Boston Cream Pie Cookies

Boston Cream Pie is one of my favorite desserts!!  I LOVE the cream filling in the center; and when you pair that with cake and chocolate... What could be better??? So, when I came across this recipe, I had to try it!! Read through the page, and at the bottom you will find my critique of this recipe! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Cream filling:
6 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch                          

1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup of milk
6 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream
1 egg yolk, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cookies:
9 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
2 Egg yolks
1 Egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 Cup + 2 Tablespoons cake flour
1 Cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup + 2 Tablespoons buttermilk                                                          

Glaze:
2 Ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
4 teaspoons butter
1/2 Cup whipping cream
1 Cup confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)

Directions:

(Cream filling)
1. In a small heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Stir in milk and cream until smooth. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat to low; cook and stir 2 minutes longer.
2. Remove from the heat. Stir a small amount of hot mixture into egg yolk; return all to the pan, stirring constantly. Bring to a gentle boil; cook and stir 2 minutes longer. Remove from the heat. Stir in vanilla. Cool for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a small bowl. Press waxed paper onto surface of custard. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

(Cookies)
1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, egg, vanilla and lemon peel. Combine the cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk and mix well.
2. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets.

3. Bake at 400° for 5-7 minutes or until firm to the touch. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

(Assembly and Chocolate Glaze)
1. Spread custard over the bottoms of half of the cookies; top with remaining cookies.
2. For glaze, place chocolate and butter in a small bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream just to a boil. Pour over chocolate and butter; whisk until smooth. Stir in confectioners' sugar. Spread over cookies; let dry completely. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: 4 dozen.

So, after making these cookies, I had to try one! They were delicious!! Although the process was long (about 3 hours total, including waiting time), they were good!! The only thing I did not like about them was that there was not a lot of cream.  When assembling these cookies, I found it hard to add a lot of cream without them toppling over.  The good thing about an actual Boston Cream Pie, is that you can add as much or as little cream as you prefer.  

It was a little difficult at first getting a hang of the sizing on these cookies when placing the dough on the cookie sheet.  The dough was very sticky and hard to handle, but that is because the cookies are more of a cake-like texture.

I would definitely make these cookies again, but I would maybe tweak the style or assembly of them somehow.  Overall - 4 out of 5 stars!

*Note: I did not use "cake flour" in this recipe, as it calls for; I just used regular all-purpose flour - and they came out fine.

Source: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/boston-cream-pie-cookies

Fondant Firsts

So, I am totally obsessed with the show Cake Boss on TLC! I absolutely love the show and I love the way that the cakes look!! Although, I've always wondered how they taste! I will have to travel to New York sometime and try them out myself!
I've also always wondered how homemade fondant tastes in general!!  So I started doing some research to learn more about fondant and how to make it!! I found out that real fondant is a little tricky to make; but there is an "easier" version that has a base of marshmallow that is a little more simple for beginners (ME).  So I decided to give it a try!
WARNING: YOU AND YOUR KITCHEN WILL BE DESTROYED AFTER MAKING FONDANT!
It's SOOOO much fun to make, but very messy! (Especially for this girl!)

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe:
4 cups mini marshmallows (half 16 oz. bag)
4 cups powdered sugar + extra for dusting counter
2 Tablespoons water
Vegetable shortening for non-stick counter purposes (believe me! This is a must!)
(Food coloring or flavored extracts if desired)

1. To prepare counter for kneading and mixing: Grease counter with shortening and then sprinkle heavily with powdered sugar.  YES, you will get messy!!

2. Place marshmallows in a microwave-safe bowl along with the 2T. of water.  Microwave on high for one minute.  After removing from the microwave, stir until smooth.  If there are still un-melted marshmallows, place back into the microwave for about 30 seconds. Remove once again and stir until smooth.

3. After the marshmallows are completely melted, stir in powdered sugar until the consistency becomes too hard to stir and dough-like.  After the mixture becomes more like a dough, pour contents  onto counter and knead by hand until very stiff.  You may need to add more powdered sugar to get the dough to be the right consistency.  I had to experiment a few times before getting it to work as I needed it to.

4. Create beautiful pieces and cakes with this dough and you are finished!! BE CREATIVE!  I will say, rolling out the fondant and getting onto the cake was the hardest part!  Once it became less sticky, I was able to roll it up and over the cake without tearing it or getting fingerprints in it!  It takes some work, but you'll be able to make amazing designs and sculptures out of this stuff!

*One source that I found for making the fondant said to make sure and sift the powdered sugar before stirring into the marshmallow.  I tried it both ways and could not tell a difference! So who
knows... lol.

