Dads & Chocolate ~

Father's day.  A quiet day without one, while sitting in gratitude for half of what brought me here in the moment.  Whatever the day might mean to you ~ I hope it's a good one for you and those you love.


And now for something completely different......
(To steal a good line)

Chocolate ganache ~

So much cream, so many slight variations.

As a baker I take into consideration the weather and how much time I have for the ganache to set, how and what I am applying the ganache...poured, spread or piped.  This morning it was piped.   Quietly alone on a Sunday morning...soft dark none-too-sweet chocolate and cream falling from a star tip onto chocolate cupcakes.  Men love chocolate!  Don't they?  :)  Today I believe they do.

Do you require something precise?  This might not be the place.  Do you need a definition of what it means to have it set up for several hours and exactly how long is that?  This is not the place to be precise, as much as baking is a science.  Ganache is on it's own time when it's ready, interacting with the temperature of the air it rests in, along with the readiness of the baker that is going to use it.

I use a 40% cream.  You might find only a heavy cream that is 36%.  Leave the whipping cream of less than 35% on the shelf for other purposes. 


If you want to pipe, I suggest leaving it overnight - in a spot neither too warm or too cool.  There is that non-precise part again.  I can only suggest that you take a spoon to it after several hours or overnight to see if it it is firm enough to pipe.  You get one bag filled with ganache to pipe...no reusing it as once hands move the ganache through the bag it starts softening and losing it's sharper piping.  

Fear not perfection for it doesn't exist...just dollop it on with a spoon and forget the piping - the taste is what it ultimately important.


Ganache ~

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped.
1 1/2 to 1 2/3 c. heavy cream

• Place chocolate in a bowl, stainless or Pyrex.
• Put cream in heavy in a saucepan and heat to almost a boil.  
• Pull off just before the boil and pour over chocolate.  Let sit for about five minutes.  
• Gently stir with a whisk or spoon until blended.  Let sit for several hours.  
• If you cover it all the way with plastic wrap, condensation will form and drip down into the chocolate.  Leave it uncovered until it's not so warm to prevent condensation. 
• I'm not going to be a food snob.  If you use chocolate chips and don't want to chop them, be happy with that.  Picking one of the better brand of chocolate chips will give you a better end resu

Frost, pipe or schmear - heck...don't wanna wait?  Dip chocolate cupcake tops in it when it's warm.  Have at it.  Take a spoon, scoop it up and eat it.   Be indulgent.  Ganache makes it easy.

This cupcake in particular is going to my former husband today.  I will go meet him to pick the kids up from their weekend with him.  We made three beautiful children together that we both love dearly.  I have decided to stand under the umbrella of all that means and call it good.  He is their dad ~ there is a lot of love there. 





 

Truffle cake ~

Truffles.  Soft....melting....rich.  So many subtle variations, so little time.  This is an easy peasy recipe - as are most truffles.  Get out your favorite dark chocolate...find some yummy heavy whipping cream.  Got some favorite libation you feel like dripping in the mix?  Good for you!  Go!

This is a very soft truffle ~

10.5 oz. chopped chocolate
1 c. heavy whipping cream
2 T. liqueur of your choice

• Place chocolate into a glass bowl.  
• Heat cream to almost a boil.
• Pour over chocolate, cover with a plate.
• Wait five minutes.
• Stir chocolate and cream until combined.  Add liqueur.
• Place in fridge for at least three hours, or up to over night.
• Use a little scoop or spoon, place on parchment.   
• Put back into the fridge for an hour. 
• Dredge in dutch-processed cocoa.

For the cake, I dipped the truffles in chocolate, letting them harden.  Then coated them with gorgeous cocoa.  What a lovely shade, a dreamy-dusty scent that lingered in my Eskimo nose.   


Truffles ~ a nice little decoration, don't you think?  :)

Toodles!
xoxo

Ladybug cake ~ for the sugar and spice crowd

I initiated it, I did.  "Come on, sit here.  Let's look at pictures of ladybug cakes together."  Oy.  Not a can of worms, but page after page after page...after *page* of ladybug cakes thanks to Google Image and a six year old that thinks a long period of looking is fun.  It was.  It didn't end with one session.  There were many requests for looking at cakes.  We saw pink ladybugs, flat ladybug cakes, a green ladybug cake, orange ones, even a large white wedding cake with dozens of itty bitty sugar ladybugs cascading down one side.  In the end, she picked the one she wanted, not the one I wanted.  Have you ever seen a 46 year old pout?  

 I used this cake opportunity to try out a new recipe from a new cookbook I received for Christmas.  If you collect baking books, this is a good one.  I varied the yellow cake recipe just slightly and lemon'd it up.  Sofia's request ~ lemon with cream cheese frosting.  

Later, after the party, as the night was winding down, she asked, "May I please eat an eyeball?"  Then it became a cake mutilation by two girls.  Is this the new Sugar & Spice and everything nice? 

She was absolutely tickled...with the cake, with her party...with her turning seven years old.  There is nothing like having children to know that the saying - How time flies - is so true.  Love of children is absorbed instantly, given quickly...lasting forever.   I love my babies like nothing else I've known ~ being their Mother makes me glow inside ~ as I know other mothers feel about their own...and can understand how vast the love.

How time flies.

xoxo

Do you know what love is? ~

 

~ I believe it takes many forms ~

 

Simply pictures with Pumpkin pound cake recipe ~

Fall Art Hop dessert table at Thump, October 2nd. Always such a joy to be a participant.

