Bake Through

Icebox Cake

2009-08-18T10:22:00.006-04:00

I've heard people talk about Icebox Cakes for many years. Nabisco Famous Cookies, you know, the thin, chocolate ones in the yellow carton, have a recipe right on the box. Still, I don't think that I've ever had one, or even made one for that matter. Everyday Food September 2009 ran a recipe that I thought I should try. It just seemed so simple. first mix 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, well chilled

Eureka

2009-08-06T08:48:00.006-04:00

I found it. Or at least, another one. Back on June of 2007 we sent out a request for Carrot Cake recipes. We compiled a few of them, and made all of them in October.The Silver Palate Cookbook was our winning submission.I think that this carrot cake from Food & Wine, January 2009 (Recipe is at the end of the blog) could give it a run for it's money. I put it together in a pretty quick

Daring Bakers April challenge is...

2009-04-28T17:03:00.004-04:00

CHEESECAKE!The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.We got to use the basic recipe linked above, and we could flavor it anyway we wanted. Really lots of wonderful experimentation this month. Even if you don't normally browse other DBer's sites, you ought to this time. Especially check out this one. Really, click the

The beginning ...

2009-04-14T09:24:00.010-04:00

...of something good?You know how it goes. You make something terrific and people say- Ooh, you should sell this! You hear that enough and you start to wonder if you could sell some things. How would it work? What exactly could you sell? Where could you do it? Who would buy your stuff? How could it happen without disrupting your life or costing too much to get started? Etc. Etc.Let it be said,

Pignoli Cookies

2009-04-04T12:18:00.009-04:00

My friend Greer joined me one Tuesday and we made some cookies together. It was nice to have company in the kitchen again as Robb has been MIA for a while now.These cookies came to be made because Greer bought some at an Italian market and totally loved them. She found a recipe and we got to work. They are very simple. You mix almond paste with sugar and egg whites and roll in the nuts- voila!The

Daring Bakers March Challenge: Lasagna??

2009-03-29T10:24:00.009-04:00

Yes, lasagna. Quite a twist, but it is baked after all, and it highlights some of the new stuff happening with the huge gang of DBers. There is going to be another group using the Daring Kitchen website, welcome the Daring Cooks! For now, I'm going to stick with the baking folks and wait and see what the cooks do. Their challenges will be revealed mid month, and the bakers will continue to show

Double Daring Bakers: Cinnamon Rolls

2009-03-27T07:08:00.005-04:00

Heavenly cinnamon aroma... really, is there a better smell wafting through the house? Some may argue that garlic might rival the sweet spicy fragrance of cinnamon for first place. Hmm, call it a tie then.This recipe is from the Daring Bakers from September of 2007. I joined in December of 2007, so just a couple more of these make-ups to go! The DBers are growing like crazy- CRAZY!! I think there

Jalapeno Cheese Rolls

2009-03-24T10:11:00.012-04:00

To inaugurate my new Viking 7 qt. 1000 watt stand mixer (yahoo!!) I made some bread from Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen. The mixer handled this 3 loaf recipe with ease. The bread is fantastically delicious. The recipe makes nice rolls too. I made 2 loaves and a few rolls from the recipe below.The next time, and there will be a next time, I'll make all rolls. I loved the soft outsides of the

Double Post of Daring Baker Goodness

2009-03-01T13:46:00.006-05:00

This month's recipe is the Chocolate Valentino and an accompanying ice cream. The Valentino is a pretty standard flourless chocolate cake- eggs, chocolate and butter. In this version the eggs get separated and whipped up so it's not just a chocolate custard, but has a fluffier texture. The type and quality of the chocolate really determines the flavor of the cake. We used a 62% semisweet

Back to Baking Through ...the Cake Bible

2009-02-22T09:17:00.014-05:00

Yes, finally! We have returned to The Cake Bible. Robb and Janet actually got together for a day of baking and made a couple of things: The Scarlett Empress p.177, and Orange Glow Chiffon Cake p.155.The Empress was OK, we had made the sponge cake and rolled it up with raspberry puree back in, dare I say... October. It sat patiently waiting in the freezer until this past week. This was not a great

Double Daring Bakers: Mirror Cake

2009-02-03T18:09:00.000-05:00

Finally, the much anticipated mirror cake! This was a Daring Bakers recipe from early 2007. I joined the group in December that year and there were still folks talking about the Strawberry Mirror cake. It is impressive looking, that's for sure. The top is a shiny mirror like surface of jellied berry juice. In my case, I used strawberries and some other mixed berries- blackberry, raspberry and

Daring Bakers January Challenge: Tuiles

2009-01-29T11:18:00.008-05:00

Whew, just made it!Really. Just now, in about a half hour, I made these.I didn't procrastinate this month so much as I kept waiting for inspiration. I hoped that Robb would come over and we would get back into our groove of Tuesday baking. I hoped that I would tackle so many projects in the early part of the month before the Spring semester began, including making the templates for these

