Sasha's Kitchen: Coconut Cake

I love anything coconut.  Awhile back, I had received a Kosher baking book from the publisher to review, Paula Shoyer's The Kosher Baker, and I've enjoyed the recipes from the book that I make them from time to time.  I came across a recipe for a coconut cake with a lime curd filling and a meringue frosting in the book that looked absolutely fantastic.  I really intended on doing the whole thing for no reason (just for fun, not for a particular special occasion that necessitated a large two layer cake) and got lazy.  What I wound up with was a pretty fantastic coconut cake, minus the filling and frosting.  I do intend to make it again for a party sometime with the lime curd and meringue frosting, but it made a pretty tasty coconut cake this time that we enjoyed so I figured I'd share the recipe for the coconut cake that I did make.  The recipe is parve (non dairy), although I don't really keep Kosher, but it was still delicious.

Coconut Cake (recipe from the Kosher Baker) (makes tow nine inch cakes)
2 whole eggs plus four whites
2 cups canola oil
1 cup coconut milk
2 cups granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 350.  Grease tow nine inch cake pans.  Separate the eggs and the yolks and place the two yolks in a bowl.  Add the coconut milk, canola oil, sugar, flour, baking powder, vanilla and shredded coconut to the bowl and beat with a whisk until combined, or use your electric stand mixer, like I did.  Set aside.

Add the cream of tartar to the six egg whites and beat using the whisk attachment in your mixer on high until stiff peaks form.  Fold the whites into three parts into the batter until combined.  Pour into the two prepared pans and bake 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely before frosting or eating plain, like we did.   It was soft, light coconutty and delicious! Like a bite of the tropics.

Sasha's Kitchen: Coconut Cake

Sasha's Kitchen: Rosh Hashanah Honey Cake

I just *had* to make honey cake for the Jewish New Year. L'Shana Tova, or Happy New Year to all of my Jewish readers. I made this sweet honey cake (actually two of them) to bring the traditional taste of sweetness to the new year along with apples & honey.  This cake is just amazing - warm, soft and moist. It's one of the best cakes that I have made, and its sweet with honey for a L'Shana Tova (Hebrew for a sweet new year.  I got the recipe from one of my favorite other blogs, Smitten Kitchen, and adapted it a bit in my own kitchen for the perfect honey cake.  This makes gorgeous, moist and marvelous honey cakes, and I was quite pleased with our Rosh Hashanah treat.The original recipe that I adapted comes from Marcy Goldman's Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking.  The recipe is pareve (non dairy) so it is the perfect finish for that holiday meal.

Honey Cake (makes two 9 inch cakes)
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
1 cup canola oil
1 cup honey
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup warm coffee
1/2 cup apple cider
1/4 cup rum

Prepare two nine inch cake pans using Pam.  Preheat the oven to 350.  In a large bowl, combine the flour baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and allspice and mix well.  Mix in the sugars next.  Make a well in the center and add the oil, honey, eggs, vanilla coffee, juice and rum.  Measure the oil just before the honey, which will help the honey slide out of your measuring cup.  Using an electric mixer, beat the batter until well blended and making sure that the ingredients are combined evenly.  Divide evenly into the two prepared cake pans and bake for 60-65 minutes. Bake on two stacked baking sheets to ensure the cakes bake properly and evenly.  Allow to stand for 15 minutes before removing the cake from the pans.  L'Shana Tova - Have a sweet New Year!

Sasha's Kitchen: Rosh Hashanah Honey Cake

Sasha's Kitchen: Three Tiered Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream

Recently, my husband and I hosted a lovely dinner party for some old college friends. A good time was had by all and we served a four course menu that was matched with beer and wine pairings that one of your friends brought to share with the meal. We have a nice backyard here in Brooklyn, so we first had cheese and crackers with champagne outside since it was a lovely summer night.  Second course brought us inside for chinese style duck dumplings, followed by zucchini-corn fritters with yogurt sauce.  The third course was my homemade spinach ravioli with a three cheese filling (show here is a plain, non spinach batch). And, finally, its cake time.  I did another garden party themed cake, decorated with pretty pink flowers that I piped on with vanilla buttercream that I dyed pink for the flowers and yellow for the centers. I used the special wilton flower tip for making the petals for each of the pink flowers in the cake.  This time, I went with the cookbook from Alice's Tea Cup by Haley & Lauren Fox for the chocolate cake recipe, and also followed their recipe for peanut butter buttercream, which I used to frost the outside of the cake and between the layers.  I found using a rotating cake turner to be very useful for both frosting and decorating the cake. I decorated using a basic vanilla buttercream. 

