Christmas 2013

I have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to blog!

I missed telling you about the Thanksgiving Pie Off and the Holiday Cookie Off!
 

Pie Off

Cookie Off

Not to mention all of the cookies I made . . . 
 

 

Florentines, jingle bell bars, thumbprints,
Bourbon balls, linzers, Dulce de leche . . .
Robby even made mocha Venetians!

Oh well, give me a break I am 9 months pregnant! (Refer to Christmas belly below.)
 

Instead of going backward and blogging about things that are outdated, although delicious, I am simply going to tell you what I made for Christmas this year.

Christmas Peppermint Cake

 

Apple Cranberry Christmas Wreath

This year was a Dolan Family Christmas.  Meaning we saw the in laws on Christmas Eve and my family on Christmas day.

One of my other big cake fans, besides Robby, is my Aunt Angel. 
She asked for a peppermint cake. 
And good thing I listened cause she got me some darn good Christmas presents, as usual! 
Thanks Ange!

I also usually make something more in an Irish vein for my dad. 
(Irish only in that he is Irish.  Usually it is more "all American" involving some type of crust and APPLES!  He is addicted to apple desserts.)

____________________________________________________________________

I'll start with the cake . . . 
 

This cake is easy cheesy!  I made it up with some decorating inspiration from the "internets."
I used my good old Oprah endorsed Chocolate cake recipe, with a few minor alterations to make it a little less moist (it tends to fall apart) and more Christmasy (with eggnog instead of buttermilk).
I filled it with my red velvet cake icing, which I added a healthy dose of peppermint extract to.
And finally i iced it with the same filling only with some green food coloring added.

Chocolate Cake:
3 oz dark chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups hot coffee

3 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups cocoa

2tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup eggnog

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 300.

Chop chocolate and pour hot coffee over it. Let stand stirring occasionally until chips dissolve.

Sift together dry ingredients.

Beat eggs until lemon color. Add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and chocolate mixture.

Add dry to wet and beat until just combined.

Divide between three 10" pans lined with parchment

Bake for 1 hr.

 

Filling/Icing:

16 oz cream cheese

2 cups heavy whipping cream

16 oz mascarpone cheese

3 cups confectioners sugar

3 tsp peppermint extract

green food coloring

 

let cream cheese come to room temp.

Whip cream.

Add mascarpone to cream cheese, add sugar and extract.

Fold whipped cream into cheese.

Color 1/2 to minty green.

 

Chocolate Shell Topping:

8 oz dark chocolate

8 oz butter melted

 

Pour hot butter of chocolate.

Let stand mixing occasionally till smooth.

 

Assemble the cake:

Layer as follows: cake - filling - cake - filling - cake - icing . . .

Pour chocolate shell over top.

Enjoy!

 

 

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Now for the Apple Cranberry Christmas Wreath . . . .

 

 

 

This is waaaaaay easier then it looks.

It is essentially a galette, which is a fancy way of saying flat free form pie.

 

First you'll need to MAKE pie crust.

 

I did a butter crust bc i had no patience to find the shortening in the cabinet.

 

Crust:

2 sticks of butter

2 1/2 cups of flour

1 tbs sugar

1/2 cup cold filtered water

 

I also experimented by mixing this all on low in the stand mixer.  Worked pretty well.

Refrigerate until ready to use

 

Filling:

This filling is easy as pie (I think i may have used that line already . . oh well, it is true.)

6 granny smith apples peeled and sliced

1 cup cranberries (fresh)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

spices of choice (cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, ginger, you get the idea) as much as you like

 

 

Roll out the crust to about 14" circle.

Arrange filling in circle leaving about 5" clear in center and 2" around outside..

Cut small hole in center and fold crust up onto filling.  Do the same with the outer perimeter.

Use scraps and Christmas cookie cutters to make top crust.  Laying each cookie crust on top of the other in a pretty overlapping montage of Christmas. 

Add some egg to the remaining filling juice and pain top crusts.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

 



 

 

Everyone is Getting Married!

It always seems like  everything happens at once.
Right now it seems like everyone is getting married!!
This past weekend, for example, I had a bachelorette party on Sat and a Bridal Shower on Sunday. (For two different ladies.)
Of course I made a cake for each!
For the bachelorette I made a Crème Angeles Coconut cake in the form of a wedding dress with a "Barbie" stuck in it. (Actually a "Chloe" from the dollar store in Manhattan.)
For the bridal shower I made a 6 tiered cheesecake.

(here they are in our fridge)

I will show you how to construct both cakes.
(For the cheesecake you can refer to my cheesecake blog for the recipe and the for the Bride cake you can use any cake/filling combo you want.)



