easter and a whole lot of baking

What a weekend!  I baked up a storm and loved every minute of it.  At one point, I was whipping cream in a daze and realized I was thinking of how much I love being a baker.  There truly isn't anything I'd rather do with my life then bake up delicious treats to share with those I love.  Aside from making a chocolate cake with swiss meringue buttercream as dessert at our Easter dinner, I made two desserts for a friends dinner as well.

 

Cheesecake topped with whipped cream and strawberries.  This was one hell of a cheesecake let me tell you.  11" and 2 1/2 lbs of cream cheese later, I sure hope they enjoyed it!

Angel food cake with lemon curd and mascarpone cream topped with strawberries.

I have no idea how I managed to pull off baking everything I did this weekend.  I got home from work on Friday and then started a marathon in the Grob kitchen.  I started with a strawberry buttermilk cake for Josh (I've got a post coming up with details about this one.  Yum!) because I knew how much he wanted something that wasn't lemon or chocolate.  And because I really love him, instead of just whipped cream to go with the cake, I went all fancy and made him pastry cream.  He was in heaven.

 After that came lemon curd for the angel food cake, then the mascarpone cream, the most intense cheesecake ever, and then finally the angel food cake.  That was absolutely enough for one day.  

Saturday morning was spent finishing the angel food cake and cheesecake before they were picked up at noon.  Then a wonderful afternoon with my husband and then the McLean family dinner.  

Moving on to Sunday, the Grob family dinner where I baked a chocolate cake (thank you duncan hines... there are times when using a mix comes in UBER handy!)   The cake may have been from a mix, but I made the swiss meringue buttercream myself.  What a delicious combination! 

Then, just for fun, my mother in law Lori and I decorated the cake with gummy bears.  It truly was such a wonderful weekend filled with great food, lots of family, a whole lot of love, and because it wouldn't have been as delicious without it,  dessert.

I hope your Easter was as sweet as mine!

lemon tarts

I've made a lot of lemon things lately.  Josh was so kind as to point that out to me, and seeing as he hates lemon, (and chocolate, another ingredient I've used a lot lately) I know he's going to be thrilled when I get off this lemon train.  But until then...

Ever since I made lemon curd the other week I've been really interested in trying another recipe and doing it again.  This time I used the recipe from joy of baking.  

The end result was thicker and full of rich lemon flavour.  

Sweet Pastry Crust

from joy of baking

1 1/2 cups (200 grams) all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

In a separate bowl, sift or whisk together the flour and salt. Place the butter in your electric mixer and beat until softened. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten egg, beating just until incorporated.  Add flour mixture all at once and mix just until it forms a ball. Don't overwork or the baked pastry will be tough. Flatten dough into disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.

 

Have ready 8 - 4 inch (10 cm) tart pans. Divide the pastry into 8 pieces and then, on a lightly floured surface, roll out each piece of pastry to fit the tart pans. The pastry should be about an inch larger than pan.

When the pastry is rolled to the desired size, place on top of the tart pan. Gently lay in pan and lightly press the pastry onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Roll your rolling pin over the top of the pan to get rid of excess pastry. Cover and freeze for about 30 minutes to chill the butter and to rest the gluten. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Place the 8 unbaked tart shells on a baking sheet and bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until the crust is dry and a light golden brown. If the bottoms of the pastry shells puff up during baking, just lightly press the pastry back into shape. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Lemon Curd

from joy of baking

3 large eggs

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar

1/3 cup (80 ml) fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons) (do not use the bottled lemon juice)

4 tablespoons (56 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tablespoon (4 grams) finely shredded lemon zest

In a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon juice and zest until blended. Cook, stirring constantly (to prevent it from curdling), until the mixture becomes thick (like sour cream or a hollandaise sauce).  This will take approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately pour through a fine strainer to remove any lumps. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk into the mixture until the butter has melted.  The lemon curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Cover immediately (so a skin doesn't form) and refrigerate for up to a week.  

cake batter cookies

I had a lot of left over cake mix after making the cake mix rice krispie squares, and on the same website I got the recipe for the squares was this recipe for making cake batter cookies.

So many sprinkles, love love love.

They smelled delicious out of the oven, that's for sure!  They were delicious too, and a great way to use up more of the cake mix.  

Cake Batter Cookies

from gimme some oven

6 oz (170g) cake mix

1/4 cup vegetable oil or canola oil

1 egg

Mix all together and bake on baking sheet for 10-12 minutes at 350.

I added sprinkles and white chocolate to mine.