02 Mar
Rich Coffeecake with Sweet Cheese Filling
Posted by Michelle as Coffee Cakes, Yeast Breads | 35 Comments
If you only think about bread when you think about baking with yeast, think again. This cake is all sorts of fantabulous. I had heard rumblings about yeasted coffeecakes before and officially added them to the master baking list, but it took awhile for me to get down to it. I loved the recipe that is in my treasured Baking Illustrated cookbook
04 Feb
Cappuccino Cinnamon Squares
Posted by Michelle as Coffee Cakes | 20 Comments
I made these luscious, caffeine-laden squares for my sister to celebrate her first day at a new job. Last year, the company she was working for was bought and many of the employees laid off, including her. Needless to say, the job market isn’t booming right now, so her having found a position that’s a great fit for her is of course cause to celebrate. Coincidentally, on the day she found out she was laid off last year I made this to-die-for Sour Cream Coffee Cake. It was truly magical. So I guess I use food to console and to celebrate. There’s never a bad reason to turn on the oven for this baking girl!
I wanted to make something I knew my sister would love, something I hadn’t made before, and also something that I could whip up with ingredients I already had in the house. I wasn’t really feeling a trip to the grocery store. I flipped through some cookbooks and found this. It looked like something you would find in Starbucks and this adapted version includes a healthy dose of espresso stirred into the milk. My sister adores coffee, so this turned into a no-brainer.
24 Nov
Cake Order: Penn State & NASA
Posted by Michelle as Special Occasion Cakes | 19 Comments
Last week I delivered a cake order to Penn State’s main campus in State College, PA for a conference that was being held by Penn State’s Astrophysics department in conjunction with NASA. The two organizations worked to develop and launch a satellite, Swift, and this conference marked the 5-year anniversary of the satellite going into orbit. The conference planners wanted to throw a little party at the end of the conference to celebrate the milestone.
We decided on creating three cakes – one representing Penn State, one representing NASA, and the third representing the actual satellite. All of the cakes are 12″ and 8″ stacked rounds, covered in fondant, with fondant stripes on the bottom tier to match the logo colors, with buttercream borders. One was a white cake with raspberry filling, one was a chocolate cake with a chocolate buttercream filling, and the third was a lemon cake with lemon buttercream filling.
The Penn State Nittany Lion logo was created using fondant:
The NASA logo was created using fondant, with the “swoosh” and stars on the logo decorated with white royal icing:
The Swift cake included the program’s “Swift” logo in fondant on the front of the top tier, and a fondant depiction of the satellite itself on top:
This order was extremely well-received and it was fun to see some of the participants get a sneak peak of the cakes. They were all very excited about how they looked and enjoyed taking pictures of them.
10 Nov
Fallen Chocolate Cakes
Posted by Michelle as Cakes | 21 Comments
Could there be anything better than a rich, decadent chocolate dessert that will please not only kids but also the most demanding dinner guests? Actually, there could be – if such a dessert could take less than 10 minutes to prepare and less than 10 minutes in the oven. And here it is! I give you the most fabulous fallen chocolate cakes (or chocolate lava cakes or molten chocolate cakes – they go by so many names) that I have yet to make. These cakes were recently featured as the Dessert of the Week on dinnervibe, which is a website and weekly newsletter that provides quick and easy recipes and accompanying grocery lists to make menu planning a cinch. When asked to contribute a dessert that adhered to the quick and easy model, I knew in an instant that these chocolate cakes would fit the bill.
07 Nov
Bachelorette Party Cake
Posted by Michelle as Special Occasion Cakes | 22 Comments
This cake was done for a bachelorette party that had a theme of black and hot pink and zebra/animal print. It is an 8-inch white cake with a layer of raspberry filling in the middle and covered in white fondant. The black zebra stripes and pink borders are all made of edible fondant. The tiara was also created from fondant; the jewels on the tiara are not edible – the only part of the cake that you can’t eat. I brushed the top of the cake with white shimmer dust, and the tiara was brushed in a silver shimmer dust. The cake was a hit and got rave reviews!
If you are interested in seeing more of my decorated cakes, check out some of them here.
