Madeline

I made Madeline's this week, these little cookies are SO freaking good. I don't think I have ever had a bad madeline. They are usually lemon flavor or half dipped in chocolate. I myself just kept it simple and made a yellow madeline. A lot of people wonder if these are cookies or cakes.
To clear this up let me tell you, madeline are indeed both, cake and cookie. These first were seen in France and the base is made from an almost sponge cake batter. Which makes it a cake. It is then put into shell like tin to give it, its nice shape. The tins hold around eight madeline each depending on the size you want. The size alone is what I think makes it a cookie. Plus you don't frost madeline's.



The first thing you want to do is make sure that you whisk your eggs enough. No matter your recipe you want fluffy eggs. This will give the madeline's their light fluffy texture. Once the eggs are nice and light add the rest of the ingredients. In the end your batter should be a little thick. Just like sponge cake. For those of my cooks out there batters are all different consistency. You want the madeline's to be a cake batter thickness. Not a pancake consistency. What you don't want is a cookie consistency. Also like most baking you need to chill this batter before you start cooking it. My recipe said to chill for six hours. I did it for one hour and it was fine. I think that as long as its cold it should be fine.

So make sure you have sprayed down the tin really well. Then spoon in the batter making sure you don't fill it all the way. Since the batter will expand and will fill in the rest of the tin. These will take only a few minutes to cook so don't walk away from them.



As you can see in the left picture the madeline's are flat. That means they are not ready. As you can see on the right the madeline's have a nice dome on the top. This means they are done. Once they are done you should be able to just flip the tin over and they will fall out. Unless you have half a dozen tins you will need to repeat the spray down, fill, and bake process. This will happen until you run out of batter. I have the large tins and the batter made about thirty. With the small tins I would say it would make double the amount. Make sure you don't double stack them or they will stick together. Then you can add a little powder sugar on top. These little cookie like cakes will be the hit of any gathering.

Bundt

 I told you I was on a British kick last week well it has not been fully kicked I guess. This week all I have wanted to eat or cook is cake. You would think I would be sick of it but who is ever sick of cake. I tried eating real food a few nights ago for dinner instead of cake and you know what, I was sad after, it just wasn't cake.Last night I decided to make a Bundt cake, I hadn't made one since I was in high school(almost 10 years gulp). The bundt cake originally came from Europe. Unlike other cake pans the bunt has a hole in the middle (for my movie lovers you can all remember My Big Fat Greek Wedding bundt exchange) this hole or "chimney"is there specifically so that more of the batter is touching the pan. Not only the outside rim of the batter but the middle as well. This helps the cake cook more evenly and even quicker than other cakes. I was so nervous that the cake would get stuck in the pan. It is known to do that. Also when I put the batter in the cake pan it filled all the way to the top. Which I knew was not good.

I put the cake in the oven and sat down. I literally sat on my kitchen floor watching the cake. When you fill a cake pan you tend to only fill it half way since it will expand. Mine started at the brim before I even cooked it. I knew it was going to expand but I didn't know how much and I was so scared it was going to go all over my oven. So I did what any logical human would do I sat and watched it slowly get higher and higher. By the time it was done there was no longer a hole in the middle the dough had fallen in and made its own little cake. It looked like the worlds largest muffin. You couldn't even see the hole in the middle it got eaten by the batter. Which defeats the whole purpose of a bundt cake, as we just learned.

It felt like I was sitting shiva for my cake. I was just sitting and watching it get higher and higher. Mourning the moment that it would fall down the side and die. Or I had put so much and it would have to bake forever I would have to leave it in the oven for days to bake all the way through and during that time the top would burn. Finally, after an hour of baking it was finally done (I did leave my kitchen floor during the hour and would return to it periodically). It had expanded only about an inch or two which was amazing all in itself. It didn't even fall off the sides and onto my oven. It just sat their like a giant mushroom. Nicely browned and beautiful. 

