Monkey Cake

My newest cake creation was for a little boy's 5th birthday.  He was having a monkey themed birthday party and loves the color yellow.

I love it when I get to make a cake for a little kid's birthday party that they love.  I love it when their mom or dad opens the box and says, "Oh, he/she is going to love it!"  It is a great feeling.  For this cake, we did a combination of white almond cake and chocolate cake with my French buttercream.  He was having a monkey theme for his party, so I did a monkey face in fondant in the middle of the cake that resembled his invitations.  Yellow is his favorite color, so I did the rest of the decorating in yellow.  I hear the party was a big success, and the cake was a big hit!

Do you have something that you would like to read about on Pastry Mama?  Send an email to antonia@pastrymama, and I will try to answer any questions or give any information that I can.  I would love to read your questions, comments, and any input that you may have.

Whole Wheat Bread

I decided a few months ago that I am no longer buying bread at the store.  And, I am proud to say that I have not purchased a loaf of bread from the store in a long while.  I alternate between a few different recipes, but this is the one I started with.  It is just a basic whole wheat bread.

  
I think it is super easy to make homemade bread.  People always think that it takes so much time, but in actuality, it doesn't.  Sure, the whole process takes a while, but the actual amount of time that I am required to be standing in my kitchen dealing with my bread dough is very small, maybe only 10 minutes.  I like to substitute whole wheat flour for a large portion of bread flour just for a more wholesome, nutritious bread.  I also use a recipe with very minimal ingredients.  Basically, my bread just consists of water, yeast, flour, salt, and a very small amount of butter and sugar.  There is so much about making homemade bread that is just so comforting to me.  I enjoy the process of making it, but beside that, I love making something so wholesome for my family.  And my family just loves it!

Whole wheat flour means that all of the grain (bran, germ, and endosperm) is intact.  No part of the grain is lost, therefore, no nutrition is lost.  On the other hand, white, refined flour only contains the endosperm.  Although some white flours are fortified with some nutrients that were lost in the refining process, they do not contain the macronutrients found in the germ and bran, particularly fiber and protein.  Whole wheat flour is a good source of iron, fiber, calcium, and other minerals.  However, if you use whole wheat flour, be careful.  It does not have a particularly long shelf life and can become rancid easily.  Make sure you watch for expiration dates and store it in your chill chest.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

I made this delicious cheesecake for my nephew's 15th birthday.  He loves fruit and cheesecake, so I thought this would be perfect for him.  Everyone loved it.  I actually think it is now my very favorite cheesecake ever!

The recipe that I used called for chocolate wafer cookies for the crust.  I don't particularly like chocolate and raspberry together, so I used an organic vanilla wafer cookie.  I made a pretty basic raspberry sauce on the stove, strained out all the seeds and let it cool while I made my cheesecake base.  I used very little sugar in this cake and mostly sweetened it with the melted white chocolate.  I swirled in the raspberry sauce in two different layers.  There was a lot of raspberry sauce left that I intended to serve with the cheesecake, but I forgot it the night of his birthday.  Raspberry sauce is so versatile, though, that it will never go to waste :)  I always bake my cheesecakes in a water bath, and of course this was no exception.  The cheesecake was beautiful, creamy and super delicious.  In fact, after writing this, I am thinking about making another one very soon!

A lot of people complain that when they make cheesecakes, the top cracks.  One reason that the top cracks in some cases is due to over-mixing which causes too much air to be inside the batter which results in cracks  on the surface.  So, aside from being sure to not over-mix your batter, the best way to avoid this is by using a water bath.  Be sure to wrap the bottom of your springform pan in a few layers of foil.  Place your cheesecake wrapped in foil inside a larger pan and fill it with water about halfway up the side of the springform.  Never bake your cheesecake at a temperature higher than 325°.  To get the best results,  let your cheesecake bake gently in a water bath at a lower temperature.

Raspberry Lemon Tart

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I decided to try some different recipes for my Thanksgiving desserts this year.  Lemon tart was on the list, but it didn't quite work out as I had planned, so a raspberry sauce was added.  I came up with an easy, delicious solution to my lemon tart problems.

