Cook Bake Love

I have an obsession with making homemade marshmallows. I like finishing up a dinner party with spiced hot chocolate and marshmallows. Simple, sweet and sexy.

Though, I always make the marshmallows the night before, so they can set over night. It takes about 20 minutes or so to prepare, and another 20 minutes to clean up, so it saves a lot of stress the day of a party. I did learn, that cutting marshmallows is best done with a pair of scissors. Just remember to sanitize them first!

I usually base the recipe of the one I found on Smitten Kitchen. When I went to attempt these I had just come from after work drinks with my friend Scott. 3 glasses of wine and I made a big mistake. I even photographed it.

Do you see it? The Celsius… I thought it was Fahrenheit. So yeah, I over cooked the sugar. What’s that mean? Well I learned that the sugar becomes hard candy if you make it too hot. Luckily I salvaged most of it, but some of the marshmallows felt like they had pits. Pits of sugar.

Then I didn’t have a square metal pan, so that was mistake number two, which I also happen to photograph.

Well some how. They came out, but next time I’d use more whiskey.

Not as fluffy as I’d like but they did just fine.

The Recipe:

• *About 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• *3 1/2 envelopes (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
• *1 cup cold water, divided
• *2 cups granulated sugar (cane sugar worked just fine)
• *1/2 cup light corn syrup
• *1/4 teaspoon salt
• *2 large egg whites or reconstituted powdered egg whites
• *2 tablespoon whisky

1. 1. Oil bottom and sides of a 13- by 9- by 2-inch rectangular metal baking pan and dust bottom and sides with some confectioners’ sugar.
2. 2. In bowl of a standing electric mixer or in a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold cold water, and let stand to soften.
3. 3. In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second 1/2 cup of cold water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, until a candy or digital thermometer registers 240°F, about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.
4. 4. With standing or a hand-held electric mixer beat mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about six minutes if using standing mixer or about 10 minutes if using hand-held mixer. 
5. 5. In separate medium bowl with cleaned beaters beat egg whites (or reconstituted powdered whites) until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and whiskey into sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan and don’t fret if you don’t get it all out (learning from my mess of a first round).
6. 6. Sift 1/4 cup confectioners sugar evenly over top.
7. 7. Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least three hours, and up to one day.
8. 8. Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up one corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and ease onto cutting board. With a large knife trim edges of marshmallow and cut marshmallow into roughly one-inch cubes. (cleaned scissors are my preference.) Sift remaining confectioners’ sugar back into your now-empty baking pan, and roll the marshmallows through it, on all six sides, before shaking off the excess and packing them away.

I love making bday cakes. Seriously, it’s delivered on fire with a song, and enjoyed by a group. Last night I made a cake for my friend/ co-worker Emi. The recipe was super easy and fun to make. I found the cake recipe on Bake Bree and only altered it a little bit.

Ingredients

Cake:

• *1 3/4 cups flour
  *2 cups sugar
  *3/4 cups cocoa
  *2 teaspoons baking soda
  *1 teaspoon baking powder
  *1 teaspoon salt
  *1 cup buttermilk
  *1/2 cup vegetable oil
  *2 eggs, room temperature
  *1 teaspoon vanilla
  *1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Chocolate Buttercream:

• *2 sticks of room temperature butter
  *3 cups confectioners sugar
  *1/2 cup cocoa
  *1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  *4-6 tablespoons heavy cream

Instructions:

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. 2. Prep two 9 inch bake pans (I use baking spray with flour and line pans with parchment paper)
3. 3. In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Mix this mixture until combined. (It took me a bit to get the cocoa combined evenly)
4. 4. Combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. 
5. 5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
6. 6. Pour in the hot coffee (it will look wet, but that’s okay)
7. 7. Pour evenly into two 9 inch pans
8. 8. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. (My oven is a little stronger in the back so I rotate about 20 minutes in)
9. 9. Let cool completely (about 30 minutes)

Frosting:

1. 1. Cream together the butter and sugar.  Gradually add the cocoa powder. (Seriously, or it will be all over you)
2. 2. Add just enough cream to get the consistency for spreading.  Add the vanilla.
3. 3. I found that I needed to play with the sugar/cream consistency and prefer my frosting a little bit more stiff
4. 4. Then I placed the bottom layer on the cake holder, and frosted it right there. I did the middle frosting, added the second cake. Then evenly frosted all the way round best I could.
5. 5. I put in the fridge while I made a second set of frosting (but no cocoa, so It would be white)
6. 6. Put the frosting in a plastic bag, cut the corner slightly and wrote on the cake!
7. 7. I always put the cakes I make in the fridge for 30 minutes before transporting it just to ensure it sets. (That might change after I go to pastry school…)

I brought the cake to the office and Emi cuts her cake:

And it’s basically gone:

Saturday night I was throwing an event, which was at the same time as my friend’s 30th birthday party. I felt so terrible that I wasn’t able to make it,  I decided to make her chocolate truffles.

I found this great recipe on The Pioneer Woman. It was a pretty easy recipe and they came out pretty well.

Ingredients:

• *8 ounces, weight (up To 9 Oz.) Good Semisweet Chocolate
• *8 ounces, weight (up To 9 Oz.) Good Bittersweet Chocolate
• *1 can (14 Oz) Sweetened Condensed Milk
• *1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
• *8 ounces, weight Meltable Milk Chocolate
• *Sea Salt

Instructions:

• 1. Heat dark chocolates and condensed milk in a double boiler over medium low heat until chocolate is melted.
• 2. Stir—mixture will have a slight marshmallow texture.
• 3. Stir in vanilla.
• 4. Remove from heat, cover and refrigerate for two hours.
• 5. Once chilled, roll in balls, then roll in melted milk chocolate coating. Sprinkle with sea salt or other fine, coarse sprinkles.

I made two mistakes, at first I didn’t roll all of the chilled chocolate into balls and just rolled and dipped one at a time in the melted milk chocolate. The milk chocolate started to harden. It was then that I realized and I rolled the rest of the chilled chocolate into balls.

I then made my first box of chocolate for my friend and tied it with a bow.

But I went crazy making way more chocolate than could fit in that box so I brought them to my event, in Tupperware. Yes, I was running an ArtBattle event at the hip Liberty Hall space in The Ace Hotel  pulling out my chocolates for anyone willing to try. That is until I put them down on a table, turned around and they were swiped. Perhaps they were THAT good, or a bus boy thought it was garbage. Either way, about 3/4 of them were enjoyed. Now I just have to give the box to my friend!