Tag Archives: cake

Pineapple Upside Down Cake for a Special Person

29 Jun

My organic delivery friend (yes, I have that luxury, and yes, I take full advantage of it! and if you live in KL, you can too!) sent over a beautiful ripe pineapple on Monday. Its been sitting on my counter, looking at me, and smelling of that unique sweet citrus pineapple-y smell that just seduces you into needing to eat it!

But I wanted to do something different, and also may be a little retro. Pineapple upside down cake is just stunning – beautiful pieces of caramelised pineapple and sticky gooey caramel adorning a perfectly simple, and yet deliciously tasty, vanilla cake. Buttermilk makes this tender, as does the melted butter. The cake itself is not very sweet, but that is because youre relying on the caramel to flavour the cake. Its easy to put together, as long as you are patient with the cutting of the pineapple – and have a VERY sharp knife. If you would rather have the old school pineapple rings, by all means cut them that way – you could even put a little cherry in the centre of each, or a strawberry or dried cranberry! But I like the chunky pieces of pineapple best – more rustic, a little less twee retro, craggier and more able to brown and suck up all that gorgeous caramel.

You will need:

  • 1 sweet pineapple
  • 1 stick of butter (8 tablespoons), divided into half (plus a bit for buttering tin)
  • 1/2 cup of brown sugar
  • 1 + 2 tbsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups cake flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Start by prepping. You will need to preheat your oven to 175C, and butter a 9 inch round cake tin very well. Once the cake tin is buttered, prepare a sling made of parchment or baking paper. Tear a sheet that is twice as long as the width of your tin, and centre over the buttered tin. Push it in, and using the butter as a kind of glue, ensure that the paper adheres to the bottom and sides of the tin. Rebutter the sheet of baking paper, up to the sides as well. Set aside.

Prepare your pineapple. You will need a very sharp knife, otherwise please dont attempt this as you may chop a finger off! Resting the pineapple on its now stable bottom, use your knife to peel off the skin. Cut in half lengthwise, and then into quarters. Once the skin is off, you will need to get the brown “eyes” that stay within the indentations. Use your knife again, working slowly and carefully, at an angle, against the pineapple. You will see that its possible to make triangluar cuts into the pineapple in long strips to take off these pesky bits. Once the pineapple is clean, cut out the woody interior, and chop roughly. Set aside once you have prepared the entire pineapple.

Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a large pan over high heat. Once the butter has been melted, add all the pineapple, and ensure that it is in one layer at the bottom of the pan. Allow it to brown and caramelise in the butter, flipping over only a few times, for about 5 to ten minutes or so. Sprinkle over about half the brown sugar, and mix, and allow to cook, all in one layer, for a few minutes. Add the rest of the brown sugar, mix, and let bubble for a bit. Add about 1 tablespoon of vanilla (be careful, it will hiss and spit at you!), and mix well.

Using your spatula, transfer all the pineapple and gorgeous caramel into your baking tin. Ensure that it coats the entire bottom of the tin, and the pineapple is well layered. Set aside.

Add the remaining 4 tablespoons butter to the hot pan – it should melt quickly. Once melted, transfer immediately to a heatproof bowl, and whisk in white sugar, buttermilk, eggs and remaining vanilla. Once the mixture is foamy, set aside while you mix dry ingredients together (I usually just measure out the flour, add the baking soda and salt to the measuring cup and mix with spoon).

Using a spatula, mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Taste for vanilla, and add more if its to your liking. Spoon or pour the batter over the caramelised pineapples in the tin and smooth the top over. Bake in your hot oven for 50 – 60 minutes (checking at about 45) or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Take the tin out of the oven, and let it rest for at least ten to fifteen minutes, over a cookie rack. This waiting time is really important, to let the caramel set up, so that when you flip it over, the while thing wont run in rivers over your countertop! Be patient! Once the tin is lukewarm and handleable, invert the tin over a cake plate, using the paper sling to coax it out. Peel the parchment off gently, and adjust any pineapple bits that may have fallen off. Let the cake rest for at least another 10 minutes or so before slicing.

You could serve this with some creme fraiche, a few strawberries, or some vanilla ice cream, but thats kind of gilding the lily! Its beautiful as is, and such a wonderful tribute to the prickly pineapple.

