MORE of Elizabeth's Extra Cakes - Strawberry Cream Cake and Pine Nut Cake

I made lots of extra cakes in December. In fact, I was a cake-making machine that month! I even made a couple of tried-and-true cakes from earlier this year.

These two cakes were new to me, though. The first, and more complicated of the two, was Strawberry Cream Cake, from my good friends (I wish) at America's Test Kitchen. I took it to a Christmas Eve party, and it was admittedly an odd choice for that type of event, since it seems better suited for a summer picnic. But whatever! I wanted to make it before the year was done, and it was such a fab-u-lous cake that I can't imagine anyone minded.

I have loved looking at strawberry cream cakes in the past, but have not enjoyed eating them very much. They're pretty but not very flavorful. The things that made this cake different were these:

1. A strawberry "mash" in addition to the whole strawberries. It really brought out the strawberry flavor,
2. A flavorful cream filling (from the addition of cream cheese), and
3. A cake sturdy enough to handle the berries and cream, but not so sturdy that it was dry.

I really do think this Strawberry Cream Cake was as good as it gets in the cream cake category. But if you like cake mixes, which get all goopy when stacked, this isn't for you. But please don't serve me yours. (Is that mean?...)

The first two layers


Here you can see the way the layers are constructed:
strawberries around the circumference, strawberry mash
in the middle, cream on top of that.



Julia wants to eat it all up!

I added a cut up strawberry to the top of the cake.

The second cake was an Italian pine nut cake from the Jamie Oliver cookbook, Jamie's Italy. I made this cake for a dinner party, and it was pretty good. It is a very dense cake and not too sweet, which is VERY Italian. In fact, in my year and a half in Italy, I saw this cake many times in bakery windows, but never ate it. This version mixes like a quick bread, but it has yeast in it. It doesn't sit out to rise or anything, so it felt very odd to mix it up quickly, pour it in a springform pan, and have that strong yeast smell come back at me. It was very dense in the end (was the yeast supposed to have done something? Did my yeast die?) and I got nervous about it. It just seemed that it might be too bland to serve as the finish to a dinner party. I whipped some cream before serving it and mixed cut up strawberries and oranges to spoon on the side of the plate. I thought it was good like that, but not spectacular. I think it would be a more appropriate cake to eat with a cup of tea on a winter day or something like that. A HAND CAKE!




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RECIPES


Strawberry Cream Cake, by America's Test Kitchen / Cook's Illustrated Magazine

Serves 8 to 10. Published May 1, 2006.

If using a cake pan, you will need one with straight sides that are at least 2 inches high; otherwise, use a springform pan. The cake portion can be made ahead of time, wrapped in a double layer of plastic wrap, and frozen; thaw the frozen cake, unwrapped, at room temperature for about two hours before proceeding with the recipe.

Ingredients

Cake 1 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2	teaspoons baking powder
1/4	teaspoon table salt
1	cup sugar (7 ounces)
5	large eggs (2 whole and 3 separated), room temperature
6	tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled slightly
2	tablespoons water
2	teaspoons vanilla extract
Strawberry Filling
2	pounds fresh strawberries (medium or large, about 2 quarts), washed, dried, and stemmed
4 - 6	tablespoons sugar
2	tablespoons Kirsch (I omitted this ingredient and added a bit of water instead)
	Pinch table salt
Whipped Cream
8	ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2	cup sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
1	teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8	teaspoon table salt
2	cups heavy cream

Instructions

1. FOR THE CAKE: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour round 9 by 2-inch cake pan or 9-inch springform pan and line with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and all but 3 tablespoons sugar in mixing bowl. Whisk in 2 whole eggs and 3 yolks (reserving whites), butter, water, and vanilla; whisk until smooth.

2. In clean bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat remaining 3 egg whites at medium-low speed until frothy, 1 to 2 minutes. With machine running, gradually add remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, increase speed to medium-high, and beat until soft peaks form, 60 to 90 seconds. Stir one-third of whites into batter to lighten; add remaining whites and gently fold into batter until no white streaks remain. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then invert cake onto greased wire rack; peel off and discard parchment. Invert cake again; cool completely, about 2 hours.

3. FOR THE STRAWBERRY FILLING: Halve 24 of best-looking berries and reserve. Quarter remaining berries; toss with 4 to 6 tablespoons sugar (depending on sweetness of berries) in medium bowl and let sit 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Strain juices from berries and reserve (you should have about 1/2 cup). In workbowl of food processor fitted with metal blade, give macerated berries five 1-second pulses (you should have about 1 1/2 cups). In small saucepan over medium-high heat, simmer reserved juices and Kirsch until syrupy and reduced to about 3 tablespoons, 3 to 5 minutes. Pour reduced syrup over macerated berries, add pinch of salt, and toss to combine. Set aside until cake is cooled.

4. FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM: When cake has cooled, place cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Whisk at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Reduce speed to low and add heavy cream in slow, steady stream; when almost fully combined, increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture holds stiff peaks, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes more, scraping bowl as needed (you should have about 4 1/2 cups).

5. TO ASSEMBLE THE CAKE: Using large serrated knife, slice cake into three even layers. Place bottom layer on cardboard round or cake plate and arrange ring of 20 strawberry halves, cut sides down and stem ends facing out, around perimeter of cake layer. Pour one half of pureed berry mixture (about 3/4 cup) in center, then spread to cover any exposed cake. Gently spread about one-third of whipped cream (about 1 1/2 cups) over berry layer, leaving 1/2-inch border from edge. Place middle cake layer on top and press down gently (whipped cream layer should become flush with cake edge). Repeat with 20 additional strawberry halves, remaining berry mixture, and half of remaining whipped cream; gently press last cake layer on top. Spread remaining whipped cream over top; decorate with remaining cut strawberries. Serve, or chill for up to 4 hours.

