Christmas Melting Snow Cake

Merry Christmas! We hope that you are having a wonderful holiday season. No matter what holiday you celebrate, this is a cake that can be celeb rated and enjoyed by all, enjoy our Melting Snow Cake. This is a spiced pound cake with a marshmallow fluff layer on the outside. This cake doesn’t get its name for any reason….it is a small cake, but is messy cake to make, so beware. If you are not feeling the messy frosting, and want something more prim looking feel free to buy a can of frosting and mixing our marshmallow fluff in with it!

Enjoy!

Ingredients: Serves about 4-6

Marshmallow Fluff:
3 egg whites room temperature
2 cups corn syrup
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cake:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan 
 2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan 
 1 cup sugar 
 4 large eggs 
 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 
 1/2 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoon ground ginger
1.5 teaspoon ground clove
1.5 teaspoon cinnamon

Start by making the marshmallow fluff and preheating the oven to 350 degrees.  Pour corn syrup into the egg whites, and beat on a high speed with an electric mixer until the mixture doubles, about 5-6 minutes.  Slowly add in your powdered sugar while mixing on low. Once completely mixed, add vanilla extract. Place in fridge until ready to use.

Butter your cake pans. We used two 8 inch round pans.  Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition then add vanilla and salt.

With mixer on low, gradually add flour, and all of your spices, beating just until combined.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

Let cool completely before you start to put the cake together. If the top of the cake is too rounded you can simply take a knife to flatten the tops off. Start by putting a layer of fluff in between the two cakes, if you are afraid of your cake sliding, then secure with toothpicks. Place second cake on top. Cover in fluff. When we made it the fluff poured all down the side because it is so heavy, so we placed in the freezer immediately for about 5 minutes.

Don’t leave in freezer for longer than 15 minutes, because it will be difficult to eat! Before serving dust with powdered sugar!

Tada!

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Potato Pancakes with Awesome Sides!!!!

Happy Hanukkah!!  Whatever holiday you celebrate, there is not a single person who can say they don’t like latkes! I mean come on, a delicious potato pancake served with awesome sides. While making them for this recipe we probably ate 10 of them, but made sure we had enough left to photograph. I am eating one as I type this, cold…because they are awesome hot or cold.

These are some straight forward delish potato latkes with some very amazing garnishes…cinnamon/pear/apricot jam, ponzu sour cream, and some jalapeno bacon jam! Though the bacon jam isn’t kosher….it’s wonderful!

This recipe makes about a dozen! Maybe more but you will have a dozen after you eat the ones right out the pan.

Ingredients:

Potato Pancakes:
1 bottle vegetable oil
7 Russet potatoes
1 large shallot
2 eggs
¾ cup wheat flour
Kosher Salt

Jalapeno Bacon Jam:
1 pack bacon
4 jalapenos
½ cup brown sugar
½ lemon

Cinnamon Pear Jam:
4 small apricots
2 large bosc pears
½ cup sugar
½ lemon
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Ponzu Sour Cream:
½ cup sour cream
2 Tablespoons Ponzu
2 teaspoons Siracha

 

Start by making garnishes so that you have them ready.

Jalapeno Bacon Jam:

Remove seeds from jalapenos and chop. Dice bacon as well. In a large skillet on a medium high heat, render bacon and jalapeno stirring every few minutes. Cook for about 15 minutes or until browned a bit.

Place in a food processor and blend slightly. Add back into the pan. Lower heat until medium and add a ¼ cup of water, cook until water has evaporated. Add another ¼ cup of water, the sugar, and squeeze the half lemon. Stir, and let cook for about  6 minutes.

Remove from heat, and let sit.

Cinnamon Pear Jam:

Chop up apricots and pears and place in small sauce pan on medium high heat. Using a masher, mash up fruit until mostly liquid with small pieces. Bring fruit to a boil.

Once boiling, squeeze the lemon half, and stir in sugar. Let that come to a boil for 2 minutes, and then lower heat to a simmer.

Let simmer and cook down, stirring every few minutes, for about 25 minutes.

Set aside and let cool.

Ponzu Sour Cream:

This one is very simple… simply mix all the ingredients together!

Potato Pancakes:

To make the pancakes peel all of the potatoes. You are going to be preparing the potatoes into three different ways, so basically into thirds. Cube two of the potatoes, and place in a pot of salted water, and bring to a boil. Let boil for 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, grate the remainder of the potatoes, with the large side of a grater. Press with a paper towel to get rid of excess moisture.

Now, chop up the shallot, and take half of the grated potatoes and place into a food processor with the shallot and pulse. Place back into the large bowl with the grated potatoes.

Once the boiling potatoes are tender, drain and mash up. Place those into the large bowl with the rest of the potatoes.

Using a large spoon mix all the potato mix together, with a large pinch of salt, two eggs, and the wheat flour. Now your mix is ready.

In a large skillet on medium heat, heat up about a ¼ inch of oil. When the oil is ready, plop in a spoonful of potato mix and push down. Place about 3 pancakes in. Cook for about 7 minutes, flipping halfway through. Place on a paper towel to drain excess oil, and sprinkle with salt.

Voila! Now serve with garnishes and enjoy!

 

Winter Pasta!

Christmas is right around the corner, the temperatures are dropping a bit, life is getting bit more hectic. We have a created a simple yet delicious kale, mushroom, and sausage pasta with a noisette sauce. This is a dish you can throw together at the last minute and satisfy a family!

*We used Casarecce pasta, it holds flavor nicely, but go ahead and used whatever kind you want!

Ingredients: serves 4

1 box casarecce pasta
2 heads kale
2 cups oyster mushrooms
4 Italian sausages
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons ponzu
1 Tablespoon oil
A few inches of Salt

Start by cleaning and slicing both kale and your mushrooms separately. In a large sauté pan heat up your oil on medium high heat, and put all of your kale in. Using tongs, turn the kale so it evenly cooks for the first few minutes. Add the ponzu and let the kale cook down, turning every 5 minutes for about 25 minutes.  Once the 25 minutes are up, add the mushrooms. Let cook an additional 10 minutes, turning every few minutes. Remove from pan, and set aside.

Depending on what kind of sausage you purchase, some are cooked first, others are raw; if cooked slice and brown. If not, poke small holes, cook all the way through, and then slice. Set aside.

Fill a pot with water and a pinch of salt. Once water has boiled add pasta and cook until just al dente about 9 minutes.

Cube your butter, and melt it in the same sauté pan as you cooked your kale on a medium heat. Cook until the butter becomes a light golden color, add a pinch of salt. When butter becomes the color, it becomes almost nutty and very delicious.

Once pasta is cooked, drain, and place into butter, and make sure all the pasta gets coated in butter. Next add kale, mushrooms, and sausage, and toss together! Sprinkle with extra salt to your taste!

Enjoy!

Winter 2014-2015

Winter is a wonderful time of year! We get to think about others, eat too much food, make resolutions, celebrate stuff. So enjoy your winter time!

Love,

Michael and Francesca