Bachelorette Cake:
I won't even tell you the type of sexy cake I made for my sister's bachelorette  years ago, as this is a family blog. Needless to say this cake is much classier and toned down. . . . more in the vein of a "wedding" theme rather than the "wedding night."
The first thing to do is to make any cake and filling of your choice.
If you have different sized cake pans that is best as you are going to stack the layers in a bowel.
I used my wedding tiered pans. A 10", 9", 5", 7", and 3". (Cut each layer in 1/2 and trim off all crusty/browned edges.)
You'll prob need to 1 1/2x the recipe for both the cake batter and the filling.
Select a bowl that is tall enough to fit the "Barbie's" legs.  (I didn't do a good job and had to remove the poor lady's legs to get her to fit.)
Line the bowl with plastic wrap.
Place a layer of filling at the bottom of the bowl.
Trim a layer of the smallest cake so that it fits over the filling at the bottom of the bowl.
Continue layering filling and cake circles until you reach the top of the bowl.

Refrigerate overnight.
Now the fun part!
Invert the cake onto a lovely plate.

Using a sharp knife shape the cake to your desired skirt shape.  (Try not to eat the pieces!  I failed!)

Cut a small cylinder of cake from the center so that inserting the doll doesn’t split the cake and stick her in.

The doll Robby got me from the dollar store actually had a wedding theme.
Don't worry, my lovely and helpful husband washed her off good before we stuck her in people's food.

 Whip up a white icing of your choice. I made a simple butter cream. (Make sure not to use brown vanilla extract or it will off-color the icing.)
Cover the cake and the required amount of doll to make it look like a wedding dress.
I had to keep putting her in the fridge then taking her out and shaping it a little at a time. 

(arms up!)

(sooo pretty!)

Bridal Shower Cake:
I made a version of this earlier in October, but didn't have time to blog it.

 

(Sheila's Bridal Shower Cake . . . November Wedding . . . very Irish)

 

(Sam's Bridal Shower Cake . . . March Wedding . . . kinda springy)

This one is for my sister-in-law (Sam), who likes cheesecake.
Again i just used my wedding tiered pans and 1 1/2x my cheesecake batter recipe.
All you have to do is bake the cakes as normal refrigerate them overnight, stack, and decorate.
Easy Cheesy!

10"

+ 9"

+7"

+5" + 3"

+ sugar flowers = pretty nice cake

 

Tonight I am going to start making an orange grove cake for Rob-be-bo, but I probably won't blog again for 2 more weeks when I have the 3rd annual Thanksgiving Pie-Off (@ work)!!!


CONGRATS SHEILA AND SAM!! (Looking forward to the big day(s)!)

 

Granny Lou's Birthday Cake

So i am waaaay behind on my blogs!  I was supposed to issue this one over a month ago!
The main culprit is that i went on vacation for 2 weeks and work is very busy.
 
So many of you may already know the outcome of this blog . . .  . .

 

It is was my mother's birthday!
Happy Birthday Mom!

This year I got her a grandchild, but she will have to wait till January to get it.
In the meantime I am going temper the pain of waiting 20 14 more weeks by revealing the baby's sex.
Guess how I am going to do did it?  By baking! (DUH)

So here is the fabulous "baby gender reveal cake" I made: 

Ready . . . .

 

 

Reeeeeeeeeeady . . .

 

TA DA . . It's pink! I mean a GIRL!  Woohoooo

There are a lot of girls in our families so we weren't suprised.

 

 

We are very excited about our little baby girl.

In case you are interested this cake is a white chocolate cake with strawberry mousseline filling. 
The strawberry part is what makes it pink of course.

(Next blog will be better and more timely, I promise.)

Oreo Cake

 

This is a standard in my repertoire.

Very popular cake.

It consists of my "best chocolate cake" recipe with an icing of all the usual good stuff (cream cheese, butter, and heavy cream) laced with crushed Oreos.

Once a year Rob's aunt has a party/reunion out in Pennsylvania.
Last year I made a German's chocolate cake, which was a hit.  So i went down the chocolate route again.

Plus if you look back at my previous post I have a giant box of Oreos in the house that I have to use up!

Also this cake is HUGE so it is good if you are going to a big gathering.

"Best Chocolate Cake"  (it really is the best!)

 

3 oz dark chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups hot coffee

3 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups cocoa

2tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

 

Preheat oven to 300.

Chop chocolate and pour hot coffee over it.  Let stand stirring occasionally until chips dissolve.

Sift together dry ingredients.

Beat eggs until lemon color.  Add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and chocolate mixture.

Add dry to wet and beat until just combined.

Divide between three 10" pans lined with parchment

Bake for 1 hr.

Oreo Icing
2 sticks butter
16 oz cream cheese
2 cups heavy whipping cream
4 cups confectioners sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 sleeves Oreos (crushed or pulsed in processor)
2 sleeves whole Oreos

Make sure the butter and the cream cheese are set out to come to room temp.  (This is vital or the icing will have little butter lumps in it.)

