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!

angel food cake with lemon curd and mascarpone cream

It's March right?  I mean, it sure feels like summer, but it's March... right? 

Josh and I were at the grocery store the other day, and when I saw the cover of the newest Canadian Living Magazine, I fell in love.  To jump ahead a bit, after tasting this... absolutely in love.  But more on that later.

My original plan was to buy an angel food cake mix.  I thought I'd save time that way because I had a few other things I wanted to bake today, but apparently the grocery store didn't agree with that plan.  What grocery store doesn't have an angel food cake mix?  So instead I bought a dozen eggs and 11 later the cake was on it's way.  

 I hit a road block when I realized we didn't have tube pan, but a bundt pan.  Completely different things, but I had a back up plan if I couldn't get it out of the bundt pan.  Thankfully it all turned out beautifully.

 Next step was the lemon curd, which I've never made before.  I should have cooked it a bit longer and let it thicken up more, but despite it being a bit runnier then it should have been, it did not interfere with the amazing lemon flavour. 

The icing on this cake wasn't icing at all but mascarpone cream.  I'm running out of words with this one.  The more I talk about it the more I want to eat more.  

  

It was absolutely wonderful and delicious and fresh, and worth the $3.99 I spent on the magazine.  

Angel Food Cake with Lemon Curd and Mascarpone Cream

from Canadian Living 

Angel Food Cake

 1-1/4 cups (300 mL) sifted cake-and-pastry flour 

1-1/4 cups (300 mL) granulated sugar 

1-1/2 cups (375 mL) egg whites, (10 to 12) 

1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon juice 

1 tsp (5 mL) cream of tartar 

1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt 

1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla 

1 cup (250 mL) quartered hulled strawberries 

Lemon Curd 

4 egg yolks 

1/2 cup (125 mL) granulated sugar 

1 tbsp (15 mL) finely grated lemon zest 

1/3 cup (75 mL) lemon juice 

1/3 cup (75 mL) cold butter, cubed 

Mascarpone Cream 

4 oz (113 g) mascarpone cheese, at room temperature 

1/2 cup (125 mL) whipping cream, (35%) 

1 tbsp (15 mL) icing sugar 

1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla

Angel Food Cake:  In small bowl, sift flour with 1/2 cup of the sugar; sift into separate bowl.

In large bowl, beat egg whites until foamy; beat in lemon juice, cream of tartar and salt until soft peaks form. Beat in remaining sugar, 2 tbsp at a time, until stiff glossy peaks form.

One-quarter at a time, sift flour mixture over top and fold in until blended. Fold in vanilla. Scrape into ungreased 10-inch (4 L) tube pan. Run spatula through batter to eliminate any large air bubbles; smooth top.

Bake in 350ºF (180ºC) oven until cake springs back when lightly touched, 40 to 45 minutes. Turn pan upside down and let hang on legs attached to pan, or on bottle, until completely cooled. Remove from pan. (Make-ahead: Store in airtight container for up to 2 days.)

Lemon Curd: Meanwhile, in heatproof bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. Set over saucepan of simmering water; cook, stirring, until thick enough to coat back of spoon, 8 to 10 minutes.

Remove from heat. Stir in butter, 1 piece at a time, until smooth. Strain through fine sieve into airtight container. Place plastic wrap directly on surface. Refrigerate until thick enough to mound firmly on spoon, about 2 hours. (Make-ahead: Refrigerate for up to 4 days.)

Mascarpone Cream: Meanwhile, place mascarpone in bowl. In separate bowl, whip together cream, icing sugar and vanilla; fold into mascarpone. (Make-ahead: Cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.)

Slice cake in half horizontally. Evenly spread lemon curd over cut side of bottom half; top with remaining cake. Spread mascarpone cream over top. Garnish with strawberries.

Yep, in love. 

