Blackberry and Custard Sponge Cake

I love to bake, and quite frankly, we don't need to eat cake all the time, so I tried to find an outlet for my baking addiction and I found it.
For the past few months, I've been baking and donating a cake to our local American Legion every couple of weeks.  They raffle off the cakes and use the proceeds to fund local projects.

 

 

I made this Sponge Cake a few cakes ago, and am finally getting around to posting it.
This cake takes 9 eggs.
Yup, 9.

But it was worth the eggs, and I'll be making this again.   I got the recipe from the Martha Stewart site and made a couple of modifications though.
This is not a traditional sponge cake however.  It's more like a genoise, in that the egg yolks are beaten with the sugar over warm water.   Which means that the sugar dissolves into the yolks and makes for an interesting texture.
After the cakes are baked, have some fun with them. 
Spread one layer with some seedless blackberry jam, then dollop on some custard.

Place the second cake on top.  Don't worry when the custard and jam ooze out, it's supposed to do that.

Finish them off by either dolloping (isn't that a great word?) or piping on some whipped cream and more custard.

Refrigerate until ready to serve,  then cut and enjoy.

See how pretty it looked inside.  And it tasted wonderful as well.  

Yield: 8-12 servings (a 2 layer cake)Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking (adapted from the Martha Stewarts sponge cake)

Sponge Cake

prep time: 20 MINScook time: 25 MINStotal time: 45 mins

This light, airy sponge cake is so good with custard and jam and perfect for an afternoon tea.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 stick salted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup potato starch
• 1/4 cup flour to dust the pans with
• 9 large eggs, at room temperature, separated, yolks and whites
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease(use non-stick spray or a little butter) 2 9 inch cake pans, then place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom, grease and flour that. Set aside. 
2. Whisk together the egg yolks and 1 cup of the sugar in a bowl set over simmering water on the stove until the sugar had dissolved into the egg yolks and the mixture is warm. this takes less than 5 minutes. DO NOT LET IT GET HOT! Remove from the heat and beat with a stand mixer or hand mixer until the mixture is thick and lemon colored, and can form a ribbon which folds in on itself when the beater is lifted from the bowl. Take around 5 minutes for this. Add the vanilla and beat together. 
3. Beat the egg whites with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar until stiff and glossy and you can see peaks form when you lift the beater up. Fold one third of the beaten egg whites into the yolks, and then finish folding in the remainder of the egg whites. Sift the flour over top and gently fold the flour into the egg mixture. When almost all the flour is incorporated and folded in, pour the melted butter down the side of the bowl and gently mix in. 
4. Divide the batter in between the two prepared cake pans, and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cakes comes out clean. Rotate the cakes halfway through, it helps to keep them even and bake evenly. Immediately invert cakes onto a cooking rack, take off the parchment paper from the bottom and invert again, letting them cool right side up. Fill with jam and custard and top with custard and whipped cream to serve.

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Tapas for June 2017

The dishwasher's going, the glasses are washed and put away and it's time to sit down again, and relive a lovely evening.

We had our monthly Tapas Night last night, well, it's actually been a couple of months since we had it here.  Last month a friend hosted it, and the month prior to that, that particular weekend there were all kinds of events going on in our little town, so we did a pass.

The attendance was down, several couples who usually come were out of town, so it was a smaller crowd than usual, but I enjoyed it just as much.

I let my inner Dane out to play and made several dishes that are Danish.   And even though we were fewer in number than usual, much of it was eaten.  But before I tell you what I made, let me share the other dishes that were brought.
Apart from me getting all "Danish", it did seem to be a salad kind of night.

 This lovely and delicious salad with lots of Cauliflower, and it was really good.

 Potato Salad

 Hush Puppies with a dipping sauce

 Taco Rice

 This intriguing dish. A brie cheese enrobed in sun-dried tomatoes and served with crackers.  It was good.

 Told you it was a salad night, there was also a nice spinach salad.

 And then there was me. 
I get carried away sometimes.  But it's my party and I can make what I want.
So there...

These Egg and Shrimp with Caviar on home made rye bread.   

 I also made some tartelleter, but didn't care for the shells real well. This had peas and carrots in a white sauce, and I also made some with ham as well. 

One of my favorites, Mackeral in Tomato Sauce.  Luckily for me, there was a little left, and I'm so eating it today, tomorrow and ? 

