Cooking with Alison

Archive for the ‘Desserts’ Category

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Fruit Bouquets (make your own)

In Other Desserts on January 20, 2010 at am

I googled the price of fruit bouquets once and I couldn’t believe how much they were charging for a few slices of pineapple, grapes, wedges of melon and a handful of strawberries.  So I decided to see if I could make my own fruit bouquet.  I convinced Ed to make one too for our mothers’ day gifts.  In the beginning, Ed was grumbling about doing “arts & crafts” but then he really got into it and had a lot of fun with it.  It was really cute to watch him try very hard to be delicate with the fruits and thoughtful of the placement of them  🙂  Both of our moms Loved it.  It was so easy that I made one for my friend’s bridal shower too.

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Foosball Cake

In Cake Decorating on January 20, 2010 at am

To celebrate my long awaited purchase of a foosball table, I threw a foosball tournament among friends.  So, naturally, I made a foosball cake.  I used teddy graham crackers for the men, a white gumball for the foosball, and red and blue sour crazy straws for the bars.  For the goal posts, I found two finger football games at Dollarama, discarded the pieces I didn’t need and turned the football posts upside down.  It was a Really great find.

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Favourite Chewy and Dense Brownies

In Other Desserts on January 19, 2010 at pm

At a recent dinner party, a friend of mine brought brownies that had been made from the Ghirardelli brownie mix (she bought it at Costco).  They were good and chocolatey but they were closer to cake than I prefer my brownies to be.  So I was inspired (more like obsessed) to search for the best chewy and dense brownie recipe that is halfway between cakey and fudgy.  I focused on recipes for plain brownies only, because I believe that it’s important to find the best base recipe first.  Then you can make it even better by experimenting with all sorts of variations (ie. icing, nuts, cream cheese, etc.).

I tried more than 15 different brownie recipes and my favourite is adapted from http://www.instructables.com/.  I especially like this recipe because with just a tiny change in the number of eggs, you can choose between a texture that’s in the middle of cakey and fudgy or a texture that’s closer to cakey between the two extremes.  Personally, I prefer the denser version.  Also, I discovered that brownies freeze really really well.  I cut my brownies before freezing them.

One of the brownie recipes that I tried was that of Julia Child’s.  Even though I don’t consider it to be a true brownie (too cakey for me), I absolutely Love her recipe.  I serve it warm as a gooey, slightly chewy chocolate cake with a scoop of ice cream.  I will forever be grateful for discovering her recipe (link here).

Below Right:  Variation of this brownie recipe with cheesecake.

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Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova

In Other Desserts on January 19, 2010 at pm

I made Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova for a friend’s birthday party and everyone Loved it.  It was elegant, sophisticated, simple, and not too sweet.  I look forward to making this again and again with different fruits (ie. strawberries; mixed berries), because I imagine any fruit that pairs well with chocolate and cream will work beautifully.

I may have spread it out too much before I baked it because it turned out very large and could have served 12 – 15 people.  Even though there were only 8 people at the dinner party, and two other desserts, they still managed to finish it.

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Penguin Cookie (3 dimensional)

In Cookie Decorating, Cookies on January 19, 2010 at pm

For the 2009 holidays, I organized a cookie decorating contest at work.  I entered anonymously and placed second (photo of first place below).  I was pleasantly surprised when my cookies turned out very similarly to what I designed in my head  🙂  This was my first time working with fondant (link to the fondant recipe) and my second time working with gumpaste (link to the gumpaste and edible glue recipes).

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Gumpaste Recipe

In Cake Decorating, Cakes, Cookie Decorating, Cookies, Cupcakes on January 18, 2010 at pm

Gumpaste is used for decorating cakes, cookies, and cupcakes and is actually very easy and cost efficient to make.  I think of it as an edible cake decorating play-doh.  It holds up better than fondant so I use it for decorations that need more structure.  Also, unlike fondant, once gumpaste decorations dry out, you can keep them forever.  I buy tylose online and use the recipe provided by Nicholas Lodge’s isac (international sugar art collection).

