PPQ: Baby Shower and Cran-Orange Sparklers

This week the Project Pastry Queen members are having a virtual  baby shower for Emily and BabyRuf! The shower is being hosted by Emily of A Gilt Nutmeg, and you can head over to her site to see everyone’s contributions!

I decided to make a festive drink for the party. I went with cran-raspberry and orange flavors, but you could use this method with any flavor combination you prefer. This drink is sparkling and fruity without being too sweet, and it is non-alcoholic since this is a baby shower.

Congratulations to Emily and her family, and blessings to BabyRuf!

Cran-Orange Sparklers (my original recipe)

1 (12 fl. oz.) can cranberry-raspberry cocktail/juice concentrate

12 fl. oz. orange juice

12 fl. oz. water

1 orange

Sparkling water, ginger ale, or club soda (I used Orange Citrus Seltzer Water)

Slice the orange. In a pitcher, combine the concentrate, orange juice, water and orange slices, then chill in the refrigerator. If desired, save a couple orange slices to garnish glasses.

To serve, rub an orange slice on rims of glasses, dip in sugar, and add ice. Fill glass 2/3 full with juice and top off with sparkling water. Stir gently and enjoy!

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PPQ: Rocket Rolls

This week’s Project Pastry Queen recipe was Ruby-Flecked Florentines, hosted by Missy. You can see her post with the recipe for these lacy, fruity cookies over on her creativemissy blog. You can also click here to see how the other PPQ members made this recipe.

In general, I’m not so much a fan of dried fruit in cookies, so I used this week to make a different Pastry Queen recipe: Rocket Rolls. I’m glad I picked these rolls! They were the best dinner rolls I have ever had. Completely light and fluffy, not too sweet or eggy, and all around perfect! They were just as good alongside soup at dinner as with scrambled eggs for breakfast. And Little Lady, who is a bit of a picky eater, loved them!

The only changes I made to the original recipe were:

~ Cut the recipe in half (this yielded 13 large dinner rolls)

~ Omit the cinnamon

I’ll be making these rolls again soon, and they may even become my fancy-holiday-dinner rolls. If you are looking for an easy way to add homemade bread to a meal, I hope you’ll try these rolls. As an extra bonus, they’ll make your house smell fantastic as they bake!

Rocket Rolls (adapted from The Pastry Queen, Rebecca Rather)

1/2 Tablespoon instant yeast (a.k.a. bread machine yeast)

1 cup lukewarm water (more as needed)

1/8 cup canola oil

1 large egg

3/8 cup sugar

3-1/4 cups bread flour

1/2 Tablespoon sea salt

Olive oil, for brushing on rolls

Using a mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the yeast, water, oil, egg, and sugar. Add the flour and mix on medium-low speed until the dough holds together, about 5 minutes (if a cohesive dough doesn’t form, add water 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough forms). Let the dough rest in the bowl for 20 minutes.

Sprinkle the salt over the dough and mix on low speed for 1 minute. Transfer the dough to a large bowl that has been lightly greased with oil or cooking spray. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1.5 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, or grease. Punch down the dough, coating your hands with a little flour if the dough is sticky. Pinch off pieces and roll into balls (mine were a little bigger than golf balls). Place the dough balls on the baking sheet, keeping about 2 inches of space in between.  Cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel and let rise about 20-30 minutes, until the dough is light and soft with the consistency of a marshmallow. The rolls will not double in bulk during this rising.

Bake the rolls for 20-30 minutes, until golden brown. Remove them from the oven and brush with a light coating of olive oil. Serve warm and enjoy!

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PPQ: Mahogany Cake

This is my week hosting Project Pastry Queen, and all I can say is wow, I am so glad this is the recipe I picked to make during the week of Big Man’s birthday. Because if ever there was a decadent, pull-out-all-the-stops, grown-ups-only birthday cake, this is it.

Generally, I’m not a fan of Bundt cakes. Most of the ones I’ve tasted are really dry and kinda flavorless. Not so with this cake. Instead, the Mahogany Cake is very tender and not at all dry, especially with the layer of melted dark chocolate and plentiful glaze.

The cake definitely gets full points for flavor. This is no “add a bit of coffee to bring out the chocolate flavor” recipe. This is a full-on, coffee-and-chocolate-are-equals, sinfully dark cake. I’ve never tasted a coffee and chocolate dessert that was this heavy on the coffee flavor, and it was a really nice flavor balance.

I did make a couple slight changes to the original recipe. I used all purpose flour instead of cake flour to compensate for the high altitude. Also, after looking in 3 different grocery stores, I couldn’t find a coffee-flavored dark chocolate bar so I just used a dark chocolate bar.

I hope I’m selling you on this cake. It is one of my favorite Pastry Queen recipes that I’ve tried. I’ll definitely be making it again soon, maybe for my own birthday in a couple weeks!

To see how the other PPQ members made this cake, click here.

Mahogany Cake (from The Pastry Queen, by Rebecca Rather)

Cake

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 cup boiling water

1 rounded tablespoon instant espresso powder

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups sifted cake flour (sifted then measured)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 ounces dark chocolate flavored with coffee, coarsely chopped

 

Mahogany Icing

1/4 cup boiling water

2 tablespoons instant espresso powder

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups sifted powdered sugar (sifted then measured)

 

To Make the Cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 10- to 12-cup Bundt pan with butter or cooking spray, sprinkle lightly with all purpose flour, and tap over the sink to remove any excess flour (or spray evenly with Baker’s Joy). Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl on medium speed about 2 minutes, until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating on medium speed about 20 seconds after each addition.

Pour the boiling water into a medium bowl. Stir in the espresso powder and then the cocoa, stirring until smooth after each addition. Stir in the sour cream and vanilla. Place the sifted flour in another medium bowl; stir in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just incorporated. Add half of the cocoa-sour cream mixture and beat until just incorporated. Continue adding the dry and wet ingredients alternately, ending with dry ingredients. Stir in the chopped chocolate.

Spoon the batter, which will be thick, into the prepared pan. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (After about 40 minutes, the cake may crack slightly around the middle, and the crack may look slightly wet. Test with a toothpick anyway; the cake may be done.) If overbaked the cake will dry out. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, invert onto a rack, and cool for 20 minutes before icing.

To Make the Icing: Pour the boiling water into a medium bowl. Stir in the espresso powder and then the cocoa, stirring until smooth after each addition. Stir in the butter and vanilla and add the salt and powdered sugar. Stir until smooth.

Set the cooled cake on a large serving plate and spoon the icing over it, covering it completely. The icing will pool in the hole in the middle of the cake as well as on the outside edges of the plate. The icing will cool within 30 minutes, making it possible to cover the cake with plastic wrap without smearing it.

The covered glazed cake will keep at least 2 days at room temperature. It can be frozen up to 3 weeks.

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