Week 5 - Carrot Cake

Well folks, made it through a month!

I am excited! Week 5 was Carrot Cake.  I found this recipe in my Gourmet cookbook.  It is a bible sized book and I haven't actually made that much out of it.  But I was happy to find a Carrot Cake recipe to validate its space on the cookbook shelf! 

The fun additions to this recipe were using crushed pineapple to sweeten it, coconut, and walnuts.  They recipe stated that raisins could be added as an option, but I'm not really a fan.  To those who taste the cake and cannot believe there are no raisins, I apologize!

And....drumroll please, I made my own cream cheese frosting! I had never done that and was amazed at how quickly a little confectioner's sugar made frosting! So cool. I will be making my own frosting from here on out!

I bought a few pieces of equipment this week.  Two new circular pans to make the layers for the cake from Nordic Ware.  I was not entirely in love with their performance.  They are aluminum so I buttered and floured the pans and STILL some cake batter stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Also, I didn't feel like they cooked the cake evenly. The middle area falls apart a bit when you slice it. I might have to switch over to non stick. Or do some googling on how to improve their usage. I don't know.

Suggestions for next time: More frosting in the center layer. I was nervous I would use to much and not have enough for the sides, but had a lot left over when done. So next time, that middle layer will be thicker! Also, I might add a dash of nutmeg next time. Finally, I would use the Cuisinart to shred the carrots. I was halfway thru and realized I could have saved myself some time! shoot....

But the cake was great! I really don't love carrot cake but the pineapple in this one is yummy...!!! Hope my co-workers agree!!!

Let me know if you want me to post the recipe!

Week 4 - Laura Bush's Cowboy Cookies and...

Hello all! I am one day late - I try to post on Sundays because I mostly bake on the weekends - but this weekend was busy! I actually made the cookies on Friday because I went to DC to visit some of my college girlfriends! Thanks for a great weekend Kate, Kelly, Katie, Regina, Christen, Katrina and Cristen! I had a wonderful time and hope you guys loved the cookies!

I found this recipe a couple of years ago when living in DC.  The Washington Post puts out a spread each December of new Holiday Cookies - I saved the articles each year I lived there and have made these a few times.  Cowboy Cookies are chocolate chip cookies but with LOTS of extra goodies in them - Coconut, Pecans and Oats - what more could you want?

The recipe can be found here: http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe524.laura-bushs-cowboy-cookies.html

Dena and I made these one year and liked them alot! I got good reviews from the people that I handed them out to this weekend and Kate and I ate quite a few on the drive...

Now....for the weekly confession. I sort of feel like I should make something else this week because I have made these cookies before.  It seems like cheating if I have made something more than three times before. I am attempting to try NEW recipes.  So I might make a banana cream pie with cookie crust this week.  I found the recipe and am going to try to be adventurous one of the nights this week. And because I didn't bring the cookies to work my coworkers missed out on the weekly treat!

Stay tuned! Meanwhile, try the cookies...they are great!

Week 3 - Chocolate Cookie Cake

So, there's a history with this cake....and I am excited I made it!

Casey, one of my two Seattle Besties - makes this cake.  She made it for the first time for us and Mike loved it....Now she usually makes it with brownie mix, which is a definite winner.  I got this cake pan set from Doris, my mother-in-law, this Christmas and it had a cake recipe on the box.  I decided to try the cake recipe from scratch as opposed to brownie mix! It was a good choice...and now I have two ways to make it...

I actually bought unsweetened cocoa and dissolved it in water. And then made cake batter with flour, sugar, eggs, etc.

But - a confession - the icing was Betty Crocker. I didn't make icing from scratch....too bad! Next time.

The cake recipe is not online - I searched but if someone wants it, I will post it for you!
Suggestions for next time: More icing and I sort of bent the bottom cake when flipping it out of the pan - next time I will be more careful!

So this week's baking experience gives a special thank you to Casey for introducing me to this wonderful cake/brownie! And Doris for the present of the cake pans! Lastly, to Mike and Vincent for being my taste testers...

Week 2 - Pumpkin Pie

Well - Two weeks down.  Fifty to go...
Just to clarify - I made the cheesecake on Wednesday but created the blog yesterday.  So I don't want ANYONE to think I made a cheesecake on Saturday and a pumpkin pie on Sunday.  That was not the case!

So...this weekend was quite the baking adventure! I have made pumpkin pie before but with pillsbury crust and the Libby's recipe on the back of the pumpkin puree...I stepped it up a bit with this recipe.

I planned to make Pumpkin Pie with Ginger crust.  A crust from scratch. I have never done that before and I now know why people buy crust.  Making your own is tough. I once heard that it took someone 20 years to perfect their pie crust. I figured I had better get started......

