Bake from Scratch

Sugar High Fridays - Fruit and Nut

2009-06-22T05:36:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I participated in Sugar High Fridays. Unfortunately, I missed the deadline again... Work, family and a new hobby – gardening, are keeping me very busy. I baked a couple cakes last week which made me feel so rejuvenated and I decided to not let “busy” be my excuse for not doing something that I really enjoy doing. When I knew the theme of this month’s SHF was Fruit and Nuts from our host Mansi, Fun and Food Blog, I couldn’t stop thinking about Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut bar. I almost wanted to recreated a home version of it until I saw the macadamia nut tart recipe from Claudia Fleming’s book.

What wonderful about Fleming’s book is that it includes serving suggestions for every recipes in the book. For her Macadamia Nut Tart, Fleming suggested the Coconut Sorbet and the Roasted Pineapple with Pink Peppercorns.

When we say, “what grows together, goes together”, this composed dessert is definitely singing that song. Macadamia nuts, coconut and pineapple, it is Hawaiian! At the same time, the warmth from the tart and pineapple contrasts the cold of the sorbet; the rich, silky tart filling, crunchy yet soft nuts, flaky tart crust, meaty pineapple, crunchy peppercorns and melt in your mouth sorbet makes every bite so satisfying.

I did all the baking, churning and roasting in one day. It seemed like a lot of work but it was straight forward. (I made the tart dough and the sorbet base the night before.) One tip for making the roasted pineapple: have every ingredient ready before making the caramel because if the caramel overcooked and it will lend a burnt taste to the pineapple which is not part of the taste contrast.

After all, it was a great success and I wish you'll give it a try.

Macadamia-nut Tart

Tart Dough
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt
7 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk
2 to 3 Tbsp milk

Macadamia Tart Filling
1 ¼ cups macadamia nuts (toasted and roughly chopped)
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 whole eggs
1 large egg yolk
¾ cup light corn syrup
¾ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ tsp dark rum
¾ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt

1. To prepare the tart dough, place the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the egg yolk and 2 Tbsp of the milk and pulse until the dough comes together and begins to leave the sides of the bowl. If the mixture is too dry, add more milk to the dough, ½ Tbsp at a time. Scrape the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap, form it into a disk, and wrap well. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour, and up to 3 days.
2. Preheat the oven to 350F. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into an 11-inch disk. Press it into a 9-inch tart pan, trimming away any excess dough. Prick the dough all over with a fork. Chill for 10 minutes. Line the tart shell with foil and fill with pie weights. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the pie weights and foil and bake for 12 to 15 minutes more until set. Let the tart shell cool on a rack.
3. In a small skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Continue to let the butter cook until some of the white milk solids fall to the bottom of the skillet and turn a rich hazelnut brown. Strain the browned butter through a fine sieve into the bowl of an electric mixer. Let the butter cool for a few minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients and using the whip attachment, beat until blended, then strain through a fine sieve. (The filling can be made up to 3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.)
4. Preheat the oven to 325F. Spread the nuts in the bottom of the tart shell, then pour the filling over them. Place the tart pan on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake until the filling is set and golden brown on top, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

Coconut Sorbet

Yield: 1 pint

2 cups whole milk
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
¾ cup sugar
½ teaspoon fresh lime juice

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, coconut, and sugar. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Simmer the mixture until the sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool for 1 hour.
2. Strain the mixture into a bowl and discard the coconut. Stir in the lime juice, cover, and chill until thoroughly cold, at least 3 hours, or overnight. Strain again and freeze in an ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Roasted Pineapple with Pink Peppercorns

1 cup sugar
1 tsp light corn syrup
1 pineapple, peeled, cored, and cut into 8 rings
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, pulp scraped
1 bay leaf
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp dark rum (preferably Myers’s)
1 Tbsp pink peppercorns
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Place ¼ cup water in a 10-inch ovenproof skillet over low heat. Add the sugar and corn syrup and increase the heat to high. Cook, swirling the pan occasionally, until the mixture is a deep amber-brown caramel, about 7 minutes. Add the pineapple, vanilla pod and pulp, and bay leaf, then bake, basting every 10 minutes, until the pineapple is tender and translucent, about 40 minutes.
2. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the pineapple to a serving platter and either place in a low oven or tent with foil to keep warm. (Alternatively, let the pineapple cool in the pan, then reheat for a few minutes before making the sauce.)
3. To prepare the sauce, whisk the butter, rum, pink peppercorns, and salt into the hot pan juices until smooth. Serve the sauce spooned over the roasted pineapple.

