CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

I'm making Triple Layer Chocolate Mousse cake, which uses the chocolate cake posted on this blog.  The only difference is the mousse, which I'm posting.  :)

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE:

-1 tsp unflavoured gelatin
-2 tbp cold water
-1/4 C boiling water
-1 C sugar
-1/2 C HERSHEY'S cocoa (doesn't have to be Hershey)
-2 C chilled whipping cream
-2 tsp vanilla extract


1.  In a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over cold water; let it stand 1 min. to soften.
2.  Add boiling water; stir until gelatin is completely dissolved and mixture is clear.  Cool slightly.
3.  In a large cold mixer bowl, stir together sugar and cocoa; add whipping cream and vanilla.
4.  Beat at medium speed, scraping bottom of bowl occasionally, until stiff peaks form.
5.  Pour in gelatin mixutre and beat until well blended.  Refrigerate about 30 min. before serving.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

Here's the recipe for the ganache I used for my mother's cake.  It's really simple quick to make, unlike the common complaint on how its really hard.  :)

*View photo gallery here>>>http://sweet-patissiere.blogspot.com/p/photo-gallery.html*

GANACHE:

• 9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon dark rum (optional)
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1. Place the chocolate into a medium bowl. Heat the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, watching very carefully because if it boils for a few seconds, it will boil out of the pot. When the cream has come to a boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, and whisk until smooth. Stir in the rum if desired.
2. Allow the ganache to cool before pouring over a cake. Start at the center of the cake and work outward. For a fluffy frosting or chocolate filling, allow it to cool until thick, then whip with a whisk until light and fluffy.

TIPS:

-Make sure to COMPLETELY COOL the ganache.  You know it's ready to use if it's kind of thick and doesn't immediately come back together when you push a spoon through it.

LINKS:

Chocolate Ganache: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-ganache/detail.aspx

New York Cheesecake

I made a cheesecake for my mother's birthday last December.  Never got a chance to post this, along with my other couple of recipes (I will put them up, count on it).  It was my first time making a cheesecake, but with all the reviews, it came out GREAT.  And I also made ganache for the first time too.  It didn't come out too well at first.  I'll also put up that recipe as well.

I could probably say this is the best thing I've ever baked in my life. :)

Cheesecake:

Adapted from Chantal's New York Cheesecake

(Make sure ingredients are room temperature for the best results!)

• 4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Crust:

• 1 1/2 C graham crackers, crushed 
• 1/4 C melted butter
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 C sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9 inch springform pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the ingredients for the crust. Press onto bottom of springform pan.
3. In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Blend in milk, and then mix in the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in sour cream, vanilla and flour until smooth. Pour filling into prepared crust.  Do not overbeat.
4. Leave a water bath (pan or bowl of warm/hot water) on the rack below the cheesecake.  Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Turn the oven off, and let cake cool in oven with the door closed for 4 to 5 hours; this prevents cracking. Chill in refrigerator overnight or a few hours before serving.

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TIPS:

• Both the instructions and ingredient list are slightly different than the original directions because of recipe improvements.
• This cheesecake recipe usually come out very rich and dense.  Perfect for cheesecake-lovers, but not so for light eaters.

MY BIRTHDAY

 So yesterday was my 17th birthday. It was great and I went around all day.

Here are some of the pictures of what happened:

We went to the buffet restaurant "WASABI" for lunch.  Now, I thought I was smiling here.   Guess not. :P

Buffet food.  Yum :)

WASABI is known for their green tea ice cream.

Where I bought my birthday cake.

MY BIRTHDAY CAKKEEEEE. <3

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

Hey guys!
So I want to surprise my friend by baking her a cake for her birthday tomorrow!  Oddly enough, her birthday is 3 days before mine.  But what's really odd is my bff in Montreal, whose birthday is exactly one month before mine.  Her's is Dec. 28, while mine is Jan. 28.  Even though we're only one month apart, we're one whole grade apart.  And according to the lunar calendar, we're born in the same year.  So unfair. :P

So anyway, I'm not allowed to bake anything big for a few months because of an incident....
So I just stuck to a simple chocolate cake (recipe here>>>) topped with buttercream frosting.  Simple.  But I kind of got off topic on Youtube.  I started off with "how to make icing flowers" to a ton of other baking stuff.
So anyways, here it is!

FROSTING:
2 cups shortening
8 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons clear imitation vanilla extract (real vanilla makes the frosting so much better)
6 fluid ounces heavy cream


Ingredient Tips:
-1 1/2C shortening & 1/2C butter
-6oz of cream for thick frosting
-2-3oz more of cream for fluffier frosting

1. Cream shortening (and/or butter if used) until fluffy. Add confectioner's sugar and continue creaming until well blended.
2. Add salt, vanilla, and whipping cream blend on low speed until moistened. Add additional whipping cream if necessary (up to 2 ounces). Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.

