Cakes 'n More by Valerie

The Bottom of the Bag

2006-02-08T03:34:00.000-05:00

It's nacho time again, and especially with the Super Bowl that has just passed you probably had a few leftovers, including those poor little nacho chips in the bottom of the bag that got so crushed that they're too little to dip. So what do you do? Throw them away? Nay I say! Save them!

These little nacho chips (or even plain potato chips) can be crushed further and used as bread crumbs; it'll add that extra crispiness and flavour to your dishes.

I usually put them away in a Ziploc bag so they don't go stale until I've saved up enough (usually what's left of the bottom of 2 nacho chip bags works).

Note: Since nacho chips are usually salted, if the breading recipe calls for salt to be added I just leave it out.

Tiny Teddy's Invade!

2005-10-23T03:52:00.000-04:00

I was watching TV the other night with a bunch of people when I came across the cutest little commercial ever! It was an ad for Tiny Teddy's which are little teddy bear shaped cookies; same idea as Teddy Grahams.

Basically the little teddy's are going on a mission to a foreign planet and discover that the new planet is covered in vanilla cream! They proceed to get all excited, tell mission command and have a food fight with the vanilla cream! I just can't help myself when it comes to cute stuff like that.

After the commercial, I asked if they were made of graham crackers and no one knew what they were. I'll have to do some further research as to what exactly Australians use to make cheesecake crusts. I'm willing to bet that they just call it something different seeing as I know they sell cheesecake here.

Upon first glance at the box it's your standard idea of what you'd expect for such a product.

Unlike Teddy Grahams, Tiny Teddy's come in 6 different poses instead of 2. There's grumpy, silly, sleepy, hungry, cheeky and happy; they almost sound like Care Bears don't they?

Well... I don't think they taste as good as the real Teddy Grahams. They're basically chocolate cookies but nothing special other than that. I have to say that I'm quite disappointed with these Tiny Teddy's. Arnott's... makers of the fantastically delicious TimTams, I'm disappointed with your Teddy's. :(

Happy Canada Day!

2005-07-01T21:40:00.000-04:00

Happy Canada day everybody! For those of you who don't know, it is very rare to find desserts that are tailored to this specific holiday. I'm not exactly sure why, perhaps it's the daunting task of creating an edible version of our national symbol the maple leaf or creating those deep tones of beautiful red that is in our flag.

I seem to recall an ice cream company that wanted to create a seasonal ice cream in the traditional rectangular cardboardish box, that when opened would show the Canadian flag. The idea was to "pipe" the icecream in as they do with many other shapes of ice cream. This proved to be far more difficult than was originally expected since when ice cream is initially packaged it is still in it's "soft serve" state. Thus, the red ice cream maple leaf melded to the white ice cream that surrounded it creating a half-way look between Canada and Japan's flag.

Well... last year, Kraft came out with a most fantastic Canada Day cake, and I tell you this cake has everything in it! There's wonderfully red strawberries that make a beautiful maple leaf shape sitting on top of Cool Whip (who doesn't love Cool Whip?), and a Jell-O middle (there's always room for Jell-O) and of course the cake, pound cake that is. I'm sure it'll be a hit at any gathering, and if you're not Canadian, or the maple leaf isn't your thing you can always alter the pattern on the top of the cake to look like something else, a heart perhaps?

Around the strawberry patch

2005-06-18T10:01:00.000-04:00

I love strawberries, and I love making cakes too. So what better way to celebrate these two loves than to mesh them together in one fantastic creation? Ladies and gentlemen... I give you the strawberry cream cake.

I got this recipe from my seasonally issued subscription to Kraft's What's Cooking magazine. I have to say I was especially impressed with the assortment of recipes this issue. Everything from tasty chicken treats to vegetarian dips. This is one of the very rare times when I followed the recipe to the letter and thus will just link you to Kraft's site instead of posting the recipe here.

I can't wait until Craig gets home so we can try it out.

2005-06-17T20:28:00.000-04:00

There is no better treat to have on a hot day than a lovely bowl of ice cream to cool you down. This week I had the opportunity to try out Wilton's new ice cream maker, it's one of the perks of being a Wilton instructor.

