TWD: Tiramisu Cake

I managed to find some time to make this cake and I am so happy I did. The cake was great! I changed the recipe a little bit when I halved it. First I used two whole eggs, yogurt instead of buttermilk (for buttermilk substitutes go here), and I made my own mascarpone! Ok, not really. I made a mascarpone substitute using this recipe. At first, I didn't get how this would taste like tiramisu but then I added the coffee extract to the mascarpone and the taste was spot on.

Make sure to check out Megan's My Baking Adventure blog for the recipe and the TWD site to see what everyone else thought about this week's selection.

P.S. 3 more finals left! My google reader is at 1000+ and my TWD group has close to 500 posts. I hope to catch up on posts and commenting soon. I miss normalcy.

The mini cake

The mascarpone was the show stopper on this baby.

A little bite.

I skipped out on the chocolate. Can you believe it?

Exhaustion and Banana Bread

I am pooped. The last week or so of my life has been spent studying and preparing for finals. It's amazing what the brain and body can endure. I feel so tired and yet I know I have to keep going. I'm trying to stay focused on the present moment but our future life is pounding at the door. There's been a lot of hustle and bustle in the house over moving (just shy of 3 weeks) and how we are going to transport things down to Miami. The apartment is starting to look so bare and impersonal as all our personal items are packed away and our tiny space is crowded with boxes. I spent 2 hours packing today and I feel like I barely made any progress; there's still so much else to pack away. The sad part of the day was packing all my cookbooks away. I won't be seeing them for at least a month and I'm going to miss them. Hopefully they don't forget me! I can't wait to sell back my law books. Those books won't continue to haunt me once I get to Miami. The first one to bite the dust is this one:
I needed a distraction from all school/moving stuff so I baked. I needed something quick and easy because I didn't have much time. I decided to make a banana bread because banana bread always makes me happy. This particular one was really, really good and it tasted like the boxed ones I used to make with my mom when I was younger. The ingredients are so basic that you will undoubtedly have all of them in your kitchen now.
Banana Bread
Source: Williams-Sonoma (here)

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
3 medium very ripe bananas, peeled
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Grease an 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch metal loaf pan with butter.

In a bowl, using a wooden spoon, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

In a large bowl, smash the bananas with a fork. Add the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla and beat with the wooden spoon until well blended.

Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir just until blended.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly with the wooden spoon. Put the pan in the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it, about 45 minutes.

Using oven mitts, remove the pan from the oven, set it on a wire cooling rack and let cool for 20 minutes.

Gently run a table knife along the inside edge of the pan to loosen the bread from the sides.

Using oven mitts, turn the pan on its side and slip the loaf out onto the wire rack. Let the loaf cool for 15 minutes before serving.

DB: Oreo Cheesecake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I absolutely loved this month's selection. After making the lasagna last month it was nice to get back to baking sweets. The cheesecake was your basic cheesecake, but the challenge was to make it unique. The cheesecake was a perfect canvas for whatever dessert you wanted to create. I tried to recreate one of my favorite cheesecakes with the homemade Oreos I made. The Oreo cheesecake tasted amazing. I've already talked about how great I though the Oreo recipe was, so I need to tell you about this cheesecake...it's divine! It's the creamiest cheesecake I have ever tasted. The cheesecake is incredibly rich, but not overly sweet. I really can't think of another word to describe this cheesecake other than creamy. The batter was pretty liquidy so I didn't expect the end product to be so thick. I was even more impressed that my cake didn't crack and that the cookies didn't sink. This cake was a complete success :)

Thanks for your selection Jenny! Don't forget to check out the fabulous Daring Kitchen site!
Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Served with Oreos

Ultra creamy

Just So You Know...

Posting is probably going to be a little scant over the next few weeks. I had my last class on Friday and I am currently in complete study mode. I have five finals in the next 17 days and I am still trying to play catch up in one of my classes. I am surprisingly calm this time around, but I know I still need to bust my butt; can't let those transfer schools think I suck at this law student stuff! I cannot wait until I can say I am done with this hell of a year. At least the weather was perfect for studying outside this weekend. Boston is gorgeous this time of year.

Mmmm Maggiano's

One of our favorite restaurants up here is Maggiano's. In my opinion it's the PF Chang's of Italy. They are always bustling and busy and reservations can be hard to get, but they are definitely worth the crowds and the late night meal. Service is always great and the prices are phenomenal. You get a lot of food for very little money.

We started off the night with the Mozzarella Marinara. This is a huge chunk of mozzarella breaded, fried, and topped with slice of provolone cheese and marinara sauce. Fried mozzarella doesn't get better than this; the mozzarella is creamy, the breading is crunchy, and the provolone and marinara add a sweet saltiness to the dish.
Alex ordered the Chicken Pesto Linguini. This is his favorite pasta. He loves the sauce, which is an alfredo-like pesto sauce. The sauce is loaded with pine nuts and the pasta is full of roasted chicken. Because the sauce is more like a cream sauce, the pesto is very subdued. You get a hint of the herbs in the pesto but they aren't as potent.
I ordered the Chicken Parm. This chicken dish hit the spot as the chicken was incredibly juicy underneath the fried coating. The chicken was topped with provolone cheese and marinara. Melted cheese makes just about anything good and this made chicken even better.
For dessert we ordered the Apple Crostada and, omg wow, this was the best apple dessert I have ever had in my life. The apples were extremely tender and they melted in my mouth. The pastry was exactly what a pastry should be like in this kind of dessert, crisp on the outside and warm and chewy on the inside. The dessert was topped with a scoop of ice cream, which was perfect pairing for the warmth of the apples and the pastry.
Maggiano's has one location in Boston and several locations throughout the US. They are definitely worth checking out and exploring.

