Is This Thing On?

Wow. It's been a long time, hasn't it? I apologize. Things have been out-of-control crazy around here for the last few weeks, and if you know me personally, you know how much I detest it when things are out of control. Things are mostly back to normal now, which means I can get back to cooking real meals and posting! Hooray! First, though, there's quite a backlog to get through. There were a lot of fast meals there for awhile, but I still occasionally managed to take a photo and make something semi-worthwhile. 

Let's rewind the clock a few weeks, to mid-April. 

It was Hubband's birthday! 

He didn't want a big party and all the attention, but did want to spend time with friends and neighbors, so he decided on a dessert buffet. We invited a few folks without telling them the occasion, and just enjoyed their company and some sweets on a Sunday evening. 

Above (on the beautiful etagere Hubbs gave me for Christmas!) we have buckeyes, bite-size smores, and jammie bodgers. Jammie Bodgers are a sweet, crumbly cookie, almost like a shortbread, but more buttery, that are filled with buttercream and jam. They are also Hubband's favorite cookie. We also served Mud Pie and our favorite homemade strawberry balsamic ice cream, made from strawberries we picked a few months ago. I roasted the strawberries back then and poured them into a vacuum-sealer bag with all their juices, (they were a tad too much for pint jars, so I couldn't go with the original idea of canning) sealed them, and froze them until required. It worked perfectly! 

We had a great night with our neighbors, although as usual I made too much and there were too many leftovers. The next day was Hubband's actual birthday, which he took off from work. He did request a menu, which began with his favorite biscuits: sweet potato. He wanted them topped with another of his favorite things, but one that I've never made before and he doesn't get very often: sausage gravy. As it was all an experiment anyway, I made it with spicy italian sausage instead of the usual mild or breakfast variety. I made a double batch of biscuits, but cut the usual number to get thicker, double-height biscuits to stand up to that rich and heavy gravy. Served with an egg over easy, they made Hubband smile and proclaim 'Best Sausage Gravy & Biscuits Ever', so I guess they turned out just fine. And yes, because he didn't let me make him a traditional birthday cake, or anything remotely close, I stuck a candle in his biscuits. On second thought, that sounds like some sort of family-unfriendly innuendo. I'm leaving it anyway. 
I know sausage gravy isn't very photogenic. I should have used Michelle's trick, and topped it with a chive. 

Lunch was another of his favorites, homemade wheat bread with raisins and a cinnamon sugar swirl, made into a chicken salad sandwich. We went out for dinner. This birthday baking frenzy came soon on the heels of Easter, which I already mentioned was hampered by my lack of an oven. Fortunately the oven was fixed just in time to complete most of this, although a few early pieces were done at Mom's house. 

Spicy Sausage Gravy

This was all done by sight, and isn't very hard, so these amounts are going to be approximate. If you want exact measurements, I'm sorry, but look at the bright side: this way you can make as much or as little as you want! 

Spicy Italian sausage (I used 3 large links)

Olive oil

All-purpose flour

Milk or cream (I used skim milk with a little half & half for richness)

Dried thyme

Freshly ground black pepper

Salt 

Red Chili Flakes (optional)

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Remove casings from sausage and crumble into skillet. Add about 1 Tb of olive oil to get things going. Cook sausage until it is browned and cooked through, stirring occasionally and using your spoon to break the sausage into small chunks. When browned, use a slotted spoon to remove the sausage, leaving the fat in the pan. Add an approximately equal amount of flour (i.e. 3 Tb fat in the pan, add 3 Tb flour) and whisk together to make a roux. Let the roux cook for 1-2 minutes to remove the raw flour flavor, then gradually begin whisking in your chosen dairy product. Continue adding dairy until the gravy is a bit thinner than you want the finished product to be. Let the gravy come to a boil so the flour fully thickens, and add a little more milk if necessary to make your desired consistency. Add salt and lots of pepper, as well as dried thyme. (Dried thyme is powerful, so unless you're making a huge batch, you probably only want a pinch. Crumble it between your fingers before sprinkling it in.) Taste for seasonings, and add more salt and pepper as you see fit. If it's not spicy enough, add a pinch of red chili flakes. Add the sausage back into the pan, stir to combine, and simmer for a few minutes to meld the flavors. 

Serve hot, over biscuits. 

A Little Something Sweet

This past weekend we celebrated my niece's second birthday. Continuing the tradition we started on her first birthday, Mom and I go over to my sister's a few hours early to help decorate the house and work on the cake. Because of my ankle, I didn't help with the house decorating, but when it comes to the cake it's a group effort: my sister baked the cakes, whipped up the frosting, and tinted it to her heart's content, I did the piping on the two large character cakes, and Mom did some piping (her first time!) on some small character cakes and kept the baby quiet and content (most important job of all). My sister also frosted and piped a small round cake with one of Mom's even smaller character cakes on it, specifically for the birthday girl to get into as deeply and messily as she wanted. The big character cakes took a bit of time as most of the surface area was covered with a star tip; I need to work on my speed, because I think I caused my poor sister a little bit of stress! The birthday girl has recently discovered a deep love of SpongeBob Squarepants, so that was the theme. Here is one of the two large character cakes that I did:

Here is the small round for our birthday girl, frosted and piped by my sister, with a small character cake on top by Mom. 

