Strawberry Shortcakes with White Chocolate Mousse

It's a rare day that I can resist strawberry shortcake, which is why I was so excited to make this one.  It sounds terrific doesn't it? Shortcakes dotted with chocolate, a light and wonderful white chocolate mousse and macerated strawberries in their peak season.  What's not to love?  If you offered me that dessert tonight though, I would turn you down.  My experience was entirely unpleasant. My oven (or I, if you consider that denial) burned the shortcakes after only a few minutes in the oven (at decreased temperature).  The white chocolate mousse was grainy like a bowl of millet, and to top it off, it separated, with the whole underbelly of the bowl a liquid-y mess.  The best component of the dessert; the too-sweet strawberries.  Overall I was so disappointed! Burned, grainy, and over-sweetened to the point I had to stop. Whomp Whoomp!  This time last year I was also indulging in strawberry shortcake, but with far more favorable results.

Tres Leches Cake

It was for Natasha's 21st birthday that I made this cake last weekend, and it had some odd requirements.  Natasha lives 8 hours away, and my mom and I were driving half way north to meet her, she drove half way south.  In the middle we met, snowshoeing, drinking wine in front of a fireplace curled up with blankets, cross country skiing and laughing our butts off.  I sent Natasha a list of cakes to choose from and she sent me three options back.  Of the three there was only one that was a practical choice since the cake needed to be baked before we left and eaten two days later.  I assumed the caramel syrup would relieve any dryness that developed in the cake as it sat. The other requirement I had was that it also needed to be able to stay together in the back of the car for four hours, during the long drive. For which of course, this cake was suitable.

Now, I've had some awesome tres leche cake before, without the caramel component, so I only assumed this cake would be even better. Unfortunately, I couldn't have been more wrong.  The cake was boring, bland, and after two days totally dry.  It was a very disappointing birthday cake if there ever was one.  Maybe this cake would be better if it was consumed on the same day it was baked.  I personally think the cake was too dry regardless, but I might have to try again, to give it a better chance.  Currently I believe there are far better recipes out there.

Baking notes:
-I did not cut the cake in half and layer it with whip cream, it seemed that it was already a doomed cake.
-I used only half the amount of whip cream called for in the frosting, it was enough.
-Watch the baking time closely, and start checking around 30 minutes.  Mine came out early.

The recipe for Tres Leches Cake can't be found online.

65/569

Chocolate Tart with Candied Cranberries

Merry Christmas! The holiday has come and gone, and I hope yours was every bit as magical as you expected. We're not quite done our celebrating, we've got one more family dinner tomorrow night, and it's my favourite: ham!  This dessert here capped off a delicious turkey dinner, unfortunately not so deliciously.  In fact this was a recipe fail.  First of all, I'm sick of cranberries, I feel like there have been an awful lot of them lately. (This is the fifth cranberry recipe from this book in one year).  Secondly, this method of baking the cranberries left them a little bitter.  But that wasn't my least favourite part.  It might be my own fault that I disliked this recipe so much, because even though the recipe specifically stated that no chocolate with a cocoa content higher than 61% was to be used, I thought I knew better.  I subbed out half the chocolate for an 80% dark chocolate and it left the filling very bitter.  I didn't have the creme de cassis (black currant liqueur) called for either, and used an orange liqueur instead.  It was bitter and overpowering, and not very good.  It got left on a lot of plates.  Fail. Not the way I wanted to end a great Christmas meal.

Baking notes:
-I used the wrong type of chocolate and liqueur in the filling.  Next time, follow the directions!
-I bake the cranberries hours before I put them on top of the filling because I was short on time.  I'm not sure what the difference was, maybe some of the berries weren't as candied as they could be.

57/569

The recipe for Chocolate Tart with Candied Cranberries can be found on the epicurious website.

Semisweet Chocolate Layer Cake with Vanilla Cream Filling

My last shift before the start of my weekend I received a flu shot.  Not one that I wanted, mind you, but one that I got anyway.  Less than 24 hours later I was laid up on the couch with the flu.  It might be part of the reason this cake bombed so bad, because as you can see, bad things happened.  During the making of this cake I went from perfectly healthy to very sick, all in a matter of hours.  We tried the cake a few days later and promptly threw it out.  It sucked that bad.  Reviews on this cake are mixed, some people hated it, others loved it.  I'm firmly in the hate category, but for a few different reasons.  Oddly the cake recipe on the website is not the same as the recipe I used in the book.  If you follow the online recipe, your results might be dramatically better, let me know!

Firstly, is the matter of the actual cake layers.  The cake was so fragile it literally tore apart in my hands. Strangely this is not a problem I usually have, I'm a (fairly) gentle baker.  I believe it had to do with the cake flour called for, it made the cake way too delicate.  Of course, it could have been a creaming method problem as well, we'll never know.  Second, I take issue with the whip cream layers, which never set up as firm as they could have.  When the cake was placed on top of the whip cream they separated into four (or more) pieces, thus moving outwards and leaving giant gaps in the cake. By the time this happened I was feeling very crummy and I threw the cake in the fridge to set. I made the chocolate layer and left it on the counter, both needed to sit for two hours and I collapsed on the couch.  I never got up that afternoon.  Two days later, when I got around to it, I tried to salvage the now rock hard chocolate frosting by whipping it with the mixer.  This resulted in a split frosting.  I piled it on top of the cake and left it.  Enough was enough, was there a point in salvaging a doomed cake?

