White Christmas Victoria Sponge Cake

This was supposed to be Rose's 

White Christmas Peppermint Cake

which 

Marie made and you can see

how it is meant to be.

When she mentioned this cake

could easily be adapted to other flavors

I wondered if finally I could

duplicate my wedding cake.

Happy to say this is even better.

The cake batter Rose has us make

is a butter cake dream.

Honestly, it is the most beautiful,

fluffy batter imaginable.

Super simple to mix up, too.

Egg whites, sugar, cake flour, baking powder,

milk, salt, butter and extracts.

The frosting is divine.

Buttercream from a white chocolate custard base

transforms into a fluffy frosting.

I used Lindt Classic White Chocolate bars.

Here's where I veered off course.

The wedding cake was almond with raspberry filling

and white buttercream frosting.

I forgot to buy raspberry jam but had a new jar 

of strawberry.

I started remembering all those Great British Bake Off Victoria Sponges

and visions of Mary Berry began to swirl 'round my head.

I looked up her recipe and it's the same sort of basic ingredients,

minus the extracts  and butter ( hence "sponge")

but with choice of jams,

and powdered sugar showered over instead of frosting.

Adjusting the almond extract for the peppermint 

and spreading warmed jam

between the layers before frosting 

substituted easily.

We really love this cake

and I can see this next year made at

Christmas 

in it's peppermint form decorated with

marching soldiers among the candy cane crunch.

They've been in storage since my

children were little.

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Cranberry Walnut Christmas Bread

Cranberry Walnut Christmas Bread.

This may well be the recipe 

that put me over the edge.

And it has nothing to do with the recipe.

Although I was fooled

thinking it would be a lovely, simple tea bread,

like banana, zucchini, etc.

It is not a typical tea bread.

It is a full fledged 

yeast bread.   

And a very nice one at that.

One that calls for biga

slumbering away in the frig for three full days.

Fine by me.

I forget a lot of things these days

so being instructed to purposely 

ignore ingredients was a reprieve

in the midst of holiday must do lists.

I could swear this recipe called for candied orange rind.

It's always a good sign to pull the bowl

out of the refrigerator and find bubbles.

Snipped biga in cranberry water

As the name suggests, there are cranberries in this bread,

dried not fresh, plumped in hot water.

The strained water is used to flavor and tint the dough.

Mixed together with the usual cast of bread characters:

regular and whole wheat flour, yeast, salt 

and the main characters, cranberries and walnuts,

it turned into a dense dough.

After a few warm risings,

it quickly transformed into a lovely mound.

The magic of yeast, like Drosselmeyer

waving his cape and the Nutcracker comes to life.

It is a fun dough to press and fold and slash into shape.

The aroma started to fill the cold, wintery house

with cozy warmth.

This bread surprised me.

I didn't think I would like it.

It is delicious.

I still have no idea what recipe I read

that made me think it called for 

candied orange rind and zest

to soak with the cranberries.

Which makes me wonder if

I've taken to having baking hallucinations?

Sounds good though.

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Renee Fleming Golden Chiffon Cake

The Renee Fleming Golden Chiffon Cake

is a light, refreshing dessert

in the middle of gloomy weather.

It was incredibly easy to make,

probably one of the easiest of

Rose's sponge type cakes.

The egg whites folded in

so easily.

Finished late last night,

Ms Fleming was wrapped for the night,

and with an early morning wake up call,

sliced for breakfast!

The lemon curd was stirred up

while the cake was baking

and then mixed into the whipped cream today.

I only had 3/4's of a cup of heavy cream

but it suited me fine.

I love lemon curd and honestly

could have even gone down to 1/2 cup cream ratio.

The dried lemon zest was a bit off

instructions.

I heated up the oven, placed it inside

on a plate and turned it off.

It dried out while I tackled the

mountain of dishes.

Can't tell by this picture but it

dipped down as the recipe indicated.

Perfect for cradling lemon curd heaven.

More visible in this one.

This cake is 

definitely on the Bake Again list.

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Posh Pie

See the camera reflection?

This is Rose's ultimate chocolate pie creation,

aptly named Posh Pie.

It's a high maintenance pie,

that's for sure.

Marie

can fill you in on all the details.

This is the only picture I took which was from

making the chocolate cookie dough for the chocolate

cookie pie crust.

It's not that this pie was particularly difficult,

it was just many different components

and a lot of chilling times.

My new deep dish pie pan

arrived today after

making this yesterday!

So I used a ten and half inch pie plate

and had enough leftover filling

to make two small parfaits layered with

Speculoos cookies and whipped cream.

There aren't any pictures of those either.

With Rose's chocolate lacquer whipped cream

Was this pie worth the time and effort?

For a special occasion, yes.

Light and airy in texture,

not too sweet.

Definitely a pie for chocolate lovers 

and truly a show stopper.

I did follow 

Kristina's

tip to cool the filling in an ice bath

and Jen's

observation about the crust sticking

to the pan.  

I used a wooden espresso tamper to

barely tap it in.

It holds up really well overnight in Tupperware

even after being sliced

I am wondering what crushed candy canes

would be like over the top or peppermint

flavored whipped cream for the holidays?

It is spectacular! 

The peppermint whipped cream 

and crushed candy canes

really hit the mark with the chocolate.

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Traditional Challah

Challah

has to be one of the most

beautiful of all braided breads,

when made properly.

My challah resembled

the giant fish

Julia Child tackled.

It just kept growing!

 All the while, a challah

song kept coming to mind

but it wasn't as cute 

as this little sweet 

one.

First up making the sponge;

the most fun step in Rose's bread recipes.

Flour, water, honey and eggs whisked together

and then blanketed with flour, yeast and salt.

Time to add the rest of the ingredients:

eggs, oil, honey and vinegar.

Mixed with the dough hook until

 nice and smooth and definitely tacky.

A few steamy warm risings in between 

a quick knead, the proverbial 

business letter fold, dividing the dough

and braiding.

It baked up to the required internal

temperature

and voila!

Giant challah.

What to do with this massive loaf?

First, toast and tea.

And then a French Toast Casserole. 

It's been on my bucket list forever.

I used this recipe, 

subbing the Trader Joe's dried fruit blend

with golden raisins, cherries and blueberries,

plus one added teaspoon of orange oil.

The aroma bubbling out of the oven

was amazing.

A slight drizzle of  maple syrup

and it was delicious.

The challah texture stands up

perfectly during baking.

I had fun reading about the 

significance of challah

in the Jewish faith.

Very glad this lovely bread

is shared with the rest of the world.

Now I'm off to surprise

my brother with most

of this casserole.

~

The Bread Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum