New Beginnings (and Mud Cake)

From now on, this will be my photoblog. No words, no ramblings... just photos. It's been great fun having this blog, and I wish to thank all my readers. Too bad I didn't last one year. Oh well.

...cake?

Strawberry Swiss Roll

Short post today and I think you all know why. Yearlies.

I remember eating this at a bakery, and I loved the light cake filled with juicy strawberries. I made two of these cakes - one for my family to eat and another to bring to a picnic. The second one I frosted with some leftover filling.

My pan is smaller than what is called for, so I ended up with a thicker cake. A thicker cake means less creamy filling. This is quite upsetting, but the cake itself is tasty too. I substituted strawberry jelly powder for the gelatine in the filling, which turned it pink and gave a subtle strawberry essence.

This is amazing and spectacular to look at. I have to get back to studying now (yeah right). I'm sure you'll all do great.

Good luck!

Black Forest Cheesecake

I don't like birthday cakes. They are expensive and often I can replicate them at home. This year, I did not plan on making a cake because I was lazy, but I ended up putting together an easy cheesecake. I found it on the back of a package of cream cheese, but it's also on the Kraft website.

I love black forest themed stuff. It was light and creamy and not too sweet or rich. This was delicious and I was honoured to have it as my 'birthday cake'.

See you guys soon.

Butterscotch Self-Saucing Pudding

I GOT A BLOWTORCH!!!!!!! So happy.

 

I have mentioned before that I rarely make things I have before. Last week I tried out a self-saucing pudding recipe from Taste. Quite simply, it blew my mind. It was rich but not too sweet, and the sauce was thick and delicious. I tweaked the recipe, adding more water and golden syrup for more sauce.

We had it with cream, and everyone loved it. The top is crunchy, but underneath is a soft spongey cake. The sauce is thick and works perfectly. My sister was about to cry when she realised there was none left. I promised I will make it again, which I did. I made it again this Friday with the same delicious result.

I couldn't believe that such a simple recipe could be so delicious. I am waiting to buy a can of Butane gas so I can finally used my new blowtorch.

Hmmm... What should I set on fire first?

Chocolate Cherry Trifle

Oh no, it's the end of the holidays and the beginning of another gruelling school term. Yeah, it's okay though, they can't hurt us - it's against the law.

On Saturday, a few family friends came over and I was in charge of snacks and desserts to have with tea. Black forest was on my mind, and it was between this trifle and a cake. Trifles always win.

 There are so many things I want to say about this trifle, but I'm just going to sum it up in a few points:
1. This makes a ton, like 1000kg. Well not literally, but enough to serve an army.

2. It is very fattening, so be aware!

3. It is so simple, yet so complicated with the heating and warming and reheating.

4. I made my own chocolate cake, instead of buying 2 pound cakes - they were alright.

5. Use much less cream than called for, it's just too rich.

6. It also uses 8 egg yolks, so yeah.

Yeah, that basically sums up this delicious but calorific trifle. Hope you guys had a great holiday and all the best for this upcoming term.

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Mangomisu

A few days ago, I made my own cheese again. This time I made mascarpone - a soft Italian cheese made with cream. I had a few problems with it, either it not curdling enough or not making firming up. In the end I made a considerable batch, but it was still no enough. I used spreadable light cream cheese to make up for the rest. I used the cheese to make Mangomisu. People may know what Tiramisu is - an Italian coffee-flavoured dessert, but this is mango-flavoured instead.

The recipe says to put a layer of sliced mangoes on top, as decoration, but I ran out, so I left it out. It looks really good even without it. It tasted deliciously creamy and the savoiardi biscuits turn into what tastes like a sponge cake.
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The structure of the cake wasn't very stable though. It nearly separated into two when I was takeing it out of the pan. I also could not slice it properly. But this no longer matters once you take a bite of this Mangomisu. The recipe also gives a raspberry sauce which I did not make.
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Orange Self-Saucing Pudding

When guests came over last time, I made four(!) desserts. My mum said that the two desserts I planned to make weren't enough to feed 12 people, so I had to make something else. I had oranges and... nothing else. We hadn't been shopping in the past few days, so I didn't have any special ingredients. I was in search of an easy dessert with oranges as the main ingredient. Taste came to my rescue again, with their Orange Self-Saucing Pudding.

