in the kitchen: caramel apple layer cake with apple cider frosting.

You are in for a treat! I had a special occasion to celebrate last week and I was invited to make dessert. So logically, my first stop was Pinterest, to find a bit of inspiration. I stumbled upon this recipe pretty quickly, for caramel apple layer cake from the blog a hint of honey. After drooling on my keyboard and reading through the fairly minimally-intimidating directions, I pinned it up and started gathering ingredients. 

The cake was made completely from scratch, and there were two parts that I was semi worried about. The first was making caramel sauce, which was an ingredient in the cake. First step: buy a candy thermometer. Check!

I found the recipe for the caramel sauce on another blog, my baking addiction.

Caramel sauce: 

1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1/4 liquid cup water
1/2 liquid cup heavy cream, heated until warm
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Stir together the sugar, corn syrup and water in a large-ish pot. Hook on the candy thermometer and bring the mixture to a (slight) boil. 

Watch the sugar like a hawk!

During this time, you should also be heating the cream in a smaller saucepan. Careful not to heat it too fast. Mine got slightly scorched, but no big deal.

I found it was pretty uneventful until all the sudden it was eventful. Here it started turning a darker color. 

This is right after I added in the milk and stirred it viciously to keep it from overflowing. I really wanted a picture of me adding the cream to the boiling sugar, but in retrospect, I'm glad I wasn't holding a camera during these steps! 

Now stir in the butter. And the sea salt. Easy as that! Try not to eat up all the caramel before you add it to the cake mixture later. 

Now on to the cake! Growing up my mom always made two layer cakes, I think they're more fun. A little surprise layer of frosting in the middle is always a good idea. This recipe made for two 9 inch cakes.

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (I used only all-purpose flour. So a total of 3 3/4 cups)
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1½ tsp. baking soda
1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. salt
1½ cups light brown sugar
¾ cup canola oil
¾ cup unsweetened applesauce
¾ cup caramel sauce (homemade or jarred)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 eggs
1½ cups buttermilk

Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl.

Pause to take a picture of what a mess the countertop is.

In a larger bowl, combine oil and brown sugar. Beat together.

Voila your homemade caramel sauce! The recipe I used made about a cup of sauce. I measured out 3/4 cup for the cake batter, and ate the rest saved the rest for later.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Now add the dry ingredients in small batches, alternating with the milk. 

Lightly spray the cake pans or wipe them with butter. Pour in the batter and pop them in the oven!

Deliciousness waiting to happen!

Run out to the balcony and take a picture of the sunset you were missing while slaving away in the kitchen. :)

While the cake is cooking, move on the frosting! This was the other part I was slightly intimidated by, since I had never made frosting before. And because the recipe called for 7 3/4 to 8 cups of powdered sugar. Whaaaa?! I only ended up using 5 cups, and I think 7-8 may have caused heart failure. While I'll admit the frosting was a bit thin/slippery at the beginning, I put the cake in the fridge after frosting it to let it harden a bit, which really helped.

Ingredients for Apple Cider Frosting:

7 1/2-8 cups confectioners’ sugar (or 5 in my case)

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup apple cider or apple juice (I used juice)
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

Less than one bag was used for this recipe.

Cream together the butter, juice/cider, cinnamon and salt, adding sugar as you go to get to your desired consistency.

Cakes almost done! I cooked them at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Let the cakes cool for about 15 minutes, then remove them from the pans and place them on cooling racks. Or those cool, cheap plates you bought from IKEA. Let them cool COMPLETELY before frosting.

Disclosure: I am not a professional froster, nor do I claim to be. These pictures may make you cringe at their lack of neatness, but oh well. Only so much can be done with a metal spoon and silicone spatula.

Frost the bottom cake a bit.

 I didn't put as much frosting as I could have, since I was afraid of running out. Could have been a bit thicker in the middle, and I had plenty of frosting left over. 

I guess this was as far as I got picture-wise, until right before we ate the cake...

YUM!

Alright, a little messy. But in my defense, this guy survived a killer snowstorm, two 15 minute walks to and from metro stations, hidden under that metal bowl you saw pictured earlier (mental note: MUST BUY CAKE CONTAINER).

I would most definitely make this cake again. It satisfied the sweet dessert craving even though it wasn't the standard chocolate recipe. Fairly straightforward recipe, with no hidden traps or surprises!

Voila!

What's cooking in your kitchen recently??

xo

All pictures are my own, recipes from a hint of honey and my baking addiction.

le (snowy) weekend.

raclette. wine. cappuccinos. and apple cider layer cake. recipe coming soon!

the end of a snowwwwy friday and saturday.

la nuit blanche. 

beers and chicken wings with mr. s.

Hello friends!

I've been hiding from snowflakes all afternoon in a corner cafe. Currently gearing up for the hike through the slippery streets and up the hill to class. Wish me luck.

My weekend was lazy quiet and relaxing. Saturday evening we somehow found motivation to take advantage of la nuit blanche, the once a year all night celebration with free concerts, ice slides, and activities. These québecois certainly know how to make winter a bit more bearable. I guess they have to! Tons of museums, restaurants, cafes, etc stay open all night long, and admission is free in most cases. We took the metro to the other side of town and wandered through the streets, paused by wood campfires, listened to some music, watched people zip down the frozen luge slide, popped in le musée d'art contemporain to warm up and get a dose of quite modern art, and then ended the night with beers and chicken wings at les trois brasseurs. 

I added a new page in the toolbar at the top of my blog under the title, called 'in the kitchen'. I'm hoping it's somewhere I can keep a tally of the recipes featured on mistinguett, as well as links to other cuisine-inspirational blogs and sites. Feel free to take a peek and add any recipes you love! 

