Candace in the Kitchen

Archive for June, 2009

So I lied in my last post. I’m sorry. i just didn’t have time to post this yesterday.

Anyway, this was my first fondant experience. Making it, using it, whatever- I’d never done it before so I’m pretty pleased with the results. Sorry for the crappy pictures. The lighting in this building sucks.

I made 2 batches of marshmallow fondant. I kept one whole batch and about 1/4 of the second batch white. I used gel food coloring to dye the remainder of the fondant for the polka dots.

The cake was so good! It was super rich so it was good that the cake was cut into small pieces. The buttercream used between the layers wasn’t overly sweet so the combination of the cake, butter cream and fondant wasn’t overwhelming- unless you got an outside piece. IMO, that was just a little too much fondant in one serving. Despite that, I didn’t see very many people peeling it off.

(For the cake above I made 2 9×13 cakes, 1 batch of buttercream and 2 batches of fondant)

Cake and Buttercream adapted from Kevin and Amanda

Fondant from Peggy Weaver

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 small box Jello instant chocolate pudding mix (not the sugar or fat free kind!)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips

Buttercream:

1 cup shortening (crisco) (I NEVER ever use shortening (yuck!) so I replaced this with unsalted butter)
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Fondant:

16 oz mini marshmallows

2 T water

2 lbs powdered sugar

Shortening, for greasing countertop, hands etc (again, I don’t use shortening so I used unsalted butter)

Directions:

Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a VERY large bowl (4 qt), mix together everything except chocolate chips. Batter will be thick.

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Pour batter into cake pan of choice. I used a 9×13 pan and it took about 40 minutes.

Buttercream:

In a mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy.

Add sugar and continue creaming until well blended.

Add salt, vanilla, and whipping cream. Blend on low speed until moistened.

Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.

Fondant:

Put marshmallows in water in a large bowl.

Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each 30 seconds, until melted.

Stir 3/4 of the powdered sugar into the marshmallows.

Pour onto a greased countertop and with greased hands knead in the rest of the powdered sugar.

Knead together until it forms a smooth ball. 8-10 minutes. (This will make your forearms crazy sore)

*Note- I tried this in my mixer. It wouldn’t blend in all of the sugar, it was easier to do by hand.

You can use right away or grease some plastic wrap and store in the fridge. If you are going to add coloring, do it now.

Assembly is pretty obvious.

Put buttercream between the layers and put a light crumb coat on the outside. Don’t forget to save some to stick on the circles.

Roll the fondant out to about 1/8″ inch thickness. Cut the colored fondant into desired shapes.

Place white fondant over the cake, cut away excess and smooth any imperfections.

Put some of the buttercream on the back of the colored fondant shapes and stick on the cake.

That’s it!

What’s it for? Find out Monday!

Unless it totally sucks, then we’ll just forget that I ever posted this.

This is my first ever Barefoot Bloggers post! Ellyn of The Recipe Collector and Tester chose Curried Couscous for the first June BB recipe.

I’m not going to lie- when I read the ingredients I didn’t think I would like this AT ALL. Curry + raisins!? I should have known better than to doubt Ina. It is a really tasty dish.

The only changes I made were to use whole wheat couscous and I left out the turmeric since I didn’t have any.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups couscous (I used whole wheat)

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup good olive oil

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon curry powder

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric (I omitted)

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup small-diced carrots

1/2 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/2 cup dried currants or raisins (I used golden raisins)

1/4 cup blanched, sliced almonds (I just used packaged sliced almonds)

2 scallions, thinly sliced (white and green parts)

1/4 cup small-diced red onion

Directions:

Place the couscous in a medium bowl. Melt the butter in the boiling water and pour over the couscous. Cover tightly and allow the couscous to soak for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

Whisk together the yogurt, olive oil, vinegar, curry, turmeric (if using), salt, and pepper. Pour over the fluffed couscous, and mix well with a fork. Add the carrots, parsley, raisins, almonds, scallions, and red onions, mix well, and season to taste. Serve at room temperature.

Don’t forget to check out the Barefoot Bloggers page to see everyone else’s results!

I love these peppers. They are great as a side dish or a meal and since it’s just veggies they are pretty healthy too.

Loosely adapted from : Rachael Ray

Ingredients:

4 poblano peppers, halved and seeded*

1 T oil

1 jalapeño pepper, minced (you can seed it if you want less heat)

1 medium red onion, diced

2 cups sweet corn, fresh or frozen

1 can fire roasted tomatoes, drained

1/2 t cumin

1/4 t Mexican oregano

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Char the poblanos. You can do this on the grill or in the oven, set temp to “broil”

In a large stainless steel pan heat oil and add onions and jalapeño. Cook until onions are translucent.

Add corn and cook until it is starting to char a bit.

Add seasonings and cook about 1 minute until fragrant, stirring occasionally.

Add tomatoes and cook until heated through.

Fill charred poblanos with corn mixture.

You could top them with cheese and heat under the broiler, but I don’t think they need it.

Notes: Because the heat level of poblanos varies from pepper to pepper I sometimes get some mild ones and some super, super hot ones in the same batch.