Champagne Truffles

Yummy chocolate champagne filled truffles are the perfect complement to a nice glass of champagne on New Year's Eve.

Yields: 25 to 30 truffles

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup butter, cut into small pieces (no substitutes)
• 3 tablespoons whipping cream
• 1 beaten egg yolk
• 3 tablespoons champagne

Combine semisweet chocolate, butter, and the 3 tablespoons whipping cream in a heavy, medium saucepan. Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate is melted, stirring constantly. Gradually stir about half of the hot mixture into the egg yolk, Return entire mixture to the saucepan.Cook and stir over medium heat for 2 minutes.

Remove from heat. Stir in champagne. Transfer truffle mixture to a medium mixing bowl; chill about 1 hour or until mixture is completely cool and smooth, stirring occasionally.

Beat cooled truffle mixture with an electric mixer on medium speed about 1 minute or until color lightens and mixture is slightly fluffy. Chill about 30 minutes more or until mixture holds its shape. Scrape a small ice cream scoop, melon baller, or spoon across the surface of the cold truffle mixture, forming 1-inch balls. Place balls on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Refrigerate until very firm.

Truffles can be covered in chocolate candy melts or rolled in unsweetened cocoa powder or sifted powdered sugar.

Candied Citrus Peels

These Candied Citrus Peels from Martha Stewart are really delicious. They can be consumed as soft jelly candy or added to breads or desserts.

Makes 2 1/2 cups

• 2 grapefruits, 3 oranges, or 4 lemons
• 4 cups sugar, plus more for rolling
• 4 cups water

Directions

1. Using a paring knife, make 6 slits along curve from top to bottom of each citrus fruit, cutting through peel but not into fruit. Using your fingers, gently remove peel. Reserve fruit for another use. Slice each piece of peel lengthwise into 1/4-inch-wide strips. Using a paring knife, remove excess pith from each strip and discard.
2. Place strips in a large saucepan, and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then drain. Repeat twice.
3. Bring sugar and water to a boil, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves. Stop stirring. Wash sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent sugar crystals from forming. Add strips to boiling syrup, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer gently until strips are translucent, about 1 hour. Remove from heat, and let strips cool in syrup. (Strips in syrup will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 3 weeks.)
4. Using a slotted spoon, transfer strips to a wire rack placed on a rimmed baking sheet. Wipe off excess syrup with paper towels, then roll strips in sugar. Arrange in a single layer on a wire rack, and let dry for at least 30 minutes. Sugared peels will keep, covered at room temperature, for up to 2 weeks.

Softies

This year I decided to hand make as many Christmas gifts as possible. I thought my niece and nephews would appreciate a little warm creature to snuggle. My favorite, the elephant, is made from a pair of socks and is from Sock and Glove by Miyaki Kanamori. I had seen her things on the Martha Stewart Show and was very excited when my sister sent me the book. The other creatures are from Softies, a Penguin book featuring collections from various craft blogs.


By special request, Lisa's monster.

Wine Cork Reindeer

While wine tasting in Temecula earlier this year, I discovered the most precious way to recycle wine corks. These cork reindeer are so cute and made wonderful gifts for our friends and family.


After a days work, we had a little army of cork reindeer plus little Syd and Max ornaments too. These homemade Christmas tree ornaments also looked great on our tree.

Lazy Sunday

This pic was not staged. They really do like one another, sometimes. Maybe Max was just cold. After the click of the camera, Sydney promptly jumped off the couch.

Halloween 08

Marshmallow Bones with Hot Chocolate

Creeptasktic Halloween treat. The cremated ashes and bones of your good friend Coco. Frighteningly delicious!

Marshmallow Bones from Martha Stewart

Makes about 20 bones

• 3/4 cup cold water
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 ounce unflavored gelatin (1 tablespoon)
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

1. Line 2 baking sheets with waxed paper. Combine 1/2 cup cold water and the vanilla in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over top, and let stand until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Bring granulated sugar, corn syrup, and remaining 1/4 cup cold water to a boil in a small saucepan. Cook, washing down sides of saucepan with a wet pastry brush, until mixture registers 234 degrees to 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat.
3. Whisk gelatin mixture with a mixer on high speed for 30 seconds. With the machine running, carefully pour hot sugar mixture down the side of bowl in a slow, steady stream. Whisk mixture until very fluffy and almost stiff, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round tip.
4. To form the bones: In a continuous motion, pipe a small figure 8, then a straight 5-inch line, then another small figure 8. Repeat. Let bones stand, uncovered, for 10 to 12 hours in a cool, dry place.
5. Generously sift confectioners' sugar over bones. Gently use a knife to scrape bones off the wax paper. Turn the bones to evenly coat. Shake off excess. (The marshmallow bones will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween cake for my FINAL cake class!

