About-face!

Drill Sergeant: Gump! What's your sole purpose in this Army?
Forrest: To do whatever you tell me, Drill Sergeant!

I love that movie and I love the acting of Tom Hanks as Forrest, Forrest Gump. Another good friend left for the army last week and in honor of him leaving, I baked a special cake. It is a little boy's dream come true - an army tank! Although my friend is not a little boy, I hope he liked it anyways.

It was really fun making this cake, and I can see how cake decorators must have so much fun designing their creations. I used 2 box cakes for the whole thing, chocolate and yellow. Originally, I wanted just the cupcakes to be chocolate, but I had so much chocolate batter left over that I just swirled it into the yellow cake. So first things first, the tank....

Bake the cake according to the directions on the box using a 13x9 pan. You're going to cut the final COOLED cake about 1/3 of the way in. Look below.




Next, you're going to cut the smaller 1/3 section into a square so that it can be places on top of the bigger piece of cake. You're going to need to cut the bottom cake so that it looks like the bottom part of a tank. Just play around with it. Now, you need to frost the bottom section first. Somehow, I played around with my food coloring and vanilla frosting to get this dirt colored/greenish looking frosting that reminded me of the army colors.



Frost the bigger cake, then place the smaller 1/3 section on top and frost. Now's the fun part. Grab a few oreos and split them in half. These are going to be the "wheels" of the tank. I bought some pirouettes, cut them into thirds, and placed them around the wheels. You can pretty much use any treat/cookie as long as it looks the part. Have fun!

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

When my friend first sent me this recipe, I started drooling. This bundt cake screamed to be made. I could almost taste the pumpkin cake from my laptop screen. So, what else could I do but make it?

The directions are pretty simple, and it uses ingredients that you can find around your house, minus the pumpkin puree. And unlike many other bundt cakes, this one only uses a stick of butter. Phew! See? A cake can be good with less butter! The cake was moist, fluffy, and had a good balance of pumpkin flavor. The cream cheese icing was a good complement to the spice of the cake, although I had to adapt it a little because I didn't have any milk on hand. So instead, I used water. Other than that, just follow the directions to the T and you should have no problems.



close-up shot.


Pumpkin Bundt Cake by Baking Bites:
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease and flour a 10-inch bundt pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by the vegetable oil and vanilla extract.
Whisk together buttermilk and pumpkin puree in a small bowl or measuring cup.
Stir about 1/3 of the flour mixture into the butter mixture, followed by half of the pumpkin mix. Stir in another 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by the remaining pumpkin and the remaining flour. Mix only until ingredients are just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain visible. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for about 45 min, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly touched.
Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 1 bundt cake; serves 10-12

Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze
2 oz cream cheese, room temperature
2 tbsp milk
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small bowl, beat all ingredients together until very smooth. Drizzle over cooled cake.

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips

It finally feels like fall, doesn't it? There's a little chill in the morning that makes me want to drive to the nearest Coffee Bean and order a hot cup of coffee. The trees in my neighborhood are starting to turn orange and the air smells crisp. And so begins the month of reflecting on life's blessings.

Anyways, onward to the goods! There is no better way to welcome fall than to bake something with pumpkin in it. Am I right, or am I right? This pumpkin loaf is moist, pumpkin-y, and pretty good if I do say so myself. I added chocolate chips to the batter because, as you know, chocolate makes everything better...and I do mean EVERYTHING.

The recipe is from food.com:

Ingredients:

2 2

Servings Size

• loaves

Yield: 2 loaves

• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup oil
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger

Directions:

Prep Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 1 1/4 hr

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 2 loaf pans.
2. Mix together well the pumpkin, sugar, oil and eggs.
3. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and raisins, and mix well.
4. Pour into loaf pans and bake for 60-65 minutes or until inserted knife comes out clean.

