Tag Archives: Anna Olson

Maple Crunch Birthday Cake

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What I love best about my birthday is making my own cake. I spend weeks before the actual day pondering flavours and textures. Buttercream is not optional, it is a requirement. While some people might think it’s a little sad to have to bake your own birthday cake, I disagree. I get exactly what I want, and get so much joy creating it.

If you’re looking for a one bowl “dump and stir” cake, this is not the post for you. My birthday cake  has many elements and usually takes the better part of a day.

This year’s cake is a “virtual collaboration” between Anna Olson, Rose Levy Beranbaum and me! I started with Anna’s Classic Vanilla Birthday Cake, which is a perfect canvas for everything. I had my heart set on a maple cake. I thought it would be a good idea to substitute maple sugar for the granulated sugar in the recipe to really intensify the maple flavour. I was wrong. I have never baked with maple sugar before, but the texture is different from that of traditional granulated sugar, and it resulted in a crumbly cake that tasted really strange. When I remade it with granulated sugar, it turned out perfectly. Moist and light with a beautiful tender crumb.

Next I moved onto the buttercream. I decided to make Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Neoclassic Buttercream, which is basically a French buttercream that uses egg yolks and butter. This is not a buttercream for the faint of heart. We’re not fooling around here . This is straight-up rich and luxurious. Rose suggests that you can replace the corn syrup for maple syrup and that’s what I did. Rich and silky , practically exploding with intense maple flavour.
 
The final component of my cake is the addition of a layer of crunch. I love a cake that combines texture. I crumbled up some Dad’s Oatmeal Cookies (because maple and oatmeal!!!!) and mixed them with malted milk powder (the umami bomb of the baking world, as Stella Parks is fond of saying), a bit of sugar, some melted butter and a pinch of salt.
Mix the crumb mixture until clumps form. Bake and cool. The finished crumble is crunchy and very addictive. It reminds me of the clumps in granola. The recipe makes more than you will need, so there is some leftover for snacking!

Click here to print recipe for Maple Crunch Birthday Cake.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

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Three chocolate peanut butter cups 1Peanut Butter Cups and I have a bit of a love-hate relationship. I love to eat them, but sadly my hips and thighs protest quite loudly when I inhale too many. My hatred of Halloween likely stems from what I refer to the “Peanut Butter Cup Incident of 1985.” It was my first time giving out treats as an official grown up. I bought several large bags of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in the snack size a week before Halloween. They disappeared within 2 days. I purchased several more replacement bags and discovered that I suffer from a chromosomal abnormality that affects my ability to control my willpower.

Luckily, now that “Big Butts” are back in style, we can all eat Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups with abandon!

These chocolate peanut butter cups are a variation on the original. When I saw Anna Olson make them on her Food Network show, Sugar, I knew I had to try them. The cups themselves are crafted from chocolate cookie dough. Once baked these cookie cups become a crunchy vehicle to hold the chocolate ganache filling and the peanut butter and cream cheese mousse topping. These are a very decadent, sophisticated peanut butter cup. mise en placelining mini muffin tinsfolding whipped cream into peanut butter creamcheesepipingon wood and marble tray 625 sq

Click here to print recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups.

chocolate peanut butter cup on server