I found the machine incredibly easy to use and because of it's new freezing technology you only need to buy the ingredients for the ice cream itself instead of the usual rock salt and ice that you need to get and make. Basically all you do is cook up your favourite base for ice cream, in this case I used a recipe for making chocolate ice cream consisting of milk, whipping cream, eggs, sugar and cocoa powder.

Last night I started off by cooking the eggs, milk and sugar on the stove until it thickened, after which I added the cocoa powder and whipping cream. I then put the whole thing into the fridge to chill overnight. At this point I already had the ice cream base in the freezer getting ready for making ice cream the next morning.

Basically the way the machine works is that the base bowl of the machine is lined with gel pack material of some sort. Similar to the stuff that goes into those gel packs that your mom used to put into your lunches to keep everything nice and cold. After the bowl is frozen it goes into a second bowl which allows it to basically float off the table with only the rim touching the outer bowl, this creates an environment that reduces the amount of cold material touching an given surface, thus keeping it colder for longer than had the bowl been sitting directly on the table.

So the very next morning eager to start my experiments with the Wilton ice cream machine I started to assemble the machine. I took the now frozen base bowl out of the freezer and placed it into the plastic presentation bowl where it hung nicely above the table. I poured the chocolate ice cream mixture I had made the previous night into the bowl and was surprised that all of it fit into the frozen bowl perfectly. I placed the dasher into the bowl and set the lid on with the churn handle. At first the churning was a bit difficult and I was concerned that the machine would not be able to handle the stress but it soon loosened up. I turned the crank 6 times as was indicated in the instructions, then waited a minute, turned the crank again 6 times and then waited 2 minutes. Every 2 minutes after that I churned the crank exactly 6 times for the next 30 minutes, this was quite easy to do with the timer on my watch.

Everytime I churned I watched through the clear plastic lid to see if anything was happening, I tend to be a bit impatient when it comes to making ice cream. But sure enough, after about 20 minutes of churning and waiting I noticed a considerable lump of hardened soft serve ice cream collecting around the middle of the dasher.

After 30 minutes I removed the lid and dasher, at this point I could have eaten the ice cream as soft serve, but I put the bowl into the freezer to have firmer ice cream.

At this point I would say that the Wilton ice cream maker experiment was a success. I only wish that I could keep the machine it was so much fun to use.

Everyone get excited! It's puffy pizza!

2005-06-03T19:26:00.001-04:00

A few years ago there was this product that was a pizza made with a puff pastry crust out on the market that was supposed to be all the rage but has since disappeared from the shelves. Today I revive that recipe in a personal sized version.

Puff Pastry Pizza
Idea from President's Choice Puffy Pizza

1 box puff pastry, thawed and rolled out into a 10"x10" square
1 1/2 cups mozzerella cheese, shredded
1 1/2 cups pizza sauce (if you want to make your own, see recipe below)
various pizza toppings (as many different kinds as you like)

Preheat oven to 375F.

Cut puff pastry into 4 squares, each 5" x 5" in dimension.

Score a half inch border around the inside of each square using a knife, then make a criss cross design on the border.

Place each pizza onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Cover the inside area of each pastry square with pizza sauce taking care not to get any on the criss-cross border.

Chop your pizza toppings into tiny pieces, no bigger than a half inch square and mix it up in a bowl with the shredded cheese. Sprinkle the pizza toppings onto the pizza sauce section of the puff pastry and taking care to keep the toppings off the criss-cross area.

Place the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

The crust is a nice light, flaky and buttery alternative to the regular doughy or crispy type crusts you normally get from pizza. It's sure to be a crowd pleaser the next time you have friends over for dinner.

Turning over a new mushroom

2005-06-01T15:26:00.000-04:00

I think that puff pastry is one of those things that when eaten you just have to say, "Ok, it's going to be messy but worth it in the end". The light buttery flakiness that melts the minute it touches your tounge mixed with the scrumptious filling made to tantalize your taste buds.

