Chai Cake with Honey Ginger Cream

Ah, chai...

It's taken quite the limelight in the beverage/tea arena in the past decade or so. It's become a mainstay must for any cafe. While chai is a great coffee alternative for people like me who don't drink coffee, it's become a tiresome, predictable choice arguably to the point of boredom. Sure, its reliably there for you but who gets excited over chai anymore? But chai CAKE! This is an entirely different matter. This warrants a little perk of the posture, a little clearing of the throat. Excuse me? Chai cake? It's like you taught the old dog new tricks! I don't know about you but I had never heard of such a thing. Chai had reclaimed center stage for me when I saw this cake recipe. But topped with honey ginger cream cheese frosting? Well, that just... well.... er... takes the cake. Seriously, this is one killer cake.

Others seem to agree. The recipe suggests the use of Tazo Chai, but I distinctly remembered having an aversion to their chai (it's too something, clove-ridden?) so I went with the Celestial Seasonings brand and was very happy with it. The only other thing I would tweak just barely next time is to lessen the sugar by a 1/4 cup in the cake batter. The frosting is plenty sweet already.

I've been poring over gigicakes.net lately. This is where I got the recipe so I'll send you right over there if you're interested in making it. She picks absolutely the most delectable looking recipes and magically whirls then into beautiful masterpieces. 

Perfect Party Cake

Oh, I'm not being immodest. Perfect Party Cake is the name of one of Dorie Greenspan's celebration cakes in her book Baking: from My Home to Yours. I made it for a good friend's birthday party. While I loved how the cake batter turned out, I wouldn't exactly call it perfect... at least not this time around. I will most definitely attempt it again, but do a few things differently.

Well, first I'll tell you what was great. The cake itself was moist and had a wonderful hint of lemon from the zest, and did not 'dome' in the oven. The cakes came out pretty much flat-topped straight out of the pan so no piece of cake went wasted. It's definitely a great go-to cake batter recipe. Also, instead of the blackberry jam it called for I used blueberry instead as you can probably infer from the photo.

What wasn't so great was that the meringue buttercream completely hardened. I expected this to happen somewhat as I put the cake in the fridge for a day, but I had no idea that the buttercream would remain hardened, even after being restored to room temperature -- it sat on the countertop for a good 3 hours.  The frosting was so hard that when I cut the cake, I could feel the knife hit each of the buttercream layers. I was a bit perturbed by this... and then went on to confirm my perturbation when I came to eat it. Actually, it wasn't even the refrigeration that ruined the buttercream texture. It was doomed even before the assembled cake went into the fridge. Let me explain: I froze cake layers.  Upon reading various tips online, I decided to freeze the cake layers because it helps to keep the cake stiff on assembly, but no one online had mentioned that this would completely harden a buttercream frosting! When I took out the layers from the freezer and started frosting away, I saw that the buttercream went on nicely and hardened. It was like water solidifying on a sheet of ice. At the time I thought this was a good thing - a sign that freezing the cake was a great tip that was working. I had no idea that the frosting would stay this way no matter how long it sat out before serving.

I'll give this cake another go but I will either switch up the frosting to somethine other than buttercream or try the buttercream assembly with everything at room temperature. If you're interested in making this, you can find the recipe over at mix, mix... stir, stir!

Chocolate Matcha Bundt Cake

This posting is about a chocolate matcha bundt cake recipe that I found on bakerella. I love anything matcha so naturally I had to make this when I found the post. If you're not familiar with matcha, it is a very fine green tea powder that is traditionally used in Japanese tea ceremony. When it's made the traditional way you froth the powder in hot water with a bamboo whisk and have it immediately. It has a strong, lovely green tea flavor with a mildly bitter kick. To me it's incredibly refreshing and instantly feels like it's cleansing the body. These days you can find matcha in all kind of places -- candy, bubble tea,  kit kat -- even Starbucks carries a latte version.

The cake turned out to be really great. Not too sweet and the matcha flavor very present and nicely balanced with the cocoa. If you have any fancy cocoa, such as Valrhona, I would save it for another day. I used some generic cocoa powder for balancing the delicate matcha flavor and it worked nicely. I served it with a scoop of azuki (Japanese sweet red bean) first but it actually tastes better a la mode style with some vanilla ice cream. I highly recommend the combo! Hardly any dessert can go wrong with a scoop of ice cream on top.

I have a couple of tips if you're going to make this…

1. When I added the milk into the creamed batter because the batter was extremely runny and curdled. But fear not, it comes together nicely again when you add the matcha/chocolate mixture together. 
2. When it’s time to divide the batter into two bowls (you will do this because half will be coated with matcha and the other half will be coated with cocoa) mix and divide as quickly as possible. If you let it sit for even a moment, the milk will separate and sink to the bottom so when you divide the batter, one may end up with two bowls that are uneven in texture.
3. If you're not sure what you should be looking for when you look for matcha, it usually comes in a container like this:

And finally, a NYer tip on where to find matcha: I first went to Katagiri which is a great Japanese grocery store but their matcha was priced at something like $12 for 1.4 oz!! I didn't feel like paying that much for an experimental bundt cake so instead I went to Pearl River Mart on Broadway (between Broom and Grand) and found some for $4.50 for the same size and still made in Japan.  

Date Rolls

Have you ever had a really good date roll? I mean, a reaaally good one that resembles a freshly made, light and fluffy gourmet marshmallow that melts in your mouth? Me either. I've tried a date roll here and there but these brown little mushy balls transformed into lovely pieces of tender pillows to me when a good friend shared a piece of her incredibly fresh date roll that she regularly gets at the Park Slope Food Coop. (I really have no intention of joining, but the date rolls almost had me. They were THAT good).

