Sunday, April 5, 2009 Week 4

Palm Sunday

Tres Leches
Three Milks cake

My trainer Kayleigh suggested this traditional mexican three milk cake. It has evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and cream in it. Below is a recipe from the internet:

Tres Leches Cake Recipe
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
6 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
4 teaspoons Mexican vanilla extract
1 - 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 - 13 ounce can evaporated milk
3 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
Fresh mangoes, strawberries, blackberries, or other fresh fruit, sliced
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9 by 3 inch springform pan with a vegetable spray like Pam.
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium size bowl.
Use a kitchenaid mixer for this recipe or any stand mixer will do. Mix the eggs and sugar in the mixer bowl and beat on high speed for about 5 minutes or until the volume has doubled. Reduce the speed to low and add one teaspoon vanilla and water. Mix well.
Gently fold the flour ingredients into the egg mixture. Use the mixer on the slowest setting or fold the flour in with a spatula.
Pour the batter into the springform pan and bake for 35 to 45 minutes. I placed the cake in the center of my oven and it took closer to 45 minutes.
You can tell when it's done when the center is firm and the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Cool the cake on a rack for 15 minutes. Place a plate over the cake and turn upside down.
Release the springform pan. The bottom may stick a bit so use a knife to cut along and release the cake.
Place your hand over what is now the bottom of the cake and turn the cake over onto your hand. Gently place the cake right side up onto a serving dish.
Serving It Up
Make sure to serve the tres leches cake on a platter that has a lip to hold in the milk.

Set the cake aside to cool completely. Use a serrated knife to slice and/or peel off the top skin of the cake. You can toss this part away or if you will probably want to see how it tastes.
When the cake is cool, whisk together in a bowl the evaporated milk, the condensed milk, 1 cup of the heavy cream, and 2 teaspoons of the vanilla.
Using a long tooth pick, ice pick or whatever you have available, poke holes all over the cake. The holes will allow the cake to absorb more of the milk.
Pour or spoon the milk mixture slowly all over the cake and allow it time to soak in before adding more milk. Refrigerate.
When you are ready to serve the cake, place the 2 cups whipping cream in a chilled mixing bowl and begin mixing on medium. Add one teaspoon vanilla and the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, and beat on high until stiff peaks form.
Spread whipping cream generously on the top of cake. Garnish with sliced strawberries or blackberries.
Be sure to refrigerate leftovers, if there are any.


Two people in the family liked this cake enough to have the left-overs every day until it was gone. Others didn't like it so much. Very rich and milky sweet.

Sunday, March 29, 2009 Week 3

This sheet cake was a favorite of all the McIntyre kids when we were growing up and the Sutter kids heartily endorse that view. In fact my "cake skeptic" loved it!

Cake:

1 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2tsp vanilla
2 cup flour
2 tsp bakong powder
1/4 tsp salt


Topping:
6 tbsp butter
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp packed brown sugar
4 oz shredded coconut
1 tbsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 X 13" pan.
2. Heat milk and butter until scalding.
3. Beat eggs, add sugar, and beat until thick and foamy. Add the hot milk and vanilla.
4. Combine dry ingredients and blend with egg mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan.
5. Bake 25-30 minutes, until knife test or toothpick is dry. Cool cake slightly in pan.
6. Prepare topping. Melt butter in saucepan, add brown sugar. Stir in coconut and vanilla.
7. Spread coconut toppping over the cake as evenly as possible. Place it under a broiler, and broil until bubbly and brown. Watch very carefully, as it can turn from done to burnt in an instant.
8. Cool cake to room temperature and serve.

I hadn't had this cake for probably 20 years when it turned up at a St. Thomas More Church pot luck dinner and the lady who baked it was gracious enough to give me the recipe...Happy Sutters!!!

Sunday, March 22, 2009 Week 2

Judy's Cake

This was my sister Judy's childhood birthday cake:

Judy's Lemon Cake

Bake a lemon cake in two 8 or inch layers. When cake is done, turn layers out to cool.

Icing:
Follow directions for making basic butter frosting (see below) except substitute lemon juice for half the cream and 1/2 tsp grated lemon rind, pkd for the vanilla.

Basic Butter Frosting
Put xxxx sugar through sieve of flour sifter before measuring, then pack firmly into cup.

1/4 cup soft butter 1 tsp vanilla
2 cups xxxxsugar, sifted and firmly packed 2-3 tbsp cream
1/4 tsp salt 1 1/2 tbsp corn syrup

Cream butter until shiny, add sugar gradually, creaming thoroughly. Stir in salt and vanilla. Gradually beat in cream and white syrup, using just enough to produce a smooth spreading consistency. Spread on cake. Covers 2 8-inch layers or 20 cupcakes.

Recipes from Meta Givens Encyclopedia of Cooking
published 1947 Mom's cookbook.

Sunday, March 15, 2009, week 1

My Birthday cake

This is "my" birthday cake. What makes it so special is the Allegretti Frosting!

Make a devils food chocolate cake using two 8 or 9 inch layer pans. After baking, take cake out of pans and cool completely.


Basic 7 Minute Icing
(Double this)

1 egg white 3/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar 1/2 tsp vanilla
dash of salt 1-2 tsp white corn syrup
3 tbsp cold water

Put first 5 ingredients in top of double boiler, then place over boiling water - upper pan should not touch surface of water. Beat with rotary beater 7 minutes or with electric beater 4 minutes or until icing stands in pointed stiff peaks. Remove from heat. Change hot water for cold and replace top of double boiler. Add vanilla and syrup, then continue beating until icing stands in shiny peaks stiff enough to hold shape. Spread on cake immediately. Enough for top and sides of two 8 inch layers (no, sir). Double recipe for 3 8-inch or two 9-inch layers.

(Beat with a rotary beater???!!! Do you even have one?? Do you even know what one is??)

Allegretti Frosting

Use basic Butter Frosting or 7-minute Icing and spread on cake as directed. Melt 2 squares unsweet chocolate over warm water, beat in 1/4 tsp butter. when cooled, pour chocolate neatly from a spoon around the top edge of cake, dripping it down sides in a natural way. Leave center top of cake white, and the sides just partially striped with chocolate - this gives a strikingly beautiful brown-and-white effect. Let chocolate become firm before cutting cake.

This comes from Meta Givens Encyclopedia of Cooking
copywrite 1947
Mom's cookbook.

My favorite cake made every year for my birthday by my Mom. My kids loved it, too!

How this got started

This year I turned 50!!!!

My birthday fell on a Wednesday, the actual day of the week I was born 50 years ago. (There is probably a algorithm for that out there and someone is saying, "Of course fifty years later your birthday was on the actual day of your birth!" but I found it a fun fact!) Because I didn't want to bake my own cake we had a very good bakery cake. On a following Sunday, I decided to bake for my family "my" birthday cake...the birthday cake my Mother had made for me every year when I was young. Well, my kids loved it and couldn't believe you could actually make a cake and icing without a box! So I decided that I would make a "Birthday Cake" every Sunday for 50 weeks to commemorate my birthday and bake some great cakes for my family. This is a record of that endeavor...I hope you enjoy as much as we have!!

One note of warning I will on occasion used boxed cake mixes for the cakes!