Haven't seen one of these in awhile...

That would be a tiramisu! Ever since our Italian grad student bade us farewell having become a PhD, we've had a dry spell for sure.  No one appears to have gotten her recipe so we can't make what she did. We know she handed the recipe out so perhaps someone is being coy and doesn't want to have to make it for us. That would be cruel!

Gotta fun but enjoy!

It's always brave to bring one of these..with out history!

Circle of lady fingers!

Today's cake, brought to us via a supermarket in Marlborough, MA was a Tiramisu cake. It was circular and had a classic look to it. There was a ring of the obligatory lady fingers around the outside, two layers of cake and then the mascarpone filling was between the layers and on the top. It was finished on the top with a layer of the also obligatory cocoa powder.  This having been sold in a supermarket we tend to suspect there was no amaretto or other spirit in it which is too bad as it does give it a bit more flair.

This cocoa powder can give you asthma!

Nice classic look!

Despite the fact that we are spoiled when it comes to this dish, this was perfectly acceptable.  It had good moist cake with adequately sweetened mascarpone.  It was on the light side which is always preferable and as such was not too filling.  Good choice, Marlborough lady!

Nicely layered and filled!

Pretty soon it came to this!

We are finally getting to the end of the popcorn!  The caramel seems to have gone first.

Finally hit bottom!

First Cheesecake of the Year!

A cake hour newbie has his first cake hour obligation.  He opted for a cheesecake. The first one of 2014!  We actually haven't had one in awhile. We used to get Cheesecake Factory gift cards as part of a rewards program and pretty much tried everything that they had to offer. The rewards program branched off and now we can get cards from about any bakery so we are mixing it up a bit.  Today's entry had nothing to do with a gift card. A graduate student who has been enjoying his afternoon treats stepped up to the plate and brought us something.

The easily recognized Whole Foods Pastry Box!

Nicely presented with a bow!

Fresh blueberries instead of the pie filling!

Happy with his first cake hour contribution!

Great profile view!

He opted for a cheesecake with blueberries from Whole Foods. This was, as usual, a nice looking creation.  We always like the way that Whole Foods uses the plastic and the ribbon to wrap the cake and make it look like a gift.  We think in this case it might also have been to hold in the blueberries.  Most of the time fruit on top of a cheesecake is bound together with unflavored gelatin or another similar thing or they use a cooked blueberry topping like in a pie.  Not this cake.  Those blueberries were just dumped on the top. It made for interesting slicing!

Those berries are ready to roll!

And roll the did!

This was very well received. Whole Foods does a good job and this was no exception.  There was plenty of fruit to go around and the cake quickly disappeared.

Another one doesn't last long!

It was supposed to be a flan!

Ah the unexpecting!  We have a colleague who has started doing some work here and has been sort of around at cake hour.  She was here last week and so I very nonchalantly asked if she was going to be around this week.  When she said of course she would, I responded with "Good, sing up for a cake!" ...and she did!  There was a brief discussion about flan and our newly designated cake bringer's mother supposedly made a good one so she would bring that!

I said flan but it's bread pudding!

Trust me you will like it!

 

 

It certainly looks good!

Although she got stuck in traffic and was a titch late she showed up with...a bread pudding.  Not that this mattered to most of us but those that are gluten sensitive would have preferred the flan. The rest of us just dug into the bread pudding.  It looked very nice with a beautifully browned surface. Clearly Mom knew what she was doing.  The pudding itself was smooth, not chunky like a lot of them. It was very moist but not that heavy or sweet. It was quite tasty by itself and didn't need any of the usual sauces that accompany bread pudding. That might not have been had but we did without.

Browned to perfection!

Slices good and smooth - not the chunky kind!

We were told that it had a bit of rum added to the batter and that the raisins which were on the bottom had been soaked in wine.  Both of these added to the appeal for sure.Bottom line, this was very good and very well received. We look forward to the next time we trick, er - convince our colleague to contribute some of Mom's goodies.

Them's wine soaked raisins on the bottom!

We are continuing to track the amount of time it is taking to finish off last week's tub of popcorn.  The caramel corn is taking the lead. We are getting there.

Gradually disappearing!

Bricks and shells and pushups!

