Rubik's Cube Cake

My brother Jeff and his wife Ann host a fabulous Super Bowl party at their house every year. Lots of people come, and a grand time is had by all. It's a pot-luck party, and everybody brings great food. Usually, the actual Super Bowl ends up being anti-climactic, compared to all the fun and food!

Our cousin Steve's son Ryan loves Rubik's cubes. So this year, for the Super Bowl party, Jeff made a cake in the form of a Rubik's Cube. Here's a picture of the finished product. Isn't it amazing?

Here's how he made it.

Ingredients:
3 boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix.  Jeff used 2 boxes of Super Moist Milk Chocolate and 1 of French Vanilla, but said he got the best results from the French Vanilla
1 container Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate Icing
2 containers Betty Crocker Whipped Vanilla Icing
2 tubes black Cake Mate icing
1 tube each red, blue, green, yellow, orange, and white Cake Mate icing

First, Jeff baked the cakes.  He followed the instructions on the box, but to each mix added one extra egg, and used 1/2 cup less water than called for.  He baked each cake into two 8 x 8 layers.

He let the cakes cool, and, using a long serrated bread knife, cut the rounded tops off each layer where it had risen so that each layer was perfectly flat.  He also measured all the layers, to be sure that, when stacked on top of one another, it would form a cake that was roughly as high as it was square, so that it formed a cube. 

Now he stacked the layers together, adding a coating of frosting between the layers (milk chocolate frosting between the chocolate layers, whipped vanilla frosting between the vanilla layers).  At that point, he had a cake that was roughly in the shape of a cube.

Next he covered the entire outside of the cake with the whipped vanilla frosting.  Now, since the pans had sides that were slightly sloped, and since Jeff did not trim the edges (doing so would have made the cake too high), there were some pretty large gaps on the sides between the layers.  These gaps were filled in with frosting, so that the cake was a perfect cube.  (Jeff says that people who get end pieces will get as much icing as they will cake!)


Jeff refrigerated the cake overnight so that the frosting would solidify on the outside.  The next day, he used the two tubes of black Cake Mate icing to draw squares on each face of the cube.  Then, using a well-twisted Rubik's cube as a model, he filled in each square with one of the six tubes of colored frosting.

The colored frosting tubes came with plastic nozzles that made the application of the colored frosting easier.

Congratulations on a fabulous-looking cake, Jeff!  I just wish I could be there to see Ryan's face when he sees it.

Misnamed Pie

Here's a little secret that most good cooks already know: pumpkin pie is misnamed. The best pumpkin pies aren't made with pumpkin at all; they are generally made with a well-flavored squash like butternut, buttercup, or acorn, or they are made with sweet potatoes. But the iconic pumpkin, the great big orange orb that everyone uses for jack-o'lanterns, is the worst to use for pumpkin pie. It's watery and decidedly lacking in flavor. (Small versions of the big orange pumpkins are actually a different variety, and are very flavorful, so they are good to use.)

However, it's only the cooks who know this. People who are just consumers of pumpkin pie think that they're made of Hallowe'en pumpkins. What's more, these are people who often claim not to like squash. And that's where today's story begins.

Back in the late 80's and early 90's, there was a couple who went to our church named Don and Naomi, while Don was working on his doctorate in theology at McGill University. Don's a very nice guy, and he has strong opinions, which he doesn't hesitate to voice. One day, someone told me that Don had told Naomi in no uncertain terms that he loved pumpkin pie, and that no one would ever be able to pass squash pie off to HIM as pumpkin pie.

Well, for anyone who knows me, them's fightin' words. The challenge was on.

At our next church potluck, I made a squash pie, but of course I advertised it as pumpkin pie. I cleverly maneuvered things to make sure Don got a piece of my pie. I watched him eat every morsel. And then I went for the kill.

"Did you taste my pumpkin pie?" I asked Don innocently. "Yes, I did!" said Don, "It was delicious!"

"So Don," I said, "I believe you owe your wife an apology."

Don looked at me quizzically, and I could see in his expression an indication that it was beginning to dawn on him that he'd been had in some way or another. "Why?" he asked suspiciously.

"Because I heard that you told Naomi that if anyone ever tried to feed you squash pie, you'd KNOW!" I told him.

"No!" said Don, and then he laughed, as he realized just how wrong he'd been.

I don't know if Don ever apologized to Naomi, but I've chuckled about it many times in the years since.

By the way, I thought I'd let you know that Don has recently published a book, called Glimpses of Grace: Reflections of a Prison Chaplain.

So here's my Mom's recipe for "Pumpkin" pie. You can used canned pumpkin if you want, but I recommend just preparing your own. It isn't difficult. I usually put a small squash in the oven whole on a baking sheet, and bake it at 350° for 45 minutes to an hour (longer for a larger squash), until the whole squash feels limp and the skin can be easily pierced with a fork. Cut it open, let it cool a bit, scoop out the seeds, remove the skin (it comes off really easily), and mash the pulp. If you have more than you need, simply put the rest in a freezer bag for the next pie you want to make.

