happy birthday to me cake

I know I said last week would be my last post until after the baby, but it was my birthday this weekend, and I couldn’t resist making myself a little birthday cake! So I think this will actually be my last post for a few weeks.

I really wanted to try this drip decorating technique before I took my baking break, so figured that for my birthday, I’d give myself a new cake lesson :)

Since we’re still just a family of two, I couldn’t bring myself to bake a full 3-layer cake, even with the 6-inch cake pans I’ve got. So even though I do love mini baking supplies, I decided the best way to DIY a mini cake with what I do already have would be to engineer a few layers from a sheet cake and cut a few small circles out. So the recipe below is for a one layer sheet cake from Recipe Girl, and I used a 10.5x15.5 inch sheet pan. I then used a small 4.75-inch bowl to cut out circles from the cake. Here’s where I wish I had a circular cookie cutter to get cleaner circles. I think because I cut the rounds out with a knife & bowl, it would’ve turned out better if I chilled the sheet cake in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes before I started cutting into it. In the end, my rounds weren’t cut out cleanly and I think that also led to a bit of lopsidedness and the difficulty I had getting clean edges around the top with the icing. You can see below… I did what I could.

After cutting my cake rounds out, I did throw them into the fridge for about 20-30 minutes while I made the icing, which was just a very simple vanilla American buttercream. As you can see above, I got 6 rounds from my sheet cake, but only ended up using 3 for the cake. I originally thought I might try to make a second cake, but my husband and I ended up snacking on the extra rounds before I even finished making the one cake!

So using 3 rounds for one full cake, I just layered on the butter cream between cake layers and a crumb coat. Then I tossed the cake back in the fridge to allow the crumb coat to chill. While the cake was chilling, my husband took me out for a birthday dinner, so the cake had a little extra time to chill than normal.

Once we were back from dinner, I colored the rest of my icing pink using gel food coloring and got to decorating. Here’s where I could really use some more practice and nice, even cake layers. I tried to just slab on the pink icing and smooth it out with a cake scraper, but this didn’t go as well as I had planned. I think next time, I’ll take the time to pipe the icing around the cake first to make sure that I have an even coat of icing around the cake before smoothing it out with the scraper. I also ended up watching a few more YouTube videos on this, and apparently it’s important to pipe a higher layer that juts out over the top edge of the cake so that you can pull it down towards the center.

I actually ended up giving up on perfectly smooth layers and a crisp edge since I knew I’d cover it up for the most part with the drip technique. To get the drip layer, I made a simple white chocolate ganache using white chocolate chips, heavy cream, and some gel food coloring. I did the spoon drip technique because I didn’t have a squirt bottle, but this is definitely the less precise way to do it and actually drop me a little nuts. Next time I try the drip decor, I’m definitely getting a squirt bottle on Amazon first.

To get the drips, just spoon the ganache onto the top of the cake and push it out towards the edges with the back of the spoon. Be careful as you approach the edges if you want thin drips down the sides. I accidentally got a few giant drips which you can see in the photos.

After you have the drips all around the cake, I’d recommend putting the cake back into the refrigerator if you plan to add more decoration on top of the cake. I did not do this, and you can see the rest of my icing started to fall over and run with the ganache.

Oh well… just another one for baking bloopers, and I’ve got more self-taught knowledge for next time!

mini chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and white chocolate ganache drips

Prep Time 10 mins | Cook Time: 15-20 mins | Inactive Time: 50 minutes | Decorating Time: 30 mins | Total Time: 1 hour, 50 mins

CHOCOLATE CAKE INGREDIENTS

• 2C (256g) all-purpose flour

• 2C (402g) granulated sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2C buttermilk, room temperature

• 2 large eggs, room temperature

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1C (2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature

• 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder

• 1C boiling water

VANILLA AMERICAN BUTTERCREAM INGREDIENTS

• 2C (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

• 4C (512g) powdered sugar

• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

WHITE CHOCOLATE GANACHE INGREDIENTS

• 1C white chocolate chips

• 1/3C heavy cream

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease and line a 10.5x15.5inch pan with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl or one bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt with a hand whisk or fork. In a separate large bowl or in another bowl for the stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and baking soda.

3. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and add the cocoa. Whisk to combine. Add the boiling water to the pan, mix, and heat until bubbling. Turn off the heat.

4. Pour the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture, and mix on low-medium speed using the paddle attachment of the stand mixer. With the mixer still on, pour in the egg mixture and continue to mix until incorporated and smooth.

5. Pour the cake batter into the cake pan. Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

6. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Flip onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Place the cake into the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

7. Remove the cake from the fridge, and cut six 4-5-inch circles from the sheet cake. Place the rounds in the fridge while you make the buttercream.

8. To make the buttercream, place the butter in a large bowl and whisk with either a hand mixer or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

9. Remove the cake rounds from the refrigerator and add a layer of icing between each layer. Add a thin layer of icing to the top and around the cake for a crumb coat. Place the cake back in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
   While the crumb coat cools, color the remaining buttercream with gel food coloring.

10. To decorate the cake, place the remaining icing into a piping bag, and pipe even layers all the way around the cake. Then, using an icing smoother, smooth the icing while turning the cake around until smooth. Place the cake back in the refrigerator while making the ganache.

11. To make the white chocolate ganache, heat the white chocolate chips and heavy cream and mix until smooth. Remove from heat and add gel food coloring if desired. Allow the ganache to cool to room temperature.

12. Carefully spoon the ganache onto the cake and push towards the edges until it drips down the sides. Continue to do this all around the cake.

13. If desired, use any remaining icing to pipe dollops around the cake. I used a Wilton 4B piping tip to create the design above. Just be sure to chill the cake again for at least 20 minutes so that the ganache hardens a bit before adding more icing to the top.

age is only a (n)ombré

Here we are about six months into this global pandemic, and there’s a lot that I miss about pre-pandemic days. Crowded bars, concerts filled with people, and birthday parties are just a few of those things I miss. But mainly, it’s doing and going to all of these places with my friends that I miss most.