Rhubarb Rose Cobbler

2009-06-20T20:44:00.000-07:00

I'm not only obsessed with baking from scratch, I'm also very obsessed with using fresh ingredients in my baking whenever I can.

It's rhubarb season. You'll see them every time you turn around at the produce section in grocery stores. However, I just want to use those freshly cut from the garden. I want to do that because I hear people talked about what they made with their "garden fresh" rhubarb and how onderful they are all the time.

I don't have any rhubarb in my garden but my friend Karen does. Karen was generous enough to picked a big bunch of rhubarb for me to make this beautiful dessert.

I have tried rhubarb dessert before but this is my first time using it in my baking. I did a bit of research on the internet on how to prepare rhubarb and trimmed all the rhubarb that Karen gave me. I can't tell you how excited I was: nothing beats fresh vegetables or fruit from the garden!

Again, this is another recipe from Claudia Fleming's The Last Course. Did anyone other than Fleming had thought about using rhubarb and rose together? I have to say this is one of the best food combination. For once, rose is playing the supportive role. The earthiness from the rose preserves and rose water rounded out the sharp, tart flavour of rhubarb beautifully. Rose also makes an ordinary rhubarb cobbler become an elegant dessert that's romantic enough for a proposal dinner.

I'm terrible with gardening but for sure next year, I'll plant my own rhubarb!

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

2009-04-19T18:06:00.000-07:00

Since I was back to work after my 13 months long maternity leave, I have not had a chance to update my blog. It was hard to find time to bake too.

I was into making cupcakes after Sarah's birthday. I made some cupcakes for Valentine's Day, using rolled fondant. I also used rolled fondant to make mini ladybugs for decoration. Maybe I shouldn't say "mini" because they are real-size ladybugs.

I made 2 dozen regular size and 1 dozen mini cupcakes, planning to sell them at the office. I was going to donate the proceeds to charity. However, it took me two nights to finish decorating them (my evenings are very short now because of Sarah) and I didn't feel right to sell "day-old" bake goods. So, I simply gave them away at the office to whoever has kids at home.

It was really fun working with rolled fondant. I bought a 4lb-tub fondant and ready to roll!

Sarah's Birthday Cake - Part II

2008-12-09T19:34:00.000-08:00

The day before the party
Finding the right recipes for the vegan and regular cupcakes for Sarah’s party was only the first step of my grand plan of Sarah’s birthday cake. I was going to put all the cupcakes on a cake stand and put a 8” birthday cake on top. I found a very useful tutorial from Louise showing how to make a cake stand. I bought all the materials and built the cake stand for the party. It was very easy to make and the end result is pretty impressive.

Then for the cake, I was going to use rolled fondant to cover the cake. But I had never done that. Luckily, I went to Le Cordon Bleu for a two nights cake making class just before party and learnt how to use rolled fondant to decorate a cake. (It was a pure coincident, I didn’t register the class for Sarah’s cake. You can read more about my Le Cordon Bleu experience here.) Also, I needed to be very careful that not to make the whole cake looks like a wedding cake. It was 11:00pm, coming home from the class and trying to finish Sarah’s cake for the next day’s party. I was so nervous, didn’t know what to do. Then I remembered I have a set of “Happy Birthday” candles and I put in on my cake. I was so happy with that idea. Since the cupcakes are pink and purple and the cake is pink, having those colourful candles as part of the cake turned the cake from being romantic to become very princess like.

I forgot to mention one very important part of the cake: Icing! No, no, I mean Butter Cream. I was originally planning to use Martha Stewart’s Swiss Meringue Butter Cream recipe because I had great success with that in the past. However, in the LCB class, Chef Chabert told me that I should use Italian Meringue for making butter cream. It is safer to eat because the egg white in Italian meringue is cooked. Therefore, I used my newly learned technique from the class to make the butter cream for all the cakes.

I probably was too tired when I made the butter cream – I didn’t reduce the amount of sugar for the recipe like I would normally do. Did I ever glad that I didn’t do that. This butter cream is so light, fluffy, buttery and not too sweet at all! After all, it is a LCB recipe!

