Her Modern Kitchen

Eating & Living in Austin, Texas

baking bucket list

Truffle and Goat Cheese Soufflé

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A savory Truffle and Goat Cheese Soufflé made with truffle salt, mushrooms, sage, and goat cheese crumbles that’s ready in less than an hour.

So often I make a recipe, document it, photograph it, then never find the time to actually post about it.  And that’s exactly what happened with this Truffle & Goat Cheese Soufflé.   

I actually made this recipe last December. Like 8 months ago.

I made it because a soufflé was on my 2019 Baking Bucket List.  I chose a soufflé as part of my bucket list because it always seemed like something difficult to make.  I’m not sure why, maybe it’s because I always saw soufflés on fancy restaurant menus and thought that they must take a great deal of culinary skill to make.

Truffle Goat Cheese Soufflé

However, even 8-months after making my first soufflé, what I’ve learned, is that they’re not that difficult to make.

In fact, like most things in the kitchen, a soufflé is quite straightforward as long as you are patient, follow instructions, and have the proper equipment.  In this case, a hand mixer, which is 100% necessary for making fluffy egg whites, the star ingredient in soufflés.

Truffle Goat Cheese Soufflé

My Truffle and Goat Cheese soufflé was inspired by some truffle salt and truffle butter I received as a hostess gift.  Truffle is such a delicious, powerful flavor and something I typically save for special occasions or dishes.  This day, making my soufflé, I decided I needed to use a special ingredient since the soufflé was so high on my baking bucket list and I wanted it to feel special.

Find more baking bucket list recipes here.

Not wanting to upstage the truffle flavor, I paired it with finely diced baby Bella mushrooms and creamy, tangy goat cheese crumbles.  The result was a savory, light soufflé with a hint of truffle.  It made the perfect fancy lunch and was delicious leftover at breakfast the next day.

And, now that I’ve finally posted about it, I’m craving a savory breakfast soufflé and may have to break out the truffle salt again to whip one up.

Happy cooking!

Baking Bucket List: Truffle & Goat Cheese Soufflé
 
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups finely diced baby Bella mushrooms, ~3/4 cup once diced
  • 1½ teaspoons olive oil
  • 1 small shallot, diced
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1½ teaspoon truffle butter
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • ½ teaspoon truffle salt
  • 4 ounces crumbled goat cheese
  • 3 large egg yolks
  • 5 large egg whites (3 egg whites from the full eggs)
  • ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat four 10-ounce ramekins (or a 2- to 2½-quart souffle dish) with butter and place them on a baking sheet.
  2. Heat the olive oil in a small frying pan then add the shallots, garlic, Italian seasoning, and mushrooms. Sauté until cooked through 5-6 minutes.
  3. In a separate saucepan over medium-high heat, melt the unsalted butter and truffle butter. Whisk in the flour and cook, whisking, for 1 minute. Adjust heat as needed to prevent the mixture from getting too dark; it should be the color of caramel. Add in the milk, mustard, and truffle salt and cook, whisking constantly, until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately whisk in goat cheese and 3 egg yolks until well combined. Transfer to a large bowl.
  4. Beat the 5 egg whites in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
  5. Gently fold half of the whipped whites into the milk-egg mixture. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites and the reserved mushrooms just until no white streaks remain. Transfer to the prepared ramekins or souffle dish.
  6. Bake until puffed, firm to the touch, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 160 degrees F, about 20 minutes in ramekins or 30 minutes in a souffle dish. Serve immediately.

 

Blueberry Lemon Mousse Cake with Mirror Glaze

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Blueberry Lemon Mousse Cake combines lemon sponge, blueberry gelée, and an airy mousse to create a beautiful cake that’s perfect for summer celebrations.

This post has been in the hopper for months and I’m just now getting around to writing.  I made this Blueberry Lemon Mousse Cake with Mirror Glaze back in April as part of my 2020 Baking Bucket List and also as my own birthday cake (happy 33 years to me!).

Blueberry Lemon Mousse Cake with Mirror Glaze

Find my 2019 Baking Bucket List here.

Blueberry Lemon is one of my favorite flavor combinations.  I love the sweet-tart flavor and the beautiful purple-yellow pairing when blueberry and lemon are mixed in baked goods.  Except, in my world, the flavors have to be strong.  I’m the type that wants to KNOW there’s blueberry AND lemon in my cake.

Check out my other birthday cakes here and here.

This Blueberry Lemon Mousse Cake with Mirror Glaze has four unique components and requires about 2-days to prepare since after making the lemon sponge, blueberry gelée, and blueberry lemon mousse, you have to let the cake freeze overnight to set before finishing the cake with the mirror glaze. So plan accordingly.

Blueberry Lemon Mousse Cake with Mirror Glaze

Lemon Sponge

This cake starts with a very delicate lemon sponge.  It’s quite thin, very delicate, and full of lemon flavor.  I amped up the lemon juice and zest in the sponge to ensure the lemon flavor wasn’t missed. You bake the sponge in a large 8×8 inch pan then use a 6-inch ring to cut out the base cake layer.  I attempted to bake the sponge originally in a 6-inch cake pan but as the cake cooled it shrunk leaving me with a much smaller cake.

So please, follow the instructions and cut the cake to size once baked.

Blueberry Gelée

Blueberry Gelée is just a fancy word for jelly.  And to be honest, you could probably skip this if you wanted to.  Personally, I don’t think it added much flavor to the overall cake but it does create a beautiful, deep purple layer in the cake once cut that’s quite striking.  Your call here.

Similar to how I cut the sponge to size, you use a 4 or 5-inch ring to cut the gelée to size after it’s set.

Blueberry Lemon Mousse Cake with Mirror Glaze

Blueberry Lemon Mousse Cake with Mirror Glaze

This mousse, in my opinion, is the star of the cake.  It’s silky, creamy, sweet, and tart. Absolutely delicious and encompasses the entire blueberry lemon flavor.  For this layer of the cake, you make your mousse, assemble the cake with the sponge and gelée, then pipe the mousse on top of the sponge and gelée.  You then let the mousse set overnight in the freezer in the 6-inch mold surrounded by acetate.

The next day you remove the mold and have a perfectly round, frozen cake that you can then cover in a mirror glaze.

Blueberry Lemon Mousse Cake with Mirror Glaze

Mirror Glaze

Mirror glaze looks quite difficult to make but to be honest, more than skill, it requires patience.  Patience because while you may be tempted to immediately pour the glaze on top of your cake, you MUST wait until it is 95 degrees Fahrenheit before pouring or it will not form a thick enough layer to cover the outsides of the cake and will simply drip straight off.

While this Blueberry Lemon Mousse Cake with Mirror Glaze is a labor of love, it was 100% worth it.  It was delicious, not too sweet nor too tart, and the mousse was to die for.  It’s something I’d make again for a special occasion — probably my own birthday again next year!