There was also a 3 1/2 year old at the party, my niece's cousin, and he was entranced by the sight of these cakes. He insisted on being able to smell them! "I'm not gonna touch Mommy, wanna smell! [SNIFF] Mmmm." Both he and my niece were prepared to eat cake the moment the party started, and it was with some difficulty we persuaded them to wait a little while and participate in activities other than staring at cake. 

It was a great party, everything turned out really well, and eventually we all got some cake. Can you ask for a better day than that? 

Simple Vanilla Buttercream

This is the recipe we used for our frosting. It is stiff enough to hold intricate piping designs, but will eventually soften in your hands as you work the bag, so plan accordingly. It's not too sweet, and has great vanilla flavor thanks to the bean paste. I'm posting it in its most simplistic state, and it really couldn't be easier to scale up for bigger projects like this one was. 

1 stick butter, room temperature

1 C confectioners' sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

a sprinkle of salt

Whip together with electric beaters or a stand mixer in whatever multiple amount you need! 

Birthday Girl!

Some of you may know that there was a birthday this past week at Chez Marshmallow. Being the fiend for baking that I am, I requested that I get to make my own cake, but everything else was orchestrated by Hubband and Mom. I got presents throughout the day,  (Thank you so much everyone! I'm so spoiled!) lazed about in my pj's as long as I wanted, and was given a wonderful dinner at Mom's house, attended by family and friends. 

For the cake, I decided to try a recipe that the Daring Bakers recently used: Shuna's Caramel Cake. Many of the bloggers that I myself read daily, like this one or this one, are members of the Daring Bakers, so I had seen a lot of reviews, and I couldn't resist trying to work with a recipe that some people had hinted was a bit... finicky. (Why on earth would I pick a challenging, new recipe and make it on the actual day it was needed? Because I am wild, people. Wild.) 

I did want a layer cake, but my 9-inch round pan isn't very tall, so instead I divided the batter between two 8-inch pans. They came out slightly uneven, which was a little difficult to hide, even with frosting, but those are the risks you take when you are a wild woman like myself. The frosting was also quite soft, and didn't want to hold any complex piping designs. This could have been solved with ample chilling time, but having left it to late afternoon, I was forced to just smile and tell myself no one would notice. If anyone did, they didn't mention it. Sweet.

It's obvious in the picture just how soft the frosting was; the top layer is sinking and pushing out the frosting in the gap. Do I mind? Not particularly. If the cake had been for someone else, I would have been upset, but it was only for me, and it was DELICIOUS, so I just let it go. 

The cake was moist and dense, but still fluffy enough to satisfy me. It had a distinct buttery caramel flavor that I really enjoyed. The frosting was the real winner here though. T said it should be criminal, and I will take that as a ringing endorsement. I added a teaspoon of sea salt to the recipe for a salted caramel flavor, and it really came through. It cut the extreme sweetness, and added dimension. I will absolutely be adding this to the permanent recipe collection. 

This recipe is a long one, so check it out here. 

Birthday Baking

Last week was a busy baking one for me. I made several different nibbles for Mom's Book Club meeting, and then it was my sister's birthday. After I pestered K a few times about what kind of cake she would like, (having silently and unofficially declared myself 'birthday cake maker' for everyone, including myself) she finally gave me ultimate leeway, saying only "Surprise me. Make whatever you want....but...I do like chocolate..." As if I could somehow forget. 

I originally planned on devil's food cake with a meringue frosting, but decided to keep looking around for ideas. I came across chockylit's Cupcake Bakeshop (now, sadly, 'closed') and began to browse, just looking for tips on meringue frosting. Instead, I came across a recipe for Samoas Cupcakes, based on the classic Girl Scout Cookie Samoas, which also just happen to be K's absolute favorite. After wavering for a minute, I realized that I had to make them for her. 

A brown sugar butter cake base, with a teaspoon of homemade caramel tucked inside, topped with dark chocolate ganache, a soft thick layer of toasted coconut and condensed milk, and then drizzled with more caramel and ganache; they are an intricate and rich treat best eaten with a fork and a cup of coffee. 

They were tasty. Real tasty. I think they would have been even better had we not all been incredibly full after a fabulous brunch at La Coquina, touted as the best brunch in the Orlando area. 

Happy birthday K! I hope you enjoyed the cupcakes as much as I enjoyed making them for you. 

I followed chockylit's recipe pretty closely, so I will just link to it here.