Easter Time!

When I was a young girl, Easter was all about the shoes and the purse. Oh, and the white gloves. We lived at 985 Manresa Lane and our next door neighbor, the tall girl in the middle, was Lisa Krah, and she rocked. When the neighbor kids all gathered to play cowboys and Indians, Lisa got to be Miss Kitty. She was our idol and I wanted to be like her in every way.

From the left is Cathy, me, Lisa, Linda and Beth.

We loved holidays and getting dressed up, usually in matching outfits made from material my mom must have gotten on a big discount. Sorry mom. At least it never looked like the drapes...

Nowadays, it's all about the sprinkles...goodbye patent leather shoes...hello Williams-Sonoma!

And candy melts, in a variety of colors...

And cake balls in the shape of Easter eggs, baby. Yum, yum. Although, I have to tell you, that there are SO many more creative people out there. http://www.bakerella.com/ is the Queen. I totally bow to her. Every Monday morning I go to her site to see what magic she has created. She's on a completely different level.

But I have been busy and doing good stuff. This week it's 11 dozen cake balls in a variety of flavors and lots of colors. Primarily white, yellow, pink and purple. For Easter.

A little different from when I was a kid, but good nonetheless.

Maybe I will break out those white shoes.

Happy Easter!

Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

Oh, wouldn't it be lovely to have all the time in the world to putter away the hours in the kitchen? You know, no clock, no deadlines, no worries...

It always takes longer to do any project than I think it will.

Case in point....

Sugar cookies. Decorated sugar cookies. 5 dozen of them to be exact.

Oh, that's a breeze, right? This will take no time at all...


It takes a little while to get the creative juices flowing, but it was worth it...

In hindsight the 'frosting' part of the cupcake should have been pink...

and the cupcake paper should have been white. But it's okay. They turned out really cute anyway.

And the client loved them, and that's all that mattered.

Sugar Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup salted butter, softened

1/4 cup white sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a medium bowl combine the flour and salt with a wire whisk.

In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat until well mixed. Scrape down sides of bowl, then add the flour mixture. Blend on low speed just until combined. Do not overmix.

Gather dough into a ball. Flatten the ball into a disk and wrap tightly in plastic wrap or a plastic bag. Refrigerate 1 hour until firm.

On a floured surface, roll out dough to a 1/4-inch thickness. With cookie cutters, cut dough into desired shapes and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Decorate with colored sugars or sprinkles.

Bake for 13-15 minutes, being careful not to brown. Immediately transfer cookies with a spatula to a cool, flat surface.

Royal Icing

3 level tablespoons Meringue Powder

1 lb. sifted pure cane confectioners' sugar

5-6 tablespoons lukewarm water

Make sure all utensils are grease free

Place confectioners' sugar and Meringue Powder in a bowl. Stir or mix at low speed until blended. Add water and mix 7-10 minutes at low-medium speed until icing loses its sheen. To prevent drying, be sure to cover the bowl with a damp cloth while working with icing.

Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. To reuse, beat on low to restore original texture.

Easter Treats and Friends

After a long day in the kitchen I usually feel both drained and energized. Tired after standing for hours on end, and yet energized by creating something new and fun, and realizing that yes, there is a creative piece of me that comes out when left alone with 4 pounds of butter, lots of powdered sugar, and food coloring.

Lately it's Royal Icing that has my attention and I'm feeling more and more confident. The downside being that hours can click by and before you know it, it's 8 pm and you haven't started on dinner.

A client asked me to put together some thank you packages and one of the requirements was iced sugar cookies in bright purple and bright pink. No specific shapes so I turned to the season and created a variety of butterflies and tulips.
I think she'll be pleased with what was delivered to her client, along with cupcakes, cake balls and chocolate chip cookies. Someone better have a good dentist....

This week was also one spent with friends, a few are below. Several of us got together to have dessert and wine and it was a really good night.

I'm really blessed to have the best girlfriends who are all intelligent, fun, supportive and who genuinely care about one another. What would we do without our girlfriends? Thank you to all of my girlfriends who have been there for me through thick and thin. I was sad that CC couldn't be here, but she was with her mom celebrating her 89th birthday.

Earlier in the week I had experimented with the famous cake balls and came up with these in the shape of Easter Eggs.

Another experiment was with a pound cake recipe and I used the small bundt cake pan to practice for another client who will be sending out Easter gifts to her clients. These will definitely be a hit. A mug of steaming coffee alongside a moist, buttery pound cake..what could be better.

I am enjoying my quiet time in the kitchen, although it does make me tired. Mr. Man is stepping up and he did all of the laundry today, even folding and sorting!

Jordan asked for the buttercream recipe I follow - it is from one of my favorite cookbooks, The Best Recipe.

Enjoy!

