Delicious Dish on National Public Radio

In case you've never seen the SNL Episode with Pete Schweddy.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/4156/saturday-night-live-nprs-delicious-dish-schweddy-balls

Schweddy Strawberry White Chocolate White Cake Balls

So here they are, the first of this years Cake Concoctions, Etc.

I had a hard time trying to figure out what kind of cake I was going to make. I checked out the recipe for Red Velvet Cake Balls on Bakerella.com and I made them...but they kinda seem mediocre fun. I was going for fantastically fun. Funtastic.

Ingredients for Schweddy Strawberry White Chocolate White Cake Balls:


* 1 Box of White Cake Mix
- 3 egg whites
- 1 1/4 Cups of Water
- 1/3 cup Veggie Oil
* 2 24 oz bags of Nestle Premier White Morsels
* 1 cup of frozen sliced strawberries
* 1 tub of Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place bag of frozen strawberries in a small bowl to thaw. Cut the strawberries into smaller pieces. Mushy is alright.

Mix egg whites, water and oil in a large bowl. Make sure to grease baking pan to avoid tragic burns to your white cake.



Bake for 30 minutes or as directed.

Let the baked cake cool thoroughly. Once the cake has been cooled, place the cake into a large bowl and add frosting to mix. The mix should feel like Play-Doh.



I found that by chilling the mix for an hour or so made it easier to mold the balls without stickiness. I rolled balls the size of silver dollars and placed a divot in the ball to add some strawberry paste in the middle. Then, I added more mix to the top of the divot to fill the opening and re-shaped the ball.

After the balls were shaped, I placed them in the freezer to harden for ease when dunking the balls in melted chocolate.

Heat two cups of White Chocolate Chip Morsels with two tables spoons of shortening. The consistency should be very dense, like thin pancake mix. (WARNING: DO NOT CHILL THE CHOCOLATE WITH A SPOON INSIDE...IT'S LIKE TRYING TO BREAK CEMENT TO GET IT OUT, AND WE ALL KNOW YOU CAN'T MICROWAVE METAL FOR GOODNESS SAKES...)

After tasting one of the cake balls, I found that the balls were entirely too sweet for my liking. I think that adding a full tub of the whipped cream cheese frosting was over poweringly sweet. Maybe its because "I" am so sweet that I went into sweetness overload. We'll never know. So I decided to fix the over powering sweetness.

I baked another cake using white cake mix. Once the cake was cooled, I added the cake to the existing thawed cake balls and mushed them together. I added 4 ounces of regular cream cheese and about 1/4 cup of strawberries to the mix. Then I rolled the balls and dunked the new mix in the white chocolate.

And so we have....Schweddy Strawberry White Chocolate White Cake Balls.

For future creation of the Schweddy Strawberry White Chocolate White Cake Balls, I will substitute the full tub of whipped cream cheese frosting for a full 8 ounces of regular cream cheese and half a tub of whipped cream cheese frosting. With box mixes combined, I was able to roll about 80 cake balls. I ran out of white chocolate for dipping (because I over heated one of the bags of white chocolate chip morsels) so I was only able to bring about 40 to work today. If your accident prone and not really the best of bakers, keep extra ingredients close by. Over all, preparation took about 2 hours, that's including bake time.

I HOPE YOU LIKE THEM!!

Busy Woman's Black Forest Cake

So how do you follow that delicious Butternut Spice Cake we had last month? Well, you aim for a different approach... convenience! I work full time, commute 2 hours each day and have 2 daughters, ages 6 and 9 months. Time is something I have very little of, so when the need to bring a dessert to a family get together, or to say thank you to someone for a job well done or just when you have that sweet tooth that won't go away, you need cake.

It's pretty, it's tasty (I hope) and it's easy...I present to you Busy Woman's Black Forest Cake.

Recipe

1 box Betty Crocker Super Moist devil's food cake mix

1 1/3 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 pint (2 cups) whipping cream

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 to 3 tablespoons brandy, if desired

1 can (21oz) cherry pie filling

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 tablespoons sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 F for metal or glass pans. 325 F for dark or coated pans. Grease sides and bottom of two 9 inch pans with shortening or oil spray. Flour lightly.

Blend dry mix, water, oil and eggs in large bowl at low speed until moistened (about 30 seconds). Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter in pans and bake immediately.

Look it even has a happy face in the bowl...

Bake 30-33 minutes.

Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

In medium bowl, beat whipping cream with electric mixer on high speed until slightly thickened. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold in brandy. In another bowl, mix pie filling and almond extract.

On serving plate, place 1 cake layer, bottom side up. Spread with half of whipped cream and 1 cup cherry mixture to within 1 inch of edge. Top with second cake layer, rounded side up. Frost top with remaining whipped cream. Spoon remaining cherry mixture over top. Sprinkle with sliced almonds.

Store covered in refrigerator.

Butternut Spice Cake

The first cake for our little culinary collaboration comes just as fall is at its peak here in the Central Valley. Leaves are turning beautiful shades of reds, golds, and brown and fall produce is abundant. Nights are finally cool enough to enjoy a fire and warm cup; sweaters have emerged from the back of the closet.

