“The power of imagination makes us infinite.”
John Muir
It was definitely inspiring and a great wrap on 2010. I’m talking about the Donna Hay Strawberry & Vanilla Macaron Trifle I made over Christmas. It made me look at the endless charm that macarons offer with wonder. Having won sort of won the battle with feet, or rather managing the frills on the fiddly macs more often than never {100% success is yet to land on my platter}, I wanted to explore different ways of incorporating macarons in dessert.Laduree in Paris might have introduced some delicious made in France cupcakes, and the tables might look to be turning around once again making cupcakes the new macarons! Been hearing that sort of mild buzz on the net recently; also that these cupcakes are ‘out-of-this-world‘ good. They do look novel, creative & pretty, but then that’s Laduree for you! Nothing but the best!!However, in my mind, I’m not ready to give up my macaron ‘fascination bordering on obsession’ just yet. Feet still give me endless joy; each batch popped into the oven still a heart-stopping adventure. The kids walk by nonchalantly exclaiming, “Oooh pretty, you got feet! Can I have one?” So many failed batches later and we are a well versed mac household who know the importance and the mood swings that come with the failures & success of the pitter patter!I made this cake, inspired by mac thoughts for a sweet old lady who lives near by. She’s over 80, sprightly as can be and bursting with positive energy. Two days without seeing me and she’s at my gate with her walking stick checking if all is well, filling me up on the neighbourhood happenings, telling me that the lime tree is full of fruit etc. She sends me tangerines from her tree each year to make Bitter Orange Marmalade … one of my absolute favourite pass-times. It gives me as much joy, well almost, as finding feet! Seeing translucent pretty marmalade take shape from the very tart tangerines is in my mind, priceless!It was her birthday a few days ago, and I knew the cake had everything she would love … strawberries, cream and orange. I added macarons around and on top for effect as I was elated to have found enough feet to go around a cake! Gosh, it isn’t often that I find so much mac-success, so mac-inspiration was in order.
Mac-Inspiration is our theme for our monthly macaron event on Mactweets this month …STARTING THE NEW YEAR WITH THE OLD AND THE NEW : MACINSPIRATION! You can combine or integrate your macarons into any dessert, making it a new part of an old favorite, or turn your macarons into your favorite dessert, inspired in flavor, texture, color.
What dessert would you be inspired to see recreated in macarons? I continue to be inspired by fruit in season, the colour palette that nature amazingly offers, textures … and of course macarons! Ever since sweet Jamie & I got together and launched MacTweets{a blog dedicated to making macarons}, there has been no dearth of inspiration! This time, my macarons are inspired by strawberries & cream, a simple dessert that we love to love. I made vanilla bean macarons, and filled them with slices of strawberries and cream {also did a few with candied orange slices and cream}.
Do you want to join us making MACARONS?
If you do, Jamie & I would be happy to have you join us for this challenge, or the next. You can find all the information at our dedicated macaron blog MacTweets. We generally have the round-up by the end of every month, following which a new challenge is posted!
Strawberries & Cream Mac-o-range Cake Serves 6-8 Orange Sponge
1/2 cup plain flour
1/8 cup cornflour
1/2 + 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 large eggs, separated
1/8cup oil {I used sunflower oil}
3 tbsp water
Rind of 1 orange {I used kinnow, a mandarin orange/citrus hybrid, like a satsuma}
1 tsp orange extract, or pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cream of tartar Method:
Preheat the oven to 190C. Line a 7.5-8″ round tin; grease and dust with flour.
Mix together the cornflour, plain flour, baking powder, salt and1/2 cup powdered sugar in a large bowl {I used a balloon whisk}.
Beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and cream of tartar and beat till droopy soft peaks form. Reserve.
With a whisk, lightly mix the oil, water, yolks, rind and extract together. Stir into into the dry ingredients.
Beat with an electric beater on low speed until smooth.
Gently fold the beaten whites into the yolk mixture.
Turn into the prepared tin and bake till well risen and golden brown, about 45 minutes/until done. Check if it is done with a wooden pick. {Slide a sheet of foil lightly over the top if it begins to brown too fast}.
Leave in tin for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely on rack.
Once cool, cut into 2 layers. Filling
200ml low fat cream
2-3 tbsps powdered sugar
200gms strawberries, chopped Method:
Whip the cream and sugar to medium peaks. Fold in the chopped strawberries. Whipped Buttercream Topping Method:
200ml low fat cream
1 tbsp melted butter
2-3 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp strawberry extract {optional}
Beat the low fat cream, sugar and extract, and pour in the melted butter in a steady stream while beating. This will reintroduce the fat back into the low fat cream and allow it to be whipped to stiff peaks. Assemble
Sandwich the cake with the filling
Frost the sides and top of the cake with the whipped butter-cream.
