Cake con Pere e Cioccolato

Today  I was looking for this recipe and realized I had never put it on the blog.  I got this recipe out of an Italian cooking magazine. The chocolate-pear combination is tasty and it isn't super sweet.

Chocolate Pear Cake
Pears, 500g (about 2.5 pears--I usually use red pears)
Chocolate, 150g (about 5.25 ounces)
Flour, 200g (about 1.75 cups)
sugar, 150g (3/4 cup)
butter, 150g (1/2 stick + 4 Tbl)
5 eggs
salt
butter and flour for the pan

0. Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter and flour bundt pan.
1. Chop the chocolate and melt in a double boiler (or microwave)
2.  Peel, core, and dice pears. Toss the diced pears with 1 Tbl. flour.
3. Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.
4. Add chocolate, flour, sugar, and five egg yolks--reserve 2 egg whites.
5. Beat 2 egg whites with a pinch of salt until firm.
6. Fold beaten egg whites into chocolate mixture.
7. Fold coated pear pieces into cake mixture.
8. Put cake into bundt pan.
9. Bake cake for one hour.

Rod's Mexican Sheet Cake

I went to a little pot luck get together last night.  I didn't want to go to the store and buy things to make a main dish (I had originally thought of making gnocchi del Cassentino), so I decided to bake a cake. I mean, if there's anything I am in the cooking department, it's a cake baker. I figured I had everything to make Dad's Mexican Sheet cake. I measured, and I only had 4 Tbl. of cocoa. Oops. I had to go to the store anyway to buy cocoa powder. Still, this cake is easier than gnocchi.  The cake was a real hit last night and I promised to post the recipe. So--full credit to my dad, Rod Burton, who perfected this recipe (and of course I still mess with it).

Rod's Mexican Sheet Cake
Ingredients:
1 c. butter (2 sticks)
1 c. water
6 Tbl. cocoa powder
2 c. sugar (I skimp a little)
2 c. flour
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla (preferably Mexican)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. pasilla chile
1/2. tsp. chile arbol
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (I omit this sometimes and just throw in some other kind of chile powder)
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. baking soda

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Spray 9 x 13 inch pan with nonstick spray.
3. Bring first 3 ingredients to a boil.
4. Add sugar and flour and mix to combine.
5. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition.
6. Mix in vanilla and spices.
7. Stir baking soda into buttermilk and to chocolate mixture.
8. Mix thoroughly.
9. Pour mixture into pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.
10. Nom. Nom. Nom.

For the fancy lace top: use either a paper lace or lace fabric and lay it on the cake. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the cake/lace--I use a fine mesh thingy and tap it to sprinkle the sugar.  Then carefully remove the lace. Don't put too much sugar, or it will go everywhere when you try to remove the lace. I use a lace shirt that I have to do the design. Last night I was really tempted to add black pepper to the cake, but I decided not to. Maybe next time.

If you like this cake you might like my Chocolate Pink Peppercorn Honey Cake. I used my dad's sheet cake recipe as a base--along with a ginger cake that I've made before. I guess I really like pepper.

Lemon Doberge Cake

The only reason I manged to take a photo of the magnificence that is Lemon Doberge Cake before I started devouring it is that Kitson was there to remind me to take the photo.

One of these days I WILL write an ode to this cake. After splitting a salad, heavenly mashed sweet potatoes and a bone-in fillet, Kitson and I split this slice of cake. We were stuffed.

Oh, glorious lemon Doberge, how I love thee.

Best Birthday Ever, The Topper

So after riding elephants we went to eat on the River Kwai, which means River River--the way chai tea means tea tea. It was a tourist trap place, but the food was fine (although we didn't trust them when they said some of the stuff was beef.)

The story of the Burmese-Thai railroad is sad. The bridge over the the River Kwai is a reminder of the depressing story. We saw the bridge, we walked a little on the bridge, I was done. I did take this photo of a towering Guanyin statue at the Chinese Buddhist temple across the river.

On the drive back to Bangkok I was still pumped with adrenaline and declared it the best birthday ever. I said that if I could have cake it would just push everything over the top. When we got back to Bangkok I felt exhausted and filthy. We showered and then the doorbell rang--yes, the hotel room had a doorbell! Two giggly young men came in with a birthday cake, card, and little present. I almost cried. Here I was expecting to get a slice of cake from 7-11 or the bakery in the mall, and the hotel brought me my very own birthday cake to my room. That topped off the best birthday ever.

Lace Anniversary

Today marks our 13th wedding anniversary, which is apparently the lace anniversary.

I made my dad's Mexican sheet cake and decorated it with powdered sugar. We just devoured some with whipped cream. Super yummy!

Ross gave me a new ring. I haven't had an "engagement" ring since the twisted prong incident in May 2011.

