Memorial Day BBQ Grilled Pineapple Slices

I thought I better finish up adding a couple of recipes that are sitting here on my desk. We made these pineapple slices THREE times on memorial weekend- they are delicious!!

1 fresh pineapple - peeled, cored and cut into rings - Epicurious has a great video on how to do this.
1/4 cup canned coconut milk
1/2 cup cinnamon sugar - I used a ton more than this!

I really don't know why this recipe has measurements - they aren't all that accurate.
To make cinnamon sugar mix 3 parts sugar with 1 part cinnamon.
Dip pineapple rings into coconut milk then dip them into the cinnamon sugar. Immediately put them onto a hot greased grill. (To grease your grill, pour a little oil on a paper towl. Using the grill tongs rub the paper towel over the grill)
Grill the  for 6 minutes per side or until they are nicely grilled. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

May Birthday Desserts: Tres Leches Mango cake, Lime Pistachio Angel Food Cake, Lemon Swirl Cheesecake, and Orange Brownies

I couple of weeks ago we celebrated Jessica's and Ashlee's birthday. I volunteered to bring the cake. As usual I found a BUNCH of recipes I wanted to try and couldn't decide which to make. So I made several. We had their party on a Sunday, but I had recipes I wanted to make before then. I started Friday with a Tres Leches cake with mango cream for Ryan. No, it wasn't his birthday, but he loves mango, and I had found this recipe weeks ago and bought mangoes but never got around to it.  The mangoes were getting a little too ripe, but we used them anyway.

The recipe is from Spicy Perspective. I think I made it pretty much as written but if I make it again I would changes- It made WAY TOO much mango cream and the cake was rather thin- I think I'd make them thicker- there was definitely enough milk to soak more cake- it was oozing out everywhere.
Here's the recipe as originally written:

Tres Leches Cake with Mango Cream
Cake (One and a half times or double this in the future):
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (4 ounces)
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees . Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans and line with parchment paper.Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Then add the vanilla. Alternate adding the eggs and flour mixture until combined. (I think I did half and half or maybe thirds) Divide the cake batter evenly between the two pans and bake for 20 minutes, until golden on top. Remove the cakes from pans and cool for 20 minutes. Once the cakes are cool, place one on a cake platter and the other on a sheet of foil with the edges turned up to form a shallow bowl. Poke both cakes with a fork thoroughly, to help the milks absorb. Slowly pour half the tres leches mixture over each cake and allow them to sit and soak it all up while you make the Mango Cream.

Tres Leches:
12 ounces can evaporated milk
14 ounces can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup heavy cream
Whisk together and pour over cake.

For the Mango Cream (HALF this!):
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 ripe mangoes
2/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt

For the Mango Cream: Peel both mangoes. slice one into thin strips and set aside as the garnish. Cut the second off the pit and place in the blender with 2/3 cup sugar and a pinch of salt. Puree until smooth. Pour the puree into a small sauce pan and place over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer. Stir and simmer for 3-5 minutes until thick. (Mine took lots longer.) Then place in the fridge to cool.Whip the heavy cream until firm peaks form. Then gently fold in the chilled mango puree.

To assemble: Scoop about half the Mango Cream on the cake that’s on the platter. Spread the Mango Cream evenly, then carefully flip the second cake layer on top and remove the foil. Spread the remaining mango cream on the top and decorate with fresh mango slices.

Everyone really liked it- even when I took the leftover 2 days later on Sunday.

The next thing I made was a Lemon Curd Marble Cheesecake from Epicurious. Most of the comments said that it tasted better the second day- So I made this on Saturday. It has a recipe for the lemon curd, but I had lemon curd I made last year and sealed in bottles and then froze. (I wasn't sure if I bottled it correctly or not - so it had to get frozen too.) If you have your favorite lemon curd recipe- use that, or use some from the store, or use the original recipe on the Epicurious website. Other than the lemon curd, I used their recipe as written. I did have to bake it a little longer though.

Lemon Curd Marble Cheesecake
For crust:
1 1/3 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs - about 1 package of crackers
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt - I think I skipped it.
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For filling:
3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla - I used extra.

