Marble Cake

Husband's recurring request: marble cake.  He is not a fan of layered cakes with lots of icings or frostings so a marble cake is, by far, the closest to a fancy cake that he'd crave for.  This is my 3rd attempt and while I admit it's still not perfect, it is hands down wayyyy better than the first two cakes i made in terms of taste, texture and appearance. 
















Not perfect because i'm still not satisfied with how i swirled the vanilla and chocolate together to create the marbled effect.  I want (no, demand!) equal amounts of both on every slice, not just a streak of chocolate.  But it tasted really good, thanks to Martha Stewart's website for the recipe.  I don't have dutch-processed cocoa powder (it's so hard to find one) so i used regular unsweetened cocoa powder instead.

MARBLE CAKE

(Martha Stewart's recipe)

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Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon Dutch-process cocoa powder
2/3 cup buttermilk, room temperature (if you don't have buttermilk you can easily make one: just mix 1 cup milk and 1 tablespoon lemon juice.  stir and let sit for 5 minutes then use in any recipe requiring buttermilk.  You can also use white vinegar instead of lemon juice but i haven't tried it yet.)


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan; set aside. Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in vanilla. Add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour. Set aside 1/3 of the batter.
3. In a bowl, mix cocoa and 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water with a rubber spatula until smooth. Add the cocoa mixture to the reserved cake batter; stir until well combined.
4. Spoon batters into the prepared pan in 2 layers, alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate to simulate a checkerboard. To create marbling, run a table knife (or wooden skewer) through the batters in a swirling motion.
5. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. Transfer pan to a rack to cool 10 minutes. Turn out cake from pan and cool completely on the rack. Cake can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

Share and enjoy!

cassava cake

I've been craving for a slice of cassava cake for a long time and have reached the tipping point. so i gathered all my ingredients which i have - i always stock up on frozen cassava and macapuno strings just in case - and got busy with it while my son was taking his afternoon nap. Here's my simple recipe, anybody can do this!

CASSAVA CAKE

Ingredients:

2 bags frozen cassava, thawed

1 can (12 fl. oz) evaporated milk

1 can (14 oz.) condensed milk

1 can (13.5 fl. oz) coconut milk

1 bottle of macapuno strings

4 large eggs, beaten

1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Mix cassava, evaporated milk, coconut milk and 2/3 can of the condensed milk (set aside remaining 1/3 for the topping)

3. Add eggs, macapuno strings and vanilla. Add butter last. Mix well.

5. Pour in a greased 9x13 baking dish and bake for 50 minutes

6. Remove from oven and spread evenly the remaining condensed milk on top and bake for another 15 minutes or until brown. 

8. Cool completely and cut into squares.

That's it. So E-Z! Sometimes i want it with a "burnt" topping effect so i bake it longer, 20 minutes instead of 15. Also if you're bringing it to a potluck party, you can line the baking dish with a banana leaf (you can get frozen banana leaves from any Asian store) for an authentic filipiniana appeal.

Enjoy!

Brazo de Mercedes

Brazo de Mercedes is a rolled meringue filled with lemon flavored custard and is no doubt one of my all-time favorite cakes.  Just the thought of that rich custard filling and the melts-in-your-mouth soft meringue makes me salivate.  Luckily i don't have to travel a thousand miles to the Philippines to grab one from Goldilocks bakeshop because here in Fremont, we have 2 branches less than 7 miles from our house.

But for the past few days I've been thinking about making my own brazo de mercedes.  I searched online and stumbled upon a recipe from panlasangpinoy.com that guarantees how easy it is to make.  It only requires 6 ingredients which I already have in my pantry and with the step-by-step cooking video, i decided to give it a try.  Here's my not-so-perfect end product:

Taste is perfect; appearance is a big FAIL 'coz my meringue did not rise. 

Obviously, i need to practice more.  For that, i am calling this "brazo de carmela" hehehe  But the taste? YuMmY...!

Give it a try, you might do better than me.

race track cake

To celebrate my son's 2nd birthday i made my first ever fancy cake: a race track cake.  It's a chocolate sheet cake recipe copied from the back of hershey's unsweetened cocoa box frosted with 7-minute white frosting which i colored green. I would have wanted a darker shade of green to mimic grass but instead came up with a lighter one which is still ok.  For the race track i outlined number '2' and flooded it with chocolate fudge frosting topped with crushed oreo chocolate chip cookies to resemble dirt. Then i used white jimmies candy sprinkles (i chose the long ones) to create the track. Sooo easy!

I topped the cake with new cars toys and surrounded the side with oreo cookies to cover the imperfection... they look like tires too, don't you think?  Then i added a California plate with his name on it (the letters i had to stick one by one which explains why they are not perfectly aligned). It was a party just for the three of us and he had fun licking on the oreo cookies, the chocolate frosting and "driving" his cars on the track. He loved it! Talk about eating your cake and playing with it too!

Now, our 2-year old is licensed to drive us crazy! ^_^

Happy Birthday baby!!!

heart-shaped egg in a toast

This morning i was in the mood for fun so i thought of fancying up ordinary eggs and toast.  The result: heart-shaped egg in a toast.  

 Here's how to do it:

1.  Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut a hole in the center of a slice of bread.
2.  Toast cut-out hearts and set aside. (i used bread toaster)
3.  Lightly butter a frying pan over medium heat and place bread slice. 
4.  Carefully crack an egg directly into the heart-shaped hole, sprinkle with salt and pepper. 
5.  Cook for a minute or two until your desired doneness is achieved.  Cover the skillet to allow the egg to cook a little quicker.
6.  Flip and cook the other side of bread (optional). When done, carefully remove and place on a plate.
7.  Serve together with the toasted hearts for dipping into yolk.

How cute is that?   My husband loved it and my little boy got excited he wanted me to make him a star-shaped egg next time.  Well, why not? 

Happy Valentine's Day!!!