Birthday Trifle

Birthday Trifle

     For my birthday I didn’t want the usual cake with the typical bunch of candles. I wanted something where everyone could blow out a candle. I find that moment of attention where everyone is waiting for you to attempt to blow out a ton of candles while your probably spitting all over the cake… awkward.

     So, I decided to make individual trifles, a staple in the British dessert arena and in keeping with my birthday theme.  I remember vividly the first time I ate trifle. It was a Marks & Spencer’s individual trifle cup and to this day it is still the best trifle I have ever had.

This is how I made my own variation.

     First, keep in mind that these are American British trifles. Other than the fruit every other ingredient, especially the custard, is different in America. Still good though (plus, other than me, who’s going to know?!)

     I did this over three days so I spent a minimal amount of time each night on it.

Makes 12 glass goblets

1st layer: 3 days out - Fruit mix: Cut the fruit and sprinkle with sugar a couple days ahead of time and refrigerate in Tupperware. I used Strawberries and blueberries. Raspberries would have been awesome they are super expensive.

2^nd layer: 2 days out – Custard. In America this is just vanilla pudding. I used instant vanilla pudding and one packet was good for one layer with ¼ cup in each goblet. Go ahead and make this ahead of time. It keeps well.

3^rd layer: 3 days out -Bake a cake, homemade or from a mix, and let it cool completely (overnight is good).

                  2 days out – Remove the hard crusts and crumble the soft inside of the cake in large chunks. If you are making a large trifle you can just cut the cake to fit.

    

     I then covered and let sit overnight. To keep cake soft make sure it’s sealed tightly.

4^th layer: Custard

5^th layer: Fruit

6^th layer: Immediately - Whipped cream. The closest to authentic is heavy whipped cream. 

NOTE: The cream will fall flat in minutes but cool whip is totally the wrong taste. So, put the whipped cream on at the last minute.

Ansell stopped me right after this picture to tell me about the whipped cream falling. So learned that lesson the hard way.

 

     You can layer fruit, custard, and cake as much as you want. A basic trifle is simply fruit, custard, cake, cream with one layer of each. If you do layer don’t make the layers too thick. The beauty of trifle is you should be able to get a bit of each layer in each bite.

     A big strawberry and candle is the finishing touch.

Delicious!!!

Jambalaya & Baked Banana French Toast

Jambalaya & Baked Banana French Toast

Charla taught me how to make Jambalaya based on her recipe (which I’m sure she adapted from somewhere but I'm still giving her all the kudos :).

2 Tb. olive oil

8 oz. sausage (I usually get turkey andouille)

~ 8 oz. chicken, cooked

1 large onion

3-5 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

1/2 tsp. parsley, dried or fresh

1 1/2 c. boiling chicken stock

1 1/2 c. white rice

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. hot sauce

1 14 oz. can tomatoes

1 green bell pepper

2 Tb. white wine

Heat oil in saucepan. Add sausage and brown. Add chicken and onions, cook for about 3 min. Add garlic, thyme, and parsley. Stir well, then add stock, rice, cayenne, and hot sauce. Add bell peppers and tomatoes with juice and break up with a spoon. Bring mixture to a boil, stir well, cover and simmer gently 15-20 min. Stir, add white wine and cook another 5 min. 

Charla was very good at walking me through everything but I’m not sure if I could do this again without Charla, or without getting totally overwhelmed and frustrated. However, I am feeling more comfortable in the kitchen and tackling recipes with more than four steps or ingredients.

Also, the basics of doing this meal project, such as cooking chicken and sausage was really useful. I also learned how to appropriately cut vegetables and chicken and it’s these basic cooking skills that are really necessary to learn.

As always I had a fun time and the food turned out really delicious! Success! Next time I would cut down the quantity being made since Ansell and I ate jambalaya basically everyday for 5 days straight.

Baked Banana French Toast

Before being baked

I am a huge breakfast fan and my latent cooking skills always shine when I do breakfast. I found this amazing recipe from Bakerella’s awesome website and couldn’t wait to try it! I wasn’t disappointed!

This is a fairly simple breakfast food that has a few things that make it a favorite:

   * It is in a contained baking tray which makes it

o   -Easy cooking and cleaning

o   -Reduces possible burning

o   -All pieces were warm when we ate since it was all cooked together

After the oven time

   *It involves bananas. I love bananas baked in breakfast stuff.

*It needs to chill so it’s perfect for making the night before.

*Look how photogenic it is!

This is such a winner!  Will definitely make it again!

Earl Grey Tea and Pear Loaf…Attempt

Earl Grey Tea and Pear Loaf…Attempt

I’d been wanting to tackle some of the recipes I found on a favorite food blog After Apple Picking. I really like the author’s recipes and they strike my warm fuzzy British baking feelings. Of course I wanted to do the recipe that involved tea first.

Spoiler: Our final product will not look like this.

I knew I couldn’t tackle baking alone and would need help. So I enlisted the help of the tea-loving and sweetly southern Charla who is also a cooking guru (thank goodness). This wouldn’t be possible without her as she brought along half the ingredients and the knowledge.

Here we are all set up and ready to go. I taped the recipe on the cabinet so it was in easy sight and would stay clean.

We used two mixing bowls one for the date and tea mix and one for the flour and sugar mix.

 

Cooking intensity!

Then the two would be mixed together.

Unfortunately we made our first mistake here. We didn’t blend the dates, baking soda, and tea together before putting it in with the flour and pear mix. This caused the final mixture to be really soupy.  (At least this is what Charla told me. I really had no clue what was going on pretty much the entire time. I mean...the poor women had to teach me how to stir properly!)

Charla tried to save it with more flour to make it thicker but it never achieved the consistency that was needed.

We then put it into the oven to bake for 50 minutes and had ourselves a little tea and snacks.

I adore this butterfly embroidered tablecloth I found in Annette's stash.
It comes with matching napkins. 

However, unbeknownst to us the next mistake was occurring (which was totally my fault). I read 170 degrees on the recipe but didn’t read the Celsius part. So, instead we baked it for 50 minutes at 170F…yeah that did basically nothing. So we tried again at the correct temperature. After another hour it still wasn’t done but we were tired of waiting so we got it out.

The crust looked good but the consistency was all wrong. Ansell called it Busted Pudding Bread. It wasn’t loaf like at all, more similar to bread-pudding, but it was still somewhat tasty and you could see the potential. I would definitely try this recipe again.

The Aftermath! I got to watch two episodes of South Park while cleaning dishes.
Oohh the guilty pleasures!

The next Charla and Teal project is Alfajores. Yum!