Ricotta Sponge Cake

 

This month Dom and his Random Recipes challenged food bloggers to use a random number generator to pick a random cookbook off the shelf and open it randomly to a page and cook the first recipe seen when the book is opened. The random number generator landed on number 23 for me, which coincidentally was the newest book on my shelf: Stephanie Alexander & Maggie Beer’s Tuscan Cookbook.

I actually had to open the book twice before I even got a recipe to make. The book is filled to the brim with beautiful pictures of food and culture. The first two times I opened the book I was face to face with beautiful pictures, but no recipes to accompany them. On the third flip open, I was presented by the Ricotta Sponge Cake.

Unfortunately, I had to end up throwing my cake away. I’m not blaming the cookbook though, because everything in the cookbook was perfect. The problem lays with my own decision making skills in the kitchen. Rather than just buying a premade sponge cake, I decided to make my own. The problem is, I am notoriously a failure at whipping up egg whites. I don’t know why I fail as bad as I do with this, but I can try to blame it on the fact that right now it’s pretty hot out and the whites just weren’t at the right temperature. Whatever it is, my stupid sponge cake ended up tasting similar to scrambled eggs and that just turned me off horribly, so I scraped the ricotta cream into my mouth and threw the eggy cake away.

Had I just surrendered and bought the sponge cake from the grocery store to begin with, this would have been a wonderful dessert. The cream was cheesy but sweet, silky, creamy, and just utterly delicious. It was especially delicious with the blueberries I had layered on top of the cream. I ruined it though with my stupid scrambled egg failure of a cake.

I need a lesson in beating egg whites.

Ricotta Sponge Cake

Ingredients
1 cup ricotta
1/2 cup plain  yogurt
1/2 cup heavy cream
sugar, to taste
sponge cake
blueberries

Directions

1. In a food processor, blend the ricotta until smooth. Add the yogurt and blend until well combined with the ricotta.

2. In a mixer, beat the heavy cream until whipped cream is formed. Add sugar to taste. Fold the whipped cream into the ricotta mixture.

3. Slice a sponge cake in half. Spread the ricotta mixture on the bottom half of the cake. Place blueberries on top. Replace the top half of the cake.

Thanksgiving 2012

 

After I uploaded my pictures I realized this photo was preemptive - I forgot to put the turkey on my plate! I didn’t actually go turkeyless though, so everything is right in the universe. For Thanksgiving I am at my parents’ house. I wasn’t responsible for all the dishes and will only be sharing the recipes for what I actually made. But our dinner consisted of:

- Turkey
- Bread
- Sauteed green beans
- Twice baked potato
- Roasted winter vegetables
- Stuffing
- Cranberry
- Biscoff pumpkin cheesecake
- Chocolate pecan pie

It was all great.

The first dish I was responsible for was the roasted winter vegetables. Last week at work we had a potluck and someone brought something similar to this. After having it at work, I knew I needed to make this at our own Thanksgiving because it was such a nice accompaniment to an otherwise heavy meal.

Roasted Winter Vegetables

Ingredients
3 beets
1/2 butternut squash
4 yams
1 fennel root
2 tbsp sage, chopped
1 tbsp rosemary, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 400. Chop all the vegetables into cube sized pieces. Combine in a baking dish.

2. Add the olive oil, sage, and rosemary to the roasted vegetables. Toss with your hands.

3. Place in the preheated oven for about an hour and a half, until soft. Check every half hour and stir.

* serves about 14

Naturally I was also responsible for a dessert. While searching the web recently I found this recipe for a biscoff pumpkin cheesecake. On foodie penpals biscoff spread seems to be making its way through the boxes, so I decided that it must be good and I should try it. The biscoff spread is crazy good. Basically you’re eating the creamed version of the biscoff cookie. It’s hard to fathom such a thing even exists!

The cheesecake was a huge success and very loved at dinner. I think the cheesecake is one of the best Thanksgiving desserts. You make it the day before and all you have to do is cut it on Thanksgiving day.

Biscoff Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients

CRUST
30 biscoff cookies, ground into crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter
3 tbsp brown sugar

CHEESECAKE
24 oz cream cheese, room temp
2 cup fresh roasted pumpkin, mashed
3 eggs, room temp
1 egg yolk, room temp
1/4 cup sour cream, room temp
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
pinch nutmeg
pinch cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup biscoff spread, melted

Directions

1. `Preheat your oven to 350. First make your crust. In a bowl combine the cookie crumbs, melted butter, and brown sugar. In the bottom of a springform pan, pour the crumb mixtures. Press against the bottom of the pan and up the sides. Place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Remove and bake for 10 minutes. Let cool.

2. Next, make the cheesecake. Beat the cream cheese until smooth, for about 5 minutes. Mix in the pumpkin and beat until smooth. Add the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time until incorporated. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla until just combined.

3. In a small bowl combine the sugar, four, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Pour this mixture into the cream cheese and stir together well.

4. Pour your cheesecake filling into your cooled crust. Pour the melted biscoff spread on top of the cheesecake randomly and swirl with a knife.

5. Wrap the springform pan in several layers of aluminum foil. Put the pan in a roasting dish. Boil water and fill the roasting dish so that the water comes about half way up on the pan. Place the roasting dish in the oven and bake for 1 hour and 40 minutes, until the top is brown and the cheesecake is puffy.

6. Let sit out and bring to home temperature. Once cooled, cover and put in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

* shared with Sweet Treats and Swanky Stuff Saturday & Weekend Cooking

Upside Down Asian Pear Cake

At the farmers’ market this weekend it became clear that Asian Pears are quite in season. I decided to get a bag and bake something with them. I’ve never made an upside down cake before, so this was new to me. I always thought the process must be soooo difficult. I’m glad I was wrong! It was so easy, but so yummy.

