Your Daily Sweets: What are you making and baking? (2014)

[caroled]

Blether, I think those look fantastic!

[Shelby]

Hmmm...I have a whole bag of figs to use up.  Might have to try that with my fave oatmeal cookie recipe.  Looks great Blether!

[cyalexa]

Hmmm...I have a whole bag of figs to use up.  Might have to try that with my fave oatmeal cookie recipe.  Looks great Blether!

If they are fresh figs try David Tanis' Fig and Almond Cake. It should be easy to google, if not I can copy and paste for you. 

[jmacnaughtan]

Those fig oaties look good, I'll have to try them.

 

I threw a party yesterday, so made a classic British favorite, the Victoria Sandwich Cake.  Albeit with a slightly different presentation.

 

 

 

Not bad, but certainly needs work.

[Smithy]

Not bad, but certainly needs work.

...and here I was swooning over the voluptuous beauty and flavors of that cake. Your standards and mine are certainly different! :-D

[leonidas]

Those fig oaties look good, I'll have to try them.

 

I threw a party yesterday, so made a classic British favorite, the Victoria Sandwich Cake.  Albeit with a slightly different presentation.

 

Victoria Sandwich.jpg

 

Victoria Sandwich cut.jpg

 

Not bad, but certainly needs work.

 

Can you please give some info/recipe about the apricot glaze....???

Outstanding work.....!!!!!!!

[nakji]

Those fig oaties look good, I'll have to try them.

 

I threw a party yesterday, so made a classic British favorite, the Victoria Sandwich Cake.  Albeit with a slightly different presentation.

 

Victoria Sandwich.jpg

 

Victoria Sandwich cut.jpg

 

Not bad, but certainly needs work.

Too many elements in your opinion? Or too few? I think it looks lovely- did the nectarine compote work well with both the strawberry and the apricot?

[ChocoMom]

Okay....this is the first image I've posted on here.  And, its my first attempt at Heston Blumenthal's Exploding Chocolate Cake.  Did this for my sister-in-law's forty-something birthday, using raspberry instead of passionfruit. 

 

(I'm feeling a little inadequate here, with all the BEAUTIFUL desserts you all have posted!!!!)

 

 

 

[Smithy]

ChocoMom, I would love to be presented with a cake like that, birthday or otherwise. It's beautiful! (I'm going to have to try that cake, just for the fun of trying to get the explosions right.) That's a fun cake stand, too.

[Kerry Beal]

Nothing wrong with the look of that cake!  Thanks for showing us.

[pastrygirl]

 

Some friends have been bugging me to make artisan s'more kits, so today I made graham crackers, limoncello marshmallows, and tempered some 60-70% dark chocolate scraps and cut them to size.  Delicious gooey mess! 

 

For those of you who make marshmallows, do you dust them in straight cornstarch, or powdered sugar, or a mix?  I did a mix, but the powdered sugar seemed to burn before the whole thing was toasted.  Toasting over a gas burner rather than hot coals may have contributed

[JeanneCake]

10544317_10203212482165911_8965926665619322813_n.jpg

 

Some friends have been bugging me to make artisan s'more kits, so today I made graham crackers, limoncello marshmallows, and tempered some 60-70% dark chocolate scraps and cut them to size.  Delicious gooey mess! 

 

For those of you who make marshmallows, do you dust them in straight cornstarch, or powdered sugar, or a mix?  I did a mix, but the powdered sugar seemed to burn before the whole thing was toasted.  Toasting over a gas burner rather than hot coals may have contributed

 

 

Those look wonderful! I think the best part is   the burnt part; I use potato starch instead of 10x; and sometimes I mix cornstarch in, but usually I am not that organized.  A torch is better too you can have more fun with it!

[pastrygirl]

Those look wonderful! I think the best part is   the burnt part; I use potato starch instead of 10x; and sometimes I mix cornstarch in, but usually I am not that organized.  A torch is better too you can have more fun with it!