The joys of getting really fresh eggs is that you can't peel them well, so I had to make an egg salad, and plumped them down on a piece of white bread.  They tasted really good. 

And since I had a little shrimp left over, I added some mayonnaise to it and served it with some of the homemade rye and white bread.  

And we had desserts as well, gotta feed the sweet tooth...
Pineapple

 Trifle

And a Boston Creme Cake. 

It's time for me to go and put my feet up and relax.  And start planning what I'm bringing to the next gathering we're headed to.  It's only a week away. 

Peach Monkey Bread Cobbler for Fantastical Food Fight

Necessity is the mother of invention, right? And when you can't find ripe peaches at the supermarket, neither one that you went to, you head to the freezer section.

Pardon me, I forgot to tell you about the Fantastical Food Fight Challenge this month.  It's a Peaches and Cream Challenge this month and June 21st is also National Peaches and Cream Day.  
I wish they'd told the peaches I saw yesterday at the supermarket, they were hard as rocks.

June also happens to be National Dairy Month as well.

Sarah of Fantastical Sharing of Recipes hosts this and has invited a bunch of bloggers to make and post a recipe using certain ingredients every month.  This month, it's Peaches and Cream.  I've participated in the Fantastical Food Fight Challenge in the past, and had so much fun with it.  #fantasticalfoodfight

I looked online for recipes.    Here and here and also here.
I not only had refrigerated crescent dough in the fridge, but also some biscuits in there, and I wanted to combine them and use them all up.
And when I looked at biscuit recipes I found some here, and here.
They all used canned peaches, and I had frozen ones.  They also all seemed to have a lot of sugar as well.
So I took a little of this and a little of that and combined them into this dish.
I call it Peach Monkey Bread Cobbler.   Topped it with some whipped cream and enjoyed it.

I think this would be even better served warm with some ice cream though.  But since it's so hot here, I try not to use the oven during the heat of the day. And a caveat here, you do need to cook this a long time.  I pulled it out of the oven, after 25 minutes and the biscuits on the bottom were a wet mess.  So I threw it back in the oven and baked it again, and this time the biscuits on the bottom were done.

All recipes and their respective images are either original or adapted and credited, and are all the sole property of Sid's Sea Palm Cooking © 2011-2017, with all rights reserved thereof.

Yield: 4-6 servingsAuthor: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking (inspired by many recipes)

Monkey Bread Peach Cobbler

prep time: 15 MINScook time: 45 MINStotal time: 40 mins

This is twisted take on Monkey Bread and Peach Cobbler

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tubes, (8-10 piece)prepared biscuit dough, 1 tube cut into quarters, the other tube cut into halves
• 1/2 cup sugar (use more if needed)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cube butter (4 oz.) melted
• 1/2 tube crescent dough

• 1 lb. Frozen or fresh peaches, cut into slices
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 deg. Mix the 1 tsp.cinnamon and 1/2 cup sugar together, set aside. Melt butter. Grease an oven safe casserole dish, 8 inch round. Open the two tubes of biscuits, separating them into individual pieces. Cut the biscuits from one tube into fourths, dipping them into the butter and then rolling them in the cinnamon sugar and layering them on the bottom and up the sides a little in the casserole dish. Mix the 1/4 cup sugar with the 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and the 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste. Add the sugar mixture to the peaches and toss to combine. Layer the peaches on top of the dipped biscuit pieces, then take the other tube of biscuits, cut them in half, dip them into the butter and the remaining cinnamon sugar mixture, adding more sugar if needed. Place them around the perimeter of the casserole dish, to make a pretty pattern. Finish off by taking half the roll of crescent dough out, pinching the perforations together and laying it over the top of the peaches. Much like putting the top on a pie, tucking in the four corners. Place in oven and then turn it down to 350 degrees and bake for 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold with some whipping cream or ice cream.
2. Cook's Note:   Cover with a piece of foil after 25 minutes or so, otherwise it will get too brown.   This does need to cook a long time to cook the biscuits on the bottom.  You could  also just put the peaches and sugar mixture in the bottom of a greased casserole dish, and dot the dipped biscuits around the perimeter of the bowl, and place a sheet of crescent roll dough over the top.  

