Easy Baking

Easy Bake Set-Up Still Life
Power tools are necessary when you cannot find a single normal screwdriver in your house

Playing with my Easy Bake Oven today!

The reasons are simple: I promised Mother Humble I would blog about her oh-so-hilarious gift and I am running low on essential baking ingredients. I'm nearly over the whole spider-episode I spoke of yesterday, so hopefully I'll be out of the house and restocking the Humble Household with necessary ingredients soon.

So today we're tackling my childhood dream of Easy Bake layer cakes. Equipped with cake mix, oven, light-bulb and power-tools we're making the twice branded Easy Bake Betty Crocker Party Cake. Complete with party-inducing sprinkles in the batter.

Let's start with the prep...

Yea, that's parchment

What?! The parchment cake rounds for easy bake pans shouldn't surprise you. If I had tiny insulated baking strips I would use those too.

Parchment is a necessary insurance policy against light-bulb bonded cake batter and the horror of trying to frost a pile of jagged cake chunks. Parchment is what really makes baking easy.

Eight year-old's would use parchment too, they just don't know they need it yet.

Delicious Cake powder! Hungry yet?

Now we have the cake mix. Just add water! Two teaspoons to be exact. Does cake get any easier than that?

When is Nasbro going to make a Genoise mix for me?

So I add my water... and it looks like cake paste.

Lucky for me, the recipe provides some instructions"

"If the batter seems dry, add water one drop at a time until it is the consistency of cake batter."

Oh well that's no problem. Cake batter only has one consistency, right? I just add a random amount of water to the mix, until it achieves a consistency Nasbro thinks that I would think it should look like. Crystal clear.

Now I understand the "results may vary" warning on the package.

So I add some more water, about a teaspoon, and pour my batter into my pan. Now we're ready to easy bake. So I push the pan into the oven, using my burns-are-bad safety-stick and wait the prescribed 10 minutes. Then I shove my safety-stick into the slot again and push the cake into the "cooling area".


Unfortunately the trip through the easy bake contraption resulted in the top of the cake being sheared off my the same flaps that prevent me from sticking my arm into the device.

Boo! Not only does the device curtail my compulsive desire to touch dangerous things, it mangles my cake.

Maybe they need to make the opening taller? Or maybe my cake is just too fluffy and perfect? Perhaps I am just that good. I'm a easy bake master!

Maybe not.

Okay, so I messed up the frosting. How does one mess up a just-add-water frosting?

You add too much water.

Apparently Ms. Humble cannot read. Something you may believe, given the rather slapdash proof-reading work I do on the blog. Still, I could have sworn the "recipe" called for 1 1/2 teaspoons per package, but apparently it is just 1/2 teaspoons. Whoops.

So I resuscitate my over-hydrated frosting dust with some powdered sugar and whipped it into something I could slather my cakes with.



This was a tough cake to frost. So delicate I really couldn't do a proper crumb coat or frosting application. So I just gently daubed on the frosting. It suppose it looks respectable enough, given the tools I'm working with.



Speaking of tools... am I supposed to cut with this? This bizarre Lilliputian, blade-less knife? Forget about it. Someone get me my Global!


Though I'm all for the mini cake server. I need this.



So how does it taste?

This is not a great cake. Ms. Humble's inner child is a little disappointed.

Something about the cake's texture is off. It seems spongy. However the real problem is the taste and aroma. The cake has this odd, lingering flavor. Like a combination of powdered gelatin and the water leftover from poaching eggs.

Pass. Maybe the cookie mixes are better?

Or maybe I should stick to baking cakes the old fashioned way.

Pecan Dulce de Leche Cookies

Happy Monday folks!

Sorry for the rather scant posting late last week. We've been preparing the house for another visit from Mother Humble and this time she's bringing friends with her. So we've been working hard to make sure the place is presentable. Even going so far as organizing the pantry and garage.



The pantry was a bit more fun than the garage. I got to go nuts with Italian canning jars. While putting the garage in order, the spiders went nuts on me.

I spent the weekend recovering from a spider bite. Fever, chills, nausea, aches and so much more! It was loads of fun! Rather than getting things done--like grocery shopping--I spent the weekend in a delusional state, thinking that in addition to every blanket in the house, I should cover myself with printer paper to keep warm.

So Monday rolls around and I'm feeling a little better and I hit my pantry, only to discover I have a single egg to bake with. One egg.

That really limits a gal's baking options, so we're doing pecan butter cookies today.



Pecan Dulce de Leche Cookies
adapted from In the Sweet Kitchen
yields roughly 25 2" sandwiches
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup rice flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup pecans, coarsely chopped pecans

dulce de leche for sandwiching

In your food processor, combine the flour, rice flour, sugar and salt. Give it a quick whirl to combine. Add the butter cubes and vanilla and process until it begins to lose the fine crumbly texture and come together. Then add the pecans and mix. The less you blend the better. If you pinch the dough and it holds together, it is ready.



