The Cheesecake Conclusion

I know everyone has been holding their breath with anticipation waiting to hear how the cheesecake finally turned out after approximately two and one half hours of baking. You will notice this post lacks any photo evidence of baking. The final presentation was not very pretty, but the taste was wonderful. I actually tried something a little different this time for my cheesecake. Instead of 32 oz. of cream cheese I substituted mascarpone cheese for 8 oz. of the cream cheese. The recipe I used has been adapted from Joy of Cooking, a must have for any cook or baker.

Graham Cracker Crumb Crust:

4 tblspn unsalted butter
1 c graham cracker crumbs

Cheesecake Filling:

24 oz cream cheese
8 oz mascarpone cheese
1 1/3 c sugar
4 large eggs
1/4 c heavy cream
1/4 c sour cream
2 tspn vanilla

In a medium bowl, combine butter and graham cracker crumbs. Coat bottom of springform pan evenly.

In a large bowl mix cream cheese and mascarpone. Gradually add sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Mix in remaining ingredients until incorporated.

Bake @ 325 degrees for 50-60 minutes (or in my case 120-180 minutes...) Cheesecake should be set, but jiggle slightly in center. Turn oven off and let cool in oven for an hour. Let cool completely before removing from pan. Refrigerate overnight.

I prefer to bake my cheesecakes in a water bath. Once the cheesecake filling has been poured into the springform, place the pan onto a sheet of heavy aluminum foil and fold up the sides of the pan. Place in a large roasting pan. Fill roasting pan with boiling water so it reaches halfway up the sides of the springform.

I would love to try this again, but in a more reliable oven. Maybe for a Christmas dessert?

Love/Hate Relationship

I am a very tired baker right now. And I am currently in the hate phase of my love/hate relationship with my oven.

Now that school is winding down, and two of three projects have been successfully completed and turned in, I have started to focus my energies on recreational baking and trying out new recipes. Tonight I am currently making a vanilla cheesecake which has been in my crappy apartment oven for about two hours. For those of you who don't know, a cheesecake typically takes 55-60 minutes to bake. I am sure a sensible person would ask why I insist on making cheesecakes when I know my oven takes about three times longer to bake them than it should (this is the 2nd cheesecake attempt), but I am headstrong and would scoff at any such person. So instead I am sitting on my couch waiting for a cheesecake that may never finish baking, completely exhausted. And I have an early class tomorrow.

Maybe at a later date I will share some pictures, but I can tell you now it is definitely not a pretty looking cake, but I do believe it will be quite tasty.

Mint Chocolate Chip Deliciousness

It has been a while since I have been able to bake for fun so I decided last weekend I needed to make some cupcakes. If you have been following, the early part of this fall was dedicated to burnt orange cupcakes so it was definitely time to try something new. I had the perfect recipe in mind: Chocolate Chocolate Chip cupcakes with Mint Buttercream frosting.

Mise en Place

The recipes I used I came across on a now defunct cupcake blog, aptly named the Cupcake Bakeshop. I made a couple of changes to try and get the result I wanted.

Devil's Food Chocolate Cake

2 cups flour (I used cake flour so I added 2 tablespoons)
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Mint Buttercream Frosting

1 cup butter
4-5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup milk (I used a small amount of cold water)
1/8 teaspoon all natural peppermint extract

I used the creaming method to mix which is as follows:

Cream butter & Sugar;
Gradually add eggs, mix until combined;
Alternately add sifted dry ingredients with liquid, beginning and ending with dry.
In this case the sifted dry was the baking soda and cake flour and the liquid is the milk. I added the flour in three parts. I also incorporated the cocoa powder and vanilla before the flour. Lastly, I folded in the chocolate chips after the batter was mixed.

Make-up & Panning

I filled the cupcake liners 2/3rds full with the batter and baked @ 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. The cupcakes turned out pretty nicely.

Just out of the oven

I usually let my cupcakes cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes after pulling them out of the oven. I then let the finish cooling on a cooling rack so the bottoms don't get soggy from the steam. I made the cupcakes on Friday evening and waited until Saturday morning to do the frosting. The cupcakes had good flavor, tenderness and moisteness BUT all the chocolate chips sunk to the bottom. Oh, the lessons you learn through your mistakes! Of course I will be trying this recipe again until I get it just right, but I think I will try cutting chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips.

Finished Product: Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

The flavor combo of Mint Buttercream and Devil's food cake was so delicious! Once I work out the kinks with the chocolate chips/chunks* it will be a most excellent cupcake!