Oreo Cuteness, Part 2

I am foolish. I am publishing posts without finishing them. I'm not even putting in my thoughts or pictures. My brain really is somewhere else and it all has to do with my big secret. I need my brain back and I need it back now. I have finals coming up and I need to be able to concentrate and focus on school. I recently posted the recipe for Oreo cookies I made. I thought I finished it, but I hadn't. Oops again. These cookies were fantastic. They really did taste like Oreos. The chocolate wafer cookies were such a basic cookie that they would be perfect for just about anything. What really had my impressed was the cream. It tasted EXACTLY like the cream in Oreos. It's the cream that gives these cookies away as homemade Oreo cookies.

The recipe is in this post. And now the pictures....

The cookie.

I tried to make mine double stuffed.This is what true love looks like.

Oreo Cuteness

{For an updated post, please check here. Also, please excuse my broken brain.}

I had seen this recipe for Oreos a couple of months back and I knew I had to make them. I love Oreo cookies and they round up my top three favorite cookies of all time.

Oreo Cookies
Source: The Cupcake Project
Makes about 40 Oreo average sized Oreo cookies

The Chocolate Wafers
1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C unsweetened cocoa
1 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 C sugar
1/2 C plus 2 T butter, room temperature
1 large egg

1. In a medium-sized bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar.

2. Beat in the butter and the egg. Continue mixing until dough comes together in a mass.

3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. (I totally didn't read this flatten dough part...oops!)

4. Bake for 9 minutes at 375 F. Set on a rack to cool.

The Filling
1/4 cup room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla.

2. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2-3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

3. To make a cookie, pipe teaspoon-sized blobs of cream into the center of a cookie using a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch round tip.

4. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

Enjoy!

Cake Slice: Chai Cake with Honey Ginger Cream

[Oops...I had a minor brain issues and posted this before the post was ready.]

What an awesome cake selection this month for The Cake Slice. Each month I fall more and more in love with Sky High. All the cakes I have made have been amazing. The recipes are so unique and creative. This cake was no exception. The best way to describe this cake is by saying it's aromatic. The smells of the chai milk, the spices, and the frosting were amazing. It's not fair that something so natural and organic can smell as good as this cake did. The cake was deliciously sweet, incredibly high, and completely satisfying. Alex said the cake reminded him of a pumpkin cake because of the spices, which means he loved it.
Chai Cake with Honey Ginger Cream
Alisa Huntsman’s Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes

1 1/3 cups of milk
6 chai tea bags, without added sweetner, such as Tazo
4 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tsp of vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups of cake flour*
2 cups of sugar
4 ½ tsp of baking powder
3/4 tsp of ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp of ground cardamom**
1/2 tsp of salt
8 ounces of unsalted butter at room temp.

[*1 cup of cake flour is equal to 3/4 cup of all purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.]
[**Cardamom substitute is an equal amount of brown cardamom OR equal parts ground nutmeg and cinnamon OR equal parts ground cloves and cinnamon]

1. Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees F. Grease the bottom ans sides of the pans and line with parchment paper. Grease the paper as well.

2. In a small saucepan bring the milk to a simmer over low med-low heat. Add the tea bags, careful not to let the paper tag fall into the milk. Remove from heat and allow the tea to steep for 5 minutes. Remove the teabags and squeeze out the milk. Let the chai milk cool completely.

3. In a medium bowl mix the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and 1/3 cup of the chai milk. Whisk together.

4. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt in the bowl of a mixer. Beat on low for 30 seconds. Add the butter and the remaining chai milk, on med-low speed. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg mixture in three additions scraping the between additions. Divide the batter evenly among the pans.

5. Bake the cakes for 26-28 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 10 minutes.Remove cakes from pans and peel off parchment paper. Cool completely.

6. To assemble the cake place one layer flat side down a serving plate and top with 2/3 cup of icing. Spread to the edge and repeat with second layer. Place third layer on top and spread the remaining ginger cream on top allowing it to drizzle down the sides of the cake like icicles.

Honey Ginger Cream

2 ½ cups of confectioners sugar
6 ounces of cream cheese at room temp.
6 Tbsp of unsalted butter at room temp.
1/2 cup of honey (any kind as long as liquid)
1/2 tsp of fresh grated ginger

Place all the ingredients in a food processor. Pulse to blend together, then scrape the sides of the bowl and pulse until smooth.

I topped my mini cakes with cake crumbs.

The cake packed quite a spicy punch :)Drip, drip.

Enjoy!

TWD: Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding

I almost forgot I hadn't posted this week's recipe. I'm down to the wire! I made this dessert last night and it was a hit. I've never made nor had bread pudding before so I didn't know what to expect. Alex thought I threw some bananas in this and I actually thought of doing that but decided at the last minute not to. He enjoyed it a lot and was caught off guard at first because he's never had a chocolate bread pudding. As for the bread pudding virgin? I thought it was great! It kind of tasted like french toast drenched in chocolate syrup, which probably explains why I had it for breakfast this morning. I must say I am loving the chocolate streak we've been on lately :)

Thanks to Lauren of East Side Chronicle for making a great selection this week. Don't forget to check out Lauren's blog and the other bakers on TWD!

I love the look of powdered sugar. Would you like some?

Bad Baker

I have been a bad baker as of late. I have completely neglected my Cake Slice, Cookie Carnival, and You Want Pies With That? duties. I promise to catch up! Cake Slice post will be going up on Wednesday and I am trying to think of a how to turn a family favorite dessert into a pie for this month's You Want Pies With That? theme. That one is really going to require me to get creative. Maybe the beautiful spring season will inspire me :)