Mini oreo sprinkle cakes for the June birthday boy

We are getting ready to celebrate a very important birthday!  June is always a busy and important month - it marks the end of the school year, the beginning of summer, Father's Day, and it's the month of my son's birthday.  It is an especially big milestone this year because he turns 10! 

It's a little mind-boggling that a decade has gone by.  The little infant that wouldn't sleep more than half an hour or so at a time at night has somehow grown by leaps and bounds.  It's been quite a journey and to say that having a child makes time speed up even more than it already does is an understatement.  We're lucky to have this little guy and I hope he will have many, many more happy birthdays for years to come.  My birthday wish for him is, as always, to have a very good, happy life.

Right now, let's focus on celebrating TEN - reaching double-digit age status is a big deal!  I thought these mini Oreo birthday-style cakes would make a great festive treat for my son's birthday because he loves 1) chocolate cake, 2) Oreo cookies, and 3) sprinkles.  So we started the birthday celebrations early and I made these last week to start the birthday "countdown".

Normally, I'd make some kind of ice cream cake for my son's birthday but I went off-script this year with these little Oreo-sprinkle-chocolate cakes because, quite frankly, my son opted for a Carvel ice cream cake for his birthday party.  I take no offense because how can I possibly compare anything I make with the ubiquitous Carvel ice cream cake (which I love as much as anyone else)?  Moreover, I'm planning to surprise him with a small custom-flavor ice cream cake from a local ice cream parlor that he likes so I think we have the ice cream factor well-represented already.

I think these sprinkles-laden chocolate cakes scream "happy birthday", don't you? Beneath the sprinkles and vanilla buttercream lies a very moist chocolate cake with an Oreo cookie imbedded right at the bottom!  You want to hear something funny though?  Children, and the things they say, are always a good source of comic relief and my son can be pretty frank with his opinions.  While he was enjoying his cake and we were sitting down talking about it, I asked him about the Oreo cookie at the bottom.  He very honestly told me, as he gave a little shrug, that the Oreo at the bottom tasted...well, kind of stale!  It just cracked me up because he's just telling it like it is (we believe in honesty in this house).  Truth be told, the Oreo cookie stays intact and still rather crunchy for the most part, with a little softness on top where it touches the cake.  It's still good, and it's still fun, but that's how it is.

These festive little cakes definitely brought some smiles onto the June birthday boy's face, and that makes me very happy.  I think he particularly liked the sprinkles - though I have to say that these little cakes involve a lot of sprinkles.  I actually turned a couple of these cakes into cookies and cream cakes (photo near the end of the post) and those went down quite well also.

The June birthday boy is picking up stray sprinkles to eat before digging in.

So this post is for my favorite boy, who might drive me to distraction on minor things but has always been a kind, forgiving, and loving soul that I learn from everyday.  In this mother-son relationship of ours, I know I have the better end of the bargain. Happy 10th birthday and many, many more for a life filled with happiness and all the good things it has to offer!  : ) 

Hazelnut balls (mini hazelnut cakes with mocha buttercream)

Does anyone in the New York area remember Black Hound Bakery?  For years, there was a small shop in the mall near my house in New Jersey.  Even before we moved to the suburbs from Brooklyn, we would go to this mall and stop by this bakery.  I'd look at all the beautiful little cakes and chocolates on display.  It was a gem of a shop and after looking around, I'd inevitably go for one of their hazelnut balls and a fizzy lemonade.  I was pretty hooked on both those things.

My version of Black Hound Bakery's hazelnut balls: a hazelnut cake, filled and covered with mocha buttercream and coated with toasted hazelnuts

After a while, Black Hound moved from their little shop at the mall to a bigger store in the same mall.  It was nice for a while...but then it closed down!  I was too busy with a young child to think too much about it but I have to tell you, I could never forget those hazelnut balls, or the fizzy lemonades either for that matter.

When that shop at the mall closed, there was still a Black Hound in New York City; my sister and brother-in-law were likewise fans of the bakery and their hazelnut balls, and I knew my brother-in-law visited the shop sometimes to bring treats home.  But sadly, it looks like Black Hound is gone now, closing its NYC bakery about a year ago. 

The actual hazelnut balls these are modeled after were probably slightly taller and a little less wide

Now, the good news is we can have hazelnut balls again because I'm thrilled to say the ones I made at home tasted so very similar!  [If interested, there are some photos of Black Hound's cakes, including the hazelnut balls, on google image.]