Blueberry Lemon Mousse Cake with Mirror Glaze Pin

Blueberry Gelée
 
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Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups fresh blueberries
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 3 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 1½ sheets leaf gelatin
  • 2 tablespoons water, plus more for blooming the gelatin
  • Special equipment: 4 or 5-inch ring to cut gelée
Instructions
  1. Combine blueberries, half the sugar, half the lemon juice, and the lemon zest in a saucepan. Bring to simmer over medium heat, mashing berries slightly as you stir until berries burst
  2. Transfer the mixture to a food processor and puree until smooth.
  3. Measure out a ½ cup of the puree and place it back into the saucepan. Reserve the remaining puree for the blueberry lemon mousse.
  4. Bloom the gelatin by cutting the sheets into 1-inch strips and submerging them in cool water for 5-minutes to soften.
  5. Add remaining sugar and lemon juice to the saucepan with the puree. Heat until it begins to bubble.
  6. Wring out gelatin to remove excess water and add it to the warm blueberry sauce. Whisk to dissolve.
  7. Pour the mixture into an 8x8 inch pan lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for at least 4-hours until set.
  8. When you are ready to assembler the cake, you will remove the gelée from the fridge and cut a 5-inch round out of the center.

Lemon Sponge Cake
 
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Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • 2 large eggs, separated at room temperature
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar, divided
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup cake flour
  • 14/ teaspoon sea salt
  • Special equipment: 6-inch ring to cut the cake once baked
Instructions
  1. Line an 8x8 inch pan with parchment paper and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
  2. Beat the egg yolks in a bowl until light and creamy then whisk in 3 tablespoons of sugar. Whisk in milk, lemon juice, zest, and vanilla extract.
  3. Sift in the cake flour and salt. Fold until just incorporated.
  4. In a separate, clean bowl, whip egg whites until frothy and stiff peaks form. Beat in the remaining tablespoon of sugar.
  5. Gently fold the whites into the yolk-batter until fully combined.
  6. Pour batter into the prepared baking pan, spread it into a thin even layer, and bake 9-11 minutes until cake is spongey.
  7. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
  8. When you are ready to assembler the cake, you will remove the gelée from the fridge and cut a 5-inch round out of the center.

 
Blueberry Lemon Mousse
 
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Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • 3 sheets leaf gelatin
  • ½ cup blueberry puree (leftover from making the gelée)
  • ½ cup mascarpone cheese
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • ¾ cup whipping cream
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • pinch fine sea salt
  • Special equipment: electric mixer
Instructions
  1. Cut the gelatin into 1-inch strips and submerge in cool water to soften.
  2. Warm the ½ cup of blueberry puree until smooth and just bubbling. Wring on the gelatin to remove excess water and whisk the gelatin into the warm puree. Set aside to cool.
  3. In a medium bowl whisk together the mascarpone cheese, sugar, salt, zest, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Add the cooled blueberry mixture and whisk until smooth.
  4. In a separate, clean bowl of a stand mixer, beat the heavy cream until it reaches stiff peaks. Add ½ of the blueberry mixture and fold to lighten the whipped cream then add the remaining cream and fold until fully incorporated.
  5. Immediately begin assembling your cake (see recipe titled Blueberry Lemon Mousse Cake Assembly

Mirror Glaze
 
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Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • 6 sheets leaf gelatin
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • ⅔ cup corn syrup or glucose syrup
  • ½ cup water
  • ½ cup sweetened condensed milk
  • 7 ounces good-quality white chocolate, finely chopped
  • Special equipment: immersion blender, optional
Instructions
  1. Cut the gelatin into 1-inch strips and submerge in cool water to soften
  2. Place the white chocolate in a medium-size bowl and set aside
  3. Whisk together the sugar, corn syrup, and ½ cup water in a saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a bowl until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add in the gelatin (writing out as much excess water as possible). Whisk in the sweetened condensed milk.
  4. Pour the hot mixture of the white chocolate and let it sit undisturbed for 30-seconds
  5. Stir the chocolate until it is completely melted, you may want to use an immersion blender here to expedite the process but be careful of forming air bubbles
  6. If you want to color your mirror glaze, separate it into bowls and add 2-3 drops of gel food coloring until the desired color is reached
  7. Allow the glaze to cool until it reaches 95-96 degrees. While the glaze cools, prep your frozen mousse cake for glazing following the instructions in the following recipe titled Blueberry Lemon Mousse Cake Assembly

 
Blueberry Lemon Mousse Cake Assembly
 
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Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • 5-inch blueberry gelée
  • 6-inch lemon sponge
  • prepared blueberry-lemon mousse
  • mirror glaze (prepared at step 7 which is the next day after freezing the mousse cake)
  • Special equipment: quarter sheet pan, 6-inch cardboard cake round, 6-inch cake ring, acetate strips at least 6-inches tall and long enough to line the inside of the 6-inch cake ring, piping bag, parchment paper
Instructions
  1. Line a quarter sheet pan with parchment paper
  2. Place a 6-inch cake ring on top of the parchment and line the inside of the ring with acetate so
  3. Place the 6-inch cake board into the cake ring and then place the 6-inch round lemon sponge onto the cake board inside the cake ring
  4. Place the 5-inch blueberry gelée on top of the sponge
  5. Put the blueberry-lemon mousse into the piping bag and pipe the mousse on top of the sponge & gelée
  6. Place the entire thing into the freezer and allow it to freeze overnight. Be sure to place the cake into the freezer on a level surface so the cake freezes flat
  7. The next day, make the mirror glaze then remove the frozen cake from the freezer
  8. Gently remove the ring and acetate from the cake, you may need to warm the sides a bit so it slips off
  9. Place the cake onto a small bowl turned upside down so the cake edges hang cleanly over the bowl, this will allow your mirror glaze to cleanly drip off the edges of your cake.
  10. Place the bowl & cake onto a sheet pan to catch the mirror glaze as it drips off
  11. Once your mirror glaze has cooled to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, pour your glaze of the cake starting and the center and alternating colors (if you colored your mirror glaze). Continue to pour the mirror glaze until the top and all sides of the cake are encased in the glaze. Allow excess glaze to drip off for 5-minutes then use a clean, offset spatula to clean up the edges of the cake.
  12. Place the cake on your cake stand or serving plate and place the cake in the fridge for at least 4-hours before serving.
  13. The cake can be kept in the fridge for up to 3-days after fully assembled.

 

Raspberry Rhubarb Galettes for Two

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Raspberry Rhubarb Galettes served with a dollop of fresh whipped cream make for a rustic yet elegant summertime dessert that’s both sweet & tart.

Raspberry Rhubarb Galettes

I’ve been inspired to bake with rhubarb lately.  I feel as if rhubarb is a highly underutilized vegetable (and yes, it’s a veggie, not a fruit!).  Growing up, I always turned my nose up at rhubarb but now, I have a new appreciation for its tart flavor, unique shape, and beautiful red color.