Please note that you need a stand mixer to make gumpaste (although I wonder if a food processor would work… let me know how it works out if you try it).  The first time I made gumpaste, I broke my handheld mixer.  I was So Happy when it happened because then I knew that I could finally justify buying myself a Kitchenaid stand mixer.  You see, I try to only purchase kitchen stuff that I absolutely need and I try to be resourceful with my already versatile tools.  Even while sticking to these strict rules, I’ve still managed to accumulate a Lot of kitchen stuff, haha.  In October 2009, I bought the Kitchenaid Professional HD model from Costco for $275 (on sale).  I chose the stainless steel colour because it reminded me of an industrial kitchen.  I absolutely adore it and use it all the time.

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Mice in a Boot Cake

In Cake Decorating, Desserts on January 18, 2010 at pm

After watching many cake decorating shows and competitions on the Food Network, I made my first attempt at a 3 dimensional cake.  In August 2009, when I moved my little sister into her first home, I gave her this cake.  I designed the “mice living in a boot” cake based on her favourite childhood toy that was lost years ago in a move.  It was an orange and brown plastic boot that had plastic mice and furniture that you could hide in the toe of the boot.  When she saw the cake, she knew exactly what it was and was just speechless  🙂  See below for details on how I did it.

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Valentine’s Day Cookies

In Cookie Decorating, Cookies on January 16, 2010 at am

Shortly after I completed my cake decorating course (link here), I applied the techniques that I learned to decorate cookies.  I made royal icing (recipe from Joy of Baking) for the first time and bought a good paint brush to flood sugar cookies.

I’ve never liked the taste of iced sugar cookies, but I would consider these to be good recipes, because the texture and taste are very similar to the store-bought ones.  They were very popular when I brought them into work.  Also, if you like the taste of almond extract, you’ll probably like these.

I use the recipe for sugar cookies from Joy of Baking when I’m decorating with icing.  See here for my favourite plain sugar cookies recipe.

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Favourite Yellow Cake Recipe

In Cakes on January 16, 2010 at am

When I took a cake decorating course (link here), homework included baking a cake for each class.  So I used this as an opportunity to search for my favourite yellow cake recipe.  I tested three cake recipes that were already rated “the best”, and the one I liked the most was Restaurant Eve’s Cake, posted in The Washington Post on April 23, 2006.  I especially like it because it uses melted butter which means you don’t have to worry about remembering to soften the butter ahead of time.  Also, you don’t have to worry about overbeating this batter as you actually want to incorporate air into this one.  For cupcakes, however, I prefer the texture of this yellow cake recipe here.

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Pink Rose Cake

In Cake Decorating on January 15, 2010 at pm

This is the third cake that I decorated after completing the course.  Here’s a link to my favourite yellow cake recipe.  I tried a new leaf tip that I bought to replace the one that came with the Wilson student kit and I was very happy to see that it worked beautifully – much better than the first one I had.  The icing wasn’t stiff enough so the roses turned out a bit flat.

If you want to know how I did any of the decorations (ie. tip number, icing consistency, etc.), feel free to ask me in a comment and I’ll post the details in a reply.

Hello Kitty Cake

In Cake Decorating on January 15, 2010 at pm

This is the second cake that I decorated after completing the cake decorating course.  Here’s the link to my favourite yellow cake recipe.  I realized too late that I got the colours wrong.  I made it for a friend of mine who finds the character, “Hello Kitty” amusing.

If you want to know how I did any of the decorations (ie. tip number, icing consistency, etc.), feel free to ask me in a comment and I’ll post the details in a reply.

Monkey Cake

In Cake Decorating on January 15, 2010 at pm

This is the first cake that I decorated after completing the cake decorating course.  It was also the first time I used piping gel to transfer an outlined pattern onto the cake.  I made this monkey cake for my dad’s birthday because monkeys always make him smile (and because he’s kind of a baboon himself)  😉  Here’s the link to my favourite yellow cake recipe.  The dark frosting is simply chocolate buttercream.

If you want to know how I did any of the decorations (ie. tip number, icing consistency, etc.), feel free to ask me in a comment and I’ll post the details in a reply.