Garnish with sliced strawberries, candied tangerine slices and macarons
Vanilla Macarons Macaron Batter
1/2 cup powdered vanilla sugar
1/4 cup almond meal
1 large egg white {30gms}, at room temperature
2 1/2 tbsp granulated vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp egg white powder Method:
Preheat oven to 140C.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Grind together the powdered sugar with the almond meal briefly so there are no lumps. Don’t over work, else you might get oily almond butter.
In the bowl, beat the egg whites until they become frothy. Beat in the granulated vanilla sugar until very stiff and firm, about 2 minutes.
Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding. {If you draw the spatula through the macronage, the line drawn should disappear to the count of ten.}
Using a teaspoon, or piping bag, drop / pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1″ circles evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart.
Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons and get rid of trapped air bubbles, then rest for about an hour.
Bake them for 15-18 minutes, watching carefully. {I bake mine on the highest shelf, as my oven functions on just the lower element}
Let cool completely, then remove from baking sheet.
Sandwich with some whipped buttercream and strawberry and candied orange slices.
♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥
May I share with you my 5 minutes of fame which made me do the Happy Feet dance?
I was featured in the January 2011 Indian edition of ‘Better Homes and Gardens’ with an interview and 4 recipes in a 3 page feature.
“I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.”
Harlan Miller
I love this season, and agree with the quote above. Christmas is not our main festival, but certainly is an adopted one, one we have learnt to love. Christmas & New Year also mean FRUIT-CAKE season to us. My mother set the trend years ago, when she baked a fruit cake every winter without fail. Would you believe I never imagined that there could be people who dislike fruit cake? Crawled out from under a rock last year when I saw tweets being exchanged, and I discovered that there were 2 very definite sides to the fruit cake coin – LIKE vs HATE … no in betweens.Thankfully, we are a family who LOVE our fruit cake to bits. I have to hide the loaves from the daughter who loves a good fruit cake nibble.I heard her rummaging through the fridge and cupboards yesterday and I knew just what she was looking for! My precious cake has been wrapped and is maturing {in hiding}. We’ve had the ‘tasting ceremony‘ a few days ago, and the cake is darned good. Now to wait a few more days, and we shall savour it bit by bit. I am pretty miserly about it because I make it from scratch. Peels, chopping, caramel syrup, butter, weighing, zesting … I heave a sigh of relief when the fruit is finally soaked because the rest of the cake-making seems a cakewalk.
The fruit cake season was kicked off a couple of months ago with this traditional cake mixing ceremony at the Hilton Garden Inn. That was a fabulous experience, and I still hold those huge bowls of peels and dried fruit in my eyes! At the time, I was hit by infectious enthusiasm and the drive back home saw me mixing my fruit the next day… well, in my thoughts!How very ambitious! Back home and life returned to the fast track in the week to follow … mundanities like laundry, driving the hapless kids in circles, laying out winter flower beds, baking, pulling out winter clothes & putting away light summer mulmuls happened. The ‘traditional fruit mixing left on the back burner’, yet not forgotten.Each time I reached out for a baking ingredient I would see the fruit and promise myself, tomorrow! Tomorrow never comes! That ‘tomorrow’ came last week. I knew I was desperately late, and it was a now or never. Twitter was buzzing with fruit cake activity, Meeta had posted her gorgeous cake, and frugal Monsieur Lebovitz had his list of fave Holiday Recipes out. Shameful that my fruit was still sitting pretty in bags!I eventually emptied the fridge and larder out. It was like an end of year clearance, literally. I used all the left-over nuts and peels, making up the remaining weight with candied cherries and almonds. In went the bag of raisins from Madhulika in Nasik, currants and black raisins from Old Delhi, dried apricots which had seen better days {but were in for a sweet soaking}, leftover crystallized ginger and orange peels from a Lebovitz recipe … an entertaining connect of people, places, feelings as I mixed fruit! Instead of Christmas spice in the cake, I took my favoured route of garam masala.Have you ever added garam masala to your fruit cake? You really should try it. It doesn’t add curry flavours to your cake, I promise. It adds deep warm winter flavours that mingle with the fruit ever so deliciously, you’ll wonder what kept you away so long. Besides, making your own garam masala fills the house with wonderful warm aromas. I make a largish portion now and freeze it.The fruit was soaked for 3 days, but overnight is good too. If you want to go the non alcohol way, just substitute the alcohol with fresh orange juice, but then store the soaked fruit in the fridge for a day or so. Alcohol preserves the fruit so they keep out in a cool place for long. I also added zest from the oranges, and on day 3 I had this fabulous plump shiny sweet smelling mincemeat of sorts. Not the traditional kind as that has suet and grated apple maybe, but my own sweet kind. I was delighted to find a similar link on David Lebovitz for a Quick Mincemeat.Once the fruit is mature, the rest of the cake is a virtual breeze. I follow a basic recipe that my mother learnt from a baking course almost 40years ago. The soaked fruit are tossed in the flour mix, coating each fruit well. This way the fruit doesn’t sink to the bottom. The cake gets a rich dark colour thanks to a caramel to which coffee is added. The rest is normal cake procedure. Butter & sugar beaten, eggs added, floured fruit folded in … and off it goes to bake.
