Angel Food

 I've heard from many people that they have never made a homemade Angel Food Cake.  Why is that?, I wondered.  So I set out to find out why and compare the two.

I started with the boxed cake by Better Crocker.  It was a cinch to add a bit of water to the box ingredients and mix.  But what was in the box mix? Sugar, Wheat Flour Bleached, Egg White, Corn Starch, Leavening (Baking Soda, Citric Acid), Modified Corn Starch, Calcium Chloride, Modified Soy Protein, Salt, Cellulose Gum, Dextrose, Maltodextrin, Artificial Flavor, Sodium Lauryl Flavor (A Whipping Aid), Nonfat Milk. And the box cake was just 2.79 at my grocery store.

We ate the cake served with strawberries and cool whip, Angel Food is always one of my favorites and I enjoyed every bite.  The texture was airy and spongy, if a bit on the sticky/sugary side.  The outside was a touch crunchy making a great contrast in texture.

 Next up, I separated 12 egg whites from their yolks.  I decided this was the reason that most prefer the boxed method.  Now, I knew I would have 12 yolks that I would have to make.  I solved that issue with a Greek Avgolemono recipe I had on hand, but still only used 8 of those yolks.

Whipping the egg whites was my favorite part of making the cake from scratch.  Check out these peaks:

The homemade version turned out beautifully.  The advantage was that I was able to easily adjust the flavor by adding orange extract and vanilla extract.  The texture was a bit more dense than the boxed version, the flavor better, but it was missing the crunchy outside.

My version of the Angel Food was more expensive but I was also able to control the quality of the ingredients.  I prefer to use organic sugar and cage-free, organic eggs ... I'm just guessing these aren't Betty Crocker's choice.

I can't tell you that I prefer one method over the other, they both have their purpose.  If I were to frost, the homemade cake would hold frosting better.  If I wanted strawberry shortcake I would choose homemade because the denser cake would hold more of the strawberry's juices.  If I were to eat plan, I'd prefer the boxed version and also if I needed a cake in a hurry.

Each cake has a purpose and I won't ever feel like I'm cheating if I break out Betty's box now and then. Stay tuned for my Angel Food cake recipe, coming soon.

Cream of Tartar

My next post will be all about Angel Food Cake, I've been bakin' up a storm this week.  I'm guessing you thought I was going to give up on my experiment but really I did double duty this week so stay tuned!

But in buying ingredients for the Angel Food I needed to find Cream of Tartar.  I didn't really thing much of it, I've never used the ingredient before but I just thought it was a spice of some sort.  And then when I got it home I realized that I was using it as an egg white stabilizer, but what WAS it?

I've since learned that it is potassium hydrogen tartrate, an acid salt.  Cream of Tartar is actually formed from the sediment left over in wine barrels. Every time I pull out a cake pan and put on my apron I realize I'm in for a chemistry lesson.

Chocolate Ricotta Cheesecake

Ingredients:

nonstick cooking spray
1 14oz pkg. oreo cookies
5 Tbls. butter, melted
14oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 15 oz containers skim milk ricotta cheese
2/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp. sea salt


I wanted to do a special cake for our Valentine's dinner this year.  For my birthday, I recieved three mini heart-shaped springform pans from my mother-in-law.  I intended to use them to make minature versions of this cake but when the time came to get in the kitchen I wasn't feeling it.  We had a death in our family this weekend and I was feeling melancholy and not in the mood to fuss.  I had already realized that I didn't have the correct ingredients on hand and was going to need to do some improvising, that was enough fuss for the evening for me.

So let the fussing begin:

1. Prepare your pan with wax paper.  Cut a 10" circle and using a 9" springform pan, cover the bottom with wax paper and secure the sides. Spray cooking spray to coat the bottom and sides of the pan.  Next, cover the sides with wax paper, using a strip 24" x 2".