And thus is how I came to the decision that it was again that time of year where I would make some Mushroom Turnovers out of one of my favourite cookbooks.

The filling consists of a rice and sautéed mushroom filling to which I usually like to add a splash of lemon juice for a little bit extra zip.

Mushroom Turnovers
Adapted from Help! My Apartment has a Dining Room

I love the puff pastries they have on the market today, you don't even need to roll it out anymore, simply defrost and use. Of course if you're the adventurous type you can venture into making your own puff pastry from scratch.

1 450g package of frozen puff pastry sheets
1 cup cooked rice (or 1/2 cup uncooked rice)
5 scallions (or green onions)
6 - 7 medium or large mushrooms
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1/2 cup sour cream
4 tsp dried dill
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Thaw the puff pastry sheets according to the package directions.

While waiting for the puff pastry sheets to thaw chop the mushrooms into large chunky pieces, and chop the scallions. Add the butter or margarine to a medium size pan, add the mushrooms and green onions; sautée until everything is soft but not browned.

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Pour the contents of the pan into a large bowl and add the cooked rice. Mix.

Add the sour cream, dried dill, salt and pepper to the mixture and combine well.

Unfold the puff pastry, if you're lucky like me and bought the pre-rolled kind you can just go on from here. Otherwise roll the each puff pastry into a square about 12" x 12".

Cut each rolled puff pastry a set of 4 squares.

Spoon 1 - 2 tablespoons of the mushroom mixture into the centre of each square and fold diagonally so that it forms a triangle shape. Be sure to pinch the edges down so that none of the filling comes out.

Bake for 30 - 35 mins or until golden brown.

A fancy snack to impress your friends

2005-05-28T13:08:00.000-04:00

At one point or another in your life you'll be bound to have guests over and you'll want to impress them with a show of your savvy cooking skills. Well this is the perfect snack for hungry guests to show them that you can be both health conscious as well as culturally diverse.

Roasted Tomato Hummus & Pita Chips
Adapted from Cook's Companion and other various courses

Garlic Pita Chips
1 package pita bread
1/2 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed

Take each pita bread and slice it into eights so they look like mini pizza slices.

In a separate bowl combine olive oil and garlic cloves, let sit for 10 to 15 minutes and preheat oven to 375F.

Place pita bread slices onto baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Drizzle garlic oil with crushed garlic over pita bread and bake for 15 - 20 minutes until slightly browned and crispy.

Roasted Tomato Hummus
5 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
sea salt, optional
pepper, optional
540mL can chick peas (garbanzo beans)
3 -4 tbsp lemon juice
4 garlic cloves, crushed
olive oil

Preheat oven to 400F. (I usually just leave the oven on and turn it up after baking the chips)

Place tomato halves cut side up onto baking sheet and season with sea salt and pepper then drizzle with olive oil. Bake at 400F for 15 - 20 mins until tomatoes show signs of browning and become wilted.

Remove slices from oven and set to cool.

In a food processor combine chick peas a few tablespoons olive oil, lemon juice and crushed garlic, blend until smooth. Add the roasted tomatoes and continue processing until you reach your desired consistency. If you want a smoother hummus you can add a little more olive oil and continue processing.

Serve with garlic pita chips.

Easy Peasy Cheesies

2005-05-24T18:05:00.000-04:00

I love cheese, I have always loved cheese and I'm pretty sure I will always love cheese. Something about the savoury flavour that you just can't get anywhere else.

I stumbled upon this little gem of a recipe that is simple and fairly quick to make. Which is tops on my boyfriend's list since he's not as into cooking as I am. It's called Cheesy Vegetarian Slice, and I found the original idea in a recipe book that I was pouring over one day.

Cheesy Vegetarian Slice
Adapted from Cook's Companion

3 cups water
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp cornmeal or polenta
1 egg
3/4 cups Cheddar cheese, grated
1 tbsp butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9x13 in. baking dish.

Put water into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Whisk in cornmeal until thickened.

In a small bowl, beat the egg lightly. Add a large spoonful of the cooked cornmeal and stir well to mix. This is very important! If you add the egg directly to the hot cornmeal mixture you'll end up with scrambled eggs instead of a binding agent. Next add two-thirds of the cheese, all of the butter and stir until the cheese melts.

