Cakes, cupcakes and more Cakes…

Since the beginning of the year I have been making an effort to make a cake or something like that whenever someone I love’s birthday comes. The past two months I have a couple of people in my family that had their birthday. Last month was my boyfriend, David, and my mom’s birthday.For my boyfriends birthday I made him a chocolate cake with whipped filling and covered with chocolate ganache. The cake reminded me of those hostess cupcakes. It was really delicious. I used boxed chocolate cake mix for the cake. For my mom’s birthday I made a Dulce de leche chocolate cake. Which was featured in my last blog entry.

In March for my sister Regin’s birthday I made S’more cupcakes. These cupcakes were a bit time consuming because there were so many steps that needed to be done. On the bottom of the cupcake there was a graham cracker crust and marshmallows and chocolate are spread through out the cake. I made the frosting more like a meringue.

And for my older sister Roan’s birthday I made a mocha cake based on the Goldilocks mocha cake. It was really good. The icing was not sweet. The only thing I should have probably done is used cake flour instead of regular all-purpose flour. Here is the link to the recipe: http://gourmeted.com/2010/10/13/mocha-cake-ala-goldilocks/

Dulce de Leche

For the past two weeks it was full of birthdays and occasions. There was Valentines Day, my babe's birthday, my mom's birthday and my best friend's birthday. All four occasions were filled with cakes and other kinds of desserts. For my mom's birthday i decided to make her a chocolate cake with dulce de leche filling. I have always liked caramel in my desserts, from chocolates with caramel filling, to Haagen Daz dulce de leche ice cream. So I thought I would try to make dulce de leche from scratch. The recipe I got was by Alton Brown. I never knew that dulce de leche was a long process to make. The entire process took me about 3 hours to do. Most of the 3 hours was spent standing by the pot and stirring it occasionally. The end result was good, but the caramel could have had a thicker consistency. I think next time though I should stick with a less time consuming and easier recipe.

Dulce de Leche

By Alton Brown

Time: 3 hours

Yield: 1 cup

* 1 quart whole milk

* 12 ounces sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups

* 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

Combine the milk, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds in a large, 4-quart saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the baking soda and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered at a bare simmer. Stir occasionally, but do not re-incorporate the foam that appears on the top of the mixture. Continue to cook for 1 hour. Remove the vanilla bean after 1 hour and continue to cook until the mixture is a dark caramel color and has reduced to about 1 cup, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a month.

Source: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/dulce-de-leche-recipe/index.html

Easy Dulce de Leche

Ingredients:

1 (14 ounce/396 gram) can sweetened condensed milk

Instructions:

Put the can of sweetened condensed milk in a stock put and add cold water to cover. Bring the water to a boil and let boil for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Check the water level frequently to make sure it is always covering the can. Do not boil for more then 2 hours, or you will overcook the dulce de leche and run the risk of exploding the can.

Using tongs, occasionally turn the can to stir the milk.

Remove the can from the water and let cool to room temperature. Transfer the caramelized milk to an airtight container, cover, and store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Makes 1 3/4 cups.

STORING DULCE DE LECHE:

If not using the dulce de leche immediately, you may store it, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for at least a month.

Source: http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dianas/recipeID/2826/Recipe.cfm

Pavlova

For the past few years during Christmas time, my uncle would always reserve the egg whites whenever he makes his special Leche flan. He would often ask me if I want to do something with the egg whites instead of throwing them away. In the last couple of years I have always made meringues with them. But this year I thought I would make something different. I was looking through the joyofbaking.com and I came across Pavlova, which is a merengue-based dessert with whipped cream and fruit topping. It was a very light dessert to contrast with the other filling dishes that were being served.

When I brought this dish to my uncle’s house for Christmas Eve dinner it caused a discussion between my sister and my cousin about the origin of Pavlova. They said that Pavlova sounded like a Russian ice skater’s last name. I did some research about it and I found out that the Pavlova was actually named after a 1930s Russian ballet dancer named Anna Pavlova. So they were really close with their guesses. The Pavlova was a hit with my family and was requested again for New Years.

You can get the recipe from: http://www.joyofbaking.com/Pavlova.html