Marie-Helene's apple cake

It's been nearly a year since I made this cake for my father's birthday and I'll admit part of the reason why I haven't written about it until now is because I'm disappointed in the photo. But this cake was so simply delicious I'd be remiss in my duty to my blog readers if I skipped it entirely.

I made this cake around the time Dorie Greenspan's "Around the French Table" came out, a book that has not once disappointed me. A book you must purchase if you haven't already. I've written about Dorie Greenspan several times already and there's good reason for that.

Midnight madness meringue cake

There's nothing I like more than alliteration and this is why I made this cake. OK, I'm lying but I must admit I like the name of this cake. Now that I have my Grammar Geek confession out of the way .... To be honest, I don't really see it as a cake. It's much more airy and light than a traditional cake. And this is why it's the perfect dessert for a Canada Day barbecue, which is where this made its appearance. (I told you I was catching up with old posts).

Tiers of hazelnut meringue (which I have finally conquered) sandwiched between berries and whipped cream make this an easy dessert to create in steps. And a dramatic-looking one at that. Imagine displaying this on a beautiful cake plattered in candlelight. Sensual, no?

Dark chocolate and hazelnut mousse

On my ever-growing list of items I need to get to on my white board in my office: Cleaning and organizing my drawers. I've been staring at those words for months.

My bathroom drawers. My kitchen drawers. My en suite bathroom drawers. Don't even get me started. No, I'm not going to tell you I got around to doing that.
Instead, I'm going to alleviate some of my guilt by cleaning out my virtual drawers. I'm getting around to blog posts I've been meaning to get to for a long time. I first made this at a French bistro cooking class more than two years ago but then made it again more recently when I had some francophile friends over for dinner.

Dorie Greenspan's coffee eclairs

I never really liked eclairs until recently, when I discovered coffee eclairs (aka eclairs au cafe) at my local tea shop. They were a revelation. Until then, I always equated eclairs with those whipped cream-filled spongy concoctions you can find slowly drying out behind your nearest donut shop counter. You know the type. You take a bite and get a mouthful of too-sweet cream and cake. I gag slightly just thinking about it and I have a serious sweet tooth.

But the real thing, authentic Parisian eclairs, are airy eclairs filled with the lightest of light custard or pastry cream. With eclairs au cafe, both the glaze and pastry cream is accentuated by the inclusion of espresso, introducing just the right amount of sharpness to mellow out the high sugar content.

Espresso chip meringues

My past attempts at making meringues have fallen flat. So I was amazed, and thrilled when I came home from work one Friday and whipped up a batch of these meringues in no time at all.

Maybe it's because this time I properly let the egg whites reach room temperature. Maybe the air was dry enough in my kitchen that day. Maybe I didn't overwhip the meringue. Maybe buying superfine sugar rather than trying to make my own by grinding granulated sugar made the difference.

Who knows. The point is that these whipped up in no time, and the peaks stayed stiff. Halle-whipping-lujah.

Chocolate & Zucchini's Canelés

It was love at first bite. Sorry I can't resist a cheesy play on words. Back to the batter at hand (tee hee).

I first made canelés, if you might remember, at Bonnie Gordon's School of Confectionary Arts. I signed up for the two-day course mainly to learn how to make macarons.

And I did, and they were delicious, and I had rave reviews. But. As soon as I had learned how to make the macarons, all I could think about was how delicious these unassuming canelés are.

Sure enough, they are near-impossible to find in Toronto (only at Nadege Patisserie I believe - that's Nah-dej, not Nah-deh-jeh). So I had been craving them ever since.

Hazelnut-almond financiers redux

I am a micromanager at the best of times and one of the ways that manifests itself is my obsessive checking of my blog stats. I can't help but wonder - who keeps misspelling my surname as Nercessian to come to this blog? And who are the readers in Afghanistan? Also, are financiers molds really that hard to find that so many people find my blog by Googling those keywords? (Please, for the love of all things chocolate, reveal yourselves!)

In fact, they are hard to find and I bought my silicone financiers molds at eBay from a purveyor in New York City. And after many, many, many months I used them.