Buttercream Frosting:

1 stick sweet butter (no salt) - room temp

1 lb. confectioners sugar

1 T. milk

1 T. vanilla

Blend together in a standing mixer using the wire whip attachment. Beat thoroughly. Scoop out evenly and use on cupcakes, cakes, in cake balls, etc. Can be tinted

Will keep in a plastic container, refrigerated, for several weeks.

The Wearing of The Green

Grandma Mueller with grand-daughters

from Left: Beth, Ginger, Cathy and Linda

Once again, it's March 17th and everyone wants to believe they have at least a wee bit of Irish in them. My grandmother, Gertrude Hennessy Mueller, came from a line of Hennessy's and McGowen's who hailed the mother-land of Ireland, and eventually ended up in St. Louis, MO. I know this because my dad told me, although I don't recall much about my grandmother, other than what I see in old photos of her. She passed away when I was just a small girl and I'm sad that I did not get to know her.

I thank Grandma Mueller for our Irish heritage.

So, here we are and no, I will not be making corned beef and cabbage nor do I enjoy Guinness as do my father and my brother-in-law, Joe, although some of us question Joe's ability to drink that horrid gruel...we think he does it to bond with dad, but nevertheless, they drink it.

No, my celebration of St. Paddy's Day is limited to creations with eggs, butter and powdered sugar, and the recepients of these delights will be the folks Mr. Man works with on a daily basis.

I'm loading him up tomorrow with several goodies....

White cake balls covered with mint and drizzled with bittersweet chocolate:

Mini bundt cakes,

and giant-sized sugar cookies in the shape of Shamrocks. Yes, these are the cookie cutters I drove all over Dallas to find...

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY to all the Irish and all of you who wish you were!

Kitchen Happenings

Although I haven't posted in more than a week, there has been plenty going on in my kitchen, but most of it is just life, and that's okay.

We are gearing up for the Spring and that means things happen in fits and starts. "Can you bake 150 cake balls and 150 sugar cookies for St. Patrick's Day?" and then the next day I receive an email saying..."Sorry. We are going to buy them at the grocery store." In the meantime I've driven all over kingdom come looking for a large shamrock cookie cutter. No worries, but it does take up time.

Baked a yummy 4-layer white cake with raspberry filling over the weekend for Sara S's birthday which turned out beautifully and during a run on Saturday received an order for 25 small Easter packages so I'm deciding what ideas to put in front of that client. It needs to be something pretty that conjurs up Spring while having a decent shelf life. I'm thinking of making cake balls in the shape of Easter eggs, decorating them with pastels and packaging them in small boxes with pretty ribbon. Or they could be the mini bundts with edible Easter grass and mini jelly beans. That will be decided this week.

Regardless of what is baking, there is always something happening in our kitchen, which is the heart and the center of our home. Mr. Man reads the paper there every morning, he makes his espresso and I have my coffee; we have wine with friends and every person who comes over heads right for the kitchen.

For most of us, the kitchen is the heart. And isn't that how it should be?

We feed our bodies and we feed our souls...in the kitchen.

Mom's Chocolate Cake

You've asked for it, well, Chef-in-training Jackie has asked for it, and here it is:

Mom's Chocolate Cake.

This recipe was in Food and Wine Magazine in the late '80's, and it has never let me down (with the slight exception of the time it blew up in the oven, but that's a story for another day...)

The original

"Mom's Chocolate Cake"

What is great about this cake is the diversity it provides and the fact that is consistent, has a deep chocolate flavor, is incredibly moist and can be used in a number of ways. Maybe I'm getting more creative, maybe I'm finally coming out of my shell, who knows; but I do know this...it's really good, Mr. Man loves it, and I don't know of another chocolate cake recipe that is better.

I've used it for cake balls..

A bundt...

The 6-inch layer with seedless raspberry jam...

and much more...

Enjoy!

Note from the original publication:

This is a real old-fashioned American chocolate layer cake. It's very moist, very chocolatey, a snap to make and best baked the day before serving. Test Kitchen Associate Marcia Kiesel acquired the recipe from her friend, Joyce Cole, who got it from her mother.

Mom's Chocolate Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Chocolate Frosting (recipe follows)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 8-inch round cake pans. Line the bottoms with wax paper. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside

2. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil over high heat and stir until the sugar dissolves; then pour into a large bowl (or the bowl of your standing mixer). Add the chocolate and butter and let sit, stirring occasionally, until melted and slightly cooled (Without going into too many details, cool for at least 10-15 minutes or disaster will ensue). Stir in vanilla.

3. Beat the eggs into the chocolate mixture at medium speed until combined. Add the dry ingredients all at once and beat at medium speed until smooth (about 2 minutes). Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans and bake for about 25 minutes, or until the top springs back when pressed lightly and a cake tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes in their pans for about 25 minutes, then invert onto a rack to cool completely.

4. Set on cake right-side up, on a serving planner. Using a metal spatula, spread on-third of the Chocolate Frosting evenly over the cake. Top with the second cake and frost the top and sided with the remaining frosting.

