Carrot Cake Take Two

I plated it all nice and pretty then ran upstairs to get my camera and when i came back ...thats what was left. Silly me.

Recipe is in recipe section.

Poppyseed Angel Food Cake With Honeyed Strawberries

Poppyseed Angel Food Cake:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 3/4 cup sugar
12 egg whites, room temp.
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup poppy seeds

Sift together flour and 3/4 cup sugar. Whip egg whites, salt, and vanilla on high while slowly add remaining sugar. Whip to stiff peaks. Fold in flour mixture and poppy seeds. Bake 325 F until tops are golden brown.

For the honeyed strawberries just take some sliced strawberries add a bit of honey and a pinch of fresh ground black pepper. Fresh local grown strawberries and a high quality honey make a big difference here.

Molten Chocolate Cakes Revisited

Molten chocolate cakes with peanut butter mousse.
The cake recipe can be found here.

Peanut butter mousse:

1 cup peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 cup heavy cream

Mix peanut butter, vanilla, and sugar. Whip in heavey cream.

Blackberry Financier

I really really really love these cakes. I'm always shocked that they aren't more popular. I made them at work today and ate 3 but shhhhhhhh don't tell.

1lb Beurre noisette*, cooled

1 lb 2 oz Powdered sugar

5.5 oz flour

5 oz almond flour*

14.7 oz egg whites

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.

Spoon into cake pan or muffin pan. Press berries or fruit into the top of the batter.

Bake at 350 for about 40 mins. The tops will be a nice golden brown.

You can use any kind of berries or fruit.

*Beurre noisette is browned butter...to make cook butter over medium heat until it starts to turn brown in color.

*Almond flour is just finely ground almonds.

Gigi from gigi cakes made a different version of financiers that im gonna have to try. Check them out at http://gigicakes.blogspot.com/2008/04/fruit-financiers.html.

Carrot Cakes

Carrot Cake:

2 cups sugar

1 cup oil

4 large eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

4 cups grated carrot

1 cup walnuts

Beat sugar, oil, and eggs until blended.

Sift together flour, soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.

Mix flour mixture into egg mixture. Stir in carrot and walnuts. Bake at 350 for around 30 mins.

I baked mine in small ring molds but it can be made in 9" round pans and layered.

Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 1/2 lbs cream cheese, room temp

1 cup powdered sugar (you can add more if you want a sweeter frosting)

2 cups heavy cream

1 tsp cinnamon

1 vanilla bean, seeded

Beat together cheese, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla bean seeds. Beat in cream and beat until fluffy.

Pineapple Raisin Compote:

1 pineapple diced

1 cup raisins

1 cups brown sugar

Mix all ingredients together.

Apple Cake

Shown in photo with apple cranberry compote, granola, and cinnamon ice cream. These are also great with caramel sauce.

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp salt

1 cup oil

2 eggs

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

4 cups peeled and chopped apples

1 cup walnuts

Mix together sugar, eggs, cinnamon, salt, oil, buttermilk, nutmeg, and vanilla. Add apples and let sit 20 mins. Sift together flour and baking soda. Mix flour into apple mixture. Addwalnuts. Bake at 350 F for about 25 mins or until cake tester comes out clean.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Sage Frosting

Read about this cupcake hero thing over at Quirky Cupcake and thought I would try my luck.

Cupcakes:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

5 oz butter

1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar

1 1/4 cups sugar

3 eggs

2/3 cup buttermilk

1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups drained merlot cranberries (recipe below)

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg; set aside.

Beat butter on medium speed until creamy. Add brown and white sugars and beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with buttermilk. Add vanilla and pumpkin puree and beat until incorporated. Fold in merlot cranberries.

Divide into muffin pan. Bake in a preheated over at 325 F. until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool.

Frosting:

1 lb cream cheese, room temp

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups sage scented cream (recipe below)

Beat cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar until fluffy. Slowly beat in sage scented cream. Spead onto cooled cakes.

Merlot cranberries:

2 cups merlot

2 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups dried cranberries

Add merlot and sugar to saucepot. Bring to a boil and reduce until mixture has thicked (like pancake syrup). Add dried cranberries. Cool to room temp. 1 1/2 cups goes into cupcake batter. The remaining 1 cup is used to garnish the tops of frosted cupcakes. Drizzle merlot syrup on top.

Sage Scented Cream:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

4 large sage leaves

Add cream to a saucepot. Chop sage and add to cream. Bring to a simmer and remove from heat. Put in a covered container and chill for several hours. Strain.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

This recipe makes alot of cakes..you could store some of the mix in the refrigerator and bake it another day.

10 oz Bittersweet Chocolate (I use Scharffen Berger 70%)
10 oz unsalted butter
2 1/2 tbsp water
2 1/2 tsp vanilla
5 large egg
3 large egg yolks
1 cup flour
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)


Melt chocolate and butter. Mix together water, vanilla, eggs and egg yolks. Combine flour, cinnaomon, and sugar.

Mix egg mixture into chocolate mixture. Then mix in flour mixture. Pour into ramakins or cake rings. Bake in preheated oven. 425 f just until set. The tops will barely be set around 10 mins.


Serve warm.

Pictured with choclate covered corn flakes, white chocolate cocoa nib ice cream, and a white chocolate cocoa nib bark.

Fishie

Made this cake for a coworker's kid today.

Spongebob

Hey lookie lookie its Spongebob Squarepants :-)

Pumpkin Roulade

I usually serve mine with sage ice cream and a merlot cranberry compote.

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
3/4 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch salt
1 tsp lemon juice

Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and nutmeg. Whip eggs and sugar until ribbon stage. Mix in lemon juice and pumpkin. Slowly mix in flour mixture. Spread onto a parchment (spray with cooking sray) lined sheet pan. Bake 350 F until cake tester comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

Filling:
1 lb cream cheese, room temp
1/4 cup powdered sugar (more if you like a sweeter filling)
1/2 cup heavy cream

Whip all ingredients together untill creamy and fluffy. Dried cranberries (yummy) or nuts may be added to filling. Spread filling evenly onto cooled cake. Roll.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Shown in picture with caramelized banana ice cream and a banana chip.

24 oz semisweet chocolate

12 oz unsalted butter

1 cup toasted almond flour *

10 egg yolks

10 egg whites

11oz sugar

pinch salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Melt chocolate and butter. Add Almond flour. Whip yolks with half of sugar and vanilla until ribbon stage. Add to chocolate mixture. Whip whites with salt and remaining sugar to soft peaks. Fold into chocolate mixture. Pour into baking pans...i used a muffin pan. Bake at 350 F about 15 mins.

*Almond flour is finely ground almonds. Process sliced almonds in a food processor. Then spread on sheet pan and bake until golden brown.

Best served warm.