Cooks Note: you can bake this without the parchment sling. It will definitely make the caramel stickier and richer in colour and flavour. I decided against it because I wanted a lighter version of the cake but feel free to eschew the parchment sling. In that case, rest for only up to ten minutes when it comes out the oven.

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Paul’s Black Forest Birthday Cake

24 Jun

Since I posted the best cookie recipe ever, I thought I would stick to that sweet theme today, and post my dear friend, Paul’s birthday cake. Paul liberated me as a cook many years ago when I presented him with his first Black Forest Birthday Cake. I was shy because the cake was a bit wobbly, and listed to the side. When I told him this, he laughed and said to me that that was the perfection in my cakes – he could tell they were home made and created with plenty of love and sayang BECAUSE they were a little imperfect, and they were full of my energy and my love. I realised that people taste and see and feel and smell the love that you put into food, and it doesnt have to be visually perfect for it to be satisfyingly lovingly perfect. He made me a braver and more confident cook, and when he was here for his birthday, I couldnt resist making him another Black Forest Cake – this one even MORE wobbly than the last!

This cake is a bit of a major undertaking, BUT its easy peasy if you make it in stages. I made the alcoholic version, but you could easily substitute cherry juice in place of cherry brandy, and have a delicious non-alcoholic cake as well. Make the cherry filling, and cherry sauce the day before. You can bake the cake up to two days ahead as well. The whipped cream should be prepared on the day of serving, though if you really need to, you can make it up to a day ahead, given that its stabilized with agar agar.

Cherry filling + Cherry sauce

  • About 5 – 6 cups cherries, pitted (I used fresh frozen because we had none in the shops)
  • 1 bottle cherry brandy (or 1 bottle cherry juice or other dark berry juice)
  • Sugar (to taste)
  • Water
  • Vanilla
  • Cinnamon

In a large bowl, drain and defrost the cherries. Pour off any juice into a measuring cup. You should have about 2 cups. If you don’t, make it up with water (or cherry brandy!).

Pour the juice into a small saucepan, add about 3 tablespoons of sugar and about 1 cup of cherry brandy. Boil until syrupy. Cool and refrigerate.

Meanwhile, put the cherries in a large saucepan and add:

  • 1 – 2 cups cherry brandy
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • Juice of 1 lemon

Boil until cherries release their juice, and the entire beautiful heap becomes soft and jammy. Cool. Pour about 1/2 cup of brandy over and refrigerate.

Chocolate sauce

  • 3 bars of extra dark, bittersweet chocolate,
  • 1/2 cup cream
  • 3 tbsp butter

Break the bars into small chunks, and put all in a small saucepan, over very very low heat. Stir until melted.

Keep aside until ready to assemble cake

Chocolate buttermilk cake

Prepare 3 baking pans, lining the bottom with parchment paper, and buttering bottoms and sides. Preheat oven to 170 C

Beat together:

  • 1 cup butter
  • 2 cup sugar

until fluffy, creamy and light yellow.

Beat in

  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tbsp vanilla
  • About 1/2 cup of melted chocolate (which you have put aside)

To this mix, beat in

  • 3 cups flour mixed with 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt and 1 cup cocoa powder

alternately with

  • 2 cups buttermilk

Taste. If its not chocolately enough for you, add up to 1/2 c cocoa or melted chocolate.

Divide equally between 3 cake tins, and bake for approximately 10 – 15 minutes each tin, or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Cool, in the tin and if you are not using the same day, refrigerate, wrapped tightly in grease proof paper.

Whipped cream

Beat together

  • 4 – 5 cups heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup icing sugar
  • 2 tbsp vanilla

As the mixture just reaches stiffness, add

  • 1 tsp agar agar to every cup of cream

Whip until very stiff peaks hold. The agar agar acts as a vegetarian gelatin – it ensures the whipped cream holds its stiffness and does not leak or become watery. It can stay this way for hours and hours and there is no added taste or influence from the agar agar.

Assembly

Turn 1 cake onto serving platter, and with a fork, poke holes in the cake … everywhere! Brush the reduced cherry (brandy) sauce on to cake, and if you like sprinkled with a little more neat cherry brandy.

Cover with a thin layer of chocolate sauce, then spread the cake with a layer of whipped cream. Heap cherries on top, and sprinkle with crumbled chocolate (I use Flakes).

