CCHHOOCCOOLLAATTEE!!!!

So my friend at Duff ABC's was visiting last week and we had a wonderful time skimming through the Daring Bakers monthly challenges. We considered asking them if we could join but decided that we'd want to repeat some of the recipes, but wouldn't want to do some of them. SO we decided to do something similar ourselves. Not only will it be desserts, but just random things we've been interested in learning. So this month we're starting pretty basic, with some Ice cream we actually made together last week (but I had to remake it tonight for pictures-- DARN). Here is a direct link to My ABC's Ice Cream Post

Best Ever Chocolate Ice Cream

1 Cup Whole Milk
2 Cup Heavy Cream
3/4 Cup Sugar
3/4 Cup Cocoa
3 oz. Chocolate (I like DARK)
4 Egg yolks
Pinch of Salt


1. In a sauce pan, whisk together the Milk and Cream with the sugar, cocoa powder, and salt until smooth. Whisk together the egg yolks in a small bowl. Place the saucepan over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Drizzle a little bit of the milk mixture into the egg yolks, stirring to combine, then add the egg yolks in a slow stream back into the milk in the saucepan. Return the pan to the heat and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Do not let boil or it will curdle. Remove the mixture from the heat and immediately stir in the chopped chocolate, stirring until the chocolate is melted and combined.
2. Place the mixture in the refrigerator to chill thoroughly, at least 4 hours. Process the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

Now my manufacturer claims it only takes 25-30 mins, and usually that's about right, but this one took about 35-40. I'm not sure if maybe I just didn't cool it long enough (I just couldn't wait the 4 hours, but I put it in the BACK of the fridge, where things tend to freeze...), or if it's just so THICK and CREAMY that it needs longer to crystallize (or whatever the reaction is) into Ice Cream. It also didn't fluff up as much and make as big of a batch as my normal recipes. I also normally don't use the "cooked" ice cream recipes, but this one is SO worth it. I just have to remember to give myself more time.

The first time I did it perfect, this time I was making cake and icing and dinner and was a little off and accidentally added the eggs at the beginning instead of boiling first. I can definitely see a difference, but the taste hasn't been compromised. It's much runnier, and the texture is a little on the grainy side. So I'm make SURE I boil first then add the eggs next time.

**Update** So I waited a day and tried it AND it's great, I still liked the first batch better, this one melts faster, but isn't grainy like I expected it to be. And it's great with my Marshmallow frosting!

Thank you to Desert Candy for the recipe and her 21 days of Ice Cream in Aug.

Coolest Car EVER!!!

I wouldn't mind having this car in my garage..... I though the rest of you cake lovers would get a kick out of this amazing "car" too!

Yellow Texas Rose

So here is the final cake, all she wanted was yellow frosting roses on white frosting, with white cake and white filling. I wanted to go all the way up the bottom layer, with roses, but after putting on the second row I knew it wouldn't make the car trip. I did have quite a few fall off in the car and had to do some damage control once I got there. But in the end it worked out well.
It took 48 cups of batter, 18 cups of buttercream, 12 cups of royal icing, 10 lbs of powdered sugar, but only 24 eggs! And I finally finished of a 50 lbs bag of powdered sugar I accidentally bought at Costco last year!

18 cups of frosting.

So today I finished the latest wedding cake. I was really please, it turned out well. Again, going with the brides design choices here. I'm not really a yellow fan... ANYWAY, here is more of the process. When I got up today first I cut off the tops of all the layers to make them flat, and make sure they were all the same size. Then I decided to change it a bit and make each layer a different height. Since I knew the cake was big enough they were going to have leftovers I knew I could cut a bit here and there. So then I filled each layer with our vanilla cream cheese mousse (MMMMMmmmmm!!!!) and frosted them smooth. But not "ironing" smooth, I left it with a rough buttercream finish, rather than the super smooth since it was a more casual open house reception. Then I measured cut and put the dowels in. After that I stacked the layers and pushed the longest dowel through all 3 layers to keep them from sliding around. Usually I do this AT the reception center, but this one was at the brides parents house and without a babysitter I risked putting it together at home and transporting. Over all I think I chose the right risk.

I stopped to nurse the baby at one point and came back in to find an entire side scraped by little fingers. I wish I had remembered to get a shot of that, but I was able to fix it. Overall I expected something a bit worse...

Mousse

I thought for every cake I made I would post a recipe used in that cake. So here is the delicious, easy and versitile Mousse filling (For Cakes or Pies!!)

Chocolate Mousse Filling
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
6 tablespoons cold water
6 oz. cream cheese, softened (room temp very important)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
2 small boxes instant chocolate fudge pudding (or any flavor of your choice)
Whip cream until soft peaks form, set aside. Soften gelatin in cold water; heat in microwave on high, 20-30 seconds until dissolved (make sure it’s completely dissolved). Set aside to cool. Beat cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, milk and lemon juice; mix. Add gelatin mixture, stir to combine. Add 2 boxes of pudding, mix. Fold in whipped cream. Refrigerate until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight.

Yellow roses...

I've been working on this latest cake for a few days, just a little at a time. And now everything is baked, the filling is made and the flowers are almost done drying. So tomorrow I have to level, fill and frost the cakes, Stack and decorate them. And of course get them to the location in one piece and on time. Since I don't have my husband around to help like the other times I've done all this (he was on Christmas break from school when I did my other wedding cakes) it's been interesting getting it all done. So I promised some play by play. Here is the latest, blow by blow of making a cake.

Here are the royal icing roses I've been slowing getting done. I did 3 different colors and 2 sizes each. I did over 130 roses! The first batch took longer than I would have liked, I guess I'm a little out of practise. By the next 2 batches I wizzed through! A couple bit the dust (actually the mouth, my 3rd child ate them!), but 128 are keepers.

The cakes I did over 2 days in 3 inch pans. It creates a much taller cake that way, very elegant. *trick alert* to get an amazingly moist cake you let them cool for 10 mins in the pan- upside down- and then when they cooled enough to touch them- but still very warm, about another 10 mins- you wrap them twice in plastic wrap and freeze them. It freezes all the moisture in, instead of the steam leaving the cake as it cools. Then that them out of the freezer and let them thaw, cut and decorate. Make sure you let them thaw all the way, you don't want condensing on the side of a cake that's been frosted. Then this is the filling, a great mousse recipe that you can adapt to any flavor thanks to the use of pudding! I also have been known to use the extra for a pie!

And last is my 3rd child, the helper, look at the size of that tongue! We get it from my dad!