Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2015)

[CatPoet]

 

Test baking polar bear cookies.   Well they went perfect, except  I forgot I was dealing with an American recipe and this means the cookies are  big  so big that I have to remove the owl cookies the child wanted or she will  have a sore tummy.    I changed the recipe a little, instead of blue food dye , I had unsweetened cocoa powder  . So the idea now is  snakes, hedgehogs, polar bears and a Owl cake.

[RWood]

RWood, check out Ann rerdon and how to cook that, she has an avengers cake.

I've seen some of her stuff, will check it.

[Matthew Kirshner]

A Couple Things I did over the last Two Days.

 

From Left to Right: Tiramisu, Carrot Cake, Vanilla w/ Blueberry Frosting and dizzle, Chocolate w/ Vanilla and Stewed Cherry dizzle, Chocolate w/ Mocha Frosting and Chocolate Dizzle

 

 

 

 

Communion Cake. Vanilla Cake with Rich Chocolate Pudding Filling, Vanilla Buttercream, Fondant Cover

[CatPoet]

 

I made one batch of  sweet dough and made  cinnamon rolls and   toffee rolls. They look the same but the taste is different .  Oh and you can see what my husband named my rolls.  He said they were floaty light and  daughter said  Oh nom nom nom nom...

[CatPoet]

 

Owl cookies!!  They were surprisingly easy to make and  the dough smelled and tasted like the Swedish pastry  Semla so I think they will be great, They are bit more golden in real life but my camera battery is sharing  and I used my mobile which has  a bit of a problem with the camera. But beggars cant be choosers and this  smartphone is mine due to cake.,

 

I like this one, it looks like it about to giggle.

 

 

They all got different faces and this one look calm.  I did  change   the recipe slightly,  I used less  almond extract , the one we have only needs 1 to 2 drops to give a nice flavour and the cardamom I uses must be better quality then hers, because her amount  would be nasty and also I only use fresh ground cardamom , I find that the ready milled on  taste too much turpentine to be pleasant.

[Smithy]

I thought the bear cookies couldn't be outdone, but the owl cookies may be even more cute!

[CatPoet]

I hope the hedgehogs are up to standard, I be making them tomorrow.  Then it is only the cake left.

[rajoress]

Those owl cookies are adorable!

[CatPoet]

And we removed the snakes instead, because the owl cookies are so darn cute and we will have hedgehogs too.  

[Franci]

Gateau Nantais. Another almond cake, soaked with rhum this time. I also tried with pistachio, soaked with orange simple syrup and a glaze of powdered sugar and orange  blossom water. Love them both.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Franci (log)

[Smithy]

Ohhh, Franci!  That gateau looks moist and tender, and sounds luscious.    Do you have a link to the recipe you used?

[Franci]

Smithly, This. I used sweet butter but I can totally see the demi sel. It's a cake very very easy to make, with days passing doesn't feel as boozy as the first day My husband, which doesn't like cakes at all, loved so much the pistachio version with no alcohol.

[Smithy]

Thank you, Franci. This looks like precisely the sort of thing to tempt dinner guests who usually look askance at cake.

[cakewalk]

Thank you, Franci. This looks like precisely the sort of thing to tempt dinner guests who usually look askance at cake.

Look askance at cake??!!

[CatPoet]

 

An owl cake. Make with chocolate and vanilla cake and  orange curd and pipped with chocolate cream and  marmalade cream.

 

 

This is the only picture I right now have of them due to my hard drive  crashing,  They are a  classic  Swedish "cakepop"  called  Arrakboll, they are normally flavoured with  arrak but we used almond extract, In Sweden we have a long tradition of waste not , want not  and this extend to bakeries,  there are pastries made with cookies crumbs, roll crumbs and  cake crumbs, because not even a flawed cake is useless here.

 

We were three who made them,  I rolled and dipped  them in chocolate,  friend added  the prickles and hubby added nose and eyes.

[CatPoet]

This is from Monday,  I made  layered jell-O for my daughter's  nursery group  and  had fun with the left overs,  injected some milk jell-o into the orange and  well my husband say it looks like a fetus and I say intestines.

