Carrot King Cake

I realize now that my first experience with King Cake wasn’t eating my first delicious slice with my friend Robin, but watching others “negotiating” with it in a movie. When we were dating, my husband and I went to go see The Umbrellas of Cherbourg at a rep theatre. There, we watched Madame Emery [Anne Vernon], finesse a match between her pregnant daughter, Genevieve [Catherine Deneuve], and the wealthy Roland Cassard [Marc Michel] by suggesting that, after Genevieve has found “l’enfant” inside of her slice of cake [a small white porcelain baby Jesus] she must choose “le roi,” a king, for herself from among the people in the room. The celebration shows us, then, that it is either Epiphany, Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras, or somewhere in between, and the cake on the table suits the tricky, somewhat somber mood. It’s a basic ring or circular shaped bread, not unlike brioche, sliced into triangles. Madame Emery has served it up on dessert plates with a bit of cream or custard. Here, the king cake tradition becomes a tool for matchmaking. Looking up from her serving, porcelain baby in hand, Genevieve admits, wryly, she has no choice in the matter. [The father of her child and the man she loves is off doing his service for his country.] The only man she can choose as her king is Cassard, who, after thanking Genevieve for the favour, offers the his crown to wear on her own head.

We love the movie, and our kids do, too. And, while we know that King Cake, in the context of Umbrellas…, is not much of a celebration cake, per se, the kids still like the notion of finding the king in the cake, and in consequence, having the ability to make choices because of that lucky find. Of course, none of the ladies at the table are going to want to be forced to choose a king [despite our love for the fellas in the room]. We will want to be royal in our own right, and without having to ask anyone’s permission, first. So, this year, we decided to make a King Cake in which everyone who has a slice is King, and in which the joy of the experience is the treasure hunt of finding the king [or, in our case, the coin, itself].

King Cake aficionados will know that the recipe below looks and tastes nothing like a fine brioche or the traditional Louisiana King Cake derived from it. For a more traditional confection, check out last year’s post on King Cake Two Ways. There, we made a traditional King Cake, but with a fabulous Lemon Ginger Cream as well as a Chocolate King Cake with a Chocolate Cream. This year, since Mardi Gras falls just two days before Valentine’s and three days before my birthday, we thought we’d go ahead and make something that had a king cake “feel” [ie a hidden toy or trinket in the cake] but with a non-yeasted, cake base. So, we came up with loaded version of Carrot Cake. It is not only filed with spices, nuts, and pineapple chunks, but also with coconut and several large, clean coins. This fullness makes it an odyssey or adventure to find the hidden gems within. The fix is in! Each member of our dinner party will find that they, in fact, are king. We’ll also be making paper crowns for each of the family members to wear when they find their hidden treat(s).

This Carrot King Cake can be as easy or as difficult to bake as you choose to make it. Want to use canned pineapple? Be our guest. Don’t want to lightly roast your nuts or your coconut before baking? Fine, don’t. The only thing we suggest you do is to take good care of your coins if you choose to bake them directly in your cake! Count how many coins you’ve put into your cake several times before baking. [Or, if you are nervous or just want to take it easy, slice the cake, and place coins in each slice before you serve]. And, have each guest do a thorough search of their cake with a fork before they really dig in. We have gone with Canadian Loonies & Toonies [1 and 2 dollar coins] as opposed to loose change. [Quarters are the smallest we would ever think to go.] U.S. Silver Dollars are likely the best choice if you can get them in the States. We’ve put our coins into the closed utensil box in the dishwasher and run them on sanitize before baking. A good soak in strong vinegar [think “pickling” strength] would also do the trick. Same goes for the coins when they’ve been picked out of the cake. Wash them off best as you can, and then soak them in vinegar overnight.

Carrot King Cake
inspired by The Joy of Cooking
Makes a 9-inch round 2-layer cake

INGREDIENTS

3 large eggs
.5 c granulated sugar
.5 c brown sugar
1.5 c finely grated carrots, about 3-4 whole
2-3 tsp lemon or lime zest
.66 c finely diced fresh or canned crushed pineapple, for a measuring guide, see Hints below
1 tsp vanilla
.66 c vegetable oil
1.5 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
.5 tsp salt
1 tbs ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
.75 c flaked coconut [sweetened or unsweetened], lightly toasted if desired, see Hints below
1 (generous) cup chopped pecan pieces, roasted if desired, see Hints below
[optional] 8-10 Several Large Coins, Cleaned, see Hints below
2 9-inch round circular pans

for the icing (can be halved)
2 c [2 80z packages] light cream cheese
.5 c butter
2 tsp vanilla
4+ c icing sugar

[optional] Coloured Icing sugars or additional chopped nuts or toasted coconut for decoration.

