Cakes by Cody
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Pumpkin Tart with a Chocolate Crust
When I bought some tart pans a few months ago, I searched Pinterest for a few good tart recipes. Sadly, most of the recipes I came across were "fall" recipes (pumpkin, maple, etc.) After several months of waiting, I'm finally able to make use of my tart pans. The first recipe I wanted to try was this pumpkin tart with a chocolate crust (from the Martha Stewart website.)
Sadly, I discovered that I had a lot to learn about tarts! First, I found this dough to be a bit troublesome; it seemed far too dry when I first mixes it (though once the butter "melted" it did form a nice dough.) However, that was not my biggest problem. When I baked the dough and removed it from the oven, I removed the hot pan holding the bottom piece of the tart pan. This caused the sides to slide away from the pan and land on my forearm. The hot pan burned my arm and caused me to drop the crust (which shattered into hundreds of pieces!
After making a second crust (and baking it with a cookie sheet underneath), I finally made the pumpkin filling and finished baking my tart. When it finished cooling, I added the decorative spider web. Although it was a bit of work (especially since I had to make two crust), I am quite happy with the final product - hopefully it will taste as good as it looks and smells!
Chocolate Tart Crust
1 c. all-purpose flour
¼ c. plus 1 T. sugar
¼ c. unsweetened cocoa powder
½ t. salt
½ t. cinnamon
½ c. (1 stick) cold butter
1 egg
4 oz. semisweet chocolate
Mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and cinnamon. Divide butter into small pieces and cut into dry mixture until butter pieces are the size of peas. Add the egg and mix until it forms dough. Roll the dough to approximately 1/8 inch on a well-floured surface. Press the rolled dough into a 10-inch tart pan (with a removable bottom.) Use a fork to prick the crust bottom, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Bake for 15 minutes at 350°F. Carefully remove from oven and add finely chopped chocolate over the warm crust. Spread with a spatula until completely melted and smooth.
Pumpkin Filling
1 can (15 oz) Pumpkin (not pie filling)
¾ c. light brown sugar
8 oz. sour cream
3 large eggs
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. ground ginger
¼ t. nutmeg
¼ t. salt
2 oz. semisweet chocolate (optional)
Combine all ingredients except for chocolate and stir until smooth. (Pass mixture through a sieve if large chunks remain.) Pour into chocolate crust and bake at 350°F for 40-50 minutes. Let cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes. Melt chocolate in a double boiler until the chocolate is smooth and creamy. Pour into a plastic bag with a small hole cut in a bottom corner. Pipe a spider web design on the top of the cooled pumpkin. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (up to 1 day.)
Monday, April 1, 2013
Le Poisson D'avril
Monday, March 25, 2013
Easter Chicks
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Lemon Chiffon Cake
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Cake #32: Italian Cream Cake
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Cake #31: Flower Patch Surprise
Last week, my boss celebrated her birthday; unfortunately, with so many coworkers in-and-out of the office, we didn't get a chance to celebrate until today. For some odd reason, we decided that the theme of her party should be opossums (it was based on a joke shared at our last staff meeting.) My coworkers had hoped that I would make a "opossum" cake - but I was unsure how exactly one goes about making a "opossum" cake.
My original plan was to create a garden of cupcakes, and then add a small fondant opossum to one of the cupcakes. After working hours to create the flowers, I didn't really feel that I had time to experiment with fondant modeling; therefore, I scraped the opossum idea and decided to merely make a hilly, flowered meadow.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Cake #30: A Howling Good Cupcake
Although I'm leaving for vacation in a couple days, I still somehow got roped into baking the birthday cake for one of my co-workers. Since I was a little pressed for time, I decided to bake cupcakes so that the bake time would be reduced. Fortunately, the co-worker celebrating her birthday is a big supporter of wolves (she and her husband apparently do a lot of volunteer work trying to preserve the wolf's habitat.)
Anyway, I had been wanting to make these "wolf" cupcakes from Hello, Cupcake for awhile, so I thought this would be the perfect occasion. To make the wolf, I cut a large marshmallow to make the snout and ears. Then, I covered the entire cupcake in chocolate frosting using the leave tip. For a finishing touch, I adding a few M&Ms for the nose and eyes.