weekly_food_challenge | Entries tagged with cake

Mood: hot

I was pondering what to do for this challenge today when I noticed that one of my favorite podcasts had updated yesterday -- Gastropod, hosted by two adorable nerds who like to talk about the science and history of food. This week, they talked about jellies and Jello and interviewed the delightful food historian Ivan Day, whose blog that I've read through. So many interesting jelly moulds!

Now, I have a corner of my pantry with boxes and boxes of sugarfree Jello, for various reasons. I don't use them very often. The thing about Jello is that they're fun to look at -- and to touch -- but unless you have to, not as fun to eat. Which is a departure from the past, really. But yeah! I have Jello, I have unflavored gelatin (which I bought to make panna cotta, guess what I haven't made) and sugarfree cheesecake pudding. Today was so hot that I couldn't bear to turn on the stove to even briefly heat up the gelatin, so icebox cake it is.

Icebox cake is a classic recipe -- usually made with wafers or graham crackers, whipped cream, and an icebox (or fridges, if you're not in the 1920s) -- I usually follow this recipe for strawberry icebox cake, but today, I had no whipped cream, so I had improvise.

Ingredients

1 box Jello instant sugarfree cheesecake pudding mix
1 scant cup 2% milk
1/2 cup lowfat Greek yogurt
1 tbsp PB2
50g dark chocolate bars, chopped (I used Moser Roth 70% dark chocolate) - plus more for garnish.
1 packet graham crackers

Equipment

Loaf pan
plastic wrap
Whisk
Mixing bowl
Spoon

Method

1. Whisk together the first five ingredient, let set for a minute.

2. Assemble cake by layering graham crackers in loaf pan with peanut butter & chocolate pudding mixture. For me, it made about three layers.

3. Sprinkle toppings if desired, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Now, the idea behind icebox cake is that the pudding/whipped cream mixture will moisten the cookies so they become cake-like. I didn't put whipped cream in this, so I'm not sure how this will turn out. I'm going to eat it, regardless. I put the good amount of chocolate in this, after all.

norfolkian

Mood: amused

I realise I'm not the first person to make a banana loaf for this challenge, but it's something I've wanted to try for a long time. I've also been watching a lot of Great British Bake Off as there are 7 series of it on Netflix now, so was feeling quite inspired to do some baking.

I tried to make banana bread once before (a long time ago), but it went horribly wrong (I'm not sure how - I think I put too much banana in and it went very dense and a really weird texture). This time I turned to Queen Mary Berry for help with my proper go at a banana loaf. Recipe is here: https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/banana-loaf.

It was really easy to make and aside from the baking powder, I had all the ingredients all ready in, so that was a bonus. It baked perfectly within the hour and the result was a light and fluffy, very banana-y, loaf.

Unfortunately, I had decided to cook it in a silicon 2lb loaf 'tin' that I'd had sitting around at the back of a cupboard for ages. I didn't grease it or anything because I thought the whole point was that it was meant to be super non-stick. Lesson learned, as I really struggled to turn it out. The resultant mess is under the cut. It still tastes amazing, though!

( Read more... )

norfolkian

Mood: bouncy

I'm not much of a baker, but I do still have leftover mincemeat from Christmas, so when I saw the challenge this week was cake, I knew what to do.

My mincemeat is homemade: here is the recipe. I heartily recommend it.

The recipe for the cake I used is here. I didn't change too much because I'm not a very confident baker, but I did use some mixed dried fruit rather than 75g sultanas as the recipe suggests because the mixed fruit was actually cheaper. And I used caster sugar because that's what I had in the cupboard.

Here is the cake:

Mincemeat cake

It's yummy - I had a big slice after dinner with some whisky. :) I think it could have done with a little less time in the oven because it came out quite crunchy round the edges, but other than that it is fine.

el_staplador

The book calls this 'summer lemon cake', but it's January and I'm in the Northern hemisphere, so...

Ingredients

3 eggs
90g/3oz caster sugar
60g/2oz plain flour
30g/1oz cornflour
30g/1oz butter
grated rind of one lemon

Equipment

round cake tin, 20cm/8"
greaseproof paper
saucepan or two
heatproof mixing bowl (I just about got away with a pudding basin. Just about.) that will fit over the saucepan in such a manner that you can remove it easily when it's hot.
whisk (essential - I used a rotary whisk, which was just about manageable. We don't have an electric whisk. I wouldn't have liked to try it with a balloon whisk or anything less technologically advanced)
sieve
spatula
wire rack
oven
hob

Method

Preheat the oven to 180degC/350degF/gas 4. Grease and line the cake tin.

Heat water in the saucepan. When it boils, turn it down to simmer. Add the eggs and sugar to the mixing bowl and put it over the pan of simmering water. Whisk until thick and pale.

Remove from the heat and keep whisking. Meanwhile, melt the butter (I did this by tipping out the water from the saucepan and using the residual heat, though had I been making this for company I might have used a second pan). When the egg mixture gets thick enough that the whisk leaves a trail when you take it out of the mixture, sift the flour and cornflour over the surface and add the butter and lemon rind. Fold in with the spatula (I found that the flour all sank to the bottom so I had to fold in quite thoroughly), pour the mixture into the prepared tin, and bake for 35-40 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

After all that whisking I couldn't face making the icing as instructed ('beat 5oz butter until fluffy' was the least of it) so just made up some glacé icing with the lemon juice, but a more buttery icing would have worked better. It definitely needs something to keep it moist.

tree_and_leaf

I have a bread maker. I'm never sure if I'm entirely convinced by bread maker bread - but I am convinced by this recipe for brioche, which came with it.

Ingredients:
1 egg, beaten into a measuring jug. I like to use a large one, but it doesn't entirely matter because the next ingredient is
Milk, added to bring the total liquid up to 190 ml. I use semi skimmed and the brioche still seems fairly rich. I have never tried substituting oat or almond milk, but I don't see why it wouldn't work if you want to avoid lactose.
80g melted butter (non dairy substitutes should also work).
1 tsp salt.
30g sugar.
350g strong/ bread flour.
1.5 tsp dried yeast.

Pans, etc:
Predictably, you need a bread maker. This is for a 1lb size machine.
You also need a measuring jug, a scale and a bowl to measure in, and some way of melting the butter (microwave or stove).

Add the ingredients to your bread maker in the order given here.* Scatter in the sugar and flour gently a bit at a time, so that it at least partly floats on the liquid. Make a hole for the yeast in the flour - preferably at the opposite end of the bread maker to the salt and add.

Bake on the sweet bread programme. Slice and serve with the jam or jelly of your choice.

* Caveat: I believe some bread makers say add the wet ingredients last. If yours does, reverse the oder given here.

moetushie

Mood: cheerful

There's a bag of carrots in my fridge that's been on my mind since before Christmas. Sadly, I don't have anything rich or celebratory that needs to be used up -- but I do have this bag of carrots. And you know the old saying - if you have carrots, make carrot cake. And add some ginger and cinnamon in it for some seasonal flair~

This particular recipe is sugar-free and healthy-ish.

( Recipe below. )

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Weekly Food Challenge

A challenge for cooks every Wednesday

Entries tagged with cake

CHALLENGE #48 - Peanut Butter Chocolate Icebox Cake

Challenge 39: Bananas - Banana Loaf

Challenge 28: Cake - Mincemeat Cake

Challenge 28: lemon cake

Cooker appliance challenge: Bread Maker Brioche

Challenge # 26: Ginger-Carrot Cake

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