Doing Good Works, One Cookie (or cupcake) at a Time

I have a pretty cushy life, and if you are reading this blog, you probably have one, too.   I have the luxury of baking things, and scouting out sweet stuff to put in my mouth, and I write about it, and some days my biggest worry is whether the lighting on my food photos was good enough, or whether I should have used the Lindt chocolate instead of the Bensdorp.  I have this cushy life because many people work very hard to make sure that I can, and among those people are the men and women in our military.  Regardless of my political views (for the record, I'm such an ardent pacifist that you might go so far as to call me a "coward"), I thoroughly support the troops, who work for low pay, at great risk to their own lives and safety.

I was thrilled to read only days ago about a wonderful organization called Baking Gals, a loose coalition of bakers across the country who every month make treats and send them to troops deployed in a war zone. Baking Gals' credo is simply this: "Our goal is to show our support and send a little bit of home to remind them that we appreciate all that they do for our freedom." I signed up instantly. It's easy to join, there are just a few rules, and especially at the holidays, when you'll be baking anyway, it would be an absolute snap just to make a couple extra dozen cookies and ship them to people who would truly appreciate your thinking of them. Do you cry when you hear that song "I'll Be Home for Christmas"? Then bake a few cookies. And don't stop at the holidays - keep the treats going until there won't be any troops deployed in war zones needing cookies anymore. Is baking extra cookies too much effort, but you want to support the organization's mission? You can donate directly, via PayPal, here. Or you could buy some cool Baking Gals Stuff here.

Another tremendously worthy endeavor in which you can participate comes from Cookies for Kids' Cancer, founded by Gretchen Holt Witt, whose son Liam was diagnosed in 2007 with stage IV neuroblastoma. When Gretchen held a giant bake sale that raised over $400,000 to support pediatric cancer research,she realized that she had harnessed the power of her friends and fellow bakers for good. Since that initial event, Cookies for Kids' Cancer has inspired more than 200 bake sales and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for pediatric cancer research. You can support this amazing nonprofit in several ways: by holding your own bake sale (Cookies for Kids' Cancer has all you need on its website to help you get started); by purchasing cookies specially-made for Cookies for Kids' Cancer, with the profits going back to the organization; by buying some very cool swag; or by making donations directly.

Show your sweet side this holiday season by supporting one of these wonderful organizations. If you have other ways in which you reach out to those in need through your kitchen, or if you know of other groups the baking community can support, email me.

A Thanksgiving Alternative: Sweet Potato Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

If you have children, and especially if you have kids who are away at college but are coming home for Thanksgiving, you can skip this post. Because as all we moms well know, when you have kids you must - you absolutely must - keep up all the family traditions, without any variance whatsoever, until your kids say you can't. Which happens I'm not sure when, because I am still putting up at the holidays the advent calendar that my mother made for my daughter back when my daughter was 2 years old. As Tevye says, tradition.

But if you are a more adventuresome sort, and you're sick to death of pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, here's a nice substitute that hits the same flavor notes as a traditional pumpkin pie but still offers something slightly different. I based this recipe nearly entirely on the work of the great Paula Deen, whose recipe for Pumpkin Cake with Maple Frosting appears in the November/December 2009 issue of Cooking With Paula Deen. Just to have fun with the recipe, I made some of the batter into cupcakes, which I topped with the icing from the recipe and then with crystallized ginger; after making a dozen cupcakes, I used the remaining batter to make a single layer cake, which I topped with the icing and sugared cranberries. The cake looked spectacular and the cupcakes looked adorable. You could put your own spin on this recipe by topping your cake with candied nuts, or pumpkin seeds, or anything you think would be great. So here's my take on Paula Deen's original recipe, with my few changes added:

