The Icing On The Cake

Cake decorating is always a fun lesson to do, for me and for the students! I know it’s hard for them to sit through the demonstration but they really need to see a few of the techniques that are key to a nicely iced cake. It’s important they understand these elements before starting to decorate:

 

       Try to achieve the right consistency for your icing. If it’s too hard it can tear and crumb the cake as you decorate, making your job more difficult and your cake less visually appealing. If the icing is too soft, it won’t stay where you put it and the layers might slide around, making it difficult to ice. The icing should be firm but easily spreadable.

       Make sure the cake is flat. If your cake has crowned, trim the crown off so your cake is flat and you can spread a nice even and flat layer of icing on it.

       Use simple syrup to moisten the cake. Not only does this help keep your cake moist, it also provides a bit of flavour and better texture. You’re cake should not ‘crunch’ when you bite into it.

       Hold the palette knife straight as you ice the cake. I think the hardest thing for students to do is to develop the habit of holding the palette knife straight horizontally to do the top and straight perpendicular to ice the sides.

       Use long even strokes to spread the icing. A smooth back and forth motion will help you spread the icing evenly without too many lines.

       Enough is enough! When your cake is iced evenly, stop. Sometimes trying to make things perfect can lead to problems that detract from the final appearance of your cake. Leave well enough alone!

 

Here are a few simple recipes for completing this project:

Vanilla Cake

    2 cup white sugar

    1 cup butter

    4 eggs

    1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract

    3 cups all-purpose flour

    1 tbsp baking powder

    1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
3. Combine flour and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients and the milk to the creamed mixture alternating between the two to mix the batter evenly.
4.  Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
5. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven.

Simple Vanilla Buttercream

1 cup soft butter

1 tablespoon vanilla

4 cups sifted icing sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1. Cream butter with an electric mixer. Add the vanilla and mix in. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl often.
2.  Add milk as the icing firms up. If the icing is too hard to spread, add a bit more milk and blend in until smooth.

Simple Syrup

½ cup water

½ cup sugar

2 strips of orange peel, just the zest part

Place all ingredients in a small pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes. Cool before using.

Flight of the Concord

I don’t know about you but whenever I taste grape juice, grape jelly or even grape bubble gum, I think of concord grapes. Whenever I eat concord grapes I think of grape jelly and all things flavoured grape! They have a flavour that is all their own, kind of musky, but so sweet and tart at the same time. I like they way they slip from their skins when I pop them in my mouth, the inside being the sweet part, but then if you bit down or chew the skin you get the tart flavour which balances the sweet taste so well. I like to vary the amount I chew the skins to create different taste sensations in my mouth as I graze through my bunch, bowl or basket of those tiny little purple gems.

The scent of these grapes also draws me. As soon as I hit the produce section of the grocery store, in the fall which is the only time they are available, I smell them before any other fruit. Perhaps it’s their unique ‘purple’ scent, or maybe it’s the memories their aroma invokes within me that draws me back to them year after year. My first encounter with concord grapes was ‘harvesting’ them from our neighbours’ yard when I was quite young. My brothers, friends and I would sleep outside during those hot summer nights, in tents, on the porch or under the stars, but sometime during the night we would sneak off to explore the various gardens of our neighbourhood. The places that always drew me back were those that had vines of concord grapes growing along the fences. I wonder if the owners missed those grapes as much as I enjoyed eating them!

I bought a small basket of them the other day but when I popped those first few in my mouth and thought of grape jelly, I knew I had to make some so I would have that taste later when those luscious grapes were no longer on the produce shelves. Of course I was back at the market next day to buy some more, taking advantage of their limited season. A few days later they were gone, eaten by people who are drawn to them, or enjoy them I hope as much as I do, people who will have to wait until next year to savour their flavour once more. But in the meantime, there’s grape jelly in my pantry!

 

Concord Grape Jelly

2 L fresh concord grapes

125 ml water

250 ml red wine

625 ml granulated sugar

Wash and stem the grapes. Combine them with water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally

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Strain the juice through a bag or cheese cloth and allow it to stand overnight in the refrigerator. Measure the juice, being careful not to use sediment. You should have about 2 cups.

Combine 2 cups grape juice with the red wine and sugar. Bring to a boil and boil, uncovered for 20 minutes or until a spoonful when chilled quickly has desired consistency.

