Strawberry Sponge Pudding Cake with Vanilla Bean Creme Anglaise

The title is a little bit confusing and super long, yeah I know but I can't think of other names that are suitable for this dessert. I want the title to represent the dessert, but of well :P

The term "pudding" in Indonesia is very different than what we call pudding here in the US. Here, we always know pudding as the Jell-o type pudding, at least that custard-like texture. But back in Indonesia, pudding is something that you make using agar agar. It's a gelling agent, almost like a gelatin, but agar agar is derived from plants, instead of animals. The texture it gives is also different than what gelatin does, it sets in different way. Pudding always reminds me when I was a kid. Everybody eats lots of pudding during the childhood, so pudding is often associated with childhood memories. It used to be made with just liquid (water, milk, coconut milk, you name it), agar agar, and sugar. Now, there are so many variation on puddings. People are getting more and more creative with this dessert and sky is the limit of what can you do with it. Another thing about pudding is, no one can mess it up. All you need to do is boil it and pour into mold for basic pudding. Even if it doesn't turn out like you expected, it'll still taste great anyway.

I was craving for one for quite some time, but again, didn't have the time to make it. So last Sunday, I had about three hours of free time. I usually take a nap on Sunday but it was pretty late for nap and I didn't want to stay wide awake at midnight. I remember I had some strawberry puree in the freezer. I pureed the leftover strawberries in the fridge since they showed some threat of going bad real soon. I love to keep fruit purees in the freezer all the times. It's a great time saver whenever I want to make mousse, or jelly, or anything. So I guess that time was reserved for strawberry pudding.

I make the sponge-type pudding this time, which I added beaten egg white (hence the name). I also added some egg yolks to the mixture to get a softer texture. I used a base of chiffon type cake that I had kept in the freezer for times like this. Everything will just be a breeze to make if you have some of the components ready to use. I also made clear jelly to pour on top of the pudding to have the shiny or mirror effect. It looks like strawberry mirror cake really with strawberry mousse filling, but believe me, the texture is nowhere close to mousse. I made vanilla bean creme anglaise for the sauce. It's very common to serve pudding with creme anglaise, or what we usually called "vla".

It happened that on Monday, we had a surprise birthday dinner for my brother and so I brought this dessert over. My friends went crazy over this, it was gone in a split second. Too bad it was a small size cake, about 8", but everybody got a slice at least. I brought the mini ones to work to share with friends and the pictures are again courtesy of Tony :)

I'm not going to type the recipe because I'm not sure if the kind of agar agar I used is readily available. But let me know of you want me to.

Cherry Blossom Birthday Cake

Spring has just arrived and the weather here in San Jose, California has been gorgeous lately. Flowers are blooming, plenty of sunshine, crisp air, it's like having a natural air conditioner. I know that the cherry blossom season had just passed a few weeks ago. I was planning to make a cake with a cherry blossom theme everytime I saw the tree in the street (which is a lot), but business got the best of me. And besides, it was mostly raining when the blossoms were at their peak :(. There's something about this flower that makes me wanting to take pictures everytime I see them. Imagine how many pictures I'd have if I did that.

So, the idea of making cherry blossom theme cake was kind of fade away along with the end of the cherry blossom season until about a week ago. It was one of my beloved brothers' birthday and also one of my dearest friends' birthday last weekend. It was actually on Monday, but we went out to dinner to celebrate two of our best friends. And of course I'd be more than happy to make the cake for them.

I'm a planner, I have to plan everything way before I have to actually do something with it. I always plan what to cook on Monday, Tuesday, and so forth the week before. I always plan wah beforehand what kind of cake I want to make, how will I decorate it, when should I start, what should be done first, etc. The reason is first, because I like everything well-planned and organized, second, because I don't have the time to make something in an instant, especially when it comes to a cake. There are so many steps involved that I just need to break them down and do them separately according to my time. Some inspiration usually comes to mind about what I really feel like making, what flavor combination I'd like to try and so forth, but not this time. I was still blank even the day before the birthday dinner (which is very unusual). But I bought some cream anyway. I will definitely need it for mousse cakes, bavarian cream cakes.

I kinda had something in mind at that time, but then I remembered that we're going to bring the cake to the restaurant, which means, no refrigeration for 1-2 hours. I switched gear immediately and decided to make something that can stand in room temperature without getting soft and becoming a gooey mess. So I went with vanilla and raspberry cake covered in fondant. And what could be more perfect time to put the cherry blossom idea into it! It consists of soft vanilla sponge, raspberry soaking syrup, raspberry buttercream, and raspberry gelee. I've been wanting to try Hidemi's Sugino raspberry buttercream recipe from his book that I got for myself two months ago. The problem is, it's all in Japanese. The ingredient part has French translation, which I can understand a little, but the direction is 100% in japanese. Luckily, it has some step-by-step pictures, so I can try to guess. I added gelee just so that I has some texture contrast. I figured the gelee won't melt or soften that much without refrigeration.

The buttercream recipe is based on creme anglaise. The creme anglaise is mixed with creamed butter, then added some raspberry puree, and lastly, fold in the italian meringue. It's a very lengthy process, but I was determined to make it. In the end, the buttercream was not as stiff as I expected, it's rather "soup-y". Definitely not good firm enough to be spread on the side of the cake and especially after I cover it with fondant later on. I refrigerate it for a while, and added another stick and a half of butter to it. It doesn't help much, but the refrigeration does. The amount of liquid added to the butter was a lot (the creme anglaise and the raspberry puree), so I should have guessed about the texture. Despite the texture of the buttercream, it tasted delicious!

It was a challenge covering the cake with fondant. The cream soften so quickly outside the fridge so I had to go back and forth to keep it firm enough to hold the fondant. So, here it goes. I'm not too happy about the result though. The cake could have been taller, the branches could have been smaller, I don't know, there were so many "could have" or "if only I do this". I'll just hope for the best that the cake will taste good :).

Apparently, we can ask the restaurant to keep the cake in their fridge! Bummer, I could have gone with some other cake selection (here we go with another "could have"), but it's too late now. I'm just thankful that they kind enough to offered their fridge so that the cream wouldn't soften. We ate the cake as a dessert in the restaurant and I was so relieved that it tasted great. The raspberry flavor was so intense, you know that I love raspberries more than any other berries and it's just the way I liked it! The gelee also provides some textural balance with a tad of tartness to it. Phew! at least the cake survived until dinner.

The restaurant was so dark that I couldn't take a good picture of the inside of the cake, and besides, my camera battery died on me. This is the only better picture I can take with the last breath of the battery.

Vanilla Bean and Pistachio Creme Brulee

It has been so long since I made creme brulees and I don't think I've ever blogged about it. This is one of those very simple dessert to make but yet very elegant, my kind of dessert :).

I wasn't really planning on make this really, the idea came last minute when I was thinking what should I do with the leftover cream that's almost gone bad and the leftover whole milk in the fridge (I don't usually drink it straight). Creme Brulee suddenly popped in my head and since it was so simple to make, I thought it's perfect to make on a weeknight after work, when I don't have much time or energy to do anything. I stopped by a store to buy a blowtorch since my old one leaked out on me :(. It has served me well over the years for not just creme brulee, it helped me brown meringue and take out the cake ring from a mousse cake too.

I was thinking of making pistachio creme brulee at first, but I changed my mind in the process and decided to go with two flavors, the classic vanilla bean and pistachio. I only need to make one batch of the cream batter and then divided it in half. Pour the plain vanilla bean into the mold, and add some pistachio paste on the other half. The vanilla bean flavor has a lot more vanilla bean seeds compared to the pistachio one.

The pistachio flavor wasn't as intense as I would expected it to be. The only pistachio paste I have is the brown color one, not the green color. I will need to get myself the green one, one of these days. But overall, I was really pleased with the result and not just me, but everybody who ate it. I gave one to my friend and he is begging for more (I only have one left at that time). My niece and nephew can't stop coming back for more and been asking me to make more of it. It's super creamy without being heavy at all, combined with the crunch of the burned sugar, I think it's just perfect

Plain, before adding the sugar and burn it

I used to make desserts all the time rather than cakes (although cake is dessert too). Things like souffles, custards (pots de creme, creme caramel, creme brulee, etc.), molten choc. cakes, cheesecakes, were regulars in my kitchen when I was in college. But I've been occupied more with cakes lately and I forgot how good it is and more satisfying in some way compared to multi-layer cakes, not to mention a lot simpler and faster to make. I'll remember to make desserts more often now.

(my friend thought it was cool to take a picture of the creme brulee next to an iphone)

Strawberry Tart

Life has been so busy lately. It has always been but I just feel exhausted everytime I come home from work. Those many late nights at work completely consume all my energy and by the time I got home, my brain feels like it stops working.