A Friend's Farewell

A good friend of mine left for the army yesterday. For the farewell party, I wanted to do something a little special. Originally, I wanted to make a cake, but after looking at ideas, I decided to do a thin mint cupcake. Being short on time, I did what most bakers would call "appalling". I used a box cake. guilty. Basically, I bought some box cakes and added peppermint extract to the batter. How much extract? Oh, I eyeballed maybe 2 teaspoons or so. Add about 2 teaspoons of extract to the frosting as well. If you like a strong flavor, feel free to add more extract.



I also made some red velvet cake pops with 2 different flavored "frostings". One was the normal green candy melt, the other was semi-sweet chocolate. I think I prefer the green candy melt. The recipe is the same as my previous post with cake pops.



Sometimes the cake pops crack on the outside. Remedy: Decorate with chocolate!


Lastly, my friend asked me to make him a pie, but instead of making 1 big pie, I decided to make apple pie empanadas so it's easier to serve and eat. I adapted Emeril's apple pie turnover recipe here. I bought some pie crusts from the market (can you tell how lazy I was today?) and made the filling. 400F for 19 minutes turned out to be a pretty good estimate for these guys.



All in all, it was a pretty successful baking day!

Tall Lemon Cheesecake with Fresh Raspberry Sauce

I love cheesecake. It may be one of my favorite desserts along with creme brulee and chocolate cake. The cold, creamy texture of the cheesecake mixed with the buttery crust makes for one delicious comfort food.

The other day, I saw a pound of raspberries on sale for $1.60 at the market! $1.60!!! Somebody must've made a mistake and wrote the wrong price, but who am I to point that out? With 2 lemons and an abundance of raspberries, I could think of no other thing to bake besides cheesecake.

I wanted to make sure that this cheesecake turned out perfectly, so I did my research and found the best recipe for a tall and creamy style cheesecake. In order to make it a little lemony, I added the zest of 2 lemons, and the juice of 1. The final product had a light lemony flavor -- perfectly refreshing in this odd California heatwave. The raspberry sauce is Emeril's recipe, which you can find on the food network. You can find the cheesecake recipe here.

You start with 4 blocks of cheesecake (8oz blocks). It sounds like a lot, but you need four to make a nice, tall cheesecake.




The recipe calls for 1 1/3 cup of heavy cream or sour cream, so I did 1/2 heavy cream, 1/2 sour cream to make the 1 1/3 cup.


Don't forget to zest the lemon before you start the whole process. Isn't my lemon zester just the cutest thing ever?


Mix all the ingredients until it's smooth and creamy.


Follow the directions to make the crust. I didn't quite have the amount of crumbs required of this recipe, so my crust wasn't as thick.


Pour the creamy mixture onto the baked crust and bake for a long time in a water bath.


Here's the final product...





Bon appetit!

Green Tea and Chocolate Macarons

For my friend's birthday, her boyfriend secretly asked me if I could bake something for the bonfire. I excitedly agreed and we talked about what she would love to eat. The result - macarons and anything blueberry. I made the lemon blueberry crumble bars because she had never tried them before, and green tea and chocolate macarons. Friday was definitely a failure as I had forgotten to put the sugar into the crumble bars, and I ran out of almond flour and couldn't make enough macarons for 15 people. Thankfully, I had most of Saturday to go out and get the rest of the ingredients.

They turned out better than I could've asked, which was great because it was for a dear friend! I made 4 kinds using 2 flavors: Chocolate with chocolate cream, Green tea with green tea cream, Chocolate with green tea cream, and Green tea with chocolate cream. Did you get all that??


I basically used the same recipe for both, but substituted green tea powder where the chocolate powder would normally go. It turned out to be fine. I always get nervous when putting the macarons into the oven to bake. Why? Because one mistake during the process will result in flat or failed macarons. But 13 minutes later, I peered in and saw that they were going to be just fine.

We have "feet"!