Transfer the mixture into the baking dish sprinkling the remaining cheese on top then bake for 35 - 40 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

Makes for a tasty side dish or snack.

Lemon goodness

2005-05-14T11:00:00.000-04:00

Nothing is more satisfying than eating a big stack of pancakes on a Saturday morning. And in the case of these pancakes, I've added a bit of a twist, making them Lemon Soufflé pancakes. Light, fluffy, lemony like puffy mouthfuls of sunshine in your mouth.

Lemon Souffle Pancakes
Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 - 4 tsp lemon zest, finely shredded
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup milk
3 egg whites
1 tsp cream of tartar

n a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, baking powder, lemon peel, and salt. Make a well in the center of flour mixture; set aside. In a small mixing bowl beat egg yolk slightly. Stir in melted butter and milk. Add egg yolk mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy).

In another medium mixing bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer at medium speed until soft peaks form, then add the cream of tartar and beat until stiff peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into flour mixture, leaving a few fluffs of egg white. Do not over-mix.

For standard-size pancakes, pour 1/4 cup batter onto hot, lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet. Cook over medium heat 2 minutes per side or until pancakes are golden brown. Turn to second side when pancakes have bubbly surfaces and edges are slightly dry. Repeat with remaining batter.

2005-05-03T19:42:00.000-04:00

I'm not usually the type of person who uses a lot of pre-made ingredients in my cooking. Vegetables generally go in fresh especially with foods that such as garlic that once cut quickly lose their ACSO (alkyl-L-cysteine-sulfoxide) which gives it that garlicky flavour that you want. Which is why don't buy the pre-chopped kind in the little glass jar on the shelf.

Until this crazy twist of fate came down upon me. There I was, in the grocery store looking for a nice fresh bulb of garlic but of the 10 bulbs that were on the shelf all I could find were bulbs that were already blooming or not worthy of consumption (at least not in my books). So, I decided to try Toppits Garlic Cubes. They're these little frozen cubes of chopped garlic that you can easily plunk into just about anything you like. As the little cubes heat up they disperse their garlicky flavour throughout the dish and unlike the jar variety they still have most of their flavour in tact.

Getting back into the groove of things

2005-05-03T14:53:00.000-04:00

From the minute I saw these biscuits in my copy of Kraft: What's Cooking magazine I knew I'd just have to make them. But at the time I was still in school and didn't have the time to make these beautiful biscuits without sacrificing precious study/work time. So the first moment that I could I rushed for the flour, shortening and cheese to make these tasty treats.

Cheesy Buttermilk Biscuits
Adapted from Food Network: Better Buttermilk Biscuits and Kraft What's Cooking Magazine

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 - 3 cups shredded cheese (depends on how cheesy you want your biscuits)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup vegetable shortening, chilled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
parsley, optional

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients and shredded cheese together with a fork or your hands. Cut in the shortening using 2 butter knives moving each in an opposite direction from each other until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and add buttermilk. Quickly fold dry ingredients into buttermilk with your hands until a sticky dough forms.

Turn dough out onto floured surface. Gently fold the dough over itself 3 or 4 times to create layers.

Roll dough out to 3/4-inch thick. Cut with a 3-inch biscuit cutter or you can use the rim of a glass. Transfer dough rounds to a sheet pan. Gather scraps and repeat.

Brush with butter and top each with a parsley leaf, brush with more butter.

Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Darryl's Goodbye Cake

2005-04-19T22:08:00.000-04:00

This cake was created for a party that my class and I had for our teacher who was leaving the school. The pictures consist of things that represent what we did in his classes.

Going on an Eggspedition

2005-04-02T09:57:00.000-05:00

Sometimes the simplest things with a little care and love added to them can become the very cute and quaint things that make life a little bit more enjoyable. These eggs are has happy as can be sitting on this platter.

