I used a recipe I found many years ago and I have to admit, although the end result is pretty good, I was so impatient this morning that I didn't follow the directions closely and it could have ended in disaster. Unfortunately, I am not experienced enough to be able to experiment and invent. However, as I said, the end result is pretty good, so maybe it is a fool-proof recipe.
It's been a busy week with not much time to bake, unfortunately. So today, I decided to make a recipe I knew would be quick and delicious: scones and cream.
I used a recipe I found many years ago and I have to admit, although the end result is pretty good, I was so impatient this morning that I didn't follow the directions closely and it could have ended in disaster. Unfortunately, I am not experienced enough to be able to experiment and invent. However, as I said, the end result is pretty good, so maybe it is a fool-proof recipe.
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I was cleaning up the kitchen and had three oranges that needed to be used before spoiling, so I searched for recipes that used orange juice and this is what I found.
This is a very simple cake but oh so good. It is light, with a very subtle taste (I didn't have the orange zest but it definitely can use it). It springs back when you cut it, it is moist. Definitely a success... The cooking time was off, I had to bake it for 55 minutes instead of 40, but otherwise, everything worked. I looked for and found a recipe for icing using orange juice. I need to find a way to get all the lumps of sugar. If I hadn't been so impatient, I might have taken the time to sift the sugar and might have seen a difference. The recipe called for 1/2 cup juice but it's a lot of sugar.... and I didn't even get to the consistency mentioned (where you can spread the icing). I did add some orange extract to the icing and I think it is definitely something to do in the future as I'd need to use less liquid to have a thicker icing. If it hadn't been an improvised project, I would have decorated with slices of orange in addition to mint leaves, or even mandarin orange slices. Something with a strong orange color. This cake could also handle a filling, I'd go for a soft and subtly orange cream or orange jam... Actually raspberry jam could work well with the orange. I could see using this for petits-fours, cupcakes... The recipe called for a tube shape mold, so that could look great too. Well, I'm very happy with the final result, I mean REALLY happy, it tastes so good!!! OK, this is not a strictly baking post, although there is baking involved. I LOVE Moroccan food, well, in the limits of my used-to-Belgian-and-American-food palate. And I wanted to try to make some dishes and since there is no fun in cooking if nobody's there to try it, I decided to make a special occasion out of it.
Now, you have to understand, when I make a special occasion out of something, I go all out and stress myself silly for days. My friends know this about me and tease me about it, but hey, that's what friends are for. So, I created invitations for this dinner party and they all agreed to come. There were 8 people total. Special thank you to Sylvaine for taking pictures all evening long for me :-) Using the ready-made refrigerated pie crusts, I decided to make an apple pie today. Appropriate, isn't it, for the 4th of July?
If you remember, when I made the apple pie pops, I thought the filling came out pretty good and that I'd try it for a regular pie, so TA DAAAA! I was really happy with the result, especially when served with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream. Yum! Project of the day: something not too complicated, right? I found this recipe which uses those cookie pouches you find in the baking aisle of the store. It looked easy and fun and I thought I'd make a quick thing for today's 4th of July family dinner. They came out ok, they taste like regular sugar cookies, of course. I usually have trouble determining when sugar cookies are done, and having colored dough made it even harder, but they're still edible ;-) Lessons learned
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