Strawberry Cake

***Side note: Blogger has been hating me lately. I tried to post this at the end of April and it just would not post. Then I tried again a week later and the pictures wouldn't upload. Thus..this post is from then :)

*sings* I'm  baaaa-AACKKKKKK!!! :D

Miss me?

We will pretend you said yes.

I know, I know, I've been bad. Haven't updated in ages. But that will all change. I think. I hope.

I was super swamped with essays and assignments and exams...and then sprinkle in some work and personal life and there was no room for anything else!

But thankfully, I am OFFICIALLY done school. Submitted my last exam last night and am OFFICIALLY done my third year! :o I honestly can't believe it. Time has gone by SO fast. 

The past few weeks have been really tough, but Zahra has learned quite a few things!

1) Its AMAZING the amount of work you can get done without facebook!

I kept getting sick this semester and in the last week of March I got the worst case of the Flu that I have EVER GOTTEN. It was bad. like. REALLY BAD. Anywho, my crappy immune system meant that I fell really behind in school and thus April = hell month. Especially the last week. Since I always spend wayyyy too much time on facebook, I decided to 'cancel' my account until I was done exams. The problem is, that I probably go on facebook about 30 times a day? (I know. I have no life :P )

The first few days were tough....I was a druggie on with drawl and facebook was my drug. The worst part was I hadn't realized how addicted I was to it until I stopped! But the amazing part is....I ended up wasting SO MUCH LESS TIME than before and got SOOOO MUCHHHH work done. Every time I decided to go on facebook I couldn't...so I would have to study some more :) 

2) Sleep = Bitch

Why do we humans need to sleep? Why? 

Ok. Fine. Sleep isn't a problem. I actually love sleep. I really do. What I HATE is not having the OPTION to stay up as much as you like. And another thing...why do our bodies hate us? EVERY DAY this month I had to wake up bright and early (8 am for me) and go to school. EVERY TIME I would hit the snooze button about 10 times and have to DRAGGG my tired butt out of bed. And you would think that after a while I would get used to it....form a new sleep schedule? WRONG. Sleep = bitch remember? ALL month I was walking around sleep deprived. I had even developed VERY unattractive puffed up eyes. My sister actually screamed when she saw me. no lie. 

But the best part? ohhhh the best part. Today, when freedom finally wrung.... I was planning on sleeping in until 2pm to make up for all those times I wanted to sleep in but couldn't. But Sleep = Bitch, and thus that means that today, for the first day in over a month...I woke up without an alarm clock...at 6 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Sleep. Why do you hate me?

3) Energy Drinks work...(sort of... see #4)

Desperate times call for desperate measures and from all the stress and lack of sleep I was forced to buy some energy drinks. At first I was really reluctant...who knows what goes into theses things? Up until now I had always passed over them, opting instead for a hot cup of tea for my caffeine rush. I ended up having to cave in and bought these mini ones form our school's mini-store and it tasted NASTY and it worked WONDERS. I would take 2 gulps and be jumping up and down!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D 

YAY! I have found a way to stay awakkeeeeeeee

4) Red Bull does not work.

Red Bull energy drinks? You know the ones that "give you wings"? I had originally planned on buying a can at the Uni store (instead of those mini amazing but they didn't have any so I was forced to buy the mini ones...so then the next day I went to the store and bought myself a nice big can. I came home and drank half of it...just waiting for the energy burst! Then I fell asleep. For 4 hours. So Clearly not only does Red Bull NOT work....it makes me SLEEPY. 

You may say thats only because I'm weird. 

But...Yah. I would have to agree.

5) Spring in Canada is never truly spring

In most countries, when spring comes, it comes to stay. Not in Canada though. NOT. IN. CANADA. In this past month we have had a few days of beautiful spring weather....birds chirping and flowers blooming and all that.....and then 3 days later we will have hail. I wish I could say I was exaggerating. I WISH. In fact 2 weeks ago it snowed 2cms!

But, despite this unintentionally negative post, I am going to choose to be positive. And celebrate the end of exams and the (hopefully?) beginning of spring with this delcioious strawberry cake! :) 

Strawberry Cake 

Source 

Yield: Serves 10

Cook Time: 50-55 minutes

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 pound strawberries, hulled and sliced
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar, for sprinkling on top of cake

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch springform pan or pie plate. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in egg, buttermilk, and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
3. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Arrange strawberry slices on top of batter. Sprinkle turbinado 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 50-55 minutes. Let cool in pan. To serve, cut into wedges. Store cake at room temperature, for up to two days.

