I’m still a little annoyed that I was charged $11 for this lame croissant and a latte. $11!!! What a rip off! The croissant was even dry! Suffice it to say that I have NOT been back.
Four Barrel Coffee, San Francisco
I had to take a pic of the receipt when I was in the Bart tunnel. OK, I was probably overcharged accidentally but you would think that the cashier should realize that a frickin’ latte and croissant doesn’t cost $11! A refund should be in order!
So my office held our 2nd Annual Holiday Potluck and everyone (well almost everyone) brought delicious food to share! I’m posting some of the yummy food so you can get a few ideas for your next holiday get together. If all else fails, make a Costco run apparently. I mean who needs a fancy corporate holiday party when you can have a good ole potluck?! All names have been changed to protect the innocent! 🙂
Pork belly steamed bun – Papa Chang
We all know that most holiday plates are fattening so why not get it in the form of tender pork belly?! Just top the bun with shredded scallions and hoisin sauce for an elegant presentation! You can purchase frozen buns at your local Asian market and steam them prior to serving. Xiexie!
Pigs in a blanket – Rapunzel
Simple but delicious, a perennial party favorite! Just wrap ‘Lil Smokies (these are turkey) with crescent pastry rolls (these use a low fat variety) and voile, you have an all-American treat! According to Rapunzel, each piece has only 45 calories!
Pomegranate kielbasa bites – Dumes
The perfect combination of beefy meat and sticky sweet. Simmer sliced beef kielbasa sausage in a mixture of pomegranate juice, ketchup and Tabasco sauce until the sauce is thick and reduced. Serve on a buttery Ritz cracker to make it classy! Thanks Dumes!
Spam musubi – Sophie
Perfectly portioned and utterly delicious! Spam plus sushi rice and a nori strip equals a happy vicenteSF! Arigato!
Traditional midwestern queso surprise – vicenteSF
OK, I made that name up but my roommate IS from Kansas and he makes this delicious dip once in a while. Just combine Velveeta cheese (SO American!) with browned ground beef and a can of Ro-Tel brand diced tomatoes with chiles (another midwestern staple) in a crock pot. Set it and forget it! It’s customary to eat this with potato chips, not tortilla chips, silly!
Mini quiche lorraine – Mats
Another easy potluck option, the frozen mini quiche! Just throw into the toaster oven for a few minutes and these buttery, salty bites are sure to please everyone!
Shrimp cocktail – Pong
Costco wins again! Seafood always ups the chichi factor!
Roast chicken – Pong
And antoher Costco treasure!
Chewy mixed chip holiday cookie – Rapunzel
These are surprisingly good despite Rapunzel’s baking track record! Just kidding. These nommy cookies have milk chocolate, white chocolate AND butterscotch chips! And lots of butter for all the good lil boys and girls!
Almond jello with fruit – Sophie
Sophie fights back with a more sophisticated dessert approach. The light almond jello pairs wonderfully with fresh fruit!
Walnut brownie – Jefe
And what’s more traditional than some chocolate brownies with NUTS! Walnuts are a safe, delicious and nutritious choice!
Melkesjokolade chocolate – Huff
And Huff brings up the rear with a Norwegian contribution! Tusen takk!
Happy holidays, everyone!!!
A chocolate doughnut topped with chocolate fudge icing. Stopped by Starbucks in Banning on the drive back to San Francisco. This mini donut is the exactly the small sugary snack I needed to get me through the morning drive. $0.95
Starbucks, Banning CA
Skinny caramel macchiato.
With nuts and coconut. $2.75
Koffi, Palm Springs
I know you can’t tell from the photo, but this is a monster cookie. There’s no way I could have finished this cookie by myself, nor would I have wanted to (since I do have bouts of health conciousness, hehe). So I made David eat it with me, of course. It was delicious!
Iced coffee. Summers in Palm Springs are definitely hot so iced coffees are a must!
Cream cheese frosting and two small red velvet cakes.
Starbucks, South San Francisco
I love Starbuck’s petite treats because they provide a great sugar kick, but they’re small enough to prevent all the guilt. This red velvet mini is super moist (ew, that word!) and not overly sweet. Yum!
