Lizzie's Banana Cream Pie

This week, my daughters had a talent show at church and they both decided they were going to do art and bake! :))) Miss Lizzie (age 5) made a terrific Banana Cream Pie from scratch! I was so proud of her!

First, she measured all the ingredients for the vanilla custard, following the recipe we chose. Then, she set up a chair for herself in front of the stove and started whisking it all together in the pot! It melted my heart, watching her whisk that custard away... She whisked, and whisked, and whisked... Until it all thickened and bubbled! She was super excited!

Once, she added the tempered eggs, the custard was all ready for butter and vanilla! It looked like this:  



We covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for a while. Once cooled, it went in the pie dish lined with crackers: one layer of custard, sliced bananas, the rest of the custard. We covered it with plastic wrap again and left in the fridge overnight. Lizzie came up with the design herself and decorated it just before we had to leave for the talent show. It turned out gorgeous!



Lizzie's Banana Cream Pie
Ingredients:

 

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups whole or 2% milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

3 tbsp. butter

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Graham cracker crust (or other crackers of your choice to line pie dish with; Nilla wafers work too)

1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped
strawberries for garnish (optional)

 

Directions:

 

In a large saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, salt, and milk and whisk until smooth. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat; cook and stir 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat. Stir a small amount of hot filling into eggs; return all to pan. Bring to a gentle boil; cook and stir 2 minutes longer.

 

Remove from heat. Gently stir in butter and vanilla extract. Press plastic wrap onto surface of custard. Refrigerate, covered, 30 minutes.

 

Spread half of the vanilla custard into Graham cracker crust or pie dish lines with crackers. Slice bananas; arrange over filling. Pour remaining custard over bananas. Spread with whipped cream or decorate to your liking. Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight.                

 

As you can see, my daughter decided to decorate this pie with whipped cream rosettes and halved strawberries and it looked beautiful. I've always liked the combination of bananas and strawberries. She was happy with it too! And we were all super proud of her! Everybody at the talent show loved her Banana Cream Pie! It was all gone! :)



Recipe adapted from: www.tasteofhome.com

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

These were cupcakes I made for a "Dessert Auction" at my church. :) I had made them once before for a ladies' dinner and they were completely gone, all two dozen of them, so I figured if they were such a big hit once, they should do well at the auction. Apparently, I was right. :) They are truly delicious! They have a chocolate flavor really (because of the cocoa in them), but more like a light chocolate than the dark chocolate cake I usually make. The cream cheese frosting is a perfect accompaniment and can be made with less powdered sugar and less cream if you do not need to pipe the frosting.

 

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups vegetable or canola oil
1 cup buttermilk (or 2 tbsp white vinegar and the rest milk, to make 1 cup liquid total- let sit 5 min)
2 tbsp liquid red food coloring or 1 tsp gel food coloring
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
2 tsp white vinegar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pans with paper liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together cake flour, cocoa, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat sugar and oil on medium-high speed until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.

Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk and beating until combined after each.

In a small bowl, stir together the baking soda and vinegar (it will foam); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed until combined, about 10 seconds.

Fill the cupcake paper liners 2/3 full. Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Transfer muffin pans to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Frost with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe below).

Makes 2 dozen cupcakes.



Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup), at room temperature
1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (or less if you want to be able to pipe the frosting)

Directions:
In the bowl of your electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat on medium/high speed butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add vanilla extract. Mix in to incorporate. Gradually add the powdered sugar and cover your mixer with the protective shield or a kirchen towel after each addition to avoid a cloud of powdered sugar in your kitchen :). Once powdered sugar is fully incorporated, remove the paddle attachment with the whisk attachment and add the heavy whipping cream. Whisk on medium/high speed for 4-5 minutes. Frost your cooled cupcakes and enjoy!

Note: this is a thinner, lighter cream cheese frosting and though it still works for piping on cupcakes and frosting cakes, it is not stiff enough for delicate piping decorations as buttercream or regular cream cheese frosting are.

Recipes adapted from these sources: http://sweetpeaskitchen.com, http://everycraving.com and http://ladybugssweettreats.blogspot.com, http://www.melskitchencafe.com

Raspberry cake with white chocolate raspberry mousse filling

This week I had the pleasure of making a cake for one of the most special people in my life- my Mom. She turned 60 years young earlier this month and I organized a little surprise party in her honor on Sunday. Of course, I just had to make the cake myself! :) And since mama likes moist cakes only, and frosting that is not too sweet, I had to think of something extra special, for a special lady like her. This is how the raspberry cake with white chocolate raspberry mousse filling and whipped cream cream cheese frosting was born. The whole process did take three days to complete, as there were quite a few steps to it, but it was quite worth the effort. The decorations were buttercream frosting borders and writing and an assortment of fresh flowers in the corners. It turned out feminine, delicate and pretty, just like my mama (or "baba" as my kids call her :)).

Raspberry cake

Ingredients:
2 cups white sugar
1 (3oz) package raspberry flavored Jell-o
1 cup butter, at room temperature
4 eggs, at room temperature
2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup raspberry puree made from frozen, thawed raspberries

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and dry raspberry gelatin until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the batter alternately with the milk. Blend in vanilla and rasberry puree. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a small knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool in their pans over a wire rack for at least 10 minutes, before tapping out to cool completely.

I made my cake in two 9x13 inch pans and baked for 27-30 minutes. Cooled and filled with white chocolate raspberry mousse.

White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse

Ingredients:

1 (10 oz) package frozen raspberries, thawed
2 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp orange liqueur
1 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream
6 oz white chocolate, chopped
1 drop red food coloring

Directions:

1. Process berries in a blender or food processor until smooth. Strain mixture into a small bowl, and discard seeds. Add the sugar and liqueur, and stir until sugar dissolves. Makes 1 cup of sauce.
2. In a heavy saucepan on low heat, warm 1/4 cup of the cream and the white chocolate, stirring constantly until chocolate melts. Let mixture cool until it is lukewarm. Stir in 1 tablespoon of raspberry sauce, and the food coloring. Transfer to a large bowl.
3. In a medium bowl, whip remaining 1 1/2 cup cream to soft peaks. Fold into melted chocolate mixture, one-third at a time, until no streaks remain.
4. Fill or ice a cake (or serve in parfait cups layered with the rest of the raspberry sauce for a delicious dessert in its own right).
   
   Since I had extra raspberry sauce, I mixed the remainder with 1 tsp unflavored gelatin dissolved in 1-2 tbsp boiling water and used that to put between the layers of the cake, before I put the mousse. This way, some of the raspberry sauce seeped in the cake and made it even more flavorful and moist. It looked pretty when cut too. :)

Whipped cream cream cheese frosting: 

Ingredients: 

1 (8oz) package cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Directions:

1. In a small bowl beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form; set aside.
2. In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until smooth, then fold in whipped cream.
3. Since I was concerned about the frosting not being stiff enough to hold its shape, I followed a suggestion given by one of the reviewers of this recipe. I dissolved 1 tsp unflavored gelatin in 1-2 tbsp boiling water. I strained out any lumps. While beating the finished frosting very fast with mixer, I poured in the hot gelatin mixture. I kept beating for a minute or two until it was well mixed (if not there will be lumps of gelatin). The frosting held its shape for a few days but was still not stiff enough for me to pipe the borders with (as you can see in the picture below, it was hard to make it smooth when frosting too). For the borders and the writing, I ended up making a small batch of my tried-and-true buttercream frosting standby which is too sweet to frost the entire cake with, but which works beautifully for decorating.

Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
4-5 tbsp heavy whipping cream

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy. Gradually add sugar, and continue creaming until well blended.
2. Add salt, vanilla, and 3-4 tbsp whipping cream. Blend on low speed until moistened. Add an additional 1-2 tbsp whipping cream if necessary. Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.

