Entries Tagged 'Game night' ↓

Since this weeks game night fell right smack in the middle of Mardi Gras I decided to do it up with a king cake. Now, I have never had a king cake before…. and certainly never baked one before. But I keep seeing them at HEB… and they looks so messy and good. I had to try it (not theirs of course). So I googled “king cake recipe” and every single blog site seemed to agree that Emerils recipe was where it is at. Since I wanted to try my first king cake in a very traditional manner…. I didn’t even fuck with the recipe. I just baked it EXACTLY as stated so that I can have a PERFECT king cake. However, king cake is ugly…. so I decorated a cake board for it to sit on, try and class it up a bit ;-D

I am now officially a king cake lover (as long as they all taste like this). The creamcheese filling is defintley where the $$$ is at! I can totally forgive it for being so butt ugly, cuz it tasted so dam good. All in all… this cake was freakin AWESOME!!!!

As a little side note, do yourself a favor. If you can’t remember when you bought your yeast. Go to the store and buy a new packet. Really, it is like $1.09 and will save you a big ole’ headache. TRUST, learn from MY MISTAKES!

Recipe 

2 packages dry active yeast
1/2 cup sugar
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
5 egg yolks
1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F)
4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Vegetable oil
8 ounces cream cheese
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons milk
Purple, green and gold sugar sprinkles
Plastic baby toy

Preheat the oven 350 degrees F. Combine the yeast, sugar, butter, and egg yolks in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the milk. With the mixer on low speed, beat the mixture for about 4 minutes to dissolve the yeast. If the yeast mixture doesn’t begin to foam after a few minutes, it means it’s not active and will have to be replaced. In a separate large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, nutmeg, and lemon zest. Add this mixture to the yeast mixture. Mix on low speed until it lightly comes together, then increase the speed to medium and beat until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the bowl, forms a ball, and climbs slightly up the dough hook. Remove the dough from the bowl. Coat the dough with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl and turn it to oil all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, set in a warm, draft-free place, and let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the cream cheese and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Mix well. In another small bowl, combine the remaining powdered sugar, lemon juice and milk. Mix well and set aside. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Roll the dough out 30 inches long and 6 inches in diameter. Spread the cream cheese filling across the center of the dough. Bring the two long edges together and seal all sides completely. Using your hands shape the dough into a long cylinder and place on a greased baking sheet, seam side down. Shape the dough into a ring. Place a well-greased 2 pound coffee can or shortening can in the center of the ring to maintain the shape during baking. Press the plastic baby toy into the ring from the bottom so that it is completely hidden by the dough. Cover the ring with a towel and place in a warm, draft free place. Let the dough rise for about 45 minutes or until the dough doubles in size. With a sharp knife, make several slits around the top of the ring. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. After baking remove the coffee can immediately. Allow the cake to cool. Drizzle the cake with the sugar glaze. Sprinkle the cake with sprinkles, alternating colors. Cut the cake into individual pieces and serve.

So last week my friends and I decided that every Monday night we would get together and play stupid board games. Just kind of a way to forget about how much Mondays really suck! It was determined that it would be up to me to provide a fabulous tasty treat for said event.  No problem!!! Would LOVE to do it! Well, I got the idea into my head that I would start game night off with a bang by making Pavlova. Super fancy, for my super low class friends!!!  I LOVE YA GIRLS, I’m just playin’ wicha!  So, on Sunday night I stayed up till 11:30pm baking little miniature Pavlova’s. Enough for each of my friends to have their very own little meringue bowl filled with creamy fruity goodness. And how many people showed up? Just 2 (including my husband). So we just pigged out all by ourselves. I am going to give it 1 more chance. We’ll see if anyone shows up next week.

In the mean time, I did come up with a totally bitchin’ recipe for Pavlova!  Let me know if you can think of a cool  name for this thing… I am at a loss.

Sorry about the sucky picture.

Meringue Bowls

• 4 egg whites
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ¼  cup super fine sugar (just take regular sugar and put it in the food processor - it’s cheaper and easier that way)
•  ¼ cup confectioners sugar
• ½ teaspoon white-wine vinegar
• ½ teaspoon rose water (this makes it ULTRA fancy

Start by covering 8 - 6 oz. Pyrex bowls with aluminum foil, shiny side out. Give it a very light coating of baking spray. Preheat over to 175◦ F. Fill a medium size sauce pan ¼ of the way with water and put on stove to boil. In a large Pyrex bowl mix egg whites, super fine sugar, white-wine vinegar, rose water, corn starch, and cream of tartar.  Place bowl over sauce pan and beat on high with an electric mixer. Do not let the bowl sit as you do not want to cook the eggs. After about 4 minutes add confectioners sugar and beat for another 6 minutes until glossy stiff peaks form.  Remove from heat and frost your aluminum covered Pyrex bowls with the meringue (do not frost all the way to the lip of the bowl as it will make it very difficult to remove the bowl from the meringue shell once it has cooked). Place the bowl on a baking sheet upside down and cook for approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes. The object is to have the meringue dry on the outside, but to have it still soft to the touch (like a marshmallow), do not let it brown; it should remain pure white. When they are done cooking, open the oven door and allow them to cool slowly.  Be very careful when removing the Pyrex bowls, there is no easy way to do it. Just be patient. 

• 2 ½cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 vanilla bean
• ¾ cardamom seeds, crushed
• 1 envelope saffron powder
• 6 tablespoons sour cream
• ¼ cup of sugar

Add whipping cream, cardamom seeds, saffron, and sour cream into medium size sauce pan. Slice vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrap out all of the yummy vanilla goodness and place into pan, as well as the vanilla pod itself. Heat the cream mixture on medium low heat. Do not allow it to boil, you just want to heat it up enough to get the sugar to dissolve and allow all of the seasoning to marry together. Keep on the heat for about 30 minutes stirring constantly. Transfer to bowl and cover with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge at least over night. Take the bowl and mixer attachment for your electric mixer, run it under water, and place into freezer for at least a half hour. Pour liquid threw a chinois strainer and whip on high speed for about 5-6 minutes.

Fruit Salad

• 1.5 lbs of Fresh Strawberries
• 1 pound black berries
• 2 sprigs of fresh mint leaves
• 7 tablespoons of rose water
• 6 tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange juice
• ½ cup pecan pieces

Julianne strawberries and dice mint leaves. Toss in blackberries, rose water, and orange juice. Allow to sit for a few hours or overnight.  Fill meringue bowl with cream and place fruit salad on top, sprinkle pecans over Fruit Salad.