Triple Layer Pina Colada Cake

I read with shock this week that Woolworths in the UK has ceased to be as a consequence of the current economic crisis. For just under a year, I lived near Lancaster Gate tube station in London, and I relied on my local Woolworths at Marble Arch for all of my general household goods. Unlike Australia, supermarkets in the UK (at least, the ones I went to) do not sell general household items like mops and brooms, so Woolworths was my "go to" store for such things. The lovely blue stripey plates that appear on my blog came from Woolworths in Marble Arch, London. Even my copy of Crowded House's Recurring Dream came from Woolworths at Marble Arch. Accordingly, I feel a personal touch of nostalgia and sadness for the fate of Woolworths stores in the UK.

On a happier note, there have been four recent birthdays among my work colleagues. For Susie and Racquel, whose birthdays were the most recent, I turned to Sky High: Irresistable Triple Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman, Peter Wynne and Tina Rupp to make a cake, because Racquel had previously expressed her love of the triple-layer cake. (I've said it before and I'll say it again - this is a great book.) I chose the Pina Colada Cake for Susie and Racquel, simply because what girl doesn't like a cocktail?

The cake consists of three layers of brown sugar cake soaked with rum, a pineapple filling, and a coconut buttercream. The pineapple filling was delicious (I tasted a spoonful of it while assembling the cake), but unfortunately I cannot report on the taste of the remainder because I wasn't around when the cake was served. I only made a half recipe of pineapple filling, which seemed more than enough to me. I also substituted lemon juice for lime juice in the filling, as I couldn't find lime juice for the life of me in the City Coles, and the supermarket limes that I have experienced are usually small and dry, yielding very little juice.

Brown Sugar Cake

To make the brown sugar cake, you will need:

3 3/4 cups plain flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
2 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
230g butter, softened
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
5 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and line 3 x 9 inch cake tins.

Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together. Add the brown sugar, butter and 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, then blend together using an electric mixer on low speed. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

In a jug, whisk together the eggs, the vanilla extract and the remaining 1/4 cup of buttermilk, and add to the cake mixture in 3 batches, stirring until just combined after each addition.

Divide the cake mixture evenly between each of the 3 cake tins, and bake the cakes in the preheated oven for approximately 25 minutes. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before unmoulding onto a wire rack and allowing to cool completely.

Pineapple filling

I made a half recipe as follows:

440g tin crushed pineapple in juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 cup lemon juice
1 split vanilla bean

Put the pineapple (including juice), sugar and lemon juice in a large saucepan or frypan. Scrape the vanilla seeds into the pan, and add the pod. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring until the sugar is disssolved. Turn the heat up to medium and bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until most of the juices have evaporated and the pineapple mixture has thickened.

Remove the pineapple mixture from the heat, remove the vanilla pod, and allow it to cool completely.

Coconut buttercream

3 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
290g softened butter
2/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk (I used the light version)
1 1/2 teaspoons coconut extract

Place the egg whites into an electric mixer bowl.

Put the sugar and water into a saucepan, and stir over medium heat to dissolve the sugar. Bring the mixture to the boil, then allow it to boil without stirring until it reaches 238 degrees Farenheit on a candy thermometer. Remove the mixture from the heat.

Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer for a short time, then pour the hot sugar syrup in a slow stream into the eggwhites while still beating, and continue to beat until the meringue has cooled to room temperature.

Turning the electric mixer to low speed, beat in the butter, two tablespoons at a time, then turn up the mixer speed to medium and beat until the frosting is smooth and fluffy.

Beat in the coconut milk in several batches, then stir in the coconut extract.

Cake assembly

2/3 cup rum
shredded or dessicated coconut

Place one cake layer on a cardboard cake disk, and soak the cake with three tablespooons of rum. Spread half of the pineapple filling over the top of the cake, then place a second cake layer on top. Repeat, topping with the third cake layer, and sprinkle the top cake layer with the remaining rum.

Frost the cake with the coconut buttercream, and press the dessicated or shredded coconut onto the sides of the cake to decorate.

