Eclairs!

One of my very good friends had her birthday this week, and she requested eclairs!  This was a tall order, because she served an LDS mission in France for a year and a half, so she really knows what delicious pastries are supposed to taste like!  Her two older boys came over so I could show them how to do it.

To make eclairs, you start with Pate a Choux dough, which is cooked on the stovetop for part of the time, and then transferred to a mixer.  The dough is then put into a piping bag with a round tip, and you pipe logs onto parchment-lined baking sheets.  Next, you have to make the pastry cream that goes in the center.  So the boys got to learn about tempering eggs so the custard doesn't curdle!  After the pastry cream and pate a choux shells had cooled, we used another piping bag with a "bismark" tip to inject the shells with pastry cream.  Last, we made some chocolate ganache, and dipped the top of each eclair into the ganache.  My friend showed up right at this point in the process, and we all enjoyed a fresh, delicious eclair together!  They were fantastic!

Pate a Choux
makes 8 eclairs

2 large eggs plus 1 large egg white
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 10 pieces
2 tablespoons whole milk
6 tablespoons water
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (2 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted

1. Beat the eggs and egg white in a measuring cup or small bowl; you should have ½ cup (discard the excess). Set aside.
2. Bring the butter, milk, water, sugar, and salt to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring once or twice. When the mixture reaches a full boil (the butter should be fully melted), immediately remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the flour with a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon until combined and the mixture clears the sides of the pan. Return the saucepan to low heat and cook, stirring constantly, using a smearing motion, until the mixture is slightly shiny, looks like wet sand, and tiny beads of fat appear on the bottom of the saucepan, about 3 minutes (the paste should register 175 to 180 degrees on an instant-read thermometer).
3. Immediately transfer the mixture to a food processor and process with the feed tube open for 10 seconds to cool slightly. With the machine ­running, gradually add the eggs in a steady stream. When all the eggs have been added, scrape down the sides of the bowl, then process for 30 seconds until a smooth, thick, sticky paste forms. (If not using immediately in one of the following recipes, transfer the paste to a medium bowl, press a sheet of plastic wrap that has been sprayed lightly with nonstick cooking spray directly on the surface, and store at room temperature for up to 2 hours.)

Fun cupcakes

I've been taking a cake decorating class, since I've never had any formal training, and tonight's lesson was on cupcakes!  We learned how to pipe on cupcake swirls (which I already knew, but that's OK), and then how to pipe on a "shaggy mum" (in pink) and a "pom-pom flower" (in blue).  We also learned how to inject our cupcakes with a filling (which I already knew how to do).  These cupcakes were white cake injected with vanilla pastry cream leftover from making Rachel's birthday cake.  The swirled frosting was leftover chocolate frosting from Rachel's cake, and the other two are Swiss meringue buttercream.  They're pretty cool!

 

Princess Leia Cake

For my daughter's party with family, she wanted a rainbow cake with Princess Leia and Ewok decorations.  Star Wars episode 6 is her favorite movie, and she just loves Princess Leia.  In fact, on our recent trip to Disneyland, as we were in line to see the princesses at the Princess Faire, I asked Rachel which princess she was most excited to see, and she said, "Princess Leia!"  Too bad she's not there!  But they did have princess Leia toys at the gift shop outside the Star Tours ride, so she was really excited about that.

For her rainbow cake, I made six layers of white cake, dyed all different colors, and put vanilla pastry cream (what you put in the center of eclairs) between the layers.  Then, I frosted the whole outside in chocolate frosting. I just did a couple of simple borders on it, and then it was time for fun.  I made a batch of fondant and dyed it the different colors I would need to make Leia, an Ewok, and some trees to represent the forest of the moon of Endor.  I shaped all the little characters, with my children watching in fascination, and then stuck them on the cake.  I was very pleased with the result!

Rainbow Cake

5 large egg whites and 1 whole egg, room temperature

8 fluid ounces whole milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 scraped vanilla bean

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

9 ounces unbleached all purpose flour

12 ounces granulated sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into 12 pieces

purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red food dye

Heat oven to 350. Grease, line, and flour 3 eight inch cake pans. Weigh your mixing bowl and write down the weight. Place egg whites and egg, milk, vanilla, vanilla beans, and almond extract in a 2 cup measure and whisk together. Place flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in mixing bowl. Mix dry ingredients with paddle attachment on low until combined. Add softened butter and beat on medium until butter pieces are smaller than peas. Increase speed to medium high and pour in all but 1/2 cup of the milk mixture. Let mix until smooth, 1 minute. Pour in remaining milk mixture and beat 1 more minute. Weigh the mixing bowl and batter and subtract out the weight of the bowl you wrote down earlier.  Divide the remaining weight (the weight of the batter) by 6.  Place small mixing bowls one at a time on the scale and add the correct amount of batter to each.  Add food coloring to each bowl.  Place 3 colors of batter into the pans and bake 10-15 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks, wash the pans, grease, line, and flour again and repeat with remaining batter.  Cover cake layers with plastic wrap, and cool completely, 1 hour.