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 3, Class 4

The Course 3 final cake challenge was to make a tiered cake with either dowels or those tacky plastic pillars. I chose to stack my cake and enlisted my husband to assist in the assembly. I used 6 inch cakes and 8 inch cakes. I torted the cakes creating 8 layers total, which provided significant height. The height to width ratio is very important if you want the cake to be visually appealing. Also, when stacking with pillars or decorating with cascades of flowers, a 3-4 inch cake width difference is suggested. I went with a simple elegant cake with minimal details so the 2 inch difference was appropriate.

The cake is Dorie's Perfect Part Cake recipe (posted previously with the peach cake) amended using orange zest and orange juice to flavor the cake and icing. The filling was a mixture of strawberry jam and fresh strawberries. I used very little swiss buttercream this time around and used whole milk instead of buttermilk for the cake batter. Whole milk creates a denser cake, whereas the buttermilk really encourages the angel food like consistency. The cake was very moist and did not need any added frosting once the fondant was removed.

This was a tough but enjoyable project and I am entirely pleased with the results. I feel confident in my cake making skills and am warming to the idea of making wedding and other special occasion cakes some day. Total time spent making the cake was about 9 hours. The majority of that time was spent baking the cakes and making the icings from scratch. Not included is the time it takes to make fondant roses. I estimate I make about 8 an hour. I made 21 total.

I affectionately call this cake, my Lauren Conrad cake. Although I loath LC, my freestyle buttercream accents remind me of the monogram cakes that Martha Stewart helped make so popular a few years back. The roses were made using tinted fondant, which I then painted with a mixture of vodka and yellow sparkle dust. Entirely edible, although not recommended :)

Antipasto Salad

My new favorite salad of the moment is this Antipasto salad I created after reading through dozens of recipes online. I needed to bring a salad to work that pared well with pizza. Big hit at work and at home. This is not a cheap salad as jarred artichokes, deli salami and deli provolone cost about $5 each. It ends up being about $25-30, but it yields plenty for dinner and lunch leftovers the next day. Still cheaper than eating out.

Antipasto Salad
makes 4-5 servings

1/2 head red lettuce
1/2 head butter lettuce
1 can black (or green) whole, pitted olives
1 small box of yellow cherry tomatoes
1 small jar of artichoke hearts cut in half (in oil tastes better)
1/2 cup deli sliced peperoncini from jar (or to taste)
5 slices of provolone cut into pieces (deli sliced provolone is best)
1 package of deli sliced salami cut into pieces
Italian dressing to taste

Monkey Bread

Yum. Monkey Bread. Great comfort food for those Sunday-morning-tomorrow-is-Monday blues.

Working Woman's Monkey Bread

4 cans of 8 buttermilk refrigerated biscuits (I only used 2 cans!)
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 cup pecans, chopped

On low heat mix butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts together until sugar is dissolved. Spray Monkey Bread Baking Mold with non-stick cooking spray. Quarter biscuits and dip in sugar mixture until well coated. Place biscuits in pan and pour remaining sugar mixture over biscuits. Place in a COLD OVEN and turn to 350° F. Bake 45 minutes. After removing from oven carefully release edges and center with a knife. Invert onto a serving platter and serve warm.

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 3, Class 2

Course 3 is Fondant and tiered cakes. I love working with fondant. It's pliable, not messy and contrary to what many think, delicious! I love this cake so much. It turned out so much better than I had planned. I almost don't want to let anyone eat it...

I was super proud of my corners, borders and tiny detail. Side shot to show off.

