SMS-Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake; HCB'ers-White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache; ABC'ers-Evie Lieb's Processor Challah and Football Food

GUTSY COOKS post is coming shortly.

I LOVE the color of this cake! How pretty and what a great cake this would be to bake for Valentine's Day. Candy Girl chose the new year's recipe from Sweet Melissa Sundays short list left to bake. Candy picked a fun cake called Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake.

Seedless raspberry jam, fresh raspberries, and Chambord liqueur give this cake an amazing raspberry flavor.

I have learned a long time ago to shorten the baking time from whatever is listed in Melissa's cookbook. I have no idea why oven times are so different compared to Melissa's. I baked my cakes for 20 minutes.

The raspberries we found looked beautiful and using such bright colored berries seemed to cheer the whole kitchen up.

The cake has a light crumb with a deep hazelnut and raspberry flavor. I am not a buttercream frosting person and yet this particular buttercream frosting flavor works for me. Dumping a bowl of fresh raspberries and Chambord into the buttercream was kind of fun.

Thank you Candy for such a delicious and pretty dessert to start the year off right!

Heavenly Cake Bakers

The Heavenly Cake Bakers cake for this week is the White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache.

The cake itself was easy to assemble and bake. The ganache went swimmingly until I added that last tablespoon of butter. My ganache then turned into a pourable, yet slightly thick, frosting.

The chocolate flavor in the ganache was delicious. The velvet cake baked up nice and fluffy but I was a little surprised at how mine turned out a little crumbly when I cut into the cake. Maybe I didn't wait long enough for the cake to be completely cool.


Overall, this is a good cake recipe but with so many other to-die-for cake recipes I have tried from Rose's heavenly cakes cookbook, I may leave this one as we enjoyed it but now I want to see if she has one even better to bake in the near future.

Avid Cake Bakers - Evie Lieb's Processor Challah


I adore Flo Braker and every recipe I have tried out of her cookbooks has been a winner in my kitchen. Her Challah bread, made in a food processor, is no exception. Fun and easy to make is a great way to describe making and baking this loaf of bread.

I have never made a two-tier braided bread before and had fun assembling the loaf.

I am a week behind in posting about baking the processor Challah but I did make the bread over a week ago. Sometimes, finding the time to sit and blog can become a rarity; I am here now =0).

Thank you for such a delicious choice for January 2011~! We loved every bite.


FOOTBALL SUNDAY food - Stuffed Sweet Onions Toluca

4 Sweet onions about 4 to 6 inches in diameter

4 ounces chorizo

4 ounces lean ground beef

1/4 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

4 slices Muenster or Gruyere

4 flour tortillas

1/2 c. salsa

1/2 c. guacamole

1/3 c. sour cream

Directions:

Remove a slice from the top (stem end) of each onion so it sits flat. Starting at the opposite end (root end), hollow each onion, leaving about a 1/2-inch thick shell. Place onions in a steamer basket. Place in a large pot over boiling water; cover and steam 20 minutes. Remove; cool until easy to handle.

Meanwhile, for filling, in a medium saucepan, cook and stir chorizo, ground beef, salt (optional), and pepper about 10 minutes or until meat is brown. Drain in colander.

Arrange onions in an 8x8x2-inch baking pan. Spoon meat mixture into onions. Top each with a cheese slice. Also, wrap the tortilla shells in tinfoil. Bake both the stuffed onions and wrapped tortilla shells in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Remove both from the oven and raise the oven rack to about 6 inches from heat element. Broil onions 2 to 3 minutes or until cheese begins to turn light brown. Place one tortilla on each plate and top with an onion. Serve with salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.

TWD ~ Double Apple Bundt Cake and ABC Orange Chiffon Tweed Cake with Milk 'n' Honey Sabayon

Tuesdays with Dorie has arrived and we are enjoying a moist slice of warm double apple bundt cake with a dollop of applesauce.



Lynne from the blog Honey Muffin is hosting this week, which means you can get Dorie's recipe for the double apple bundt cake at Lynne's blogsite OR buy Dorie's Baking from my home to yours cookbook =).

