“To me, the smell of fresh-made coffee is one of the greatest inventions.’
Hugh Jackman
Chocolate Cake & Coffee Patisserie Cream Trifles. The deep, sensual aroma of coffee steeping won me over! Are you devastated by the smell of fresh bread or cookies baking? Or onions in gently frying in butter? Roasting garam masala? Fruit stewing with vanilla beans? Or maybe coffee beans roasting? Fresh herbs? Freshly plucked tomatoes? I absolutely am. It’s an olfactory explosion of sorts.
When I was young I often woke up to the delicious smells of onions frying, a chocolate cake baking, a clarified butter/pure ghee dal tadka … but the most vivid memory was of the smell of wet earth after the first monsoon showers. To this day, the smell of wet earth takes me back to those childhood days when we used to race out to play in the rain. Pure nostalgia!Now more than ever before, my world is ruled by food aromas. Does your nose lead you to the kitchen? At home here, all day long, you’ll find folk following their nose into my kitchen. It’s the most happening place in the house. I baked a chocolate cake 2 days ago. Yet this coffee pound cake was on their mind. ‘Why didn’t you bake another coffee cake?’. The teens pestered me! Annoying? Yes!I’m an out-and-out coffee sort of person! The family is too. Fresh coffee beans roasting … nirvana. Takes me back to days down south. Every house would roast their own coffee. Ours did not, but the neighbours generously shared the aromas. What a beautiful heady feeling to wake up to. Instant upliftment.
I’m also a vanilla sort of person, mostly paired with fruit. The fragrance of splitting a plump vanilla bean and scraping the insides makes my day. That morning was good! Once the thermomix got down to making the creme patisserie {7 minutes is all it takes}, I had ample time to sit and take in the fragrance. My hands smelt so good.
Try reducing fresh strawberries and vanilla bean for a compote. The whole house smells beautiful. Seriously … never underestimate the power of smell. Walk into a good coffee shop and if you’re like me, you’ll fall into a trance! So to cut a long story short, I was MAD that my chocolate cake didn’t go down well. I counselled myself a little. I knew what went wrong. I had tweaked a good recipe and added more baking soda than necessary. Extra baking soda always plays spoil sport. Note to self : BEWARE in future!I almost trashed the cake yet knew the crumb was light. It was a good cake basically, so trifle was on my mind. I love it when cake obliges with neat little squares. Two minutes later, I was in coffee creme patisserie mode. Time to win the coffee lovers back! Pastry cream that smelt like heaven, felt smooth as silk. Asked the daughter to check for sweetness. She couldn’t wouldn’t stop spooning it into her mouth! Just one last spoon, she begged!
Trifles are great make ahead desserts. Also a lovely way to use up leftover cake. We love fruit trifles and we loved these Chocolate Cake & Coffee Patisserie Cream Trifles too. Deep coffee flavours, great pairing with chocolate, nice play of textures. The cake cubes soaked in a coffee syrup. A swirl of whipped cream might have completed the trifle. So tell me dear reader, is your life is ruled by good food aromas? What are the smells that awaken your senses? Are you convinced that if something smells divine, it must taste even better? Do you eat with your eyes first? And do you believe, like me, that the sense of smell, sight and taste are all interlinked to make our world more delicious?
Food, ingredients, aromas, the folk, the garden, the venue, memories, the ambiance … the entire connect weaves a delightful ‘spread’!
~For Indiblogger and Ambipur … ‘Smelly To Smiley!’ ~
Summary: We loved these Chocolate Cake & Coffee Patisserie Cream Trifles too. LOVED! Deep coffee flavours, great pairing with chocolate, nice play of textures. The cake cubes soaked in a coffee syrup. A swirl of whipped cream might have completed them! Serves 6-8.
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes plus cooling time Ingredients:
Chocolate buttermilk pound cake {recipe adapted from here}
Chocolate shavings to garnish {or/and whipped cream}
Method:
Chocolate buttermilk pound cake {you will have leftovers}
Preheat the oven to 170C.Line the base and sides of a 7″ round tin.
