A Very Merry Unbirthday Birthday Post

The following took place on the beginning of the third week in December.

We have a family tradition for birthdays that my mom started a long time ago. To make our birthdays more special, she started making breakfast crepes.

This is my brother's plate (he has the same birthday as I). The crepes are spread lightly but evenly with lovely morello cherry preserves (lovely because it isn't too sweet) and topped with sweetened strawberries and raspberries (we used frozen because December isn't fresh fruit season), and caramelized banana slices, which were a great contrast to the sweetness of the strawberries and somewhat tart raspberries.

My plate, topped with whipped cream.


My brother's plate. He really loads up on whipped cream.

(Before this entree, I made a really good miso soup, but I forgot to take pictures >.<)

For dinner, my mom made sticky chicken served on a bed of jasmine rice. It's a really quick and simple dish that's full of flavor. She made it a bit differently this time by adding grated orange rind, which gave it a nice orange essence.

The cake was my brother's idea. (Normally, two cakes would have been made, but I didn't really care so I opted not to have one. Blasphemy, I know. **I'm rolling my eyes right now**) My brother wanted a chocolate-chocolate banana cake with banana chunks and peanut butter frosting. I used the banana-caramel cake recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, but I replaced some of the flour with cocoa powder and added dark chocolate chips. (To digress for a moment, I've since come to realize that adding chocolate chips to a cake batter isn't such a brilliant idea. Since chocolate chips are made so they won't lose its shape, having large chunks of chocolate dispersed throughout the finished cake works against being able to cut even slices without bits of cake dislodging from the slice. Mini chocolate chips probably would have been a better idea, or maybe just not using Ghirardelli, as their chips are larger than other brands' and better suited for brownies and cookies.) I did follow the directions for the caramelized bananas, though I cooked mine a bit too long and the bananas were mushier than I intended them to be. I used a different recipe for the frosting, which I thought was too sweet. To cut the sweetness, I added some kosher salt after the frosting was made and folded it in; the sweet and salty combination rocks!

Cake innards! If you look closely, you can just see the outline of the caramelized bananas in center.

Overall, the cake was lovely and the flavors melded well together. The cake wasn't too dense, and the peanut butter-caramelized banana flavor is a winning combination. But, I thought it was more on the sweet side than I prefer in a dessert, though not sore throat-inducing.

Christmas Cookies

The following took place the second week of December.

I need to write a baking list. Why? Because having a baking list written out means I'll actually get to it in a timely manner. I've been wanting to bake pumpkin-cranberry biscotti ever since reading the recipe in Once Upon a Tart about two years ago. Now you see why I need the list!

The Once Upon a Tart biscotti recipes are interesting in that some call for whipping egg whites for the batter. Some cream the butter with the sugar, others call for melted butter. I also formed mini logs because it makes perfect gift-size biscotti and because miniature is cool.

It bleeds. Oh, the pain!


I know what you're thinking. I don't know what it is, either.

After the logs cool a bit, they get sliced and baked again. It makes for perfect coffee dunking.

I then melted some of the above...

To do that. I wanted them to be extra special since some were to be a gift.

(The pumpkin-cranberry biscotti were great. It didn't have a strong spice taste, but rather a subtleness. The same with the pumpkin, though it was apparent that it was pumpkin and you didn't have to wonder what that taste was. In the words of LeVar Burton, "You don't have to take my word for it!" Go make some. I'm sure you still have a can of pumpkin puree leftover from the holidays!)

For the second part of the gift, I cut mini snowflake shapes out of the honey-spice dough.

Fun times! Royal icing is the ultimate for making perfectly iced cookies. (I added a teaspoon of lemon juice this time.)

I was so stoked to make these because I had decorating sugar. Besides making it look better, it adds a nice crunch.

All wrapped up.

Daring Bakers and the Bûche de Noël (Yule Log)

I am a very, very bad little Daring Baker... This was supposed to be posted no later than 23 December, and I had it finished then, but it didn't get eaten until a few days later, though it was meant for Christmas. How in the world I could foresee into the future, I haven't a clue. Let me know if you find out.

What a challenge in store for December. A Bûche de Noël, with lovely meringue mushrooms (or marzipan, but I chose the other), was chosen by Ivonne from Cream Puffs in Venice (<--- click here for the recipe)and Lis at La Mia Cucina.

The components that stood out to me were the genoise, which did not contain butter, and the Swiss meringue buttercream. I had made neither of those before.

The making of the genoise went along quite easily, though it never really got thick to the point where thick ribbons streamed down.

Then the timer binged! and I went to rescue my genoise from hell... But apparently it already suffered a terrible blister. Look at the picture, now imagine it puffed up. Not cool.

In the words of Miss Clavel, "Something is not right, something is quite wrong. And so, I sing this song." Something was definitely not right, and that something was my buttercream. The beginning step reminded me of a 7-minute frosting in that you dissolve the sugar with egg whites over a double-boiler, but unlike a 7-minute frosting you remove it from the heat when you beat it. Well, mine never quite thickened. I added the butter anyway (an amount, 3 sticks, I thought too much, but it tasted wonderfully), got a really creamy texture, a slightly off-white hue, but still quite runny. Next, it was time to add the dissolved espresso powder. It curdled the beautiful mixture. I think it might have been due to dissolving the powder in cooled coffee instead of water... Or something.

After skinning the genoise, I decided to roll it up with the incredibly runny buttercream. (Despite the repulsing sight of the skinning, which very much reminded me of a real blister, and I know, I've had my share of blisters, I ate some of it anyway and it hands-down beats blister skin. No, wait, I'm not implying that I've eaten blister skin...)

I rolled it up and wrapped it in plastic wrap, then stuck it in the fridge.

The next night, I realized that, due to the runny buttercream, the center was not filled adequately.

Next, I made the meringue and piped out little mushroom caps and stems.

As the mushrooms baked, I took out the frosting only to find a curdled, thick mass. It didn't taste grainy, though, really smooth and dissolved easily. I added the remaining meringue to a bit of the buttercream because I was going to pipe more filling into the center of the roll.

The assembled meringue 'shrooms.

Sliced, then frosted. It was a bit difficult because the frosting kept coming up from the log. I made it work, however.

I heard this noise, and I realized it was coming from the container in which the 'shrooms were kept... Lo and behold, it was 'Shroom Dude with a special message!

The decorated 'shrooms, smudged with cocoa powder.

A bit late in the week, for Saturday's breakfast, we partook of the yule log. Everyone loved it, and the crunchy-chewy meringue 'shrooms were the perfect touch. My mom was especially surprised at the lightness of the dessert; knowing how much butter and stuff went into it, she expected it to be on the heavy side. The polar opposite, however, as the genoise was amazingly light and fluffy, the buttercream very creamy, and after consuming a slice with some mushrooms, it didn't feel like a log in the pit of my stomach. (Yes, pun intended.)