Chocolate Cake - (makes three 8'' layers) - recipe from the Alice's Tea Cup Cookbook

2 cups of sugar
1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup hot brewed coffee

To prepare the cake, preheat the oven to 350. You will need three eight inch cake pans.  Prepare the three eight inch cake pans and combine the fry ingredients together in a bowl (flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt). In the basin of your stand mixer, on medium speed, beat the sour cream and eggs (one at a time), milk, oil and vanilla, and add in the dry ingredients, mixing for two minutes. Scape down the bowl and drizzle in the coffee and blend until smooth. It will be a very liquidy mixture, which is fine and appropriate.

Divide the cake batter evenly among the cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans before gently removing from the pans and allowing to cool on a wire rack until room temperature.  If necessary, trim the tops of the cake to level them, but I found that this recipe did not require any leveling. Frost between layers and on the top and sides of the cake with the buttercream. To make the buttercream, beat the ingredients until smooth.

Peanut Butter Buttercream

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

1 1/4 cups cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup peanut butter

5 cups confectioner's sugar

1 T milk

Sasha's Kitchen: Three Tiered Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream

Sasha's Kitchen: Garden Party Themed Three Tier Chocolate Cake

Most of the time, I make and decorate cupcakes instead of cakes, because cakes are just - well so big. But making cakes is so much fun for a large gathering of people, especially big and even multi tiered cakes. Last weekend, my in laws had the family over for July 4th and I decided to make a large, three layered chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. I decorated the cake with lovely flowers of all colors on a blue background for a garden party theme. I was really pleased with the results so I thought I would share the cake and recipe here. I used Wilton cake tips to do the petals on the flowers and the leaves, as well as the vines. I got all of the supplies for the decorating at New York Cake, a fabulous baking supply store. Since I had to reuse the petal tip for the different color flowers, I found that using disposable pastry bags for the buttercream was easiest when decorating with the tips. I got the recipe for this delicious chocolate cake from the Alice's Tea Cup Cookbook, and found that their chocolate cake recipe was moist and delicious.

Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream
2 cups of sugar
1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup hot brewed coffe

Vanilla Buttercream (make two batches, one for the layers and covering the cake and one for decorating)
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 lb confectioner's sugar (about four cups)
2 T whole milk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

To prepare the cake, preheat the oven to 350. You will need three eight inch cake pans. Next time I make this, I am going to do a second tier, whip up another batch, and also make three six inch cake plans as well for the smaller tier on top. Prepare the three eight inch cake pans and combine the fry ingredients together in a bowl (flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt). In the basin of your stand mixer, on medium speed, beat the sour cream and eggs (one at a time), milk, oil and vanilla, and add in the dry ingredients, mixing for two minutes. Scape down the bowl and drizzle in the coffee and blend until smooth. It will be a very liquidy mixture, which is fine and appropriate.

Divide the cake batter evenly among the cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans before gently removing from the pans and allowing to cool on a wire rack until room temperature.  If necessary, trim the tops of the cake to level them, but I found that this recipe did not require any leveling.

Make a first batch of buttercream by beating together those ingredients into a smooth buttercream. I added a drop of blue gel food color to get the desired color.

To build the cake, frost the three layers with buttercream and stack. Then frost the sides. I recommend using a large metal spatula to frost and to smooth the cakes so the frosting is nice and even. You can use a little metal device (no idea what its called, sorry) to make some texture on the side of the cake as well (See the photo above). You will want to get the base frosting as smooth as possible before decorating. I used blue as  for the inside as well (baby blue, actually) but you could be more traditional and use plain instead. Also, another tip - I bought a cake turntable for rotating the cake while building and decorating - it makes the entire process much easier. I got mine here in Park Slope at Tarzian West.

Make another batch of buttercream to decorate. I divided this batch into five parts and dyed with the gel food color to make orange, purple, pink, green, and yellow. The I used the Wilton flower tip to do the petals in each color, a star tip to do the yellow centers, a leaf tip for the leaves and a thin circle tip for the vines. It's cake art!

Sasha's Kitchen: Garden Party Themed Three Tier Chocolate Cake

Sasha's Kitchen: Mini Dark Chocolate Lava Cakes

This was my first attempt at making a molten chocolate lava cake. The recipe came from the cookbook Rose's Heavenly Cakes, the bible on cake baking. The result was delicious but the lava didn't flow quite as much as I had hoped. The recipe calls for a souffle cake, with a molten dark chocolate ganache center. I think the key to getting the chocolate in the center to flow is using 60-62% cacao dark chocolate for the center. However, I had some fabulous 72% dark chocolate from my visit to the Mast Brothers' chocolate factory in Williamsburg, so I went with that. The result was delicious, but I'd like it to flow a bit more next time.


Rose's Molten Chocolate Souffle and Lava Cakes
Ganache Center
2 oz dark chocolate (60-62% cacao)
1/4 cup plus 2T (3oz) heavy cream

Batter
1.5 oz dark chocolate (60-62%)
1/4 cup plus 1/2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
3T unsalted butter
3 large eggs, separated, plus one large egg white
3 T creme fraiche or heavy cream
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
3 1/2 T granulated sugar

First, make the ganache centers. Melt the chocolate using a double boiler, stirring frequently with a silicon spatula. Do this over simmering water and do not let the bottom of the container with the chocolate actually touch the water.

Heat the cream until warm and gradually stir the chocolate into the cream. Line an egg create with plastic wrap and press into the cavities of the egg create. Pour a spoonful of the ganache into nine cavities. Cover with a second piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours until firm enough to mold into balls. Refrigerate balls until ready to bake the cakes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees before preparing the cake batter. Using a double boiler, melt the chocolate, cocoa and butter for the batter. Whisk together the yolks and creme fraiche. Lightly whisk 1/2 cup of the egg whites for easier pouring. Measure out 2 T of the egg whites an stir these into the chocolate mixture.

Beat the remaining egg whites in your mixer using a whisk attachment until foamy on medium speed. Add the cream of tartar and raise the speed to high. Continue beating until soft peaks form and gradually beat in the sugar, continuing beating until stiff peaks form. Using a wire whisk, stir in the chocolate mixture into the egg whites and fold in the remainder.

Using nine 3 oz silicon molds or 4 7 oz silicon cupcake containers, fill each three quarters fill with the chocolate souffle batter. Gently place the cold ganache balls in the center of each, but avoid pushing them down.  Bake the cakes for 10 minutes in the 3 oz containers or 14 minutes in the 4 oz containers.

Cool the cakes for 20-30 minutes until they have pulled away slightly from the edges. Carefully invert and gently un-mold each. When ready to serve, reheat each cake for 10-15 seconds on high power in the microwave.

Sasha's Kitchen: Mini Dark Chocolate Lava Cakes

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Devil's Food Cake with Whipped Peanut Butter Ganache

Chocolate cake - what could be better, right? For me the ideal chocolate cake is one that is quite chocolatey, but not overly rich. I like something that is a little bit on the light side, so that it isn't overkill. That's what I love best about a traditional chocolate devil's food cake. Now devil's food cake is traditionally made with a chocolate ganache, which is great, as I love chocolate ganache. I found a recipe for a  chocolate devils food cake in Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum but decided to top it with a whipped chocolate peanut butter ganache recipe that I found elsewhere in the same book. Now, if chocolate ganache is good, the whipped chocolate peanut butter ganache was amazing and was the perfect combination with the cake. The recipe below was used by me to make two cakes (I am not good at trimming cakes and stacking them to make layer cakes, as all bakers have their shortcomings, so I just made two cakes). Apologies on the picture quality - my camera ran out of batteries!


Rose's Devil's Food Cake
1 oz unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup plus 1 1/2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup boiling water
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted and leveled off
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks of butter
2 9 x 2 inch round cake pans

Preheat the oven to 350. In a medium bowl, whisk the chocolate and boiling water until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and cool for about an hour at room temperature.

Combine  the eggs, yolks, sour cream and vanilla in another bowl.

Add all the dry ingredients to your stand mixer and cut in the butter and mix at medium speed until crumbly. Add the egg mixture and beat on medium speed for a minute and a half until smooth. Then, with the mixer on low speed, gradually add the chocolate mixture.  Beat, raising the speed, for about 30 seconds until fully incorporated. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans and bake cakes for about 30-40 minutes until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed in the center. Allow the cakes to cool before trimming and/or frosting.


