What I've been up to this week

Happy Friday peeps! You may have noticed I've been more absent than usual the past week. Well, that's cuz I've been working on something super special that is wayyyyy out of my comfort zone - I made and decorated a cake for my friend's hubby's 40th birthday!! Here's some pics for those of you who don't follow my Facebook page. Recipes to follow next week!!

The cake is a decadent chocolate buttermilk cake - 3 layers of it filled with an Oreo cream filling. Frosted with chocolate buttermilk frosting. Cake decorations (except the guitar picks) made from white chocolate.



Cake with crumb coat





Another view of crumb coat





Guitar made out of white chocolate



Finished cake! Not perfect, but I'm pleased with how it turned out :)



German Chocolate Layer Cake

 Wow!! You can't imagine how happy I am to be back in my kitchen, cooking and baking now that this exam is over. :) I have been meaning to share this cake with you for a while... I made it and brought it in to work for my co-workers. They LOVED it!! Despite having German grandparents, I never ever ate German Chocolate Cake growing up. Once I saw that this recipe was full of coconut and chocolate, I couldn't resist - I had to make it. One note that I have about this recipe - if I made it again, I would add far less liquid to the chocolate ganache - with the amount of liquid called for in the recipe, the ganache was more pourable than spreadable. Start with about 1/2 of the amount of liquid called for below. Other than that, recipe is delicious as is!!

 German Chocolate Layer Cake
Recipe adapted from Meals in Heels by Jennifer Joyce

Ingredients:

• 350g unsalted butter, chopped and softened, plus more for greasing the pans
• 350g cake flour, sifted
• 80g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 450g granulated sugar

Coconut Filling Ingredients:

• 2 large egg yolks
• 175g granulated sugar
• 170ml evaporated milk
• 60g unsalted butter, chopped
• 90g unsweetened coconut
• 120g chopped pecans, toasted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Ganache Ingredients:

• 200ml double cream
• 200g milk chocolate, chopped

 Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line 3 8 inch cake tins with parchment paper and grease the paper with butter.
2. Whisk the cocoa with 350ml boiling water in a bowl until smooth. Allow to cool to room temperature. When cool, transfer 75ml into a large bowl and whisk together with the eggs and vanilla extract until well combined.
3. Please flour, 1 tsp salt, baking oda and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Add the butter and remaining dissolved cocoa mixture and beat on low speed for 7-8 minutes or until well comined, then increase to medium and beat for 1 1/2 minutes. Add the egg mixture, in three batches, beating for 30 seconds after each addition. Don't over-beat the mixture or the cake will be heavy. Divide amond cake tins and smooth the tops.
4. Position the oven racks so you can fit 2 cakes in the middle and one in the lower third of the oven. Rotate the cakes halfway through the baking time. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then remove from tins, peel off the baking paper and cool completely on wire racks. At this stage, you can wrap the cakes in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days before frosting.
5. For the coconut filling: Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in a saucepan. Add the milk and butter and whisk continuously over medium heat for 10 minutes until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of the wooden spoon. Do not allow to boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the coconut, pecans and vanilla extract. Allow to cool completely.
6. For the chocolate ganache: Place cream in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of boiling water and heat the cream until just below boiling point. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate. Whisk until smooth and allow to cool for five minutes, then refrigerate, stirring occasionally, for one hour or until thickened.
7. Line a cake stand or serving platter with baking paper and place cake on top. Spread with half the coconut filling, top with another cake, spread with the remaining filling and top with the third cake. Using a large palette knife, spread the top and sides with the chocolate frosting in a swirling pattern. Carefully pull out the baking paper to serve.

Alright, so definitely not an easy or quick recipe, but sure was delicious. Soooo welcome back to me and happy baking my friends! Hopefully you'll be hearing from me a little more frequently over the next little while. Thanks for sticking around. :)

Vanilla Cake filled with Grapefruit & Lime Curd

Did I drown my sorrows in cake yesterday after our beloved Canucks got their butts kicked in the Stanley Cup final? Sadly no! I ate pizza and pouted on the couch while my team succumbed to Boston's superior play.

Any way... I'm done pouting now and thought I would share this delicious cake with you! I made it quite some time ago and have been meaning to post about it, but its a bit more involved post so I've been putting it off. Don't mind the awful photos... it was late at night when I finished this, so the lighting is terrible and I didn't get any photos the next day, so you'll have to bear with me!