The recipe went together quickly. I used my homemade spicy apple butter, shredded 2 medium apples as stated by Dorie, but omitted the raisins. Apples and spice circulated throughout the house while the bundt cake was baking. I drizzled a cream cheese icing over the top and served a slice of the moist and tender cake with a dollop of store bought applesauce.

Thank you Lynne for choosing this week's TWD delicious recipe. A perfect Fall treat!

The first Tuesday of each month is the ABC Baking Event from one of Flo Braker's wonderful cake recipes out of her Baking For All Occasions. This month's choice kicked my butt!

Most of my photos are even too dark. I halved the recipe for the cake and made miniature pumpkin shapes in a baking pan with removable bottoms. I had leftover batter after filling fifteen pumpkin shapes so poured the rest of the batter in individual tart pans. Lets just say we will "never" use an angel food fluffy type cake in a miniature anything next time.

I have a new kitchen toy and I have no idea how I ever lived without this wonderful creation. A serrated edged peeler. Flo is right, no pith; a perfect peel of zest and glides with ease.


The milk n' honey Sabayon sauce is what completely did me in! I made the sauce twice . . . meaning 12 eggs later I said FINE. I will put this in the refrigerator and fix it tomorrow. By the way, I baked the cake and sauce over a week ago and have been fiddling with it since. The next morning, I added a LOT more heavy cream and whipped the bajeebees out of the sauce.

Lets just say the sauce and I came to an agreement. I had a "thick" cream but not a spoonable, stand-alone cream. I cookie sprinkled, frosted, and finally, as you can see in the first (dark) photo, went with a bowl of cream and the miniature cakes for the umpteenth try at plating.

4 days later I was making tweed cake ice cream sandwiches, using the milk n' honey Sabayon as the ice cream filling.

Halving the recipe took away too much of the orange flavor. The end result had my eye twitching. Reworking the dessert and making a frozen treat with this recipe is the only way I enjoyed it. Although, after messing with this for over a week, we aren't speaking.

Check out everyone else's beautiful works of art with this dessert by going to Hanaa's Kitchen for the blogroll.

ABC of the Month & CEiMB - Healthy versus Chocolate~!

ABC of the Month is suppose to be on the first Tuesday of every month AND this month was my pick. I am actually 1 1/2 days late! I feel terrible. My choice: All-American Choc Cake with Divinity Frosting and Milk Chocolate Paint. (CEiMB is posted just below.)

I did not have two 6 x 3 - inch pans so I used three 6 x 2 - inch pans and boy am I glad that I did (the cakes puffed to the very top of all three pans). Flo Braker's cookbook, Baking for All Occasions, has us baking a dark chocolate cake mixed with 1 cup of coffee, unsweetened melted chocolate, sour cream, brown sugar and a few other ingredients to combine into one of the moistest, flavorful chocolate cakes I have ever tasted. Am I the only one that did not see where in the directions to swirl in the melted chocolate? I added the chocolate in just before the coffee and used a spatula to swirl it in.

The divinity frosting went together like a breeze and painting on melted chocolate was a wonderful visual touch. I have met my chocolate cake match and LOVE this recipe. Flo, you and Evie Lieb (mentioned in recipe dialog) are both brilliant!

Hanaa and to the rest of the group, I sincerely apologize for being late! Everyone else, Flo Braker's book is stunning and well put together. Definitely worth every penny and Amazon has used copies at great prices. With this said, on to CEiMB!

Elina of Healthy and Sane chose this week's recipe: Baked Felalfal Sandwiches (recipe found on the Food Network site here.)

I have never eaten a falafel ~ ever. No idea what one should taste like. Then I start looking for Tahini paste ( recipe calls for the sesame seed paste for the sauce). Nope! Not happening. Now what? Invent my own sauce. BTW, we like this but I definitely altered a few things, listed below.