Speaking of fall produce, a renewed focus on veggies in the diet has sent me looking for affordable, high quality, local, and hopefully organic produce. This area is surrounded by farming on all sides so surely I would be able to find this, right? Right!


Community Supported Agriculture – an arrangement whereby you – the consumer – buy a portion of the produce of a local farm on a regular basis. Supporting local, family farms, enjoying fresh, local, seasonal produce . . . not just a good thing – a great thing! Full Belly Farm delivered a beautiful Butternut Squash last week. And I found baking inspiration.

Butternut squash is a fantastic fall veggie – nutrient rich and delicious. Almost indistinguishable from pumpkin when pureed but much easier to deal with.

Butternut Spice Layer Cake

¾ cup butter, softened 1 Tbls cinnamon 1 tsp ground cloves ¼ - ½ tsp nutmeg ¼ - ½ tsp cardamom ¼ -1/2 tsp allspice

1 cup whole wheat flour 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour 2 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp baking soda 2 eggs + 2 yolks 1 cup sugar

½ cup real maple syrup 2 cups butternut squash* 1 Tbls fresh grated ginger 2 Tbls milk 1 Tbls dark rum

Combine dry spices. Melt and lightly brown ¼ cup of the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add spices and cook for about 15 seconds. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and line with parchment two round cake pans.

In a medium bowl whisk together flours, baking powder, and baking soda.

In a large bowl cream together softened butter (½ cup) and sugar. Add eggs and yolks one at a time, beating between each. Slowly add butter-spice mixture.

Combine squash, ginger, maple syrup, milk, and rum. Add to butter mixture alternately with flour beating at low speed scraping the bowl as needed. Mix until combined, do not overbeat.

Divide evenly between pans, smoothing out the tops. Bake at 350 F for 35 minutes until a skewer inserted near the middle comes out almost clean. Remove from oven and rest for 5 minutes. Run a knife around edges to loosen then invert on to a plate then back onto a rack to cool completely.

When cake has cooled carefully cut each layer in half horizontally to make 4 even layers. If tops are rounded trim to make each layer flat. Frost with Maple Cream Cheese frosting.

*To prepare squash:

Cut squash in half vertically, scoop out seeds and membranes. Place cut side down on a non-stick or lightly oiled baking tray. Bake in a 350 F oven for about 45 minutes. Remove and let cool. Peel on skin and process squash through a food mill. A food processer could be used but be careful not to overdo it. You want pureed/smashed squash, not whipped or liquefied squash.

This method is the same for making fresh pumpkin puree. If using pumpkin be sure to choose a Sugar pumpkin or baking pumpkin. Your average jack-o-lantern won’t taste very good.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz Cream Cheese 2 Tbls real maple syrup

4 Tbls butter 1 Tble dark rum

2 cups powdered sugar

Bring cheese and butter to come almost to room temperature. Beat in syrup, rum, and sugar. Adjust sugar and/or liquid to get to a spreadable (very soft peak) consistency. Be careful not to over beat as the cream cheese will get very soft.

This is definitely not a one bowl cake. So the question is, was it worth it? Let me know what you think. If you're in CCE come by and try a piece today. The rest of you will have to try the recipe at home. Happy baking . . . and eating!

~Jennifer

Blog Background

Thank you so much to Simply Chic Blog Backgrounds for our beautiful fall background. Check them out!!

Let Them Eat Cake!!!

Welcome to Cake Concoctions, Etc!! We are Christina, Lisa, Emelina, Jennifer, and Michelle. We all work together in the same unit at CCE, and this is our place to share our adventures in Cake Concoctions.

It all started several weeks ago when Christina stumbled across this fabulous website with over 150 different Christmas cake recipes. She jokingly said, "There's enough cakes here to make one every day for a year!!!" Thus ... the idea was born.

So here's how it works: Every week(-ish, or may be every two weeks) one of us is going to bake a cake. We get to choose our own recipe, -- either taking the opportunity to share a favorite or experiment with a new one -- take pictures of the baking adventure, post the recipe on this blog, and then bring in the cake to share. Along the way, we'll have some cake wrecks, to be sure, some contests (think along the lines of ... "Guess the Secret Ingredient"), and maybe we can even pull off an Iron Chef style bake off!

As the five of us would like to avoid gaining a gazillion pounds during the process, we are inviting you, our fellow CCE'ers to come wallow in frosting along side us. In order to partake in all the cakey goodness, we'd like to request that your bring own fork and plate, and that you provide us with your comments and feedback here on our blog. If you'd like to be a guest baker, just come by and let us know -- the more the merrier!!

And, with that being said, LET THEM EAT CAKE!!!

-- Michelle

Dedicating myself to making 14 cakes for 2010!!

Good day - Me lasses!

Don't know if I spelled that right, but oh well! :)

We all know that I am the one out of our "clique" that brings one thing to the table - Sarcasm. So on a happy note, I'm pleased to report that I volunteer to be the first cake-maker-baker of 2010.
I think we were going to make a schedule, but I'm just going to throw out the good news that I also volunteer to bake/make 14 cakes for the year.

I promise that my cakes will be edible and satisfying. As our unit it making sure we satisfy all our customers.

Cherri o!

Chris