Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[Tri2Cook]

That looks really neat - what is the gelling agent?

I should have mentioned that the amounts for the gums are calculated on the total combined weight of the base ingredients. Cream cheese + puree + water + sugar x gum percentage. He doesn't give the percentages in the recipe so I figured them out so I can vary the batch size easily. So, for example...

500 grams cream cheese

500 grams puree

250 grams water

100 grams sugar

9.45 grams iota

4.73 grams kappa

2.97 grams agar

@jmacnaughtan: absolutely beautiful job on the V8 cake.

@Kerry: you're killing me with all of the baking. Everything looks really tasty and I'm feeling like a complete slacker.

@Darienne: blueberry snack cakes sound awesome. Blueberries are coming in full-force here now. The blueberry festival actually kicked off today.

[Kerry Beal]

@Kerry: you're killing me with all of the baking. Everything looks really tasty and I'm feeling like a complete slacker.

But Sunday I head back south and you won't see me make anything (or if I do - I won't remember to take a picture) until I'm back up here in October. I'm a binge baker you see.

[Kerry Beal]

Vernazza Loaf Cake from the River Cafe pocket book.

Essentially a pound cake with lots of vanilla (sadly no beans here so I used a goodly amount of extract), a bit of corn meal and some potato starch.

I'm guessing there will be no Vin Santo or even cappucino for the girls to drink with it.

[flourgirl]

It looks perfect Kerry.

[Kerry Beal]

It looks perfect Kerry.

It was quite tasty! Would have been better with the vin santo or coffee though.

And here we have the 'last lap' - teisen lap - the last thing I'm going to make before heading south. I'll cut off a chunk to feed the rug rat on the long trip home - and give the rest to her sitter when she drops her off in the am.

[Darienne]

Not sure where to post this last production. Made Always Order Dessert's Dark Mocha Molasses Snacking Cake adapted from Smitten Kitchen's Everyday Chocolate Cake. http://www.alwaysord...cking-cake.html

and it was a bit of a disaster. Did not hear the timer go off and by the time I rescued the cake, it was 'oh so slightly' overdone...as in it had heavy crusts around all sides. Yes, it was a good book.

So. What to do? I had read about these "Cake Balls" and decided that maybe I could make some with scratch ingredients. Started with the cake, added some homemade thrown together white icing. Then added some rum. Oops. My hand slipped. Then found some vanilla cookie crumbs from some other project which I never made. Then added some melted 62% chocolate for good luck. And so on. Until the texture was suitable.

Rolled some balls, stuck cut-in-half skewers in them, dipped them in dark 70% tempered chocolate. Omigod. So delicious in a down home comfort sort of way. I love the contrast of the sweet innards with the very dark chocolate.

Now to get rid of them before we eat them. Fortunately, those who make goodies never run out of neighbors willing to take said goodies off their hands.

Edited August 7, 2012 by Darienne (log)

[BeeZee]

dang, I need a neighbor who "messes up" desserts like you do!

[JustinThyme]

Apricot mousse, home made caramelized white chocolate and pistachio gianduja mousse.

CWC leftovers turned into small chocolates:

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Tiered apple-walnut-raisin moist spice cakes with manjar de leche IMBC and gumpaste flowers. For a christening (hence the little angel figurine).

[Darienne]

Oh my! Two wonderful pieces from JustinThyme...and welcome to eGullet...and PanaCan.

Wonderful about left-over chocolate and similar goodies.

[janeer]

Sourdough Panettone

A little behind here. Is this a true Panetonne, with fruit? What does the sourdough do to this classic, in your opinion?

[Mjx]

Birthday cake for my boyfriend's father:

For some reason, chocolate is the go-to flavour for birthday cakes in my boyfriend's family.

The marzipan things at the bases of the candles are a joking allusion to my boyfriend's father's aversion to anchovies. I was stymied in my effort to make things that look like anchovy filets, because Danish marzipan has a surprisingly rough texture, and you can't make a really thin layer of it that holds together, so these look more like herring filets (if you have a good imagination).

At the last minute I discovered that, thanks to my not checking its condition beforehand, the gel writing medium had seized up in the tube and smelled slightly stale, so I used tweezers to position a gajillion tiny sprinkles instead. This made a for a rather wobbly looking inscription, since my hands shook pretty much the entire time (I was so worried I was going to screw it up).