Dinner:

**Sauteed pear Salad with Blue Cheese and Crushed Macadamia Nuts**
**CEiMB's Baked Falafel Sandwich w/Creamy Roasted Garlic Yogurt Sauce**

**Sweet Potato French Fries Roasted with Lemon Olive Oil and a Roasted Red Pepper & Cheese Dip**

Sauteed Pear Salad

(adapted from the vanillacompany.com)

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 firm-ripe Bosc pears, cored, peeled and cut into slices

2 tablespoon honey

4 cups of salad greens and/or baby spinach leaves, rinsed and chilled

1/2 cup thinly sliced cucumber

2 ounces Bleu, Gorgonzola or goat cheese

1/2 cup chopped roasted macadamia nuts

Vinaigrette:

1/3 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and allow to warm. Add pear slices and saute in oil for 2 minutes on each side. Turn off heat and drizzle honey over pear slices, and gently turn pears so that it coats them on both sides.

While pears are cooking, put greens and vegetables into a large salad bowl and mix well. Add warm pears, cheese, nuts and gently mix.


Mix salad dressing ingredients, add juices from pan and pour over salad. Serve right away. (Or you can arrange salads on each plate individually instead of mixing everything in a bowl.)

Falafel Sandwich Sauce was created by mixing 1 cup of non -fat plain Greek yogurt with 1/3 cup of Roasted Garlic Hummus and 1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice. I thought this tasted pretty good.

Next change: I only baked the falafel ball for 10 minutes on each side. The comment reviews from a few other people stated 20 minutes per side may cause the falafel balls to be dry.

I used a mixed green salad combo with the tomatoes and cucumbers too. The flavor was great but the falafel balls need to be layered in the pita pocket and not all on the top, like the one I made myself. I was totally overwhelmed. Now I know.

I also wanted to share the Roasted Red Pepper-Cheese Dip. Low calorie Dip found in my Cooking Light cookbook:
Ingredients:
1 large red bell pepper
1 small onion, peeled and halved
Cooking spray
1 whole garlic head
1 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1/2 cup (4 ounces) block-style fat-free cream cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley


Directions:
Preheat Broiler.

Cut bell pepper in half lengthwise, and discard seeds and membranes. Place pepper halves, skin sides up, on a foil-lined baking sheet; flatten with hand. Broil 15 minutes or until blackened. Place in a zip-top plastic bag; seal. Let stand 10 minutes. Remove peel and discard. Set roasted pepper aside.

Reduce oven temperature to 400°.

Place onion halves, cut sides down, on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Remove white papery skin from garlic head (do not peel or separate the cloves). Wrap in foil. Place garlic on baking sheet with onion. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes; turn over onion halves. Bake an additional 15 minutes or until onions are soft and begin to brown. Place onion halves on a plate. Return garlic to oven, and bake an additional 15 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Separate the cloves; squeeze to extract garlic pulp. Discard skins.

Place roasted pepper, onion, and garlic pulp in a food processor; process until fairly smooth. Add yogurt, cheese, cumin seed, and ground red pepper; process until smooth. Spoon dip into a bowl, and stir in parsley. Cover and chill.

2 Tablespoons = 20 calories. (Great for dipping veggies in too. I used this recipe for my sweet potato FF dipping sauce.)

Thank you Elina for widening my flavor vocabulary. I really enjoyed this sandwich and loved the healthy options.

TWD and ABC of the Month

What a week full of goodies. ABC of the Month is a delicious apricot-almond-berry buckle and Tuesdays with Dorie is a moist, flavorful gingered carrot cookie picked out by this week's host: Natalia of gatti fili e farina. I am curious to know what her blog title says in English. Intriguing.

I would also like to add that I am constantly jogging on the treadmill AND working out just to keep up with my nibbling. I LOVED both of the baked desserts!

Starting with Natalie's choice for TWD is the cute little gingered carrot cookie. I found myself following the recipe all the way to the point where I found out my kitchen no longer contains powdered ginger. I couldn't believe it! I have just about every spice known to humankind and yet I am out of ginger and did NOT write the missing spice down on my grocery list. I did the next best thing - I minced crystallized ginger. The pecan chunks, plump raisins, sweet coconut and shredded carrots were all added in. I never bake with raisins and I did this time. Raisins are good, who knew??

I told myself - Halve the recipe. What did I do? Make the whole recipe. Dorie says we can easily freeze these cookies so I am leaving just enough out to share and the rest are in the freezer for later. I have eaten two already, for heavens sakes!