Although I can't tell you how the cake tastes, I can truthfully say that it smells delightful! As with all triple layer cakes, it also looks impressive, so you can wow your friends at your next dinner party.

Make Your Own King Cake - Galette des Rois

Today, 6 January, is Epiphany. To celebrate, Zorra of Kochtopf has invited us to buy or bake a King Cake and to discuss our family Epiphany tradition. Although there is no family tradition on my part, and I in fact only learned about King Cakes when I started reading food blogs, I've always wanted to make a King Cake. You can find out more about the origin of the King Cake here.

Originally, my plan was to make the yeasted American version of the King Cake, as featured at Mardi Gras in New Orleans. However, my heart was stolen by the elegant French galette des rois. Armed with home-made puff pastry from my Essential Ingredient baking class (the last piece!), how could I resist?

I used this recipe for the Galette Des Rois, but omitted the feve (as I don't think my colleagues would be very appreciative of it, given that King Cakes are not a tradition among any of them either, to my knowledge) .

Basically, you cut out two 9 inch rounds of puff pastry. Place one round of pastry on a silpat mat, and brush a one inch border around the edge of it with egg wash.

You make a pastry cream and an almond cream, combine them, and then pile the mixture into the centre of the puff pastry ring, inside the egg wash border:

Finally, you top the tart with the other round of puff pastry, and seal the edges together by crimping them with a fork. You carve a design in the top of the tart using a sharp knife (I used a traditional swirly design), and cut a hole in the top of the galette to let out steam during baking:

The galette is then refrigerated for half an hour before baking in a hot oven for 40 minutes. The finished result is shown in the photo at the top of this post.

This galette was really quite fun and not very hard to make. I love pastry cream, so couldn't resist licking the bowl - any excuse to make it ;).

You can check out the King Cakes and shared traditions from everyone who came to Zorra's event after 12 January at Zorra's site.

TWD - French Pear Tart

I honestly didn't think I could make TWD this week - but given that Dorie Greenspan herself made the choice, how could I resist?

This week's dish is French Pear Tart. This is a dish that I have long admired, but have never made before.

The tart starts off with a crumbly French sweet pastry shell:

The tart shell is then filled with almond cream, and topped with poached pears which have been halved and sliced:

The tart is then baked until it is puffy and golden, as in the photo at the top of this post.

The pears are supposed to look like spokes on a wheel - hmm, my funny short pears don't quite look like that, but I still think it looks elegant. I haven't had a chance to taste it yet, but it looks and smells wonderful.

Thanks to Dorie for joining TWD this week and choosing this recipe. You can see all the other interpretations of the French pear tart by going to the TWD blogroll.

Abi's birthday - White Chocolate Mud Cake

Happy New Year to all!

My first post for this year is a "catch up" post, showing Abi's birthday cake from last December. Abi is a work colleague and friend, who requested "pink" and "chocolate" when I asked what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday.

To cover off the chocolate angle, I made the base cake for Ispahan cupcakes by Lorraine E of Not Quite Nigella:


It is a white chocolate cake with a crispy, macaron-like top, and it is absolutely delicious. However, be warned that, as a single cake, the recipe only makes a small cake. This means that you may need to multiply the recipe, depending on the size and appetites of your audience.

The icing is a thick white chocolate ganache (you can use your favourite recipe) coloured pink, then decorated with commercial red writing gel, flowers cut out from "ready to roll" fondant, baby pink edible glitter (which doesn't show up well in the photo, unfortunately) and silver cachous.

Abi was stoked with her pink girly cake - which is all that matters. Hope you had an amazing 25th birthday Abi!

Florentines

Don't these look pretty? This is the last post featuring treats from my Christmas gift boxes, this time being Florentines. If you have never come across these little gems before, Florentines are crispy cookies containing cornflakes, nuts and glace fruit, with a chocolate back. They are delicious, and I will often buy one to have with coffee (persuading myself that they are more virtuous than cake or a muffin :)).