• Pumpkin coconut layer cake dressed in caramel Swiss meringue buttercream - truly yummy.
• Pecan cake dressed in caramel Swiss meringue buttercream - again, truly yummy.
  
• Cocoa-spice cookies
• Nutmeg sugar cookies
• Banana bread
• White spice pound cake
• Pumpkin pound cake
  
• Pumpkin-chocolate tart
  

I don't remember where I picked up the pumpkin pound cake recipe or if it was one that I adjusted to it's current stage. Either way, there are variations galore on the web, give or take an egg, buttermilk or sour cream, butter or oil. It's a good keeper and very easy to put together. Drizzle it with some maple glaze or dust with powdered sugar. Enjoy.




Sour cream pumpkin pound cake

3 cups all-purpose flour (I use unbleached flour)
1 tablespoon pumpkin spice (or a combo of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and hints of clove and allspice)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
4 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• Combine flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl.

• Cream granulated sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

• Add pumpkin, sour cream, and vanilla extract; mix well.

• Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Spoon into prepared pan.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan 10 minutes if using a decorative pan before inverting.





















Toodles ~
xoxo

Gardenias ~ oh the scent

,
When I stack a white cake it takes me on a short memory path of the past, of work I’ve done - B.C. - before children. I used to make custom slipcovers and pillows. I did this in the South, north Florida, next town over was in Georgia. Now fabrics in the South are much different that those used here, they are lighter, brighter, more…well, seemingly to me, more feminine. At least that is how it was back then. When we’d come back home (Oregon) for a visit, I’d notice how much darker and heavier the fabric and décor was in the stores and homes. It’s the climate. I prefer colder weather, I prefer the fabric of Southern taste. Back home now, I have both.

During that time in the South I created in fabric, feeding my need to be creative with my hands, eyes and mind combined. I had a three month wait list during slipcover season - who knew there was a season? I didn’t know that before I started sewing in that venue. When I did this some 15ish years ago, it was at the height of slipcovers in off-white. I used to almost cringe at the idea of yet another off-white order on the books. When all was said and done, when the slipcover went on the furniture it was a smiling content moment…all forgotten that I had been going through the motions with white fuzz all over me and glad I could buy off-white thread in bulk. They were simply beautiful ~ fresh, clean, invigorating and inviting in their simple off-white color.

An off-white cake. I don’t cringe whatsoever like I did with off white slipcover orders, but rather it makes me happy to receive simple white cakes as much as any other order. I love the look of an off-white wedding cake. Simply beautiful, elegant or casual, always inviting. Adding a ribbon of sugar dough, butter cream dots or flowers, it’s a perfect backdrop. I think part of the content smile when it’s assembled is knowing what it’s a part of ~ fresh love going out in the world as a union of two, full of hope and partnered strength.

Simply pictures

I was so happy with this dessert table and the pictures, too.

This was for Art Walk this past Friday - all nibbles were nibbled and gone in a steady stream. Feeding people is so fun!

• Marionberry-lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting
• Hummingbird mini-cupcakes
  
• Brownie bites
• Lemon sables
• Meringue kisses dipped in chocolate

I'll be doing another table during Art Hop, October 2nd. A fall theme consisting of either a festive bright halloween theme or an autumn tone theme - but warm spiced flavors celebrating a cozier few months ahead...come on Fall...I've miss you!!

Toodles!
xoxo















(Well, I had to put this in...two of three people I love the most.)

Pink. Sweets. Pink sweets.

,
I was so happy with the simple way these treats turned out. It was a lesson in make, bake, love, accept and let go. It was Annie's 10th birthday this year, she had not had a party since she was three, but had been asking for several years. Well...I do admit to not being the fun one - this being a blog on my personal baking habits, I won't go into my unfunNESS or how life can be a full plate, blah, blah, blah....moving on to...(briefly)...

...my snobbery at making every little thing myself. There is still the lingering part of me that feels homemade pink marshmallows dusted with sparkly pink-tinted powdered sugar would have been...ummmm....what is a better anyway? One thing I've learned about baking for those that love sweets - it's subjective when it comes to taste preference. For this party, I put away my little drawstring pouch of snobbery that holds my love of all sweets with their name of origin in a language other than English. Back to.....

Marshmallow pops!!!! They were fun and enticing to ten year old girls. I call that a success, especially when they go back for a third helping.

Annabelle helped with the menu and picked the colors. Okay...so it amounted to "I want pink and green" and I ran with the rest. As long as it was pretty in her eyes and sugary, I got the thumbs up. Simple and easy. Marshmallow pops, cake pops, the cake, candy coated pretzels and cheddar bunnies. Yes, I put out some cheese - to assuage the guilt of so much....sugar.

The cake - her choice. Coconut cake with strawberry filling and classic buttercream with tinted white chocolate dots. We sat at the table together talking about placement of dots on her cake and was she okay with this or that dot placed here or there. I did pretty well - after all - I'm in practice to not be the bride's mother from h*ll when it comes to voicing opinions on how things "should" look on a cake.

In my cake world, I think the sun rises and falls on the author of this book. The strawberry filling I made came from her book, it's her strawberry conserve recipe and a darn fine one. Her blog is in my listing. I look forward to the day her new book is released.

When the party was done, I smiled at my auburn-haired baby...that hit double digits in age...and said yes to her question asking for another marshmallow pop.

*Blurt*

http://www.towertheatre.org/tickets-events/TDC/default.aspx


Photos of the evening ~
(Wishing I had the one on the site below)

http://photogallery.onthego-go.com/gallery/8093915_zuXoM



Fudge cake with praline espresso buttercream filling, draped in ganache, accessorized with tinted white chocolate tiles .