Another note about pumpkin pie - what gives it the iconic taste is really mostly the spices. In the U.S. you can buy a jar of "pumpkin pie spice", although I've never seen that in Canada. I always just use my own blend of spices - roughly equal amounts of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice, with a tiny pinch of cloves.



Pumpkin Pie

1 cup squash puree (see above) or mashed sweet potatoes
4 T. flour
1 T. melted butter
1 egg (for watery pumpkin, 2 eggs)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spices (1/2 tsp. each cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice, with a tiny pinch of cloves)

Prepare a single shell for a 9-inch pie (half of this recipe).

Combine all ingredients, stir until smooth, pour into pie shell, and bake at 400° for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° and bake an additional 30-40 minutes, until the custard has set.

Cool and serve as is, or with whipped cream or ice cream.

Warm up the New Year with Soup!

I didn't fully appreciate soup when I was growing up.  I think that was partly due to Mom's attitude toward it - she figured that making soup was as much work as making a regular meal, so if she was going to serve soup, it was going to be a soup that could be eaten as a meal.  If we had soup for supper, that was it.  So her homemade soups were very hearty, more like stews, really; but I always felt unsatisfied after a meal of nothing but soup.  That, and the fact that her version of the soup she served most often as a meal, bean soup, was not my favorite.  (However, she also always served piping hot cornbread with bean soup, which was delicious, so I always had this love-hate relationship with her bean soup.)

Mom would also give us canned soup for lunch sometimes - usually either chicken noodle or cream of tomato.  They were all right, but of course canned soup can never quite measure up to good homemade soup.

As I've gotten older, I've grown to love soup.  There is nothing like a steaming bowl of soup to take the chill off a winter's day.  So since New Year's Day has the unfortunate habit of coming in the middle of winter, I thought I'd post some soup recipes that'll warm your innards.

I've already posted recipes for Vegetarian Chili and Roasted Squash Soup.  So here are recipes for Garlic Potato Soup (adapted from Garlic Mashed Potatoes), Roasted Red Pepper Soup, Spicy Sausage-Lentil Stew, Cream of Root Vegetable Soup, Mushroom-Barley Soup, and Easy Tomato Soup.  Make some soup today, and chase winter away!

One of the best things about soups is that they are very forgiving of substitutions, and can be easily adapted to whatever you have on hand, and to how many people you have to feed.  Most soups are also really good - quite frankly, better - left over.


Garlic Potato Soup

2 heads garlic
2 1/2 lbs potatoes
4 T butter
4 T flour
2 cups milk
2 tsp. salt
10 or 12 small (about 1-inch diameter) new potatoes (optional)
chives for decoration

Peel and dice the potatoes.  Just cover with water, and add 2 tsp. salt.  Bring to the boil, and simmer gently until the potatoes are very soft.  Do not drain.

While the potatoes are cooking, separate the garlic into cloves, but do not peel.  Drop the garlic cloves into a small saucepan of boiling water, and boil for 2 minutes.  Drain, and run cool water over the garlic until it is cool enough to handle.  Peel the garlic cloves.

In a medium saucepan, cook the garlic cloves in the butter over very low heat for about 20 minutes, until they are very soft but not browned.  Add the flour, and let the flour bubble in the butter for two minutes, stirring constantly.  Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan, and add the boiling milk all at once to the garlic, butter and flour.  Stir and cook until the sauce thickens.  Put the sauce through a sieve or puree it in a blender.

Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or a hand-held blender in the water in which they have cooked until they are roughly pureed.  Add the garlic sauce to the potatoes.

If you can find small new potatoes, boil about a dozen of them just until they are tender.  Cut them in half, and drop them into the soup for texture.

Decorate with chopped chives, and serve piping hot.


Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Here in Quebec, red bell peppers are ridiculously expensive for eleven months out of the year.  Then, in September, when the local crop ripens, overflowing baskets of them appear in the markets, and they become dirt cheap for a few weeks.  That's when I make my roasted red pepper soup.  Here's the recipe:

8 large red bell peppers
3 jalapeno or other hot peppers (fresh)
3 or 4 ears corn
2 heads garlic
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp chili powder

The first step is to roast the peppers (you can roast the bell peppers and the jalapeno at the same time).  If you've never done it before, there are two ways you can do it: either in the oven under the broiler, or on a barbecue grill.  Arrange the peppers on a broiling pan or on the grill, and roast at a high temperature until the skin blisters and begins to blacken.  Turn the peppers 1/4 turn, and repeat until the peppers are blistered and blackened on all sides.  Remove the peppers from the heat, and let cool.

When the peppers have cooled enough to handle, remove the skins, stems, and seeds, and put the roasted peppers into a bowl.  Be sure to save any liquid that the peppers have thrown off.  (Be careful to wash your hands after handling the jalapenos - you don't want to touch your eyes with those peppers on your fingers!)

Meanwhile, cut the tops off the heads of garlic, and roast them at 350 until they are soft.  Squeeze the roasted garlic into the pepper mixture.

