kelp records winter warmer

Street. Food. Is. GREAT.

Especially when it’s paired with beer.

That’s how we do a food festival in Ottawa.  Street food and beer.  In a Polish Community Centre.

A-MAZ-ING.

8 chefs all presented their version of street food.

I didn’t get to try all of it … I was on-site on behalf of Edgar (working with the HILARIOUS Michael) … but I was lucky enough to get to sample some of the fares.

Mother. Of. Pearl.

It started with the Whalesbone Oyster House Catering’s deep fried mac & cheese.

It was … SPECTACULAR.  I mean … it’s deep fried mac & cheese.  You kinda have to love it.  But you also love it because it was so cheesy and delicious … crunchy exterior and hot creamy interior.

Loves.

Then I wandered over and sampled Ryan Janssens’ (of DISH) chorizo pogo with bacon jam.

It was hot and spicy.  And although it was deep fried – it wasn’t greasy.  It was that perfect pogo batter (you know the one I’m talking about … you can remember it from your youth)… and with the chorizo filling … it was THE BEST POGO OF MY LIFE. I honestly wanted to go back and get another.  And then another.

Brilliant.

Edgar was paired with Beau’s – and so Marysol came up with a porchetta dish … creamy mashed potatoes, topped with aged cheddar.  Then we generously piled on the pork belly and ham, a veal gravy and a sprinkle of crispy celery root chips.

It was delicious.  Hot and creamy.  Salty and fatty.  It was everything comfort food should be … all in one mouthful.  I LOVED it.  And not just because it was from Edgar’s table … but because it tasted so darn good.

My pictures honestly don’t do the plate justice.

Oh … and it went really well with Beau’s bitter ;0)

I had a chance to wander a little (between plating our dish) … and so although I didn’t sample the Hintonburgh Public House dish, or anything offered by the Manx … I was able to snap some quick pictures.

Pressed and  Seed to Sausage were two another food stands I wanted to sample … but it just didn’t happen.  I actually didn’t even get a picture of either their brisket sandwich (Pressed) or their gourmet hot dogs (Seed to Sausage).  Boo to me … but everyone I asked about loved both.

My afternoon finished off with a sample of the Mill Street brew (delightful) and Murray Street’s Meat Cone.

I LOVE the meat cone.

What isn’t to love?  Pulled pork. Check. Cheese curds. Check. Sausage. Check. Mustard. Check.  All piled in a cone … I was able to grab my fork and dig right it.  A-MAZ-ING.  My only regret is that it has taken me this long to finally sample Steve Mitton’s version of the meat cone.

My favourite part of this event though wasn’t the food (although I totally loved everything I ate) … it was the fact that so many people turned out to eat, drink and be merry.

It certainly was a true winter warmer.

apple + bacon = baby cakes!

I might not have spent my Friday night at The Whalesbone – but I think I got to do something just as cool (ok… well since I’m a baker first… it might just be a tad cooler – but just a tad)… Kate, the head of catering for The Whalesbone Catering asked me to bake some baby cakes for her.  Yep.  That’s right.  I was asked to make the little cakes that would be on display and on offer for her annual Whalesbone Catering Open-House.  HOW COOL?????  Super, duper, amazingly cool.  I think you can all tell that I’m still excited about being asked to do this.

When Kate asked me, she specifically requested:

1.  40 mini cakes please – no cupcakes!

2. a few different flavour options – not just chocolate.

3.  make them look like what you could find in a bakery / gourmet shop

Done & Done… & Done!

I pretty much went straight home that night and started to work on a template. 

1.  I grabbed my biscuit rounds and figured out the best size… I baked a cake and started cutting out some nice rounds – 2 inch, 1.5 inch and 1 inch rounds.  I stacked those up for added height, took some pictures to send to Kate, and then brought them into the office for some feedback.  Everyone felt that the 1-inch rounds were the perfect size.  Baby cake template - check!

2.  Flavours.  I really, truly love my lemon cake.  No matter how many times I make it – I still heart it.  I Love to bake it and I love to eat it.  Making a batch of lemon cakes was pretty much a given.  I also heart my marble cake recipe.  Sigh.  That batter has been my dinner on many an occassion… and really… I’m ok with that.  Marble cake was therefore a must (plus Kate’s boyfriend loves marble so they were both stoked that I picked that).  Finally, the third flavour… how about… apple bacon spice cake with maple buttercream?  Doesn’t that sound delish?  Doesn’t that sound like a donut I recently sampled?  Well… my San Francisco delight was turned into a the moistest cake ever.  Plus my kitchen smelled amazing.  I think Kate was as excited as I was when I told her my plan.  Flavours – check!

3.  How to make them gourmet shop pretty?  Obviously it meant… fondant.  That’s right folks – I willingly offered to make something that required me to use fondant.  Can I just say… thank you Emily!!!!  Once my template had been made I went over to Emily’s house and she gave me a 5 minute demo on how to work with it.  That demo was a life saver.  So working with fondant – check!