After using rolled fondant to decorate four cakes – three from the class and one at home for Sarah’s cake – within six hours, I fell in love with using rolled fondant. I didn’t know what it tasted like but it is so easy to handle! (The last time I had rolled fondant was at my own wedding from my wedding cake. All I remembered was a layer of half melting paste liked icing. And yes, my wedding day was hot, hot, hot.) I was worried that the rolled fondant will be very sweet but no, it's not at all. I think it is because of Chef Chabert's trick of using corn starch instead of icing sugar for kneading and rolling the rolled fondant.

When everything was ready, it was already 1:00am…

At the Party
After singing “Happy Birthday”, I gave Sarah a cupcake. She enjoyed it so much. Yes, she made a mess but I had so much fun watching her eating the cake. All that hard work paid back within a second.

Since we didn’t cut the birthday cake at the party, some guests thought that the cake was only a dummy. :)

Sarah's Birthday Cake - Part I

2008-11-25T19:25:00.000-08:00

Not every cake was created the same. These cupcakes I baked contained no eggs, no butter, no milk, no nuts and no chocolate…

They are for Sarah’s friends. Some of these little friends of hers are babies who are allergic to eggs and dairy products and have not been exposed to nuts and chocolate. My friends bought delicious vegan carob cupcakes from a local home baker for their babies’ birthday. But how can I not make my first child’s first birthday cake?! I am a big believer of using REAL butter, REAL cream and good quality chocolate in my baking. Therefore, finding a way to exclude all the wonderful building blocks from a cake recipe is quite difficult for me.

Vegan cupcakes
I had never been this serious. I rolled up my sleeves and started my cake experiment. I found a “moist vegan chocolate cake” recipe online and asked my friend and her 14 months old baby boy, Olivier, to come over to try out the recipe. I made it without chocolate but it didn’t turn out very well. I found it moist but too chewy. Most importantly, neither Sarah or Olivier liked it. Well, well. It was the first attempt.

Contingency plan
Since no one likes those chewy cakes, I have to have a back up plan: make an ordinary cake and apologize to everyone who has food allergies. So, I tried Billy Reece’s Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes. It was a very delicate and fluffy cake. However, I’m not crazy about his frosting. It’s very sugary. But his cupcake is a winner, perfect to be the back up plan.

Allergen Free Cupcakes
Well, well, well, I tried to search for other vegan cupcake recipes online. There are a number of recipes without eggs and dairy but they are all chocolate cakes. Oh, I forgot to mention that one of the guests is sensitive to soy… therefore, substituting milk with soymilk is not preferred.

Then, I gave up with my search. I went to the grocery store to buy egg replacer. I altered Billy Reece’s Vanilla Vanilla Cupcake recipe to make my own version of vegan cupcakes. Even he had stressed that you should always use whole milk in his recipe…When the cupcakes were done, I gave one to Frank to try. He didn’t like it. He said it was bland. (NICE!) But I don’t know what to do anymore, I frosted the cupcakes after they were cooled. Took a few pictures. At least they “looked” delicious.

I saved two cupcakes at home and gave all the rest to one of my guinea pigs. (Yes, Shirley, it was you.) I tried the leftover cupcake the next morning. Surprisingly, the cupcake was quite tasty, it’s soft and moist, not as sugary as it first came out from the oven. The frosting is still too sugary to my liking (It was still Billy Reece’s frosting) but my guinea pig called me and told me that she likes it a lot!

I think it's a winner.

Winnie’s Allergen Free Vanilla Cupcakes
12 cupcakes

1 cup cake and pastry flour
½ cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ cup margarine
2 eggs equivalent of egg substitute
½ cup water
½ tsp pure vanilla extract

1 Preheat oven at 350F and line cupcake pan with paper liners. Combine all dry ingredients in an electric stand-up mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix well. With medium speed, add margarine and mix for 1 minute. Add egg replacer, water and vanilla extract to the batter, mix until all combined, about 2 minutes.

2 Fill cupcake lines with no more than 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack to cool

3 When the cupcakes are completely cooled, use an offset spatula to frost the cupcakes and decorate as desired. Serve at room temperature.

Winnie’s Allergen Free Vanilla Frosting

½ cup margarine
3½ cups icing sugar. sifted
¼ cup water
½ tsp vanilla

In the bowl of an electric stand-up mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream margarine. With mixer on low speed, add icing sugar, water, and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. If necessary, gradually add extra 1/2 cup icing sugar to reach desired consistency.