Sift the flour with the cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Reserve.
Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract.
With beater on low add the flour and buttermilk alternately in three lots.
Bake for 50-60 minutes till the tester comes out clean.Cool in tin for 25-20 minutes, then gently remove from tin.
Cool completely, this cut into squares.
Coffee Cream Patisserie {Thermomix recipe}
Place all ingredients in bowl of thermomix and process to mix on speed 6 for 1 minute.
Turn the TM to 90C, speed 4 and set for 7 minutes. {You can add the vanilla bean shell if you like. I did}
Strain in a bowl and allow to cool. Stir often to avoid a film getting made on top. Cover with cling wrap, the plastic touching the surface, and chill until the cake cools.
Coffee syrup
Place all ingredients in a pan and simmer until the sugar dissolves. Allow to steep and cool until needed.
Assembling trifles
Place a handful of cake cubes in the base of serving glasses/bowls. Drizzle liberally with coffee syrup. Top with coffee pastry cream. Repeat again.
Finish with a few cubes of chocolate cake {drizzled with coffee syrup} and chocolate shavings. {Pipe over whipped cream if desired}.
Chill for about 2 hours before serving to allow the flavours to mature. You can assemble these a day ahead.
Note: You can make the Coffee Cream Patisserie by the traditional stove top method too using the above ingredients.
“May your life be filled, as mine has been, with love and laughter; and remember, when things are rough all you need is … Chocolate.”
Geraldine Solon
These are tiring days. Life seems cumbersome. Maybe it’s that time of the year, the heat and humidity; maybe the after effects of trying to pack too much into working days. I needed a break. That came today! I offered to guest post on Cookaroo to help ease her tiring days! This Baked Dark Chocolate Mousse seemed to be the thing! {Recipe here}
Had to send Ruchira’s blog some deliciousness while she works hard {read struggles} to get life up and running in her new world. The thought of doing something for this large hearted and fab girl injected some enthusiasm into me. With a spring in my step, I grabbed the camera early this morning. I knew just what would make her smile.
So grab your spoons and head straight for Cookaroo for these petite beauties. They’re a chocolate lovers dream come true. Deep, dark, sensuous, seductive … petite dark chocolate mousse with a drizzle of deep, dark, salted caramel. Need I say more?
“I am putting real plums into an imaginary cake.”
Mary McCarthy
Upside Down Plum Cake … if you are like me, you’ve probably been fascinated with baking cakes for years. I have almost baked every upright cake that caught my fancy, innovating and playing along the way. Almost every cake but an upside down one. For some reason, it never did appeal to me. Until now …
It never caught my fancy because I believed most upside down cakes were pineapple upside down cakes. The colour play was never good enough to catch my attention. Besides, I have never come across a reasonably healthy upside cake that tempted me to pick up my pots and pans.It’s strange that you suddenly can’t get enough of a fruit when you get to the end of the season. What’s not to love about plums, least of all that they are one of the most nutritious fruits around. They are versatile. You could enjoy them endlessly in the raw form, toss them into salads, make crumbles and crisps, frozen yogurt, or maybe a plum lemonade. I’ve done all that.Then a few days ago when I looked at them, a voice in my head said plum upside-down cake. It was the day the baking bug seemed to have hit FB. Everyone was baking something … fig cakes, bread, all good stuff! I was baking too {so what’s new}. That bowlful looked at me. How many could I possibly eat? Still obsessed with baking with fruit, here’s what I did …
I experimented a little here and there, and came up with this. Baking can be so rewarding. I used an all time favourite as a base recipe, the Buttermilk Pound Cake. The Upside Down Plum Cake knocked my breath out when I flipped it upside down. Rustic pretty! Soft, moist, flavourful … some creme fraiche or low fat cream on the side. Better still, some good ole vanilla ice cream.
’twas delicious! Just what I hoped it would be. The luscious deeply coloured and baked plums won me over. They looked moorish, dripping fruit juices right back into the cake, moistening it with beautiful flavours.