The BIG Bread Sandwich

2009-01-28T08:08:00.003-05:00

If I could have only one cook book (perish the thought!), it would be The Silver Palate. My original copy is well worn. I saw the 25th anniversary edition and initially I was confused. 25 years. Since what? It can't be 25 years that I've had this book. Quick calculation... OMG!! It has been twenty-five years. Granted, I was a sprite when I purchased my first copy, but still. The new edition is

Bagels

2009-01-24T11:00:00.000-05:00

A while back I purchased Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" and I have been playing around with some of the recipes. For our Christmas Eve fete, to go along with Stefan's delicious cioppino, I made sour dough bread. This is a San Francisco thing- the fisherman there are credited with creating the fish and shellfish stew. The required accompaniment for nearly everything, and

Black Cake

2009-01-15T14:09:00.001-05:00

This has been tested and verified as the real deal by folks who know. Greer and her family are from Jamaica- see her happy face below. For those of us unfamiliar with the Jamaican Black Cake, it's like fruitcake.Hold on; don't go running from the room. It's good fruitcake.Yes, there is such a thing.My Dad found this recipe last December, 2007 that is, in the New York Times. I don't know what

Travel back to 1942

2009-01-06T12:02:00.013-05:00

My New Year's resolution for 2008 was to read The Art of Eating, by M.F.K. Fisher. A compendium of her writings on food from 5 previous books. I've failed at finishing it in one year -- I have a tendency to read one essay then put it down then read another. I've, sadly, spent more time last year with it being put down than reading. But I'm determined to finish it this year, along with The

The gift that keeps giving

2009-01-05T17:05:00.010-05:00

I'm not one to make New Year's Resolutions lists. I've found that I've done well with my resolutions being singular and often easily completed in a week or so of the nerve wracking January 1 date. One year my goal was to read Anna Karenina. I had purchased it a few months before and it was staring at me. Since then, I've only had the resolve to read one specific book per year. There was a

Plum Pecorino Cookies

2009-01-02T10:44:00.007-05:00

I picked up Nancy Silverton's Pastries from Le Brea Bakery a while back. I was flipping through it looking for something impressive to make for Christmas Eve dinner we were invited to. The dinner had an Italian theme- cioppino, pasta, leg of lamb- and was delicious.These cookies fit the bill- anise seed dough, almond, fruit and cheese. They're really more of a pastry than a cookie, or you could

Daring Bakers December Challenge

2008-12-31T15:00:00.003-05:00

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege GourmandWhat is a French Yule Log you say? Good question!It's a frozen dessert made of mousse and other stuff suspended in the mousse. This version is chocolate mouse, with a layer of crispy nutty

Christmas Time is Here

2008-12-23T09:42:00.003-05:00

Michael and I had our annual holiday party. This year I served a pumpkin cake that got rave reviews. It's a recipe that was given to me by my Aunt Bobbie -- my mom's sister.Originally she served it as a three layer cake. I served it as a bundt cake -- it cooks a bit longer, but it looks really pretty and for a buffet it works quite nicely. I usually leave the icing off and serve it sprinkled

After a long time....

2008-12-23T09:27:00.004-05:00

Here is a sampling of what we've been up to since we last wrote:We are still making our way through the Cake Bible -- we have made a lovely genoise and have it freezing to be completed (with pictures) sometime in 2009. Somehow the holiday season took over and while we've been eating -- obviously, we're still here -- we've not been good at taking photos of said comestibles.One thing I did try,

Daring Bakers October Challenge is PIZZA!

2008-10-29T08:52:00.012-04:00

Pizza dough from Peter Reinhart's Baker's Apprentice book was the recipe for this month. You can see a modified copy of the recipe at this month's host's site. The recipe requires making a little bit of dough, letting it sit overnight and then incorporating it into the dough you make the second day.We were excited to make some pizza, as pizza was Kevin's summer grilling experiment. He's quite the

Another Birthday... another Cake? No, it's Time for Pie!

2008-10-27T19:12:00.015-04:00

Yes, another birthday!!This one was September 23, and the celebration lasted for what seemed like weeks. The deception certainly did! There were a couple of small celebrations to throw Stefan off the scent of the surprise party for his 40th. It was a lot of fun helping Greer put it together. We were prepared for an army of people, and about 3/4 of an army was in attendance. They still have a

Another Birthday... another Cake!

2008-10-15T13:56:00.011-04:00

It is long past time to tell you about this birthday cake. Remember Robb's birthday? Way back in August? Well, on the SAME day, dear Greer enjoyed her birthday, too! Yeah, they share the same birthday. Even weirder is that they have the exact same couch. That might be where the similarities end, but no, there's at least one more thing they have in common... a birthday cake made by me this year!