Self-Saucing simply means is comes with its own sauce, which means you don't have to slave over the stove with a pot of simmering syrup. At first I didn't realise this but, as an added bonus - it's a microwave dish! My mum is always raving on about how the oven costs so much to use because it uses a lot of electricity, and how I turn it on and off and on and off. I was happy when I found out, because it meant I didn't have to spend much effort making it.

One thing you should note though, is that it uses a cup and a bit of orange juice, so you will need a lot of oranges. I actually ran out of oranges, so I used a mixture of orange and lemon juice for the sauce. Next time, just use shop-bought orange juice, please. If you really want to juice your own oranges, do it, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with making it easier for yourself. Every single component of this dish is made in the microwave, including the sauce. I also downed the amount of sugar, and that along with the lemon juice gave it a sweet and sour taste, which asian tastes seem to enjoy.

The recipe says caster sugar - don't bother. If you have it, use it, but if you don't, just use plain sugar! It really defeats the purpose of a self-saucing pudding if you have to drive to the shops to buy an ingredient, or blitz sugar until it's powder. If you can make something easier for yourself, do it.

The pudding was served with vanilla bean ice cream, which added another dimension of cool, creaminess. Please try this recipe, when you are 1) tired, 2) stressed, or just lazy - it really doesn't take much effort, while still tasting fantastic.


Recipe

Obtained here.

Serves 4.

1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 orange, rind finely grated
60g butter, melted, at room temperature
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 egg
ice-cream, to serve

Sauce

2/3 cup caster sugar
1 1/4 cups freshly squeezed orange juice


1. Lightly grease an 8cm deep, 6-cup capacity, heatproof, microwave-safe dish.

2. Combine flour, sugar and orange rind in a bowl. Whisk together butter, juice and egg. Stir into flour mixture until well combined. Spoon into prepared dish. Smooth surface.

3. Make sauce: Place sugar and orange juice into a heatproof, microwave-safe bowl or jug. Cook on MEDIUM (50%) power for 3 minutes, stirring every minute, or until sugar dissolves. Cook on HIGH (100%) power for 1 to 2 minutes or until sauce comes to the boil. Pour hot sauce over the back of a large metal spoon to evenly cover pudding.

4. Place pudding onto a microwave-safe rack or upturned dinner plate. Cook, uncovered, on MEDIUM (50%) power for 8 to 9 minutes or until a skewer inserted around edges comes out clean but centre is still a little sticky.

5. Cover tightly with foil. Stand for 5 minutes or until centre is no longer sticky. Serve with ice-cream.

Lemon Friands

Man, it's been ages since my last post. I have been busy since school started and other stuff. I have created many things since last time, but I only photographed a few, as circumstances weren't suitable for others. Because we eat desserts at night (like normal people) I rarely get the chance to shoot a slice of cake or a cross-section, due to bad lighting. But this Anzac long weekend has granted me the time to try out many new recipes. I have made Coconut Panna Cotta, Zucchini Slice, Apple Tarte Fine, Friands, Orange Self-saucing Pudding, Vanilla Bean Ice cream, Apple Tart, and Caramel Croissant pudding. It's a huge list for four days, but we had guests over for dinner so it gave me an excuse.

I received some vanilla beans a few weeks back, thanks to a good friend, and have been aching to make vanilla ice cream. Vanilla beans are the second most expensive spice, and though they look wrinkly and unappetising, they are great in desserts. The first thing I did with them was make my own vanilla essence. In Australia, vanilla essence/extract/anything is very expensive. That's why ever since I heard you could make your own vanilla essence, I wanted to. Homemade vanilla is simply split vanilla beans seeped in alcohol. Vodka is recommended, but I didn't have any so I used Cognac, a kind of brandy. And don't worry, I did not drink a drop of it (as of yet). You shake the bottle every few days to let the flavour seep out, and it is ready to used in 8 weeks. Once a quarter of the essence is used up, you simply fill with more alcohol. This is much cheaper than buying vanilla from the shops, and they make great presents for other foodies. I will be posting about the vanilla ice cream in a short while.

