Sourdough Savarin

Gorgeous isn't it?  I've been having so much fun with my sourdough starter, that I decided to try my hand at a savarin, which is a yeasted cake, soaked in rum and baked in a ring mold, and adapt it to use my starter.  I'm not sure I could reproduce it if I wanted to, but I'm going to try.  Since I used the sourdough starter, this recipe was all about patience.  I started it the night before I baked it to give the yeast a chance to do their thing, and then it had an additional 4-5 hours of rising time the next day.  I'm sending this beauty over to Susan at Wild Yeast for her YeastSpotting event.

Ingredients:

3/4 c. very wet potato flour sourdough starter

1/2 c. very warm water

1 1/3 c. high gluten unbleached white flour

1 Tbls. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:

1.  The night before you want to bake the cake, combine the sourdough starter, water, flour, sugar and salt.  Mix until the flour is moistened, it should resemble cottage cheese.  Add more water if needed.  Cover bowl and leave over night.

2.  The next morning, mix in:

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/3 c. high gluten unbleached white flour

3.  Knead the dough lightly, and add in:

1/4 c. unsalted, melted butter

4.  Knead the dough until the butter is completely incorporated and the dough is smooth and pliable.  Put the dough into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise about 1 hour.

5.  Lightly oil a Bundt pan.  Gently place the dough into the Bundt pan, spreading it out with your fingers so that it is even and fills the pan.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place until dough has risen to about an inch below the rim of the pan.  For me, this took about 4 hours.

6.  Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Remove the plastic wrap and bake the savarin until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean (about 45 minutes)

7.  Immediately unmold the savarin and place it on a cooling rack (Below is a picture)

Unmolded savarin fresh from the oven

8.  Once cooled, make a simple sugar syrup by adding to a saucepan:

1 c. water

2 c. sugar

Grated zest of 1 lemon

9.  Put the saucepan over medium-high heat and bring the syrup to a boil.  After the mixture has boiled, remove from heat and add 1 tsp. vanilla extract

10.  Place the cooling rack on top of a cookie pan with sides.  Immediately soak the cake with the very hot sugar syrup by brushing it on thickly.  Pour the syrup that has drained into the pan back into the saucepan, re-boil it, and then pour that over the cake again.

11.  After soaking the cake with the sugar syrup twice, brush the cake with 1/3 c. rum

12.  Warm about 1/2 cup apricot or peach jelly in a small saucepan until melted.  Brush this over the cake after the rum.

13.  To serve, you can fill the center with whipped cream or serve as is with an accompaniment of sliced berries or serve plain.

Savarin after the first sugar syrup coating

A Carrot Cake to celebrate my 100th post!

Dearest Readers,

To celebrate my 100th post, I thought I'd share with you a fabulous carrot cake recipe.  I made this for my husband's birthday when we first started dating and I'm pretty sure it is the reason he first fell in love with me!  (Of course he has since discovered a million other reasons to love me!).  I'm sending this over to Debbie at The Friday Friends for her Carrot Cake Showdown!

Carrot-Ginger Layer Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting adapted from Martha Stewart Living Magazine, April 1999.

Ingredients for cake:

unsalted butter, for pans

3 c. all purpose flour

1 c. (3 oz.) pecan halves, toasted and chopped

1 lb. large carrots, peeled and grated finely (should yield 2 1/2 cups grated)

3 large eggs, room temperature

1/3 c. lowfat buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 c. sugar

1 1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 Tbls. freshly grated ginger

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 recipe for Orange Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)

Directions:

1.  Butter and flour two 8 x 2 inch round cake pans.  Tap out excess and set aside.  

2.  Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees F.

3.  In a large bowl, place grated carrots, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla extract, sugar, vegetable oil and ginger.  Whisk until combined.

4.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Using a rubber spatula, fold the flour mixture into the carrot mixture until combined.  Fold in the chopped pecans.

5.  Divide the batter between 2 cake pans and cook until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Approx. 1 hour and 20 minutes.

6.  Remove the pans from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool, 15 minutes.  Turn cakes out onto the rack and let stand until completely cool.

7.  When completely cool, cut each cake in half crosswise to make 4 layers.  Place a layer on a cake stand and spread 3/4 c. frosting on top.  Repeat with the other layers.  On the last layer, spread the frosting on the top and sides of the cake.  Transfer to the refrigerator and chill for 3-4 hours.