1 pint jar of lemon curd
blueberries for garnish

Make and bake crust:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Invert bottom of 9 inch springform pan (to make it easier to slide cake off bottom), then lock on side. (This was a GREAT idea. I never thought of it before- but it makes getting the cake off so much easier!). Break the cracker into pieces and put in the food processor. Process until fine crumbs. Add the sugar and pulse. Then add butter and pulse to mix well. Press crust mixture into bottom and up 1 inch on side of springform pan. Place springform pan in a shallow baking pan and bake 10 minutes, then cool crust completely in springform pan on a rack.

Make filling and bake cheesecake:
Reduce oven temperature to 300°F. Beat together cream cheese and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add eggs 1 at a time, beating until incorporated. Beat in sour cream and vanilla until combined. Pour two thirds of cream cheese filling into crust, then spoon half of lemon curd over filling and swirl curd into filling with a small knife. (Avoid touching crust with knife to prevent crumbs getting into filling.) Repeat with remaining filling and curd. Bake cheesecake until set 1 1/2 inches from edge but center trembles when pan is gently shaken, about 45 minutes. (Center of cake will appear very loose but will continue to set as it cools.) Mine took about 55 minutes I think.Transfer springform pan to a rack and immediately run a knife around top edge of cake to loosen. Cool completely in the pan, about 2 hours, then chill, uncovered, at least 4 hours. (I chilled mine overnight!) Remove side of springform pan before serving. Garnish with blueberries.

The last cake I planned to make was the Lime Angel Food Cake with Lime Glaze and Pistachios. I had to make a run to Harmon's at 9 p.m. to find pistachios. It says to use unsalted ones - but I couldn't find them - So I used salted ones like some other people did. It tasted great. I also used more nuts than they suggested. The only draw back with this cake is that is was a little dry and a little too sweet. (And Ashlee doesn't like pistachios - Sorry Ashlee!) I think next time I will skip the glaze and maybe to a strawberry syrup to go over it instead!

Lime Angel Food Cake with Lime Glaze and Pistachios
Cake:
1 cup cake flour - I didn't have any so I used 2 Tbsp of cornstarch in the 1 cup measuring cup and add flour.
1 1/2 cups superfine sugar, divided - Didn't have that either- you can make your own by putting the same amount plus a couple of Tbsp of regular sugar in a food processor. Pulse until it feels like fine sand.
1/4 teaspoon salt - probably skipped it. (Ryan's on a low salt diet - Now we just need to get the low sugar diet going too!)
10 large egg whites, room temperature - I bought a 16 oz container of eggs whites - that equals 10 eggs
2 teaspoons finely grated lime peel
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Lime syrup and lime glaze:
1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons fresh lime juice, divided
1/2 cup unsalted raw pistachios (about 2 ounces), finely chopped in processor - I used salted ones and probably more than the 1/2 cup.
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift flour, 1/2 cup superfine sugar, and salt into medium bowl; repeat sifting 3 times (I didn't sift again- too lazy.) Using electric mixer, beat egg whites, lime peel, and vanilla on medium speed in large bowl until frothy (mixture may turn neon green but color will change when remaining ingredients are added). Add cream of tartar; increase speed to high and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. (Don't add too much sugar at once- it makes it so the eggs take FOREVER to get stiff!) Sprinkle 1/3 of flour mixture over whites and gently fold in until incorporated. Fold in remaining flour mixture in 2 more additions just until incorporated. Transfer to ungreased 10-inch angel food cake pan with 4-inch-high sides and removable bottom (do not use nonstick pan); smooth top.
Bake cake until pale golden and tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 38 minutes. Immediately invert cake onto work surface if pan has feet, or invert center tube of pan onto neck of bottle or metal funnel and cool cake completely. Using long thin knife, cut around cake sides and center tube to loosen. Lift out center tube with cake still attached; run knife between cake and bottom of pan to loosen. Invert cake onto rack, then turn cake over, rounded side up. (Mine was fairly flat on top- no rounded side ;-( I struggle with meringue recipes!) Set rack with cake atop rimmed baking sheet. (I just put it on the cake stand!)

