Birthday Tart

So its been a while. A lot going on in life...I haven't exactly been motivated to write. Baking....I've done....Writing...Notsomuch. Lots of re-organization happening at work. Lots of re-organization of life. People leaving and people being brought in from other departments. Sometimes my job makes me feel like I'm losing touch with the real world because I'm so wrapped up in whats going on in Corporate America. Ah well...no wonder I'm single. Haha.
Two weekends ago, I got together with my family to celebrate all of the summertime birthdays, that we had yet to get together for Sister, Sister-in-law, Dad, Niece, and Step-Mom...all wrapped into one Sunday.
Now I'm not going to lie....with all of this work upheaval going on, I was exhausted by Saturday, when I knew I was to make something for the Sunday party. Usually, with family, I bring something gluten-free, due to a gluten allergy by a few family members. I then found out that part of dessert had been taken care of...so I had to decide on something else. That Saturday happened to be my Step-Mother's birthday, so I decided my present would be something I had baked.
Earlier in the week, (and I can't believe I didn't mention this RIGHT off the bat) she helped me pick out my new CAMERA! WOOHOO! No more crappy pictures!! (Well...as long as I practice and learn how to take a decent food picture) haha
We had gone to a store in RI and then went to our favorite RI place for Sushi. Haruki's in Cranston is AMAZING. One of the topics of conversation was dessert (who DOESN'T want to talk about THAT?!?!) She mentioned that lemon curd was one of her favorite things ever.
That statement stayed in my mind when I was figuring out what to make on Saturday. After a bit of research, I found an interesting recipe for and Olive Oil Lemon Curd Tart. Now you may be thinking EW. Olive Oil? In a dessert? Gross....BUT you are wrong. Regular, extra virgin, store brand is great for dressings and cooking. The best kind for THIS application, is fruity, lovely, small batch and in this case, French, added the most delicious flavor to not only the tart crust, but the lemon curd as well.
The tart shell was very easy to put together....toasted pecans (or any nut really), flour, sugar, butter and a few tablespoons of that delicious olive oil.

Hmmm. I may have been distracted when toasting the nuts. Lets try that again.

Muuuuch better.

Oh no wait...that doesn't belong in the ingredient pics! It DID influence the awesomeness of the tart though!

Making a tart crust is easy HOWEVER, weighting the crust with beans or in my case, pie weights, is essential. Otherwise your crust puffs up and looks funky. (Funky is the technical baking term)

Om Nom. I had a hard time not breaking off some tasty edges.

I will admit...the Lemon Curd part was slightly disconcerting. All you hear are horror stories of separated curd with chunks of scrambled egg from improper cooking. I guess I should have been a little more self confident about my skills. haha. That curd was THE most amazing thing I have ever tasted. Well...maybe not. But it was high up on the list. Adding a bit of butter and the olive oil at the end just gave it such a rich silky quality...this recipe will be a repeat.

The next morning I covered it carefully in fruit and brought it to the family party. Another successful recipe!

Somehow I think that work is only going to get worse before it gets better...but such is life. My blog and new found love of learning how to take a decent picture will keep me going. Another post coming soon.

A Retirement Cake...Better Late Than Never!

I am a bad, bad Blogger. There is absolutely no excuse for me not posting! Especially when I have a few things to post!! Let's start where I left off.
Right before the work-stoppage in early August I had one of the reps in my Home Store retire. He packed up, sold his home in NH, and moved out West to Colorado, nearer to his daughter and grand kids. Super nice man....always made coming to work fun! I will definitely miss our "Political" banter. THIS man also loved my baking. (Hmmm....note to self...find man who loves your baking) Anyway...EVERY time I was in my store I'd hear..."Did you bring us something good?" or "When do we get Cinnamon Rolls again?" Always feels good to be wanted, even if its just for my baking. Haha. We knew he was retiring in the beginning of August so I started a conversation about food one day and HAPPENED to weasel in a question about everyone's favorite cake flavor. I couldn't think of a better retirement present. I decided to use an "Ina" recipe for Chocolate Cake with Mocha Frosting, as my Rep had expressed his LOVE for chocolate/chocolate cake. "I like the cake part BETTER", he said to me. I'm sorry. WHAT? Doesn't EVERYONE love the FROSTING part of the cake??? I just had this discussion with someone last night about frosting being the best part. I knew I needed a good, solid, moist cake recipe with a lighter fluffier frosting...not too sweet. Ina's frosting with instant coffee seemed about right.
I brought it in for my Rep's last day. PERFECTION! It was MOIST and fluffy. Perfectly done (If I do say so myself) The frosting was SUPER rich but not heavy. Definitely a keeper.

Here is a slightly cooled, unfrosted, layer. Now I have been making cakes for most of my life. That was always MY task when it came to family birthdays, growing up. Always from a box though. With this recipe, a whole cup of HOT coffee is added to the batter before baking. The coffee really enhances the chocolate flavor of the cake itself. Adding this at the end made me a bit nervous. I thought that for the first time, while baking, I'd really done something wrong...not added enough flour....etc. The hot coffee made it SO thin. I thought there was NO way these would come out looking like normal cakes...but as you can see...they did.

The Finished Product!

As a little change up of my own, I let the melted chocolate for the frosting get just a LITTLE cool, so it was dispersed throughout the rest of the ingredients BUT left a bunch of little chocolate chunks throughout. A good texture addition to the very creamy, buttery frosting.

Now...when it comes to decorating cakes...fine handiwork has NEVER been my forte. My goal as a baker is to at least practice better decorating skills. My hand/eye coordination has never been the best. Handwriting may have been the only thing I've ever failed in school. Ask me to draw something? I'll have to write a blurb to DESCRIBE the picture, so the common man can discern what he's looking at...clearly this has carried over to my neatness when frosting something. HAHA

We were so sad to see my Rep go...however the celebration cake made the day that much better!

YUM!