Well, this weekend, I got to see two of my closest friends for the first time in six months. The last time we had gotten together back in February — which is really the last time I saw most people IRL — I was still keeping my pregnancy a secret, so they’re some of the few who will have actually seen this baby bump before the baby arrives in about a month other than my husband! This weekend was also one of their birthdays (and it was a big one!), so we had so much to celebrate. And what better excuse than a celebration to make a three-layer cake and try out some new decorating techniques!

I’ve been wanting to try this ombré technique all summer long, so was so excited to finally get to try it out. I absolutely love watching cake decorating videos in hyperlapse on Instagram, and this kind of ombré design is just mesmerizing to watch. In case you’re looking for a rabbit hole of endless hyperlapse cake decorating videos, I highly suggest following @cakesbae and @cakesdaily.gram for some truly addicting content. So as soon as we made the plan for this weekend, I got my cake turntable and scraper ready to go!

As someone who’s done a lot of ombré and balayage to her hair, I know the HOURS it takes in a salon chair to achieve that kind of hair color perfection. Luckily, it’s not quite the same when it comes to cake! Definitely one of those things that looks harder & fancier than it is to actually achieve. The main trick here is to make sure you’ve got your crumb coat layered on and to give it time to chill in the fridge a bit before adding your colored coats.

What’s a crumb coat you ask? It’s the first layer of icing that you lay on fully around the cake to catch any stray cake crumbs so that those crumbs don’t appear in your design. Once that crumb coat is on and chilled, the rest is pretty easy.

While the crumb coat chills, that gives you time to prep the different colors for your ombré. For mine, I only used a pink, a light pink, then finished off with a white layer on top, but you can definitely go bigger with more shades if you’d like. Also, for my lighter shade of pink (the middle color), I actually just used a teensy bit of red gel food coloring. Even just one drop from the bottle is too much to get this shade of pink, so I squeezed a drop out onto a plate, dipped a toothpick into the drop, and that’s all that went into my icing. A little bit goes a long way here!

Once you’ve got your icing colors ready and the crumb coat has chilled for about 45 minutes, you’re ready to get the ombré started! Using an offset spatula, start with the darkest color and lay it on thick all the way around the bottom. Then do the same with your lighter shade all the way around the middle, and continue doing this until you get to the top with the lightest or white icing. Don’t worry if it’s messy or that you can see distinct lines between the colors.

Now for the fun part! Grab your icing scraper and press it along the side of the cake with one hand while you spin the turntable with the other. Just keep going all the way around until you’ve got a smooth layer and the ombré will appear right before your eyes!

I think my icing wasn’t quite thick enough (I’ll be adding more powdered sugar next time), so I didn’t quite get the smooth ombré I was hoping for. I was running out of time and still had a few more things to do before my friends arrived, so rather than fickling around with the ombré more, I put the rest of my colored icings into a piping bag and piped out some pretty ombré rosettes around the cake to hide the unevenness. Sneaky, sneaky :) I was actually hoping to try out some multi-colored piping too, so this just seemed like more good practice for me anyway.

After all of my unexpected rosettes, I didn’t quite have enough icing to go around the top of the cake, so I grabbed some pink candied chocolates to finish it off. Sometimes you’ve just gotta do what you can with what you’ve got and hope for the best! This is why I’ve added this to my baking bloopers section, but I’m still pretty proud of how it turned out. Check out my Instagram for a video of the full cake spin!

Full list of ingredients & directions below. Vanilla sponge recipe is the “wedding cake” recipe from one of my go-to recipe books A New Way to Cake from Benjamina Ebuehi. Raspberry compote and lemon buttercream were winged on the spot by me :)

vanilla cake with raspberry compote and lemon buttercream

Prep Time: 30 mins | Bake Time: 20-30 minutes | Inactive Time: 2 hrs, 45 mins | Total Time: 3 hrs, 45 mins

VANILLA CAKE INGREDIENTS:

• 3 1/2 cups (450g) all-purpose flour

• 3 1/2 teaspoons (18g) baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature

• 375 grams granulated sugar

• 5 eggs, room temperature

• 1 cup buttermilk

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

RASPBERRY COMPOTE INGREDIENTS:

• 170 grams raspberries

• 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar

• 1/4 cup water

• 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

LEMON BUTTERCREAM INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cups unsalted butter, room temperature

• 640-704 grams powdered sugar, sifted (start with 640g, and add more depending on preferred consistency)

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• Zest of 1 lemon

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F and grease three (3) 6-inch cake pans and line them with parchment paper.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl and set aside.

3. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer with the paddle attachment on low-medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until pale & creamy (about 3-5 minutes). Add the eggs one at at a time, scraping the sides down as needed. With the mixer still running and turned down to low, add half the flour mixture. Once the flour is combined, add the buttermilk, vanilla, and remaining half of the flour mixture. Beat for a few seconds until the batter is smooth.

4. Fill each pan 2/3rds of the way to the top.

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

6. Allow the cakes to cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before flipping the pans over to remove the cakes. Once removing the cakes from the pans, allow the cakes to cool completely on a wire rack. Wrap the cakes in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours or ideally overnight.

7. Make the raspberry compote. Add the raspberries, water, and sugar to a small saucepan over low to medium heat. Bring to a boil while mashing the raspberries with the back of a wooden spoon. Once the mixture is boiling, add the cornstarch and boil for 10 minutes until it thickens. Remove from heat and let it cool while you make the icing.

8. Make the lemon buttercream. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and powdered sugar together until combined. Scrape the sides down as needed. Add the lemon zest and juice, and beat until fully combined. Add more powdered sugar to thicken if needed.