Rachel's Birthday

My middle daughter is turning 4 this week, so we had a party for her and her cousins at a local swimming pool.  She requested chocolate cupcakes with rainbow butterflies on them, so this is what we made:

The butterflies are made of chocolate!  The cupcakes were chocolate, as requested, with caramel Swiss meringue buttercream.  They turned out really beautiful, and all the kids loved getting to pick what color they wanted to eat.

New Baby!

A neighbor of mine just had a new baby girl!  I had enough leftover batter, filling, and frosting from making the 60 cherry cupcakes that I was able to make a small, 3-layer 6-inch cake for her.  It came out really cute, and it was nice to have an excuse to go visit her and see the teeny tiny new baby girl!

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

A friend of mine has a husband in the National Guard, and he was away on a training mission this last week.  He was coming home on his birthday, so his wife wanted to surprise him and his unit with some cupcakes.  She told me he likes chocolate and cherries, so I made chocolate cupcakes injected with cherry pie filling, frosted with cream cheese frosting, and topped with a maraschino cherry.  They came out cute and really delicious!  The wonderful men and women who volunteer to serve our country really deserve this special treat.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, soft

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup heavy whipping cream, cold

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat cream cheese with paddle attachment on medium speed until smooth.  Add powdered sugar and beat on low until incorporated, and then on medium until smooth.  Add the cream and vanilla.  Beat on low until incorporated, then increase speed to high and beat 1 minute.  Must be refrigerated.

Rose Love

It is really fun to pipe roses on a rose nail!  Our nephews came over the other night to hang out and play some computer games with my husband, so I made a cake for them to take home for their mom.  It was a 4 layer six-inch white cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and lots of roses on top.

Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

My cake decorating instructor likes to sew, and she sewed really cute aprons for all of us in the class!  That was so nice, so I made some cupcakes to bring in and share with her and my classmates.  I went with chocolate cupcakes and caramel Swiss meringue buttercream, and a drizzle of caramel over it all, with a pinch of sea salt on top.  Then, I made some dark chocolate swirly butterflies and perched them on top!  They came out so beautiful and tasted even better.  The instructor went home with two of them and shared them with her husband.  She called me the next day to tell me how much he loved them!

Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream

4 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
pinch salt
4 sticks (16 ounces) unsalted butter, soft, cut into 16 pieces

1/2 cup dulce de leche

Place egg whites, vanilla, sugar, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer and gently whisk over simmering water until sugar dissolves and mixture is 150 degrees, about 3-5 minutes. Place bowl on mixer and whip on high speed 7 minutes. Scrape down bowl. On medium speed, add butter 1 piece at a time, counting 10 seconds between additions. Mixture may look curdled. Increase speed to high and whip until it smooths out. Add dulce de leche and beat until fully incorporated.

Cake Decorating Classes

All of my decorating skills are self-taught, from reading books, reading and watching videos online, and just experimenting on my own.  So, I decided to take some actual professional cake decorating classes.  They make you start at the beginning, so I am in a basics class... which means I have not learned anything new, but it's fun to get away for the evening and be with other cake-happy adults!  The first cake we were suppsed to decorate in class was learning to transfer a pattern on to a cake.  The manual came with a picture of a cupcake, but I thought it wasn't very cute, so I chose a butterfly picture which I found online.  Once again, my photography and lighting are terrible, so my colors look strange, but anyway, the cake turned out great.  I sent it home with my mom as a thank-you for babysitting my kids while I took the class.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I love chocolate and peanut butter, and I thought of the cutest idea for a cupcake, so I had to make them and give them to my husband's co-workers.  Delicious chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, topped off with a mini peanut butter cup, which I frosted with more peanut butter frosting.  My kids thought the "cupcakes on cupcakes" were so cute, and so did I!

Peanut Butter Buttercream

4 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
pinch salt
4 sticks (16 ounces) unsalted butter, soft, cut into 16 pieces

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Place egg whites, vanilla, sugar, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer and gently whisk over simmering water until sugar dissolves and mixture is 150 degrees, about 3-5 minutes. Place bowl on mixer and whip on high speed 7 minutes. Scrape down bowl. On medium speed, add butter 1 piece at a time, counting 10 seconds between additions. Mixture may look curdled. Increase speed to high and whip until it smooths out. Beat in peanut butter until fully incorporated.

Birthday Cake

It was my friend, Amy's birthday, and her husband ordered a cake... chocolate and raspberry.  So I made her a six-layer 8-inch chocolate cake with raspberry curd filling and raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream.  Then I added ghirardelli dark chocolate raspberry squares to garnish it.  Super fun and so delicious!

Brush Embroidery

Brush embroidery is a beautiful decorating technique used mostly on wedding cakes. I wanted to try it out, and I happened to have a neighbor who was feeling miserable on bedrest with her 3rd pregnancy, so I made her a cake and tried out the technique.  My photography skills are seriously lacking, and I took the picture with my ipad, so the colors look much darker than they actually were.  I was very pleased with the result.  The flavor was simple but delicious white cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.