Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[Darienne]

Wonderful Kim...think of how frustrated a baker you would be if you didn't have a workplace to go to????

[Kim Shook]

Wonderful Kim...think of how frustrated a baker you would be if you didn't have a workplace to go to????

Yes, we've said that often. If I ever get to retire, I'll be that peculiar woman walking up and down the streets trying to give away cupcakes and cookies!

[RWood]

So, I usually have to make my own birthday cake. I guess I know I'll get something I like that way .

Chocolate Chiffon, Pecan Espresso Dacquoise, Espresso and Chocolate Buttercreams.

[Darienne]

So, I usually have to make my own birthday cake. I guess I know I'll get something I like that way .

Chocolate Chiffon, Pecan Espresso Dacquoise, Espresso and Chocolate Buttercreams.

The cake looks lovely, Robin. Chocolate, pecans, espresso...all good things. And the chocolate is "GOOD" chocolate.

Because friends know I work with chocolate, they often give me chocolate for presents...and then I give that 'chocolate' to someone who doesn't care.

I invariably make my own birthday cake and last year our 50th wedding anniversary cake too. As you say, I get something I like that way.

I wonder how many others make their own birthday cakes???

[RWood]

So, I usually have to make my own birthday cake. I guess I know I'll get something I like that way .

Chocolate Chiffon, Pecan Espresso Dacquoise, Espresso and Chocolate Buttercreams.

The cake looks lovely, Robin. Chocolate, pecans, espresso...all good things. And the chocolate is "GOOD" chocolate.

Because friends know I work with chocolate, they often give me chocolate for presents...and then I give that 'chocolate' to someone who doesn't care.

I invariably make my own birthday cake and last year our 50th wedding anniversary cake too. As you say, I get something I like that way.

I wonder how many others make their own birthday cakes???

Thanks!

My family uses the excuse that they know they will get something good, so why should they go buy something. I keep telling them that's not the point

[curls]

Happy Birthday Robyn! That cake looks delicious.

[lironp]

Wow cakemuse- these are amazing! I especially like the hearts

[oli]

WOW,WOW

[deensiebat]

I made a batch of macaroons for a care package, topped with ganache and chopped toasted almonds. Like an almond joy, but better.

[Darienne]

Ooooooohhhhh. Now I know what I am making tomorrow with confectionery partner, Barbara. They look scrumptious!!!

[minas6907]

Heres a cheesecake I made a while ago for a group of friends my sister was having over-turns out the gathering never happened (long story) so I started cutting the cake into quarters and giving it to friends. This is the "west coast cheesecake" from "The Professional Pastry Chef." The colors on top are apricot and raspberry jam.

[Darienne]

Oh my! That's gorgeous!

[Darienne]

Ooooooohhhhh. Now I know what I am making tomorrow with confectionery partner, Barbara. They look scrumptious!!!

We made 'em and they are delicious. Now I have to get them out of the house pronto before I eat them all.

[Genkinaonna]

The phrase, "like an Almond Joy, but better," sounds like crack to me! Those look great, as does that cheesecake. My little people and I made chocolate pudding tonight, which was a little too rich for them (scharffenberger cocoa and 68% chocolate) but I thought it was just dandy...oh well, no accounting for taste...

[Darienne]

The phrase, "like an Almond Joy, but better," sounds like crack to me! Those look great, as does that cheesecake. My little people and I made chocolate pudding tonight, which was a little too rich for them (scharffenberger cocoa and 68% chocolate) but I thought it was just dandy...oh well, no accounting for taste...

Well, they were like crack (I guess never having even seen crack) and I paid for it last night. Out they go this morning.

[Kim Shook]

Robyn – Happy Belated Birthday. If I could bake like that, I’d ALWAYS make my own cake!

deensiebat – I am making those macaroons! Better than an Almond Joy sounds like my kind of heaven!

minas – your cheesecake topping is absolutely gorgeous. I know EXACTLY how it was done and I KNOW that I do not have the hand control to do it! Bravo!

For a dinner party the other night, I made Martha Stewart’s Roasted Strawberry Cheesecake:

I made it in one of those new cheesecake pans with the tempered glass bottom and silicone side. This is an amazing pan and I’ve never made a more beautiful or more easily unmolded cheesecake. The bottom is lovely and clear and you can serve right from it.

