Cake Batter & Crumbs

Nigella Lawson's London Cheesecake

I know I've been away for a while--sometimes those pesky real-life incidents interfere with my baking and blogging world, but, I'm happy to be back and share this amazing cheesecake recipe from Nigella Lawson.

It's title is London Cheesecake, but to be honest, I'm not quite sure what makes it a London Cheesecake versus any other geographically named cheesecake. Wikipedia has a good explanation of different styles of cheesecake, especially from America, but this one didn't seem to fit in with the British style listed. Maybe it gets it's name simply from from the fact that it's Nigella's recipe and she can name it as she likes! If anyone happens to know though, please feel free to share.

What I thought made this stand out from other recipes is the crowning layer of sour cream, sugar, and vanilla. This cheesecake has it all though-- being rich, creamy, velvety, and has a nice hint of vanilla and lemon. In a pinch I had to use some vanilla schnapps instead of vanilla extract. Everyone commented on the excellent vanilla flavor... maybe I'm on to something there.

London Cheesecake
by Nigella Lawson
How to Be a Domestic Goddess and Online
(metric measurements available online)

FOR THE CRUST
half cup plus 2 tablespoons or 5 ounces graham crackers
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted or very soft

FOR THE CHEESECAKE
20 ounces cream cheese
three-quarters cup superfine sugar
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 and a half tablespoons vanilla extract
1 and a half tablespoons lemon juice
8 inch springform pan
heavy-duty aluminum foil

FOR THE TOPPING
three-quarters cup sour cream
1 tablespoon sugar
half teaspoon vanilla extract

TO MAKE

Process the crackers until they are crumbs at this point, then add the butter and pulse again. Line the bottom of the springform pan, pressing the biscuits in with your hands or the back of a spoon. Put the pan in the fridge to set, and preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Beat the cream cheese gently until it's smooth, then add the sugar. Beat in the eggs and egg yolks, then finally the vanilla and lemon juice. Put the kettle on.

Line the outside of the chilled pan with strong foil so that it covers the bottom and sides in one large piece, and then do the same again and put it into a roasting dish. This will protect the cheesecake from the water as it is cooked in its water bath.

Pour the cream-cheese filling into the chilled base, and then pour hot water from the recently boiled kettle into the roasting pan around the cheesecake. It should come about halfway up; don't overfill as it will be difficult to lift up the pan. Put it into the oven and cook for 50 minutes. It should feel set, but not rigidly so: you just need to feel confident that when you pour the sour cream over, it will sit on the surface and not sink in. Whisk together the sour cream, sugar and vanilla for the topping and pour over the cheesecake. Put it back in the oven for a further 10 minutes.

Take the roasting pan out of the oven, then gingerly remove the springform, unwrap it and stand it on a rack to cool. When it's cooled down completely, put it in the refrigerator, removing it 20 minutes before eating to take the chill off. Unmold and when you cut into it, plunge a knife in hot water first.

Serves 8

Triple Chocolate Cookies - Ellie Krieger

What's better than a chocolate cookie?  A chocolate cookie with three kinds of chocolate in it!

And what's even better than that? A triple chocolate cookie that's even healthier for you!

When I was flipping through Ellie Krieger's book The Food You Crave, I knew I had to make these. I love anything with chocolate in it, and to know that these are a healthy food, made it all the more appealing.

Dark chocolate is actually quite good for you. It's rich in antioxidants (surprisingly 8 times the number found in strawberries!) and has been proven to keep your heart and cardiovascular system running smoothly by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. This recipe uses both dark and milk chocolate to give a nice sweet and not bitter flavor. Combine that with the whole wheat flour, and you've got a quite a healthy and yummy cookie! Even my snoopy husband who won't touch dark chocolate or whole wheat flour  found these quite tasty.

All things in moderation though. I found myself wanting to eat a bunch of these all at once. That's how good they are!

Triple Chocolate Cookies
The Food You Crave and Online

Makes 2 dozen cookies

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
1/4 teaspoon salt, optional
1/3 cup dark chocolate (2 ounces) coarsely chopped
1/3 cup milk chocolate (2 ounces) coarsely chopped
2/3 cup chopped pecans, optional
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, mash together the butter and sugars with a fork until well combined. Add the oil and egg and beat until creamy. Mix in the vanilla.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Stir in the dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and the pecans and mix well. Using a tablespoon, scoop the batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool.

Nutrition Information
Nutritional Analysis per Cookie	Calories: 108
Total Fat: 6 grams	Saturated Fat: 2.5 grams
Protein: 1 gram	Carbohydrates: 13 grams
Fiber: 1 gram

Excellent!!!!

I wanted to send a huge thank you to Steph from A Whisk And A Spoon for passing on to me me the E for Excellent award! I am so honored!!! This community of culinary bloggers always amazes and inspires me and it feels great to know that others out there enjoy reading my blog as much as I do theirs.

