Extermi-cake :: Dalek Cake

This is a cake I made for my oldest son's 9th birthday. I'm just posting it for old time's sake.

I’ve made my sons’ birthday cakes every year and each time I somehow come up with something twice as difficult as the year before but it’s great fun and worth it when my boys see it finished for the first time. This is a Dalek robot from Doctor Who. I totally free-styled the design of the cake but I will try to relay the process here. Hint: It’s not just cake…

I will list the ingredients below but it’s up to you to get creative and put it all together so get ready to be covered in chocolate for the next few hours.

• One batch of chocolate cupcakes (Box mix again, the kids won’t mind)

• 4 Chocolate Moon Pies

• 10 mini tootsie rolls

• 25 Chocolate malt balls (bulk style candies)

• 10 Peanut butter balls (if you can’t find these just try to find a lighter colored ball (gumballs?)

• 4-6 Peanut Butter Cups (Small- Reese’s style)

• 10 white chocolate melting ‘buttons’

• 4 cups of ganache. Try this recipe: http://www.chow.com/recipes/12691

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Invert bowl cake flat side down on circular cake platform thing. I used cardboard on a cookie sheet. Cover it in ganache. That is the Dalek’s base.
2. 
   
3. For the torso I rigged two cupcakes that had been cut in half (tops cut off) and four Swiss Rolls to form a circular shape on top of the base. Place the cupcakes cut side in along the top of the base and use the Swiss Rolls (OR appropriately carved cupcakes) to fill in the gaps, rounding out the body. Cover in ganache. Then put one of the cupcake tops on top of this, and cover it in ganache.
4. Place one Chocolate Moon Pie on top of the cupcake top and put a dollop of ganache in the center to affix a peanut butter cup and put a dollop of ganache on top of that and stack up three more Moon Pies, using ganache as your glue.
5. Finally, cover another cupcake top in ganache and stick it on the top Moon Pie. You know how the figure completed. On to the detail work.
6. Arms: I used Tootsie Rolls as modeling clay and formed these weird pincher arms/hands.
7. Eye: Peanut butter cup glued with ganache to head, with white chocolate button affixed with ganache
8. Antenna: Stack of white chocolate buttons held together with one melted white chocolate button. I then made a little hole in the top with a toothpick to support the candle.
9. Buttons and lights: Peanut butter cup for dial, malt balls for decoration, affixed with ganache.
10. Congratulations. You’ve reached the end. I passed out the extra cupcakes and candy mainly so I could have more cake to myself :) It was delicious and will serve at least twenty. Cutting it up is the fun part because everyone can pick which part they want to eat.

Homemade Chicken Pot Pies

Now with smiley faces for the kiddos!


Chicken Pot Pies: Just like mom made, but not store bought and cheap


I just got my oven fixed and oh how I missed baking! I decided to give these a go when I realized by some miracle I had everything in the kitchen I needed to make them. I did have to make a quick run to the community garden for some fresh herbs- thyme, parsley- but it's in the neighborhood and the weather was lovely. I came across this big fluffy mass of oregano growing in almost a globe shape and couldn't help but kneel down and rub my face in it. It was soft enough to sleep on!

The recipe for the pot pies is pretty fly by the seat of your pants. Here's a quick list of what all I used. You will either need 6 10oz ramekins, 2 pie pans, or 1 casserole dish depending on how you would like to present the meal.

Crust

3/4 cup chilled butter cubes
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
3-4 tbsp ice water

1 egg whisked with 1 tbsp water for later

Throw the flour and salt and butter in a food processor. Pulse 5 times then add the water 1 tbsp at a time pulsing once after each tbsp. Turn it out onto some saran wrap, ball it up and put in the fridge for now.

Filling

Chicken- either boil a whole chicken with carrots and onion and shred it, or dice a few breasts
4 carrots cut thin on the diagonal
3 celery stalks cut thin on the diagonal
2 cups peas or green beans (frozen is fine)
1 large onion, diced
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp olive oil
2 1/2 cups of stock from boiled chicken OR store bought veggie or chicken stock
1 1/2 cups of whole milk (skim/fat free will separate and be a bit watery in the end but it's still tasty)
1/2 cup flour
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp fresh black pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme and parsley each
1/4 dry sherry (or not, but it makes it extra extra)

Saute onion in butter and olive oil until translucent. Halfway through, add the carrots and celery and the salt. Add the sherry and cook for a minute, then add the chicken to this for a few minutes. Next, add the flour then stir for a minute. Then add the stock and the milk and herbs and let simmer for at least 5 minutes. Finally, add the peas or green beans and cook for one more minute.

Place the ramekins or casserole on a baking sheet to make transfer easier and safer.

Ladle the filling into the ramekins almost to the top. If you are just going make one big serving I would use a casserole dish or even a couple of pie pans.

Now, get your dough out and cut it into 6 equal pieces. On a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin, roll each piece out to a circle just a bit larger than the ramekins. Lay each round over the top of a ramekin.

If you are making one large serving simply roll the dough out into one or two large pieces and lay them over the top of the container.

Tuck any hanging dough under itself and press around the edges with a fork to bind the dough with the dish. Cut a 1" slit in the center of the dough and brush with the egg/water mixture.

Oven time! Bake at 425F for about 20 or until things start looking all nice and golden brown. Remove from oven carefully and let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving. The pies will be hot like lava until then. I know it's tempting to bust one open right away but if they sit for a while the filling will thicken up a little more and be even better in the end PLUS you will keep all of your pretty little taste buds intact. Patience has its perks.

Bon Grubbin!!