The Usual Suspects, a Not So Usual Gift

What do you do when you have...

cute jars 

plump vanilla pods

heaps of oh-so-sweet sugar and

only 27 days to go before Christmas?

If you ask me, I'll make extra special, home made, personalized gifts for family and friends.

Here's the plan:

(1) Round up the usual suspects: jar, sugar, vanilla pods and fancy ribbons and gift tags

(2) Pour sugar into jar

(3) Split vanilla pod into half, add to the sugar

(4) Finish it up with the fancy ribbons and gift tags to give it the Christmassy feel.

But wait...

Maybe we can still jazz it up a little bit...

How about using red and green colored sugar instead of the plain ole white? Now Christmas is definitely around the corner!

Vanilla flavored sugar. That would add a kick to your morning coffee, nightly hot cocoa and, since it's already the Christmas season, your creamy egg nog. 

Reds and greens definitely scream Christmas. Throw in a green metallic ribbon  plus gold and silver strings... now that's what I call pulling out all the stops.

Home made, hand written gift tag. Now you see my overly girly handwriting. 

Love the alternating red and green colored sugar. It reminds me of Santa's elves socks. Kinda adds to the Christmassy feel, doesn't it?

Happy Cupcaking, 

Aikko

ps. have you noticed how many times I mentioned Christmas? Forgive me but the Christmas bug bit me. Well.. not literally, you know what I mean :)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

You know it's Christmas when 
... you hear Christmas Carols playing on the radio
... crisp cold breeze greets you when you go out at night
... Christmas decors are all over the shopping malls
... parols hung on every window
... bibingka and puto bumbong become a part of your early morning habit

there are probably a lot more, but for a foodie like me, I know Christmas is definitely around the corner when 

... the fragrant smell of baked goods laden with spices are wafting in the air.

Oh boy, thinking of Christmas makes me giddy like a five year old. I guess one is never to old for Christmas. Dearest Santa, did you hear that? 


Anyway, here's a Coffee Spice Cake to start off this year's Christmas Season. 


Coffee...
Spice...
and everything nice...


It can't get yummier than that!

Coffee Spice Cake

from All Cakes Considered

Ingredients:

3/4 cup cold strong coffee

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

3 large eggs

2 1/2 cups cake flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground gloves

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Procedure:

1. Obtain coffee. This is the dark roasted stuff, not watered-down diner coffee.

2. Center a rack and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare the cake pan.

3. Cream the butter with the mixer on medium speed, and add the brown sugar gradually. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and beat until fluffy, roughly 3 minutes.

4. Shift the mixer to low speed. Add the molasses, then the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

5. In a separate bowl, dry whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices together.

6. Add a third of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, beat, then add 1/4 cup of the coffee and beat on medium until well blended. Repeat two more times.

7. Pour the batter into a 12-cup Bundt or 10-inch tube pan, and bake for 45 minutes, or until the cake tests done.

8. Cool for 10 to 15 minutes in the pan, unmold onto a cake rack and cool completely.

Chocolate Drizzle

Ingredients:

2 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate

1 1/2 cups sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons cold strong coffee

1. In the top of a double broiler, melt the unsweetened chocolate over water at a medium boil until smooth.

2. Add the sweetened condensed milk. Stir until fully incorporated, and continue stirring for about 5 minnutes, until the mixture has thickened. Then add the coffee.

3. Remove from heat and stir occasionally until it's time to drizzle over the cooled cake.

Happy cupcaking,

Aikko

Re-cake: Tiramisu

Aside from cupcakes, I have another obsession.
I love tiramisu. 
But I guess you know that already, don't you?
It's the only dessert that I like that's not overly sweet. The tangy flavor of the mascaropone cheese and the rich taste of espresso complement the sweet essence of Kahlua and Marsala. 

I love tiramisu. If I can eat it everyday, I would. But I already said that of mint and chocolates, didn't I? I guess there are a lot of sweet treats I can eat everyday, tee hee!

Since this is a re-cake, I tried to make it differently from the tiramisu I made before. This time, I used Italian Sponge Cake from scratch and pulled out all the stops by generously adding Kahlua and Marsala wine for the much needed pick me up. 

First, the Italian sponge cake must be made, cut up into three layers, then I proceeded using Megan's Tiramisu recipe, substituting the lady fingers with the sponge cake.

Italian Sponge Cake

adapted from The Golden Book of Desserts

1 cup (150g) cake flour

¼ teaspoon salt

6 large eggs, separated

1 ¼ cups (250 g) sugar

½ vanilla pod,

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F

Butter a 10-inch spring form pan, line with parchment paper.

Sift the flour and salt into a medium bowl.

Combine egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl. Split vanilla pod into two, scrape beans and add to the egg-sugar mixture.

Beat egg yolks, sugar and vanilla beans with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and very thick.

Beat the egg whites in a large bowl until stiff peaks form.

Use a large rubber spatula to fold the dry ingredients into the egg yolk mixture. Carefully fold in the beaten whites.

Working quickly, spoon the batter into the prepared pan

Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until springy to touch and the cake shrinks from the pan sides.

Cool the cake in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen and remove the pan sides. Invert the cake onto the rack. Loosen and remove the pan bottom. Carefully remove the paper. Turn the cake top-side up and let cool completely.

Megan's Tiramisu Recipe

Ingredients List:
8 large eggs yolks (or 9 smaller yolks)
½ cup Caster Sugar + 2 tbsp (Caster sugar is just fine white sugar)
1½ cups Marsala Wine - Creamy
750g Mascarpone Cheese
500ml Cream 
2 cups strong Espresso Coffee
3 tbsp Kahlua (or other liqueur that you like)
2 packets Savoiardi Sponge Finger Biscuits
Cocoa
Large Lasagne Dish


Note: Cups used are metric - 250ml. The tablespoon is 15ml.


Zabaglione:
Whisk the egg yolks and ½ cup caster sugar together until pale and thick.


Over simmering water in a double boiler slowly add ½ cup Marsala to the yolk/sugar mixture. Keep on stirring until it thickens like custard (this takes about 7-8 minutes). Set aside to cool and whisk it occasionally as it cools so it is thick and creamy. I have some cold water ready in the sink so I can dip the bowl in it and stop the cooking quickly once the zabaglione is ready.


Tiramisu Cream
Stir (but do not beat) the mascarpone until well blended and smooth.


Whip the cream until thick - just past the soft peak stage.


Fold together the mascarpone, whipped cream and zabaglione one at a time (for example, add zabaglione to the mascarpone, and then add the cream to that mix).


A variation on this recipe keeps each of the three ingredients above separate and layers them up individually on top of the dipped biscuits. Try it both ways!


Dipping Mixture
Mix together the coffee, 2 tbsp of caster sugar, 1 cup of Marsala wine and 3 tbsp of Kahlua. Make sure the sugar is completely dissolved.


Assembly
Dip Savoiardi sponge finger biscuits into the cooled dipping mixture until they are moist but not sodden and line the bottom of the dish with them. The time varies due to variation in the sponge fingers.


Layer half of the Tiramisu Cream over the top of the biscuits.


Repeat another layer of dipped Savoiardi biscuits and Tiramisu Cream. Bang the dish firmly to make the Tiramisu Cream settle into the gaps between the biscuits. Cover and chill overnight.


Just before serving dust liberally with cocoa. If you want to be more lavish some grated chocolate is nice too.

Happy Cupcaking!

Aikko