After I let it cool a little I did a little trick. I took a long carving knife and found the top of the pan and just sliced the excess off in one fail swoop. It went from being way to much cake to the perfect size of cake. Plus it made it flat again so it didn't look like it had a muffin top. When you do this it's easier if you do it in the pan so then you can use the top of the pan as a guide. Just rest the knife on top and slice. I then put a plate on bottom and flipped. It slid right out, what a relief that was. You have to make sure with a bunt even more than any other type of cake pan to fully grease it. If you use cooking spray or butter and flour. With all the ridges of the bunt cake there is so many more places the dough can stick. 

In the end I was so proud of it. Not only did it come out of the pan nice and easy it taste so good. You may ask, "How would you know what it taste like you didn't slice it?" Well, since I cut the top off I got to eat my cake without actually eating into my cake. Which is a nice bonus for me. 

Now onto what type of cake this is. This is an apple pecan cake. It then has a cream cheese filling that is the lightly browned part of the cake you can see in the picture above. I then made a praline glaze and added some more pecans to the top. A few things about this particular cake, I used a recipe as a guide but I did substitute bananas for the oil. I am not a fan of oil in my cake. When it comes to substitutions they are out their just make sure you get the measurements right. Sometimes just because it calls for one cup of something doesn't mean you need one cup for the substitution. I would say to always double check. Also the praline glaze was supposed to be praline frosting. When I made it, it would not thicken so I tasted it and it still tasted good. So I decided to call it a glaze and go with it. Sometimes you can make mess ups work but never feel obligated to toss something and start again if it taste good. My advice just re-name it, you made it you can call it what ever you want.


As for this cake it was eaten by my co-workers. Next week I will try and make something that isn't cake. I am sure my husband will be glad for that as well. Remember when you cook it's your food so you get to make the calls. Even if you are using a recipe feel free to change, or add when you want. As long as you like the end result. As I like to say, it's Friday and Friday is cake day. 

"The British are Coming!"

Have you ever watched a movie or went somewhere and they ate something and all you can think about is that item. It could be the most obscure thing like roasting duck or funnel cake. Something you have never seen in a grocery store or something that is on every shelf. No matter what the item you just fixate on it all week. Well, its been one of those weeks for me. I found a new cooking show and everything they made I wanted to eat. The only thing is it was a British show so when they said biscuits I think yum, with warm butter. Then all of a sudden they are making crackers. I am so sad but so intrigued I would never think of making my own crackers. It was that way for all the food they made on the show.

This week I tried my hand at making a sponge roll. They say sponge is hard to make and I took that as a challenge. You know what I found out, sponge is hard to make. Who ever "they are" the people that rate food. They are right my first try and it looked amazing, nice and light brown when I touch it, it sprang back. Then I did what they tell you to do, I flip it out right away so I can roll it. Guess what happens, it just starts oozing out the whole middle was still uncooked. So I get my trash can and just push it off the counter into the bin. That was a bad kitchen day for me. Have you ever had a bad kitchen day, well Thursday was my bad kitchen day nothing was working out for me. I think my trash can ended up with more food than my counter.

But you should never give up even if something doesn't work the first time. So Friday I get my cake tin out again and try the sponge cake once more. This time I let it cook a little longer and tried again, this time when I flipped it there was no oozing! It rolled real nice and tight.

While it cooled you get to make the filling. Usually the roll is filled with some sort of cream. But this time I made a raspberry cream cheese sauce. It was so creamy and smooth. Unlike most berries you want to make sure you sift the raspberry after they are melted down so you get all the seeds out. No one likes seeds in a cream sauce. Once the cake was cooled and the sauce was creamy enough I unrolled it and put a nice layer of the raspberry on it, then rolled it back up. I then dusted it with powdered sugar and garnished with whole raspberry. Not going to lie I was very proud of it. Which may sound all high and mighty, but if you think about it you all have a meal you have made and we're proud of the outcome. This was my meal or dessert.

Now that I'm on this British kick I am not sure what I will be bringing you next week. Though by tomorrow I might be on to something totally different. So until next week maybe you will surprise yourself and make something you have been fixated on.