I Think A Cake Is In Order

People use cakes for pretty much every special occasion.  I mean, you have your typical birthday and wedding cakes.  There's also Christmas cake, Easter cake, Bar Mitzvah cake, Graduation cake, Retirement Cake, Halloween Cake, Baby Shower Cake, and Carrot cake.  Okay, maybe not everyone celebrates vegetables on a regular basis.

Basically, what I'm aiming to confer to you is that, if there is a special occasion, someone would have considered getting a cake for it.

You know what an awesome reason for cake is?  Successfully defending a thesis and earning the right to put 'Ph. D.' after your name on flipping everything as well as 'Dr.' before you name on everything.  So, when Ashly's defense came up, what better reason could there possibly be to make a cake?  Ashly's a hard-working, blindingly intelligent girl who deserves all the best and better.

One thing though, she doesn't like sweets.  Now, normally that would prove a little tricky because a lot of cakes are all about the sugar (which, when you think about it, is kind of ironic because Ashly's a carbohydrate chemist).  However, due to the advent of the internet, it is not an insurmountable challenge.  Yeah, Word of the Day calendar, ftw.

Enter the Vanilla Chiffon Cake (from Kirbie's Cravings), dressed up with a little Dream Whip and (duh) fresh strawberries.  I cut the cake in half, spread strawberry jam on both sides, spread the cream and layered strawberry slices in the center and then loaded the top up there.

Wrapping and transport (left) can be really tricky!  I can fully appreciate cake boxes now because, man, I would have killed for one to take this sucker into the office.  To the right, you can see the filling much better.  This cake taught me many things but, among them, I learned that strawberries don't like my mandolin!  T___T  That's okay, of course, because I also have a wicked paring knife.  The strawberries were no match for Big Blue!

I won’t lie to you on this one.  Making cake from scratch is hard stuff!  Its especially hard when you don’t have the right pan.  I ended up using a spring form and had problems like you wouldn’t believe.  If I had to make the choice in this situation, I’d make the same call again though I might make cupcakes instead.  For future successful defences, however, it will be cupcakes.  Cake can be tricky to dish out and safely transport between locations. 

I can definitely say that I have a whole new respect for cake bakers (professional or otherwise).  You guys must have the patience of Buddhist monks!

Notes!

(1) Okay, with the cake.  I pretty much, more or less, followed the recipe.  But (please, you knew that was coming!) I substituted the all-purpose flour for sifted cake flour in the hopes of giving this baby some extra rise.  Also, I used superfine sugar when doing the egg whites because it dissolves much better in the whites than the granulated sugar does.

(2) Dream Whip makes an awesome dressing for cakes!  As a side note for using it, in order to get an 'icing' on the thicker side, I used a little less than the 1/2 cup of milk they tell you to use and then just beat the living day lights out of it.  I used the leftovers from the cake to enjoy the rest of the strawberries! ^__^

Best Italian Family Memory?

Oh yeah!  Though, sadly, back down to low-def. pictures again.  The sister's camera is on lockdown...

Wow, how long has it been?  A month you say?  I’d say it’s a good thing you aren’t plants or fish (fishes?), otherwise, we’d have some issues!

The past month (x__x) has been a little turbulent to say the least.  April is the month of last-ditch stress before the end of the semester.  As such, that means assignments are due, marking needs to be done, exams and anything else in life that decides it doesn’t want to be neglected.  Like one’s health.  Yeah, I got a cold on top of it.  That happened.

Because I was sick (with a nose like a faucet), I figured it was in everyone’s best interest that I not bake.  Sure, the heat of the oven would probably kill anything bringing me down but I didn’t want to run the risk.  If it was a selfish bake, I would have anyway.  However, baking should be for sharing!

My birthday also came up during all this madness.  While I personally do not like my birthday (I’m not going to tell you when it is for that reason), I don’t mind getting the gifts!  My gift this year?  A pizzelle press!  Just imagine my bliss!

Pizzelles were sort of like a childhood fixture for me when I was growing up.  Every Sunday when we went to visit my Nonna at her house, dinner would be followed by coffee, cookies and a big tub of pizzelle.  But it didn’t stop there.  All family gatherings, those beautifully browned wafflesque cookies seemed to appear.  There would be plates of little desserts and then an unassuming white Rubbermaid container filled with pizzelle that my Nonna had made with a press. 

How do I know she made them?  I know she made them because, when I slept over, sometimes we would make them for hours in the afternoon.  Aside from the use of a really hot press, this activity was incredibly fun.