Double Daring Bakers

2008-10-10T17:54:00.011-04:00

Red Velvet Cake!!And, it's not disgusting. Ok, many of you weren't expecting it to be vile... but, I was. The whole idea of eating that much food dye is just foul. The one other time I made a red velvet cake (cup cakes), I spit out the bite I tried to taste. I couldn't get past the knowledge that there was so much "fake" in the food, and it's all I could taste.Well, butter my butt and call me a

September Daring Bakers Challenge

2008-09-29T23:43:00.009-04:00

Oh my! Has it been a whole month without a post!! Well folks, time flies.There are so many photos of things to share, let's at least get started with the DB challenge and get the blogging ball rolling again. We'll try not to post our triumphs all in one day again and then leave the virtual world for weeks. Although it's hard to complain too much when actual life takes over!Robb and I loved this

Secret Baking, part II

2008-08-31T19:28:00.005-04:00

There was a moment that I realized blueberries were all around me. I don't know if it was the four cooking magazines I get or if I was struck by something on the food network or if America's Test Kitchen ran a program. But, there I was drawn to the blueberries, standing in the Stop 'n' Shop staring at them wondering what can I do with them. You see, they aren't my favorite fruit, but Michael

Secret Baking, part I

2008-08-31T19:02:00.010-04:00

J isn't the only one who's been baking alone -- doesn't that sound sorta dirty? The sad part of summer has been our long summer hiatus. So, we've each taking to baking in secret. I think this means we have a problem -- if you find AP flour hidden in our toilet tanks, it'll be confirmed. This siren song luring me back to baking had to be heeded. After re-re-baking the pretzels from the Double

Daring Bakers August 2008 Challenge

2008-08-31T17:39:00.005-04:00

Eclairs!I love choux paste. It is just so fun to make.About 20 years ago I made it for the first time. I had talked my way into a job at a bakery and was given some responsibilities I was not completely qualified for. It was a small operation with the manager/chef and me, plus some counter girls. There I was in my first week working alone one afternoon trying to make eclairs. I had seen it done,

Double Daring Bakers: Chocolate Intensity Cake

2008-08-29T11:04:00.007-04:00

Intense? yesCake? not reallyThis flourless chocolate recipe is the least cake like flourless chocolate cake I have ever tried. Usually in these flourless recipes, ground nuts are substituted. Not in this case. It was an intensely chocolate, not overly sweet, eggy custard enhanced with some strong coffee. I sampled it when it was warm from the oven and it was very eggy indeed. I actually liked it,

Guess who had a big birthday??

2008-08-26T14:42:00.049-04:00

Robb, that's who!! He turned 40 and had a pretty terrific surprise party put together by his partner, Michael.Who knew there was a decent place to go here in Peekskill?? Henry's on Hudson had been reported to be a real s&#t hole. It's a motel restaurant so expectations were low to boot. But it was shockingly good! The food and beer selection was good, the service was excellent, and no one could

Double Daring Bakers Croissants!!

2008-07-31T12:31:00.001-04:00

Wowee!! These are the real deal.After the success with the laminated danish dough of June's challenge, I felt able to tackle croissants. I will confess that I felt bolstered by my experience with making them in culinary school as well. Yes, that was a zillion years ago, in another life time, in a professional kitchen, with a professional pastry chef guiding the process... but that did give me

Daring Bakers July 2008 Challenge

2008-07-30T14:38:00.009-04:00

Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream From Great Cakes by Carole Walter (We also love, love, love her Pies and Tarts book- see favorite links) Another terrific challenge with lots of recipes within one challenge: cake, buttercream, meringue, praline paste, caramel, syrup, whipped cream...We got to make a Swiss meringue buttercream which we love almost as

Watermelon Lemonade

2008-07-08T07:16:00.007-04:00

I saw this recipe in the July 2008 Everyday Food and found my self wondering what the brown sugar added to the recipe. How would that taste? So I decided to make it for the Fourth of July Parade Party that M & I have. Well, we were going to have. It seems that they change the parade route every other year and this year, it didn't go by our house. There is always next year. Luckily, it goes

Double Daring Bakers Biscotti

2008-06-30T10:36:00.000-04:00

Another "making up for lost time" recipe. A bunch of us Daring Bakers are doing the monthly recipes that occurred before we joined the group. We are on the second recipe: Chocolate Toffee Biscotti (and a cinnamon biscotti variation). The formulas were originally from a Dorie Greenspan book and have been modified (or not?). I find that there are many versions of recipes floating around in

Daring Bakers June 2008 Challenge

2008-06-29T00:00:00.002-04:00

This month's challenge was a bit different than previous challenges in that I handled the prep work. Usually J does the prepping and I waltz in like a Food Network chef and do the easy part. This time she's swamped with teaching an accelerated class in Summer Session. Prepping for this was the least I could do, really.I loved this challenge. The recipe follows at the end of this post. It is a