Recipe links:

Raspberry cake:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/strawberry-cake-from-scratch/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=strawberry%20cake%20from%20scratch&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e13=A%3aSearch%20Results-List%28control%29&e7=%2fmy%2frecipebox%2fdefault.aspx

White chocolate raspberry mousse:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/raspberry-white-chocolate-mousse/detail.aspx

Whipped cream cream cheese frosting:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/whipped-cream-cream-cheese-frosting/detail.aspx
  

Peaches and cream cake

Happy Birthday to me! :))) This is the cake I baked for my birthday this year. It was three layers of classic sponge cake, also called pan di spagna, or genoise. The fillings were vanilla pastry cream and my homemade peach jam. I used stabilized whipped cream frosting for the rose design on the top and sides. And I soaked the cake with a classic sugar soaking syrup. After two days of whisking, mixing, baking, stirring, and piping, I ended up with an extremely moist, beautiful and decadent cake- very much European and very much what I grew up eating as a child back in Bulgaria. I guess you could call it a nostalgic cake. :)

Sponge cake is a cake that uses only beaten eggs to give it volume, no baking powder or baking soda are added to it.  It requires a lot of whisking, but if you have a stand mixer, you should have no problems with it. :) It is very light and fluffy and can serve as the base for a multitude of layered cakes.

Ingredients

8 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
190 g/ 6.7oz sugar
95g/ 3.3oz all-purpose flour, sifted
55g/ 2oz corn starch, sifted
45g/ 1.6oz butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease and flour a 10-inch round spring-form cake pan. Line it with parchment paper.

Place egg yolks in the bowl of your electric stand mixer. Whisk on high speed until creamy. After 1 minute, add 2 tbsps of the sugar. Continue to mix for a couple more minutes, until the mixture becomes thicker. Add vanilla extract. Keep mixing until the mixture doubles in volume. Turn off mixer. Transfer egg yolks to a separate bowl.

Thoroughly wash mixer bowl and whisk attachment. Make sure they are washed extremely clean; if not, any fat that remains on these utensils will negatively affect the mixing of the egg whites. Place the egg whites in the clean mixer bowl. Whip them on high until they become white and frothy. Slowly add sugar a little bit at a time. Once the mixer is nice and stiff, turn off the mixer. The whipped egg whites mixture is ready when it clings to the whisk attachment and does not drip.

Pour the egg yolks over the egg whites and fold them in with a rubber spatula. Make sure you do not over-mix!

Combine flour and corn starch in a sieve.Slowly sift them into the egg mixture. Sifting the flour will make the cake lighter. Fold together remembering not to over-mix.

Finally, add melted butter, combing it in briefly.

Using a rubber spatula, transfer the batter into the lined cake pan. Spread evenly. Give the pan a few good shakes to remove air bubbles. 

Bake at 350F for about 27-30 minutes. Test with a wooden skewer. The cake is ready when the skewer comes out batter-free. Set aside to cool before removing it from the pan. Once it is cool, run a very sharp knife around the edge of the cake. Remove spring form pan. Fill and frost with your choice of fillings and frosting.

If you prefer a very moist cake, as I do, you can soak it with some simple sugar syrup.

Simple soaking syrup

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or your favorite flavor extract

Mix together the water and sugar in a small pot. Bring to a boil, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat, mix in vanilla extract and cool before using. When cool, sprinkle or brush on cake.

The stabilized whipped cream frosting was a new recipe I tried and was very happy with. I will be posting the recipe in a later blog post. It is not only light, fluffy and delicious, but it also holds up extremely well after being piped- two, three, even four days! Highly recommended!

The vanilla pastry cream was time-consuming but so worth it! I will definitely be making it again- and will post the recipe very soon.

For video tutorial on how to make the sponge cake, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI3PQ1baI4U

Patriotic Berry Cake

Underneath the whipped cream, this was the lemon-raspberry mousse dessert which I posted on May 3rd, 2010: raspberry mousse squares. I just decided to decorate it as the flag for July 4th. It would have been better if I had used a rectangular versus a square baking dish but nobody complained... :)