For lime syrup and lime glaze:
Combine sugar and 3 tablespoons lime juice in small saucepan; stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Brush syrup all over top and sides of cake. Immediately press pistachios onto top and sides of cake, pressing to adhere.Stir powdered sugar with remaining 1 tablespoon lime juice in small bowl until smooth. Drizzle glaze over top of cake. Let stand until glaze sets, about 10 minutes. (Like I said earlier - skip the glaze- some of the comments said the same thing!)

When I got up Sunday morning, I thought about the desserts I made and thought maybe the kids would not be impressed with fancy desserts and might like something more "traditional." I suggested cupcakes or brownies to Adria and she decided to make brownies from a box. Sunday afternoon I made fig newtons - I had seen a recipe awhile about, but it needed dried figs. NO ONE has dried figs except Trader Joe's. Even all the recipes I found said to get Dried Mission Figs at Trader Joe's. Ryan and I had gone over there Saturday morning after dropping Adria off at Olivia's house to help watch her girls while she ran a race. And since she lives close to Trader Joe's and World Market we had to stop at both places. So I made fig cookies and had some leftover orange zest and fresh orange juice from the cookies. I wondered if I could make orange flavored brownies- and YES! you can. They taste just like a chocolate orange that we all get a Christmas time. YUM! They were the first dessert to go! I think we have a new favorite way to do brownies!

Chocolate Orange Brownies
1 fudge brownie mix
oil called for on the mix
eggs called for on the mix
1 orange

Zest the orange and then juice the orange. Mix the brownies as directed on the package with 2 changes- Use the amount of juice instead of water called for on the directions and add all the orange zest. Bake as instructed. They are SO easy and SO yummy!

Creme Brulee Cake

I really like creme brulee - that crunch browned sugar on top of a thick custard. It's yummy. A couple of days ago at work, Jenny brought a creme brulee cake she had made. I asked her for the recipe. It came from the same Chef in Training blog where the lemon cake came from that I made for Adria's birthday last year.  Maybe I should start looking at that blog more often. I googled several other recipes to see how they differed. It looks like it's just a "Texas sheet cake" with a vanilla custard on top. It turned out well, so I'm posting the recipe I made. Once again, I made changes to make is easier and to get rid of the shortening. Yes, I have shortening in the pantry, but I try to avoid using it. It's gross.

VANILLA TEXAS SHEET CAKE
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup water
½ cup buttermilk
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

Spray a 15x10x1 inch sheet pat with cooking spray. Mix the flour and sugar in a large bowl. Then in a sauce pan melt the butter and water and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute stirring constantly. (This is to get rid of some of the water.) Pour the butter into the flour and mix well. Stir in buttermilk. Add baking soda and mix (I think next time I will sift this in with the dry ingredients.) Add eggs 1 at a time and mix after each. Stir in the vanilla bean paste. Pour into the greased sheet pan and bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes. Cool completely - so it only feels slightly warm to the touch before adding the topping. Mix the topping while it cools.

CREME BRULEE TOPPING
1 large box (approx 6 oz) vanilla instant pudding
2 ¼ cups heavy cream
¼ cup whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

Combine all the ingredients and mix until smooth and thickened. Place in the fridge while cake cools completely. When cake is cool, spread the topping evenly over the cake and put the cake in the fridge for at least 1 hour to make sure it is chilled all the way through.

SUGAR CRUST
½ cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar

Put sugar into a food processor and pulse to make very fine sugar (OR just use 1/2 cup very fine sugar if you can find it at the store - I couldn't) Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the cake and Place under a preheated broiler until sugar bubbles and turns golden brown. Watch closely and rotate pan frequently. The middle of mine was done before the edges, so I had to hold the edges under the broiler. (This is when I REALLY REALLY want a kitchen blowtorch! It's on my birthday wish list!) Chill the cake for at least 2 hours- I chilled mine overnight- Serve cold.

The family liked it. So even though it's noon on a Saturday and I should be doing chores, we all had cake for lunch and I thought I better write it down before I forgot about it.

Swedish Rice Pudding - New and improved version?

Several weeks ago (Maybe months - my days all blur together) I wanted to make rice pudding, with some leftover rice and for whatever reason, I decided not use my mom's recipe. I think the problem was that I didn't have the 3 cups of rice her recipe needs and I wanted something with  less rice anyway. So I searched for a recipe and found one on Genius Kitchen. Genius Kitchen is one of our new favorite recipe websites. We have found several good recipes there. At Christmas time we made a gingerbread recipe we found there. I made this one with a few modifications. I'm hoping to remember what they were as I type it out. Adria told me it was MUCH better than the other rice pudding recipe I usually make. I think I'd have to agree with her. I like cinnamon- but the change to nutmeg and cardamom was really nice in this version.  I think I will go make this again and see what I ended up using (Yes I have left over rice. Again...)

4 eggs
3⁄4 cup sugar
1⁄2 teaspoon nutmeg
1⁄2 teaspoon cardamom
1 cup cooked rice (do not use minute rice)
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated Milk
1⁄2 cup low-fat milk

In a 2 quart bowl or dish, beat 4 eggs lightly, add 1 cup sugar and beat a little. Stir in nutmeg and cardamom.Add cooked rice and evaporated milk and low-fat milk. Stir. (You can sprinkle cinnamon on top - but I skipped it) Bake in a 325 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours or until the pudding's top moves a little in the center if you push it gently.

I made it. I think it is a little too much cardamom - so next time just use 1/4 teaspoon!

Carrot Cookies with Orange Frosting

Easter is coming! I wanted to make some kind of cookies to send to Myles in an Easter package. I remember one of the girls at work made carrot cookies several years ago. Her name is Olivia - we had 2 employees named Olivia, so we called her "Big O" because the other Olivia was a short Asian girl so she was "Little O." Since then, both of them have left Smiths. Well, Little O still works on some Sundays, but I never work Sundays, so I never see her.

Anyway, I googled a recipe for them, but they don't seem very popular. I finally found one with delicious looking pictures, and made it. As I was making it, I decided to look for Big O's recipe. I knew she gave me a copy of it. So I found it, and compared the 2 side by side. I decided to make them both. and a good thing too. The one's on the internet turned out gross! I found the recipe at Thirtyhandmadedays.com . She talks about how her mom always made these when she was a kid and how she got the recipe after her mom came and babysat while she was out of town. I told Ryan about it and he said maybe it was all nostalgia- you can't beat the taste of nostalgia. I think she just made some mistakes when copying the recipe. The biggest problem is that her cookies turned out really BITTER - That means too much baking soda. Also they are FLAT - Also too much baking soda- they puff up too fast and then fall. Do not make those!! Make this recipe instead! Olivia's recipe had baking powder and an extra egg. Here is her recipe:

Carrot Cookies from Olivia Wilkinson
1 c shortening (part soft butter)
3/4 c sugar
2 eggs
1 c mashed cooked carrots
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c shredded coconut

heat oven to 400 degrees. Cream shortening, sugar, eggs and carrots. Blend in baking powder, salt and flour. Stir in coconut. Drop by teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until no imprint remains when touched lightly. Immediately remove from baking sheet. Cool. Frost with orange buttercream.

I followed the recipe exactly - except used all shortening and left out the salt. I think next time I might use some butter instead of shortening and cut back on the baking powder. I don't think it needed quite that much. Also I might add some vanilla- the other recipe had vanilla and that seems like it would be good. In fact, I found a recipe at Genius Kitchen that is more like Olivia's recipe and has vanilla in it. The recipes I've tried from Genius Kitchen have been good, so it's probably a safe bet. I didn't used Olivia's recipe for Orange buttercream but here it is:

Orange Buttercream
3 Tbsp soft butter
2 Tbsp grated orange peel
1 and 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp orange juice

Blend butter and sugar. Stir in peel and juice. Beat until smooth.

For my frosting I used all the peel and juice from 1 orange. I added about 2 to 3 Tbsp butter and LOTS of powdered sugar. Mine made more of a glaze. The other recipe's frosting was more glaze like. Then you frosted the cookies while they were still warm. Here are some pics:

Cookies from the internet recipe. 
Three of them are stacked in the back-
They are SO FLAT!

Big O's cookies - Nice and puffy!

Frosted cookies from the internet recipe

Big O's cookies frosted - look so much better than the others!

Chocoflan??!!

