Sour Cream-Cherry Muffins

This is another of my favourite recipe from Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book, page 326, that can easily be made on the spur of the moment. I’ve always wanted to try out this recipe but we could never find dried tart cherries around town, finally one day, we came across a bag of dried tart cherries from Costco, it was jubilation! I’ve made a couple of dozen of these muffins since I found that bag of treasured tart cherries from Costco. Love these cherry muffins!

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup granulated sugar, 2 tsp. baking powder, ¼ tsp salt, 2 beaten eggs, ½ cup dairy sour cream, 1.2 cup milk, ¼ cup cooking oil, ½ tsp finely shredded lemon peel, ¼ tsp almond extract, 1 cup dried tart cherries, ½ cup chopped almonds, lemon glaze.

Summary:
Mix all dry ingredients and make a well in the centre. Mix together eggs, sour cream, milk, oil, lemon peel and almond extract and then add the mixture into the well and then stir until evenly moist. Fold in dried cherries and almonds and then spoon into muffin cups and bake for 12 to 15 minutes at 400F. Brush with lemon glaze (3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar and 2 tsp. lemon juice and 2 tsp. water.)

Source: Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book, page 326

Chocolate Cabernet Cupcakes

For once I didn’t need to use the Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book for a baking inspiration. The Artful Cupcake – Baking & Decorating Delicious Indulgences by Marcianne Miller is one of those books that I purchased just for the pretty pictures. It’s a collection of lovely cupcake designs and recipes created by twelve professional bakers and compiled and modified for the home baker by Marcianne Miller, the author. I was looking for a cupcake recipe and design idea that was simple, easy to make but interesting and this one recipe and simple design by Martha Vining on page 26-27 caught my eye. All I had to do was shift some all-purpose flour together with sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon, unsweetened cocoa powder (the usual suspects) and mix them together before adding the wet ingredients that consist of vegetable oil, vanilla extract, a couple of eggs, cabernet sauvignon wine and then mix all of those ingredients in a stand mixer starting at low speed and then gradually increased to high speed for a few minutes and then fold in some dried cherries, spoon the dough into muffin cups, bake for about 20 minutes or so at 375 F (1) and voila! Here’s one lovely and sophisticated tasting cupcake with whipped cream and cherry on top. Who would’ve thought that cabernet sauvignon could be used as an ingredient for sweet baked goods! All I can say is: Martha Vining, you’re genius!

(1) For a detailed and more accurate recipe see source: The Artful Cupcake – Baking & Decorating Delicious Indulgences by Marcianne Miller, page 26 – 27 – “Chocolate with Cabernet Cupcakes” design and recipe by Martha Vining.

Génoise in Strawberry Champagne Sauce

Strawberry spectacular!

Génoise in Strawberry Champagne Sauce, page 242 in the “Spectacular Desserts” section of the “Better Homes and Gardens - New Baking Book”. The exact title is: Olive Oil Génoise in Strawberry Champagne Sauce.

I generally don’t make any dessert that contains the word “spectacular”, or any fancy foreign word (especially in French – which to me is like the couture of all cuisines) in its description. “Spectacular” sounds a little too intimidating to me - if a dessert is “spectacular”, it must be hard to make - and “génoise”?? Well, that just sounds too sophisticated and I didn’t even know what the word meant. And so for the past two years since I purchased this “Better Homes and Gardens - New Baking Book”, never once did I try any of the recipes in the “Spectacular Desserts” section, that is, until last week.

Olive Oil Génoise in Strawberry Champagne Sauce is the first of the “Spectacular Desserts” recipes that I have ever tried. I chose this recipe because after reading the step-by-step instruction carefully, I realized how simple it actually was (especially if you own a KitchenAid Stand Mixer). In addition, I also liked the fact that it only contains 275 calories per serving, which is a fraction of what those other fancy desserts usually contain. How can I not love this “Better Homes and Gardens - New Baking Book”? Not only can I pick and choose any of the 600 plus recipes based on how easy the recipe is and how nice the picture looks in the book, but I can also pick and choose the recipe based on its nutritional value.

