It's Halloween! A ghoulish cake

The competition was for scariest dessert.  I knew I had it, hands down, with this skull cake.  ...  You know what won?  A kitty litter cake.  PLEASE!  She threw together a few packaged ingredients!  What says "Halloween" about a "cake" made to look like a box of kitty litter?  Nothing.  The reason she won was because about 25 of her co-workers applauded for her and the winning entry was based on noise level.  It was a damn close call, even so.  And I'm not bitter at all.

Just look at this amazing creation!

Sigh.  If only it hadn't been so much work.  Almost everything that could have gone wrong, did.  I bought cake mix because I figured it was fool proof.  I don't make many cakes so I don't have a preferred recipe.  I got strawberry with the idea of mixing a little black food coloring to make a sort of gross, grayish pink, inside-the-skull color.  Well, I added too much black, which frighteningly made it look just like chocolate.  (Tells you something about artificially flavored desserts, doesn't it?  It even tasted like chocolate. And that tells you something about tasting with our eyes first.) Then the cake face stuck in the pan.  (WHY do we have to grease and flour a "non-stick" pan???  And then it sticks anyway.)  After much fussing, it came out... or part of it did.  The actual face stuck firm.  I managed to pry it all out in a few pieces and put it back together.

         

                                           Yes folks, that is a strawberry cake.

I wanted to use the cooked flour frosting I've used before, which I really like, but I decided to add a little cream cheese, thinking it would create a firmer product.  (Cream cheese is firmer at room temperature than butter.)  What a disaster.  I can only assume that was the cause of the frosting refusing to firm up at all.  No matter how much I whipped it, it stayed runny.  Like soup.  By then I was exhausted and had to go to bed, so I threw a towel over the cakes, hoping they wouldn't dry out too much, and stuck the soup in the refrigerator, hoping the chill would help.

The next day, the frosting was firm, but as soon as I started mixing it, it went back to soup.  Advice on the interwebs was to add sugar (gross), DON'T add sugar, add meringue powder, chill it, add more butter...  I added some sugar and some meringue powder to no avail.  I went out and bought canned stuff for emergency backup but the ingredient list grossed me out and I couldn't bring myself to use it.  I started over with fresh butter, then slowly added the soup, and that way managed to get a usable frosting.  By this time I'd spent all morning and was due at the luncheon in 30 minutes.  I started decorating. 

I glued the face together with frosting, and then the two halves.  When I used this skull pan for a Guy Fawkes cake, I had no trouble with the face sliding off, but this time it did.  I had to prop it up with more cake under the chin.  I used gummy eyeballs, one hanging by licorice laces (from a booger-filled eye socket), licorice lace hair, and candy corn teeth.  Then I dripped a little green icing slime from eyeballs and teeth.  The final touch was the meat cleaver (which I would have liked to have embedded in the skull but was afraid it wouldn't hold up.)

In the end, not only did the cake not win, but it didn't even hardly get eaten.  People didn't know how to cut into it, even though I got it started by slicing off the top of the head.  They want to cut it like a regular cake, but that gets you either little frosting or most of it.  So it got destroyed.  Making it look even scarier.

October ABC challenge: fruit and nut pull-apart muffins

The original recipe is for a pull-apart bread made in a loaf pan, but I'm more likely to eat half of it in one sitting when it's like that, so I opted to use muffin tins for individual servings.  I also reduced the recipe by half.  Other modifications are in italics and strikeout.

