Red Ferrari Cake

Brady suggested we do something special for our friend Randy’s birthday this year. Besides a nice meal, why not make him a car cake? First I did a feasibility study; that is I got a picture of his car,

and found a similar matchbox car from which to make a model.

I baked a rectangular cake and cut it into the proper shape,

then I covered the cake with a layer of Vienna Cream Frosting (see recipe below).

Next came a layer of red fondant,

followed by black and grey fondant.

Finally I added the wheels (round fondant-covered sugar cookies) and insignia.

Brady came up with the idea to put the candles on a stack of tires.

Not an exact scale model of the car, but I was pleased enough with the outcome!

Vienna Cream Frosting

½ cup (100 g) butter or margarine

2 tablespoons milk

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ½ cups (200 g) powdered sugar 

Have butter at room temperature, cream together with milk and vanilla, then add half the powdered sugar and beat well. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and beat until well blended.

Cheese Pie

What do you do with the your party loaf (pain surprise) crust if you don’t want it to go to waste? How about making cheese pie with it? Never-fail pie crust works well too.

Cheese Pie

1 ½ cups (3.5 dl) cream

4 eggs

1 tablespoon flour

9 oz (250 g) Gruyère cheese

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 9-inch pie crust

Beat the cream and the eggs together. Mix in the flour and seasoning. Grate the cheese and sprinkle onto the piecrust. Pour the cream-egg mixture over the cheese. Bake at 390° F (200° C) for 35-40 minutes.

trim the side crust down to 2 inches

 

Gâteau au fromage

3,5 dl de crème

4 œufs

1 cuillère à soupe de farine

250 g de Gruyère

½ cuillère à café de sel

¼ cuillère à café de poivre

¼ cuillère à café de muscade

1 pâte à gâteau dans un moule de 24 cm

Battre ensemble la crème et les œufs. Ajouter la farine, le sel, le poivre et la muscade et bien mélanger. Râper le fromage et le placer sur la pâte à gâteau. Verser le mélange crème-œufs sur le fromage. Cuire à 200° C pendant 35-40 minutes.

Party Loaf

An artist friend asked me to cater her exhibition opening and specifically asked for pains surprises. A “pain surprise” (sometimes referred to as a party loaf in English) is a favorite at receptions here. It is a round loaf of bread, hollowed out, then refilled with small sandwiches made from the inside of the bread. 

Round loaf bread

2 cups (5 dl) lukewarm water

1 packet (7 g) dry yeast

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons salt

4 2/3 cups (700 g) flour

In large mixing bowl (or food processor), pour water over yeast, sugar and salt and let sit 2 minutes. Mix in flour. Knead for 4-5 minutes, adding a bit of flour until dough is no longer sticky. Sprinkle the dough with flour, cover with a dishtowel and let it rise at room temperature for 2-3 hours. Line the sides of a 9-inch round baking pan with oven paper to raise the sides. Shape dough into a ball, place in the pan and let it rise another 20-30 minutes.  Bake at 425° F (220° C) for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° F (180° C) and bake for another 30 minutes.

Bake the bread the day before and wrap it well after it cools completely so that it stays fresh and is easy to cut.

With a very sharp knife with at least a 10-inch blade, slice the top off the bread.

Cut down along the inside of the crust all the way around the loaf touching the bottom crust, but without slicing completely through.

Insert the knife near the bottom of the loaf and slice through in a fan motion all the way to the horizontal cut.

Turn out onto a cutting board.

Cut the inside of the bread into 8 thin slices.

Make four layers of sandwiches. Here, for example: Smoked salmon

Cream cheese

Ham

Pâté spread

Carefully stack the sandwiches and replace the crust over them.

Turn over and cut the sandwiches into 8 wedges.

Cover with the top crust, and voilà!

Pain rond

5 dl d’eau tiède

7g de levure sèche

2 cuillères à café de sucre

2 cuillères à café de sel

700 g de farine

Verser l’eau, la levure, le sucre et le sel dans un grand récipient (ou robot de cuisine) et laisser reposer 2 minutes. Ajouter la farine et mélanger. Pétrir 4-5 minutes en rajoutant un peu de farine peu à peu jusqu’à ce que la pâte ne colle plus. Saupoudrer de farine, couvrir d’un linge de cuisine et laisser lever 2-3 heures à température ambiante.

Baby Buggy

Some people spend hours on pinterest looking for creative culinary ideas. I don’t have to; I have my personal researchers! My good friends and family members who know my interests send me links when they see something fun to make. For Martina’s baby shower centerpiece, I looked back through my links for this watermelon baby buggy. I sent Justin out on a mission to find what I was lacking; a good-sized watermelon, a grapefruit and a pacifier. I was quite pleased with the results. To make the fun last, I kept refilling it will fruit salad at meal time for three more days.