I heard a rumour that there was a huge Daring Bakers’ party happening on March 30th so I arrived early in the hopes of not missing it.

You haven’t witnessed a true party until you’ve attended a Daring Bakers’ fête.

This month’s party was hosted by Morven of Food Art and Random Thoughts who chose Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake from the book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

For a change, I actually got to the challenge early in the month as I decided to bake it for my coworkers as a way of celebrating the arrival of spring and the end of several months hard work on a huge project.

About a week before trying the recipe, I quickly scanned it and thought, “Eh, no problem!”

When I first made the cake, I used cake and pastry flour and buttermilk. The recipe gives the option of using whole milk instead of buttermilk. I put my batter together quite quickly and sent my little cakes off to the oven to do their thing. When I pulled them out, however, the cakes had not risen at all.

Okay.

I figured I must have somehow made a mistake while putting the recipe together so since I had extra ingredients on hand, I decided to try again. Once again I sent the cakes off to the oven only to pull them out a short time later in utter dismay as I looked down at two cakes that had not risen. They were as flat as pancakes.

Okaaaaaaaaaaay.

I’ve been baking for a very long time and I can’t remember when the last time was that I’d baked cakes that didn’t rise. I knew it couldn’t be my ingredients because I bake so often that I turn over my ingredients very quickly. I made the decision to try the cakes a third (and final) time but this time I used slightly different ingredients.

As luck would have it, in between my second and third try, Lis and I received an e-mail from Brilynn of Jumbo Empanadas who explained that Dorie Greenspan herself and gotten in touch with Brilynn about this very recipe. Apparently others were having problems with cakes that wouldn’t rise so they e-mailed Dorie to ask her what the problem could be. Dorie indicated that the problem is likely the flour.

This particular cake was tested with a brand of flour called Swans Down, which is apparently an exceptionally fine cake flour. Whenever I bake recipes that require cake flour, I always use what’s referred to as cake and pastry flour and I’ve never had any problems. But these cakes just wouldn’t rise for me.

In her e-mail to Brilynn, Dorie explained that people could make the cakes with all-purpose flour as long as they used the right amount. When substituting all-purpose for cake flour, you have to remove two teaspoons of flour per cup.

I decided to go out on a limb and make the cakes with all-purpose flour and whole milk. The other adjustment I made was that once my batter came together, I switched from the paddle attachment to the whisk attachment and beat my batter at high speed for a good four minutes in an effort to work some air into the batter and increase the volume.

With fingers and toes crossed, I put the cakes into the oven and hoped for the best. When I pulled the cakes out later, while they had risen a bit, they did not rise nearly as much as the recipe indicated they would.

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

At this point I was in no mood to try them again and it was too late to try and source some Swans Down in an effort to recreate the results from the cookbook. Instead, I put my baking experience to good use and perservered with what I had.

While slicing the thin cakes in half was a bit tricky, I managed well enough. I slathered my layers with raspberry preserves and buttercream (the buttercream part of the recipe came together well and was delicious but it didn’t yield very much - I had just enough buttercream to fill and frost my cake). I had entertained ideas of trying variations but the frustration of baking the cakes three times sapped me of any desire to try something different.

I decided to decorate my iced cake with shredded coconut, white chocolate shavings and raspberries. It looked pretty good but I still couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

That mood didn’t last long, however, as my coworkers demolished the cake in record time. While the cake layers may not have risen much, that did not affect the final result. The cake was incredibly delicious. It had a light lemony flavour that combined beautifully with the raspberry.

Everyone knows I love Dorie. I had the opportunity to meet with her last summer and she struck me as a truly gifted and generous person. I’ve never had any problems with her recipes but I must be honest, this one stumped me a bit.

I’m going to definitely try the cake again as the end result was too good not to. But here’s hoping I have better success with those cake layers!

Thank you to Morven for choosing a cake that was truly, truly challenging!

Ciao!

For the recipe for this cake, please visit Morven’s blog.

To see what all the other Daring Bakers have created, please visit the blogroll.

Technorati tags: daring bakers, dorie greenspan

One cannot choose a cookbook as the Flavour of the Month and then allow the whole month to pass without saying even one thing about said cookbook.

That just won’t do.

Especially when one has chosen such a special, pretty little cookbook as the Flavour of the Month for March 2008.