From front to back: Choco + green tea, choco + choco, green tea + green tea, green tea + choco



Chocolate and Green Tea Macarons adapted from Annie's Eats
Ingredients:
For the macarons:
110 gm almond flour
200 gm minus 2 tbsp. confectioners' sugar
2 tbsp. cocoa powder OR green tea powder
100 gm egg whites (from about 3 eggs), room temperature
50 gm granulated sugar

For the espresso ganache:

9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped 1 cup heavy cream

For the green tea buttercream:
1½ stick of butter
1 tbsp. green tea powder
2 tbsp. milk
2 cups of powdered sugar

Directions:
Sift the almond flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa in a bowl. Set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites on medium-high speed until foamy. Gradually add the granulated sugar and continue beating until a smooth, shiny meringue with stiff peaks forms. Add the ground almond mixture to the bowl with the meringue and quickly but gently fold together using a wide rubber spatula until no streaks remain. You want to achieve a thick batter that ribbons or flows from the spatula when lifted.

Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats. Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a plain wide round tip. Pipe into small rounds on the prepared baking sheets (each round should be about 1-1½ inches in diameter), spaced about 1 inch apart. Let sit at room temperature for about 30-60 minutes to develop a hard shell.

Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on size and your oven. Transfer the pans to a wire cooling rack and let cool completely before moving the cookies.

While the cookies are cooling, make the ganache or buttercream:

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

1.	Place the chocolate into a medium bowl. Heat the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, watching very carefully because if it boils for a few seconds, it will boil out of the pot. When the cream has come to a boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, and whisk until smooth.
2.	Allow the ganache to cool and thicken before filling each macaron shell.

GREEN TEA BUTTERCREAM
1. Cream the butter, green tea powder, and milk together until smooth.
2. Add one cup of powdered sugar at a time until you reach the desired sweetness and consistency.

Once the cookies are totally cooled, match them up by size. Pipe a layer of ganache/buttercream onto the flat side of one cookie of each pair. Sandwich together with the remaining cookie, pushing the filling to the edges.

Red Velvet Cookies

It's almost Labor Day weekend and for every patriotic holiday we have, some random person goes around my neighborhood and places little American flags on every person's lawn. It's nice of them to do that. As I was looking at that flag flying in the wind, a light bulb went off in my head -- bake something "American". Little red velvet star-shaped shortbread cookies. The name is a mouthful, but the cookie is wonderful. Whoever decided that shortbread and red velvet go well together is my hero.

Using a small dollar-coin size star cutter, I made approximately 50 cookies. These little guys are great because they aren't as sweet, but have a hint of cocoa in them. And because of their small size, I don't feel as guilty eating 3 or 4. I left out the white chocolate just because I didn't have any on hand and didn't feel like going out to the market. I do think they would taste good with it though, so next time I have white chocolate, I will definitely use it! Enjoy~

Here's the recipe from Better Homes and Garden:

Ingredients

• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, cut up
• 1 tablespoon red food coloring
• 3 ounces white chocolate (with cocoa butter), coarsely chopped
• 1-1/2 teaspoons shortening
• Finely chopped pistachios or rainbow nonpareils (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Cover and process with on/off turns until combined. Add butter and red food coloring. Process with on/off turns until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Process until mixture just forms a ball.*

2. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough lightly until nearly smooth. Roll or pat dough to a 1/2-inch thickness. Using a floured 1-1/2-inch round cutter, cut out dough. Place cutouts 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press scraps together and reroll.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until centers are set. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool.

4. In a heavy small saucepan, melt white chocolate and shortening over low heat, stirring constantly. Dip half of each cookie into melted chocolate. If desired, sprinkle with pistachios or nonpareils. Let stand on waxed paper until set. Makes about 24 cookies.

*Hand-mixing method: In a medium bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter and food coloring until mixture resembles fine crumbs and starts to cling together (it will take a while for the dough to come together). Form mixture into a ball, kneading until smooth.

To Store: Place cookies in a single layer in an airtight container; cover. Store at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.