Ginger Cake with Candied Oranges and Orange Cream

I'm elated to share with all of you that the ongoing holiday bonanza around here has finally concluded. We had our second Christmas celebration on Monday complete with roasted pig, tamales, and 3 decadent desserts.

As happy as I am to be done with all the non-stop cooking and cleaning, I'm a little sad to see some things come to an end, such as putting away the tree.  I bought a new artificial tree this year, which I'm really enjoying.  You see there was this moving incident in which some unnamed person (HDD) was being too lazy to move our old one and it got given away.  So I decided last year to buy a fancy real one, it was tall, full, and looked glorious all decorated.  Until two weeks later when all of the branches fell like a cake yanked from the oven too soon.  Bulbs started falling off on the tile floor and I was cleaning up glass every other day so the dogs wouldn't cut their feet. 

In previous years I've left the tree selection up for family debate and usually I'm overridden, so this year I didn't leave the tree up for discussion.  You see sometimes you just have to be the head honcho in charge and boss around the minions.  I informed the troops I'm the boss around here for a reason.  I take all the decorations down from the garage, I hang all the ornaments in an orderly, perfectly spaced fashion, I'm stuck with making sure all the most breakable ones are located high enough from little fingers, I make sure the lights are spaced 1.48 inches apart, I pack it all away when the fun is over, I vacuum pine needles for three weeks, so back the hell off I'm the boss.  (I know, super adultish to throw a tantrum.)  (Probably from lack of naps I might add.)

So when it came to deciding on what desserts to serve for the 6th, I put my boss crown on and made some executive decisions. I knew right off the bat I would serve a lime, raspberry swirl cheesecake, a pan of chocolate, pecan chess bars, but for the third I just decided to wing it. This cake has a few steps, but all of them can be done the night before and the cake can be assembled when needed.   

I don't make resolutions, but I am resolute on making some changes this year.  Don't fret though; those changes have nothing to do with giving up dessert.

Ginger Cake with Candied Oranges and Orange Cream 

Cake: 

1 cup milk 

1/2 cup molasses 

3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil 

3 large eggs 

1 teaspoon orange extract 

1 cup light brown sugar 

1 cup granulated sugar 

2 cups all-purpose flour 

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 

1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons ground ginger 

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 

Pinch ground cardamom 

Pinch salt 

Candied Cuties (Mandarin Oranges): 

3 mandarin oranges, sliced 1/4-inch thick (ends discarded)

1/2 cup granulated sugar 

1 1/2 cups water 

Orange Cream: 

1 cup heavy whipping cream 

1/2 teaspoon orange extract 

Zest from 1 mandarin orange 

2 tablespoons granulated sugar 

8 ounces mascarpone cheese 

Garnish: 

Candied Cutie 

Toffee bits 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Combine milk, molasses, oil, eggs, orange extract, brown sugar, granulated sugar, flour, baking powder, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and salt in a mixing bowl and mix until combined with no lumps. 

Pour the cake mixture evenly into two 8-inch or two 9-inch pans that are prepared with butter and flour or sprayed with no-stick spray and lined with parchment rounds (my favorite). I used two 9-inch pans and got thinner cakes, if you’d like thicker ones use 8-inch pans. 

Bake both pans on the same rack for 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Note: 8-inch pans will take a few minutes longer to bake.

Add orange slices, sugar and water to a skillet and bring to a boil and let boil on medium-low heat for 20 minutes, until the liquid is thickened and syrupy. Remove pan from the heat, cover and let steep for a few hours. Remove the oranges to a rack to dry for a few hours and save the syrup. 

Combine heavy cream, orange extract, zest, and sugar in the bowl of a mixer and mix until stiff peaks form. Fold mascarpone into whipped cream. Set aside. 

To assemble cake, place one layer of cake on a plate, drizzle with half of the syrup, spread on half of the cream, add a layer of candied cuties (reserve 1 for top), add the second layer of cake, drizzle with second half of syrup, spread on the rest of the cream, top with a sprinkling of toffee bits and a candied orange. 

(The toffee bits added a little crunch, but are completely optional.)

Hoping all my friends caught in the Polar Vortex are keeping warm, I've seen pictures on the news and am reminded how grateful I am to live in a place that rarely dips below 30.

Gina

Genetically Abnormal Ears with Peanut Butter Wax

While I've resigned myself to working a desk job and moonlighting as a blogging superhero from time to time, my true calling I always thought was to become a neuroscientist. I’m much too lazy to go back to school and put in all those years of hard work at this point in my life, but that is just a minor little stumbling block if you ask me.

E-mailing all those random neuroscientists I found in the directory I stumbled upon when left alone and unattended in the administrative offices of Harvard paid off big time. Trust me just by adding a few extra letters after your name and talking carefully crafted geeky brainy speak to these scientists you are golden. 