Rum Cake + Tiramisu = RUMISU CAKE!
After getting multiple requests from friends to bake more cherpumples, I decided to create a quicker, lighter (weight-wise), and boozier alternative. I decided to fill a delicious, boozy rum cake with a silky, boozy tiramisu dessert and voilà, the Rumisu Cake was born! How can you go wrong with a dessert mash-up packed with enough sugar and alcohol to instantly make you the (messy) life of the party, right?!?
To gussy up the Rumisu Cake a bit, I covered it with a bittersweet chocolate ganache and sprinkled some toasted hazelnuts on top. Lemme tell you, this over-sized booze Twinkie is sinfully addictive and a single slice certainly packs a punch! A word of caution, you might want some Binaca spray to cover up your Barney Gumble breath on your drive home.
Here are some of the ingredients used to make this guilty treat. Most of them are things you should already have in your pantry like rum, Marsala wine, Kahlua, and instant espresso. You might have to make a trip to the store for eggs and butter (I prefer the organic options).
I had to make a return trip to the store for these tiramisu necessities! I put the cocoa powder in my handy-dandy shaker.
The rum cake is super easy to make and doesn’t require anything special. To save time and energy, use a packaged yellow cake mix and add pudding mix to make it extra moist. Mmm, moist…
Rum Cake Recipe
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup dark rum
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup dark rum
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 10 inch bundt pan with baking spray (I used PAM).
In a large bowl, combine cake mix and pudding mix. Mix in the eggs, 1/2 cup water, oil and 1/2 cup rum. Blend well. Pour batter into pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let sit until cool.
For glaze: In a saucepan, combine butter, 1/4 cup water and 1 cup sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat and continue to boil for 5 minutes until sugar has completely dissolved, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup rum.
Remember to spray your bundt pan with some baking spray, but you can also grease and flour the pan as an alternative.
After baking, my cake looked like it had an unsightly tumor growing on top, but it didn’t matter since this side would end up being the bottom anyway.
To ensure that the glaze soaked evenly through the entire cake, I removed the cake from the bundt pan after it had cooled. Then I poured half the glaze in to the pan.
I replaced the cake and poured the rest of the glazed on top. After it has cooled a little, cover the cake with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out and let the glazed cake cool completely.
I found a Tiramisu recipe on Epicurious.com that I altered to use for this Rumisu cake. I halved most of the recipe and substituted Kahlua for the coffee liqueur. I thought Kahlua worked better for this dessert because it has coffee and rum flavors.
Tiramisu Recipe
1 cup boiling hot water
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
1/4 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon sugar, divided
2 tablespoons Kahlua
2 large egg yolks
1/6 cup dry Marsala
1/2 pound mascarpone
1/2 cup chilled heavy cream
4+ savoiardi (crisp Italian ladyfingers)
Unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting
Stir together water, espresso powder, 1/2 tablespoon sugar, and Kahlua in a shallow bowl until sugar has dissolved, then cool.
Beat egg yolks, Marsala, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water using a whisk or handheld electric mixer until tripled in volume, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. Beat in mascarpone until just combined.
Beat cream in a large bowl until it holds stiff peaks.
Fold mascarpone mixture into whipped cream gently but thoroughly.
After the rum cake has cooled completely, remove it from the bundt pan and cut the bottom off. I used the natural baking line where it puffed up to guide the cut.
I used a paring knife and a spoon to hollow out the inside of the bundt cake.
Sprinkle the hollowed inside with cocoa powder.
Then spoon in a layer of tiramisu filling.
Soak both sides of the ladyfingers in the espresso/Kahlua liquid. Do this quickly because those suckers soak up the liquid really quickly (don’t pause to take a photo like I did)!
Arrange the soaked ladyfingers on top of the tiramisu filling, then spoon in additional filling to make it flush with the top of the cake. Recover with the bottom of the cake.
IMPORTANT STEP: Put the filled cake back into the bundt pan, cover with plastic wrap, and put in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours to set the tiramisu filling!
After the cake has set, it’s time to decorate! I used a simple ganache recipe from “The Best of Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library: Baking”, 2005.