Myles emailed us this past Tuesday and said he had chocoflan. What??  Myles said is was one of the best desserts he ever had. So Ryan and I did a quick google search and found recipes for Chocoflan. Looks like chocolate cake with flan on top. Myles said that his had flan on the bottom. I said they made it wrong. He said no, it was authentic!
Then on Wednesday, I got a call from Ryan at work. The conversations goes like this:
He says, "I sent you a picture. Can you look at it?"
Me, "A Picture? It's busy, maybe I can look later. What is it a picture of?"
Ryan, "Just something I made. You have to look at it."

Finally several hours later, I got a chance to pull up my email and this is what I found:

I made chocolate cake flan. I used dulce de leche instead of caramel sauce. Now it has to chill for several hours, then we can eat it. 🍮

He found a recipe and made it! I was so impressed! So of course I had to post it. The flan he made is excellent! The chocolate cake could use some work - but that could be because of the cake mix he used - just some old (and I mean really old) cake mix he found in the basement. It did turn out super moist and was great with Dulce De leche poured over it. Next time I think we will use a better cake recipe or at least a fresher cake mix. Also we decided next time use milk instead of water, and butter instead of oil. 

He found a recipe on allrecipes and made a few changes:

1/2 cup dulce de leche
1 box devils food cake mix
1 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
Flan:
4 ounces Greek cream cheese, softened
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat 12-cup fluted tube pan with no-stick cooking spray. Place piece of rolled up foil over tube of pan to prevent cake from dropping down inside. Pour dulce de leche topping into prepared pan.
Prepare cake mix according to package directions using the water, oil and eggs. Pour evenly over dulce de leche.
Combine cream cheese, eggs, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla in blender. Pour slowly over cake batter. NOTE: While baking, the cake rises and the milk mixture goes to the bottom.
Coat piece of foil with no-stick cooking spray. Cover pan, coated side down, tightly with foil. Place pan in large roasting pan. Pour hot water into roasting pan to a depth of 2 inches.
Bake 1 and 1/2 hours or until toothpick in center still has a few moist crumbs. Remove cake and roasting pan from oven. Leave cake in the water filled roasting pan for 10 minutes. Then remove it to a cooking rack. Cool 15 minutes. Remove foil and invert onto serving plate. Cool 1 hour at room temperature. Chill 4 hours or overnight.

Ryan has turned into a great cook! Sometime I will have to post the recipe he made me for Valentines day: Low Carb Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Creamy Bacon Sauce and grilled asparagus.

Princess Torte

Happy Birthday Ryan!! I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he said a princess cake. Several months ago we watched an episode of The Great British Baking Show where they made Princess cake. While growing up, Ryan frequently had marzipan cake from his Aunt Eva's Norwegian bakery. The bakery went out of business years and years ago and Ryan has been missing marzipan cake ever since. Shortly after we watched that episode of the Great British Baking show, I found a Craftsy class on sale called  "Classic European Tortes" one of which is the Princess torte. So when Ryan said that's what he wanted, I decided it was time finally watch the class I bought and make something. (I have a bad habit of finding great deals on stuff from Craftsy and buying them with the intent of getting around to them someday.) If you want to buy the class or find a recipe of your own to try- or track down Mary Berry's recipe from the Great British Baking show here are some of the things I learned along the way.

This cake is not cheap! First of all it's time consuming. I started it Friday afternoon and finally finished it yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. It isn't hard to make, it just takes a lot of time. And as Dad always said, "time is money." You have to make a sugar cookie crust and vanilla chiffon cake - both of which must them be cooled before they are used. Then you have to make vanilla pastry cream and Chantilly cream. Again, not difficult, just more time. Lastly, you have to make marzipan or buy it. I ended up buying marzipan- because I found it at the store. But if you make your own you have to have almond paste. Almond paste and marzipan and a little spendy. Then, the pastry cream needed a vanilla bean. Luckily, I had one. But I didn't have the vanilla bean paste needed for the Chantilly cream. That was $23 for a small jar! While watching the class, he did mention you could use vanilla extract or vanilla paste in place of the vanilla bean and vice versa, but that wasn't written in the recipe, so when buying stuff I figured I needed it all. Then I had to buy some new cake making accessories - okay, I didn't have too, I just wanted to. I got a cake turn table and some cake rounds. I really wanted a cake leveler and a larger offset spatula too, but they will have to wait until next time!