Tonight we went out to eat at a restaurant called Shabu. We didn't have hot pot. Instead we had steamed dumplings, Mongolian lamb, and Rib Eye chow fun. It was all yummy and warm in our tummies. It is around 32F outside.

Honey Cake

For Rosh Hashanah I decided to make a honey cake.  A chocolate, pink peppercorn, and honey cake. I developed this recipe for a contest--then I read the rules--the recipe could only have 5 ingredients--so I didn't enter the recipe, but I came up with a pretty tasty cake.

Pink Peppercorn Chocolate Cake

1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 c flour
1 1/4 tsp ground pink peppercorns
3.5 oz 70% cocoa chocolate
1 c water
3 Tbl cocoa powder
1 c butter
1 c honey (12 oz bear)
3/4 c sugar
2 eggs

1. Heat oven to 325 F.
2. Line 9 inch sprinform pan with parchment paper and butter pan and paper.
3. Sift together baking soda, salt, flour and pepper.
4. Melt chocolate.
5. Bring water, cocoa powder, and butter to a boil, whisking occasionally.
6. Pour water mixture into a large bowl.
7. Add melted chocolate, honey, and sugar to hot liquid.
8. Mix until well combined.
9. Add eggs one at at time.
10. Gradually mix in dry ingredients.
11. Pour into prepared pan.
12. Cook for 50 minutes. If cake isn't done cook for up to 10 more minutes.  Watch closely--top may burn.

This cake goes great with whipped cream, ice cream (especially Amy's), and apparently White Russians.

First Bake: Lemon Cake

Two and a half weeks ago my mom's new oven/stove was delivered.  My mom hasn't had a proper oven for at least 5 years.  My dad and I followed the instructions and burned it in--getting rid of all the greases and chemicals inside.  My parents used the stove top----6 burners!  But we didn't use the oven.  I kept saying I was going to make scones, but didn't.  Then I decided I wanted to make lemon cake.  I had seen a recipe in my mom's recipe notebook.  So lemon cake was the first thing baked in my mom's oven.

The cake was very dense and moist.  I need to get the recipe from her and see if it makes good cupcakes too (I can remember most of it, but I'm not sure about the leavening).  I made a small batch of frosting to go between the layers.....just butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, and powdered sugar.

Mint Honeycomb

I decided to make mint cake, finally bought the mint at the Asian market, because that's where it is cheapest, and then kinda forgot to make the cake.

On Thursday night I declared I needed cake and whipped up a double batch of mint cake.  I cooked it at 325 for 45 minutes.  I think it turned out better than it does in a bunt pan.  This cake shows off the honeycomb pan really well.

The honeycomb is disappearing quickly and there are only a few hexes left.

February Photo Challenge: Unbirthday

Happy Unbirthday to me!  This is the cake I made myself this year.

Fried Blueberry Cake

This recipe is my modification of a Blueberry Cobbler recipe.  Super easy, but more cakey than pie-ey the way cobblers usually are.

Fried Blueberry Cake
4 Tbl. (1/2 stick) butter
1 c flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
nutmeg
cinnamon
pinch of cardamom
3/4 c sugar
1 c milk
vanilla
2 c blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Melt butter in 8 or 9 inch square brownie pan.
3. Mix dry ingredients together then add in milk and vanilla.
4. Stir batter until ingredients are combined.
5. Pour batter into pan.
6. Don't stir the butter and batter, but spread out the butter if it has pooled in one area.
7. Sprinkle blueberries over batter.  I used an entire pint last night--it was a lot of blueberries and they kind of crowded out the cake.
8. Bake for 40 minutes or until cake part starts to brown.

The Big 6-0

We went to El Paso to help my dad celebrate his 60th birthday.

First we went to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico to relax in the hot springs there.  The price of the room included one soak on each day, so we had a soak the night we got there and one the next morning.

 Then on Sunday we went to Rudy's BBQ.  Here's the birthday boy.

My dad requested a lemon cake, and I don't have a particular recipe for one, so I used the Mint Cake recipe as a base and doubled it to fill the honeycomb pan.

My dad has been wanting this grill, and I thought they had them in stock in the store, but we ended up ordering it for him and he can pick it up soon.

Luster Birthdays

The Luster girls have both recently had birthdays and we got to celebrate with them both. Julia is now 4 and Evelyn is now 8.  They both got great presents, and great cake that they each helped make.

 Julia with her new scooter.

 Julia's castle cake--Valerie decorated it all herself!

 Julia had had enough of the photo taking.

 Evelyn was excited to open every single present.

 Evelyn blowing out the candles.

Super awesome rainbow cake!

9th Birthday in NYC

We took the bus up to NYC to celebrate my 9th birthday. This is a great panoramic shot of the hotel room that Ross took. Man, the hotel was whack. The color combinations were awful, lamps in our room were broken, and the carpet was so ugly. It didn't really matter though. We were just there to sleep. Still, the white patent leather headboard was funny.

