WHITE CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE BUTTER CREAM FROSTING

This is one of the special requests that I really want to make, a birthday cake. A friend of mine wants to make a birthday cake for her daughter, Pauleen, who will turn 1 year old in 2 weeks. She wants to make a special cake which is not too hard for the beginner. I try to find the recipe which taste is good, good appearance and not too difficult to make. I think this “White Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting” would be perfect. The cake is easy to make and requires no special skills. Actually, it's just a plain butter cake with a little twist. And the frosting is very easy. I choose the frosting recipe that use only simple ingredient and no egg (so, no need to use any sugar thermometer, just beating up everything).

The recipe is from one of my dearest cookbooks

This is the picture of the book (I bought it because of the drawing but end up using many recipes from it). The amount of the recipe is quite small, good for entertaining at home, and the pictures are so cute.

I hope that this recipe will make Pauleen’s birthday, a great and yummy day for her. Happy Birthday! Pauleen.

WHITE CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE BUTTER CREAM FROSTING

MAKES 8-OR 9-INCH ROUND CAKE

1¼ cups / 160g	cake flour
1½ tsp	baking powder
	Pinch of salt
¼ cup	heavy cream
¼ cup	sour cream
3 oz / 85g	white chocolate
½ cup/ 115g	unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup/ 150g	sugar
½ tsp	vanilla extract
2	large eggs, separated

1 Grease and flour 8 or 9 inch pan. Sift the measured flour, baking powder, and salt together into a bowl and set aside.

2 Whisk the cream and sour cream together and set aside.

3 Melt the chocolate over simmering water. Set aside to let cool.

4 Cream the butter and ½ cup (100g) of the sugar together until light and fluffy.

5 Stir melted chocolate into butter mixture, beat to combine.

6 Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then add the vanilla.

7 Add half of the dry ingredients, then half of cream and sour cream, mixing well after each addition. Repeat with remaining half of ingredients.

8 Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining ¼ cup (50g) sugar, beating continuously until stiff but not dry.

9 Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter, then turn into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes. (If using 8 inch pan the baking time will be longer, about 40-45 minute, and you need to cover the top of the cake with aluminum foil after baking for 20 minutes).

WHITE CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

6 oz / 170g	white chocolate, chopped
4 tbsp	heavy cream
1 cup/ 225g	unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup/ 150g	powdered sugar
½ tsp	vanilla extract
	A dash of salt

1 Melt the chocolate in the cream over simmering water, stirring continuously. Set aside and let cool to room temperature.

2 Cream the butter until light. Gradually beat in the cooled chocolate, then the sugar and salt beating until the frosting is smooth, light, and fluffy.

Assemble

1 Cut the cake into two layers, and spread the butter cream on top of the first layer.

2 Place another layer on top, frost top and side of the cake.

3 Decorate as you like.

WHITE CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE BUTTER CREAM FROSTING

Happy Birthday!

Blackberry and Lime Sorbet: Tangy Refreshing

Because I really love to bake so I can’t help have a lot of frozen berry in my freezer, “what can you do when you want to make something and you lack of the ingredient” that is my idea. And what happen next is I end up have too much of it, so I have to find the way to use it instead (what an ironic situation, I never run out of berry but I nearly run out of the recipe, haha). This situation happens to my friend, too, and she turn too me (in fact I really want to say that I still don’t know what to do with mine neither, oh mine!) Any way after a bit of flip and flap the cookbook pages, I find out that sorbet is the great way to end the frozen berry life. There are a lot of berry in the sorbet to give its texture, and you can have it with so little guilt, because it’s fat free. You can use other kind of berry in this recipe just remember to adjust the sugar amount to suit your ingredients. This sorbet is so tangy and fragrance. So let clear our freezer and replace it with the delicious sorbet.

Blackberry and Lime Sorbet

Serves 4-6

180g -200g	caster (superfine) sugar
250 ml	water
700g	frozen blackberry (thawed)
60 ml	Lime juice
	A pinch of salt

Place the sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and stir without boiling until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and bring to the boil for 1 minute. Set aside to cool.

Whizz the blackberry in a blender, and strain to remove the pit.

Combine the blackberry puree, lime juice, salt and the sugar syrup, refrigerate until cool (or put in the freezer for 1-2 hours).

Place the mixture in an ice-cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s instructions to freeze.

