The Ninja Baker - Chef Elizabeth Falkner

How to Please Everyone, 12 Holiday Ninja Treats

NinjaBaker — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 05:22:30 +0000

Are holidays more complicated these days? Budget and dietary considerations seem to be of paramount concern to many. So, the Ninja Baker went to work in the kitchen. 12 holiday treats that will please your gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan friends and family were produced. In addition, guaranteed American standards and Japanese sweets smile-makers were created. From the Ninja Baker’s selection, you are sure to find something to please everyone on your gift list. Love to have you add to my selection, too, and share your favorite homemade baked goods in the comments section.

1. Santa Strawberry Cupcakes

Whether calorie, gluten or dairy conscious, these merry Santas are smile-makers.

For the cupcakes I used Pamela’s gluten-free cake mix. I also tried her dairy free frosting mix for the first time with happy results. Inspired by a pin at Pinterest.com, I topped the cupcakes with Strawberry Santas. His eyes are sesame seeds. Santa’s belly is Cool Whip but for your lactose intolerant friends, use TruWhip. The buttons are mini chocolate chips.

2. Pumpkin Doughnut Wreaths

‘Tis the season of the pumpkin through December, right? King Arthur’s Flour promises with their recipe you’ll have a “Baked to Perfection Pumpkin Doughnut.” They’re not kidding. Especially when dipped in melted white chocolate and dotted with dark chocolate M & Ms. Again, I was stirred into action by a sighting on Pinterest. Specifically a sugar cookie wreath dotted with M & Ms on Liz Berg’s That Skinny Chick Can Bake Holiday/Seasonal board.

3. Francesca Lia Block’s Star Cupcakes

For the December birthday party of star author, Francesca Lia Block (who prefers gluten-free and non-dairy goods), using Pamela's mixes, I baked gluten-free vanilla cupcakes and frosted them with a dairy free frosting.

For the decoration: Make an impression in the center of each cupcake with a mini star. Keeping the cookie cutter on the cupcake, sprinkle gold sparkles into the impression. Remember coloring books? Instead of coloring with a crayon between the lines, go to town sprinkling gold sparkles. Or blue for the Star of David.

Note: To avoid frosting mess, cool the cupcakes in the freezer or refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before sprinkling with sparkles.

4. Bite-Size Christmas or Hanukah Blues

These minis frosted with marshmallow frosting tinted blue combat the blues every time. Make your favorite vanilla cake recipe and bake in a mini cupcake pan. Reduce the baking time by about 5 minutes and/or until a toothpick comes out clean. For the marshmallow frosting, see the recipe at AverieCooks.com. For the lactose intolerant, RiceMellow is an almost perfect replacement for marshmallow fluff.

5. Red Velvet

Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting brought victory to Terri Wahl, owner of Auntie Em’s Kitchen, on the Food Network’s Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Easy and fun to make these cupcakes are a crowd pleaser every time. Visit FoodNetwork.com for the recipe.

Note: Make sure you have plenty of bottles of red food coloring.

6. Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Ghirardelli Frosting & Matcha Cream

Dark chocolate according to the experts is good for you. In addition to antioxidants, the lovely sweet is allegedly good for your heart and brain. So, without an ounce of regret bake up a batch of the dark chocolate cupcakes featured at Two Peas and Their Pod. I made two kinds of topping for this divinely rich cupcake.

Matcha Green Tea Cream: Add 3 generous tablespoons of fine green tea matcha powder to a pint of heavy whipping cream. Whip until the cream shows peaks and is ready to pipe.

Ghirardelli Frosting: See the back of the Hot Chocolate container or click here for another Ghirardelli delight.

Note: The Ghirardelli frosting from the back of the cocoa container is delicious but tends to firm up pretty quickly. As you frost the cupcakes, you’ll want to keep some additional milk out to add to the mixture.

7. Gluten-Free Mini Matcha Santas

For the #SundaySupper bloggers’ virtual holiday cookie exchange on Twitter, I baked up gluten-free mini matcha Santas. Crisp, buttery and spiked with matcha: Perfect for the tea connoisseurs in your life. Click here for the recipe.

8. Gluten-Free Sugar Cookie Stars

Incorporating tips from Sweetopia.net’s Marian, I successfully baked sugar cookies which actually held its original shape. Yea! I used a gluten-free cookie mix. I’ve got to be honest; the taste was different from a “regular” sugar cookie…But it looked pretty!

Note: I discovered a time-saver; sprinkle the rolled out dough with sparkly sugar before cutting out the stars.

9. Green Tea Cupcakes with Chocolate Glaze

With a green tea cake recipe from Allrecipes.com as a foundation, I created cupcakes. In my oven, the magic baking time was 26 minutes. Also, I added an additional two teaspoons of matcha to the recipe.

Most adults love the combo of green tea and chocolate. So, I melted 6 ounces of milk chocolate in a tub of Cool Whip in a microwave for 1.5 minutes. Stirred. Waited 15 minutes. And dunked my green tea cupcakes into the rich concoction.

