A three layer cake for Mom

I made this cake for my mothers birthday:



It is a three layer cake with two dark chocolate butter cake layers and one vanilla bean butter cake layer.
The filling is homemade caramel which worked out great.
I covered the cake with dark chocolate ganache and toasted sliced almonds.
A drizzled of some leftover caramel added the finishing touch.

The extra vanilla layer wound up ground up as filling in other pastries.

Valentine's Day Cookies

Well this past week was Valentine’s Day and I baked some homemade shortbread cookies for my 5 year old daughter’s class. I know it is more common to make cut out cookies out of sugar dough or butter cookie dough but I love my shortbread dough. The shortbread tends to be far more delicate but the flavor makes it worth it.
In this case I flavored the dough with vanilla and caramel extracts. I also use powdered sugar rather than granulated sugar to support the tender flakey texture of the finished cookie.
I have a daughter who loves princesses and anything bejeweled so I made the cookies with as much shimmer as I could. Have a look…

The dough made and ready for a 30 minute rest:



The cookies cut with a 2 inch fluted heart cutter:



This next photo is of my 1 inch hearts covered in hot pink sanding sugar…




Stack the cooled cookies and “glue” together with white royal icing… paint on a design using red pink and white royal icing. Drag a toothpick down through the icing to make the heart design…



Here is a close up shot, my food photography needs some work but bear with me:




The little silver ball in the center is a silver 4mm dragee with white royal icing.


Here is the recipe for the Shortbread I love:
2 sticks of room temperature unsalted butter
½ cup powdered sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
½ tsp caramel extract
2 cups or all purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder

Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar. Add both extracts. Sift together the dry ingredients. Mix in the dry ingredients until completely blended. Take care not to overwork the dough at this point. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and press down into a disk. Rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
On a well floured surface roll out dough to about a ¼ inch thickness (I like even a little thicker) Cut with chosen cutter and bake for about 11 minutes. (Until set and only very slightly browned on the edge.
If sanding sugar is being used cover the cut cookies in the sugar before they are baked.
Cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes then move to cooling rack. Decorate as you would like.
Enjoy. The yield changes depending on the size of the cookie.

24 cookies 2 inch cookies on average.

And so it begins...

Today I finally have worked up the nerve to not only read the blogs of others but to toss my hat into the ring and start my own. So here it goes...



I started baking seriously about 2 years ago when I guess I was bitten by the pastry bug. I went from a mild interest to being almost obsessed. I took one look at what it costs to register in pastry school and went into sticker shock. Please understand that I am still paying off the last two degrees I got back in the 90's.



I guess I should mention that since the birth of my 5 year old I have been a stay at home Mom. I started collecting the makings of a baking and pastry cookbook library that rivals any cooking school. (I actually checked the schools in my area before making that claim). Now that my daughter has started "real" school I find myself with some "me" time...with that I decided to attempt to teach myself professional pastry. (Its a whole lot cheaper than school and I set my own hours). I have collected all of the text books on the subject that are readily available and digested them completely. I actually took notes as if I were in school. I practice as often as possible and am really hoping to share some of my exploits with anyone else who might be interested.



A great source for books is Amazon.com I research books there and am then able to buy the books used for pennies on the dollar. I have some absolutely amazing books. (More on that later). I will say this...it may be easier to learn high level pastry from a school but with discipline and (a very patient husband) in my case it can be done at home with the purchase of well......quite a bit of equipment and books. Lots of books!



So here is where I will tell my tale as I continue on this road I am paving here at home. I will be including some step by step pictures along with baking notes and recipes. I have really enjoyed the blogs of so many I hope some of you might enjoy mine. I look forward to baking with you.