SMS-Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake; HCB'ers-White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache; ABC'ers-Evie Lieb's Processor Challah and Football Food


GUTSY COOKS post is coming shortly.

I LOVE the color of this cake! How pretty and what a great cake this would be to bake for Valentine's Day. Candy Girl chose the new year's recipe from Sweet Melissa Sundays short list left to bake. Candy picked a fun cake called Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake.

Seedless raspberry jam, fresh raspberries, and Chambord liqueur give this cake an amazing raspberry flavor.

I have learned a long time ago to shorten the baking time from whatever is listed in Melissa's cookbook. I have no idea why oven times are so different compared to Melissa's. I baked my cakes for 20 minutes.


The raspberries we found looked beautiful and using such bright colored berries seemed to cheer the whole kitchen up.


The cake has a light crumb with a deep hazelnut and raspberry flavor. I am not a buttercream frosting person and yet this particular buttercream frosting flavor works for me. Dumping a bowl of fresh raspberries and Chambord into the buttercream was kind of fun.
Thank you Candy for such a delicious and pretty dessert to start the year off right!
Heavenly Cake Bakers
The Heavenly Cake Bakers cake for this week is the White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache.


The cake itself was easy to assemble and bake. The ganache went swimmingly until I added that last tablespoon of butter. My ganache then turned into a pourable, yet slightly thick, frosting.

The chocolate flavor in the ganache was delicious. The velvet cake baked up nice and fluffy but I was a little surprised at how mine turned out a little crumbly when I cut into the cake. Maybe I didn't wait long enough for the cake to be completely cool.


Overall, this is a good cake recipe but with so many other to-die-for cake recipes I have tried from Rose's heavenly cakes cookbook, I may leave this one as we enjoyed it but now I want to see if she has one even better to bake in the near future.

Avid Cake Bakers - Evie Lieb's Processor Challah


I adore Flo Braker and every recipe I have tried out of her cookbooks has been a winner in my kitchen. Her Challah bread, made in a food processor, is no exception. Fun and easy to make is a great way to describe making and baking this loaf of bread.



I have never made a two-tier braided bread before and had fun assembling the loaf.


I am a week behind in posting about baking the processor Challah but I did make the bread over a week ago. Sometimes, finding the time to sit and blog can become a rarity; I am here now =0).
Thank you for such a delicious choice for January 2011~! We loved every bite.


FOOTBALL SUNDAY food - Stuffed Sweet Onions Toluca

4 Sweet onions about 4 to 6 inches in diameter
4 ounces chorizo
4 ounces lean ground beef
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
4 slices Muenster or Gruyere
4 flour tortillas
1/2 c. salsa
1/2 c. guacamole
1/3 c. sour cream
Directions:
Remove a slice from the top (stem end) of each onion so it sits flat. Starting at the opposite end (root end), hollow each onion, leaving about a 1/2-inch thick shell. Place onions in a steamer basket. Place in a large pot over boiling water; cover and steam 20 minutes. Remove; cool until easy to handle.
Meanwhile, for filling, in a medium saucepan, cook and stir chorizo, ground beef, salt (optional), and pepper about 10 minutes or until meat is brown. Drain in colander.
Arrange onions in an 8x8x2-inch baking pan. Spoon meat mixture into onions. Top each with a cheese slice. Also, wrap the tortilla shells in tinfoil. Bake both the stuffed onions and wrapped tortilla shells in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.
Remove both from the oven and raise the oven rack to about 6 inches from heat element. Broil onions 2 to 3 minutes or until cheese begins to turn light brown. Place one tortilla on each plate and top with an onion. Serve with salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.

Comments

Flourchild said…
Woah that onion dish looks interesting!! I love everything..the cakes look very good!!!
Hanaâ said…
Lovely pink cake, Shandy. And your double-braided Challah turned out beautiful. Great job! Feel free to post a direct link to this post here: http://avidbakerschallenge.blogspot.com/2010/12/abc-bakers-link-for-january-2011.html
Monica said…
Girl you been busy! I love the pink cake, like you said - just the color alone makes you smile.

Like you I was on the "eh" side of Rose's cake... it was not one of the better ones' from the book.

And the BREAD!!!!!!!! I think the amount of exclamation points tells you the rest of the story.

Wow.
Jenn said…
That is a lot of cakes! Everything looks delish. I've never seen a double decker challah before! does it bake longer than regular challah?
Candy said…
Thanks for baking with me this week! Your cake looks delicious!

The bread is absolutely gorgeous!!!
Oh my! These cakes sure are very delightful!
Unknown said…
Your cake is beautiful! I was hesitant to put whole raspberries into the buttercream so I used puree, but yours looks great. Maybe I'll give it a try next time :)
Hi Shandy! I'm so glad to be back baking with SMS again. I love our small little group. Your cakes look so delicious. I enjoyed the raspberry frosting (even though it was a pain the neck)...pink frosting is so pretty and yummy! Your bread looks gorgeous too. Baking bread is my 2011 to do list. I hope all is well with you! Happy New Year!
Vicki said…
Lovely cakes and beautiful bread!
lola said…
Well, you continue to amaze me with your cooking adventures. Great job on each one! Your Challah looks amazing.
Julie said…
Your cake is beautiful! I just love the pink color. I skipped last week, new computer took over my day. The milk chocolate ganache looks delicous too and the bread! I think I gained 5 pounds reading your blog! :)
Just send me one of each. Need I say more?
I would like to try it all, but the raspberry cake is my favorite :)
The cake is awesome looking, the raspberries are a great choice.
And that stuffed onion, yum! I am going to try and make some of those.
Thanks for a great post today, see you next time.

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