HINTS

How to Prepare the Coins
Soak dollar or two dollar coins in strong [pickling] vinegar overnight and/or place in utensil holder and run through the sterilize setting of your dishwasher.
You can also wrap them in pieces of parchment paper before inserting into the cake.

How to Roast the Nuts
Place nuts evenly on a baking pan and roast at 350 for 6-8 minutes, until pecans begin to darken slightly.

How to Barely Toast the Coconut
Place coconut evenly on a baking sheet and roast at 350 for 3-4 minutes

How to Measure out the Pineapple
If you are using fresh pineapple, finely dice pineapple until you have .66 cup. Try to scrape at least a tbs of the juice from your cutting board into your measuring cup as you go. If you are using canned, strain crushed pineapple, reserving juice. Add .66 c of pineapple and about 1 tbs of the juice to the recipe.

METHOD

Heat oven to 350.
Line each pan with a circle of parchment cut to size.
Grease and flour lined baking pans or coat with baking spray.
Place eggs, carrots, pineapple, zest, sugars, oil, and vanilla into a large bowl and stir until combined.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cardamom.
With a spatula, fold the flour mixture into the wet mixture until just combined.
Fold in roasted nuts and coconut.
Pour evenly into 2 9-inch circular pans.
Drop your coins evenly around the circumference of one layer of your cake. [We used the 8 traditional points on a compass as our guide.]
Bake layers 25-30 minutes or until a skewer or thin knife inserted into the cake comes out almost clean.
Cool cakes completely.
Prepare the icing by blending the cream cheese and the butter in a mixer.
Add vanilla and sugar by the .5 c until you have the consistency you desire.
Ice and layer the cakes.
Decorate with traditional Louisiana Mardi Gras coloured sanding sugars or with chopped nuts or coconut.
Enjoy!!

Here’s a link to last year’s recipes for King Cake Two Ways: Auntie Robin’s King Cake with Lemon Ginger Cream & Uncle Rock’s Chocolate King Cake with Chocolate Cream.

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Cannoli Bûche de Noël

Each year, for Christmas, I make a Bûche de Noël. For the past decade, I have been making my mom’s classic, 1970’s recipe with an easy chocolate cake, a lovely mocha whipped cream filling, and a heavenly chocolate icing: Click Here for that Classic Bûche de Noël Recipe. This year, I thought I’d take it to another level, and, sustaining my obsession with the New Jersey cannoli, the Patterson/Passiac italian bakery cannoli to be precise, I came up with a recipe for a good Cannoli Bûche de Noël. The test results have been superb, but I’m still undecided as to whether I’m going to use chocolate cake or white cake, a rum glaze or no glaze, and chocolate mascarpone icing or a vanilla mascarpone for the acutal feast day. So, I’ve provided you with not one but three cake recipes, a “Boozy” Glaze option for those who like a little “punch” in their holiday treats, a classic ricotta Cannoli Filling, and a Mascarpone Icing with a Chocolate Option. Some assembly is required. So, of course, te instructions follow. Enjoy!

Cannoli Bûche de Noël

STEP ONE: Choose from and bake any one of these three roll cakes:

I. Easy Chocolate Cake

Easy Chocolate Cake Ingredients

1 cup sifted cake flour or 1 cup minus 2 tbs sifted all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
icing sugar & a clean kitchen towel for rolling the cake

Easy Chocolate Cake Method

Heat oven to 375f.
Grease a 15x10x1 baking or jelly roll pan.
Line it with a waxed paper rectangle cut 1/2 inch smaller than the pan (14×9).
Grease the paper.
Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt into a bowl or onto another sheet of waxed paper.
Beat eggs until thick and creamy.
Beat in sugar, 1 tbsp a time until mixture is thick.
Stir in water and vanilla.
Fold in flour mixture.
Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.
Bake 12-15 minutes until center spring back when pressed lightly with a fingertip.
Cut around warm cake 1/4 in from the edges of the pan with a sharp knife.
Invert pan onto a clean towel dusted generously with icing sugar.
Peel off waxed paper.
Gently roll wider length of cake jelly roll style in towel.
Cool rolled and wrapped cake completely on a wire rack.