Sweet Potato Cake with Maple Frosting

yield: 1 dozen cupcakes + 1 small 9" layer, or 1 large 9" cake to be cut in half

1 c. butter, at room temp

2 c. firmly packed brown sugar

4 eggs

1 15-oz. can sweet potatoes/yams

3 c. all-purpose flour, sifted

2 tsp. baking powder

1.5 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. whole milk

a jolt of pumpkin pie spice

maple cream cheese frosting (see recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350 and prepare your pans: for the cake pan, grease the pan or spray it with nonstick baking spray, and for the cupcakes, place muffin cups in the wells of the muffin pans.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. (Why do you need to add the eggs one at a time, rather than all at once? You build more volume in the cake batter by adding the eggs one at a time and beating them thoroughly until they're fully incorporated, then moving on to the next egg. Adding all the eggs at once won't materially alter the flavor of the cake, but the batter won't be as airy as it will if you do it as called for in the recipe.)

Empty the can of sweet potatoes into a bowl and mash them with a potato masher. Add the mashed sweet potatoes to the mixing bowl and mix well.

Sift the dry ingredients together and add them, alternately with the milk, to the batter. Begin and end with the flour mixture. Spoon the batter into the prepared pans and bake until done - about 20 minutes for the cupcakes and about a half hour for the cake, depending on your oven and depending on what incarnations your batter is taking. (Cupcakes take a much shorter time to cook than does a single layer cake; a single layer cake takes less time to cook than does a heavier amount of batter. You'll know when your treats are done if you use a cake tester, or your experienced finger applied to the center of the confection.)

Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool thoroughly. The cupcakes can be removed from the pans immediately to cool. When cooled, top the cakes/cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting.

 Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

12 oz. cream cheese, softened

3/4 c. butter, softened

2 Tbsp. maple syrup

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

4.5 c. confectioners' sugar

Beat the butter and cream cheese together in the bowl of a stand mixer until well blended. Add syrup and cinnamon and combine. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar and beat until the mixture is creamy and spreadable. Spread on the cooled cake or cupcakes.

To make the sugared cranberries, pick through your fresh cranberries to get the best-looking ones and to be sure the berries are free of stems. Dunk them in egg whites, making sure the berries are coated all the way around.

Roll the wet berries in granulated sugar, coating the entire berry, and place the berries on a wire rack to dry.

After icing the cake, I piped little mounds of icing on the top using a star tip, then sat one plump berry in the center of each mound of icing. The sugared cranberries are edible, but they will be tart as well as crunchy, and have been dipped in raw egg white - so you might want to think of them strictly as garnish.

Inhalable Chocolate!

Click here to see Mo Rocca (very funny guy) and Frank Bruni (author and former NYT food critic) tackle the future of candy, eat snakeskin-flavored candy, and take some hits off inhalable chocolate called Le Whiff.

Sweet Holiday Happenings at Cake and Wedding Cottage

Add to your list of special events to attend during the runup to the holidays: Saturday, December 5 will be the Taste of the Holidays Open House at the Cake and Wedding Cottage,  located at 8716 Belair Road in Rosedale, Hon. The open house will run from 11 AM to 4 PM and feature candy samples, candy making demos, and a gift basket giveaway. The open house will be followed by a week of specials and in-store samples, and if you stop by the store beforehand, you can pick up a ton of coupons good for savings and free stuff. I am a big fan of the Cake and Wedding Cottage, where the store is brightly lit, spotlessly clean, and packed to the rafters with cake, candy  and cookie-making supplies. The ladies who work there are extremely helpful and friendly, and if you can't find something yourself, they will gladly track it down for you.