But on the other hand, Spring has finally decided to peek a little. Weather in California has always been nice, but I just couldn't wait for what feels like a really long winter to pass. Flowers are showing everywhere, the warm sun, squirrels playing in the trees, birds chirping, words just can't describe how beautiful it is. I can't help but smiling everytime I go out of the house, or walking from the office building to the parking lot, I can smell the flowers through the air. It's still a little cold to let my windows open at night when I'm sleeping, but I always do on late spring to early summer. I just want to suck all the fragrance of the crisp air, combined with fresh spring flower smell, and keep it somewhere so that I can smell it when they're gone. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way :(.

A few days ago (two days to be exact), I saw a big box full of what seems like to be a very juicy, big, very bright and fragrant strawberries sitting on the dinner table. Apparently my brother has just bought it from a fruit stall on the street. My brain automatically started working hard thinking what can I turn those precious strawberries into. Then I remember that I had two mini tart shells, already baked, leftover from the lemon meringue tart I made a week or two before. I also got a little vanilla bean pastry cream in the freezer, and heavy cream in the fridge that has been waiting to be used for a while now. What could be more perfect than strawberry tart to welcome the long-awaited spring?

I was so determined to make it that I decided to wake up earlier in the morning and make it before leaving for work. All the ingredients were all ready to use, and all I needed to do was to whip the cream and fold it in the pastry cream, then fill, and arrange the strawberries on top. A quick brush of clear glaze and chopped pistachio give a nice touching finish to the tart. It's very simple but yet elegant, with a clean taste to it, definitely my kind of dessert :)

My friend Tony, just bought a brand new Nikon D90 SLR camera, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to put the camera into the test. The pictures shown here are from his camera and his "practice" at our cafeteria at work. I like the photos a lot, much better compared to my tiny Canon pocket camera ; ;. Now, I have a lot of money saving to do to get my hands on one of those SLR cameras :(. But in the meantime, I know where to go to for my pictures :). Thanks Tony!

Chiffon Cake Madness

There's not much to say really about this cake. I had to make eight chiffon cakes for our church's snack this past Sunday for about 150 people. With only two pans and another one borrowed from a dear friend, I thought it was gonna be frustrating, but it wasn't too bad. The thing is, you have to wait for the cake to be completely cooled before you can unmold and re-use the pan, that's the most time-consuming part.

I decided to make three flavors, the all-time favorite pandan of course, mocha rum (added some kind of very fragrant rum paste. gotta love coffee-rum combo :D), and trying out raspberry swirl flavor. I thought of the last choice mainly for the kids really. I used a kind of raspberry paste I bought from Indonesian that I haven't used for a while. I love the smell, very fragrant although it barely smells like the real raspberry :D. But I love this combination. Somehow, I get more excited to see plain white chiffon (swirled in this case) rather than mocha or pandan or anything. I don't know why but I just love the clean-ness of the color and you can really tell how light it is. I think it resembles clouds, which is exactly the texture of chiffon cakes, light as cloud.

After slicing, I think I got about 230 slices out of those eight cakes, which is surprising as I expected to get about 185 slices. I was a little worried at the time about having too much leftover cakes. But little did I know that this plain old cake went by so quickly. They were all gone before I had the chance to taste it. It's always a good thing, right? Always a great "unspoken" compliment :D

I wish I had gotten better pictures but I was already late for church that day. So, just took whatever available at the table at that time.

Happy Birthday Hachiko!

Hachiko is the name of my brother's beloved dog by the way. She's a Yorkshire Terrier or what most people called Yorkie. She turns one last Monday and the parents (a.k.a my brother and my sis in law) were super excited about this. They want to have a little celebration so that they could have a picture of it. And when she died 15 years from now maybe, they can take a look at the picture and cry. Okay, maybe it's not the best reason to have a celebration for a dog's birthday, but hey who needs excuse or special occasion to have a little gathering, or more importantly, for a cake! Here's a sneak peek of the dog. She's super cute, isn't she? not to mention super smart too.

So, I thought it would be fun to make a cake covered with fondant, and maybe a little doggie figurine on top. The dog was allowed to eat a small cupcake size cake for her special treat on her birthday. As long as it doesn't contain alcohol, grape, or chocolate, it should be fine. Since this is gonna be fondant cake, I don't have many choices as for the type or filling of the cake. It should be something that doesn't need refrigeration, but still tastes good. The standard filling is buttercream, but what a boring cake I thought if it's just a plain vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. After a long thought, I decided on super soft vanilla cake (the same one here), layered with a thin layer of very fragrant blueberry paletta (some kind of a jam and tastes like candy) that I mixed with blueberry preserves to cut down the sweetness that usually jam has, and to have texture. Then, on top of the jam, I layered cream cheese frosting that I had flavored with a little rum extract.