II. & III. Slightly More Complicated White [Or Chocolate] Cake

Slightly More Complicated White [or Chocolate] Cake Ingredients

.5 c all purpose flour [reduce TO .3 for a Chocolate version]
1 tsp baking powder [omit this ingredient for a Chocolate version]
[add .25 c cocoa powder for the Chocolate version]
[add .25 tsp baking soda for the Chocolate version]
4 room temperature eggs, separated
.3 c sugar to be added to the beaten egg yolks.
.5 c sugar to be added to the soft peaked egg whites.
1 tsp vanilla
icing sugar and clean towel for rolling the cake

Slightly More Complicated White [or Chocolate] Cake Method

In a mixer, beat eggs yolks and vanilla until thick and yellow.
Add the sugar and beat on high until dissolved.
Set the mixture aside in the refrigerator.
Wash the mixer bowl and beater, dry it, and place the mixer bowl and egg beater/whip in the fridge or freezer for a moment.
Heat oven to 375f.
Grease a 15x10x1 baking or jelly roll pan or spray it with baking spray.
Line it with a waxed paper rectangle cut 1/2 inch smaller than the pan (14×9).
Grease the paper or spray it with baking spray.
Sift flour, [cocoa powder], and baking powder [or soda] into a bowl or onto another sheet of waxed paper.
In your cold mixing bowl, using cold beaters, beat the egg whites on medium until soft peaks form.
Add the .5 sugar slowly and beat until stiff peaks form.
Fold the egg yolk mixture from the fridge into the beaten egg white mixture with a spatula.
By hand, fold in the flour[/cocoa] mixture.
Spread batter into the pan.
Bake 12-15 minutes until center spring back when pressed lightly with a fingertip.
[Optional] Cut around warm cake 1/4 in from the edges of the pan with a sharp knife. [This cake is more springy than the easy version.]
Invert pan onto a clean towel dusted generously with icing sugar.
Peel off waxed paper.
Gently roll wider length of cake jelly roll style in towel.
Cool rolled and wrapped cake completely on a wire rack.

STEP TWO: Make the [Optional] Syrup, the Cannoli Filling, and the Mascarpone Icing

Boozy Syrup [Optional]
Makes about .5 c
Recipe May Be Doubled

Boozy Syrup Ingredients
.5 c sugar
.3 c water
.25 c rum, brandy, or other fantastical (non-creamed) spirit of choice!

Boozy Syrup Method
Place the sugar and water in a small pan and heat until the sugar has dissolved.
You do not need to boil this.
Remove from heat.
Add alcohol.

Cannoli Filling

Cannoli Filling Ingredients
1 15-16 oz container of Ricotta Cheese, strained if runny
[we used light ricotta and strained it for only an hour over a fine mesh sieve/bowl]
.75 c icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
.25 tsp organic lemon or orange extract [optional]
up to 1 c semi-sweet mini chocolate chips OR 1 c shaved or finely diced semi-sweet chocolate
[we used .5 c of bits from a dark chocolate bar we pulsed like crazy in the food processor; you can save the rest for garnish]

Cannoli Filling Method
Beat the sugar and ricotta until smooth.
Incorporate the vanilla and optional citrus extract.
Incorporate up to 1 c chocolate or chips to taste.

[Chocolate] Mascarpone Icing Ingredients
~16 oz Cold Mascarpone Cheese [2 of the small tubs]
.75+ c icing sugar
.25 c milk or cream
1 tbs vanilla
[4 oz unsweeted chocolate, melted and cooled! for the Chocolate version]

[Chocolate] Mascarpone Icing Method
Beat the cheese, sugar, and vanilla on high until incorporated.
[For the Chocolate version, incorporate the cooled melted chocolate.]
Gradually, add the milk or cream 1 tbs at a time until the icing becomes as spreadable as you would like.
You may also add additional icing sugar if desired.
[We added an additional.25 c icing sugar to our batch this time to balance out the bitterness of the chocolate].
Refrigerate until ready to use.
Ice exterior or rolled, filled cake.

STEP THREE: Assemble & Decorate the Bûche de Noël
[see pics below]

Cannoli Bûche de Noël Assembly
Unroll your cake from the towel.
[Optional] Using a pastry or basting-style brush, spread syrup gnerously onto the [inside] surface of the roll cake.
[We only used about 1/16 of a cup of our syrup]
Spread the inside/top surface of the unrolled cake with the Cannoli Filling.
Gently re-roll the cake.
Place the filled cake on a serving plate.
Cut a 1/2in-or-thicker slice(s) from the ends of the cake roll to use as knot(s) or trimmed limb(s) of cake.
Use the Mascarpone Icing to attach these knots and limbs to the cake roll.
[Optional] Take a small bit of the Mascarpone Icing and “dirty” ice the exposed/cut cake edges with a thin coating of Icing.
Frost the cake roll with the remaining Mascarpone Icing.

If desired, use the tines of a fork or an icing spatula to make the icing look like realistic “bark.”
If desired, sprinkle the ends of the roll and/or the knots/limbs with mini chips, shaved or diced chocolate, icing sugar or chopped pistachios.
[This time, we used icing sugar shaken onto the cake via a tea-ball and shaved chocolate]
If desired, decorate with Make-Ahead Meringue Mushrooms.
Chill until 10-20 minutes before serving time.
                               