The good thing is that while baking the plums release some delicious juices. Once baked, when you turn the cake upside down, these delicious plum juices moisten the warm cake making it heavenly. I’ve used plain flour, whole wheat flour and almond meal in my cake.
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Recipe: Upside Down Plum Cake
Summary:The Plum upside-down cake turned out out delicious … warm, moist, full of flavours, almost like a pudding cake. Healthy & pretty too.
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 1 hour, 15mins Ingredients:
Cake batter
70g whole wheat flour
60g plain flour
50g almond meal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
100g unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup vanilla or plain sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
100ml buttermilk {or substitute recipe below}
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Plum topping
8 plums, halved, pitted
30g brown sugar
15g unsalted butter
15ml cream
Method:
Grease and flour the sides of a 7″ round tin. Line the bottom with parchment.
Plum topping
Place the butter, sugar and cream in a frying pan and simmer until melted. Stir to being together. Place plum halves cut side down and simmer for 2 minutes only. Cool slightly, then transfer to the parchment lined base of baking tin, cut side down. Pour any remaining sauce over the plums.
Preheat the oven to 170C.
Cake batter
Sift the flours with the almond meal, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Reserve.
Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract and almond extract.
With beater on low add the flour and buttermilk alternately in three lots. Pour over the plum lined base. Tap gently to even out.
Bake for 50-60 minutes till golden brown on top, and the tester comes out clean.
Allow to cool in tin for 30 minutes, then run a knife around the edges, and in one swift move, turn onto serving platter.
Note: Best eaten the same day. Refrigerate any remains.
“Only one thing is certain about coffee…. Wherever it is grown, sold, brewed, and consumed, there will be lively controversy, strong opinions, and good conversation.”
Mark Pendergrast
Layered Coffee & Cream Cake. It was that time of the year again. June already here and almost gone. With it, another birthday. Before you know it, the years gallop by. From what was a tiny knee kissing, naughty toddler, to an even naughtier, much taller, cookie & brownie monster cum food loving teenager, time does fly! How they change, the challenges they offer, and yet the smile that seems to make things easier!
Sometimes I wish we could have hung on to those days where life seemed simpler. Then again, teenagers are mixed packages. You never know when the next surprise is going to hit you. In many ways, the challenges keep us on our toes. And in even more ways, quite exhausted.
Nothing can prepare you enough…. nothing! That said, there are good times galore too! Who could have thought ‘he‘ would write poems? Now he has a blogthat pops out a poem, sometimes few and far between, but does! I would have never expected him to play mother to the dog. He does.
My first choice of cake for his summer birthday is always a fruit based one. With summer threatening to singe us as the earth is literally on fire, stone fruit are true saviours. The colours, the lure, the juiciness … You will find a abundance of stone fruit recipes here on PAB.
Unfortunately we flew in really late from Calcutta the evening before his birthday and the loads of laundry took its toll. There was no way I was going grocery shopping. Thought I’d do a Bittersweet Fallen Chocolate Gateau but that wouldn’t offer an element of surprise. I like the air of expectancy around birthday cakes at home. Makes it so much fun!
The lack of time made me think coffee. Cake of any kind, flavour, texture is welcome. Chocolate was my first choice but the Camisoni coffee extract helped me decide. The deep heady aroma of coffee that emanated from the bottle sent me packing to make a coffee genoise. Coffee is something we all LOVE!A four egg cake is never enough for birthdays. Keeping in mind ‘forever hungry for seconds’ teenagers, I whipped up two coffee flavoured genoise sponges. My love for coffee has been inherited by both the kids. Often their natural choice for dessert when we go out is anything with coffee!
What shall I say about the end result? It was so good that we couldn’t get enough of it. It got over before we knew it. Seconds yes, but there was no chance for thirds {as the birthday boy rued!}. If I had had the energy and the ‘get up and go‘ the next day, IF, I would have happily whipped up another.
I’ve done the genoise sponge before for my birthday a few years ago. That is one of my favourite cakes, an Espresso Coffee Cream Cake. A while later there came about anotherdelicious combination with coffee genoise sponge and chocolate quark. The latter sounded strange when I made it, but tasted great!