Queen Mother v Bittersweet Genoise

2008-06-12T21:42:00.013-04:00

We made the Bittersweet Cocoa Almond Genoise (RLB pg 134, pictured in front) and the Queen Mother's Cake from Maida Heatter (back). Rose says her genoise is based on Maida's so, knowing us, we had to compare and contrast.At first, we weren't really too impressed with either one. It seems that the Queen Mother's Cake got a bit over cooked. Like a lot over cooked. Bottom too brown (really

Triple Chocolate Cake

2008-06-09T06:33:00.014-04:00

Triple Chocolate Cake (pg 201)Contains: 1 recipe Light Whipped Ganache (pg 268), 1 recipe Moist Chocolate Genoise (pg 132), 1 recipe syrup flavored with Frangelico, 1 recipe chocolate praline sheets (pg 386)The genoise came together fairly well. We did have a bit of trouble with flour clumping. I think it had something to do with the humidity. Or, it could be that it just wasn't stirred

Hot Soft Pretzels!

2008-06-02T14:25:00.021-04:00

A group of us daring bakers have decided to go back to the beginning of the DB recipes and try to make them all. This group began in November of 2006 and the first project was this recipe.Some of us are recent members so many of the "old" challenges are new to us. We made these twice this month, they were really good! I first made them by myself, and that's when I discovered that I was all out

Daring Bakers May 2008 Challenge

2008-05-28T11:25:00.000-04:00

Ta Da!!!This month's challenge was very satisfying. It is being called an Opera cake (click for pictures of a Google image search) but we had to make it in light colors- no coffee or chocolate. The recipe provided is insanely long- if anyone really wants it- shoot me an email.The basics of the cake are joconde cake layers with buttercream, mousse and a glaze. The joconde is a sponge type cake

Well they all can't be winners!

2008-05-23T12:58:00.000-04:00

Fudgy Genoise Jeffrey (pg 136) with the Perfect Whipped Cream, Mocha variation, (pg 253)When last we met, we were extolling the virtues of this section of genoise cakes. This genoise went a bit haywire. For this cake, you whip the egg yolks, add the melted chocolate, add the whipped egg whites and bake. Straightforward enough, but here's where it veered off course: * The yolk/chocolate

Temper, Temper

2008-05-14T08:51:00.002-04:00

With forks still in our mouths, both of us said, "This is a great cake!"Strawberry Maria (pg 184)The Strawberry Maria has 1 recipe Genoise au Chocolat (pg 129), 1 recipe syrup flavored with Grand Marnier (pg 129), 1 recipe Strawberry Cloud Cream (pg 264), 1 Chocolate Lattice Band (pg 388) and strawberries dipped in chocolate.J was so happy with the photo of this showcase cake, that her enthusiasm

White Lily Cake

2008-05-05T08:53:00.001-04:00

This is a lovely photo of the White Lily Cake (pg 202)It consists of 1 recipe White Genoise (pg 127), 1/2 cup Cointreau (we used Grand Marnier, since we had it), 1/2 recipe Orange Fruit Mousseline (pg 245), 1 recipe of Rolled Fondant with orange flower water (page 306), & 1 recipe of Royal Icing.Really, since we've done this so many times, we're no longer intimidated by the recipes. Well, I still

Looking Back

2008-05-04T20:58:00.008-04:00

After I realized that we'd been doing Bake Through for a year, I found myself re-reading the previous posts. Back in April 2007, we had said that we'd like to try the Chocolate Cherry Almond Pound cake (pg 32) in its more traditional Apricot Version. Well, here it is.I have to say that I wasn't a big fan of this cake, then or now. And, while I'm glad that I made it using apricot preserves and

Learning Lessons

2008-04-29T20:14:00.002-04:00

The Golden Cage (pg 172)Yes, we are still working our way through the Cake Bible. But, we've decided that it's much more fun to work through it a bit at a time and darnit, we enjoy just hanging out sometimes.The Golden Cage uses the Golden Genoise (pg 125), Barak Palinka or brandy, Apricot Silk Meringue Buttercream (pg 243) and Gold Dust & Caramel Cage (pg 313)The Golden Genoise is an incredibly

Cooking Class: Part 4 The Finale

2008-04-10T13:42:00.004-04:00

Alas, the fun and excitement of watching and learning from a brilliant chef has come to an end. The last session was a whirlwind I can hardly recount. Chef told us to come hungry and we ate nearly everything we made in this plated dessert session.Once again, the quality of the ingredients used at La Tulipe is just extraordinary. The butter- always the high butterfat Plugra, the milk- organic, the

Daring Bakers March Challenge

2008-03-30T15:11:00.001-04:00

Creamsicle cake?ummm mmm!This month's Daring Bakers challenge was based on a basic white cake and a Swiss meringue buttercream. We were allowed to treat that as our blank slate and take it from there. One suggestion given in the recipe was to flavor it with lemon zest and juice and fill with raspberry and decorate with coconut. That sounds like a great combination, and probably one that we will

Cooking Class: Part 3

2008-03-13T10:32:00.015-04:00

Week three in our wonderfully exciting class was really terrific. We can hardly believe that there is only one more class, and we are sad at the idea of having this experience come to a close.Robb discovered that he likes coconut after all! Naturally, the coconut used by Chef Steenman is top notch. We used a wonderful puree of coconut and a grated coconut. This is not the flaked sticky sweet

Cooking Class: Part 2

2008-03-03T19:53:00.021-05:00

The second class was so intense in some ways that I found myself with a bit of a furrowed brow and a touch of the headache. We made the Chile Pepper Raspberry Chocolate Cake. And, damn if it isn't the prettiest thing I've ever seen, well, honestly, it's the prettiest thing I think I've made. Each of the people in the class (all 4 of us) got to take one home. It's a chocolate mousse cake with

Nothing says lovin’ like fresh from the oven….

