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

pjm333

By pjm333
in Pastry & Baking

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heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Tropicalsenior said:

That sounded so good I went looking for a recipe and found this one for Chocolate Cherry Snack Cake.

It also reminded me of an aunt of mine that wasn't a terribly good Baker and she only had one good cake recipe. Her idea of changing it up was to put pieces of her favorite candies in it. The one she made with chocolate covered cherries was delicious. She slipped up badly one Christmas when she chunked in whole, hard Christmas candies. Broke my grandmother's false teeth right in half. After that we approached her cakes with much trepidation.

Thanks that sounds small enough to risk the ingredients. Your story! Reminds me of my mom's "over black peppered" cauliflower soup. Oops the black spots were bugs from our home grown cauliflower not pepper.... I've never tried to recreate the choc/cherry. Closest I came was to routinely bring brownies swirled with raspberry jam to gatherings.  Pretty good. 

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Pete Fred

Pete Fred

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, heidih said:

Do you do  cherry + chocolate sweet? 

 

Yes. Love chocolate and cherry. Is Black Forest Cake not a thing in North America? In 1970s Britain, a Sara Lee Black Forest Gateau was the height of decadence and sophistication. I would be handing over my two pounds at this very moment for a blast of nostalgia if I was back home. I've only seen a Forêt Noire in a patisserie once here in France, which is a little surprising. I'll be sure to have a peek in the freezer cabinets next time I go shopping.

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ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Pete Fred said:

 

Yes. Love chocolate and cherry. Is Black Forest Cake not a thing in North America? In 1970s Britain, a Sara Lee Black Forest Gateau was the height of decadence and sophistication. I would be handing over my two pounds at this very moment for a blast of nostalgia if I was back home. I've only seen a Forêt Noire in a patisserie once here in France, which is a little surprising. I'll be sure to have a peek in the freezer cabinets next time I go shopping.

 

Canada has Black Forest Cake.

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Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
Posted

When my girls were little, I used to make Black Forest Chocolate Cake, German chocolate cake and the Ghirardelli chocolate cake from the package all the time. They are all almost impossible to size down for just two people. Nowadays a small 8x8 is just perfect. That's why I like the snacking cake recipes.

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Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
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Well, I made the chocolate cherry snack cake. Since cherries are almost non-existent here I had to make a few modifications. They only cherries that I had were some cans of cherry pie filling which I drained and rinsed. I baked the cherries in the cake and used the sauce to brush over the top after it was baked. As I expected, the cherries sank to the bottom and didn't add much flavor to the cake. It is still a delicious moist chocolate cake. Maybe next time I will add some mandarin orange chunks.20230606_115830.thumb.jpg.8f09dda4171779e5e06e957873fc9192.jpg

I won't be cutting into it until tonight, however, I did have a little extra cake batter and made a small cake for cook's treat. It was delicious.

20230606_132209.thumb.jpg.04efc47de3a912280b19abad558585b1.jpg

I'll be making it again, with or without fruit.

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heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted
24 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Well, I made the chocolate cherry snack cake. Since cherries are almost non-existent here I had to make a few modifications. They only cherries that I had were some cans of cherry pie filling which I drained and rinsed. I baked the cherries in the cake and used the sauce to brush over the top after it was baked. As I expected, the cherries sank to the bottom and didn't add much flavor to the cake. It is still a delicious moist chocolate cake. Maybe next time I will add some mandarin orange chunks.20230606_115830.thumb.jpg.8f09dda4171779e5e06e957873fc9192.jpg

I won't be cutting into it until tonight, however, I did have a little extra cake batter and made a small cake for cook's treat. It was delicious.

20230606_132209.thumb.jpg.04efc47de3a912280b19abad558585b1.jpg

I'll be making it again, with or without fruit.

Thanks for that report. Looks nice and moist. I saw fresh cherries the other day so will probably try this. Also I can get some pretty tasty dried ones. I can imagine that the pie filling substitute - not best path. I used to use Maraska cherry wine in cooking, That might be fun too. I first bought it cuz I'm a sucker for interesting bottle shapes!