So the recipe. My stepdad, Tom gave me a cookbook a couple of holidays ago called the Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum and it is dense.  Rose, impressively gives step by step directions on EVERYTHING.  She is a wealth of baking knowledge and she writes very well.  I have to remember to read her words carefully so as not to miss any of the important advice.....So her Basic Flaky Pie Crust was tough. I had to freeze and refrigerate various ingredients for the crust prior to making it so everything was cold when it went into the food processor.  Then I put it all together in my NEW Cuisinart, a Christmas present from my stepmother, Lanie who is a walking advertisement for the brand.  Everyone should have one! I agree Lanie....- thank you again!

The dough had to refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight. Well, I talked myself out of making the entire pie yesterday and chose overnight! Today, I picked back up with rolling.  I made so many mistakes in Rose's detailed directions that it isn't even worth it to list them all! But I didn't have to start over!

The recipe had an interesting twist that I loved.  I food processed four gingersnap cookies (didn't know what those were prior to yesterday) with pecans and put that on the bottom of my pie crust before pouring the pumpkin mix in! It smelled great and tasted awesome too...

The pumpkin mixture required cooking which was awesome.  And I added cloves to the recipe only because i love the way they smell. 

Here is her recipe if you want to try it: http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2005/11/great_pumpkin_pie_1.html

My pie came out great - I love pumpkin pie and the crust was awesome! Mike liked it too!!!

*The gingersnap is the thin layer at the bottom of the pie...
Good things in this week's efforts: I had those crust guards that stop the crust from burning.  Those work great! i am going to use them all the time....I also used a pan under my  pie plate when cooking which was a good pickup from last week! The crust was worth the time and effort.  One of the goals for this year is to log one year of my 20 in getting my crust perfect! I am going to try to make homemade crust as often as possible....

Suggestions for next time: I might bake the pie another 5 minutes or so. It was still a little wetter than I would have liked although the crevasse on the pie is an indication of overbaking??? Not sure.  I may have not have enough batter too...I tasted it! Better to be patient!  I do think, also, I should have baked it on the bottom of the oven.  The recipe recommends a baking stone, which I don't have.  But I might have to get one.  Lastly, those pie crust sheets that show you when you have rolled to the right size probably would make life easier than my silly tape measure! I didn't take a picture of that...such an engineer...

Not sure what I am going to make next week...My brother is coming so I might let him choose.  Otherwise, a cream pie, like banana cream or coconut cream sounds interesting. I have never made any of those. Any suggestions???

Week One - New York Style Cheesecake

Well, I figured I would start this adventure off with a bang...A classic.  A memory of my hometown.  My grandmother, who we called Mimi's absolute favorite.  Cheesecake.  It was actually Mike's (my husband!) suggestion.  We had had Christmas Eve dinner at my sister-in-law Melanie's house.  Her fiance's mother, Judy had made this cheesecake and it got rave reviews all around! So I decided to try it.

The recipe is actually a Betty Croker recipe and it sounded great.  Especially the part about the orange zest, which was my favorite part of the Christmas eve forkful that I had tasted.

The recipe can be found here: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/new-york-cheesecake/0a4668cd-a8e0-4af7-ad07-8cfb8c6e0084

So I started out.

The crust: Took me two tries.  I first put an egg white in the crust instead of an egg yolk. Whoops. Close reading required!  I put the crust in the oven for the bottom and it burned more than I thought it would but not enough to scrap it...I didn't put the bottom plate on a baking pan as the recipe suggested and I think I had it on too high of a rack in the oven. Notes for next time.

So here's a confession. I am not a cheesecake fan as I cannot stand the smell of cream cheese.  So was kinda tough putting 5 packages of cream cheese in the bowl. I held my nose alot....

The zest however, was lovely. Both the lemon and the orange...loved it.

The baking process was a trial. I put the springform pan in by itself first and the crust started to burn again.  So I took one of the oven racks out and lowered the cake further away from heat source.  That seemed to help.  I also put the cake pan on a baking pan and that also helped. 

All in all I made it through the baking and it smelled great....But no trying yet. Had to cool and refrigerate...

So the next day after work, we finally ate it. And it was pretty good!!!!! The crust was not even that burned....And not that hard.  The time commitment was the biggest thing. but it was worth it!

Suggestions for next time: Make the crust recipe 1.5 times instead of one. I like a thicker crust.  The cheesecake amount in the receipe is so much that I feel like it needs more crust to stand up.  Judy had said she put orange zest in the crust and I would like to try that next time.  And of course, use the baking pan to reduce the burning...

Next up: Another American classic - Pumpkin Pie with gingersnap crust....