Carrot Cake

I recently made a carrot cake for my dad's birthday and, aside from the cake wanting to fall apart from the vast amount of goodies inside, I think it turned out pretty nice.

I apologize for the less-than-awesome picture quality.  I left my camera at school, so I took this picture on my dad's Xoom tablet. I have to say, it could have been worse.

(Yay for walnuts to cover up the fact that you didn't make enough frosting)

James & the Giant Peach

So my chocolate and confections class is finally over!  Being the most stressful class I've ever had, I was slightly comatose for the last couple of weeks.  However, I have pictures of my final sugar showpiece.  Our theme was "storybook."  So I chose only the best story ever.

It's hard to see, but there are isomalt strings attaching the birds to the peach, which incidentally looks like an apple.  My pastillage is also wrinkly, but hey.
I also have a much better picture of my chocolate showpiece now.

Showpieces

A couple of the sugar and chocolate  works I've been doing in class.

Pastillage

Cinnamon & Pecans With a Dash of Richness

I had a bunch of leftover heavy cream and pecan pieces in my fridge from making the truffles, so I decided to make a dense, moist coffee cake with it.  I wasn't really happy with any of the recipes I found, so I created a sort of mutant with bits and pieces from all of them.  It turned out a little denser, more like a pound cake.  But it was very rich and moist.  Totally worth it.

For the cake:

• 1.5 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 oz. butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup milk

For the topping

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 oz. butter

Procedure

1. Combine topping ingredients and set aside.
2. Combine dry ingredients and set aside
3. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
4. Add eggs, one at a time, blending until smooth
5. Blend in cream cheese, heavy cream, and milk.
6. Fold in dry ingredients until just combined, do not over-mix.
7. Pour a third of the batter in the bottom of a greased cake pan.  Sprinkle some of the topping on it, then add another third of the batter, repeat until you use up all the batter and end with the last of your topping.
8. Bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes or until cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.
9. Remove the cake from the pan when it is cool enough to touch, but still warm.  Cool completely before slicing.

Yes, I used a simple sugar/cinnamon mixture in the middle instead of the topping.  But I changed the recipe here because I think it would be better.

Mother's Day rolled in pecans

Since last Sunday was Mother's Day, and since my mother is just as subject as the rest of us to the cravings and delights of all members of the breed known as Woman, I decided it was only appropriate to make her truffles rolled in toasted pecans.  Needless to say, they were a hit.

They could probably have been prettier, but they were no less delicious.

Piped ganache (I know, I need to practice)

 Since the ganache recipe I used is from my school, I don't think I'm technically allowed to post it.  I used a cream ganache though, since its easier than butter ganache.  Most recipes are pretty straightforward.  After they set up, I rolled them, then tempered some white and dark chocolate and dipped them, then smothered them in toasted pecan pieces.

The ganache, rolled lightly in cocoa powder after setting up

Chopped, toasted pecan goodness.

Chocolate, confections, and college students, oh my!

So this week my Chocolate, Confections, and Centerpieces class put on a candy buffet for our school.  All the work we've been doing for the past couple weeks was ravaged.  It was beautiful.  Here are the before pictures of some of the work my group did.

Addiction in a cookie, dipped in joy

Anyone who is even slightly acquainted with me is aware of my marginally debilitating coffee addiction.  If I skip my coffee in the morning due to lack of time, I slowly but surely begin an unavoidable downward energy spiral until I become a useless mass of tissue.  This usually reaches its peak in the early afternoon, and I can typically count on not achieving anything productive for the rest of the day. I've begun to accept that its a personality flaw, and have decided there are much worse things to be addicted to.
This flaw, however, has led to a discovery most marvelous.

Coffee cookies dipped in chocolate.

I've gone in search of exciting things you can do with coffee (one of which was an exfoliating scrub that makes your skin feel like happiness wrapped in silk). In my exploration I discovered this little number, and decided to make a few alterations to it.  Light roast coffee gets neglected in my house, so we just happened to have a chocolate-flavored coffee blend no one cared about.

Chocolate-Dipped Coffee Cookies
Yield: this depends on how big you make them.  I used a little 1½ inch diameter round cookie cutter, and I got about four dozen.

• 8 oz. unsalted butter, cut into quarter inch pieces (this is easiest to do when its cold)
  
• ½ cup granulated sugar
  
• ½ tsp. salt
• 10 oz. all-purpose or pastry flour  
• 2 Tbs. finely ground coffee
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract (I actually used butterscotch extract, but most people don't have this just lying around.  Really, you can use any extract you think would taste good, depending on what you like and what kind of coffee blend you're using.  Go nuts.)
• 2 Tbs. buttermilk (close to room temperature)

1. Combine butter, sugar, salt, buttermilk, and extract.  Mix until evenly blended.
2. Add flour and coffee, mixing until just incorporated.  Do not overmix these bad boys.
3. Chill dough slightly.  It needs to be just firm enough to roll out.
4. Dust a clean surface with a little flour and roll dough to about a 1/4 inch thick. Using a cookie cutter (or just free hand it), cut out your desired shapes.  Re-roll scraps to use up all the dough.
5. Make sure cookies are room-temperature again before you bake them.  Baking cold cookie dough can result in edge-spreading-crustiness while the center remains thick.  This will make you cry a little inside.  Hopefully just on the inside though.
6. Bake at 300°F for approximately 15 minutes or until slightly golden and firm.

Baked and awaiting chocolate loveliness

For dipping chocolate:

• 9 oz. semisweet chocolate chips (or just chopped pieces)
• 1 Tbs. unsalted butter

1. Melt butter and chocolate together over a double-boiler until smooth.
2. When cookies are completely cool, dip each one in the chocolate.  Set them on sheet pans lined with parchment paper or foil and cool at room temperature (don't put chocolate in the refrigerator).  Enjoy!