10. Vegan Sweet Potato Muffins with & without Averie’s Marshmallow Frosting

Joyce A. Kramer, Co-author of the national award-winning book
Saving the Best for Last: Creating Our Lives After 50, also runs the wildly popular Wholesome Table in Southern Florida. She kindly shared her Sweet Potato muffin recipe from her friend Ellen Jaffee Jones, author of Eat Vegan on $4 a Day.

The muffins are moist and you can taste the love from the wholesome ingredients. They aren’t super sweet so they serve as a great base for AverieCooks.com’s marshmallow frosting. Again, for vegans and those who are lactose intolerant, substitute RiceMellow for marshmallow fluff.

Vegan Sweet Potato Muffins

Makes 14 muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
¼ c agave
1 T baking powder
½ t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
½ t salt
¼ t nutmeg
1 ¾ c cooked, mashed sweet potatoes (Joyce steams the sweet potatoes, but the canned type work well, too.)
½ c raisins
½ c water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all ingredients and mix well.
Lightly coat 10 muffin tins. Fill each cup almost to top with batter.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes until tops bounce back when lightly pressed and a toothpick in the center comes out clean
Cool on rack.
Serve at room temperature.

11. Cranberry & White Chocolate Biscotti

with Bourbon and the Watkinson Boys
David talks to Santa at Wanamaker's Department Store in Philadelphia.
His older brother, Jim patiently waits.
(P.s. Grownup David married the Ninja Baker.)

Roz of La Bella Vita’s white chocolate drizzled cranberry and pistachio biscotti caught my attention as I searched for holiday cookie ideas. Although I always get rave reviews with Takako Nomi’s recipe for biscotti, I decided to try something different. Well, I forgot the amaretto liqueur, which is required in Roz’s recipe. So, I went back to my standard go-to biscotti recipe but added cranberries and white chocolate. The result? Delizioso!

12. Chef Falkner’s Ginger Cupcakes with Mini Gingerbread Men

Chef Elizabeth Falkner is one of the nicest and most talented chefs in the world. I had the privilege of being served cupcakes by Chef Falkner at her restaurant Citizen Cakes in San Francisco. The shop is now closed. But you can catch her on Food Network’s The Next Iron Chef: Redemption.

From Chef Falkner’s Demolition Desserts cookbook, I’ve enjoyed making and eating her ginger cake and cookie wonders filled with three different types of ginger. To make the pictured cupcakes, reduce the baking time of both the ginger cake and cookies to accommodate the smaller sizes.

Before you decorate with the gingerbread minis, slather the cupcakes with your favorite chocolate or cream cheese frosting.

Wishing you days of perfect holiday sweets, treats and blessings.

The Ninja Baker

© ™ Watkinson 2012

The Ninja Baker's recipes are also available at:

?Allrecipes.com:
The Ninja Baker's Japanese Plum Sweet Memories and Recipes

Bob's Red Mill:
Almond Oatmeal Apple Cookies

Bob's Red Mill:
The Ninja Baker's Gluten-Free Breakfast Cupcake

Wholesome Sweeteners:
The Ninja Baker's Gluten-Free Coconut Chocolate Cheesecake Minis with Espresso Cream

Wholesome Sweeteners:
The Ninja Baker's Gluten-Free Double Chocolate Cupcakes with Champagne Glaze & Optional Lemon Peach Marmalade Filling

?LifeKraze

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Chef Elizabeth Falkner

Francesca Lia Block

Everything’s Coming Up Roses

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 07:53:00 +0000

Exquisite desserts
on display at Citizen Cake.

?Everything is indeed coming up roses for Chef Elizabeth Falkner of San Francisco’s Citizen Cake. A clever name for a restaurant located in the City by the Bay, n’est-ce pas? (Citizen Kane is the classic film based on the life of William Randolph Hearst, the Napoleon of the publishing industry. His first acquisition was theSan Francisco Examiner.) Like the striking drama-filled scenes in Orson Welles’ movie, each divine dessert in Chef Elizabeth’s restaurant evokes emotions ranging from gratitude to guilt.

Citizen Kane paints a picture of a successful man who at the end of his life obsesses about Rosebud - his boyhood sled. In other words, despite the piles of money in his coffers, the publishing giant’s heart aches for simpler times. While Citizen Cake’s imaginative desserts are far from simple, Chef Elizabeth captures the essence of childhood pleasures. For instance, her Love Letter cupcake is infused with rose essence. Every layer of the delicacy is a shade of raspberry. And the tiny marzipan or fondant rose on top brought this Ninja Baker back to childhood. A time of princesses and fairies. (Remember Princess Aurora aka Briar Rose who lived in the forest with her fairy godmothers?)

Delighting in her Love Letter is UK chum, Maria.

Easy to leave your heart in San Francisco when eyes linger
on charming Victorians. (Photo courtesy of David Cassidy.)

Citizen Cake on Fillmore Street in
San Francisco.

Sweet busy-ness inside Chef Elizabeth's
Citizen Cake.