9. Remove the cakes from the fridge and trim off the tops with a long serrated knife if uneven.

10. Assemble the cake. Add a dollop of icing to the middle of the cake turntable, then place a 6-inch cake round (cardboard), and add another dollop of icing to the middle of the cake round. Place the first cake onto the cake round. Spread a layer of icing onto the top of the cake.
    Tip: After spreading icing over the cake, use a piping bag with a round tip to outline the outer ring of the cake top. This will help to keep the compote from spreading out to the sides of the cake.
    Spread a layer of the compote over the icing within the icing ring.
    Place the next cake over the raspberry compote and repeat the icing and raspberry layers, followed by the last cake.

11. Using an offset spatula, cover the cake (sides and top) in a layer of icing to create the crumb coat. Place the cake in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.

12. Divide the remaining icing into 3 separate bowls (about 1 1/2 cups each). Use pink gel food coloring in one bowl and mix until fully combined. Use a toothpick in a drop of red gel food coloring to color the second bowl of icing and mix until fully combined.

13. Decorate the cake. Take the darker of the pink icing, and cover the bottom third of the cake. Take the lighter pink and cover the middle third. Take the remaining white icing and cover the top third and top of the cake. Holding the cake scraper in one hand and pressing it against the cake, spin the turntable with the other hand. Continue to spin until the layers are smooth and the ombré pattern appears.
    Some icing will rise up over the top of the cake. Wipe the excess icing off of the cake scraper (I wiped it onto the mixing bowl in case I needed it later — which I did). Spin the turntable and use the cake scraper to flatten the excess icing over the top of the cake and smooth the top.

14. To add ombré rosettes, or to make any other design on the cake, add any remaining icing from all colors to a piping bag.
    Tip: place the piping bag into a tall glass and open the bag over the top of the glass. Add each color of icing to different sides of the piping bag. Remove the piping bag from the glass and squeeze the icing down until it starts to come out. Pipe out any finishing touches!

a pavlova-ly summer treat

Next weekend is Labor Day, which marks the end of summer, so I thought I’d better take advantage of the summer flavors and get a little more practice with my meringue skills. I’ve also had a page marked in my copy of A New Way to Cake all summer, so figured I’d start working my way through it.

I followed all the tips directed in the book for the pavlova, which meant extra planning & patience on my part to start this a day before to allow the pav to cool overnight. I thought by taking on baking as a hobby this summer, I’d just be improving my skills in the kitchen, but think I’ve noticed an improvement in my patience as well. Just in time for this huge endeavor of child rearing that will begin in only 5 short weeks now!

Since the pavlova is basically just a giant meringue, it’s a very delicate cake. Reason it’s best to start this process the night before is to allow the meringue to cool slowly in the oven once you turn the heat off so that it doesn’t experience a rapid temperature change. That’s the theory at least. I still got a couple cracks in my meringues, but no worries with this cake — it’ll be pretty easy to hide the cracks with these layers.

Once the meringues are done and cooled (this morning for me), the rest of the layers are easy to whip up… literally. Just a little homemade whipped cream and macerated berries, then layer, layer ‘em up and repeat!

If macerated berries sounds fancy to you, trust me it’s not. I went into all kinds of detail on it when I made strawberry shortcake biscuits a few weeks ago. it’s essentially just allowing the berries to sit in some sugar for 30-45 minutes to let the juices all flow out.

Forgot to take a pic of the whipped cream, but that’s nothing to call home about anyway. Just a couple cups of heavy whipping cream & vanilla extract, and you’ll never need to buy a can again! Once you’ve got the cream, just pile it over your first layer of meringue, then half the berries, then repeat. Pile high and you’ve got your pav!

summer berry pavlova

Prep Time: 20 mins | Bake Time: 90 mins | Inactive Time: 2-8 hours

PAVLOVA INGREDIENTS:

• 250g granulated sugar

• 150g egg whites

• 1 teaspoon cornstarch

WHIPPED CREAM INGREDIENTS:

• 2 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

BERRY TOPPING INGREDIENTS:

• 110g blueberries

• 150g diced strawberries, plus a few extra berries sliced thin for decoration

• 75g granulated sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 375F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a plate or any other round shape, trace an 8-inch circle on each piece of paper with a pencil, then flip the papers over so that the meringues don’t touch the pencil lead.

2. Start making the meringues. First, heat the sugar in the oven until the sides start to melt (about 5 minutes). Hot sugar dissolves easier in the egg whites to make the meringue. While, the sugar is heating, add the egg whites to the bowl of your stand mixer. Make sure the bowl is VERY clean.
   Tip: wipe the bowl with a squeeze of lemon or a bit of white vinegar to make sure no oils remain in the bowl.
   Using the whisk attachment on low-medium speed, start beating the eggs until they become foamy. Turn the mixer speed up to medium-high until medium peaks form.

3. By this point, your sugar should be heated enough and you can remove it from the oven. Turn the oven down to 250F. Then carefully & slowly start to add one spoon of heated sugar at a time to the egg whites with the mixer still on. Continue to beat the mixture until it’s thick and glossy, and it more than quadruples in size.

4. Once you finish adding all the sugar, beat for another 2 minutes. Then add the cornstarch and beat for another few seconds until it’s incorporated. The meringue should be done, but you’ll know by the stiff peaks and you’ll be able to flip the bowl upside down without anything falling out.

5. Spoon the meringue onto the prepared baking sheets using the circles as a guide. Don’t worry if the top isn’t flat because it’ll get covered up by the cream & berry layers. Place the trays in a single layer in the oven for 90 minutes or until the top of the meringues are firm to the touch.
   Tip: don’t open the door too much or you’ll risk cracking the meringues with the temperature changes.

6. Once the meringues are done, place them back in the oven and turn the oven off. Allow them to cool in the oven rather than at room temperature to help prevent cracking. Allow them to cool for at least 2 hours or overnight if possible.

7. Prepare the berries. Add the berries & sugar to a bowl and mix together. Let it sit for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

8. Prepare the whipped cream. Add the heavy whipping cream & vanilla extract to the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, beat on medium-high speed until you have stiff peaks. Keep the whipped cream cool in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble.

