Crepe Cake with Raspberry Orange Mascarpone Cream

May13

This is a great celebration cake and would make the perfect Mother’s Day dessert. It would also be a great addition to a baby shower, bridal shower, or brunch table. The best part is that you can make the crepes the day before and then whip up the cream and assemble a couple of hours before you serve it.

I got this recipe from Canadian Living magazine. They test the recipes until perfect and I have never made a bad recipe from that magazine. I will include a link below to the original recipe.

For the crepes:

2&1/2 cups warm milk

2cups all purpose flour

6 eggs

6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

In a blender ( I used my Hand blender in a large bowl) purée together milk, flour, eggs, butter, sugar and salt until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

You should have a very smooth batter with no lumps at all.

Heat an 8″ skillet or crepe pan over medium heat, brush lightly with oil. Pour a scant 1/4 cup of batter into pan swirling to coat. Cook turning once until golden.

Layer between waxed or parchment paper. Repeat with remaining batter. You should have about 30 crepes.

I ruined the first two and ended up with about 23, the last one was tiny as you can see on the top of the cake.

I wrapped the crepes in plastic wrap on plate wth parchment between each one and kept in the fridge overnight.

For the cream:

2&1/2 cups whipping cream

1&1/4 cups mascarpone cheese

5 tbsp liquid honey

1tbsp vanilla

1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

2cups fresh raspberries

In large bowl beat together cream, mascarpone and honey until stiff peaks form, then beat in vanilla, orange juice concentrate and 1 cup of the raspberries until evenly distributed. Remove 1/4 cup to a small bowl and set aside.

To assemble:

Place 1 crepe on cake plate. Spread with thin layer of cream mixture.

Repeat with others.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Just before serving top with reserved cream and mound remaining raspberries on top of cake.

Look at those layers!

Original source: Canadian Living

Havin’ an Ice Cream Ball

Oct16

This is 3 ingredient ice cream, all real, all delicious. We haven’t used our ice cream ball to make ice cream since Evie was a toddler. She actually had forgotten it.

This is an ice cream ball, actually a camping accessory, but works at home just as well.

The inside of the ball gets filled with ice and 1/2 cup of rock salt.

The inner metal canister (on the other side) gets filled with 2cups of cream and 1/3 cup sugar and a little vanilla, we added some vanilla beans as well.

Place the lids tightly and roll and shake for 15-20 mins.

Et voila…..

Fresh vanilla ice cream

Easy Peasy “Butter Chicken”

Feb28

This picture is not exactly as it should look. This was one of those time when, at the end, I forgot to take pictures. This was Evie’s plate so there was less sauce and very little spinach. The adult plates had lots of sauce and spinach pieces, which looked more reminiscent of butter chicken.

This recipe is not quite authentic, but it is a good weeknight meal. And a bonus, one pot easy clean up! You can make it spicier by the addition of more chilies or less spicy if you have children who do not like too much spice. I forgot to buy fresh chilies and was desperate so I used a few pinches of dried chilli flakes until I got the heat that I wanted. I would not really recommend this, but if you are stuck it will do. It turned out great. This recipe is also a good way to sneak spinach into a meal.

Ingredients:

6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces.

1/4 cup butter

1tbsp ground cumin

2-3 hot chilli peppers, finely chopped (should equal 2-3 tbsp)

1tbsp grated fresh ginger

3/4 cup chopped coriander/cilantro

1 cup whipping cream

14oz can tomato sauce 1/2 tsp salt

5 cups baby spinach (regular is good too, just chop into smaller pieces).

Cook chicken in 2 batches,

cook half of the chicken in 2 tbsp of the butter, sprinkle with half of the cumin and cook until no longer pink, then repeat with remaining pieces and 2 more tbsp of butter and rest of the cumin. If your pan is large enough so the chicken isn’t crowded you can combine this into one step.

Remove chicken to a bowl.

Add cream to the pan and deglaze

Stir to scrape up bits from pan

Add tomato sauce and stir

Add grated ginger, finely chopped peppers and salt

Add chicken and juices back to pan and stir. Bring to boil and then simmer about 10 minutes until chicken is heated through.

Add chopped coriander/cilantro

Add spinach and let cook until spinach wilts down.

Serve with basmati rice and naan bread.

Source: unsure, original recipe from either a 2004-2005 issue Canadian Living or Chatelaine magazine, adapted by me.

My Favourite Mushroom Soup

Feb16

On a very cold Canadian winter’s day there is not much better than this tasty, warm rich mushroom soup. This is one of my favourite soups, I really love it. As I have mentioned before, Evie on the other hand despises mushrooms, so we have this for dinner if she is out at a friends. It doesn’t happen often so when it does this soup is a real treat.

Take 1 medium onion chopped and saute in a few TBSPs (probably about 1/8 of a cup) of butter until soft, just a few minutes add

2 small or 1 large cloves of fresh garlic, minced

Cook over medium-low heat until tender

Then add

1 lb (454g) of fresh cremini mushrooms, chopped (or a mixture of other dark mushrooms, sometime I use a mixture of cremini and portobello, and shiitake)

Reduce heat to low and cook for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally.

Once the mushroom mixture is nicely cooked down add 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream.

Then add 1 cup beef broth,

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Stir over low heat until heated through.

The next part is optional, but I had fresh nutmeg and wanted to use it

just a tiny pinch, a few times over the microplane with some fresh nutmeg.

A little chopped fresh parsley for garnish

of course, like any soup you need a little baguette.

This is one of my favourite soups, warm, creamy, earthy, loaded with flavour and comfort.

Potato Leek Soup

Oct20

This is a recipe that I found years ago (probably 8 years) on a bag of chopped leeks. I haven’t been able to find washed pre-sliced leeks since then. Washing leeks with all those layers and all that sand is a bit of a pain, at least you know they are in their natural state. I have adapted the recipe slightly but it goes like this.

4 medium size leeks (if they are huge use 2), probably 6-8 cups

3 tbsp butter (use margarine or oil if vegan)

1/2 onion, chopped

1 stick celery, minced

6 cups vegetable or chicken broth

4 medium potatoes, peeled, washed and cubed

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup 15% cream (I used half & half, I already had it in the fridge for my coffee) (you can use use non dairy)

In pot melt butter and brown leeks, onion, and celery, just until they start to brown at thee edges and get sticky (sorry I forgot to take a picture of that). Add broth and potatoes.

Cook for about 30 minutes until potatoes and really soft. I then use a hand blender to puree the soup, you can use a blender or food processor if that is what you have.

Add salt and pepper stir and taste, adjust the seasoning until it is tastes how you like it. Add cream and heat just until it is heated through but don’t boil it hard. Turn it off when you see it just start to come to a boil.

Serve.

cookswithevie

our adventures cooking … and other fun stuff

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