notes from my food diary

Between birthday, anniversary, and graduation, this month is especially packed with things to do and to remember.  We had our wedding anniversary three days ago, my hubby had his birthday two days ago, and my son graduated from kindergarten yesterday.  I was wiped out this weekend.  All I wanted to do was to take a nap all afternoon long.  But before I do that, I wanted to post these sinfully delicious cake photos. 

I made this cake in two days so hubby could eat it by his birthday.  My inspiration was from Mandy, who made this wonderful cake and posted it in her blog, Fresh from the Oven.  Many thanks Mandy!  This was truly a refreshing cake and tasty too.  Hubby loves mangoes, in fact our whole family loves it too, so without a doubt, a mango mascarpone mousse cake would fit the bill as the perfect birthday cake.

I made the cake in a 9" cake pan and I only changed a bit from the original recipe.  I increased the amount of lime juice required in the mousse and the mirror because I liked them a bit sour than sweet.  Overall, the cake was not hard to prepare, though my sponge cakes shrinked quite a bit.  They’re taste great otherwise.  I’d love to make a different version of this cake using different fruits, if possible, in the future.  Another recipe that definitely earned a place in my favorite recipes list.

So hop over to Mandy’s blog and find Mango Mascarpone Mousse Cake for the recipe!

Would it wonderful if you make this cake for a well-deserved mom/grandmother/to-be mom on Mother’s Day? It’s quite simply a bundt cake with strawberries in it and decorated with fresh strawberries. Don’t forge the whipped cream. It just put a finishing touch to a slice of cake. Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms/grandmas/to-be moms!

Berry Bundt Cakes
Serves 12

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3 cups plus 1 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
1 cup whole fresh strawberries
Whipped cream, optional

Preheat the oven to 350^oF. Grease and lightly flour a 12-cup bundt pan.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract. The mixture will be firm.

In another large bowl, sift together the 3 cups of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Gradualy add this to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk. Toss the sliced strawberries with the remaining 1 tablespoon flour, and fold them into the batter.

Scrape the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake in the center of the oven until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out just clean, 1 1/4 hours.

Let the cake cool in the pan over a cooling rack for about 10 minutes. Invert the cake into the cooling rack and let it completely. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and decorate with whole fresh strawberries in the center. Offer a slice with whipped cream.

Source: adapted from U.S.A. Cookbook by Sheila Lukins

Ever since I saw Nicole’s post about Champagne Chiffon Cake, I was intrigued to try the recipe. I like chiffon cake, it’s light yet not so sweet like angel food cake. I’ve had success making chiffon cake before therefore I was excited to see a bottle of pink champagne was almost halfway gone, thanks to hubby Today was perfect to make it because I wanted to submit this post for Easter Bake, Round 2 which is hosted by Julia at A Slice of Cherry Pie. She’s having Easter bake event annually and it ends on March 31, 2008.

I know that my cake doesn’t portray as much as Easter feeling as I would like. But I felt that the type of the cake would be good to have during spring time. Chiffon cake, pink champagne, I’m thinking of brunch already. I’ve had this without any adornments but a champagne is a must.

Champagne Chiffon Cake
Makes one cake. Serves 12-14

2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar (superfine is best, regular is fine), divided
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup pink champagne
5 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
7 large egg yolks
7 large egg whites, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 325F. Get out a 10-inch tube pan, but do not grease it.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, the sugar (reserving 2 tbsp), baking powder and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk together in the champagne, vegetable oil, vanilla and egg yolks, then pour into the dry ingredients and whisk until just smooth.

In another large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Add in the remaining 2 tbsp of sugar gradually, starting when the whites begin to get foamy.
Once the egg whites have reached stiff peaks (better to be a bit soft than overbeaten), gently whisk 1/4 of the egg whites into the champagne batter to lighten it. Gently, working in two additions, fold the remaining beaten whites into the champagne batter until no streaks of egg white foam remain visible and the batter is a uniform color. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl well.

