Hot Cocoa Sticks

Happy Valentine's day!!! I'm sorry I have been MIA for sooo long. So much has happened since the new years, both happy and sad and I've just been so overwhelmed that I needed a break. But, I'm back and I have for you a wonderful treat for the love ones in your life.

When I first saw these Hot Cocoa Sticks from Make and Take, I knew I wanted to make them for Valentine's Day. They are sooo cute and I was so happy to find that they make really wonderful hot chocolate. I might even go as far to say it makes the best hot cocoa I've ever had. My disclaimer is I don't drink hot cocoa very often. heehee =)

There are two parts to the Hot Cocoa Sticks...basically the chocolate fudge part and the homemade marshmallows. For the marshmallows, I also used Make and Take's recipe. Both are wonderful recipes and I can't wait to make them again!!

Here are the recipes. Hope your day is filled with love. =)

Hot Cocoa Sticks
from Make and Take

1/2 cup heavy cream
14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups)
3 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (chopped chocolate bars or chips, about 18 oz)
3/4 cup unsweetened baking chocolate (about 4 oz)
wooden sticks

1. Line an 8" x 8" pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

2. Heat the cream and condensed milk over low heat until steaming. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate; allow it to gently melt.

3. After about 10 minutes, return the chocolate mixture to low heat to completely melt the chocolate. Whisk vigorously until the mixture is thick and shiny. Add a few drops of flavoring oil if you like; hazelnut, coffee, or vanilla are popular flavors.

4. Pour the chocolate mixture into the pan; shake the pan gently to level. Sprinkle with cocoa, if desired. Set aside overnight to slowly set up.

5. Run a knife around the edge of the pan and turn out onto a clean cutting surface.

6. Slice into 1 1/4" cubes. Heat a knife in hot water and wipe dry before each cut, for smoothest cuts.

7. Stick a wooden stick into the center of each block.

8. Roll in cocoa or crushed peppermint candy, if desired.

Santa Claus Cake

I know this is late for a Santa Claus cake..but I really wanted to share this cake with you, so bare with me. I saw this cake from Happy Home Baking and I absolutely fell in love with it. How cute is that? Hers is a lot cuter than mine because she used white chocolate and fresh strawberries, I didn't have either and was scrambling on Christmas eve, so I used toasted coconut flakes and strawberry jam. Even with my substitution, it wasn't too bad right?

When I first showed Mr. G the cake, he said, "Who is this character?" I said, "is it that bad that you can't tell?". Before I go further, let me show you what he saw.

Haha!! Isn't this hilarious?!! I think I will make this for a child's birthday. It's so funny!! Which one do you like better? As for the recipes, I used a honey chiffon cake from Eupho Cafe, a stabilized whipped cream with fruits for the filling, and just plain whipped cream for the frosting. I'm not certain where I got the stabilized whipped cream recipe from because I just have it on a post-it (sorry!). Here are the recipes. Happy New Year!!

Honey Chiffon Cake
translated from Eupho Cafe

4 eggs
70g sugar
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp milk
85g. cake flour
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Line an 8” pan with parchment paper

2. Separate the egg yolks and the egg whites. Beat egg yolks, 20g of sugar, and honey until it’s light yellow. Mix in vegetable oil and milk until incorporated.

3. Preheat oven to 150-degree/300 degree.

4. Sift the cake flour. Fold the cake flour into the yolk mixture until just incorporated.

5. Add cream of tartar to egg whites, and beat until soft peaks. Then add 50g of sugar in increments, until stiff peaks are formed.

6. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Continue until all the egg whites are incorporated.

7. Pour batter into prepared pan. Hit the pan gently against the counter once to remove large bubbles. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Allow cake to cool in the pan upside down. When completely cool, take the cake out of the pan.

Stabilized Whipped Cream

1/2 cup cold water
2 tsp gelatin
2 cups heavy cream
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla

1. Pour the gelatin in the cold water and allow the gelatin to sit for approximately five minutes. After the gelatin has bloomed, melt the gelatin mixture in a microwave for approximately 20 to 30 seconds.

2. Pour the heavy cream, sugar and vanilla in bowl of a mixer. Beat until the cream starts to thicken and add the gelatin mixture and beat until soft peaks form.

Chubble wreaths

This marks my first entry into a baking group called Aspiring Bakers. I'm so excited about this baking group. This group was started by Small Small Baker. What I like about this group is that the theme is so broad, you can really choose what you want to bake.