First off, make the grapefruit & lime curd. Use this recipe and substitute fresly squeezed grapefruit juice and lime juice (3:1 proportions). Use the larger quantity of sugar because grapefruit is quite bitter. You may also want to double the recipe to ensure you have enough to fill the cake! Let the curd cool and set while you bake the cake.

Snow White Cake

Recipe Adapted from Mennonite Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter


• 2 cups sugar


• 3 cups flour


• 2 tsp baking powder


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 1 cup milk (plus extra to thin the batter to a reasonable consistency)


• 1/2 tsp lemon extract


• zest of one lemon


• zest of one lime


• 4 egg whites

Method:

1. Lightly grease cake pans (makes 3 8" cakes) and line with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350F.


2. In a large bowl blend butter and sugar. Sift dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Add alternately with the milk to the first mixture. Add milk as desired to thin out the batter (I added about an extra 3/4 of a cup). Add zest and lemon extract. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into batter. Pour into prepared cake pans.


3. Bake until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.


4. Cool cakes completely.


5. Fill with grapefruit-lime curd (recipe above).


6. Ice with vanilla buttercream recipe found here.

I'm not going to lie... this is a fairly involved undertaking, but it sure is delicious! I received a lot of compliments from my co-workers and I really enjoyed the cake too. I wasn't entirely happy with the icing job... I tried out a new technique that I had seen over at I am Baker but mine sure didn't look as good as hers. She is the ultimate cake decorator. Check out her blog to see some of the most beautiful cakes and desserts you've ever seen. You'll be in awe... I swear!

You'll love this cake if you decide to try it... even just make the grapefruit-lime curd! Its delicious. You won't be disappointed, I promise.

Oh, and one other thing I wanted to say. For those of you who don't live in Canada or Vancouver, please know that we aren't all like those awful people last night who instigated that horrible riot over a hockey game. Most of us are normal people who love a good hockey game, but would never go to extremes like that to ruin such an exciting event for everyone else. I hope seeing those awful acts won't deter you from visiting or make you think bad things about us.

Happy Baking my Friends!

Celebration - 100th post!

I am celebrating with sparkling wine & delicious cake tonight! Tonight marks my 100th blog post since starting A Tale of One Foodie's Culinary Adventures in June. I can't believe I've completed 100 posts already - I feel like I just started my blog. I hope you have had as much fun reading my posts as I've had writing them. I wasn't going to do much to celebrate, but I decided to make a cake today and decided to try my hand at doing a bit of basic decorating. Definitely need lots of practice, but it was fun to have a theme and something to celebrate, so here we are!

I've included some step-by-step photos of making the cake. Making the cake didn't require much technical skill, but it did have a number of components, but it was definitely do-able in an afternoon. I used frozen strawberries so my cake isn't as beautiful as it would have been had I used fresh berries, but it still tasted delicious. I also substituted cream cheese for the mascarpone cheese because that was what I had on hand. This cake is a great way to use up lots of whipping cream if you have leftovers!

Since I'm celebrating tonight, I'll keep this post short. You can find the recipe for the cake here. The ingredients are quite basic - I had everything on hand I needed to make the cake. No pesky trip to the grocery store required today! Basic ingredients also result in being able to make this cake on a budget which is always a nice bonus.

For sparkling wine we decided to go with Yellowtail Bubbles from Australia. It is a nice, medium-dry sparkling wine with a lovely finish. It is really reasonably priced - about $15 per bottle in the BC Liquor stores. Nothing too upscale, but it still tastes delightful and the bubbles are just so fun!

So lets raise our glasses! Thanks to all of my great readers for following my blog and providing feedback to me. I've had a great time posting all 100 of my posts and hope for many more posts to come in the future.

Happy Baking my Friends! See you soon.

4 Layer Pumpkin Cake

Since it's halloween weekend, I thought another post or two about some yummy things to do with pumpkin would be fitting. This cake received rave reviews from friends and family and I have to agree it is delicious. I didn't initially want to make it for a couple of reasons... but the main one being that it uses a package of cake mix. I don't like cake mix - I think its full of processed garbage that doesn't really belong in any one's mouth and I don't particularly like the taste of it. But after some convincing on behalf of my sister I decided I would try it out.