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Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, heidih said:

Also I can get some pretty tasty dried ones. 

I can get dried cherries here if I want to take out a  loan on my car. They also had fresh cherries a while back. For about 4 oz they were $14. My only other option is maraschino cherries and I can't quite see that.

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Pete Fred

Pete Fred

Posted
Posted

Sticky Ginger Cake...

 

GingerCake.thumb.png.d093c5764c1c074b24790a9f0f76b205.png

 

GingerCake(Plated).png.59e605faab7a79b0e7586880c4b9db14.png

 

This is an excellent ginger cake, with a real kick from blitzing more than half a pound of stem ginger plus its syrup into a purée. Very moist and, errrr, sticky.

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Kim Shook

Kim Shook

Posted
Posted
On 6/5/2023 at 2:28 PM, Pete Fred said:

I found another jar of cherries lurking at the back of the cupboard so took a run at the Cherry Coconut Almond Cake from Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi....

 

CherryCoconutAlmondCake.thumb.png.9884c2e0037ae0ff8327955a11e8347e.png

 

It was ok. The coconut didn't really come through. I've just tasted a spoonful and it could just be second-rate coconut, so maybe that's it. More annoying was that the cherries sank. I knew immediately they would as the batter clearly wasn't thick enough. Buttermilk isn't available in France so I used lait fermenté (fermented milk) instead. (I would ordinarily use kefir as a substitute but that's also rare as hens-teeth.) From what I understand, cartons of buttermilk in the US are just fermented milk, but perhaps it's different enough to account for the sinkage. I've also made the doughnut cake from this book and I like the texture of the cake itself, but until I manage to solve this I won't be adding anything that weighs more than a feather.

 

Regarding the buttermilk: I am in the southern US and even I have trouble finding it sometimes.  When I do, I just use yogurt.  It acts the same way and is much thicker and solves the sinking fruit problem.  You shouldn't have any trouble sourcing yogurt in France.  

Kim

Kim's Cookbook

What Fresh Hell is This?

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Katie Meadow

Katie Meadow

Posted
Posted
On 6/8/2023 at 10:44 AM, Pete Fred said:

Sticky Ginger Cake...

 

GingerCake.thumb.png.d093c5764c1c074b24790a9f0f76b205.png

 

GingerCake(Plated).png.59e605faab7a79b0e7586880c4b9db14.png

 

This is an excellent ginger cake, with a real kick from blitzing more than half a pound of stem ginger plus its syrup into a purée. Very moist and, errrr, sticky.

Looks and sounds great. Plz direct me to the recipe! I always default to Laurie Colvin's Damp Gingerbread, but something different would be fun for a change. Thanks!

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Pete Fred

Pete Fred

Posted
Posted
On 6/9/2023 at 8:19 PM, Kim Shook said:

Regarding the buttermilk: just use yogurt. 

 

I made the cake again using Greek yoghurt...

 

CherryCoconutAlmondCake.thumb.png.fd4197a9a5d8b6811e0eee5671c8624d.png

 

The batter was noticably thicker and did a better job of supporting the fruit. What was a little weird was that the cherries mostly either stayed close to the surface or sank to the bottom; there wasn't much of a middle ground. And it seemed to be a cake of two halves with regard to the distribution...

 

RiseandFall.thumb.png.58b40af9d5630a118b53d182b7617360.png

 

I'm not sure what caused that. My oven is not particularly good; I have to try all kinds of shenanigans to get an even bake. Maybe it runs hotter front-to-back or side-to-side and the batter firms up unequally. The cake was also baked on the lowest shelf. Puzzling.

 

But the cake itself was no different texture-wise to the buttermilk version so that's duly noted for future bakes. (Several reliable online sources advised thinning the Greek yoghurt with milk but that didn't seem a wise move in this instance.) I would also increase the amount of ground almonds for extra insurance.