So what I did was I "dirty iced" a cake and then laid the fondant over the top.  You must frost a cake first before putting fondant on so that the fondant will stick to your cake!  After getting the fondant on the cake I had to cover up the bottom with something, so I lined it with frosting and then pushed chocolate chips into the frosting all around the bottom.
With the leftover fondant, I kneaded in gel food coloring and cut out circles and placed them all over the cake. Make sure you have frosting to stick your shapes onto the cake with!! And... Viola!! The cake was complete!

I have to say, the cake itself was really good!! I used a previous recipe's (Chocolate Ganache Cake) chocolate cake for the cake so I knew that part would taste good.  The fondant was a little too sweet for my taste; but then again... Fondant is just for decoration purposes... kind of. haha.

Anyways, good luck and enjoy!  Feel free to ask me questions or tell me about your own fondant experiences! I would love to hear them! Hasta luego!

Chocolate Ganache Cake

It's cake time again!!! This cake is perfect for all the people in your life who LOVE super sweet treats!  If you're looking for something over-the-top with a high sweet intensity you have come to the right place!  Although the outside of my cake may not have looked as pristine as I would have liked it to; I assure you, it was delicious!

Cake Ingredients:
3 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cup canola oil
3 eggs
2 2/3 cup flour
2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup of milk
1 1/2 cup of water
1 1/8 cup cocoa powder

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Oil and flour 3 10 inch round cake pans (or line them with parchment paper) and set aside.
2. With an electric mixer combine brown sugar and oil.  Turn the mixer onto a low speed and gradually add the eggs.  Let the mixture continue to beat while you mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.  Set the flour mixture aside.
3. Place cocoa powder into another separate bowl.  Bring the 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil.  Once water is boiling, pour the water over the cocoa powder and whisk together until smooth.
4. To the oil and egg mixture, mix in the flour mixture as well as the milk and vanilla; alternating the milk with the flour mixture.  Once all of the flour mixture, the milk, and the vanilla is added; Set the mixer to low and slowly pour in the cocoa and water combination.
5. Pour the finished batter into the three pans evenly.  Make sure that you have coated the pans with enough flour or parchment paper so they do not stick when trying to remove the cakes after baking.
6. Place the cake batter filled pans into the oven and bake for about 28 to 35 minutes; or until toothpick comes out clean.
7.  Take cakes out of the oven and allow to cool for about ten to fifteen minutes before trying to remove from the pan.

Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients: 
3 cups of confectioner's sugar
1 cup butter (softened)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter extract
1 to 2 tablespoon heavy whipping cream

1. Blend together sugar and butter.
2. Add the vanilla, butter extract, and whipping cream.
3. Taste test to make sure the flavor has an equal amount of sugar to butter.  The original recipe that I used did not call for butter extract; but I noticed that a lot of the buttercream frosting recipes tend to have too strong of a sugar flavor, so I tweaked it a little... Ha. Of course.  It all depends on how you want your frosting to taste.

Ganache Glaze

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup of semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 tablespoon light corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy cream

1. In a bowl combine the chocolate chips and light corn syrup.
2. Bring heavy cream to a boil.  Once boiling, pour over top of the chocolate chips and corn syrup.  Stir until chips are melted and the mixture is smooth.


Assembly:

The assembly of the cake is pretty simple.  Simply layer the cakes with frosting in between each layer.  Cake 1, frosting, cake 2, frosting, cake 3, frosting.  Once the three cakes are stacked on top of each other; frost the entire cake with the buttercream frosting.  Place in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to chill.  Once chilled, bring the cake back out and pour the Ganache glaze over the top.  Allow to run down the sides and either spread over the entire cake, or simply allow to run over the sides. Let sit about 10 minutes to allow the Ganache get a bit cooled down and settled.  Cut, serve and enjoy!

                      

I did make two mistakes when I made this cake that I realize were pretty dumb! Haha... First off, I did not allow the cakes to cool completely before frosting them (I was in a bit of a hurry); Cakes take patience; I'm just a fast mover!
Secondly, I did not allow the Ganache to cool down a bit before I poured it over the cake; which caused the frosting to melt a bit; ending with the cake looking sloppy.

Although the cake does not look the best or the most beautiful; it tasted great!  As I mentioned before, it was very sweet!  A little goes a long way!  Next time I make the cake I may try just 1 layer instead of 2; to make the recipe and cook time a little more quick.  I will also frost it better with the buttercream and then just allow the Ganache to run over the cake instead of trying to spread it out.  This cake does take some time to make; and patience is a virtue that I obviously need to work  on when it comes to baking!
Good luck!

Cake Anyone???

