Hello Raw Fish!

While attending my cake decorating class in Santa Rosa, I was craving sushi for lunch. Luckily, Sappora Restaurant is right next door. This is the gorgeous Chirashi they have there. YUM! The round yellow vegetables are pickled daikon radish and they tasted awsome.....hmmm...must learn how to pickle daikon....

Cake Decorating 101

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to score a spot in a cake-decorating class taught by Lorrette Patzwald at the Santa Rosa Junior College Culinary Arts Center. Although Lorrette is better known for her bread work, she won a James Beard award for it, the class was very informative and I enjoyed it immensely. The picture is of the cake I made in class. It's a strawberry butter cake filled with lime curd flavored cream cheese frosting and frosted with White Chocolate Cream Cheese frosting. The roses on top were made in advance and are made of royal icing with cream cheese icing leaves.

Strawberry Cupcakes

In case you haven’t guessed, I am a huge follower of the locavore movement. A locavore is someone who tries to base their diet on food raised or grown within a certain distance of their home. This means eating what is in season. While I have explained the concept to Kayla on many occasions, her twelve year old brain refuses to accept the idea that strawberries should not be eaten year round, for every meal.
In an attempt to stave the strawberry crisis, I purchased some frozen strawberries (shame on me!) and tried to come up with a strawberry dessert for her.
I adapted the Cream Cake recipe from Sky High: Irresistible Three Layer Cakes and added strawberry puree in place of some of the cream it called for. Additionally, I replaced the rest of the cream with nonfat milk and whipped the egg whites to add the needed fluff to the batter. “Fluff” is my own non-culinary term for air.
I made a frosting out of cream cheese, strawberry puree, lemon juice and powdered sugar. The frosting was way too runny, and ended up more like a glaze. Despite the issues with consistency, the frosting tasted just like fresh strawberries and the whole house smelled like summertime.
Overall, they turned out pretty good for an improvisation.

Hazelnuts, hazelnuts, hazelnuts..and chocolate

Have I ever mentioned I love nuts? Cashews, almonds, walnuts, etc. It probably stems from my childhood home which was surrounded by walnut orchards. During the Fall, if we needed a snack while we were out playing, we ate walnuts from the ground.
One nut I have never been a huge fan of; the hazelnut. However, I am determined to bake my way through the Sky High Triple Layer Cake book I just bought on Amazon which features several hazelnut cakes.
The hazelnut cake which caught my eye was the “Chocolate-Hazelnut Gianduja Cake”. Gianduja, as explained in the cookbook, is a “Nutella” type sweet chocolate featuring hazelnut paste.
I was unsure of how powerful the hazelnuts would be in the cake, so I added some hazelnut extract just to be certain the flavors would come through. Boy, was that a mistake! This cake was so rich; I couldn’t even finish one slice. Both David and Kayla loved it because it features chocolate whipped cream frosting that is to die for.
The cake texture was good and the frosting was yummy. I would probably make it again upon special request.
As always, if any of these recipes interest you, just email me and I will gladly provide it. nicolerene @ peoplepc . com.

Sky High: Maybe I've lost my mind...

So David's father's birthday is coming up and it got out that I have been experimenting with cake recipes, so David's stepmother asked me to bake a cake. I hear his favorite flavor is lemon.
Unfortunately, this gave me the perfect excuse to try out every lemon cake recipe I could find. I tried a recipe on epicurious, but the cake turned out really dense. Then I tried a cake recipe from SmittenKitchen.Com and it turned out well, but I was looking for something a little lighter.
I finally got it right on my fourth try. I had ordered the book "Sky High: Irresistable Three Layer Cakes" a few weeks ago when I read the raves about it on several of my favorite food blogs. It arrived yesterday and has some gorgeous pictures of mouthwatering cakes of every possible flavor. And in it there was a recipe for "Triple Lemon Chiffon Cake with Lemon Curd".
I was wonderfully light and fluffy. It was also very easy to frost and was not very crumby at all. I highly recommend it.
I actually modified the recipe to be a two layer cake because I only own 2 9" cake pans. However, with the addition of this book to my collection, that is going to have to change real quick.
I used the remaining batter to make taste-testing cupcakes and sent the entire cake with David to work. He reports that it was gone by 9am the next day. Let me know how it turns out for you.

What was I thinking?

This weekend was the absolute worst weekend for dieting...yes, I am on a diet but let's not talk about that now.....
In addition to the cheesecake I made for Valentine's Day, it was also David's birthday. So in addition to the HUGE cheesecake, I needed to make a birthday cake as well.
I have been wanting to try one of the cakes featured on smittenkitchen's blog for sometime, but have been waiting for an excuse to overload on all that sugar. David's birthday provided the perfect opportunity.
I chose the Chocolate Sour Cream Cake with Peanut Butter Icing and Chocolate Peanut Butter Glaze....WOW, what a mouthful.
Here is a link to smittenkitchen's version http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/chocolate-peanut-butter-cake/. She adapted it from the book Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes, which I just purchased on ebay.
I can't wait until it arrives because this cake was fantastic! It tasted very similiar to a giant reeses peanut butter cup.

Red Velvet Sin

This recipe is ALL over the internet now, in celebration of Valentines Day. I adapted this recipe from Southern Living Magazine. It is sooooooo good.



Prep: 20 min.; Bake: 1 hr., 25 min.; Stand: 1 hr.; Chill: 8 hrs. The cheesecake's deep red filling and snowy topping is wonderfully dramatic. Fresh mint sprigs add a pop of Christmas color.

Yield
Makes 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups crushed oreo cookies
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whole buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
2 (1-ounce) bottles red food coloring
1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Garnish: fresh mint sprigs
Preparation
Stir together oreo cookie crumbs, melted butter, and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar; press mixture into bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.

Beat 3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese and 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar at medium-low speed with an electric mixer 1 minute. Add eggs and next 6 ingredients, mixing on low speed just until fully combined. Pour batter into prepared crust.

Bake at 325° for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 300°, and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until center is firm. Run knife along outer edge of cheesecake. Turn oven off. Let cheesecake stand in oven 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven; cool in pan on a wire rack 30 minutes. Cover and chill 8 hours.

Beat 1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese and 1/4 cup butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth; gradually add powdered sugar and vanilla, beating until smooth. Spread evenly over top of cheesecake. Remove sides of springform pan. Garnish, if desired.


Rhonda Y. Coker, Columbia, South Carolina, Southern Living, DECEMBER 2004