The Hunger Struck - Confessions of a Food Fanatic.

I had been thinking about what kind of cake to make for Rain’s first birthday for a few months. I’ll admit I’ve been really excited about all the fun things I can do for kids birthdays now, you know things in small format on sticks etc. Even before I had a kid, despite constantly dissing the cute trend that’s been snowballing in the last few years, I had thought about how I might get away with it at my next dinner party. But then the adult in me couldn’t visualizes brown butter rice krispy pops as the desert following beef bourgangion, go figure. This kid thing may open up a whole new chapter of cute, which used to terrify me but I find myself suddenly drawn to.

I’m sure all of you mothers out there with even the slightest interest in baking understand the dilemma. It was going to be his first taste of sugar so it had to be perfect. I went through the usual list of common first birthday cakes from the allergen free to the fake chocolate black bean cake, none of which seemed particularly appealing to me. I think maybe this is because I’m not exactly a birthday cake person *gasp* shocking I know. I do love many kinds of cake especially those that shine in the morning with a cup of coffee, I’m just not crazy about the typical icing heavy variety traditional to birthdays. I don’t find them very exciting. They have a tendency to be overly sweet with not much flavor, at least the North American variety. I also really wanted to give him something he would love, he’s never had cake before or really any sugar to speak of so I was challenged by trying to find something he already liked and take it to the next level with some serious sugar.

I know you’re thinking that I’m crazy because any kid presented with a high concentration of sugar for the very first time will absolutely go nuts over it no matter what form it come in. While I don’t deny that could be the case, there were also a few other problems that influenced the direction I took. Most important of all, I had yet to give him any form of wheat or eggs. I’m really not one to get all crazy about the allergen thing, but why take the risk on his first birthday even if it is remote?

Actually, once I stopped focusing on birthday cake the answer came quickly to me: yogurt. My son goes absolutely nuts over plain unsweetened yogurt. I mean completely nuts. You would think you were in a monkey cage at the zoo standing in the middle of a giant vat of bananas. It’s to the point where we have to conceal the yogurt all the way in the back of the fridge because if he even gets a glimpse of the shiny white container he becomes completely entranced, every fiber in his little body starts to twitch and noises of all frequencies come flying out of his mouth at such speed there’s no time to even comprehend whats happened before a melt down of epic proportions is well underway. We have to go to great lengths to conceal yogurt in our fridge or anything that resembles a yogurt container.

Yes this was going to be the perfect introduction to sugar and the perfect occasion to just let him have at it. I had the perfect cake… see how many times I’ve said perfect in the last 2 sentences? That’s how PERFECT it was going to be.

Raspberry Dacquoise for the adults and the filling which contained no wheat, nuts or eggs made into a mini individual flower shape for the wee one. I’ve been making this cake for a few years, a recipe I found over at Chocolate and Zucchini that has become one of our favorites. It’s definitely not the most simplistic but really worth it for a special occasion and the filling on the inside: a combination of Greek yogurt, whipping cream and sugar was the answer I was looking for. It is totally yogurt like, same colour, same texture with just a few ingredients to make it even better. I was sure he would love it and that it would result in tiny adorable yelps of joy, with little hands grabbing for it before the candle was even blown out. After which we would have to take him outside and hose him down because much like most meals his entire little body would be covered from head to toe… all of this would naturally be captured on video which we would watch years down the road… blah blah blah…

Oh my GOD was I wrong.

Who took my banshee and replaced him with this sweet little reserved angel? He barely even expressed interest in touching it. I had to feed him some with a spoon. Dude are you serious? My child hates being fed with a spoon, pureed baby food lasted for maybe a week or two with this guy. He has to do everything himself. He comes by that honestly.

After a good 20 minutes of trying to spark his interest we gave up and fed him plain unsweetened organic yogurt for dinner for which he displayed his usual enthusiasm. Sigh. Just when you think you have them figured out they change.

But not all was lost the cake was as amazing as ever and if you’re fairly brave in the kitchen I suggest you give it a whirl – it is truly exceptional. For the recipe you’re better off referring to Chocolate and Zucchini (Raspberry Dacquoise Entrements)as this time around I quadrupled the recipe making the dacquoise in a full sized sheet pan and assembling in a giant pastry ring to accommodate all of Rain’s party guests. I will mention that I used exclusively Greek yogurt which turned out to be my favorite so far. The original recipe calls for Fromage Blanc, which is not only hard to find in North America but adds another lengthy step to the process should you choose to make it like I previously did. Also, I used frozen raspberries this time, I wanted them to taste good and they’re not even close to in season right now – I would suggest using fresh if you can find some decent as mine bled as they thawed taking away from the aesthetics of it.

Aesthetics aside, it did look nice on the cake stand!

