Coconut Surprise Birthday Party Cake!!!!

Her favorite childhood cake-- and she was surprised!!

Thank- you to Rose Levy Berenbaum for the Cake recipe. I did not use the buttercream but opted for the traditional White Mountain frosting.Rose's Heavenly Cakes will for certain be of inspiration in the future...

Maron Glace and Mont Blanc

 

Maron Glace.... such delicious memories of eating in France and Italy. Chestnuts are just unusual and delicious. Sweet, savory..... I'll take them.

Now making Mont Blanc ahead of time for a party required a substitution of the meringue for a genoise. All well and good, but I still think I would have preferred these with meringue as intended. My European friend thoroughly appreciated the chestnut cream- as expected.

 This was not the finished product. I thought they were ugly in the recipe photo.... and not too surprisingly came out equally ugly when I copied it. I thought that using the star tip for piping would improve them, but the covering of the other chestnut mixture just covered the design.

Holiday Treats!!

Well, the Salted Butter Caramels are a favorite of mine. Thank you David Lebovitz for the recipe! I like mine a little more malleable in the mouth, so I cook the candy to 250F, though. I too use the Taylor candy thermometer- the digital one is just annoying for this precise need- it is off by a few degrees and that just aggravates me!

The Gingerbread cookies this year (Fannie Farmer Baking cookbook) did not get frosted or decorated as usual due to the time crunch. I did not miss the extra sweetness, but I did miss the fun. It's hard getting the boys and everyone involved with all the busy work schedules. We'll get back to it it though....

I do always like the spritz cookies- this year was a recipe by Rose Levy Berenbaum- is uses ground almonds- not your usual tough spritz cookie. These were delicate and tastey, although many folks avoid them due to the their bad rap from bad bakers. Alas, more for me!!! Never overlooked at our house.

Now I have been searching for this recipe that I had hoped these butter cookies were- but they were not.... These are Scandinavian Peppar Crakar cookies. They are flavored with cardamom and black pepper- dare I say their delicate little bite and sweetness was appreciated by many.

Ah, and lastly was the toffee made with Matzoh. Christmas candy.... from matzoh.... it doesn't get more perfect than that!

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Mmmm, that is stickilicious... oh, it's just yummy.

This was finger licking good. I used a combination of recipes.
I did not like that the toffee sauce once cooled, crystallized and it was difficult to get to back to smooth again. I was at someone else's house and did not want to reinvent the cooking process.