Chocolate Raspberry Crepe Cake
One thing you might not know about me is that I LOVE Martha Stewart or maybe just her magazines. Especially the holiday ones. The thing is..is that I don’t usually make anything out of them. I just like to look and say oooooooh!!! aaaaaaaah!! My sister and I spotted the picture of her Darkest Chocolate Crepe Cake and were just smitten with the picture and idea of the whole thing.
Knowing this would take a few hours to accomplish I set aside a Sunday when Peter and Reno would be out of the house for hours and set forth on making my very first Vegan Crepe Cake. First I made all the crepes which was 2 batches of the Crepe recipe in Veganomicon. Its a very easy crepe to make. I was very pleased with the recipe. Once all those “millions” of crepes were made and cooling off I heated up a jar of raspberry jam, some chocolate chips and arrowroot powder until the chips all melted and it was nice and thick from the arrowroot.
Then came time to frost. One crepe, layer of raspberry chocolate filling, one crepe, layer of raspberry chocolate filling, one crepe, layer of raspberry chocolate filling, one crepe, layer of raspberry chocolate filling, one crepe, layer of raspberry chocolate filling, one crepe, layer of raspberry chocolate filling, one crepe, layer of raspberry chocolate filling, one crepe, layer of raspberry chocolate filling, one crepe, layer of raspberry chocolate filling, one crepe, layer of raspberry chocolate filling, 0ne crepe, layer of raspberry chocolate filling, one crepe, layer of raspberry chocolate filling, you get the picture. I let that set for a few minutes in the fridge while I prepared the ganache topping which I then just dumped on top of the crepe cake then set it back in the fridge while I made the candied hazelnuts.
This was by far my favorite part of the whole recipe! The Candied Hazelnuts! There is just something about melting sugar in water and have it turn into a hard like glass that just thrills me to no end. The fact that it even worked and came out perfectly the first time made the whole experience even better then it already was. I followed this recipe to the T from the Martha Stewart recipe.
When it came time to eat dinner that night at my parents house downstairs we were all anxiously awaiting for it to be dessert time. To see if all those hours of work (about 4 or 5 hours) were worth it in the end. I can happily say that they were worth it even though I found problems with parts of it here and there. The main problem was the filling. It was delicious but it was too wet to use in a crepe cake. Next time I will use something a bit thicker. I also need to make more crepes next time because I want my cake to be as tall and marvelous as Martha’s!
November 19th, 2009
Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cookie
When I was a young one I loved putting marshmallows into chocolate chip cookie dough because when they finished baking and were all cooled off there would be these pockets of sweet, chewy, kinda hard like goodness in every bite. It also made for a cool and shiny effect that I liked. Needless to say it’s been A LONG time since I’ve been able to use marshmallows in my baking. I’m happy to say that I’ll never have to wait that long again! I finally spied Dandie’s Marshmallows at one of my two local Whole Foods! Upon sight of them at the store I nearly squeeled like some nut job but kept my cool as not to embarrass Reno.
I finally broke into one of the 3 bags I purchased (total nut job) and knew that the first thing I would make would be my beloved Marshmallow Chocolate Chip Cookies. I used the recipe from the Babycakes cookbook and then just pressed one or two marshmallows on top of the dough. I didn’t want to mix it in since I didn’t know how it would come out and I couldn’t see ruining a whole batch of my favorite choco chip cookie recipe. Next time I will definitely add them to the mix so they can spread out and goo up my cookies like I liked them as a kid.
5 Minute Coconut Fudge
I went to a dessert potluck for my local vegan’s group and wanted to make something easy and something that I’ve never made before so I settled on My Sweet Vegan’s 5 Minute Coconut Fudge. Dessert really can’t get any easier then this. Super simple and also delicious and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t really care for fudge. It went over really well at the party and at home so I have a feeling recipients of my now annual Holiday Dessert Boxes will be seeing this fudge in there.
November 14th, 2009
The Garden Fairy
Reno at 2 years and 2 months. This was her very first time dressing up for Halloween and it was a complete success. My mom made this costume for her even though Reno thinks that SHE MADE IT. Little bugger!
November 12th, 2009
Salisbury Seitan with Golden Gravy and Spinach Mashed Potatoes
Every once in awhile I go and cook almost exclusively from cookbooks for a month or so just to get out of all my regular stand by meals and too use the cookbooks that I spend all our money on. This is the second thing I’ve made in the last few weeks from the Real Food Daily Cookbook. I’ve been wanting to make it for quite some time now and am again, like the cheese below, glad that I finally made it. We all loved it including Reno and it’s something that I would make for a holiday meal if I were ever lucky enough to host one. The real stand out of the dish was the Golden Gravy. It made my kitchen smell like the most wonderful smell ever! I was basically eating it with a spoon out of the pot waiting for everything else to finish cooking. I want to smother everything with this gravy. I know that I will definitely be smothering my Thanksgiving meal with it.
November 4th, 2009