**I thought I should include a picture of what happens when my family invades. They wait with baited breath for me to finish taking pictures...then they ATTACK!!!! This picture was taken 5 minutes after  I allowed them to grab some. Yes. That is all that there was left. 10 minutes later it was all gone.

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Strawberry Mousse Cake FAIL and the Garburtor

Hello, hello my dear fellow foodies!

Its been a while hasn't it? Almost a month! I have been so very busy with the end of the school year and exams, and thus have had no time to update, and do you guys know what the worst thing about it is? I havent baked since early March! Oh my god. It hurts. the PAIN! *dramatic faint*

But now that I was done exams and ready to get into the full swing of things, I pondered...what can I make? It can't be just any old thing! It has to be special. Special enough to make up for all that missed time. And then it dawned on me. Last year, right after my exams I had the SAME exact dilemma. Last year, on April 22nd, I posted about my invention, my baby, my strawberry mousse cake.

However, I wanted to do a little something different this time around, to change things up a bit. I decided to make it sort of like my adapted peach mousse cake, and have a strawberry jele on top, instead of that crackling chocolate I wasn't too fond of. So, excited and happy, I set off to the kitchen like a happy little chipmunk sets off to hide her acorns. So I changed and tweaked the recipe a little, and everything was going great, and I was making excellent time and would definitely be left with plenty of daylight time to take my pictures. I was free. I was happy.

And then the garburator happened.

Whenever the garburator happens, a chef must use his/her skills to undermine this little monster and protect their prized foodie possessions. Now dont get me wrong, I dont mean an actual garburator you would find in a kitchen sink. no, no,no,no,no. If only. The garburator, my dear friends, comes out and eats half your cookie dough mix if you leave it unattended. The garburator eats the packet of chocolate chips you bought to MAKE said chocolate chip cookies. It will cause frosting you froze in the freezer and are depending on to be half gone, for your cakes to have finger print smudges on. It will eat all the muffins you spend hours of love laboring over - ok maybe not ALL of them, but about 10 out of 12, so it might as well have eaten all of them. This garburator is every cook's worst nightmare. This garburator is my little brother.

see that thin layer of gele? it should be a thick layer of gele

My little brother, who is coincidentally not so little anymore (he's now taller than me!), has been a challenge to deal with over my years of cooking and baking. It seems as if for every time I achieved a new baking skill, I also learned a new 'anti-garburator' skill, such as hiding the brownies in the microwave, or telling him they are all done in the hopes that he will only eat 5 brownies as opposed to all 12!

Now, back to my mousse cake. You see, I had prepared this perfect gele to pour on top of my mousse cake. Since I had already spread the mousse and was waiting for it to set in the fridge, I went out shopping with my mother and left the gele mixture in the blender. I came home to find that out of the 1/2 cup I made, there was maybe 2-3 tablespoons left! Of course I knew who the culprit was, and after some big drama, I was left with nothing. I decided to freeze the cake over night until I could get strawberries the next day to remake a batch of gele. This was a mistake. Learn from me, DON'T freeze this cake! The next day proved impossible for getting strawberries, so I ended up pouring that 2-3 tablespoons of gele on top.

This is why it looks so fugly.

But don't worry, it tasted amazing as usual! I plan on making this again very soon, and when I do (and when I manage to keep the garburator away) I'll be sure to post up the updated recipe and take some pretty pictures! :) ( as opposed to these fugly ones)

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Strawberry Mousse Cake

Hello, Hello, Hello!

I am free. free at last. Thank GOD ALMIGHTY I AM FREE AT LAST!
I am finally, finally done my essays, homework, school work, presentations, and final examinations. *sigh of relief* Its been a hell of a year, and everyone said that first year is the toughest year of all, and it really was. But alas, I am DONE FIRST YEAR OF MY BACHELOR. Damn ….. it went by fast. But I know you’re all not here to listen to me reminiscing.…you’re here for that yummy nummy looking cake up there. THAT’S right. ;)

Well the day I was done I came home (at around 4) and slept until 11am the next day. During exam time I had about 4-5 hrs of sleep a day, so after about 2 weeks of this…. I CRASHED. But then I woke up all refreshed and what’s the first thing I did when I woke up a free girl? Head into the kitchen of course ;)

At first I was just gonna make something simple…. Drop cookies…. Icebox cookies….and even *le gasp* cake mix! But then I thought, HEY I haven’t baked in SO LONG…it HURTS me….I need to make something DECENT. So I decided on a mousse cake:)

Of course it is never that easy, and it really wasn’t. all the recipes I would find all had missing ingredients or complex methods etc… so I sort of made this one up as I went, and to be honest, best thing I’ve ever ‘invented’ !