Sometimes a little unplanned baking session can really work to your advantage, even in cases where substitutions are necessary. I’m the kind of person that believes in having a fully stocked pantry if I can at all times, meaning that if I am a little low on one sort of baking staple I will make sure to restock on my next trip to the store. I’m likely even a little over stocked with many different grain flours, sugars and nuts – I like to be prepared because I really love to bake and running out quickly to grab what I’m missing is really not as easy as it used to be.

The other day when the urge to bake struck I was unusually underprepared and couldn’t manage to shake the desire to make some sort of soft cake-like apple muffin, so I was forced into improvisation and completely out of my comfort zone. I’ll admit the situation wasn’t dire, I had little bits of different flours: regular AP flour, whole wheat, rye, corn, barley, oat and rice as well as about 1/4 cup of flax and a few walnuts. I routinely bake with a mix of these, but all together and completely unmeasured made me a bit nervous and the fact that I had only one single egg, almost no sugar and half the amount of oil I generally use was not going to help me. I knew that if I didn’t add in a significant amount of moisture, the result would be dry.

Fortunately, I had a can of pumpkin which to be quite honest is one of the most important pantry shelf items because of its versatility. I use a lot of this stuff both for baking and cooking it can completely save you in a situation like this. I also had some apple sauce and yogurt that was meant for baby R and a container of molasses that would substitute for some of the sugar. I was on my way, but still feeling a bit skeptical – again baking substations are really not my thing.

I bake a lot. Probably too much. I’m starting to realize this is the reason I’m currently about 40 pounds overweight. Funny how that realization just makes me want to bake more. Just joking… I do have every intention of being able to wear jeans again and hopefully soon at that. After one full year in leggings I think its time, and when I say leggings I mean underneath long muumuu type shirts so lets not get excited people i am NOT that person. Actually, I was trying to evaluate how long I thought I could safely get away with the whole just had a baby thing and I came to the conclusion that I am rapidly approaching the the end of that era.

Waaaaaaaa. But its definitely for the best.

Well I finally managed to get an hour to post a much needed update. Things have been extremely busy around here and even though I was warned, I still had some delusions that I would be able to handle it all and not  get so unacceptably behind around here. To all those peeps who told me otherwise you can officially pat your selves on the back and give me a big I told you so. You were right and I was so so incredibly wrong. Go ahead and rub it in I’m cool with it. In fact, I scoff at my former self for even thinking that I would still retain even an ounce of independence and able to enjoy some of the luxuries I once did.

Turns out I work on no ones schedule but his and he is very demanding and never takes no for an answer. But of course I enjoy every moment and when you’re this cute you can pretty much get away with anything.

Has anyone been to Paris at this time of year, or anywhere in France for that matter? If you have you will probably have noticed the plethora of puff pastry rounds stacked high on the patisserie shelves. Though quite unremarkable looking in comparison to other spectacular French pastries, these galettes are one of my absolute favorite things. Traditionally they are made for the epiphany or three kings days on January 6th and are truly wonderful in their simplicity. I have always been a fan of subtly sweet desserts and this galette with its almond pastry cream filling would also be an amazing breakfast pastry.

I wrote a post some time back on a non traditional Galette Des Rois and I find myself reinventing it throughout the year because I love it so much. I figured that this year I would do a post on a traditional Galette Des Rois because for once I actually managed to make one at the correct time of year. I will leave this one pure for now but know that it can be easily altered by adding various fruits, I love thinly sliced apple or pears but it would also be amazing with fresh berries in the summertime.

Well this post has been a long time coming. After many dramatic weeks of trying to find my camera in this whole moving mess, I finally find it only to discover that I’m unable to login to my website. What is up with that? So after a few days of panic deleting of random files in my database that I think are responsible for the lock out, I manage to really screw things up and had to call in a professional to rebuild. I don’t know what I was thinking, I have absolutely zero skill in this department and apparently no common sense either.  Who randomly deletes file on the off chance that they might get lucky and by some miracle solve the problem? I surprise myself sometimes. But everything seems to be back to normal around here so I figured that before everyone is complely off of the holiday sweets I would slip in a post on our holiday baking.

I am a huge pecan pie fan and I think it is underrepresented in canada as a part of holiday baking. I always want to make a pecan pie for thanksgiving but somehow never mange to out of fear that the traditionalists would be forever traumatized by the absence of either pumpkin or apple pies. So after a certain family member received an amazingly huge box of pecans as a gift, apparently some of the best pecans to be had, I seized the opportunity. Unfortunately, I was unable to use any of these pecans because a certain someone hid them from me, so these bars were made with some very ordinary Vancouver pecans. I’m not bitter about this at all and they turned out fantastic despite that.

