Chocolate-toffe crunch layer cake with milk chocolate frosting (hubby's birthday cake)

I have had my eye on this recipe for some time now.  Originally I was going to make it for my husband's birthday last year, but being 3 weeks shy of giving birth to our second son, I was in no mood to bake.  This recipe is from The Bon Appetit Cookbook by Barbara Fairchild.  There is a great cake section in the back of the book, and so far all that I have tried have been super tasty. 

My husband loves Skor bars, and this cake calls for crushed Skor bars in the middle layer of the cake.  It was a nice little crunch in an otherwise moist cake.  The cake was super yummy and we had no problems finishing this cake.  I think this cake would be even better if it was for a larger crowd because after the first day, the crunchy skor bar in the middle got a little soft.

 I did have some problems with the icing.  For some reason I could not get it to the correct thickness.  It was still a little on the runny side.  It still tasted great, so I decided to pour it on the cake and then let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up a bit.  It still tasted great even if it was not as pretty as I would have liked.  I had some left over Skor bars so I crushed them on the top instead of the chocolate curls that the recipe asked for.

Hubby loved his cake as did my oldest.  The baby so badly wanted some, but he will get to try his very own cake in three weeks.

Chocolate-toffee crunch layer cake with milk chocolate frosting

Cake

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1/2 cup hot water

1 3/4 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp

1 3/4 cups sugar

3 large eggs at room temp

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup whole milk

Frosting

1 1/4 cups whipping cream

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1 pound milk chocolate (like Lindt) chopped

4  1.4 ounce chocolate-covered English toffee

(like skor)

1  7 ounce bar milk chocolate

For the cake

Pre heat oven to 350f and make sure the rack is in the centre.  Prepare two 9 inch diameter cake pans. Combine unsweetened chocolate and 1/2 cup hot water in small saucepan.  Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted and smooth.  Cool to lukewarm, stirring often. 

Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and blend.  Using an electric mixer, beat butter in a large bowl until fluffy.  Gradually add the sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.  Add vanilla.  Beat in chocolate mixture.  Add flour mixture in three additions alternating with milk in two additions. 

Divide batter equally between the two pans.  Bake cakes fro 35 minutes or until tester inserted into middle of the cake comes out clean.  Cool cakes in pans on rack for 5 minutes and then turn cakes out onto racks to cool completely.

For Frosting

Combine cream, corn syrup and butter in large saucepan.  Whisk over medium heat until mixture begins to simmer.  Add the chopped milk chocolate.  reduce heat to low and whisk until the mixture is smooth.  Transfer to a bowl.

Fill another large bowl with ice.  Set the bowl with chocolate mixture on top of bowl with ice.  Whisk until cool and starts to thicken (about 8 minutes).  Remove bowl from ice.  Use an electric mixture and beat until colour lightens and the frosting is thick enough to make peaks.

Place 1 cake layer, flat side up on a cardboard round.  Top layer with 1 1/2 cup frosting and spread to edge.  Sprinkle evenly with diced toffee.  Top with second layer of cake.  Spread thin layer of frosting to seal the crumbs.  Then working quickly spread remaining frosting on the cake.

Decorate with chocolate curls or in my case crumbled up skor bars.

Enjoy.

                                             

                                               

                                                     

Monkey-Bubble Bread

This Christmas I received four brand new brand new baking books.  Martha Stewart Cupcakes, Back to Baking by Anna Olson, Cake Pops (Bakerella) and Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. 

The last book "Baked Explorations" I have wanted for a while.  It was actually a Christmas present to myself.  There are so many tasty looking recipes, I did not know where to start.  So why not the first page.  This recipe suggests that this bread should be made for a large crowd or you will be eating it all to yourself.  So I took their advise and made it for a post Christmas get together at my in laws.  The second suggestion is to serve warm.  I was not sure if I was going to be able to pull that one off.  I did not have instant yeast only bread machine yeast so it took two hours to rise versus the one it says in the book. However my baby overslept his nap by an hour so the bread was finnished on time and still warm when I got to my in laws.  The smell nearly drove my husband and I crazy.  The whole car smelled like a Cinnabon.

