Tag Archives: Noreen Gilletz

Smarties Rainbow Chocolate Cake

My baby will be turning 21 this week. I wanted to make him a very special cake, but he is not exactly co-operative that way. Every year he wants the exact same cake; chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing. For a food blogger that is quite sad. How am I supposed to have new things to blog about if he requests the same cake every year?

I was dying to create a rainbow cake like this one, or this stunning jellybean cake from one of my favourite bloggers, the amazingly talented Steph at raspberricupcakes. However, I knew that if I showed up without a chocolate cake, disapointment would surely ensue. Steph’s jellybean cake got me thinking and I decided to decorate the outside of the cake in Smarties. When my son was 2 years old, I was a bit concerned that he might be colour blind. Every time I quizzed him about the colour of something was he always answered green. He said it with a little glint in his eye and then laughed, so I just wasn’t sure. His dad is colour blind, so it was a distinct possibility.

I decided to test him. I bought a box of Smarties, put a pink one in my hand and dangled it in front of him. As he went to grab it i snatched my hand back and said, “Tell mommy what colour this is and you can have it.” “Pink” he squealed. He named every colour in the box correctly. Turns out he just liked to play mind games with his mom. So in honour of his 21st birthday I made him this cake.The cake and icing are simple to make. This is a quick chocolate cake recipe (adapted from Noreen Gilletz’s chocolate cake recipe in Pleasures of Your Food Processor) that comes together in minutes in the food processor. Vegetable oil in the batter makes it super moist. I add about a 1/4 cup of espresso to the milk because coffee and chocolate are a supreme combo. The icing is a simple buttercream made with cocoa powder, butter, icing sugar, a bit of espresso and a hit of vanilla extract. I just discovered Cacao Barry’s extra brut cocoa powder and it is deep, dark and intensely chocolatey. The vanilla extract in the photo below is homemade by my neighbour Holly. She made it using Madagascar vanilla beans steeped in bourbon. Who knew you could do that?

The most time consuming part of making this cake was sorting the Smarties by colour (I used 6 200 gram bags) and getting them on the cake in nice straight (well almost straight) lines. It’s times like this that I really miss my sister Jody and wish we still lived in the same city. Her rows would have been perfect!

I made a double recipe of the cake (each recipe makes 2 layers), and used 3 layers, since this was the perfect height to get one row of each colour of the rainbow. I froze the extra 4th layer. I also made a double recipe of the icing. The flags, stick on letters and straws were from Michaels.

Jamie was thrilled with the cake, so thrilled that he asked if I would make another one exactly like it, for when his friends come over this weekend. I told him I’d think about it!

Click here to print recipe for Jamie’s Chocolate Birthday Cake.

A Modern Banana Bread

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I had a friend in seventh grade whose long straight shiny hair I envied. It reached down to her lower back and was a beautiful shade of butterscotch. I had short, wiry, curly black hair and would have given anything for hair like hers. She seemed so exotic to me. As I spent more time at her house I came to appreciate how different our families were. She only had one sibling and her mom was quite involved in all aspects of her life. I had 5 siblings and my mom was busy just trying to keep all our names straight.

One of the strangest things about my friend’s mom was that every week she would buy a huge bunch of bananas and leave them in a pretty bowl on the kitchen table. By the end of the week, they would be ripe and almost black and she would throw the bunch away and buy a fresh one to replace it. No one in their family liked the taste of bananas, yet her mom just loved how they looked, so she continued to buy them.At the time it never occurred to me that you could make banana bread with ripe bananas. In our house, banana cake came from Sara Lee. Oh how I loved the icing on those frozen cakes!I only came to discover the joy of homemade banana bread many years later, during my University years, when I worked part-time as a Cuisinart demonstrator. I was given Noreen Gilletz’s book “The Pleasures of your Food Processor” as a gift. And there on page 208 was a banana bread recipe so perfect that it became my gold standard by which I judged all other banana breads for the next 30 years.

My mom was a student of the “more is more” school, and she revised Noreen’s recipe by using 5 or 6 bananas, instead of the 3 called for in the recipe. We dubbed her version, “Banana Brick.” It was wet and heavy.

Little did my mom know that with her addition of more bananas, she was onto something big here. She wanted to intensify the banana flavour but she just lacked the correct technique to do it without ending up with a sodden heavy mess.

Cook’s Illustrated Magazine figured out a way to ramp up the banana flavour without introducing too much additional moisture. They started with five very ripe bananas (versus the usual three in most typical recipes) and proceeded to microwave them to release their juices. The next step was to drain all the juices that had accumulated during microwaving and simmer that liquid in a saucepan until it reduced.

This reduced liquid is then added to the batter, a sort of intensified banana essence.

Cooks Illustrated decided to further boost the banana flavour by adding a sixth banana, sliced thin and caramelized on top of the loaf gave this banana bread an enticingly crisp, crunchy top.

I tasted the bread warm from the oven and to be honest, I wasn’t sure I liked it better than my classic recipe from Noreen. But I went back for a second taste after it had cooled for about 6 hours and I was astounded at how different it tasted. All the buttery goodness was now front and center. It was moist, but not wet. The slices, heavy for their size, had the perfect density.

There were several layers of sweetness to this banana bread. It tasted of bananas but the sweetness was not overpowering. The addition of brown sugar to this version added a molasses undertone that helped balance the sweetness. Cook’s Illustrated called for walnuts in their recipe and not being a walnut lover, I hesitated over this addition. In the end, I added them and their slight bitterness provided just the right contrast with the sweet bananas.