Twitter got me great ideas from Barbara the Vino Luci gal {oh, she is sweet}, and Colleen aka Colly Wolly, the adorable Brown-Eyed Baker from South Africa. Barbaras Last Minute Fruit Cake, and CW was sweet enough to send me hers. I eventually made my own, but have to thank these 2 great gals for the inspiration. The world is certainly better with folk like you, and I can thank twitter for making 2010 such a wonderful year!
Mincemeat or fruit mix, sans suet
{made from 1 kg of fruit/nut/peel combination}
300gms raisins, chopped if desired
200 currants
200gms black grapes, chopped
100gms crystallized ginger & orange peel {David Lebovitz recipe}, chopped
100gms almonds, chopped
50gm dried apricots, chopped
50gms candied cherries, chopped
1/4 cup Cherry liquor/brandy
1/2 cup rum {or brandy}
3/4 cup fresh orange juice {from 3 keenus/oranges}
Juice of 1/2 lemon {or 4 limes}
Zest of 2 keenus/oranges
4 tbsp garam masala Method:
Mix all of the above nicely and soak overnight in a cool place, or for 3-4 days. The longer you soak the fruit, the more mature the flavour. I soaked mine for 4 days as I didn’t have time to bake. {You can substitute the alcohol with an equal amount of orange juice too}
Garam Masala Fruit Cake
1 kg mixed fruit,nuts,peel mincemeat {mincemeat recipe above}
3 cups plain flour
300gms unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup sugar
5 eggs
3/4 cup caramel syrup {Made with 1 cup of sugar caramelised. Add some water and heat gently to liquefy. Measure and top up with water to make 3/4 cup liquid. Cool}
1 1/2 tbsp instant coffee
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt {skip if using salted butter}
2 tsp pure vanilla extract Method:
Toss the soaked mixed fruit in the 3 cups flour well in a large bowl {I used a huge wok} so that the fruit is completely coated. Reserve.
Stir coffee into caramel syrup. Reserve.
Beat the butter and sugar till fluffy, 2 minutes, add the eggs and beat well again.
Now add the caramel syrup and vanilla extract and beat again for a minute till well incorporated. The mixture may appear curdled but that’s fine. Add baking powder and whisk again.
Turn this batter out over the mincemeat and stir well with spatula to blend uniformly.
Turn into lined loaf pans/baking tins and bake at 140C until the top appears done when you touch it, about 1 hour for the loaf pans, and almost 2-2 1/4 hours for my 15 X 11 tin. {Do keep an eye on the top of the cake. My ovens ‘bake’ setting is just the lower level so the top doesn’t brown too quick. If you find the top browning too soon, please slip a foil loosely over the top about an hour and a half into baking.}
Cool in tin, turn out and wrap in cling-film when cold. Allow to stand and mature in a cool dark place for a day or two, at least overnight. The longer it stands the better the flavours, but we never get that far in my fruit-cake loving household.
Note: You can poke holes on top and pour over some more rum/brandy if you like. In this case, first wrap it in cheesecloth, and then in clingwrap and store in a cool pace.
I wish I had made the apple cake earlier, but I’m SO GLAD I made it when I did! It made for the best dessert we’ve had in a while … fresh baked, almost steaming hot, a cake which unbelievingly delivered perfect light as cloud slices. I added a scraped vanilla bean to the batter, and flaked almonds on top. Despite the cake going through 2 LONG power outages, it still came out slam dunk delicious! That was the first time I made it. I decided to make it again a few days ago, this time as petit fours in individual dessert rings {from my little shop in Old Delhi}, pictured above.Guess what? Yes, power outage again!! Felt like I was on a mission to test this particular cake to its limits. I do bake a lot, an understatement maybe, and rarely face power outages these days. Not this instance though. The cake won the ‘battle of power outage’ again. Everything about Marie Helen’s Apple Cake is wonderful & well balanced – the fruit, the texture, the sweetness, the lightness; above all the power to satisfy. It’s a designated winner in my book; one which I will make over and over again.