Dorie Greenspan's Nutella Tartine

Where a North American after-school snack might be a glass of milk and cookies, the French goûter is often a pain au chocolat. Sometimes, Dorie Greenspan says in her new cookbook "Around My French Table" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) it might even be an open-faced chocolate sandwich.

This may seem ridiculous to Canadians, and Americans, but it's not unusual in Europe where Nutella is as popular as peanut butter is here. Even in the Netherlands, my good friend Elsbeth served me chocolate shavings on toast for breakfast when I stayed with her in Utrecht. This recipe is French pastry chef Pierre Hermé's interpretation of the after-school treat (you may know him as the master of macarons).

Mini chocolate-dipped bananas

We go through a lot of bananas in our house. Not only does my husband eat one every morning, but it's the only food my sometimes-picky baby boy can't resist, and the only one that has him smacking his lips.

And so this next recipe was an obvious choice for me - mini chocolate-dipped bananas from Joy the Baker. I always have bananas, chocolate, and nuts in my pantry. (Follow the link above for the recipe.)

I made a whole batch of these when I had some company for dinner and there were several left over in the days that followed.

I pulled them out any time someone dropped by, and they were just as fresh and delicious as the day I made them. Letting them defrost a few minutes is key to the yummy factor, otherwise you may be liable to pay for your friend's broken crown.

Substitutions: Joy the Baker's blog used a 70% chocolate and chopped honey roasted peanuts. I used semi-sweet chocolate, white chocolate, and I used chopped pecans and Skor toffee bits. I think the Skor toffee bits were a bigger hit.

Would I make this again? Definitely. I am a big fan of anything I can make in steps (freeze the bananas, and forget about 'em; then dip them, and forget about 'em) and that I can freeze and pull out at a moment's notice. And they were delicious too. I also love the fact that I can improvise with whatever nuts I have leftover from one of my baking experiments. Can't wait to make this when the weather heats up and I am looking for a refreshing treat.

Grade: Five stars out of five. Sometimes simple is best.

Company's Coming: Top ten last-minute desserts

We've all experienced the familiar panic of an unexpected visitor. The phone rings, so-and-so is in the neighbourhood, and they'd like to drop by later in the day. "Only for a coffee," they insist.
But if you're anything like me, serving only coffee would go against every hostess philosophy I've ever subscribed to.
If you have a few tricks up your sleeve, your guests need never know that you were sweating under pressure.

Butterscotch spiral coffee cake

If you love cinnamon buns, you're going to love this gorgeous coffee cake with an adult twist. So many times, delicious coffee cakes are baked in loaf pans, and they just don't have the same wow factor.

I found this recipe in a new book I purchased, "Baking for All Occasions" by Flo Braker, which I have been poring over for weeks now.

There are few photos in this 396-page book but it is full of tips about technique and variations on old classics. Already, dozens of ripped Post-it Notes are peeking through the pages.

This was the first recipe I tried from this book and it won't be the last. The wafting smell of cinnamon was enough to win me over from the beginning.

Below, you will find the recipe with some adaptations.

Yield: One 9-inch round cake, 14 to 16 servings.

Dough Ingredients
2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/4 tsp. (1 envelope) instant yeast
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom (If you don't have any, increase your nutmeg and cinnamon)
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 cup whole milk (1 per cent milk worked as well)
2 oz. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup water
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Butterscotch Glaze
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 oz. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 tbsp. dark corn syrup (light corn syrup worked too)

Cinnamon-Butter Filling
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

To Make the Dough: Mix 2 cups of the flour, the sugar, yeast, salt, cardamom, nutmeg, and cinnamon in the bowl of a stand mixer; set aside. In a small, heavy saucepan, combine the milk and butter and melt over low heat. Add the water and put the saucepan for about 1 minute.

Pour the milk mixture over the flour-yeast mixture and mix well with a rubber spatula until all of the dry ingredients are moistened. Attach the bowl to the mixer. You will be using the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, on at a time, beat after each addition until incorporated. Add the vanilla in the final moments of mixing. Stop the mixer, add 1/2 cup more flour and resume mixing on low speed until smooth, 30-45 more seconds. Add 2 tablespoons additional flour and resume mixing on medium speed until the dough is smooth, still soft, and slightly sticky, about 45 seconds.

