Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[Mette]

9-year old and I made an orange layer cake to take on the school picnic - sponge, orange flavoured whipped cream, orange segments and marcipan

Edited May 15, 2011 by Mette (log)

[Kerry Beal]

9-year old and I made an orange layer cake to take on the school picnic - sponge, orange flavoured whipped cream, orange segments and marcipan

Yum! That looks wonderful.

[deensiebat]

Still too cold for strawberry shortcake here, so I went with pistachio pudding with whipped cream and chocolate cookies. How much did I love this? So much. Creamy, nutty, and with some chocolate to boot.

[Emily_R]

Just made the most amazing ice cream tonight, as well as one of the easiest. Strawberry ice cream with a strawberry-rhubarb swirl. The ice cream was based on a technique from David Lebovitz that he uses in his Chocolate Raspberry ice cream. I brought a cup of heavy cream to a boil, and put it in the blender with 1/2 a cup of sugar, blending to combine them. I then added 10 ounces of frozen strawberries -- really good ones that I froze from our garden last summer. Blend until smooth, and voila -- ice cream base! I'm someone who doesn't even usually like fruit and dairy, and I still think this stuff is incredible. I froze it in the ice cream maker, and then as I was packing it into a quart container swirled in some basic strawberry-rhubarb sauce I had cooked up the day before. Out of this world.

[Pierogi]

Coffee-Chocolate Layer Cake with Mocha-Mascarpone Frosting (sprinkled with cocoa nibs over top). From the April '09 "Bon Appetit".

It *was* as decadent as it looked.

Edited May 22, 2011 by Pierogi (log)

[Emily_R]

Pierogi - I've had that cake, and I think that frosting is the best frosting I've ever tasted! And Mette -- meant to say earlier that your orange cake is just beautiful! Love the idea of marzipan with orange -- serious yum.

[Darienne]

Just made the most amazing ice cream tonight, as well as one of the easiest. Strawberry ice cream with a strawberry-rhubarb swirl. The ice cream was based on a technique from David Lebovitz that he uses in his Chocolate Raspberry ice cream. I brought a cup of heavy cream to a boil, and put it in the blender with 1/2 a cup of sugar, blending to combine them. I then added 10 ounces of frozen strawberries -- really good ones that I froze from our garden last summer. Blend until smooth, and voila -- ice cream base! I'm someone who doesn't even usually like fruit and dairy, and I still think this stuff is incredible. I froze it in the ice cream maker, and then as I was packing it into a quart container swirled in some basic strawberry-rhubarb sauce I had cooked up the day before. Out of this world.

life-long ice cream hater and now confirmed home-made ice cream lover, I have to say: "Oh my"!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Apple-ginger cake with manjar de leche icing, and a nice lump of vanilla helado de paila.

[Darienne]

Apple-ginger cake with manjar de leche icing, and a nice lump of vanilla helado de paila.

OK. Had to look up 'manjar' and 'paila'. And did you make your helado de paila in a copper kettle with ice and straw? Or in an ice cream maker. Please feel free to translate the names of any dishes you make for me at least, a gringo from the wilds of Ontario. I do love Mexican food, and the desserts, and am learning to make some. Do you have a particular cookbook from which you make your Ecuadorian desserts? If so, is it in Spanish only? Thanks.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I do indeed have a large copper kettle and a larger clay pot (for the ice) for ice cream making - any other way (and I've tried it) doesn't taste quite right. I received my recipes for ice cream from a very kind ice cream maker in the jungle town of Puyo, who also taught me the proper technique for spinning the bowl and using the wooden scraper to get a very fine texture. Helado de Paila is an artform that was invented in the highland Ecuadorian city of Ibarra about 150 years ago, but very little has been written about it - basically to learn how you have to ask somebody who knows to teach you.

I don't have an Ecuadorian cookbook actually. I have neighbours! So the recipes do come to me in Spanish, and I jot them down. I'm slowly and steadily accumulating a nice collection. My favourites in terms of dessert at the moment are Alfajores (actually a Chilean thing - they're manjar sandwich cookies rolled in coconut), Dulce de Coco (a coastal chewy coconut and molasses bar), and Tres Leches (literally Three Milks - a moist cake pudding thing that kind of defies description).