We tried a slice, but were totally disappointed.  The texture left much to be desired and the flavour wasn't anything but sweet.  There was an absence of true chocolate flavour in the cake layer and a defined vanilla flavour in the whip cream. Everything felt both cloying sweet and strangely mute.  I tossed it in the garbage, as it was taking valuable space in our tiny refrigerator.  Yes, having a small kitchen means that sometimes treats get tossed.  Sorry. (but not.)

Baking notes:
-I made this cake exactly as outlined in the book.  It's not the same recipe as the one online (even though it has the same name).  Unfortunately I wasted a lot of ingredients in this cake, including 18 oz of chocolate.  So sad.
-I stopped following the recipe when the ganache was meant to be poured.  I was to sick too get off the couch, and tried whipping it the following day.
-Fail, total fail.

The recipe for Semisweet Chocolate Layer Cake with Vanilla Cream Filling can be found on the epicurious website.  (Hopefully a better version, give it a shot and let me know.)

47/569

Pear and Fig Pie with Hazelnut Crust

I must state, with all sincerity, that this recipe was truly disappointing.  I feel like I've had a bad run lately, with subpar recipes and discouraging outcomes.  It doesn't help in this pie's instance that I'm not a great pie maker.  I have one recipe that works and this is clearly not it.  I don't know if it's my warm hands, but it can't be total inexperience since I've made many, many recipes.  Once again this one disappoints, dry and crunchy, not at all flaky and light.  The nuttiness is there, which is pleasant, but the pears don't shine and the figs feel awkward, like the melding of the flavours never happened.  There is a nice pop of lemon, but it isn't enough to save the pie from it's bland and poorly-textured doom.

I realize post recipe that I messed it up.  The recipe calls for 1 1/2 sticks of butter (3/4 cup) and I put in 3/4 of a stick (1/3 cup).  This of course, would make a huge difference to the overall recipe.  I also noticed that the recipe online has an added 2 Tbsp of ice water added, to make the dough much more workable and cohesive I'm sure.  Drat.  This could have been so much better!

Baking notes:
-As I said, I messed up the crust recipe, be sure I follow the ingredient list properly and your results will be much better.
-I added only about 1/4 cup of sugar rather than 1/2 cup.
-My pears were a little under ripe, I'm sure the filling would be that much better with very ripe and sweet pears.
-I would also say that a little added spice would go a long way to improving this pie.  A little ginger or maybe some finely chopped rosemary.

The recipe for Pear and Fig Pie with Hazelnut Crust can be found on the epicurious website.

33/569

Hazelnut Meringue Drops

As you can see, there is clearly nothing meringue-y or drop-y about...well whatever this is.  Instead of light fluffy puffy little clouds with a tiny crisp shell, you get something very different.  I can tell you straight away what went wrong.  One egg white had a little bit of yolk in it.  That's it, that's all it takes, a little (tiny) bit of fat in the swirl of white and your egg whites won't whip.  I had four egg whites sitting in the fridge, sloshing around a bit for my attention every time I opened the fridge.  I decided to use them for this recipe, because frankly I didn't want an egg white omelette.  What do you do with all your leftover whites?  Next time I'm making a frosting, of the swiss buttercream style.  Now that is a good use of whites, do you think?

Baking notes:
-I could tell my whites were not going to whip, but I already had everything ready to go, so I powered on and prayed for a miracle.  Unfortunately it didn't happen, but I'm not that disappointed.
-I followed the recipe exactly, but because the whites didn't whip I just poured it into a pan and places it in the oven.
-I baked the meringue for 35 minutes at 300 F.  When I took it would I could tell it was complete garbage, so I decided to make something crispy and crunchy.  I put the "cookie" back in the oven at 150 F for 1 1/2 hours.  By then it really was crunchy.  We ate part of it broken up and then threw it out.

You can find the recipe for Hazelnut Meringue Drops on the epicurious website.

29/569

Individual Plum Cobblers with Hazelnut Topping

This recipe is the first I actually, genuinely, did not like.  To the point that I didn't eat it!  There were several things I found unappetizing. Firstly, the plums got way to thick and gummy, and they tasted bitter oddly.  The biscuit topping was dry and sandy textured.  Together I was totally unimpressed.  I'm not sure if it was even my fault.  I did make a half batch, and substituted cornstarch for tapioca, which I suppose could thicken a little stronger.  I also used an odd shape ramekin, which would have altered the baking time.  The biscuits were just plain bad, and I was sure not to over mix them.  All and all it was a total fail. Boo!

Baking notes:
-As stated I halved the recipe, changed the size of the baking dish, and substituted cornstarch for tapioca.
-I also omitted the cinnamon and added a touch of ginger powder.

The recipe for plum cobblers with hazelnut topping can be found on the epicurious website.

22/569