My Nonna passed away a few years ago.  She was a fantastic lady and I miss her every day.  When you lose someone near and dear, I think it’s important, even if it’s painful, to keep cherished memories of them alive.  One of those cherished memories for me was the pizzelle.  They have been missing from family gatherings from quite some time now and sometimes I get the feeling that, despite no one having mentioning it, some of my relatives think about it.  It wasn’t the cookies that were important; the tradition itself was comforting.

I had some mixed feelings, admittedly, about receiving a pizzelle maker.  I was excited because it was something that I’ve wanted for quite a while now and because, honestly, it brought back the memory of my Nonna’s kitchen; the way it smelled sort of like zucchini fritters she’d make on the stove, the rosemary growing in water on the window sill, a fresh apple pie sitting patiently on the table to be eaten.  Oh, I could keep going on forever I’m sure, but we should probably get back to the business.

Okay, I was excited, but I was also apprehensive and still am.  I am going to take pizzelle with me to Christmas dinner this year.  However, I want my relatives to know that I am not trying to replace my Nonna.  That’s impossible.  I just want to keep her memory alive.

The pizzelle maker that I have is a Cuisinart and, smart people that they are, they include a small booklet with a few basic recipes.  What’s great about basic recipes?  Making your own variations, of course!  So far, I’ve made Vanilla-Chai, Chocolate Mint, and Traditional variations.  And I can’t wait to try more flavour combinations! 


Basic Pizzelle

Courtesy of the great folks at Cuisinart 

What You’ll Need:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3 large eggs, room temperature (ish)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted* (microwave!)
• 1 tbsp vanilla or anise extract**

How It’s Done:

1. Set three eggs in a dish of warm water before starting so that they can warm up a bit before you get into everything.  (I usually wait until the water feels as though it’s about the same temperature as my hand and then lower the eggs into the water.  I leave it on the counter while I get everything together.)
2. Mix flour and baking powder in a small bowl, whisk to combine and then set aside.
3. Turn on the pizzelle maker and set it to the appropriate setting for making pizzelle.
4. Put the butter in a microwaveable container and zap it for about 45 sec (or until liquid).  (For this one, I do it right in a Pyrex measuring cup and then leave it in the microwave so that it stays warm.)
5. Put the sugar in a bowl, add the three eggs and, using a hand mixer, beat at medium speed until thicker.  Make sure to move the mixer about so that everything gets dragged into the mix.  (The mixture will get lighter in colour and won’t look runny like it does inititally.  I have found that this usually takes about 1 min 30 sec or so.  I set a timer and just stop when the timer runs out at it usually turns out.  It might vary a little bit for you so maybe set a timer for two minutes and see how it goes?)
6. Stop the mixer briefly to free up your hands.
7. Remove the butter from the microwave, stir in the extract of your choice.
8. Resume mixing at low speed with the hand-mixer in one hand and, with the other hand, add the butter in a slow, steady stream.
9. Stop the hand mixer and clean it off.
10. Add the flour mixture and mix with a spoon until just combined. (I used a folding technique and rounded it out with some straight mixing.  The instruction book is all about the yelling about the over mixing.  “Do not overmix.”  So bluntly.  This.  Terrifies.  Me. X_X)
11. Turn your attention to the pizzelle press and drop the batter onto the press by the heaping teaspoon.
12. Remove the pizzelle to a rack to cool completely.  (This is sort of important.  The first rack I used had rungs that were too far apart.  I got really nice wavy pizzelle that sort of looked like ruffled chips.  That was not, however, what I was shooting for…)
13. Let those patterned beauties cool completely (completely completely) and then shove them in a tin.

Notes!
*About the butter/margarine exchange:  I’ve made these both with margarine and with butter.  With butter, the pizzelle come out a little more cakey and lighter.  If you use margarine, you will get a bit of a crispier pizzelle that’s crunchier and snappy.
**Extracts:  Vanilla or Anise are pretty standard additions.  My mom likes the anise ones because that’s the way that my Nonna used to make them.  I have to side with her on this one; there is a really nice liquorice taste to them.  When I make them with anise extract oil, I still use a little bit of vanilla because I think it rounds out the flavour nicely.

I hope that, if you have the desire and the will to get a pizzelle maker (or maybe you have one), you have fun making these.  If you don’t have one, no worries.  It’s a bit of a specialty thing and I don’t hate on not wanting to buy specialty kitchen gadgets.  You can, however, pick these up sometimes at the Italian grocer, especially around Easter and Christmas.  Whichever way you fly, be brilliant!