Top shot:

Side shot:

BITE:

I made this last week to serve this Monday and froze it in the meantime – which is another reason that I love cheesecake – they freeze so beautifully!

[Kim Shook]

This is so funny, and a reminder that our world is shrinking - when I went to Amazon to get the link to the wonderful pan that I made my cheesecake in for Marlene, who should the first reviewer be but our own andiesenji!

[DeliciouslyLekker]

Baked a rustic but oh-so-beautiful cake today. I just love the texture and the bittersweet richness of it. It's an adult cake so probably not the best for children birthday parties. I felt like I was eating good chocolate from the chocolaterie hehe.

Recipe for the Earl Gray Torte here

Edited March 27, 2011 by DeliciouslyLekker (log)

[lebowits]

This is a Tropical Fruit Bon Bon that I put together for the first time this weekend. The center is flavored with passion fruit, mango, and banana purees along with a bit of lemon and lime juice for acidity. The shell is white chocolate decorated with red, yellow, and green cocoa butters.

This is a cut away view showing the dark/milk chocolate center in contrast with the white chocolate shell. I really like the dark/light contrast. By double casting the shell, it is thick enough not to show through to the center.

[Darienne]

Wonderful, Steve.

[tarko]

very nice steve:)!

[Genkinaonna]

Those chocolates are lovely! And the colors definitely add to the tropical feel. And that chocolate cake looks amazing, I love cakes that are so rich on their own that frosting would be overkill...

[Genkinaonna]

Cupcakes, it's the blackout cake from BFMHTY with vanilla italian meringue buttercream, soaked with vanilla syrup. The best reason for using this particular recipe is that it makes 2 doz perfect cupcakes with just enough batter left over for a 4 inch cake, which is, coincidentally the perfect vehicle for the leftover buttercream! So I can eat while I sit back and admire my handiwork. These were for a little girl's birthday, mom specified girlie, but I heard about it third hand and don't know the child personally. Hopefully pink papers, pink and purple luster dusted fondant butterflies and flowers with pearl dragees counts as girlie enough!

[Kim Shook]

Deliciouslylekker – that cake is fabulous! I just love the slightly collapsed center and the contrast of the dark chocolate with the drift of confectioner’s sugar! I’ve printed out the recipe to try.

Genkinaonna – I adore your cupcakes. They are certainly girly enough for me!

I made a couple of different cookies for dessert last night. One huge success and the other – not so much.

I made Deena’s Almond Joy cookies:

A fantastic success. Delicious macaroon with a dollop of dark chocolate and toasted almonds. Rich and gooey. The dark chocolate offsets the sweetness of the macaroon perfectly.

The other cooky was a bit of a failed experiment and requires a little explanation. I love those Lofthouse cookies that they have in grocery store bakeries. They are tender and soft and very cakey. I am also in love with Brewster’s Cotton Candy Explosion ice cream. It is cotton candy flavored with Pop Rocks mixed in. I somehow became obsessed with the idea of making a Lofthouse-type cooky with the flavor of the ice cream. A coworker makes a copycat Lofthouse cooky and gave me her recipe. I put a little cotton candy flavoring in the cooky dough and in the frosting and topped them with Pop Rocks. Then my problems began – the cookies are lovely and tender and the frosting smooth and not numbingly sweet (better, in fact, than the Lofthouse frosting). But the flavoring didn’t taste at ALL like cotton candy – just vaguely sweet and fruity. The Pop Rocks worked just fine when we tasted the cookies immediately after topping the cookies – good explosiveness. But they fairly quickly melted away to nothing. Sigh. I’m sure that Brewster’s gets some special Pop Rocks that will stand up to being wetted with the ice cream. They are much larger than the ones that I got. Oh, well. My next idea for the cookies is to incorporate toasted coconut, which I’m sure will work much better. I also overdid the red food coloring and they are rather alarmingly PINK:

[Genkinaonna]

Kim, I consulted with my children and they do, in fact, consider those cookies to be their idea of heaven. FYI. So let me know if you get the recipe straightened out