Coffee Chiffonlets

Some of the recipes in Rose's Heavenly Cakes are a little difficult to make not because they're technically tricky, but because I have to have an event or gathering to justify making something that only creates four-six servings.  The Coffee Chiffonlets recipe only makes four cakes, so it definitely falls into this category.

 The cakes required the mini-angelfood cake pan, which I haven't really used since, but totally plan to use more in the future.

It was a little difficult to get the cakes out of the pan after they had baked and cooled.  The really stuck in there and don't look terribly awesome.

But it didn't really matter what they looked like, since I just covered them in coffee-whipped cream anyway.  They were VERY tasty and now I have a giant bottle of kahlua in my liquor cabinet.  At least it never goes bad.

 And the same day we ate those cakes, we saw a bunch of ducks just strolling down the sidewalk outside my friend's house.  There isn't even a pond or anything around there.  Just ducks.  Chilling.

Coconut Cheesecake

I've had... mixed results with cheesecake in the past.  I hate over-baking it, but at the same time, I run the risk of it coming out gooey and under-done.  It's a weird balancing act.

I love coconut!  And that tasty coconut milk is sooooo good.  Sadly, I always end up with lots of leftover coconut milk and it's just too sweet and thick to just drink alone.

I get an even bottom crust by smoothing the crumbs to the edge of the pan with a smaller cake pan covered in plastic wrap.  It has the distinct advantage of being extremely easy to clean up.  I just throw away the plastic!

Part of my problem with getting the perfect cheesecake may be that my process involves a complicated water-bath procedure, which seems really alien to most people.  I find that this works maybe 70% of the time.  The other 30% is just runny cheesecake.

But this was one of those times where everything came together.  A little toasted coconut on top made this cake so pretty.  And it was dangerously delicious! P=

Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake and ... Naan?

So obviously, I'm super-lazy about updating, but I haven't been super-lazy about baking!  I recently finished baking every cake in Rose's Heavenly Cakes aside from the wedding cakes or the ones that required special equipment and I've moved on to The Pie and Pastry Bible.  There's a ton of variety in this book and I love it to pieces.  BUT before I can post any pie and pastry pictures, I gotta work through the TWO-YEAR backlog of cake pictures that I need to put up!  Here we go!

This is the Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake from Rose's Heavenly Cakes.  It's a quick and easy one, so I'm not gonna write much, just give you the pictures.

And after I finished the cake, I decided to try something different and made some naan using this recipe from Allrecipes.com.

It was super-tasty, but made way more naan than I could eat in even a week.  Unfortunately, the naan was really best fresh.  I had to throw out more than a few pieces at the end.  :(

Cranberry rolls and cherry blossoms

It's not always all cake all the time with me. I like to branch out and do a little savory sometimes too. I joined a few friends for a picnic on the National Mall last year and brought along these Cranberry-Nut Rolls made from a recipe found on Epicurious.



I love making bread. Not as sweet as cake but every bit as versatile. The cranberries and nuts in these were absolutely fantastic!



I also love how yeast makes dough rise. It's like magic!



The recipe made a TON of rolls, all about the size of my fist. Far more rolls than three friends could eat at a picnic lunch. I was noshing on rolls for the rest of the week.



And after our picnic, we went for a nice stroll around the National Mall and the monuments. It was cherry blossom time, so we took in some beautiful views among the massive crowd.

German Chocolate Cake

In my quest to bake everything in Rose's Heavenly Cakes, there are cakes that are easy and ones that are difficult. The German Chocolate Cake was almost ridiculously simple.



But there are a hell of a lot of ingredients in it.



While the cake is a pretty basic chocolate cake, the star of the show is the coconutty filling. Extremely sweet and flavorful.



Pretty and delicious. Maybe a little sweeter than I'd like, but it seems I have a really low tolerance for sweet lately.

Almond Samah Chiffon

I am still alive and baking, although I am also still too lazy to update with any kind of regularity.  It certainly doesn't help that the internet decided to eat my original post.

In any case, today's cake is that Almond Samah Chiffon from Rose's Heavenly Cakes.



It's been over a year since I made this, so I don't remember very much about it. I think it was for a birthday?



I do remember that I made my own almond flour for this though. Sugar and almonds. A little pricey, but very tasty.



I also had to purchase a bottle of amaretto to brush on the cake. My liquor cabinet is an extremely diverse collection of bottles with only two tablespoons missing from each.



I am very bad at decorating, but I can do simple stuff with a piping bag and whipped cream. Raspberry whipped cream topped this cake and made it extremely tasty.



The cake was ultimately eaten during the weekly pub quiz. Even though we probably didn't do very well, at least we had good eats!

Mud Turtle Cupcakes

The Mud Turtle Cupcakes from Rose's Heavenly Cakes have a lot of bits and pieces to make them up but they are tasty and impressive looking.  These were definite winners when I made them.

The ingredient list for these is somewhat intimidating.  This may be the most individual ingredients I've ever put together for one recipe.
 

I love caramel, but this made a LOT of caramel.  Far more than I'm used to making. Although I may have doubled the recipe...

Yeah, I definitely doubled the recipe.  This is way too much batter for one batch of cupcakes.
 

Without the decorations, the cupcakes are pretty good basic chocolate cakes.  Not too chocolatey or too sweet.

But after the decoration they're even better.  A little bit of caramel, some pecans, and some mini chocolate chips make these mud turtles amazing!