GourmAndrea

Turtle Cheesecake

I made this cheesecake quite a while ago things seemed to get crazy here around Christmas time :O This is a great recipe on its own buuuuut :) if I had to make some changes.....I would add some salt in both the crust and maybe a light sprinkle on top of the caramel. I find that turtles have a hint of salt and it brings out all the other flavors. This recipe calls for chocolate to be stirred into the cheesecake batter and I had a hard time committing, as you can see, I ended up somewhat marbling it. I would leave chocolate out next time and do a proper ganache on top true to turtles form.

  Next time I will sprinkle pink salt on top of ganache; which would be amazing! Anyone tried the purdy's caramels with Himalayan salt OMG? Yum! Here is the link turtle cheesecake

 

Bulldozer Cake

We celebrated Ivy's FIRST birthday, so exciting and so fun!!!

I decided to make her a bulldozer cake living in Edmonton,AB it just makes sense! Next year she will be able to choose what kind of cake she wants so I stayed away from lions,princesses and (shudder) Elmo's this year.

This cake was so fun to make and there was a bit of trial and error because like all busy moms I decided to make a cake by just the picture??? what was I thinking,haha. It turned out great, I was lucky, so I will give the recipes I used but the proportions are not perfect you will have some left over pound cake. I like the idea of using the extra cake and making it into boulders and dipping them in chocolate.

Sour Cream Pound Cake Note 

****NOTE***** You need to make this pound cake recipe twice to make the bulldozer cake

3 cups All Purpose Flour 

3 cups sugar

1 cup unsalted butter (room temp)

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sour cream

6 eggs

3 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp baking soda 

1.) Preheat your oven to 350F  grease and flour a 9x13" baking pan

2.) Cream your butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, 3 min or so. Beat in sour cream then eggs, one at a time and vanilla.

3.) Add in flour in 1/3rds until just combined.

4.) Bake for 40 to 50 min until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

5.) Cool in pan then invert to a rack. Once cool freeze so much easier to shape/cut when frozen. 

6.) Cut each cake in 1/3rds (see pic below) one cake will make up the body and the other cake will make up the tracks with some cake leftover.

This is my crumb coat it just a layer you do to seal in the crumbs then you chill it until firm then finish frosting it gives you a cleaner finished cake. I will give links for the two different types of buttercream frosting I used. In the pic above you can see I have pieces of parchment paper slid under the cake this gives you a nice clean board you just pull them off when you are all done frosting. I also used put a bit of frosting in between the board and the first cake layer as "glue" just in case :s.

I had to be stingy with my yellow because I used it in between my layers so I would just use the chocolate for that next time. I also didnt use a lot of frosting in between the cakes. To make the yellow color I used one bottle of Wilton gel in yellow and 5 drops of Red. Vanilla Buttercream recipe can be found here and the chocolate here. (Awesome recipes)

For the finishing touches I used Kit Kats for the tracks, so cute, I needed 6 bars and then I used Cadbury fingers and the "blade" is a Lindt 70% choc bar resting on some fingers I just snapped off the end section, 2 squares. I put the blade on right a the end. I used a piping bag with extra icing for all the rest. Choc chop cookies are my "dirt".

I forgot to pipe a window at the back.

If anyone decides to tackle this cake send me a pic gourmandrea@yahoo.com and I will post it :) I would give my husband a shout out for helping me build it but he never reads my blog haha! Oh and one final baby smeared with cake shot......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!!!!

Carrot Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting

Our moms group had a group 1st birthday party last weekend, Ivy still has 1 week and a bit to go until her actual birthday. We went to Chuck E Cheese I not sure if Ivy or I? had more fun :) I decided to make carrot cupcakes for the babes, a little more healthy than the cake you can order there. These cupcakes really taste like carrot cake they are perfect pair for the weather and sigh.....snow we have here :P

 If you have a little leftover batter in your bowl make yourself a little pancake mmm so tasty and the carrot bits stay a bit crunchy. It was sweeter than a usual pancake but, yup I am going to say it the best pancake I have ever had!

This is a shot of Ivy and I in the "Ticket Blaster" it is basically a wind tunnel that blows tickets you try to grab, her tutu caught a ton, haha!

 This recipe is Ellie Krieger's and it has walnuts in it which I ommited for the kids, my preference would be pecan anyways. If you want a stiff icing for piping use less icing sugar. I am so used to adding more icing sugar to stiffen an icing with cream cheese the more you add the slacker it gets hmm had no idea?

• 3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups finely shredded carrots (about 2 medium carrots, peeled)
• 1/2 cup natural applesauce
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts
• 4 ounces low-fat cream cheese, such as
• Neufchatel, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper cupcake liners.

Sift together the flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. In a large stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine the brown sugar, oil and eggs until well combined. Add the carrots, applesauce and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in 1/4 cup of the chopped walnuts.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

With an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and lemon zest until smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.)

Serves: 12; Calories: 230; Total Fat: 10 grams; Saturated Fat: 2 grams; Monounsaturated fat: 3.5g; Polyunsaturated fat: 3g; Protein: 4 grams; Total carbohydrates: 32 grams; Fiber: 1.5 grams; Cholesterol: 42 milligrams; Sodium: 220 milligrams

Lamingtons

I was checking out my fave site, Joy of Baking, when I saw a recipe for lamingtons. I had never heard of them, they are fluffy white cakes drenched in chocolate then rolled in coconut like a bounty bar cake MMmmmm. In Australia these cakes are a big deal and are very popular and now that I made them I have to agree with the Aussies, perfect bites.

Here is a link to the recipe :)

 

Red Velvet Cake-Joy Of Baking

Be My Valentine?

I got this recipe from the Joy Of Baking site the recipe can be found here. I wanted to make something for my sweetie for Valentines Day and what better than Red Velvet? I used swedish berries and pretzels to decorate the cake and they actually went really well with the flavor profile of the cake?! who knew. The icing is wicked a mix of cream cheese,marsacapone,conf sugar and whipping cream a little different than the usual. I would recommend chilling the cakes before icing then doing a thin (crumb coat) on the sides and top then chilling and finishing with remaining icing it just gives a cleaner finish.