Good Food Good Fun

Bridal Shower Cake

JL — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:57:21 +0000

For Amelia’s bridal shower, I broke a cardinal rule of baking. That is, never bake something for an audience that you’ve never attempted before. My layered cake baking was an experiment to see how hard it actually is to make a cake with more than two layers. It’s quite difficult and despite my best effort it was clearly an amateur job! It did taste quite good, though.

For the cake batter, I tripled the Better Homes and Garden cookbook’s yellow cake recipe. (The cake could have easily served 60 people). In between each layer, I smothered apricot filling on top of almond buttercream frosting.

Each layer needed to be leveled with a cake leveler. This is an inexpensive Wilton cake tool that shaves off the top of each cake to smooth it out for even placement of the layers. Also, I had to put wax paper underneath the bottom of the cake to collect all the crumbs during assembly.

Layers four of six in place. Did I mention I forgot the baking soda in the bottom layer, essentially making it a pound cake? It was a little bit of baking serendipity however, since it was the perfect flat launch pad for the rest of the cake.

All six layers in place, with only slight spillage of the apricot filling. One other thing I did during assembly: to keep the cake moist, I boiled two cups water with two cups sugar in a saucepan, and added lemon rind. Using a pastry brush, I brushed this concoction on top of each layer before frosting.

With the almond buttercream frosting in place, it’s time for sprinkles.

The sprinkles were clear and white to lend the cake a shimmering, snow-like appearance.

Ribbon to match her shower colors was swept around each layer, and it was topped with an “A” for Amelia, or as my cousin more appropriately titled the cake later, “‘A’ for Effort!”

The cake in all its bridal shower glory. After spending 6pm-11pm on the cake, I was just glad to get it to the shower in one piece. After a serious second grade cake dropping mishap at my birthday party, I never quite trust myself carrying cakes. (There’s nothing more embarrassing than blowing out birthday candles in HoHos because you dropped the cake on the kitchen floor).

And finally, to highlight some of the food the hostess prepared:

The tea sandwiches assortment of chicken salad, turkey and egg salad sandwiches.

Fabulous presentation of fruit skewers in painted terracotta pots, secured in place with clear marbles.

The glowing bride-to-be at the end of the shower. Forgiving gal that she is, she understood that the slight leaning tilt of her shower cake only gave it more character.

Baby Shower for Baby Van H

JL — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:09:25 +0000

Last month my sister-in-law traveled from Edmonton to VA for her baby shower. Here was the spread:

Flowers and decor by Sara.

All of the food was served on sticks. Grilled chicken and steak kebabs were offered with a choice of four dips. Pictured above is an artichoke spread and peanut satay dip.

Then options three and four were basil herb and creamy horseradish.

My personal favorite was the creamy pumpkin dip, served with thinly sliced apples and a jumbo glass cookie jar of ginger snaps. Truly addictive.
Fabulous baby boy cake by Taryn. She created a lemon base with a light lemon frosting topped with a white chocolate ganache coating.

A photo of the frosting which was used for the party favors below…

Chocolate whoopie pies with peanut butter frosting.

Pear & Gorgonzola Quiche

lemare — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:53:14 +0000

I love the combination of pear and gorgonzola in salads and pizzas, so I put it in a quiche and it makes a lovely brunch dish.

1 1/2 pears, thinly sliced

1/3 C. gorgonzola or bleu cheese, crumbled

1-2 shallots, thinly sliced

4 large eggs

1/4 C. cream

2 tsp. sea salt

2 tsp. freshly ground pepper

refrigerated pie crust

Whisk eggs, cream, salt and pepper. Mix in sliced shallots and crumbled gorgonzola. Place pie crust in a 9-inch pan. Pour in egg mixture, add pear slices in whatever design you wish. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Recipe by M.M.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

JL — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:48:03 +0000

My hand mixer was not woman enough to handle three bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips for the tripled recipe. She started steaming and I had to do the mixing by hand.

Slowly, the chips start taking to the batter.

And, voila. Dough is ready.

“Get out of there already!”

“Perhaps my digger will be able to get them.”

S’Mores on the BBQ

JL — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:41:28 +0000

This experiment turned out great, except next time I would toast the marshmallows directly on an open flame to get them bubblier and browner.

