Martha Rocks my Socks

I (C) love Martha. I have been a fan her for a long time, way back before she was involved in insider trading, went to jail, was under house arrest, and had to wear an ankle monitor. I personally think that her show became much better after all the whole jail vacay. She is way less stuck up, and can look back on the whole debacle and even poke fun at herself once in a while!

Anyhow, here are a bunch of pictures of various baked goods that are from the Martha Stewart Baking Book. Also, a couple random recipes- just a collection of baking pictures I have on my computer.


A chocolate cake that I made this past Christmas. It is actually a modified box mix. I have to say that Betty Crocker cake mixes are pretty awesome! I added 1 cup of sour cream, an extra egg, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. The icing is a whipped ganaache, with an unwhipped ganache poured over the top. The ganache is just equal parts of whipping cream and chocolate. Whipping it makes it fluffy, moussey and dreamy.

Here are a couple Easter recipes:

Chocolate wafer cookies with chocolate ganache and coconut nests, with mini egg (favourites).
This is a Martha Recipe:


Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out dough
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
• Gel-paste food coloring
• 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
• 6 candy-coated chocolate eggs

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and sugar.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, and cocoa powder. Add flour mixture to butter mixture; mix on low speed just until a stiff dough forms, about 2 minutes. Transfer dough to a piece of plastic wrap, wrap tightly, and chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
3. Place chocolate, heavy cream, and espresso powder in a medium heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, stirring occasionally, until chocolate has melted. Remove bowl from heat, and set the chocolate ganache aside to cool, stirring occasionally.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out chilled dough to a 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 2 1/4-inch-round cookie cutter, cut out 24 cookies; place them on lined baking sheets. Chill cookies until firm, about 20 minutes.
5. Bake cookies until set, about 14 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. For colored coconut, combine a few drops of food coloring with 3 tablespoons water in a medium bowl. Stir in coconut; mix until evenly colored. Spread on an ungreased baking sheet; bake just until dry, about 12 minutes, being careful not to brown. Let coconut cool; transfer to a small bowl.
7. When the ganache has cooled to room temperature, whisk until it becomes stiff enough to pipe. Transfer ganache to a pastry bag fitted with a 3/8-inch-round tip, and pipe around perimeters of cookies. Dip each cookie, ganache-side down, into plain or colored coconut. Fill "nests" with candy-coated chocolate eggs, 2 or 3 eggs per nest. Store cookies in an airtight container, refrigerated, up to 3 days.

Bunny Bread

I don't really know what recipe I used, so can't post it, but I think they were rosemary bunny buns. Mega cute.


Chicky Cupcakes



Another amazing Martha recipe:
Cupcakes

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until incorporated; scrape down sides of bowl, and beat in vanilla.
2. Add flour mixture and milk alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.
3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan, and let cool completely on wire rack.

Makes 5 1/2 cups

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 6 large egg whites
• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. In a heatproof bowl set over simmering water, whisk sugar and egg whites until warm and sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Beat mixture on medium speed until completely cooled and stiff peaks have formed, about 10 minutes.
2. Add butter, a few tablespoons at a time; beat until combined. Add vanilla and salt; beat on low speed until smooth, about 5 minutes.

To Decorate:

• 4 cups sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
• 1 piece (10 inches) black licorice lace, cut into 40 (1/3-inch) pieces
• 20 whole almonds
• 140 red candy-coated licorice pastels (about 1/3 cup), or pieces of snipped red licorice laces

1. Bake cupcakes and cool completely. When turned upside-down, each cupcake becomes the body of a chick. Spread buttercream frosting on a cupcake to anchor it to the serving plate while you are working. Use a small offset spatula to coat the sides thickly with frosting, and then mound more on top to create a dome shape
2. Press toasted shredded coconut into the frosting -- it stands in for fuzzy feathers. Hold the plate at an angle while applying the coconut so the excess falls back into the bowl.
3. Place eyes (made from snipped black licorice laces) on chicks using tweezers. Use a whole almond for the beak and red licorice for the feet and comb; both can be pushed into the frosting by hand.

This is my FAVOURITE carrot cake, and I make it at every family gathering. It is also the carrot cake that I mentioned in my Hong Kong post- the one I made in my cousin's teeny kitchen. It is a recipe from Best of Bridges. I like my carrot cake without nuts or raisins or pineapple- just moist, sweet, spiced, carrot-y, cake-y goodness. This cake is even better the next day, straight out of the fridge. It stays moist for at least 3 days after it's baked, but it rarely lasts that long in my house!

I double the recipe to get a big, tall double layer cake. You could just cut the one layer in half to make a double layer cake, but this cake is so good that I always double it.


Karrot's Cake:
3/4 cup corn oil
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/3 tsp. baking soda (!)
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups finely grated carrots (4-5)

Icing
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, room temperature. (Don't use spreadable or light cream cheese!)
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

Instructions:
To make cake: Beat together oil and sugar. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine dry ingredients and add to egg mixture. Beat all together until well blended. Fold in raw carrots. Bake 1 hour at 300 F. in a greased 9"x13" pan. (Can also be made in a bundt pan.)
To make icing: Soften cream cheese and butter; beat well. Add sugar and vanilla and beat again. Spread on cooled cake.

This is another one of my favourite cakes- it's from Nigella's book, How to be a Domestic Goddess. I have made it countless times, and it always gets rave reviews. It is a simple sponge cake with a layer of meringue, sprinkled with slivered almonds. This picture shows the cake without the top layer.



Strawberry Meringue Cake

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

I make these every Christmas to give away as presents. I use Martha's recipe, but modify it by using almonds instead of pistachios, and I dip the finished biscotti in melted chocolate and chopped almonds to fancy it up a little.



Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
• 3 large eggs, plus 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (2 1/2 ounces) unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped

Directions;

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Place cranberries in a small bowl; add boiling water. Let stand until plump, about 15 minutes. Drain, and set aside. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add 3 eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture, and mix on low speed until combined. Mix in cranberries and pistachios.
3. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Shape each piece into a 16-by-2-inch log, and transfer to prepared baking sheet, about 3 inches apart. With the palm of your hand, flatten logs slightly. Brush beaten egg over surface of the dough logs, and sprinkle generously with sugar.
4. Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until logs are slightly firm to touch, about 25 minutes. Transfer logs on parchment paper to a wire rack to cool slightly, about 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.
5. Place logs on a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut logs crosswise on the diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place a wire rack on a large rimmed baking sheet. Arrange slices, cut sides down, on rack. Bake until firm to touch, about 30 minutes. Remove pan from oven; let biscotti cool completely on rack. Biscotti can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

This post is getting far too long, so I won't post recipes for these two cakes now. They're both Martha cakes though- this one is a Pumpkin Spice Cake with Brown Butter Glaze.


This one is a Yellow Butter Cake with Chocolate Buttercream frosting.



And a picture of my two babies, thrown in for good measure:

I miss them!!! Too bad my mom can't ship one of them over to me here in Australia! :(