Check out other rhubarb recipes here

While strawberry and rhubarb are a traditional pairing, I chose to switch up the berry to create these raspberry rhubarb galettes.  I really enjoyed berry swap because the raspberries add a jammy flavor to the galette when cooked that compliments the subtle tartness of the rhubarb.

Balancing the Sweet & Tart

While rhubarb does have a traditional tartness, to ensure it’s not too tart, I used a hack I learned while watching Martha Stewart’s Bakeaway Camp.

In one of the episodes, Martha advises bakers to soak prepped rhubarb in sugar-water for 30-minutes prior to incorporating it into the dessert to balance out the tart flavor.

I found the tip extremely helpful as I was concerned my rhubarb and the minimal sugar in the actual filling may result in a galette that was too tart and not quite dessert-like.

Obviously, Martha’s tip worked like a charm to sweeten the rhubarb prior to baking without becoming too sugary.

I found that even when the raspberry rhubarb galettes are served with fresh whipped cream that’s been lightly sweetened with powdered sugar, the jammy, tart galettes make for a pleasant summertime dessert option that’s neither too sweet nor too tart (in my opinion!).

I really hope you enjoy these galettes. Happy baking!


Raspberry Rhubarb Galettes for Two
 
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Serves: 2 galettes
Ingredients
  • 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 pinches salt
  • 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
  • ¼-1/3 cup iced water*
  • 1¼ cup rhubarb, cut into ½ pieces
  • 1 cup raspberries
  • ½ cup sugar, divided plus more for baking
  • 1 tablespoon tapioca flour
  • Juice of a half lemon
  • ¼ cup + 2 tablespoon whipping cream
  • 2 tablespoon confectioner's sugar
Instructions
  1. Make the crust by placing the flour, salt, and cold butter into a food processor and pulse 7-8 times until the mixture looks like a loose crumb. Stream in a ¼ cup water until the dough just comes together. It should be crumbly but when you squeeze a handful of it together, it should stay in a clump. If it does not clump, add the remaining ice water, pulsing a few more times.
  2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and mound it into a single ball. If it's still crumbly, add another tablespoon of water until everything holds together. Do not overwork the dough.
  3. Once it all holds together, split the mound in half. Form each half into a round, flat disc. Wrap each in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30-45minutes to chill.
  4. While the dough chills, place the cut rhubarb in a medium-size bowl and cover with cool water. Stir in a ¼ cup sugar and allow the rhubarb to soak for at least 30-minutes. After 30-minutes, drain the water from the rhubarb, dry off the pieces on a piece of paper towel, then place the rhubarb pieces into a clean, dry medium-size bowl. Add in the raspberries, the remaining ¼ cup of sugar, lemon juice, and tapioca flour and stir to combine. Allow the fruit to sit while you prep the pastry.
  5. Preheat the oven 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat.
  6. Remove the pastry discs from the fridge. Place a single disc onto a lightly floured surface and roll it into a 9-inch circle. Gently move the rolled circle to the prepared baking sheet and repeat with the remaining disc.
  7. Pile the fruit mixture into the center of each pastry circle, mounding into the middle with about 1-2 inches border. Gently fold the excess pastry up around the fruit, crimping the edges so they stay in place.
  8. Using a pastry brush, gently brush the pastry with 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 30-35 minutes in the oven until the pastry is golden brown. Allow to cool for at least 10-minutes before serving.
  9. While the galettes are cooling, make the whipped cream by placing the ¼ cup of heavy whipping cream in a small bowl with 2 tablespoons of confectioner's sugar. Using a handheld mixer, mix the heavy whipping cream until thick and fluffy.
  10. Serve galettes with a dollop of whipped cream on top.
Notes
*To measure ice water, measure out the ¼-1/3 cup water THEN place the ice cubes in it but when you add the water to the flour, do not add the ice. Strain the ice out.

 

My 2020 Baking Bucket List

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I really enjoyed my 2019 baking bucket list so I’m excited to do it again for 2020. This year’s focus is on cakes, revisiting a few 2019 bakes, and yeast bread.

I really enjoyed my 2019 baking bucket list, even if I did slack off for a few months during the late summer and fall.  However, I did catch up on all my baking bucket list items in December and while I haven’t posted about all of them yet, I plan to write the final two, croissants & soufflé, in the coming weeks. 

In fact, I actually completed my final baking bucket list item, soufflé on December 31st.  I almost let it slip because I really didn’t care about making a soufflé but I finished it up for lunch, making a Black Truffle & Goat Cheese Soufflé — it was delicious!

Since I really enjoyed my baking bucket list project this past year, I decided to do another one for 2020!  I really enjoyed making cakes this past year so I’ve loaded up my baking bucket list with cakes to improve my skillset.  I’ve also doubled up a couple of months and left an ‘Other’ category in case I want to make something extra one month/use it as a holding area for other baking ideas that come to mind.

My 2020 Baking Bucket List

January: Challah Bread

February: Cookie Cutter Cake & Macaroons

March: Sourdough Bread: Chocolate Sourdough Babka, Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls, Sourdough Crackers

April: Geoed Cake

May: Watercolor Cake

June: Gallette, maybe a savory heirloom tomato & goat cheese?

July: Pinstriped Cake

August: Shag Cake

September:  Mirror Glaze Cake

October: German Apple Strudel

November: Croquembouche Tree, maybe creme de menthe flavored?

December: Snowflake Jellyroll Inlay & Cookie Cutter Cake (again, for the holidays)

Other Options: Palimers, Kougin-Amann, Madeleine, Biscotti, Crepe Cake

 

 

 

 

New Year’s Eve Sprinkles Fault Line Cake

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Ring in the next decade with a decadent New Year’s Eve blackout cake filled with glittery sprinkles and a shimmering gold fault line.

If you didn’t know, I really love sprinkles and my favorite place to purchase them is through Fancy Sprinkles.  Their New Year collection caught my eye and I immediately purchased the 2020 & Metallic Rainbow Dragee sets which inspired this cake.

New Years Eve Cake with Rope Braid

Originally, I intended to make a drip cake, similar to others I’ve made this year because they’re just SO fun to make but decided at the last moment (similar to how I make all my baking decisions…) to do something different and learn a new technique.

Check out the pinata cake I made last year to celebrate 2019!

I’ve been admiring fault line cakes on Instagram for a while now and I loved their 3D look with sprinkles, cookies, or an intricate design embedded as a ‘layer’ of the cake so after researching the process, I found it wasn’t as complicated as I originally thought and decided to give it a go for my New Year’s Eve cake.

New Years Eve Fault Line Cake

The Chocolate Cake

I used this tutorial for the fault line process and my own chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream recipes (below) to make and frost the actual New Year cake.  I love love love this chocolate cake recipe.  It’s a no-fail recipe that bakes beautifully every time.  It’s moist and perfectly chocolatey.  I’ve been making it for years. And I think there’s no better way to celebrate a new decade than with chocolate!

