I finally met Chef Duff Goldman!

I've had the most wonderful weekend!  It started on Friday night with my co-worker and friend Laurie, her sister and I attending a craft show and shopping until we almost dropped.  We originally planned to go on Saturday until about two weeks ago, when Laurie made a trip to the Michael's store in North York.  The next morning, Laurie gasped and said "You're not going to believe this - Duff is making an appearance at the Michael's in North York!" 

Now, Duff had just been at the Cdn National Exhibition on September 3rd, but I didn't attend because it was horribly hot and very crowded.  I ended up calling the store *three* times to confirm this information, since it wasn't advertised on their store's events page, or on Charm City Cakes' events page or anywhere in the media in Toronto.  The third call on Wed. last week was the best - Duff was going to be signing his signature black aprons and they would be given to attendees for free!  Duff now has an extensive like of baking products and tools that are only sold directly by Michael's and the apron sells for $25.

Here I am with Duff, grinning my head off!  I tried to crop it, but seeing the security guy on the left and the pile of aprons on the right appeals to me. :)  The tubs on display are different flavours and colours of fondant icing.

Laurie and I are veterans of many, many scifi conventions and waiting for hours is the norm, so we decided to get there by 10:30 am - Duff was signing from 2 to 4 pm.  No kidding, we really did get there that early.  We also had Michael's coupons to use on even more craft supplies (Friday night is another story all together!), so we were able to kill some time.  This area of the store was only being set up when we arrived and they finally set up the waiting line by 11 am, when one couple was waiting.  I became the 5th person in line at 11:30 to hold our three spots, when the ladies offered to get us some food and drinks.

Both Laurie and I have the "Ace of Cakes" book, which is not a cookbook, but all about how the show came to be, Duff's path to becoming a successful cake designer (although he is also a trained chef) and bios of all the staff at the bakery.  It's also full of gorgeous photos of the cakes they've made.  We were told very specifically that Duff would "only sign ONE item - either a book or an apron."  We would still get an apron, signed or not, after meeting him.  I was the first in line who with his book and he was pretty pleased "You've got the book!" I told him I'd had it for 2 years and he said he was thinking of writing another one.  Of course I told him he should.  I also told Duff that now I had his and Ina's autographs (his comment "She's sweet!") and said that Ina taught me not to be afraid to bake and that Duff is inspiring to be more creative.  He said, "aww, baking's not scary!" and thanked me.  Of course, I was so excited I didn't let the Sharpie ink dry properly, so it's smooshed a little, but I don't care!

I really didn't know what to do next, since the apron was also part of the meet and greet. so I asked one of the assistants about it.  Duff had a stack of aprons in front of him (see above), and said "Here - let me sign one for you."  I couldn't believe it after the lecture we got before the event began.  I squeeed as I walked away!

I like the heart in front of "Duff" and his little happy face.  We also got a little sample of Duff's fondant - I think I'll have to try it out on some cupcakes...

The Baker's 80th Birthday Party!

Sheesh, I thought it had been a while the last time I posted, but now I've actually gone over a month without posting!  Between moving family members, pickle-making parties and birthdays, I haven't had much time to try new recipes or blog.  Hopefully that will change this month as I warm up for the annual United Way bake sale that I'm organizing for Hallowe'en Monday.

We had a major family milestone on September 16th - my little mom, The Baker, turned 80!  Definitely a big event, but she asked that we not have a party "like the last one", her 75th, when 35 family and friends surprised her.  This time, it was a "Kaffee und Kuchen" Sunday afternoon party, which for non-German speakers means coffee and cake.  But we Europeans like to do things a little differently - we have the coffee/tea and drinks with baked treats *before* we eat anything else.  Hey, we have our priorities!  Then, for those guest who really enjoyed the party and stayed later, which we hoped would happen, we have a light buffet dinner.

This year both my lovely daughters Sarah and Megan helped with food prep and baking, for which I was very grateful.  Apart from a massive shop at Costco for the party basics, Megan made two delish salads and Sarah made gluten-free lemon bars, to make sure one of our favourite guests wouldn't be excluded from enjoying the treats.  I made Red Velvet cupcakes (Ina's reliable recipe), my buddy Vince's Tiramisu (I'll do a separate post with this recipes) and an oversized cupcake birthday cake.  For the cake, I bailed and used a French Vanilla box mix because I knew it would hold up well for the shape I was making.  Here it is before the candles were added.  Can you tell that the theme for the party and decorations was cupcakes? ;)

And here's the birthday girl being surprised with her cake!  My uncle asked if I made one for everyone - seriously, 19 of them?!?

