Cakes

Category: Cakes

17
Jan
2015

Make-Ahead Tiramisu

categories: Boozy, Cakes, Coffee, Dessert, italian

It’s a new year & that means new kitchen adventures!

I took more than a little break since last year because so much has happened!

Between weddings, graduations, tons of catering jobs, moving to a new city, finding a new house, and starting up my business in this new town, my poor little blog went to the wayside.

Poor ‘lil .com. I’m sorry.

But I promised myself that I would attend to my neglected blog & finally download all these photos of deliciousness I have been making these last couple months because you know I didn’t stop cooking & creating recipes!

The first on my list: Make-Ahead Tiramisu.

While this Make-Ahead Tiramisu may NOT be a traditional tiramisu, it IS super simple to put together and perfect for gatherings & potlucks because well, you make it ahead of time so there’s no rushing on the day of! One to two days later, the tiramisu has had enough time to let the flavors mingle and just the right balance of rich sweetness.

OK, so let’s just get this out of the way: I’m not a coffee fan. I know, I know…In this world of frappu-fancy-ccinos, a person who doesn’t like coffee might as well be put on the “no fly list” but I can’t help it. That stuff is usually bitter and my mouth hates me a little whenever my brain forgets that I don’t enjoy the stuff. When I took my first bite of this dessert I have to admit, it wasn’t a game changer. The cream was kind of bland and the espresso tasted exactly what I thought it would taste like. Bitter. I had kind of given up on it but decided to cover it and wait the recommended 24 hours before I judged.

Now, I don’t really know what happened after the 24 hour mark, but I’m pretty sure it involved some unicorn-type magic because what tasted like a bland yet bitter cookies and cream cake, now tasted like pure friggin’ heaven. The bland cream had somehow, amazingly, become sweet and the bitter ladyfingers had turned into a kind of mocha flavored cookie.

Like I said: Unicorns.

(more…)

14
Feb
2014

Home Baked Red Velvet Donuts with Cream Cheese Glaze

categories: Cakes, Dessert

I love a donut.

A doughnut.

Wait, a donut.

How the heck do you spell this anyways?

According to my sources (Google) I found out that the correct spelling is DOUGH-NUT which was later shortened to DO-NUT & didn’t really become popular until after Dunkin’ Donuts opened their doors.

With that being said: I like spelling it do-nut.

So there.

You know what else I love?

Valentine’s Day.

Yeah, I know it’s commercial.

Yeah, I know it makes single people feel like lepers.

Yeah, I know it is a nonsense holiday made up by people who make greeting cards & heart shaped boxes of chocolate.

With that being said: I love Valentine’s Day.

So double there.

I really shouldn’t love February 14th…

There’s been a long list of terrible Valentine’s Days in my past.

Each one its own little heart shaped death that ultimately made me

swear off Valentine’s Days, for like, a decade.
It was a dark phase, what can I say?

And the fact that I am old enough to refer to things in terms of “decades”

makes my youth die a little death of its own, but that’s besides the point.

What was the most terrible V-Day gift I ever received?

Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it was the roses that were bought on the side of the road that still had thorns & bugs on them that later decided to make a home in my car

or maybe it was the sad Subway gift card for $10 & handwritten note given to me by an ex-stalker that found me at work…that, by the way, I’m pretty sure he got someone else write for him judging by the swirly lettering & heart-dotted letter “i’s”

or maybe it was the weird little cross-eyed bear from the gas station that clipped on to a single rose…a single dying brown rose…

There’s so many options, it’s really hard to choose.

You know what would’ve been great?

A homemade donut.

That’s all.

Just a donut made with my loved ones own two little hands showing me that they care enough to get their hands a little dirtier than rifling through the

CVS bargain bin of sad little stuffed animals that sing, “Wild Thang”.

I’m a simple girl with simple needs.

So to spare you from being the giver (or recipient) of a horrible Valentine’s Day gift, I present to you what a girl really wants:

A gosh darn Home Baked Red Velvet Donut with Cream Cheese Glaze!

(more…)

02
Dec
2013

Lemon Currant Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze

categories: Brunch, Cakes, Dessert

There’s nothing I like more than a good baking challenge & this holiday season Donsuemor contacted me again with a challenge to make something out of one of their new products.

In case you haven’t heard of Donsuemor, they are a California-based company that specializes in making delicious French madeleines & cakes. This company has a special spot in my heart because they were one of the first companies to show interest in my “little-blog-that-could”.

Two years ago I made these “accidental” Almond Roca Mocha cake bites (…let’s just say there’s a weight limit to a cake pop…so the pops became bites!) & the year after that I had a Peruvian Tea Party with my family where my dad ate about 10 madeleines before he fell asleep on the couch. Ha!

This year I decided to get back to basics & used their new Lemon Currant scone mix to bake something a little different 🙂

I figured after about 2 years of constant baking for my business, I could handle a new challenge & decided to take their scone mix & make myself a pound cake.

Why a pound cake?

Well, first of all because I love ’em & second of all, because I wanted a cake that would travel well to a friends’ holiday party. This cake came out absolutely delicious! It was like a scone-cake hybrid. The Lemon Glaze added another level of tartness & sweetness that made it perfect for a big ol’ cup of coffee at the end of the night. The scone mix already had most of the ingredients in it that I needed for pound cake (flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, etc) so with a couple of little additions, I had a ridiculously easy yet visually pretty treat!

So get your mix here, get a pretty pan like mine here & make yourself a

Lemon Currant Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze!