They were a hit, not to much was left at the end of the day.  Mostly because of my husbands two teenage cousins.  They were more then happy to take the handful that were left home in a Ziploc bag.

I will definitely be making these again, very easy to make, and turns out just like the picture (love when that happens).


MONKEY-BUBBLE BREAD

For the Bread
1 1/4 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons instant yeast
4 cups all purpose flour
5 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
5 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

For the cinnamon sugar coating
1 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled


Spray the inside of a 10-inch Bundt pan with cooking spray.

In a small saucepan, warm the milk to a little over room temperature and remove from heat.  Add the yeast and whisk to dissolve.

In bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the flour, sugar and salt until combined.

In a small bowl beat the egg with a fork and add to dry ingredients.  Mix on low speed until combined.

Keeping the mixer on low, slowly add the milk until combined.  Add the melted butter and mix until the dough comes together.  Replace the paddle attachmentt with the dough hook.  Continue to mix on medium for 8 to 10 minutes or until silky.  The dough should mound together.  If to wet add flour, if to dry add water.

Spray a large bowl with cooking spray and place the dough in the bowl.  Make sure to roll the dough around the bowl so all sides are covered in oil.  Cover with a dish towel and let it rest somewhere warm for an hour (or more, in my case)

Put some parchment paper on a sheet pan.

Use cleans hands to push down the dough.  Pat it into a rough circle.  Use a serrated knife to cut dough into 1 to 1 1/2 inc pieces.  Roll into balls.  Lay them on the sheet pan and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

In a small bowl mix sugar and cinnamon.  Have the melted butter in a separate bowl.

Remove plastic wrap and dip the balls in the melted butter.  Then roll them in the sugar and place in the Bundt pan.  Repeat.  Wrap the Bundt pan tightly in plastic wrap and let rest for an hour in a warm place.

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Remove plastic and bake for 30 minutes or until it is a deep brown and the caramel coating is bubbly at the edges.

Cool bread for 5 minutes and turn on to a platter.  YUMMY.

Snowman Oreo Pop's

I saw these on a fellow blogger's site (The Sweet Swiper) and absolutely fell in love with them and had to make them for my hard working co workers this Christmas season.  I was so sure these were going to be a lot faster  to make then cake pops.  And they would have been if not for a couple of speed bumps along the way.

Everything started off great.

 The vanilla candy melt was melted.

The Oreo's were ready to go

And then were ready to dry and have faces.

Then disaster. 

I started making the peppermint snowman.  I had just taken the peppermint candy melts out of the microwave and placed them on the counter, when they went crashing down on to the floor. I guess I put them on the edge. First lesson learned, I will from now on melt my candy melts in a microwavable safe plastic bowl and not glass.  The bowl broke . The candy hardened on the cold tile floor.  I had a hard candy with glass mess on my floor.  I had to get on my hands and knees and use a spatula to scrape off the candy and glass.  It was not a pretty site.  I did not take a picture, because at the moment I was very mad.  Thank goodness for the extra bag of white candy melts.

The second lesson learned was this.  You can not use food colouring in candy melts.  It makes it hard and lumpy, and no matter what I did, I could not get it back to a nice smooth texture.  Next time I will think ahead and either by the colour of candy melts I want to pipe or use royal icing.   I used royal icing to pipe the nose, eyes and mouth.

In the end my co workers were extremely pleased with the result and that's all that matters.

Baking with Grandmaman

My 90 year old Grandmaman from New Brunswick has been in town for the last month.  It is always nice to have her come down, especially since every time she leaves she always tells us it will be her last time.  However her grandchildren keep having babies.  She is up to five great grandchildren.  Kind of hard for her to pass up seeing all these cute little babies.

