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

[emmalish]

Everything looks great, but those chocolate coconut caramels have really caught my eye, they are stunning. The animal crackers look wonderful. I have that cookie-cutter set (from Williams Sonoma) and I made the cookies once. I don't remember which recipe, but it used nutmeg, not cinnamon, and it worked very well. I brought the cookies to a family function for the little ones, but the cookies got broken up during the flight. I was upset but no one else seemed to mind, the kids had fun matching the giraffe's head to the lion's body, etc. The cookies were good, I thought the nutmeg would be too overpowering but it wasn't. I have to try out those caramels.

 

Thanks cakewalk. :-)

 

I love these cutters, but I really want the Williams-Sonoma set too. It has a few different animals than what I've got – there's a tiger and a seal, right? I've just got the lion, elephant, zebra and giraffe. I've seen photos of a camel one too, but I've never seen the actual cutter anywhere.

 

And the Williams-Sonoma site has an animal crackers recipe – could that be the one you used? It's on my list of recipes to try out. It has both nutmeg and mace.

[CatPoet]

emmalish;  I got to  know if I want a cookie more dry and cracker like, I can dry them out in the oven on low heat and door  slightly open for 2 hours

[cakewalk]

Thanks cakewalk. :-)

 

I love these cutters, but I really want the Williams-Sonoma set too. It has a few different animals than what I've got – there's a tiger and a seal, right? I've just got the lion, elephant, zebra and giraffe. I've seen photos of a camel one too, but I've never seen the actual cutter anywhere.

 

And the Williams-Sonoma site has an animal crackers recipe – could that be the one you used? It's on my list of recipes to try out. It has both nutmeg and mace.

Yes, the seal is balancing a ball on the tip of its nose. Which breaks off, and you can put it on the elephant's trunk! My set has an elephant, tiger, giraffe, seal, and lion. I've never seen the camel either, it might be from an old set that was discontinued, I think they change animals every so often. I don't think I used the W-S recipe, I remember finding something else on-line that was similar, but for some reason I liked it better. I should have saved a copy of the recipe in the box with the cutters, but of course I didn't.

[emmalish]

Yes, the seal is balancing a ball on the tip of its nose. Which breaks off, and you can put it on the elephant's trunk! My set has an elephant, tiger, giraffe, seal, and lion.

 

So. So. Jealous.

[cakewalk]

I might have misled you here -- the ball doesn't break off as part of the cookie cutter. I meant that after you bake the cookies, the ball will usually break off (like the giraffe's neck) and then you can just use your imagination.

[ninagluck]

simple apricot cake

[emmalish]

I might have misled you here -- the ball doesn't break off as part of the cookie cutter. I meant that after you bake the cookies, the ball will usually break off (like the giraffe's neck) and then you can just use your imagination.

 

No, that's what I thought you meant. Still jealous. 

[DianaM]

simple apricot cake

Nina, could you please share your recipe? And do you think it will work with cherries?

[ninagluck]

DianaM,it works with any kind of fruits:

for a baking tray, abt 20x25 cm

begin with mixing 4 eggwhites with 42 g sugar until stiff, set aside

mix 90g soft, unsalted butter with 42 g of icing sugar, some lemon zest, some vanillasugar and a pinch of salt until fluffy. add 4 egg yolks, one by one and combine into the batter. fold in the eggwhites so that you don't have any "nests" sift 90 g all purpose flower with a pinch of baking powder on top and carefully incorporate. put into the greased tray, fruits on top.sprinkle with almond flakes and bake for 45 min at 180°C.

[Franci]

Amaretto cake. It would have been so much better with a zabaglione and some peaches

[CatPoet]

 

Chocolate cookie  triceratops  3D!

[rotuts]

lot of talent on the above.

 

Is that a one-eyed green cake w horns, BTW CP ?

[CatPoet]

Yes, that is my big brothers birthday cake.   Everything is edible even the horns.   He has birthday right after Halloween and  even if we dont celebrate it as Americans do, some stores carry spooky candy and there is where I got the eye from. It is  sponge cake with lemon curd filling and covered in  licorice  frosting.

[Shelby]

4th of July dessert

 

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/143108-4th-of-july/?p=1976194

[CatPoet]

Today I made a Yogurt and almond cake, normally I make it  half size due to the fact we cant eat that much  cake and  the room in the freezer is at a premium.  But today I made full size, which gave me one 4 serving cake ( that is what the tin says) and  then 10 fairy cakes.

