Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake

I know it seems like I only update this blog with baked goods lately, but I suppose I've just been in a baking mood.  The weather has begun to cool off, the trees have started to change their colours, and the prospect of having the oven on and the smell of something delicious wafting through the house is an enticing one.  Plus, it was my mother-in-law's birthday last Friday, and I wasn't going to let the occasion pass without making some kind of birthday cake.  After trawling through numerous recipe sites, I happened across this recipe for 'Torta di Pere'. The combination of pears, dark chocolate and browned butter was immediately appealing to me, and despite not being the most attractive looking cake (it was a little sunken in the middle), the texture and flavours were absolutely scrumptious. The bitterness of the chocolate offsets the sweetness of the pears perfectly. And as someone who can't resist tasting the cake mix left on the sides of the bowl/beaters, the browned butter makes this some of the best tasting batter ever! Everyone here loved it the cake, and I would definitely make it again. I wouldn't attempt this if you don't have a hand or stand mixer though, there's a lot of beating involved!

Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake
recipe from Al Di La Restaurant via Smitten Kitchen

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, at room-temperature
4 ounces (113g or 1/2 cup) unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 pears, peeled, in a small dice (I used bartlett, but use whichever variety you prefer)
3/4 cup bittersweet or dark chocolate chips (at least 35% cocoa solids)
Icing (Confectioner's) sugar, for dusting

Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter a 9-inch (23cm) springform pan and dust with flour, set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the eggs on high speed until pale and very thick. (About 9 or 10 minutes, think 'ribbons' not 'peaks' as full eggs won't beat up the same way egg whites do.)

Meanwhile, brown the butter. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat and cook until the butter browns and smells nutty (about 6 to 8 minutes). Scrape the solids off the bottom of the pan every few minutes to ensure even browning. Remove from the flame but keep in a warm spot.

Add the sugar to the eggs and whip a few minutes more.
Just as the egg-sugar mixture is starting to lose volume, turn the mixer off. Using a spatula, gently fold through one third of the flour mixture, then half of the butter, a third of the flour, the remaining butter, and the rest of the flour. Fold until just combined — do not over-mix the batter or it will lose volume.
Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle the pear and chocolate chunks over the top, and bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back to the touch, about 40 to 50 minutes, or a tester comes out clean.

I served the cake at room tempterature with a little icing sugar dusted over. You could also add some whipped cream, or serve warm with vanilla ice-cream. This should keep for 2-3 days in an air tight container... if it lasts that long!

Fresh Peach Upside-Down Cake

No other food makes me think summer like juicy, fresh peaches.  Well.. except perhaps equally juicy, fresh mangoes, but I've discovered the mangoes available in the United States are nothing like the mangoes I grew up with in Australia in looks or taste. They are small and red/green with a pale yellowy coloured flesh, not at all the big, fragrant golden mangoes I am used to. So despite my deep and abiding love for all things mango, I am now avoiding them to stave off further disappointment.  Anyway, back to the peaches. I was initially looking for a recipe to use up a rapidly browning bunch of bananas, and so I settled on a banana upside-down cake.  Unfortunately, when I went into the kitchen to begin baking I discovered that the bananas were rather more browned than I had first thought - that is, they were beginning to turn into complete mush. They would have been fine in the batter, but there was no way I could possibly cut them into presentable looking slices. Looking at the abundance of peaches in the fruit bowl, I decided to wing it and substitute the bananas for peaches. It turned out to be a great idea, resulting in a fabulous looking and wonderfully moist, but not heavy cake - a perfect summer dessert.