Because we had very damp weather when I made these cookies, my Florentines were crispy for the sum total of one afternoon, after which they became rather chewy, although still delicious (IMHO - LOL). Accordingly, I recommend making these during dry conditions so that you don't face the same problem.

I used Karen Martini's recipe for Florentines, which you can find online at Susan's Food.Baby website, or as I did, in Karen's latest book, Cooking at Home (which I bought using a Borders gift voucher that my work colleagues gave me for my birthday - I am a lucky chick).

This is the back view of the Florentines after their chocolate back has been painted on - this is 70% cocoa Whittakers dark chocolate, and it tasted superb!

If you have never made Florentines before, I recommend Karen's recipe. It is a little fiddly pushing the mixture into a round cookie cutter to give them their trademark round shape (and your hands become very sticky!!), but the end result is worth it. You can readily substitute other fruits and nuts or leave some out if you don't have the exact combination suggested by Karen.

Wishing you all a very happy and peaceful 2009.

Tuesday with Dorie - Cherry Coconut Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

This week's Tuesday with Dorie recipe was chosen by Anne of Anne Strawberry, and is a Tall and Creamy Cheesecake. This delicious recipe has endless combinations - you can flavour your crust and filling as you please.

I chose to make a cherry coconut cheesecake, using Dorie's coconut crust and coconut filling with the addition of a cup of fresh pitted cherries to the filling.

This recipe was a breeze - I had no problems with it, and the end result was just devine. I could have easily eaten it all by myself, but the calorie count terrifies me, so I took it to work to share.

To see all of the other wonderful variations on this cheesecake, please check out the TWD blogroll.

I probably won't be participating in TWD next week, as I will be away from home, but I wish the other TWDers well with what sounds like a delicious choice.

Happy New Year to the TWDers, the Daring Bakers and to all my readers!!!

Daring Bakers - Buche plaisirs sucres (French Yule Log)

This post features the last Daring Bakers Challenge for this year, which officially means that I have been a Daring Baker for 12 months - and what an exciting year it has been!

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

Now this challenge looked like a very high mountain to climb, as it is comprised of six separate elements (entrements) which had to be assembled into what looked like a very complex frozen dessert. These elements are a dacquoise, a mousse, a creme brulee, a ganache, a feuillete (crisp) and a chocolate glaze. Whew! The other challenging thing was that there were numerous different flavour combinations provided in the recipe, so you had to plan which combinations you wanted to make. I made an almond dacquoise, a mango mousse, a coconut-vanilla creme brulee, a caramel (white chocolate) ganache, a coconut crisp and a white chocolate icing. I even invested in a half pipe pan to make this dessert so that it had the lovely, rounded dome of the traditional version. To top it off, I decorated my completed log with crushed pecan nuts.

The outcome was superb - this delicious, frozen treat looked and tasted impressive. I served it to my guests at a Christmas drinks afternoon that I hosted, and they enjoyed it too.

The crisp layer could be made using gavottes, a traditional French lace crepe, or cornflakes or rice crisps. Although I ended up using rice crisps, because their white colour blended in with the white on white colour that I was trying to achieve with my log, I also made the gavottes:



Here is the dacquoise, which I baked for twice as long as recommended in the recipe because I was looking for a golden cake, when in fact it is a type of meringue:

This is the log mid-assembly, showing the mould lined with overhead transparency plastic:

This is the log after the addition of the ganache layer:

And finally, this is a shot of the finished log assembly, with the dacquoise base on top:

Once the log has been frozen for a number of hours, it is unmoulded:

And here is the finished product, with the white chocolate icing and crushed pecans on top:

Although I was initially terrified of this challenge, I was pleased with the end result, and could hardly believe that I made this. Thanks to Hilda and Marion for choosing such a delicious and creative challenge. It was a fun way to round out my first year as a Daring Baker.

You can check out the Yule Logs made by the other Daring Bakers over the course of the next three days by checking out the Daring Bakers blogroll.