While tipping her toque to a movie featuring a version of Hearst’s castle, Chef Elizabeth’s establishment is not palatial. Like many of the Victorian buildings in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, space is constricted. As a result, Citizen Cake seats 30 customers; 36 if you count the six soda counter stools. Reservations are highly recommended if visiting the mecca of deliciousness on a Saturday. (Especially if you have a large Ninja Baker party of pals and relatives.)

However, close quarters allows for easy access to all the treats on the table. Although my English chum, Maria and I were over the moon about the Love Letter, Chef Elizabeth’s Mocha Mi-Su was irresistible, too. Components of the dish include cocoa genoise (which is similar to sponge cake), mocha mousse and coffee buttercream!

David and Maria - true friends - ready and willing to share their divine desserts.

Maria’s husband, David offered tastes of his After Midnight cake. Every bite brought a blissful marriage of dark and milk chocolates. (Good thing Citizen Cake is in San Francisco and not Santa Monica!)

Maria, Karen and our angel server, Alyssa who is
studying psychology at SF State. Aunty K. holds
Ethan who is ready to enjoy his cupcake.

To cleanse our palates, instead of the traditional lemon sorbet, sister, Karen and I ordered French macarons. (Meringue-style cookies.) The Cassis-Violet and Raspberry Rose colors, textures and tastes were intriguing. I kept munching to discover the most stellar component. It’s still a mystery.

My husband, also named David, ordered the Salted Caramel dessert, which boasted gooey injections on top of a chocolate sable. (A shortbread cookie.) Sea salt complimented the inherent sweetness. My niece, Jasmine particularly enjoyed the sable.

Ethan, Jasmine and the Ninja Baker.
(My sweet niece emanates heavenly light!)

Jasmine’s son, Ethan allowed his Auntie K. to taste his Chocolate Chip cupcake. Think the boy may be spoiled for life. Best chocolate chip cupcake I’ve ever tasted. Perhaps the magical key is the brown sugar buttermilk cake.

Great-nephew, Ethan advertises Aunty K's blog.

To glean the secrets of Chef Elizabeth, I purchased her cookbook, Demolition Desserts. (Available in My Favorites under this site's Shop tab.) More than a 1-2-3-recipe book, the publication is filled with fab photos, personal stories and manga (animation) drawn by her brother. Before rifling through the recipes, insights in the introduction caught my eye. At a young age, her father exposed her to modern art maestros such as Rothko and Lichtenstein. She also trained as a visual artist at the San Francisco Art Institute. On the food side, Chef Elizabeth has rubbed shoulders with giants of the culinary/pastry world: François Payard (Daniel, NYC), Sherry Yard (Spago, LA) and Traci Des Jardins (Jardinière, San Francisco.)

Chef Elizabeth Falkner and her fan, the Ninja Baker.

Fame and TV spotlights have also shone brightly on Citizen Cake’s owner as of late. Chef Elizabeth has served as a judge on Bravo’s Top Chef, Just Desserts as well as Top Chef Masters (where she was also a competitor one season.) She’s also made numerous appearances on television with other food celebs such as Martha Stewart and Rachel Ray.Besides her classy comfort food and her artistic savoir-faire, the Chef Elizabeth you see on TV is no different from the real-life version: humble, caring and compassionate. During the Ninja Baker visit to Citizen Cake, she even helped to serve the desserts!

The Ninja Baker's take on rose custard mini tarts
from Chef Elizabeth Falkner's Demolition Desserts.

Suppose it should be no surprise then that Chef Elizabeth’s Demolition Desserts is thoughtfully executed. Confess I was disappointed not to find the recipe for the Love Letter dessert. (The dish Maria and I were delighted to behold and consume.) However, page 161revealed a Rose Custard recipe. “A bouquet of roses in edible form (she created) to pay homage to the beautiful cuisine of Chef Traci Des Jardins.”

Large and mini chocolate chip tarts filled
with rose custard.

With husband, David - the man who brings gifts of
sugar and spice every day.

Chef Elizabeth recommends serving the Rose Custard with her Saffron Pistachio Cookies and Carmel Crisps. Keeping it simple the first time out, I chose to make chocolate chip tarts to hold the custard. Also, as my stockpot was simmering – awaiting the arrival of the bowl with tempered egg yolks and heavy cream – I realized the recipe called for vanilla bean pods. My sin of substituting extract for the real thing was forgiven. (Yes, the Ninja Baker’s taste buds said, “Yummy!” But the real test is always the hubby. And neighbors - who loved the concoction.)

In addition to wafting rose (water) scents, buttercream and fondant of the Rosaceae family have blossomed in the Ninja Baker kitchen.

Buttercream rose on top of a strawberry cupcake.

Another medley of buttercream roses.

Strawberry cupcakes with vanilla icing and
fondant decorations.

English rose, Maria swings with gusto in Santa Monica.

Two talented chocolate chip loving boys.

Swing by or say hello
by e-mail
...

NinjaBakerBlog@gmail.com.

Wishing you weeks of carefree joy in which everything is coming up roses!

The Ninja Baker