CAKE 4: toblerone-topped caramel cheesecake

i'm a little late updating. i'm going to blame it on work and that i am currently indulging in gourmet hot chocolate. miam miam!

i'm very thankful that this cheesecake actually turned out. it's a lot simpler recipe than the Guinness one, and i knew deep down that it would work but i was still freaking out!

this was a very basic cheesecake recipe, calling for all the ingredients you might think. here is the recipe:

- 1-1/4 cups of chocolate cookie crumbs

- 1/4 cup of melted butter

- 3 packages of cream cheese (250g each)

- 3/4 of a cup of brown sugar

- 3 eggs

- caramel topping

- 100g of coarsely chopped Toblerone bar (i used more though!) 

the only difference i noticed with this cheesecake is that it called for brown sugar instead of granulated sugar. i think it was a nice change. it amped up the caramel taste! 

melt the butter and mix it with the cookie crumbs and press it into a 9 inch springform pan. 

beat together the cream cheese and brown sugar until it's well blended. then add one egg at a time, but only beating until it's all mixed together. you don't want to over do it. i read somewhere (and obviously i can't find it now) that over mixing the eggs doesn't allow them to do.....something. and that's why your cheesecake fails. if only i could remember what it was!!! so don't over mix! 

cook it in a 350℉ oven for 40-45 minutes. out of habit, i always check mine every ten minutes anyway. take it out, and let it cool. run a knife around the edge to loosen it from your pan and once it's ready, take off the springform part. let it cool completely, and then top it with the caramel and Toblerone! put it in the fridge afterward so that it'll stay firm. 

when i make cheesecakes, i always use full fat cream cheese. i don't recommend one brand over the other, as i've always had good results with many varieties. this time i used Philadelphia, because it was on sale! this cake is extremely rich, but soooo good. take it in small portions with a tall glass of milk! 

remember when i said to have it in small portions? Chris didn't listen! 

CAKE 3: chocolate raspberry curl cake

this one WORKED!

hahaha, you can see my three fingerprints. oops!

this is Jessica's chocolate raspberry curl cake! it took a lot of time to make it, and three sink-fulls of dishes, but was totally worth the end product. it's very decadent, asking for lots of butter, sugar and sour cream. it also calls for frozen raspberry cocktail concentrate to be added to the batter to complement the bitter chocolate (which is does extremely well). for those who are chocolate lovers, this cake is for you!

here is what you need:

1-1/2 cups of softened butter

2-1/2 cups of granulated sugar

3 eggs

1/4 cup of thawed raspberry cocktail concentrate (i used about half a cup because i thought it needed more)

3 cups of all-purpose flour

3/4 of a cup of cocoa powder

1-1/2 tsp of baking powder 

1-1/2 tsp of baking soda

pinch of salt

2 cups of sour cream

for the icing, i improvised with butter, cream cheese, milk, cocoa powder and confectioners sugar. 

for the chocolate curls, i melted 6 ounces of bakers chocolate and spread it on the back of a rectangular cookie sheet (don't use non-stick for this) and cooled it in the fridge for 15 minutes and let it rest on the counter for another 5 and used the side of a spoon to make the curls. to make things less messy, i used a toothpick to transfer the curls to the cake so that they wouldn't melt. 

here is what you do: beat the butter and the sugar until it's light and fluffy. beat in the eggs, one at a time,  beating well after each. mix in the raspberry concentrate.

in another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa (sifting the cocoa is extremely important because it tends to make little clumps), baking powder, baking soda, and salt. with a wooden spoon, stir it into the butter mixture alternately with the sour cream, making three additions of dry ingredients and two of sour cream. pour it into three prepared pans and smooth the tops.

pop it into a 350℉ oven until a cake tester (again, a toothpick!) comes out clean, about 30 or 35 minutes. take them out to cool for about ten minutes and then turn them out onto some racks to completely cool.

once the cakes are cool, you can put the icing on them and start layering them. for an extra kick, i spread some homemade raspberry jam (plucked from the garden!) on the cakes to sandwich with the chocolate icing! if you need to shave off a bit of the cake to make it even (like i did) use a serrated knife, like one you might use for slicing bread, as this makes it a lot easier. garnish with the chocolate curls and fresh raspberries!

and there you have it! Jessica sent me a gorgeous picture of herself eating the cake!

CAKE 2: guinness chocolate cheesecake

what a complete and utter failure. i am so angry at myself!

there are probably many reasons why this cake didn't work. i think the main reason is that there was too much liquid. this cheesecake called for three bricks of cream cheese. totally normal. it called for three eggs. totally normal. and it called for a cup of sugar. again, totally normal. then it called for something i had never seen before: a WHOLE cup of sour cream. i've never made a cheesecake with sour cream before, but i've been told this is somewhat normal. add this with the 3/4 of a cup of Guinness, and you have a very runny batter.

now, all the reviews i read confused me. half were extremely negative, the other half positive. so i thought i would take a chance and it turned out to be a complete mistake. some reviewers said that the batter would be like liquid but not to worry about it because it would set in the oven with a water bath. (this was also the first time i did a water bath, but instead of submerging the spring form pan, i filled a pyrex pan and put it on the rack underneath). i put it in the oven for 45 minutes at 350℉ and then turned off the heat and let it sit in the oven for another 45 minutes with the door open a crack. after all this time it looked like it was ready, and the outer crust was, but the inside was like water! i took it out of the oven and let it rest on the top of the stove until it cooled down. i ran a knife around the edge to make sure it wasn't stuck, and then popped off the spring form.