Now, onto friands. I have read about friands, and I knew they were little cakes made with almond meal and egg whites, quite like macarons, but are much simpler and have, obviously, a different taste and texture. Traditional friands have blueberries in them, but I did not have any, so I searched for a lemon flavoured one instead. It is another recipe obtained from Taste - man I love that website. The leftover egg whites from making ice cream convinced me to make them, plus the woman who was coming over asked me if I knew how to make friands the last time she visited.
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I do not have friand moulds, so I used a muffin tray. The mixture is very easy to mix together - no whipping egg whites, no heavy machinery needed - which was great. Do not fret if the mixture is lumpy and/or thick, it is the way it is meant to be. Although I filled 3/4 full, I only got ten friands, opposed to the 12 advertised. Though that did not matter at all. The friands were not overly sweet, with just the perfect lemon flavour and aroma. Every body enjoyed them, and the light dusting of sugar helped with presentation and taste.

Friands are ridiculously easy, and are a welcomed change to cupcakes and muffins. They are not as complex as other recipes which require egg whites - you need not whip the egg whites. So try them when you have leftover egg whites.


Recipe

Obtained here.

Makes 12 (or 10 in my case)

190g unsalted butter
60g plain flour
1 1/3 cups (200g) icing sugar, plus extra to dust
120g almond meal
5 egg whites
Grated zest of 1 lemon

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Melt butter and use a little to grease a 12-hole friand pan. Dust with a little flour, shaking out excess.

2. Sift the flour and sugar into a large bowl, then stir in the almond meal.

3. Place egg whites in a small bowl and lightly froth with a fork. Add to dry ingredients with melted butter and zest, stirring until completely combined.

4. Fill each friand hole two-thirds full. Bake for 25-35 minutes until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

5. Remove from the oven, leave in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

6. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.

Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake

I don't know what it's about with me and cheese. I LOVE cheesey pizza with tons of stringy mozzarella on top. I love melted cheddar on toast, with it's tangy saltiness. And I love cheesecakes. I know people 'believe' that cheesecakes should be firm and dense, and should not have excessive air mixed into the mixture. I, on the other hand, do not mind either a dense cheesecake, or a rather light and fluffy one. Light ones are actually easier to swallow (not the literal meaning) because they are not as sticky, and almost mousse-like. But while I adore this product of milk, I know that in every bite of my cheesy pizza, cheddar-topped toast and delicious cheesecake, I am swallowing countless calories. That's exactly why I don't buy  piece of cheesecake at every cake shop I pass. But when a neighbour's friend requested it, how could I refuse?

Originally, he asked for a 'Creamy Mango Cheesecake', but I thoroughly convinced him not to by stating mangoes aren't in season, just because the name says 'creamy' doesn't mean it's any more creamy than other cheesecakes, etc. So in the end he agreed to make Strawberry Cheesecake instead. Apparently, strawberries are one of his least 'hated' foods. I just hate it when someone says, 'Ugh, I hate such and such' or 'I would never eat that!' I mean, I don't like every food in the world, but at least I try everything, and if I don't like it, I don't put it down. I don't say stuff like, ' OMG, such and such is DISGUSTING!' So when my neighbour's kid said, 'Ah, lychees are one of the last few things on the list of food I like', I almost facepunched him.

Anyways, I settled on a recipe from Allrecipes for Strawberry Cheesecake. It looked very appealing, but after reading some reviews I modified it a bit. I reduced the amount of cream cheese to 2 packages, baked it in a waterbath, and since there wasn't any fresh or frozen strawberries at the shops, I used canned strawberries instead. The base and the sauce came together wonderfully, but I have no idea why all my cheesecake mixtures turn out lumpy. I have a theory that my mixer doesn't scrape the edges of the bowl, leaving a layer of cream cheese, and when I scrape that down and start mixing again, it doesn't break down that much. Although none of my cheesecakes seem to have suffered from that which is great.

The strawberry sauce makes leftovers which is made into a deliciously fruity sauce. You really need that sauce to add flavour to the cheesecake, as the strawberriness seems to disappear from the swirls after you bake it. It was actually fairly light, which I prefer, and not a crack in sight, due to the waterbath.

Yesterday, I plunged myself into cheesemaking and made a small batch of goat cheese! I'll be using it in a recipe in a few days, I'll post how it goes.


Recipe

Modified from Allrecipes (Original recipe here)

Serves 12

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
400g can strawberries
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 (8 ounce/250g) packages cream cheese, softened
395g can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 eggs
1 tablespoon water


1.Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter. Press onto the bottom of an ungreased 9-in. springform pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 300°F/150°C. Boil a pot of water for the water bath.