Upside Down Asian Pear Cake
(source)

Ingredients
1 or 2 big Asian pears, peeled and sliced
2 1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
6 tbsp unsalted butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 lemon, zested

Directions

1. Butter an 8-inch baking pan. Arrange the pears in a single layer in the pan. Cook 3/4 cup of sugar and water together on high heat until it becomes a light brown caramel. Pour the caramel over the pears and set aside.

2. Preheat the oven to 325.

3. Cream butter and the rest of the sugar (1/2 cup) until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time until well combined.

4. Add in the lemon zest, sour cream, and vanilla. Mix well. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt and add to the mixture. Mix until well combined.

5. Pour the batter evenly over the pears. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

6. Cool the cake for 10 minutes and then flip the cake out of the pan onto a clean plate.

* Shared with What’s Cooking Wednesday

Strawberry Mint Chocolate Layered Mousse Cakes

Every month I try to participate in the baking challenge at BakeBakeBake at Livejournal. This month’s challenge theme was LAYERS. After racking my brain and surfing the web, I decided to make a layered mousse cake. After several days of contemplating flavors, I decided to make a chocolate cake topped with white chocolate mint mousse and strawberry mousse. They’re kind of messy looking, but being I’ve never worked with mousse in this capacity before and I was having a damned hard time getting the tubes made of wax paper to be straight and cylindrical, I am very proud of how these came out.

They tasted delicious.
It took me a total of three days to finish, but it was worth it.

Strawberry Mint Chocolate Layered Mousse Cakes

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1/2 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

FOR THE WHITE CHOCOLATE MINT MOUSSE
9 oz white chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
1 egg white
1/4 tsp peppermint extract

FOR THE STRAWBERRY MOUSSE
3/4 cup heavy cream
6 tbsp strawberry puree
1 tsp gelatin
3 tbsp cool water

Directions

FOR THE CAKE

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Place 3 ramekins on a baking sheet and coat with cooking spray. Set aside.

2. Stir flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Add egg, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. Beat in a stand mixer until well combined.

3. Divide the batter equally between the 3 ramekins.

4. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cake is cooked all the way through. Allow to cool before preparation.

 FOR THE WHITE CHOCOLATE MINT MOUSSE

1. In a double boiler melt the white chocolate chips. Stir gently occasionally. Once melted, set aside and allow to cool.

2. In the bowl of the stand mixer whip together the cream, egg white, and peppermint extract until you have created soft peaks.

3. Gently fold the cream into the melted white chocolate.

FOR THE STRAWBERRY MOUSSE

1. Bring the strawberry puree to a boil. Remove from heat and cool.

2. In a small bowl fill with the cool water. Top with the gelatin. Allow the gelatin to bloom.

3. Meanwhile, beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form.

4. Heat the gelatin over simmering water. Remove from heat and stir into the strawberry puree.

5. Fold the strawberry mixture into the cream.

TO PREPARE THE CAKES

1. Once your cakes have cooled and have been removed from the ramekins, wrap them in wax paper to create a tube. (I should have taken a picture of this step, but I didn’t. Here’s a picture from Sugar For The Brain to demonstrate.)

2. In a pastry bag or a ziplock bag with the corner cut off, divide the white chocolate peppermint mousse between the three cakes, squeezing the mousse into the wax paper tubes. Smooth and place in the refrigerator for about an hour.

3. In a pastry bag or ziplock bag with the corner cut off, divide the strawberry mousse between the three cakes, squeezing the mousse into the wax paper tubes. Smooth and place in the refrigerator for about an hour.

* serves 3
* Besides BakeBakeBake, I’m sharing this recipe with The Recipe Box 

Spiced Apple Coffee Cake

Here’s a random factoid about me: When I’m stressed I bake. This is a habit I developed during undergrad. Back then it worked out really well. I lived in this huge house that had seven of us in it. Half of the housemates were boys. I could bake something during a moment of stress, eat one piece of whatever it was I made, and then not have to worry about shoving the rest of the treat in my face. The boys that I lived with loved when I was stressed because it meant they could guarantee snacks. Sometimes I’d even come into the kitchen, feeling overwhelmed, and there’d be a cookbook already opened to a page of what someone in the house was desiring.

Like I said, it worked well for everyone. I graduated from college without going into a sugar coma.

Law school however is proving differently. Despite losing a great deal of weight, I am having a harder time resisting my goodies. I don’t want to feed them all to my boyfriend, because well.. He doesn’t really need them. I have contemplated bringing them in to work, but I don’t know why that hasn’t actually happened yet.

Anyway, one thing I’ve found is that if I bake something solely for breakfast and eat it only for breakfast, things are a little more in control.
This apple cake was absolutely delicious. I made it last all week by having a piece for breakfast. Despite it not getting eaten in the course of 24 hours, it stayed surprisingly moist.

My landlord has since brought me fresh pears over and this weekend I’m going to make a pear version of this cake. I’m also making brownies, but that’s a different story.

Spiced Apple Coffee Cake

INGREDIENTS

for the cake..
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
3 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into cubes
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground cinnamon
8 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

for the glaze..
3/4 cup powdered sugar
3 tbsp sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp water

DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

2. In another bowl combine the apples, the vinegar, the brown sugar, cardamom, and cinnamon. Toss to combine and set aside.

3. In a bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time scraping down the sides of the bowl regularly. Add the flour in three additions and beat until smooth. Using a rubber spatula fold the apples into the batter. Spoon the batter into a springform pan that has been sprayed with Pam.

4. Bake in an oven set to 350 for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes.

5. In a small bowl combine the ingredients for the glaze. Combine.

6. Remove the sides of the pan and place the cake on a wire rack with wax paper underneath. Drizzle the glaze on top of the cake and allow to cool to room temperature.