 

Thanks, Jeanne!  I'll try just starch next time, or shake the excess off better tomorrow and see how they toast.  I like a dark marshmallow, but I also want them to toast up evenly like a commercial marshmallow.

[emmalish]

 

For those of you who make marshmallows, do you dust them in straight cornstarch, or powdered sugar, or a mix?  I did a mix, but the powdered sugar seemed to burn before the whole thing was toasted.  Toasting over a gas burner rather than hot coals may have contributed

 

That looks absolutely amazing!! And I'm with Jeanne, the burnt part is the best. :-)

 

I dust my marshmallows in a 50/50 mix of potato starch and powdered sugar, and shake off the excess in a sieve. I've never tried toasting them, though, so I'm not sure how that would work out.

[jmacnaughtan]

...and here I was swooning over the voluptuous beauty and flavors of that cake. Your standards and mine are certainly different! :-D

 

Thanks!  But it's always the case with first attempts.  I'll do it a couple more times while the fruit is still in season, then I'l post the recipe.

 

Can you please give some info/recipe about the apricot glaze....???

Outstanding work.....!!!!!!!

 

Sure.  It's loosely based on the vanilla glaze from Conticini's "Sensations", but altered enough to consider my own

 

Apricot glaze

 

• 100g caster sugar
• 100g glucose syrup
• 50g water
• 65g apricot purée
• 110g white chocolate, chopped
• 8g gelatin, bloomed
• "Egg yolk" colour food colouring, as needed

 

1. Heat the sugar, syrup and water to 105°C.
2. Take it off the heat and incorporate the purée.
3. Add the gelatin and stir until melted.
4. Pour over the chocolate and stir.
5. Blitz with a stick blender/blender/food processor until smooth.
6. Add the coloyring little by little, blending after each addition.  Be careful if you're using powdered colouring, it's very easy to go from "Apricot" to "Irn Bru".
7. Strain through a seive into a bowl and cover directly with cling film.
8. Leave to set completely, then heat to around 35°C before use (it's easiest to apply it to frozen cakes).

And thanks

 

Too many elements in your opinion? Or too few? I think it looks lovely- did the nectarine compote work well with both the strawberry and the apricot?

 

The number of elements was fine, and the flavours work well together.  I found, however, that the sponge cake was too dense, the nectarines needed a little more tartness and the apricot mousse was a little bland.  You can't see it on the photo, but I used too much mousse on the sides, so the stability suffered and started to pull away.

 

A tasty cake though, just not as good as I want it to be.

[Smithy]

 

I found...the nectarines needed a little more tartness and the apricot mousse was a little bland.  

 

Thanks for the additional information. I look forward to the full recipe, once you've polished it enough to post it.

The nectarine compote looks as though it was made from white nectarines. Is that correct? I generally find that I love their sugary sweetness but get better results using yellow nectarines in pies, ice cream or jams; the white nectarines aren't as tart and they seem to fade to a sugary nothing when cooked.

If you can figure out a way to get good apricot flavor without having a backyard tree of the right type of apricot, please post about it. I'm bitterly disappointed in the stuff that gets grown and shipped commercially, although SobaAddict70 recently found good ones in San Francisco. Could you intensify it with dried apricots that have been soaked and pureed? That may be counterproductive for a mousse; I don't know enough about that process.

[pastrygirl]

 

Little chocolate cookies.  Cocoa sable - these have chipotle and smoked salt - cut on the guitar and rolled in sugar before baking.  I'm thinking 8 in a bag for the street food festival next month.

[gfron1]

I like how you did those Pastrygirl.  I will borrow that for lunch tomorrow!

[pastrygirl]

I like how you did those Pastrygirl.  I will borrow that for lunch tomorrow!

 

Thanks!  I put the dough in a ganache frame between two sheets of parchment, rolled smooth, then chilled before cutting.  The dough needs to be pretty solid before you can pick it up.  I made lemon-lime polvorones the same way.