I’m pretty sure most of you have baked it in the last few months. If like me, you haven’t, the time is now. Do yourself a favour. Been reading about it on just about every blog under the sun since Dorie’s new book‘Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes From My Home to Yours’ hit the stands. Saw a zillion folk bake it for the French Fridays with Dorie group, and most came out with a wonderful review. I wonder what kept me from baking it sooner?Then Pamela mentioned it over lunch at the French Pastry FestivalsLe Cordon Blue workshop, singing praises of it. I had it on my mind ever since. Dreamt of it that night, yes I have ‘sweet dreams’. I knew it was what I wanted to make for dessert the afternoon as my nephew was coming over for lunch. Life isn’t that easy, and my menu was based on bakes… Chicken, Mushroom & Roasted Pepper Juliene, Buttermilk Cluster Bread and an apple cake. I managed to do all of this at breakneck speed as the power was horribly erratic. Each time I popped the cake in, blink, power cut. It baked in 3 20 minute intervals, with gaps of an hour in between, still came out fabulous. By the time lunch was served, it had baked for the 3rd time … resulting in a nice warm cake for dessert. I let it sit for 10 minutes in the tin, before slicing it.
What a charmer the cake is. Elegant, fuss free, light, delicately flavoured … in one word PERFECT! Very simple to make too. I did read some reviews on Epicurious about increasing flour because of pooling butter etc, but that didn’t happen with me. It was well set and firm after an hour of intermittent baking, and even though I used a 9″ tin instead of an 8″ one, it still looked quite good. I think flaked almonds added a nice touch to the top, and yes, the scraped vanilla bean added beautiful flavour throughout. Vanilla bean is now my favourite baking ingredient and I am so glad India grows some of the finest vanilla beans now. I have had the pleasure of receiving a box of Ecopsice Bourbon vanilla beans from Mia, and they are excellent.
Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake
Minimally adapted from Epicurious Recipe by Dorie Greenspan, Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes From My Home to Yours
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
4 large apples {if you can, choose 4 different kinds}
2 large eggs
3/4 cup vanilla sugar
3 tablespoons dark rum
1 vanilla bean,scraped
1/4 cup slivered almonds
100gms unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Method:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 180C. Generously butter an 8-inch springform pan, or 12 individual dessert rings bottoms lined/sealed with aluminum foil. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and put the springform/ or dessert rings on it.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in small bowl.
Peel the apples, cut them in half and remove the cores. Cut the apples into 1- to 2-inch chunks {cut them slightly smaller for individual bakes}.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until they’re foamy. Pour in the sugar and whisk for a minute or so to blend. Whisk in the rum and scarped vanilla bean.
Whisk in half the flour and when it is incorporated, add half the melted butter, followed by the rest of the flour and the remaining butter, mixing gently after each addition so that you have a smooth, rather thick batter.
Switch to a rubber spatula and fold in the apples, turning the fruit so that it’s coated with batter. Scrape the mix into the pan/rings and poke it around a little with the spatula so that it’s evenish. Sprinkle the top with slivered almonds.
Slide the pan into the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean; the cake may pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack and let rest for 5 minutes. {Individual dessert rings baked for about 30 minutes}.
Carefully run a blunt knife around the edges of the cake and remove the sides of the springform pan. {Open the springform slowly, and before it’s fully opened, make sure there aren’t any apples stuck to it.}
Allow the cake to cool until it is just slightly warm or at room temperature.
If you want to remove the cake from the bottom of the springform pan, wait until the cake is almost cooled, then run a long spatula between the cake and the pan, cover the top of the cake with a piece of parchment or wax paper, and invert it onto a rack. Carefully remove the bottom of the pan and turn the cake over onto a serving dish.
Serving: The cake can be served warm or at room temperature, with or without a little softly whipped, barely sweetened heavy cream or a spoonful of ice cream. Marie-Hélène’s served her cake with cinnamon ice cream and it was a terrific combination. {The cake reheats very well too in the microwave}
“But there’s always a first time for everything”
Melissa de la Cruz
End November, Mum’s birthday, time to bake cake. As I said before, the last quarter of the year is laden with birthdays, anniversaries and celebration. being winter it makes it more fun to bake, as well as to eat! Flavours for a cake are a simple choice as we are a family that is game for any and all flavours in dessert. Coffee and chocolate rule the roost, and I can blindly bake anything that includes either, or both, and we cut the cake singing. But life isn’t that simple. Winter brings visitors to India, and visitors mean added tastes, sometimes those who don’t like chocolate! Oh yes, of those I find plenty these days, amazing but true.