Whip the 2 cups of cream and refrigerate.

Whip together the butter and cream cheese. 
Add the vanilla.
Add the sugar one cup at a time until smooth.

Fold in the whipped cream.

Divide in half.
Add crushed Oreos to 1/2.  (Leave the other 1/2 plain.)

Assemble the cake:
Place on layer of cake on plate.
Cover with 1/2 of crushed Oreo icing.
Add layer of cake.
Cover with remaining 1/2 of crushed Oreo icing.
Add final layer of cake.

 

Cover entire cake with plain icing.

Split whole Ores in half and line edge of cake.

Decorate top with additional crushed Oreos.

 

 

I have no pictures of slices bc it was eaten up in 14.47 minutes!!

 

 

Tiered Spumoni Cheesecake

So again I am baking for someone besides Robby, but don't feel bad for him I just made him a very large carrot cake.

This cake is for my Aunt Angel's birthday.  She loves Birthdays.

I asked her what she wanted and she mentioned cheesecake. 
At first i was like cheesecake??
That is too easy and boring for a birthday cake!  Really CHEESECAKE?  OK.

So of course I had to think of a way to joosh* it up!

(joosh - I use this expression all the time but when I tried to look up how to spell it I had a hard time.  It turns out I am not the only one . . . "joosh" or "zhush" (as in the French je + “oosh”) is a word whose usage dates as far back as 1968 in Britain. Its spelling, much like its origin, is elusive. It has been defined by the American Dialect Society as a verb to mean “primp or fluff up”. . . . . very interesting, at least to me it is.)

In order to joosh-zhush-or whatever you want to call it up I decided to employ my tiered cake pans and make a big multi colored, and multi flavored, cake.

I was having a hard time deciding on flavors so my friend/coworker suggested a twist on Spumoni.

If you don't know what spumoni is then get with it!
Spumone (from spuma or "foam"), plural spumoni, is a molded Italian ice cream made with layers of different colors and flavors, usually containing cherry, pistachio, and chocolate layers.

Perfect!

First thing to do when making a big cake is make a trip to the Costco. 
I got 4 pounds of cream cheese, 8 pounds of butter, 36 eggs, and 2 pounds of sour cream.

I won't actually use all of this for the cheesecakes.
(In fact I already used 2 pounds of the cream cheese to ice Robby's carrot cake.)
You got to stock up!!  Robby loves a good unit price!

I used my go to cheesecake recipe from The Holub Family Recipe Book, with my usual alterations.

 

The first step is to make the basic cheesecake filling recipe.

 

Maureen's Cheesecake (+ Olivia's Standard Alterations)

Four 8 oz packages of cream cheese (room temp)
6 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 pint sour cream
 
Blend everything together in this order:

cream cheese

 

+ sugar

 

+ vanilla

 

 + eggs

 

+ flour

 

+ sour cream



 
Next you need to divide the batter and flavor it.
 
Since I had three different size pans I couldn't just divide it into three.  So I had to pour the batter into each pan then pour it out into bowels. 
 



 
Once I had the batter portioned out I had to do each of the three flavors.
 
Chocolate:
 Add 1/2 cup cocoa powder and 1/4 cup sugar to batter.
 

 
 
Pistachio:
Add 1/2 cup of pistachio flour, 1/4 tsp pistachio extract, and 3 drops of green food coloring to batter.
 

 

 

Cherry:

Add 1/4 cup sour cherry preserves to batter.

 



 
(Place batters in fridge while preparing the crusts.)
 
For each flavor I made a complimentary crust. 
This is where it got kinda tedious and annoying, but i pressed on!!
 
For the Chocolate I thought OREO!
For the Pistachio I used Nilla Wafers and more pistachio flour.
Finally for the cherry I used the typical graham cracker crust.
 

 

Funny how the size of the boxes coincided with the cake sizes!

 
 
For the Chocolate Crust:
Pulse 1 sleeve or oreos in the food processor.  Add 1 stick melted butter.  Press into parchment lined pan.

 

 

For the Pistachio Crust:
Pulse 1 cup of nilla wafers in the food processor. Add 1/2 stick melted butter and 1/4 cup pistachio flour. Press into parchment lined pan.

 

 

 

For the Cherry Crust:
Add 1/2 stick melted butter to 1 cup of gram cracker crumbs. Press into parchment lined pan.
 

 
 
Pour each batter over their paired crust. 
 
Bake in water bath for 1 hr at 350.
 
Turn off oven but leave cakes in oven for at least 2 hrs to fully cool.
 
Refrigerate overnight before attempting to stack!!
 
Starting with chocolate, carefully remove each cooled cheesecake from it's pan and stack.
 

 

 

 

I also made those cute little watermelon cookies for decoration.

 

I was gonna blog them but i think that is enough for now!  Don't you agree??

 

(NEXT UP IS OREO CAKE!)