LorAnn Oils Review

I already posted this on Cake Central, but since I now want to put all my food/product notes in one place, I'll re-post here.

I recently discovered LorAnn Oils. I absolutely loved how the orange bakery emulsion tastes in some scones I had, so I went kinda crazy and bought a whole bunch. Here are my thoughts on these products. I first put a little tiny drop of each in separate buttercream containers, but found that even that was too strong. Everything tasted like chemicals. Nasty. I was not impressed. After that I made up some cake batter and put a little drop in separate portions to see how the flavors tasted baked in cake. This was a huge improvement.

• Butter Rum - disgusting. Didn't taste like butter or rum at all. Tasted like industrial strength cleaning solution in my mouth. I was so unimpressed that I contacted LorAnn Oils to complain. CS pointed out that what I bought was an ultra concentrated bottle, so perhaps even my 1 or 2 little drops in about a cup or so of batter was too strong. I will try this again using just a couple drops in an entire batter and see what happens.

• Buttery Sweet Dough Bakery Emulsion - This one made my buttercream taste like skittles and I was completely turned off. However, used in moderation in a cupcake I ended up with a pleasant pound cake taste.

• Champagne - tastes like those candy message hearts you see around valentine's day. With a little less flavoring this might be really nice in a cupcake for those who like that kind of flavor. It's also ultra concentrated, so following the same as the Butter Rum, it might end up tasting quite nice, with a light fruity accent.

• Irish Cream - tasted great in buttercream. I love love looooved it when I used it in Italian Meringue Buttercream for my sister's birthday cake. Baked in a cupcake it tasted more like butter pecan, which I also love. Mmm..  yum.

• Princess Cake and Cookie Bakery Emulsion - tasted like sugar cookies with a slight lingering citrus aftertaste. I tried adding this to sugar cookies to see if it might make them taste like those ultra commercial fake tasting sugar cookies you can get at the supermarket, but it ended up tasting a little odd. They were really close to the flavor I was going for, but I decided that maybe I didn't really like that "raw cookie dough" taste after all.

• Red Velvet - the flavor wasn't very strong in the cupcakes, so I can't comment on that. I did try it in a cheesecake a couple weeks ago and it was pretty darn awesome, if you are a fan of red velvet. I looked through LorAnn's recipes and saw these 2 recipes that I would like to try too!
• Red Velvet Cake
• Red Velvet Brownies

I also bought Marshmallow and Bavarian Cream flavors. I tried the Bavarian Cream in some banana pudding I made, but the banana flavor was so strong you couldn't really tell the bavarian flavoring was in there. I might try it again someday. I am thinking perhaps in some fondant. 

I also tried out some McCormick flavors. 

• Anise - surprisingly delicious in the cupcakes. That is, if you like black licorice. Cupcakes tasted like regular vanilla cupcakes, but with a slight licorice aftertaste. I guess I could pair that with some plain buttercream? I'm also toying with the idea of making a jasmine tea infused buttercream. I wonder if that might go as well.

• Coconut - great! This was awesome in buttercream and the cupcakes too! I would love to make an "almond joy" cupcake or maybe pina colada with this.

• Coffee - I added this to chocolate cake mix and it made the flavor so much richer, but I think I prefer the LorAnn bakery emulsion, or just putting in strongly brewed coffee better.

• Maple - Mmmm... heavenly. I don't like bacon, but love maple & bacon cupcakes. I made some maple & bacon cookies the other day and added just a bit of this stuff along with the fresh maple syrup I put in. Mapley goodness.

In conclusion, McCormick makes some really great extracts! Although LorAnn oils are more concentrated so you don't need to use as much when you bake, I am finding that they taste unpleasantly like chemicals. I will however try them in an entire batch of cake and see if that helps in cutting down the chemical taste. If I can find a good balance then maybe they will be a good future investment.

Chocolate Stout Cake Heavenly Goodness

I have succumbed... (日本語はこちら）

For the last few years, friends have told me to start a food blog. I have avoided it because I have a bad habit of not keeping up with big projects (just take a look at my closet full of yarn covered hangers, of which only ONE is actually covered in yarn). I also don't have much confidence in my abilities so I didn't feel I had any right posting my stuff online next to famous food bloggers like Bakerella, Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman) and Deb from Smitten Kitchen. Well, I'm now in the middle of taking a hiatus from life after living and working in Japan for almost 9 years. I quit my job at the end of 2012 and decided to move back to my hometown to catch up with my growing extended family. Taking advantage of this new "opportunity" in life, I am now trying to explore more with cooking, baking, and other DIY crafts. With all this extra time on my hands and forgotten mental notes I made with past recipes I thought... why not? I figure this will be a way for me to keep track of all the recipes and products I have tried, so I don't make the same mistakes and share some of the great finds I have made over the years. The internet has way too much stuff on it so we need to filter it somehow!

So for the next xx days I guess I will be back-logging old recipes I have used and posted on facebook so I have all this stuff in one place. By the way, is anyone else sick of facebook? I mean, I hate it, yet I'm addicted. I find myself checking it on my phone whenever I'm bored. Yikes. I need a rehab program or something. 