Dear Doctor of highly intelligent life forms,

I have been studying the phenomenon (or Urban Myth if you will) that “when one of your senses becomes impaired another will overcompensate”. I am well respected in the blogging community and have been published many times in medical journal thing-a-ma-jigs. I was wondering if you have any spare tissue or body parts lying around I could put through some extensive clinical trials. Also I make some mighty tasty cookies if I do say so myself and would be more than willing to add you to my exclusive Christmas cookie distribution list.

Yours truly,

SPCookieQueen DDP, CON, FUSE, U, XTR

I hope you guys know that letter worked like a charm and the other day I gave myself a high five and then some on the side when I opened this package.

Trust me I put these oddities through some rigorous tests before coming to any firm scientific conclusions.

First I gave them the old sniff test and they smelled a bit of old socks, belly button lint, and a faint aroma of peanut butter. Wrote in my journal: “Smells weird, but for some reason I feel like I need to smell them a few more times before I can jump to any conclusions.”

Then I gave one a nice sized taste test. Crunchy, yes definitely crunchy and that peanut flavor was really hitting the back of my palate. Wrote in my journal: “Tastes strangely like artificial flavoring and food coloring with a peanut butter aftertaste, yet I want to go back for more...”

Finally I decided I would do a clinical trial with a few random test subjects. I found individuals off the street, which I felt matched up closely to the samples I already had, plus one thrown in for Control purposes.

Wrote in my journal the following observations: 

Subject Isabella’s sample seems to resemble mustard, not that far off from normal.

Subject Devin’s sample oddly is the color of peanut butter, questionable but not completely freaked out by it.

Subject Riley’s sample is the consistency of spaghetti squash, will keep this one under advisement.

Subject Hot Dog Dude’s sample is disgustingly similar to chocolate (sending him a jumbo sized box of Q-tips post haste and somehow feel compelled that I should also do a taste analysis on this sample).

After finishing all my testing I felt confident in writing the following conclusion that will probably be published soon in all the big medical journal things.

The samples of the (pink Wilton candy melt) ears from children in a small tribe of children in Alaska became genetically altered when their lack of ear hygiene caused an excess of ear wax (peanut butter) to build up resulting in complete hearing loss and the eyes jumped in and overcompensated by causing a third (googley candy) eye to grow in the ear. 

My recommendation: That the Q-tip people do more aggressive marketing to the parents of remote Alaskan villages.

My warning to children everywhere, if you don’t clean your ears you are going to grow a third eye in them. Eewww.

My work here is done people.

Gina

Boring Pumpkin Pie? Try "Pumpkin Pie & Crumb Cake in a Jar"

Perhaps I'm a little long winded at times and make you wait much too long to get to the good stuff. Well today is your lucky day and we are going straight to dessert.  Especially when that dessert involves pumpkin pie, crumble cake, and a chance encounter in the oven.  

Pumpkin Pie 

15 ounces pumpkin puree

6 ounces evaporated milk

3/4 cup milk (low-fat works fine)

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl combine pumpkin puree, evaporated milk, milk, sugar, eggs, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. Whisk until well combined.

Spray (7) eight ounce glass (heat-resistant) jelly jars with a little no-stick spray.  Divide the pie mixture evenly between the jars; they end up about 2/3 full.  Place them on a baking sheet and set aside.

Crumble Cake

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup butter, cold, cut into 1/2" sized pieces

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 of a vanilla bean, split and seeds removed or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch salt

In the bowl of a food processor combine the sugar, flour, butter, egg, baking powder, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt. Pulse a few times until the mixture is still crumbly but starting to hold together.  If you don't have a food processor you can do the same thing with all your ingredients in a bowl and cut the butter in the bowl with two knives until it is in tiny pieces.

Divide the crumb mixture evenly over the pie mixture in the jars.  (I know I'm showing only 6 in the shot, but 7 does work a little better.  I was just out of jars and didn't want to dump a whole jar of jam.)

Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 35-40 minutes, until the cake is set and you can see the pie in the bottom part setting.

Serve at room temperature with whipped cream or not, but really come on is there anyone out there that actually prefers their pie without whipped cream?

If you don't have any jars use an 8" x 8" baking pan.  You may need to adjust the baking time by a few minutes. When I'm unsure as to the bake time, I will start lower like 30 minutes and then add time as I see how it's coming along.

My Aunt has informed me I haven't been keeping up with my blog regularly.  I assure you I haven't gone rouge, it's just I had this very important painting to finish up for my niece.  That and a garage full of boxes to still deal with, but the boxes make my head hurt and I'd much rather deal with a unicorn and Rapunzel.

Seriously - call me if you don't like whip cream with your pie, we need to discuss this pronto because there is a whole world with whip cream in it that you are missing out on.

Enjoy,

Gina