The sliced bananas and granulated sugar on top of the bread caramelized and they added a crunch to the top that was such a nice surprise and contrast to the moist interior. This banana bread continued to improve over the next 3 days, much like a fruitcake. Sometimes it does pay to mess with the classics! I think even Noreen Gilletz would approve.

Click here to print recipe for Ultimate Banana Bread.

Ambivalent Birthday Cupcakes

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You always remember your first. No, I’m not talking about THAT first. This is a not that kind of blog!

I have the good fortune of being blessed with 14 nephews and 9 nieces. I have a special place in my heart for each and every one of them, but there is something quite special about becoming an aunt for the first time. My oldest nephew was an adorable, sweet-natured baby and has turned into a wonderful, responsible, very funny young man with a strong sense of family. His 29th birthday coincided with a visit to our cottage last week. I wanted to make a family dinner for him. I know he has been following the Paleo diet for some time now, and birthday cake is not really on the approved Paleo list. However, a birthday without cake is just too sad for me to contemplate, so last week I sent him the following e-mail:

Would you eat cake on your birthday? If so, what would your preference be? Chocolate, Berry Shortcake, Carrot, or anything else.

I got the following response:

Well, I would have some cake if there was one in front of me, but I’d rather not. I know I’d enjoy it in the moment, but I’d probably regret the sugar and gluten the next day. But if I had to choose? Chocolate or Berry Shortcake sounds great.

As far as what I eat…pretty much meat and veg these days – still on the Paleo diet. I basically stay away from gluten/grains, dairy, and most processed food. That being said, however, given your penchant for baking (I don’t remember the last time I was at your cottage and didn’t see something delicious cooling down on those huge racks you’ve got) I’d imagine I’ll be doing a bit of cheating those few days.

Anything I can bring?

WHAT???? Talk about an ambivalent response! How was I to interpret that?

This party was beginning to look like no fun at all. I fired off a quick e-mail:

Do you still drink alcohol?

He responded:

Yes, just wine and tequilla.

Whew, he hadn’t completely lost his mind.

Now I had to decide if I would be the Evil Aunt and tempt him with something anti-Paleo, or should I be considerate and respectful of his diet and make him a Paleo Chocolate Birthday Cake with Coconut Honey Frosting?

I decided that to go with a full-on, loaded with gluten, dairy and sugar cake would be cruel, but it really seemed to me that he was asking me to help him cheat. So. I decided to make cupcakes, because they’re small and not really a true cake. Sort of an ambivalent cake for his ambivalent response.

For the base of the cupcakes, I knew chocolate was the right road to follow. I have tried many different chocolate cake recipes over the years, and have come to the conclusion that butter is not always better when it comes to the moistest cake. Vegetable oil really does make a better cake. Our family’s go-to chocolate cake comes from Noreen Gilletz’s “Pleasures of Your Food Processor.” Rich, moist and very deeply chocolate, but not too sweet, it makes a perfect cake or cupcakes every time.

I am thrilled with the Cocoa Barry brand of cocoa powderI just bought. (Cocoa Barry is the French division of Callebaut)

I wanted to try a different buttercream this time. A few years ago I had dinner at a wonderful restaurant in Ottawa called Beckta. Before the meal they brought bread and some type of butter spread to the table. I was smitten from the first bite! I begged the waiter for the recipe for this spread. He told me that they melt butter until it turns a medium nutty brown colour. Then they chill it ao that it becomes a solid again and whip it with a little regular butter. This was my first foray into the land of browned butter (the French call it beurre noisette) and I must say that it has haunted my dreams ever since.

Given my success with browned butter berry tarts, I suspected that browned butter in a buttercream would be fantastic. Something magical happens when you brown butter. It enhances the flavour of just about anything you add it to, and the aroma will drive you wild. Making brown butter is quite simple. Use a saucepan with a light coloured bottom, so that you will be able to judge when the butter is browned to perfection. A dark bottom pan can lead to burned butter and trust me, that aroma and taste will not leave you craving more!

As the butter melts, it will begin to foam. Swirl the pan to ensure even melting. The color will progress from pale yellow to golden-tan to, finally, a burnt sienna (remember that crayola crayon colour?). Once you smell that nutty aroma, take the pan off the heat and transfer the browned butter into a heat-proof bowl to cool.

The milk solids will cook faster and you’ll see them settle on the bottom of the pan. You can strain the brown butter through cheesecloth to leave those milk solid particles behind, or you can incorporate them into the buttercream. I really like the almost burnt taste of them as well as seeing the specks of browned butter in the icing, so I did not strain mine.

The brown butter is chilled for about an hour until it becomes solid again. The ideal temperature of the brown butter for making the buttercream is room temperature. If it becomes too hard in the fridge, leave it on the counter to soften a bit. Beat the brown butter with icing sugar, a pinch of salt and a little vanilla extract.

Fit a disposable piping bag with a large star tip and frost the cupcakes.

The cupcakes were a huge hit. My nephew inhaled two of them and asked for two more to be wrapped up to go. I have a feeling he may have had a bit of a gluten-sugar hangover the next morning, but I think he will agree that they were worth it.

Click here to print the recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes with Browned Butter Icing.

P.S. Just read about browned butter on field fresh tomatoes. Check it out!

Salt and Serenity

Tales from my kitchen