love family friendly Halloween treats? Check out my Halloween ebook – 18 fun treats everyone will love!
Okay! The LAST challenge I participated in on the show! I have to say that I had a BLAST and I’m so happy for Rudy. Did you see his purple Mohawked zombie he put on his cake for me? Awwww!!! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the 6 other bakers were amazing, and we all became such great friends. Even though I didn’t win I’m so glad I participated in Food Networks Halloween Baking Championship. I’d do it again in a heartbeat!
Okay.. Why did this send me home? I think for 2 reasons. 1. the judges said they didn’t immediately think “mummy” when they saw my cake. Personally I thought the crepe cake layers were a very clever mummy-esq dessert, but I see their point. and 2. they didn’t say it, but I think it’s because the baked component wasn’t super prominent.
SOOOO, sticking with the idea I used on the show (cause how easy would it be to come up with something else now), and thinking how I could have made that initial idea better? I changed a few things. 1. I used cookie cutters to create a mummy shape, so now it more embodies (HAHAHA, embodies, get it) a mummy. 2. I baked a full shortbread cookie to go underneath the cake, so more baking. and 3. like Ron suggested I put the bloody buttermilk syrup off to the side so it makes the dessert interactive and less muddied looking.
To keep the video from being too long with all the parts that go into it I just link to my Crepe video, where I talk about making the batter in more depth and cooking crepes at home without a special crepe pan. Everything else is here. You could so easily use any cookie cutter and any color of syrup to create so many other fun holiday treats!
- 2 C all-purpose flour
- 4 tsp granulated sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 C whole milk
- 4 tsp butter melted
- 4 lrg eggs
- 2 vanilla beans
- 1 ½ C whole milk
- 3 Tbs all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp corn starch
- 4 lrg egg yolks
- 1 lrg egg
- 3/4 C granulated sugar
- 1/4 C Butter softened
- 1 C butter softened
- 3/4 C packed light brown sugar
- 2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
- 1 C buttermilk
- 1 C butter
- 2 C granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp light corn syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking soda
- Red Gel Color
- Put everything into a blender and mix until smooth. Refrigerate the batter for an hour to let the bubbles settle and the batter with thicken a bit.
- heat a large flat skillet on med high (the FIRST time spray with non stick spray, you won't have to do it again)
- Once it's hot pour about 1/3 C batter (or 1/4 depending on your pan size) into the pan and QUICKLY tilt the pan in a circle to cover the bottom.
- I cook it for about 40 seconds on each side, the edge should start to pull a way a bit, loosen it and pull away and flip over
- let the crepes cool then stack until your ready to use them
- Bring the milk and vanilla bean to a simmer
- Sift the flour and starch together, set aside.
- whisk the the egg, yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk until smooth and pale yellow.
- Whisk in the flour and starch.
- Pour in about half of the hot milk, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the pan (don’t stop stirring
- Bring the pastry cream to a boil, stirring constantly, over medium high heat.
- Reduce the heat to low and stir constantly for about 3 minutes until very thick and smooth and the flour taste has been cooked out.
- Strain the pastry cream through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl (that’s in a bowl of ice to help cool it faster) and stir in the butter.
- cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In your mixer beat butter until fluffy.
- Add brown sugar and mix well.
- Add flour and mix just until a dough forms
- Knead until smooth.
- pat 1/3 of the dough 1/4 inch thin for the cut out cookies, cut out
- Pat the rest of the dough into two 1/3 thick circles, score dough lightly with a knife, marking where you'll cut your cookies.
- Pierce the dough with a fork, if desired (it's pretty).
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, until shortbread is lightly browned all over.
- While the shortbread is still hot, use a sharp knife to cut shortbread all the way through along the lines you scored prior to baking.
- Allow shortbread to cool completely once it has been cut
- grind some of the non cut out cookies into crumbles
- Combine the buttermilk, butter, sugar and syrup in a LARGE sauce pan.
- Bring the mixture to a boil on medium heat and boil for 5 mins, stirring constantly.
- Remove it from the heat and continue stirring and add the vanilla and baking soda (the mixture will get HUGE when you add the soda, just keep stirring and it will go back down).
- Stir in the red gel color and maybe a little cocoa for depth
- Place the shaped cookie on the plate
- pipe a think layer of pastry cream, add a crepe
- repeat, adding some cookie crumble in between every other layer
- serve with the "bloody" buttermilk syrup on the side
Recipe Video
So there you have it! What do you think? Maybe the judges would have liked it? or do you think I should have simply baked a brownie and added a fondant mummy on top? Personally this is what I do, think about the WHOLE dessert when I want to represent something, you can see that in my party foods. BUT I probably would have been more successful creating a mummy figure and adding it on top of any old dessert… Oh well! I had fun and don’t regret it!
I’ve had such a great time recreating and sharing these recipes with you! I hope you’ve liked them too! Don’t forget to subscribe on youtube so you don’t miss anything and make sure to leave me comments if there is anything you want to see! It’s my favorite time of year, the HOLIDAYS! so let’s hear what you want to see!
Check out All the Halloween Baking Championship recreations
SallyB
My Hubby and I enjoyed watching you on the cooking tv competition. I just didn’t understand their logic not seeing the layers as a mummy! duh! In my humble opinion, you should have won! I notice several folks seem to show up on different cooking competition shows so I hope to see you again on another one in the near future!
Ashlee
awww thank you so much! yeah, thinking about the dessert as a whole when it comes to themes is kind of my thing, but clearly not what they were looking for! and I’d LOVE to do something on TV again, it was def what I want to do in my future