TARTE CAKE RECIPES

Steps:

• Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla extract, and cream cheese flavoring and mix until just combined. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon until dough comes together. Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours or overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking sheets
• Place chilled dough on the prepared baking sheet and roll it out to 1/4-inch thickness. Place a stencil on top and cut around the edges using a sharp knife. Remove excess dough. Re-roll scraps and repeat rolling and cutting to create the second letter or number on the second prepared baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until slightly golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack, about 1 hour.
• Beat cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and cream in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium speed until mixture starts to thicken. Add cream cheese flavoring and vanilla extract and beat until stiff peaks form. Fit a piping bag with a large round tip or a star tip and fill the bag with frosting.
• Place the first cookie on a serving tray or large clean board. Pipe rows of frosting to cover the cookie. Gently place the second cookie on top of the frosting and repeat the pattern for frosting. Decorate cookie tart as desired with raspberries, strawberries, pretzels. and faux flowers.

Steps:

• In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, place the flours, sugar and butter. Pulse 5 or 6 times in 1/2-second bursts to break up the butter. Add the shortening, turn on the machine and immediately add the ice water, pulsing 2 or 3 times. The dough should look like a mass of smallish lumps and should just hold together in a mass when a handful is pressed together. If the mixture is too dry, pulse in more water by droplets.
• Turn the dough out onto the work surface and with the heel of your hand, rapidly and roughly push egg-size blobs into a 6-inch smear. Gather the dough into a relatively smooth cake, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours (or up to 2 days).
• Slice the halved apples into 4 lengthwise wedges each, and toss in a large bowl with the lemon juice and zest and 1/2 cup sugar. Drain the apples after macerating 20 minutes.
• In a 9-inch skillet melt the butter over high heat. Stir in the remaining sugar and cook until the syrup bubbles and caramelizes, and turns a brown color. Remove the pan from the heat and arrange a layer of apple slices in a neat pattern on the caramel in the skillet, then arrange the remaining apples neatly on top.
• Return the pan to moderately high heat and cook for about 25 minutes, covering the pan after 10 minutes. Every few minutes press down on the apples and baste them with the exuded juices. When the juices are thick and syrupy, remove the pan from the heat.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll the chilled dough into a circle, 3/16-inch thick and 1-inch larger than the top of the pan. Drape the dough over the apples, pressing the edge of the dough between the apples and the inside of the pan. Cut 4 small steam holes on the top of the dough. Bake until the pastry has browned and crisped, about 20 minutes.
• Unmold the tart onto a serving dish (so the pastry is on the bottom), and serve warm or cold with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, as desired.