So here we go, sharing some deliciousness with this coffee laced cake. And in case you’ve missed it, Camisoni has a giveaway of their extracts on Passionate About Baking. Do stop by for a minute if you’d like to be part of it.
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Recipe: Layered Coffee & Cream Cake
Summary: If you love coffee, then this Layered Coffee & Cream Cake is the cake for you. Deep, divine, addictive coffee flavours of the coffee genoise and coffee cream combine with a dark chocolate ganache, promising to make this an unforgettable experience. Prep Time: 15 minutes
“The only creatures that are evolved enough to convey pure love are dogs and infants.”
Johnny Depp
Coco turned 2 today. TWO!! She is the cutest creature on the face of this earth and the daughter decided she would bake her a doggie birthday cake last night. I thought the ever lazy teen was talking off the top of her head again. Don’t bother, my inner voice told me!
She asked me to get her carrots and peanut butter. We’ve been through this drama last year as well, and no cake ‘happened’. I didn’t get her the ingredients. Late in the evening I get a call from her. She was shopping for vegetables for the first time in her life. “How many carrots should I buy for 1 cup carrots?”
Obviously meant business! She was soon home grating carrots. Another first and oh the protests. “My arms are gone, how difficult is this, will you grate them, can you please grate them…”! I wasn’t moved! All she had was Coco at her feet, eyes transfixed as her name popped up now and then. {“You’d better eat my cake Coco” she muttered incessantly!}
Oh the drama, the messy counters, grated carrots everywhere. The batter finally made its way into the oven. The dishes were done by her since I threatened to turn the oven off if she didn’t clear up. Then she put up her feet and talked on the phone endlessly. I caught the cake just in time … the top prettily browned! Yet, amazingly, we had cake! Rather Coco had a birthday cake!
Coco’s morning began well. She was spoilt silly. By afternoon it was time to cut the doie birthday cake. BUT NO! Have to frost ‘she’ hollered!! ’twas my turn to protest. “Cocos fine with a cake sans icing”…blah blah blah. We met halfway through. She decided to skip the cream cheese frosting {?????} and do a simple peanut butter topping.
Maybe she picked up some tips watching me all these years, maybe it is her interest in art, so she asked for my tiny cookie cutters. Soon we had carrot stars and ribbons… TADA! Coco couldn’t believe her eyes. She had never been that close to a cake before.
Coco is a good dog and doesn’t even eat out of her bowl without permission. So she waited patiently, amidst puddles of drool, with a few wardrobe malfunctions … Finally had her cake, and ate it too!
Must admit that I’ve had these Best Dog Biscuits Ever from White on Rice bookmarked since I saw them in my inbox in April. I contemplated baking a batch for Coco yesterday but never quite got there. Hopefully the teen will bake up some soon! Or maybe the lad, since he made brownies all by himself a few days ago!
So here we go… for a first on PAB, it’s a doggie birthday cake. And yes, the daughter did have a bite and she said it was good! The kids joined the party with pizza followed by a ginger lemon crème brûlée … and that is another story!
[print_this]Recipe: Doggie Birthday Cake
Summary: A simple one bowl doggie birthday cake which is easy and fun. Tastes good too I hear! Adapted minimally from here
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Ingredients:
Cake
1 egg
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 cup honey
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Frosting
2 tsps peanut butter
Carrots and dog biscuits to garnish
Method:
Preheat oven to 180C . Line the base with parchment {I used a 7″ tin}
Place everything in a large bowl and mix well to combine {use a hand beater on low speed}
Bake for 40 minutes. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes; then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Frost with peanut butter. Garnish with carrot cut outs, ribbons and dog biscuits.
“Cake is happiness! If you know the way of the cake, you know the way of happiness! If you have a cake in front of you, you should not look any further for joy!”
C. JoyBell C.
Swedish Prinsesstårta Cupcakes … the best BEST cake we’ve eaten of late. Perfect balance of flavours, moist, flavourful, addictive good, non chocolate … PERFECT! It’s been a while since I enjoyed a Daring Bakers challenge so immensely. Everything was good about it. I have to admit that I veered off the basic recipe … but need to blame the treacherous North Indian summer for that!!