2. Using a food processor crush oreos.  In a mixing bowl add crushed oreos and melted butter.  Add half of the cookie mixture to the bottom of the pan and pat down to form the bottom crust.  Put pan in the fridge to firm.

4. Add chocolate chips to a metal or glass mixing bowl that can be put on top of a pan of boiling water. Melt chocolate while stirring.

5. Using a food processor add two containers ricotta and cream for about 3-4 minutes.  Then add the melted choclate to ricotta and cream together for another 2-3 minutes. In a large bowl, whip heavy cream until stiff peaks are formed.  Gently fold chocolate ricotta into the heavy cream.

6. Take your pan out of the fridge to assmeble the cake.  Add half of the ricotta mixure to the pan and smooth the top.  Next, add the remaining oreo mixture and smooth the layer.  And finally, top with the ricotta mixture.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.  The cake can be refrigerated for 6 hours or up to two days.

7. To serve, remove the sides of the pan and the wax paper from the sides.

8. I chose to top the cake with raspberries to bring in the red for valentines day. Any fruit would do or just shaved chocolate would look good too!

This cake was wonderful and a good way to celebrate the holiday.  I do have a bit of a problem with the mealy texture that the ricotta brings, but that isn't avoidable. I will do some research to see if homemade ricotta cheese would be creamier.  With that said, I would still make this cake again, the chocolate ricotta has a lot of flavor and the oreo crust is the perfect end to every bite.

Happy Valentine's Day! Tell me what you ate for dessert on this holiday.

C is for Cookie

After sharing pictures of my R2D2 cake with friends at work, Rachel started talking to me about her fourth birthday cake, a Cookie Monster cake. She talked about the joy it would bring her to recreate that memory. So I took on the challenge.

On Sunday I baked the giant cookie that my cake would be gobbling. And as long as the oven was on I baked the whole batch of chocolate chip cookies. Those in attendance at our Super Bowl gathering were able to enjoy the results of this cookie need.

Decorating cakes is not something I've taken classes on, I'm self-taught. I'm armed with determination, a pastry bag and many tips, inherited from a family friend's late mother. It's a trial and error process really, making things up as I go along.

I know, I know, I've read the reports that food coloring causes autism, adhd and cancer.  But how could I possibly make Cookie Monster without the entire bottle of blue food coloring? 

The cookie

Part of the week's cake...

Basic Chocolate Cake

I came pretty close to disappointing you all this week with my commitment to this endeavor.  I was starting to feel a nasty cold coming on and my energy level was significantly low.  At one of my low moments I purchased a box cake.  I was going to take the easy way out and disguise it as a taste-test of boxed cakes.

I can't promise that the taste-test won't make an appearance someday but this is not the week.  I baked!  I opened my friend and author Kris Holechek's book, Have Your Cake and Vegan Too.  This is where I found her recipe for Basic Chocolate Cake.

Don't let the fact that the cake is vegan fool you... vegan cakes are just as delicious as far as I can tell with my limited exposure.  The only ingredient in this recipe that those that aren't vegan may not have in their kitchen is soy milk.  Since our girl is dairy intolerant we always have a non-dairy milk in our house.

Kris' recipe calls for 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda.  This picture above is proof of one of my many "Oh, Shit!" moments while baking.  For some reason I read that as 1 1/2 TABLESPOONS.  After the first tablespoon, I realized my error.  Thankfully, I know that three teaspoons are in a tablespoon.  Which meant that I needed to remove half of the baking soda.  I did my best and the cake turned out as planned.

Kris tells us that the batter will look very thin.  I was a little nervous after seeing this, but she was right... very thin, indeed.

Are you wondering what that is on the bottom of my oven?  Me too.

I finished this cake at 8pm, just in time for the boy to have a snack before bed and for the husband and I to enjoy chocolate cake followed up with a glass of milk for an evening snack.  Of course these two are my two biggest chocolate lovers and they adored this cake.  The boy says this chocolate cake and the Tunnel of Fudge Cake are his favorites.