Repeat for remaining layers of cake, finishing with whipped cream along top and sides, sprinkles of chocolate and maraschino cherries if you like.

Refrigerate for at least two hours (and up to 12) to let the cake set well before serving.

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Uncle Johns Chocolate Chocolate Vanilla Berry Birthday Trifle!

20 Jun

So it was my Uncle John’s birthday in February, and he is a very special man in my life. He always treated Mila, my sister, and I as if we were adults – always listening to our opinions, treating us with respect, and telling us funny jokes. He is one of my heroes, and I wanted to make a delicious birthday cake for him. He is English, so a trifle suggested itself, and he loves chocolate, so I decided to go the whole hog (so to speak) and do a chocolate upon chocolate upon chocolate birthday trifle. I decided to “cut” it with some vanilla custard, and vanilla whipped cream, and a few, strategically placed berries to slice fragrantly through the ultimate chocolate fest.

While I use chocolate pudding, chocolate sour cream pound cake, and a thick dark chocolate sauce as the basis for this trifle, don’t think that they are all one note. If you make sure to think about them as three parts of a sublime whole, you can ensure that each tastes unique and different, but still deeply chocolately. I usually put some cinnamon in the chocolate pound cake because that adds a dusky dark note, without intruding too much. And I add some espresso to the chocolate sauce to ensure that its bitter sweetness stands out. And the chocolate pudding gets a hit of vanilla to ensure its creamy fragrance is unique. Layer these with vanilla custard, and lightly sweetened vanilla whipped cream, and a jumble of strawberries, blackberries and raspberries, and you get a trifle that is unspeakably delicious. Pardon the superlatives, but they really apply here.

First you need to prepare the various elements of the trifle, and then you can put them all together!

Chocolate Sauce

  • Approximately 300 grams (10 oz) at least 75% bittersweet chocolate
  • 100 g + 100 g good quality French butter
  • ¾ cup strong espresso (hot)
  • 1 cup whipping or double cream
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp honey (flowery honey if you have it – heather, lavender, etc – it gives a lovely note)

In a heavy pot, put your chocolate, broken into pieces. Cut 100 g of butter on top of the chocolate, pour over the hot espresso, and then pour the whipping cream on top. Put on a small low fire. Mix constantly as the butter and chocolate melts, and add the sugar and honey.

As soon as the chocolate is melted, continue mixing for a few more minutes to let the mixture “cook” – you will taste more toffee and dark notes, but you don’t want the mixture to burn.

As soon as the sauce is to your liking, take off the heat, and cut in remaining 100 g of butter. This will help cool down the sauce, and will make it glossy and thick. Leave to cool completely.

Berry Mixture

If you use organic berries, you wont need any embellishments because the flavour comes out so pure and strong. If you dont use organic berries, you might want to add a tablespoon or so of jam to enhance the flavour profile. This is wonderful as is spooned over vanilla ice cream, or heated with a dollop of port wine, and tumbled boozily over ice cream, or swirled with vanilla custard. Or serve as is, with a big bowl of Greek yogurt and brown sugar mixed. Mmmmmm.

  • 450 g (1 lb) organic strawberries
  • a few drops of very old balsamico if you have it
  • 170 g (6 oz) blackberries
  • 170 g (6 oz) raspberries
  • 3 tbsp caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice

Additional raspberries and tiny strawberries to decorate

Hull and chop the strawberries. Add a few drops of balsamico to the cut strawberries and watch as they glow ruby red and their scent and oils get released in contact with the balsamico. If you don’t have it, try a few drops of red wine vinegar, red wine, or even port wine.

Chop the blackberries and raspberries in half and mix with the strawberry mixture.

Add caster/icing sugar. It helps that this sugar is very fine – it immediately melts into the berries and creates a wonderful sweet sauce.

Spritz on the lemon juice, mix gently once again, and refrigerate until needed.

Vanilla Custard

Oh this is so good. You can use it as the perfect accompaniment for anything – Christmas pudding, fresh berries, pound cake, crumble, stewed fruits. The list goes on and on and it is perfection any which way. You can halve this generous recipe if you want to, though I do love having extra.

  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 cups double or whipping cream
  • 1 -2 vanilla beans, or vanilla essence or paste
  • 8 egg yolks
  • 2 tbsp cornflour
  • 2/3 cup caster sugar

Combine milk and cream in saucepan, and add vanilla. If youre using vanilla beans, split the beans with a sharp knife, and scrape out the seeds directly into the milk, and pop the beans in there too!