Sterilize your jars by placing them in a 250F oven for about 10 minutes. Sterilize the lids by putting them in boiling water until you need them.

Ladle the liquid jam into sterilized jars. Put the lids and tighten lightly. The jars should seal as they cool.

Makes about 3 ½ 250 ml jars of jelly.

Turkey With a Twist

Turkey With a Twist

Thanksgiving usually means a big roast turkey with all the trimmings but I was faced with two challenges this year that would mean a change of plans. Firstly, my oven wasn’t working properly which meant I couldn’t cook a whole bird in it, and secondly, Darwin’s turkeys proved to be a little smaller than expected this year. I needed 3 of them to feed all of our family and friends.

 

After some consideration, I decided to break the birds down and do a variety of dishes using the different parts. I removed the legs, cutting them into drumsticks and thighs, the wings, cutting them in two each, and the breasts, keeping them joined by the skin by cutting from the back, then along the rib cage and down the keel.

The thighs were marinated in red wine overnight and turned into ‘Dinde au Vin’. The wings were seasoned with a standard BBQ rub and slow smoke roasted on the BBQ. I make a bread stuffing with sausage meat, pistachios and dried cranberries, stuffed the turkey breasts, rolled and tied them forming nice little roasts. These were roasted in the BBQ as well using indirect heat. The drumsticks were used to make turkey confit, which when paired with a traditional French white bean cassoulet proved to be the star of the dinner. The turkey was cooked just enough to fall off the bones easily and almost melted in our mouths. The beans had a nice sweet, fresh savory taste that went perfectly with the turkey.

 

Add to this feast the usual accompaniments, cranberries, potatoes, vegetables, stuffing, pumpkin pie and cheese cake, and you end with a very traditional thanksgiving dinner.

     

Cassoulet

    2 cups dried white beans, picked over and rinsed

    1 smoked pork hock

    1 onion, chopped

    1 carrot, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

    6 cloves garlic finely chopped

    2 pieces smoked sausage, diced

    4 qt water

    ¼ cup ketchup

    1 tbsp savoury

    1 tbsp Dijon mustard

    1 bay leaf

    5 sprigs fresh thyme

    1 tablespoon salt

    3/4 teaspoon black pepper

Cover the beans with cold water by 2 inches in a bowl and soak them overnight. Drain well in a colander.

Place all the ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on high for about 8 hours, or until the beans soften and all the ingredients combine to make a thick sauce. Adjust the seasoning and serve.

The Rustic Pizza

We made a great pizza for the high school open house the other night. It was a bit rustic, a bit sparse in toppings, but looked and tasted just great. Aiden rolled the dough and dressed most of the pizzas, I helped him out when he needed it and Harrison ‘burned’ the crème brulee. Here’s how we did the pizza:

We started with a 3 oz piece of my usual pizza dough (recipe follows) but rolled it out oblong, so we had a long thin pizza. Each crust was about 3 inches by 6 inches. We had a very smooth tomato sauce that we could squeeze out of a bottle and we used that to squeeze lines of sauce onto the dough, not covering the pizza at all, but just giving it enough sauce to give it some taste and moistness. We then gave it a drizzle of olive oil, maybe a teaspoon or a bit more on each little pie. I had some left over prosciutto so we cut that into strips and put that on, and then a few pieces of oven roasted asparagus. Next came little globs of goat cheese, a sprinkle of mozzarella, some fresh dill leaves and a bit of cracked pepper. That may seem like a lot of toppings, but we just put a little of each on, so that you could still see the dough through them. We sent these little pies through the pizza oven and they came out the other end perfectly browned, cheese melty, a few bubbles poking up, and very rustic looking. The crust was thin and crisp and the pizza was quite light because of the small amount of toppings. Perfect for snacking! 

You could make these pizzas very easily on the BBQ as well. Switch the toppings around to create your own taste sensation!

Pizza Dough

4 ½  cups warm water

4 tablespoons yeast

1/2 cup oil

2 tablespoon basil

2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1 teaspoon salt

10 ½  cups flour

Place the yeast in the warm water and mix in.

Add the oil, basil, pepper, tomato sauce and salt and mix together.

Add 2 cups flour and mix until it forms a paste.

Add the remaining flour until a soft dough is formed.

Knead for 10 minutes. Let rise for about 1 hour

Form into 3 oz balls and refrigerate.

Makes about 32  3 oz pizza shells.