For the month of December, the challenge is to make something to do with Christmas. I feel like everything I have been baking this month has been for Christmas, but I decided to submit this very special Chubble Wreath. I've made chubble breads many times before because it's so delicious and everyone loves it. This wreath I made for my friend who is visiting from out of town. I know she prefers savory to sweet, so I decided to make this bread for her.

I made some changes to the "stuffs" in the chubble bread, adding bacon to the mix. I like the addition of bacon, and I think I might try adding jalapeno bits next time. If you would like to make your bread into a wreath, use a tube pan and line the edges of the pan with the bread bubbles. I've changed the recipe for hand mixed method for Miss W. If you would like the mixer method, it's here.

This is my entry for Aspiring Bakers #2 and December's Aspiring bakers is hosted by Jane at Passionate about baking.

Chubble Wreaths
adapted from Mrs Marv's
makes 2 wreaths
total time: 4.5 hours

Sponge:
1 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 c warm water (105°f to 115°f)
3/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour

1. Sprinkle yeast over the warm water in a large bowl, whisk it in, and let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in the flour. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until very bubbly and doubled, about 45 minutes.

Dough:
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105°f to 115°f)
3 tsp olive oil
Sponge, above
3 1/4 - 3 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp kosher salt

1. Sprinkle yeast over the warm water in a small bowl, whisk it in, and let stand until creamy, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the dissolved yeast and the olive oil to the sponge in the bowl; whisk until it's incorporated. Add in salt. Add 3 cups of flour and mix until a rough dough starts to form.

2. Turn the dough out onto a well floured board. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. Adding flour a little at a time as needed to prevent sticking. It took me approximately 30 minutes to get the dough to be smooth and elastic. The end results should be a slightly sticky dough that's smooth.

3. Transfer to a bowl lightly coated with olive oil and cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled 1 1/2 hours, or so.

Stuffs:
8 – 10 oz cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced (about 10 stalks)
1 bunch of parsley, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
4 slices of bacon, cooked and cut into bits
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp garlic power
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp red pepper flakes
3 tbsp olive oil

1. Prep and toss together all stuffs ingredients in a large bowl. Coat the mixture with oil. Set aside.

2. Put a coating of stuffs in an empty wide bowl. Empty out bread on a non-sick surface. Shape into an flat rectangle, approximately 1/2″ - 1″ thick. Using a pizza wheel, cut loaf into inch wide strips. They do not need to be uniform. Then cut off one inch ends and put them into the stuffs bowl. Toss dough cubes into the stuffs mixture and gently coat them. Add in more stuffs periodically so that they stay separate.

3. Divide mixture into two tube pans. Be sure you grease each pan thoroughly to prevent sticking. The melted cheese sticks to the pan like crazy! Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

4. Preheat oven to 400°f. Brush top with olive oil and bake for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown.

Macadamia nut cornflake cookies

Merry Christmas everyone!! Today, I bring you a treat, a yummy cookie recipe that is easy to make!! I have a friend that's a cookie connoisseur. She makes the best cookies and she will keep making the cookies until they're perfect. She tweaks the ingredients and techniques to make a wonderful cookie. A few months ago, she gave me these Macadamia nut cornflake cookies and they were so delicious!!! I, of course, asked for her recipe.

I have been slowly accumulated all the ingredients getting ready to make these cookies and finally decided to make these cookies for Mr. G's coworkers for Christmas. The funny thing is these are probably one of the easiest cookies I have ever made. They're so simple, yet so delicious. I didn't make any changes to the recipe. Who dares change a recipe from the cookie master? Her recipe comes with very simple directions, I've written it up to include more extensive directions.

Before I share the recipe with you, I wanted to share this photograph with you. It's the most amazing gingerbread display I have ever seen. The pastry chefs at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani hotel created this massive gingerbread display. Mr. G and I went to look at it last night and it was AMAZING!! This picture doesn't do it justice. If you're in Hawaii, go check it out. =)

Macadamia nut cornflake cookies
from Mrs. T
makes 26 cookies

1 1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 5/8 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cup cornflakes
3/4 cup macadamia nuts

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat liners. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla and mix until incorporated. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture until just combined. Fold in cornflakes and macadamia nuts with a spatula.

2. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons (I used a 1 1/2 tbsp ice cream scoop) onto prepared baking sheet, at least 2 inches apart. Flatten each cookie and bake cookies for 15 to 20 minutes until the edges are golden brown.