Orange Cream-Cheese Frosting adapted from Martha Stewart Living, April 1999

Ingredients:

3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 8 oz. bars of cream cheese, room temperature

3 c. confectioners sugar

1 Tbls. freshly grated orange zest

2 Tbls. freshly grated ginger

pinch of salt

Directions:

1.  Beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer approximately 2-3 minutes until fluffy.  

2.  Add the orange zest, ginger and salt and continue to beat well.

3.  Turn the mixer to low and beat in the 3 c. of confectioners sugar.  Beat until fluffy, approximately 5 minutes.

5 minute chocolate mug cake

After lofty goals last French Friday, hormones hit this week and I craved chocolate.  Tuesday night was my low point and I was desperate for something chocolatey.  I remembered a blog post by NuKiwi from From a Kiwi Kitchen, With Love for a 5 minute microwave chocolate cake that had me racing to the computer.  It hit the spot.

The cake itself was slightly dry, but very chocolate-y.  I enjoyed it immensely and for the ease in preparation it got high marks in my book.  This is a perfect dessert when you only want to make one portion.  NuKiwi had a trick to combat the dryness of the cake, you can read her recipe and modifications here.  She also has a simple chocolate frosting recipe in her post.  The following though, is her original chocolate cake recipe that I made.

5 minute chocolate mug cake by NuKiwi of From a Kiwi Kitchen, With Love

Ingredients:

4 Tbls. flour

4 Tbls. sugar

2 Tbls. cocoa

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 egg

3 1/2 Tbls. milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 Tbls. vegetable oil

Directions:

1.  In a medium measuring bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well.

2.  Crack in the egg and mix well, then add the milk, vanilla, and oil, mixing until there are no visible lumps.

3.  Now pour it into your coffee mug or favorite microwaveable teacup (make sure it is a large one) and microwave it for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes.

4.  Allow it to cool a few minutes before frosting.

Peanut butter and Jelly Cake!

Last night, we hosted my Uncle-in-law's 68th birthday.  Since I have two little ones who still get so excited for birthday parties, I had them help shop for decorations.  They decided we MUST play Pin the Tail on the Donkey, have balloons that made squawking sounds, streamer and balloon decorations and have a BIG cake.  For his birthday last year, I made Uncle peanut butter cookies (his favorite).  Not wanting to repeat myself, I expanded upon the peanut butter idea to a Peanut Butter Cake, and what goes better with peanut butter than grape jelly?  Hence, the idea for peanut butter and jelly cake was born.  The kids just thought the cake was wonderful and so unique.  To say the least, we had a great time and Uncle couldn't remember the last time he had played Pin the Tail on the Donkey.  As I was tucking in my little one last night, he said, "Mom, that was a great party."  You couldn't ask for better thanks than that.

Both of these recipes I found on two different sites which I will link to but also put here.  My thanks to the brave bakers who thought of these recipes first.  I merely put them together in one rockin' cake.  I'm sending this over to Nurit at Family. Friendly. Food for her Cake Collection.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake!

Double Peanut Butter Cake adapted from cdkitchen.com

I doubled the recipe from cdkitchen.com to make two 9-inch cakes which I cut into two layers each to have a 4 layer cake.  

Yield:  2 9-inch layer cakes

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cup sugar

4 eggs

3 cup all-purpose flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cup milk

In a mixing bowl, cream together the peanut butter, butter and sugar.  Add eggs; mix well.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt; add alternately with milk to the peanut butter mixture.

Pour into two greased 9-inch round baking pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.  When cool, cut each layer in half and frost, stacking each layer with frosting in between to make a 4 layer cake.

Grape frosting adapted from Hearth and Home:  Old Fashioned Cooking and Domestics

Yeild:  Enough to frost one 4 layer cake

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 egg whites (at room temperature)

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbls. grape juice

1 tsp corn syrup

Red and Blue food coloring

Combine sugar, egg whites, grape juice and syrup in the top of a large double boiler.  Beat on low speed with electric mixer until well blended.  Place over boiling water; beat constantly on high speed about 7 minutes (mine took a little longer) until stiff peaks form.  Remove from heat and add red and blue food coloring until it is a pretty color purple.  Beat until frosting is thick enough to spread (mine took about 20 minutes of beating).  Spread on peanut butter cake.