I’m really thrilled with how my baby cakes turned out.  Seriously… they look so… professional.  I’m used to being the baker and then handing it off to Emily to make it pretty – it was nice to see that I could make it pretty too!   

lemon baby cake – nicely decorated with yellow ribbon

marble baby cake with marbled chocolate fudge & vanilla fondant… pretty eh?

apple bacon spice baby cake – green ribbon and a sprinkle of bacon bits… amazing!

This cake is great if you love a really moist cake – the apples honestly keep it so light – and I was able to punch up the flavour by sautéing the diced apples in bacon fat and also by grating in some fresh nutmeg.  Then to top it all off… well I obviously had to add some bacon to the top of my baby cake… doesn’t it look pretty?  I was up until 2:30 am finishing off my little baby cakes… I am so super proud of how they turned out.

I’m going to post about the Open-House too… but not today.  Today is all about my little baby cakes… my pride and joy at the moment.  Plus… it’s about time I share a recipe with all of you.  It seems all I’ve been doing is eating and blogging about the food… when really – I do spend a lot of time baking (I swear!).

apple bacon spice cake

ingredients:

1 ½ c. packed dark brown sugar

3 eggs

1 ¼ c. sunflower oil

¼ tsp vanilla extract

2 1/3 c. flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

pinch of salt

10 oz (about 3 large) apples, peeled, cored, diced

4 large slices of bacon, finely chopped

Pre-heat your oven to 325 F.  Spray two 9-inch rounds (or a rectangular slab) with non-stick spray.  I obviously was using a rectangular slab for this recipe since I needed to cut out perfect rounds for the mini-cakes.  Set aside.

In a large non-stick pan over high heat, cook your chopped bacon.  Get it nice and crispy, them remove the bacon bits from the pan and place on a paper towel.  Set aside.  Turn down the heat and toss the diced apples into the bacon fat.  Sautée the apples in the fat until they soften.  About 3 minutes.  Remove the pan from heat and set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat together the sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla.  You want everything to be really well incorporated, increase the speed to medium.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

While the mixer is running, slowly incorporate the dry ingredients.  Allow everything to be well mixed.  At this point, turn off your mixer, toss in the diced apples, and fold them into the batter.

Pour the batter into the pans, and bake for 35 – 40 minutes – – until golden brown and the cake bounces back when touched.  Allow to cool slightly (about 20 minutes) in the pans on a wire rack before turning them out and cooling completely.

the beginnings of the baby cakes – apple bacon spice cake

Once cooled, make your frosting.

Seriously people… maple & coarse sea salt buttercream is probably the greatest thing ever.  Salty sweet – which plays off the salty / sweetness of the cake as well… sigh.  DELISH.  I first started making maple buttercream as a teenager.  I can remember discovering the combination and my eyes widening in delight.  True story :0)

I have to tell you something… I have a problem with it comes to making buttercream frosting… you see… I “cook” my recipes.  What the heck does that mean right?  Well…when I bake, I pay attention to all my measurements… when I cook, I just toss things into the bowl.  In this instance I started with the following:

1/2 c. salted butter, room temperature

3 c. powdered sugar, sifted

And I just mixed those two ingredients together using my paddle attachment in my stand-mixer.  

This is when I start to “cook”.

I just add maple syrup until I think it looks right.  And then I add some coarse sea salt a pinch at a time.  And then to loosen up the batter a little (at this point my mixer is at a faster speed), I add some milk.  Maybe 1 tbsp at the most… maybe a little less.  I don’t know.  I really just keep an eye on my buttercream, I ensure that the sides of the bowl are scraped down and I dip my finger in and taste.  If I think it needs to be sweeter or saltier I add accordingly.  But that’s my buttercream secret… oh yeah… and I let it mix for about 10 minutes.  That’s it.

But it looks good eh?

maple and coarse sea salt buttercream

It was time to cover each baby cake in buttercream.  A little more difficult a task than I originally thought… small cakes – big hands… oh well.  They still turned out exactly as I had hoped.

lemon baby cake covered in buttercream

Then things got really fun.  FONDANT!  I learned through Emily’s demo that fondant is basically like pastry dough… only you can knead it way more than you would pie crust.  I didn’t make the fondant from scratch.  Nope.  I went to Artistic Cake Design and bought their fondant – which is delicious (seriously… it’s pretty darn incredible).  I pulled out a handful of fondant at a time, kneaded it well (since it’s pretty firm when packaged), and then got to work.