Chocolate Frosting

1 and 1/3 cups heavy cream

1 and 1/2 cups sugar

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1 stick (4 ounces) plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1. In a medium saucepan, bring the cream and sugar to a boil over moderately high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid reduces slightly, about 6 minutes. Pour the mixture into a medium bowl and add the chocolate, butter, vanilla and salt. Let stand, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are melted.

2. Set the bowl in a larger bowl of ice water. Using a hand-held electric mixer, beat the frosting on medium speed, scraping the sides occasionally with a rubber spatula, until thick and glossy, about 5 minutes. Use at once.

Make certain you beat this long enough - the color will change from really dark chocolate and shiny to a lighter chocolate. It will be thick and be careful not to allow any water into the bowl. It is worth the trouble.

Multi-tasking

Lately I've realized that in my attempt to multi-task, trying to be oh so efficient, I'm actually making more mistakes.

Like dialing the phone, forgetting who I'm calling, and then leaving a voice mail message and using the wrong name for the recipient! Who does that? Only the people who are attempting to email, make phone calls and think about what they are going to do next, that's who.

So I'm in the kitchen last night, watching my favorite show, American Idol, and getting ready to bake some cupcakes for a customer, using a tried and true white cake recipe that I've done so many times the cookbook is not even necessary.

First mistake.

I'm mixing the butter in with the flour mixture and it's looking a little strange, but I thought, well, maybe the butter got too soft, but no big deal, right? Next comes the milk, egg whites, flavorings and things are looking a little better, but you know, something just isn't quite right.

The mixture goes into the cupcake liners fine, but it's looking like the butter didn't quite meld into everything exactly right - it's looking a little lumpy like it hasn't in the past.

So, what does a good baker do? You taste it, right?

Well, if I was making biscuits it would have been great, but when one is baking cupcakes sugar is what would be categorized as 'necessary'.

YIKES!

Oh my gosh...I wonder if I can scrape this mixture out of the papers, throw it all back into the mixer and then use this?

No.

I went ahead and baked them anyway, they were disgusting.

So here's my tip of the day: Don't watch your favorite show while baking for customers and

read the recipe before starting, every time.

Lend a Helping Hand

Weeks ago I had been asked to provide dessert for a Wheelchair Foundation event that took place on Saturday night. Originally, I had thought there would be 60 people and the number grew to 100+ people who would be attending. If I had really thought about what I was agreeing to, it would have intimidated me like crazy because in North Dallas, and in all of Dallas for that matter, desserts, cupcakes, cake balls, etc., are discussed and written about in our local newspaper almost as much as wine.

What in the world did I get myself into, and for 100+ people...I have got to be out of my mind.

So on Friday, when I really should have been doing that "other" job that makes me the real money, I was in the kitchen racking my brain about what to do.

Thank goodness I had taken that side trip to Sur La Table the day before and purchased a mini bundt cake pan and the additional tart pans. I donned my chef coat, pulled out the flour and got to work.

First thing I did was prepare a mouth-watering lemon curd from my Williams-Sonoma Pie and Tart cookbook. That went into the fridge and then I started on the tart shells.
I had some of the lemon curd left over and have enjoyed one myself and also shared with CC. She gave it a thumbs up perfect 10 (she's missing the Olympics). Perfection. Then, feeling as if the tart needed some beneficial fruit, I added blueberries.

Nice.. and can't we all use more anti-oxidants in our diet?

Next up were the mini chocolate bundt cakes.

So pretty. They needed a little umph and I really did not have the time nor the desire to make a chocolate mousse, but if Chef K were here she would have been able to whip it up in nothing flat. I made due with dollops of melted white and bittersweet chocolate. I think they turned out okay. I like that it's just enough for one and the cupcake papers give them an elegant touch.

Next up...cake balls. These are white cake with almond flavored butter cream frosting, dipped in white chocolate with a bit of bittersweet chocolate on top.

The cake balls below are yellow cake with orange butter cream frosting, dipped in milk chocolate and decorated with red candy coating.

Next up, red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting dipped in milk chocolate and decorated with bittersweet chocolate.

Things started humming in the kitchen and on Saturday morning Mr. Man helped me load up the Tahoe with the following:

2 dozen coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate

1 dozen chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

1 dozen vanilla cupcakes with butter cream frosting

1 dozen mini chocolate bundt cakes

6 dozen cake balls in a variety of flavors

8 lemon tarts

On Sunday I received a call letting me know that the event was a smashing success and they raised over $10k for the Wheelchair Foundation! It feels so good to be a part of something that helps people live better lives. The money raised will be used to purchase and deliver wheelchairs all over the world to those who do not have the means to obtain a wheelchair for themselves.

If you are interested in donating to this very worthy cause, please visit http://wheelchairfoundation.org.