Wishing you a good week!

alli

souris.

Remember this guy...?

via lionbrand.com

And remember when I had a visit from a rodent in my apartment? Well thank sweet baby jesus I haven't had any other mice scurrying across my floor lately (although I do have a plastic bag stuffed down the hole in the wood floor, and sometimes I'm convinced I hear it rustling).

BUT

I there is a much cuter rodent keeping me company these days:

Turns out when I posted the mouse picture on my blog, it was actually a link to a crochet pattern. I had no idea. 

So imagine my surprise, when I opened up a huge shoe box Christmas morning (I was convinced I was unwrapping a pair of boots) and dug through the tissue paper to find this guy nestled in there. I died laughing. 

I have a hard time looking at his ears and not cracking up. He's pretty much a stud. 

xo 

in the kitchen: roasted eggplant with caper salsa.

This is one of my favorite recent recipes. I love capers, but don't buy or cook with them very often. After this recipe, however, I think I'll keep a jar in my fridge at all times!

via smitten kitchen.

I saw this on Pinterest a while back and decided to give it a try. I love eggplant, and was looking for some new ways to cook it.

First I cut up the aubergine into slices.

I poured a considerable (2-3 tbsp?) of extra virgin olive oil onto the tray before arranging the eggplant slices. I lightly salted and peppered them, and stuck them into the oven at 425 degrees. This is a picture from when I was halfway through roasting them (at about 10-12 minutes) before I turned them over to finish up.

While they were roasting, I worked on my salsa. The recipe from Smitten Kitchen (shown below) gives you a lot of options for substitutions, several of which I took.

Makes about 4 appetizer/salad portions, assuming people will eat two rounds each.

Roasted Eggplant:
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds eggplant (about 2 medium), in 3/4- to 1-inch slices

Salsa:

1/2 cup chopped or crumbled ricotta salata (I used feta, which was delish)
2 tablespoons capers, drained
1/3 cup finely diced red onion (I used about shallots instead)
3 seeded, diced medium tomatoes (1 1/2 cups)
3 tablespoons minced fresh mint leaves (I used freshly chopped parsley)
2 teaspoon red wine vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)
Freshly ground black pepper

Once the eggplant slices were done, I immediately plated them and piled a good amount of salsa on top. I kept the rest of the meal simple- pork tenderloin and white rice. I could definitely imagine eating this in the summer, fresh from the barbeque. And maybe I'll try the mint and ricotta version next time. Also ate the leftover salsa with pretzels and crusty bread in the days following (yum!)

What's your favorite eggplant recipe?

xo

le weekend: burlington, vt.

hello friends!

This weekend we decided to escape the city for a day, and go on a mini road trip. Originally we were planning on going either East or North to a regional/national park and snowshoe or cross country ski, but the high temps and melting snow this week put a bit of a damper on that. So we cut our losses and headed South to a place neither of us had been: Burlington, Vermont.

City square, view from Church Street.

American flag, peeking through the branches.

Everybody knows the well-planned road trip starts with ham and camembert sandwiches. And a little sandwich art for some added charm.

After lunch we explored Church Street. I really appreciated (besides the mall) how few chain/franchise stores there were. Most of the shops were quite unique. This was a really cool used bookstore which I could have spent hours in. I left with a copy of TinTin in America :)

There were lots of street performers, playing guitar, banjo, harmonica, you name it. Kids danced along, or sat and listened on big rocks that lined the street. 

Street performer.

Although I have a particular kind of hate for small dogs, this guy was seriously in his element and I couldn't help but take a picture. Leopard print harness and all. 

Further down off of Church Street, we walked into Anjou, one of the coolest and most reasonably priced antique store I've been to. It was like a treasure chest, and we spent a considerable amount of time exploring and uncovering all the stacks of antiques.

Cheeky animal prints and numbered glasses.

Old kitchen utensils and perfect wicker baskets.

And.... although I could have come away with a LOT, this is what we hauled back to Montreal in the backseat.

I've been looking for a unique trunk for ages, and also a bench to go in the hallway. Two birds? One trunk. The two brass/metal handles you see lift up the top part of the trunk to the storage part on the inside. Also, on top is a pane of removable glass, so you can put pictures, maps, or souvenirs on display. I'm thinking an old vintage european map...

There's a ferry that goes from Burlington to New York state, although I'm not sure if it was this boat in particular. Chilly ride!

By the port, trying to stay warm!

If you'd like to see some more photos from the trip and Montreal, hop over to provincecanadienne.com, the blog of that handsome fellow standing next to me :)

There was lots of amazing architecture to observe. I love the contrast here between the red and pale bricks.

This was from the University of Vermont campus. It's five minutes from downtown, and we wandered around there under the snow flurries before hopping in the car and heading back North.

Burlington is on the Southern part of Lake Champlain, which separates New York state from Vermont. On the way back to Montreal, we decided to drive up through the chain of Champlain Islands, and cross over the Canadian border on the New York side. The drive was beautiful, if a bit dark. It would have been gorgeous on a sunnier evening. 

Even though it was cloudy, the pale blues of the thick frozen lake and the pink of the sun made for some especially wintry photos. On one of the first causeways we drove over, there were so many ice fishers! They were peppered all over the lake, some with little wooden shacks set up, some with small bonfires, all crouching or standing quietly around the holes in the ice, waiting for something to bite. 

Our visit made for a lovely day trip, if only a bit cloudy. I think it's a place I would visit again, especially to visit that antique store again... I indulged in some shopping while we were there (7% sales tax and american dollar, I already miss you!) and was happily surprised either to be exempt from border duties and taxes, or to have fallen upon a particularly friendly border controller. Either way, it was a win.

Hope your weekends were equally as lovely! 

xo