It all started when I made that pistachio-orange-chocolate cake recently.  It turned out so delicious and I kept saying to myself (as well as to my husband, and anybody else willing to listen...) that its texture - a sponge cake packed with nuts - reminded me of Black Hound's hazelnut balls. I thought I could substitute the pistachios with hazelnuts and play around with it a bit. 

Black Hound used to display their hazelnut balls (as well as snow balls, mud balls, and checker ball) on a glass cake stand on their counter

So that's just what I did!  I used that pistachio cake recipe and turned it into a hazelnut cake.  To mimic the snowball size of the cakes, I baked them in small paper muffin molds (I ordered these via amazon).  I was so sure that the cakes were filled and coated with coffee buttercream but looking at images online, I read that it was actually a mocha buttercream!  So I added a little cocoa powder to a coffee buttercream.  A small amount of Dutch-processed cocoa turned my buttercream a darker color than the original, which was more beige/light-coffee colored.  Slathered with plenty of toasted ground hazelnuts, it is all about the hazelnut flavor but you can taste the note of coffee in the background from the frosting.

My taste-testers - hazelnut ball "experts" including my husband, my sister, my brother-in-law - and I were so happy to relive our Black Hound days.  I got thumbs-up by all (even the little guy, who is coming around again to nuts) and was even told by my very biased crew that they preferred my version because the buttercream was "less buttery".  That may be a questionable compliment, I know, but what they meant was the home version had a balanced amount of buttercream, not too much.  If I had to guess, I'd think Black Hound used a swiss meringue buttercream, making it creamier than the simple American one I used.  I'm sure many people would prefer more buttercream and a more buttery one at that so it's all subjective.  All I can say is this totally worked for us and it was so nice to relive an old favorite and a lovely taste memory.

We had coffee with our hazelnut balls...all I was missing was the fizzy lemonade!

Chestnut bouchons

Do you like chestnuts?  It's one of my very favorite things to eat. Unfortunately, they're not readily available or very popular here in the States. I won't go into all the reasons for that but I will tell you that I get excited when chestnuts start appearing in the supermarkets in late Fall.  It's almost that time and I've got chestnuts on the brain!  I munch on packaged chestnuts throughout the year but it's just not the same as getting a really good batch of fresh chestnuts.  I don't get fancy with it - I simply boil them and enjoy their delicious aroma and flavor while they're piping hot.  I am very greedy about my chestnuts!

When we went to Paris last year, one of my favorite things to eat were crepes filled with chestnut cream.  I think I had one everyday and choose it over Nutella despite how much I adore Nutella.  I loved how prevalent chestnut desserts were and I was amazed by how common and inexpensive chestnut cream was there!  I stocked up on a handful of jars, came home and used them to make my own crepes and to fill them in financiers.  Now, I'm taking my precious chestnut cream to make a few of these little cakes, or bouchons. 

I had to translate this recipe from French.  That's difficult for someone who knows about five words in the language!  Luckily, it is a miraculously short and simple recipe.  It comes from a little book I picked up at Lenôtre in Paris. The shop/quasi-restaurant I visited didn't sell pastries but I comforted myself by buying some chocolates, biscuits, and a couple of mini books. One book contained recipes using chestnut cream while the other was all about another of my favorites - Nutella!  They are adorable little books and I'm glad to be trying one of the recipes from the chestnut book here today.

Prepping these bouchons literally takes 5 minutes and 3 ingredients!  That said, getting your hands on some chestnut cream to begin with is half the battle because with that basis, all you do is whisk in some egg and melted butter - maybe throw in a pinch of salt if you don't mind going to the trouble. No flour necessary.  

Bake these little bouchons in miniature paper condiment cups - they give you that "bouchon" or cork-like shape without needing a special mold.  Plus, they're just cute that way!  In about 25 minutes, you have moist little cakelets that taste pretty much like a mont blanc filling. They were very tasty, obviously full of chestnut flavor, and a worthy use of my precious (and sadly, now dwindling...) stash of chestnut cream. 

I made these last Sunday - popping them in and out of the oven right before making a quick run out to the farmer's market - to have with our breakfast.  When I came back and we all sat down to breakfast, we ripped apart the little paper cups and gobbled up these tiny cakes, scrapping up every bite, in no time.  They're great for breakfast or as little tea cakes on an afternoon.  I think we can all use a little treat during our day and these mini chestnut cakes are my kind of Fall afternoon snack.  

Chestnuts are my Fall (and winter) craving and I'm sitting here daydreaming about getting my hands on a fresh batch real soon.  In the meantime, I have my chestnut cream and these mini chestnut bouchons...