Snickers Cheesecake July 13, 2008

This cheesecake recipe was adopted from Baking Bites.  This is my first cheesecake I have made (besides the bite-sized ones).  I was impressed on how it turned out.  I was worried about it being too dry, but it wasn’t by any means.  Then next time I want to try swirling some chocolate/caramel into the actual cheesecake and also to add more snicker pieces.  I made my own crust using peanuts, animal crackers and butter and baked the crust for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Snickers Cheesecake

(Ingredients adopted from:  Baking Bites, Instructions from:  Serious Eats)

24 oz cream cheese, softened

1/1/4 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup sour cream

1 bag fun size Snickers

1. Put a kettle of water on to boil.

2. Working in a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until it is soft and lives up to the creamy part of its name, about 4 minutes.   With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition—you want a well-aerated batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the sour cream and/or heavy cream.

3. Put the foil-wrapped springform pan in the roaster pan.

4. Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that nothing has been left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and scrape the batter into the springform pan. The batter will reach the brim of the pan. (If you have a pan with lower sides and have leftover batter, you can bake the batter in a buttered ramekin or small soufflé mold.) Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan.

5. Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top will be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan. Turn off the oven’s heat and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon. Allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.

6. After 1 hour, carefully pull the setup out of the oven, lift the springform pan out of the roaster—be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum foil—remove the foil. Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.

7. When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and chill the cake for at least 4 hours, although overnight would be better.

Serving:Remove the sides of the springform pan—I use a hairdryer to do this (use the dryer to warm the sides of the pan and ever so slightly melt the edges of the cake)—and set the cake, still on the pan’s base, on a serving platter. The easiest way to cut cheesecake is to use a long, thin knife that has been run under hot water and lightly wiped. Keep warming the knife as you cut slices of the cake.

Storing: Wrapped well, the cake will keep for up to 1 week in the refrigerator or for up to 2 months in the freezer. It’s best to defrost the still-wrapped cheesecake overnight in the refrigerator.

A Taste of Light: Opéra Cake - - May’s Daring Baker’s Challenge May 28, 2008

I first want to apologize for the formatting of this post.   WordPress is driving me nuts and I have no more patience or time to keep screwing around with the formatting.  Formatting is a big pet peeve for me, so it’s not easy going public with a post that looks like this!  Hopefully next post will go better.

Thanks to the Daring Baker’s founders Lis and Ivonne for hosting this month’s challenge along with Fran and Shea, new members who agreed to co-host.  I will have to say, if I never joined this group of bakers, I would have never attempted the Oprea Cake. 

For the full recipe click here. 

This cake is made up of five elements:

Joconde:  The base of an Opéra Cake is a thin sponge cake that is made using nut meal, traditionally almond meal (finely ground blanched almonds).

Syrup:  The joconde is flavoured with a sugar syrup that can be flavoured to suit your tastes.

Buttercream:  The first two layers of the joconde are covered in a rich buttercream. This particular buttercream is made with a syrup, eggs and butter.

Ganache/Mousse (optional):  In some recipes, the final layer of the joconde is covered in a ganache or mousse. While not hard to make, this makes the recipe quite involved. We are giving Daring Bakers the option of either using the buttercream to cover the final layer or, if they’re feeling up to it, to go ahead and make the ganache/mousse.

Glaze:  The final step to an Opéra Cake is the glaze that gives the cake a very finished and elegant appearance.

 

Here are the flavors I used for my five different elements:

Joconde:  Ground Oatmeal (I was not about to spend $13 for a small bag of almond meal at the store and didn’t have time to make my own.)

Syrup:  Vanilla

Buttercream:  Caramel (I used the recipe from the Perfect Party Cake but used brown sugar instead of white and added caramel ice cream topping.)

Ganache/Mousse:  Irish Cream

Glaze:  I stuck with the recipe, white chocolate

 

I really enjoyed making and eating this cake.  It was nice to be able to make each different part ahead of time and then putting it all together a different day (which didn’t take long at all!).  I would make this cake again, but of course trying new flavors. 