Mum’s friend is here from the UK and she c a n n o t stand chocolate. No summer berries these days, Quark Mousse Cake with Roasted Balsamic Strawberries recently made, so I was left looking for choices. Lemon seemed a nice option, so it was back to the net, and to my bursting bookmarked folder. Oh the choices, but the one I picked was from this beautiful blog, Technicolour Kitchen by Patricia Scarpin. I do love her blog. She posts delicious and interesting baked stuff, with a tale or two thrown in. Her recipes are always make-able, and gorgeously photographed. Browsing her cakes folder brought me to a halt here … Lavender cake with lime curd icing.Yes, this was the one I would try. Lavender because I HAD to use the culinary lavender that Vino Luci aka Barbara sent me from her garden in the US. Utterly whimsical and elegant flavour, and something I’ve been waiting to try again after this beautiful Lavender Mascarpone Cake I had made 2 years ago. Patricia’s cake, a chiffon, was one I have never baked before. Have you baked a chiffon cake before?
A chiffon cake is a very light cake made with vegetable oil, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, and flavorings. In contrast to butter, the traditional fat used in cake making, it is difficult to beat air into oil, so chiffon cakes, like angel cakes and other foam cakes, achieve a fluffy texture by beating egg whites until stiff, and folding them into the cake batter before baking.
It was a new cake experience, a learning curve thrown in too. I baked 2 three egg chiffons. The first was fabulous, and I took a shortcut on the second one. I knew that I should have scrubbed the beaters clean for any traces of yolk, or the whites would misbehave. Didn’t heed the inner warning, and rinsed them in a hurry. Learnt my lesson. Once the yolk batter was ready, the whites in the second chiffon were going nowhere. Uff…bunged them in, and baked a flattish cake, still soft, but not as chiffony as it should have been.
Chiffon…what does it bring to your mind? For me, it brings memories of light summer evenings, with sprinklers on, the waft of wet mud, fireflies in the dark… dim lights and ladies in chiffon sarees at the club houses! yes, we were kids, but the parties in the summer evenings at the services club was full of ladies in beautiful flowing chiffons, clinking glasses, and the forces band playing music in the background! Sigh…etched in memories, those days never came back. Now, I long to drape a saree, but somehow jeans call my name!
Now for the the filling. Lemon curd. Light, tangy, citrusy, delicious … simple and home made too. Ju @ Little Teochewposted some Easy Lemon Curd on her blog a short while ago, and I made and bottled it almost immediately. Used some for lemon tarts that I made for the photo-shoot and froze a jar of the rest. That came down from the freezer for this cake to be whipped into lemon cream {Sorry S…have made more and frozen it since; I remember!!} Mmmm … yes, I did add a vanilla bean to my lemon curd too as the eggphobic feeling continues!
Which comes to whipped lemon curd cream! Hello? No one ever told me this thing is so darned delicious and addictive. I couldn’t stop licking it off the bowl once I was done with the filling and frosting. My word, it had no taste of egg, and was light as a cloud and full of wonderful citrus flavour. I didn’t add much sugar to the whipped cream as the lemon curd is sweet too. The taste was just right. Not cloyingly sweet – wonderful!
I especially went with girly pink colour in the border as it is a fave with my 5 year old niece Amani who was on her last day of her visit to India. She looked at the cake, and said ‘Ooooh, that’s pretty! I ♥ it! Can I smell the flowers please? Mmmm…NICE!!’ She’s a charming little girl, well mannered, sociable, and LOVES company. She and the teen hit it off very well, despite the 10 year age gap, and soon little Amani was having long tel-conversations with all Meher’s friends! I do think she brought my teen down from the clouds for a while! She has a little baby sister who is a year old, is very sweet, but would rather have her Mum than us … her temperament as fiddly as finding feet on macarons {IMHO}!
The cake was a winner. The flavours of lavender, very delicate and mildly fragrant. They complimented the lime beautifully, and the cake vanished in half an hour! The chiffon was excellent too, despite my earlier faux pas, and I liked the way it held the cake up. Looked firm to touch, but was still tender to bite. I think it’s a great sponge to use, and for sure has found a place in my heart! It’s always an inspiring feeling to discover so many new baking methods, and also to know that there’s still so much more to learn!
Patricia, I am SO GLAD I baked this cake, and your commentary on the cake is what had me sold! It’s a fabulous change from chocolate and coffee, and I’m glad I was forced to leave my comfort zone! In Patricia’s words, “Now this combo can go straight to the all time favorites list, with apples + cinnamon and chocolate + hazelnuts. 🙂” … I so agree!