Sprinkle the work surface with 1 tablespoon of flour and centre the dough on the flour. Knead the dough gently until it is smooth and no longer sticky. It is likely that you will need to add an extra 1-2 tablespoons flour to prevent stickiness. Place the dough in a large bowl, cover the bowl securely with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, which should take about 45-60 minutes. The dough is ready when a finger gently pressed into it leaves an indentation. Meanwhile prepare the baking pan, the glaze and the filling.

To Make the Butterscotch Glaze: Lightly coat a 9 by 2-inch round cake pan with nonstick spray, or butter the pan. Combine the sugar, butter, and corn syrup in a small, heavy saucepan and set over low heat until the butter is completely melted. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and tilt the pan to cover the bottom evenly, set aside. Don't worry if the glaze thickens slightly, it will liquefy again in the oven.

To Make the Cinnamon-Butter Filling: In a small bowl or cup, stir the cinnamon into the butter; set aside.

Before Baking: Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To Assemble the Coffee Cake: Gently deflate the dough. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 16 by 12-inch rectangle. Using a pastry brush, spread the butter-cinnamon mixture evenly over the dough. Cut the dough lengthwise into six 2-inch-wide strips. Try to keep the strips consistent in size otherwise the height of the cake will not be even. A pizza cutter works just great. Loosely (so the dough has some give as it expands in the oven) roll up 1 strip and place it, cut edge up, in the centre of the prepared pan on top of the glaze. One at a time, coil the remaining dough strips around the centre one, starting each strip at the end of the previous seam. The butter-cinnamon side of the dough strips should be facing inside. You will see the large spiral begin to form. (Don't worry if there is space left in the pan, it will fill up as the dough bakes.) Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the cake rise in a warm place until it is almost doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

Bake the coffee cake until the top is deep golden brown, about 35 minutes. Check after 20 minutes to make sure the cake is not browning too fast. While I kept a close eye on my oven and temperature, the cake did brown too fast. If it is, cover the top loosely with aluminum foil for the last 10-15 minutes of baking to prevent overbrowning. Remove foil if you used it, and let cool for 10 minutes.

Tilt the pan and tap the sides on a counter to release the cake sides, using a small rubber spatula if you need to loosen it some more, or a butter knife. Place a serving plate on top, leave the pan on the cake for 1 minute, so the glaze transfers to the cake, then gently lift off the pan. Using a rubber spatula, scrape out any butterscotch syrup remaining in the pan and spread it over the warm surface of the cake.

Serve the cake warm or at room temperature, cut into wedges gently with a serrated knife. It's best served the day it is made.

Substitutions:
As you may have seen above, I used light corn syrup instead of dark; I skipped the cardamom because I forgot to buy it and increased the cinnamon and nutmeg. I worried it might overpower the dough, but that wasn't the case. I also used 1 per cent milk rather than whole - not that I recommend this, but it worked in a pinch.

Would I make this again?
I would, particularly because I will be more confident about the techniques in this recipe, such as letting the dough rise, and forming the cake. However, I found the glaze was simply not enough, and I might even double the recipe to give it more moisture when served. Otherwise, I found this cake to be a little dry. Braker suggests spreading a layer of apple butter over the cinnamon butter and then baking as directed. This might be another good solution.

Grade:
Four stars out of five. The cake is stunning in presentation, light and tasty, but a little bit dry, it almost has the consistency of and Italian panettone or Eastern European Easter cake and more glaze would have improved this cake immeasurably.

Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

I'd been dying to make red velvet cupcakes and what better opportunity than for a Pink Party with some of my friends. (Yes, the frosting is a deeper pink, but for some reason my camera didn't capture the exact hue.)
I used this recipe from the Food Network site, but I must offer some caveats. My oven is slow to heat up, but once it does, it always goes above the temperature it's supposed to be.
I should have kept a closer eye on these cupcakes, but I didn't, and for that reason, they were a little more dry than I would have liked. This meant the red wasn't quite so vibrant in the outside layer. To be safe though, I think I would use more food colouring than the recommended amount in the future.
My main pet peeve, though, as my husband discovered when he found me sulking in the kitchen and banging around piping tips and spatulas, was that the cream cheese frosting was much, much, much too soft to be piped.
I did place it in the refrigerator for half an hour, but still no dice.
Be forewarned, the recipe produced batter for about 24 cupcakes rather than the 16 it promised, and frosting for about twice that amount.

