very productive
It's been two days since I arrived from Bali (great time, will post later about that) and I have baked three items. How's that for productive? The first one was Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Cake that I made for breakfast yesterday. I didn't tinker too much with the recipe apart from the mandatory reduce the sugar thing. Since buttermilk is not available in here, I also used the usual sub of non-fat vanilla yoghurt watered down with 2% milk. I also skipped the orange sauce because we had been on vacation and our poor fridge was empty. Like a proper breakfast cake, I ate it with several assortments like honey and apricot jam, with my father preferring the former and I the latter. It tasted rich enough to do without butter.
It was very well-received with the family, and 8" pan of cake was gone in less than 24 hours. I think it was pretty good, very easy and quick to throw together and even though it's not too bad for you(come on, 5 tbs of butter for a whole pan!), it tasted decadent enough. I'm already itching to make it again and dress it up a bit, making a layer cake with it, drizzling ganache over it, or just serve with fresh fruits and cream. The sky is the limit, my friend.
Due to my crappy camera phone, you couldn't see the vanilla beans that liberally speckled the whole thing. Next time, I'm gonna add vanilla extract to boost the flavor and cover the eggy and richness of it.
Today, I baked Norwegian Apple Cake for breakfast with lots of subtitute like using whole wheat + cake flour, brown + white sugar combo and raw cashews + a bit of macadamia. It sucked. Well it didn't suck really, just too sweet and the nuts tasted too.. raw. My house elves seem to like 'em though.
Since I hate the after taste of failure, I decided to make something else, like probably Chocolate Cake. This recipe plug the cake like whoa, so I decided why not. It seems easy enough and it uses oil, hurray for cheap cake! I halved the recipe, decreased the sugar by a lot (almost half) and use 2% milk + 1 tsp vinegar.
I had been against the idea of using frosting, especially the addictively sickeningly sweet Buttercream frosting, but the cake tasted rather bland with so little sugar and 2% milk. It definitely needs sugar and fat boost, so I made the frosting with no recipe. Just a bit of butter, a bit of castor sugar, 2 tbsp of milk, vanilla bean... Voila.
The texture was amazing, moist, light and when refridgerated, perfectly fudgy. The taste on the other hand was just okay. It's probably the milk and sugar. The buttercream was as usual, too sweet for my taste. But the family responded very well to it. In conclusion, I have yet to find the perfect chocolate cake but since I still got several weeks of school break, that wouldn't be much of a problem.
It was very well-received with the family, and 8" pan of cake was gone in less than 24 hours. I think it was pretty good, very easy and quick to throw together and even though it's not too bad for you(come on, 5 tbs of butter for a whole pan!), it tasted decadent enough. I'm already itching to make it again and dress it up a bit, making a layer cake with it, drizzling ganache over it, or just serve with fresh fruits and cream. The sky is the limit, my friend.
Due to my crappy camera phone, you couldn't see the vanilla beans that liberally speckled the whole thing. Next time, I'm gonna add vanilla extract to boost the flavor and cover the eggy and richness of it.
Today, I baked Norwegian Apple Cake for breakfast with lots of subtitute like using whole wheat + cake flour, brown + white sugar combo and raw cashews + a bit of macadamia. It sucked. Well it didn't suck really, just too sweet and the nuts tasted too.. raw. My house elves seem to like 'em though.
Since I hate the after taste of failure, I decided to make something else, like probably Chocolate Cake. This recipe plug the cake like whoa, so I decided why not. It seems easy enough and it uses oil, hurray for cheap cake! I halved the recipe, decreased the sugar by a lot (almost half) and use 2% milk + 1 tsp vinegar.
I had been against the idea of using frosting, especially the addictively sickeningly sweet Buttercream frosting, but the cake tasted rather bland with so little sugar and 2% milk. It definitely needs sugar and fat boost, so I made the frosting with no recipe. Just a bit of butter, a bit of castor sugar, 2 tbsp of milk, vanilla bean... Voila.
The texture was amazing, moist, light and when refridgerated, perfectly fudgy. The taste on the other hand was just okay. It's probably the milk and sugar. The buttercream was as usual, too sweet for my taste. But the family responded very well to it. In conclusion, I have yet to find the perfect chocolate cake but since I still got several weeks of school break, that wouldn't be much of a problem.