 

On 6/9/2023 at 8:43 PM, Katie Meadow said:

Looks and sounds great. Plz direct me to the recipe!

 

Ahhhh, I got the recipe after writing to a Michelin-starred chef who was generous enough to share it with me.  I've had a look around but it doesn't seem to have been published anywhere, so it's not really mine to post here. Apols.

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Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, Pete Fred said:

so it's not really mine to post here.

I appreciate your integrity. I've had people say, well, it's really not mine to give but I will change it enough so that it's different. Thank you, no. If it's a completely different recipe it's not the one I want.

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Kim Shook

Kim Shook

Posted
Posted

Saturday night Jessica and I did chocolate dipped strawberries for a graduation reception at church on Sunday:

1-IMG_3767.thumb.jpg.335a20205585a0ad73692895db140464.jpg

 

1-IMG_3769.jpg.38e8503b5132d12c5b02f8b78da25386.jpg

She has lost interest in even attempting any tempering of the chocolate.  They were very good and very much appreciated, though.  We use the Trader Joe's Pound Plus chocolate and it's always so good.  

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Kim

Kim's Cookbook

What Fresh Hell is This?

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Pete Fred

Pete Fred

Posted
Posted

I checked on one of my cherry trees yesterday and it was absolutely bulging with fruit...

 

IMG_7947.thumb.JPG.cc514ebbc107da554330beb5ec8b5627.JPG

 

Amazingly, the birds don't seem to be taking much of an interest, so half an hour later...

 

IMG_7949.thumb.JPG.62adcbfb10f0118950a1e2db7ea1980f.JPG

 

1.8kg (4 lbs) of perfectly ripe cherries. And that was just a fraction of what was left on the tree. Winning! (The fuzzy black dot hovering in the sky, by the way, is not a UFO, just a bit of dirt on the lens. I think.)

 

So today, being in the right part of the world for a clafoutis, I figured it woud be rude not to...

 

Clafoutis.thumb.png.7bdfcd15b579a5de50a9e52545e16e91.png

 

The great thing about having a super-abundance of cherries is that you can really load up the dish with them. I used a Guy Savoy recipe and, as is traditional, left the cherries unpitted. It is often claimed that this results in a better flavour, but I'm not convinced. Any potential benefit is far outweighed by the convenience of not having to spit out the stones. I think I'll make another one tomorrow with pitted cherries just to confirm.

 

 

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Anna N

Anna N

Posted
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27 minutes ago, Pete Fred said:

think I'll make another one tomorrow with pitted cherries just to confirm.

While I love cherries and I could eat pounds of them fresh and happily spit out the pits, I can't imagine doing that when they are incorporated into a  dessert. 

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

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Darienne

Darienne

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

And I am bulging with jealousy. There are no such things as cherries in Costa Rica.

Moi aussi.

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Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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Pete Fred

Pete Fred

Posted
Posted

For version two, I pitted and macerated the cherries for a couple of hours in some sugar and kirsch...

 

Clafoutis.thumb.png.8bf1ba8c78e189fc7217794dfc845db0.png

 

Not having to worry about the pits meant this was so much more pleasurable to eat, and the slick of boozy cherry juice on the bottom was a total winner.

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Darienne

Darienne

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Pete Fred said:

For version two, I pitted and macerated the cherries for a couple of hours in some sugar and kirsch...

 

Clafoutis.thumb.png.8bf1ba8c78e189fc7217794dfc845db0.png

 

Not having to worry about the pits meant this was so much more pleasurable to eat, and the slick of boozy cherry juice on the bottom was a total winner.

I'm coming.....save some for me.  :wub:

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Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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OlyveOyl

OlyveOyl

Posted
Posted

Luscious little strawberries won’t be around too much longer in my neck of the woods, so we are having them very frequently.  This time it’s with little Mary Ann cakes, strawberry pastry cream in the center and a dollop of cream.

IMG_3880.jpeg

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