IT OOZED EVERYWHERE. i was so upset. needless to say, i cried for a bit because i was angry for many reasons, and then got some paper towel and cleaned the kitchen.

after lots of research, i know what i would do differently if i decided to make it again.
1. i think i would completely cut out the sour cream. i don't know what purpose it had in this particular cake, except to be a filler, and it really didn't seem necessary.
2. less Guinness. it really did add such a wonderful undertone with the chocolate but i don't think i would need 3/4 of a cup. i might cut it to just a half cup.
3. no water bath. i know it's supposed to help with cracking and to keep moisture in the oven, but a cheesecake with so much moisture already probably wouldn't need a water bath.

if any bakers out there have any suggestions for this cake, please let me know. and Travis, i'm so sorry you didn't get a cake for your birthday :(

next is Jessica! i'm very excited for this cake. it's not a cheesecake and should be fairly easy, but with some challenging garnishes that i'm excited to try!

CAKE 1: chai tea spice cake

where to start with this cake?

moist?
delicious?
exquisite???

i think all of these words will do!

this is Lindsays special Louis Vuitton chai tea spice cake!
considering it's the first one i make on this adventure, it turned out AMAZING! i was really surprised at how well it turned out. here is how i did it:

here is where i found the recipe and my inspiration (http://www.bakingobsession.com/2007/11/30/chai-tea-spice-cake/), but i'll post it again for convenience:

- 6 chai tea bags
- 1/2 cup of boiling water
- 8 tbsp of unsalted butter, softened  
- 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, divided in half
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1/4 unflavoured vegetable oil 
- 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp of ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp of baking soda
- 1 tsp of ground ginger
- 1 tsp of ground cardamom
- 1 tsp of ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp of freshly grated nutmeg  
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- 1 cup of buttermilk
- 2 large egg whites at room temperature
- 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar

place the tea bags in a medium bowl. pour the boiling water over the tea bags and leave them to steep for five minutes. remove the tea bags, squeezing them to release as much liquid as possible. it will look like blood, please don't be frightened. it's normal. let it cool in the refrigerator for half an hour.

put the butter in a large bowl (please, use real butter, not margarine. it makes ALL the difference when baking). use an electric mixer to beat until fluffy. gradually add 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and all of the brown sugar, cream together well. add the oil (i used canola oil. it's a little better for you. vegetable oil is high in veggie-fats and triglycerides) and the cooled tea (when you pull it out of the fridge, it'll have turned an orange-y colour) to the butter mixture and blend thoroughly.

now it's time to sift together the flour, spices (i didn't have any of the fresh stuff, so i used ground nutmeg from the spice cupboard. remember, when you're using ground and/or dried spices, always use more to compensate; fresh stuff is a lot stronger. i also didn't have any cardamom or cloves, so the cake doesn't have any, but it still turned out great!), baking powder and salt. make sure to sift, it does make a difference. your cake will be lighter because of it!

alternately add the dry ingredients with the buttermilk (buttermilk comes up often in recipes, and yet so few people use it on a daily basis! what you can do is pour 1 cup of regular milk and add about a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar. let it sit for about ten minutes on the counter to let the chemical reaction occur, and there you have it, buttermilk! i prefer to use the lemon juice, especially if it's for desserts) to the butter mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients (the page where i found this recipe said to do it in four stages, but that is mathematically impossible, so i did it in five: dry/buttermilk/dry/buttermilk/dry).

put the egg whites in a grease-free bowl and whip them on a medium speed until frothy. add the cream of tartar and whip until soft peaks form (i NEVER have cream of tartar on hand, so i just omitted it. your eggs whites will be just as nice without it, just make sure to whip them well, this could take several minutes on a high speed). gradually, working on a medium-high speed, add the rest of the 1/4 cup of sugar. i like to do this while the beater is going, just make sure your hands can multi-task! gently fold the whites into the batter in three or four stages.

transfer the batter to a prepared eight-inch pan. i usually just use shortening to grease the inside, but this time i also sprinkled some flour on the shortening in the pan. it worked really well, so i will probably be doing this from now on!

put it in the oven at 350℉ and let it sit in there for a little over an hour. i'm not going to tell you an exact time because all ovens are different, but just make sure you watch it and check it often with a cake tester (a.k.a. a toothpick). once you pull it out, let it cool on a rack for 15 minutes and then unmould it from the pan.

garnish it as you like! as you can see, i made a stencil and then sifted confectioners sugar on top to make the LV that Lindsay loves so much! i think a citrus glaze would be especially delicious, maybe with some candied lime peel on top? OUI!

so that's it folks! cake numero uno is done! i hope you enjoy it, Linds!















p.s. next up is Travis! i have the perfect cake in mind! as a matter of fact, i've had it in mind for exactly a year!

kickoff

well, here we go!
armed with my Canadian Living baking book, a giant list of birthdays, and a pantry full of flour, i'm setting off to bake a cake (or some other form of appropriate dessert) for everyone's birthday. i made up a list and figured that i will be baking about 34 cakes over the next 365 days.

now i know what you're thinking. that doesn't seem like a lot, but let me put it in perspective for you:
march, may, and december each have five, four, and five birthdays respectively, so that proves that there are huge gaps in between. not to mention that there are three days that have two or more people to bake for. the longest gap is from july 2nd (dad), to august 21st (Marek). that will be one heck of a long break, so maybe i will entertain you with other baking adventures.

the first cake and person to be featured is Lindsay. i sent her a message today to ask about flavours and textures she will appreciate. i will be doing this with everyone so that each person gets something they will enjoy eating, not just something that looks good.

joining me on this adventure is my camera, Lira. my ever faithful Nikon will be documenting the whole journey, including my masterpieces and my pieces (of cake) lacking mastery. (see what i did there?).