9. Assemble the pav! Carefully remove the first meringue from the parchment paper and place on your serving plate or stand. Add a layer of whipped cream, then a layer of berries. Remove the second meringue from the parchment paper, and pile it on top and repeat. I used a few more strawberries thinly sliced to decorate the edges, but you do you! I’d also recommend draining the juices or else it gets a bit messy. Pile high & enjoy!

roses for my (u)bae

Before I get into this weekend’s bake, I have a very important PSA: Pregnancy brain is REAL. I’ll admit that before I was pregnant, I thought it was just a cute little excuse. But 7 months in… it is 100% real and 100% taking over my brain. The latest example of pregnancy brain in full effect in my house: I opened my fridge this weekend and found that somehow there were 7 full boxes unsalted butter in there. That’s right. SEVEN.

Turns out that for the last few weeks, instead of ordering salted butter for my morning toast, I have continued to order UNsalted butter. There were definitely a couple of times where I caught the error myself after unpacking the grocery delivery, but then with each new order, I still kept managing to order unsalted butter. On Friday night, I was looking around for a snack, and found 5 boxes in the usual butter area. Already, it had hit me that pregnancy brain had obviously struck again. Then this morning, I moved the carton of eggs, and found 2 more boxes of butter! I have a feeling my husband placed the other 2 boxes away from its friends in an effort to hide the massive overstock of unsalted butter from me as not to make me feel badly. What a guy.

Well, I’ve got to do something with all this butter now. So, while I had already planned to make this ube cake roll this weekend, I changed it up a bit to include an ube buttercream icing to top it with purple rosettes. And you know what that means? That’s 1 whole box down and 6 more to go! So please, if you have any ideas for some butter-heavy recipes, do let me know in the comments… Just don’t tell my doctor!

Alright. PSA over. On to the ube cake! And if you’re new to ube, check out my blog post on ube swirl rolls where I share a bit of the explanation on what ube is :)

For the cake roll, I found this recipe for an ube chiffon cake from Woman Scribbles. Similar to last week’s lime ricotta cake, this one required some technical skills separating eggs, getting the egg whites to stiff peaks, then folding the beaten egg whites into the ube batter to get it ever so light & airy.

Honestly most of the work for this cake was in the ingredient prep. Since you’re just baking a thin sheet cake, the actual bake isn’t very long at all. It was barely enough time for me to finish cleaning up the mess I made making the batter! That reminds me - one more PSA here: ube flavoring is M E S S Y. This was my first time working with it, and while it makes for some gorgeous cakes & icing, this stuff can truly stain. I recommend covering your surface or having a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser handy. I ended up working on my silicon baking mat after I realized how hard it was to get a small drop cleaned off of my counter.

Anyway, once you’ve got your batter done and in your sheet pan, it only needs to bake for about 10 minutes until it’s ready. Then you’ve got some more technical skill fun. I’ve seen enough episodes of the Great British Baking Show where they make cake rolls to know that you’ve got to start rolling the cake while it’s still hot so that it can keep that shape later even after you’ve spread on the icing. The original recipe directions didn’t call for this, but I’ve seen enough disasters on GBBS to know that I could not let the cake cool before doing this.

So once you carefully remove the cake from the pan with the parchment paper still on, roll it tightly starting from one of the short sides. Place the rolled cake on a wire rack, and let it cool completely like this. While the cake cools, make the buttercream.

For the buttercream, I just used a classic vanilla buttercream recipe of butter, powdered sugar, and a couple tablespoons of heavy whipping cream. Rather than vanilla extract, I went for the same ube flavoring that I used for the cake. I also took an extra step to sift my powdered sugar with each addition to the creamed butter. I had been reading quite a few different recipes, and saw that doing this makes for a creamier, silkier consistency. I definitely made a mess doing this, but think it was worth it. This was definitely the most silky buttercream I’ve ever made!

Once the cake roll was cool, I unrolled it, spread a thin layer of the buttercream on it, then rolled it back up while carefully removing the parchment paper this time. I then wrapped the cake roll in plastic wrap and placed it in the fridge to firm up for about an hour. This also gave me some time to practice piping out my rosettes before I tried it out on the cake itself!

The decorating is of course entirely up to you, but I really wanted to try out my piping skills today, so I went for these rosettes using a 1M cake decorating tip. These look fancier than they are. It’s really just a simple swirl motion, but that 1M tip makes it look just lovely! I’ve still got a lot of practicing to do, but I was pretty happy with these.

My icing seemed pretty soft, and I was afraid it would completely fall apart once I cut into it, so I put the decorated cake back into the fridge for about an hour. Think this is what really helped it to hold up its shape after we cut into it.

Check out the swirl on that!!

UBE CAKE ROLL WITH UBE BUTTERCREAM ICING

Prep Time: 20 mins | Bake Time: 10-12 mins | Decorating Time: 10 mins | Inactive Time: 2 hours | Total Time: 2.5 hours

UBE CHIFFON CAKE INGREDIENTS:

• 4 large eggs, room temperature and separated into yolks and whites

• 1/2 C (100g) granulated sugar, separated into two halves

• 1/4 C milk, room temperature

• 3 TBS vegetable oil

• 1 1/2 TSP ube flavoring

• 3/4 C (96g) all-purpose flour

• 1/2 TSP baking powder

• 1/4 TSP cream of tartar powder

UBE BUTTERCREAM INGREDIENTS:

• 6C (768g) powdered sugar, sifted

• 2C unsalted butter, room temperature

• 2 TSP ube flavoring

• 2-4 TBS heavy whipping cream

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease a 10x15 inch baking pan and line with parchment paper. Grease parchment paper.