Glittering Marshmallow Snow Flakes - SHF49

2008-11-23T18:33:00.000-08:00

I love food blogging. It motivates me to try out new recipes that I saw from all my food magazines/books. In the past three months, I have made more desserts than I would normally do in a year. Now, I don’t need a reason or special occasion to make dessert. I’m so excited about making, photographing (normally done by Frank), tasting and giving out desserts. I also look forward to participating each month’s Sugar High Fridays. This month, Susan from The Well-Seasoned Cook is calling for all the dessert that glitters!

I knew what I was going to make for this month’s entry right away. I subscribed to Martha Stewart Livings at home. And I remember very clearly that she had featured marshmallow snow flakes in one of her winter issue many years ago. It was so adorable and I decided to make that marshmallow snow flakes with sparkling sugar. Just in time for Christmas

When I saw the recipe, I was shocked! I was shocked by the simplicity and the quantity that yield. It required only sugar, water, corn syrup, gelatin, salt and vanilla (I was hoping to use up some of the egg whites in my fridge.) and you can make 100 marshmallow snow flakes from one batch. Then I read on and realized that it makes small, one to two inches snow flakes. That’s better…

I cannot tell you how excited I was when I saw the sugar mixture (see recipe) became thick and had turned white. The texture looked exactly like the melting marshmallow that you’re trying to pull away from your wooden stick at the camp fire. I knew I did it!

I didn’t use sparkling sugar with bright, primary colours. They might be good for other purposes but not here, not for snow flakes. Unfortunately, the photo didn’t turn out as well as I hope (I took the pictures this time). You probably can’t see very well from the picture but my snow flakes did sparkle.

These Sparkling Marshmallow Snow Flakes are so beautiful and easy to make. It makes good gift for the holiday.

Glittering Marshmallow Snowflakes (recipe adapted from Martha Stewart Living)

Makes about 100

2 envelopes (each 1 scant tablespoon) unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Vegetable-oil cooking spray
Sparkling Sugar (1/3 cup)

1. Coat a 12-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray; line with parchment paper. Spray parchment; set aside. Pour 1/3 cup cold water into the bowl of an electric mixer. Sprinkle with gelatin; let mixture soften, about 5 minutes.

2. Place sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1/3 cup water in a medium saucepan. Cover; bring to a boil. Remove lid; cook, swirling pan occasionally, until syrup reaches 238 degrees (soft-ball stage) on a candy thermometer, about 5 minutes.

3. With mixer on low speed, whisk gelatin mixture, and slowly pour the syrup in a steady stream down the side of the bowl (to avoid splattering). Gradually raise speed to high; beat until mixture is thick, white, and has almost tripled in volume, about 12 minutes. Add vanilla, and beat 30 seconds to combine.

4. Pour mixture onto prepared baking sheet; smooth with an offset spatula. Let stand at room temperature, uncovered, until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight.

5. Coat a 1- or 2-inch snowflake-shaped cookie cutter with cooking spray to prevent it from sticking. Cut out as many individual marshmallows as possible; coat cutter with more spray as needed. Coat marshmallow with sparkling sugar and use marshmallows immediately or store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

Concord Grape Parfait

2008-11-08T09:11:00.000-08:00

I’m very lucky that I’m the only one who is so obsessed about making dessert among all my friends. People knows my obsession and always let me bring dessert to all the parties, pot-lucks and ladies night-“in”. At one of my usual gathering with my girl friends, I brought this Concord Grape Parfait which everyone loves.

This is one of the concord grape recipes from Claudia Fleming’s book. I find that Fleming’s recipes looked more complicated than when you were actually making it. This book trained me to have everything ready before getting my hands wet. Once you have all ingredients measured out, the action time for most of the recipes is less than 20 minutes (not including baking time).

The bottom layer of the parfait is grape mousse, then topped with a layer of grape gelée and a thin layer of gelled cream. I particularly like the grape gelée which the flavour is very sharp and stand out from the mousse and the gelled cream. It truly is the soul of the parfait. However, without the grape mousse as the background and the gelled cream to balance its sharp flavour, the grape gelée will become too tart to enjoy.

Fleming suggested to compose a dessert using this Concord Grape Parfait, the Concord Grape Sorbet and Cornmeal Nut Biscotti. Still, I’m not crazy about adding the biscotti to neither the parfait nor the sorbet.