I also don't let many people in my personal life know about my blog. It's like my little secret. Only my very closest family and friends know about my little secret. I still remember the first time I let a co-worker know about it. Even though she was really interested and thought it was pretty great, I'm sure my face was all red... you never know how people will react when you tell them, "Yeah, I write about everything I bake and probably take around 30-40 photos of each dish too." Yikes!

So now, for passing this little award on to someone else, I'd like to give it to someone who's blog I read all the time. I love your recipes, writing style, and photos. So, Gigi, of Gigi Cakes, I give your blog an E for Excellent!

The Great Fruitcake Experience of 2008

Happy Birthday Fruitcake! I know, I know, it's not the holidays... there isn't even any snow on the ground here or Christmas carols being sung. So, why am I making a fruitcake then?? For my dad's birthday of course! From what I've observed fruitcake usually falls into one of two categories: you either love it or hate it. My dad, falls into the love it category and the rest of our family, including me, hates the stuff.

I've promised him a fruitcake for a while now, and I never got around to making it over the holidays so I thought I'd make it for his birthday. This is my first fruitcake ever, so I didn't know what to expect. I followed a recipe from Allrecipes.com for a boiled fruitcake. Basically you cook all the ingredients on the stovetop and then bake in pans. I started by soaking my dried fruits overnight in some spiced rum. They smelled really good! And, I have to say that the batter was DELICIOUS. I'm not sure what happened inside the oven that turned the scrumptious mildly-spiced batter into your typical fruitcake flavor, but it happened. I you like fruitcake, this isn't a problem of course!

I'm also not sure how I ended up with so much batter, but the recipe says to use an 8" round pan. I had batter for at least two of those, so I decided to use a pretty bundt pan that I stole borrowed from my mom. The pan is dark and heavy, and I think that might be the reason the cake got a little dry on the outside. I dropped back the temperature and cooking time, anticipating that might happen, but still ended up with a rather hard crust.

My dad said he really liked the cake. (Although he is my father and is probably biased. Thanks, dad if you're reading this!) He mentioned that it was a tad dry, but is getting moister as it sits. And, since there's no one else fighting to eat fruitcake at the house, he can let it sit for a good while! I baked the cake a week prior to his birthday. A couple of weeks would have been better I suppose. Also, I faithfully brushed a mixture of brandy and rum on the outside of the cake each day and then sealed it back up. I later jokingly asked my dad if he got a buzz from the cake due to the amount of alcohol I used. To which he replied "no, but that would explain why my tongue gets numb each time I eat a slice." Oh dear!

Boiled Fruitcake
Allrecipes.com

2 cups chopped dried mixed fruit 1 cup roughly chopped glace cherries 1/4 cup candied mixed citrus peel 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 1 1/2 cups white sugar

3/4 cup butter 1 cup milk 1 teaspoon mixed spice 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 2 2/3 cups sifted self-rising flour 2 eggs

 

	Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C). Line one 8x3 inch round cake tin with parchment paper.
	In a medium saucepan, combine mixed fruit, cherries, citrus peel, walnuts, sugar, butter, milk, mixed spice, and baking soda. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 5 minutes. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.
	Stir in flour and eggs. Pour into the prepared pan. Wrap outside of pan with brown paper or newspaper.
	Bake at 325 degrees F (160 degrees C) for 40 minutes, then reduce temperature to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C), and continue to baking cake for 1 1/2 hours. Remove cake from oven, and allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack, remove paper, and cool completely. Cake can be stored for up to 6 months wrapped in foil and in an airtight tin.

Daring Bakers Challenge - Perfect Party Cake

Time for another Daring Baker's Challenge. This month Morven from Food Art and Random Thoughts chose the  Dorie Greenspan's recipe for Perfect Party Cake. I was so excited to try this recipe. There has been so much positive feedback going around about Dorie's recipes from her book Baking: From My Home to Yours. I've been wanting to purchase this book and after successfully completing this challenge, I definitely will be adding it to the top of the list.

While we were allowed to play around with some of the flavorings, I decided to follow the recipe almost exact. The cake layers are so moist and tender with a light lemony flavor complimented perfectly, as the recipe name implies, with the buttercream and raspberry preserves. The only change I made was to exchange the coconut on top with fresh raspberries.

I loved this cake and plan to try it again with some other flavors. Who wouldn't be excited to find this on the table at any party?

Thanks, Morven for a great challenge and be sure to check out the other Daring Bakers here.

Even the kitties loved it! 

For the Cake

2 1/4 cups cake flour (updated 25 March)
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut

Getting Ready
Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Buttercream
Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.
The sugar should be dissolved,  and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.
Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.
During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla.
You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake
Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half.
Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.
Spread it with one third of the preserves.
Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream.
Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover).
Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top.
Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Serving
The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing
The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.