Pine Nut Cake (La Torta Della Giovane Sara) from Jamie Oliver’s book – Jamie’s Italy

1 cup unsalted butter, melted, plus a little for the pan
3 & 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs, preferably organic
2 cups sugar
zest and juice of one lemon

1 & 1/4 ounce packet active dried yeast
3 & 1/2 ounces pine nuts

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 12 inch springform pan and line it with a disc of waxed paper. Sprinkle the waxed paper with a little bit of the flour. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, then mix the yeast with the melted butter. Add this to the eggs, with the sugar, remaining flour, and the lemon zest and juice. Mix together well and pour into the cake pan. Scatter the pinenuts over the top and bake in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until golden.

Elizabeth's extra cakes - Yiaourtopita and Blueberry Crumb Cake #3

BONUS CAKES! This post is about 2 extra cakes I made this year.

The first is a recipe for Yiaourtopita, which means yogurt cake. (pronounced yeeah-oor-TOH-pee-tah)

I found this recipe on about.com. I was making Greek meatballs for some friends for dinner and I wanted a Greek dessert to finish. If you can't find thick Greek yogurt, the recipe says you can start with plain yogurt and strain it to thicken it. I bought Greek yogurt, but used half of it in a cucumber salad (tasty!), so I had to augment the rest with some plain yogurt that I strained. I hate changing more than one thing in a recipe, BUT I also didn't have a 13" square baking pan. I used two 8" round pans instead.

I don't have any photos! Here's why: I found out our friends were coming to dinner only an hour and a half before dinnertime. I ran to the store for ingredients, cooked dinner, and got the cake into the oven at the very last minute. The cakes cooked while we ate the meatballs. When the cakes came out of the oven, we ate them within 15 minutes and polished them off like nobody's business! (because it was nobody's business, alright? Don't make me come over there!) Hence, no pictures.

I will tell you, though, that this cake rocked! It had a slight sourness to it, because of the yogurt, and that made it FABULOUS! When I was plating it up, it looked very plain, so I sprinkled each slice with powdered sugar and put a single strawberry on the side. They looked lovely and tasted terrific. I'll be making this cake often. I love thicker, European style cakes without frosting. I like to call them "Hand Cakes," because you can hold a slice in your hand without getting all messy. Well, unless you're my 18-month-old. (Recipe at the end of the post.)

My other BONUS cake is another Blueberry Crumb Cake (the second for me this year, and the third overall. ....uh..I mean NUMBER ONE overall! YEAH!!! Woot! Woot!)

This is a Dorie Greenspan recipe. She's my new best friend. I adore her and want to be just like her, minus the short, short hair.

I made this for some other friends of mine. We all sat around my table talking and drinking tea/cocoa and eating this cake. Wonderful.

Here is a picture of it in my trash can. What?! YES, that's right. My husband, who liked it very much, decided after a couple of pieces that what he really liked was the crumb topping, so he ate the top off a piece and threw it away. I couldn't believe it! The bottom was MY favorite part. We could have been like Jack Sprat and his wife, for crying out loud!! But Jeff didn't even ask. The nerve. Oh well. I guess it was his piece, after all.


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The recipes:

Yiaourtopita

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:

* 5 eggs
* 3 cups of all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 cups of sugar
* 1 1/8 cups of thick yogurt (Greek preferable)
* 1/2 pound of soft margarine (2 1/4 sticks)
* 1 1/2 tablespoons of baking powder
* grated peel of 1 orange or lemon or bergamot orange
* 1 tablespoon of butter
* confectioner's (powdered) sugar (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).

In a mixing bowl, beat the margarine with the sugar and butter until creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Whisk together the flour and baking powder and, alternating between the flour and yogurt, add them slowly to the mix. Mix until smooth and add the grated orange (or lemon or pergamot orange) peel last.

Transfer the mixture to a lightly buttered 13" (or equivalent) cake pan, and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 45 minutes. If desired, when the cake rises, sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and cover with foil until done.

Yield: serves 12-15

Note: If the yogurt is not very thick, baking time will need to be increased. Test for doneness.




Blueberry Crumb Cake
Source: Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: from My Home to Yours

For the Crumbs:
5 tbsp unsalted butter at room temp
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

For the Cake:
1 pint (2 cups) blueberries (preferably fresh, or frozen, not thawed)
2 cups plus 2 tsp all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
2/3 cup sugar
grated zest of 1/2 lemon or 1/4 orange
3/4 stick (6 tbsp) unsalted butter at room temp
2 large eggs, at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
Preheat oven to 350. Butter an 8-inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet.To make the crumbs: Put all the ingredients except the nuts in a food processor and pulse just until the mixture forms clumps and curds and holds together when pressed. Scrape the topping into a bowl, stir in the nuts and press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface. Refrigerate until needed. (Covered well the crumb mix can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)

To make the cake: Using your fingertips, toss the blueberries and 2 tsp of the flour together in a small bowl just to coat the berries; set aside. Whisk together the remaining 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Working in the bowl of a stand mixer or in another large bowl, rub the sugar and zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and aromatic. Add the butter and, with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the sugar with the butter at medium speed until light, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, beating for about 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla extract. Don’t be concerned if the batter looks curdled — it will soon smooth out. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately, the flour in 3 parts and the buttermilk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients.) You will have a thick, creamy batter. With a rubber spatula, gently stir in the berries.

Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and smooth the top gently with the spatula. Pull the crumb mix from the fridge and, with your fingertips, break it into pieces. There’s no need to try to get even pieces — these are crumbs, they’re supposed to be lumpy and bumpy and every shape and size. Scatter the crumbs over the batter, pressing them down ever so slightly.

Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until the crumbs are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool just until it is warm or until it reaches room temperature.