But what's this? What eggs you say? You don't see any eggs on the plate? Why, of course you do! Only this time they're square! Yes, square chicken eggs to cause delight and perhaps a bit of confusion. It's an old Chinese cooking trick in which a hardboiled egg is slowly shaped into a square using a mold. I used cloves for the facial features and bits of an english cucumber and cherry tomato for the bodies.

Michelle's Birthday

2005-03-10T22:56:00.000-05:00

This cake was made for a co-worker of mine. It was done in haste and thus didn't turn out as nicely as I would have liked it to.

Laura's 24th Birthday

2005-02-24T22:16:00.000-05:00

This cake was made for my bestfriend's 24th birthday. Featuring pansies, yellow roses, lilies and a pink petunia as well as a ruffle border for something a little different.

Lambies

2005-02-05T22:29:00.000-05:00

These lambs were an experiment in working with fondant and royal icing. The heads are made with fondant and the rest of the lambs are made out of royal icing.

Wilton - Spring Cake of the Month

2005-02-04T22:22:00.000-05:00

This is the Spring cake that I made to help promote the Spring Cake of the Month class for February 2005. I was looking for something Spring-like to add as a border and thought that grass might be a unique way to give that effect. I also enjoyed doing the drop string and vertical shell work, I think it gives the cake a bit of a more fancy look.

My 23rd Birthday

2004-08-26T22:39:00.000-04:00

I made this cake for my 23rd birthday. The icing has a bit of sheen to it because I decided to make it using half shortening and half real butter; the butter gives it the sheen.

1st Annual Willmore Family Reunion

2004-08-02T08:19:00.000-04:00

This cake was made for the 1st Annual Willmore Family reunion, featuring a basketweaved side and a checkerboard inside made from chocolate and vanilla flavoured cake. The faces were made from royal icing and the faces were drawn on using FoodWriter edible color markers. The the banner was made from rolled fondant and drawn again with the FoodWriter markers and the sky background was airbrushed in sky blue.

Wilton - Course III: Final Cake

2004-06-29T21:07:00.000-04:00

This two tiered cake was the final cake in my courses with Wilton using most of the skills that I learned from Course III.

Wilton - Course III: Flowers and Hearts

2004-06-25T22:46:00.000-04:00

These are the flowers and hearts that I made for the Wilton Course III class; pointsettia's, petunias and white lilies.

David's 3rd Birthday - Bob the Builder

2004-06-21T07:45:00.000-04:00

This Bob the Builder cake was created for a child's 3rd birthday using one of Wilton's character pans.

Wilton - Course II: Final Cake

2004-05-27T21:04:00.000-04:00

This was the final cake I created for my Wilton Course II class, featuring the basketweave and royal icing flowers. I especially like how the chocolate icing turned out.

Yellow Rose Cake

2004-05-17T16:16:00.000-04:00

This yellow rose cake was made entirely in buttercream, featuring a reverse shell border.

Wilton - Course I: Final Cake

2004-04-30T00:00:00.000-04:00

A lemon cake with lemon buttercream icing that was created for my last Wilton course I class.

Wilton - Course I: Clown Cake

2004-04-23T00:00:00.000-04:00

This clown cake was made during my Wilton Course I class, featuring figure piping. We were encouraged to be creative with the way the clowns sat on the cake since clowns are silly and fun. So I had some of my clowns sitting right inside the cake with their feet sticking out. It was definitely a fun class to be in.

Craig's 20th Birthday

2003-11-23T21:57:00.000-05:00

I made this cake for my boyfriend's 20th birthday; it consists of just about every kind of candy and cookie that he loves. The gift boxes are made from pieces of white chocolate "almond bark" that was then iced to look like gift boxes. The sprinkles are mini M&Ms and the suckers are Toosie Roll suckers.

Pinapple Pepper Chicken

2003-11-16T16:04:00.000-05:00

This simple and fairly healthy dish of veggies and chicken was a great success for it's first time out. Next time I think I'll try replacing the chicken with shrimp for a bit of a twist.

Autumn Pie

2003-11-16T10:45:00.000-05:00

This is the chocolate pudding pie that I made for when my bestfriend Laura came to visit. It has a whipped cream top, and the words Autumn are written in chocolate.