 

my guitar.

[jmacnaughtan]

Thanks for the additional information. I look forward to the full recipe, once you've polished it enough to post it.

The nectarine compote looks as though it was made from white nectarines. Is that correct? I generally find that I love their sugary sweetness but get better results using yellow nectarines in pies, ice cream or jams; the white nectarines aren't as tart and they seem to fade to a sugary nothing when cooked.

If you can figure out a way to get good apricot flavor without having a backyard tree of the right type of apricot, please post about it. I'm bitterly disappointed in the stuff that gets grown and shipped commercially, although SobaAddict70 recently found good ones in San Francisco. Could you intensify it with dried apricots that have been soaked and pureed? That may be counterproductive for a mousse; I don't know enough about that process.

 

It was made with "Brugnons".  They're essentially just white nectarines that are a little more fragrant, and the stone is harder to remove.  Thanks for the tip, I'll use yellow ones next time.

 

For the apricots, I was thinking of roasting them off in the oven before puréeing them for the mousse.  They're really nice fresh, but even the best apricots will never have more than a fairly subtle flavour.  Dried apricots might work as well...  In any case, next time I'll add a little apricot schnapps to give it a kick.

 

BTW, if you're looking for fresh apricots, go for the "Orange Red" variety.  They're really nice.

Edited July 16, 2014 by jmacnaughtan (log)

[CatPoet]

I made "wheat cake " yesterday  and had  black currant  as topping  served it with whipped cream. it was lovely.

[oli]

Those fig oaties look good, I'll have to try them.

 

I threw a party yesterday, so made a classic British favorite, the Victoria Sandwich Cake.  Albeit with a slightly different presentation.

 

Victoria Sandwich.jpg

 

Victoria Sandwich cut.jpg

 

Not bad, but certainly needs work.

 

 

When I saw the pic. I thought it was one of the recipe from the French Pastry Chef series.

These are the types of cakes I like doing, great WOW factor.

Good job

[emmalish]

A few things since my last post. First up are these chocolate espresso caramels. This is a variation of the coconut chocolate caramels I posted a couple weeks ago. I really like this base caramel! I'm sure I'll be revisiting it with other variations too.

 

 

 

Then I made these double chocolate coconut cookies. Chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips, coconut, and walnuts. It's a good cookie, but I found it a bit sweet. It's made with sweetened coconut, and that coupled with the white chocolate was a bit much for me. Everyone else loved them though. I think they'd be better with dark chocolate chips rather than the white. Or with unsweetened coconut.

 

 

 

And then I made these coconut oil oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. It's my first time baking with coconut oil in place of butter – I've been meaning to try it for awhile, but I just hadn't gotten around to it. I really like the way these turned out! They're really soft and moist and chewy. One of these days I want to do a side-by-side comparison of the same recipe made with butter vs coconut oil.

 

[Kim Shook]

emmalish – please tell me if the house next door to you ever goes on the market, because I want to buy it and be your cooky-friend  !

 

CatPoet – your dinosaur cooky is adorable!

 

Nakji – that blueberry muffin cake looks astounding.  Thanks for posting the link.  I am trying that one!

 

Blether – love the idea of using figs in oatmeal cookies!  I just made a batch of my oatmeal cookies (will show later) and I wish I’d seen your post before I bought raisins to put in them.

 

Chocomom – that cake is lovely and NOTHING to feel shy about!

 

I made a rum cake for Mr. Kim’s office:

 

I’m having a little trouble with the cake – I suspect that I’m overbeating it.  I have the 6 qt. KA and I know that recipes tend to be written for the smaller one.  I didn’t really adjust for that.  Does anyone have any other ideas?  The crust is separating – not just on top:

but also on the sides.  It doesn’t affect the flavor and the top ends up being the bottom on this cake, but it looks a little raggedy on the sides.

[emmalish]

Kim, I've often thought the same about living next to you! YUM.