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!

Promoting a Young, Local Cake Designer

At my daughter's recent grad show at the Ontario College of Art and Design, one of the events we attended was the celebration of the graduates' catalogue.  To celebrate properly one of the students, Nadia Colella, created this amazing delicious cake!

Details about this yummy cake:

Apart from being a student for the last four years, Nadia also has a business making custom cakes.  Her website is well worth a look:

Nadia's Cake Creations

This talented young lady is furthering her business goals by heading off to culinary school in Chicago as her next venture - good luck Nadia!

Burnt Offerings

I'm happy to say that I usually have pretty good luck with my baking attempts, but there are some days when it seems like *nothing* goes right!  And, without fail, those are the days when you really, really want your baked goodies to be perfect.

Two weeks ago my best friend and her relations threw a bridal shower for her son's fiance.  Her son is also my godson, so of course this godmother volunteered to bake.  The shower was a lovely Italian luncheon, followed by a sweet table with goodies prepared by the nearest and dearest.  The night before the shower I made mini Red Velvet cupcakes and they were one of the best batches I've made yet.

I decided I'd wait until the next morning to make sugar cookie umbrellas, decorated with flower sprinkles.  I had just made the cookies the previous weekend for Easter and they were no problem - I think the ducks, bunnies and eggs looked very cute.

It's a false assumption to think that a "simple" sugar cookie is easy - it's not.  They're actually one of the most finicky things to bake - the butter has to be soft enough before you use it, then it has to be chilled again before rolling out/cutting and chilled a THIRD time before they're baked.  Of the two batches of dough that I made, one half of the first batch wouldn't hold together at all, when I attempted to roll it out.  The green bin bag got very heavy...

They also need to be watched very carefully during baking, to prevent them from browning to much.  I bake mine for 12 minutes, turning the trays and switching high/low racks in the oven after 6 minutes for successful cookies.  They're actually quite labour intensive little buggers...which leads me to what happened that morning...these sad umbrellas...

They don't look nearly as bad in this photo as they did in reality.  To add insult to injury, those bloody sprinkles had to be placed individually to stick to the dough...sigh!  Those umbrellas that weren't too toasty actually made it to the luncheon.  Here's a photo of the sweet table and everyone enjoyed all the the lovely treats.

Rainbow Sprinkle Cupcakes

I haven't blogged in a month because my life has been wrapped around the main floor bathroom reno, which is now entering its fourth week! :(  My house is covered in a very fine coat of dust, which is not a very appetizing environment for mixing batter or rolling out cookie dough.  However, this weekend my younger daughter celebrated her 22nd birthday, so it was time to dust off the Kitchenaid mixer. ;)

When I originally asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she asked for something very "old school" - rainbox sprinkle cake from a box, with chocolate frosting.  Nothing from scratch, just something sentimental - she's pretty sweet that way!  Since the whole family won't be over again until Easter weekend, the cake evolved into cupcakes, which are also much easier to share with the office gang.  Neither of us has any desire to have all the cupcakes sitting at home for the rest of the week, so my office buddies will be happy to see the treats tomorrow.

Maybe I should leave some at home to encourage the contractor to finish the bathroom faster...

Irish Soda Bread

Before I made the Herbed Cheddar Soda Bread recipe from Chatelaine magazine, I wanted to make this one after seeing Ina bake it on her show a number of times of course, I always watch her reruns!.  I'm just thrilled with the results and, for once, I didn't tweak *anything* about this recipe!

The recipe is in Ina's "Barefoot Contessa at Home" cookbook and here's the link to her site.  If it disappears at the end of the spring when Ina changes the recipes, drop me a line and I'll send you the ingredients:

Ina's Irish Soda Bread

I know I enjoyed it so much because it's flavoured with my favourite citrus, orange, and the end result isn't heavy as you might expect from a soda bread.  The house smelled wonderful while it baked and I enjoyed two slices with my raspberry orange jam that I made on Canada Day last year.  Then I took the dog for a walk to work it off. ;)