Build-a-Bear part two

Before Christmas I tried to build my own bear. The results weren't as good as I'd hoped and so I tried again later. This time things went much more smoothly, mainly because I was slightly less ambitious.

The first bear didn't turn out because the fur texture is fiendishly difficult to do well. Since this cake is all about the presentation, I decided to go with an easier fur texture and used mocha icing instead of sugar fur.

My recipe for mocha icing is as follows

Ingredients

• 3 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2 Tbs. strong coffee
• 1 Tbs cocoa powder

Directions

• Cream butter
• Add all ingredients and blend until creamy
• Add more coffee/cocoa until the desired thickness and flavour is reached

This recipe makes a lot of icing but I find I use a lot when covering this bear. For one thing, there is a lot of surface area to cover. Also, if you make a mistake later on it helps to have spare icing to patch things up. Finally, there will be icing left over which can be added onto the cake pieces. This bear is quite big and the cake slices tend to not have much icing on them. It's nice to be able to add a bit of extra icing.

The standard recipe on the back of the box calls for vanilla buttercream icing to glue the cake halves together. I find that this works but it's better to use the same icing on the outside as on the inside, so that you don't have too many icing flavours on the go.

For decorating, I used some white icing for the inside of the bear's ears and some other details, and some chocolate chips melted with some butter for some of the other details. The bear turned out not bad, and all that icing goes well with the relatively dry bundt recipe.

Build-a-bear cake pan

I bought a Build-a-bear cake pan from Williams-Sonoma for Christmas. This was meant as a Christmas present for my wife, however because I do the baking it's really the CAKES that are the present, and thus we tried making one of these cakes over the weekend to give it a trial run before Christmas.

Things didn't start off well because the cake pan was defective. The pan's finish wasn't properly applied and had a big crack, and part of it was flaking off. I recommend that anyone planning to buy one of these carefully examine it in the store. The boxes can be opened without destroying them so the store staff shouldn't mind.

After exchanging the pan, I followed the recipe on the back of the box. The box comes with a recipe for a bundt cake that is quite easy to make. The cake tasted great, although you can use any recipe you want, as long as the cake is dense enough to stand up on its own. My only complaint is that the recipe is printed on the box, when it should be a paper insert instead. Now I have to transcribe it. I've noticed this defect with every Williams-Sonoma cake pan. I guess it saves on packaging, but please, these pans aren't cheap. At least give us a sheet of paper!

Assembling the 3-D bear isn't hard at all. After the cake has finished baking, you cool it for a few minutes in the pan, remove it from the pan, cool it some more, then put it back in the pan. This process takes a few hours in total. When the cake is fully cooled, you put it back in the pan so that you can cut off the extra that rises above the pan. Then you spread icing on half, and put the other half on top, then pop it into the fridge so that the icing can set. We had a slight problem: the cake didn't come cleanly out of the pan the second time, so one half of the bear was decapitated. Luckily we were able to repair it with some icing and skewers; in the end the damage wasn't noticeable.

Decorating the finished cake is the hard part. I had a lot of difficulty applying the glaze and the brown sugar which simulates the fur. The Williams-Sonoma website has a how-to video which shows a woman applying the "fur". I notice that her cake doesn't look as good as the one on the box (though it is far better looking than mine). In the end the fur was so difficult that I think my next cake will just use a glaze or icing fur. My "furry" bear appears to have some kind of odd patchy disease. Maybe next time I'll try to make some fondant to clothe the bear; at least then you don't need to put as much fur on.


Despite the bear's poor appearance, it was a lot of fun to make and delicious to eat. Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll have perfected my technique.

Edit:
The man from Williams-Sonoma eventually did mail me the Santa Template. Stay tuned; next Christmas I'll try it out. Also, I eventually did make a new bear. It turned out better.

Pears with Tuna

This is a quick and easy appetizer that is really good. I've often made a whole batch and eaten it as a meal. It works well in the summer since it's served cold. The combination of sweet pears and salty tuna works very well, and everyone I know who's tried this loves it.

Ingredients

• Canned pear halves, drained
• Canned tuna
• Mayonnaise/Miracle Whip
• Pepper

Directions

• Pat dry the pear halves with a paper towel
• Mix the mayonnaise, tuna, and pepper to taste
• Arrange pear halves on a plate with the inside up, so that they appear to be little bowls
• Fill the pear halves with the tuna mixture
• Serve immediately.