Here's what I used:

1¼ cup + 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided (reserve 1 tablespoon)

1 tablespoons granulated sugar

1⅛ teaspoons active dry yeast

¼ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter

1½ ounces whole milk

2 tablespoons (2 ounces) water

1 egg (at room temperature)

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Filling:

½ cup granulated brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ large tart apple, cored and diced small

2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

1/4 cup fresh cranberries, chopped

For the dough, in a medium mixing bowl whisk together 1 cup of the flour, the sugar, yeast, and salt. Set aside. Whisk the egg and set aside. Place the milk and butter in a small bowl (I used a liquid measuring glass) and heat in the microwave carefully until the butter has just melted. Add the water and vanilla extract, then let stand until it registers 115 to 125 degrees F (or just barely cool enough to hold your finger in.) Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula. Add the egg and stir the mixture until all is incorporated. Add the remaining flour (except the 1 tablespoon reserved) and stir with the spatula for about 2 minutes. The mixture will come together but be slightly sticky. (I had to stir for about 5 minutes with a wooden spoon, stretching the dough.) Place the dough in a greased, 2-cup glass measuring cup. Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel. Place in a warm space and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour. (Make Ahead! >> The dough can be risen until doubled in size, then refrigerated overnight for use in the morning. If you’re using this method, let the dough rest on the counter for 30 minutes before following the roll-out directions below.)

For the filling, in a small bowl whisk together the sugar and cinnamon, then stir in the chopped apple, cranberries, and walnuts until evenly coated. Set aside. Grease and flour 8 muffin tins.

When doubled, deflate the risen dough and knead the remaining 1 tablespoon of flour into the dough. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes. On a lightly floured work surface, use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a 12 x 10-inch rectangle. Brush the melted butter across all of the dough. Spread the sugar mixture evenly all over the dough (if there is any accumulated juices, drizzle that over the dough too). Slice the dough into 6 x 4 strips for a total of 24 squares/rectangles (they might not all be the same size/shape and that's okay). Create 8 stacks of 3 layers each and fit each into a greased muffin tin cut-side up. Cover with a kitchen towel and place in a warm place for 30 to 45 minutes, or until almost doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover a sheet pan with foil and place on the lowest oven rack to catch any drips. Place the muffins in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until the tops are very golden brown, and an instant read thermometer placed into the center of a muffin reads at least 190 degrees F. (The top may be lightly browned, but the center may still be raw. A nice, dark, golden brown will ensure that the center is cooked as well.) Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 to 20 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges of each muffin to loosen before removing. Serve warm or at room temperature. They are best served the same day.

I don't like overly fussy recipes, at least not when it comes to preparation. I don't know why she has us segregate the dough ingredients. And why did we hold out that small amount of flour at the end? Was it just to help manage the sticky dough while we did a quick knead? And this layering... Not a fan. Rollups are fussy enough, but this took it to a new level of hassle. I wish she had shown her pan full of layers before they had risen. It seems like there would have been a lot of room in that pan, letting the layers fall apart.

I made this recipe into muffins because I thought it might keep better that way (and help with portion control.  Ha!  I ate 4 immediately.) That change gave me some trouble with construction. I originally thought I wanted at least 4 layers and I assumed the loaf would serve 8, therefore 6 tins would be sufficient. Her loaf actually serves 12. I saw how messy and unwieldy those stacks were going to be, and then found 4 layers completely filled--overfilled--the tin, leaving no room to rise. Fortunately 24 divides by 3, so I expanded from 6 muffins to 8.  I was still concerned with how much they might overflow the tins while rising and baking, but they did okay.

Conclusion: These were very good, but as I was putting them together I wished I had added cheddar cheese. I guess this recipe is reminding me of another October challenge from 2014 with this apple cheddar twist bread. I'm glad I added the nuts and cranberries (could have used more cranberries) because the flavors were a little one-dimensional. I was surprised when I removed the muffins to find most tins had syrup in the bottom, so I turned the muffins upside down like sticky buns. The bread was very soft and pillowy and the muffins weren't too sweet. I like this recipe, but I prefer a chewier bread and found this technique too bothersome.  

Recipe: Apple Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread via Brown-Eyed Baker

Pumpkin Spice Cookies: pumpkins and autumn leaves

 

Everything is pumpkin spice these days, right?  It can get a little out of hand, but since it's for only a short time once a year, I'm okay with it.  Now, if marketers started saying, "Hey, people are really into this stuff!  Let's give it to them all year!" that would be another story.  But once a year, it's a good reason to try new things.