Rose's Whipped Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache
8 oz dark chocolate
6 T creamy peanut butter (Jif)
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, stirring constantly. Take off the heat and whisk in the peanut better until melted and combined. The  whisk in the heavy cream. Place mixture in basin of your stand mixer and beat on high with the whisk attachment. You will get a nice, light, fluffy and thick ganache after a few minutes. Spread on the cakes using a spatula and enjoy!

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Devil's Food Cake with Whipped Peanut Butter Ganache

Sasha's Kitchen: Carrot Cake (Kosher Cookbook Review)

I have been meaning to make a carrot cake for some time. So when I received a copy of Paula Shoyer's The Kosher Baker from the publisher for review on A Kitchen In Brooklyn, and saw a delicious and healthy recipe for carrot cake, I new it was time. Although I am Jewish, I don't keep strictly Kosher. But I certainly do appreciate Kosher cooking and baking. Plus, one of the best aspects of this book is also how healthy the recipes are. Because they are all intended to be parve (non-dairy), none of them us any butter, which makes for some healthier baking. I confess that my carrot cake is not fully non-dairy because I used low-fat cream cheese in the frosting (as I was unable to locate the non-dairy cream cheese that the book recommended). The recipe was so good that maybe I will try that next time using Tofutti or something.

Carrot cake is great for the fall - fresh carrots and all that cinnamon make for a lovely, fall spiced dessert. The book recommends making two cakes, trimming them, slicing them in half and making a four layer carrot cake. I confess that even though I bake extensively, I am not skilled at cake trimming. I always mean to try it out, but in the end, every time, I just make two cakes and it tastes the same anyhow. So, my adaption of the recipe from the book is for two separate carrot cakes. But if you're in the mood, feel free to trim them into a layer cake!

Paula Shoyer's Kosher Carrot Cake
Cake(s)
PAM spray
4 large egfs
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tsps vanilla exract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsps ground cinnimon
3 cups peeled and thinly grated carrots

Cinnamon Honey Cream Cheese Frosting
12 oz parve cream cheese (I used regular low-fat cream cheese this time)
1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
2 1/4 tsps ground cinnamon
3 T of hney
7 cups of confectioner's sugar (I always cut down this ingredient in frosting so I used 4 cups and it was still great!)
1 1/2 T soy milk

To make this recipe, first preheat the oven to 350. Grease 2 8 or 9 inch round pans with PAM spray. In your mixer (or in a bowl using an egg beater), beat the eggs and sugars for a few minutes until thickened. Add the oil, orange juice and vanilla and mix on low speed to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine the flours, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Add half of the dry ingredients to the bowl with the eggs and sugar and mix on low speed gently to combine. Then, do the same with the rest of the dry ingredients. 

Grate and measure the carrots into  small threads and add to the batter, mixing well.  Divide the batter between the two prepared pans. Bake for about 40 minutes until a skewer or toothpick inserted into the cakes comes out clean. Personally, I think it is probably best to bake the cakes one at a time in the oven.

Allow the cakes to cool completely. If you are going to trim the cakes and slice in half to make a four layer cake, now would be the time! if you are not going to trim the cakes like this, you may need less frosting, so it would likely be okay to cut the frosting recipe in half (if you are making two separate cakes  like I did).

To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese, vanilla, cinnamon and honey well to combine. Add in about 4 cups of confectioner's sugar and beat until it forms a frosting (much the same was as cupcake icing). The book also makes a good point - wrap plastic wrap around the top of the mixer when you do this so you do not get sprayed in a white snowfall of confectioner's sugar! Add the soy milk and beat for 30 seconds until the frosting looks creamy. 

Last, frost the cakes accordingly - either in layers or separately. If you are trimming, you will want to trim the sides of the cake as well. I simply frosted two separate cakes using a spatula.

This cake tasted great - the cake was delicious with the cinnamon and carrots, and nice and moist! And the frosting was sweet, cinnamony and delicious! I will certainly be trying more healthy, Kosher recipes from this great cookbook soon, so stay tuned!

Sasha's Kitchen: Carrot Cake (Kosher Cookbook Review)

Michelle's Kitchen in Toronto - Low Fat Summer Berry Shortcake

In my continuing quest to live a healthy lifestyle and maintain my 60 pound weight loss, I am contantly trying to find new low fat recipes for sweets; my downfall and - I'm sure - the downfall of many of us. One of my go-to substitutions is angel food cake. Spongy, sticky and delicious it has way fewer calories of other cakes; two points per serving on my program. Angel food cake pairs beautifully with fruit and makes a great treat.