Black Chocolate Buttercream

My chocolate buttercream recipe is a go-to as well, one that I keep in my baking arsenal.  It’s a combination of both buttercream and vegetable shortening which I find holds up better than straight butter-only frosting.  To color the frosting black, I just added a couple of teaspoons of black food coloring at the very ended and gave it a good whip in the mixer.  The key to making black frosting is to always use chocolate as your base.  Attempting to color vanilla or light-colored frosting black will simply result in a metallic, gray color.

New Years Eve Cake with Fancy Sprinkles

Adding the Sprinkles

When it came time to add the sprinkles onto my New Year cake, I first started by slowly placing each individual sprinkle on with my hands and tweezers.  After about 10 minutes, I found the process to be way too tedious and resorted to my standard method (which is a bit messier but much quicker, even with cleanup time!) and put a bunch of sprinkles in my palm, and carefully pressed them into the frosting while rolling my hand upwards on the cake.

Painting the fault line on my New Year Eve cake

Gold Fault Line

To create the gold fault line for my New Year’s Eve cake, I made an edible paint using a 1/2 teaspoon of gold luster dust and about 2 teaspoons of vodka and mixed them together until smooth.  I then used a fine pastry brush to paint on the lines.  Initially, I painted a rough fault line but later came back and smoothed it out, liking the appearance of a neater gold trim better.

New Years Eve Cake with Rope Braid

If you make my New Year’s Eve cake, please let me know how it turns out! It’s such a fun cake and I love the Fancy Sprinkles on it.  I’m almost tempted to make a second just to stare at in my kitchen on New Year’s Eve!

Happy New Year, Friends!

New Year's Eve Fault Line Cake
 
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Serves: 12 pieces
Ingredients
  • Three 6-inch chocolate cakes, recipe below
  • 6 cups black chocolate buttercream, recipe below
  • 1½ cups sprinkles of choice
  • gold edible paint*
  • Piping bag + tips of choice
  • Bench scraper
  • Offset spatula
  • Thin pastry brush
Instructions
  1. Place one chocolate cake on the serving tray and coat the top of it with a thick layer of chocolate frosting.
  2. Take the second chocolate cake and place this cake on top of the first and frost with chocolate buttercream
  3. Place the third cake on top of the second and frost the sides and top of the cake with chocolate buttercream, this is your base coat. Place it in the fridge to set for 20 minutes.
  4. Place 1½ cups of chocolate buttercream in a piping bag and snip off the tip to make a ½ inch hole.
  5. Remove the cake from the refrigerator and pipe a 4-5 inch section of frosting around the center of the cake (this is where the sprinkles will go). Use a bench scraper to smooth out this middle section (do not worry about the top and bottom portions of the cake looking rough, we'll deal with this later)
  6. Add your sprinkles to the middle section of the cake, covering as much of the area as possible.
  7. Add more frosting to your piping bag and draw thick frosting lines around the top and bottom of your sprinkle area (as if adding a border to hold in the sprinkles). Now fill in the rest of the top and bottom of the cake with the frosting and smooth it with an offset spatula.
  8. Use a bench scraper, smooth out the top and bottom of the frosting you just added, careful not to press too hard or you'll knock off the sprinkles. Set into the fridge to set up for 20-minutes.
  9. Using your gold paint, paint edges of the fault line you created and allow it to dry.
  10. Pipe on your desired cake topping (I chose a rope feature) and add more sprinkles, if desired.
Notes
*Make your own edible paint by mixing a ½ teaspoon of gold luster dust with 2 teaspoons of vodka.
** If you need a little help, check out this YouTube tutorial

 
Chocolate Cake Recipe
 
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Ingredients
  • 1½ cup all-purpose flour
  • 1½ cups granulated sugar
  • ¾ cup Dutch-processed cocoa sifted
  • 1½ tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ¾ cup hot water
  • 2 tsp instant coffee
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • ¾ cup buttermilk room temperature
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. Grease three 6-inch cake pans and dust with cocoa powder. Line bottoms with parchment then set aside.
  3. Place all dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Stir on low to combine.
  4. Dissolve the coffee in the hot water then set aside.
  5. In a medium bowl whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla.
  6. Temper the egg-milk mixture by slowly whisking in the hot coffee (you don't want to cook the eggs!)
  7. Add the coffee-egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix on medium for 2-3 mins. The batter will be very thin, that's okay!
  8. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans. (I used a kitchen scale to ensure the batter is evenly distributed.)
  9. Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating the pans in oven halfway through. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean.
  10. Cool 10 minutes in the pans then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Black Chocolate Buttercream
 
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Serves: 6 cups
Ingredients
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1 cup vegetable shortening
  • 2 tablespoons meringue powder
  • 8 cups confectioners' sugar
  • ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ¼ cup half & half (heavy cream or milk will work)
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons black food coloring
Instructions
  1. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the softened butter, shortening, and meringue powder until creamy.
  2. Add in the confectioners' sugar, cocoa powder, salt and vanilla extract. Mix on low to combine.
  3. With the mixer on low, stream in the half & half until you have a thick, chocolate buttercream. Adjust the frosting consistency by adding 1 additional tablespoon of frosting at a time.
  4. Add in the black food coloring and mix to fully combine.

 

Cranberry Pear & Ginger Pie with a Braided Lattice Crust

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Cranberry Pear & Ginger Pie with an elegant braided crust is bound to be a delicious, impressive dessert at any holiday celebration.

Cranberry Pear Ginger Pie

With this Cranberry Pear & Ginger Pie, I’m circling back to my July baking bucket list where I failed to create a braided pie crust.  In July, my pie dough was just too soft, the temperature in my kitchen much too hot for such delicate pastry, and after multiple attempts and a loss of patience, I surrendered to the pie crust and made just a traditional (yet very tasty!) blueberry pie without a braided crust.

Cranberry Pear Ginger Pie Sliced

This time, however, I reigned supreme over the braided pie crust! With a sturdier pie crust recipe, a sense of calm, and a whole lot of time, I not only braided my pie crust but I made a lattice topped braided pie crust and it turned out beautifully.  It was sheer perfection (if I do say so myself!) and one of my prouder baking bucket list moments.

Cranberry Pear Ginger Pie Ready to eat

Pie Crust Recipe

My initial pie crust recipe used straight butter, an ingredient that can cause the dough to quickly become soft and lead to breakage and, as I had mentioned in my original post, something I assumed to be a culprit in my original failure.  This time around, I used a combination of both chilled butter and vegetable shortening to make my pie crust.

Making the pie crust

The addition of vegetable shortening gave my pie dough more stability and it was able to withstand longer times are room temperature while I was braiding it than if it was just a butter-based pie dough.  I still used the same food processor method to combine the dough ingredients then finished the dough on the counter, working quickly to combine the last remaining bits of flour that didn’t come together in the food processor.  Lastly, a step I didn’t do last time around, was that I allowed the pie dough to rest overnight in the refrigerator.  Please do this, so plan to make the dough 1 day prior to braiding and making your pie.