Our first stop in NYC was Ess-a-Bagel, where we got some breakfast. I only ate half of my poppy seed bagel with scallion cream cheese because I wanted to save room for everything else I had on my list of things to eat.

This photo is of one of the ceiling paintings in the New York City Public Library. The library was really cool. I like that it isn't just a beautiful old building, it is still in use.

After the libro we had some hot chocolate at Lily O'Brien's cafe. We got a dark hot chocolate and a milk hot chocolate. I think if we had mixed the two of them together it would have been perfect. I think the milk was a little too sweet and the dark was a little too flat. We also got some chocolates in a box to go. I had a ganache last night and it was pretty good.

Still full from hot chocolate we walked back up to Del Frisco's for steak and cake. My salad, steak, and cake were fabulous. As you can see we dug into the cake before I remembered to take a picture. This cake is so good that every time I eat it, I say I'm going to write an ode to it. I need to get around to that. This is my favorite cake of all time. It was wonderful with my cup of tea. I really didn't want to share with Ross, but there is no way I could eat it all myself.

We took the subway downtown after lunch and I bought some flavored green teas at Harney & Sons. I had a couple of cups of their Bangkok blend this morning. Mmmmm. Yummy.

We ate churros at La Churreria after we finally managed to find it. The churros were fresh and came with a chocolate dipping sauce, but I really didn't think they needed the sauce. They were better without it.

Then came shoes. We spent a while at Miz Mooz shoes. I left with two pairs. A pair of short lace-up boots and a pair of flats. I love them both. The boots were on my birthday wish list. I'm so happy I got them. I'll do a separate post with photos of all my bday presents.

Cake, shoes, and tea. I'm happy.

Cherry Crumble Cake

Last week I tried a cherry cake recipe with streusel topping from Cooking.com. I wanted to use up the leftover cherries from New Year's. Of course I didn't completely follow the recipe. I used a different streusel topping and changed a couple things in the cake. The batter was more like cookie dough than cake batter and tasted much better the second day after it had settled.

Cherry Crumble Cake

streusel:

3/4 c whole wheat flour

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

nutmeg

1/2 c cold butter

1. Mix all ingredients with pastry cutter until it forms small crumbs.

2. Put mixture into the refrigerator.

cake:

3/4 c + 1 Tbl. butter

1 c sugar

2 eggs

2 1/4 c sifted flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 c bottled or canned red cherries, drained

nutmeg

vanilla

almond extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Grease and paper an 8 inch springform pan. (I used a 9 inch)

3. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.

4. Add vanilla and almond extract. (I probably put about a teaspoon each)

5. Add eggs one at a time, beating well.

6. Add flour and baking powder and mix well.

7. Spread half the cake batter evenly into the bottom of the pan. --This is where things got difficult. The batter is thick and stiff, so I was basically pressing it with the back of a spoon to try and spread/smooth it out.

8. Spread cherries over the cake batter.

9. Sprinkle nutmeg over cherries.

10. Spread remaining batter over the cherries. --Again, not easy.

11. Sprinkle cold streusel over the cake.--I didn't end up using all of it. You can kind of see in the photo how it sort of formed a crust because I used it to fill in the gaps where the cake batter didn't reach the edge of the pan.

12. Cook for 45 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

I think the almond extract is what really made this good. Like I said, it was much better cold the second day than right out of the oven. I haven't decided what recipe I'm going to try this week. I should probably stay away from the sweets.

10th Anniversary Dinner

Last night Ross and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. We went out to Dinner at Liberatore's in Bel Air. I wanted to try something different, and I didn't want to go very far. We ordered the Rustichella as an appetizer. It was bread topped with goat cheese, kalamata olives, onions, raw garlic, tomatoes, mozzarella, and pesto. It was too many very strong flavors colliding at once. Overall, I didn't like it.

For our main courses I ordered the tortellacchi and Ross ordered the filet of Pisa. My dish was pasta stuffed with veal and beef and folded into a giant tortellini. The sauce was a very strong, red tomato sauce. Ross's filet of Pisa was a meat sandwich. The beef was the bread, and in between was a slice of mozzarella and a chunk of portabello mushroom. The whole thing was set on a bed of cooked spinach and topped with a tomato. Not a slice of tomato. A cut-to-look-a-little-fancy roma tomato. Ross also got sides! The entrée came with veggies and mashed potatoes. It was enough food for at least two people. Ross really liked his steak. I liked my pasta, but I thought the sauce was a little heavy and overwhelmed the flavor of the actual tortellachi.

