Home Bites - Strawberry Cake

When I first told people that I was learning how to bake, a lot of them told me to learn baking cupcakes. Cupcakes seem to be the dessert du jour, right behind cronuts which is thankfully dying a slow, painful death. I guess the cupcake craze started a while back, when Sonja's Cupcake gained popularity. Last year, it seems to have gained steam, now cupcake shops are everywhere! Some are small and dainty, while others are big and dainty. 

Like the cronuts craze, I didn't really jump in the cupcake bandwagon. Sure, I'd eat them when someone gives them to me, but I won't get all hung-up about it. I'm not a fan of the small piece of cake and then a dollop of frosting on top. I feel like cupcakes are for the tea-drinking, ladies-who-lunch types. Me? I'm the iced-tea-gulping, buffet-devouring variety. So I'd rather have a solid, big slice of cake. (P.S. I know I might swallow these words in the future, so to be safe, I'm not saying I won't ever bake cupcakes, alright? Hehe.)

So for my second baking project for the year, I chose another easy recipe which I found on marthastewart.com. I chose a simple Strawberry Cake, a mix of sweet and tang. It was perfect timing because strawberry is in season, and I found some big and juicy ones at the S&R branch near my office.

Strawberry Cake

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pie plate
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch pie plate. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.

2. Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low; mix in egg, milk, and vanilla.

3. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Transfer batter to buttered pie plate. Arrange strawberries on top of batter, cut sides down and as close together as possible. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

4. Bake cake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 1 hour. Let cool in pie plate on a wire rack. Cut into wedges. Cake can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, up to 2 days.

Next time, I have to put more strawberries and figure out how to make the presentation like the one on Martha Stewart's website! But I love how the inside of the strawberry slice looks like rose petals. 

After several taste tests with my officemates, my brother's family, and Jay's family, my strawberry cake was a success! My sister-in-law asked me to bring her a whole cake next time, while Jay wanted to finish the portion I saved for his mom and sister. :) I'm very happy with how it turned out, it encouraged me to bake more. Onto project number three!

Home Bites - Dark Chocolate Cake

Jay gave me my dream Kitchen Aid mixer as his New Year's gift, so I was the happiest girl when 2014 came in! Of course he made sure I was really going to use it and it wasn't just going to gather dust and be a huge paper weight in my kitchen. So I've resolved to bake as much as I can.

I resolve to make 2014 #ayearofbaking

Around the second week of January I baked my first creation: a dark chocolate cake, the recipe of which came from a baking class I took at Maya Kitchen last year. I have yet to blog about that, but it was a fun experience to learn baking in a class, and get hands-on experience with your classmates. You also get tips from the veteran bakers.

Those classes were months ago so I had to refresh myself before I baked again. I found very detailed and helpful instructional videos at Martha Stewart's website.

Now I can't share with you the cake recipe I used because, to be honest, I don't know if the people from Maya Kitchen would appreciate me handing out recipes for free. After all, they offer it for a fee in their classes.

But no worries because I found a similar one over at allrecipes.com. It has pretty much the same ingredients, minus the condensed milk. Plus instead of icing, I used caramel sauce. Oh and instead of a food processor, of course I used my mixer. :)

Ingredients:

1 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
1 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) evaporated milk
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup butter

You'll find it easier to bake when you've arranged your mise en place beforehand. 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch tube pan. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine 1 cup of evaporated milk and the 3/4 cup of cocoa. Heat until the cocoa is dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, melted butter, water, vanilla, and cocoa mixture, mix well until blended. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. (Note: I couldn't find a cooling rack at my grocery store so I bought a tray used for grilling, hehe! It does the job so that's fine with me.)

4. To make the chocolate icing, combine the remaining condensed milk, evaporated milk, cocoa and butter into a saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick and paste-like. Spread over cooled cake.


Now I would've made my own caramel sauce, I bought my candy thermometer and everything, but I still have a jar of Trader Joe's Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce, so I used that first.

My first baking project for 2014: Success! 

So far, everyone who tried my cake liked it. I had three tastings, you see: Jay, my officemates, and a couple of other friends I had dinner with one weeknight. I'm happy with the outcome! But I'd definitely bake this recipe more, I'd like to master it. I might even try this recipe I posted. :)

Now I'd like to share with you one secret tip I got from my baking class. If you're going to store your chocolate cake in the fridge for a few days (it usually lasts for a week), make sure to brush it with corn syrup to keep it moist. I found that the cake is best eaten after a night in the fridge, it's more moist and rich.

Life Bits - Hello 2014!

Happy new year dear readers! I hope you had a wonderful celebration with your loved ones. New Year is one of my favorite holidays, and whenever I think about it I always imagine us jumping from the ending year into the new one. And although I know I won't grow an inch taller, I've made a tradition of jumping whenever the clock struck midnight. It's just more fun welcoming the year that way. :)

So a lot of people make resolutions at the start of the year. That isn't really my thing. What I do is take my planner and write down some goals. Usually it includes reading more books (in 2013 I read 20, yay!) and finish personal projects. I'm still working on my photo wall but I'm targeting to finish that this month. Making this new blog was one of my goals last year.

I haven't written any goals for 2014 yet, but I do have a mantra to go by. I've always been a creature of habit, and my brother calls me anal because I like order in certain things. I have my go-to items. Like in eating for example. I always go for the pasta dish and because I don't drink soda, my default drink is iced tea. If you look in my closet, you'd see a lot of blacks, whites, and grays. Jay noticed I often get flower-printed tops or dresses. Yada, yada yada, you get the picture.

So this year, I decided to...Try something new.

I started it back in December when I ended up eating at Mamou after a long day at work. Lorenzo's Truffle Cream is one of my comfort foods but having had pasta the day before, I ended up ordering the Kurobuta Sinigang. I ended up liking it! And then I realized, there is still so much to try, a lot of things to discover.

So for this year, whenever I get the chance, I will stray from the usual and try something off the beaten path.

What's your 2014 mantra? :)