Christmas Dinner With Our Friends – Desserts and Presents

My pretty wife sported her elf outfit for Christmas day - rather than making me a gift, I'd just take I'd take her home as my gift any time.

Previously I’ve covered our main meal, appetizers and drinks so this post will wrap up our meal with the desserts which begins with Knoxville Fresh Markets Tiramisu provided by the Myers (Big Daddy Dave).

Dessert number two was Italian Crème Cake because Bev really likes it so she found a recipe from All Recipes which she adapted some.  Bev made a double recipe of icing as shown below so she could ice the sides, she used the pecans we had on hand vs. walnuts, and she used almond extract as we were out of vanilla.

Italian Crème Cake – Adapted from All Recipes

Makes 12 servings at 759 calories each (wow)

Ingredients:

Cake

1 cup butter

5 egg yolks

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups all-purpose flour

1½ cups white sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

5 egg whites

Icing

1½ cups white sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

1½ cups buttermilk

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup flaked coconut

2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

1½ sticks butter

4 cups confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon almond extract

Chopped pecans to cover cake

Directions:

For the cake:

1. Cream together 1 cup, egg yolks, and 2 cups white sugar. Alternately mix in flour and buttermilk. Add baking soda. Mix in 1 cup walnuts and coconut.

2. Beat egg whites, and fold into batter. Pour batter into three greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans.

3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven.

For the Icing:

Combine cream cheese, butter, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla extract. Spread between layers and all over the cooled cake. Cover entire iced cake with chopped pecans.

Using a recipe from Epicurious, we decided to make several sizes of Crème Brulee so some could have a little of all desserts while others could fill up on just this one.

Crème Brulee – this is a double recipe and was way too much

Ingredients:

6 cups heavy cream

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

12 large egg yolks

2/3 cup granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

6 tablespoons turbinado sugar, such as Sugar in the Raw

Directions:

1. Put a rack in the middle of oven and preheat oven to 325°F.

2. Pour cream into a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Heat cream over moderate heat until hot but not boiling.

3. Whisk together yolks, granulated sugar, and salt in a medium bowl until well combined. 4. 4. Add hot cream in a slow stream, whisking constantly until combined. Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and whisk in vanilla extract, if using. Ladle custard into ramekins.

5. Arrange ramekins in a roasting pan and add enough boiling water to pan to reach halfway up sides of ramekins.  The towel keeps them off of the pan bottom.

6. Bake until custards are just set, 25 to 30 minutes. 

7. With tongs, transfer custards to a rack to cool, then refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 4 hours.

8. Just before serving, sprinkle turbinado sugar evenly over custards. Move blowtorch flame evenly back and forth close to sugar until sugar is caramelized. Let stand until sugar is hardened, 3 to 5 minutes.

In our effort to get as much done ahead as possible, Bev made the Italian Crème Cake on Sunday and the Crème Brulee on Monday.

I had a taste of all three desserts and thought they were all very good.

And a big event for the day was watching Eliza open her presents with a little help from her dad.

But at only two years old she enjoyed playing in the pile of paper the most.

I had a taste of all three desserts and thought they were all very good.

So while not necessarily the easy day we initially set out to have, it was a fun day and

well worth our efforts.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry