24 Days before Christmas

The year has certainly flown by, at least for me and I cannot believe that it is already December. I have been mixing and playing with batter but of a different sort - concrete! Like baking, the ratio or liquid, water in this case has to be precisely measured (taking into account the humidity in the air) to achieve the right consistency so the concrete would cure correctly. At some point E & I stopped counting at 2000lbs of concrete and we still have 100 or so more lbs to mix and pour but alas we've hit below freezing temperatures so we'll have to wait until next Spring to do that.

So enough of that, I don't think anyone reading this is at all interested in concrete discussion. Well, usually by this time, I would have started my Christmas baking soon after Thanksgiving but it's hard to get into the mood since I broke or rather crushed my thumb on my dominant hand nonetheless about 2 months ago! ironically nothing involving the landscaping E&I was working on. Since you all know sitting still isn't quite my cup of tea. As I mentioned, I have been busy mixing batter just not the edible kind even with my injury.

As I had to go shopping to prep Thanksgiving dinner last week, I passed by the apples and the delicious appley aroma wafted my way and gave me a little inspiration to bake something, so I thought what about an Apple Cake! I remembered many years ago I had made such a delicious thing in a simple manner. These days, with my injury, simple and humble are the key ingredients I seek for. As simple as it is, I cannot for the life of me find where that recipe was so I went to my trusted resource and after reading the ingredients and with slight modifications found this recipe to be easy, unpretentious and fool proof but most importantly delicious! If any of you like to try your hand at first time baking, try this and you won't be disappointed. If I am able to mix it and wield a knife with my left hand, you have absolutely no excuses. Original recipe can be found here.

Brown Butter Apple Cake
adapted from epicurious.com

Ingredients
1 cup Spelt flour or 3/4 cup AP Flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/4 scant teaspoon of Cardamom (optional)
4 large apples (4 different kinds-I used Braeburns & Honeycrisps)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons Calvados
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
finely grated zest from 1 lemon
8 tablespoons unsalted butter

Method
Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Butter and line the bottom of an 8" cake pan with parchment paper. I used a 9" spring form pan for easier removal for my sake and not to have the trouble of cutting a piece of parchment and so my cake's height turned out on the shallow side.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat on the stove until it is golden brown. Remove from heat.

Peel and core the apples and cut into 1- to 2-inch chunks while the butter cools.

Whisk together the dry ingredients ( flour, baking powder, cardamom )

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs until foamy. Add sugar and whisk to blend. Whisk in the Calvados and vanilla. Carefully whisk in half the flour mixture until incorporated, add half the cooled melted butter, followed by the rest of the flour mixture and the melted butter. Switch to a spatula and mix gently until you have a smooth but rather thick batter. Fold in the lemon zest and gently fold in the apples until it is coated with the batter. Turn out the mix into the buttered pan and push and poke it to the sides with the spatula and give the pan a slight shake and jiggle to even out the batter and remove air pockets.

Slide the pan into the oven. If using a spring form pan, place it on a baking sheet and bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until the top of the cake is golden brown, the sides pull away from the pan and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. It only took 45 minutes for me likely because of my pan size.


I haven't tried it but I bet it is delicious with served with a simple sabayon spiked with Calvados and scented with Cardamom. If you dare to try here's my Sabayon recipe and let me know what you think.

Simple Sabayon
Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients
4 large egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup Calvados ( able to substitute with other alcohol)
1 cup heavy cream
A couple of pinches of cardamom ( optional)

Method
Beat 3/4 cup heavy cream just until stiff peaks form and keep chilled in refrigerator. Prepare a bain marie or water bath on the stove and also a bowl of ice and cold water. Using a large metal bowl whisk together yolks, sugar, calvados and 1/4 cup cream. Set it over a bain marie whisking constantly and vigorously, cooking the sabayon until thick and whisk leaves tracks. Set cooked sabayon over the bowl of cold water and ice and gently whisk to cool the sabayon. Gently fold in the chilled whipped cream with a spatula. Serve or cover and chill. The sabayon can be made a day ahead.

Birthday Guinness Cake

Yes! That is snow you see in the background

It has been a busy few months with the big move and basically a new life in a new place. After about a month, I finally managed to unpack all my baking supplies and found new homes for them on E's kitchen shelves or he is sure to correct me "our" kitchen shelves. All this happened just in time too greet my parents visit and also some dear friends and also to warm the house as the mercury level here drops. Since then I've managed to bake up some delicious pecan sticky buns and others which I will share at a later time but for today it's E's birthday cake! Since he loves Guinness and with my parents around (to help eat the cake!) I decided to make a Guinness Cake courtesy from Nigella Lawson. The only criticism from E was that it wasn't Guinnessy enough...I suppose I will have to tweak it for next year then. This cake is so easy and absolutely delicious to make. Please make and enjoy.