Chocolate Ganache Recipe
1 cup heavy cream
10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used a bag of chocolate chips)
In a small saucepan over medium heat, gently warm the cream until bubbles appear at the edges. Remove from the heat. Stir in the chocolate until it has melted and the mixture is smooth. Do not stir so vigorously that bubbles form.
Alternatively, place the chocolate in a food processor. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let sit for 15 seconds. With the lid in place to prevent splattering, process until smooth.
If there are any visible lumps, strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve.
Toasted Hazelnuts
Using a frying pan over medium heat, toast a 2.25 ounce bag of chopped hazelnuts until golden, stirring constantly. Be careful not to burn the hazelnuts, duh!
Pour the ganache evenly over the rum cake.
Top with the toasted hazelnuts.
Now cut, enjoy, and be merry! F- yeah!
As you can see I prolly could have done a neater job hollowing out the inside, but it’s not really about how it looks. It’s about the sugary booze, baby!
For more step-by-step photos on how to make this Rumisu Cake, visit my Rumisu Flickr Set!
I’ve been on a chocolate and hazelnut kick lately, which isn’t a bad thing. These flavors are delicious and simply amazing together. This is my favorite croissant at La Boulange and I get it often – I’m a pig, I know! My only gripe is that the sliver of chocolate inside is kinda small and is always pushed off to one side. I wish there was more of it and evenly distributed. Other than that, this croissant always makes me smile. $2.75
La Boulange de Noe, San Francisco
I’ve made it my personal mission to try all the different macaron flavors I come across, lol! La Boulange has a colorful array of flavors displayed in their pastry case and they look absolutely beautiful. I loved the nutella macaron – it was dark, nutty, and not too sweet. The chocolate hazelnut flavor was prominent but not overpowering, and the chopped hazelnut bits on the outside were cute and provided a great texture. The raspberry macaron was a bit of a disappointment. It was too soft and almost disintegrated upon the touch. I guess I don’t like my macarons that flimsy. $1.50 each
La Boulange de Noe, San Francisco
Nutella macaron
Raspberry macaron
Cacao (raw chocolate), Bay Area wild honey, lucuma, vanilla, Himalayan salt, goji berries, and almonds.
Benchic Chocolate, Bay Area
I recently discovered a new, local chocolatier! Benchic Chocolate makes delicious, minimally processed treats using only certified organic or pesticide free ingredients. They are absolutely delicious and you can purchased them online!
These chocolates are quite wholesome with only 7 high quality ingredients, and nothing is heated over 160 degrees Fahrenheit in the process. These addicting morsels are dark, dense, and not overly sweet – just the way I like it!
These particular chocolates have chopped raw almonds and goji berries inside. I love the bright red color of the berries, and you can still see their seeds. The only sweetner used is local wild honey, so you don’t have to worry about any refined sugar. You can really taste and apprecieate all the individual ingredients.
My chocolates arrived in this chic (hehe) robin egg blue box reminiscent of those from Tiffany & Co. Quite appropriate since both contain exciting treats inside. Personally, I’d prefer chocolates any day – lol!
Ben Tseitlin, founder of Benchic Chocolate, also teaches chocolate making classes for the general public. You’ll not only learn about the history and health benefits of chocolate, but you’ll experience a tasting tour of ingredients and make your own scrumptious treats.
Simple, and simply delicious!
Served with a savory biscotti-like cookie, caramel sauce, and ice cream(?). $40 for 4-course dinner.
Reform Club @ Specchio, San Francisco
This dessert didn’t do much for me. In fact, I hardly remember eating it as evidenced by me not knowing if that was ice cream or not, lol! I do remember that the caramelly sauce underneath was good and that the budino had a sparkly reflection to it. They must have dusted it with something. This budino was definitely more on the cake side rather than in the pudding/souffle realm. A bit disappointing…
Chocolate lavender, hazelnut, and chocolate macarons.
Miette Patisserie, San Francisco
I remember having macarons once or twice as a kid, but it’s only recently that I’ve truly “discovered” these amazing confections! They’re like magic in your mouth – a dizzying combination of chewy, soft, crunchy, silky, grainy, and sweet. There are so many flavors and colors that each time you try a different one, it’s a completely new and exciting experience. Miette serves some of the best in town. Of these three flavors, I liked hazelnut the best!
