Chocoberry Cake

What is there to do when one is stuck in Friday night traffic for close to three hours? Why, devise a new concept for cake, of course! I was on my way on Friday night, the rain beating down on my windshield, hungry and craving for everything under the sun, when I thought of a dessert my friend Nisa and I used to indulge ourselves with every now and then. The Chocolicious Sundae from Delicious was our favourite, and we recreated it several times for potlucks and barbecues. And boy, I got a sudden hankering for it the other night.

However, I wasn't really in the mood to have a solitary dessert outing (seriously... nobody wants to spend time with me when I'm home in Setia Alam), so I wondered if I could make a cake version of it instead. The elements of the dessert are simple: chocolate, meringue, strawberries and ice cream. Voila, my Saturday baking excursion was planned.

I present to you, the Chocoberry cake! Wow, terrible name. It's a work in progress, please excuse me. I welcome suggestions for a better name *points to comment box*.

Chocolate Beet Cake

• 1 large beet (or 2 small-medium ones) - 3/4 cup grated for the cake, 2 tbsp grated for the frosting
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 170g butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup natural yogurt

1. First of all, some prep work: Wrap the beets (unpeeled, just trimmed of greens and scrubbed clean) in foil paper, wipe down with the vegetable oil and pop in the oven for an hour or so at 200C, or until a knife poked through the beets go through easily. When they're ready, remove and cool for a while, then peel and grate the beets on the fine grate of a box grater and set aside
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line your 8x8 round baking pan with butter and parchment paper
3. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda & powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside
4. Cream the butter and sugars until light, then beat in the eggs (one at a time), vanilla and beets
5. Beat in half of the flour mixture until incorporated, then pour in all the buttermilk, followed by the rest of the flour when the milk has mixed completely
6. Divide the batter between your pans, and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer poked through at an angle comes out clean. You don't want to overcook this cake, trust me. When it's done, allow the cakes to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then move onto a cooling rack to cool completely

Balsamic reduced strawberries

• 2 cups chopped fresh strawberries
• 5 tbsp brown sugar 
• 3 - 4 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 180°C, toss chopped strawberries in sugar and balsamic in a baking tray and roast for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely

Whipped cream

• 200ml double cream, chilled
• 1 tsp vanilla

Chill your mixing bowl and whisk, then pour the cream and whisk until soft peaks form, pour in the vanilla and continue to whisk until stiff peaks form. You need the cream to be thick to hold the weight of the cake layer on top. Stir through half of the roasted strawberries and dollop half of the cream on top of one layer of cake, top with the second layer, then spread remaining cream over the top

Meringue topping

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 cup caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180°C/fan. Whisk the egg whites until foamy, then gradually add all the sugar and continue to whisk on high speed until mounds form (not too stiff). Spread the meringue mixture onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper, and pop into preheated oven, drop the temperature to 165° and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven when done (tap the meringue with the back of a spoon to check doneness) and allow to cool completely. 

Now you've got all the components of the cake done, just crack the meringue into large pieces and arrange on top of the cake, then finish by drizzling remaining roasted strawberries on top.

Serve to mum's friends and gracefully accept the admiration

Victoria Sandwich

A cake fit for a queen, they say. This humble, no-frills, cake may not be fancy or fashionable, but its origins are far from humble. I spent the most recent public holiday reading up on random Wikipedia offerings, offset by the sudden urge to research Bran Castle (apparently it's on the market), wandering through the subject of morganatic marriages (there goes the princess fantasies), the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and somehow or other I ended up at Victoria sponge cakes. I can't tell you how I got there, but through endless right-clicking and new-tabbing, my general curiousity led me to one of my favourite tea time snacks! And wouldn't you know it, it was almost time for tea too!

It is said that Queen Victoria absolutely loved desserts, and during her reign she had carriage-loads of cake sent to all royal residences on a daily basis. Apparently she wasn't allowed sweets as a child, and I suppose when she grew up to be queen of England, she fought back against the man and said "I'll have whatever dessert I want, whenever I want." I can understand that decision.

I toyed around with the idea of doing up a tropical twist Victoria Sandwich, maybe bring a taste of Sarawak (what would that be? Black pepper?) to the classic British tea time favourite... but why change something that works so well? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This comforting sandwich cake may not be revolutionising dessert as we know it, but on a rainy afternoon in with the family, familiar is good.

I pulled out my new cake stands from the recent trip to Melbourne for this recipe post. I'm absolutely in love with the cake stands, and I only wish I had a bigger baggage allowance... though it may be a blessing that I didn't. I shudder to think of what that would have done to my bank balance. I've already got so many cake stands of different heights and widths, but I'm afraid I have a bit of an obsession with them, and there's still so many different types that I'd like to own in multiple colours. I suppose they'll come in handy for when I finally open up my cake shop.

Strawberries & Cream muffins

It's past midnight, I retreated into my room after watching the late night news with my parents more than two hours ago. I've taken a shower, changed into my "Proud to be well adjusted" t-shirt I got from a chiropractor's convention in Las Vegas (long story, not for this entry) and sleep shorts, I have read a chapter of Crazy Rich Asians (get a copy if you haven't already)... and I can't sleep.

I keep thinking. My brain won't quit talking to me. The images keep speeding at me. Voices, memories, thoughts, hypothetical conversations with myself, questions I don't want answered, recipes, more recipes, cake decorating ideas, and oh my God, before you know it... I'm in the kitchen again, I've put the apron on (I only ever wear an apron when I'm baking in my pajamas, cos I don't want to get sugar in my bed), the oven is preheating and I'm flipping through my "Keep Calm and Carry On" red notebook of recipes.

Late night baking. It's surprisingly quite a normal thing to do for young professionals who love baking. It's also an excellent method of quieting the mind to ready yourself for bed. I've talked about the benefits of baking in approaching anxiety issues before... this time it's no different. I can't sleep cos I'm afraid, so I bake and worry about getting the measurements just-so instead of thinking about all the stuff I can't change.

Late last night, I decided to make breakfast muffins as I wanted to wake up to something positive. After a quick look in the fridge, I decided the strawberries I bought a few days ago would definitely go bad in the next two days, so the recipe just HAD to be strawberry based. No bananas, or else I would have made brown butter strawberry banana bread (an old late night baking favourite of mine), but the pantry told me I have an excess of white chocolate. Then I knew just the muffin I wanted to have my morning latte with.

Strawberries & Cream Muffins
Yield: 12 5.5oz muffins

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1/4 cup sunflower oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup chopped strawberries
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare your muffin tin or muffin liners (I used 5.5oz standalone cups)
2. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl and set aside
3. In a smaller bowl, whisk the cream, oil, egg, and vanilla until incorporated
4. Pour the cream mixture over the flour mixture and stir with a spatula until thoroughly combined
5. Add the chopped strawberries and white chocolate chips (leaving roughly 1/4 cup of each to sprinkle on top of the muffins later) and fold into the batter
6. Scoop up the batter into the prepared muffin tins or liners, top each muffin with some more strawberries and white chocolate chips, then transfer into the preheated oven. Reduce the heat to 165°C/fan-forced and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the tops appear golden and a skewer inserted at an angle comes out clean (depending on the size of your muffins). Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely

Clean up, wash up, go to sleep, then wake up 4 hours later when your alarm clock goes off and enjoy a fresh muffin, reheated quickly if you like, and a cup of brewed coffee. This happens to me at least twice a week, nobody in my house ever says anything about it, but they'll quietly watch me over breakfast as I set up my little studio and snap pictures of my late night baking spoils.