09 Sep
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake: LiveSTRONG With a Taste of Yellow 2009
Posted by Michelle as Upside-Down Cakes | 21 Comments
This is my second year participating in the LiveSTRONG food blogging event that is hosted annually by Winos and Foodies. LiveSTRONG day this year is on October 2, 2009, which marks the 10th anniversary of Lance Armstrong being diagnosed with cancer. LiveSTRONG With a Taste of Yellow is a coinciding food blogging event that supports the Lance Armstrong Foundation by raising awareness of cancer issues and is a way for wine and food bloggers worldwide to share their stories – the happy, the sad, the struggles and the triumphs. Participants make a dish or drink containing a yellow food to commemorate the day, and share how their life has been touched by cancer. Last year I participated by making a fabulous Cheddar Corn Chowder and sharing the story of my dad’s battle with leukemia. I won’t rehash the long story here, so if you are interested in reading, you can skip on over and read it. This year was 10 years since he lost his battle, and I offer up this Pineapple Upside-Down Cake to celebrate the wonderful man he was.
25 Jun
Cookies & Cream Oreo Look-Alike Cake
Posted by Michelle as Layer Cakes | 32 Comments
My grandpap’s favorite cookies, by a long shot, are Oreos. As far back as I can remember, any time we visited my grandparents, there would be a glass fishbowl-style cookie jar full of Oreo cookies sitting on the kitchen counter. We were always offered one (or a few, if my grandma and mom weren’t looking) and it didn’t take us long to realize that they were his favorite snack. This past Father’s Day we celebrated my grandpap’s 83rd birthday with a cookout. My mom asked if I could make a cake for the occasion and I immediately figured I would incorporate Oreos into the dessert. The result is a two-layer chocolate cake filled with a cream cheese/whipped cream mixture that has chopped Oreos folded in, and topped with a chocolate ganache. I skipped a traditional full icing in order to make the cake actually look like an Oreo cookie.
15 Jun
Old-Fashioned Spice Cake
Posted by Michelle as Cakes | 11 Comments
This spice cake is a recipe that my great Aunt has been making for as long as I can remember. It’s her “signature dish”. Well, one of a few. She also makes a killer Jello that has baby food in it (secret ingredient!) and a mean broccoli casserole. But as far as desserts go, this one is all her. This past weekend was her birthday and since she hasn’t made this in awhile, I thought it would be a nice treat to bake this for her to enjoy. She was so excited when I showed up with this, it was a true pleasure to see her face light up.
Ironically, the original name of this recipe is “Poor Man’s Cookies”. Well, as you can see, this is not a cookie! I always wondered about the name and the recipe’s origin, and then when going through a ton of my grandma’s old recipes, I found a yellowed newspaper clipping of a recipe for Poor Man’s Cookies, which was nearly identical to my aunt’s, save for a few quantity changes. There wasn’t an explanation in the clipping about the origin of the recipe, so I am taking this for what it is – a beloved old-fashioned recipe.
05 May
Coffee-and-Espresso Layered Cheesecake
Posted by Michelle as Cheesecakes | 32 Comments
Last week was my sister’s birthday, and she spent it living it up out in Chicago, so this was a somewhat belated celebration. Last year for her birthday she asked me to make a Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut filling, so this year while trying to think of a dessert that she would enjoy, something that was different and unique, all I could keep thinking about was making something with coffee in it. (I think my sister would become legally wed to Starbucks if she could!) I, of course, love cheesecake so I started searching around for some type of coffee and/or espresso flavored cheesecake. I found a few recipes floating around out there, but none that I was crazy about, so I went about creating my own.
This is essentially a graham crust, and a classic cheesecake recipe with half of the batter flavored with Starbucks Coffee Liquor and the other half flavored with a serving of espresso, topped with chocolate ganache and garnished with chocolate covered espresso beans (thanks to my Chief Culinary Consultant for suggesting the chocolate covered beans – definitely a great finishing touch!). I think the balance of flavors in this cheesecake is perfect:
A subtle hint of the coffee liquor paired with an espresso flavor that was not too overpowering, and a bittersweet chocolate ganache that ties it all together.
15 Apr
Chocolate Peanut Butter Torte
Posted by Michelle as Layer Cakes | 24 Comments
Many of you know that until recently I suffered from a number of food allergies, one of which was peanuts. As a result, the most tempting dessert featured in Dorie Greenspan’s utterly superb Baking: From My Home to Yours