It might not the best decision ever because I forgot that cream cheese frosting is softer than buttercream. It took me a good 20 minutes probably just trying to smooth out the side and the top, making it even, not crooked. After a trip to the fridge for a couple of hours, I was ready to cover it with fondant. It became soft again quickly, but I tried to smooth it out as smooth as possible.

I made the doggie figurine the day before and it was my first time! I always said and thought that I would or could never made little figurines like that. I just don't have the patience sitting, kneading, coloring small fondant with multiple color, attach this and that, I just think it's too much work. But I tried last saturday with a laptop nearby playing youtube instruction of how to make fondant dog. I think I did a pretty good job on it :D. At least it looked like a dog, not bear, cat or some random animals. Luckily, I had a little piece of deep brown colored fondant from my last fondant cake and it was perfect for the dog.

I also made the paw prints. Now, I think this is harder than making the dog itself. I used small round fondant cutter to make the paw and shape it into oval by hand with the help of a toothpick. The little fingers were made using regular straw. The straw was a little bent, so it wasn't completely round, a little oval instead and it works very well for the job.

The morning after, I saw the front part of the cake was a little bent, not completely smooth anymore. It was because the frosting went soft and I guess it slide down a little :(. I can't do anything at this point, and besides, it's only for a dog's birthday and it's only 6-in just for the family to eat. So a little less pressure there. If it was a cake order, then I would really sweat it.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the cake. I think it's simple but cute. I baked some in cupcake pan for the dog to eat. She was only allowed to eat one though. I didn't go overboard with the dog's cake decoration, just a simple swirl, some sprinkles, and ribbon to make it extra pretty :).

She was hesitated at first, and just licking the frosting only (we removed most of the frosting though), but then she gulped it down in a split second. I could tell she was a happy dog that night :D.

As for the adult's cake, everybody loves the cake (including myself). The soft texture of the cake, the sweet and fragrant blueberry and a little tartness from the frosting, compliment each other perfectly. I always love the combination of blueberry and cheese anyway. They're just one of those coombinations that are meant for each other :). It's not as light as mousse cake, although it's not over-the-top kinda cake, but it's definitely comforting and the type of cake that you'd like to have one slice each day ;)

Meyer Lemon Meringue Tart

I have been keeping the lemons for two weeks now. I had to throw some of them away because they went bad :(. You can't imagine how bad I felt when did that. They were too precious to just go to waste. So, I was determined to fulfill their destiny by making a wonderful dessert with it. Lemon tart is definitely the perfect choice for this.

For those of you who are lemon tart fans, you must have heard Pierre Herme's lemon tart. If you haven't, you don't know what you have been missing my friend. The first time I made his lemon tart was actually about two years ago, and yes, it is a long time. But I only made the lemon cream at that time, and I don't remember what recipe I used to make the tart crust.

So this time, I was determined to make his recipe from start to finish. I have two of his books that contains a recipe for his lemon tart. One is Dessert By Pierre Herme, written by Dorie Greenspan. This book is modified to suit American home bakers. The amount of the recipe is written in cups, and tablespoons, which I don't really like as it is not accurate. But Dorie made the recipe sounds a lot easier. The other book I have is La Patsserie De Pierre Herme (the link is for the Spanish ed.). It contains Pierre's original recipe and has both French and English translation in it although the direction is very sparse. You have to scale down the recipe by a lot though, unless you are feeding an army with your cake :D. There are a couple of cakes featured in both books, although the recipe is somewhat different. It is a lot more complicated and some of the ingredients are hard to find here in the US. Dorie does make it A LOT easier on the other book, although it is not 100% PH original I guess. But it is more than enough if you want to re-create Pierre's recipes at home.

It took me approximately two nights and two mornings to make this from start to finish. I started by making the pate sucree for the tart crust. The crust is wonderful as it has vanilla bean in it, and a little almond flour for that extra texture. I made it with my faithful Kitchen Aid mixer, make the job a lot easier. You can also use a food processor, but the idea of cleaning it up doesn't really excites me. Cleaning the mixer bowl is a lot easier :D.

The pate sucree is pretty simple to make once you get all the ingredients ready. With the help of my trusty Kitchen Aid, it's a breeze to make. You can't make only for a single crust though. You will need to make at least the amount enough for three crusts to get the best texture. I halved the recipe from PH book.

I brought this tart to work of course, to thank my coworker for bringing me this wonderful gift (well, he kinda expected me to make something with it when he gave it to me anyway :D). I emailed him and a few other friends that I left it in the fridge. A couple of minutes later, they came to my cube saying everything is gone already. I didn't witnessed that, but from what I heard, they all liked it very much. I even had people (who weren't in my email list) saying how good it was, another also emailed me (not in my list as well) to thank me personally and to tell me how superb it was. He even asked me if I worked at a bakery before, hahaha (I'll take that as a compliment). Some other friends came to my cube 5 minutes later and said that he didn't get any. All he found was just the empty box. Hmm... I guess they did like it :).

