Celebrating Springtime with Cake!

This months Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Morven of Food Art and Random Thoughts. She challenged us all with a celebration(!) cake from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours. I think the most challenging part of this month’s recipe was deciding in what way I was going to be super daring and creative as I “played around” with the basic recipe. I was pretty comfortable with the basic cake recipe, but I’m a stick-to-the-recipe kind of gal and tinkering makes me nervous.

But as we are bakers who dare, I decided to play around a little….and with delicious results! I’m not a big fan of lemon cake, but I was in the mood for something fruity. I decided to try my hand at a southern strawberry cake using Dorie’s basic recipe. The strawberry flavor comes from the addition of strawberry flavored gelatin and pureed fresh strawberries. I was a little weirded out by the jello thing, to be honest. I went with the Wild Strawberry flavor, because….uh….if it’s wild it’s more natural tasting, right? (FYI….I think “wild” in jello world means more intense normal jello flavor. Regardless, it tasted fine.) I topped each cake layer with a thin smearing of strawberry preserves and then a layer of mascarpone and vanilla enhanced whipped cream. I covered the cake with more of the whipped cream mixture and strawberry halves.

It was simple, but it really was good. The strawberry cake was quite moist and tangy, which contrasted nicely with the light and slightly sweet mascarpone cream topping. I also loved the pink/white contrast when the cake was sliced. Oh. I should also mention that I totally chickened out when it came time to split the layers. Mine didn’t rise very much, and I had a feeling that if I did attempt to split them, there would be a big pile of strawberry cake mush/crumbs in my near future. Not that that would taste bad. My apologies, this was not very daring of me.

I must confess that after paragraph two of this blog, I was served a slice of a fellow Daring Baker’s cake (http://spatuler.blogspot.com/). I retract my statement about not liking lemon cake.

Thanks again to Morven!

Um, er, Lemon Meringue Pie?

So let's see here. We're heading straight into mid-February and here I am posting my January Daring Bakers pie. Whoops. I temporarily misplaced (hopelessly lost) my memory card and my pie was so meh....I was ready to call it a missed month in Daring Baker land.

But good news, folks! The memory card has been found, and I'm all set to do some on-time posting for the February challenge. In the meantime, here's my lemon meringue pie story....


This month's challenge was brought to us by Jen of The Canadian Baker. The holidays brought loads and loads of rich and wonderful sweets. A yule log, a variety of my sister's concoctions, my grandparents' fudge, cakes, pies, cakes, cookies, cookies, pies, and cookies. I'm never one to shy away from a baked good, but I was excited to see that this baked good would be of the lighter and fruitier variety.


Things started off very well. I had all the ingredients, I was lookin' good in my new apron (thanks other sister!), and I had a whole day to devote to the challenge. And then, of course, the actual cooking began. I had a really hard time with this crust, which I tried making twice. Both times it was incredibly dry, and I wound up adding much more water than the recipe called for. I ended up going with the product of try #2, even though I was afraid it would be on the tough side from the extra mixing.



The flavor of the filling was lovely. I prefer my citrus desserts a little on the tart side, and this fit the bill quite nicely. Now, if you prefer your filling on the lumpy chunky side, this would have been right up your alley. I may or may not have forgotten to stir constantly.


But you know what? Lumpy chunky filling couldn't get me down. You know why? There was meringue! I love meringue and all its whimsy. I didn't really do much to it once i got it on the pie. I just let it be itself, which in this case was a silky mountain of airy goodness. For the record, meringue provides an excellent disguise for lump chunks.



Honestly, the finished product wasn't something I would serve to other people (because of errors on my part, not the recipe). However, I was entirely comfortable grabbing a fork, the pie, and going to town. The perfectly tart filling contrasted nicely with the hint of vanilla in the meringue and the buttery sweetness of the crust. I'd like to try this pie again sometime when I'm feeling more focused, but the great thing about pseudo-screwups is that there's more for the chef :)

Lemon Meringue Pie
Makes one 10-inch (25 cm) pie
For the Crust:
¾ cup (180 mL) cold butter; cut into ½-inch (1.2 cm) pieces
2 cups (475 mL) all-purpose flour
¼ cup (60 mL) granulated sugar
¼ tsp (1.2 mL) salt
⅓ cup (80 mL) ice water

For the Filling:
2 cups (475 mL) water
1 cup (240 mL) granulated sugar
½ cup (120 mL) cornstarch
5 egg yolks, beaten
¼ cup (60 mL) butter
¾ cup (180 mL) fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon zest
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract

For the Meringue:
5 egg whites, room temperature
½ tsp (2.5 mL) cream of tartar
¼ tsp (1.2 mL) salt
½ tsp (2.5 mL) vanilla extract
¾ cup (180 mL) granulated sugar

For the Crust: Make sure all ingredients are as cold as possible. Using a food processor or pastry cutter and a large bowl, combine the butter, flour, sugar and salt. Process or cut in until the mixture resembles coarse meal and begins to clump together. Sprinkle with water, let rest 30 seconds and then either process very briefly or cut in with about 15 strokes of the pastry cutter, just until the dough begins to stick together and come away from the sides of the bowl. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface and press together to form a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 20 minutes.

Allow the dough to warm slightly to room temperature if it is too hard to roll. On a lightly floured board (or countertop) roll the disk to a thickness of ⅛ inch (.3 cm). Cut a circle about 2 inches (5 cm) larger than the pie plate and transfer the pastry into the plate by folding it in half or by rolling it onto the rolling pin. Turn the pastry under, leaving an edge that hangs over the plate about ½ inch (1.2 cm). Flute decoratively. Chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line the crust with foil and fill with metal pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Cool completely before filling.

For the Filling: Bring the water to a boil in a large, heavy saucepan. Remove from the heat and let rest 5 minutes. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together. Add the mixture gradually to the hot water, whisking until completely incorporated.
Return to the heat and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. The mixture will be very thick. Add about 1 cup (240 mL) of the hot mixture to the beaten egg yolks, whisking until smooth. Whisking vigorously, add the warmed yolks to the pot and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in butter until incorporated. Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla, stirring until combined. Pour into the prepared crust. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on the surface, and cool to room temperature.

For the Meringue: Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, salt and vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually, beating until it forms stiff, glossy peaks. Pile onto the cooled pie, bringing the meringue all the way over to the edge of the crust to seal it completely. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack. Serve within 6 hours to avoid a soggy crust.

Daring Bakers December Challenge

Happy Holidays!

This was my first challenge as part of the Daring Bakers, and while things definitely didn’t go 100% according to plan, I can’t get over how much fun it was!

After a long and brutal month of excessive work and snow in the northeast, today marked my first day of vacation down in the slightly warmer southeast. I had whole day….A WHOLE DAY….with no snow to shovel, no errands to run, and a big ol’ Yule log to bake. I also had the pleasure of my three siblings’ company in the kitchen. Aside from being delightful, they were also very good at hollering directions when I’d left the recipe on the other side of the room.

Things started out well. The cake batter was silky and gorgeous, and the cake came out slightly golden and not too dry. (I followed the recipe as written, but I ended up leaving it in for about 8 or 9 minutes.) I had decided to fill the roll with a coconut filling that my grandmother uses in her to die for coconut sour cream cake. Word of this decision began to spread, and after a few minutes, I heard my brother wail: “What?!? Coconut?? Nooooo”. He looked pretty forlorn, and this was, after all, the season of giving. So I reluctantly agreed to go with a chocolate hazelnut filling instead. And then I changed my mind. I really wanted the coconut. I’d do half and half….a black and white Yule log! (Later we learned that he doesn’t even like cake that much and might not even eat any. Much sighing and eye rolling ensued.)



I made the fillings. That all went fine. But then it came time to roll. That was a rather messy process, as I’d put a little too much filling on before rolling, and both fillings were a little on the thin/runny side. No biggie, messes can be cleaned up. However, I also don’t think I rolled it tight enough. I’m curious to see what it looks like when we cut into it.

Buttercream time! Chocolate buttercream! After it curdled, I used the tip for fixing buttercream that I’d read on the Daring Bakers blog, and it worked beautifully. Everything post-icing-the-log was just fun. My sisters, brother, and I gathered around a ball of marzipan, molding four distinctly different types of mushrooms that I’m sure say a lot about our personalities. (I’m not sure mine say anything flattering.) I’d made meringue cookies several times before, and I was tempted to go this route, because of its familiarity. I’m glad I didn’t. The marzipan came together very easily, offered an opportunity to play with food, and the almond scent was intoxicating.


Finally, I topped the log with some shredded coconut snow, added a few cranberries and mint leaves dipped egg whites and sugar, and then arranged the mushrooms as artfully as I could. It’s not perfect, but it’s not bad! It’s pretty gosh darn cute. All and all, I feel good about my first challenge and can’t wait to see what January brings.