Links:

Special Buttercream Frosting: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/special-buttercream-frosting/Detail.aspx 

CINNABONS

Hey guys!  It's been awhile!
Well, I'm making cinnabons today and I realized I never put the recipe up before.
The first time I made this was w/ a friend for a bake sale.  We tried the recipe out before we used it for the bake sale, and it was DELICIOUS.  The original recipe is called "Clone of a Cinnabon".  Not exactly and cinnamon roll, not exactly a cinnabon.
And I'm going to try to put up all the recipes I tried out for Christmas last month.  It takes a lot of time to time them all up, so I've kind of been avoiding it...

*View photo gallery here>>>http://sweet-patissiere.blogspot.com/p/photo-gallery.html*

CINNABON:

• 1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup margarine, melted
• 4 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
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• FILLING:
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
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• FROSTING:
• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
2. IF YOU DON'T HAVE A BREAD MACHINE:
1. First put your oven to 200F (unless you have some other area that's warm.  When ready, turn off the oven (this is need to make the dough rise).
2. Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl (you can add the some or all of the sugar if you want) and wait to see if foaming. 
3. Mix in the sugar (however you prepared it), margarine, salt, and eggs. Add flour (you may need to add more if you're using all-purpose flour) and mix well. 
4. Knead the dough (around 12 times) into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly with flour. 
5. Put in a bowl and cover it with a wet paper towel.  Place the bowl into the warm oven/warm area (that's turned off) and let rise about 1 hour until doubled in size.
3. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
4. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise in the warm oven/warm area again until nearly doubled, about 20-30 minutes. 
5. After, take out the rolls and preheat oven to 350F.
6. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

TIPS:

-Make sure to read all my notes in "(...)" in the instructions

-I like to put the unbaked rolls on parchment/wax paper rather than directly on the pan.  It's easier to take out that way and the rolls won't get stuck.

-After the rolls were baked, it's good to flip them over to another pan so the cinnamon syrup can drip back onto the top of the rolls

LINKS:

Clone of a Cinnabon: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/clone-of-a-cinnabon/detail.aspx 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Wow so it's already 2012.  And the world hasn't ended.  LOL

Does anyone have any new 2012 goals and dreams?  I definitely do.  Such as getting better grades, cleaning up all my messes, and most importantly, to bake better!  

I may be moving to Vancouver this month, we're still thinking upon it.  But if I do move there, the local high school offers culinary courses!  I've been thinking a lot lately, and I really want to consider baking as a major life career.  I'm still between baking, vet and English major.  The others may sound better, but baking is my pride and joy, the passion in my life (after art of course).  My parents strongly disapprove this choice, but hey, it's my life. 

So moving on, I baked a TON for the holidays.  Of course. :)

This includes new recipes I tried out including chocolate mint cookies and mocha cookies.  I'll be putting up those recipes as well, along with a new cheesecake recipe I tried out!  So many things are to come.  I just have to take the time to type it all up.

Thanks for reading guys, and happy New Year!!  

TRIFLE

So here it is!  The final trifle recipe!  Now like I had mentioned, I wanted to make my own pudding and cake, so here they are!

White cake: http://sweet-patissiere.blogspot.com/2011/03/doll-cakes.html
Vanilla pudding: http://sweet-patissiere.blogspot.com/2011/12/vanilla-pudding.html


Now, the recipe!


TRIFLE:

1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix (or my recipe link)

1 (9 inch) angel food cake, cut in cubes (or my recipe link)

4 bananas, sliced

1 (16 ounce) package frozen strawberries, thawed

1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed (or real whipped cream)

1. Prepare pudding according to package directions (or use my pudding recipe).  Make whipped cream (if wanted) with at least 3-4 tbp sugar.

2. In a trifle bowl or other glass serving dish, layer half the cake pieces, half the pudding, half the bananas, half the strawberries and half the whipped topping. Repeat layers. 

3. Cover and chill in refrigerator 4 hours or overnight before serving.

Tips:

- You can add food coloring to the whipped cream, pudding, and/or cake.  I colored my cake redish.

-You can add any other fruits if desired (ex. blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, etc)  I added green and red grapes.

Links:

Trifle: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/strawberry-trifle/detail.aspx

VANILLA PUDDING

So this is a recipe following my last post.  I'm making trifle (will put up the recipe after this), but I wanted to try making my own white cake and pudding.  The pudding I'm going to make for the first time (still haven't bought all the ingredients yet).  And I'm making this twice: one w/out egg yolks, one with egg yolk.  Egg yolks make the pudding more rich and thick.  So I'm going to try this, here it is!