Bottom crust

I also liked the end baked pie crust better than the all-butter dough.  This pie crust was flakey, tender and delicious.  I couldn’t stop picking it off of the pie!  I also used the same trick from my original blueberry pie bake to keep the bottom crust from becoming sogging by adding a thin layer of panko breadcrumbs between the crust and pie filling. This is 100% something I’ll be doing forever with any pie I make, it makes a huge difference in the bottom crust.

Time to Chill

When it came time to braid my pie crust, I chose to braid the strips on a metal cookie sheet.  This allowed me to easily transition the braids (mid-braiding) into the fridge to chill up when I felt them becoming soft. The added benefit of the metal trays was that it acted as a ‘cold conductor’ and allowed me to move faster in-between chillings since the dough chilled more quickly.

Braided pie crust

Cranberry Pear Ginger Pie Filling

So I could work continually, I actually had two trays of dough I worked off of and while one was chilling, I braided the other. The other thing I picked up on while braiding the pie dough was that the strips should be loosely braided together.  Then, once the braid was finished and sealed together on both ends, I’d ‘squish’ the braid together to make it appear tighter.

Texture & Depth

The key to creating a braided lattice pie crust is to add texture and depth to the design.  I did this by using the braided pie strips and by incorporating different widths of plain pie crust into my design.  These different widths with the braided texture helped break up the design, making the braids stand out more on their own.  The unintentionally added benefit here is that this also meant I didn’t have to braid as many pieces.

Cranberry Pear Ginger Pie Before Baking

To help the lattice top bake up beautifully and denote the braided pieces, I added an egg wash with a sprinkle of sugar to the top right before baking. This helps create the beautiful golden color on the crust and the egg wash sinks into the nooks and crannies where it will turn even more brown, helping give the pie crust even more depth and crunch once baked.

Need a quick tutorial on how to lattice pie crust? Check out this YouTube video for an easy demo.

Cranberry Pear & Ginger Pie

My original intent with the braided lattice pie crust was to make an apple pie.  But truthfully, I only enjoy crumb topped apple pie.  So at the last minute while grocery shopping, I decided to make something a bit more festive and went with Cranberry Perry & Ginger since it seemed seasonally appropriate for both Thanksgiving and Christmas baking.

Cranberry Pear Ginger Pie Baked

Cranberry Pear Ginger Pie Slicing

Cranberry Pear Ginger Pie Filling

When making this pie filling, make sure you choose ripe pears.  Hard pears will never bake up in the oven will result in a tough pie.  I really enjoyed the Cranberry, Pear & Ginger Pie filling because it wasn’t overly sweet and it had a bit of tart & spice to it from the cranberries, ginger, and cinnamon.  I found it to be a perfect flavor for holiday celebrations and it was easy to make.

Cranberry Pear Ginger Pie Sliced

Interested in more baking bucket list recipes? Check out the full list here.

Cranberry Pear Ginger Pie

Pie Crust Recipe
 
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This recipe makes enough for a bottom and top crust or enough for a bottom crust and a braided lattice top. So in short, plenty of pie dough to go around.
Author:
Serves: 2 pie crusts
Ingredients
  • 2½ cup all-purpose flour
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup vegetable shortening
  • 12 tablespoons butter, very cold and cut into cubes
  • ¼-1/3 cup ice water*
Instructions
  1. Place flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
  2. Add in the shortening and butter and process until the mixture is crumbly.
  3. With the machine running, drizzle in the ice water, starting with a ¼ cup until the mixture forms a dough. Add more, 1 tablespoon at a time as needed until the dough comes (mostly) together.
  4. Turn the dough out onto the counter and press it together to form 1 ball, don't work the dough too much.
  5. Split the dough in half, form into a thick disc and wrap each half tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
  6. Allow the dough to sit at room temperature for 15-20 minutes prior to rolling.
Notes
* I measure my ice water by placing water and ice in a glass, letting it sit for 5 minutes then I pour out ⅓ cup of ice water (without the ice)

Cranberry Pear & Ginger Pie
 
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The directions below are for the pie filling and baking of the pie only.
Author:
Serves: 10 slices
Ingredients
  • 2 unbaked pie crusts for the top and bottom, about ¼ inch in thickness
  • 3 large, ripe pears, peeled, cored and cut int ¼ inch pieces, about 6 cups
  • 1 cup fresh cranberries, washed and dried
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 egg + 2 teaspoons of heavy whipping cream*, for the egg wash
  • additional granulated sugar for the top, optional
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 2 tablespoon confectioner's sugar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350F
  2. Place one pie crust in the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan and set aside.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, ginger, and cinnamon.
  4. In a large bowl, toss together the pear pieces, cranberries, and lemon juice.
  5. Sprinkle the sugar-flour mixture on top of the pear mixture and stir to combine.
  6. Place the pie filling inside of the prepared bottom pie crust.
  7. Top the pie with the remaining pie crust** and crimp the edges
  8. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and 2 teaspoons of cream. Brush the top of the pie crust with the egg wash and lightly with granulated sugar.
  9. Bake the pie for 30-minutes. After 30-minutes, you may want to cover the edges or top with a pie crust shield or foil to keep it from burning and continue baking until the filling is soft, an additional 25-30 minutes (total bake time is 55-60 minutes).
  10. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
  11. While the pie is cooling, make the whipped cream by placing the heavy whipping cream, vanilla extract, and confectioner's sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on high using the whisk attachment for ~5 minutes until stiff peaks form.
  12. When ready to serve, slice the pie and garnish with a dollop of the homemade whipped cream.
  13. Whipped cream can be kept in the fridge for 3 days and the pie can be stored covered at room temperature for 2-3 days.
Notes
*If you don't have heavy whipping cream available, you can use 2 teaspoons of milk
**When placing the top pie crust, you can choose to make a simple flat-topped pie, a lattice crust, or whatever of your choosing.

 

White Chocolate Peppermint Tuile Cookies

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Impress your holiday guests with these white chocolate peppermint tuile cookies, crispy chocolate wafers filled with a sweet minty mousse.

White Chocolate Peppermint Tuile Cookies

I’m not sure why I added tuile cookies to my baking bucket list but when I revisited my list a few weeks ago, I was excited to try my hand at them at making them.  I knew I wanted to make a tuile cookie stuffed with something because, seriously, who wouldn’t want to eat a cookie stuffed with a delicious filling?   And, since we’re heading into the holiday season, I chose to make chocolate tuiles and filled them with a white chocolate peppermint mousse.

The chocolate tuiles are rather mild in flavor but they’re very crisp and they’re the perfect vehicle for holding the fluffy, white chocolate mousse. Tip: Serve these cookies within an hour of assembling to ensure they stay crisp.

The white chocolate peppermint mousse is lick-the-bowl delicious! It reminded me of a sweet peppermint candy, nothing too overpowering just subtle hints of vanilla and holiday mint.  The mousse starts with a base of white chocolate ganache which you fold into a bowl of freshly made whipped cream.  To finish it off, you folded in candy cane pieces for a little crunch and the result is a sweet, silky white chocolate peppermint mousse. I actually enjoyed eating this straight from the bowl, no tuile cookie involved!