Vanilla bean paste is amazing! This is the first time I have ever used it. It is almost like a syrup with the tiny vanilla seeds suspended in it. Then whatever you put it in has flecks of vanilla seed. Which, as the chef teaching the class pointed out, makes your baking look more professional and expensive. It smells great too.

This recipe made two cakes but you need 3 layers for the princess cake. I don't know why this confused me so much. You are supposed to use ONE cake cut into THREE layers. The other entire cake is extra!! I didn't figure that out until after I had cut both cakes into two layers and used 3 of them in my cake. So my cake was 50% taller than it should have been - not a tragedy I guess, but that made the ratio of cake to filling a little too high. I also learned I need to get a cake level or practice cutting cakes. I don't think I could have cut my cakes into thirds even if I wanted to.

Beat the egg whites more than you think. I think part of the problem I had with my cakes was not beating the egg whites enough. He kept making a big deal about not over beating them, so I didn't. But then someone in the comments said their cake didn't rise and not beating the eggs enough will cause that. Also I added the sugar incorrectly. I put too much of it in the cake batter and not enough in the egg whites before I beat them. That was my own fault for not reading the instructions carefully before I started dumping in ingredients.

By the time I got to the Chantilly cream I did remember to beat that enough. The instructor is really worried about not over-beating. But my problem is definitely under-beating. Also in the recipe he says to use a 5g leaf gelatin. We do not have leaf gelatin in this country. Okay, maybe we do, but it's not a any grocery store near buy. I wonder if Gygi's or some other bakery shop would have it. Also leaf gelatin and powdered gelatin are not equivalent! From what little I learned, I think powdered gelatin may be stronger than leaf gelatin. So I knew I shouldn't just use 5 grams of powdered gelatin. Or maybe it is the same but leaf gelatin isn't measured in grams - it's measured in leaves. And I have no idea what size that is! Anyway, from looking at the recipe for Chantilly cream it looked like it is just stabilized whipped cream, which I have made before. So I looked at recipes for that to see how much gelatin they used in relation to how much heavy cream needs whipping. I ended up using 6 teaspoons of water and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of powdered gelatin. (That's teaspoons NOT tablespoons. Yes, we did it wrong the first time because Adria was reading the recipe to me and apparently doesn't realize the difference is critical!) Sprinkle the powdered gelatin over the water and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes until it turns into a gel. Then put it in the microwave for about 10 seconds until it turns into a liquid. Then slowly add it to the nearly done whipped cream. I did add a little of the sugar to the gelatin- less than the recipe said and but most of the sugar directly into the cream as well as the vanilla paste.

The last learning experience was the marzipan. I used premade, but I bough the stuff to make my own too. I probably should have used both. The marzipan I had was 198 grams. The recipe said I needed 209 grams of almond paste. So I figured that was close enough. It's only now that I am realizing that the recipe also called for 138 g of powdered sugar and 32g of egg white - so total weight would have been closer to 350 g. So I had about half of what I needed. SAD! Ryan loves marzipan. By the time I had rolled mine out big enough to cover the cake (which remember was taller than it should have been) the marzipan layer was VERY thin. When watching the video, he had a TON of left over marzipan. I barely had enough. So I think I would increase that amount- even more than the 350 grams correct amount. I didn't do a great job getting my marizpan on the cake either. I had some ripples around the edges, partly because the cake was too tall and partly because it was my first time working with marzipan.

Marzipan is yummy! But I must admit the first time I ever had a marzipan cake when Ryan and I were dating, I wasn't thrilled about it. Did you know your taste buds regenerate every 7 years. That's some of that useless trivia Ryan knows and told me. So that explains why now I like marzipan and I didn't like it 20 plus years ago. Adria and Genna weren't too excited about it. Adria said my cake needed some lemon extract so that the cake tasted like something. (She gets lemon cake for her birthday.) Neither one of them liked the marzipan much. But Ryan thought it was great! He said they reminded him of the cakes his mom would buy for his birthday from his aunt's Norwegian bakery. So I guess my first attempt was a success, even if I the cake was too tall and the marzipan wasn't smooth. Too bad my pics aren't any better.