Concord grape’s season is now over. I’ll wait patiently to make the rest of the grape recipes next year. But in the meanwhile, I’m going to keep myself busy on trying all the other wonderful recipes from the book.

The Last Course - Concord Grape

2008-11-08T08:59:00.000-08:00

I rarely spend time in front of my computer when I got home. I enjoy spending my time watching TV or talking to my sister on the phone instead. Therefore, I missed out the treasure of food blogs in the past few years. I found it hard to catch up but at the same time, I found it fun to surf from one blog to another.

Claudia Fleming’s book, The Last Course, was mentioned in a many of the food blogs that I have visited. People always have good things to say about this book. Unfortunately, the book is out of print. So that I borrowed it from the local library and planning to try all the recipes in the book.

When I got the book, it was September. I started with figs & concord grapes recipes. I made the fig tart which my friend, Lucia, loves. However, my mother-in-law wasn’t impressed by my tart. (I should have said “the picture of my tart”. She didn't try my tart because she lives four hours flight away.) She took pity on me for buying those not very nice looking figs... Well, she was comparing store-bought figs to her fresh, sweet, tree ripen figs from her garden. She has a fig tree in her backyard which yields close to a thousand figs each year. Lucky her.

Concord grapes were also in season in September. You can find them every time you turn around. I was so excited when I got a basket of very fresh concord grape home from a local store. With a 2.5L basket of concord grapes, I made a batch of Concord Grape Sorbet and Concord Grape Parfait. This is my first time using my ice-cream machine. (It was given to me 6 years ago by my brother.) The sorbet turned out very well. That deep vibrant colour from the grapes is very eye-catching. The taste is rich yet refreshing, so different from the ordinary orange or lime sorbet that you can find from the store.

I had also made the Cornmeal Nut Biscotti to go with the sorbet, as suggested in the book. However, I don’t think it pairs very well with the sorbet. The flavour of the anise seeds and the nuts in the biscotti is just simply too strong to the refreshing sorbet. If any of you had tried the combination, let me know whether or not you feel the same way.

I’m very happy about my first attempt on making sorbet. Fleming’s book has a lot of ice-cream and sorbet recipes. I book-marked some of them and the Caramel Ice-cream is on the top of my to-make list.

Dessert Guinea Pigs

2008-10-31T07:24:00.000-07:00

I just took my daughter, Sarah, to her first Halloween Party yesterday. She dressed up as a pumpkin. I don't know what animal eats pumpkin but we came home safe from being with a lion, turtle, monkey and chicken for a good few hours. When we were home, I made these cupcakes: Moist chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate ganache and spooky meringue ghost. Aren't they cute?

I'm not a big fan of meringue. It's just too sugary... Sometimes I wondered that I'm qualified to call myself having a sweet-tooth. However, it's fun to make them. It's quite easy to make and the end result is always impressive. A few years back, I made some meringue mushrooms to decorate my Christmas dessert. I found that you really need patience to make meringue. If you keep turning your electric beater or stand-up mixer on & off during the process, you'll never get there. The piping part is the fun part. Since you're not piping on a cake, there's less pressure. You can even experiment on what type of "ghost" you like. I like the smooth looking one better than the "Michelin" ghosts.

I made these cupcakes just for fun. I gave the cupcakes to friends who have kids at home. Also, I want to enjoy all the baking fun without weighting 300lbs. That’s why I have a list of friends who signed up as my “Dessert Guinea Pigs”.
After the weekend, one of my guinea pigs called me and told me how much she LOVES the cupcakes. Especially the "icing". She said she had never have that "icing" before. Well, it's because that wasn’t icing… That was chocolate ganache. I'm very happy to hear that she can taste the difference. I tried to select my "dessert guinea pigs" very carefully. I just hate to send my homemade treats to someone who doesn't appreciate the work behind. (or simply can't taste the difference between homemade and store bought tarts.)

One other reason of having a list of guinea pigs is that Frank and I could not finish everything. Sarah is still too young to eat cake. I'm waiting patiently to make her all the different cakes and cookies for different holidays and occasions when she's older. Of course, the first one will be her 1st birthday cake. Stay tune, it's coming in a month.