So here I am with pumpkin spice cookies.  There is no pumpkin involved*; these just contain the spice mix that goes into pumpkin pie.  So all these "pumpkin spice" items would be more appropriately called "pumpkin pie spice mix" whatevers, but it doesn't roll off the tongue quite as nicely.

The assignment my art group had this week was for anything seasonal, artist's choice.  What with decorations and shorter days and festivity plans, the idea of stretching myself further with an "art project" was taking the fun out of the activity, which defeats the point.  So I opted to make autumn themed cookies.

This recipe seemed a little light on spices compared to this other one, but since I've never made either I decided to test the one that had a raising agent to see how the designs worked out.  (In looking this recipe up again, I found she has added canned pumpkin to the original.  I did not use the pumpkin, but wish I had... just because.)  I followed the recipe faithfully, with only two small changes.  There was no salt in the original recipe and that is not a good thing.  Also, I think my allspice has expired.  I use the berries and crush them as needed, but still they don't seem to have much flavor, so I doubled that.  I have no idea whether it made a difference.

*She has since added pumpkin to this recipe, which she says makes a softer cookie.  It's an optional ingredient.

Here's what I used to make about 3½ dozen 3" cookies:

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated if possible
1/4 teaspoon allspice (I used 1/2 teaspoon)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2/3 cup granulated (white) sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (best quality available)

1/4 cup pumpkin puree (optional)

In a large bowl bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and spices. Stir with whisk to combine.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Add both sugars and beat until fully combined and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla (and pumpkin, if using) and beat to combine. Scrape down the sides of your bowl with a spatula. While the mixer is running on low, add the flour mixture, slowly.  Mix until all of the flour is incorporated, and the mixture begins to ball up and pull away from the sides of the bowl. Dump out the dough onto a clean work surface, knead in any extra bits of flour or dough, and divide the dough into two large balls. Place balls of dough in a plastic bag (or plastic wrap), flatten dough into large disks and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.  (If you leave it too long, it becomes quite hard and difficult to work with.) When the dough has chilled, roll out onto lightly floured surface and cut out desired shapes. Bake cookies in a pre-heated, 350F oven, on ungreased baking sheets, 9-15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies.

Frosting (approximately 1/2 cup):
2/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1½ teaspoons Wilton meringue powder
1+ tablespoon warm water
food coloring gel

Mix the first 3 ingredients on low with a mixer, adding more water as necessary to produce a
somewhat thick paste. Add color, and continue to mix and adjust water until desired consistency is achieved.

I left the dough in the refrigerator until the next day and had to let it sit out for a bit to soften.  However, once warm, the dough is very soft and can be difficult to work with.  For that reason, I ended up chilling the dough between rolling sessions, as well as the sheets of cookies prior to baking.  (I wanted to make sure to preserve the designs, but that didn't end up being an issue.)

Aside from their taking longer to bake (and that might have been my oven --- it seemed to be losing temperature), these were easy to make and baked up really well.  Despite so much butter and a raising agent, the didn't spread or lose their shape and also retained the designs.  Which means this recipe would work well for a stamped pattern.  Good to know.

For the decorative icing, I reduced the original recipe by a factor of 6 to produce about 1/2 cup or so.  The directions were to mix it for 10 or more minutes, but I didn't know what I was looking for, and other directions said it wasn't necessary.  So I didn't.  Also, it seems formulas vary; here's another that uses more meringue powder.

Conclusion:  Absolutely delicious!  They were lightly spiced, but still noticeably so, and they made the kitchen smell fabulous.  They were crisp, but with a delicate crumb, and could easily be manipulated for crispness by rolling them thicker or thinner.

Recipe:  Pumpkin Spice Cutout Cookies via Glorious Treats; Royal Icing via Wilton