Lavender Chiffon Cake with Whipped Lemon Curd Frosting adapted minimally from Technicolour Kitchen Serves 12-16 Lavender Chiffon Sponge
6 eggs, separated
¼ cup neutral vegetable oil
6 tbsp water
1 ½ cups caster sugar
1 ½ teaspoons dried edible lavender buds
1 1/3 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cream of tartar Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line the bottoms of two 20cm (8in) round cake pans with baking paper; do not grease.
Place 1 cup of the sugar in a food processor, add the lavender buds and process. Sift into a large bowl, discarding the excess lavender.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, oil and water. Set aside.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the sugar and whisk gently to combine. Add the yolk mixture and whisk to form a smooth batter.
Place the egg whites in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer fitted with the whip attachment on medium-high speed until frothy. Slowly add the remaining ½ cup (100g) sugar and the cream of tartar and continue to whip until soft, droopy peaks form. Fold ¼ of the beaten egg whites into the batter, taking care not to deflate the mixture. Gently fold in the remaining whites. Divide the batter among the prepared pans.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden and a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow layers to cool completely in the pans. To remove, run a blunt knife around the edges, invert each pan and tap out the cake onto a wire rack. Carefully peel off the paper. Easy Lemon Curd From Ju @Little Teochew
{I used 1/2 the recipe for this cake. Had used the other half earlier in puff pastry lemon tarts}
200g sugar {depending how sweet or tart you like it}
1 egg
3 egg yolks
120ml fresh lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon zest, or more if you like {depending on how strong you want the flavour of lemon}
50 to 60g unsalted butter {more butter will make it smoother, but at the same time, fattier too … you decide} Method:
In a large bowl, whisk all the ingredients except the butter*. Mix well. Place the bowl over a bain-marie** (water bath) and stir constantly. The mixture may look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks. If you want a more subtle taste of lemon, do not add the zest at this stage. Set aside with the butter.
Once the mixture thickens – it should leave a path on the back of a spoon – turn off the flame and add butter in 2 or 3 additions. If you have not added in your lemon zest, add it in now and stir to mix well.
Allow the curd to cool slightly before transferring to a clean jar or bowl. Make sure it is covered to prevent a skin from forming. Chill in the refrigerator. The curd will thicken further as it cools. Covered tightly, it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.
While the cakes are baking and cooling, make the lime curd and chill completely.
Whipped Lemon Curd Cream Frosting
700ml low fat cream
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
1/2 recipe lemon curd
2-3 tbsps sugar {the lemon curd adds it’s own sweetness too} Method:
Whip the cream and sugar till firm peaks hold. Gently fold the lemon curd through, about 2/3rd to being with, and taste for sweetness, tartness etc. Add the rest if desired, and add sugar if required. Lemon Sugar Syrup:
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 cup water
Juice of 1 lime. Method:
Place all ingredients in a pan, bring to a boil, stir until the sugar is dissolved. take off heat, and allow to cool. To Assemble the Cake
Slice both sponges horizontally to get 4 layers.
Reserve 1/3rd whipped cream for top and sides.
Place one cake layer on a cake stand or serving plate, brush with lemon syrup and spread 1/3rd of the cream for filling.
Repeat with the other 2 layers.
Top with the third cake layer, and frost the top and sides with the remaining cream.
{Mix 1 tsp of lemon curd in any left over cream, and pipe a border etc.} I finished mine with a border of a firm white chocolate ganache coloured pinkish-purple.
“Oh good look its coffee o’clock :))…”
Linda@goodshoeday via twitter
How sweet that tweet was, music to my very ears! I saved it the minute I tripped across it ages ago. I’m a 100% coffee person, and it easily wins hands down as my most favourite flavour in sweet stuff; {garlic holds first place for savoury}. The PAB family is a coffee happy one too, and I am glad the kids are big enough to enjoy the odd coffee doused cake. Year after year, when it comes to my birthday, I always have this coffee cake plan in my head, and the day before, I leave a coffee cake sponge to mature beautifully in the fridge. This year was complete madness! My sis is over from the US with her kids, leaving me hair-brained with no time to plan. So I trashed all plans to bake me a cake…
Mr PAB came back from work, asked if I had baked me a cake {I ALWAYS DO … because I like to}, and I shook my head in negative, in despair and tiredness. He said he’d go and get me one first thing in the morning. Just then the lad said he and his sister would bake me one the next morning…”You just sleep late Mama,” he ordered with a twinkle in his eye! {Words like that are enough to give me sleepless nights!}
I shot out of bed very early in the morning in sheer fright. My kitchen in their hands, a mess that would be unbelievable, one that I would not be able to shriek about … party pooper, yes that’s me. I was in the kitchen in a heartbeat, and back to my books. First stop was Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, but that didn’t have a coffee cake recipe. Coffee coffee coffee…that was the only mantra in my mind, with a cuppa coffee in my hand! Then I leafed through Indulge, which I reviewed for Blogger Aid a while ago. The options seemed far too involved given the time frame… I had to get the cake into the oven before the kids woke up!