Making the Tuile Batter

Making tuile batter is quite easy, just 5 main ingredients — butter, sugar, cocoa powder, flour & egg whites.  All the ingredients whip together easily in a stand mixer resulting in a stiff, thick batter.  Looking at the batter, it appears as if it won’t make much but since tuiles are spread so thin, the batter actually results in about 50-60 cookies, which means this recipe is rather time-consuming because you bake the tuiles in small batches of 4-6 cookies at a time.

Tuiles Require a Stencil

When I first looked into making tuile cookies, a stencil was suggested.  After searching a few blogs, I also saw an option for creating your own template by tracing a shape onto parchment paper and spreading the batter by hand to fill the pattern.

Original tuile stencil template

My first attempt where I tried to spread the batter into the circles by hand.

Not wanting to invest in a tuile template for just one baking session, I chose to go the ‘make your own route’.  When it was time to make the cookies, I took a 3-inch round cookie cutter and traced it on to my parchment paper to create a template and began spreading the batter as thin as I could into the circles using an offset spatula.  The cookies coming out of the oven were fine using this method, maybe slightly thick, but I felt okay about the result.

White Chocolate Peppermint Tuile Cookies

However, I hated how time-consuming it was to spread the batter evenly into the circles by hand.  It was taking me longer to spread the batter into the hand-drawn circles than it was to actually bake the cookies. And that’s when I decided to make my own stencil.

Innovating in Real-Time

I traced the same 3-inch cookie cutter circles onto an old silicon baking mat and cut out the circles to form a stencil.  I then placed the silicone mat on top of parchment paper and using my offset spatula, I spread the batter into the cutout circles, scraped away the excess then carefully peel off the stencil to reveal six perfectly round tuile cookies ready for baking.

Final tuile stencil template

Spreading the tuile batter into the stencil

My handmade tuile template using an old silicon baking mat.

I found this method to be much easier, way more efficient, and the baked tuile’s thickness was perfectly even when compared to my original hand-spread tuiles. #lessonlearned  If you choose to make these cookies, you can DIY your own tuile template as I did or you can purchase one on Amazon, which is probably cheaper than ruining a silicone baking mat.

Time to Bake & Roll

My tuile template made six tuiles at a time but I found I could only roll about 3 tuiles at a time once they were removed from the oven. When I got to tuile number four, the cookie had started to cool and it cracked before I could properly roll it into the cone shape.

Rolled tuiles after baking

To account for this, I adjusted my baking time to 3-minutes per cookie sheet.  I’d then pull the cookies out, quickly roll three of the cookies into their tuile cone shape then pop the remaining three cookies, still on the baking sheet, bake into the oven to ‘warm up’ for 1 more minute then repeat the rolling process with the remaining three cookies.

Just like I didn’t have the proper tuile template, I also didn’t have a tool to roll my tuile cookies around once they came out of the oven so I improvised using the pestle from my mortar and pestle to form a cone shape. Creating the cone shape took a little bit of practice but luckily this batter makes a ton of cookies which allows for the learning curve.

Fill & Enjoy!

Filling the cookies is the easiest part of the entire process.  Just place the white chocolate mousse into a piping bag, cut a 1/2 inch hole into the bag and fill the chocolate tuile cones. You can choose to decorate the tuile cookies with more crushed peppermint, sprinkles, or just leave them as-is.

White Chocolate Peppermint Tuile Cookies

Plan and Serve Immediately 

The chocolate tuiles should be made the day you plan to serve them.  However, the mousse can be made up to a day in advance (just don’t mix the candy cane pieces in until serving/filling) and stored in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble. I’d recommend filling the tuiles right before serving to ensure the cookies stay crisp.  I found that the longer the cookies sit with the mousse, the softer they become. And unfortunately, these cookies don’t keep well either. So eat up!

Check out my full 2019 baking bucket list here!

White Chocolate Peppermint Tuile Cookies

White Chocolate Peppermint Tuile Cookies
 
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Author:
Serves: 60 cookies
Ingredients
  • For the tuile cookies
  • ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
  • ⅔ cup confectioner's sugar
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 4 egg whites
  • pinch of salt
  • white chocolate peppermint mousse, recipe below
  • sprinkles & crushed peppermint for decorating, optional
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400F and line a cookie tray with parchment paper. Place your tuile template on top of the parchment paper and set aside.
  2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt into a medium-sized bowl and set aside.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the softened butter for 2-3 minutes then add in the confectioner's sugar. Cream together for 4-5 minutes until smooth.
  4. Add in the egg whites, one at a time. The mixture may look 'curdled' but just keep mixing and scraping the sides of the bowl.
  5. Lastly, add in the flour-cocoa mixture all at once and mix until just combined. The batter will be thick.
  6. Using an offset spatula, thinly spread the batter into tuile template, scraping away excess. Once all molds are filled, gently peel the template off of the parchment paper (my template made 6 cookies at a time).
  7. Bake the cookies for 3-4 minutes (depending on thickness). Remove from oven and quickly roll the tuiles, while hot, into a cone shape. Set the cookies on a wire rack to cool completely. If you're unable to roll all the tuiles without them breaking, pop the remaining tuiles back into the oven for an additional 30-60 seconds to 'warm-up' then continue rolling.
  8. When ready to serve, place the white chocolate peppermint mousse into a piping bag. Cut a hole in the bag that's about a ½ inch wide (to ensure the peppermint candy fits through) and fill each of the chocolate tuile cones. Decorate with sprinkles or additional crushed peppermint as desired.
  9. Serve immediately as these cookies do not keep well once assembled.
Notes
I highly advise you make the tuile cookies the day you plan to serve them or else they become soft. Serve immediately upon filling with the mousse. The longer the cookies sit with the mousse, the softer the cookies become.

White Chocolate Peppermint Mousse
 
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Author:
Serves: 3 cups
Ingredients
  • 3 cups heavy whipping cream, separated
  • 12 ounces white chocolate chips
  • ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
  • ¼-1/3 cup crushed peppermint pieces
Instructions
  1. Place the white chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl and set aside.
  2. In a saucepan over medium heat, warm ¾ cup heavy cream until hot, just simmering but not boiling.
  3. Pour the hot cream over the white chocolate chips, let sit for 2-minutes then stir the mixture together until smooth. Stir in the peppermint extract. Place the bowl in the fridge to chill for at least 30-minutes.
  4. Once the white chocolate is chilled, begin making the whipped cream by placing the remaining 2¼ cups of whipping cream into the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on high until stiff peaks form.
  5. Remove the bowl from the mixer and gently fold in the chilled white chocolate into the whipped cream. Do this gently as to not deflate the whipped cream.
  6. Chill the mixture for at least 60-minutes before serving. Right before serving, fold in the crushed candy cane pieces.
Notes
You can make the mousse 1 day prior to serving if kept in the fridge, just don't mix in the candy cane pieces until serving. Leftover mousse can be served as-is in a small bowl for dessert.

