Triple Tier: Cake Pops, Banana Bread, and Apple Tarts

The last Thursday of the semester was Ascension Day, which is a holiday around where I am. Due to still having a class to attend the next day, I could not go home yet, but since the class itself didn't require any work, I decided to spend the day in one of my favorite activities: baking.

I had invited many of my friends to come pick up some sweets -- knowing that many of them still had papers and/or exams to deal with -- or to just come and chat with some tea and desserts. I spent most of Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning baking.

The first of the three desserts were these cake pops. I made them with a double batch of my trusty vegan cake recipe, to which I added a bunch of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. After crumbling the cake into crumbs, I moistened it all with a homemade pumpkin puree. I made that by roasting half a pumpkin until soft, then blending the flesh. The mix was then rolled into balls, and a chocolate-covered toothpick was inserted in each of them, then left to set and cool in the fridge overnight. On the day of the event, I dipped them in melted dark chocolate (this time melted in 30-seconds lapses in the microwave, due to my inability to deal with a double boiler technique while handling two other recipes). They were then topped with crushed, salted pistachios and chocolate sprinkles.

Next was a single batch of banana bread, made the usual way in a loaf pan. I cut the banana bread in half lengthwise, then sliced each half to get regular-sized parts.

Finally came these mini apple tart bites, made with circles of pâte brisée, some homemade applesauce, and microwaved apple slices shaped into flowers. I then baked the whole assembly for an additional 10 minutes, then glazed them with the drained water from the applesauce, to which I added some citrus pectin due to a shortage of time. If I have more time, I usually reduce the juice into a glaze. The procedure is a more messy, rushed version of this one.

Halloween Scary Faced Cake Pops

November 3rd

I made these for a hallway dinner that was Halloween themed. Not really knowing what to do, I took leftover cake crumbs and frosting from the Sinterklaas cupcakes, and made them into cake pops. Then I tried to melt some chocolate sprinkles to try and draw creepy faces (not easy when they were upside down...)

Cake Pops and Apple Tartlets

I went to visit some family friends with my mom yesterday, and she insisted I bake something as a gift to bring along. My mom's strongly suggested apple tarts (seems it's her favorite dessert out of my whole repertoire...), but I've been baking only that since summer break started, so I wanted to make something else.

I settled for cake pops. My mom dug out some old, wrinkled apples, so I thought I'd try and use those up. I used my handy vegan cake recipe, adjusted a bit for the use of grated apples and a small handful of wild strawberries picked from the garden (the cake itself isn't vegan this time around because I didn't have any non-dairy milk and had to use cow milk).

After the cake cooled, it was a simple matter of breaking it into pieces to blend into crumbs, add in enough homemade applesauce (cooked, grated apple) for it to hold together well, and making spheres out of the batter. I made them roughly 1.5 tablespoons per cake pop. After refrigerating the spheres for a while, I dipped toothpicks in chocolate before poking them into the cake spheres. Back in the fridge, then coating the whole thing in melted chocolate and sprinkling toasted, crushed almond slivers.

After tasting one, my mom still wanted apple tarts, so I worked at them after dinner last night. (Seems I always do apple tarts and cake pops together...). Good thing I still had crust dough I had prepared last time in the freezer.

The apple variety I was using was not very good for this... After microwaving the apple slices (see tutorial), they would stiffen again once cooled. So instead of microwaving the life out of these apple slices, I boiled them in a brown sugar syrup.

Because I felt that the syrup gave the apples enough sweetness already, I opted for not glazing them. They look less shiny, of course, but I can guarantee the flavor's right.

And since I still had leftover cake crumbs and applesauce, I made spheres out of them last night, and left them in the fridge overnight. Earlier, I got them out, stuck toothpicks in them, and I just finished coating them in chocolate and their sprinkling of almonds. I left them on a silicone baking mat wrapped around the flat, round part of my springform pan.

Since I had just finished coating them right before I took pictures, some of the chocolate coatings are not set yet, but they will soon be.

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I stupidly left my cup measuring spoon things at my college dorm, so I had to do things by weight. Here's the amounts I used for this spiced and fruity version of the cake used.

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SPICED and FRUITY CAKE RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 218 g flour
• 125 g brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 pinch of salt
• cinnamon, as much as desired
• 200 g milk
• 55 g neutral oil
• 117 g grated/mashed apples and strawberries
• 1 tbs while vinegar

  Procedure

1. Preheat oven 180°C
2. In a large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk wet ingredients (including fruits).
4. Add wet to dry ingredients, mix until combined.
5. Pour into prepared pan, bake for around 25 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cake Pops and Apple Tart

September 16, 2013
For a family get-together, I made cake pops (using crumbs made from the leftover cupcakes from the friends' visit, cream cheese, chocolate, and crushed almonds), and an apple tart.

The cake pops were a great success! The last time I made cake truffles, I found them way too sweet, what with the cake crumbs, the frosting, and the chocolate. This time, in anticipation, I lowered the amount of sugar in the cake recipe, and using cream cheese also brought down the level of sweetness. Using toasted sliced almonds that I crushed to smaller pieces helped to even out the flavor.