When Life Gives You Lemons...

Make lemon poppyseed cake!

Last summer I had an amazing cake from The Buttery in Santa Cruz. The cake itself was super filling but the frosting was light and made the cake more addicting. Unfortunately going down to Santa Cruz on the one-hour winding road for an amazing slice of cake would be a rare experience, so I embarked on my quest to make my own version of the cake. 

The Buttery's website described the cake as a poppyseed cake with lemon curd and cream cheese frosting, which is all I needed to find a way to experience that mouth-watering slice of cake again!

I began sifting through online blogs and magazines only to find that the most common lemon poppyseed cake was a pound cake usually iced with glaze. Finally I gathered recipes from all kinds of different sources, combined them together and edited it based on my own preferences! After many rounds of experimentation on this cake, I've finally come up with an amazing recipe:

 

Happy Birthday Mother :)

Lemon Poppyseed Cake:

3 cups cake flour

1.5 cups sugar

3 tbsp poppy seeds

2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup buttermilk

3 eggs

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Zest of one lemon

1/4 cup lemon juice

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 round cake pans (8").

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment to cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

3. Add eggs one at a time and beat after each addition.

4. In a separate bowl, sift all dry ingredients. 

5. In a measuring cup, measure butter milk and juice from a lemon. (Use real lemons!)

6. Alternate between adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk/lemon mixture to the stand mixer bowl.

7. Add vanilla extract and beat for 10 seconds.

8. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 25 minutes. 

Step 6: Alternate between dry and wet ingredients. (Wet ingredients tend to stay on the top of the mixture because they're less dense. By alternating wet and dry, we can ensure that both will be mixed to consistency! *Yay science!*)

Lemon Curd:

3 eggs

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup lemon juice

4 tbsp butter

1 tbsp lemon zest

1. Whisk eggs, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest.

2. Place in a double broiler and stir constantly until the mixture thickens. (5-10mins.)

3. Cut butter into pieces and mix in. 

4. Remove from heat and cover with plastic wrap immediately so a skin doesn't form. 

5. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (Better if done the night before)

Double broiler. Keep whisking to prevent thickening!

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:

5.5 tablespoons (2/3 stick) unsalted butter, softened at room temp.

8 ounces (1 stick) cream cheese, softened at room temp.

1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 tbsp lemon juice

3/4 tsp lemon zest

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment to cream butter and cream cheese for 2 mins. 

2. Add confectioners sugar. Mix until lumps disappear.

3. Add vanilla extract, lemon juice, a little at a time. Mix.

4. Add lemon zest. Mix.

Cake Assembly:

1. Cut each cake in half (so that the cake will comprise of 4 layers). 

2. Spread a layer of lemon curd, followed by a layer of cake. 

3. Frost the top layer and sides of the cake.

4. Decorate with lemon cross-sections!

Step 2: Spread a layer of lemon curd. 

Step 3: Add a layer of cake.

Step 4: Frosting!!

So my quest for making lemon poppyseed cake is finally complete :) It turned out well and the lemon is perfect for a light spring/summer flavor! Happy Baking!

My Gluten-Free Girlie!

My friend Rachel had a birthday recently but she's gluten-free, which is no problem at all because I'm always up for the challenge! I decided to make flour-less chocolate cake for her but how do flour-less cakes work?? (drumroll for the magic of science!!)

Gluten is a protein that has a gas-retaining properties, which allows the cake to be light and airy and it also is binding--it holds the cake together. For flour-less chocolate cake, eggs hold the cake together and enhance texture. (Yay science!)

Almost Flour-less Chocolate Cake 
(Modified version of Fran Gage's, from Alpineberry)

7 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, finely chopped 
14 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks 
1 cup granulated sugar, divided into 2/3 cup and 1/3 cup 
5 large eggs, room temperature, separated 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
Powdered sugar and/or cocoa powder for decorating 

1. Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl that fits over simmering water (The bowl shouldn't touch the water).
2. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until they start to foam.
3. Add sugar to egg whites in thirds. Add salt, and egg yolks.
4. Fold in egg white mixture into chocolate mixture. 
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes in a 9-inch round pan at 350degrees until complete.