1.  Using non-stick spray, spray directly on your clean surface.

2.  Toss some powdered sugar on top of the sprayed area (exactly like using a well floured surface for pie crust)

3.  Place your disk of kneaded fondant on top of the powdered surface and grab your rolling-pin.

4.  Roll it out and then cover your cake.

That’s it.  Simple eh?  One thing to note – don’t roll the fondant too thin – otherwise it will pucker or tear when you place it on your cake.  Overall, my first experience was pretty painless… a little more time-consuming than I thought – but my goal is to get faster at it :0)

Once the baby cake was covered, I then trimmed the excess fondant with a sharp knife.  It really is exactly like pastry dough!

I even decided to mix together some chocolate fudge fondant with the vanilla fondant to create a marbled effect for my marble cakes.  I was super pleased with how those turned out.  Such a cool effect!

As a final touch (and to make it look more professional), I wrapped different coloured ribbons around the base of each cake (it totally tidied up the bases), held them in place with a pretty little pin, and then topped the apple bacon spice baby cake with a sprinkling of bacon bits.

I’d say job well done.  Actually… if you saw me on Monday – I was saying that and patting myself on the back.  ;0)

chocolate, raspberry and fudge… how a-maz-ing is that?!

Oh how I heart to bake. Especially cakes. Especially when they turn out and are beautiful and taste delicious… those are great days. Thursday was a great day.

I baked for The Whalesbone’s 5 year anniversary party. I was given carte blanche… however was informed that Josh hearts all things chocolate. The more chocolate — the better.

Done. I knew exactly which cake I was going to make. I’ve baked this specific cake recipe twice already; once with a peanut butter butter cream and covered in chocolate ganache (yes… you should moan). The second time with a cherry whipped cream filling and then covered in a chocolate fudge frosting (again… sighs or moans are acceptable).

I decided to hit it up with a fresh raspberry butter cream filling and then cover it in the chocolate fudge frosting. Double the chocolate impact, with the bright, tartness of the fresh raspberries to liven it up. S-U-C-C-E-S-S!

I played around with the original recipe (from smitten kitchen) since I was making 3 x 9-inch rounds and not 8-inch rounds. I love love love how this cake turns out… it is so moist (it puts a Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines cakes to shame) and rich… one thing, watch out, it’s a little delicate. But don’t let that put you off. It’s awesome. I promise.

super moist chocolate cake
ingredients:
3 c. all-purpose flour
3 3/4 c. sugar
1 1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder (the richer the better)
3 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. neutral vegetable oil (I use sunflower oil)
1 1/2 c. sour cream
2 c. water
3 tbsp distilled white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Spray the base and sides of 3 x 9-inch round pans with some non-stick spray. Set aside.

Sift (yes, I’ve started sifting…) together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in the bowl of your stand-mixer. Use your paddle attachment to combine well.

Add the oil and sour cream and continue to blend. Gradually beat in the water (I added it half a cup at a time) and then add the vinegar and vanilla. Grab your eggs and whisk them in a small bowl. Once whisked, add to the batter. Make sure that your batter is well blended, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

eggs and vanilla… all good things when baking a cake

Divide the batter evenly between the 3 pans. Bake for between 35 – 45 minutes… a wooden toothpick should come out almost clean: remember, this is a moist cake. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans on a wire rack (I let them sit for about 30 minutes). At that point, take them out of the pans and allow them to cool completely.

my trusty timer

Simple eh? Yep. Now… you can either decide to wrap each layer really well in plastic wrap and stick them in the freezer to firm up OR you can work with them as they are. Your choice. If you freeze them, then take them out as you start on your butter cream — that will give them a chance to thaw a little before icing them. Do whatever you are comfortable with.

I played around with my raspberry butter cream frosting, using fresh raspberries since I could pick them up in the market ;0)

the raspberries for the buttercream… so lovely

I like to stack my cake layers before making the fudge frosting. It gives them a chance to sit a little… but that’s just my preference.

Now for the chocolate fudge frosting. Probably the easiest thing ever. You only need two ingredients… sour cream and chocolate. That’s it.

the original recipe

chocolate fudge frosting
ingredients:
13 oz bitter and semi-sweet chocolate combo, finely chopped
500 ml (one large container) of full-fat sour cream

Melt the chopped chocolate in a double boiler over simmering water, stir until smooth. Once melted, allow it to cool until it is just warm to the touch.

Grab a large spatula and fold in the sour cream — only until no white streaks remain… otherwise the frosting becomes too thick. You know it’s ready because it’ll look really silky. Best to use it right away… but I’ve heard it’s pretty awesome for dipping cookies in ;0)

piling the frosting atop the cake

At this point your cake should be filled with butter cream and staked. Grab your spatula and spread your frosting evenly over the entire thing – start at the top and spread out, the frosting will naturally slip to the sides for easy coverage.

I then “dressed” it up a bit by grabbing a small spoon, dipping it in water and making swirls all over it… super easy and everyone will be really impressed.

my dressed up frosted cake

A perfect cake to celebrate some awesome people. oh… and the decorative strawberries are thanks to Kshonze :0)

the final, pre-served cake

and then i had a slice…

Sweetness.