Orange Chiffon Cake with Orange Swiss Buttercream

It was my girlfriend's birthday celebration this past weekend in Amador Wine County. I wanted a light, not-too-sweet cake as we would be consuming lots of wine. I used the Orange Chiffon Cupcake recipe from Cupcakes, by Elinor Klivans and amended my go to Swiss buttercream with some orange extract. I used two 6 inch cake pans and torted the layers, which means I cut both in half. Torting can give a cake impressive height and make room for yummy fillings. Top it off with some royal icing flowers and this was an exceptional little treat.

Orange Chiffon Cupcake Recipe by Elinor Klivans.

1 ½ cups cake flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
4 large eggs separated
1/3 cup water
1 ½ grated orange zest
¼ cup fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon pure almond extract
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare cupcake pans.

1. Sift the cake flour, ¾ cup of the sugar, the baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Using a large spoon, make a well in the center of the flour mixture and put in the yolks, oil, water, zest, orange juice and vanilla and almond extracts in the well.
2. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the mixture until smooth and thick, about 3 minutes.
3. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing.
4. Set aside.
5. In another large bowl. With clean beaters, beat together the egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until the whites are foamy and the cream of tartar dissolves.
6. Beat on high speed until the egg whites look shiny and smooth and the beaters form lines in the mixture; if you stop the mixer and lift up the beaters, the egg whites should cling to the beaters.
7. Slowly beat in the remaining sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, then beat for one minute.
8. Stir in about one third of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the remaining egg whites until no white streaks remain.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.
10. Bake for about 35 minutes, until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 2, Class 4

Course 2 was advanced buttercream, color flow technique, royal icing flowers and basket weave. I thought a lot about how I wanted my final cake to look. I knew I wanted pastel flowers and a chocolate buttercream for the basket. All the planning paid off in the end. I love this cake. Basket weave is surprisingly easy. Much easier than making chocolate buttercream! The bird is color flow, a thin, fast-drying icing that can be used to draw any shapes or designs. The royal icing flowers are easy to make and impressive once on the cake. My favorites are the pansies.

Due to my first kitchen disaster, which I am not yet ready to talk about, the cake was store bought. I just scraped it down to the icing and created a beautiful cake of my own.

Sushi

Coconut Red Curry Shrimp

This dish is a staple of mine. I love the flavor of coconut milk mixed with spicy red curry paste. I also use coconut milk to make my special version of shrimp pra ram, but that is another post.

The key is to cook the shrimp correctly. Shrimp is done as soon as it is pink. It really only takes a few minutes.

Heat the following ingredients in a saucepan over medium.
1 can of coconut milk
1-2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
2-3 tsp red curry paste

Add frozen or fresh veggies. I like to use bell peppers with eggplant or spinach. If using spinach, add it later because it takes very little to wilt it down. Bring sauce to a light boil, then add the veggies and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add spinach and once it starts to wilt, add the shrimp. Stir to coat spinach. Remove from heat as soon as the shrimp is pink.

I usually serve this dish with brown rice, but more recently switched to saffron. It is delicious. I also bought rice noodles at the store thinking they would combine lovely.

Fresh Basil & Mozzarella Pizza

I love to drink wine while cooking. It really helps me relax and experiment with my cooking. We love Betty Crocker instant pizza dough and with the hot Sacramento weather were craving something fresh. I used some left over Todd Taylor Sangiovese to flavor the tomato paste, which gave the pizza a strong, slightly bitter flavor. I cut generous portions of mozzarella, fresh tomatoes from the garden and topped it off with plenty of fresh basil. Lots of kosher salt and cracked pepper too!

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1, Class 4

Tonight's class was roses, sweet peas, leaves and ribbons. Four hours later, I want to rip my hair out over those damn roses. My buttercream was either not stiff enough or too warm. The rose would come out decent and then melt on the cake. I scraped more crap off this cake then you want to know; then busted out that mess in about 30 seconds of rage. But it turned out decent. Decent for a 14-year-old, but I am impressed with my wavy lines. Those rock. I do know how to make awesome leaves and even better sweet peas, but my temper got the best of me tonight. I will master roses, ones that keep their shape after 10 minutes of Sacramento heat. Think of it as something to look forward to.

By request and a little bit of a challenge, this week's cake is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. All homemade, all one big pain in the ass.

Lastly, being the masochist that I am, I signed up for Class 2, Royal Icing. The good news? You only make one cake.

Oh yeah, I got these: A certificate of merit and Wilton Yearbook. Yippee!

