Fondant Cake with Cornelli Lace

Fondant cake w yellow free-form Cornelli Lace royal icing

Today was a day of extras. I had an extra cake and was looking for something easy but interesting to do with it. I also have extra royal icing lying around. (It keeps for ages, so store your extra in an airtight container) I had seen cakes decorated with this free-form pattern before. Apparently, it is called Cornelli Lace, which I didn’t realize, and it is not supposed to touch. (ops, didn’t realize that on a few strings) You may have seen it on wedding cakes, with a white-on-white pattern used to mimic the lace of the wedding gown. I just thought it would be a quick and easy way to be decorative. I simply took my already made yellow royal icing and number 3 tip (You can use a #1 tip for thinner, more delicate lines), put it into a piping bag and just made a free-form  pattern design. I debated leaving the top plain white fondant, but I was having so much fun with the free-form royal icing, I decided to pipe the top as well as the sides. Just a simple, easy way to use your extras for good decorative use!

Carrot Bread

Fresh out if the oven! Carrot Bread

I am not sure why I am on a quick bread kick… maybe because it is fall, maybe because I was looking for something interesting to do with veggies, or maybe it is because they are quick and easy to make. I love things that are not fussy. My latest creation is a carrot bread. Similar to a carrot cake, it gave me something to do with the carrots that were sitting in my fridge without much inspiration.

Again, a fairly easy recipe to pull together, minus the almost shredding of a finger in the carrot grating process. I chose a recipe that called for more rather than less carrots, just because I was trying to use up a bunch (though I probably only used three or four).

In a mixer combine:

2 eggs

1 Cups sugar

2/3 Cups oil

1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl sift together:

1 1/2 Cups flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp nutmeg*

1/4 tsp All Spice*

pinch of ground clove*

*The original recipe called for just nutmeg, but I like the mixture of allspice as well as the flavor of clove. You can mix and match to whatever your preference is. You can also omit the vanilla if you choose.

Combine flour mixture with oil/egg mixture

Then add in to your taste:

1 1/2 Cups grated/shredded carrots

1/2 Cups- 1 Cups walnuts (optional)

1/2-1 Cups raisins (optional)

1/2-1 C chocolate chips (just because I seem to add chocolate chips to everything… I mean, do they make everything better?! But again, these are optional as well.)

Pour into a loaf pan and Bake at 350F for 1 hour.

I just learned another baking tip this week- and again, it is optional. After you remove the bread from the oven, put a plate or something over the top and leave it there as it cools. It will help it retain the steam, keeping it moist and delicious.

Alternately, you can make muffins (about a 20-25 min baking time). And remember, these are healthy! They have carrots!!!

Cake with Red & White Flowers

Cake with Red & White Flowers

This is a cake I made recently.

True red, I mean really RED red, is hard to achieve when tinting icing, so to get the color I used AmeriColor Christmas Red. It really helped obtain a RED color, rather than a variation of pink.

It was also quite warm in my kitchen when I was trying to decorate the cake. You need stiff icing to create flowers, and warm kitchens do not help; they act to melt and wilt the flowers. One thing I did was put the frosting in the fridge for about 10 min or so to chill and harden it a bit before trying to make the roses. Once I made each individual rose, I put it on a cookie sheet and popped it into the freezer until I was ready to put them onto the cake. This helped keep their shape ensuring they did not melt in my overheated kitchen. (My favorite video that teaches you how to make a buttercream rose is from The Cake Eccentric.)

Just a few tips to help with the decorating.

Zucchini Bread with Chocolate Chips

Zucchini bread with chocolate chips

It’s TOO HOT to bake! I found myself saying that time after time this summer. Forget the record temperatures, my apartment heats up like a sauna every time I cook. Add to that my air conditioner stopped working during the worst heat wave. All these are just excuses as to why I didn’t bake and why this blog has been blank for so long.

Now welcome fall, with temperatures starting to fall and Halloween decorations already in the stores. My CSA has supplied zucchini (courgettes for all you Brits) all summer long and I have a feeling it will start to disappear. I have sautéed it, boiled it, baked it, tossed it into pasta, added it to tomatoes, eggplant and squash… frankly there are only so many times I can saute it with garlic and oil. Then I remembered something I love to eat but never make- ZUCCHINI BREAD! I see it at the farmers market all the time, but I have never made it for myself. What a great way to transition from summer to fall; using on of summer’s best ingredients but baking it into a warm, comforting bread (and of course with chocolate chips!)

Zucchini bread is a quick bread, meaning it doesn’t have yeast. It is similar to a banana bread but I am always amazed that you can take a savory vegetable and turn it into a sweet, almost cake-like dessert bread. I didn’t use all zucchini, I actually only had enough for 3/4 of what the recipe called for, so I substituted yellow squash for the rest and it worked out fine! It is nice to have a recipe that is not fussy and easy to just throw together quickly (even if the actual baking time takes a while). I took my recipe from Smitten Kitchen, another NYer cooking in a cramped kitchen. Her recipe calls for nutmeg. I think this was either unnecessary or it should be reduced to an even smaller amount. I found it added too much spice to the bread. Nutmeg is fine with pumpkin, or other heartier squash, but I think it is too strong for the more subtle zucchini. My only other complaint was the recipe was for 2 loaves and I only wanted to make one. I sometimes find it hard to halve recipes, esp when the original calls for three eggs (I used 2). Here is the original recipe:

Zucchini Bread
Yield: 2 loaves or approximately 24 muffins

3 eggs
1 cup olive or vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini (I drained the zucchini a bit by squeezing out some excess water)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (I would skip this or use a scant amount)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional I didn’t use)
1 cup chocolate chips, dried cranberries, raisins or combination (optional But come on- GO FOR THE CHOCOLATE CHIPS!)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans, liberally. (I used a silicon loaf pan, so I didn’t need to butter and flour it. Also, this recipe will yield 24 muffins if you don’t want to make bread loaves).

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla. (Careful, the zucchini tends to get a bit stuck in the mixing beaters)

Combine the dry ingredients: flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt, as well as nuts, chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using.

Stir this into the wet ingredients/egg mixture. Divide the batter into prepared pans.

SEE HOW EASY THIS IS! All the wet ingredients in one shot, all the dry into another the bowl at the same time! And just combine… no softening butter, no multiple steps.

Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Less time for the muffins, about 20-25 minutes.

This is one way that makes it EASY to enjoy your vegetables!