This is a Martha Stewart recipe and one I highly recommend if you’re craving pecan pie but don’t want to commit to eating an entire pie.

Honestly, there is nothing bread like about this Pumpkin Pudding Bread except for maybe the loaf shape so lets just get that out of the way straight off. If you’re looking for a recipe that has a dryer texture, is easily sliceable and perhaps a wee bit lower in fat than your average cake this recipe is definitely not for you. But if you are in search of a loaf recipe that is so incredibly moist you can look past the fact that it’s difficult to get it out of the pan in one piece, or better yet if you’re like us and are completely comfortable going at it with a spoon then look no further because this my friends may not be pretty but it is absolute pumpkin heaven.

In the interest of full disclosure those are mini loaf pans otherwise we really might have been in trouble. I polished off one before Sat even realized I had baked something and he was just lucky that out of concern of contracting Gestational Diabetes, I decided to exercise some self control.  The only thing that maybe maybe needs some rethinking is the baking dish itself, I mean why would I want to change something that is pretty near perfection already? I found myself thinking that since this ‘bread’ didn’t turn out like bread at all and instead of adding say 1/2 cup of extra flour to help it turn into that, I would really like to try baking this in small individual ramekins and serving it straight up as a dessert. I mean you could even make it with a sauce! I’m thinking a maple one. Or a caramel one, or a maple caramel one… did I go too far?  This probably needs to happen soon. I’ll keep you informed.

Until then here’s the recipe in its current status.

I have been on a pumpkin kick recently. It’s that time of year I know, but I have to admit I haven’t always been the hugest pumpkin fan. We just had thanksgiving here in Vancouver last weekend, and it was the first in a long time where the traditional pumpkin pie was not present for dessert and I have to say I really didn’t miss it. I do enjoy pumpkin pie and have really grown to appreciate pumpkins in their various forms – I especially love pumpkin risotto and pumpkin spice muffins are one of my very favourite! But I didn’t grow up eating pumpkins other than in the form of pie. My grandmother made pumpkin pie around this time of year, but unlike her apple pie I always felt sort of unattached to it. It was only later in life that I truly embraced pumpkin pie and considered it a viable dessert option. It definitely took me about 20 years to develop a taste for it. Strange I know.

Call it a strange pregnancy thing but since about 2 days following our thanksgiving dinner, I have seriously not been able to think about anything but pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cheese cake, pumpkin anything that’s sweet and it was driving me crazy. So, this morning at the grocery store I found myself loading my basket with can after can of organic pumpkin puree. Its funny because I always hear stories about super markets running out of the stuff around thanksgiving so I really went in with this panic mentality this morning. Of course I have never experienced this myself, every time I need pumpkin puree its always available and the shelves of my local grocery store were stocked full of it. But I’m glad I have it because I did promise my in laws a pumpkin pie for Halloween and I’m in the process of convincing Sat that we need muffins asap – he’s been trying to ease off the sweets which is hard to do when you’re married to someone who loves to bake.

I know it’s officially fall but I couldn’t resist one last summer dessert before moving on to all the fall favorites. I’m absolutely dieing to make apple pie this year and have a new recipe I have extremely high hopes for. It’s funny because I have been dieing to make pie of any kind for the last 2 weeks but have been holding out until closer to thanksgiving as I have a tendency to over do it right at the beginning of the season. Well at least according to my husband. Personally, I’m not one to have too much of anything. Is there even such a thing where pie is concerned?

There have been an abundance of berries this year and though the season is really over and perhaps it would be more appropriate to be making things like pie, I thought one last summer tart would be just the distraction I need from from certain things made with apples, pumpkins or squash. Though I will admit I couldn’t resist baking my favorite Harvest Butternut Squash Loaf over the weekend.

Well I’m officially back in my kitchen and couldn’t be happier about it. I really hope to forgo such long blogging breaks in the future. In my defence, it was however quite an unglamorous and difficult summer I endured, one where the maintenance a food blog proved impossible. They really don’t warn you about these things, or maybe they do and I just didn’t listen. Either way I hold myself accountable for thinking that the transition into such major change would be smooth, uncomplicated and altogether enjoying. As it stands all of those ideas of what I thought these months would bring couldn’t have been more off base. This was extremely frustrating at the time but of course now that I am on the other side I feel that it was all worth it.

What am I hinting at? Well after almost 4 miserable months we are officially delighted to tell you that in early March we are expecting a brand new addition to our family of 3 and we couldn’t be more excited and terrified about it. Excited for all of the obvious reasons and terrified because this will be our first non fur baby and we are starting to wake up to the responsibilities that that entails. But we are delighted by the challenges that it will bring and are in a bit of a panic searching for new digs that will accommodate our new addition.