Simon's New Look

This fall Simon has taken to wearing this bowler around the house. What do you think?

In actuality, I may have placed this hat on his head despite his vigorous protests. I also may have attempted to give him a mustache to finish the look. As you can see from the photo below, he expressed his displeasure by trying to eat his mustachio.

Fall Leaves

We are at the peak of the fall foliage season right now in the Twin Cities. I took these pictures last week and it has been quite windy since then. I think the fall color will be mostly gone in the next couple weeks or so :(

Ruffle Cake

 I made this ruffle cake this week for a get together at my sister's work. Sorry for the dark picture - the lighting wasn't so great first thing in the morning.

 The cake is my standard go-to chocolate cake from Hersheys website:

http://www.hersheys.com/pure-recipes/details.aspx?id=184&name=HERSHEY%27S+%22PERFECTLY+CHOCOLATE%22+Chocolate+Cake#share_modal

The frosting is a salted caramel (using caramel left over from my carrot cake) swiss meringue buttercream. Any smooth frosting will work for this technique.

I've seen these ruffle cakes all over the interwebs and wanted to try one for myself. Turns out this technique is super easy. All you need is a piping bag and a petal tip (sometimes called a rose tip). I wanted to take pictures to show you how it is done but the lighting in my kitchen wouldn't cooperate. Fortunately, there is a great tutorial at this blog:
http://jamosie.blogspot.com/2011/05/tutorial-i-heart-ruffle-cakes.html

She does a great job of breaking down the steps and has photos to show the process.

Isn't it cool-looking? It's so fancy-looking but doesn't take any longer than any other type of frosting. Actually, you don't have to make sure that the cake's sides are perfectly smooth so it's even easier in some ways.

End of Super September

 Well, this is it - the end of Super September. I have to say I'm more than a little relieved. It's really tough to post so much with trying to find time to work on projects AND working full time (have I whined about mentioned how much I hate my work schedule, lately? Blargh.)

Having said that, I'm glad I decided to challenge myself to get my blog mojo revved up again. October starts tomorrow and, to me, October is all about HALLOWEEN. Yes! I love fall - the food, the weather, the holidays...pretty much everything except that leads into the long Minnesota winter. So, we'll forget about winter for now (la la la, I'm in denial) and enjoy the cool but sunny days, the changing leaves, and the return of the salted caramel mocha at Starbucks.

I'll be taking a few days off from blogging but am going to be posting probably three times a week or so. Like I've mentioned, I have TONS of projects in the works and lots and lots of ideas for new ones.

Saturday



It's hard to tell in this photo, but this gnome is about six feet tall and lives in a front yard down the street.





View of the Cathedral from across the Missippi. The leaves they are at 50% peak according to the news.




I drove by this little valley every day on the way to pastry school and never had time to take a photo. Beautiful, isn't it?



Another place I have driven by a million times and never had a chance to stop. My sister and I decided to go there today. This market and deli is located in Lilydale - right off Hwy 13.

We got a piece of chocolate cake and this banana cake with cream cheese frosting. The frosting was amazing - light and airy, tangy and just sweet enough. Maybe they use a special kind of cream cheese?

A shot of the interior - the deli case and lunch counter is at the far left. They serve different salads, pasta, lasagne and pizza! It all looked and smelled delicious.

These flags just looked really cool. I'm not sure what they signify - different regions of Italy? The refrigerated case holds gelato, lots of take-home meals that you can reheat such as pasta and lasagne, and pizza dough.

The market and deli also carries imported pasta, candy, drinks, wine, olive oil, vinegar and other Italian goods. We bought some anchovy paste.

Brainerd Trip - Some Sights

There are many "Babe the Blue Ox" statues around town. This one is at the golf course near Cragun's.

A really weird "honor system" outdoor second-hand store. There was nothing worth stealing.

I never got around to sharing some of my other photos from our Brainerd trip. I'ts been a very long week so please excuse the picture-heavy post. I have lots of projects that are in progress but haven't had any time to work on them lately. Hopefully, I'll be posting some of them soon!

There IS good shopping in Nisswa but the cute little shopping area is right off the highway and looks like a strip mall at first. Trust me - it sort of branches off into a little "main street" with cute shops and some cafe-type places.

The ubiquitous Babe right by the Paul Bunyun Trail in Nisswa

Paul and Babe outside a shop in Nisswa. Babe has a murderous rage in his eyes - perhaps it discourages shoplifters?

Pirate mini-golf on Hwy 371. There are two courses. I didn't try the other one, but Blackbeard's Challenge was cool. They even had factoids about Blackbeard at each hole.

This guy is serious about guarding his booty- and his stuff, too.

Carrot Cake with Maple Caramel Frosting

Carrot Cake (modified from Sybil Kitchel's Carrot Cake from the King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook)

Notes:

• I think that you could cut the oil to 1 1/4 cups, easily, as the cake does have a slightly oily quality. I might experiment with replacing half the oil with applesauce. It would fit with the "harvest" theme of this cake, too.
• This cake lends itself well to additions such as nuts, raisins or other dried fruit, or coconut. 
• For the caramel, I basically used the recipe for salted caramel that I posted before(http://www.bittersweetlane-cherish.blogspot.com/2012/09/vanilla-bean-caramel-sauce-and-some.html) but left out the vanilla bean and added about 1/4 cup of maple syrup to the batch of caramel at the very end. Basically, it's just until it tastes maple-y enough to you. It won't be as delicious but you can use store-bought caramel. Just add at least a teaspoon of salt and then the syrup.
• I have found that it is very difficult to get a strong maple flavor using just syrup so I use extract, too. I got mine at Target. Maple sugar might work well here, too.
• If the frosting is too thick, add more syrup.

Cake Ingredients

1 1/2 cups oil

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon maple syrup

2 cups flour

4 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups carrots, finely grated

1 cup sweet potato, finely grated

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Whisk dry ingredients (except sugar) together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Beat eggs and oil together in mixing bowl until light in color with bubbles. Beat in the sugar, a little at a time. Add vanilla and maple syrup.
4. Add dry to wet and stir until combined.
5. Fold carrots and sweet potato mixture into the batter.
6. Pour batter into 10"x14" pan that has been lightly greased or sprayed with cooking spray. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, approximately 35 minutes.

Maple Caramel Frosting

Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup salted caramel
2 Tablespoons real maple syrup (Grade B is the best for baking)

1 Tablespoon maple extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Beat butter until very fluffy and light.
2. Add half of sugar and mix on low speed until combined. Add 2nd half of sugar and stir on low speed. Turn mixer or beaters to high speed to thoroughly mix in the sugar.
3. Add caramel, maple syrup and extracts. Beat on high until combined and nice and fluffy