Peach Crunch Cake

Hello strangers . . . Did you miss me? . . . Yea, it's been a while. . . I've been busy. . . 

I missed you!

Life as of late has been ca-ray-zee! Little League, swim team, end of year band concerts, end of year projects, awards ceremonies, studying for finals, cleaning out lockers, working, working, did I say working? Between all the kids sports, end of school brew ha ha and my so called part time job taking up 40 hours each week, my poor little blog has been neglected. But NOT abandoned. I could never let it go. Add to it all that the last couple of grand ideas for the blog have ended up flops and well, I've been in a bit of a slump. I'm working on getting my mojo back. Not to worry, there's lots of stuff in the idea file. Good stuff's coming, be patient. Oh and my ancient relic of a camera is on the fritz. Kaput. Photos in this post are courtesy of my iPhone. Thank you Apple!

So, I really haven't had much time to chop, sauté, fold, rest, rise, laminate, knead, roll, cut, flour, dip, decorate, beat or whip. But I did find some time to dump. As in the classic Dump Cake. Which BTW I hate that name "Dump Cake" doesn't really make me think of a cake. But what I do love is how easy, easy, easy, it is. A few simple ingredients dumped, er, layered in a pyrex and voila, dessert. There are literally tons of recipes on the web and I'll bet if you ask your mother, grandmother or Aunt Fanny she'll have some version of this recipe. I went with Bakerella's Peach Crunch Cake. Although it's called "cake" what you end up with isn't really cake. It's more like a cobbler, but gooier. Serve it with vanilla ice cream and you've got the perfect easy summer dessert.

Blue Velvet Cake Pops

So I was all set a few days ago to post about Bread Pudding. Mmmmm, bread pudding, one of my absolute favorite desserts. I had never really made it so I tried a recipe from the internet and while it was pretty good, it wasn't perfect. And I wanted it perfect. So, we'll save bread pudding for another day, as soon as I get it perfect. Be patient, it's coming.

But, I bet you've been wondering what I was going to do with that leftover Blue Velvet Cake. Did you guess? Was Bakerella enough of a hint? Were you thinking Cake Pops? Well, if you were, you were right. Cake Pops. Blue Velvet Cake Pops to be exact. 

Wait. . .

I need to back up a bit. . . 

When I first heard of cake pops and cake balls they sounded kind of gross. I didn't think I'd ever make them. Then I discovered Bakerella and I really enjoyed her site. She's seriously the Queen of Cake Pops. Different cake ball and cake pops kept popping up on her blog. But I still wasn't ready to give 'em a try. Then my daughter caught wind of them and begged me to make them with her. So, I gave in and we made them to bring to a party. They were a hit. Everyone loved them. So, I was converted. Yes, they are sweet. But, they are supposed to be. It's cake and icing. So if you're skeptical, like I was, just give in a give 'em a try.

Eclairs

My apologies for taking so long to post. I have not abandoned this blog. I repeat, I HAVE NOT ABANDONED THIS BLOG. Seriously, it's my baby. No, I didn't abandon it, but, well, maybe I neglected it a bit this past week. I've just had a couple of super busy weeks with no time to bake, cook or blog. I've not been a happy camper. But, I'm back. Did you miss me? I totes missed you!!!

So now that you've mastered Pâte à Choux. And you have, haven't you? Lets make eclairs. Eclair is a broad term. If you surf the internet you'll see a wide variety of filling and icing choices as well as many different shapes and sizes. But, for me, a traditional eclair has a vanilla custard (or pastry cream, same difference.) filling and a chocolate icing on top. I'll show you how to make both and then how to assemble the eclair. I used one of Gale Gand's recipes from the Food Network web site but any vanilla pastry cream recipe will work. This is way easy stuff, but oh so impressive and delicious. Let's get started. . .

The Basics: Pâte à Choux

Pâte à Choux. Oh la la, sounds so fancy. So French. So complicated. Complicated? 

Actually, its as easy as it gets. So easy that I mastered "Cream Puff Shells" when I was about 10 years old. 

I loved to cook as a kid (well, duh, I still do.) and I was lucky enough to have a mom that gave me free reign in the kitchen. Cream Puffs and Eclairs always looked so magical at the bakery. Special. A world apart from pies, cakes and cookies. And every once in a great while, my mom would buy one. Just one, and we'd all get a little taste. The crispy shell, the creamy filling, the fudgy top. Heaven! I was determined to figure out this exotic French delight. Then, one boring afternoon, while flipping through a cookbook, if found it. A recipe for cream puff shells. And the ingredients were so so simple: butter, flour, eggs. And even though my mom wasn't much for cooking, at the very least she had those on hand. So, I set to baking and low and behold they turned out on the very first try. All I had to do next was whip up a box of instant vanilla pudding to fill them and slap on some canned chocolate frosting and voila, I was a French chef who made eclairs.

OK, so these days I do a bit better than instant pudding mix, my preference is pastry cream, and I prefer a lighter chocolate glaze to the heavy fudge icing used in grocery stores; the point is they're totally easy to make. Once you master the basics of the shell, fillings (both sweet and savory) are totally up to you. You can fill them with vanilla ice cream and top with hot fudge for a special dessert. Or how about mini puffs filled with herb and salmon cream cheese for an impressive appetizer. Learn how to make the shells and you'll be on your way to infinite pastry creations. I'll also post later about filling and glazing, stay tuned!