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Food Ventures

Treats for Valentine’s and Other Special Occasions

By Ann Hattes
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For a unique Valentine gift or present for other occasion, Radiant Arts Studios offers objects with colorful X-ray images of sea animals like the spiral nautilus, blue crab or puffer fish embedded into them.

Become an even better baker with The Big Book of Desserts and Pastries (Skyhorse Publishing). Spun sugar, chocolate netting, toffee, and mango sauce add style to any dessert with instructions from author and professional pastry chef Claes Karlsson who devotes an entire chapter to basic recipes like frosting, sauces, and edible decorations. He also tackles questions like whether to spring for homemade ice cream, how to melt chocolate in different ways, and the best way to freeze a pastry. Recipes range from the simple to sophisticated. Try his milk chocolate soup with fresh raspberries, Queen’s crumble, or meringues with raspberries.

For those who love food on a stick, cake pops are the ultimate indulgence. Thanks to Noel Muniz’s essential guide, The Art of Cake Pops: 75 Dangerously Delicious Designs (Skyhorse Publishing) these mini treats are now easy to make. Cake pops are as much a science as they are an art form, Muniz explains, like ensuring your cake batter has perfect consistency, to using cookie cutters as a mold. His cake designs vary from dinosaur, bear, robot, sugar fairy and butterfly cake pops to owl, cat, dog, fish, basketball, snow cone and shark cake pops. Under his designs are a variety of cake flavors, including chocolate, banana, strawberry and lemon.

Muniz advises that “the ideal cake for cake pops should be somewhat dense with some body to it and should be on the drier side.…Avoid any light and airy cakes like angel food or sponge cake.” To form the ball from the crumbled, baked cake, he says any liquid, frosting, or edible paste can be used as a binder to form the ball, including “peanut butter, marshmallow fluff, fruit puree, any jam of your liking, even water or juice if needed.” A three-to-one ratio of crumbled homemade cake to binder, i.e nine ounces of cake to three ounce of binder is recommended for rolling balls into one-ounce portions for the cake pop.

For a unique Valentine gift or present for other occasion, Radiant Arts Studios offers objects with colorful X-ray images of sea animals like the spiral nautilus, blue crab or puffer fish embedded into them. At www.radiantartstudios.com see images of our world caught in light sources the naked eye can’t see. The images are available in forms of plates, pillows, clocks, tiles and note cards.

 

Milk Chocolate Soup with Fresh Raspberries

(Courtesy of "The Big Book of Desserts and Pastries") Makes 4 portions.

½ cup cream

½ cup whole milk

3.5 oz. finely chopped milk chocolate

1 cup fresh raspberries

 

Bring the cream and milk to a simmer in a pan. Remove from heat and add the chocolate. Mix using a hand-held blender. Divide into bowls and garnish with fresh raspberries. This soup can be eaten hot or cold.

 

Queen’s Crumble

(Courtesy of "The Big Book of Desserts and Pastries") Makes about 14 portions.

¾ cup butter, melted

½ cup raw sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1 & ½ cups oats

1 & ½ cups flour

1 tsp. vanilla sugar

¾ cup raspberries, fresh or frozen

¾ cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

¾ cup strawberries, fresh or frozen

 

Mix together the first 6 ingredients until the dough resembles fine breadcrumbs. Cover the bottom of an ovenproof dish with about half of the crumble dough and top with the berries. Cover the berries with the rest of the crumble dough. Bake in the center of the oven for 50 minutes at 300 degrees F. Crumble can be served hot or cold with vanilla ice cream or vanilla sauce.

 

Meringues with Raspberries

(Courtesy of "The Big Book of Desserts and Pastries") Makes about 20 meringues.

3 large egg whites

1 cup granulated sugar

¾ cup frozen raspberries

A few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice

 

Make sure the bowl and the whisk are clean. Whisk the egg whites and lemon juice with a mixer on a low speed for 3 minutes. Increase speed to the highest setting and slowly add the sugar. Whisk until the mixture forms stiff peaks and carefully fold in the raspberries. Spoon the mixture onto a baking tray covered in parchment paper; leaving a gap of about 2 inches between each one. Bake in the center of the oven for about 1 hour at 230 degrees F.

 

Alien Cake Pops

(Courtesy of "The Art of Cake Pops")

Cake filling of your choice

Purple candy melts

Green candy-coated sunflower seeds

Lollipop sticks

 

Hand-weigh the cake into one-ounce portions. Roll them into pear shapes and set aside on a sheet pan. Place in the fridge while you prepare the candy melts. Melt the purple candy melts according to the directions indicated on the package.

Remove the cake from the fridge. Dip the sticks into the candy melts and insert them into the narrow end of the cake. Dip the rounded ends of the candy-coated sunflower seeds in the candy melts and attach them to the sides of the pops (like “ears”).

Once the candy melts have fully set and the cake is back at room temperature, the pops are ready to be dipped. Fully submerge the pops into the purple candy melts and tap off any excess.

While still wet, attach the green candy-coated sunflower seeds to the faces of the pops to create the eyes. Allow the candy melts to fully set.

In a small plastic bag, pour some of the prepared purple melts and snip off a corner. Pipe veins all over the head.

 

Ann Hattes has over 25 years experience writing about both travel and food for publications both in the US and internationally. A senior living in Wisconsin, she’s a member of the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association and the Midwest Travel Writers Association.

Meet Ann