Put the roasted peppers and garlic into a food processor or blender and puree.  (I like a food processor better.  The blender makes it too smooth; the food processor leaves it slightly chunky.)

While the peppers are roasting, shuck the corn, and steam it in a Dutch oven in about 1/2 inch of water for 7 minutes.  Remove the corn to a colander to cool, but reserve the cooking liquid.

Add the pepper puree to the corn liquid.  Cut the corn from the cob, and add it to the soup.  Add salt and chili powder (more or less to taste), and return to the boil.  If the soup is too thick, you can add a bit more water.

You can use more jalapenos or fewer, depending on how spicy you like your soup.  A word of caution:  I once decided I wanted it to be really spicy, and used six jalapenos.  This was a mistake.  Also, you should be aware that jalapenos vary in their degree of hotness.  It's better to try adding one or two, and testing the soup, before adding more.

Serve as is, or with a dollop of sour cream.  (If you've used too many jalopenos, the sour cream will help cool your mouth down.)


Spicy Sausage-Lentil Stew

1 lb. sausage
1 large or 2 medium onions, diced
3 or 4 fresh chili peppers, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 or 4 carrots, diced
2 or 3 potatoes, diced
2 cups green lentils
1 tsp salt
3 cups tomato juice
1 T (or more) fresh herbs as desired (rosemary, marjoram, or thyme)

Break the sausage up into chunks, and brown in a large soup pot.  When some of the fat from the sausage has rendered, add the onions and chili peppers to the sausage.  (If using a low-fat sausage, you may need to add a bit of vegetable oil.)  Cook until the onions are translucent, and then add the garlic and carrots.  Cook until the garlic is soft, but do not let it burn.

Add the lentils and the salt, and stir to coat the lentils with the cooking fat.  Add the tomato juice along with an equal amount of water, and the fresh herbs.

Cook for about 20 minutes, until the lentils are beginning to soften.  Add the diced potatoes, and cook another 15 or 20 minutes, until the potatoes and lentils are tender.

Delicious on a cold winter's day!


Cream of Root Vegetable Soup

In Mastering the Art of French Cooking,  in talking about Potage Parmentier (French leek and potato soup), Julia Child says:

"..you can use your imagination to the full.  Many of the delicious soups you eat in French homes and little restaurants are made just this way, with a leek-and-potato base to which leftover vegetables and a few fresh items are added.  You can also experiment on your own combinations....You may find you have invented a marvelous concoction, which you can keep as a secret of the house."

Well, this is my marvelous concoction, but it's a secret no longer.

1 lb. each of potatoes, white onions, parsnips, and white turnips
1 T. salt
1/2 tsp. white pepper (optional)
2 cups table cream

Peel and dice the potatoes, onions, parsnips, and turnips.  Cover with water, add salt and white pepper, bring to a boil, and simmer until all the vegetables are uniformly soft, about 40 minutes.

Puree the soup in a blender or a food processor.  Return to the soup pot, and add the cream.

This soup can be served hot in the winter, or icy cold in the summer.  Your guests will never guess what's in it.  I have had people who are avowed haters of turnips who absolutely loved this soup.


Mushroom-Barley Soup

1/2 cup pearl barley
6 1/2 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt
3 T soy sauce
3 T dry sherry (optional)
3 T butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chopped onions
1 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
freshly ground black pepper

Cook the barley and 1 1/2 cups water in the soup pot until tender.  Add the remaining water, soy sauce, and optional sherry.

Saute the onions and garlic in the butter until the onions are translucent.  Add the sliced mushrooms and the salt.  When the mushrooms are tender, add them to the barley.  Be sure to include any juices that the vegetables have expressed.

Give the soup a generous grinding of black pepper, and simmer very gently for about 20 minutes, covered.  Taste and correct for seasoning.

Delicious served with a good loaf of whole grain bread and some Swiss cheese.


Easy Tomato Soup

I have adapted this recipe from More with Less.  I'm almost embarrassed to include it, but there's a good story that goes along with it.  When my friend Anne-Marie was living, I was at her place one day, and she said she had nothing in the house to eat.  Well, I scrounged around the cupboards, and found a can of tomato juice, an onion, and a bit of flour.  Anne-Marie was so astonished that I was able to turn those simple ingredients into a delicious soup, in just a few minutes, that she was convinced I was a culinary genius, and sang my praises as a cook from that day forth.  Here's the recipe:

2 cups tomato juice
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T. vegetable oil or butter
3 T. flour
1/2 tsp salt
fresh black pepper
1 T fresh herbs (basil, oregano, or thyme)

Saute the onion and garlic in the vegetable oil or butter until they are soft.  Blend in the flour, salt, pepper, and herbs, and let the flour bubble in the oil for about 2 minutes.

Gradually whisk in the tomato juice, while stirring constantly.  Bring to the boil, continuing to whisk, until soup thickens.  Boil 1 min.

Delicious as is, or if you'd like, you can add a cup or two of milk or cream to make cream of tomato soup.