Cake and Wedding Cottage will also hold a series of fun classes in which you can learn to decorate cakes (whether you are an advanced cake decorator or a beginner), make candy, make truffles, or make a holiday chocolate wreath. The full schedule of classes can be found here. Best of all, the store will hold gingerbread house-making workshops for children; the recommended ages are 6-16 but all kids are welcome; the littler ones will do better with one-to-one adult-to-child supervision, so if you are planning on bringing little ones, you need to plan on sitting there with them to help. The gingerbread house classes last for an hour and the kids get to take their creations home. Gingerbread house classes will be held on Sun, Nov 8, 2-3 pm; Sat, Nov 21, 3-4 pm; Sun, Dec 6, 2-3 pm; Sun, Dec 13, 2-3 pm; and Wed, Dec 16, 7-8 pm. The fee is $25 per child and covers the materials, including a box to carry the gingerbread house home. We'll be taking the three oldest BMS grandchildren to one of the classes ~ come and join us! Pre-registration is a good idea and you can register at the store, or by phone with a credit card; phone 410.529.0200. I'll be really excited to see how the oldest granddaughter (now 5) will decorate her house, because when we decorated gingerbread cookies last year, she made these:

I believe she's related to Picasso.
 
Cake and Wedding Cottage, 8716 Belair Road, phone 410.529.2900. Open 7 days a week:  Monday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.; and Sunday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. (but shouldn't you be watching the Ravens on Sundays?)

Wockenfuss says "GO RAVENS!"

For your next tailgate or football-watching party, what could be sweeter than the peanut butter-filled chocolate footballs from the Wockenfuss candy company? Tied with a ribbon in our favorite pro team's colors, the chocolate football candies are perfect to chase those "what's-gonna-happen-in-the-last-2-minutes-of-this-game" nerves away.

You undoubtedly know the Wockenfuss name from the Boardwalk of Ocean City, to which no trip is complete without several pounds of Wockenfuss fudge. But Wockenfuss has eight different stores throughout Maryland, including a spotless and bright shop at 5420 Belair Road, right here in the city, as well as outposts in the Columbia and White Marsh Malls. You can also order online, and Wockenfuss is happy to ship nationwide.

The Belair Road store is open Monday through Saturday from 9 AM to 6 PM; phone 410.483.4414. For all the stores and their hours, as well as product pictures, prices and descriptions, click here.

Roland Park Bakery and Deli

When Mr B M S and I were house-hunting a few years back, our search took us all over the City. One day as we were tromping around in Roland Park (where we eventually bought our house, a/k/a The Money Pit), our realtor treated us to lunch at the Roland Park Deli. And as many times as I'd driven past the commercial strip where the Deli is located, as many times as I've been to Petit Louis or its predecessor, Morgan Millard (known in Baltimore as "The Morgue"), I'd never before known the Roland Park Deli was there. The Deli is located at 4800 Roland Avenue, in the faux-Tudor-style strip that famously houses Petit Louis, but the Deli is around the side; when you go, you need to have your wits about you, because finding it may be the hardest part of the experience.

As its sign says, the correct name for the establishment is the "Roland Park Bakery and Deli," but I don't know anyone who calls it anything other than the Roland Park Deli. Which is too bad, because I love the Deli as much for its bakery products as for its deli - and that is saying something, because I'm a huge fan of the chicken salad. The Roland Park Deli has the distinct atmosphere of an Anne Tyler novel, where all the women are sturdy, wearing unfashionably boxy clothes, and all the men wear plaid pants that they've had since the Nixon administration. There's nothing fancy or upscale by way of decor. The food is quintessentially Rich People Food, by which I mean heavy on the mayo, light on the picante; but all of it is extremely comforting, very welcoming, and utterly familiar. People go, and sit for hours, and everyone seems to know everyone else. You'll see judges and Hopkins people and ladies with their grandchildren in tow. And if you don't get there early enough, you won't get my beloved  chicken salad, because it's beloved by everyone in Roland Park.

There is a single bakery case, dispensing goods that are completely in-house made. On any given day you are likely to find six or eight different varieties of freshly-baked cookies. There are muffins, and cakes sold by the slice, pastries and pies. I swear that the single best piece of lemon pound cake I've ever eaten came from the Roland Park Deli. It was perfect, dense, moist, and heavy.

