Red Velvet Nutella Cake in a Jar

Hello, internet! Whew, that's a mouthful. A delicious, gorgeous, yummy mouthful of cake! Recently, I sent off a care package across the whole continent (not really, New York isn't as far as the end of Mexico) and one of the things  I promised (regretfully) to bake something for the two idiots the package was for. So, the first thing I could think of was cake in a jar! Now, I'm not suggesting you go out and send cake in a jar to all of your college-age friends because honestly it's a lot of work, but for a one-time thing, it's actually a great care package. I have evidence that the idiots enjoyed it, so this recipe gets a stamp of approval all the way from Troy, NY! Anyways, cake in a jar is actually the easiest thing to make, even if you're gastronomically handicap (I feel like I'm not using that term the right way). So, delaying no further, may I present Red Nutella Cake in a Jar! *applause* 

Ingredients: 
Red velvet cake batter (from a mix or from scratch: my personal favourite)
1/2 cup of Nutella (based on how much you want)
1 jar of cream cheese frosting (or make it from scratch) 
2 Mason jars (or any pint-sized jars)
Non-stick cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to tempurature indicated on box (for cupcakes) or recipe
2. Wash out your mason jars and spray the inside with any cooking spray
3. Make your red velvet cake batter (with any substitutions)
4. Divide the batter equally between the two jars. I used a cup measure and funnel to ensure the batter didn't spill over the sides (if you can't tell, I didn't succeed the whole time). Make sure the batter fills at least half the jar. 
5. Place on top of a baking sheet for stability and put it in the oven for at least 15 minutes. My batter took a lot longer to bake, but basically just stick it in the oven and if you stick a knife/toothpick through the whole thing and it's clean, you're good.
6. Take the jars out of the oven and let them cool completely.
7. Scoop out half the cake from a jar and place it in a bowl or plate. 
8. Spread a tablespoon, or more if necessary, of nutella on the cake left in the jar. 
9. Put a layer of cream cheese on top of the nutella. 
10. Replace the rest of the cake and press it down so there's still space left at the top of the jar. 
11. Put another layer of nutella and cream cheese. 
12. Repeat of second jar. 

See how easy that is?! Surprisingly the hardest part was actually finding the mason jars. Which by the way, can be found in places like Michael's or Walmart or most home decor places (run them through the dishwasher if they're from art stores or home decor stores). The cake will last up to a week, so be sure to send off your packages immediately after

making them!! And if you do end up with extra batter, like I did, there's always room for red velvet cupcakes in the pantry ;) If you want to make them fancy, just use knife and cut a hole in the middle of the cupcake, scoop some nutella in and cover the whole thing with cream cheese frosting. Et voilá! Two awesome-sauce deserts, one for you and one for a friend. Looks like that's all for me. 

Good night, internet!

French Macaroons: Rose

Hello, internet! I suppose I should just start posting right away, yes? Okay so this recipe didn't turn out quite as well as I would've liked BUT mostly because I got distracted towards the end and yeah. Honestly they were fine, but I left them out and they hardened and ick. The picture above is kinda how it was supposed to turn out, but that didn't happen. (hence the pic creds in the corner) okay, so I suppose my troubles started in the beginning when I realized I do not own a food processor. ATTENTION: if you plan on making macarons, GET A FOOD PROCESSOR. If it's a one-time thing, just borrow one but do not substitute anything. I used a spice grinder... not one of my finer moments... It took an extra 45 minutes to blend the almond flour and that stuff gets hard when heated up too much. 

Anyways, instead of going step by step, I am including this great video from the website where I got my recipe from. It's pretty general, so just follow everything and add a couple (2-3) drops of red food colouring to the cookie mixture (maybe even a bit of rose flavouring if you want) and I'll put an ingredient/equipment list and a recipe for the rose filling underneath. 

Here's a great website for any recipes or tools, also templates (in equipment) 

Equipment: 

Kitchen scale (measure everything in grams!)

Food processor (GET ONE)

Hand or stand mixer with whisk accessory

Sifter or fine sieve

Big stainless steel bowl

Another mixing bowl

Spatula

Pastry bag and round tip (1/2 to 3/4 inch opening) (you can usea pastry bag and snip off the end, but be careful how much you cut off) 

2-4 large baking sheets

A macaron template (small, medium, large, whatever. There are templates on the link above the video)

Ingredients: (the recipe is in grams, so be sure to weigh your ingredients to make sure they're exact)

Cookies

3 egg whites (large eggs), separated 24 hours in advance and refrigerated) 

210 g powdered sugar

125 g almond meal

30 g regular granulated sugar

Red or pink food colouring/gel/paste (I used a few drops of red) you can switch out colours for different recipes, but don't forget to look up the recipe for the filling you want!