Come May and I got a very excited call from local DB Ruchira. “Guess what the challenge is? A Princess Cake! Wheee… I love it!” I was equally thrilled. A Princess cake is junior teens most favourite cake of all time. Years ago I did a recipe testing for Helene of Tartlette which included a Bavarian cream. That was a princess cake of sorts.
To date, it’s been the best ever cake for the kidlet. He repeatedly tells me how good ‘that Bavarian cream‘ was! Talk about love for food and good taste. Everything Helene does has the midas touch. The months challenge was partly inspired by her recipe.
Korena of Korena in the Kitchen was our May Daring Bakers’ host and she delighted us with this beautiful Swedish Prinsesstårta!
A little research revealed that the original recipe was created in the 1930s by a Swedish home economics teacher named Jenny Åkerström, who taught the three Swedish princesses of the time. She published a series of four cookbooks called “The Princess Cookbooks” and in one of the editions, there was a recipe for “Grön Tårta” (green cake). One story is that this later became known as “princess cake” (prinsesstårta) because the three princesses are said to have loved it so much.
Another story is that Ms. Åkerström actually created three very elaborate “princess cake” recipes – a different one for each princess – and that the current version is a simplified combination of all three. That explains the princess connection, but the reason for the cake being green still seems to be a mystery.
I got to the challenge very very late. It was the 25th already. And the weather? Hot as hot can be, threatening to get worse by the minute! It was 46C at 6pm day before. Fry the eggs on the sidewalk hot, maybe bake the poor princess there too! Plans for a Princess cake were rapidly demolished. Yet I am very nostalgic about the Daring Bakers, a journey that has been long and fruitful. I have been with them for 5 years maybe, and it’s the only baking group I have continued with. I owe them most of what I’ve learnt. The journeys been full of ultimate highs, and a few heartbreaks too; entirely memorable.
Besides, the challenge this month was not just one of being a ‘baker‘. Bakers as you know double up quite often as patisserie chefs too. A finger in every pie, and so on! It was a test of skills at many different levels.I had to make something. That came by way of these sweet Princess Cupcakes that I’ve had bookmarked for years! {I baked the cupcakes the previous evening and completed them at the crack of dawn. You can find a few grainy pictures taken in a hurry to guide you through}
The components are quite the same. There is cake, pastry cream, whipped cream, jam and marzipan. A petite version in this blistering heat which hitting 48C is much easier to handle. I had some balsamic cherries from the two ingredient dark chocolate mousse. Cherries make life a lot more worthwhile.
The Swedish Prinsesstårta Cupcakes turned out excellent. The cupcakes are layered about the same way as you would a Swedish Prinsesstårta. In 20 minutes, spared of a power cut, I was past stage one. Cupcakes done! While they baked, the pastry cream was stirred in the Thermomix. 7 minutes to perfect pastry cream!
I made the pastry cream a little thicker as it’s so hot. I didn’t get to the marzipan though I have made it several times in the past. It was far too hot to attempt marzipan from scratch. A special gift from my dear friend and Daring Baker Finla came to my rescue. She sent me marzipan with a truckload of stuff a few months ago. I use it very sparingly and was thrilled to have some on hand for the princess cupcakes.
This was the best part! Such fun dressing the little ones up. I did the flowers and leaves out of trimmings and it reminded me of my first and only fondant cake, theTea Rose Fondant Cake, I made a while ago. The cupcakes were patched together on fast track as everything threatened to melt. The end result isn’t as neat as I would have liked it to be, but the marzipan was going too soft.
Thank you Korena was such a beautiful and eye opening challenge. I intend to make the original Swedish Prinsesstårta once the weather gets cooler. Thank you as always Lisa ofLa Mia Cucina andIvonne of Cream Puffs in Venice for hosting this fab kitchen!!
