Fly-by Post: Birthday Baking

I am making a sincere effort to blog more about what I bake.  I bake A LOT more than what I post here.  I bake for my office at least once a week, but usually twice.  Not all of those treats make it here, however.  That would require me to take pictures AND write witty stories about everything I make.

I recently got a new camera, well not so recently.  But, I did recently up load the software to get the pictures from my camera to my computer.  This camera takes amazing pictures.  Not that they are all artistic and I do not have the time for photo styling, but I get much more awesome quality pictures than with my previous camera (which the view finder showed static due to it being dropped and I still used it for over a year).

So, I will be posting more pictures here of what I bake.  I cannot promise the writing will be phenomenal; heck, the writing is not phenomenal now.  So, here is my first fly-by post.

Another cross-continental friend, Sef, is having a birthday soon.  I wanted to send her some treats, just a few sweet and not so sweet options.  One of Sef’s favorite things I have ever made weas cheddar and dill scones—go figure, something savory.  I do not do savory often and out of all the sweet things I make, she had to love this one savory thing.

So, for her birthday I decided to whip these up.  I adapted the Barefoot Contessa’s Cheddar Dill Scone recipe, available on Food Network.com.

I couldn’t only do something savory, so I made something sweet as well.  I wanted to do something different.  I came up with the idea of Cinnamon Chip Snickerdoodle Cookies.  After doing some internet searching, I found the name Cinnadoodle Cookies and adapted a recipe from Two Peas & Their Pods.

Lastly, a gift is not a gift without chocolate.  So, I made Mint Brownie Chip Cookies.  I folded in fully baked frozen brownie pieces and mint morsels into chocolate chip cookie batter.  I am really feeling brownies in cookies right now.

I hope Sef likes her treats and has a wonderful birthday.  (Please access the above site/blog to find the recipes.  Because this is a fly by post, I did not have time write up the recipes.)

32. Cake on a Smaller Scale (Carrot Cake)

There was a period of time when I was making birthday cakes for my office every few weeks. We have not had an office birthday in quite some time and the next Birthday is 2 months away. No birthdays means no cake.

But, you do not have to have a birthday to enjoy cake. I wanted to bring cake to the office just to celebrate Friday and making it through a particularly difficult week. I wanted to do cake on a smaller scale, understated. I did not want to go full on triple layer, round cake mode and I am not a fan of cupcakes. So, what to do?

Cake in a jar.  It is portable and contains nearly two full servings a jar; and hello, it is super cute!  So, cake in a jar it was.  I wanted to give my office mates two different options--chocolate and non-chocolate.  One jar contained chocolate cake with Nutella swiss meringue buttercream, garnished with chopped hazelnuts and chocolate chip.  The other jar contained carrot cake with swiss meringue buttercream, garnished with almond slices and crystallized ginger.

For the chocolate cake: I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe (from the neapolitan cake).  I also added nearly four ounces of room temperature nutella to a half batch of my 1:2:3 (5 oz egg whites) swiss meringue buttercream.

For the carrot cake: I used a new recipe, marking another challenge off my top 100 list.  I then took the other half of my 1:2:3 swiss meringue buttercream and added 8 oz of room temperature cream cheese and approximately a cup of powdered sugar.

My office mates loved both cakes, though personally, I believe the jury is still out on the carrot cake.  Overall it is generally a good recipe and is definitely not dry like a recipe I tried previously.  I would like darker and deeper flavors; so next time I am thinking of trying brown sugar or adding in molasses.

To make any cake into cake in a jar is super easy.  I use 8 oz jars and a circle cookie cutter that cuts out cake into circle pieces perfect size for the jar.  Push in one piece of cake into the jar, pipe in some frosting.  If adding garnish for texture between the layers place some in there now.  Then repeat the above.  Top with the mason jar lid and twist on rings.  Very easy to assemble, but BIG on presentation.

Carrots Cake Recipe

(named Best Carrot Cake of All Time, but I am not ready to give it that title)

Adapted from Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cup All-purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 heaping tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Allspice
1/8-1/4 tsp Nutmeg
3 large Eggs
2 cups Sugar
3/4 cup Butter, melted
3/4 cup Buttermilk
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
256g Carrots, finely grated
1 can (8 oz) crushed pineapple, drained

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare one 9x13 in pan with flour and butter spray.

2. Combine flour, baking soda & powder, salt, cinnamon, all spice, and nutmeg. Set aside.

3. Beat together melted butter and sugar, followed by eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla until smooth.

4. Beat in flour mixture until just combined.

5. Fold in carrots and pineapple.

6. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. A toothpick inserted should come out clean or with a few moist crumbs.

7. Let the cake cool and then use to make cake in a jar as described above.