As often happens in life, while searching for one thing, I came across another even better thing. As I scoured www.amazon.com for a certain book I was looking for, I hit upon Maria Bruscino Sanchez’s Sweet Maria’s Italian Cookie Tray and what a delightful find it was!

This slim little volume should not fool you, though. It carries more baking wisdom in its little pocket than many books three or four times the size carry. And it’s full full full of the kinds of recipes that you find handwritten on old pieces of paper tucked away in kitchen drawers. Except in this book the recipes actually have identifiable measurements like cups and tablespoons as opposed to “a handful of this” or “two fingers worth of that”.

I didn’t know who Maria Bruscino Sanchez was when I bought the book so I looked her up and found out that she’s a baker with a business of the same name located in Connecticut. Sanchez is the author of three other cookbooks that I was unable to locate because they’re exceptonally hard to find! On a whim, I decided to e-mail her and lo and behold she sent me a lovely e-mail in response informing me that all four of her books will be available in a bound volume in the fall of 2008.

Yes! The cookbook monster is appeased.

In the meantime, I’ve been keeping this book close at hand to leaf through during the few quiet moments that I’ve had over the past month or so. And while I didn’t have time to try a recipe, Mama Cream Puff came to the rescue and made the very first recipe in the book: anginetti.

I asked her to make these because they reminded me very much of a simple lemon cookie that my grandmother would often make. The recipe consists of eggs, milk, lemon extract, sugar, vegetable oil, flour and baking powder. The baked cookies are topped with a glaze of icing sugar, lemon extract and water.

Simple.

And delicious.

Ah, the joys of accidental stumbles! You just never know what treasure you’ll find.

A wonderful weekend to all!

Ciao!

When I saw that my sweetie Lis was hosting the latest edition of the Weekend Cookbook Challenge (originated by Sara of i like to cook), I knew that I had to find time to participate.

Between work and the Easter holiday, this past month has been a busy one to say the least. But I did some planning and managed to find some time to try a recipe that I’ve been longing to try for some time: Rice Pudding with Dulce de Leche.

The idea for this dessert came from a book that I adore called Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth by Jill O’Connor. The book is beyond gorgeous and there’s a recipe in there for rice pudding with dulce de leche and cream.

I’d wanted to try the recipe for awhile and decided that this was the perfect occasion. While I borrowed the idea, however, I used my own go-to rice pudding recipe as the basis.

The theme for this WCC was to prepare a recipe using a pressure cooker, dutch oven or crockpot. I decided to use a dutch oven to prepare the rice pudding because we recently bought a little one that is just too adorable! Sometimes I’ll just put it on the stove and look at it because it’s so darn cute!

Once the rice pudding was cooked, I swirled in a huge dollop of dulce de leche and enjoyed a lovely treat.

I hope you get to enjoy it too!

Ciao!

Technorati tags: rice pudding, weekend cookbook challenge

Today is Easter Monday and in Italian, we call this day Pasquetta. For many (myself included), today is a holiday. I always enjoy having the day after a big holiday to myself as it gives me a chance to reflect.

I’ve had such a lovely Easter this year.

Not only did my work schedule calm down, but I had the chance to spend time with family and friends.

While Christmas is still my favourite holiday, I find Easter to be just as enjoyable but in different ways.

It’s lighter outside and even though it’s cold, you know that spring is just around the corner. And even though there’s tonnes of food, just as at Christmas time, everything seems just a bit lighter and the pace is a bit slower and not as pressure-filled.

This Easter was also special for me because I finally tried a traditional Easter specialty from Le Marche, the region of Italy where my father is from.

When I was growing up, my father would always regale us at Easter time with fond memories of a type of bread made at this time of year called Pizza di Pasqua or Easter Pizza.

A few times we were given a recipe for this bread by our family in Italy but for some reason, we just never made it. I was a bit reluctant to ask for the recipe again so instead I did some research and cobbled together a recipe that I think is very similar to the one that my father spoke of.

My father told us that they would add salami to their pizza but I decided that for my first try, I would keep the bread simple.

The bread started out with a very basic pizza dough recipe to which I added, after its first rise, flour and grated cheese (Parmigiano and Pecorino) and then beaten eggs. After a second rise, I spread the dough out into two earthenware dishes and let it rise again.

It finally went into the oven and I watched as my dough puffed up into two lovely offerings that were a cross between pizza and bread.

Once out of the oven, it was hard for me not to immediately cut into the bread but I exercised some patience and instead covered my little sweeties up and kept them safe for Easter lunch where I reheated and then served them with thin slices of Prosciutto di Parma.