This is old-fashioned, home-style baking at work. Snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies, coconut macaroons, jelly thumbprint, chocolate cookies, walnut cookies dusted with powdered sugar, lemon snaps.... the mind boggles at the variety and freshness of the cookies from the Roland Park Deli. Then there are the light, flaky, buttery pastries, filled with raspberry jam or smothered in cinnamon:

I'm told there are chocolate croissants, too, if you get there early enough, but inasmuch as I am not a morning person, I've never gotten in there early enough to snag one. (Note to self: haul your lazy butt out of bed and go grab a chocolate croissant!)

The Roland Park Deli has an authenticity and genuineness that make it, in my mind, an invaluable part of our neighborhood. There's no posing here. No hooking up. No showing off. Probably a dog or two tied up outside. It's just great. And if you're not a home baker, but need to send something off to school with Junior for the class party, a dozen or two delicious homemade cookies would be just the thing.

The Roland Park Bakery and Deli is located at 4800 Roland Avenue; phone 410.235.4422.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

A door slammed. The maid screamed. And in case you are not old enough to recognize this referent, Charlie Brown's dog Snoopy started many of his novels in this way. When we recently returned from two blistering nights of  rock and roll at the concerts for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Madison Square Garden, we felt like the geezers that we are - sore, tired and achey after jumping around with joy listening to and singing along with Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Ms Aretha Franklin, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, and the incomparable B.B. King. (Plus, ok, Metallica. But we needed a sit-down by then anyway.)

So we got home, and it was a dreary Halloween night, and we had nothing in the house with which to make dinner. Mr B M S went out on a mission to get us some dinner makings, and because he was also tired and grouchy, the dinner makings were largely unsatisfactory - which made us even grouchier. The haul included some extremely sad-looking croissants from the grocery store; they looked so pitiful I couldn't even bring myself to dunk them in the tomato sauce of the lasagne that we were making.

The next morning, those paltry croissants were mocking me. They were either destined to be bird food or made into something else. Which is when I decided to use them as the base for an old-fashioned bread pudding. Mr B M S loves bread pudding more than any other dessert, and is an extreme, rabid purist about his bread pudding - no  chocolate, no pumpkin, no extraneous flavorings allowed. Using the croissants turned out to be a pretty good inspiration, because the innate butteriness of the pastry livens up the taste of the pudding and turned what can sometimes be a pretty staid dessert into something a little jazzier and infinitely richer. Bread puddings are always built around the notion of dousing stale bread with an egg-based custard, and the traditional formulation involves raisins and cinnamon. That's just how Mr B M S likes it. It takes all of about 10 minutes to make this bread pudding; it was received with groans of appreciation. The recipe makes enough for four normal-sized desserts, depending on how much you like  bread pudding. It's good served warm or cold, with or without further adornment such as ice cream, whipped cream or hard sauce, though all of those would be great with it, too. Here's the recipe:

2 stale croissants, torn into small pieces

a handful of raisins (or more, or fewer, as you  like it)

2 c. cream

2 whole eggs plus 2 egg yolks

3/4 c. granulated sugar

splash of vanilla to taste
cinnamon to taste

Lightly grease a souffle dish with plain Crisco. Tear the croissants into small pieces and place them in the souffle dish. If your raisins are hard and stuck together, soak them for a few minutes in warm water (or bourbon, if you want a kicked-up raisin taste), drain them and dry them off with a paper towel. If your raisins are fresh and chewy, you don't need to mess  with them. Add the raisins to the bread.

Make the custard by combining the eggs, egg yolks, cream, sugar and vanilla with a whisk or hand beaters. When the custard is thoroughly mixed, pour it over the bread.  Add the cinnamon to taste. Gently stir everything together and pat the bread down below the custard so that no bread edges are sticking out above the liquid line. (Anything that sticks out above the liquid will bake into a hard crust. Ick.) Bake at 350 for about an hour. Declare yourself a kitchen god(dess).

And oh by the way, here's a photo I took from the floor at Madison Square Garden, concert night one. Sheer bliss:

Here's hoping we all look this good when we're 60.