It was so drastically different from all date rolls I've ever had before, its almost an entirely different animal. I'm not planning on being a member of the Coop any time soon so I searched and searched for a date rolls of all kinds out there but none were ever the same. Then one day I had this idea of making my very own! You can find this recipe (if you could call it that) widely available online but here's some of my notes and tips I found along the way.

 You will need a food processor to make these. I just don't see how it would work to a practical person otherwise. I have a mini food processor, so I had to make my batch rather small. For a regular-sized food processor, you could probably fit in 2-3 cups at a time if you so desire.

Date Rolls

1 1/2 cups of pitted dates*

1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut flakes

1. Give your dates a rough chop so they are in smaller pieces
2. Toss them in a food processor and whirl for about a minute. During this process, you may find that the dates will clump up and form a sticky ball that will just whirl and rotate around your food processor. If this happens, carefully take the back of a fork and smush out the ball by smearing it around the outer edges of your food processor. I had to do this 2-3 times. Be careful not to get the fork caught on the blades. Continue whirling. 
3. You'll know when you're done when your dates has a dense but smooth spreadable consistency (much like smooth peanut butter) and the color has lightened from having the air whipped in them. My entire batch would eventually splay on the outer edges of the food processor leaving the blade to spin empty air. 
4. Scoop out the date paste into a bowl. In a medium sized bowl, pour in the shredded coconut. Now you are ready to make the date rolls and this is where things get messy. I like to spritz my finger tips with a little canola oil to prevent some stickiness. I also like to get all the rolling out of the way in one step so that you don't end up with coconut-frosted fingers after handling each ball. 
5. Take about a tablespoon-sized amount of the paste and roll into a ball or log. Drop the ball/log carefully into the bowl bedded with coconut. Continue to do this, placing the balls so that they are not touching in the bowl until there is no more paste left. 
6. You may want to wash your hands at this point. Carefully roll each of the balls in the coconut flakes until they are evenly covered in them. Store in air-tight container.

*I supposed you could make however much your heart desires but if they're meant for you and you alone, I wouldn't recommend making too many of these at a time as they can get stale and lose moisture.

Storage: as far as I know, these keep indefinitely, the way that date rolls do. They can become stale though, so store them properly in an air-tight container. I put them in a mason jar. They look pretty that way too. 

Sesame Seed Bar

Why hello! I decided I had enough with *wanting* to do a food blog. I'm going to just *do* it. I started baking a few months ago although I've dabbled with it by assisting my mom in the kitchen when I was growing up. My obsession with baking all started when a good friend gave me a copy of Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook (more about the book later). 

This first official post is going to be about my original recipe! Er. Well, not entirely. It's my recreation of a bar that Hawthorne Valley Farm sells at the Union Square Market. I discovered it one day when I was ravenously hungry, but didn't want to entirely ruin my appetite for dinner. It was placed unassumingly on top of their display case that housed a wide range of baked goodies of all kinds... that I was determined not to consume. 

I'm not sure what they call it, but I'm calling it the Sesame Seed Bar. The first one I had was moist and chewy if a bit crumbly (I do not mind). The second time I had it, it was hard and crunchy. I'm not sure which was more 'true' to it's kind but it was delicious either way and I had to recreate it in my own kitchen. Luckily, the ingredients were listed write on the wrapper! Score! So with a little tweaking of the ingredients, I decided to give it a go. I will tell you that the outcome of this attempted recreation was a huge, huuuuge success. I have to say, it is remarkably similar to the bar that I had that day, and I will definitely be making this again. It came out more crunchy than crumbly so next time I may take it out of the oven a couple of minutes sooner. I'll also increase the shredded coconut so that it's flavor is more pronounced. I've done so already below (increased from 1 cup to 1 1/2).

Sesame Seed Bar (inspired by Hawthorne Valley Farm)

wet ingredients:
1/4 cup of tahini
1/3 cup of agave nectar (or more if you want it sweeter. The original has honey in it, but I wanted to use agave)
1/4 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp of sea salt (I like my sea salt to be loud and present. If you want yours to be more subtle, scale back. 1/4 tsp is probably good).

seed ingredients:
1 1/2 cup of sesame seeds 1 cup of raw cashew pieces
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
1 1/2 cup of fine coconut shreds (not sweetened)

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees
2. Combine seed mixture and lay out on a sheet pan. Toast in oven for 5-8 mins until slightly golden. Let the mixture cool a bit (I think 5-10 minutes is enough).
3. Combine wet mixture in a big mixing bowl until evenly mixed.
4. Once the seed mixture has cooled, toss in a bowl, combine with the wet mixture until evenly mixed.
5. In a 9x9 pan*, pour in the mixture and press it down into the pan firmly creating a nice even layer. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes until golden, rotating the pan after 10 minutes. 6. The batter will harden and solidify as is cools. Cut into desired size once cooled with a sharp knife.

* I actually re-used the same cookie sheet out of laziness but kept the mixture tightly packed to one side of the pan. It probably filled 1/4 of the sheet pan and left the rest empty. Make sure the mixture is tightly packed so it solidifies nicely.

Storing: I'm not sure how long these would keep. I'm guessing at least a week in an airtight container and longer if they're refrigerated. I like to take the guess work out by wrapping them in three's with plastic wrap and freezing them. That way I can take them out three servings at a time and nibble away at them at my leisure. 

First post!

dango dango