Cakes #1 and #2 - Birthday Party for the Hubby with Black Heart

Well, The Husband... he is not black-hearted at all, rather the opposite. We just call him black-hearted because he thinks there are no other colours in the world but black. 

Unfortunately there are not too many edible things that would be black but whenever I can, I do cook him black food. - Black pudding, black beans, licorice, salty licorice, cakes burned black in the oven decorated with black icing, pata negra ham, blackberries, back olives and squid ink spaghetti. - However, how consistent he may be with the colour of his clothing, he does not drink his coffee black!

This birthday cake I made for him was a basic chocolate sponge, exactly same recipe I used when making my Chocolate Dream Tree Cake. For filling I used three chopped bananas, 200 g raspberries and whipped cream (of about 250 ml cream). The topping was also whipped cream (500 ml) and icing (coloured with black food colouring) which I piped randomly over the cake and then slightly mixed it with the whipped cream to create a "tie dye" -look.

The second cake I made for The Husband's birthday - for birthday dinner appetizer - was a Smoked Salmon Cheesecake. It is fairly easy to compile (don't be afraid of using gelatine leaves and whipping egg whites!!) and it takes only 3-4 hours to set in the fridge before serving. It looks good on a coffee table, too.

Smoked Salmon Cheesecake

Base
300 g wholewheat soda bread, crumbed
100 g butter, melted

Filling
400 g Philadelphia Salmon & Dill Cream Cheese
200 g creme fraîche
100 g smoked salmon, finely chopped
1-2 pickled dill cucumbers, finely chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
lemon pepper, black pepper
6 gelatine leaves
juice of 1 lime
2 egg whites

Garnishing
Smoked salmon, lime wedges, fresh dill, red onion

1. Mix the breadcrumbs and melted butter together and press firmly on the base of a springform pan covered with baking parchment. Put in the fridge while you make the filling.

2. Soak the gelatine leaves in water for 5 minutes.
3. Mix together cream cheese, creme fraîche, chopped salmon, pickled dill cucumber and red onion, and season with pepper to taste.
4. Heat the lime juice together with the gelatine leaves in microwave so that the gelatine leaves melt. Add to the cream cheese mix.
5. Whip the egg whites until stiff and  fold them very gently into the cheese mixture trying to keep it ‘airy’.

6. Pour the filling on the crust and chill in the fridge for at least three hours until firm.
7. Remove the firm cake from the pan very, very carefully on a serving plate and decorate it with smoked salmon strips, dill, lime wedges, red onion...
8. Serve with salad as appetizer or enjoy with your afternoon coffee or even brunch.

Oreo Cheese Cake

While focusing on planning my 365 Cakes / 365 Days Challenge I have been trying my best not to bake any cakes before Saturday. Until on Wednesday I popped into Tiger Shop and found the cutest ever chalkboard for just 3€ and Oreo-kind-of cookies for just 1€/pack. Immediately I saw in my mind something which is now on the picture above. Cheese cake with biscuit crumbs for Thursday treat  for the family and then absolutely no baking but pure managing-your-challenge on Friday... (to be seen)

Oreo Cheese Cake

Crust:
150g Digestive cookies, crumbed
75g butter, melted

Filling:
200g Philadelphia Cream Cheese (or equivalent, I use quite often more affordable cream cheese brands of Lidl, Tesco or Aldi)
1 dl / 1/3 cup granulated sugar
200g pack of Oreo (or equivalent) cookies - save a couple for decorating the cake
1 tsp vanilla sugar
5 gelatine leaves
3 tbsp milk
3 egg whites

Decoration:
Cookie crumbs, fresh berries, chocolate...

1. Mix the digestive cookie crumbs and melted butter.  Press the mixture into the bottom of a spring form (23cm in diameter), base covered with baking parchment. Let the crust cool and rest in the fridge while you make the filling.
2. Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 minutes.
3. Mix the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla sugar.
4. Heat up the milk and melt the soaked gelatine leaves in the hot milk and pour the smooth liquid into the cheese mixture. Mix well.
5. Add the biscuit crumbs.
6. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them very gently into the cheese&cookie crumb mixture trying to keep it ‘airy’.
7. Pour the filling on the crust and chill in the fridge for at least four hours until firm.
8. Remove the firm cake from the pan very, very carefully on a serving plate and decorate it with biscuit crumbs, fresh berries, chocolate...

365 Cakes / 365 Days

The best challenges are the ones with a bit of craziness involved. The ones with which you are not only challenging yourself but also bringing joy to others around you.

365 Cakes / 365 Days starting 23 August. Stay tuned.

Pour Ma Bébé

Exactly twenty years ago today, I got to know I was to become a mother. Already on that very day both my husband and I had a strong feeling that this first Bébé of ours is a girl. And we certainly had a baby girl 8½ months later! Now, at the age of 19 she is tall and beautiful,  wonderful and gorgeous, and she has ambition and self-discipline. Being my daughter, she cannot resist a good pastry, though. After eating a huge piece of cake she may go to the gym but that is another story which certainly has nothing to do with my baking blog... 

So today, I baked these Bébé Pastries for my first baby - pour ma bébé. 

