At any rate, I've been busy and managed to learn some lessons which I think are worth imparting even if I don't have too much description to combine with them.
Odyssey #10 - Cookies 'n Cream Cake
From the ever-dependable 'Piece of Cake'. This is probably my favorite cookbook; the recipes are all amazing and very simple in a good way. The big lesson I learned from this particular cake was that you shouldn't judge a baking project until it's completely assembled. I sampled a little of the cream cheese icing while this was under production and was dismayed that it did not seem anywhere near sweet enough. When I put the entire cake together, however, the sweetness of the crushed Oreo cookies on top of the cake itself more than made up for the relatively mild icing. In fact, as wiser minds than mine obviously figured out, having sweet icing with crushed Oreo and Oreo filling on top would have been overkill.
Odyssey #11 and 12 - Chocolate Chip Cookie Squares and Chip Crumbles
I lumped these two together because they are essentially the same recipe, both from the "squares" book of the Company's Coming line (good books, but not great; the baker who writes them relies way too much on fruit for my own tastes). They are the complete opposite of fancy and by far the easiest recipes I have on hand. But, for simply jazzing up your basic chocolate chip cookie you can't go wrong with making them into a pan square. Nice and delicious, especially fresh from the oven. The only major difference between the two recipes is that the crumbles have a bit more flour and a bit less overall moisture. For that reason, I prefer them. Out of the oven they win, hands down.
Odyssey #13 - Cinnamon Roll Bundt Cake with Caramel Icing
Was time to break out the Bundt pan again for this one. Definite crowd pleaser. I was trying to find a good cinnamon roll cake recipe and this one fit the bill, but I learned a very, very important lesson from this one. The reason there are no pictures, in fact, is because I had to make this cake twice to get it right. The first time, I did not do my usual greasing with butter and then flour the pan, instead going with the spray method the book (Piece of Cake, again) suggested. Wrong. Do not fix what isn't broken, which I learned to my dismay as the fresh cake completely split in two as I tried to get it out of the cake pan.
On the second try, I floured the pan as I usually do it and the whole thing was a success. The caramel icing was trickier - it was done on the stove and I am not used to the whole melting process yet. In the end it came out as more of a burnt butter icing, but no less delicious for it, let me assure you. It had an amazing flavor. I'll try this again to get the icing right, and the cake was fantastic, even with pecans, and I got some valuable baking knowledge from it.
Ghosts of Baking Past
Finally, a quick update on some older posts. Chocolate cavity-maker cake continues to be my most well received dessert, especially with my homemade vanilla frosting on it. I'm going to try a variation on it at some point, but that's when I'm feeling experimental, I have tons more regular recipes left to check out. I did win an award for best dish at a pot luck with it, so clearly it reaches out to many people in some chocolate-y way.
I have also revisited the hated Oreo truffles twice since my first encounter with them. They are now easy as pie to make, I am pleased to say, and they taste fantastic. After I learned the secret of melting chocolate in our microwave for the peanut butter bars, it cut down on a lot of the frustration I had earlier. I have no trouble getting half a batch rolled in half the chocolate and then sprinkled with crushed Oreo before the chocolate either begins to run out or stiffen.
That's it for this year, I suspect, and what a year it's been. Thanks to everybody who has read any of my adventures in baking. I'm looking forward to getting more adventurous next year. Stay tuned for the next update, which is a fresh new website recipe that I made for Christmas dinner. It was fantastic!
