Anything But Vanilla: Life & Cake

Today is Easter. As a follower of Christ, today is the day I celebrate the resurrection of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I go to church, I sing my songs, I eat my brunch or linner (by the way, don't in between time meals drive you crazy! I feel like I get cheated out of 1 of my 3 scheduled feedings) and then I go about my merry way on Monday, back to life as I know it, back to eating chocolate or whatever I gave up for Lent. As I reflect on the previous sentences glaring dully back at me from my screen, they seem rather scripted. Honestly, if Easter is that shallow, I think I'd vomit from the flavorless hum-drum of it all. But if I am honest with myself, I have treated the holiday just like that in the past. Like it was a day to recognize God is God because He can rise from the dead, but it has no implication on my life rather than wearing a floral dress and eating ham once a year. (That is a rather weird picture isn't it).

If Jesus's resurrection was just that, sure I'd give him a way-to-go one year, two years even but anything after that seems rather silly to continue commending a divine magic trick or display of power. No, there must be more to it, and that is exactly what I feel like God has been shaping me to understand and experience in the past year, and particularly in the months leading up to Easter.

I feel as if I have been in an incubator of learning about and experiencing the resurrection. On my other blog, Sing To Me, Muse I posted this quote about Easter that I recently read in a book I just finished called Surprised By Hope by N.T. Wright. It goes like this...

"The message of Easter, then, is neither that God once did a spectacular miracle but then decided not to do many others nor that there is a blissful life after death to look forward to. The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that now you're invited to belong to it."

Simply put, but powerful. I feel like why I have been learning so much about the resurrection as of late is because I have been experiencing more and more of the resurrection for myself. Obviously not in physical form, yet ;) (that could be a whole other blog post), but like N.T. Wright put it I have been taking a hold of the 'new world' Jesus unveiled by actively living as if I belong, because I do. 

A lot of times the Christian life to the outsider and insider can seem very vanilla, very bland. That is because we settle for it. We believe the lie that finding a full and illustrious life comes by doing exactly what pleases us the moment we need/want it. That being a Christian means saying a prayer and then going about 'life' as normal. But that is exactly why we miss life, why I miss life, because we aren't invited into a normal life anymore, we are invited into a new life, a resurrected life and to experience that resurrected life, which only comes through Christ accomplishing it for us first and then inviting us into it, is to live as if it exists. What I mean by that is to live as if this world wasn't it. To live as if Jesus really did conquer death (and I do mean physical death) and sin (anything that takes fullness of life from us) and that one day He is coming back to make everything right, but until then we are invited to be apart of heading in that direction here and now. 

N.T. Wright has more eloquent things to say on this matter...

"What you do in the present- by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself- will last into God's future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether. They are apart of what we may call building for God's kingdom."

Contemplating that this Easter and experiencing it more this past year as I have begun to let go of the "lack-of-life" I so dearly cling to, made this Easter and makes life very NOT vanilla. It makes it full, alive, what it is supposed to be.

You might be wondering how I will transition this into a post about cake, but I'm about to, so hold on tight.

The cake I made this Easter actually is a vanilla-vanilla layer cake, but the taste of the cake was so full of life it is "anything but vanilla." It's kinda like why people life Funfetti Cake. It really is just a vanilla-vanilla cake, but the flavor screams so loudly "I taste like cake!!" that you just love it for its pure unadulterated essence. That's what this cake is like, but way more gourmet ;)

Plus it is super cute and I am going to teach you the technique I used to frost it.

Anything-But-Vanilla Vanilla Butter Cake

*makes one 4-layer 6 inch cake

*adapted from Sweetapolita

Ingredients

2 large eggs (separated)

1 3/4 (210 grams) cups sifted cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cups (200 grams) granulated sugar, divided

1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk (room temperature)

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F (180° C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter and flour two – 6 inch round cake pans. Line bottoms of pans with parchment paper and grease and flour parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until soft (about 1-2 minutes). Add 15o grams (3/4 cup) of the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla and beat until combined. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

In a clean bowl of your electric mixer, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy.  Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 50 grams (1/4 cup) sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. With a rubber spatula gently fold a little of the whites into the batter to lighten it, and then fold in the remaining whites until combined. Do not over-mix the batter or it will deflate.

Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth the tops with an offset spatula or back of a spoon. Bake in preheated oven for approximately 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Place a wire rack on top of the cake pan and invert, lifting off the pan gently. Once the cakes of completely cooled, cut the domed top off of each with a serrated knife and cut each cake in half yielding 4 layer. Wrap each layer in plastic and place the cake layers in the fridge for at least two hours (to make filling and frosting the cakes easier).

Anything-But-Vanilla Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp

6 cups (750 g/1 lb + 10 oz) icing sugar (confectioners’)

1/2 cup whipping cream

2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon water

a good pinch of salt

Directions

Beat the butter and icing sugar in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, for about 2 minutes.

Add the vanilla, water, whipping cream, and salt, and whip on med-high speed until fluffy and smooth–about 4 minutes. If consistency is too thick, add more water 1 teaspoon at a time, then whip again for 30 seconds or so. (If using food coloring, add it in the last minute of whipping. For the shade of pink I used on my cake, you only need 1 drop of red food coloring.)

Composition

Transfer the frosting into a pastry bag fitted with an open star decorating tip (Wilton No. 22). If you have no idea what I am talking about, you can just use a spatula to frost the cake, which is pretty self explanatory so I'll let you figure that one out.

Take your cake layers out of the fridge and unwrap them.

Place the first layer (the sturdiest looking one) on a cardboard cake round and put the cake round on a spinny cake decorating table if you have one; if you don't, no worries it just makes things easier.

Step 1: Pipe a ring of frosting around the edge of the cake and fill in the middle with frosting using a spatula, making sure to keep it even. 

Step 2: Repeat the process till your cake looks like this one below.

Step 3: The crumb layer. Ice the top and sides of the cake with a thin layer of frosting to hold all the crumbs in place when you do the final frosting coat. Use a bench scraper, if you have one, to smooth it all out. Put the cake in the fridge for an hour to firm up. I also put my frosting in the fridge for like 15 minutes to get it back to proper piping consistency, but you don't have to unless you need it.

Step 4: While the cake is in the fridge, practice your piping skills. The technique I used is not complicated, it was my first time doing it in fact and it wasn't too hard. Start by making a closed C shape, bring it up and over the top of the C to curl back into the middle (kind like a heart I guess). Then the next shape starts on the top part of the last shape, that's how you get that layering effect.

Step 5: Take the cake out of the fridge and pipe this design vertically in columns around the cake. Frost the top normally. Then step back and appreciate all your hard work!

I did some stamping around the edge of the cake board in honor of the occasion.

It was delicious! 

Happy Easter!

Galette Des Rois (Kings Cake)

The Galette des Rois is typically a French tradition to celebrate l'Epiphanie: the day when the three kings came to pay their tribute to baby Jesus. In French those wise men go by Les Rois Mages (the Magi).


On the day of the Epiphany, families share a Galette des Rois, a flaked pastry pie filled with frangipane, a smooth buttery mixture of almond cream and pastry cream.

Some families celebrate with the Galette des Rois on the 6th and some on the first Sunday in January. But it's mostly considered fine to celebrate it all through the month of January, which is why I am celebrating now.


Another fun thing about the Galette des Rois, apart from how delicious a warm buttery almond pastry tastes on a rainy morning, is the traditional game that goes with it. Because hidden inside the Galette is a small little trinket or dried bean, I actually used a dried banana chip because it is what I had on hand, that when found bestows upon its owner the rights to the throne, aka they get to be king for a day! Paper crown and all.

Galette des Rois

*adapted from Chocolate Zucchini 

Ingredients

Pastry:

• (17 2/3 ounces) all-butter puff pastry, thawed if frozen

Crème d'amande:

• (9 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 125 grams (1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons) sugar
• 130 grams (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon) almond meal
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• good pinch sea salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 drop almond extract
• 1 tablespoon liquor of your choice, such as Grand Marnier or rum

For the eggwash and glaze:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon hot water
• 1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar

Accessories:

- 1 porcelain trinket or dried bean

- Paper crown

Directions

1. Prepare the crème d'amande.
Beat the butter until creamy, but avoid incorporating air into it. In a bowl, combine the sugar, almonds, hazelnuts, corn starch, and salt. Stir with a whisk to remove any lump. Add to the creamed butter and mix until smooth. Add the almond extract and orange flower water, then the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition. Cover and refrigerate for an hour or overnight.