Cook the milk, stirring constantly, over low heat for about 5 – 8 minutes, until hot, but not boiling. Take off heat.

Whisk egg yolks, cornflour and caster sugar together until pale yellow.

If you used vanilla beans, take the beans out of the milk, and pour over the egg mixture. Whisk constantly, and combine well.

Pour this thin custard back into the saucepan, and sir constantly until it thickens and coats the back of a metal spoon. Don’t allow it to boil as you might get scrambled vanilla eggs – not a good look!

Strain through a sieve if you have lumps, and cover custard with baking paper so that you wont get a skin.

Double Chocolate pudding

This makes a lot of chocolate pudding – you can halve it if you must. Its wonderful warm, and delightful cold. When you taste real chocolate pudding, and realize how quick and easy it is to make, you will never ever go back to the package.

  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 5 tbsp corn flour
  • 1 ½ cup cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 + 1 cup milk
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 8 egg yolks
  • 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate broken into pieces
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract

In a large heatproof bowl, whisk together the first four ingredients. Whisk in 1 cup of milk until you have a thick chocolately paste. Whisk in the egg yolks, one at a time until completely combined.

Heat the remaining 2 cups milk and 2 cups cream in a large saucepan. Don’t let come to the boil.

Pour the milk into the chocolate mixture and whisk well.

Pour the pudding mixture back into the saucepan and stir constantly over medium to low heat, until the mixture thickens to pudding consistency.

Pour back into bowl, straining the mixture through a sieve.

Mix in the bittersweet chocolate and vanilla, allowing the chocolate to melt.

Cool, covered with baking paper so that a skin will not form.

Sour Cream Chocolate Pound Cake

I bake these in loaf tins. I think you can get 3 – 4 tins worth from this recipe. This is a wonderful cake, it keeps for ages, and can be frozen wrapped. Its thick, moist, and yet light. Its not overwhelmingly chocolate, and the hint of cinnamon is deep and dark and yet sweetly musky. Beautiful.

  • 4 ½ cups cake flour
  • 2 cups cocoa powder
  • 1 ½ tsp baking soda
  • 2 tbsp cinnamon
  • 4 sticks butter, softened
  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 2 cups light brown sugar
  • 8 large eggs
  • 3 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups sour cream
  • 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (optional)

Butter 2 – 4 loaf pans, and line with baking paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream the butter with the sugars. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well. Add the vanilla.

On low, beat in the flour mixture alternating with the sour cream.

Once everything is completely mixed, add the chopped chocolate.

Scrape the batter into the loaf tins, about 3/4ths full.

Bake at 165 C for an hour and ten minutes, or until a knife or wooden pick comes out with a few crumbs attached.

Please do note that if you only fill the pan halfway, the cooking time will be much less – may be 40 minutes or so. Do check every half an hour as ovens and pans vary so widely.

Cool, in the pan, for at least 15 minutes before unmolding.

Whipped Cream

Just before assembling the trifle, whip some cream so it holds light peaks.

  • 3 cups heavy cream
  • ½ – 1 cup caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp vanilla extract or paste
  • 2 tsp agar agar

Whip the cream on low-medium with an electric beater. About halfway through, when the cream has thickened, add the caster sugar and vanilla and agar agar. This vegetarian gelling agent is made from seaweed, and will ensure that your whipped cream stayed whipped and wont weep for at least 24 hours. Great to use in chiffon pies or other recipes where you need whipped cream to stay put!

Assembly

The above recipes make enough for 2 trifles – serving about 15 – 20 people.

Choose beautiful glass bowls or containers so that you can see the incredible colours and textures of your trifle through the edges.

Have everything within easy reach.

Slice your cake in ½ inch slices.

Line the bottom of the bowl with the cake. Drizzle a bit of chocolate sauce over. Layer some custard on top. Put in a layer of berries (making sure that the nicest ones are edging the bowl), and then a layer of chocolate pudding and a layer of whipped cream. Finish with a layer of cake, and start all over again. The last layer should be whipped cream – you can drizzle flakes of chocolate over or arrange pretty berries.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving to allow flavours to meld.

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