Maple Whoopie Pie w/ Caramel Frosting

I've been in the mood to make a "fall dessert," so this maple/caramel delight fit the bill.  Normally, I try to make everything from scratch so that I can practice baking and get as much experience under my belt as possible, but I received a mix as a gift, so I figured I'd better put it to good use. It just wouldn't be fair not to make it, right?
The mix was for maple cookies with vanilla cream frosting, but the box frosting was awful and didn't really add anything to the flavor of the cookies, so I ended up making a caramel frosting instead. 
I have a problem with cookies because I always...ALWAYS make them too big.  No matter how much I try to reduce the amount of batter placed on the cookie sheet, they always come out 3 or 4 inches wide.

These were some monster whoopie pies!

Mini Boston Cream Pies

This project was all about learning how to make several paper-thin layers of cake.  This is accomplished by piping round disks onto cookie sheets. Rather than make a standard size cake, I decided to go with minis!  The cake is filled with vanilla pastry cream and the top is chocolate ganache.  I also had some left-over peanut butter butter cream, so I added that on to a couple of the layers too.  Now that I know how to use this technique, I want to make a 10-12 inch layer cake with multiple layers of cake and frosting!

Lady Finger Bowl with White Chocolate Mousse Topped with Strawberries

This dessert looked so beautiful in the book and I couldn't wait to make it! All in all, it tasted wonderful, but it was difficult to assemble.  The first thing I had to do was make lady fingers. Lady fingers are a sponge cake and you actually pipe the batter into lines before you bake them. In this case, the "bowl" for the mousse is made out of lady fingers, so when pipping the batter, the lines needed to be touching.  The first mistake I made, was drawing in pencil the lines that I needed to stay within to make a straight row. The trick is to draw the lines in pencil and then flip over the parchment paper. I didn't do this, so I ended up with pencil marks on the lady fingers! You can see this in the picture if you look closely. UGGG

The  next step was to make the white chocolate mousse.  White chocolate is sensitive to heat, so it was tricky to make.

Finally, I had to assemble. I took the two rows of lady fingers and lined a spring form pan. I'm still not sure how this part is supposed to work because I don't see how the two rows are supposed to stick together! As soon as I put the mousse in, the seams started splitting???

So, this dessert was not pretty, but it tasted great!

Chocolate Souffle

Chocolate Souffle is probably my favorite dessert. It's chocolate-y, gooey, warm and often includes real whipped cream which I could eat a bowl of just by itself.  The cool thing about the recipe I used, is that you make it ahead and freeze it and then when you are ready to make it, you just pop it in the oven for 20 minutes.   I have a couple more in our freezer that I will be able to make quickly (when I go back to work I can see this coming in very handy).  Off to watch cupcake wars. Anyone seen that show? It is really fun to watch!

Chocolate Sponge Cake with Creme Chantilly

Last night's after dinner dessert was a chocolate sponge cake with creme chantilly (whipped cream) with a little bit of powdered sugar and vanilla). It was light and air-y almost like a chocolate angel food cake.

Thearpy Baking

When times are tough some people like to work out, others like to sleep. For me- I turn to baking.  For the time being, I am baking all the time, but today it was for therapy.  I had to send Shep to daycare for the first time and sending baby number 2 was MUCH more difficult than sending Harrison. I think because I know what to expect- back to work (next week) and spending only a few hours with the little guys each day.
Today I made butter cookies with raspberry jam. These were so good because they were so soft and so buttery! I learned a great trick for making light-airy cookies. If you have a stand mixer, mix the butter, eggs and sugar for about 8 minutes on high. It makes the dough really light and fluffy.  yum!

Plum Crumble with Creme Anglaise- YUM!

The plum crumble recipe with creme anglaise (a vanilla custard) recipe is from the Le Courdon Bleu Desserts book. It was very easy to make- I HIGHLY recommend this dessert. Feel free to email me if you want the recipe (it's so simple).  This is basically a cobbler one of my all time favorite desserts! Growing up in Colorado we always had access to delicious freshly picked peaches, so my mom always made peach cobbler and it never occurred to me to try making the cobbler with plums.  This recipe really brings out the flavor of the plums and anything topped with a fresh custard is a winner in my book.  The best part was that the crumble was even better the next day because all the flavors were melded together, so we had great left-overs. YUM!

Moist Sponge Cake with Chocolate Ganache

So I started with the traditional French sponge cake, which I learned has a dry texture. The next recipe in the baking book was for a moist sponge cake which was MUCH better and so delicious! Rather than making a round cake, I decided to make a sheet cake and turn it into a roll-cake. I didn't have the right size pan, but tried it anyway and for the most part it worked! If I would have had an 11X17 pan, the cake would have been thinner and would have been easier to roll.  You can really make any kind of frosting for this type of cake, but I went with a bittersweet chocolate ganache. It was really yummy and paired perfectly with vanilla ice cream. I like the "roll" because you get a little frosting in every bite, but if I make the roll style again, I need to make it look prettier! Also,  if I were to make this again, I would make the ganache with semi-sweet chocolate. 

French Sponge Cake with Strawberry Buttercream

For this project, I decided to work from two cook books; Le Courdon Bleu Dessert Techniques and Baking, by James Peterson.  LCB is more gourmet and has recipes and techniques for everything from sugaring fruit to making Christmas fruit pudding (takes 6 hours) to making those pretty chocolate decorations such as swans or butterflies.  While I find learning those techniques important, I also want to make things that people want to eat! The Baking book is filled with techniques, but has an assortment of recipes that look so good. I have been using both books together and have had a great first week!

I started with the French Sponge Cake (easy to make- only 4 ingredients) and topped it with a strawberry buttercream. Using real strawberries is the key to a delicious strawberry frosting.
Over all it was good, but I learned that the "traditional" sponge cake is dry.  Why anyone would want a dry cake is unknown to me, so I probably won't be making this one again.