notes from my food diary

After one month of hiatus, I’m bravely saying that I’m coming back to baking and posting recipes in this blog.  I’m so happy to be able to see my cooking and baking books safely tucked in bookshelves!  Their locations are now downstairs in the kitchen instead of upstairs in the family room.  I changed it because I want them to be available within reach and I also didn’t want to go back and up the stairs with books anymore.  They’re heavy as books can be. 

As I mentioned before, my house was remodeled almost completely, but my kitchen stayed intact since my budget wouldn’t permit kitchen remodeling at this moment.  But because the wall is now completely without the outdated wallpapers and they’re freshly painted, I feel preety energized working in my kitchen again.  There were some times that I couldn’t cook anything during the remodeling and the mess was almost overwhelming to clean.  My husband missed my home cooking and in the end I wanted so badly to eat homemade bread, cakes, and other sweets.  Not everyone was happy during the chaos but it all ended well

I wanted to post this carrot cake because I made it for my birthday back in the beginning of August.  I brought it for a picnic and it was a hit there, my friends made a comment of me always baking a birthday cake to myself   I really enjoyed baking so for me it’s not inconvinience at all.  This recipe is a slightly different carrot cake in which the cake has blackberries in it.  I wanted to marry the berries with the spice and tangy flavor of carrots and found that it wasn’t a bad choice to have.  The sourness of blackberries contrasts well with the not so sweet cake and it is also a very tender and moist cake.  Of course if you don’t want to use blackberries, you’re welcome to pair it with raspberry or blueberry.  When I made it for the picnic, I made a 9×13-inch cake with cream cheese icing on top.  Originally it was a two layer cake with the icing in between.  Any which way you make it, you won’t dissapoint anyone.

Carrot-Blackberry Loaf Cake

Makes one 2-layer 8-inch cake, two 8×4 x 3-inch loaves, one 9×13 x 2-inch cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup orange juice

4 eggs

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla exctract

2 cups grated caroots

1 cup frozen blackberries, thawed

Preheat oven to 350 degree F.  Grease and flour or line the pan or pans of your choice with parchment paper, set aside.

In an electric mixer combine all ingredients except carrots and blackberries.  Beat until well blended, about 2 minutes on medium speed.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to be sure all ingredients are incorporated.  Beat again until light in color for 2 to 3 minutes.

Stir in carrots and blackberries.  Pour batter into prepared pan or pans.

For the layer cake, bake for 35 to 40 minutes.  For loaves, bake 50 to 55 minutes.  For rectangular cake, bake about 40 to 45 minutes.  For any of the pan, test the cake with a tester until it comes out with fine crumbs clinging to it.  Remove pan or pans from the oven.  Cool cake/cakes in the pan/pans on wire cooling racks for 10 to 15 minutes.  Carefully remove cake/cakes from the pan/pans and continue to cool on wire cooling racks.  Remove and discard parchment.

If making a layer cake:  level off tops of cake layers.  Place one layer, cut side up, on a cake plate.  Spread a layer of frosting over the cake layer.  Place other layer, cut side down, onto bottom layer.  Using a metal spatula, frost the outside of the cake with remaining cream cheese frosting.  Start at the top and continue to spread frosting onto the sides of the cake.  Refrigerate cake.  Garnish with grated carrots, blackberries, and a sprinkle of cinnamon if you like.  Serve at room temperature.

If making loaf cakes or rectangular cake:  just spread the cream cheese icing over the top of the cakes and garnish as you like.  You will have leftover frosting, another reason to bake some more!

Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes enough to fill and frost a two-layer 9-inch round cake

16 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 pound unsalted butter, softened

About 3 cups confectioners’ sugar

In an electric mixer, blend together cream cheese and butter.  Whip on medium-high speed for 3 to 4 minutes, or until fluffy. 

On low speed, gradually add confectioners’ sugar until well blended and smooth.  Taste it, if you think it’s not sweet enough, add confectioners’ sugar by 1/4 cup until it reaches the sweetness you like.  Use immediately or store, refrigerated, in an airtight container.  Let frosting come to room temperature before using.