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the yolks by hand until it lightens in color. Add 1/4 C (50g) of sugar and whisk until it thickens. Add the milk, oil, ube extract, and whisk until incorporated.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour and baking powder. Add it to the yolk mixture and beat until it’s smooth and no lumps remain.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and beat on medium speed until soft peaks form (about 3-5 minutes).
   Add in the remaining 1/4 C (50g) of sugar, and whisk on high until stiff peaks form.
   Fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk batter in 3 parts using a rubber spatula. Fold the mixture until it’s even in color throughout.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

6. Remove from the oven. While the cake is still hot, carefully use the parchment paper to lift the cake out of the pan. Roll the cake up tightly using the parchment paper, and allow to cool completely while rolled.

7. While the cake is cooling, make the buttercream. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until it’s creamy.

8. Sift in the powdered sugar about 1C at a time continuing to beat the mixture until it’s well-blended. Scrape down the sides as needed.

9. Once well-blended, add the ube flavoring and 2 TBS of heavy whipping cream. Beat for about 1 minute until all combined. Add more cream if needed (I only used 2 TBS). Beat until smooth & silky.

10. Unroll the cooled cake and spread a layer of butter cream onto the cake. Re-roll the cake carefully removing the parchment paper as you roll. Wrap the cake in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool and firm.

11. Using a decorating bag with a 1M tip, pipe rosettes with remaining buttercream.

12. Enjoy!

when life gives you limes…

This week’s bake came about more out of necessity than anything else. I had a surplus of ricotta and limes, so had to find something delicious & tasty to do with all of it!

Since quarantine life started a few months ago, we’ve relied on Instacart for grocery deliveries. I do miss wandering up and down the aisles, browsing through all of the products in the store wondering what I can do with various ingredients, but I am also loving not having to lug heavy bags of groceries home. City life has never made grocery shopping very easy, and over the years, I’ve learned to limit my grocery list to what I can carry with my own two hands. That’s usually meant only buying small sizes of products and not being able to get more than a couple liquid items.

Enter Instacart. Now I’m piling my grocery list up with five 1L tetra-packs of coconut water, five-pound bags of flour, cartons of 18 eggs, OJ, canned goods… my list can quite literally go on and on and on now because I don’t actually have to carry any of this stuff home! Oh what a time to be alive!

Anyway, as much as I’ve been enjoying this delivery life, I have also come to realize it is not fool proof. For one, I’ve got to do a better job at reading the sizing labels on things. Sure, there are some times that I want the large size (I did mention the five pound bags of flour and cartons of 18 eggs that are often on my list), but there are also other times when even I know the big size isn’t necessary. This is especially true for items that don’t have an extended shelf life and considering there’s only myself and my husband in this household. Example: I didn’t need a 907g tub of ricotta cheese. Admittedly, I also may not have realized how big a 907g tub of ricotta cheese was, and was very surprised at the large tub I pulled out of the grocery bag last week.

I was also very surprised to find a produce bag of 10 limes in my shopping bag. This time I was positive I only ordered ONE lime, and I even went back to check my original order to make sure I didn’t mistakenly order 10 limes. With my pregnancy brain these days, I wouldn’t have been surprised if that had happened! Turns out I did only order the one lime, but we think there may have been a “10 for $3” sale. And for that, I can appreciate my shopper looking out for a good deal!

So with all these limes and all this ricotta cheese, I set out to make a citrus ricotta cake. Citrus of choice here: lime. Probably wouldn’t have been my go-to citrus-cheese pairing in another situation, but it’s what I had and it turned out pretty well! Think key lime pie mixed with a light & fluffy cheesecake.

Found this recipe for an orange ricotta cheesecake from Vintage Kitchen, and just did a straight swap of 3 limes for the 2 oranges that the recipe called for. I also took a few liberties with the proportions based on the remaining ricotta I had left, which yielded a cake about an inch and a half thick in my 9-inch spring form pan. I didn’t mind this thickness — made me feel like I could have bigger pieces and not feel as guilty!

Aside from the limes & ricotta, all other ingredients in this recipe were household staples. Just mix with sugar, some eggs, all-purpose flour, and salt, and you’re on your way to a lovely, summery cake.

You might notice from the picture above that my egg yolks & whites are separated. This recipe also called for a bit of technique, so I was eager to practice the art of separating eggs. I’m not very good at doing this very cleanly as I think it typically requires more patience and concentration than I’m usually willing to use. But, I am happy to report back that I only wasted one egg!

You’ll need the eggs separated so that you can beat the egg whites into medium peaks, then fold that into the ricotta batter mixture. I’ve included a photos below of the egg whites once I got them to medium peaks. One other tip I was able to put to good use: before putting your egg whites into your mixing bowl, wipe the bowl down with lemon juice. This helps to ensure that no remaining oils or residue are in your bowl as that may inhibit the egg whites foaming and forming peaks.

Once you’ve got your medium peaks, fold the egg whites into the ricotta mixture. Then transfer the final mixture to your prepared spring form pan.

Last, pop it into the pre-heated oven, and 40-50 minutes later, you’ve got yourself a lime ricotta cake!

PS: I’ve still got a ton of limes that I don’t know what to do it, so taking suggestions! Comment below with suggestions or if you try this recipe out yourself!

lime ricotta cake

Prep Time: 30 mins | Cook Time: 40-50 mins | Total Time: 1 hour, 20 mins

INGREDIENTS:

• 110 grams granulated sugar, separated into two parts equally in half

• 550 grams whole milk ricotta, room temperature

• 4 eggs, room temperature and separated into yolks & whites

• 22 grams all-purpose flour

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

• zest of 3 limes

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.

2. Butter a 9-inch round spring form cake pan. Dust with sugar, shaking off excess sugar.

3. In a large bowl using a whisk, mix the ricotta & zest. Mix for about a minute for a smoother texture.

4. Add the flour, half of the sugar, salt, and mix well. Combine egg yolks into the mixture.

5. In another bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer with the whisk attachment on medium speed, beat the egg whites for 30 seconds, gradually adding the remaining half of sugar. Increase the speed to high, and beat until it foams, triples in size, and medium peaks form.

