soak the seeds in water and wait for that membrane stuff to float up and separate.  Both of those methods are too messy or time consuming for me.  I thought I'd share how I seed a pomegranate...

1. Cut the top off the pomegranate until you can see the individual seed sections or pockets inside.
You can see this one has 6 sections of seeds.

2. Like an orange, you can see the membrane that separates the sections.  Cut down the sides of the pomegranate right in between these sections letting your knife go about an inch in.  I let the slits all meet at the top center of the pomegranate.

3. Pull apart the pomegranate into your cut sections.

4. Peel the membrane off.  It usually comes off in one piece.  Nudge the seeds out of the skin into a bowl.  You can turn the peel inside out to make it easier.

Tah Dah!  Minimal cleanup, no pomegranate juice on you or your walls.  Give it a try.  Once you have those beautiful seeds, put them in a salad (great with raw fennel or spinach or in this salad), float them in a glass of champagne, add them to oatmeal or granola or just eat them as a snack.

Cake Gallery

All that remains of the 4th of July holiday extravaganza...

I love the wow factor of this cake.  On the outside, a mild-mannered, dare I say boring cake.  The Clark Kent of cakes.

But cut into it and SHAZAM, it's the hit of the party! (Sorry to be mixing my superhero references.  Extra credit if you can name the Saturday morning superhero who said "Shazam!" when he transformed.)

This cake has been blogged about a few times but I think credit originally goes to 17 and Baking.  I made mine a little taller, more stripes, etc.  I used a buttermilk lemon cake with a lemon cream cheese frosting.

In other cake news, we made a double graduation cake for a college graduate and a graduate of pharmaceutical school.  Two diplomas, grad cap and a prescription pad.

Finally a chocolate cake with a cookies and cream filling, vanilla buttercream and oreos on top.