Valentine's Day isn't celebrated here in Brazil, but my husband and I thought we'd give some Valentine cookies and fudge to some of our friends and fellow ex-pats. I also thought it would be fun to have my son (age two and a bit) help with decorating a cookie or two for himself and a friend. I don't have a go-to sugar cookie recipe, so I was excited to find this one from Alton Brown. I usually trust his recipes, and his show is pretty awesome, so I gave it a whirl.
Let me just say this: sugar cookies are a pain. Refrigerate. Roll out, but don't overwork. Curse under your breath as you have clearly overworked the dough after not being able to roll it out because it was too refrigerated. All that, and I have yet to find a dough that tastes good (which didn't stop me from eating it). Sigh.
These turned out fine and were made downright awesome by the addition of my mom's buttercream frosting (beat a stick of butter, add about 1/4 bag powdered sugar, 1-2 T. milk, 1 t. or so vanilla. Beat. Add more powdered sugar, about another 1/4 of the bag, until you reach desired consistency. Add a little more milk if your frosting gets too stiff). I used red and a smidge of blue food coloring to make a nice pink frosting for our heart cookies. I used pink/white, chocolate, and star-shaped sprinkles, and my husband and I went to town decorating. My son insisted on placing each star by poking his finger into the frosting. We had fun, but sugar cookies will only happen once or twice a year.
By comparison, the fudge was ridiculously easy. I used the sweetened condensed milk version that doesn't require a candy thermometer or any real difficulty whatsoever. It was good, but a little firm for my taste. I'd like to try real fudge sometime too. My copy of The Joy of Cooking has one that seems doable. The fudge could have been adapted to have nuts inside or pretzels on top. You could also marble in some sweetened condensed milk before the fudge sets to give some visual interest. Seasonal sprinkles would be fun too.
Our friends enjoyed the cookies and fudge (and the Star Wars valentines we included), and we had a nice time decorating and spending time together. However, I'd like to try a softer fudge and only give cookies whose dough doesn't require refrigeration.
http://pinterest.com/pin/353180795747654054/
http://pinterest.com/pin/353180795747662719/
Showing posts with label desserts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label desserts. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Marble Cake with Satin Icing
I follow Martha Stewart's boards, and sometimes they are really awesome. I saw her Chocolate-Vanilla Marble Cakes and decided to try it. It uses a homemade yellow cake batter, which was pretty good. I do not have cake flour on hand ever, so I used this substitute from Joy the Baker. You then divide the batter in half, and to one half add (already combined) 6 T. hot water and 1/2 c. cocoa powder and stir. This also tasted good.
Problems arose when I used my loaf pans. I have two largish Pyrex pans, and the recipe calls for four small (possibly metal) ones. I did the swirling far too many times and ended up with an interior of the cake that was less marbled than I wanted. If I had only used larger dollops fewer times, the effect would likely have been better. Because my pans were larger, I baked longer, which made sense. I only wish I had started checking my cakes a little sooner, as they were a little dry for my taste.
My husband and I had some friends over for dinner, and I had planned to serve this as dessert and thought it could use some sort of glaze or icing. I settled on this one from AllRecipes.com. It was thicker than I imagined and would be better on a Bundt cake as shown. I was hoping for a thinner glaze, but the taste was good. It also seemed to go a little grainy after I added the vanilla at the end.
My other beef with this cake was that it didn't stay good for very long. Those friends I mentioned brought dessert, so mine stayed on the counter. I was very good and didn't eat it, but when we went to serve it for dessert three days later, it was no longer edible. The taste was off...kind of...fermenty.
Bottom line:
I wouldn't mind trying it again, but maybe with a boxed yellow cake mix with the chocolate mixture added. The home-made batter and cake flour substitute was more than I really wanted to do that afternoon. I'd also choose a different glaze and start checking the cakes around 45 minutes, not an hour.
http://pinterest.com/pin/353180795747709162/
http://pinterest.com/pin/353180795747705333/
http://pinterest.com/pin/353180795747705332/
Problems arose when I used my loaf pans. I have two largish Pyrex pans, and the recipe calls for four small (possibly metal) ones. I did the swirling far too many times and ended up with an interior of the cake that was less marbled than I wanted. If I had only used larger dollops fewer times, the effect would likely have been better. Because my pans were larger, I baked longer, which made sense. I only wish I had started checking my cakes a little sooner, as they were a little dry for my taste.
My husband and I had some friends over for dinner, and I had planned to serve this as dessert and thought it could use some sort of glaze or icing. I settled on this one from AllRecipes.com. It was thicker than I imagined and would be better on a Bundt cake as shown. I was hoping for a thinner glaze, but the taste was good. It also seemed to go a little grainy after I added the vanilla at the end.
My other beef with this cake was that it didn't stay good for very long. Those friends I mentioned brought dessert, so mine stayed on the counter. I was very good and didn't eat it, but when we went to serve it for dessert three days later, it was no longer edible. The taste was off...kind of...fermenty.
Bottom line:
I wouldn't mind trying it again, but maybe with a boxed yellow cake mix with the chocolate mixture added. The home-made batter and cake flour substitute was more than I really wanted to do that afternoon. I'd also choose a different glaze and start checking the cakes around 45 minutes, not an hour.
http://pinterest.com/pin/353180795747709162/
http://pinterest.com/pin/353180795747705333/
http://pinterest.com/pin/353180795747705332/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)