A Visual Feast

JL — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:11:01 +0000

If I were to ever live a Billy Madison-type existence, I would demand that one of these gelato cases be installed in my basement. Except the “gelato” would just be a pretend cover you’d lift up to reveal tubs of Haagen-Daaz.

Gooey Desserts

JL — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:06:53 +0000

Some pictures from a dessert buffet last week… I didn’t do any of the baking, but snapped these shots of friends’ baked, gooey wonders.
This is an angel food ice cream cake topped with slivered chocolate pieces.
The filling was chocolate ice cream and the cake was frosted with whipped cream.

Gingerbread cookies. My friend said she’d heard you can reduce the sugar in any baked good by 3/4 and it still tastes the same. After experimenting with these she maintains that is not the case. She compensated by rolling them in extra sugar and powdered sugar. They were still really good.

And, lastly were these brownies. Ten minutes before they were done baking, my friend covered the underdone brownies in jumbo marshmallows and put them back in the oven. After they were completely cooled, she frosted the marshmallow layer with fudge frosting. A very nice excuse to use a fork to eat a brownie.

Emerging from a Dinner Slump

JL — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:29:52 +0000

For awhile after my new baby’s arrival in February, I relied heavily on Two-For-Tuesday. That is, the glorious night of the week where Domino’s offers its buy-one, get-one free special. A busy mom’s dream, my post-partum mind believed: dinner and lunches taken care of from Tuesday to Thursday. But mid-week pizza parties no longer remain a crutch seven months later as I’m attempting to plan better meals in advance.

Part of this blog’s purpose is to provide a self-reference for when I’m out of meal inspirations and ready to speed-dial my old pizza flame.

This weekend I made Grilled Lemon Chicken with Satay Dip from The Barefoot Contessa. An old favorite, but one that was drastically improved by grilling it over charcoal instead of on the panini maker. The recipe is here on The Food Network.

The chicken is marinated in olive oil, fresh lemon juice, thyme, salt and pepper for six hours. It comes out perfectly seasoned and tender.

And, the Satay Dip may not look as appetizing as this blob below potrays it to be, but it is such a nice medley of flavors and the perfect complement to the chicken.

Pair this with french bread and green beans, and you’ve got something on your table that beats a “Two-Fer” night.

Bring Whoopie Pies to Work Day

JL — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:44:08 +0000

Good recipes are meant to be shared. Nothing is more distasteful to me when individuals hoard their recipes for fear of letting others in on their “secret.” And even armed with your recipe, most people will still swing by the grocery store on their way to an event, rather than making something homemade and truly tasty, sans Crisco.

The original inspiration for these cookies came from my college roommate’s mother, Mrs. Kowalski. The batter is simple and the original recipe calls for Devil’s Food Cake as the flavor base. I got a little experimental and made Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies along with the traditional Devil’s Food Cake Whoopie Pies, as this is the last birthday party in the Senator’s office my husband will be bringing in treats for and the higher-powers that be specially requested these.

Behold, your Whoopies:

First, bake the carrot cake cookies.

Then bake those Devil's Food Cake cookies.

Whip up a plentiful bowl of cream cheese frosting to spread between the cookies.

And start spreading the fun.

The Carrot Cake version ended up quite good.

Forty Whoopie Pies should suffice.

Packed and ready for school, er, work. Thanks, Michael indeed.

And now the recipe:

Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies

2 boxes Duncan Hines Carrot Cake mix (substitute Devil’s Food Cake mix for chocolate version)

4 eggs

1/2 cup butter

Mix by hand with a wooden spoon. Drop by tablespoon for two-bite size cookies or by ice cream scoop for mondo-size cookies onto sprayed cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Immediately place cookies onto wire rack to cool. Cookies will still be very soft. Let the cookies firm up and cool down for at least 20 minutes.

For the frosting, mix in food processor:

8 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup butter

4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

According to your discretion, frost a cookie with the appropriate amount of frosting (the more that spills out of the sides, the better) and top with a similarly sized cookie. Must be enjoyed with a glass of milk to enjoy the flavors and texture of the Whoopie Pie at its finest.