2. Roll out the puff pastry.
Divide the puff pastry in 2 equal pieces, and roll each one out to form a rough circle a little larger than 12 inches in diameter. Use a sharp knife and an upturned plate of the right dimension to cut a neat 12-inch circle out of one, and a slightly larger one with the other, adding, say, 1/4 inch all around the edge of the plate.


3. Assemble the galette.
Place the smaller of the two circles on a piece of parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. In a small bowl, combine the egg yolk with a tablespoon water (or milk, if you have it handy) until smooth. Using a pastry brush, brush the outer rim of the dough lightly with the eggwash by a width of about 1 inch. Make sure not to wet the actual edge of the dough, or it will impede its rise.


Pour the crème d'amande in the center and spread it out inside the eggwash ring with a spatula.


Place a dried bean, or the trinket of your choice, in the crème d'amande -- not in the center but closer to an edge, or your knife will keep running into it when you divide the galette. And if it is an elongated shape, make sure to orient it straight toward the center of the galette, again, to minimize the possibility of you hitting it with your knife. Press it down gently to bury it.


Transfer the second round of dough precisely on top of the first, smooth it out gently over the crème d'amande to remove any air pocket, and press it down all around the sides to seal.



4. Score the galette.
Using the back of the tip of your knife, draw a decorative pattern on top of the galette. I chose to make a sun pattern: you start from the center and draw an arc to reach the edge of the galette in a single, smooth gesture, exercising just enough pressure to score the dough without piercing it. You then turn the galette ever so slightly, draw a similar arc nested in the first one, and repeat until the entire galette is scored.


Holding your knife upright, blade down, and using the dull side of the blade, push the dough inward where each sun ray ends, to create a festooned pattern.


Brush the top of the galette lightly with the eggwash: again, make sure it doesn't drip over the edges, or the eggwash will seal the layers of the puff pastry in this spot and it won't develop as well. Let it rest a minute then brush it lightly again with the eggwash. (As you can see on the picture below, my eggwash pooled a bit around the bulge of the crème d'amande, which resulted in a darker coloring around the sides; I didn't mind, but I'll be more careful next time.)


Using the tip of your knife, pierce 5 holes in the top dough -- one in the center, and four around the sides, piercing through the pattern you've drawn -- to ensure an even rise.


Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet or a tart pan with a removable bottom, and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.


5. Bake the galette.
Preheat the oven to 360°F. Insert the galette in the middle of the oven and bake for 30-35 min, until puffy and golden brown.


In the final minutes of baking, combine the tablespoon of confectioner's sugar with a tablespoon very hot water. When the galette is done, remove it from the oven, brush it across the top with the syrup, and return it to the oven for a minute; this will give it a shiny finish.


Place on a rack to cool completely (it will settle as it cools) and serve at room temperature or still warm out of the oven.

LOVE,

Christmas Cookies 2011. It's The Best Day Of The Year!

Picture this: an explosion of cookies, flour, icing and sprinkles everywhere. And I mean everywhere! On the table, on the floor, in my hair, on the dog and a ton in my tum tum. This is what the Kinney household kitchen looks like every year about the week before Christmas when we bust out all our Christmas cookies. It is a time honored mother daughter tradition and I'm sure Tom and Donna would agree that, "It's the best day of the year!"

My mom does most of the baking and I do most of the decorating, aside from my "Christmas In One Bite Cookies" which I invented last year and renamed this year to "Christmas Explosion Cookies." Recipe here. 


In all honesty, my mom does most of the work, and I am pretty thankful for that because I definitely could not do it. I am talking 8-12 different types of cookies in two days! My main responsibility is beautifying our sugar cookies, which is by no means a walk in the park either. I spent 5 1/2 hours last sunday decorating them all! with a little help from my friend Anna and a smidgen of help from our husbands. 


But I love it, and in no way am I complaining. It is a great outlet for my creative Spidy Senses which are usually tingling out of control this time of year.


And so we arrive at the point of my post: The 2011 Kinney/Waidley Christmas Cookie Expose.

I always include a couple of pop culture references from the year. With that said, how could I not include these two..

Know who they are? Maybe the close up of the Mrs.' dress deigned by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen will clue you in.

Kate and William of course. 

