Last weekend, I hung up the headset for the final time. The show I have given my life to for the better part of October played its final performance on Sunday. This show taught me a lot about myself, stage management, and theater. Even though the schedule is grueling and I lack sleep during the performance weekends, I always end up looking back on these experiences with nostalgia and joy.
Continue reading “A Return to Baking”
As we enter the middle of August, I often find myself reflecting on how quickly summer always seems to pass. Unofficially, summer begins on Memorial Day. Officially, it begins between June 20th and 22nd. But, for me, summer begins on my birthday which is in the first week of June. And even though it has no baring, I always associate the Fourth of July with the halfway point of summer.
Continue reading “The End of Summer is Near”
Now that the whirlwind of the holidays has ended, I am able to focus on blogging and baking once again. As the first bake of the new year, I decided to make something out of an Ina Garten cookbook. After looking over her recipe index, I decided that a fall/winter fruit dessert would be the perfect choice. So, Pear, Apple, and Cranberry Crisp!
Continue reading “First Bake of 2022!”
Over the weekend, I made a carrot cake for my friend’s birthday. Since the celebration was small, he didn’t want a large cake. So I had the perfect idea: a 6-inch cake!
I’ve always wanted to make a small cake, so this was the perfect opportunity.
The recipe came from Sally’s Baking Addiction. She has many 6-inch cake recipes on her website and has found that even most cupcake recipes that make between 12-15 cupcakes are the perfect amount of batter for a 6-inch cake.
Here is the end result:
Though the cake didn’t turn out exactly as I would have liked — it become lopsided and the cream cheese frosting was challenging to work with — the cake itself was very tasty and I do recommend trying this recipe for yourself. If you’re interested in using this recipe the next time you have a Carrot Cake Emergency, it can be found on Sally’s website here.
Long time readers of this blog will know that I am lucky enough to have off on Fridays. While this is great for practical reasons like doctor’s appointments and getting my car’s oil changed, it also allows me enough time to actually do something I enjoy: bake. This past Friday, I was still riding the apple wave that started the weekend before when I went apple picking with some friends.
I knew I wanted to work with apples this week, but I also wanted to make something different. I was tired of just making cookies or brownies. It seems that I had been making a lot of those lately. Then I remembered that there was a “harvest-themed” recipe in the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. After looking it up, I knew that this was the recipe I had to make this week.
There were a few reasons why this recipe spoke to me this week.
Continue reading “Magnolia Bakery 12 – Harvest Apple Cupcakes with Caramel Meringue Buttercream”
From Barefoot Contessa Family Style! page 151
Nothing says Fall in New England like pumpkin! And what better was to celebrate a very “fall” weekend with a pumpkin tart?
(Not to mention I got to use my new tart pan again — I need to get its monies worth!)
So I found that Ina’s recipe for Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart only needed a few additional ingredients from the grocery store. Plus I wanted to make a tart to try to redeem myself from the last one…..
Well now that I have made it and tried it, this one did turn out much better than the chocolate mousse tart I tried to make last weekend. However, I think there is still room for improvement.
In contrast to last week’s tart recipe, this one called for gelatin which did help the mixture firm up quickly and nicely. However, I think the pumpkin mixture had to cook for an additional few minutes over the double boiler.
This ended up being a good recipe for me to learn from. Not only did I have another chance to improve my tart shell making skills, but I also received experience working with a double boiler. I have only a double boiler setup a few times in my life. Once when I made a homemade herbal medicine salve and the other was when I melted orange colored chocolate for Halloween.
While the double boiler worked fine the previous times since I only needed to melt something, I think I need more experience actually using it to cook/heat something well. To be honest, I think the real issue here is the fact that I do not let eggs cook long enough to allow things to thicken.
Overall this week’s tart was tasty. I was able to taste the banana throughout even though there is only one banana in the whole tart. The orange zest also made my tongue jump for joy since it was a nice, unexpected flavor profile that you wouldn’t automatically associate with a pumpkin dessert.
This tart did require A LOT of dishes, but will make a nice substitute for a pumpkin pie at the Thanksgiving table. One of the nice things about the tart over a traditional pumpkin pie is that the mousse tart is creamy and lighter than a pumpkin pie.
Since I did not feel like fighting with a piping bag, I decided to just spread the whipped cream on top of the already chilled tart. I then attempted to sprinkle the orange zest over it, but the zest was rather juicy, so it didn’t spread too well. Oh well! Still tasted good!!