Hope the Easter Bunny hops on by!

Ciao!

Easter Egg Nest Cupcakes

Note: If you can’t find superfine sugar (also called fruit sugar), simply put regular sugar in a food processor and process for a few minutes until very fine.

For the cupcakes:

1 stick (8 tbsp.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the chocolate frosting:

1 tbsp. heavy cream (35% cream)
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
sweetened shredded coconut (for garnish)
mini chocolate eggs (for garnish)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and lightly grease the top part of a 12-cup muffin tin (but you will only be using 9 of the cups).

Line 9 of the muffin cups with paper cup liners and set the tin aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, eggs and extract. Mix on low speed for a minute until the ingredients start to come together.

Increase speed to medium high and beat for three minutes.

Spoon the batter equally among the 9 muffin cups.

Bake for 20 minutes and check that the cupcakes are done by inserting a toothpick into the centre of one. If it comes out clean, the cupcakes are done. They should also be quite springy to the touch.

Remove to a cooling rack and let the cupcakes cool in the tin for 15 minutes. Carefully remove the cupcakes from the tin and let them cool completely before making the chocolate frosting.

For the frosting, place the heavy cream and chocolate chips in a small pan. Melt the chips over low heat until the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool for a couple of minutes.

Spread the frosting equally over the cupcakes and then garnish with coconut and mini eggs, or however you wish.

Enjoy!

Technorati tags: Easter, Pasqua, cupcakes

Well, I’m back! I’m glad you all enjoyed the pancakes from the previous post. Not only did I finally get to have some pancakes but I’m happy to say that with the exception of a few loose ends, work will be getting back to normal.

This means that I can return to my blog, my friends, my family and my baking. And just in time for Easter!

What this also means is that I can finally start looking ahead to the spring and summer and planning some vacation.

First on my list is a five-day trip to The Big Apple in May. I have never been to New York City before and to say that I’m excited is a mild mild mild understatement.

Because I trust my blog friends and readers so much, I was hoping you could all give me a helping hand. I have some questions about places to go and see in New York and any and all advice is welcome and appreciated.

The blog will be quiet for the next few days as I catch up on some much-needed sleep along with unopened mail, laundry, trying to find my cell phone (anyone seen it???) and catching up with my family. In the meantime, though, I can’t wait to read all of your suggestions. So here goes:

1. If you could only go to one NYC restaurant for the meal of your life and price would not be an option, what restaurant would you recommend?

10. a)Since the Cream Puff has never been to NYC before, what part of the city do you recommend she stays in? b) What is the one sight in NYC not to be missed?

Thanks for your help. I’ll be back in a few days with lots of goodies.

Ciao!

I’m not one for swearing or cursing but I’m just going to come right out and say it, work is kicking my ass.

Badly.

And something very strange is happening to me. At the most inopportune moments during the day, my thoughts turn to pancakes.

Tall stacks of fluffy pancakes. Blueberry pancakes. Buttermilk pancakes. Pumpkin pancakes.

Pancakes dripping syrup. Pancakes glistening with melted butter.

Towers of pancakes surrounded by an adoring crowd of chocolate-drizzled strawberries.

All I want are some pancakes.

Sigh.

Ciao!

Ricotta Pancakes
From Bill Granger’s Bill’s: Breakfast, Lunch + Dinner.

Note: Over the past few months, I’ve fallen in love with Bill Granger. I’ve purchased three of his cookbooks including this one and I’m smitten. These pancakes were incredible!

1-1/2 cups ricotta (try to use a dry ricotta, otherwise drain your ricotta in a paper-towel lined colander overnight in the refrigerator)
1 tbsp. sugar
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs, separated
1 cup plus two tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. grated orange zest
unsalted butter (for cooking the pancakes)

In a bowl, combine the ricotta, sugar, milk and egg yolks. Mix well and set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the ricotta mixture. Add the vanilla extract and orange zest and mix well.

In a clean bowl, whip the egg whites until they’re stiff.

Gently fold the egg whites into the ricotta mixture.

Heat a pan or griddle and melt a few tablespoons of butter in the pan. Drop about a quarter cup of batter into the pan for each pancake. Don’t overcrowd the pan.

Cook for two to three minutes on the first side. The pancake will be golden. Flip and cook for an additional two minutes.

Serve warm with butter and syrup. Enjoy!