What is a CHERPUMPLE, you ask? Only the most ridiculously fabulous cake/pie dessert ever invented! From the online research prior to my first cherpumple attempt, I learned that it consists of 3 stacked layers – traditionally with a cherry pie baked into a chocolate cake, a pumpkin pie in a spice cake, and an apple pie in a yellow cake then covered in frosting. You’ll see that I took some liberties with the cake flavors because of sale prices at the grocery store, hehe! What, we’re in a recession, yo!
I don’t usually write posts about food I’ve made, but I decided to make an exception since I was particularly proud of successfully completing this monster and since I’ve attempted this twice, I can hopefully provide some useful advice to future cherpumple bakers (and conquerors). Mine is not the most beautiful or perfectly executed cherpumple ever, but I’m still proud of it!
Ingredients and Supplies
Making a cherpumple is not cheap, so be prepared to shell out some dough (no pun intended). The good thing is that the cakes, pies, and frosting are supposed to be store bought so you don’t have to make them from scratch, which tends to be a little more expensive. It also saves additional prep and baking time. That being said, you should expect to block off a chunk of your day to complete this project. I suggest baking all the layers in the morning, allow them to cool during the day, and assembling the cherpumple in the evening.
I decided to make my own cream cheese frosting since I don’t like the consistency and flavor of store bought frosting. Nothing ruins a cake than a sticky, overly sweet frosting. The recipe I used is below. The grocery store was also having a sale on Betty Crocker cake mixes, but I couldn’t find a spice cake in that brand so I had to compromise to save some green. I substituted a white vanilla cake for the apple pie layer because who doesn’t love apple pie a la mode?! And I used the yellow cake for the pumpkin pie layer – not a big deal.
Besides what’s in the pic above, I would suggest getting 10″ springform cake pans. These are easy to use and proved extremely helpful when stacking the layers. Although not absolutely necessary, I also recommend a long icing spatula (although even a butter knife would do) and a cake stand (cause you should display your hard work, am I right!?).
Creating the Layers
The apple pie I bought was rustic and the top crust had some pretty large bubbles which arose high above the filling. I was afraid that the cake batter might crush the weak, buttery pie crust when poured on top, or that the cake would collapse while baking. To prevent this, I cut slits into the top crust so that the cake batter could seep in and create more structural support. Genius move!
Here’s a good trick with the 10″ springform cake pan. Turn the bottom of the pan upside down so that it creates a short platform for your cake. Now there won’t be that annoying indentation on the pan bottom to fuss with when removing the cake. Easy cheesy! Also be sure to spray the cake pan beforehand with a baking spray (I used Pam).
Mix the cake batter according to the box directions. Pour a small amount of batter into the sprayed cake pan, and swirl to cover the bottom of the pan. Place the pie into the pan and cover with the remaining amount of batter. Grocery store bought pies are usually a standard 9″, so they’ll fit perfectly. The box cake mix will make batter enough to cover the entire pie with extra on top. Depending on the size of the pie, the batter may approach the top of the cake pan, but there shouldn’t be enough to flow over.
Tap the pan against the counter several times to remove any bubbles and to make sure that the batter has settled completely under the pie. Keep tapping until no more bubbles surface. I tapped for quite a while with the apple pie to encourage to cake batter to enter the slits and fill the cavity.
Baking the Layers
I learned from my failed 1st attempt that it’s better to err on the more cooked side when baking the cake layers. Otherwise, the undercooked cakes may be too weak to support all the weight when stacked.
The baking directions on boxed cake mixes will vary. I followed the instructions on the Betty Crocker box for the most part, except I increased the baking time (since there’s a frickin’ pie in there!). I preheated the oven to 350 degrees F, and cooked the layers for 1 hour 15 minutes minimum, then kept checking for doneness after that. I wasn’t very scientific – I used the toothpick method and just shook the pan to see if it was still jiggly in the center.