Fresh Peach Upside-Down Cake

adapted from David Leibovitz

makes 1 8-inch (20cm) square cake

Topping
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons firmly packed soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
2-3 peaches

Cake
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons (30 g) melted butter
2 large eggs
1 cup peach puree (about 2 peaches, peeled and blended til smooth)
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

Preaheat your oven to 350F/180C.
Place the brown sugar and the water into an 8-inch (20cm) square cake pan. Place the pan directly on your stovetop over low heat, and stir until all of the sugar is moistened. Simmer for 1 minute, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.  While the sugar mixture is cooling, peel the peaches and cut into 1/4 inch (1cm) thick wedges. Arrange in overlapping rows over the melted sugar.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a large bowl and mix in the sugar. In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter, eggs, peach puree, buttermilk, vanilla and almond extracts. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients until just combined.  Carefully pour the batter into the pan over the peaches, and use a spatula to ensure it is spread evenly.  Bake for 35 minutes, or until the centre of the cake springs back when you touch it.

Cool the cake in the pan for 20 minutes. To remove from the pan, run a flat-bladed knife along the edges of the cake and invert on to a serving platter. Carefully lift the pan off to ensure no fruit gets stuck to the bottom - if it does you can always carefully reposition it.

Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream, if desired. 
To reheat the cake, place in a low oven and cover with foil.

Mum's Blueberry Muffins

My Mum makes great blueberry muffins. I remember visiting my parent's house one weekend and awaking to the smell of them baking. Is there anything better? I was out of bed and devouring one practically as soon as it was out of the oven. I first asked for her Blueberry muffin recipe about two months ago, and I haven't managed to have a go at making them until now, for several reasons. Firstly, the oven stopped working properly. Secondly, the weather has been so hot my desire to turn on the oven and do some baking was practically nil. Thirdly, I couldn't find any buttermilk at the supermarket. Crazy, right? Maybe I just wasn't looking in the right place - after more than 6 months in New York I am still getting used to the layout and size of the supermarkets. Some things just aren't where I would expect them to be if I were shopping in an Australian supermarket. So eventually the oven got repaired, and I decided to do some reading up on what I could use as a substitute for buttermilk. There are several different things you can do - yoghurt, etc, but the one I settled on involved adding lemon juice to milk.  This got me to thinking that lemon and blueberries make a wonderful combination, so I added some lemon zest to the recipe to give the muffins a little extra kick. They turned out wonderfully despite the lack of actual buttermilk, and they only have to bake for less than half an hour, so it wasn't so bad, even on a hot day. The house still smells of baking, and I've already eaten two of these beauties. Yum.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins
makes 6 large muffins or 12 small muffins

2 cups Self-Raising flour
3/4 cup demerara sugar
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, put 1 tablespoon of lemon juice into your 3/4 cup measure and fill the rest up with milk, mix, and leave for a few minutes)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
finely grated zest of one lemon

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.  Grease or line your muffin pan.
Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Put the oil, buttermilk and egg into a shaker or small bowl and whisk/shake lightly to combine.  Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour the liquid ingredients into it, followed by the lemon zest and blueberries. Stir until just combined, taking care not to smash the blueberries.  Spoon into prepared muffin pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan. If you're feeling naughty, these are delicious served warm with a little butter. Enjoy!

Marshmallows and Tablespoons

Here's something I didn't know - a tablespoon is not always a tablespoon.  Or at least, not if you're using an Australian recipe in the US, or vice versa.  You see, Australia apparently decided to be different to the rest of the world, and make their tablespoons slightly larger.  According to Wikipedia, an Australian tablespoon is equal to 4 teaspoons, but for most of the rest of the world, it's only 3.  It seems like a small difference, but over 2 or 3 tablespoons this can add up quite quickly.  I had originally suspected something like this must be the case when experimenting with ANZAC biscuit recipes - which I have yet to master in my new country of residence - they always turned out a little too soft for my liking, and I suspect that the discrepancy in the tablespoon measure may have something to do with it. (At least, that's my excuse for now.) So, just thought I would give you all a heads up - in this age where a lot of people are just as likely to get their recipes online as from a cookbook, just keep an eye on where your recipe is coming from!

