Cakey Goodness!

So, recently my hub & I have moved house, and let me just say, our new kitchen is SO. SHINY. I adores it, I do, I do! So lately I've actually been doing a bit of cooking; last week, for example, I made not one, not two, but THREE cakes! Not sure why the sudden spurt in cakeish activity; partially because we had a church fundraising auction on Saturday night, so I volunteered to make a cake for that. But also because cakes are FUN, and I haven't done anything fun with baking in a while.

I learned three new techniques in this latest baking escapade, nearly killed my wrist with the amount of beating required, and totally trashed the kitchen. Several times. Good thing my husband loves me.

So, in order of appearance, here are my latest experiments:

1) Buttercream.

I've made buttercream before, but just your average butter-and-icing-sugar variety, not anything fancy or Proper. This time, I decided to try some recipes out of one of the cake books I got back in (I think) February:

I was going to make one of these recipes with the intent of trying the chocolate painting method - more on that at #3 - but for this cake I thought I'd do something different and try the cream-on-cream method.

So I made the cake - supposedly an orange cake, but given I used one lemon, one mandarin and one tangello, I'm calling it a citrus cake; made the filling - orange mousse, YUM; and then the next night spent ONE HOUR - that's right, a whole hour - making the buttercream. Italian meringue buttercream, to be precise. Quite possibly some of the most decadent stuff EVER. Boy, was my wrist sore after all that beating - I used an electric beater, sure, but it took HALF AN HOUR of constant mixing. So you know.

But the results were worth it, I think:

See? Much pretty :o) And it tasted amazing, though in small pieces. Quite rich.

2) Chocolate Collars.

I've seen chocolate collars before, though perhaps not in real life. So when I knew I'd be taking HALF the orange cake for the auction and needed to pair it with another half cake, and of course knew I wanted to do a choc mud cake, the collar seemed like the best idea to jazz up the choc cake. Although I learned many things - like don't do one end significantly before the other so it starts to dry while the rest is sloppy; and don't try to make the collar too tall because if it's still sloppy when you put it upright the chocolate will all run down onto the cake; and don't bother flooding the top of the cake with ganache until the collar is in place - it was fun and it came out well in the end.

The cake is chocolate mud (though slightly undercooked since it cooked weird - see picture - so more like a fudge cake, very yum) filled with homemade cookies and cream, topped with chocolate ganache.

3) Chocolate painting.

This was perhaps the most fun technique I learned. It's exactly what it says: painting with chocolate. For this first experiment I kept it simple and piped bees to top the plum cake with honey buttercream :)

So, thus my exciting week in baking. Yay!

Labrador Birthday Cake

It occurs to me that even though I made this for my sister's birthday back in February, I'm yet to post any pictures of it! Le gasp!

So, below are some pictures of my awesome (even if I say so myself) Labrador puppy cake. It's a chocolate mud cake, the same recipe I used to make the book cakes, and between the cake and the white (tinted yellow) icing is blood orange buttercream, since the sisterous one suggested jaffa as a flavour. The buttercream recipe is from Cupcake Project :)

Also, he is super shiny because I learned Many Things in making this cake. For example, actually let the cake cook all the way through, even if it IS taking half an hour longer than it should; otherwise, when you sculpt the cake, it will be crumbly. Also things like, do not try to cover the ears with one piece; make them separately and stick them on later. And, when you intend to sculpt the cake so the puppy's head lies on the ground, this is a Good Thing - otherwise the head will spend its life sagging and the dog will be in danger of being de-muzzled.

But the shininess is milk, because I had to coat the whole thing in milk to smooth out the cracks in the icing. Lesson learned, and when I made another cake a month ago, we had no icing cracks, woo hoo! So you know. A considered success, I think B-)

Orange Roasted Cornish Game Hen

nnerThis is our traditional Valentine's Day main entree. I've been making it for my husband for eight years now. Nine maybe? Something like that. He's in charge of being romantic and remembering dates, I do the finances.

This recipe makes enough for two people, sort of. If you eat light or have several side dishes this works for two. We have a family of five and I tend to make one game hen per person. There are leftovers this way, but the meat becomes a quick salad topper the next day.

My family loves this so much that I've added it to our regular night line up. A little prep in the morning and this could be an easy meal to toss together on a busy week night. As an added bonus, spring planting means I'll soon have my own fresh herbs to season this dish with.


Orange Roasted Cornish Game Hen
2 tablespoons chopped mixed fresh herbs (such as thyme, parsley, and mint)
2 tablespoons minced shallots -or - green onions
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 large Cornish game hen, halved lengthwise (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1/2 cup low-salt chicken broth
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons sparkling apple cider -or- apple juice
2 thin orange slices

Preheat oven to 450°F. Mix first 3 ingredients in small bowl.

Add 1 tablespoon of softened butter to the herbs. Cream together.

Slide fingertips under skin of hen halves to loosen. Spread 1/4 of herb mixture under skin of each hen half. Rub skin with butter; sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Place hen halves in shallow roasting pan. Roast hen halves until golden and cooked through, adding broth after 10 minutes and basting twice throughout cooking time, about 30 minutes. Don't baste at the end if you want crispy skin.

Transfer hen halves to platter.

Pour pan juices into a sauce pot and put on burner over medium heat. Add juice, sparkling cider, and remaining herbs; boil until reduced, scraping up browned bits, about 2 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper. Spoon sauce over hen halves, garnish with orange slices, and serve.

Makes 2 servings.

The rest of our meal included Chilled Strawberry Soup, Orange Cream Filled Acorn Squash and Mashed Potatoes. The recipes will be up soon!


(adapted from Bon Appétit April 2003 recipe)