Source:  adapted from Sweet Maria’s Big Baking Bible 

Any bake sale you need to tackle this summer?  Then I suggest this Cherry-Almond Coffee Cake.  This is a pretty simple recipe, the only thing that you have to in advance is the cherry filling.  Other than that, the whole cake won’t take you half a day to finish.  I don’t know if I made a big boo-boo by using whole wheat pastry flour in the making, but I just realized that while preparing this cake I run out of all-purpose flour.  The first thing that popped in my mind was the pastry flour, even though I have cake flour.  I decided to use 1 cup of the pastry flour to replace half of the all-purpose flour and worried about the result later.  The cake turned out just fine and the crumbs actually are tender and moist.  The color is slightly off for the cake, because the pastry flour was whole wheat, but the taste are good.  Some people might look down on my mistake, but I didn’t regret it at all   It’s all new discovery for me. 

The filling in the original recipe called for frozen sour cherries but I still had leftover cherries soaked in kirsch from making Black Forest cake, so I used them in this cake.   I wouldn’t know for a million that they would taste good as a filling in coffee cake hadn’t I tried it. 

I’m in the mood of baking and writing this week, especially since I’m on summer break.  My work finished on Tuesday and altough I’ve been mostly home this week, I’m liking it because I have time to do things I’ve neglected while I’m working.  But I’m still not in the mood of working in my yard.  If I have to choose hard between yard work and baking, I give my heart 100% to baking!  I love pretty flowers and the like but I don’t understand why weeds keep coming back even though I’ve pulled them million times before   Hopefully in the coming weeks I have the courage to kill some weeds…

Cherry-Almond Coffee Cake

Yields one 9-inch tube cake

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

1 cup Cherries in Kirsch (recipe follows), or 1 cup frozen sour cherries, thawed and drained well

1/3 cup slivered almonds

Milk Glaze (recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 350 degree F.  Butter a 9-inch tube pan; set aside.  In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.  Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the sour cream and beginning and ending with the flour.  Beat until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Spoon about half the batter into the prepared pan.  Arrange the cherries in a single layer on top of the batter; avoid placing any cherries against the pan’s edge, as they may stick or burn if not fully encased in batter.  Top with the remaining batter, making sure it is evenly distributed, and smooth with an offset spatula.  Sprinkle the almonds evenly over the top of batter.

Bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back when touched, 40-45 minutes.  Transfer the pan to a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet, and let the cake cool 10 to 15 minutes.  Invert the cake onto the rack, then reinvert (so almond side is up), and let cool completely.  Spoon the glaze over the cake, letting it drip down the sides.  Let the cake sit until the glaze is set, about 5 minutes, before serving.  Cake can be kept at room temperature, wrapped well in plastic, for up to 4 days.

Cherries in Kirsch

1 cup jarred sour cherries in syrup, drained

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup kirsch

Simmer cherries with sugar in small saucepan over medium heat until mixture is thickened and measured about 1/4 cup.  Off the heat, stir the kirsch.

Milk glaze

1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons milk

In a medium bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar and milk until completely smooth.  Immediately glaze over cake.

Source:  adapted from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook

Phewww…I finally had a time to sit down and wrote a post about my husband birthday cake.  This cake was meant to be made and eaten the day my husband had his birthday but because he wasn’t feeling very well at the time, he wasn’t in the mood of eating a cake.  So I postponed it for a few days and made the cake layers in Saturday.  Decorated the cake on Sunday and we’re able to eat it right then.  His birthday was special this year because he turned the golden year and since we decided till next year to really enjoy a special celebration, I decided to bake him a cake good enough to eat this year   Something I’ve actually never tried before, typical of me, always wait until the good time to have a disaster.  But this is no disaster cake though.

This in fact is one of the best cakes I’ve ever made.  The chocolate layer cakes are moist, partly due to the syrup, but I think sour-cream based cake (also know as Devil’s Food Layer Cake here in this recipe) is moister than others, for example sponge or genoise cake.  The choice of using Devil’s Food layer cake may be different than other Black Forest cake recipes but I like this choice very much.  The sweetness is just right, both in the cake and in the frosting.  I wouldn’t use too bitter of a chocolate shaving next time because I thought it kinda takes the attention away from the cake.  Now, the frosting uses a cooked cornstarch, sugar and heavy cream method which I’ve never done before, but it certainly helps the whipped cream frosting to stand tall for a few days.  I know the use of gelatin in the whipped cream frosting but it seems that the cornstarch method works as well.  I couldn’t taste any cooked cornstarch associated with the method in the frosting.  No other complaints registered in my mind anymore.