6. With a rubber spatula, add the beaten egg whites to the ricotta mixture in 3 parts, folding in each part. Be careful not to over mix.

7. Transfer the mixture to a prepared pan, then place in oven.

8. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

9. Remove from the oven, and let cool on a wire rack. Run a knife around the edges to make sure it doesn’t stick to the sides of the pan, and remove from pan. Let it cool completely before serving, and enjoy!

strawberries? whipped cream? biscuits? i KNEAD it!

I still remember the first time I had a strawberry shortcake. I was about 6 or 7 years old, and we took a family trip up to Maine. I think my grandparents and uncle were visiting from the Philippines, so we took a little road trip up and rented a house for a few days. I remember eating giant lobsters that we’d buy fresh, cook at home, and all enjoy in the little vacation house. And for dessert, my parents pulled out some fresh strawberries, mini shortcakes perfectly shaped to hold the filling, and a can of that good, good Reddi-Wip. I think I loved the whole DIY aspect of this dessert experience and the spray noise of Reddi-Wip always makes my mouth water immediately (even today, though I’ve now learned how to make homemade whipped cream that I think I actually like better! Keep reading for more on that). After that, I remember requesting strawberry shortcake any time I was asked what I’d like for dessert or what my favorite dessert was.

It’s still one of my favorite desserts, and can be so refreshing in the summertime. So seeing as it’s now mid-July and we’ve got the AC cranking at full blast, this seemed like the perfect treat for this weekend’s baking project. I found this recipe for strawberry bourbon shortcakes from another one of my favorite recipe blogs, Half Baked Harvest. The recipe seemed easy enough and so delicious except for one ingredient: bourbon. I’m nearly 7-months pregnant, so I just left out the bourbon from the strawberry topping recipe since we’re really only macerating them so we wouldn’t be cooking out any of the alcohol.

Side note: Did you catch that fancy new culinary term I learned today? Macerate. It really just means that you toss the berries in a sugary mixture and allow them to sit for a while to release the juices. Turns out I’ve been macerating in quite a few of the recipes I’ve been trying out for this blog!

Anyway, back to the recipe. I also love that this recipe puts a twist on the shortcake in that it’s not even a shortcake at all! We’re going to be setting the strawberries & cream on top of a light, buttery biscuit. I don’t think I would’ve really thought about doing it this way, but the photos looked beautiful, so that was enough to convince me! I’ve also never really made a biscuit before, so was excited to check that off my list of “things to try and bake.” Before we jump into the process, I should mention that I halved the recipe since it’s only me and my husband, and no one person needs 4 servings of strawberry shortcake biscuits, no matter how good they are! Alright, so here we go…

First, I got some more use out of my new food processor and tried out the grating function. I cannot believe how easy this made grating the butter. From tons of British Bake Off marathons and YouTube videos of Paul Hollywood’s “cheat’s puff pastry,” I know that using cold grated butter allows you to get butter throughout your dough and melt into the dough during the baking process to really get that buttery pastry. But I’ve never actually tried this, and the thought of grating butter has kind of turned me off from this method. I think I’ve just been afraid that the butter would completely melt in my hand while I was grating it.

Well, no excuses now because I’ve got a game changer: grating via a food processor. This thing grated that butter so fast that there was no opportunity for it to even melt. Honestly, it was so fast it was almost unsatisfying. I pulled out the whole giant food processor from the cupboard, and I was done with it in a matter of seconds! But, whatever, I could get past that for not having melted butter dripping all over my hands. That trade-off is pretty huge to me. Work smarter, not harder (or messier), right?

Then, I mixed my grated butter together with the flour and baking powder, added in buttermilk and honey, and kneaded it for a bit with my hands until it came together into a dough. Once it formed a dough, I rolled it out into a rectangle about 1-inch thick and cut it into 4 pieces. Then I transferred it onto a prepared baking sheet, brushed it with some more buttermilk and sprinkled some coarse sugar on top. Next, just pop those biscuits into the oven and bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

While the biscuits were baking, I macerated my strawberries. Basically, I just tossed my strawberries with some honey and sugar and let it sit until I was ready to assemble my biscuit cakes.

While the strawberries sat, I made the whipped cream. I’ve been watching a few homemade whipped cream recipe technique videos the past week, and have been finding that many bakers use mascarpone to get a very creamy whipped cream. I had been wanting to try this, so was excited this recipe actually called for it! It still blows my mind how easy it is to make whipped cream. I also thought adding in mascarpone would make it more complicated, but nope… you just whip it all together with the heavy cream until you get stiff peaks, and you’re done! The mascarpone really makes the stiff peaks something else too! I was never usually quite sure that my peaks were stiff enough when I was just using the heavy cream & sugar, but with the mascarpone, you will know for sure. The peaks kept their form, and it still tasted just as light and fluffy. I also loved how this recipe only used honey to sweeten the cream rather than sugar. Made me feel a little bit healthier, though I did add a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

The biscuits were ready soon after I was done making the whipped cream. I let them cool for a bit on a wire rack, then cut them in half horizontally and started the final assembly.

Just take the bottom halves of your biscuits, add a couple dollops of whipped cream, spoon some strawberries on top, then finish off with the top half of your biscuit, or enjoy open faced!

A few more steps than my original strawberry shortcake experience, but equally as satisfying and delicious!

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE BISCUITS

Prep Time: 20 mins | Bake Time: 20 mins

Total Time: 40 mins

BISCUIT INGREDIENTS:

• 3.5 C (448g) all-purpose flour

• 1 TBS (22g) honey

• 1 TBS (8g) baking powder

• 1 C salted butter, grated and chilled

• 1 C buttermilk

• Coarse sugar for sprinkling

strawberry topping ingredients:

• 6 C fresh strawberries, cut into quarters

• 3 TBS (63g) honey

• 1 TSP granulated sugar

WHIPPED MASCARPONE:

• 4 oz mascarpone cheese

• 1 C heavy cream

• 2 TBS (42g) honey

• 2 TSP vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. Add the grated butter and toss with the flour mixture. Add the buttermilk and honey, and mix until just combined. Use your hands to bring the dough together.