Ross ordered a cappuccino, and it didn't take forever like it does in some restaurants. I thought it was good. We also ordered tiramisu. I like to try tiramisu wherever I can. When it came out we laughed. It looked like some kind of ghetto oreo cookie cake. The taste was good, but I didn't like the texture. The "cake" was topped with ground chocolate that was so chunky that at first we both thought it was mini chocolate chips. I couldn't actually taste the mascarpone. The dessert (I hesitate to call it tiramisu) was basically lady fingers (the soft kind) covered in some sort of frothy white sauce and then topped with ground chocolate. Of course there was chocolate sauce drizzled on the plate.

Overall it was good dinner, but not great. I prefer The Olive Tree. It might not be as hoity-toity, but the food is never disappointing. Sadly, their tiramisu isn't awesome either.

Ross surprised me with a necklace. I feel bad that I didn't get him anything. I'll post a photo of the necklace soon.

Cake is an Essential Food

We bought a pandoro to have for dessert on new years eve. When the checker rang it up she was freaked out because the register wasn't adding tax. The other cashier said that Maryland doesn't tax essential foods. This just goes to prove that cake is an essential food--even cake imported from Italy.

Ross made zabaglione and we had that with cherries and the cake. I started the no C diet today, so I won't be having any for a while.

Ciambella alla Menta (Mint Cake)

One of the only things Ross wanted for his birthday was a cake. We had some mint in the fridge, so I decided to make this cake. I got this recipe from the Italian cooking magazine I bought the last time we were in Italy. I've made it a few times, and it is super-duper tasty. The Italian cakes I've made don't use leavening (they use whipped egg whites instead) and they aren't overly sweet. Also, they are kind of small. So, I'm going to share the recipe with you, and even translate it for you. I'm even going to do the weight calculations.

Ciambella alla Menta

240g sugar (7/8 c. + 3 Tbl.)

150g butter--softened (10 Tbl.)

3 eggs

one lime

one bunch of mint--leaves sliced into thin strips--reserve some leaves for garnish

confectioners sugar

200g flour (1 3/4 c.)

salt

butter and flour for the pan

1. Beat the butter with 200g (7/8 c. = 1 c. - 2 Tbl.) of sugar until well combined and fluffy.

2. Add mint, some grated lime peel, some lime juice, and 3 egg yolks.

3. Mix until well combined.

4. Add flour and mix well.

5. In a separate bowl beat egg whites with 40g (3 Tbl.) sugar and a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form.

6. Carefully fold egg whites into flour mixture.

7. Transfer batter into buttered and floured bundt pan.

8. Cook at 180 C (355 F) for about 45 minutes.

9. Turn out onto plate and dust with powdered sugar and garnish with mint leaves.

I cooked this yesterday at 325 F for about 55 minutes because I use a heavy, teflon-coated pan. I just noticed that the recipe calls for 3 eggs, but the how to photos show 4 eggs. I think it would turn out a little less dense with 4 eggs.

Passover 2010

Our trip to Texas was a bit of a whirlwind tour. We drove down to Austin on Friday to have Passover with Joey and Lisa Diane. Joey did a wonderful job cooking everything. Ross made the matzo balls, which is his job every year. You can see from the photo that he likes to make them into different shapes. We had a good time. The best part was Joey's passover cake. It was awesome and he served it with sliced strawberries. Oh, I'd eat that cake any time of year.

I Love Country Streusel Cake

Valerie had a small cook book with mostly assemble-it-type recipes, but I found a couple that were completely from scratch and I tried them out. The streusel cake is awesome. Of course I changed up the recipe a little. Last night I added some sour creme. It was great this morning with chai. In the past I have had bad luck with streusel topping. I had no problems with this one.

Country Apple Streusel Cake

Topping

3/4 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

nutmeg

cardamom

1/2 c. cold butter

Cake

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

1 1/2 c. sugar

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

cinnamon

nutmeg

cardamom

allspice

1 1/4 c. milk

3/4 c. softened butter

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 eggs

4 c. very thinly sliced apples (I used pears last night).

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Spray 13x9 inch pan with Pam.

3. Mix topping ingredients with a pastry cutter.

4. Beat all cake ingredients except apples for 3 mins.

5. Spread cake batter into pan.

6. Arrange apple (or pear) slices over batter. --I think two layers of very thin slices works well.

7. Sprinkle topping over fruit.

8. Bake 55-60 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

This cake should be refrigerated because it is very moist and will spoil if left out.

All Wrecks Relative

I sent some photos into Cake Wrecks today. I'm sure Jen is swamped with submissions, and I'm not sure mine will make the cut, so I'm posting them here.

One of the local supermarket bakeries makes really cute Elmo and Cookie Monster mini cakes and cookies. They aren't so good with Big Bird. I thought that the wacky-eyed Big Bird mini cakes were wrecks until I saw the saddest Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes at another store yesterday. I guess all wrecks are relative.