Baby bakes some more
My unemployment continues which means my reign of baking continues. Pretty productive couple of weeks on the butter and sugar front, I had NO failures except for a batch of almonds that I assuredly burned (this is my culture). I made another cake for my French class for the last day of level 4. While I enjoy the project of making a layer cake and find the compliments I receive nearly mandatory for my well being I have to admit that I am just not a cake girl. I’m a creative person but I totally fail at making interesting cake designs and am then disappointed that I can’t produce some crap that would like…do well on Instagram? In which case who cares. Cake trends are so cyclical and I find myself disinterested in copying the new lük to protect myself from feeling like a total hack. I’m making the announcement now: I will be sticking to the same thing every time which is little plops of icing with a fruit or candied fruit accented. I will not be taking any further questions!! Anyways…
Vanilla chiffon cake with grapefruit curd, coconut crumble, and whipped cream
Another Natasha Picowicz recipe from More Than Cake. I’m really enjoying working my way through the MTC layer cake section and feeling like a stronger cake maker with each pass. This was a great recipe. I was nervous about the tequila and coconut milk soak but when the cake rested for 24 hours the booze had settled and it was much more palatable. The rice flour coconut crumble was to die for in the layers. My grapefruit curd was JUST ok, not as bitey as I would prefer (the recipe calls for passion fruit but that is too $$$ for this project). I was very excited to use my candied kumquats as a decoration and they looked adorable and they tasted divine (UNLIKE the plain gooseberries I used on my last cake). Overall this cake was a little sweet for my taste but was received well by my French class. Next!
Torrone Marshmallows
A Camilla Wynne recipe from Nature’s Candy using my reserved candied orange peel. I’ve always been afraid to use gelatin so this was my first attempt. Unsurprisingly it was very easy and NBD and I look forward to using this mysterious ingredient in future projects. This was a messy one, I felt like I kept finding bits of sticky marshmallow goo around my kitchen but it was worth the slop, these are so tasty. I love how you can kind of kitchen sink the marshmallow and honestly (HONESTLY) I find them very chic as a gift in a cute jar. People WILL be impressed that you made marshmallows from scratch. I’d love to do a cherry version using amaro cherry syrup to make them pink. NEXT!
Almond Chocolate Biscotti
I remembered David Lebovitz after this godforsaken website started to adjust my algorithm for baking (I hope it can be become a little more baking forward because right now it’s like essay after essay on being pregnant and post partum with a dash of like dumbest “intelligent” men on earth writing the dumbest shit about politics and the end of the world). I used to read David’s blog during the blogging heyday and revisiting his Substack I found myself enjoying his writing as much as I ever did. Anyways this inspired me to check out his book Ready for Dessert which I’m enjoying going through. I made these, swapping out the dried cherries for candied orange peel boiled in Grand Marnier. I was craving chocolate biscotti and chocolate biscotti I got. NeXt…
Pain d’amande cookies
Ok David Lebovitz posted about this recipe from Flo Braker and they are definitely a certified hit. Addictive, crispy, so easy to make and transport. I have a lot of ideas on how to mix up the flavors for this one and want to try a chocolate pistachio version, a macadamia and lime version, a chocolate chip version?? Right now I have a saffron/orange peel/pistachio and pine nut version resting in the fridge so I will report back... I’m really feeling my Weck jars so all my photos of these aren’t very useful but it’s like…cute. Next:
Lavender Sablés
My mom used to make lavender sugar cookies during the summer so I thought I would take a stab after buying a bunch of lavender at the farmer’s market. Randomly I was PAINED over making shortbread or sablés and ultimately decided on sablés because I thought it would end up with the more delicate crumb I was looking for, and I think I was right in that decision. I didn’t put enough lavender in these so I would punch that up next time but this is a great recipe from Cook’s Illustrated baking book that suggested sieving hard boiled egg yolks into the dough. How cool??? I’ll save my rant for the dumbification of cookbooks for another day but this is the kind of non-aesthetic, more-work, painfully-tested crap I crave. Next time I’m going to try the Thomas Keller Bouchon recipe for shortbread and see how it compares. (P.S. I hated the egg wash on these dusted with the turbinado sugar and would skip for next time). Nexxxt:
Candied strawberries and persimmon
Not much to this. I added some spices to the persimmon and I could imagine them being nice chopped up in a ginger cookie. The strawberries LITERALLY taste like candy but I have no idea where I’ll use them. It’ll probably be in a one off more-for-the-picture type project but I’m imagining a dome of whipped cream with these plastered on in a pattern?!?!?!?!?!?!? Maybe pressed into shortbread cookies?!?!??! They’re so delicate and I didn’t make much of them so they’re feeling extremely precious.
My Big Spoon (MBS)
I think that silver cutlery and serving dishes are a bit underrated for those of us who like second hand items. I got this big silver spoon and I’m just so charmed by it. Currently use it to scoop flour and sugar when measuring. I think it holds around 4-5 tablespoons. This is me soft launching my recommendations that I think I should be world famous for (I have good taste and a big ego and that’s NOT a crime).
-JK