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An InLinkz Link-up

Onion Veloute Stoup for Soup Saturday Swappers

Sneha of Sneha's Recipes is the host of this month's Soup Saturday Swappers and I had to do some searching to find a good recipe.  The theme this month is English Soup.  Well, I had read it to be English Soup, then found out it was actually supposed to be a stew.  But I had this bookmarked and made already so, here goes.  

While it was a little on the chunky side to start with, and totally delicious, BTW, I took my immersion blender to it cause I wanted to have a sippable soup for while I'm doing the final cover for my cookbook.
Just a lot easier to maneuver a mug to the lips than balancing a bowl and spoon.

I'm so totally going to keeping this soup in my soup rotation, cause it was almost tastier or as tasty as a regular French Onion soup and dead easy to make as well.
I did have some sauteed onions and mushrooms already in the fridge and wanted to use them up in this, so I did.
I would also add a caution here.  Take the soup off of the heat after you stir in the egg yolks.  I left my pot sitting on the stove and even though I'd turned the heat off, it continued to cook and the egg yolks separated a little or it could have been the cream as well.  I ate it anyway. 

This is based on a recipe I found in  The Dairy Book of Home Cooking, published by the Milk Marketing Board of England and Wales. 
BTW, it's also National Dairy Month.  #Nationaldairymonth

Yield: 4 servingsAuthor: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking (adapted from the Dairy Book of Home Cookery

Onion Veloute Stoup

 

prep time: 15 MINScook time: 1 hourtotal time: 1 hours and 15 mins

This light soup is a different take on the standard French Onion soup, with a couple added veggies.  A lovely light starter or a budget friendly lunch served with a piece of Ciabatta Bread

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 large onions, chopped
• 2 parsnips, peeled and diced
• 1 1/2 oz. Butter
• 2 level teaspoons flour
• 1/2 pint milk
• 1/2 pint water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 cup, sliced sauteed mushrooms

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Fry onions, mushrooms and parsnips in the butter until the onions are translucent. Place into pot.  Stir in flour, then blend in milk and water, and salt . Simmer 1/2 to 1 hour or until onions and parsnips  are tender. Beat egg yolks with the cream, nutmeg and paprika. Stir into soup. Heat gently without boiling for 2 minutes. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle parsley over each to serve.

Created using The Recipes Generator
All recipes and their respective images are either original or adapted and credited, and are all the sole property of Sid's Sea Palm Cooking © 2011-2017, with all rights reserved thereof. 

Check out the rest of the bloggers for some great Soup Stew ideas for Soup Saturday Swappers.

An InLinkz Link-up

Shooting Star Smørrebrød for Fish Friday Foodies

How fortuitous is this?  I'm just getting ready to publish my Danish Cookbook, needed to make just a couple more recipes for it and I wanted to include this particular sandwich. This is one of two open faced sandwiches which you can order by name or is featured by name on many restaurant menu's in Denmark. 
And here's the serendipity, it's also Fish Friday Foodies monthly gathering.   This month it's being hosted by Colleen of  Faith, Hope, Love & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice and she wanted us to share our favorite summer fish or seafood sandwich.
I had to giggle, cause I'd been planning on making this particular sandwich anyway, it's called Stjerneskud or Shooting Star and it's over the top in terms of seafood.

Count it, there's not only fish on here, fried and poached, but also shrimp and smoked salmon and it's topped off by fish eggs.
Totally on point for our Fish Friday Foodies get together.
You're just not going to get any more fishy than that.
At least not without trying.

I believe this sandwich started out as a way of using up the leftovers from a Smorgasbord.  Cause pretty much every kind of fish served on a Smorgasbord is on this sandwich.  

To start with you need to build the sandwich.
It doesn't hurt to have some construction experience here, either.

This is a little bit of prep involved.  And the list of ingredients can seem a little intimidating.  You need to poach some shrimp, then flour and quick saute or fry a piece of Dover Sole or Plaice if you can get some.  You can also poach another piece of fish, I did.   It doesn't hurt to have some fresh Remoulade made up and waiting either.  I kinda keep some in the fridge cause I use it for so much more than just topping fish.  Slice some cucumber and some lemon in thin slices, then cut them to make a twist.

You ready?  