Last week I had the pleasure of having her over and making one of my favourite cookie recipes that she made every time she was visiting when I was kid.  And the best part was watching my 2 year old son help her ( she gave him a measuring cup with a little bit of flour).  The recipe comes from a great aunt. The name of the cookie that I grew up with is "Biscuit au Sucre Blanc" de ma tante Marie.
Translation, Aunt Marie's White Sugar Cookie.  These however are not you normal sugar cookies.  They are soft and fluffy, and the best part is that they are doubled up with jam inside. I make these every Christmas, it is tradition in my family and hopefully the tradition will continue.

Ma Tante Marie, Biscuit Au Sucre Blanc

2 eggs
1 3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup shortening (almost melted)
3/4 cup warm milk
3 tsp cream of tartar (slightly rounded)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 cups flour (may need up to 4 1/2 cups)
Strawberry Jam

Bake @ 350f for 10 to 12 minutes

Prepare shortening

In large bowl cream together shortening, sugar eggs and vanilla.

Prepare dry ingredients.  Measure out flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.

Prepare milk (30 seconds in the microwave)

Alternate adding flour mixture and milk to the batter.

May need to add more flour, keep in mind dough needs to be refrigerated (30 minutes) and you will use more flour to roll it out.

Divide dough in 4 and roll out shapes.  Half the cut outs should have a hole to let the jam through.

Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes.  I have a hot stove and only needed 8 minutes.  Just keep an eye on your first batch.  They should be white on top and slightly golden on the bottom.

Let cool, jam and then double up.

I find these cookies taste best after they have had time for the jam to absorb into the cookie, for a bit.

Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

This might be a bit embarrassing to admit, but I have (until this afternoon) never eaten or baked a whoppie pie.  I have always seen them on TV or in my baking books, but for some reason have always gone with a different recipe.  Well after today I think I will try a whole bunch more of these soft little pillows of yummyness.

Now as you can see from the title, the recipe that finally grabbed my attention is for a peanut butter whoppie pie.  I LOVE peanut butter.  I eat the stuff everyday and now it seems I have passed down my love for it to my two year old son, who like me needs to have it on a slice of toast every morning. 

I got this recipe from my 2006 Holiday Cookie Magazine by Martha Stewart.  It was super simple to make and really did not take up to much of my time.  Meaning I was able to make this recipe with no kids napping.  The stand mixer definitely helps speed up the process, but no big deal if you don't have one.

 PEANUT BUTTER WHOPPIE PIES

For the cookie
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the filling
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1.  Preheat oven to 375F.  Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl; set aside.

2. Put butter, shortening and sugars into a bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment.  Mix on high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.  Add egg; mix until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Mix in half the flour mixture, then milk and vanilla.  Mix in remaining flour mixture

3. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough on to baking sheets lined with parchment papers, spacing 2 inches apart.  Bake until cookies spring back when lightly touched, 12 to 14 minutes (my oven was 10 minutes).  Let cool on sheets on wired racks for 10 minutes.  Transfer cookies to wire rack and let cool.

 4. Make filling: Put peanut butter and butter in bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment.  Mix on high speed until smooth.  reduce mixer speed to low.  Add confectioner's sugar; mix until combined.  Raise speed to high, and mix until fluffy and smooth, about 3 minutes.

   
5.  Assemble cookies:  Spread 1 tablespoon filling on bottom of 1 cookie.  Sandwich with another cookie.  Repeat with remaining cookies and filling.  Cookies can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 3 days.








**My husband and 2 year old approve this recipe, and I am sure my baby would also, if he was allowed to eat one. I mean look at the drool coming out of his mouth.**

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my new baking blog. 

To make things more simple on myself, I have decided to try blogging about my baking adventures on an actual blog site and not my photo sharing site (it did not have the best format). I have always enjoyed baking, but have been doing more and more since I became married and have had children. I hope you enjoy baking and eating these goodies as much as my family and I do.

Alissa