Decorations!
Two flavors work really well with chocolate - strawberry and orange. I decided to use strawberries for this one! 
1. Dust confectioners sugar onto cake
2. Pipe with strawberry jam (Works as a great alternative if you're missing ingredients for glaze)
3. Put half a strawberry on top :) 

Step 1: It looks a bit lumpy, but the chocolate eventually melts to consistency.

Step 2: Foamed egg whites!

Step 4: The egg-whites and chocolate mixture swirls so nicely. I just had to take a picture! 

The cake is difficult to cut. It's a bit crumbly because the lack of gluten makes it difficult to maintain the shape. Other than that the cake is a DELICIOUS rich chocolate flavor that's dense and moist! Happy baking! :) 

Some People Are Worth Melting For

One of my friends Jocelyn is in love with Frozen, and I'm sure a lot of you are too! Thanks to her I finally watched Frozen (only 2 months late!) and I'm glad I did because the soundtrack is my new baking jam! It's funny how those songs apply to absolutely everything! Let-it-go for the bad recipes, for-the-first-time-in-forever for the new recipes and my personal favorite, #somyaneverbotheredmeanyway for every occasion 

For my friend's birthday I decided to try to make themed cupcakes, which I've never done before. Pictures online show cupcakes with lots of fondant, but personally I think fondant is really artificial-tasting and dough-y so I decided to try something different!

I made icicle decorations and cupcake wrappers, too, to decorate my red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Icicle Decorations:

1/4 cup sugar

2-3 tbsp water

1 drop of blue food coloring

1. In a saucepan on medium heat, add sugar and water.

2. Mix with spoon until well combined (mixture should boil). 

3. Add a drop of food coloring.

4. Pour on silicone baking sheet. (in strands, like in the picture below)

5. When icicles cool they are ready to use as decorations. 

The bottom left of the try shows thicker "icebergs" while the thinner strands elsewhere will form "icicles". A combination of both looks great on the cupcakes!

 I made cupcake wrappers too which help the cupcakes look more personalized! I bought scrapbook paper from Michaels (or any local crafts store) and cut out cupcake templates, which can be found online.

For some reason the cupcake still didn't look Frozen enough for me, so I added an Olaf on the top :) 

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

Happy Monday :)
Last night my friend Hima (check out her blog here!) and I decided to have a baking adventure and make Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting. 
This cupcake tastes like Churros, so with all the cinnamon, it's a bit of an acquired taste. 

Snickerdoodle Cupcake Recipe: (adapted from Alpineberry)

Cupcake Batter:

3 cups cake flour
1    1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt 
12 ounces (3 sticks / 1.5 cups) unsalted butter, softened at room temp
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs 
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
 1   1/4 cups (10 fl. oz.) buttermilk
Cinnamon-Sugar Topping:
1 tbsp granulated sugar combined with 1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Sift dry ingredients

2. Combine wet ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer

3. Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients by alternating additions with buttermilk!

4. Fill cupcake wells 2/3 with batter. Dust tops of cupcake with Cinnamon-sugar topping.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350degrees. 

Note: The batter turned out to be viscous. To prevent this, try adding more buttermilk or butter until the batter becomes softer. 

Even though I was really insistent on not using cream cheese in the frosting, I think it turned out delicious :) and it's definitely a great addition to make buttercream frosting less sugary. 

Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting Recipe:

2 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)

1 stick cream cheese

4 cups confectioners sugar (sifted)

8 tbsp milk 

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon 

1. Beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy (not-chunky! This step is important if you want your frosting to reach a good consistency)

2. Sift in sugar, milk and vanilla

3. Mix on low until incorporated (Don't over-mix. This causes the frosting to be too runny)

I was frosting with Hima's tip yesterday and I think I finally know what love is<3 Wilton's tip 4B is absolutely gorgeous<33333! It's really smooth and easy to pipe with!