The sponge cake is from a recipe I tried a while back (which I now LOVE after this cake) and the mousse is an adaptation from 3 (yes count em 3) different recipes. The strawberries on the side were inspiration from google (only I saw kiwis) and the chocolate topping was a last minute result of me being too lazy to make a strawberry jelly topping.

Aight, so I’ll shut up now and go on with the recipe!;) and *le gasp again*, I took detailed pictures along the process (felt I needed to make up for the lack of baking posts ;))
Ingredients:
To make the cake you need: a spring form pan, strawberries for decorating, one sponge cake recipe, one mousse cake recipe.

**ALSO: if you’re like me, and would rather NOT buy self-raising flour, you can substitute quite successfully like so: for each cup of "self-rising" flour that you need, use instead: 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. Do what I did, and put it into a container to use for the next recipe that calls it!(since you only need 1/3 cup) Alright. Ill shut up now and give you the recipe. Honest. Zip.

Sponge Cake:
4 Eggs
⅔ cup Caster sugar
⅓ cup Cornstarch
⅓ cup Plain flour
⅓ cup Self-raising flour

Steps:

Have eggs at room temperature. Beat whole eggs with electric mixer until thick and creamy (this is THE MOST important part….beat them like there is no tomorrow! This is when the love for Kitchen aid mixers comes in); beating time on a moderately high speed should be about 7 mins.

Add sugar, about 1 tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition until sugar is dissolved.

While eggs and sugar are beating, prepare pans by greasing evenly ; and sift dry ingredients together 3 times, to aerate and mix the flours.
When sugar is dissolved, sift the flours over the egg mixture, use a spatula to lightly fold the flours through**; heavy handling at this stage will give a flat, tough sponge. Spread mixture evenly into pan, and bake ***

** Make sure you mix well (but not over mix) what I found amusing about this recipe was that the egg mixture was SO light, that the flour fell right through to the bottom! I thought I had finished mixing it in…and ran one final spatula turn from underneath the batter and all the flour came back up! Beware!
*** The recipe didn’t state a bake temp or time, so I just did 350 for about 30 min… but don’t take my word for it….bake with caution ;)

Then, for the mousse!
Ingridients:
Strawberry Mousse:
300 g fresh strawberries
100 g water
160 g caster sugar
4 tsp powdered gelatin
400 g cream

Wash and hull the strawberries and place in a sauce pan. Add the water, caster sugar, and gelatin and simmer until all the gelatin dissolves. Cool the mixture and blend the mixture in a blender or food processor until the mixture is pureed.

Beat the cream in a separate bowl until just thickened, not soft or stiff peaks! Be careful not to overbeat the cream which will result in a stiff mousse. Fold in the strawberry puree mixture and mix until well blended. **don’t make the mistake I did….make SURE the puree is cold cold before adding to cream, else it will start melting!

Assembley:
Take the same springform pan you used to bake the cake (all clean by now) and grease the sides VERY lightly with any vegetable oil…im not sure its necessary…but when your winging it….you want to make sure your hard work doesn’t get stuck to the pan! Then align your freshly cut strawberries around the side like so:

Then place one layer of cake, and cover it with a bit of mousse, making sure to fill it up tightly to the sides. Apply the second layer of sponge cake, and apply the rest of the mousse. Refrigerate and/or freeze until the mousse IS FIRM. RESIST the temptation…don’t be horrible like me and try to unwrap your baby before she’s ready ;)

You can also dip some strawberries in chocolate for an added flair...

I topped it off with some melted chocolate….which Im not to proud of….obviously it was impossible to cut through…but alas…that’s what happens when you just wing things….

But the final result was worth EVER LAST BITE. My god. Definitely top 5 best things ive ever baked, if not THE BEST. It was pretty difficult for me to do cause I tried to wing it and do it all in one day while trying to figure out WHAT to do along the way (plus popping out to go buy strawberries etc) haha…twas quite the scene….the kitchen a mess….bowls and cups everywhere….sticky strawberries sauce all over me….me standing in the middle of kitchen going wtf do I do next??!?!?!? LOL

but now that I HAVE the recipe, it should be easy peasy to do! I would recommend making the sponge cake the night before, and whipping your cream to. Then just put it all together the day later.

But alas, all in all, I was very satisfied and happy with the end result, and will DEFINETLY be making it again! Im uber excited to try different flavor….blueberry…raspberry….white chocolate…. Mango…Mmmmm:)

Well that’s all for now! Till next time …Chow! ;)


P.S. If you DO end up making this, post me a link, I'd LOVE to see your twist on things... :)

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