(more…)

16
Sep
2011

Donsuemor Almond Roca Mocha Cake Bites

categories: Cakes, Chocolate, Dessert

A couple of months ago, a baker friend of mine Andrea from Sweet Dreamery Desserts tipped me off to this really great opportunity to work with an awesome Southern California baking company called Donsuemor. They were doing a “Dessert-A-Day” campaign and wanted foodie bloggers to get creative with their products.

I jumped all over that.

As I searched their website, I found their French Almond Cakes and they spoke to me…not like schizo spoke to me but nonetheless, I had to have them. One week later there was my very own box of Almond Cakes sitting on my doorstep! There’s just something about getting packages that makes me all tingly inside but that’s a whole other story. So here I am, geared up and ready to make something scrumptiously awesome and unique…aaand…

I drew a blank.

I had nothin’.
Except anger. Yeah, I had lots of that.

And as much as I am embarrassed to admit this, I got so frustrated that I was coming up with absolutely nothing that I smushed the cake between my fingers and BAM!

It came to me…

CAKE POPS.

There was only one little problem with this grand idea of mine.

I’ve kind of got a thing against cake pops…I know it’s irrational…but I just don’t like the looks of ’em.

I glare at them in their case at Starbucks…looking all smug…just sitting there…on a stick.

I refused to let my disdain of cake pops hinder my creative epiphany so, like any good archenemy, I got to know my nemesis. I learned a little about how they came to be (Bakerella may have invented them, she may have not. My google venture was unsuccessful about getting to the bottom of that ol’ mystery so I digress). I learned how they were made and how to decorate these little buggers…snotty buggers…but I digress…

I can’t say I was sold on the whole cake pop thing but knowledge is power, the more you know, the more you grow, and so on and so on so I took this challenge by the horns and decided to wrestle with the beast itself.

So here we go, Cake Pops.

I’ve come to chew gum and kick butt and I’m all outta bubblegum.

Let’s do this.

These are the Donsuemor French Almond Cakes that stumped me. Buttery, yummy, and nutty!

I added a little coffee to the frosting to give it a mocha twist. Almond cake begs for coffee.

No really, I think I heard it say “coffeeeeee”. Weird, right??

A lot nicer depiction of my initial mashing of the cake as I flew into a mental-block fueled rage…well maybe not a rage…more like a fit. Yes. A fit. I’ll go with that.

Mocha Fudgy Buttercream Frosting. Yummy.

Ok.

This is where I start to lose it a little.

This is what the cake crumble and frosting looks like once they’re mixed together…

uh huh…

I’m a little weirded out by all this but highly determined to see this through…

A melonballer and some patience and I’m feeling better about these little guys…

FACT: I enjoyed stabbing this cake ball with a stick. Don’t judge me.

FACT: The cake pop got me back. Hardcore.

Apparently I missed the part where my directions said be careful not to make them too big or the weight will make them slide down the stick.

Fatty cake!

So a natural evolution is…CAKE BITES!

But I’m not giving up on this one…I will be back Cake Pops…

and I will OWN you.

Came out rather nice, if I do say so myself…and I do.

Enjoy!

I made them, just for you!!

Donsuemor Almond Roca Mocha Cake Bites

Prep Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours

Yield: 50-60 1 inch cake pops/bites

Donsuemor Almond Roca Mocha Cake Bites

Ingredients

Cake:

20 Donsuemor French Almond Cakes, crumbled

Mocha Frosting:

1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar (add more/less to taste)
2 Tbsp coffee-strongly brewed (can use instant/espresso/or fresh made)
3 Tbsp cocoa powder

Topping:

1 14 oz package of Wilton Light Chocolate Candy Melts
6 Almond Roca candies, crushed/chopped
2 oz melted white chocolate

Materials:

mini cupcake liners
lollipop sticks (if you so wish...but...I won't go there.)
Wax paper

Instructions

1. Crumble cakes by hand in large bowl. Put aside.
2. Prepare frosting by creaming butter with mixer. Add cocoa powder and mix. Slowly add coffee being careful not to add too much or the consistency will be off. Slowly add confectioner's sugar 1/2 cup at a time until desired consistency/sweetness is reached.
3. Place frosting in bowl with cake in small amounts until desired consistency is reached. DO NOT ADD ALL THE FROSTING AT ONCE!! IT MAY BE TOO MUCH AND YOU WILL END UP WITH MUSH. YUCK.
4. Mix the cake and crumble with frosting. Some people use their hands. I don't. It's skeeves me out. May be placed in refrigerator for easier scooping.
5. Using a melonballer, scoop out even sized rounds and smooth out by rolling dough into balls with hands.
6. Place cake balls on wax paper and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Can be frozen.
7. Melt candy according to package directions. If you find that this is too thick for you, you can add 2 tablespoons of shortening to chocolate.
8. If you are making cake pops, stick lollipop sticks into base of cakes and dip into chocolate, shaking off excess and place on wax paper to set. If you are making cake bites, place cakes into chocolate, removing with a fork, shaking off excess and sliding onto wax paper using a knife/toothpick.
9. Before chocolate sets place small amount of crushed candies on top of bites or dip/roll pops in candies.
10. Once chocolate has become slightly hardened, drizzle white chocolate over bites/pops. I melted the chocolate in a ziplock bag in the microwave for 1 minute then snipped the end off and used that as a piping bag. Nifty AND thrifty.
11. Bites/pops may be frozen but do not refrigerate. They may sweat and become moist.

https://patriciaspatticakes.com/2011/09/donsuemor-almond-roca-mocha-cake-bites-html/