3. In a blender or food processor, combine strawberries and cornstarch; cover and process until smooth.

4. Pour into a saucepan; bring to a boil. Boil and stir for 2 minutes. Set aside 1/3 cup strawberry sauce; cool. Cover and refrigerate remaining sauce for serving.

5. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in milk. Add lemon juice; mix well.

6. Add eggs, beat on low just until combined. Pour half of the cream cheese mixture over crust.

7. Drop half of the reserved strawberry mixture by 1/2 teaspoonfuls onto cream cheese layer. Carefully spoon remaining cream cheese mixture over sauce. Drop remaining strawberry sauce by 1/2 teaspoonfuls on top. With a knife, cut through top layer only to swirl strawberry sauce.

8. Wrap the bottom of the springform pan with at least 2 layers of aluminium foil. Place pan onto a roasting tray and place in the oven. Pour boiling water halfway up the side of the springform pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

9. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight.

10. Remove side of pan. Thin chilled strawberry sauce with water if desired; serve with cheesecake.

Carrot Cake

In my efforts to explore and taste all the different types of food in the world, I made a vow to myself that I will try at least one new recipe each week. Sometimes, there are exceptions when I just don't have the time, or don't have the ingredients. Sometimes, the results are absolutely delicious, and I put that recipe into a special file labelled 'Good'. Other times they are quite disappointing. Then there's recipes which I couldn't give a damn about. It may not be a bad recipe, just one that doesn't appeal to me, for some reason or another.

Such recipes include yesterday's carrot cake. I was browsing recipes for bundt cakes to bake in my fluted tube pan (yes, I'm still psyched). I made a list of cakes that I want to bake, and I was planning on having some sort of Bundt Cake Marathon. First up was a carrot and walnut bundt cake, with cream cheese frosting, from Epicurious. I had no idea what carrot cake tasted like, and after extensive research, I gathered it did not taste anything like carrots. I then bought a carrot slice from the school's canteen, but that tasted random. I reckoned it tasted bad because it was filled with artificial crap.

I'm still learning the ins and outs of my fluted tube pan, and still haven't managed to find a reliable technique to stop things sticking. Before, I've buttered it and floured it, but that didn't work. This time, I sprayed it with cooking spray, but a piece of cake still stuck to the pan. I've got a feeling that this contributed to my neutrality to this cake. I was glad the glaze/frosting covered up the cracks, but it was tooth-achingly sweet. When I was pouring the 3/4 powdered sugar over the measly-looking pieces of cream cheese, I said to myself, 'This is gonna be sweet!' Guess what? I was right. The lemon juice and zest cut off a bit of the sweetness but ow it was sweet. I hope the rest of my cakes turn out better.

Recipe

Obtained from here.

Makes 8 servings.

Carrot Cake

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup olive oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups grated carrots (about 3 large)
3/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Cream Cheese Icing
 
3/4 cup powdered sugar (I'd put less)
3 ounces (85 grams) cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup (or more) whipping cream.


1. Place rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F.
 
2. Grease 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan.
 
3. Whisk flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in medium bowl until well blended.
 
4. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, oil and eggs in large bowl on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add flour mixture, beating just until blended.
 
5. Fold in carrots and walnuts.

6. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.

7. Cool cake in pan on rack 1 hour.

8. Meanwhile, blend softened cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla until combined. Add enough cream to form a thick but pourable icing.

9. Invert cake onto plate. Cool completely. Drizzle icing over top of cake, allowing icing to flow down sides.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

So it's officially Autumn now, here in Australia. We were introduced to this new season with three days of heavy rain and a huge flood up in Queensland. But to me, that is good news. I'd prefer a rainy overcast day over a bright sunny day, any... day. Autumn is the season of browning leaves and cool weather, and is the season of apples! I look forward to apple turnovers, apple crumbles and apple bundt cakes.

Anyways, enough about autumn. I finally used my fluted tube pan to make something! I didn't make monkey bread but I did make Sour Cream Coffee Cake. I was tossing over two recipes - one with (wal)nuts and without. My family likes things with nuts in them, so I thought it would be better for everybody if I went with the one with walnuts. I obtained the recipe from 'The Modern Baker' by Nick Malgieri. I keep hearing that cakes with sour cream have wonderful texture and are really soft, so I thought why not?