 

 

Pumpkin Spice Roll Cake with Brown Butter Bourbon Frosting & Salted Caramel Pecans

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Pumpkin Spice Cake Roll Cake with Brown Butter Bourbon Frosting and Salted Caramel Pecans is the perfect dessert pairing for any Fall holiday celebration.

Decorated pumpkin spice roll cake

Well, I may not have had a successful inlay roll cake but I do have a successful, delicious, beautiful roll cake. If you’ve been following along with my baking bucket list and roll cake issues, you know that I had a small misstep earlier this week and debating on whether or not I’d pursue another roll cake.

I chose to make another roll cake, without the inlay, simply because I had leftover frosting for the filling.  Making a roll cake itself (without the inlay) is actually quite easy and the hands-on time is minimal, making it quick to whip up.

Served pumpkin spice roll cake

Plus, the flavor combination for this Pumpkin Spice Roll Cake with Brown Butter Bourbon Frosting was just too good not to remake, photograph and post about.

I love love love this flavor combination.

Although there’s pumpkin involved, it’s minimal and really just adds moisture to the cake. The spice flavor is heavy on the cinnamon and light on the pie spice. All together with the frosting and salted caramel pecans, the cake is a wonderful combination of fall flavors that leaves me doing a happy dance after every bite!

Filling the cake prior to rolling

Sprinkling on the salted caramel nuts

Rolling the cake

While the pumpkin is subtle, the brown butter bourbon frosting, however, has a real kick to it! Often times when it comes to bourbon frosting, the taste is so subtle that I’m found wondering if there was even bourbon in the recipe.  But not with mine! It has a heavy splash of bourbon which is balanced with the brown butter and cream cheese I’ve added to the frosting.

Rolled cake prior to decorating

Finally, for some crunch, I whipped up some quick salted caramel pecans, cheating a tad by using salted caramel syrup.  You only require 3 tablespoons, so making the caramel from scratch is a huge lift for such a small amount.  However, if you have a favorite salted caramel recipe you make and the time to do it, go for it!

Decorated pumpkin spice roll cake

Let’s just bake!

Rather than spare you the fluff of additional cake details and how-to guides, today, I’m just going to dive straight into the recipe for my Pumpkin Spice Cake with Brown Butter Bourbon Frosting and Salted Caramel Pecans. My only advice, read the recipe all the way through before starting and time cake steps 7 and 8 appropriately.

Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Spice Roll Pin

Pumpkin Spice Roll Cake
 
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Author:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 3 eggs, whisked
  • ⅔ cup pure pumpkin puree
  • ½ cup brown sugar, packed
  • ½ cup granular sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup confectioner's sugar for rolling plus more for serving
  • 1½ -2 cups Brown Butter Bourbon Frosting, recipe follows
  • Salted Caramel Pecans, recipe follows
Instructions
  1. Preheat the over to 350F.
  2. Prepare an 11x15 inch jellyroll pan by greasing it lightly, lining it with parchment paper, and then greasing the parchment paper itself (we really don't want the cake to stick!). Set aside.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spice).
  4. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin puree, sugars, and vanilla extract.
  5. Pour the wet into the dry and mix until well combined.
  6. Evenly pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 15-17 minutes.
  7. While the cake is baking, prepare your space to dry-roll the cake by laying a clean kitchen towel on your counter. Sprinkle it thoroughly with confectioner's sugar, rubbing it into the towel. Flip the towel over and repeat this process on the opposite side.
  8. When the cake is done, remove it from the oven, run a knife around the edges of the pan and immediately (while it's still piping hot!) flip it onto your prepared kitchen towel.
  9. Starting at the short end, roll the cake tightly around itself (and the kitchen towel) into a log.
  10. Place the kitchen towel & cake onto the jellyroll pan and place it in the fridge for 2-hours to chill.
  11. Once chilled, gently unroll the cake, spread the Brown Butter Bourbon frosting onto the cake, leaving about a 1-inch bare around the edges. Sprinkle salted caramel pecans on top of the filling, gently pressing them into the frosting.
  12. Now complete your final roll by again, starting at the short end and rolling the cake around itself (this time without the kitchen towel).
  13. Gently move the cake onto your serving dish and chill the cake for another 30-minute prior to serving.
  14. To serve, dust the cake with confectioner's sugar, slice and serve.

Brown Butter Bourbon Frosting
 
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Author:
Serves: 4 cups
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature, separated
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
  • 3 ounces bourbon of choice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 5 cup confectioner's sugar
  • 2 tablespoon meringue powder, optional
  • 2 tablespoon heavy cream
Instructions
  1. Place ¼ cup of butter in a small saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until the butter begins to brown (about 10-15 minutes). Allow the butter to cool completely then using a fine sieve, strain the brown bits out of the brown butter. Discard the brown bits and save the strained butter for the frosting.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese and remaining ½ cup butter for 5-6 minutes until fully creamed and no bits of butter or cream cheese are left.
  3. Pour in the cooled brown butter and vanilla extract and beat again.
  4. Add in 3 cups of confectioner's sugar and 1 tablespoon of heavy cream.
  5. Beat until fully combined.
  6. Add in the remaining 2 cups of confectioner's sugar until a medium-thick frosting is created. If you need to loosen the frosting some, add in the additional 1 tablespoon of heavy cream. The frosting should be creamy enough to evenly spread onto the cake without pulling up the cake but stiff enough to not 'ooze' out of the cake

Salted Caramel Pecans
 
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Author:
Serves: ¾ cup
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup chopped pecans
  • 3-4 tablespoons salted caramel sauce of choice
  • ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
  3. In a small bowl, stir together the salted caramel sauce and pecans.
  4. Spread the nut mixture onto the prepared baking sheet, sprinkle with the coarse sea salt and bake for 10 minutes, stirring once halfway through.
  5. Remove from oven and allow the nuts to cool completely before using.

 

Failed Jelly Roll: The roll cake that could have been

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I had great hopes for my baking bucket list roll cake but it didn’t turn out quite as planned. Read on to find out why.

Update on November 27, 2109: I remade the roll cake a few days after this initial blog post. You can find the full recipe for my pumpkin spice cake with brown butter bourbon frosting and salted caramel pecans on this blog post.  Enjoy!

If you aren’t familiar with a roll cake, it’s a cake that’s made with a very pliable sponge that’s been filled with a frosting or whipped cream then rolled around itself. The technique is of medium difficulty with hiccups usually only occurring if the cake cracks after rolling.  The cracks are really more dependent on the cake recipe itself and the temperature of the cake once rolled rather than the skill of the baker.