When I used to work in a professional kitchen as a gardemanger we used to make the most amazing strawberry shortcake. When I was in the grocery store the other day I found the sweetest individual angel food cakes and decided I needed a shortcake! I started playing in my kitchen, and this is the delicious result!

Low Fat Summer Berry Shortcake

1 kg (2.2 lb) mixed berries (you could use frozen if you like for the sauce, but get some fresh for garnish)
1/2 c white wine
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c honey
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
2 mini packaged angel food cakes
2 individual vanilla pudding packs (4 oz each)

Put the fruit, wine and salt in a medium pot to cook over moderate to high heat until the alcohol burns off. Add the cinnamon, lemon and honey. Cook for 20-30 minutes until the sauce has reduced to be a bit syrupy.

In your dish layer a little of the fruit mix, torn up pieces of cake, then a layer of pudding (one pudding cup per layer in the dish I used). Repeat the layers until your dish is full (I got in two layers). Let the shortcake set up - covered - in the fridge for about four hours (or overnight); this gets better the more you let everything sink in together. Garnish with fresh fruit. Mine made 3-4 servings.
In lieu of the honey, you could use sugar, but I didn't have any at the time so I substituted with the honey. Also, I used a mini cassarole ramekin as I don't like having lots of sweets in my house, but the sauce makes enough that you could either have leftovers for topping yogurt, ice cream etc. or you could make one big dessert by just increasing the cake and pudding portions.

Michelle's Kitchen in Toronto - Low Fat Summer Berry Shortcake

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Raspberry Whoopie Pie

A Whoopie Pie is a baked good made out of two round pieces of chocolate cake or cookie with a whipped, sweet frosting in between.  Its origins come from the Amish (the 'Pennsylvania Dutch') community, where it is said that the farmers' wives would put them in their husbands' lunches, at which point, the farmer would shout "Whoopie" upon discovering the pie in his lunch pail.  This dessert, however, according to a fairly recent New York Times article has finally hit the mainstream.  Now, this Amish dessert can be found right here in New York, and perhaps in your kitchen too, as they are not too difficult to make at home.  In fact, even Oreo has started marketing its own version of the Whoopie Pie, the Oreo Cakester. 

To make this Pennsylvania Amish classic, I adapted a recipe that accompanied the New York Times article into a Chocolate Raspberry Whoopie Pie.  I followed the original recipe for the cakes, but adapted the whipped frosting into a raspberry flavored buttercream that complemented the rich chocolate cookie-cake nicely.  The cakes are good, but quite decadent and best split between two people.  

Chocolate Raspberry Whoopie Pie (adapted from the New York Times)

Cakes:

1 stick of butter at room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups flour

1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa (I used Droste)

1/2 cup buttermilk

Buttercream:

3 egg whites

3/4 cup sugar

2 sticks butter at room temperature

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

2 T seedless raspberry jam

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  To prepare the cakes, beat the butter and the brown sugar in a stand mixer until creamy.  Beat in the egg and vanilla until light and creamy.  Then alternate adding the dry ingredients (mixed together in a bowl) and the buttermilk.  Using an ice cream scoop, spoon or 1/4 cup measuring tool, scoop the batter into round circles on parchment paper lined baking sheets.  The recipe should make 10 to 12.  Bake at 350 for approximately 14 minutes (mine took about 16 minutes) until the cakes spring to the touch and are toothpick clean on the inside. 

To make the raspberry buttercream, use a double boiler, or a pot of water and a metal bowl.  Bring the water to a boil and combine the egg whites sugar in the top half of the double boiler.  Whisk until a baking thermometer reads 180 degrees and the sugar is dissolved.

Transfer the egg mixture to a mixer, and beat on high for a couple minutes until the mixture doubles in volume (as if you were making an Italian Meringue).  Use the whisk attachment on your mixer.  Beat in the butter on high one half Tablespoon at a time.  Add the vanilla, and beat in the salt and raspberry jam.  Whisk in the mixer for another minute on high, and continue to whisk if the mixture curdles at all, until smooth.  Scoop with a large spoon between two of the cakes for your decadent Chocolate Raspberry Whoopie Pie.

Whoopie Pies

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Raspberry Whoopie Pie