 

My husband  begged me for iced and filled  fairy cakes so I made one each for Sunday coffee/ tea .

 

 

The outside, a  big juicy Hanoi strawberries 

 

 

And inside lovely  buttermilk butter cream.  YUM.

 

 

One half of the four serving cake became  dessert for after dinner and the other half went into my freezer.  The plate it is on, is one of these small plates I have for my  dinner set, so it is a small cake. I filled it with strawberries and  smothered in  yogurt and whipped cream topping and added a few big hanoi strawberries on top.  We still have a piece of cake left in the fridge.

[merstar]

I made Mocha Truffle Cookies again:

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/cookies/mocha-truffle-cookies/
 

Edited July 6, 2014 by merstar (log)

[emmalish]

Since the last time I posted, I've made these peanut butter butterscotch chip cookies. I wasn't sure what this flavour combination would be like, but it really works. Some of the butterscotch chips are melted and mixed in with the cookie dough. The result is a soft, tender cookie that's almost creamy.

 

 

 

And then I made these lime meltaways (spellcheck keeps trying to change that to "beltways"). I looooooove lime. And these are really flavourful tiny cookies you can just pop in your mouth. I could've eaten them all myself.

 

[CatPoet]

Emmalish, could  you check if the  peanut butter chips contains milk? I am pondering to buy some but at the price of 10 dollar per bag and no chance of reading the ingredients before I buy it, I would want to know, because it is a bit expensive.

[emmalish]

Emmalish, could  you check if the  peanut butter chips contains milk? I am pondering to buy some but at the price of 10 dollar per bag and no chance of reading the ingredients before I buy it, I would want to know, because it is a bit expensive.

 

Hey CatPoet, I'm not at home right now, but a quick google brought up the ingredients on their website (link here). 

[nakji]

 

 

The outside, a  big juicy Hanoi strawberries.

[CatPoet]

Emmalish: Thanks and argh, they contain whey so a no go.

 

Nakji.  Yes  Hanoi is  type of  Strawberry, when grown commercially they are not that sweet and look pretty but when  you buy them organic they are lovely and sweet and not that perfect.   The season for Hanoi is soon over and I got another variety  and I cant remember the name, I will ask on Saturday because these just explode with sweetness, strawberry flavour and  juice in your moth.

 

I am picky with my strawberries, I dont want the perfect low flavoured pretty cone strawberries with whole in the middle.

[rotuts]

nakji:  do you have a ref. to the PBS blueberry cake ?   looks terrific.

[nakji]

Rotuts, I found it on Pinterest, oddly enough. Here you go: http://www.pbs.org/food/fresh-tastes/blueberry-bread/

Catpoet, I know the sort of strawberry you mean, with holes in the middles. Those are the kind I get in China. We have local strawberries coming in now, and there is no substitute.

[Blether]

I spotted these beautiful plums at the store:

 

 

I thought I'd stew them, then I thought I'd use the microwave, but in the end I baked them in the oven.

 

- some prunes (1 for every two plums, IIRC)

- some small dried figs

- a handful of raisins

- a glass of orange juice

- a tablespoon of that Colintreau again

 

- these soaked overnight, covered, in the fridge, then infused vanilla, 3 drops of orange oil and 4 of lemon oil stirred in.  The plums cut around on the midline, just to split the skins; sliced almonds and bashed up cashews toasted for 5 mins in a 200C oven.  I was going to stir in the nuts, but in an unfocussed moment I'd already poured the soaked fruit over the fresh.  So the nuts sprinkled on top, (a few dabs of butter) and a baking temp of 170C to avoid burning them.  30 minutes did a nice job.  Ready for the oven:

 

 

and baked and cooled to room temp:

 

 

No sugar added at all:  the dried figs have a great caramel flavour, and with the other dried fruit are just right against the tartness of the plums.

[Blether]

And I just finished baking some 'Fig Oaties'.

 

I planned (some time ago) to make these to use up some of the little desiccated figs I used with the plums, above.  It became obvious these weren't what the Oaties recipe has in mind:  I picked up some that looked more like it, only to notice later that I'd bought glace figs.  I used them anyway:  otherwise ingredients per the recipe, but cut down to 175g of sugar, and i omitted the cinnamon and the garnish (didn't have enough figs).

 

 

 

These are good!  I think I'll give 'em my official seal of approval.

Edited July 10, 2014 by Blether (log)