2008-03-03T17:20:00.008-05:00

Here goes...I'm the one of the two of us who doesn't know what he's doing -- at least from a studied point of view....My grandmother used to peel apples in one long string and my other grandmother used to lament her husband's inability to clean fish scales out of the sink once he'd processed the days catch.So, I come from a family that cooks, but I know nothing from a book. Or, from class --

Daring Bakers February 2008 Challenge

2008-02-29T08:39:00.003-05:00

This month the challenge was French bread, and it really wasn't great.I miss cooking with Robb, although we are enjoying- immensely enjoying!!- the class we are taking (see previous post). Also, I don't like making something that's not very good.With many things we face in this world, experience is a big factor. I take for granted the experience I bring to most of my kitchen endeavors. How big is

Cooking Class: Part 1

2008-02-29T08:36:00.000-05:00

Janet and I have the best husbands. They listen to us. They pay attention to what we like to do and support us in doing it. And, they get to enjoy the fruits of our labor. For Christmas, Kevin (with the help of Janet's Dad, John) and Michael gave us baking classes at La Tulipe Patisserie in Mt. Kisco. Our first class was Wednesday. We covered: Chocolate Hazlenut Biscotti, Orange Short Bread

Sick at home and feeling creative

2008-02-25T20:23:00.006-05:00

Ok, y'all I've been sick at home for the last two days. I ventured out to a framesi event in NJ, but only because every time they have one, I am away or sick or otherwise occupied. This means that I've spent about 72 hours in my house. I love my house. Really. But, there is a limit to how long I can stay on the couch catching up on my TiVo'd materials. I love the View too, but I can't watch

Maida Heatter is the best!

2008-02-17T20:37:00.007-05:00

Still no time with Robb...(frowny, pouty face)...But, this morning Kevin made some noise about a cinnamon coffee cake. So we cracked open Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts and were easily persuaded by her description of the curiously named "Budapest Coffee Cake". She says that this is one of the most popular recipes in all of her books and that she has received letters and proposals of all

Sweets for my sweetie

2008-02-14T17:25:00.009-05:00

My dear partner in baking crime is having a very busy time traveling for his job. Good for him! But, an hour on the phone just doesn't compare to our half day of together time in the kitchen.Even so, we have stuff to share.Those baguettes in the last entry were baked by my father. The recipe comes from Fine Cooking magazine, to which we all three subscribe. Robb and I were so inspired that we

Good Charlotte, An Angel

2008-01-29T20:30:00.000-05:00

Well, as usual, it all begins with the next recipe in the Cake Bible. This time, it started on page 120 the Genoise Classique. Boy that sounded pretty. The most complicated thing about this recipe was learning how to pronounce "beurre noisette" (according to dictionary.com: bur nwah-zet" . I can't get the midwestern out of my voice for the first word. From the Genoise Classique, we move on to

Daring Bakers January 2008 Challenge

2008-01-28T15:38:00.000-05:00

Lemon Meringue Pie!!!This is a lemon meringue tartlet, but you get the idea.This month the Daring Bakers have all made the LMP, recipe from "Wanda's Pie in the Sky" by Wanda Beaver, recipe below. Robb and I diligently followed every instruction, including the bizarre step of boiling water and then letting is "rest" for 5 minutes. Really, if someone can explain that, please

Daring Bakers

2008-01-23T10:30:00.000-05:00

Ok, finally a slightly long-winded explanation.A while back Robb and I saw that someone we didn't know had posted a comment on the blog. (BTW, to all our "known" readers- post comments!!! Let us know you are reading, liking?, not liking, etc.) Julius at Occasional Baker left us a message and we were so surprised and curious. At first, it felt like a stranger had peeked into our underwear drawers

Good Food, Good Friends, Good Gosh, Let's Eat

2008-01-23T10:11:00.000-05:00

"That was the best that we've eaten from this book." M said to me after he'd done all the dishes following our crepe gathering. (That's right, he did all the dishes. I do so love him.) There were a bunch of people over at my place to sample crepes on Monday January 21, Martin Luther King Jr. day since most of us had it off or were going to work later in the day. 11 people gathered

Porcine Delight!!