Alright, that's business aside. Let's get down to pleasure.  Down to marshmallows. Those balls of springy, fluffy, melt in your mouth sweetness.  They were always a favourite for me growing up; my mother and I would inevitably fight over who would get the last pink marshmallow in the bag. (The white/vanilla ones were always inferior to the raspberry as far as we were concerned).  Yet until today I had never attempted to make them.  I was inspired along the way by one of my favourite food blogs, Technicolor Kitchen, who has posted a flurry of different marshmallow recipes over the past year or so.  The recipe I used originally called for raspberries, but I had a punnet of blackberries so I decided to use those instead.  They turned out brilliantly. (Needless to say, better than any store-bought kind.. sorry Pascall's!). I was expecting all kinds of sticky mess, but really these really were a cinch to make.  I'm already imagining how tasty they'd be in Rocky Road, and if it weren't so hot here, I'd be dropping a couple into a hot chocolate right this minute.

Blackberry Marshmallows

adapted from Masterchef

440g/15.5 oz caster (superfine) sugar

1 tablespoon (+ 1 teaspoon if you're using US tablespoons!) lemon juice

125g/4.4oz blackberries

5 teaspoons powdered gelatine

3 egg whites

1 tablespoon (+ 1 teaspoon, as above) cornflour (cornstarch)

1 tablespoon (+ 1 teaspoon, as above) icing (confectioner's) sugar

Oil, for greasing

Stir 400g/14oz of the sugar, lemon juice and 2/3 cup water in a small saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and boil rapidly for 10 minutes or until at the 'hard ball' stage.  This should take around 10 minutes. Now, if you don't have a candy thermometer, don't panic!  You can check by dropping a spoonful of syrup into a glass of iced water. If it forms a hard ball, you're good to go.

Meanwhile, place the blackberries and 2 tablespoons of water in a small saucepan. Stir over medium heat for 5 minutes, crushing blackberries with the back of a spoon.  Remove from heat and press the blackberries through a fine sieve to get rid of the seeds. I just did this back into the same saucepan they were cooked in.  Sprinkle gelatine over the blackberry mixture and stir until dissolved.

Using an electric hand or stand mixer, whisk egg whites to soft peaks. Now gradually add the remaining sugar and whisk until smooth and glossy stiff peaks form. With the beaters running, pour the hot syrup in a thin, steady stream into the bowl, then add the blackberry mixture. Whisk for a further 5-7 minutes, or until mixture thickens enough to hold its shape.
  
Combine cornflour and icing sugar and use to dust a greased 20cm x 30cm slice pan (I actually used a 9-inch square pan). Spoon the marshmallow mixture into pan, smooth to level using a metal spatula, and refrigerate for 2 hours or until set.  Dust a little icing sugar over the top before removing from the pan.  To turn your marshmallows out of the pan, run a butter knife around the edges, and use it or the round tip of a metal spatula to gently lift one corner.  Turn upside down and peel the marshmallow away from the pan - it will be more solid and pliable than you think,  just be firm, but gentle, and it will come out quite easily.  Turn on to a cutting board dusted with icing sugar and cut into squares.  Roll the finished marshmallows in a little extra icing sugar so all the edges are covered.  These can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week. (If they last that long!)

Strawberry Layer Cake (or How I Spent My Saturday Afternoon)

The strawberries in this part of the world have been especially delicious lately.  Big, red, shiny and amazingly fragrant.  Knowing that we had a family gathering coming up on Sunday, I made it my
mission toward the end of the week to find a dessert recipe that would allow me to incorporate some
of the many punnets of strawberries currently residing in our refridgerator.  I knew I didn't want to
cook them, and any kind of a fruit salad seemed like a cop out.  I was considering fresh strawberry jelly when I came across this cake recipe and knew I had hit the jackpot.  Layers of almond sponge, citrus
cream and thinly sliced fresh strawberries - the flavour combinations sounded mouthwatering, and it
wasn't going to be too heavy an end to a meal, on what was probably going to be a pretty warm evening. 
I had the house to myself on Saturday afternoon, so I got all my ingredients ready and got to work
with the electric beaters. There is quite a lot of preparation time involved in this recipe; though none
of it is particularly difficult, just time consuming - but oh so very worth it!  Considering I had to do a fair
bit of converting of measurements to be able to recreate this recipe without the aid of a kitchen scale
(note to self: must invest in kitchen scale!), it was an astounding success. 
So without further ado, i present to you...