So try away and get away with a slice of the cake!

BLACK FOREST CAKE
Makes 9-inch three-layered cake

Cherries and syrup:
2 cups jarred sour cherries in light syrup, drained with 1 cup syrup reserved
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar
1/2 cup kirsch or other cherry flavored liqueur

Whipped cream frosting:
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
3 cups heavy cream, chilled
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 recipe Devil’s Food Layer Cake, baked and cooled, but unfrosted, recipe below 
Chocolate shaving (see note), for serving


FOR THE CHERRIES AND SYRUP: Reserve 8 of the prettiest cherries for garnish in a small bowl. Slice the remaining cherries in half and place in a medium bowl. Simmer the reserved cherry syrup and sugar together in a medium saucepan over medium heat until mixture is thickened and measure about 1/2 cup, 8 to 10 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the kirsch.

Toss 1 tbsp of the syrup with the cherries reserved for garnish. Toss 3 tbsp more syrup with the halved cherries. Poke the top of the cake layers thoroughly with a wooden skewer and brush with the remaining syrup.

FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM:  Whisk the sugar and the cornstarch together in a small saucepan and slowly whisk in 1/2 cup of the cream. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickened,2-3 minutes. Let the mixture cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

In a large bowl, whip the remaining 2 1/2 cups cream and the vanilla together with an electric mixer on low speed until frothy, about 30 seconds. Increase the mixer speed to medium and continue to whip the mixture until it begins to thickened, about 30 seconds. Slowly add the cooled cornstarch mixture and continue to whip until the mixture forms soft peak, 1-3 minutes.

Line the edges of a cake platter with strip of parchment paper to keep the platter clean while you assemble the cake. Place one of the cake layers on the platter. Spread 1/2 cup of the whipped cream over the top, right to the edge of the cake, then cover with half of the sliced cherries. Repeat with another cake layer, 1/2 cup more whipped cream, and the remaining sliced cherries. Place the remaining cake layer on top and press lightly to adhere. Frost the cake with the remaining whipped cream.

Refrigerate the cake until it absorbs the soaking syrup, at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours. Before serving, let the cake sit at room temperature, 30-60 minutes, then gently press the chocolate shavings into the sides of the cake. Evenly space 8 small pile of chocolate shavings around the top of the cake and top each with a cherry. Remove the parchment strip from the platter before serving.

NOTE:  Be sure to buy jarred or canned cherries packed in syrup, not water. You will need about 7 ounces of chocolate for the shavings to decorate the sides and top of the cake. Letting the cake to sit at least 2 hours before serving allows the soaking syrup to sink in and the flavors to meld; however in a pinch, you could serve it right away.
 

DEVIL’S FOOD LAYER CAKE


1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups boiling water
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 tsp instant espresso or instant coffee
10 tbsp (11/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

Adjust the oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 3 9-inch round cake pan, then dust with cocoa powder and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk the boiling water, chocolate, 1/2 cup of the cocoa powder, and instant espresso together until smooth.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3-6 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla until incorporated.

Reduced the speed to low and beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/2 of the chocolate mixture. Repeat with half of the remaining flour mixture and the remaining chocolate mixture. Beat in the remaining flour mixture until just incorporated.

Give the batter the final stir with a rubber spatula to make sure it is thoroughly combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans, smooth the tops, and gently tap the pans on the counter to settle the batter. Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 15-20 minutes, rotating and switching the pans halfway thorough baking

Source:  adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

I will come back with more baking and recipes, but in the meantime enjoy my Currant-Orange Pound Cake with Orange Liqueur Glaze which appears in Desserts Magazine Issue #8.  Click here to access the online magazine with my recipe in it.

Matcha castella was done, now it’s chocolate castella’s turn.  This time the recipe is different too, I honestly don’t know which one resemble the original castella recipe.  This recipe doesn’t use vegetable oil so it’s not quite as dense as the matcha castella.  Quite spongy and not too bad actually.  But from the reviews I’ve read, castella is supposed to be quite dense, kind of like pound cake but not that heavy.  This reminded me a lot of Asian style sponge cake which is sometime made into a roll cake.  Maybe this is not the true castella-style cake, but luckily my family accepted this cake just fine  

The recipe could be found here.