Soft Baked Pretzels

These Soft Baked Pretzels were wonderful. I didn't have bread flour, but all-purpose flour turned out just fine. We sauteed garlic and rosemary in some butter and then dipped the pretzel. Delicious. We also made honey-butter pretzels and cinnamon sugar pretzels. This recipe would also work nicely for dinner rolls, twists or knots.

Soft Baked Pretzels
From That's My Home

1 package (.25 oz.) active dry yeast
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
2 cups warm water
2 tbsp baking soda
2 tbsp butter, melted
1-2 tbsp coarse kosher salt or cinnamon sugar

Makes 12 servings.

In a large mixing bowl, add yeast, brown sugar and salt. Test water
temperature with thermometer. When it reads 110 degrees, add to bowl.
Stir to dissolve. Add both types of flour and stir well.
Place dough on floured surface. Knead dough until smooth and elastic,
about 8 minutes. (To knead dough, press down on dough with your palm,
fold the dough over and rotate 1/4 turn, repeat until dough is ready.)
Grease a large bowl. Place dough in bowl then turn dough upside down
to coat the surface. Cover with a towel and let rise for one hour in a
warm spot.
Combine 2 cups warm water (test again for 110 degrees) and baking soda
in an 8-inch square pan. After the dough has risen, divide it into 12
pieces.
Roll each piece into a 1 1/2-foot rope, 1/2-inch wide. Twist into a
pretzel shape, and dip into the baking soda solution. Place on cookie
sheets and let rise 15 to 20 minutes.
Bake at 450°F. for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with
melted butter, and then sprinkle with coarse salt or cinnamon sugar.

White Chocolate Brownies

A favorite recipe of mine. I like these better than blondies or chocolate based brownies. Super easy and you can experiment with variations of chocolate chips.

White Chocolate Brownies:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 ounces white chocolate
2 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.Grease and flour an 8 inch square baking pan, or line with foil. Melt butter and 4 oz of white chocolate together in top of doubleboiler over hot water. When melted remove from heat and add the remaining white chocolate. Stir to blend well. Set aside. Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and thick. Add white chocolate and butter mixture, vanilla and flour. Beat just until smooth. Add chocolate chunks and mix in by hand, being careful not to overmix. Pour into prepared pan and bake 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Cut into squares or bars.

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1, Class 3

Class 3 is shells, large dots, star flowers, twist flowers and clowns. The clowns are actually pretty awesome, but they didn't mesh with the look of my cake. We also learned to stripe the buttercream. I made both a peach and yellow batch of buttercream. Then I painted the inside of a pastry bag with yellow and filled the remainder with peach. That is how I got the two-toned flowers to be so beautiful. For the shell border, I painted a bag with white buttercream and used a yellow filler.

For round two, I decided to get fancy with the inside of the cake. I used fresh-picked peaches from Rob's sister's tree. I blended some peaches and then strained them through a coffee filter. I brushed the peach juice on the layers of the cake and added about 1/4 cup of juice to the swiss buttercream recipe. A layer of fresh peaches and swiss buttercream held the two layers together.

I got rave reviews on this cake. We're talking screams of delight from everyone who had the pleasure of tasting it. I thought it could use even more peaches, so I would suggest torting the cake and having multiple layers. Also, because of the peaches, this cake should be refrigerated and let come to room temperature before serving.

Wilton Cake Decorating: Course 1, Class 2

Course 1, Class 2 is stars, wavy lines, dots, writing and piping stars into a shape. Ta-dah!

Note: Funfetti is quite the crowd pleaser. The key is to follow the box instructions and beat on low for 2 minutes. Soft beating produces a moist delicious cake that rivals any homemade concoction. Plus, its got confetti in the cake!

Fresh Cherry Apple Pie (Part 2)

Rob was lucky enough to find a Cherry Stoner at Raleys. Better and faster than a pitter, he was able to pit 2 pounds of cherries in no time. Using fresh cherries and apples from the Farmer's Market turned out great and it was a wonderful Fourth of July dessert. The one thing I take away from this pie is that my Emile Henry pie dish is huge and I could have used another half pound of cherries. Yup, that would be 2 1/2 pounds of fresh cherries plus two apples. And, because I had so much fun making this pie, more pics to follow.