Cake Ready in Five!

Baking, is a fun activity, but sometimes it could be very time consuming. There are many times when I'm in the mood to whip up a cake, but I don't have the time to create something delicious because the good stuff usually comes from the long recipes. Well, I found a quick but very scrumptious cake recipe that is simple to make. And along with a few tips I learned from How To Break an Egg, a collection of handy cooking techniques, my cake was baked and ready to eat in almost no time! 

Ingredients
- 6 eggs                               - 8 oz. cream cheese
- 1 cup sugar                        - 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup flour                         - 8 oz. cool whip whip-cream                     
- 2 tbsp. cocoa powder          - a few tbsp. apple juice 
- 8 tbsp. unsalted butter        *blue ingredients are for the cream

To make the cake, the first step was to beat the sugar and eggs together in a standing electric mixer, until the dough rose and became fluffy. To speed up the process and not have to wait that long for the batter to rise, I used a tip Alice Medrich suggested. Before combining the eggs with the sugar, I beat the eggs briefly with a fork (184). What this did, was help the eggs incorporate better into the batter, so it quickened the process of the batter mixing and rising. Not only did the tip speed up the process, but as a small bonus, it also helped prevent the cake from collapsing when baking. 

After the batter rose, I sifted in the flour and cocoa powder, and mixed them in with a whisk. Once I had the batter all mixed well, I divided it into three portions and poured the batter out into three springform baking pans. I baked the cake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit.


In the recipe, to make the cake cream, softened butter was needed. But to wait for the butter to warm up to room temperature, takes a while, especially when the butter is frozen. Luckily, I learned an easy baking trick from Liz Manrit, a contributor to the book How to Break an Egg, that eliminated the long wait. Liz suggests to  "heat the sugar first in a microwave for about two minutes, and then proceed to cream them with the butter when needed" (59). With this technique, I was able to use frozen butter, but still have my cream turn out just the way it needed to. 

For the cream, the recipe steps are very simple. First, I mixed the sugar and the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until they blended into a smooth cream. Once they were mixed together, I simply added in the rest of the ingredients into the bowl one by one. I blended my cream, until it was smooth enough for me to paste with. How long you mix, really depends on how smooth you want your cream to be.

Assembling the cake, was not a difficult task since the layers turned out pretty thin. I took the first cake round, and using a spoon, I poured a few tablespoons of apple juice onto the cake. Infusing the cake with a few tablespoons of juice is optional, but it is a miracle worker to prevent a dry cake. If you are worry about your chocolate cake tasting like apples, then that's and extra worry because, the apple juice is not tasted in the cake. 
 

Once both cake rounds were soaked with apple juice, I divided the cream into thirds and frosted the cake.


This recipe is a must try for anyone who has a sweet tooth for chocolate desserts. And the best part of this recipe is, it only takes a matter of minutes to produce a cake that blow your taste buds away!

What kind of tricks do you use to speed up the process when baking or cooking?

"Kitchen Tips, Food Fixes and Handy Techniques." Fine Cooking: n. pag. Rpt. in How to Break an Egg. Ed. Pam Hoenig. Newtown: The Taunton Press, 2005. N. pag. Print.

Nutella Stuffed Pancackes

Nutella and pancakes are two foods that almost everyone loves to each. So why not take the two and combine them into one and create a new irresistible craving to enjoy? Well this recipe does just that, resulting in fluffy pancakes stuffed with rich and creamy Nutella; definitely a pancake you cannot say no to!

Ingredients (makes 6-7 pancakes)

• 10-14 tbsp. Nutella
• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• pinch if salt
• 4 tbsp. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 c. + 2 tbsp. milk
• strawberries (for garnish)

The first step is to prepare the Nutella. To do this,  I lined a baking pan with parchment paper, dolloped around 2 tbsp. of Nutella and spread into a disc about 2.5" in diameter. I made 7 discs, and placed the tray into the freezer for about an hour.  

 Before combining ingredients, I learned that measuring the flour accurately is key to creating the perfect fluffy pancakes. To do so, I used Naomi Kurkjian's suggestion and before spooning out the flour, I gave the flour canister a good shake (50). What this good shake resulted in, is light flour that was not clumped together when I spooned it out. This was exactly what I needed to make sure I measured the flour correctly. 

 Next I combined all the dry ingredients together. Once they were combined, I added in the wet ingredients and whisked them together until the batter was smooth and lump free.