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Recipe: Swedish Prinsesstårta Cupcakes
Summary: Swedish Prinsesstårta Cupcakes… the best BEST cake we’ve eaten of late. Perfect balance of flavours, moist, flavourful, addictive good, non chocolate … PERFECT! Recipe adapted from The Cookie Shop. Makes 5 cupcakes
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 40 minutesIngredients:
Vanilla Cupcakes {can be made up to 2 days ahead}
100g all purpose flour
85g sugar
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
50g – room temp. and cut in pieces
1 egg
80g milk
1/2 vanilla bean
Pastry Cream {can be made 1 day ahead. Only less than half quantity needed}
200ml low fat/single cream
50ml milk
1 egg
50g sugar
12g cornstarch
1/2 vanilla bean
20g butter
Filling
1/2 recipe pastry cream
200ml low fat cream chilled
1-2 tsp sugar
Rum syrup
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
1 teaspoon rum
For assembling
5 vanilla cupcakes
1/2 cup pastry cream
sugar syrup
low fat cream, chilled
1/2 cup balsamic cherries {1/2 portion chopped fine}
300g marzipan approx
food coloring
confectioners sugar
Method:
Vanilla cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line 5 cups of a muffin pan, or 5 individual muffin tins with paper liners.
Place milk, egg and 1/2 scraped vanilla bean in a small bowl. Whisk to mix with fork.
Place flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in bowl of electric mixer and pulse to mix.
Add the butter pieces to the flour mixture and process briefly until it resembles coarse meal {the larger pieces should be the size of peas}.
With the processor on medium speed, add the milk mixture in three additions, and beat only until incorporated.
Distribute the batter evenly in the prepared tins. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the cupcakes.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before proceeding with the assembling.
Pastry cream
In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat milk and cream just until it simmers.
In a small bowl, whisk together egg and sugar until light and fluffy. Add cornstarch and continue whisking until smooth.
Slowly pour the hot milk/cream mixture into the egg mixture. Whisk until completely smooth and free of lumps. Return the mixture to the saucepan, and place over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly, and cook for another 2 minutes, or until it thickens. Remove from heat and add the butter, whisking well to incorporate.
Thermomix : Place all ingredients in bowl of TM. Pulse at speed 6 to mix for 10 seconds. Then cook at speed 4, 90 C for 9 minutes.
Remove the pastry cream to a bowl. Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on top of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Syrup
Place water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and add the rum if using. Let cool completely before using or refrigerating.
Marzipan
Divide the marzipan into 5 portions.
Mix the marzipan with the 4 different coloring and knead until the color is uniform. Leave one natural off-white. If it gets sticky, sprinkle a little confectioner’s sugar. Wrap with plastic.
Assembling
Cut off the domed tops of the cupcakes, and peel off thee liners.
Invert cakes and cut into 3 layers.
Whisk the cream and sugar until soft peaks form.
Brush the layers with sugar syrup.
Over removable bottoms of tartlet tins, start assembling the cupcake layers.
first, a very thin layer of chopped balsamic cherries {or jam/preserve}
over the jam, a teaspoon whipped cream;
cake + syrup;
a teaspoon of pastry cream;
last layer of cake + syrup;
Place a few cherries on top to help build the ‘dome’ if you like.
Whip the remaining cream with the remaining pastry cream.
Cover the whole cupcake with whipped pastry cream, trying to make the rounder the top you can. Refrigerate while you complete the next.
Over a working surface, sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar, roll out the marzipan.
Put the rolled out marzipan over the cake making sure to cover the entire cake and cardboard. When finished, some marzipan should drape onto the work surface all around the cupcake. There will be folds on the sides. To remove them lift the outside edge of the marzipan with a hand on either side of a fold and, without tearing or stretching, gently pull the marzipan out and down until the fold disappears. {It was too hot for me to attempt this}. Trim any extra marzipan and reserve for flowers etc.
Stamp out flowers, leaves and stems from the trimmed marzipan and place on cupcakes.
Sift a little confectioner’s sugar over the cakes and transfer to the serving dishes or cake stand.
Note: These are best eaten the same day they are assembled.