The flags were a late addition: a birthday cake here just has to have flags!

[Darienne]

The birthday cake looks lovely and you are a good son's girlfriend -not -in -law?

[JustinThyme]

Thanks Darienne.

jeener, It is classical recipe (http://vivalafocacci...evito-naturale/), but instead of fruit I used sugar cubes rubbed in orange in lemon, when melted it formed pockets of intense

flavour. Sourdough introduced very subtle acid note which went very well with already lemon/orange flavour of the dough. Also, texture was firmer than with a yeast.

Here is pic

[Kim Shook]

Kerry – that Lemony Cream Butter Cake looks and sounds fantastic – I just printed out the recipe! Actually everything you are doing looks amazing. I KNOW how busy your life must be and still you are putting out these incredible things. You are my idol, ma’am!

Mette – your cordials and jellies look like jewels in the sun!

jmacnaughtan – welcome and I am STUNNED by that cake! Inside and out.

Darienne – love the cake balls. I’ve not tried them from scratch yet and want to. I loved the looks of the ones that I made last year, but NOT the taste.

Some cookies that I made to take to our Pittsburgh meet-up with friends:

From the top: Ginger Chewie w/ Sugar Babies, my oatmeal Raisinette cookies, PB cookies – one dipped in Demerara sugar, one sprinkled with sea salt and Dream cookies (a very rich butter cooky) in the middle.

Yesterday I tried out a new cooky recipe from David Lebovitz – Tahini and Almond Cookies:

They were recommended by Darienne and they were remarkable. I made one slight change – I used smoked almonds instead of regular and added some roughly chopped along with the ground . Fantastic! I’m freezing them to serve at Mr. Kim’s birthday celebration on the 18th. Thanks so much, Darienne!!

[Darienne]

Good one Kim. The DL cookies.

Do try the cake balls with 'real' ingredients. Of course, they taste amazing. I have a big batch ready for the Dog folks (who will begin to arrive in just under one hour.)

[Shelby]

Oh Kim I MUST have the recipe for the sugar baby cookies! I ADORE Sugar Babies. Is it on your recipe site?

[Kim Shook]

Oh Kim I MUST have the recipe for the sugar baby cookies! I ADORE Sugar Babies. Is it on your recipe site?

Here you go, my dear:

http://www.recipecir...er_Chewies.html - I think you'll like them! It's getting harder and harder to find Sugar Babies. I'm thinking of ordering a few cases and putting them in the freezer just in case!

[janeer]

Thanks Darienne.

jeener, It is classical recipe (http://vivalafocacci...evito-naturale/), but instead of fruit I used sugar cubes rubbed in orange in lemon, when melted it formed pockets of intense

flavour. Sourdough introduced very subtle acid note which went very well with already lemon/orange flavour of the dough. Also, texture was firmer than with a yeast.

Here is pic

Thank you for the link; the videos are great (even though my Italian is very tourist-quality). Love the idea of the sugar cubes/intense lemon/orange. The texture looks great--still panettone-y. Love the stuff.

[Darienne]

Dog Weekend is upon us and tonight's pie is such a winner: Margarita Pie, a combination of two recipes plus my own intervention. With Tequila, Grand Marnier, whipped cream, lime juice, crushed pretzels, etc, how can you lose?

[ElsieD]

What are Sugar Babies?

[Shelby]

Oh Kim I MUST have the recipe for the sugar baby cookies! I ADORE Sugar Babies. Is it on your recipe site?

Here you go, my dear:

http://www.recipecir...er_Chewies.html - I think you'll like them! It's getting harder and harder to find Sugar Babies. I'm thinking of ordering a few cases and putting them in the freezer just in case!

Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

I didn't know SB's were scarce....I better see if Amazon has some.

[Shelby]

What are Sugar Babies?

Little bites of heaven

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Babies_%28candy%29

[ElsieD]

Ah, thank you. I don't think I have ever seen them in Canada. Sound good, though.

[flourgirl]

Tiered apple-walnut-raisin moist spice cakes with manjar de leche IMBC and gumpaste flowers. For a christening (hence the little angel figurine).

This cake is breathtaking! Absolutely gorgeous!