Romy's Baking and Cake Decorating

  French Apple Cake We've had a bag of Gala apples in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks that we didn't like for snacking because they weren't very tasty. But they were perfect for making an apple cake! I chose to try a French apple cake because I also wanted to use up a bit of rum left over from another bake a while ago. There are many similar recipes online. I chose  this one  from a blog called Once Upon a Chef. I used 4 apples to get almost 4 cups of dices. I ended up being a bit short on rum and had to complete the last tablespoonful with a bit of bourbon.  The cake ended up having a strong bourbon taste, perhaps it would be better with all rum which is, after all, what the recipe calls for.  It baked for 40 minutes.  It's supposed to be light and fluffy, but I thought the consistency was a bit more pudding-like.   I'd add 1/4 tsp of almond extract if making again. Or not!  It was pretty good as is!

  "Butterfly" sugar cookies Bubby's afterschool club is having a bake sale tomorrow. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make some decorated cookies!  I thought of an Easter theme, but often schools object to holidays that not everyone celebrates. Plus, we just had the first day of Spring.  The perfect occasion to use my butterfly cookie cutter!  I'd made the dough yesterday morning, always using Martha Stewart's sugar cookie recipe, and baked the cookies in the evening.  So I thought the project would only take me a couple of hours today. But nothing ever goes according to plan!  It took me over an hour to lay out the supplies, make the royal icing, tint it. I like to use  this recipe  from Sally's Baking Blog.  But today I ran into trouble with the consistency. Although in the bowl it looked like 10-second icing, as I piped it, it was still too thick and the piping tips kept getting clogged.  It must have been exceptionally dry in the house, without my

St. Patrick's day shamrock cake All year I've been thinking about the Guinness cupcakes with Guinness buttercream from last year. One good thing about time flying, soon it was time to make  the recipe  from Sally's Baking Addiction's blog. I did want a change, though, so it was a perfect opportunity to use my shamrock cake pan. I purchased it over 10 years ago and had only used it once before!  Since it's silicone, this pan comes with a metal holder that it nestles into, and the holder has a handle on each side to help put the pan in and out of the oven. It's also a beautiful shade of Kelly green.   Shamrock cake pan Lately I've been wary of silicone, so I lined the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.  The recipe, which is for16 cupcakes, yielded just the right amount of batter to fit in the pan!  I placed the filled pan onto a bakers sheet to make it even easier to put into the oven. The only change I made to the recipe was leaving out the espresso powd

Irish Soda Bread St. Patrick's Day falls on a Sunday this year so it's perfectly reasonable to be snacking on Irish soda bread all weekend! I used to make a much more complicated recipe with caraway seeds etc., but now I use  this recipe  from Sally's Baking Addiction. The first time I made it I was able to shape the dough into a perfect ball and transfer it to the parchment-lined half-sheet.  But that was only beginner's luck, and ever since I can never get that perfect shape. Next year, I'm trying with a cake pan! The taste can't be faulted though.    

Today I tried a new recipe: Almond Flour Chocolate Chip cookies. I thought they might be just the thing for a condolence visit I'm paying to a friend tomorrow.  Why these?  Because it's something new to try, and I have a lot of almond flour I need to use up. And for a bereavement, chocolate is the thing. In truth I wanted to make a lemon poppyseed bread, or a French apple cake.  But I didn't have the ingredients, and I was worried it might be overkill.  So, I went with these. Here is the recipe. I followed it to the letter, down to even using a cookie scoop, but I got 35 cookies instead of 22.  I baked them for 10 minutes. They are all right, but not better than regular chocolate chip cookies. They're kind of dry and have a grainier consistency.  Would I make them again?  Perhaps, though I don't think so. So many good cookies one can try!   However if I did, I would add some almond extract.  You really can't taste the almond! My family liked them, and I hope my

It was a beautiful Springlike Sunday and a friend was coming to hike in the woods then return to our house to visit.  It was a perfect day to make a Bakewell Tart! I used  this recipe  from King Arthur Baking.  I've made a Bakewell tart before, but I don't think I used their recipe for the crust.  There definitely wasn't enough liquid for the crust to come together with only 2 tbsp of water, and I ended up using 4 tbsp. It was also different to not chill the dough before. It's a shortcrust dough with egg, but still, it took a lot of handling to get it to be cohesive. After it parbaked and cooled, I could see the metal from the pan through the crust, and I thought for sure the sugar from the jam would cause it to stick and it would be difficult to cut.  But there was no problem, in fact it slid out easily from the removable tart pan bottom.  The other thing I would change is that I would add more jam. Everyone liked the tart, but for me there wasn't enough of a raspb