She seemed to really enjoy the party and I know the family did too!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

For a while now, Megan's sweetie Duncan has been asking if I could make my banana cranberry walnut bread just as banana chocolate chip.  I ended up making this version using my trusty BCW recipe, adding one cup of dark chocolate chips as the extra which yielded 16 muffins.  Unfortunately, Duncan wasn't here to try them, so they were gone before he got a chance to sample them!

I'll have to make them on Friday night, before the gang shows up to move furniture to Meg and Duncan's new place. And I don't think having a 2.4 kg bag of chips is too much - it's a necessity at my house. :)

Lemon Yogurt Cake - Without the Yogurt!

My best friend Fern recently gifted me with a big bag of lovely Argentinian lemons.  At my godson's wedding, one of the lovely touches were sliced lemons added to the water pitchers on the tables.  The lemons I received weren't used at the wedding and Fern knew I'd be happy to use them up by baking.  I've wanted to make this recipe from Ina's cookbook, "Barefoot Contessa at Home" for a while, so these lemons were the perfect excuse.

For once, I didn't use my favourite appliance, my big red mixer!  This cake only needs two bowls to be made and a little bit of elbow grease.  Since I don't buy whole milk, plain yogurt - Ina's recipe ingredient - I used 5% reduced fat sour cream instead.  The cake was still moist and flavourful - I'm sure no-one would notice the difference.

Before you start baking it's best to get the lemons to room temp, since it makes both zesting and juicing them much easier.  Zest with a fine rasp (my preference) or grater first, then juice the lemons.

Cake Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsps grated lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice

Glaze Ingredients:
1 cup icing (confectioner's) sugar
2 tbsps lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare loaf pan by either spraying with non-stick oil or with butter and flour.  If using butter and flour, line bottom of pan with parchment paper for easy removal.

Sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt into one bowl.  In another larger bowl, whisk together the sour cream or yogurt, 1 cup of sugar, the eggs, lemon zest and vanilla.  Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.  The mixture will look quite lumpy at this point and you'll wonder what you did wrong!  With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's fully incorporated.  At first it will look like there's way too much oil, but as you continue to fold the ingredients it will all become incorported and - voila! - the lumps in the batter will disappear.  Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes or until a tester into the cake comes out clean.

Meanwhile combine the last two ingredients - the 1/3 cup sugar and the 1/3 cup lemon juice either by cooking on the stove or very slowly in the microwave.  I did mine in a glass measuring cup and it worked perfectly.  Cook only until the liquid is clear, so that the sugar is fully melted.  Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes and carefully remove to a baking rack set over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon sugar mixture over the cake and allow to soak in.  The help this process, I poked holes over the top of the cake with a toothpick and poured the mixture in stages so that it would soak in slowly.

For the glaze, combine the icing sugar and fresh lemon juice over the cake once it has fully cooled off.  If you try this when the cake is still warm, it will look like a puddly, thin mess.  What you want is a nice drizzle pattern on the sides of the cake before it's sliced.

The cake got a big thumbs' up from the family and I know I'll making it again!

Inherited Treasures

Wow, it's about time for an update, don't you think?  I can't believe I haven't updated this blog in over a month!  Between incredibly hot weather and special events during July, my baking has been almost non-existent.

What I've wanted to write about for a while has been what I consider real treasures - the cooking and baking supplies passed along to me from my mother and my grandmother.  When my family left Europe 58 years ago, they didn't have a lot of "worldly possessions", but humble everyday items that I now treasure.

For years I've wanted to display my grandmother's egg beater.  It's really worn - the red and white paint shows years of wear - but I've never found the right way to show it off in my kitchen.  One day I might just splurge and have a custom shadow box made for it.  The tablecloth in the picture was made from a printed panel - the seamstress would just have to pick the colours she wanted to use.  Fortunately for my daughters, both of my grandmothers made a tablecloth using the exact same panel, but in different colours.  One is in mauves and pinks (below) and the other in vibrant reds and golds.

My mother bought the milk glass bowls back in the 1960's at a Toronto institution, Honest Ed's.  Back then the discount stores and Walmarts didn't exist in Canada, so anyone new to the City went to Ed's to stock their kitchens.  The bowls have a fruit pattern on one side and led to my collection of milk glass.  I've actually found fruit bowls that match this set at our local Value Village - or the VV Boutique as my friends and I also call it. ;)

The loaf pans are quite newly inherited.  My mother made the most amazing, most, rich fruitcake for years, but there are less family members now who want to eat it, no matter how soaked in brandy it is.  Since she knows I bake loaf breads quite often, this spring she surprised me by saying "Here, take these - I don't use them any more."  As pleased as that makes it, it still rattles me whenever The Baker gifts me with her baking tools!