Unfortunately stories tell very little about the origin of these pastries. Why are they called Bébés? In Finland they have "always" existed, since 1910's according to YLE (Finnish broadcasting company) website (in Finnish). They may or may not have a French origin - obviously when you think about the name, but again, the baker who created them might just have been a Francophile.

The main thins is, like with all pastries, that they are good, they are yummy and they are pretty. Traditionally they are pink and small petits fours but next time I just may make them black and huge with a licorice sauce filling...

***

Bébé Pastries (16 small, about 5 cm Ø)

Dough

120 g butter

1,25 dl / ½ cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

1 large egg

2,5 dl / 1 cup plain flour

1. Preheat the oven to 175C / 350F.

2. Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla sugar.

3. Add egg and mix well.

4. Add flour.

5. Wrap the dough in cling film and put in the fridge for about an hour to harden.

6. Roll small balls of the dough and place them in a muffin tins. Line each tin with the dough.

7. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes.

Filling

Raspberry Jam

Vanilla Creme

1,25 dl / ½ cup fresh cream

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp cornflour

1 tsp vanilla sugar

½ dl / 1/4 cup sugar

50 g butter

1. Heat cream, egg yolk and cornflour in a pan so that the mixture thickens but does not boil. Let cool.

2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla sugar in a bowl.

3. Mix the creamy sauce and butter and sugar mixture together until smooth.

Icing

2,5 dl /  1 cup icing sugar

2 tbsp water or lemon juice

a few drops of red food colouring

Sprinkles

To compile the pastries

Spread about ½ tsp of raspberry jam in the bottom of each pastry. Then add about 1-2 tsps of vanilla creme. Let set about 15 minutes, preferably in the fridge. 

When set, spread pink icing on top of each pastry and decorate with sprinkles of your choice.

Say Cheese...Cake!

When there is serious business going on you really should remember the power of humour, even when it goes to the black side or gets too - cheesy. Sometimes literally cheesy.

During the past week certain exports from Finland to Russia were barred and when reading the Finnish newspapers, anybody could see there was a specific cheese stealing the show. This Finnish cheese called Oltermanni has been very popular in Russia and suddenly the Finnish dairy producer Valio had their storages full of it - wrapped in Russian labels, that is. Finnish supermarkets bought the cheese and sold them to Finnish consumers who were extremely happy to get it half price. The cheese got a nickname 'Putin's Cheese' and in Facebook there has been pictures going around where the Finnish and Russian presidents wear blocks of cheese as hats at their meeting last week...

These pieces of news, headlines and jokes became my inspiration for this Cheese Cake. 

Creating a cheesy look was easier than I thought. A basic sponge, some filling and buttercream (I hate fondant icing!) in two different shades of yellow on top and that was it. Little bit of melted chocolate to pipe some main elements of the original logo to sort of make it recognizable. Then a moment of hesitance as I don't know any Russian language... I triple-checked some words and therefore I am quite certain "сыр" does mean cheese. (If not, please let me know.) First I thought I would use just some random Cyrillic letters on my cake but then remembered a recent incident and decided not to. Some time ago Aku Ankka, the Finnish Donald Duck Magazine had had a drawing of a Chinese pot on their cover page - with some Chinese characters nobody had checked. Only after the magazine came out the editors got to know the characters actually meant sh***ing...

***

Sponge

200 g soft butter

200 g granulated sugar

4 eggs

200 g self-raising flour

1,5 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp cream or milk

1. Heat the oven to 190 degrees C (375 F) and grease and flour (I use dried and ground breadcrumbs) a 15 cm round cake pan.

2.  Cream together butter and sugar.

3. Add eggs and mix well.

4. Mix together the dry ingredients and add them together with cream or milk.

5. Add the dry ingredients and cream or milk.

6. Pour the mixture into the pan. 

7. Bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes until solid in the middle.

8. Let cool completely on a rack.

Filling

Lemon Curd

Juice and zest of one lemon

2 dl / 1 3/4 cups water

2 tbsp corn flour

0,5 dl / 1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 egg yolks

1 tbsp butter

1. Mix all ingredients together.

2. Heat on medium heat until the mixture thickens but do not boil.

3. Let cool completely.

4 tbsp Greek yogurt or whipped cream

Buttercream Icing

200 g butter

400 g icing sugar

1-2 tbps cream 

yellow food colouring

1. Beat the butter and icing sugar in a bowl until soft. 

2. Add 1 tsp yellow food colouring and then cream drop by drop to make sure the mixture does not become too loose.

3. Take ½ of the mixture and add another tsp of yellow food colouring to reach a darker shade of yellow.

Optional 

Some dark chocolate, icing sugar, fondant icing and food colourings to create a cheese brand you like

To compile the cake

1. Cut the cake into three layers. 

2. Spread lemon curd and yogurt/whipped cream onto the first and second layers. 

3. Place the third layer on top. 

4. Wipe all excess filling off from the sides as otherwise buttercream does not stick properly.

5. Spread the lighter yellow buttercream on the top of the cake and some on the upper part of the side. 

6. Spread the darker yellow buttercream upwards on the sides of the cake to the point where it meets the lighter yellow. The darker yellow is supposed to look like the plastic wrap around the cheese and the lighter yellow the actual cheese.