Natalie, HUGE hugs for hosting this week and I have another go to cookie recipe that will be baked again and again. For the recipe, either buy Dorie's wondrous Baking cookbook or go to Natalie's blog for the recipe by clicking HERE. To see the rest of our baker's cookies, go to Tuesdays with Dorie baker blogroll and check them out.

Now for the ABC of the Month dessert, hosted by Hanaa! A delicious, moist, packed full of fruit BUCKLE. My buckle baked a little on the thin side but after the first bite, this was a perfect dessert. The apricots used came from what was leftover from my trip to Eastern Washington and I used HUGE red raspberries along with blueberries instead of blackberries. The sliced almonds on top is what really made the fruit and berry buckle pop. Sliced almonds are mixed with a little sugar then mixed with a tablespoon of egg white before sprinkled over the top of the buckle. The crystallized almond slices are amazing bites of crunchy, nutty, sweet flavor, adding to the tender texture of the dessert. What a great recipe! Flo Braker wins again with brilliance. The recipe is not posted. To get the recipe, you really should look at Flo Braker's cookbook called Baking for All Occasions. Really fun recipes with fun little stories before each recipe and photos that make you want to pull out more baking pans to get started.

Hanaa, I would never have made the buckle if it was not for this baking group. Thank you for inviting me and for hosting this week's recipe. The rest of you should check out Hanaa's blog because the lady bakes and decorates some of the most beautiful desserts. Very talented and sweet!

ABC of the Month and no TWD this week

This week is my first baking event with ABC of the Month. Hanaa of Hanaa's Kitchen started this delicious baking group with Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions cookbook as the inspiration. July's recipe choice: Cinnamon Bubble Buns on page 77.

I regret not participating in baking a cute chocolate tart with TWD this week because I have goodies coming from all directions (please check out the rest of the TWD bakers, clicking on the TWD link) . . . and this includes putting many in the freezer for later. Even cutting the recipe into 1/4Th seemed to much. Here is a sample of what is going on: Ashley requested large chocolate chip cookies but only ate 1 plus some cookie dough (most cookies are in the freezer); a sweet bread blueberry tart; Sweet Melissa Sunday peach, blueberry, raspberry pie; a no-bake strawberry supreme cheesecake and now the delicious cinnamon bubble buns (some of which are in the freezer for later). I do not eat very many sweets and there is just my hubby taking some to work for his lunch along with me sharing the rest. Crazy!

Flo Braker taught me the finer points of baking after I left home and set up a kitchen of my own. Flo's cookbook, The Simple Art of Perfect Baking, was a first baking cookbook purchase. Now underlined, notations in the side margins, notes, and warn pages later, I have added another Flo Braker treasure to my library. Baking For All Occasions may only be for the year of 2010 with ABC of the Month group but I wouldn't mind working through the cookbook for 2011 as well. Flo Braker is already set in history as a leader in teaching, baking, creating, and publishing.

Two new points I loved, okay three new points I loved about this recipe:

* Sour cream added to a recipe means the baked product may not brown very well unless you add baking soda.

* Sour cream was added to a cinnamon roll type dough, along with vanilla and the flavor is amazing! I have not tried a recipe like this before and we are hooked on the first taste. I nibbled on the bread dough, a bad habit but even the unbaked dough is delicious.

* Flo added melted butter to a powder sugar and vanilla extract glaze. One other ingredient is included for the glaze recipe; melted butter may sound overly simple but is still a new thought for me. Loved the flavor of the glaze.



I ran out of butter and brown sugar/cinnamon mixture 2/3's of the way through and made more for the balls to be rolled in (my only change to the recipe).

I enjoyed baking the little pull-a-part buns and would like to thank Hanaa for the invitation. With all the recipes available to us, whether on the Internet, through a cookbook/magazine/newspaper, friends, family, co-workers; a person can only see and try so many recipes in a lifetime. Joining a baking or cooking group, asking more out of us then what has become comfortable, helps us learn and grow. In the end, pride, skill and confidence is gained with much to share. Happy baking everyone!