Pour into the ungreased tube pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, until the top of the cake springs back when gently touched and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Invert cake over a bottle (or onto a wire rack if your pan has “feet” to hold it up) and let cool completely. Once cooled, run a knife around the edges and turn cake out onto a serving platter. Store in an airtight container.

Serve with champagne, if desired.

Source: adapted from Baking Bites

I received a small award from Nina a while ago. I apologize to Nina for not acknowledging it quickly enough. I tried to find the post in her blog but I couldn’t click anything on her blog thus I couldn’t search the previous posts or even post a comment. Nina, if you read this, forgive me for procrastinating too long!

Now, the reason I was so busy for these past few weeks was that I baked quite a bit, got caught up with a flurry of emails and basically running errands almost every day. No wonder I felt very tired and neglected this blog for a while. One of the things that I baked was a white chocolate cheesecake with blueberries, I brought the cheesecake to work and this lead to an order by my co-workers to her small weekend gathering. I was very happy to be able to sell my baked goods to appreciative people like her. The other thing that came up was I was asked to release one of my photos for commercial purpose that was taken last month in Eugene. I was there with my husband and son for Asian Celebration. The photos were posted in my Flickr account and one caught the attention of the marketing manager for the Lane Events Center, the Fairground where the celebration is usually held each year. She wanted to use my photo for a press kit she’s doing at the end of the year to send to some publications for the next year Asian Celebration. If you want to take a peek at the photo you could click here. This was one happy note after another!

Since I had a leftover of cream cheese and my family didn’t get to taste the cheesecakes I made, I had to make something to make them happy too. My husband was actually begging me! So here is a simple recipe to make for leftover cream cheese. This recipe was taken from Alex Goh’s cheesecake book which I had good results so far. The only problem with this particular recipe was that it didn’t specify what size of loaf pan to use. I used the regular 9×5 x 3-inch. The time of baking was slightly off for me since I used light-colored pan which resulted in longer baking time. As a result of that too, the sides of the loaf got darkened faster. For that, the remedy was to tent the loaf with aluminum foil. The combination of something salty and sweet actually goes together quite nicely in this loaf. It is especially good when just coming out of the oven, though it will crumble in your hands, the texture is delightful, moist and tender. Any leftover should be good toasted lightly before being consumed.

Butter Cream Cheese Loaf
Yields one 9×5 x 3-inch loaf

Ingredients A:
250 g unsalted butter
220 g granulated sugar
150 g cream cheese

Ingredients B:
4 large eggs

Ingredients C:
80 g sharp Cheddar cheese, grated, set aside 1/4 cup to sprinkle on top

Ingredients D:
50 g whole milk

Ingredients E:
220 g all-purpose flour
50 g cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder

Cream (A) until light and fluffy. Add (B) and cream until light and smooth.

Add© and mix until well combined.

Sieve (E) ingredients together. Add part of (D) and then part of sieved (E) ingredients alternately while stirring in between each addition. Mix until well incorporated.

Pour it onto greased and lined loaf tin. Sprinkle some grated sharp Cheddar cheese that was put aside on top. Bake at 180 degree C for 50 minutes or until done. Do a skewer test, the skewer should come out clean from the middle of the loaf. Cool in rack for 10 minutes. Release from the pan and let cool in rack.

Source: adapted from Alex Goh’s Cheesecake book

I’m very excited to see that there is a food event hosted by Johanna over at The Passionate Cook with a theme that I have a perfect recipe I want to try. The event is called Waiter There is Something In My... and this month’s theme is terrine.

