Stained Glass Cake

And now, the post some of you have been waiting for...

Wednesday was my husband’s birthday. Happy birthday, buddy! When he first laid eyes upon this recipe, he immediately declared, “That’s what I want for my birthday cake.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “It doesn’t even have chocolate in it.” He replied, “It looks fruity and light. That’s what I want.”

Okay. No chocolate for me.

News about this cake spread before the birthday celebration, creating an air of anticipation prior to the unveiling. I was worried about the cake sticking to the springform pan, so I let the birthday man have the honor (and the risk) of unmolding and slicing. The springform ring came off just fine, but it was a little tricky transferring the slices to plates. And the taste? Well, I'm not a big fan of Jell-O, and it certainly wasn't chocolate, but it was tasty. I think it was well received by all in attendance.

A few notes:

-Rather than purchase a can of pineapple juice, I opted to buy pineapple chunks in natural juice. It was about the same price, contained the exact amount of juice necessary, and I got to enjoy some delicious pineapple chunks, too. Mmmm… nature’s candy.

-I was somewhat distracted when preparing the crust and accidentally put ¾ cup sugar in the crust, rather than ¼ cup. It still worked out just fine and I don't think anybody noticed. Until right about now. Whoops, the secret is out.

-9 crackers, crushed, equaled 1 ½ cups of crumbs for me.

Stained Glass Cake

From Cook's Country, June/July 2009

12 graham crackers, crushed to fine crumbs (about 1 ½ cups)

¾ cup sugar, divided

5 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

3 (3 ounce) boxes Jell-O

4 ½ cups boiling water

¾ cup pineapple juice

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

2 cups heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

For the crust: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Stir cracker crumbs, ¼ sugar, and butter in bowl until crumbs resemble wet sand. Press into bottom of 9-inch springform pan and bake until edges are golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

For the filling: In 3 separate large bowls, whisk each box Jell-O with 1 ½ cups boiling water until dissolved. Pour into 3 loaf pans or pie plates (I used cake pans) and refrigerate until set, about 4 hours. Once set, cut into ½-inch cubes and keep chilled. Combine ¼ cup pineapple juice and unflavored gelatin in bowl. Microwave, stirring occasionally, until dissolved, 1 to 3 minutes. Slowly whisk in remaining pineapple juice. With electric stand mixer set on medium-high, whip cream, vanilla, salt, and remaining sugar until stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and slowly add juice mixture until combined. Gently fold Jell-O cubes into cream mixture. Scrape into prepared pan and refrigerate until set, at least 4 hours or up to 2 days.

Whoa, sunshine!

I recently learned that my blog has somewhat of a following among my husband’s family. Thanks for reading!

Fruit Tartlets

I bet you’re wondering what I was going to do with all that lemon cream… weren’t you?

Well, wonder no longer.

I really like Michel Roux’s book, Pastry: Savory and Sweet, because the dough recipes are intended to be mixed by hand. I used to think that a food processor was required for making pastry dough, but now I know my hands are perfectly suitable.

Pâte Sucrée

From Pastry by Michel Roux

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

Scant ½ cup butter, cubed and slightly softened

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Pinch of salt

2 medium eggs, at room temperature

Mound the flour on a counter and make a well. Put in the butter, powdered sugar, and salt, and mix together with your fingertips.

Gradually draw the flour in the center and mix with your fingertips until the dough becomes slightly grainy.

Again, make a well and add the eggs. Work them into the flour mixture, using your fingertips, until the dough begins to hold together.

When the dough is well amalgamated, knead it a few times with the palm of your hand until smooth. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap in plaster wrap, and rest in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours before using (I let rest overnight).

When the dough is rested and you are ready to use it, unwrap and roll out on a lightly floured counter to a 1/16-1/8 inch thickness.

For the rolling out, I used my set of 1/8 inch dough planers on a Silpat Nonstick Silicone Baking Mat to reduce the need for flour. Prick with a fork and place in freezer for 10-15 minutes, then bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10 minutes.

Once the tartlet shells were cool, I filled them with lemon cream and topped with blueberries, cherries, and strawberries.

Goal for future posts: in-progress, action photographs.

Lemon Cream

I recently purchased a set of tartlet tinsand have been waiting for an occasion to use them. With berries in season and friends coming over for dessert on Thursday, I decided now is the time. I was debating what kind of filling to make for the tartlets, when I came across this recipe. It was straight-forward and relatively simple. It is very tasty by itself and I'm looking forward to tasting it in the tartlets!

Lemon Cream
from Tartine

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup sugar
Pinch salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cool butter

Whisk together all ingredients except the butter and heat in a double boiler over medium heat. Whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and hits 180 degrees (about 10-12 minutes). Remove from the double boiler and cool to 140 degrees. (At this point in time, I ran the mixture through a strainer to remove any curdled egg.) Using an immersion blender in the bowl or a regular blender, add butter 1 tablespoon at a time with blender running until incorporated. Store in an airtight container refrigerated for up to 5 days.

Make-It-Yourself Ice Cream Cake

I love cake. Who doesn't? Apparently, a number of people, some of whom were present at my birthday celebration. I love ice cream and thought an ice cream cake would be an agreeable solution.

This was an exercise in improvisation and quick-thinking. Some things did not go as planned, but overall, it was beyond delicious. A word of caution: dunking the frozen pan into hot water will work a little too well. Then, melted ice cream will drip all over the floor from the sink to the kitchen freezer, then you will realize there is no room in the kitchen freezer. Subsequently, you will run downstairs, getting melted ice cream on all door handles and light switches, with a trail on the floor. Thankfully, there will be room in the downstairs freezer.

Obviously, there is a lot of room of creativity and personal preference. Here's what I did:

Make-It-Yourself Ice Cream Cake
Small batch of brownies, chopped into chunks
Approximately 1/4 gallon vanilla ice cream
Approximately 1/4 gallon peppermint bonbon ice cream
Jar of hot fudge topping
Approximately 1 dozen Oreos, chopped into small pieces
Whipped cream

Work vanilla ice cream with a wooden spoon in a bowl until soft and creamy (or, if you are lazy, throw it in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment). Fold in brownies. Spread into bottom of bundt pan or mold of choice and freeze until hard. Warm hot fudge until just spreadable; spread on ice cream and sprinkle Oreo pieces over fudge. Freeze until hard. Work peppermint ice cream until soft, then spread on top of fudge layer. Again, freeze until hard. Just prior to serving, wrap a hot towel around pan to loosen the cake or dunk very (very!) briefly in warm (not too hot!) water. Slice and serve with whipped cream.