7. With a wooden stick, stick small (or big) holes on top of the cake to create a cheesy look.

Optional: Add your desired 'brand elements' - colours, logos, writing...

Mud Cake with Spicy Fudge

A perfect cake should always be baked until a stick comes out of it clean. Except a mud cake. A perfect cake should always be spongy and airy. Except a mud cake. A perfect cake should always be tall and handsome. Except a mudcake. - Be a flat, thick, gooey and messy mudcake and everybody will love you the way you are! Never change, be yourself. For a charming and festive look, wear a spicy fudge. Sprinkle your favourite chocolate on top. Or even berries. On a hot day demand ice cream. On a cool day demand whipped cream. On a rainy day demand coffee and company. 

Mud Cake

150 g butter
4,5 dl / 1 3/4 cups sugar
1,5 dl / ½ cup dark cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract / 2 tsp vanilla sugar
3 eggs
2,5 dl / 1 cup plain flour

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and flour (I use dried and ground breadcrumbs) a 28 cm round spring form.
2. Melt the butter and mix in sugar, vanilla and cocoa powder.
3. Add eggs one at a time and mix well.
4. Add flour and mix until the batter is smooth.
5. Pour the batter into the spring form and bake in the oven about 20 minutes. Let cool completely.

Fudge

2,5 dl / 1 cup (double) cream
2 tbsp treacle or dark syrup
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
250 g milk chocolate

1. Heat the cream, syrup and spices in a pan until just about to boil. 
2. Remove pan from heat.
3. Add milk chocolate and mix well until chocolate has melted.
4. Pour the fudge over the cake and let cool.

Decorate the cake with chopped chocolate of your choice and/or berries. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

I had just recently bought this Finnish Fazer Blueberry chocolate and used it together with fresh blueberries to decorate the cake. 

Party Time

My son's confirmation party, a week ago... Despite the last minute hassle - my husband baking baguettes at 2 a.m. in the morning, because of my time management earlier that night hadn't been the best possible - everything was ready in time. Everything was indeed ready exactly one minute before the first guests were to arrive! 

We had cakes, cakes and even more cakes - that was what the party boy had asked me to make. We also had cookies, pulled pork sandwiches, mini quiches and cheese croissants. Everything I had planned plus a beautiful carrot cake with an amazing chocolate tree made by my 11-year-old daughter and home-made 'oreo' cookies also made by her.  

When the party started, behind was quite a few nights when I did not sleep more than five hours and even when sleeping, I was piping icing and soaking gelatine leaves in my dreams - but loving every moment both awake and in these dreams. This was my challenge and I truly enjoyed it! The moments of starting from scratch, the heat, the sweat, the numerous visits to the shop to buy 'one more pack of icing sugar'...

At the actual party I remember once sitting down with a piece of cake but then I had to get up right away to welcome some guests and did not find my plate ever since. Luckily we had lots of leftovers so I was able to have many pieces of cake in quiet and peace the day after!

I was happy I had tested each and every recipe beforehand (all recipes can be found from earlier posts in this blog) so I knew what I was making and what could possibly go wrong. To my surprise nothing really went wrong, that is, turned into something inedible. My hidden heart cake did sink a lot when I got it out of the oven but the black heart inside was fine so I just cut the sunken part off and put icing on top. The layers of some of the cakes were not perfectly measured and cut, and my Chocolaty Celtic Cross was done in a hurry and looked a bit soggy, but at least it stayed in one piece when I lifted it onto the cake from the silicone mat where I had piped it.

To summarize, +30'C heatwave was the only real risk. No whipped cream and no fish or prawns could be served, unfortunately. Buttercream worked great! Nobody got food poisoning. Cat hair? - Maybe somewhere. - Happy Baker - Happy Guests. And happy cats when they finally got their house back after our 45 guests (two of them were dogs!) had left.

Left: Carrot Cake with Buttercream and Milk Chocolate Tree. Middle, front: Lime Cheesecake with Red Currants. Middle, back: Caramel&Vanilla Ombre Cake with Black Currants. Right: Chocolate Mousse Cake with Celtic Cross made of Dark Chocolate and brushed with a Silver Pen.

Chocolate Mousse Cake with Celtic Cross made of Dark Chocolate and brushed with a Silver Pen.

Caramel&Vanilla Ombre Cake with Black Currants.

Left: Lemony Blueberry Cake. Right: Alexander Pastries.

Left: Hidden Heart Cake with Liquorice Icing. Middle: Lemony Blueberry Cake. Right: Alexander Pastries.

Pulled-Pork Sandwiches. Home-made Pulled Pork and Coleslaw. Home-made Baguettes. Sour Garlic Cucumbers.

Left: Mini Quiches filled with Goats Cheese&Tomato. Right: Mini Quiches filled with Smoked Reindeer and Horseradish Cream Cheese.

Front: Cheese Croissants filled with Emmental Cheese&Ramiro Paprika. Cheese Croissants filled with Smoked Ham and Blue Cheese.