2008-01-21T08:56:00.000-05:00

The magical animal provides so many delicious options.For Christmas, my dear friend Dan sent me some fresh pork belly (and a rack of spare ribs-to be discussed another time). Some of you are saying, "What do you mean he sent you pork belly for Christmas?!" "Is that a good gift?" "How weird!"It's not as strange as the Christmas about 15 years ago when my Dad sent 5 lbs. of slab (uncut) bacon and a

Kevin's Birthday

2008-01-13T13:30:00.001-05:00

The fantastic Mr. Fisher enjoyed his birthday on January 5th. I surprised him with one of his favorite cakes on Friday the 4th. His favorites, now that all of you are wondering, are Red Velvet, Carrot, and German Chocolate. I think he favors the frosting more than the actual cake in all of those, but then who doesn't love cream cheese frosting and the gooey sticky sweet nutty yumminess of the

We live in a Topsy Turvy World

2008-01-08T17:09:00.001-05:00

I'm just glad that it's not called the topsy turvy pineapple upside down cake. If that were the case, I'd have to come up with a new set of lyrics for "I Am a Model of a Modern Major General" and honestly, I'm really not up to that task.And, just to get it stuck in your head...here's the first verse:I am the very model of a modern Major-General,I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,I

New Year's Day Carb-Fest 2008

2008-01-03T19:41:00.000-05:00

I know that there is a way to make sense of why J and I continue to do a blue million recipes at the same time. Our birthday cake for our 3 year old friend Lila had three layers, a filling, a frosting and dacquoise. Our Brioche day had three recipes and required 2 days. Our last baking installment, I should just call it a Baking Event is lay spread in front of you. Quite like the Whore of

Project Lila

2007-12-28T09:44:00.000-05:00

Robb and I had a wonderful opportunity to make a cake for the 3rd birthday of Lila, the daughter of our friends Geoff and Hillary. Her birthday was on Thursday December 13th, and the celebration continued through that weekend. Lucky girl!This post has obviously taken some time, but we've had a lot of real life stuff happening, some of it happy and some of it sad, and we are able to get to writing

Daring Bakers challenge

2007-12-23T14:49:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post... more about the daring bakers group shortly... we have departed from the Cake Bible on this one.The Yule log, or Buche de Noel as some of us might call it was a great success. It is a basic yellow genoise and a very yummy coffee buttercream For the filling, we chose cranberry, which turned out to be a very good selection. It was pretty simple: cranberries, a left over can of

The New Math

2007-12-05T19:49:00.000-05:00

Ok, we decided a long time ago to do the all the brioche recipes over December 3 & 4. It seemed like a good thing to do and we put it in our calendars weeks ago. I was afraid if I didn't do it, I'd end up scheduled teaching a class on the Monday and leave J the excitement of roll out, fold, roll out, wait, fold, wait, roll out, place. Truly, since it was on my calendar when I got the email for

Fondant ain't so bad after all.

2007-12-05T19:46:00.000-05:00

Well, this is a long time coming. J & I set to work right after Thanksgiving. The Tuesday after, we bit the bullet and did the Art Deco Cake, including working with fondant, and the crumb cake.Could we have chosen two more dissimilar cakes?We were excited and I have to say for me, a bit scared of the fondant. Honestly, I don't like fondant on my cakes and usually peel it off like it's the rind

Who you callin' a fruitcake?

2007-11-20T19:04:00.000-05:00

Well everyone, this will be short. M and I are about to head over to J and K's house for dinner. Sort of a pre Thanksgiving dinner as M and I are heading to Indianapolis (see previous post's pic of my home state). The folly isn't that we are flying on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the folly really is that we are driving to Indianapolis. Yes, driving. All 753 miles of it. In, according to

One cake with no flour... is a cheesecake!

2007-10-31T22:23:00.000-04:00

What did we do this week?It's been a wild wacky end of October. So much so that it's now November.I spent the last two weekends in Boston teaching a class for a chain of salons. It was all good, but boy is that a long ride from Peekskill to Boston (3 hours). Ok. It's not that long of a ride, but it does take its toll on you when you do it alone.Guess I'm in trouble since M and I are going to

In This Kitchen, Carrot Cake is a Vegetable

2007-10-09T20:40:00.002-04:00

The forecast for today was hot. Not as hot as yesterday -- we broke records all up and down the Hudson River. You know, it's very pretty river. And, it's ours.It didn't get that hot today. All our preparing. I even wore shorts. Guess I wouldn't be talking about it, except that it's October! And, 90 degrees yesterday (or there abouts) is just plain wrong.However, today wasn't wrong. It was

In U End D'oh

2007-10-02T16:20:00.001-04:00

Ok...my goal this week was not to wait until next week to get the blog done...check one thing off my list of things to do...I have to say that I don't like bloggers who talk about the difficulty of getting the blog out without explaining why....so, here's why...I've been battling a very nasty sinus bug...caused either by allergies or a cold or the stress of starting a new job...by the way, I had

"mare ing gay" is what goes through my head as I type that

2007-09-30T20:56:00.000-04:00

Ok....confession time..sorta...the title comes from an email J sent to me when I couldn't remember how to spell meringue. Somehow it helped.My real confession is I'm having a heck of a time writing the blogs in a timely manner. You've probably all figured that out as you get them almost a week late. Please, if you've been sitting on the edge of your seat with anticipation -- I always think of

Banana's a fruit right?