This next reference won't be so easy though. It is not the subject of the cookie who is famous, but what she is wearing. Pay special attention to the pattern on the dress, the iconic pattern that landed this designer a collab with Target that crashed their website this year b/c of the traffic created by crazed online shoppers.

I give you Missoni Gingerbread Woman, complete with cat eye sunglasses.

He just plain old pissed me off, so yeah... that happened.

My mod take on the snowman.

A psychotically happy teddy bear and his friend flakey.

Ooooo, creepy.

And lastly, an ode to San Francisco. As the song goes, "If you're going to San Fran-cisco, make sure frosty has a flower in his hat."

Merry Christmas everybody! And to all a good night.

A Sticky Christmas: Sticky Toffee Cheesecake & Sticky Toffee Sour Cream Pancakes

There's something about Sticky Toffee Pudding that makes me want to watch this scene over and over again...

shout Cheerio and watch 7 straight hours of EPL soccer with a Santa hat on.


But since I made Sticky Toffee Pudding last year around the Holidays, I wanted to try a twist on the British classic. Make that two twists: Sticky Toffee Cheesecake and Sticky Toffee Sour Cream Pancakes.

The great thing about these two recipes is that a lot of ingredients you use for the first (including the Bourbon Caramel sauce), you can use in the second. Less waste and more deliciousness= a win, win. 


Both are pretty sweet, but tis the season eh? The cheesecake is rich, full and warm with a little bit of bite from the gingersnap crust. The Sour Cream Pancakes are super moist and delightfully satisfying on a cold winter morning. Not to mention, the Bourbon Caramel Sauce that goes on top of both is through-the-roof. 


Please enjoy one if not both this Holiday Season.


Sticky Toffee Cheesecake
Makes one 9-inch cheesecake
adapted from spicy ice cream


Ingredients


Cheesecake 

• 1 x 250g packets gingersnap biscuits 
• 125g butter, melted 
• 2 x 250g packets cream cheese at room temp 
• 200ml sour cream 
• 100g brown sugar 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 2 eggs at room temp


Sticky Date Mixture 


• Melted butter, to grease 
• 1 cup chopped de-seeded medjool dates 
• 1/3 cup bourbon 
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 


Bourbon Caramel Sauce 


• 1 cup pouring cream 
• 60g butter, chopped 
• 1 cup brown sugar 
• 2 tablespoons bourbon 
• Big pinch sea salt 


Directions
1. Brush a 9 inch spring-form pan with melted butter to lightly grease. 


2. Place the biscuits in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely crushed. Add the butter and process until combined. Transfer to the prepared pan and press firmly over the base. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill. 


3. Place the dates and bourbon in a saucepan over low heat and simmer until liquid is absorbed. Place into a food processor with 1 tablespoon vanilla extract and pulse until it becomes a smooth mixture. Set aside. 


4. Preheat oven to 320°F. 


5. Place the cream cheese, sour cream and brown sugar in the bowl of stand mixer and mix until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined. 


5. Pour half the cream cheese mixture onto the prepared biscuit base, then spoon in the sticky date filling. Swirl with a skewer and then pour the remaining cream cheese mixture on top. 

6. Bake for about 40min - 1 hour or until just set. Turn oven off and cool inside with the door ajar, for 1 hour. Place in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight to chill. 


7. To make bourbon caramel sauce, place the cream, butter, sugar, bourbon and sea salt in a saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, bring to the boil and cook for 5-7 minutes or until thickened. Set aside and allow to cool.


8. Serve with caramel sauce on top. Save the rest of the caramel in the fridge for the pancakes. Reheat the sauce before serving.

Sticky Toffee Sour Cream Pancakes
Makes 8-10 pancakes
adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients

• 7 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/ 2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Chopped Medjool dates to taste, about 1 cup
• Butter
• Caramel Bourbon Sauce from recipe above

Directions
1. Heat a cast iron skillet or griddle over medium-low heat; you want it to slowly get nice and hot.


2. Stir the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together in the bottom of a medium bowl. Dump the sour cream in on top and stir it together very gently; it’s okay to leave the texture a bit uneven. Whisk the eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl and stir them into the sour cream mixture until just combined. Add in the chopped dates to your liking and fold to incorporate, once again, being careful not to over-mix. 