Roll cake close up

My first (and only!) roll cake memory is of making a jellyroll cake with my grandma one summer.  I have no idea why she wanted to make a roll cake with me but she did.  While the actual process of making the cake with her is a loss, I do remember we made a vanilla-butter sponge filled with her homemade strawberry jam. A simple, classic jellyroll flavor.

Since I had only ever ‘made’ one in my lifetime, I thought adding a roll cake to my 2019 baking bucket list would be a great way to revisit this classic cake.

Autumn flavors to die for

My plan for the roll cake was to make a pumpkin cake rolled with a bourbon brown butter frosting and salted caramel pecans for crunch.  I knew the flavors would result in a salty, sweet, warm combination and I was excited to make it, hoping the bourbon and salted caramel would be flavor <3M could enjoy.

Last-minute decisions

I set off on Sunday morning to make my roll cake and at the last minute, chose to up the ante a bit and added an inlay to my cake plan. An inlay roll cake results in a beautiful cake with a delicate, intricate pattern that’s baked straight into the cake itself displayed only after properly rolled.

Initial roll cake stencil

Stencil filled

Since we’re heading into Thanksgiving, I chose a detailed autumn foliage pattern with colorful leaves and acorns as my inlay.  The technique requires you to first stencil out a pattern, color the cake batter, pipe into the bottom of a parchment-lined jellyroll pan then freeze the pattern in place.

Why you dry-roll the cake

Once frozen, you pour the remaining cake batter into the pan and bake as normal.  As soon as the cake’s finished baking you must immediately prepare to flip the cake out of the pan onto a confectioner’s sugar covered tea towel (to avoid the cake sticking to itself) and ‘dry-roll’ the cake.  Dry-rolling the cake allows the sponge set into the rolled pattern without it’s filling since the cake it most pliable when it’s warm.  The dry-rolled cake is then chilled in the fridge for a few hours, unrolled, filled, and rolled up again to complete the look.

Double flips are required for inlay cakes

However, with an inlay cake, your cake pattern is on the bottom of the cake, so when you flip it out after baking, the pattern is on top.  If the pattern is on top and you attempt to roll it, the pattern will be on the inside of your cake, not the outside.

To get the pattern on the outside you must then perform a second flip.

This is where I messed up.  I missed my second flip. I was so excited about flipping my cake out without breaking and seeing the bright red, orange and yellow pattern that I never flipped the cake a second time.  If I had performed the second flip, the pattern would be on the bottom, and as I rolled it would have been displayed outward.

Roll cake baked

This is where I should have flipped the cake again. The design should be facing down toward the counter prior to rolling so when it’s rolled, the design is on the outside instead of the inside

What I should have done after realizing my mistake

After chilling the cake for two hours, it dawned on me that I had missed my second flip. Heartbroken, I unrolled my cake, attempted to re-roll it so the pattern was on the outside — which obviously resulted in cracks then hastily filled and re-rolled the cake.

Roll cake

The result was a treacherous ugly cake.  Sloppy filling, a loose role, and a cracked topped with snippets of orange and red peeking out from the forgotten inlay.

We ate it anyway

While as ugly as the cake was, we ate it anyway because I KNEW it was delicious. And it was.  If there was one highlight from this cake, it was definitely the flavor.

Final ugly roll cake

The final, ugly roll cake

Will I make it again?

I’m debating whether or not I’ll attempt the inlay cake again prior to Thanksgiving or chalk it up to lesson learned and punch out the next bucket list bake (which was to revisit my failed lattice-topped pie from July for Thanksgiving dinner).  I have a few days to think about it.

 

Millionaire’s Shortbread

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Millionaire’s Shortbread with a thick buttery cookie, spiced caramel filling and a thin layer of chocolate round out my latest baking bucket list adventure.

I’ve been slacking on my 2019 Baking Bucket List but with 6-weeks left in the year, I’ve committed to knocking out one challenge each week.  To get me back in the groove, I started with Millionaire’s Shortbread.

Millionaire's Shortbread bite

The first time I had Millionaire’s Shortbread was on a food tour in London.  It was the final bite of our tour at Pizza East and I fell in love with the simplicity of the cookie.  Millionaire’s Shortbread has a crumbly butter cookie crust that’s topped with a light caramel filling.  The caramel is a smooth, silky consistency, not at all the kind that’s tacky and sticks to your teeth.  It has a light nutty sweet flavor and it melts in your mouth.  On top is a thin layer of dark chocolate and a touch of flakey sea salt. Just a divine, refined flavor combination and perfect as a small sweet bite after a hefty meal.

Millionaire's Shortbread cut

Since I chose to bake my Millionaire’s Shortbread in the fall (and because I’m basic AF) I put a little twist on my caramel filling by adding a dash of pumpkin spice to the caramel. 

Now, I know what you’re thinking ‘Why did I have to go and mess up a good thing?’  But really, this little hint of spice is so subtle that you hardly even notice it.  The spice is more like an afterthought, a ghost of cinnamon and spice that this basic blonde enjoyed.  So, if you choose to use make these bars, go right ahead and leave it out if you’re not a PS fan. 

While baking Millionaire’s Shortbread wasn’t really challenging, it did teach me a few lessons.

  • The best shortbread cookie should have a crumbly, sandy dough.  When I first looked at my shortbread dough, I was a bit hesitant it would stay together but after picking it up and clumping it together in my hand it stayed in form.  While it was awfully deceptive in my mixing bowl, the sandy dough resulted in a buttery, crumbly shortbread.

Millionaire's Shortbread crumbly dough

Millionaire's Shortbread dough

  • Making caramel is a real arm workout!  I had to whisk the sweetened condensed milk mixture vigorously for 20-minutes.  I really thought the recipe was kidding when it said to stand at the stove and stir for 20-minutes.  Typically, I can multi-task during this step but NOT with caramel.  Walking away for even 30-seconds could result in a burned caramel.

Millionaire's Shortbread caramel

  • Cleanly cutting chocolate so it doesn’t crack can be frustrating. The key here is to ensure the chocolate is set but not too set.  If the chocolate is chilled too much when you cut into it, the chocolate will crack and you’re pretty much doomed.  I found letting the bars chill for 2.5 hours in the fridge after frosting with the chocolate was the right amount of time prior to cutting.
  • Cutting bars into a precise, symmetrical shape with clean lines requires some serious math and patience. To ensure clean, straight lines I used a ruler to mark each of my cuts on all sides of the pan prior to cutting then used the ruler to guide my lines.  The ‘hot knife trick‘ was also required to flawlessly slide through the chocolate and caramel.

Millionaire's Shortbread bite

While my Millionaire’s Shortbread cookies weren’t a huge dive back into my baking bucket list, they were enough of a warm-up that I feel motivated to knock out the remaining items on my list.  Up next, is a jellyroll (or some kind of rolled cake!).

Millionaire Shortbread

Looking for a recipe? I followed the New York Times Millionaire’s Shortbread recipe exactly, only adding 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice to the caramel at the same time as when I added the vanilla extract and chose to top my shortbread with a pinch of flakey sea salt prior to serving.