When making the pancakes, I had to ensure that all my pancakes came out to be the same size since my Nutella discs were all the same size. To achieve this goal, Casale, a contributor to the Fine Cooking Magazine, advised "Turkey basters work great for batter distribution. Try using one for perfectly round, even pancakes and crepes (262). I used a Turkey baster to make my pancakes, and sure enough they all come out to be the same size making my life, a lot easier. 

 To "stuff" the pancakes with Nutella, I dolloped the first glob of batter, peeled off a Nutella disc off the parchment paper, placed it in the middle of the batter, and covered the top with another glob of batter. When bubbles began to form around the edge of the pancakes, I used that as a sign to flip them.

Once my pancakes were all done, there was one more thing left to do; taste them. It's one thing for food to look mouthwatering, but it's another story if they really taste bad. But luckily for me, my Nutella pancakes did not let me down. They are now my new number one food to eat for breakfast. Or I confess, maybe for lunch and dinner too...

Do you love to eat Nutella? If so what is your favorite food to eat Nutella with?

"Kitchen Tips, Food Fixes and Handy Techniques." Fine Cooking: n. pag. Rpt. in How to Break and Egg. Ed. Pam Hoenig. Newtown: The Taunton Press, 2005. N. pag. Print.

It's Beginning to Taste a lot like Christmas

Cookies are always a necessity for the holidays. For Santa, he depends on them Christmas Eve to keep his round belly in shape, and for people, its a satisfactory dessert for their sweet tooth. I've tried many different Christmas cookie recipes to find the perfect cookies to make for the holidays this year, and came up with my top favorite recipe that I think everyone will enjoy; including Santa.

Ingredients

- 3 c. all-purpose flour                     - 2 tsp. baking powder

- 1 tsp. baking soda                        - 1 tsp. salt

- 1/2 c. shortening                           - 1 c. sugar

- 2 large eggs                                  - 1 c. sour cream
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract                      - 2 c. powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp. softened butter                  - 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2-3 tbsp. milk                                - food coloring
*ingredients in blue are for the frosting

For the cookies: Start off by combing the dry ingredients then add in the eggs. After the eggs are incorporated in, mix in the remaining ingredients (shortening, vanilla, sour cream, sugar). When the dough is all mixed well, refrigerate for at least 2 hours so it would set. Once the dough has chilled for at least 2 hours, roll the dough out about 1/4" thick and use your favorite cookie cutters to create various fun shaped cookies.

Cutting the cookies may be the hardest part because the dough is very sticky.  But as I was reading through How to Break and Egg, a collection of handy tips and techniques for the kitchen, I found some advice that helped me deal with my sticky dough much better. A contributor to the collection advised to lightly flour the edge of the cookie cutters to prevent the dough sticking to the cutter (Khosrova 197). I did as Khosrova suggested, and my cookie shapes began to turn out much more successfully as where without flouring my cookie cutters, it was hard to guess what shape the cookie was suppose to be.

Once finished cutting up the dough into shapes, bake the cookies for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F.

For the frosting: Making the frosting is the easiest part. Just grab all the ingredients, and mix them really well to create a nice smooth frosting. To color the frosting, just add in few drops of food coloring to the mixture. The amount of drops you add is up to you depending on how dark you want your color to be. The frosting itself without any coloring, turns out to be white but with a very big yellowish tint to it, which I personally think is a very ugly white to use if decorating a snowflake, or a snowman. Thankfully, How to Break an Egg, had a solution to this problem as well. Betsy suggests "to achieve a snow-white frosting, add one drop of blue food coloring to each batch of frosting" (Betsy 189).

I divided my frosting into 2 parts so I can have 2 different colors of frosting. To one of my parts of the frosting I added one drop of blue coloring, and poof! Like magic my ugly yellow tinted frosting turned snow white! Thanks to Betsy I was able to achieve perfectly white frosting very easily, since sadly there is no such a thing as white food coloring. 

I used a spoon and just spread on the frosting. I am the very opposite of an artistic person so it's a very difficult task for me to spread the frosting nicely, evenly, and make designs accurately. But I'm 99% positive that your artistic skills are much better than mine, so let your creativity kick in and frost away! 

These cookies are not the easiest to make when compared to cookies like chocolate chips, but they are really worth the work! The combination of soft fluffy cookies and creamy smooth frosting is almost unbearable! Don't be surprised if you make these cookies for Santa, but before Santa gets to try some, you much them all up because the temptation of these cookies is just oh, so big!

I've never figured out any other ways to frost cookies, but finding new and better ways would definitely help me in my decorating! What do you use to frost your cookies?
 