I would say my 4th Daring Baker’s Challenge has been a success!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cannoli Cake May 2, 2008

I got this cake recipe from Cream Puffs in Venice.  I unfortunately didn’t have the Grand Marnier or Frangelico (and didn’t want to run out and buy them just for this recipe) to add to the filling which I’m sure would have made this cake even better, but it still turned out very good and was a nice change from the same old vanilla or chocolate cake.  This is a fairly simple cake to make and it was nice to just sprinkle a little powdered sugar over the top instead of taking time to decorate.

Just to let my blog fans know, this is my last post for at least a week as I’ll be heading out on vacation.  Before I leave I want to thank all of you who visit my blog frequently for taking interest and for all your comments and for those of you who may be checkin’ out my blog for the first time, welcome!

Cannoli Cake
(Recipe from:  Cream Puffs in Venice)

Ingredients for cake:

6 large eggs, separated
1 large egg yolk
pinch of salt
1 cup plus 1/3 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. almond extract
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. cold water
finely grated zest of one orange (I omitted this also)

Ingredients for filling:

125 g. cream cheese, softened (4 oz)
225 g. ricotta cheese (7.5 oz)
2 tbsp. Nutella
1 tsp. Grand Marnier (optional)
1 tsp. Frangelico (optional)
1 cup icing sugar (pwd sugar)
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
icing sugar for dusting (pwd sugar)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. and grease and flour a 9 or 10-inch springform pan.

Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and add the pinch of salt. Beat whites until foamy. Increase mixer speed to medium and continue beating the whites while gradually adding 1 cup of the sugar. You want the whites to beat into soft peaks (don’t overbeat). Set aside.

In a clean bowl, beat the egg yolks with remaining 1/3 cup sugar, the flour, the baking powder, the vanilla and almond extracts and the cold water until smooth. Add the orange zest. The mixture might appear stiff or very thick but don’t worry.

Gently fold in the egg whites until you have a well mixed batter.

Spoon the batter into the springform pan and bake in the middle of the oven for about 35 minutes. The top of the cake will be golden and it will spring back when pressed.

Remove the cake to a wire rack and cool completely before releasing the cake from the springform pan.

To make the filling, beat the cream cheese, the ricotta, the Nutella, the Grand Marnier and Frangelico (if using), until smooth. Gradually add the icing sugar and then stir in the chocolate chips. Set aside.

Carefully divide the cake into two equal layers. Set the bottom layer on your cake tray or serving plate. Spread the filling over the cake bottom. If it’s a bit loose, refrigerate the cake bottom for about 10 minutes to firm up the filing. Top the filling with the second layer of the cake and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Just before serving, dust the cake with icing sugar.

Perfect Party Cake - Daring Baker’s March Challenge March 30, 2008

This challenge looked like a fun one, especially because it invovled lemon, which is not a flavor I use often, especially in a cake.  It turned out pretty good, although I prefer chocolate over almost anything, but my taste buds are always up for something new!

Morven from Food Art and Random Thoughts was the host of this month’s challenge.  Unlike the french bread from January, we could ‘play around’ with this recipe by adding different flavors as long as it was the basic cake and buttercream recipe.  It also had to be a layer cake.  I decided on going with the original recipe.  If I take anything away from making this cake it will be that I figured out what went wrong when I made the marshmellow frosting that I attempted for my Chocolate Peppermint Stick Marshmallow Fantasy Cake back in December.  I was really excited when I realized that, it was so simple, I just didn’t heat the egg white mixture enough.   I didn’t want ‘em to scorch :) 

Perfect Party Cake

(Recipe from:  Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours (page 250))

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut

Getting Ready
Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Buttercream
Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.
The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.
Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.
During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla.
You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake
Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half.
Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.
Spread it with one third of the preserves.
Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream.
Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover).
Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top.
Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Banana Chip Pound Cake March 8, 2008