Meringue Ghosts

Makes 12 meringue ghosts

2 egg whites
pinch cream of tartar
¼ cup sugar

In a stand mixer, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until they form soft peaks. Stir Slowly begin adding the sugar continuing until stiff peaks form. Spoon the meringue in a pastry bag with an 1/2 inch tip. Pipe out your ghost on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Carefully place the sesame seeds on the meringue for the eyes of the ghosts. Bake in an 200C oven for 1 hour.

Chocolate Ganache

Yield about 1 cup

4oz semi sweet chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup heavy cream

In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to just boiled. Removed from heat and add chocolate. Make sure the heavy cream covers all the chocolate. Stir occasionally until all the chocolate melted. Let cool, the ganache will thicken as it sits but it should be pourable.

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
1 large egg
¾ cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
¾ tsp pure vanilla extract
¾ cups warm water

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners. Into the bowl of electric mixer, sift together all the dry ingredients. Attach bowl to mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; add the rest of the ingredients all at once. Beat on low speed until smooth and combined, about 3 minutes; scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each about two-third full. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Transfer pans to wire rack to cool.

When the cupcakes are completed cool, dip each cupcake’s into chocolate ganache. Be careful not to drip on the side. Place each meringue ghost on the cupcake & Enjoy.

SHF #48

2008-10-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

This is my first time submitting post to SHF. Anita from Dessert First chose spice for this month’s theme. I like spice cake. It's perfect for October when the weather is cold, the sky is grey and the leaves are turning yellow. Nothing is better than sitting by the window, having a slice of warm, rich, aromatic spiced cake in a lazy afternoon and listening to your neighbours raking the leaves.

I made a Spiced-Quince Butter Cake from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course. Unlike most of the spice cake which normally are sticky, dark and dense, this cake has a very light, fine crumbs. The poached quince in the cake tasted like honey. It’s sweet, fragrant and somewhat chewy. The different texture between the cake and the poached quince is very fulfilling. I served it with candied walnuts as suggested by Claudia Fleming and Vanilla Bean Ice-cream and the combination of the three is magical. :)

The other dessert I made for this month's SHF is Regan Daley's Sticky Spiked Double-Apple Cake with a Brown Sugar-Brandy Sauce. This one is a combination of tart & sweet, sticky & crunchy. A few different spices were used in this recipe but the taste is very subtle. It sure did save room for the flavour of the apple & brandy to shine. On top of the cake is the brandy sauce which gives this cake a different layer of coziness.

I can't choose one cake over the other. These two cakes are very different from each other. The quince cake is very elegant and unusual as for a spice cake. Daley's apple cake is everything you are expecting for a fall dessert. Try them both. They are both very easy to make and are perfect to make ahead in the morning for your dinner party at night.

End note: As much as I like spice cake, making one at home is a real challenge. The reason is that Frank is not a big fan of spice cake. (He loves spices in cooking but not too familiar with spices in baking) It took over an hour to poach the quince. And Frank asked me, "When is this spice project going to be ended?". Thankfully, he likes both of the cake, especially the quince cake. Otherwise, it will be hard for me to make them again at home.

Spiced-Quince Butter Cake

Serves 6 to 8

QUINCE
1 large quince, peeled, cored, and cut into 16 slices
1½ cups sugar
1 cup dry white wine
1 whole clove stuck into a 2-inch strip of orange peel
½ cinnamon stick
1 star anise
3 cups water

CAKE
½ cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1-1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar
½ cup almond flour
1/3 cup cake flour
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
4 large egg whites (1/2 cup)
½ tsp grated orange zest
Additional unsalted butter, at room temperature, for greasing the pan

1. To prepare the quince, in a large saucepan, combine the quince and all the ingredients. Cut a round of parchment paper slightly smaller than the pot and lay it on top of the quince (this will keep the fruit submerged; you can also use a sturdy, heatproof plate). Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the quince is tender and spongy, about 1¼ hours. Let the quince cool in the poaching liquid. Drain the quince pieces on layers of paper towel. Discard the liquid.

2. To make the cake, preheat the oven to 400oF. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Continue to let the butter cook until the white milk solids fall to the bottom of the skillet and turn a rich hazelnut brown. Strain the browned butter through a fine sieve into a clean bowl, discarding the solids.

3. Sift together the confectioners’ sugar, almond flour, cake flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom. Place the sifted ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. On the lowest speed, add the egg whites and orange zest; mix until all the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase the speed to medium and beat until very smooth. Decrease the speed to low and stir in the browned butter, then increase the speed to medium and beat until smooth.