Pour the crumbly dough out onto a piece of parchment paper and cover it with a second sheet. Roll out the dough between the parchment to 1/4" thick. Cut out your cookies and transfer them to baking sheets lined with parchment. Place the sheets in the freezer for 10 minutes until firm and then bake at 325 for 12-15 minutes.

Once the cookies are firm and the edges just beginning to take on some color, remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.



Sandwich the cookies with a little dulce de leche and serve.

For folks not wishing to bother with the caramel, the sandy pecan butter cookies are equally delicious without.

Treacle Tart

Back in my kitchen today.

I was planning on cooking with my little Easy Bake Oven, only to discover it doesn't come with a light-bulb to cook with! So I dig around my home trying to find a incandescent light-bulb only to realize I've been thwarted by my own environmental consciousness.

Blasted compact florescent bulbs! Curse you for denying me mini Funfetti cakes coated in frosting made from powder!

So I swallowed my disappointment and decided I would cook in my real oven.

Today we're making a treacle tart, a classic English treat. A dessert I have never actually tasted.

Now usually, when I cook on the blog I have some familiarity with what I'm making. That way I have some idea of how it should turn out. However with this dessert, I'm embarrassed to admit that my only familiarity with it is through Harry Potter (not exactly a prime culinary reference) and a chance encounter with the cooler case at Waitrose. So I hit up my blogger friend and Englishman, Mr. P for help. He advised me that if I wanted to be traditional, I should avoid recipes where the filling has been softened with cream or eggs, and so I have.



If you're comfortable with making pie crusts, you'll find this tart very simple and easy to make. The tart is filled with a mixture of breadcrumbs, treacle and a bit of lemon and/or ginger. The filling is... different. Firm and sweet, with the flavors of slightly caramelized sugar and brightened with the lemon and ginger.

Served warm or cold, it is best with a creamy accompaniment. Serve it up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, clotted cream or my favorite, gobs of lightly sweetened whipped cream.




Treacle Tart
yields one 9" tart, serves 6-8

Crust:
150g all purpose flour
113g cold unsalted butter, cubed
pinch salt
5-6 tablespoons ice cold water

Filling:
235g golden syrup*
215g fresh white breadcrumbs*
zest of a large lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tsp ground ginger

Egg Wash:
1 large egg
1 teaspoon of water

*Note on the ingredients: Fresh breadcrumbs are not the same as those dry powdery breadcrumbs in a can. To make fresh breadcrumbs, use any slightly stale white bread you can find. Remove the crusts, toss into a food processor and pulse until light and fluffy. If your bread is too fresh, it may not work well in your machine, becoming dense and gummy. To turn fresh bread into crumbs, place the bread in a warm oven until slightly crusty, before processing.

If you lack a food processor, grate chunks of slightly stale bread with a box grater.

Golden Syrup is widely available, however in many parts of the United States it can be difficult to find. Many large grocery chains do carry small tins of Lyle's Golden Syrup either with the pancake syrups or on the baking aisle. You can also order it online from Amazon's Grocery & Gourmet Food.

In the bowl of your food processor, combine the flour, cubed butter and salt. Pulse until the bits of butter are a tad smaller than peas. Pulse in the water, adding a little at a time. Use just enough water to bind the dough.

Gather up the crumbs and form a ball, then wrap in plastic. Allow the dough to rest in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, pre-heat your oven to 375°F. Add the golden syrup to a medium sauce pan and place over medium-low heat. Swirl the syrup until it is warm and fluid. Add the remaining ingredients and mix to combine. Set aside and work on the crust.

Roll out 2/3rds of the dough and drape it over your tart pan. Roll out the remaining third of the dough into a rectangular sheet and then cut ribbons from it with either a knife or a fluted ravioli cutter.

Fill the tart with the breadcrumbs mixture and smooth.

Drape the strips over the tart to form a lattice (for a handy how-to click here)




Go around the edge of the pan pressing against the edge to trim off the extra crust and seal together the crust and lattice.


Lightly beat the egg and one teaspoon of water. Brush the pastry with the egg wash and then bake for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.


Now, I'm not sure how this tart holds up against other treacle tarts (though there really isn't much variation between recipes), tarts made by folks who know what they're doing. So I can't say if this tart is representational, but I'm really not head over heels in love with it. It is certainly edible, but it is a little on the dull side. The Little Humble doesn't seem to agree with me and is gobbling down hunks of it as I type, but I keep trying to think of things I could do to liven up the flavor and the texture.

Now I'm off to find a light bulb!