Anyway...  I might as well put something up while I'm at it, so here it is. My all time favorite chocolate cake recipe. I mean, this is THE BEST chocolate cake I have ever made. It is so moist and rich that you really don't need any frosting at all. The dark stout added to it gives it a rich, "malty" flavor (from the barley) so the chocolate isn't overpowering. It's just all sorts of awesome. This has been my go-to chocolate cake for all my adult friends (I make a standard one for kids -- why waste a good beer?).

Chocolate Stout Cake (makes two 8" - 9" rounds or about a dozen cupcakes):

日本語のレシピはこちら！

I got this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, which was adapted from another recipe somewhere else. Here is the original Smitten Kitchen recipe. I am going to re-post it here, just because I have run into issues where you save a link to a great recipe and then one day the website is gone and so is your recipe! aaaah! Ok, here it is, with a few adjustments I had to make due to lack of ingredient availability in Japan.

Tools:
2 baking pans (8" or 9") or cupcake tins
baking spray or butter/flour
2 bake-even strips (see link to homemade strips in the instructions)
Measuring cup & spoons
1 Medium saucepan
2 large bowls (or just 1 if you have a stand mixer)
Hand or stand mixer, or a whisk & wooden spoon if you like it old school
Rubber spatula for scraping
Toothpick/cake tester

Ingredients:
1 cup stout (in Japan I used Ebisu)
1 cup (8Tb) unsalted butter**
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I have used Van Houten and Hershey's and found no difference in taste)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup yogurt (sour cream is scarce in Japan)
**butter is ridiculously expensive in Japan. I secretly used margarine and reduced the amount of salt, and you know what, nobody could tell the difference. However, now back in the land of affordable butter I am back to being honest.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (if you really must): adapted from the Joy of Baking
5 ounces (140 grams) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup (80 ml) milk
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces
4 cups (1 pound) (454 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted to remove lumps
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
(optional) 1Tb strong coffee or Irish Creme (like Baileys). For extracts use only 1tsp flavoring

For the Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C) and prepare your pans by spraying with a non-stick spray or lining lightly with butter and sprinkling a bit of flour. I recently discovered this post from I am Baker on something called gloop. I have yet to try it, but it sounds like it works if you don't have oil spray on hand. To make your cakes bake evenly (so you don't get a "dome" in the middle), wrap the pans with moistened "bake even strips". If you don't have those, here is a video tutorial on how you can make them yourself!

2. Bring your stout and butter to a boil in a medium saucepan. Take off the burner, add cocoa powder and whisk so all the cocoa has blended. Let the mixture cool.

3. While the stout mixture is cooling, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and set aside. 

4. Using a stand or hand mixer, blend eggs and yogurt. Slowly add the stout mixture while continuing to blend. Be careful that the stout isn't too hot or you will cook your eggs!

5. Fold in flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just incorporated. You can also blend on the lowest setting of your mixer, but beware of flying flour. Pour batter evenly between your pans and bake for about 35min. 

*To test if your cake is done, lightly jiggle the pan and if the batter seems gloopy, bake another 7-8min. If the batter seems firm, lightly press it with your finger. If the cake doesn't bounce back and leaves a dent where you touched, it should be baked another 3-5min., depending on how firm the cake is. When you touch the cake and it bounces back, take a toothpick or cake tester and insert it into the deepest part of your cake (closer to the middle). If your toothpick comes out clean, your cake is done!

ok so this photo was taken when I didn't have any bake even strips AND I'm pretty sure I did them in 9" pans. Yes, I'm a big fat liar. Should still work for 8" pans.

6. Let your cakes cool at least 10min. before attempting to remove from pans, or you will end up with half your cake stuck to the bottom of the pan! Normally for regular cakes, I will remove right at the 10min. mark and then wrap them up and stick them in the freezer to keep the moisture in, but for this cake it's not necessary. So moist no matter how long you leave it out!

Follow the buttercream recipe or use your own. I find buttercream to be quite sweet so I make sure to use bitter/dark chocolate and I also add some brewed coffee. I have filled the center of this cake with raspberry jam, chocolate mousse (flavored with Baileys), fresh strawberry compote and chocolate ganache. The choice is yours. 

Here's one I did with chocolate ganache, pralines & pecans

Here is a triple layer one I did (way too big!) with a German Chocolate filling and turtle topping. German Chocolate filling recipe from Joy of Baking. I can't remember the caramel sauce recipe I used, but you can just bake a can of condensed milk until it caramelizes, then pour it over some pecans and coconut. Voila, turtle-ized cake!

Here is one I did with a "fort" theme, as requested by my friend. I filled it with chocolate mousse, covering the outside with Toppo (chocolate filled pretzels) and Pirouline cookies. The blocks on top are a chocolate cereal square and I added little plastic cowboys and indians, because I really didn't know what a fort was. The drawbridge is made from Pocky stuck together with melted chocolate and thread strung through straws hidden in the cake so the drawbridge would move up and down. Oh, I also ended up making some Welsh flags (because they had cowboys and indians in Wales) and staining a sign with coffee for the fort billboard.