4. Butter a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom or a springform pan. Pour in the batter and smooth the top. Arrange the quince slices on the batter. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Remove the sides of the pan before serving.

Candied Walnuts

Yield: 2 cups

2 cups walnuts
3 tbsp simple syrup
¼ cup turbinado (raw) sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350oF. In a large bowl, toss the walnuts with enough of the simple syrup to coat them well. The nuts should be sticky and well coated with enough syrup so the sugar will stick.

2. Add the turbinado sugar to the walnuts, tossing well. Work quickly so that the sugar doesn’t melt. Spread the nuts out on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, stirring the nuts after 5 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Sticky Spiked Double-Apple Cake

Serves 10 to 12

1 cup Lexia, Muscat or sultana raisins
1/3 cup brandy
1 cup unsulphured dried apple slices
½ cup granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1½ tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves (preferably freshly ground)
1½ cups tightly packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
¾ cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
2 medium-sized tart cooking apples, one peeled, one unpeeled, both cored and cut into ½ inch pieces
Additional unsalted butter, at room temperature, for greasing the pan

1. In a small bowl, soak the raisins in the brandy for 45 minutes. Add the dried apple slices and macerate for a further 15 minutes. Do not drain!

2. Preheat the oven to 325oF. Butter a 9 x 13-inch pan and line the bottom and up the two long sides with a sheet of parchment paper, letting the paper hang over the edges by an inch or so. Lightly butter the paper. In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, blend both sugars. Add the eggs and beat on medium speed until thickened and pale, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the cooled melted butter and mix to blend. Fold in the dry ingredients in two additions, mixing just enough to moisten most but not all of the flour. Add the dried fruit and brandy mixture, chopped pecans and diced fresh apple, then fold them into the batter with long, deep strokes. Don’t fret about the ratio of fruit to batter – there is a remarkable amount of fruit but it bakes into a wonderfully chewy cake.

4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and set in the centre of the oven. Bake until the centre springs back when lightly touched, a tester inserted into the centre comes out clean and the cake is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan (about 1 hour and 10 minutes). Transfer to a wire rack and cool. Serve warm or at room temperature with the warm Brown Sugar-Brandy Sauce.

Sugar-Brandy Sauce

Yield: 2¼ cups

1/3 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup whipping cream
2½ tbsp brandy

1. Combine the butter, sugars and cream in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Stir this mixture over low heat until the sugar dissolves, then increase the heat to medium and bring the sauce to a very gentle boil, stirring all the while. Cook 5 more minutes, then remove from the heat and stir in the brandy.

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancake

2008-10-19T18:24:00.001-07:00

This is one of Frank's favorite weekend breakfast options. I like it too because it takes no time to make. Sometimes I'll make it as a midnight snack...

I used to make chocolate chips pancake because I always have chocolate chips at my house. Love the convenience of it especially when you have a pancake craving at 10pm. However, there's no place for maple syrup when you put chocolate chips in the pancake.

Chocolate chips pancake is now a history in my house. I think blueberry pancake is a thousand times better. The tartness from blueberries goes so well with maple syrup. You can taste both the berries and the syrup at the same time. Both Frank and I like our food with layers of flavours. It's something that chocolate chips pancake cannot offer. Also, using blueberries seems like a healthier choice, despite we pour a healthy amount of maple syrup on top...

Dark Espresso Chocolate Cake

2008-10-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

I mentioned before that I'm not crazy about white chocolate. On the contrary, dark chocolate is always my favorite. I like its complexity. I found that white chocolate has no character. However, there was once I tried a bar of white chocolate that had Kalamata olives in it. The combination might sound weird but the taste was unbelievably good. It made the world's difference for that plain old white chocolate.

Back to the cake. This dark espresso chocolate cake wasn't hard to make. I have another recipe very similar to this one. They both called for a large quantity of coffee/espresso which made the batter very runny. I don't agree with the name of this cake because you won't taste the coffee/espresso from the cake. (The recipe called for Kahlua and I would definitely skip it next time. It tasted very artificial.) The espresso was there to enhance the chocolate flavour. I have a couple of friends who are not coffee fans. I didn't even bother telling them that it had coffee in the cake. (I do that from time to time. As long as they are not allergic to the ingredient, that's the bottom line.) Of course, they both love the rich chocolate flavour of the cake... Now, only you, me and God knows where that richness came from...