It really doesn't save you any time, but the recipe has so many other good things in it that you really forget you've put something from a box into the mix. So if you're skeptical after reading the recipe, take my word for it - it's delicious. This cake is even better after it sits for a night or two - be sure to make it a day ahead.

Luscious 4 Layer Pumpkin Cake

Recipe from Kraft Canada

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
• 1 can (14 fl oz/398 mL) pumpkin, divided
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup oil
• 4 eggs
• 1-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, divided
• 1 pkg. (250 g) Philadelphia Brick Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 3 cups thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping
• 1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping
• 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans

Method:

1. Heat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans (I used parchment in the bottoms on the pans instead of flouring them). Beat cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs and and one tsp of the pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl until well blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
2. Bake 28-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks and cool completely.
3. Beat cream cheese in a small bowl until creamy. Add sugar, remaining pumpkin, and remaining spice. Mix well. Gently stir in cool whip.
4. Cut each layer of the cake in half horizontally. Spread cream cheese frosting between layers. Do not frost top layer. Drizzle cake with caramel sauce just before serving and sprinkle with toasted pecans. Refrigerate leftovers.

This is definitely a great way to use up any leftover pumpkin! Tastes delicious and the ingredients are really basic. I hope you enjoy it and I promise, after this weekend, no more pumpkin desserts for a while!!!! Happy Halloween Everyone!

Delicious Lemon Raspberry Cake

If you are looking for that "summery" cake for the next barbeque or dinner party you're invited to or hosting, look no further! This cake has a very summery taste and since the cake is a bit more dense - it is served in very small pieces - thus a little cake goes a long way! I made this cake for my parents 30th anniversary BBQ at the end of July and it was a great hit - I used fresh, handpicked raspberries between the layers and it tasted amazing! Unfortunately I didn't have time to get a photo of the finished product, but I did take pictures during the baking and assembly phases.

You can use any type of icing for the cake, but I chose to use a lighter tasting icing since the cake is rather dense. I used a Lemon Meringue Icing recipe from the Foodnetwork. It is a really fluffy icing and is so easy to work with!

Lemony Yellow Pound Cake

Recipe minimally adapted from Cinda Chavich, p 451 The Guy Can't Cook

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup cubed, unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Butter an 8-inch springform pan and cut parchment paper to fit into the bottom of the pan.
2. In a mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until the mixture is silky smooth.
3. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry mixture to the batter in small amounts, alternating with a bit of the lemon juice and zest, stirring with a whisk until smooth.
4. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 40-50 minutes in the preheated oven or until the top is golden and a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan before transferring to a plate.

**Note: for the cake in the photos - I doubled this recipe because I was feeding a large number of people! For an ordinary dinner party or just for your family, you will only need the recipe as listed above!

I cut this cake into three layers. Once the layers are cut (and the top of the cake has been leveled), brush both sides of the layers with a mixture of fresh lemon juice mixed with icing sugar until it tastes sweet, not tart. Be sure to brush generously - this intensifies the flavour and ensures your cake will be moist and decadent!

Since I used a fruit filling, I didn't want it to make the cake soggy, so I put down a thin layer of buttercream icing on each layer prior to laying out the raspberries. Once the layers have been assembled, make the icing and ice the cake.

Lemon Meringue Icing

Recipe from the Food Network

Ingredients:

4 large egg whites
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Pinch cream of tartar
Pinch fine salt

Method:

1. Bring a few inches of water to a boil in a saucepan that can hold a mixer's bowl above the water. Whisk the egg whites, sugar, lemon juice and zest, cream of tarter and salt in the bowl by hand. Set the bowl above the boiling water and continue whisking until the mixture is hot to the touch and the sugar dissolves, about 1 to 2 minutes.
2. Transfer the mixture to a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat at medium-high speed until meringue is cool and holds a soft peak, about 5 minutes. Add a few drops of desired food coloring and continue beating until it holds stiff peaks.

Once I iced the cake, I garnished it with fresh raspberries and a little bit of lemon zest grated over the top of the cake! It looked beautiful and tasted awesome! Thanks for stopping by! See you again soon.