Cookie Lynn

My husband bought me this mini tea cake Nordicware pan for Valentine’s Day this year. So cute.

When trying to decide what sort of cake I wanted to try, my mind went to the caramel cake chosen for the November 2008 Daring Bakers challenge. The first time, I made them vegan with Ener-G and a bit of extra baking soda. This time, I tried the recipe as-is. There honestly wasn’t much of a difference in the result, which I suppose is a victory for vegan baking… or something.

The batter was just a bit too thick for this pan, and it didn’t settle into all the nooks and crannies, even after a bit of tapping and jiggling the pan. These were the best of the bunch.

I’ll have to try the almond cake recipe that came with the pan soon. I finally (accidentally) found almond paste today at the store, while looking for corn tortillas for dinner.

As I am currently halfway through my first semester as a Baking and Pastry Arts student, I thought I’d take a break from my midterm study session to let you know a bit more about it.

I chose to go for the Baking and Pastry Arts certificate rather than an Associates in Culinary Arts for a few reasons…

1) I don’t cook much. I can spend hours working on a baking project, but when it comes to dinner, I’d rather have it done and over with. I can muster up the ambition and patience on occasion, but it’s really not something I like to do on a daily basis.

2) I don’t eat meat, and I’d rather not have to deal with it. I’m not terribly grossed out by it, but it’s been years since I’ve eaten or prepared it, and since my (vegetarian) husband and I moved in together, I haven’t really been around it at all. I don’t intend of becoming a chef or working in a restaurant, so the chances of needing to know how to braise, broil, or baste meat in the future is fairly slim.

3) Truth be told, I just didn’t want to deal with the prerequisites. An Associate Degree requires at least 20 credits of general education.

Skipping the general education portion of an Associate Degree has enabled me to jump right into the core classes… and this semester those are; Introduction to Hospitality Management, Sanitation and Hygiene, and Principals of Nutrition.

Having taken two food-related classes at my high school, attended the local career center for Food Service and Culinary Arts in my senior year, and now working over two years in the deli/bakery department of a supermarket, a good deal of my current coursework is review. Most of it is pretty interesting, though.

So, now that you know where I am… I should probably go back to working on presentations and studying for exams. I’ve certainly procrastinated enough already.

Potter Puppet Pals by Diamonds for Dessert

If you know anything about me, you probably know that I can be a bit of a geek over certain things. I generally have three or so major “fandoms” at any given time, and I spend a lot of my time re-watching or re-reading my favorites, discussing minute details with other fans online, checking for spoilers or speculation, and generally getting far more invested than I probably should.

So, of course when my geekier interests collide with my love of food, awesomeness abounds… as is the case with these Potter Puppet Pal cookies. That’s why I feel I must declare today the inaugural Fandom Food Friday.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

I just baked my first sugar-free cookies, courtesy of Baking with Agave Nectar.

These Linzer Torte Cookies were quite yummy. Slightly sweet, nutty, fruity, cinnamon-y… it was somewhere between an oatmeal cookie and a breakfast bar. I used fruit-sweetened black cherry preserves, rather than the raspberry preserves the recipe called for, as my husband wouldn’t have touched them otherwise. I think apricot would have been tasty, too.

(After a bit of Googling, I happened across the recipe on FitSugar Enjoy!)

I thought I’d try my hand at the Hostess-style cupcakes again. I really liked the Fauxstess cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which is a pretty simple chocolate cupcake recipe filled with buttercream and topped with chocolate ganache. This time, I wanted to change up the filling by adding maraschino cherries… because pink and cherries seem more festive.

Maraschino Frosting
(adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)

1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup non-dairy margarine
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 teaspoom vanilla extract
1/4 cup maraschino cherry juice**
2-4 maraschino cherries, finely chopped (optional)

Beat shortening and margarine until well combined, add sugar and beat about 3 minutes. Add extracts and maraschino juice, beat 5-7 minutes until fluffy. Add cherries and beat until combined.

**In the name of full disclosure, I only had about 1/8 cup juice left in the jar, and added soy milk to get 1/4 cup. It should work fine either way.

Filling the cupcakes with a large pastry tip.

Dipping filled cupcakes in chocolate ganache, kept warm in a double-boiler.

Writing Valentine’s messages with a #2 writing tip after ganache has thoroughly cooled.

If I don’t return to the kitchen before then, have a happy Valentine’s Day!