VANILLA PUDDING:

2 cups milk (at least 1% or more, no skim milk)

1/2 cup white sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon butter (room temperature)

Extra Ingredient Tips:

Cut the sugar (I heard it's extremely sweet, even for sugar-lovers).  

I cut a little less than half of the sugar needed.

Add 1 tsp vanilla more

1. In a bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch and salt.

2.  In medium saucepan (no heat), pour combined dry ingredients.  Add milk slowly and whisk everything until dissolved.  Then put on heat to medium.

3. Continue to stir until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.  Do not boil.

4. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and butter.  Pour into dishes and chill before serving.

TIPS:
- I actually rewrote all the directions because other suggested to rewrite it all.  Why?  Because the original directions caused large lumps in the pudding.  This way it prevents it all.

- Some people like to keep it on heat and stir, then take it off heat heat and cool a little.  Then they like to add 1-2 egg yolks and stir until its really thick.  I tried both ways.  The thicker one was really nice for like fillings and such.  But I'm was making trifle so my second time w/ no eggs was better.  But I'd definitely use eggs if I were making things like pie.

- I added a tsp of cinnamon in mine.  Some like to add cinnamon and/or nutmeg.  Or they sprinkle it on top of the pudding when ready to eat.  The one with cinnamon was tasty, but it overpowered the vanilla taste.  

My second time w/ no cinnamon tasted more like "vanilla pudding".

Links:
Homemade vanilla pudding: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/homemade-vanilla-pudding/detail.aspx

SPANISH FLAN

I haven't baked in more than 2 months and it's killing me.  So today I decided to make 3 dishes, but involving a lot of other dishes.  This recipe is for flan (a dish originated from Spain if you didn't notice).  Usually I make my aunt's famous flan (around all the relatives), but I lost the recipe somewhere, so I decided to use this flan recipe off the web.  Now, I'm haven't made it at the moment (I need to buy more ingredients), but I'm making 2 flans. I want to see how many eggs are good for flan (to my family's taste).  So I'm making one with 4 eggs, the other with 5.Maybe they'll taste the same, maybe they won't.  So I'm going to try it out.  So this is the recipe:

                                  *update: it turned out 4 eggs for this flan comes out with much better results than using 5 eggs.  I would recommend this to all.*

FLAN:
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1 tbp vanilla extract

Extra Ingredient Tips:
(The more eggs added, the more dense and rich your flan gets, NOT fluffy and soft)
4-5 eggs instead of 3
add a tsp of cinnamon
add tsp of vanilla after your sugar melts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt sugar until liquefied and golden in color. Carefully pour hot syrup into a 9 inch round glass baking dish, turning the dish to evenly coat the bottom and sides. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Beat in condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla until smooth. Pour egg mixture into baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil.

4. Bake in preheated oven 60 minutes. Let cool completely.

5. To serve, carefully invert on serving plate with edges when completely cool.

TIPS:


-When melting the sugar, keep the round dish warm in the oven so when you pour the sugar in, it won't start to harden so quickly


- When melting the sugar, make sure the sugar is spread out evenly around the saucepan and the heat is on low.  Never raise it past medium, or else it will burn.  Occasionally swirl, but not mix, the sugar.  Be patient, it will melt.  Make sure to melt it until it's completely liquefied.  Do not keep it over the heat longer than that, or it will burn.


- When you pour the flan into the dish, pour it through a strainer to prevent lumps later on

- When you bake this, put it into a water bath.  This means add hot water into another pan/dish (such as a rectangle pan 9X13").  Add the hot water until it reaches around 1-2 inches in the pan when the pan is on an oven rack (that way no one gets burned when trying to transport the hot water bath to the oven).  Then carefully lay the flan-filled dish into the hot water.  Push it into the oven then let it bake.

- I added cinnamon to both, and you'll find when you bake it the cinnamon will rise to the top.

- For my first flan I forgot to pour it through a strainer so I'm worried about its texture. But coming out of the oven it looked nice.  My second flan I used a strainer, but when it came out of the oven it was blown up.  So I let it sit on the oven rack while cooling and the bubble went down.

-so it turned out that my flan with 4 eggs was nice and smooth, and came out of the pan like butter.  The flan with 5 eggs, crumbled out of the pan and was so extremely lumpy it overtook the actual taste.  So now what?  I recommend to all that using a max of 4 eggs for this flan is best.


Links:
Spanish flan: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spanish-flan/