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Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 8, Holiday Canning & Test-Cookie Party! Kid-Friendly Thumbprint Cookies, Carrot Cake Jam & Cranberry Sauce

Today’s the day when we whip up some last minute items to place in jars and send off as holiday gifts. We’ll also try out these treats and use up any left-over jams from last year by filling up some special thumbprint cookies. Unlike other thumbprint recipes, which require pressing or re-pressing your thumb into the dough into a hot cookie ball after minutes of baking, and/or filling the hot cookies mid-stream, this recipe has the advantage of pressing once before baking and filling the cookies after they have cooled.

Kid Friendly Thumbprint Cookies
adapted from my mom’s old Betty Crocker Cookbook recipe
makes about 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients
.5 c packed brown sugar
.5 c shortening [preferably organic, spectrum] OR up to .25 c butter & .25 c shortening
.5 c unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon or ginger [optional]
2 eggs, separated
2 c all purpose flour
.5 tsp salt
1 c finely chopped nuts [we use pecans or walnuts] or shredded coconut
Jam or Jelly

Method
Heat oven to 350.
Mix sugar, shortening, butter, vanilla, and egg YOLK.
Gradually stir in flour until dough holds together.
Shape into 1-in balls.
Whisk egg-whites in a small bowl and spread nuts [or coconut] on a small plate.
Dip each ball into egg whites and then roll in nuts.
Place each ball 1 inch apart on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
Press thumb hard into the center of each ball.
Bake 10-12 minutes, until light brown.
Remove from oven and cool.
Fill thumbprints with jam or jelly.

Carrot Cake Jam
adapted from a Better Homes & Gardens special interest publication: Canning
makes 13-14 quarter-pints

Ingredients
2 c finely shredded carrots (5 medium)
1 c finely chopped peeled apple
1 15 oz can crushed pineapple in juice
2 tbs lemon juice
2 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp nutmeg
1 1.75oz powdered pectin
4 c brown sugar
2 c white sugar
.5-1 c flaked coconut
2 tsp vanilla

Method
In a large pot, combine carrots, apple, pineapple in juice, lemon juice, and spices.
Boil and stir constantly.
Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, stirring often.
Remove the pot from the burner.
Add pectin and stir until dissolved.
Place the pot back on the stove.
Bring the pot back to a boil and add the sugars.
Bring the sugared mixture to a full rolling boil and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Remove the pot from the heat.
Skim the foam.
Stir in coconut and vanilla.
Ladle jam into hot, sterilized .25-quart jars, leaving .25 in headspace.
Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

We made our Whisky Fig Cranberry Sauce in October. It was such a big hit, we’ll be canning up a batch in smaller decorative jars to ship to family and friends near and far. Click Here for the Recipe.

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Pumpkin Courvoisier Pie with Cream Cheese Crust

Ain’t nothin like a little pie with the baked-in taste of “Core-vwah-zee,” as we once heard it pronounced. Here’s the pumpkin pie we’ve been making for years, but with a new-fangled, almost tart-like crust. [See our Apple Pickin’ Pie Recipe for a more basic crust – or use your own.]

Pumpkin Courvoisier Pie with Cream Cheese Crust

Cream Cheese Crust
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
.25 tsp salt
.5 cup unsalted butter, cold, cubed
5 oz light cream cheese (1/2 a package), cold, cubed

Method
Heat your oven to 425 F.
Whisk the flour and salt together.
Cut in the butter and cream cheese until well blended.
Form dough into a flat disk, cover in cling wrap, and refrigerate for 8-12 hours.
Roll dough into a circle [I do this between sheets of waxed paper].
Fit the dough into a pie dish, crimping the edges as you see fit.
Cover the entire top of the crust in foil and weigh the foil down with dried beans or pie weights.
Blind bake the crust [cover top of crust in foil and weigh the foil down with beans or pie weights] for 15 minutes.
Remove the crust from the oven.
Remove the foil and pie weights.
Turn the oven down to 375 F.

Pumpkin Courvoisier Pie Filling / Baking

Ingredients
2 eggs
400 ml pumpkin
2-3 tbs Courvoisier [Cognac]
1 c brown sugar
.75 c evaporated milk
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
.5 tsp nutmeg
.5 tsp cloves
.5 tsp salt

Method
Heat your oven to 375.
Place eggs in a medium sized bowl and whisk.
Add pumpkin, cognac, and sugar and whisk some more.
Add evaporated milk and spices and whisk to incorporate.
Pour the pie filling into the hot crust.
Cover the edges of the crust with foil or a pie rim if so desired.
Bake 35-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the custard comes out clean.
Cool completely on a wire rack.

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