--

For those of you out there: Manjar de Leche is a reduced milk sweet similar to caramel; helado de paila is ice cream made in a copper kettle.

[Darienne]

I do indeed have a large copper kettle and a larger clay pot (for the ice) for ice cream making - any other way (and I've tried it) doesn't taste quite right. I received my recipes for ice cream from a very kind ice cream maker in the jungle town of Puyo, who also taught me the proper technique for spinning the bowl and using the wooden scraper to get a very fine texture. Helado de Paila is an artform that was invented in the highland Ecuadorian city of Ibarra about 150 years ago, but very little has been written about it - basically to learn how you have to ask somebody who knows to teach you.

I don't have an Ecuadorian cookbook actually. I have neighbours! So the recipes do come to me in Spanish, and I jot them down. I'm slowly and steadily accumulating a nice collection. My favourites in terms of dessert at the moment are Alfajores (actually a Chilean thing - they're manjar sandwich cookies rolled in coconut), Dulce de Coco (a coastal chewy coconut and molasses bar), and Tres Leches (literally Three Milks - a moist cake pudding thing that kind of defies description).

--

For those of you out there: Manjar de Leche is a reduced milk sweet similar to caramel; helado de paila is ice cream made in a copper kettle.

Thanks so much for taking the time to give such detailed answers. I have yet to make Alfajores although from what I understand there is pretty much a variety of this cookie in every South American country...and all different from each other. And OK. Tres Leches...here I come. I know there are a lot of variations of cakes and I'll pick one that looks as foolproof as I can. I must look up Ecuador on the map and get a good fix. Thanks again.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

In the Andean alfajor, Ecuador is the manjar sandwiched between Colombia and Peru. We're right on the equator.

I can also keep my eyes open for good bilingual cookbooks for Ecuadorian cuisine. I know there has to be at least one out there....

[dhardy123]

This is what happens when you can't decide between baking chocolate chip cookies or brownies. Brownie base with chocolate chip cookie dough on top!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Ginger Snaps. Boy howdy, the recipe made a lot of them!

[Darienne]

Very nice. I do like your packaging.

[Kouign Aman]

Baklava: cinnamon, walnut, with lime juice in the syrup. I love this variation.

[ctown13]

Currently making a haupia cake. Whoa...it is going to be amazing!

[heidih]

Baklava: cinnamon, walnut, with lime juice in the syrup. I love this variation.

That sounds interesting. I have used calamansi juice and enjoyed it. Do you include any of the zest?

[jakey]

After reading this thread for some time (and drooling alot) and also read a thread on making homemeade twix bars, I decided to try it and share. The shape isn't the same, but they taste pretty close to the packaged cookies/candy.

[Darienne]

Made Smitten Kitchen's Strawberry Cake. Luscious.

Had no whipping cream so I used a sauce of yogurt, cream cheese, homemade strawberry jam (a friend made it, not I), and the end of the Strawberry Cream Tequila that another friend gave me at our Mexican meal.

[curls]

Yellow cake, chocolate frosting and pistachio paste ganache filling. Cake and frosting recipe are from Sherry Yard. Pistachio paste ganache by Derrick (leftover from the eGullet Chocolate Conference). Delicious!

[janeer]

Yellow cake, chocolate frosting and pistachio paste ganache filling. Cake and frosting recipe are from Sherry Yard. Pistachio paste ganache by Derrick (leftover from the eGullet Chocolate Conference). Delicious!

Now that is a thing of beauty.

[RobertM]

Yellow cake, chocolate frosting and pistachio paste ganache filling. Cake and frosting recipe are from Sherry Yard. Pistachio paste ganache by Derrick (leftover from the eGullet Chocolate Conference). Delicious!

WOW - looks awesome - save me a piece????

[curls]

Yellow cake, chocolate frosting and pistachio paste ganache filling. Cake and frosting recipe are from Sherry Yard. Pistachio paste ganache by Derrick (leftover from the eGullet Chocolate Conference). Delicious!

WOW - looks awesome - save me a piece????

Sure Bob, I'll save you a piece. When are you coming by?

[minas6907]

Blueberry Almond Scones topped with strussel, using the base recipe for scones in the Professional Pastry Chef.