Strawberry Layer Cake

adapted from Australian Gourmet Traveller

3 punnets strawberries (or 1.5 large punnets)

Almond Sponge
120g/4.2oz blanched almonds
3 eggs
100g/3.5oz icing sugar, sifted
3 eggwhites
1 pinch cream of tartar
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon caster (superfine) sugar
30g/1oz plain flour, sifted
25g/1 quarter stick of butter, melted

Citrus Creme
100g/3.5oz thickened (heavy) cream, at room temperature
250g/8.8oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon each of finely grated lemon and lime rind
120g/4.2oz caster sugar
3 tablespoons each of lemon and lime juice
2 teaspoons powdered gelatine soaked in 2 Tablespoons cold water
(or 2 leaves gelatine soaked in cold water)

For the sponge: Preheat oven to 250C/480F.  Line a 26 x 38cm (10 x 15 in) oven tray with baking paper. Place almonds into the bowl of a food processor and pulse til finely ground.  Using an electric mixer or beaters, whisk together whole eggs and icing sugar until pale and thick.  Add ground almonds and stir to combine.  Sift flour into this mixture and fold through, then add melted butter and fold through carefully.  In a separate bowl, whisk the eggwhites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form, then add caster sugar and continue to beat until smooth and glossy.  Add half of the eggwhite mixture to the whole-egg mixture and fold through, then fold through the remaining half, be careful not to overwork as this will take all the air out of your mix.  Evenly spread the better into your prepared tray and bake for 5-7 minutes or until golden.  Do not freak out if your sponge looks a bit wrinkled when it comes out of the oven, it will relax and flatten as it cools.  Cool on tray on a wire rack, then invert on to baking paper and peel the backing paper from the base.  Divide into 4 equal sized rectangles (make the cuts along the long side of the sponge, your pieces should be roughly 23 x 9cm/ 9 x 3.5in) and set aside.

Wash and hull the strawberries, and then slice lengthways into 2mm thick slices.

For the citrus cream: Whisk cream to soft peaks and set aside.  Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, citrus rinds, and 50g/1.7oz of caster sugar until smooth and well combined.  Meanwhile, combine the remaning sugar along with the lemon and lime juices in a small saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat.  Squeeze any excess water from your gelatine and add to syrup.  Remove pan from heat and stir until gelatine dissolves.  Let cool slightly and then pour into cream cheese mixture with your beaters or mixer running.  Beat until smooth, about 1 minute, then gently fold in whipped cream until just combined.

To assemble the cake: line a 10 x 23cm (4 x 9 in) loaf pan with plastic wrap.  Place one piece of the sponge into the base of the pan and spread with one third of the citrus cream, followed by one third of the strawberries.  Repeat the process two more times, and finish with your final layer of sponge.  Cover with plastic wrap and place some canned food on the top to weight it down a little. Refrigerate until set - at least 3 hours or overnight.  To serve, dip the cake pan into warm water, invert on to a plate or platter and remove the plastic wrap.  Dust with icing sugar or snow sugar to serve.  Enjoy!

NB: If you're going to present this cake as a whole to a table full of guests, you might want to trim the sides once you take it out of the tin, just to neaten it up a little.  Some of the cream can squeeze down the sides.  Look at the photo above and you'll see what I'm talking about.  Doesn't taste any different, but some of us are sticklers for presentation.  I mean, really, when you've spent this much time on a cake, you want it to look it's best!