2007-09-16T11:42:00.001-04:00

Look at it. Isn't it lovely? We thought so too.This is the Cordon Rose Banana Cake (pg 69). This cake is based on the classic butter cake -- and we all know how many of these we've done -- thus, it came together like all the other cakes we have done. When it came out of the oven, both J and I noticed how bread like it was. RLB suggests a variety of "adornments", including none. This would have

Fall Glorious Fall

2007-09-04T18:40:00.000-04:00

September, it's a time of new beginnings. Starting over, but not in a I've screwed up so badly, I have to leave town sort of way. But, if you had screwed up that badly, this would be the perfect time to start over.While J may wax rhapsodic about Summer and its myriad bright spots, I prefer Fall, Autumn. Such a great season it has two names!The leaves change. Root vegetables become all the

Suicide Buttercream

2007-08-28T15:00:00.001-04:00

This week we made the White Chocolate Whisper Cake (pg 50). She turns this one into the Blueberry Swan Lake cake (pg 165).This is the perfect time to take a minute and thank Janet. She not only made the Blueberry Lake, she also made the aforementioned swans. And as you can tell in the pics, she did a mighty fine job of it. It required a Classic Lemon Buttercream, which decorated the cake.

Belts & Suspenders

2007-08-27T20:24:00.000-04:00

Ok...last Tuesday (August 21, 2007 - almost 7 days ago) we made the Bittersweet Royale Torte (pg 198).It includes a 1/2 recipe of chocolate buttercream. We used our Milk Chocolate Butter cream from 5.17.7 and 6.5.7. Thank God for freezers and zip top bags! As you may recall, it was a big hit when we used it last time. This time it whipped up quite nicely.It also includes:A Perfect

Shrimp boil, barbeque and cherry pie... (sung to the Chevrolet jingle.)

2007-08-16T11:18:00.001-04:00

Ah, summertime. May it never end.I know, I know, what about the beautiful change of seasons- the crisp air, the first aroma of fireplaces burning, the colorful leaves in fall. And for skiers, I suppose the snow that follows is quite welcome. And surely spring does offer the first glimpse of new growth in the garden, and that tender just-born green of new tree leaves. But, the sun, heat and

ROAD TRIP!!!!!!

2007-08-07T18:00:00.000-04:00

For those of you who don't live on the East Coast, there were reports of wide spread heat and humidity and general mugginess in the weather reports. Your wise and intrepid bake throughers decided that baking in 95+ degree heat and 98% humidity would be just plain silly.So, as is the case, Janet and I can't keep away from each other on Tuesdays. Something about the second day of the work week --

Inspiration in Cake Form

2007-07-25T19:44:00.000-04:00

We got together later than usual on Tuesday. Usually we bake in the morning, about 9 am or so (Usually, I seem to be running late at that point, but I do make a stop at Dunkin' Donuts.) Today we started at 1:45 or 2.So it began for me, harried, late and frazzeling (ok, I have no idea how to spell that word). It started out, for Janet a bit on the rough side, too. The leader of the Tour de

One Cake, Many Recipes

2007-07-17T19:15:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been a long time. Between work and family visits for the 4th of July and a hellishly hot day (about 95 with about 95% humidity) it took us awhile to get back to the Cake Bible, but today we did.....Today we made the White Velvet Butter Cake (pg 46). This is the one used to make the White Lilac Nostalgia cake (pg 167) that requires 1/2 recipe of the Raspberry Mousseline (pg 245) and 1

Hiatus is on the horizon...

2007-06-25T07:59:00.000-04:00

Our latest effort seen here is the Chocolate Domingo. It is a simple one layer chocolate cake adorned with a dusting of powdered sugar. It is definitely dinner party -worthy, even though it is so simple.Some of the other chocolate cakes have had a very dark, shiny interior, with uniform tiny bubbles (aside from the tunnels from occasional over mixing), what we have described as being similar to a

Don't Judge a Cake By Its Frosting

2007-06-12T18:44:00.000-04:00

Janet has been away. So, I have taken the liberty of not writing right away. You can tell as this is Sunday night and we baked last Tuesday. Actually, truth be told, I lost track of time. A couple days this week and today, I lost about an hour -- somehow it was 1 pm and I was supposed to be at my Dog Run Book Club meeting in New York and I was wandering out of the Food Emporium at that same time.

