The Cake Buffet, a.k.a. my last day at work

It was long awaited and anticipated by me.... I was so looking forward to my new challenge, therefor I was also looking forward to my last day at work. But when I woke up last Thursday suddenly this feeling crept up on me.... I didn't want to go anymore!! My last day was very hectic: I had to leave twice for interviews with bidders: one in the morning and one after lunch.

To thank my coworkers for all the fun times we had the last 2 years and 8 months I had backed some treats for them. I made a few of Dorie's recipes, four to be exact....: Pumpkin Muffins, Qintuple Chocolate Brownies, Normandy Apple Tart and Perfect Party Cake.


For the Pumpkin Muffins I followed the recipe to the tee. I did exactly the same for the Quintuple Chocolate Brownies, except for the size: I made them in muffincups. I als decided it would be fun to make miniature Normandy Apple Tarts, these were cut in quarters to make portionsizes.




I was most worried about the Perfect Party Cake: I never assembled a cake like that before!! But it turned out great!


For my fifth options I used a recipe one of my coworkers gave me: Mascarponecake with White Chocolate and Cherries. This was soooooo good!!
Some of my coworkers couldn't believe I made everything myself and all of it from scratch. The biggest compliment came from my direct colleague: she's always on a diet and never indulges in cake etc. She tried a piece of the apple tart and loved it! One other coworkes asked me if I would consider making a high tea for her and her friends one day, that must mean she liked it!

I ended up taking to work: 23 Quintuple Chocolate Brownies, 14 Pumpkin Muffins, 16 pieces of Normandy Apple Tart, 12 pieces of Perfect Party Cake and 12 pieces of Mascarponecake with White Chocolate and Cherries. At the end of the day all that remained were 5 Pumpkin Muffins and 4 pieces of Normandy Apple Tart. Everybody loved everything!!

I'm sure I will miss my colleagues, but fortunately they gave me some great gifts (almost all of them culinary inspired) so I will think of them from time to time:

My manager gave me this beautiful cakestand to go with my collection

My coworkes all chipped in and bought me this amazing cookbook,
filled with cakes, cookies and pies
and also gave me a giftcertificate for my favourite cookshop!!

All of the secretaries bought me this lovely selection to add to my collection:

And last but not least, some colleagues gave me other culinary goodies:

Mascarponecake with White Chocolate and Cherries

Ingredients:
160 grams Bastognekoekjes (I guess these could be substituted by graham crackers....)
60 grams butter
4 egg yolks
2 bags vanilla sugar (8 grams each)
2 tbsp confectionary sugar
500 grams mascarpone
200 grams white chocolate
1 can Cherry piefilling
2 tbsp creme de casis (I used creme de framboise)

Preparations (at least half a day in advance)

Crust:
Cover the bottom of the springform with plastic foil. Grind 13 cookies (=160 gram) in your Kitchenaid to very small crumbles. Melt the butter slowly at a low temperature in the microwave, stirr the butter throught the crumbles and divide the mixture well over the bottom of the springform. Push down with you fingers and put the springform in the fridge for at least one hour.

Filling #1:
Use a mixer on high speed to beat the eggyolks and the vanilla sugar to an offwhite colour (mix at least five minutes, mixture should become quite firm and a very pale yellow). Put in the mascarpone and blend it in well with the mixture. Melt the white chocolate in a bowl above simmering water (au bain marie). Stir the liquid chocolate in with the mascarpone mixture. Divide this mixture evenly over the hardened crust. Put the cake back into fridge for at least 4 hours to firm up the filling.

Filling #2:
Mix the Cherry piefilling with the creme de cassis in a bowl. When the mascarponelayer is firm, devide the cherrymixture evenly on top of it. Don't make the cherrylayer too thick: the chocolateflavour should be dominant. Put the cake back into the fridge.
Serve at room temperature.

Enjoy!!