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

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Well, here's why I haven't been posting a whole lot lately…..  Wedding show!  This is a dummy cake (so I'm not sure if it belongs here rather than in confections, but what the hey) with gum paste floral arrangement.  It was originally meant to be on pillars, but then I found this nifty stand…..

 

 

And along with all of that, a baptism and a birthday.  I'm becoming very fond of printable fondant, let me tell you!

 

[Smithy]

Wow...those are beautiful, Elizabeth! I'm very impressed.

[CatPoet]

I didnt make these today but I am so proud of it.  It was my daughters birthday cake, everything but the stalk of the bulrush is edible.  The bottom is  a  white cake, with  lactosefree butter cream, chocolate pudding dirt and cookie crumb soil, toffee button and fudge rocks . The logs are  swiss rolls  dark chocolate sponge filled with  toffee cream and dulce de leche and then covered in chocolate mousse.  The tail  and the bulrush is  left over cake mixed with butter cream and  chocolate pudding.  My daughter grab the tail the first things she did, but she didnt eat it because  we are not used to the chemical taste of food colouring here and the green store bought  sugar paste just tasted food colouring, next time I be using slightly less green marzipan that I know taste good. But the logs and the  ground was yummy and every one liked the fudge rocks.

 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2014 by CatPoet (log)

[jmacnaughtan]

I am impressed by that sugar-work...

 

Here's a little tarte aux fraises, just because it's summer and Gariguette strawberries are everywhere.

 

 

Pâte sucrée

Vanilla pastry cream, Philippe Conticini's recipe (a little more advanced than normal, incorporating butter, cocoa butter and gelatin, then whipped)

Gariguette strawberries.

 

 

[DianaM]

Diana, I was looking at this Alice Water's recipe and this with a frangipane smear on the bottom and rhubarb/raspberry and cannot decide which way to go...

I made the second one, but subbed the raspberries with strawberries, because I had them handy. They were fresh, juicy and fragrant - we went to pick-your-own at a nearby farm yesterday. It was the start of their season, and I got to pick only the very best berries. Of course I had a blast.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

jmacnaughtan - I'm in awe of your entremets, so I think we're even….  That tarte aux fraises looks stupendous.

[Franci]

It looks very nice Diana, how did you like it?

[JohnT]

Here's a little tarte aux fraises, just because it's summer and Gariguette strawberries are everywhere.

Pâte sucrée

Vanilla pastry cream, Philippe Conticini's recipe (a little more advanced than normal, incorporating butter, cocoa butter and gelatin, then whipped)

Gariguette strawberries.

Your pâte sucrée looks brilliant (the whole tart does!) - mind sharing the pâte sucrée recipe or pointing to it?

[DianaM]

It looks very nice Diana, how did you like it?

Thanks, Franci. It was great! I did not use the entire quantity of frangipane paste, but I think it would have worked well, especially if the galette is made for people with a sweeter tooth. The balance of tart and sweet was very good to my taste, but my husband would have liked it a bit sweeter. I did not use the orange zest, I wanted just rhubarb, and strawberry as the stars, and the vanilla in a supporting role.

I want to cut myself a slice every time I walk by it. I will definitely be making this again.

[jmacnaughtan]

jmacnaughtan - I'm in awe of your entremets, so I think we're even….  That tarte aux fraises looks stupendous.

 

Thanks!

 

Your pâte sucrée looks brilliant (the whole tart does!) - mind sharing the pâte sucrée recipe or pointing to it?

 

No problem, it's on this recipe.  It's very easy to work with, provided you let it rest for at least a few hours.

[Matthew Kirshner]

First batch of Strawberry Champagne Jam of the season.  The berries were picked straight from the garden.

 

 

[Smithy]

That looks wonderful.  What is the purpose of the champagne?

[Matthew Kirshner]

That looks wonderful.  What is the purpose of the champagne?

 

I remember when I worked at  this bakery/café years ago, we were celebrating the owners birthday.  We did a little event and there was a bottle of champagne left over, so my general manager and I(remember not in the right state of mind) decided "Hey lets make something with this"  I grab the strawberries and the pectin, and grab the bottle.  30 mins later we had strawberry champagne jam.  Since then I have been experimenting with the formula using different types of strawberries, but the champagne adds a little bubbly flavor.  My wife gets real exited when our strawberries are ready for picking, she hands them to me and says "you know what to do!!".   I am a type of pastry chef who never throws out an idea to use alcohol in a pastry or component.

[Smithy]

I like your style, Matthew. ;-)

[Ann_T]

Kim, I love your Cupcake High heels.  I think your mom is right.  

 

My son has been home this week so I made a couple of pies.

 

Blueberry

 

 and a Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie doctored up with whipped cream and toasted coconut.

[merstar]

I'm baking this for the upteenth time with my tweaks:

Cinnamon Quick Bread

http://www.food.com/recipe/cinnamon-quick-bread-49525
 

 

[Anna N]

I'm baking this for the upteenth time with my tweaks:

Cinnamon Quick Bread

http://www.food.com/recipe/cinnamon-quick-bread-49525

That looks delicious. What size loaf pan do you use? Care to share your tweaks?

[Bojac86]

I've been trying to improve my baking lately, but I've especially had a massive love affair with all things cookie dough lately. I've been looking up different things I can do with it, such as these recipes: http://tonyhakim.com/desserts-made-with-cookie-dough/%C2'> (the Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars are a particular favourite)

[merstar]

That looks delicious. What size loaf pan do you use? Care to share your tweaks?

I use a 9x5 loaf pan. Here are my tweaks in parentheses that I posted on another forum in 2008. They're basically up to date, except I don't fold over the whole batter, just the very top layer slightly. I also dust the pan with flour after buttering.

http://www.eat.at/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=5&msgid=11

[Smithy]

Here's what I used: 210 g flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 115 g unsalted butter, 6 tablespoons water.

I sprinkled a few tablespoons of sugar on the fruit and crust before putting the tart in the oven. See here for more details.

Thanks very much for the tips! I made my first galette / rustic fruit tart today for a dinner party today, using your recipe and the pointers from your blog.

The dough rolled out beautifully, and soon I had the galette assembled, using a combination of nectarines and peaches. (If I've missed this point, I apologize: is it a good idea to put something like an egg wash down first, to seal the dough? I did so with beaten egg whites, before the fruit went on.)

I was quite proud of the finished product, and only as we were getting ready to leave did I realize my oversight: how to transport it? I ended up carrying it on the parchment paper, on the baking sheet, with the lid of a cake carrier over it. What a wonderful presentation.

The galette received enthusiastic praise, and the sincerest compliment of not having much left. The accompaniment was nectarine/amaretto ice cream (today's other project), whipped cream, both or neither, depending on the eater's preference.

I was quite proud of the whole thing, until I went back up and looked at photos of galettes from the pros in the last 2 pages. It's only partly the quality of the photos; I can see that the pastry wasn't as flaky. But it was a hit, and a lot of fun, and I figure that's what counts - at least as a starting point - for this amateur.

[CatPoet]

Smithy: nice to see other names for  food. That type of pie is called  Slarvpaj or hastpaj,  so either sloppy pie or quick pie. I have seen  hastpaj,  written Swedish hästpaj,  the umlauts changing it to horse pie.

[Franci]

I made the second one, but subbed the raspberries with strawberries, because I had them handy. They were fresh, juicy and fragrant - we went to pick-your-own at a nearby farm yesterday. It was the start of their season, and I got to pick only the very best berries. Of course I had a blast.

image.jpg

I like the look of your galette better than the one I made today. I followed The first recipe but I didn't have enough rhubarb, so I used 380 g rhubarb and a 340?g of frozen raspberries (unthawed). Maybe rhubarb is not as moist and 2 tablespoons flours to add to the filling are sufficient but for juicier fruit I think the directions of the messy bakers are safer. 1/4 cup flour, plus tapioca...I had a big leak.

I couldn't taste at all the amaretti powder at the bottom. It was not bad and the crust was not soggy in the end but the cranberries galette that I linked before, cannot compare to this...love that one

[Anna N]

I use a 9x5 loaf pan. Here are my tweaks in parentheses that I posted on another forum in 2008. They're basically up to date, except I don't fold over the whole batter, just the very top layer slightly. I also dust the pan with flour after buttering.

http://www.eat.at/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=5&msgid=11

Thank you. Hope to make this shortly.

[merstar]

Thank you. Hope to make this shortly.

You're very welcome. Let me know how it turns out.

[RWood]

I have to maintain 6 ice cream flavors plus a sorbet for our sampler we offer. In the summer, that's a lot.  So, there's been a break in wedding cakes for the next couple of weeks, and I've started stocking up.  These are a few of the flavors I've been making:

 

Chocolate Fudge Brownie

Cherry Almond Chip

Kahlua Espresso

Blueberry

Nutella Hazelnut

Fennel

Apricot Sorbet

 

And more in progress    

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