My next stop was this beautiful cake decoration book by Roland Mesniers – Basic To Beautiful Cakes that I had won at an event hosted by the Daring Kitchen. My Cinnamon Buttercream Autumn Cake cake got me this gorgeous book which landed at my doorstep, with a sweet note from the ‘daring ladies‘, Lisa ofLa Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice! In January this year, I was inspired to bake this Strawberry Bavarian Cream Cake from the book.
I reached for the index and got to the coffee pages pronto. A Coffee Genoise Sponge – holy yum! This was just the thing.
About the sponge, the author writes, “Mrs Clinton’s Coffee Genoise … Mrs Clinton loved coffee desserts in every form. The Mocha Cake in my book Dessert University was a favourite. Espresso sorbet, served with a cinnamon whipped cream, was another. I turned to this recipe for Coffee Genoise again and again because it is so versatile, and because the genoise, flavoured with instant espresso powder, takes on a strong, pure coffee flavour.”
Just reading the introduction had me walking on clouds, dreaming of coffee nirvana, making me forget everything else but coffee! Pure Coffee Flavour?YES PLEASE! It was even better that my sis had got me a jar on instant espresso powder. I also got a heavy duty angel cake tin {Ahn, I got it, I did!!}, bags of spices from whole foods, chocolate chips, almond meal … never-ending delights, just how I like my goodie bag ! The espresso gave me pure delight, and I had the bowl of water on simmer in no time.
It’s a simple and versatile sponge to make, largely fuss free. It rises thanks to air beaten into it over simmering hot water. Be careful not to release the beaten air as you fold the flour in. The melted butter adds just the right luxury to the crumb… not heavy at all, but moist. It’s a cake we went FAST! Mr PAB didn’t look particularly pleased with the smallish size.
The cake was inspired by a series of bakes I did for a project a short while ago; {will write more about that when and IF it sees light of day}. For the project I made a Kiwi-Strawberry Cream Cake, a Espresso Coffee Cream Cake and a Deep Chocolate with Burgundy Cherries Cake. For two of the cakes I used my trademark scrolls, this time in the lace border again, as it seems to have caught on as my signature style, and I love doing it!
I have to shout out a big thank you to this crazy girl Nachiketa from Crazy Over Desserts, who drove miles down to visit me late at night on my birthday with a cake baked especially for me. A coffee-cinnamon cake, with a chocolate ganache, rum soaked raisins within. A gorgeous cake, with a beautiful card made by her little niece just for me.
SIMPLE COFFEE GENOISE
Adapted minimally from Roland Meisner’s Basic to Beautiful Cakes, pg 190
4 large eggs {I added and extra yolk because the eggs were a medium size}
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp instant espresso powder
1 cup flour
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Method:
Preheat the oven to 190C. Line the bottom and sides of a 8″ spring form round tin. Grease and dust with flour.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar over a bowl of simmering hot water for about 5 minutes till thick and mousse like.
Take off water and continue to beat till the mixture cools down, about 5-7 minutes. Add the espresso and beat in again for a minute.
Fold the flour through gently, in 3 goes, lightly till it’s mixed through well. Be careful not to release the beaten in air.
Take a cup of this batter in another bowl, and mix the melted cooled butter through it. Now gently fold this back into the rest of the batter.
Turn the batter into the prepared baking tin, and bake for 30-35 minutes, till a tester comes out clean.
Filling:
1 tbsp coffee dissolved in 3 tbsp water with 1 tbsp sugar
400ml low fat cream
2 tbsp powdered vanilla sugar
1 tsp coffee essence {or 1 tsp instant coffee}
Method:
Whip together till medium peaks form.
Brush each side of the cake with the coffee syrup, and sandwich with the filling. Resrve any remaining cream for garnishing the top.
Topping:
300ml low fat cream
2-3 tbsp vanilla powdered sugar
1 scant tbsp instant espresso powder
Dark chocolate for garnishing
Method:
Whip together until stiff peaks form. Frost the sides of the cake first, and then the top. Garnish as desired.
♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥
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A reminder for this months MONTHLY MINGLE. If you are BAKING WITH FRUIT this month, do send it in to Monthly Mingle posted HERE. You have until November 23rd, 2010.