I had some sour cream that needed to be used up and I knew I had some bananas in the freezer that needed to be turned into something so what else to do with them except get out the handy dandy mixer and do some baking!  I didn’t start mixing everything till 8:30 on a Wednesday night, which is a late start for me, but my husband and I wanted to go to our Wednesday night service at church (Faith), which is what we did and therefore I couldn’t start till later.  I must say it was worth it, for one, going to Faith, great service and two, baking the pound cake, it was excellent!  Some of the batter spilled out of one of the pans in the oven (a couple minutes after my husband said, “That is smelling really good!”  I hear “Yuck!”…oops) and I got a little impatient and pulled the loaves out a bit too early but other than that the baking went smooth.  I woke up the morning after and could still smell a hint of the burnt smell in the house!  Great way to wake up, but knowing that the cake was cooled and ready to be eaten made up for it!  Mmmm…very moist and fluffy.  Banana and chocolate, another one of my favorite combos.  Thanks to Justin who kindly wrapped the loaves after they cooled.  I knew he was staying up late working anyway and I wanted get some sleep! 

Banana Chip Pound Cake

(Original recipe from:  Peabody)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese (or 1/4 c. sour cream + 1/4 c. cream cheese)

6 oz unsalted butter, at room temp.

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 ripened bananas, pureed

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 250.  Grease & flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.  Combine the sour cream and mascarpone cheese (or substitute) in a small bowl and set aside.

Using a standing mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter with the cinnamon on high speed until soft and creamy, about 1 minute.  Slowly add the sugar, 1 Tbsp at a time, beating continuously on high speed.  It should take 5 to 10 minutes to add the sugar.  The mixture should be light, fluffy and creamy white in color.  Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. 

Add the eggs, one at a time.  Be sure each egg is completely incorporated and scrape down the sides of the bowl before adding the next.

Add one third of the flour mixture to the batter and beat until it is just incorporated.  Add one third of the cheese mixture and mix until just incorporated.  Repeat adding flour then cheese explained above, two times.  Fold in the bananas and chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Cool in the pan on a rack for 5-10 minutes, then remove from pan and set on rack to cool. 

FYI:  This is the second time I’ve made this recipe, if that tells you how much I liked it.  The first time I cut into the cake when it was still warm and it crumbled quite a bit, so if you want clean cuts, wait to let it cool thoroughly, but it was tasty right out of the oven also.  Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Dad! February 18, 2008

I was put in charge of the cake for my dad’s birthday, which was Sunday.  I know he loves his Ice Cream Malt Shakes, so I decided to make a Malt Cake.  The malt flavor didn’t come out as much as I would have liked it to, but it was still good!  Very moist even with using the Weight Watcher’s Diet Coke cake recipe.  I used the icing recipe that Paula Deen used on her Chocolate Malt Cake, which is a very rich icing, almost too much for my taste. 

The whole family enjoyed this cake, even my little but bigger brother (yes, I’ll admit, he is now at least 3 or 4 inches taller than me,  but I’m still stronger!) with his two heaping scoops of chocolate ice cream on the side. 

Chocolate Malt Cake

1 Chocolate Duncan Hines Cake Mix

1 Can Diet Coke

1 Egg White

Handfull of Malted Milk Powder

Mix all ingredients together and bake in 8-9 inch prepared round pan for about 30-50 minutes.  (I use Wilton’s bake-even bake strips so the cake is evenly baked without the edges getting done before the middle, I love ‘em, but the cake takes longer in the oven.)

Frosting (I made half this recipe which was plenty!)

(Recipe from:  Paula Deen’s Holiday Magazine)

1 Cup Butter, softened

1/2 Cup Cocoa

3/4 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream

1/2 Cup Malted Milk Powder

5 Cups Powdered Sugar

Malted Milk Balls/Whoppers

In a large bowl, beat butter and cocoa powder at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

In a small bowl, combine cream and malted milk powder, stirring to dissolve.  Add cream mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed to combine.  Gradually beat in powdered sugar until spreadable.

Putting it all together:  Cut cake in half horizontally and spread part of the frosting on the bottom half.  Sprinkle chopped Malt Balls over frosting.  Place top layer on top of chopped Malt Balls and continue frosting the rest of the cake.  Decorate as desired.