I know it’ll add more time, but I definitely suggest baking the layers individually. This time around, I baked the chocolate and white cake layers at the same time, and I found that they baked unevenly. The chocolate cake was mostly baked, but hard on the side closest to the oven wall. And the white cake seemed perfect when I pulled it out of the oven, but after cooling I found that the top center was still jiggly.
All ovens are different, but mine definitely gets hotter in certain areas more than others. So if you want to play it safe, bake the cakes separately to ensure that they are baked evenly and thoroughly! Even when baking them individually, you should still rotate the pan periodically to ensure even cooking.
To cool the cakes faster, I set the pans on a wire rack, then removed the sides of the pan after 30 minutes of cooling.
Assembling the Cake
When the cakes are completely cook, it’s time to level the tops of the cakes so that they will stack evenly. I’m not a professional and I don’t trust my skills in cutting a level top, so I put the springform sides back on and used the rim to guide my cuts. Easy!
Some of my cakes didn’t rise completely above the rim, but I still used the pan rim as my guide. I figured that there would be frosting to cover up the rounded edges. Using the rim as a cutting guide also ensured that all the three layers would be of uniform thickness.
I’m kind of a neat freak so I used a basting brush to clean off I crumbs I created. I was afraid that if there were too many crumbs, they would get in the way when I tried icing the cake and create an ugly mess!
This is the most crucial step (assuming your layers are thoroughly cooked and completely cooled)! You should have someone help you when stacking the cakes. These layers are heavy and the pies inside make them very fragile, so be careful.
Apply a layer of icing on top of the first layer. I suggest one person hold the second layer (that is still sitting on the springform pan bottom) directly over the first layer. The second person should hold the sides of the cake with both hands and carefully shimmy the cake off the pan and into place, while the first person slowly slides the pan bottom out from underneath. Make sense? Phew, you did it! Only one more to go.
Add another layer of icing atop the second cake, and carefully repeat the above steps to place the final cake on top! You can now breathe again. Step back, take in some initial glory, and admire your handy work before continuing.
Icing and Decorating
The first time I attempted to make a cherpumple, I had purchased canned icing and I must say that I didn’t like the consistency or flavor one bit! It was also difficult to work with and spread unevenly. This time around, I was not only determined to keep my chermpumple upright, but I also wanted it to taste delicious!
So I decided to make my own icing – cream cheese icing, no less! I used a simple recipe from “The Best of Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library: Baking”, 2005. Here’s the recipe:
Cream Cheese Frosting
Spread this frosting on any dessert for a rich, tangy topping. It will keep for 1 week, covered, in the refrigerator.
1 lb (500 g) cream cheese
6 tablespoons (3 oz/90 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups (5 oz/ 155 g) confectioner’s (icing) sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (essence)
Bring the cream cheese to room temperature. In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese and butter. Using an electric mixer set on medium-high speed, beat until smooth. Reduce the speed to low, add the sugar, and beat until smooth. Beat in the vanilla. Bring to room temperature before using.
Makes about 2 3/4 cups (22 fl oz/680 ml)
I actually tripled the recipe and had some left over, yum! I also added a little bit of food coloring to make it a light pinkish color.
I applied the frosting using a long icing spatula, trying to even out most of the unsightly lines. To cover up my messy icing job (hey, I’m not a professional!), I used a container of sprinkles and randomly applied the different colors. Because the frosting was still damp (oops), the sprinkles actually started melting and running down the cake in some sections. I think it created a cool streaky effect!
And… Voilà!
This bad boy weighed 18.4 pounds (with the cake stand), so transporting it over 20 miles to a work BBQ was an adventure in it of itself! Boy, was my lap tired!
I think it looked fantastic with the long, colorful candles. Happy birthday, Alan!!!
It was a little nerve racking removing the first slice, but it came out pretty easily and in one piece. Just have someone nearby with a waiting plate!
It looked absolutely beautiful inside, and the different cake and pie layers were easily distinguishable. You can see how the bottom layer (apple pie in white cake) had an undercooked middle, but it still withstood the weight of layers on top.
I wonder how many calories are in this slice!? Who cares, it’s a cherpumple, YAY!!! And yes, it was delicious.
Vittle Monster 