Lemon Blueberry Crumb Bars

Last Sunday I celebrated another birthday (sigh!) and my daughter Sarah surprised me by baking an absolutely lovely treat.  She blogs on tumblr and found the recipe there.  It was wonderful and the friends I shared it with couldn't stop raving about how tasty the bars were.  No wonder at all, because Sarah is a great baker.  If she hadn't started using my first Barefoot Contessa cookbook before I did - yes, that's right! - I don't know if I would have had the guts to try the baking recipes myself.  She hasn't had much opportunity to bake in the last four years of university, but maybe now she'll be making Martha Stewart's decadent Fudge Brownies again!  She also knew I'd want to blog about this and share the recipe, so she took the pictures for me. :)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 package lemon cake mix
2 eggs

2 tsp. zest and 3 tbsps. lemon juice (divided)
2 packages of 8 oz. cream cheese, softened (low fat is fine)
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 13x9 inch pan with foil or parchment paper, letting it extend over the sides for easier removal after baking.

Microwave butter for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until melted.  Combine melted butter with cake mix, 1 egg and the 1 tbsp of lemon juice - mix until well blended.  Press 2/3 of the mix onto the lined cake pan.

With a mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar together.  Add in remaining egg, lemon juice, and lemon zest and mix well.  Pour this cream cheese mix layer over the cake mix.  Add the blueberries on top of the cream cheese.  Use the remaining 1/3 of the cake mix to crumble over the top.

Bake 48 to 50 minutes.  Let cool and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before slicing.  The cake slices best when lifted out of the pan completely.  Slices can be refridgerated in a sealed container to keep them moist.

After sampling the bars, my buddies Teresa and John came up with other possible versions.  Teresa sugested dark chocolate base with fresh raspberries, with melted chocolate swirled into the cream cheese and John's idea was chocolate base with pecans, with caramel swirled into the cream cheese.  I'm sure creating new variations of these tasty bars could go on and on...

Meringue Nests with Mixed Berries and Another Little Treat

Life has been so busy!  Between renos on the house and my daughters' university convocations this month, I haven't had much time to bake any new treats, much less update my blog.  Fortunately, last weekend I did get to make these lovelies which I brought as a dessert to a party.  Even more fortunate is that this is the prime time to enjoy fresh berries of every kind - in my case it's been raspberries, strawberries and blueberries.

For the party, I made meringue nests with mixed berries and whipped cream:

This is one of the easiest desserts I've ever made, but it's one of the most impressive.  Here's how it's made:

For 8 Meringue Nests:

3 room temperature egg whites (you want them room temp. for better volume)
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
pinch of Cream of Tartar

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Using a 3 inch cup or glass, with a pencil trace the circles onto the paper.  Depending on the size of your cookie sheet, you will be able to draw 6 to 8 per sheet.  Flip the paper over, so that the pencil is on the UNDER side of the parchment.  This will give you the perfect size guide for piping the meringues.

Using a stand or hand held mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.  Add the Cream of Tartar until blended, followed by the sugar which is added in 2 tbsps at a time, to ensure it's fully incorporated.  Keep whipping the egg whites until they are glossy and form peaks when the mixer whisk is lifted.

Using a star tip on a piping bag, pipe the outer edge of the nest first, filling in the centres afterward.  Once done, pipe another edge around the circle, which creates the "nest" for your berry filling.  Bake the meringes for 2 hours - it's more like drying out than baking, so do not remove them early.  Allow to cool before moving to cooling racks.

For berry mixture:

I used a 2 lb container of strawberries, 1 pint of blueberries and 1/2 pint of raspberries.  I washed and cut the strawberries into smaller pieces, made sure there were no stems on the blueberries and mixed these two together with about 3 tbsp of sugar.  They sat in the fridge until right before we left, when I topped them with the raspberries, which I didn't want smashed into the mix.

The whipped cream:

Normally, I'm not a fan of whipped cream, but for this dessert it's essential and I'm happy to make an exception.  It's very simple - one cup of heavy whipping cream (yes, the 35% stuff!), 1 tsp good vanilla and 1 tbsp of granulated sugar.  Again, beat all ingredients until peaks form - soft ones for whipped cream, unless you want to make your own very sweet butter.  Try to make the whipped cream as the last thing you prepare before assembling this dessert, so that it doesn't have a chance to separate.  If you're taking it with you as I did, keep it as cold as possible before dessert is served.

For this party, I doubled all the quantities and had enough for 18 desserts.  Everyone seemed to enjoy them very much!

I also found another way to use raspberries recently on mini Lemon Tarts:

This was the easiest thing in the world - frozen mini tart shells, prepared lemon curd and fresh berries.  I followed the directions to bake the shells, let them cool and spooned in the lemon curd.  One raspberry each and they disappeared very quickly!