I’ve been waiting for the right moment to try this recipe because it is something unusual, ingenious creation that looks complicated. The recipe came from a book called Holiday Baking by Sara Perry and Leigh Beisch. Ms Perry is a regular columnist in the Oregonian, Portland’s daily newspaper. She is a local author so it seems fitting that I chose her recipe to represent Pacific Northwest in the event. Hey, I didn’t get anything for endorsing her but I enjoy her column in the newspaper and I enjoyed reading her books too. I know the holiday is over, so why on earth I’m trying a recipe that’s written for it? For me the way this dessert is made is very creative and clever which twists an ordinary brownies and custard into an extraordinary dessert. It is invented by a former Northwest chef called Jeremy Karp. He called this concoction a bread pudding, but Ms Perry countered that this was not a simple bread pudding. It’s very rich, very satisfying, it’ll make you say “More!”, especially if you like chocolate and brownie and custard, altogether

Instruction-wise the technique is quite simple. First, make the brownies, a dark and cakey brownies good enough to be eaten alone. The brownies then will be cut into small cubes that are stacked into a terrine. Second, make a rich chocolate custard, make sure you use the Cognac, it’s really the ingredient that is not optional in my opinion. Pour this into the brownie-filled terrine and bake it au-bain-marie. Voilà...the chocolate brownie terrine is done! It’s time consuming but I don’t mind. I don’t mind because I could imagine—restlessly though—eating a slice of it. The satisfaction of devouring it alone or with anything else—white chocolate ganache is suggested or vanilla ice cream—I’m always ready.

As the name implied in the title, let’s hope I’m not too late to start the new year with a winning dessert…

Start-the-New-Year-with-Chocolate Brownie Terrine
Serves 14 to 16

Brownies
1 1/3 cups cake flour
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

Custard
3/4 cup milk
1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
8 ounces high-quality bittersweet chocolate, broken into small pieces
4 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Cognac (optional)

Powdered sugar for dusting

To make the brownies: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 13-by-9-by-2-inch baking pan with cooking spray. To make the brownies easier to remove, line the pan lenghtwise with a 17-by-8-inch sheet of parchment paper and use the overhang as handles. Lightly grease the parchment and set aside.

Into a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt, then lightly whisk. Break the eggs into a small bowl, and add the vanilla, but do not mix.

In a stand mixer set on low speed, beat the butter until creamy, about 30 seconds. On medium speed, beat in the sugar until light and fluffy. On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the egg mixture in 2 additions until well blended, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the top springs back when lightly touched and a toothpick in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool. Cut into 1-inch cubes. Leave the cubes out to dry, exposed to the air, for 6 to 8 hours or overnight.

To make the custard: Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter a 2-quart porcelain terrine mold, a bread pan, a soufflé dish, or any other container that catches your fancy. Prepare a water bath by placing a terry-cloth washcloth in the bottom of a roasting pan or similar pan, and place the terrine on top of it. (This prevents the dish from sliding, insulates the bottom of the terrine, and helps prevent overcooking.) Set aside.

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the milk, cream, and sugar just to a simmer. Meanwhile, place the chocolate in a medium bowl. Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate. Let stand for 3 to 4 minutes, then whisk until smooth.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, and Cognac, if desired, then slowly whisk this mixture into the chocolate until just combined. Scrape any foam off the top and discard.

To assemble: Tightly arrange the brownie cubes in the prepared mold, leaving room at the top for the custard to cover them. Pour the custard over the brownies and let satnd. Using a large spoon, poke and press the brownies to make sure they are well saturated. Add more custard, if necessary, to rise above the brownies (they’ll absorb liquid as they bake).

Using oven mitts, pull out the middle oven shelf partway, and place the prepared roasting pan on it. Carefully pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to reach halfway up the sides of the terrine. Bake until an isntant-read thermometer inserted in the middle reads 170°F, about 90 minutes. Check after 60 minutes, then keep checking intermittently. The finished terrine will be very firm. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until well chilled.

To remove the terrine, place the baking dish in a warm water bath for a few minutes, then invert it onto a cutting board or serving platter. Use a stencil or dust freely with powdered sugar. Allow the terrine to come to room temperature before slicing.

Source: Holiday Baking by Sara Perry and Leigh Beisch