The recipe for the génoise calls for 6 eggs, ¾ cup sugar, 1/3 cup extra-light olive oil (not extra-virgin olive oil), and 1¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour, and the mixture is to be baked in a 9-inch springform pan. However, since I didn’t want to use so many eggs, I only used 2/3 of each of the ingredients, starting with 4 eggs, etc. (hence, I’d like to speculate that I only consumed 2/3 of the given calories and fat per serving,) and I used a 6½-inch springform pan. To my relief, the génoise turned out well and those high school math classes really paid off. The génoise was nice and fluffy and the strawberry champagne sauce gave a complementary fruity-syrupy flavor to it. It was spectacular indeed!

P.s. After googling “génoise”, I now know what the word means.

Sweet and Colorful Cakes

Sugar High!

If you must buy one baking book, I recommend the (appropriately named) "Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book". I bought this book about two years ago at a local bookstore and it has been indispensable in my kitchen ever since. I often skim through this book whenever I need some inspirations to bake something sweet or chocolaty. I have never baked any cakes or bread before I bought this book - maybe chocolate chip cookies, but only once or twice, using one of those ready made tubes of cookie dough from the store - and most definitely never from scratch! "The Better Homes and Gardens - New Baking Book" has brought out the hidden baker in me (as it has in everyone else who has this book) and it even got me hooked on baking (and decorating cakes) to the point of obsession during one period last year when I kept buying and collecting baking and cake decorating tools from cooking shops, especially the ones from Wilton (which can be quite addictive). The BH&G's New Baking Book has such easy-to-follow steps and instructions and over 600 recipes and baking tips that it can make a baker out of anyone, even someone who's never spent a lot of time in the kitchen before (like me a few years ago, ha...). The book also has an adequate number of pictures so that you can see how the cakes/cookies/bread/pastries/pies will turn out. I have tried a lot of recipes from this book: for cakes (for all occasions), cheesecakes, pies, bread and even pastries. Although, my pastries never really turned out well, only because I don't have the aptitude nor the patience to follow the pastry instructions closely; I learned that making pastries is very, very difficult - for me anyways - so hat off to all pastry chefs out there!

These are photos of decorated cakes that I had made all throughout last year (during my most enthusiastic period of cake making, though the enthusiasm has dwindled since then - not for baking in general but for decorating cakes). I took a series of Wilton's cake decorating courses that lasted for about a month last summer at a local cook shop, so I've included some pictures of cakes that were made for those courses (all cakes recipes are from the "BH&G New Baking Book"), although mine didn't turn out quite as nice looking as the illustrations on the Wilton course books (and therefore came to the self-realization that I have no talent in cake decorating whatsoever - sad face inserted here). On the other hand, the cakes themselves had turned out quite decent and tasted pretty good - aesthetically speaking though, there's still a lot left to be desired. A few of my creations, I admit, were a little tacky. But I had enjoyed decorating those cakes while it lasted, after all, cake decorating was just a phase, but I just had to go through it! At least I was utilizing all of my Wilton's decorating tools to the maximum. Though these days, those tools are collecting dust in my storage room. I hope I'll be inspired to take them out of hiding soon and start using them again after I post this. We'll see.

Wilton Method - Discover Cake Decorating - Course 1
(using the "Chocolate Cookie Cake" recipe - pg. 136)
Wilton Method - Discover Cake Decorating - Course 1
(using the "Yellow Cake" recipe - pg. 113)

Wilton Method - Flowers and Borders - Course 2
(using the "Lemon Cake" recipe - pg. 150)

Wilton Method - Fondant and Tiered Cakes - Course 3
(using "Spice Cake" recipe - pg. 116)
And these are cakes I baked for fun and for a few special occasions:

Chocolate Cupcakes Fun!
(Using the "Devil's Food Cake" Recipe - pg. 114)

Birthday Cake with loads of Chocolate Icing!
(using the "Caramel-Almond Torte" recipe - pg. 140)

Winter Holidays Mini Cakes
("Spice cake" and "Chocolate Cake" recipes)
And finally... Berries Christmas Holiday Cake 2007
(using the "Classic Chocolate Cake" recipe - pg. 114)