Recipe Request

2007-06-06T07:36:00.000-04:00

Janet and I are preparing to make Carrot Cake in the upcoming weeks. The recipe in the Cake Bible is very different from what we are used to so we wanted to ask our readers to email us their favorite carrot cake recipes.Please send them to robbbruce@optonline.net or jmfisher@bu.eduThis way we can compare and contrast a few recipes that week.Thanks in advance,Robb & Janet

Chill Out

2007-06-05T13:51:00.000-04:00

It all started with a moment of panic -- not real, OH MY GOD! panic, but panic nonetheless. We hadn't found the chestnuts. I realize, again, in the grand scheme of things, this is not a problem. But, without the chestnuts, we couldn't make the Chestnut Sand cake.Really, we bouyed and came up with an alternate plan. We'd skip it this week. Really ingenious of us wasn't it?From that bit of panic,

Dare We Talk Discipline?

2007-05-30T20:21:00.000-04:00

I have struggled with this blog. Why? You intrepid reader may ask. Well, it's be so long since we cooked. The last post was May 16 and it's now June 1. That is such a long time. I know we started doing this to hang out but also to bake better. That is one definition of discipline: an "activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training: A daily stint at the

It is a Bible after all

2007-05-16T09:19:00.000-04:00

Well, we had some fun with our maple items: natural flavor, sugar and syrup. We made the All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake (p. 39) with Neoclassic Buttercream (p.230) using the maple substitutions at every option. We added some toasted nuts to the sides and it was pretty as you can see, more about the nuts later.Maple sugar, should you ever choose to find it and use it in your baked goods

Dog Days... well not quite.

2007-05-11T07:18:00.000-04:00

This week, we took road trips in search of maple products. The scarcity of all things maple in Westchester County was surprising. I had totally taken for granted the bounty of New England. Once we started looking for maple sugar and real maple flavor/extract I noticed the absence of the usual supply of maple creams and candies, those small, gritty, brown, leaf shaped treats. The strange pale tan

There comes a time...

2007-05-02T19:50:00.000-04:00

There comes a time when you are learning new things when you have to sort of lay back and go with it. Think Hippies in 1969. Think skiing. Think diving off a board into a lake. That first jump is more of a walk, but then you get grabbed by gravity and you know that it's going to be ok -- different than you imagined, but ok.The same thing happened with this installment of Bake Through for me.

2007-05-01T16:44:00.000-04:00

Here are the fruits of our labors this May Day. The Sour Cream Ganache tops the Sour Cream Butter Cake, and creme fraiche and raspberries are on the Golden Almond Cake. The image doesn't do them justice. If this is any sign of what is to come, I need bigger pants.

2007-04-25T08:39:00.000-04:00

These are the three pound cakes from our first week: double vanilla on the left, perfect pound cake center, and the lemon poppy seed on the right.These lovelies are from week 3. We've got the Chocolate Cherry Almond Pound Cake- that's what looks like a meatloaf in the back and also the 2 small rounds. We also made a layer of Golden Butter Cream Cake and frosted it with Royal Honey Buttercream.

This one has frosting....

2007-04-24T20:32:00.000-04:00

So....we've made a few decisions....Janet doesn't really care for chocolate. Those chocoholics out there, please pick yourselves up off the floor. It's not the end of the world. It just means that we'll have two options periodically.For those of you who don't know Janet, she's made a list of upcoming recipes and she's VERY diligent. What we've decided is ok not to follow the _Cake Bible_

2007-04-18T07:48:00.000-04:00

Hello folks,Here are some photos from episode 2: Chocolate Bread, and White Spice Pound Cake. The latter is so delicious, reminiscent of the New England ice cream flavor Frozen Pudding. Amazingly, the former did not seem to suffer from the late addition of sugar. A side by side surely would prove otherwise? Janet

Oh, yeah....we forgot something...what was it?????

2007-04-17T16:34:00.000-04:00

As we are currently in the "butter cakes" section of the Cake Bible, we are certainly using up the butter supply in the Northern Westcester area. Buy butter stock now.Figuring that we will have to spend more time on the frosted, pretty cakes later on, we decided to cook two recipes today: 1. Chocolate Bread and 2. White Spice Pound Cake.The Chocolate Bread recipe -- really, it's not a bread at

Well it begins

2007-04-09T17:12:00.000-04:00

This morning we set out to bake the first recipe in _the cake bible_.It's a pound cake. Used to be an equal amount of butter, flour, sugar and eggs (by weight). She has tweaked it a bit. We did the variations of double vanilla and lemon poppy sead.Puttering around in someone else's kitchen -- Janet's kitchen is better suited for cooking at this point. My kitchen is also a workroom for the

Bake Through

2007-04-05T20:50:00.000-04:00

This is the start of two things for us. 1. We are going to cook together.2. Hopefully, once a week, we'll bake our way through _The Cake Bible_ by Rose Levy Beranbaum, Maria Guarnaschelli, Vincent Lee, Manuela Paul, Dean G. Bornstein.This is the place where we will report on our joys and errors and hopefully, take a picture or two. Let us know what you think.Robb & Janet