3. Roll the dough out into a 1-inch thick rectangle. Cut the dough into 8 rectangles. Place each piece onto the prepared baking sheet, and brush with buttermilk. Sprinkle the coarse sugar on top.

4. Transfer the biscuits to the oven and bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Cool before assembling.

5. Toss the strawberries, honey, and sugar together. Set aside for at least 15 minutes.

6. While the biscuits are baking and the strawberries are macerating, make the cream. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip together the mascarpone cheese and heavy cream until just before stiff peaks form. Add in the vanilla, and whip until stiff peaks form. Fold in the honey using a rubber spatula.

7. Assemble! Slice each biscuit in half horizontally. Take the bottom half, and add a dollop of cream, spoon on the strawberries, and finish off with the top half of the biscuit. Alternatively, enjoy open faced and use both halves as the bottom. Repeat with remaining biscuits.

I love cake a (laming)TON!

Full transparency: I had never heard of a lamington before attempting this weekend’s baking project. I’ve never heard of them and have never seen one, and so was very pleasantly surprised when my Australian husband took a look and exclaimed, “Wow! Those really look like lamingtons!”

If you are also unfamiliar with this sweet treat from down under — and no, I’m not talking about my husband ;) — lamingtons are an Australian cake made from squares of sponge cake and traditionally coated in chocolate and coconut. Sounds good, right? I know I’m definitely going to plan to indulge in some next time we make our way down to Australia!

So how did I get to baking lamingtons this weekend without a single clue as to what they even were? Well, I just got two very exciting deliveries recently (there’s that shopping addiction I mentioned):

1. The New Way to Cake cookbook by Benjamina Ebuehi from season 7 of The Great British Bake Off

2. A Cuisinart food processor

Obviously, my next baking project had to be from Benji’s new cookbook and had to be a recipe that required a food processor. So as I flipped through every page of this gorgeous cake book, I found this delicious and summery recipe for lime, coconut, and mango lamingtons. Perfect for the season and perfect for trying out my new toy. Win, win!

What I love about all of the recipes in this book is that they are all so easy to follow. So easy that even if you’ve never heard of these baked goods, you can still easily follow along! With that, follow along below as this beginner baker attempts a brand new recipe…

First, I started by prepping the fresh fruit ingredients. I chopped up the mangoes into 1-inch pieces so that I could easily pop them into my new food processor when I was ready. Then I zested my limes and made the lime zest sugar.

I set the mangoes and remaining limes (minus the zest) aside, and started making the sponge cake. I combined the lime zest sugar, butter, and vanilla using my stand mixer until it was pale and fluffy as directed. I’m still coming to terms with what directions like this mean, but think I got to a good place (given it turned out to be quite successful!). Here’s what pale & fluffy means to me:

Once you’re happy with the consistency of the sugar, butter, and vanilla, add in 3 eggs one at a time. Next add your dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, and baking powder sifted together) and milk in batches, alternating between the two, starting and ending with the flour. Sifting the dry ingredients together and alternating between the dry ingredients & milk were very specific instructions from the book. I’d never taken the time to do either of those steps with cakes in the past, and think that was key to this sponge coming out so light and airy — I loved it!

When all of the ingredients are combined, pour into a prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Take it out of the oven and let it cool.

While the sponge is cooling, prepare the mango purée. Throw the cut mango pieces, confectioners’ sugar, and lime juice into a food processor. Process until smooth, then set up your two dipping stations: 1) a shallow bowl with the mango purée and 2) a large dish of shredded coconut.

Now, back to the cake! Once it’s cool, trim the edges and cut into cubes. The recipe calls for 16 cubes, but I tend to prefer smaller pieces, so ended up with 21 not-so-perfectly-shaped rectangles/squares. Then, with each sponge cube, dip it into the mango puree and coat all sides, then roll the mango-coated cube around in the shredded coconut until it’s fully coated. Place each cube onto a wire rack and continue until you’ve coated all of the little cakes in mango purée and shredded coconut. Here’s the hard part: wait until all of the cakes have firmed up before digging in or arranging on a serving dish or cake stand!

LIME, COCONUT & MANGO LAMINGTONS

Prep: 10 minutes | Bake: 30-40 minutes | Total: 1 hour and 5-15 minutes

Lime Sponge Cake Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 C (190g) all-purpose flour

• 1 1/2 TBS (12g) cornstarch

• 1 TBS (15g) baking powder

• Zest of 2 limes

• 1 C (200g) granulated sugar

• 1 C (225g) unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1 TSP vanilla extract

• 3 eggs, room temperature

• 1/2 C (120 mL) milk, room temperature

Mango Purée Ingredients:

• 2 medium-sized ripe mangoes, cut into 1-inch pieces

• 3/4 C (105g) confectioners’ sugar

• Juice of 1 lime

Coconut Coating Ingredients:

• 2 C (200g) shredded unsweetened coconut

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease an 8x12-inch baking pan and line with parchment paper.

2. Sift the flour, cornstarch, and baking powder together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

3. Using your fingers, combine the lime zest and granulated sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until the mixture feels like wet sand.

4. Attach the paddle attachment and combine the lime zest sugar, butter, and vanilla extract until pale & fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix in the dry ingredients and milk, alternating in batches.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes. Remove from the baking pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

6. While the cake is baking/cooling, prepare the mango purée. Using a food process, combine the mango pieces, confectioners’ sugar, and lime juice until smooth. Pour into a shallow bowl and set aside.

7. Cut the edges off the sponge, then cut into cubes. Dip each sponge cube into the mango purée, coating completely, then roll in the shredded coconut. Place on a wire rack and repeat with remaining sponge cubes.

