HCB: Cradle Cake

January 30, 2011 by Monica in Baking, Baking Club, Cake, Cookbooks, Desserts, HCB

I have been waiting for this cake for a bit now. Somehow every time I would open Rose’s Heavenly Cakes book, it seem to fall on this page. And every time I would hope that Marie would put it in rotation.

This week the waiting was over. This week this was the cake on the spotlight.

At first glance, the cake does not look like much and I actually thought it was a plain pound cake with a crusty shell. Which to be honest, I’m a total sucker for. I have written before how heavy, pound cakes, are actually my favorite types of cakes. Maybe because they remind me of they types of cakes my “nonna” and I would bake when I was young, or the fact that that buttery flavor just screams comfort food at it’s best.

So this simple cake was screaming my name.

Boy, was I wrong. This cake actually is a variation of the original recipe that won the Pillsbury bake-off in 1950. Upon closer reading of the whole thing, I realized that the crusty outer of the cake is made up of a dacquoise made with pecan and chocolate which hugs the simple butter cake – thus the “cradle” in the name.

HELLO CAKE! You just jumped to captivating status in my world.

FFwD: Chicken B'stilla

January 28, 2011 by Monica in Chicken, Cookbooks, Cooking Club, FFwD, Main Courses

This is one of those recipes that I been waiting to make from Dorie’s book, so when I saw it go up as the choices for our January FFwD group, I did a happy little dance.

Dorie gives us a quick historical lesson on the dish by telling us that this dish is one of the legendary dishes of Morocco that the French has adapted and made their own. Upon further investigation on my part, some say that Arabs brought it to Morocco from the Middle East, and some even venture to say that because of the delicate pastry sheets that incase it, specifically from Persia. This dish has been around! But whoever took the first crack at this dish; it is known today as typical of Morocco and highly regarded as a national dish of that country.

This elaborate meat pie is traditionally made with pigeon or squab, since squabs are often hard to get, chicken is more often use as the substitute. Another substitute is using the phyllo sheets as the blanket that covers this entire filling. In morocco they use a combination of crisp layers of the crepe-like warka dough, also known as Feuilles de brick, which is a thinner cousin of the phyllo dough. In some cases you can find them in Middle Eastern markets or simple buy it online via amazon.com.

GCC Menu 17 - Spicy Shrimp Gratin

January 23, 2011 by Monica in Cookbooks, Dinner, Gutsy Cooks Club, Main Courses, Seafood

This dish has been on the making since Friday night.

I bought the shrimps on my way home from work, with every intention of making it for Friday night dinner.

Tom was totally excited, since he has been craving shrimp for a bit now.

I got lazy on Friday night and totally talked my way of not doing it. Instead, I convince him to have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, in honor of celebrating his first day at his new job (he has been looking for a job for the past 4 months - so it was a celebration!). And promise him that we were going to have it for lunch on Saturday.