Fruit Salad Sorbet

A friend brought a ton of fruit salad to my New Year's Day potluck. Knowing I couldn't finish the leftovers before they went bad and not wanting them to go to waste, I made a sorbet. All the fruit, plus sugar, plus a little kirsch. What's it taste like? Kind of... everything.

Wedding Cake Time Again!

Another sister of mine is getting married and has asked me to do the wedding cake. We haven't totally finalized the plans yet, but it's going to be something citrusy. I'll be doing some experimenting over the next few weeks with some different flavors and styles. Any volunteers for taste-testing?

Congrats, Dinah and Eli!

Honey Maple Carrot Cake

Finally, Ben actually bakes a cake. It's been a little while. Doubled up on a recipe from Dede Wilson's first wedding cake book that I'd wanted to try for a while... Honey Maple Carrot Cake. A really interesting recipe in that it used honey and maple syrup instead of granulated sugar and vegetable oil instead of butter. Almost vegan, if not for the eggs. I've never made a carrot cake before. Never used to be a fan, but the concept has grown on me over the last few years. One of these was actually commissioned from me as a birthday cake. The other I did for a friend's "welcome home" party.

The buttercream was a little freaky too; made in the Italian meringue style, but with boiling honey and maple syrup instead of melted sugar. Lent a noticeable flavor to the finished product. You can see I tried a couple different decorating looks. My piping skills still need work. Visible in the last pic is my attempt to do a pattern with this mix-and-match cake comb device that was just a mess; the little plastic pieces kept falling apart in my hands. Probably the last we'll see of that.

Blueberry Buckle

Got this recipe in a Cook's Illustrated a while ago and have been waiting for an occassion to try it out. I was going through the freezer recently and noticed that I had somehow accumulated a glut of frozen blueberries. Also, was going to a Hanukkah party, mentioned this recipe to the host, and he replied that he LOVED blueberries, so there you go. A buckle is basically fruit with just enough cake batter to hold it together. This batter turned out pretty thick and I had a hard time getting the blueberries evenly distributed, but no one complained.

Molasses Cookies

I heard about this recipe in a story on NPR on my way into work one day. The author was talking about remembering her grandmother through her recipes. A great essay and a delicious recipe. I tried making these cookies in two slightly different ways. The first time, I followed the recipe very strictly. You can see in the pictures that the cookies really spread out a lot in the over, almost completely losing their shape. The second time, I replaced some of the all-purpose flour with high-gluten bread flour. This time, the cookies held their shape a lot better. Despite that, I think I actually preferred the original style. The flat cookies were so dense and chewy. Both tasted great; lots of cinnamon and cloves I brought them to two Thanksgiving parties and they went over well at both.