A vein of cinnamon and walnuts streusel runs through the cake, but apparently my folks haven't tasted cinnamon before. They thought I had put too much baking powder or baking soda. Oh, speaking of putting too much, I greased the pan with too much butter. Before I attempted baking with my fluted tube pan, I had done a lot of research and found that people like to butter they pans first and sprinkle with some flour, even if it is non-stick. So that's what I did, except I put too much butter and just dumped flour into the pan and shook out the excess. That's why my cake unmoulded perfectly, but it had yellow patches on top. I was scared to tell them that it was just butter and flour, or they'd get a heart attack just by knowing. I dusted some sugar on top and that hid the butter just fine.

I couldn't get a shot of the full cake because it was getting late and my sister just wanted cake. Oh well, it tasted great anyways.


Recipe

Makes one 10-inch (25-cm) tube cake, about 24 slices

Cinnamon Sugar Nut Filling

1/3 cup granulated or light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup (about 4 ounces/100 grams) pecan or walnut pieces,
coarsely chopped

Sour Cream Cake Batter

2 cups all-purpose flour
(spoon flour into a dry-measure cup and level off)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 tablespoons (1. sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 large egg yolks
1 (8-ounce/225-gram) container sour cream


1. Set a rack in the lower third of the oven and
preheat to 325°F (160°C).

2. For the filling, mix the sugar, cinnamon, and nuts in a small bowl and set aside.

3. For the batter, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir well by hand to mix. Add the butter. Beat the mixture on low speed with the paddle until the mixture is a
smooth, heavy paste, 1 to 2 minutes.

4. Whisk the eggs, egg yolks, and sour cream together. On medium speed, beat 1⁄3 of the egg mixture into the flour and butter mixture. Beat for 1 minute.

5. Stop and scrape the bowl and beater, beat in another half of the remaining egg mixture and beat for 2 minutes. Repeat with the last of the egg mixture.

6. Remove the bowl from the mixer and using a rubber spatula give the batter a final mixing.

7. Scrape half the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Scatter half the sugar and nut filling on the batter.

8. Scrape the remaining batter over the sugar and nut mixture and smooth the top. Scatter on the remaining sugar and nut mixture.

9. Bake the cake until it is well risen and firm, and a toothpick or a small thin knife inserted midway between the side of the pan and the central tube emerges dry, about 1 hour.

10. Cool the cake in the pan for 5 minutes, the invert a rack over it. Invert and lift off the pan, then cover the cake with another rack or a cake cardboard and turn it right side up again. Cool the cake completely.

Hello

To start things off, I shall post a recipe that was made not-so-long ago... Christmas! We don't celebrate Christmas the same way as Westerners. Sure we eat turkey (those store bought frozen ones *ahem* lazy), and we do have a Christmas tree, but we don't give presents nor have friends or family come over for a big Christmas Day lunch. But this year, I did make dessert for our Christmas dinner. This dessert is a wonderful twist on the -Aussie- Chocolate Ripple Cake.

For those of you who are not familiar with Chocolate Ripple Cakes, they are possibly the easiest 'cakes' to make. Instead of -cake- use plain chocolate buiscuits. Whip some cream with sugar and vanilla and sandwich the cream between the chocolate biscuits, and continuing to make a log. Then cover it with the rest of the cream and refridgerate. The biscuits will absorb the moisture from the cream and become cake-like.

This time though, instead of just cream covering the chocolate biscuits, a portion of the cream was mixed with chopped cherries and cocoa. Then the whole ensemble was topped with chocolate curls and remaining cherries.

Now, what do you get when you cross chocolate, cherries and cream? Black Forest Cake! So this year for Christmas, I made Black Forest Ripple Cake, acquired from Taste.com.au - it's a wonderful site which compiles recipes from Australia's food magazines.

I added some chocolate leaves and shaved some chocolate to represent leaf litter, to add to the whole 'forest' theme. Don't do what I did, and soak the biscuits in the liquid from the canned cherries. Yeah, it didn't look very nice when brownish reddish coloured liquid started seeping out the bottom.

All in all, it was very delicious. I love black forest cakes, and this is ok. Personally I wouldn't mind making traditional black forest cake as opposed to this, but it's perfect for those who want a simple yet amazing dessert.

Recipe obtained from here.