Why the jell-O treats for the  nursery?  They always have a party for the  birthday kid, which happens to be my daughter this time and the birthday kid  gets a balloon with their name on as gift , best thing ever. And you cant have a party with out  treats so Jell-O.  Jell-O is a very uncommon thing here in Sweden but the kids loved it.

[Kim Shook]

What lovely and delicious looking things everyone is doing!

 

Franci – the texture of that Gateau Nantais is absolutely perfect.  What I strive for every time I bake a cake and almost never get!  Thanks for the link! 

 

My Mother’s day dessert didn’t turn out very well.  I did strawberry poppy seed cake:

 

I’ve made this many times in the past and the icing is always a challenge.  It’s white chocolate whipped cream and it does tend to slump, which it did this time.  But it tasted great, so that was ok.  But the cake itself kind of failed.  It was too dense and didn’t rise very well.  Usually it is a light, springy white cake with poppy seeds.  It was almost gummy this time.  It tasted good, just the texture was off.  Those are actually 4 layers – two split cakes with strawberry jam, icing and sliced strawberries in between.  Pretty sure that the baking powder was good and I know I didn’t overbeat after adding the milk and flour mix.  Perplexing.  I beat the butter/sugar mixture a lot, but that should be ok, right?  Any ideas?

[CatPoet]

You flour could have been old or not absorbent enough, it happens.  If you want a firmer  white chocolate cream, melt the  chocolate with the cream, dont boil the cream and leave to cool completely and then whip fluffy.

Edited May 14, 2015 by CatPoet (log)

[Darienne]

Kim, your cake looked delicious to me.  I would have eaten it gladly.  In fact, if anybody ever made me a cake, I would swoon from delight.

[RWood]

I never thought this past week would end! I had cakes everyday, dunno what was up with that.

Here are two of them:

The red poppy cake was for a same sex wedding, they got married 20 years to the day they met, awww .

The next one, had a lot of flowers (plus the poppies) that I had to make at home (grrrr) because at had no time at work to get them done.

[CatPoet]

 

Rhubarb and meringue pie..  YUM, heaven on a plate.

[JohnT]

Rhubarb and meringue pie..  YUM, heaven on a plate.

Interesting! Can you point me to your recipe? I have not see rhubarb at any fruit and veg supplier here for over 15 years. Today, they had boxes and boxes of it at very good prices - I have to go and pick up an order tomorrow morning so will get some to experiment with. The last time I cooked anything with rhubarb was nearly 40 years ago!

[CatPoet]

I will translate the recipe, can you can get hold of potato starch?

[JohnT]

I will translate the recipe, can you can get hold of potato starch?

Mmmmm maybe - never looked for it so actually do not know. Maize or corn starch is freely available here and, I am sure potato starch should be available.

[CatPoet]

This is the best translation I can do tonight, I been talking in my home dialect and then my brain  goes a bit wonky. My favourite thing with rhubarb is    Rhubarb melt, just rhubarb and sugar in a sauce pan cooked until  it gone soft and  gooey and then you just pour it over ice cream, yum.  

 

Rhubarb Meringue pie.

 

Pie 

 

1 egg + 3 eggyolks

200 ml caster sugar

1 teaspon vanilla

2 teaspoon baking powder

250 ml flour

50 gram butter

500 gram of rhubarb

25 - 50 ml sugar

2 teaspoon  corn starch or potato starch

 

Meringue 

3 egg white

150 ml caster sugar.

 

 

Heat the oven to 175 C. Melt the butter and set a side.  Prepare a spring form with a paper in the bottom and grease  and dust the sides.  

Peel and cut the rhubarb.  Mix flour and baking powder,  Whisk the  eggs, sugar and vanilla until thick and pale.   Fold in the flour and butter.

 

Pour the batter in to  spring form. Flatten it out. Taste the rhubarb, add the right amount of sugar  to the rhubarb and add the starch and stir until coated.  Add the rhubarb to the batter, just lay it on top , in one level layer.

 

Bake in the cooler part of the oven for 30 minute.

 

When it is  15 minute left , make the  meringue, whisk the  egg white to stiff peaks, add the sugar a little at the time  until glossy and no longer gritty. 

 

When the 30 mins are up, spread the meringue on top of the cake and bake for 20- 25 minute more.