Adaptation from: Simple Essentials Fruit (Simple Essentials) by Donna Hay

Blackberry and Lime Sorbet

TARTELETTES AUX FRUITS: French Fruits Tartlets

The colorful fruit tarts on the pastry shops always catch my heart, and I dream about making it. I love the freshness and fragrance of the fruit, when come with the soft and lightly sweet cream filling, how can you ask for more. But make a colorful tart that taste good as its look is not easy; the big problem for me is the tart shell. I want the one that’s not too hard to cut with a dessert fork but not too soft that the tart can’t hold its shape. Do you think I want too much from a little tart?

After a bit of trying I come up with this recipe from ..............

I love this Pâte Brisée recipe, it’s the answer for me, it’s soft but still holds it shape, and it’s easy to make and roll (and re-roll, haha). The filling is quite good too; it’s a mixing of Crème Pâtissière and Crème Chantilly, which stay soft and dreamy when eating. Remember that these tarts can’t be keep longer than 1 day so plan to serve them on the day you make. (Ps. You can make the tart shell one day before making the filling).

TARTELETTES AUX FRUITS: Fruits Tartlets

Makes about 8-12 pieces (7x2 cm tart tin)

Pâte Brisée
250g	Cake flour
150g	Butter (cold and cut into small dice)
2	Egg yolks
	A pinch of salt
40g	Icing sugar
1-3tbsp	Water
Crème Pâtissière
250cc	Milk
60g	Granulated sugar
3	Egg yolks
15g	Plain flour
10g	Cornstarch
	Seed from vanilla bean (from ½ of the bean)
10cc	Cointreau (orange liqueur)
Crème Chantilly
200 cc	Whipping cream
20g	Icing sugar
Apricot Glaze
50g	Apricot preserve
Fruit of your choices	I use strawberry, kiwi, orange, cherry and persimmon. You can use one type or mix to make your tart colorful.

Make the Pâte Brisée:

Sift the flour, icing sugar, and salt in the bowl.

Put the butter in the flour mixture and rub to form a little crumb.

Add the egg yolks and 1tbsp of water into the bowl, and mix by pushing (not kneading) until the ingredients start forming a ball (you can add more water if the dough seen dry).

Transfer the ball onto the work surface and knead it with the palm of your hand for a few seconds to obtain homogeneous dough. Do not overwork the dough. Wrap in plastic and put in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Lightly butter the tart tins.

Roll the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap until it’s about 2 mm. thick.

Remove the top layer of plastic wrap from the dough, using fork stab all over the dough.

Using a 9cm pastry cutter cut discs out of the rolled out dough.

Place disc over the molds.

Using your fingers lightly floured or, preferably, a stuffing tool, press the dough inside each cavity, taking care not to tear the dough.

Wrap in plastic and put in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180º C

Line unbaked pastry shell with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Fill tart pan with pie weights, bake the tartlet shells in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, until golden. (If your tartlets are still pale after 20 minutes, remove the weights and put them back in the oven for 5 minutes more.)

Turn out the tartlets onto a cooling rack, remove weights. Let them cool down to room temperature.

Make the Crème Pâtissière:

Bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan.

Meanwhile whisk the egg yolk, sugar, seeds from vanilla bean, plain flour and cornstarch together in a bowl.

Whisk the boiling milk into this mixture and return the mixture into the saucepan.

Bring the mixture back to a boil and boil the cream for one minute whisking constantly to avoid scorching. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 - 60 seconds until it becomes very thick and it is hard to stir.

Remove from heat and immediately whisk in the liqueur. Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool.

Make the Crème Chantilly:

Pour the cream into a bowl and add the icing sugar. Using a balloon whisk or electric beaters, whip the cream until it just forms soft peaks.

Make the filling:

Fold the Crème Chantilly into the Crème Pâtissière, and spoon the filling into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm nozzle.

Make the Apricot Glaze:

Heat the apricot preserves in a small saucepan over medium heat until liquid. Remove from heat and strain the jam through a fine strainer to remove any fruit lumps.

Assemble:

Prepare the fruit by cutting into desire shape and place the fruit on paper towel to absorb moisture.

Brush the tartlets with apricot glaze (wait for the tart to dry a bit), and pipe the filling in.

Top the tartlets with fruits and brush the fruit with the apricot glaze.

Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.

TARTELETTES AUX FRUITS