HCB: Chocolate Bull's Eye Cake

January 03, 2011 by Monica in Baking, Baking Club, Cake, Cookbooks, Desserts, HCB, Sweets

This is one of those recipes that just throw you. First, it’s in the “baby cake” section of the book, so you think – oh, easy. Then you start to read it and realized that with 4 pages of instructions and 5 different components there was no way this could fall under the easy category.

So, I put it off.

And off… I was busy: watching TV, lounging, reading, playing with presents, reading tons of blogs, getting over a MAJOR New Year’s hangover (hello 2011!), as you can see – doing anything BUT these easy cakes.

Until…yesterday.

I just could not bring myself to miss another cake, I have been so lazy lately with the HCB commitments, I’m afraid that Marie is ready to send me a stern email, telling me to get off my lazy butt, get it together and get in the kitchen and bake!

So, I put all of my ingredients out the night before, to get them to room temperature, and decided, first thing in the morning I was going to tackle this and get it over with.

I woke up to a raining day.

Which meant one thing: “STAY IN BED! STAY IN BED!”

HCB: Financier Style Vanilla Pound Cake

December 13, 2010 by Monica in Baking, Baking Club, Cake, Desserts, HCB

If you asked me what my preference for cake is, I would right off the bat tell you that it will be those that are rich, dense and full of fat goodness, meaning they pack a gazillion calories, because they tend to be rich in butter, eggs, sugar and flour.

It’s no wonder that when it really comes down to it, I usually prefer the simple cakes. I admired the fancy cakes with all the cool ingredients and decorations and fillings. But, deep inside, I tend to run for those simple, easy cakes.

For the last couple of weeks, I been craving a pound cake. So when I read that this week’s choice for the Heavenly Bakers was the Vanilla Bean Pound Cake, I was ecstatic.

This lasted until Sunday, when I actually took a look and really READ the full recipe and realized that it was NOT going to be a pound cake.

Tsk, Tsk, Rose, you had me fooled.

ABC: Maple-Pecan Medjool Date Rugelach

December 07, 2010 by Monica in ABC, Baking, Baking Club, Cookbooks, Cookies, Desserts, Sweets

The first time I came across Rugelach was at the Epicure Market, a local gourmet market, that has been a staple in Miami Beach for over 65 years. These crescent pastries are a traditional Jewish food which is eaten any time of the year, but are really popular and traditional during the Hanukkah holiday. Epicure (as the local refer to it), which catered to the large Jewish population in Miami Beach, made sure to have a whole case dedicated to these pastries. It was the mecca of Rugelach. I can not remember how many types there were but the combination of filling were numerous - raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, chocolate, marzipan, poppy seed, dry fruits even preserves. I don’t think there was any type of combination that Epicure had not tried.

My favorites were the ones filled with chocolate and marzipan. When I lived in Miami Beach, I would make sure to get there early on Saturday to fill a bakery box with this sweet treat and then spend the whole weekend munching away at the treat.