Chocolate Guinness Cake
Makes One 9-inch cake and serves about 12

Cake Ingredients
250ml Guinness
250g unsalted butter
75g cocoa
400g caster sugar
1 x 142ml pot sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2 1/2teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

Frosting Ingredients
300g Philadelphia cream cheese
150g icing sugar
125ml double or whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350˚F, and butter and line a 9" springform pan.

Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter in pieces and heat until the butter’s melted, at which time whisk in the cocoa and sugar. In a separate bowl, beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the butter beer mixture. Whisk in the flour and bicarbonate of soda until mixture is smooth. Pour the cake mixture into the springform pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour until firm to touch. This is a damp cake so cool completely in the pan.


When the cake is cooled, whip the cream cheese until smooth and sieve the icing sugar over and beat together. Slowly add in the cream and continue beating until light and fluffy. Remove the cake from the pan and spread the frosting on top of the cake to resemble a delicious frothy pint of Guinness.

Wedding Cake

After arriving here several days and exploring my new home area. I decided that we must have a cake of some sort for our wedding celebration. But not having all my equipment and tools it proved to be a challenge but armed with only the basic tools and my trusty bare hands and a whisk I decided to make a Chocolate Mousse Cake. I do not recommend this as my arms ached from whipping the cream and the egg whites. Recipe for the base I obtained from here and the mousse from Nick Malgieri's also found here which is perfectly light and airy for the flourless base and to E's excitement it's happens to be a Swiss recipe. This can be made over 2 days and also the mousse will need to set for at least 2-3 hours or better yet over night.

Chocolate Flourless Cake for the base - adapted from epicurious.com

12 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter cut into pieces
6 large eggs, separated
12 Tbsp sugar
2 Tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line bottom of a 9" springform pan (preferable as this will provide a mould to pour the mousse in) or cake pan with parchment paper. Wrap outside of springform pan with foil to prevent batter leakage. Stir chocolate and butter in a water bath until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool.

Using an electric mixer, beat egg yolks and 6 Tbsp sugar until mixture is thick and pale, about 3 minutes. Fold in the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, then fold in vanilla extract. With clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another large bowl until soft peaks form and to this gradually add the remaining 6 Tbsp sugar, beating until medium-firm peaks form. Fold whites into chocolate mixture lightly then pour into prepared pan.

Bake cake about 45-50 mins and skewer or cake tester comes out with some crumbs. Top will be cracked and the cake will be double in size. Cool cake in pan on rack. Don't panic as the cake will start falling immediately after coming out of the oven.

After cake is cooled, pat the top down and remove cake from pan. I trimmed and leveled the top of the cake and E got to eat the crackly top and trimmings. If using a springform pan place the cake back into the springform pan with sides lined with acetate ( you can find these in cake or baking stores) or since I didn't have any with me I successfully formed a ring with wax paper. Line the top of the cake with raspberries (1 pint just about covers the surface nicely). Place in refrigerator and prepare mousse.


Swiss Chocolate Mousse - adapted from Nick Malgieri

The original recipe from Nick Malgieri's makes too much mousse so the quantity below is half which is perfect for assembling the cake.

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 envelope unflavored gelatin or 2 sheets
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup egg white (about 3-4 large egg whites)
1/2 cup sugar
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Whip cream until it holds a soft peak and refrigerate while preparing other ingredients.

Sprinkle gelatin over the water to soften about 5 minutes. Strain the water out before adding into the egg whites below.

Combine the egg whites and sugar in the bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk vigorously with a hand mixer until egg whites are hot and the sugar is dissolved—about 3 minutes. Test a little with your fingers, if it feels gritty continue to heat and whisk until all the sugar is dissolved then remove from heat.

Strain the softened gelatin and whisk into the hot egg whites using the hand mixer then whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form and feels somewhat cooled and creamy in appearance. Do not overbeat or the meringue will become dry. Bring meringue to cool to room temperature, stirring every so often. When it is cool, whisk by hand about a third of the meringue into the chocolate, then quickly fold the chocolate mixture back into the remaining meringue.

Pour the mousse over the prepared base with raspberries and place in the refrigerator to set for at least 3 hours. Then unmold and enjoy!



We were certainly blessed with perfect blue skies and gorgeous weather on our wedding day!


Expansive views from the summit of Mt. Audubon



View of Indian Peaks from Brainard Lake after our hike.