#31 from the list….CHECK!
February 6th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
I have been remiss in checking off items on my “List”. I do have a lot going on, but what can be more important that making sure that I am making progress in life? I am happy to say that I recently learned how to make my mom’s wonderful, delicious, amazing and delightful cheesecakes. Growing up, watching my mom bake cheesecakes was a normal occurrence in the household. Holidays were led by my mom asking my brother and I what flavor of cheesecake we would like to have, which was then proceeded by my brother fighting over which flavor to have (I know, middle class white kid problems). My mom could turn out handfuls of cheesecakes with ease and assured me that they weren’t easy to make. They were seemingly a laborious 2 day process of equal parts care and finesse to avoid the pitfalls of dryness, cracking, sinking or flat out just failing.
Over Thanksgiving my mom ran through the recipe, walked me through each step and then sent me home with the recipe to try on my very own. I will say that I was quite impressed with how the first ones turned out. Seems as if Cheesecake making is a passable gene.
Before you go asking, “What is the recipe.” Let me tell you that part of the teaching process of cheesecake making included my mom telling me in no uncertain terms that the recipe is a secret. And while I can’t share the recipe with you, I will tell you that there is one other who knows the recipe as he watched the entire process….but I don’t think he is telling either.
Halloween Treat
October 19th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
I love Candy Corn and I have evidence; see exhibit A:
Candy corn is the perfect delectable mix of wax, corn syrup and sugar. A good candy corn blend will not have too much wax as to make it appear foggy, and it will not have too much sugar-making it appear chalky. The perfect candy corn is vibrant in color with a hint of translucency. October is the best time of year, solely because it is when candy corn is in full bloom at the grocery stores and the magical candy corn pumpkins (my favorite!) appears in the holiday section. So, with such a deep love of candy corn, seeing a candy corn cheesecake made my heart all aflutter! Thank you, Wilton for this magical cheesecake recipe!
Instructions:
step 1
Prepare 2 mixes of cheesecake batter following package directions. Prepare 1 crust and place in bottom of pan following package directions.
step 2
Position Batter Dividing Ring in pan. Fill center ring with batter to 1/4 in. from top of ring, level with top edge of pan. Tint remainder of batter yellow. Fill outer ring with batter. Tint remaining yellow batter orange and fill middle ring. Smooth each section with spatula dipped in warm water. Carefully remove ring and smooth again with spatula if needed. Refrigerate following package or recipe directions.
step 3
*Combine Lemon Yellow with Golden Yellow for bright yellow shown.
Cake Beautiful
August 30th, 2011 § 1 Comment
I have been remiss and should add, “Take a Cake Decorating Class”, to my Life List. I am in awe of perfectly frosted and beautiful cakes. I can make a cake that tastes good, but when it comes to making one look like perfection, it is always a crap shoot. I found this amazing cake on Glorious Treats and was immediately inspired to learn how to do this. This cake is glorious!
If you are up for the challenge, here is a step by step how-to which can also be found here.
Prepare a batch of American Buttercream Frosting. Again, I made a 6″ cake, so for an 8″ cake, I would suggest multiplying the recipe by 1.5. I divided the frosting between four bowls, one bowl with a bit more than the others (the one that will be the lightest color, because it’s used for the top as well as one row of swirls). I colored the frosting with Americolor soft pink and a little electric pink (for just the darkest color). Also, reserve a small amount of frosting (maybe 1 cup) in the mixing bowl, to use between the layers, and to very thinly frost the outside (crumb coat).
~ Assembly ~
Layer the cakes, darkest on the bottom, frost with a very thin layer of icing between each layer. Because I didn’t want too much frosting between the layers (to detract from the colors of the cake), I brushed each layer of cake with warmed cherry jam (most any flavor you like could be used). You could also use a simple syrup, orange juice, or omit this step. Frost the outside of the cake with a thin layer of frosting. Smooth as well as you can (I use an offset spatula), but it doesn’t need to be perfect. Place the entire cake in the freezer about 10 minutes for the icing to set, and the whole cake will firm up (making it much easier to decorate).
Prepare a piping bag with a #21 Wilton tip (a moderate sized open star). This is the tip I used, but other open star tips could also work. Fill piping bag with the darkest color icing. Remove cake from freezer, and start along the bottom of the cake, creating rows of swirls. For each swirl, start in the center of the ”rose” shape and pipe in a spiral around the center, about 1 1/2 rotations. Continue along the bottom of the cake, creating rose-like swirls. Repeat with remaining colors of icing. You may find that there will be some areas in each row that don’t get fully covered, to fill in the little empty spaces just squeeze in some icing, in a curved shape (like a ”C”) to mimic the rest of the swirls a bit. For the top of the cake (shown below) I used a combination of swirls and some “C” curves for a looser, wavy effect.
Once fully frosted, store the in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Serve with milk, or coffee to accompany the pure sweetness of this cake.