Rosewater/essence (you only a splash for the cookies unless you actually want to really taste the rose)

Okay so for the filling, I kind of created my own recipe and it actually seemed to work, even if the end product didn't end up so great. Here we go:

Filling 

100 g sugar
2 extra large egg white
150 g butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon rosewater essence

1. Place sugar and egg whites in a large heatproof bowl.
2. Put the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk continuously until the sugar dissolves. It should be thick and sticky.
3. Place the mixture in an electric mixing bowl.
4. Using a whisk attachment, whisk the mixture on medium-high speed until it has stiff peaks and is glossy. The meringue should be cool at this point.
5. Change to a paddle attachment and contiune beating meringue at medium-high speed.
6. While the mixer is running, add small chunks of softened butter at a time.
7. Continue adding all of the butter and keep mixing until the butter is fully incorporated and the buttercream is very smooth and thick enough to stand on its own.
8. Add however much rosewater/essence into the buttercream and mix well to combine.

I'm pretty sure the filling of the macaron cookies is covered in the video, but in case you needed a reminder. 

Simply fill a pastry bag or even a ziploc bag with your buttercream, snip off the smallest hole you can while still letting out the buttercream with a bit of pressure. Put a small layer on the inside of one macaron cookie and immediately cover with another cookie, making sure not to smush the filling out of the edge of the cookies. Let the buttercream settle and harden and your macarons will be ready to show off in a few minutes! 

Okay! So if you've reached this, you have survived the ordeal of making macarons! Don't worry, every pastry chef (no matter how amateur *coughmecough*) has to go through this messy, time-consuming project. The fact that you didn't throw up your apron/spatula/whisk in defeat means you ARE STRONG AT HEART. Congratulations! Even if the macarons didn't turn out pretty or even edible, at least you know what went wrong (or if you don't, you can always ask me) and you can try again! Next year, when your baking supply resources are replenished (macarons are pretty expensive for a college student to make). Now I'm going to go buy macarons from Chantal Guillon up in SF and cry at the beauty that is a french macaron well made. 

Good night, internet! 

Introduction

            Hello, internet! Good morning/afternoon/evening whatever your time zone is. I am The Baker. No that's not my real name, but my real name is kind of unique and it would be so easy to stalk me donchathink? Not that I'm interesting enough to stalk (LOL whatajoke), but precautions are what they are. Let's just stick with Neeli. cool? cool. coolcoolcool. 

             Okay. Time to get down to business. I won't talk about myself and whatnot, that's what the about me is for; this is strictly baking. Maybe some cooking. We'll see how it goes. Sorry about the bad grammar and punctuation. I'm not really a very formal writer and I want anyone who's on this site to see the personality that goes into all of my fooooood. 

              What a great transition to the most important topic at hand! FOOD! GLORIOUS FOOD! Food is the name of the game of life that I play. (Just so you know, I am running on five hours of sleep and it's around 1 in the morning, so please don't judge my hyperness) Anyways, ever since I was a little kid, I have baked and cooked my way through life. When I was learning how to walk and talk, I pretended to cook food with my mom (wasn't real don't worry); as I went into the awkward preteen years (dear god), I began experimenting with flavours and making my parents teach me all they knew about food. Then around the end of eighth grade, it struck. Baking fever. Whenever I could, I would bake anything and everything I could find a recipe for. My mom got really mad because food is expensive and I wasn't exactly making the most healthy recipes. But no matter, I kept going. Every time someone came over, baking! Or a party, baking! Just lots and lots of baking! In high school, there was an amount of time where I stopped baking. Guess my creative juices weren't flowing towards the culinary aspect of life. 

                Lo and behold! Senior year, cause of stress and anxiety. Along with it came a new fire in me to bake until I die. It was my way of clearing my mind and letting go of my anxiety issues. But now I am (finally) a collegeite (pretend it's a word okay), you would expect that this need to bake would go away. But no. Thankfully I live only twenty minutes away from home and the kitchen where I have been baking for over 10 years. So, as my school year goes underway and I am swamped with papers and transfers and grades, I promised myself that I would bake at least once a week. I suppose you could say this blog is sort of an archive for me. To keep track of all of my old and new recipes and my alterations and such. But that doesn't meet it's not for the public. This is the internet after all. 

                 Which brings me towards the final stages of this introduction. I am a baker; much like many of you, I strive to bake my way into peace and friendship accompanied by the sweet smell of bread in the oven (or cookies. or cake. or tarts. basically anything). This is the start of my documented journey into the world of culinary goodness. I'm not a professional, I don't own any fancy bowls or machines. Basically, I'm just a girl who likes to bake and now it's time for me to show the internet my altered recipes and foods that maybe will inspire others to create masterpieces of their own. 

                   Alright, ITS BAKING TIME.

*disclaimer: my url is a reference to The Perks of Being a Wallflower

**also a dedication to my stupid friends (you know who you are)

***I'll try to post every Sunday, but who knows how long it'll take

****I procrastinate a lot

*****I don't think anyone is going to read this anyways though

******okay I'll stop now