Bavarian Chocolate Cream Cake

Making cakes has never been one of my fortes, probably because I like to mess with recipes too much!  I had to tell myself over an over not to tweak the recipe and to be precise.. Which was really hard!  When baking cakes or really any type of baked good you have to make sure to measure everything!!! Otherwise you may turn out with flat cakes, hard pastries or lumpy creams.... But let me tell you, my willpower paid off this time!!  No lumps, no flat or hard cake and it even tasted great!

I will tell you, this recipe is a process and took about 2 - 3 hours in total time to make (baking time included).  I found the recipe online and I found out that it was adapted from the Better Homes and Garden  magazine.  Here is the recipe if you're interested in making it - remember there are tons of steps and 3 separate items to make before assembly: The cake, the Bavarian cream and the buttercream frosting.

Cake Recipe:

3/4 cup butter, softenend       3 eggs

2 cups flour                            3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda                  3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt                            2 cups sugar

2 tsp. vanilla                           1 1/2 cups of milk

1. Grease and flour 2 eight or nine inch round cake pans.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheight.  

2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 5 min.).  Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition (about 1 min. total).  Beat in vanilla.  

4. Alternately add flour and milk to the mixture, beating on low speed just until combined after each addition.  Beat on medium to high for 20 more seconds.  

Cooling Cakes

5. Spread batter evenly in each of the prepared pans so you have two nice cakes.  Bake in preheated oven for about 35 minutes (mine took about 40).  *Make sure to test the center with a toothpick until it comes out clean!*  

6. Remove from ovens and let cool for 10 minutes.  Remove from pans and cool.  

Bavarian Cream Filling

3/4 heavy cream     1 (1/4 oz.) envelope unflavored geltain

Whipped Cream

3 egg yolks             1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1 cup milk               1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1) In a large bowl, whip the cream until it stands in soft peaks.  Chill until needed.

2) Soak the gelatin in 2/3 cup cold water for 10 minutes.  In the mean time, beat the egg yolks with the confectioners' sugar in a large metal bowl until blended and it has a thick, creamy consistency. Set aside.

3) Bring the milk and the vanilla to a boil in a saucepan, stirring often so the milk does not burn.  Remove from the heat and slowly pour the milk into the egg yolk mixture, stirring constantly.  

Stirring over boiling pot of water

4) Place the egg and milk mixture in the metal bowl over top of a gently boiling pot of water.  Continue to stir until the mixture coats the spoon.  

5) After removing from over-top of the boiling water, place the metal bowl on top of ice cold water in a separate bowl.  Gradually stir in the dissolved gelatin.  Make sure the mixture is lump-free.  Continue stirring until the cream starts to cool and stiffen (about 5 min.).  

6) Fold in the whipped cream and place mixture in fridge until ready to use.

All finished cream after stirring over ice water

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting - Okay... So I lied a little... I did tweak something... But not because I wanted to... I HAD to do it because it wasn't turning out right... So ha!

1 stick of butter, very soft but not melted!

1 tsp. Vanilla extract

2 Tbsp. heavy cream

3 - 5 cups confectioners' sugar

1. In a large bowl, beat the butter, vanilla and cream for 30 seconds. 

2. Gradually add in the sugar, beating constantly and occasionally stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl; until the frosting reaches desired consistency.  

Okay, so those were the directions for the frosting... Well, I added about 3 cups of sugar and it was extremely thick.  It also tasted like pure sugar!  So I decided to make it a little more thin, by adding milk.  I also wanted more butter flavor since all I could taste was sugar, so I added probably a teaspoon of butter extract. 

This is the part YOU get to play with!  Depending on how you like your frosting, thick or creamy, you can add as much or as little milk as you want, but be careful!  Add it slowly because it has a HUGE affect on the frosting.  A little goes a long way!

Bottom layer filled with Bavarian Cream

Now that you have your three parts for the cake, it's time to assemble!  

1. Place one of the cooled cakes on the platter/ dish that you will be serving the cake on.  

2. Use a sharp spoon, knife or mellonballer to gently remove 1/4 inch from the top of the cake - avoid scrapping of the very edge - what you want to create is a very shallow well across the whole area of the cake that the Bavarian cream can fill without being squished out by the top cake.  

3. Spread the Bavarian cream in the well, taking care not to drag to much.  

Finished frosted cake, decorate with your own personal touch!

4. Place the top layer on the cream and position to be in line with the bottom cake.  Ice the whole thing with the buttercream and decorate as desired!!

5. Place in fridge until ready to serve! Enjoy!

All done!!

One slice of cake comin' right up! 

It was delicious!

I hope you enjoy this cake just as much as I did!! Let me know how it went and be sure to ask questions if you have them!