Our friend who introduced us to the Rosca de Reyes, had a few more things up her sleeve or in her luggage for that matter.  Conchas and Ladrillos which translates to shells and bricks.  These are two more Spanish baked goods. The conchas looked a bit like cinnamon rolls, the ladrillos looked like..bricks. Our associate referred to the choncas as conchas de chocolate but we think they were conchas de canela or actually cinnamon shells as there wasn't much of a chocolate taste.

Ladrillos or bricks!

Conchas or shells!

Both of these treats are a little on the dry and not too sweet side.  As we've said ad nauseum, that means they are good to have with coffee or tea.  They were very much like a light bread with a sweet cinnamon sugar on top. The sugar was the only part that sated the sweet tooth.  They conchas appear to have been well received.

Look like a big cinnamon roll!

Nowhere near as dense or sweet as a cinnamon roll!

In contrast the bricks were denser pastry, also not very sweet, but covered with a sugar syrup type glaze that was flavored like strawberry. They were also very good.  We have actually had these before but to many they were a new cake hour taste treat.

It does look like a brick!

It stacks like a brick!

I can see a brick facade there..

The cake hour calendar was a little sparse for the month but with a little strong-arming we fixed that.
The subject of who could do more push ups came up and there might have been a challenge
Let's see if this goes anywhere! 

The Three Kings arrived a little late...with the Rosca de Reyes!

The New Year continues on. For those who know the Christian Christmas story, January 6th, sometimes called little Christmas is the day the three kings visited the newborn child.  This is also the day of twelve drummers drumming, that is the twelfth and last day of Christmas. It is also called Epiphany.  On this date the Rosca de Reyes is traditionally served.  This is a king's cake similar to the one for Mardi Gras. From Wikipedia: Although the name indicates that it should be round, the “rosca de reyes” generally has an oval shape due to the need to make cakes larger than 30 cm across for larger parties. Recipes vary from country to country. For decoration, fig fruit, quinces, cherries or dried and candied fruits are used.

Time for a slightly delayed Rosca de Reyes!

The cake is consumed as part of the celebration of Epiphany or the "Día de Reyes" (literally "Kings' Day"), which commemorates the arrival of the three Magi or Wise Men. In most of Spain, Spanish America, and sometimes, Hispanic communities in the United States, this is the day when children traditionally get presents, which are attributed to the Three Wise Men (and not Santa Claus or Father Christmas). This actually makes more sense.

Historic representation of the Three Kings

And there they are on the box of the Rosca!

Similar to the Mardi Gras cake,  a small baby figurine is placed inside the cake. The tradition of placing this figurine, representative of the Christ Child, in the cake is very old. The baby Jesus hidden in the bread represents the flight of the Holy Family, fleeing from King Herod's evil plan to kill all babies that could be the prophesied messiah. (Did you know that?) Whoever finds the baby Jesus figurine is blessed and must take the figurine to the nearest church on February 2, Candlemas Day (Día de la Candelaria). We are told they are also supposed to throw a party in celebration.

Typically oval shape hiding a baby!

  I'm telling you all this because today we had a slightly delayed Rosca de Reyes for cake hour. This was brought back from Los Angeles by one or our newest PhDs who was visiting her family.  As this is part of her heritage she thoughtfully decided to share it all with us.  How very nice! So she schlepped back a large box from the San Antonio Bakery in Compton, California, a bakery that she has patronized with her family.  http://www.yelp.com/biz/san-antonio-bakery-compton

It's from my family bakery!

Proud of her bakery's treat!

We were happy to share in this tradition and enjoyed having the cake.  Despite the sugary topping, the cake itself was more of a slightly sweetened bread. It was a bit on the dry side which makes it good to go with coffee or tea.

Looks more like bread and tasted that way too!

The search for the babies is on. Each cuts his own!

At this particular bakery you can tell them how many of the babies you want added to the cake.  Our colleague asked them to include three.  In order to give everyone a shot at finding the baby each person has to cut their own piece.  We followed through on this and over the course of time we did indeed find three little pink babies in the cake. 

First cut and a bay is almost decapitated!

Our first baby finder. Does she look familiar?

Baby finder number 2.

A slight cut across the behind and the baby sticks to the knife.

The baby chills with a piece of cake.

It's getting pretty chopped up though there is another out there.

A final cut yields the missing child!

Look what I found!

The proud parent!

No more babies and just about gone.

No baby for me????

We wonder if this means we will be getting three parties on February 2nd?  Stay tuned!!

You got the babies now get to work on those parties!

Popcorn Day 3

Still got a ways to go!

The caramel seems to be the favored now!