Cream of Wheat

I like Cream of Wheat. Invented in 1893 and first promoted widely at the Chicago World's Fair, this is a basic food that fills you up and warms you on those cold days in winter or when your air-conditioning is on too high. The box art for cream of wheat usually features a black chef, who dates back to the days when it was fashionable to adorn new products with black faces (such as Uncle Ben or Aunt Jemima). This chef is named Rastus, and if you visit the Wikipedia link for Rastus, you'll see that his image in early advertising was not very complimentary. However these days such obviously racist ads are a thing of the past and we can enjoy our hot cereal without insulting anyone.

I like to prepare cream of wheat using milk to give it a better flavour; I tried once with water and it was basically awful. I mix 3 tablespoons cream of wheat to 1 1/4 cups milk, and boil until it thickens. This gives a nice solid bowl of cream of wheat that is rather bland, and is in need of the secret ingredient. My secret ingredient is Heinz Mixed Fruit baby food. This is pureed fruit, much like applesauce. Just mix in some mixed fruit and voila, a delicious hot breakfast. I've been eating cream of wheat this way since I was a baby; my aunt recommended feeding me cream of wheat, but when my mom made it she thought it didn't taste good, so she mixed in the fruit. Since then I've even introduced this recipe to others. It sounds strange but it tastes great.

Strawberry Mousse Meringue Torte

This recipe is from Canadian Living. It looked nice in the photo so I made it. It tastes good, and because it's served cold it is suitable for a nice light summer dessert.

Meringue

• 4 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• Pinch salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp icing suger
• 12 strawberries

Mousse

• 4 cups sliced strawberries
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 tsp unflavoured gelatin
• 2 cups whipping cream

Directions

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Draw two 8-inch circles on each sheet; turn paper over, set aside. Line side of 9 inch springform pan with parchment paper, set aside.
2. In bowl, beat together egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until soft peaks form; beat in granulated sugar, 2 tbsp at a time, until stiff glossy peaks form. Beat in vanilla.
3. Spoon one quarter of the egg white mixture onto each circle, using offset spatula or knife, spread evenly to the edge. Bake in the top and bottom thirds of a 275ºF oven, switching and rotating pans halfway through, until tops are firm; about one hour. Let cool on the pan on a rack; peel off the paper.
4. In a food processor, puree strawberries with sugar until smooth, pour into a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until it has reduced by one third, and a spoon drawn across the bottom leaves a space that doesn't fill in; about 30 minutes. Pour into a bowl.
5. Pour water into a small bowl, sprinkle in the gelatin. Let stand for 5 minutes. Add the gelatin mixture to the strawberry mixture and stir until melted. Refrigerate, stirring occasionally, until it reaches the consistency of raw egg whites, about 10 minutes.
6. In a separate bowl, whip the cream. Fold it into the strawberry mixture 1/3 at a time.
7. Place one meringue into the springform pan. Spoon 1/3 of the mousse over the meringue; spread to edge of pan. Repeat twice, covering the top with the remaining meringue. Cover with a double layer of plastic wrap and freeze, until firm, about 4 hours. To serve, let torte soften in refrigerator for 30 minutes, garnish with strawberries and icing sugar.

Thinking outside the bun

I was walking down the street and remembered I needed some groceries. I saw some cardboard lying on the ground and immediately thought "bingo!" My inspiration is a man in Beijing who has a plan to deal with pesky recycling issues. What do you do with all that excess cardboard? Easy: Pick up the cardboard on the street, soak it in caustic soda, then make delicious steamed buns. He mixes 60% cardboard with 40% pork fat and seasoning. He says most customers can't tell the difference, but he wouldn't eat them.

Chocolate Truffles

At Christmas and other special occasions I like to make this chocolaty treat. These truffles are rich and decadent. Made from chocolate, butter, sugar, and rum, what's not to love? They're simple to make but your hands will be messy and the process is time-consuming. I usually double the recipe.

Chocolate Truffles

• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 6 squares semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 tsp instant coffee
• 1 tbs rum
• chocolate wafer crumbs

1. Melt the chocolate. I use the microwave for this. The recipe calls for cooling the chocolate but I usually just do this first and let it stand until I'm ready for the next part.
2. Cream the butter; blend in the egg yolk and sugar. Add in the chocolate, coffee, and rum. Mix well.
3. Chill until it is firm, about 3-4 hours.
4. Spoon out mixture into chocolate crumbs to roughly coat the mixture so it doesn't stick to your hands. Form each spoonful into a ball-shape or any other desired shape. Roll the ball in the wafer crumbs to coat thoroughly. Drizzle with additional melted chocolate if desired.
5. Chill completed balls for 2 hours. Store refrigerated or frozen in an airtight container.

The truffles will soften at room temperature so if you're serving them in a hot room a chilled bowl might be advised. At one party I just put ice cubes in a bowl and put the truffle bowl into the ice bowl; that worked well.