A short while ago I revisited one of my all time favourite cake, the Lime Buttermilk Pound Cake and blogged about it. Was thrilled that everyone liked it as much as I did, and received many suggestions for an orange variation on it. I thought that was a great idea, and those comments set me thinking, especially this one from an anonymous reader “Hey Deeba…made the cake 4 times over this weekend…we just couldn’t get enough of it…thanks for such a marvelous recipe…when lemons were over i used orange juice for the glaze……” If the buttermilk lime cake was so good and light on the crumb, then surely chocolate would be as good too, if not better! If you would rather have chocolate instead of citrus, now with the weather getting cooler, this seems a good idea. Just perfect comfort food with that cup of tea or coffee, with milk for the kids, and great for a picnic too! It bakes well and keeps well too. What I have begun to do is to make a 2 egg cake every few days, play around with ingredients here and there to see how much it affects the texture.I have to say that this is a pretty accommodative recipe and responds well to change! I often recall a few words that Sir Colin Marshall said at British Airways where I worked many many moons ago … “Change is the only constant…“. Upon his arrival in 1983, Colin Marshall, the new CEO, wasted no time in commanding dramatic change. His first two years were characterized by ambitious and rapid change. {MIT mentions this in an interesting read on business and change here}. I joined the company 5 years later; the dramatic changes were still underway. The memories have always remained as large as life, the words even more. They’ve been my guiding force for years, and continue to be significant even for something as small as everyday baking too. I counsel myself with these lines; the words often give me hope for tomorrow on a bad day when things aren’t looking all hunky dory. In my kitchen adventures, they egg me on, motivating me to follow my heart. Change? Big change for me at PAB. Reminds me of Peter Parker in Spiderman: ‘Change? Yep. BIG change’. Of late, life has been a little topsy turvy and full of change. Began with a blog redesign by a very talented lady Lauren @ Designer Blogs sometime in June ’10. She taught me to be patient, ever so patient, and to deliver my best, no matter what. She never said no to anything, and assured me a million times that she would load the new look only when I was a 100% happy. If you are looking for a blogger blog redesign do get in touch with her here. I loved what she did for me.
Next we had the kitchen remodeled and it took all of 2 months and a bit, with a lot of heartache thrown in, but in the end it is everything I ever wanted, maybe more. I love it – warm, open, minimalistic with clean lines. Soon enough, another bug bit me … a transfer to WP. I’ve wanted to do that for ages, but didn’t know where to begin from. I got help from many sources {thank you Mayank}, and then it was finally Sarah @ Maison Cupcake who gave me the final push in the right direction, sharing all her knowledge like an open book! I thought I’d try migrating on my own, but time, lack of knowledge and googling led me to Katie @ Lemon Cherry Blogs. She was my knight in shining armour and is working to transfer PAB and tweak the design as I type this post. WP is VERY new for me, and looks like a steep learning curve, but I’ll get there one day. Until I iron out the creases, please bear with me. Thank you Katie, you are the best!
So all that said, here’s my take on the Chocolate Buttermilk Pound Cake, a cake I’ve made three times over the last 10 days with great results. The first time with the recipe as below, the second time with 75gms butter and 25gms olive oil, with ¼ cup whole wheat flour in place of all purpose, and no ganache to cut down the calories. I was just curious to see how it would taste.Needless to say, it was moist and delicious! I did a third attempt with pistachios and that was wonderful too.
Chocolate Buttermilk Pound Cake
Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup cocoa powder {I heaped it}
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature{or 70gms butter & 30gms olive oil}
1 cup vanilla or plain sugar
2 eggs
100ml buttermilk {or substitute recipe below}
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
To make buttermilk substitute at home:
Take 100ml milk at room temp; add 1 tsp white vinegar. Let it stand 5-10 minutes. When it curdles, it’s ready.
Method:
Grease and flour the sides of a 8″ ring tin, or a 6″ round tin. Line the bottom. {I play safe line the sides too}.
Preheat the oven to 170C.
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. {Stir in chopped nuts at this point if you like. Walnuts, almonds and pistachios go well with chocolate. Hazelnuts too.}
Bake for 50-60 minutes till golden brown on top, and the tester comes out clean.
Meanwhile, make the glaze…
Ganache
100gms dark chocolate
3 tbsps low fat cream {might need a little more}
Method:
Gently simmer the two over low heat, stirring constantly until the chocolate melts. Take off heat and stir briskly till nice and shiny. The glaze should be nice and thick, yet of flowing consistency. Add a little cream if the glaze is too thick, or a little chocolate if it is too thin. It will continue to thicken as it cools down.
Finishing off…
Overturn the cake out gently on rack, and remove the lining. Turn it back on another rack. Let it cool for about 15-20 minutes. Pour the glaze evenly over the hot cake, coaxing it all around, letting some drip over the sides. Dust the edges with chocolate shavings if you like.