8. Allow coated sponges to firm up on the wire rack, about 10-20 minutes.

9. Serve and enjoy!

Chai it… you’ll like it!

I have to admit: I never really got into the whole chai tea latte trend. I may have ordered one at Starbucks once just to see what all the rage was about (or I may have tried a friend’s), and I’ve gotta be honest. I really didn’t get the hype. In all honesty, it kinda tasted like dirt to me…

To give chai tea some credit, they do smell great. The aromas of the spice with a bit of sweetness do just make me feel all warm and tingly inside. So what does that say? I prefer chai as a candle scent? That’s gotta exist, right?

Well, I may not have enjoyed it as a drink, but the scent hasn’t fully closed the chai door for me. I knew deep down there would be some other way or form I could enjoy that spiced sweet flavor. Then this past winter, I watched about 40 hours straight of British Bake Off, and quite a number of bakes kept catching my attention and I quickly realized they all had a common flavor theme: spiced chai. After about another 20 hours of binging Bake Off and a couple hours of recipe research, I found a recipe that seemed on my level of baking skills to try out, made my way to the spice aisle of the grocery store, and I was ready to start pre-heating the oven and get baking.

Big giant kudos to Sarah over at Broma Bakery for the beautiful food photography skills that made wanting to learn this recipe irresistible and writing up such easy to follow directions for this Chai Spice Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting.

In all honesty, the toughest part about this whole thing was finding the cardamom in the spice aisle! I also wasn’t feeling confident enough to splurge on some edible gold leaves, and gave up on finding whole cinnamon sticks after trips to two different grocery stores. BUT, blueberries were on sale so my topping and design took its own turn, and I was quite happy with the result. And in the end, I did find my chai flavoring nook: cakes.

I’m definitely my harshest critic, and the lopsidedness of the cake was really getting to me. It’s pretty subtle in the shot, but the middle part of my cakes rose up higher than the outer part of the cake. I did a bit more research into how the professionals solve for this, and think I’ll try some cutting/shaping techniques next time I make a multi-layer cake. This video from Everyday Food was super informative for cutting and frosting even layers. I tried to mimic Sarah’s technique from Broma Bakery, and create a somewhat unfinished look, but think it ended up being an in-between of thick frosting in some parts and just enough in some.

Practice makes perfect, and I’ll definitely be trying this one again!

I-love-you-berry-much cheesecake swirl

My first post.

If we know each other IRL (or if you’ve read the about section), you know the story behind this blog and the origin of the spite filling hiding inside the sugary sweet frosting. TL;DR I only started baking so regularly to prove a point to my husband that I’d actually use the hand mixer I purchased.

Well, here’s an unexpected plot twist that happened just before I embarked on this first entry. I have been baking so much and my husband has so thoroughly enjoyed the products of my spiteful baking that the other night he came home with this incredibly thoughtful surprise!

That’s right, baby! He went out and bought me the ultimate device every wannabe baker wants in their kitchen: a KitchenAid stand mixer. Can you imagine? The man who was skeptical of my little baby hand mixer, thinking I’d use it once and it would go on collecting dust just fully upgraded me to the Lambo of home kitchen devices. I think I won the long game here, and we’ve got it in writing, blogged to prove it!

Alright. Gloating done. Back to baking…

I thought I’d christen my gorgeous new mixer with a dessert to show the hubby that I love him berry, berry much. So here’s my attempt at a strawberry cheesecake.

Actually, I made 1.5 cheesecakes. As I was searching recipes to make a strawberry cheesecake swirl, I came across some small batch baking recipes. In the end, I think I ended up sort of combining a few normal sized recipes to piece together a strawberry cheesecake and then added 50% of everything to make a smaller cake in a loaf pan. Probably a little overambitious, but I think I tend to do that as well when jumping into new hobbies. Anyway, here it goes!

First, I started with some homemade jam. Another thing I’ve never done before, and who knew making jam was so easy! I ended up using an entire 16 oz (1 lb.) carton of strawberries. Definitely enough for my 1.5 cheesecakes with some extra for topping or for my toast tomorrow morning. No such thing as too much jam.

Next, I went for the crust. Now here’s where I think I probably should’ve stuck to one set of instruction and differentiated my bake times for the small and big cake. My “big” cake was done in a 9 inch spring form pan, and my small cake was done in a 9x5” loaf pan. Both recipes I found for the crust were so similar, but the bake times and methods were so drastically different. One seemed so easy, so in all honesty, that’s the one I went with. It only called for 8 minutes of pre-baking the crust, or until it was golden brown. By 10 minutes, both crusts actually looked golden brown, so I figured they were both done. That might have been true, but I think the next few steps to bake and chill the filling may have altered the end result of the crusts. More on that later. But if you want to avoid my mistake, I’ve included the directions for the full-sized cheesecake crust below that should really be followed.

The filling was actually so easy to make. But that may be due to my brand spanking new stand mixer! I’ve included the recipe below for the full-sized cheesecake, and if you’d like to make another mini one simultaneously as I did, just add another half serving of each.

Once you’re done making the filling, pour it into the pans and over the cooled crusts. Now the fun part - designing the swirl! Dollop spoonfuls of the jam on top of the cheesecake filling, and use a knife to swirl the jam around the top. I included full chunks of strawberries in mine, but I think it you want neater swirls, strain the chunks out and just use the jam sauce. Save the chunks to top the cheesecake later when serving.

And now for the bake. I baked the small cheesecake for about 50 minutes and the big one for about 60. Essentially, you’ll need to bake each until a toothpick comes out just about clean. After baking, cool on some cooling racks. Once they’re cooled, place your cheesecakes in the fridge to set. I left both of mine in over night, but recipes say they should be refrigerated for at least 6 hours and up to 1 day. I like my cheesecake no matter what temperature, but baker’s choice of serving straight from the fridge or take them out and allow to come down to room temperature before serving.

Et voilà!