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Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )


pjm333

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After the unrestrained hedonism of pink icing and glacé cherries, it's back to boring brown cakes for me. This is parkin, a traditional cake from the north of England. It's kind of a dense gingerbread made with black treacle (molasses) and oats.

 

Parkin.thumb.jpg.9fceb30787bbffbe776bf31da690bcfc.jpg

 

This is the Yorkshire type of parkin and bakes quite dry. But it's so hygroscopic from the ridiculous amount of sugar that, after a few weeks in a cupboard, it softens nicely and turns pleasingly sticky. It's a popular treat at this time of year with Halloween and Bonfire Night just around the corner.

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On 10/18/2018 at 3:01 PM, Kim Shook said:

@kayb and @Shelby - So glad these are appealing to you!  They are really, really good.  Two things to know.  Make sure to not overcook them - they should be fairly soft out of the oven.  Also - you can make these messy or you can make them neat.  If you don't care what they look like, mix the Sugar Babies in and bake.  They will melt and the ones near the edges will spill out over the edges and make these lacy little crisp caramel ruffles.  We count these as a delicious little treat.  If you want them neat (which I did for the bake sale), you can just press a couple of the Sugar Babies into the cookies before putting in the oven.  For that matter, you could probably place them on top of the soft cookie when it comes out of the oven - like you do Hershey Kisses in PB blossoms.

 

And, I always find my Sugar Babies at Dollar Tree, if that helps.

IMG_5334.JPG.889454f02041e2bc9506895de1e56b03.JPG

 

:biggrin:

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A big birthday party this weekend, so it had to be a bûche.

 

Dark Forest Bûche

 

1850003709_FortNoirebche.thumb.jpg.69e687897e10e2bf68e6bbf864e30579.jpg

 

Chocolate digestive and upmarket Lindt candy crunch

Blackcurrant curd

Dark chocolate sponge

Cherries in brandy

Mascarpone and vanilla chantilly

Dark chocolate mousse

Glaze

Chocolate, cherries

 

My first Black Forest, and many things learned:

 

a) Buy the cherries at the last minute, or I will eat them all.

b) Cling film leaves an unintentionally cool wood effect on the cake.

c) I cannot cut straight to save my life.

d) You can pipe glaze onto cakes.

e) You don't notice how bad Paris streets are until you're trying to keep a cake away from your white shirt in the back of a taxi.

 

But not bad :D

 

Edited for coherence.

Edited by jmacnaughtan (log)
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Another day, another bit of brown; this time in the form of the Courgette (Zucchini) & Pistachio (Pistachio) Cake from Honey & Co.

 

361135159_CourgetteandPistachioCake.thumb.png.67ae300fda69425f3bf3c91598490385.png

 

I didn't have any olive oil so subbed in regular vegetable oil (rapeseed). Next time I'll chuck in another handful of (roasted) nuts.

 

I enjoyed this. It was a fine cake.

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Pistachio and Rose Water Semolina Cake from Ottolenghi 'Sweet'.

 

515994204_PistachioandRoseWaterSemolinaCake.thumb.jpg.db103a668413587ab1b2144cad84d4a1.jpg

 

A bit of a curious one, this. I had high expectations that, sadly, didn't quite deliver. I think I may have contributed to my own disappointment by roasting the almonds (with skins, my choice) and pistachios that went into the cake batter. They were then blitzed in the food processor but not as finely as commercial ground nuts. This meant their flavour and texture was a little more "wholemeal" in the finished cake. Even the generous amount of soaking syrup (lemon, rose water, sugar) didn't really brighten things up much.

 

I was hoping the accompanying cream (Greek yoghurt, crème fraîche, rose water) would come to the rescue but that turned out to be surprisingly anodyne.

 

761997943_PistachioPlated.thumb.jpg.dca8de736661c5748f83aa5f4f2605f7.jpg

 

Not sure I'll be revisiting this one any time soon.

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My wife is no fan of the lowly banana.  And certainly not when they look like this...

 

284611764_2018-10-2408854.thumb.JPG.ce35a87cdbfb2d76861c82f919263c61.JPG

 

But that's how I like them when I'm making one of these...

 

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It's my standard, slightly bastardized recipe from Nick Malgieri's How to Bake

 

I have a fondness for Nick, as he was my instructor for pastry and baking back at the old Peter Kump's NY Cooking School, my alma mater 

 

 

Edited by weinoo (log)
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Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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LOL I consider those to be "just nicely ripened."

They gotta go a bit longer to be consigned to baking, in my house.

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“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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12 hours ago, chromedome said:

LOL I consider those to be "just nicely ripened."

They gotta go a bit longer to be consigned to baking, in my house.

I find that any longer and they ferment.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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In an effort to get the cherries in kirsch out of the house, I'm running with the Black Forest Gâteau thing.

 

1278084864_Blackforest.thumb.jpg.bfb1d0577d422ea5465d574db3799532.jpg

 

All of the elements are the same as the bûche from last weekend, but it's tweaked to make it a bit lighter.  I'll see if I've succeeded tonight 🤔

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Beetroot, Ginger and Soured Cream Cake from Ottolenghi 'Sweet'. Here it is before and after icing...

 

1998972692_BeetrootandGingerCake.thumb.jpg.d66b6018245ec73511bbdfb30974f120.jpg

 

It contains beetroot, walnuts and stem ginger (preserved ginger). The topping is cream cheese and double (heavy) cream. Ottolenghi uses a vitamin C tablet to preserve and 'set' the colour of the beetroot, resulting in quite a striking visual when sliced...

 

1798545868_BeetrootandGingerCakeSliced.thumb.jpg.c222cf2ecae7518fe30dbd06e67f0c58.jpg

 

This was a very good cake.

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On 10/26/2018 at 7:54 AM, jmacnaughtan said:

 

That's the sweet spot.  Also, if you want to boost the banana flavour a bit, add a splash of Jack Daniel's :)

If you really want to boost the banana flavour, I suggest doing 2 shots of Jack Daniel's :) .

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Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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Well, I haven't done this yet, but my little nephew's birthday is next weekend. He's turning 2 years old, and loves cars. I've been commissioned by my sister to make a large chocolate chip cookie cake. You've seen those if you've been to a cookie store in the mall. It's too have a big picture of the Blue Truck, on it. 

 

Little Blue Truck's Halloween (board book, by Alice Schertle)

 

I was thinking of using my copy of Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookie recipe, as Collin seems to like that. I'm gonna make a test-run "cake" early this week.

Edited by Smithy
Adjusted Amazon link to be eG-friendly (log)
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I was looking for something to do with some past their prime bananas and leftover melted semi-sweet chocolate that Jessica had from making chocolate dipped strawberries.  The consensus in another thread was chocolate chip banana bread.  I decided to try a Betty Crocker recipe for a cake mix fix up.  I re-melted the chocolate, spread it in a pan and chunked it up.  Chocolate Chunk Walnut Banana Bread:

DSCN8744.JPG.79ce49220d73e58e24ef1ee08c12d250.JPG

 

It tasted wonderful, but I think my chunks were a little large because they all migrated to the bottom of the loaf:

DSCN8745.JPG.5882a4cb26ba2efa90216b1a76e8b8c9.JPG

 

But the flavor and texture were very good:

DSCN8746.thumb.JPG.06ac5fe14b1eb0b8330fcabd097b8ad9.JPG

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