White Coffee Pound Cake

This cake is a mix between a marble cake recipe and some improv.

I've been handed with a bag of coffee beans and told to "bake something with it". It took me a while but I had a pretty good idea, mix it in with a marbled cake and add some white chocolate aswell. I was really pleased with how it turned out!

Here is white chocolate mixed in with the dark batter

And here the crushed coffee beans mixed in with the light batter

Spoon both mixture randomly in a loaf pan

Yuuum.....crunchy top with fluffy cakey center.

White Coffee Pound Cake:

2 Cups Flour plus 2 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour

1 ¼ tsp Baking Powder

½ tsp Sea Salt

180 gr (1 ½ Sticks) Unsalted Butter, at room temperature

1 Cup Sugar

4 Large Eggs

½ tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

½ Cup Whole Milk

115 gr (4 oz) Bittersweet Chocolate, melted

100 gr white chocolate, chopped

¼ cup coffee beans, crushed

Preheat the oven to 165 C. Butter loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess. Place the pan on an insulated baking sheet or 2 regular baking sheets stacked one on top of the other.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Working with a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or with hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the sugar and beat for another 2 to 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Don’t be concerned if the batter curdles and stay curdled-it will be fine. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and alternately add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin with the dry ingredients), mixing only until each addition is incorporated.

Divide the batter in half and stir the melted chocolate into one half and keep the other half plain.

Mix white chocolate into the dark batter and crushed coffee beans into the light batter. Drop spoonfuls of dark and light batter randomly into the pan, and then plunge a table knife deep into the batter and zigzag the knife through the batter, making only about 6 to 8 zigs and zags. Scrape the batter into the pan.

Bake the cake for 1 hour and 20 to 30 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean. If the cake looks as if it’s getting too brown during its bake, cover loosely with a foil tent. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it rest for about 15 minutes before unmolding, then cool the cake to room temperature right side up on the rack.

Marble cake recipe from: Seasaltwithfood.com

DB: Lime Crostata

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

I made version 1 of the pasta frolla. This was extremely last minute, had some limes lying around so I decided for a Lime Crostata!

I didn't taste it (had some bad experience with lemon bars a few years back and refuse to eat anything lime or lemon ever since) but future hubby loved it so that's good.

Thanks again for letting me try something new, can't wait for next month!

For the full recipe please go to thedaringkitchen.com

DB: Doughnuts

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

Absolutely loved this challenge, never made doughnuts before and they came out pretty good.

The only thing I noticed was the dough being to soft and it was difficult to transfer them safely to the oil but aside from that all went well.

Fried golden brown.......

Yum, look at those airy doughnuts!

They were amazing! Thanks for a great challenge!

Banana Chocolate Cake

This is my favorite banana cake recipe. It's dense but moist and is perfect with chocolate in it. Add any kind of nut or mix-in you like!

Banana Chocolate Loaf Cake:

150 gr soft butter

1 cup of light brown sugar

4 eggs

2 ½ cups of flour

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ cups mashed bananas

200 gr of dark chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a loaf pan and line it with parchment.

In a bowl stir together flour, baking powder and soda, set aside.

In another bowl beat the butter and sugar until fluffy, add eggs one at a time until smooth. Then mix in the flour mixture just until combined - don't over mix. Stir bananas and half of the chocolate into the cake batter, pour it into a loaf pan and scatter the rest of the chocolate on top.

Bake for about 35 minutes (or until skewer comes out clean)

DB: Browned Butter Petit Fours

Yes I know. I've been a very lousy blogger lately.....sorry for that.

The fact that I'm posting the daring bakers challenge sooo late proves enough.

Better later than never.... right? ...right?

I'm made the original version with vanilla bean ice cream, they were amazing and I enjoyed making them. The only thing I changed was using extra salt and garnishing with cashews.

Vanilla (ice cream) custard

Ready to be covered in chocolate

Cut open!

Mango Chantilly Cake

All failures aside, you can't go wrong with mangoes and whipped cream.

Considering a few minor disasters while making this cake I put in much more effort than needed for such a simple cake. It's super easy to make and a sure crowd pleaser, especially in these hot days we are experiencing in Tel Aviv.

Instead of getting two thick cakes which were then to be sliced in two (4 layers of cake in total)- came out to be two very thin cakes which wouldn't be enough to create 4. Turns out smart me didn't pay attention to the size of the cake pan (recipe says 22 cm, I used 26 cm...)

And after trying to whip 3 cartons of cream that failed to whip one after the other I had to improvise decorating with fruit.... I didn't like the final look of the cake but it tasted great.

I used home made mascarpone cheese I made the night before, but store bought is just as good.

Mango Chantilly Cake:

Cake:

115 gr unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 2/3 cup sugar

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 180c. Grease and flour two 22 cm pans (if you want 4 layers), or two 26 cm pans (if you want two layers).

In a large bowl cream the butter until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the milk and vanilla and mix to combine.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix until integrated. Stir in sugar. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat for 30 seconds. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Add the egg whites to the rest of the mixture. Beat for 2 more minutes.

Fill 2 cake pans. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cakes for 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Once cakes are cooled, freeze them for at least 1 hour (to make cutting them in half easier).

Filling:

500 gr mascarpone cheese

¼ cup heavy cream

5 Tablespoons powdered sugar

1 Teaspoon vanilla

2 ripe mangoes (medium sized) , thinly sliced (peel with sharp knife before slicing)

Beat cheese, cream, sugar, and vanilla with a mixer until smooth.

Cut the two cakes in half (to make a 4-layer cake).

Spread mascarpone filling on the first layer, then cover with sliced mangoes. Repeat with each layer.

* To decorate pipe whipped cream or use fresh fruit.

Based on: Summer peach chantilly cake