Nigella's cherry chocolate trifle

I bought this glass bowl just to make this trifle for Christmas. If chocolate custard and sour cherries and chocolate pound cake don't spell Christmas dessert, what does? In my mind, Christmas dessert should be indulgent, should be creamy, should be luscious, moist, decadent. Should make you feel guilty. Hence - cherry chocolate trifle. I must admit, I'm a sucker for Black Forest cake, so the ingredients in this pudding were a no-brainer. Even if you don't like Black Forest cake, however, chances are you'll fall head over heels over this one.
If you don't have a trifle bowl, like I didn't, try a large glass bowl. As long as your guests can see the layers of gooey, luscious, decadence, it will do.
Here's the recipe, as created by Nigella Lawson. You can also find it in her book "Nigella Feasts":

Ingredients:
2 (approximately 12 ounces each) chocolate pound cakes
1/2 cup black cherry jam
1/2 cup cherry brandy
2 cups drained bottled sour cherries (recommended: Morello)

Custard:
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, minimum 70 percent cocoa solids, chopped
1 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon milk
1 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream
8 egg yolks
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup cocoa

Topping:
3 cups heavy cream
1-ounce bittersweet chocolate

Directions:
Slice the chocolate pound cake and make jam sandwiches with the cherry jam, and layer the bottom of a large wide trifle bowl. Pour over the cherry brandy so that the cake soaks it up, and then top with the drained cherries. Cover with cling wrap and leave to macerate while you make the custard.

Melt the chocolate on low to medium heat in the microwave, checking after 2 minutes, though it will probably need 4 minutes. Or you can place it in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once the chocolate is melted, set aside while you get on with the custard.

In a saucepan warm the milk and cream. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and cocoa in a large bowl. Pour the warm milk and cream into the bowl whisking it into the yolks and sugar mixture. Stir in the melted chocolate, scraping the sides well with a rubber spatula to get all of it in, and pour the custard back into the rinsed saucepan. Cook over a medium heat until the custard thickens, stirring all the time. Make sure it doesn't boil, as it will split and curdle. Keep a sink full of cold water so that if you get scared you can plunge the bottom of the custard pan into the cold water and whisk like mad, which will avert possible crisis.

The custard will get darker as it cooks and the flecks of chocolate will melt once the custard has thickened. And you do need this thick, so don't panic so much that you stop cooking while it is still runny. Admittedly, it continues to thicken as it cools and also when it's chilling in the refrigerator. Once it is ready, pour into a bowl to cool and cover the top of the custard with cling wrap to prevent a skin from forming.

When the custard is cold, pour and spread it over the chocolate cake layer in the trifle bowl, and leave in the refrigerator to set, covered in cling wrap overnight.

When you are ready to decorate, softly whip the cream for the topping and spread it gently over the layer of custard. Grate the chocolate over the top.

My substitutions:
I couldn't find plain chocolate pound cake at the grocery store, and didn't have the time to make my own, so I used a denser Belgian chocolate loaf cake. It worked just fine.

Would I make this again?
Yes, definitely, but only for a large group. This recipe can serve at least 16 people, if not more. It can be a lot of dessert for people who are used to just fruit and biscuits at the end of their meal.

Grade:
Five stars out of five. Beautiful, delicious, indulgent. And it even tastes better the next day once all the ingredients have settled and fused together. How can you go wrong?

Cupcake Decorating 101: My Designs

When I signed up for an all-day designer cupcake decorating class at Bonnie Gordon's School of Confectionary Arts, it was all I could do not to tell everyone who crossed my path. Her wedding cakes have been featured in countless magazines and Hollywood movies and I'd been drooling over her cakes for years.

While I can say I am confident with my baking abilities, I was always intimidated by decorating.
I did my best copying the finished product in my cookbooks, but I stayed away from pastry bags, and tips, and coloured buttercream.

No more! Not only did I come home with seven beautiful cupcakes, but a bag full of gel food colouring, a cupcake turntable, piping and decorating tips, and even fondant and gum traganth.