Fortunately, I made a mini version of the tart and save it for myself and I completely agree with them (and also the rest of the world for that matter) that it was indeed wonderful. My niece and nephew kept coming back for more. I just wished I saved more :D

My piping is not that great. I was pretty dissapointed with how it looks (despite all of the compliments I got of how pretty it looks) :(

Pate Sucree
yield: three 101/2-in crusts or four 8-in crusts

300g unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
190g powdered sugar
60g ground almonds
1 vanilla bean, scrapped
2 eggs, room temperature
500g all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt

• Put the butter in a mixer bowl and cream until smooth and creamy using a paddle attachment.
• Add the sugar, ground almonds, and vanilla bean seeds. Mix until combined.
• Add the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating the previous one before adding the next one (the dough might look curdled at this point but don't worry, it'll come together once you add the flour)
• Combine the flour and salt. Add to the dough in about three addition. Mix until just it comes together. Do not overwork! Like Pierre said, "it's better to have lumps of butter rather than to have an overwork dough".
• Divide the dough in the portions you need. Form each one into a ball and flatten it into a disk. Wrap each disk with plastic wrap and store in the fridge overnight (you can also freeze the dough at this point and thaw it in the fridge overnight).
• Remove one disk from the fridge, and roll it either between two sheets of parchment paper, or just well-floured surface. You need to move quickly though. You don't want the dough to be soft and overworked.
  
• Line your tart pan with the dough and put it back in the fridge for at least 1-2 hrs to rest.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• When you're ready to bake, put a parchment paper on top of the dough and fill the bottom with either rice or beans.
  
• Bake for 20 minutes. Take the parchment paper and the beans/rice off, then continue to bake for another 5-10 minutes until it's golden brown.
• Let cool in the ring.

Lemon Cream
Slightly adapted from La Pattiserie de Pierre Herme book.
You can view the recipe that Dorie has modified to American home kitchen here

4 eggs
165 g fresh meyer lemon juice
200 g sugar
zest from about 3-4 lemons
300 g unsalted butter, room temperature and cubed

• Rub the zest with the sugar using your finger until the sugar is moistened with lemon oil.
  
• On a double boiler, combine the sugar, eggs and juice .
  
• Whisk/stir constantly until the mixture reaches 85-86 C.
• Strain the mixture and let cool to about 55-60 C and put it in a blender (if you don't have a hand-held blender)
• Add the butter a couple of pieces at a time, to make an emulsion. The mixture will ligthen in color. Continue running the blender for a few minutes after all of the butter has been added to ensure the airy and light cream. Make sure stop and run the blender a few times to avoid over-heating.
• Pour the mixture into prepared crust and refrigerate.

The italian meringue is optional though. Both books have the recipe only for lemon tart, but Pierre also said that you can also add Italian meringue if you wish. If you're only making the tart without the meringue, glaze the top of the tart with translucent glaze, apple jelly or apricot jelly for that shiny effect.

Italian Meringue

3 egg whites, room temperature
150 g sugar
50 g water

• Combine the water and the sugar in a saucepan and bring the temperature to about 247 F on a candy thermometer. Brush the splatter on the sides using pastry brush that has been dipped in cold water to prevent crystallization.
  
• Meanwhile, beat the egg white until soft peak forms.
  
• When the sugar is ready, with the mixer running on a low speed, pour the hot sugar syrup on the side of the mixer bowl to avoid splatter (it will splatter eventually a little). Do not attempt to scrape the splatter on the sides of the bowl or you'll get lumps.
  
• Continue beating on a medium high speed until the meringue is almost at room temperature. The texture will be marshmallow-y, as light as cloud.
• Decorate the tart with meringue.
• Brown the top with blow torch or under a broiler for a few minutes.

Not wanting to trash more of the lemons, I decided to zest and juice them up and freeze it. I got a little more than 6 cups of juice and about 1 cup full of zest. I don't have to worry about not having lemons in spring or summer for desserts now. And I know exactly who to go to if I ever ran out of them :)

This tart is also my entry for Lemon Day event hosted by zorra at kochtopf.twoday.net
Here's the link the her post:
http://kochtopf.twoday.net/stories/announcing-ankuendigung-lemon-day/

I hope I will have more time in the next few weeks to come up with more lemony desserts :D