I started with a basic short dough.  Of course I rolled it out and chilled it for several hours before baking.  I wanted to brown the crust before adding and baking the lemon filling.  When I pulled my crust out of the oven, it was cracked.  I thought I would proceed as I normally would because when this happens with my chocolate tart, the chocolate is thick enough to not leak through.  Well, that was not the case for the lemon.  It leaked all out of the shell and all over the sheet pan I had put underneath it.  I ended up with a very thin layer of a very tart lemon filling in the shell.  I quickly decided to just make a simple raspberry sauce.  I threw some frozen raspberries, sugar, cornstarch, and water in a pot.  I let this cook and thicken then strained it to eliminate seeds.  I poured this on top of the lemon filling.  It set up somewhat in the refrigerator and was a deliciously sweet counterpart to the super tart lemon layer.  It ended up being a hit!

Keeping lots of different kinds of fruits in your freezer is a great way to be able to make all kinds of different desserts and sauces when needed.  You can throw any kind of frozen fruit into a basic muffin batter.  You could make a sauce or a syrup out of lots of different kinds of frozen fruits by just adding some sugar, cornstarch and water.  You could make a fruit pie or turnovers.  So, if you keep a freezer well stocked with frozen fruits, the possibilities are endless!

Maple Pecan Tart

I decided to make some different things this year for Thanksgiving.  Instead of your typical pecan pie, I decided to make a maple pecan tart.  It was pretty similar to a pecan pie and just as tasty.

Pecan pie is not one of my favorites.  I like a very small piece, but it is just too sweet for me.  My mother in law makes an excellent pecan pie, and normally I use her recipe with my own crust.  I just did not feel like making pies this year, so I made all tarts.  I use a basic short dough crust which has to be very cold before it is baked.  Otherwise, the dough will just not hold up to the heat and basically melt.  I made my dough, rolled it out, and put it in the pan.  I then put it in the freezer for about a half hour before I filled it with the pecan filling.  I used real maple syrup and lots and lots of pecans.  It was very tasty but very, very sweet.  It was a big hit with the pecan pie lovers.

 Maple syrup is generally made from sap from the sugar maple, red maple or black maple.  These trees store starch during the winter in their trunks and roots.  The starch is converted to sugar and rises in the spring in the sap.  Maple syrup was first collected and used by indigenous people of North America.  Quebec is by far the largest producer of it and produces about three-quarters of the world's supply.  Vermont is the largest producer in the US.  

Cupcake Wedding

I recently did a wedding for a very nice couple who was having a very small wedding.  They had been together for 11 years and were getting married on 11.11.11.  They were super easy going about what they wanted from me.  We ended up with three dozen cupcakes and a small six inch cake for them to save for their first anniversary.

I did a tasting for the couple a few weeks before their wedding.  They decided to do a combination of lemon and red velvet cupcakes with two different kinds of icing, cream cheese and French buttercream.  The colors of the wedding were purple and black, so we just did a very simple purple icing with black cupcake papers and black sugar pearls.  The small 6 inch cake was decorated like their invitations.  Everything looked so pretty in the window of the Tin Front Cafe.

 A great way to please a large crowd when making cake is to make a variety of cupcakes with a variety of icings.  You do not necessarily always have to put cream cheese icing with red velvet.  You could make three different kinds of cake with three different kinds of icing.  Just mix it up as much as you want.  This gives a nice variety for lots of people.

Perry the Platypus Cake

I recently made a Perry the Platypus cake for a boy turning 9.  I had no idea who Perry the Platypus was, but of course looked him up and quickly found out that he is from Phineas and Ferb.  He was actually a pretty easy character to do.

I only had a quarter sheet cake to work with here, so I decided to just keep the design simple.  I sketched Perry by hand on a piece of paper.  I then used that template to make him out of fondant.  It took me a little while to get the colors right, but I think they were pretty close.  He sat atop a vanilla flavored cake iced with French buttercream.  I thought he turned out pretty cute!

People are always telling me that my cakes are very moist.  They always ask how to achieve this.  One of the best tips that I can give you is to find a recipe that uses oil instead of butter.  In my opinion, butter cakes are always much drier than oil based cakes.  There are lots of great sources online for recipes.  Just try a bunch and see which ones work best for you!