Pina Colada Cake

This Pina Colada cake comes from Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes. I've been eying this book for awhile after reading all these posts about the book from the Cake Slice Bakers. I finally gave in and bought it. Ever since then, I've been trying to decide which cake to make first. In the end, I decided to make this Pina Colada cake for my friend's birthday.

Since you can't see the inside of the cake, let me describe it to you. It's a brown sugar butter cake layered with pineapple jam and a coconut buttercream on the outside. Prior to the birthday get together, I didn't get to taste the cake as a whole..but I did get to taste each part. The brown sugar butter cake is a very nice cake. It's buttery, not too sweet (I cut down the sugar). The jam is nice, slightly tart, but overall sweet. My favorite part is the coconut buttercream, it's made with coconut milk!! I find I love anything that contains coconut milk! Yum.

When I finally taste the cake as a whole, I didn't quite like it. Everyone else liked it, but I'm never certain if people are just being polite. Mr. G says it's not quite right and I felt the same. I kept trying to figure out why..each part was so good on its own?!! Finally, I think I figured out what was wrong with it. There's too much cake (three layers) and not enough filling, making the overall cake dry.

If I decide to make this again, I will put the coconut buttercream in between each layer along with the pineapple jam. This might add some more smoothness to the filling instead of just the jam. Plus the buttercream is so good, why not?! Here's the recipe with my adjustments.

Pina Colada Cake
adapted from Sky High Irresistible Triple Layer Cake

Brown Sugar Cake
3 3/4 cups cake flour
1 3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar (see note)
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
5 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and line the base of three 9inch cake pans.

2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Whisk gently to combine. Add the brown sugar, butter and 1 1/2 cups of the buttermilk to the dry ingredients. With the mixer on low blend to incorporate. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Whisk the eggs with the remaining 1/4 cup buttermilk and the vanilla and add to the batter in 3 additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl well and beating only long enough to incorporate between additions. Divide the batter between the 3 pans.
Bake for 25-28 minutes or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the layers cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks, carefully peel off the paper and allow to cool completely.

Note:

• *I cut down the sugar by 1/2 cup. The original recipe calls for 2 1/4 cups of brown sugar.
  

Pineapple Filling
1 can (20 ounce) crushed pineapple in juice (no added sugar)
1/2 cup sugar (see note)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1 one-inch piece of vanilla bean split in half

1. Combine the pineapple, sugar and lime juice in a pan. Scrape the vanilla seeds into the pan too. Warm over a medium-low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar, 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Raise the het to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the juices have almost completely evaporated and its turned jam-like in consistency (This took us about 10 minutes). Let the filling cool completely before using. (Can be made a day in advance and refrigerated)

Note:

• *I cut down the sugar to 1/2 cup. The original recipe calls for 1 cup.
  

Coconut Buttercream
3 eggs whites
3/4 cup sugar (see note)
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 sticks (10 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature (We reduced this to 2 sticks)
2/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1 1/2 tsp coconut extract

1. Put the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whip attachment so they are all ready to go.

2. Combine the sugar and water in a small heavy saucepan and place over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a boil and cook, without stirring, until the syrup reaches the soft boil stage, 238 degrees F on a candy thermometer.

3. Beat the egg whites briefly at medium speed using the whisk attachment in a stand mixer. Slowly add the hot syrup in a thin stream, being careful to avoid the beaters. Continue to whip until the meringue has cooled to body temperature.

4. Switch to the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the butter, several tablespoons at a time and continue to beat until a smooth fluffy frosting forms.

5. Add the coconut milk in several additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl well after each addition. Add the coconut extract and mix until smooth.

Note:

• *I cut down the sugar to 3/4 cups. The original recipe calls for 1 cup.
  

To assemble
9 tbsp rum – light, amber or dark
Coconut flakes and thin slices of pineapple

1. Place one layer flat side up on a cake stand. Sprinkle a generous 3 tbsp rum over the cake. Spread half of the pineapple filling over the layer, leaving a small gap around the edge. (see note)

2. Add the second layer, sprinkle with more rum and cover with the remaining pineapple filling. Top with the third layer and sprinkle with the remaining rum. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the coconut buttercream.

3. Decorate with some thin shreds of coconut and slices of pineapple if wished. (see note)

Note:

• *I would suggest adding some of the coconut buttercream in between the layers with the pineapple filling.
  
• *If you want to toast the shredded coconuts, you can heat it in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes. You can also heat it on the stove top, medium heat. I've also tried heating them up in a microwave. You have to be very careful, they burn really quickly in a microwave. Microwave in 20 to 30 seconds increments and keep tossing it.