3. Melt about a tablespoon of butter in your skillet or griddle and pour the batter in, a scant 1/4 cup at a time. Cook for about 2 minutes on the first side, or until bubbles appear all over the surface, flipping them carefully and cooking for about a minute on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter.


4. Serve in a stack, topped with the Caramel Borubon sauce. No need for syrup, really.

It's A Marshmallow (Minty) World

Isn't this a great song? Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin are just so fabulous and fun. Definitely, one of my Christmas time favorites. And this year, it inspired DIY gifts for my friends...

Pa-rum-pum-pum-pum.... I give you: It's A Marshmallow (Minty) World Ice Cream! Complete with magic glitter spoons that transform every bite into Holiday Cheer.

Basically, I just bought some little spoons, covered the ends in glue, glittered them with Martha's super fine glitter in a marshmallowy minty green and sealed them with two coats of clear glue/decoupage. Not sure if the glitter magic will last, but that wasn't really the point anyways. In fact, does glitter need to have a point?

For the ice cream I followed the recipe in David Lebovitz The Perfect Scoop for Fresh Mint Ice Cream. Though it called for fresh mint and I did use it...

I added some mint extract for more flavor and a pinch of green food coloring to match the light minty glitter on the spoons. 

But here's the kicker: I layered in some marshmallow fluff, also made from a recipe found in The Perfect scoop, to lighten and liven it up! Plus, I included a little surprise once you lift the lid.

The final product was just what I was hoping for. Not only did the the ice cream's ingredients literally incorporate the words of Frank and Dean, the texture and the lightness of mint flavor was also divinely marshmallowy. 

All that's left to do is wrap it up with some ribbon and deliver it to friends.

"It's a yum yummy world baby sweethearts." So eat up!

Spice Up Yo' Holidays!

With these two recipes!

Spice Power!

Rosemary, Honey & Black Pepper Pecans

Recipe: Sweet Paul

Make sure to add more pepper than it calls for. Much tastier!

Gingerbread Meringues

Recipe: Enteral Health

For the gluten-free/dairy-free family member or guest you are bound to have.

Christmas Time Is Here: Steamed Gingerbread Pudding W/ Bourbon Cointreau Hard Sauce

It's December first, but maybe your not so excited for Christmas. Maybe you are feeling the Charlie Browniest of them all. Well, maybe this Gingerbread Steamed Pudding will lift your spirits and get you excited to celebrate the season.

This recipe is not a traditional recipe for steamed pudding. But it yields something in between a cake and a pudding since the batter is so liquidly it basically steams itself. 

It is super moist and delightfully gingery and spicy. The kinda cake you savor a small slice of because the flavor is so intricate. I thoroughly enjoyed it and the Bourbon Cointreau Hard Sauce just upped the ante.

Steamed Gingerbread Pudding

Makes two 9x5 inch loaf pan

via Tartine

Ingredients

• 215 gr. (1.5 cups) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 100 gr. (2/3 cup) fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped 
• 7oz (3/4 cup + 2 tbsp) hot water
• 150 gr. (3/4 cup) sugar
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup molasses
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs, at room temp

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 and butter 2 9x5 loaf pans.

2. Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves together into a medium sized mixing bowl.

3. Place the ginger in a blender (I used a food processor because it was all that I had) with enough of the hot water to cover it; process till smooth. Pour the ginger into a stand mixer or large mixing bowl. Pour the excess hot water back into the blender to dislodge any ginger that might have been left behind and pour that into the bowl.

4. Add the sugar, oil, molasses, salt and pepper to the ginger and mix on medium speed, or by hand with a whisk, until well mixed. Add the flour mixture and mix on low until moistened. Then switch to high speed and mix in the eggs until incorporated. The batter will be very thin.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pans, divide evenly. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. They suggest an hour and 10 minutes, mine only took 40-45 so check it at that point before baking longer.

6. Cool for 20 min in the pan and then invert onto a cooling rack, flip right side up and serve warm or at room temp.

Bourbon Cointreau Hard Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temp
• 2 oz (1/2 cup) powdered sugar, sifted
• 2 tbsp Bourbon
• 2 tbsp Cointreau
• pinch of salt

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, over the lowest heat possible combine all the ingredients until smooth. Serve over the gingerbread or store in a small container in the fridge until ready to serve.