Lemon Bread

 Everything about today feels like spring.  It's 13 degrees in Fergus right now, the sun is shining and the snow is melting.  It just makes me so excited for spring.  With spring comes Easter, and while I know it's a bit early considering it's only the beginning of March, Easter and lemons just go together for me.  I've been meaning to make this lemon bread for a few weeks now, but for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to do it when it was blistering cold out and snowing.  Today though, today it just felt perfect.

Lemon Bread
from the big red book
yield: 1 loaf

1 1/2 cup flour

1 cup white sugar

6 tbsp butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

pinch of salt

1 1/2  tsp baking powder

rind of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, flour, milk, salt, lemon rind, and baking powder and mix until smooth. 

Transfer to baking pan, and bake in preheated oven for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Topping:

 

Combine the juice of 1 lemon and 1/3 cup white sugar.

While still hot and in the pan, take a skewer and poke holes right through the bread and then pour the lemon juice and sugar over the top.  Let it sit for a few minutes before you take it out of the pan so the topping sets. 

Transfer to a cooling wrack and then enjoy!

Delicious.

Simply delicious.  Hope you enjoyed your day as much as I did!

rice krispie cake

I should have known better then to ask my brother in law what kind of birthday cake he wanted.  I also should have known I was going to get some crazy elaborate request when it took him 10 minutes to answer.  This is what he gave me.

Peanut butter ball cake with strawberries and chocolate.  

It was then up to me to figure out what to do.  Thank you to my mother in law for helping me brainstorm!

 

Peanut Butter Balls

from the big red book

1 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth it doesn't matter)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup golden corn syrup

5 cups rice krispies

In a sauce pan, melt the peanut butter, brown sugar and corn syrup.  Add rice krispies and mix quickly.  While they're still relatively hot, cover your hands in butter and roll into balls.  These freeze super well.

In the case of the "cake" I opted to press the mixture into two 8" cake pans.  

Strawberry Rice Krispies

by back to basics

4 tbs butter

1 3 oz package of strawberry jello

1 250 g package marshmallows

5 cups rice krispies

On medium low heat, melt butter then add jello and stir.  Add marshmallows and stir until melted. Add rice krispies and press into two 8" cake pans.

To assemble the "cake" I started with the peanut butter layer, added a layer of chocolate frosting, then the strawberry layer and more forsting and then the other peanut butter layer.  I had an extra layer of strawberry rice krispies that I sent home with the birthday boy, but it could easily have been incorporated into the "cake".  Cover the whole thing in more chocolate frosting, and Shane's insane concoction of peanut butter balls and strawberry and chocolate was finished. 

By far this was the weirdest request for a birthday cake I've ever had.  He seemed to love it though, and that's all that really matters.  Happy Birthday Shane.

love, sweet love

I had the brilliant idea of not only having a dessert table at our wedding, but baking it all myself.  In retrospect, it was indeed brilliant, and I'm so proud of myself for pulling it off.  I must give credit where it's due and thank those who helped make it a possibility though, because while the idea was to do it all by myself, it didn't end up going down that way.

To my amazingly wonderful and talented sister, maid of honour, photographer, wedding planner, designer and recipe contributor Margie, it would not have been possible without you!

To my mom for staying with us for the week leading up to the wedding and baking the chocolate chip meringues, sour cream cookies and the chocolate bundt cakes.

To Stephanie for not only the smartie cookies, but for the problem solving that went along with them.

To Sharlene at Sweet Celebrations for such a beautiful and delicious wedding cake.

Lastly, to the women who inspired me to make a dessert table filled with family recipes to begin with.  If it weren't for those women who baked them first, there wouldn't have been a table filled with as much love and history as there was.

If I had to go back and do it again, I absolutely would. 

 

Nannie's Smartie cookies

Omi`s Mandarine Cake

Margie`s Mocha Chocolate Cake

Mom`s Chocolate Chip Meringues

 

Mom`s Neapolitans

 

Josh`s request: My Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream

Grandma`s Sour Cream Cookies and Dar`s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Though not a part of the actual dessert table, I made 90 jars of peach jam to give to each guests as our bomboniere.

Our wedding was indeed filled with love, sweet love.