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

[HungryChris]

The rhubarb has gotten a little out of control, and called for desperate measures. So, I took them. What we will do with all this strawberry rhubarb pie, remains to be seen. I think Deb may just have to leave one with a pie knife on the lunch room table at work.

HC

[Anna N]

@Kerry Beal  brought me some rhubarb from her garden and while we were out together yesterday we saw some strawberries and so:

 

 

 

 Strawberry rhubarb crumble.

[Tri2Cook]

51 minutes ago, Anna N said:

@Kerry Beal  brought me some rhubarb from her garden and while we were out together yesterday we saw some strawberries and so:

 

 

 

 Strawberry rhubarb crumble.

Yes, please!

[shain]

Babka filled with tahini and silan (date honey), coconut flakes, rose water, a hint of cardamom. Crisp sugar coating with pistachios and more rose water.

 

[Okanagancook]

I am attempting to learn how to make pastry for pies and such.  I have the book The Art of the Pie which is wonderful and has great instructions.  I found some leaf lard and rendered that so I am set.

I made my first batch of dough and had a heck of a time knowing how to get the crumbly dough together at the stage when water is added.  I added a LOT of water and I thought this can't be right.

Anyway the pie wasn't half bad.  But how to get the dough together.....then I stumbled on to this video.  You can fast forward it to where she starts adding water.

 

 

[Toliver]

2 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

Anyway the pie wasn't half bad.  But how to get the dough together.....then I stumbled on to this video.  You can fast forward it to where she starts adding water.

Water gets added at 4:55.

She neglected to mention, when she sprays the pie pan before placing the crust inside it, what she was spraying the pan with. I will assume it's a non-stick spray like "Pam". But, I could be wrong (though I don't think I am).

[RWood]

One of my last cakes at work.  Wedding party of 12.  They had no clue what they wanted, just chocolate cake, fondant and spring looking with gum paste flowers.

 

[Smokeydoke]

@Okanagancook it takes practice. I remember my first pies were just atrocious (and I even posted them online! I was so proud of them) but then I worked in a bakery for a year and I got really good working with dough and now I can make pies in my sleep.

 

Quickness and a good sense of touch-feel are key, imo.

 

I think lard leaf makes a superior crust.

 

Keep going! You'll get there.

[rarerollingobject]

A giant dragonboat cake!

 

About six months ago, which was two months into my new workplace, a lady at work clocked the fanciness of my weekly office cakes, cornered me while I was distracted, and asked me if I’d make a dragonboat cake as the centre piece of her dragonboat club fundraising stall. I kind of shrugged and said, “Yeah, OK....” and promptly forgot about it for 5 months and 3 weeks, and here we are.

 

I consider myself a pretty proficient baker, but I have never in my life, not even once, used fondant..so I thought I’d start with something simple, like a giant white chocolate mud cake with freeze dried raspberry buttercream, dark chocolate ganache, a ton of fondant, a sugar paste dragon head, two styrofoam boat tips, two pieces of wooden dowel, gold luster dust, copper dust, rose spirit alcohol, the biggest cake board you’ve ever seen, hundreds of feathers cut out of marshmallow fondant, an entire tub of piping gel, and a whooooooole lot of swearing.

 

(My favourite detail is the drum, that I stamped with my Hong Kong heirloom moon cake mold and dusted in edible copper.)

 

Edited May 27, 2018 by rarerollingobject (log)

[Duvel]

Will it keep until Dragonboat day ?

[rarerollingobject]

Already eaten, @Duvel, and I’m told it raised $1000 when they flogged it off by the slice today..!

[Duvel]

2 minutes ago, rarerollingobject said:

Already eaten, @Duvel, and I’m told it raised $1000 when they flogged it off by the slice today..!

Impressive ... I think that would sustain our dragonboat team for one season. Maybe you can schedule your next visit to HK in the beginning of next season 

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, rarerollingobject said:

A giant dragonboat cake!

Incredible!   I am sure I have never seen anything like it.  

[Smithy]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

Incredible!   I am sure I have never seen anything like it.  

 

Nor have I. Congratulations on a beautiful and creative masterwork, and a story well told. I particularly like the two dragon head pictures. In the sequence you've shown them (first without the eyes, then with) it looks like - well, it looks like the dragon just awakened to our presence.  That's an impressive effect.

 

Oh yes, and congratulations on the financial success of the project - at least for the dragonboat stall!

 

eta and yes, that drum is also very clever.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Smithy
Continued enthusiasm (log)

[Tri2Cook]

That's a beauty. I'm sure I could pull off the "whooooooole lot of swearing" part... but that'd be about it.

[Sweet Impact Mama]

On 5/21/2018 at 11:30 AM, Pastrypastmidnight said:

A little cliché but my 3-year old loved it . Chocolate cake with raspberry coulis and swiss meringue buttercream. It was my first real time doing anything with fondant (ears and horn).

Not sure if I told you this on Instagram, but this cake is brilliant!!

 

[pjm333]

Tiramisu

[MelissaH]

 

On 5/25/2018 at 8:23 PM, Toliver said:

Water gets added at 4:55.

She neglected to mention, when she sprays the pie pan before placing the crust inside it, what she was spraying the pan with. I will assume it's a non-stick spray like "Pam". But, I could be wrong (though I don't think I am).

I was at a King Arthur Flour pie demo a few years back. And yes, they spray the pan with Pam.

[caroled]

@pjm333, oh my...one of the most beautiful renditions of probably one of my favorite desserts ever. 

[pjm333]

caroled , thank you !

[shain]

Semi-sticky cinnamon buns.

[BeeZee]

Vegan chocolate avocado ice cream. Coconut milk, avocado, vanilla, cocoa, maple syrup. Currently freezing, after an hour it is the texture of loose chocolate pudding. No taste of avocado, just a great creamy texture. Looking forward to scooping it tomorrow.

[BeeZee]

Update, it is delicious but freezes hard as a rock. If I make it again I may try adding a little vodka to see if that helps with the situation.

[chromedome]

On 5/20/2018 at 5:44 AM, jmacnaughtan said:

 

A really lovely looking dessert...

 

But please enlighten me: is an acorn dacquoise what I think it is?  A normal dacquoise, made with ground acorns?

 

I had no idea they were even edible.

They've historically been a hugely important foodstuff, though as Rob says they take a deal of preparation. Oak trees generate a greater weight of edible nuts than just about any other tree, though, so in a subsistence economy they're worth the trouble. They were the staple food of the native peoples in one part of California, and even in Europe they've been a "famine food" off and on for most of history.

[blue_dolphin]

For a family gathering later today, I made the Roasted White Chocolate Brownies with Strawberry-Balsamic Swirl from Irvin Lin's MARBLED, SWIRLED, AND LAYERED.  Recipe available online here.  

Despite baking them for 10 min longer than the given time and testing with a toothpick, they are badly underbaked and quite gooey in the middle, though crumbly around the edges.  Too bad.  

I guess I will pick up something from Trader Joes  on my way over 

Edited to add that some googling told me that people have put underbaked brownies back into the oven, even after cooling and they came out OK so I will try it.  I might put some foil around the outside so the edges don't dry out too much. 

Editing yet again to report that I put them back into the oven for another 35 minutes.  I thought they were still on the gooey side but I brought them to the party anyway and they were a big hit.  They could have been humoring me with the compliments, but the negotiations to divide the leftovers were real!

 

 

Here's the white chocolate before roasting:

 

And after:

 

Batter before baking:

 

After baking:

 

Edited June 3, 2018 by blue_dolphin (log)