The bitter chocolate glaze on the cake made this cake looked very pretty. You can even see the reflection of the garnish on the top of the cake.

I will suggest having this cake with a glass of dessert wine instead of a cup of espresso. So that my non-coffee-fan friends can enjoy it freely. (evil grin)

Fig-Cornmeal Tart

2008-10-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

This Fig-Cornmeal Tart is beautiful enough to impress the crowd and is easy enough to make all the components a day ahead.

Under the quartered fresh figs on the tart was a layer of Fig-Armagnac filling. Having said that this tart was easy to make, it was very hard to resist eating the tempting fresh figs and the filling before assembling the tart. My whole kitchen was infused by the sweet scent of figs and Armagnac while the filling was simmering in the pot. I couldn't help but tried a little spoonful of the filling before it was ready. Immediately, I knew this tart will be a hit. That jam-like filling was so silky yet toothsome. How? Thanks to the seeds of the figs. Before I made the tart, I wasn't sure about the cornmeal tart crust. I didn't know how well cornmeal will pair with the elegant figs. Of course, I got the answer when that crunch of fig seeds happened.

When we tried the tart at night. Frank said he wasn't expecting the spices from the tart and probably that's why he didn't find the tart super attractive. (That was very polite of him...) He said it was rather bland. Therefore, I whipped up some crème fraîche to go with the tart as Claudia Fleming suggested in her book. (This is a recipe from Fleming's book, The Last Course) Ah-ha, that's what was missing. A dollop of crème fraîche and a drizzle of honey rounded out the sweetness of the tart. The tart became not as sweet (it wasn't that sweet, but, it was missing something) and the tang from the crème fraîche disappeared... How should I put it?... It was a perfect marriage!

White Chocolate Raspberry Tarts

2008-10-19T07:20:00.000-07:00

I have made this dessert a few times before. It's always a hit. I even made it for the raffles draw at a fund raising event last year and sold almost 150 tickets.

This time, I made individual tartlettes instead of one 10-inch tart. It looks not as spectacular but more elegant. It's perfect for those who likes this tender crust.

I'm not a big fan of white chocolate. It's too sweet to my liking. However, it goes beautifully with the tartness of raspberry. The white chocolate filling was flavoured with Framboise. In the past, I used lychee liquor which gave a floral fragrant to the filling without colouring it like the way Framboise would.

It's a beautiful dessert for any occassion.

Le Cordon Bleu Experience

2008-10-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

Three years ago, I received a hands-on dessert making class at Le Cordon Bleu as my birthday present from Frank. The theme of the class was Festive Dessert. I was so happy when I knew that I was going to be a Le Cordon Bleu student for one day.

The day finally came. It was about 30 people in the class and everyone was waiting anxiously. The class was in English (at least that's what it was intended to be). However, Chef Pagés is French, and sometimes it's hard for him to find all his words in English... It means that it's hard for me to understand every word he said.

Chef Pagés made Chalet Montagnard in the demonstration part of the class. This chocolate cake built chalet, with a chocolate sleigh on the side is a more sophisticated, adult version of gingerbread house. It will be the perfect dessert to show off at Christmas dinner if you can repeat the thousand steps to make this impressive looking dessert.

After tasting the Chalet Montagnard, the practical part of the class began. We moved to the kitchen from the demonstrating room. I pair up with a guy called Pablo, who also received the class as a present. Since I'm so obsessed with making everything from scratch, I was a little bit disappointed about the set up. I want a dessert made by ME!

Everyone is making the same dessert and it is Bûche au marrons confits. It's a chestnut mousse log coated with white chocolate. In order to save time and minimize mistake, all the ingredients were already measured for us. (another disappointment... I want to do everything MYSELF!) Also, the almond dacquoise (the base of the log) was pre-made. Chef Pagés also shared his crème brûlée receipe with us.

I brought home half of a Bûche au marrons confits. (Have to share with Pablo) Frank was very impressed with the final product.

I decided to make this dessert for Frank's friend's Christmas party. I just want to make it from scratch, all by myself. It turned out very nice. I made some meringue mushroom for decoration which really impressed the kids at the party.

It was an enjoyable experience making dessert at Le Cordon Bleu. I would love to take a pastry making course there...one day...