*Someone gave me a tip that if I coat the chocolate chips in flour they won't sink. I asked on of the baking instructors and he said that may not work because chocolate chips have a waxy coating and are heavy. It was suggested I try the chocolate chunks.

Fun with Fondant

YAY! It's finally here! FONDANT!

So we started working with fondant. I don't really have much commentary so I will just share some cakes. I have included some other cakes from class because I thought they were so pretty.

Front view

Side view

Back view

Alecia's Leaf Cake

Whitney Sprinkle's Flower Cake

Thursday was our first practical for cake decorating II. For several weeks now I have been dying to make a Hungry, Hungry Hippo cake. Originally I was going to do it two weeks ago, but that was the week I was sick. I decided it would be the perfect cake for my midterm. Creative, fun, and requiring multiple techniques. I used buttercream icing, but I kinda wish I had waited and made it with fondant. I guess it's cute enough, but it could have been better.

Hungry, Hungry Hippo

P.S.: My first attempt at a poll has garnered little attention and even fewer votes. It's making me sad...

Foam Cakes

We have moved on to cakes and cookies in fundamentals, which is both good & bad. Good because cakes and cookies are so yummy; bad because cakes and cookies are so yummy...and I have a rather large sweet tooth.

We started with Angel food and Chiffon cakes. Both cakes have a large amount of egg whites which help the cakes rise. Angel food cake reminds me of my childhood - It seems like every week my parents would be an Angel food cake from Tom Thumb. Normally, I would rave about my bakeshop creations, but truthfully, I still love that Tom Thumb Angel food cake from my childhood so much more! I think it needed some more vanilla. On the other hand, the Chiffon cake was great!

Angel Food Cake

Chiffon Cake

We also baked a lemon buttermilk cake last week which was so delicious! This is a cake I will definitely make again. I think I would like to try it as a layer cake with strawberry filling.

Lemon Buttermilk Cake

We ended Tuesday's class period with a traditional favorite: Chocolate Chip cookies. The dough was too warm when we put them in the oven so our cookies spread quite a bit (which according to the instructor is bad. And makes ugly cookies.) But according to those who consumed the "ugly" cookies they were the best cookies ever! (Just fyi: I am not the only one who consumed the cookies. I brought them to work where everyone went crazy for them.) The cookie recipe was just your basic, back of the Tollhouse bag so nothing too special there.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

On deck: Devil's Food Cake

Did you notice that poll on the right hand side????

You did? Well then why haven't you voted? It will make me feel special.

How Can I Be a Better Blogger?

1. It would probably help if I stayed up-to-date with the blogging...So in my quest to be a better blogger, I will give a little cake decorating update.

Last week we did doll cakes (which are a little creepy to me) and petits fours (which are pretty much the biggest pain in the ass ever.) The fun part about the [creepy] doll cakes was deciding what to make - after all I wasn't just going to do the run-of-the-mill, plain jane barbie-looking cake. Instead I decided to decorate mine like a Disney Princess (I know, so much more original). I chose Snow White, in part because I was inspired by a friend's Halloween costume. I decided to dye the doll's auburn colored hair black (which was truly a terrible idea) to achieve the full effect.

Snow White

I wasn't crazy about the outcome, but I think it was pretty cute. My friend Dani (she's been wanting some blog love) made a Wonder Woman cake which was truly adorable and original, but boxed it up before I could take a picture.

Thursday was petits fours day. For those of you who might be wondering why petits fours are somewhat pricey, I have an answer: they are messy, time consuming, and NOT fun. Never again, my friends, never again. Plus, the icing is so ridiculously sweet it made me almost sick just eating one. By the time I was done icing the darned things I didn't even want to decorate so they are kind of boring looking.

2. One of the things I love about blogging is the inspiration it provides. I have actually come across some really great & creative blogs* searching for a recipe idea. I also have a dear friend who is somewhat of a blogger savant. I don't know how she finds them, but she has turned me on to some of my favorite blogs. I was thinking about how much I can take away from other people's daily musings, I hope I can provide the same to people who might come across my little internet home. With that in mind, I was thinking I should share a little more of the techniques I learn on a daily basis and some of the recipes we use in class. I think I will start a poll to see what my readers would like to see in the future.

So please, tell me, how can I be a better blogger?

*Sometimes I worry my cakes will end up on Cake Wrecks...please don't submit them.