"Kitchen Tips, Food Fixes and Handy Techniques." Fine Cooking: n. pag. Rpt. in How to Break and Egg. Ed. Pam Hoenig. Newtown: The Taunton Press, 2005. N. pag. Print.

Cookies and Cream Cheescake

In my personal baking experiences, every cheesecake I've ever made, was always a disaster. I could never achieve a perfect crust that did not fall apart, or a filling that didn't crack all over the top making my cheesecake look very unattractive. Thankfully the contributors of How to Break an Egg, provided some very helpful advice that made it possible for me to create a cheesecake very close to being Cheesecake Factory worthy.

Ingredients

21 Oreo cookies, 15 left whole, 6 coarsely chopped
3 tbsp. melted butter
1 lb. cream cheese
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 c. sour cream


The first step was to make the crust. I mixed crushed Oreo cookies together with butter and spread the mixture out into a 9" spring-form pan. To spread the crust out evenly across the entire bottom, I used Beranbaum's suggestion of utilizing a straight-sided glass to press down and push the crust up the walls (Beranbaum 193). In doing this, my outcome was an evenly distributed, tightly packed crust that stayed together and did not fall apart.  

After I had the filling complete I poured it on top of the crust, and baked the cheesecake for 30 minutes at 300^o. Once the cheesecake was done baking, I was left with my hardest challenge that I could never find the solution to; keep my cheesecake crack free. Luckily, Daley has a very effective solution for this problem. "After you remove it from the oven, run a thin-bladed knife between the crust and the pan sides to prevent the cake from breaking as it cools" (Daley 194). I used this tip, and sure enough, after 4 hours of cooling in the refrigerator, my cheesecake had absolutely no cracks in it. It looked just the same as it had when I took it out of the oven. For anyone who struggles with cracking cheesecake filling, I highly recommended using Daley's technique because of the numerous methods I've tried, this one was the only one to provide me with a successful filling.

As an end result, my cheesecake turned out amazing! And this time, I got to not only brag about my cake being scrumptious, but also about my cake giving off some good looks! 

I'd like to try out these new tips I learned with different cheesecake recipes to see if they will work with different combinations of ingredients and flavors.
Do you have a favorite cheesecake recipe I could possibly try out?

"Kitchen Tips, Food Fixes and Handy Techniques." Fine Cooking: n. pag. Rpt. in How to Break and Egg. Ed. Pam Hoenig. Newtown: The Taunton Press, 2005. N. pag. Print.

 

Thanksgiving Pie

A must have on the Thanksgiving desert table is pie. In my family, we always make apple pie, so this year I decided to twist the flavor up. I made a practice pie using a basic apple pie recipe, but added some of my own ingredients to produce a much more mouthwatering dessert.

Ingredients

• 1 package pre-made pie shells
• 5 McIntosh apples peeled, cut into 1/4" thick slices
• 1 cup fresh strawberries
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces to be placed on top of the pie
  

Making a pie is not rocket science. I combined all the ingredients into one big bowl, mixed them all together, and set the filling into the bottom pie shell. Making the lattice with the top pie shell, was a bit of a challenge though. I used Kaloustain's tip on handling pastry lattice, and cut and weaved the pastry lattice on wax paper (207). 

Once the dough was weaved, I placed the wax paper into the fridge for 45 minutes to harden a little. After the lattice hardened, it was very easy to lift off the wax paper and place on top of the pie. Using this method was by far much easier way of handling lattice then any other methods I tried. Using this method, my lattice did not turn out perfect, but it certainly turned out the best it ever had. The recipe then simply stated to place the pie into the oven, but I took Walters advice in order to keep my pie as best looking as I possibly could. Walter advises, "Chill your pie before baking. All pie crusts hold their shape best in the oven if they're chilled for half and hour before baking" (208).This suggestion really did help keep my pie in shape. They pie did not collapse but stayed puffed up, even making my lattice look a little better than it really was.

The pie turned out tasting very delicious, and it even looked better than any pie I've made thanks to Kaloustain's and Walter's tips. The filling however turned out very watery which caused a few complications. It made the pie extremely difficult to eat, and created an enormous challenge in attempting to take a good looking picture of a pie slice. But don't let the looks deceive you; this pie, was one tasty, delectable pie!

Do you have any advice on what ingredients I could add to create a thicker pie filling?

"Kitchen Tips, Food Fixes and Handy Techniques." Fine Cooking: n. pag. Rpt. in
     How to Break and Egg. Ed. Pam Hoenig. Newtown: The Taunton Press, 2005.
     N. pag. Print.