Pie and Pastry Bible - open face Blueberry pie

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This is my first pie! Also, my first attempt at Rose's pie and pastry bible.

Mis en place (sort of:)

So, I have not had home-made pie in years so I have very little to compare it to. The organic pastry flour was delicious but probably not what the recipe had in mind. I had to use much more than the recipe called for as the batter came out very wet. Also, I did not notice but my wife was not sure what to make of the fresh blueberries folded into the cooked ones. She expected all the blueberries to have been cooked into the blueberry mush with the cornstarch I think. At any rate, I thought it was delicious. :)

Rose's Baking Bible - Yossele Rosenblatt Cake A.K.A. the 'The Chocolate Pavarati'

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Also known as the 'The Chocolate Pavarati', as Rose calls it.

However, Pavarati is very meaningless to me so I changed the new to something our family can better relate to.

Anyways you can't compare with the soulful Yossele, the greatest cantor of the past generation.

Here is a link of Yossele singing, 'kel male rachamim', sung when a person passes away suplicating the almighty to lift up the soul of the departed to the high heavens. At the time, Yossele sang this for those who perished in the Titanic.This, in solidarity with Rose who just lost her father. May the omnipresent console her together with all those who mourn Tzion and Jerusalem.

On to the cake!

This cake was rich from the melted white chocolate bar and very chocolaty. It looked a bit crumbly, but oh man, when you take a bite it is smooth and delicious. It seemed a bit too rich to have with morning coffee though. More like desert after a steak and wine dinner.

I can't seem to find the link now on Rose's sight to the recipe she posted...

Here is the batter with the white chocolate added. I did have enough white chocolate so I used only 3oz per layer. I also did not have two sticks of butter per layer but used 1 stick of margarine and 1 stick of butter.

'Omi Girl' was with me for moral support.

Here is what it looked like with the top cut off. Seems slightly crumbly but in reality the texture was perfect.

I made a simple vanilla meringue to top it with (recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cakes). After all, I was making this for a birthday party.

Here is what it looked like fresh out of the toaster.

Always a good sign when it looks yummy enough for a child to poke their fingers in... grrr

Two layers:

No, the little car is not on the cake. :)

Ahem, more fingers...

Ooh, look at that pretty sky.

Happy birthday little Lava Lamp!

Artisan Baking - Rosemary Flatbread and some leftover pictures

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This rosemary flatbread from Maggie Glazer was slightly disappointing. The reason being that I have already gotten used to making the truly fantastic potato-rosemary-garlic bread from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. This just was not as good. Sorry Maggie, your baguette's were the best though!

Also, her recipe calls for too much salt. It was a bit hard to eat. My new rule of thumb is, never trust a recipe that calls for more than a tablespoon of salt. This recipe did get some nice air in the crumb. Maggie Glezer's slow rise really seems to work nicely (if you have the time...)

The bottom:

Here are some pictures from my camera that I finally found from the devil's food cake I made.

It was a bit crumbly, even with the changes to the recipe that Rose suggested on her site a while ago.

Yum!

Heavenly Cake - Black Chocolate Party Cake

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This was a wonderful cake! Very Classic and Chocolaty. I used Amaretto infused syrup coating.

Definitely on the 'make again' list. The only thing I do have to comment is that the texture was slightly grainy. I am convinced it is because the turbinado sugar did not dissolve in the cake properly. After, it does not really dissolve in my coffee, why should it in the cake. Next time I will make an extra effort to dissolve in and add it to the wet ingredients instead of the dry.

Kids always jump for joy over chocolate cake!

Also, you may have noticed that I added some advertising on the left and bottom. Let me know if you have any problems.

Yum!

Heavenly Cake - Fruit Cake

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This is the first time I have tried fruit cake and it was O.K. It was very crumbly though and seemed to have to high a proportion of fruit to cake.

Actually it was very good when it was warm out of the oven and the fruit was soft. After that they got a bit chewy.

Heavenly Cake - Devil's Food Cake with Midnight ganache

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I've been meaning to post this for a couple weeks now. Unfortunately, I lost my camera, so no pictures. 

:(

Also my cell-phone died, so no grainy pictures either.

The good news is, the cake was fantastic and I made if for my little girls' birthday party. It was wonderful. When a kid eats your cake and thinks it is delicious, you can be proud. The adults got to have the alcoholic cherries with it, which were a nice touch. Got some nice complements on this cake.

Ooh, hold on. I found 1 picture of it. :)

Cake Bible - Cordon Banana Cake

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Have not posted in a while. Still have about 10 cakes to get through in Rose's Heavenly cakes. :)

Here is the cordon banana cake from the cake bible.

I doubled the recipe and baked it in a bunt pan. I also used muscavado sugar instead of regular. It came out delicious but a bit on the chewy side. I think that the caster suger must tenderize it a bit. I made a simple ganache to cover it.

Some of Rose's brioche I made.

I went to a sephardic conference. Cookbook authors Pupa Dweck and Stella Cohen spoke. Stella was a real doll, she stole the show.

Stella Cohen, author of Stella's Sephardic Table. She gave out some of her home made marzipan and other treats when you came over to her table afterwards to browse her cookbook.

Pupa, author of Aromas of Aleppo

These were just so fab. From a sephardic wedding in Deal we went to. I had to post.

...And the cake. Boy do I feel inadequate.