Butter a piece of Rye Bread.  I use my own homemade, cause it's the best. Arrange a piece of Butter Lettuce on top. 
Next up, comes a piece of fried Fish.  I used a piece of Dover Sole which had been dredged in seasoned flour, next up is the shrimp on one end, then the asparagus in the middle on top of a couple slices of hard cooked egg, then on the other end is a curl or two of smoked salmon.  Finally, you crown the entire amount with some Remoulade and a little black caviar, or some red caviar or even both.  I only had the black today.

It is a little messy to eat, but so worth it.

If you'd like to join in the fun, just email email Wendy at wendyklik1517@gmail.com.of Fish Friday Foodies.   We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month.   Visit our Pinterest page or our Facebook pager for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

Yield: 1 sandwichAuthor: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking (adapted from many recipes)

Stjerneskud or Shooting Star Open Face Sandwich

 

prep time: 15 MINScook time: 10 MINStotal time: 25 mins

This is one of two open face or Smørrebrød sandwiches which you can order by name in many restaurants in Denmark. But you can also make it at home. It may have originated in the need to use up some fish leftovers, but it took on a life of it's own.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 slice rye bread, european style
• 1 teaspoon butter, for the bread
• 1 leaf of Butter Lettuce
• 2-3 oz. piece of fried Dover Sole
• 2-3 oz. piece of poached Dover Sole (optional)
• 3-6 poached shrimp (if using small shrimp increase the amount up to 12)
• 2-3 spears Asparagus, cooked
• 2 thin slices smoked salmon (1 oz.)
• 1-2 thin slices of cucumber made into a twist
• 1-2 slices of lemon, made into a twist
• 2-3 slices hard cooked egg (optional)
• 1 teaspoon Remoulade
• 1/2 teaspoon Caviar (red or black or one of each)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Butter a piece of Rye Bread. I use my own homemade, cause it's the best. Arrange a piece of Butter Lettuce on top. Next up, comes a piece of fried Fish. I used a piece of Dover Sole which had been dredged in seasoned flour, next up is the shrimp on one end, then the asparagus in the middle on top of a couple slices of hard cooked egg, then on the other end is a curl or two of smoked salmon. Finally, you crown the entire amount with some Remoulade and a little black caviar, or some red caviar or even both. I only had the black today

Created using The Recipes Generator

An InLinkz Link-up

Baking 'Domeless' Cakes

I love to bake, and decorate cakes.  I've been having great fun baking cakes, decorating them and then donating them to the local American Legion for fundraisers this year. 
Trust me, it's been a labor of love.
And I've also been having fun making cakes that are flat on top, that is they're baking up without a dome, which makes them easier to decorate.
Like this Chocolate Cake with Faux Buttercream frosting. 

Awhile back I read somewhere, online, a hint to take some old towels, cut them in strips, then pin them together around the base of a cake pan.  Once you have them 'sized' correctly, you soak the towel in water and place back on the base of the pan before you bake the cake.
Simple right?
Something to do with the release of moisture keeps the cake from developing the 'dome' that is the bane of most cake decorators.  And many of them just slice that off before they frost.
I've done it, then eaten the piece of cake I sliced off, cause you don't want to throw it away.  And after slicing it, you get a really 'crumby' top which is hard to deal with as well.  As in little teeny crumbs get caught in the frosting and it looks terrible.

Well, not anymore.   I cut a couple strips off an old towel, sewed it together to fit the base of my cake pans.  I then soaked them with water, to the point of almost dripping, placed them around the outside of the cake pans, poured in the cake batter and baked away.
NO DOMES!!
They baked up flat.

So, I did it again, and again and now I won't bake a cake without a piece of soaked towel around the pan.
And when I made a three layer cake and only had two wraps, I cut an old (clean) tshirt and used it as well.
Look...

 These are amazing.  And basically free, cause you use an old but clean towel.

And now I can frost away on a lovely flat cake.

Measure your cake pans, the diameter and the height.  Cut a strip of old, clean towel, to fit the height and diameter of the pan.  Sew or pin together so that it fits snugly around the pan.  It helps to get the towel wet, and then fit onto the base of the pan, cause I found out that toweling stretches when it gets wet.  When you're ready to bake, soak the toweling in cool water, pat out the excess water, then fit onto the base of the pan.  Grease and flour the pan as usual.  Pour your batter in, make sure that the toweling is snug and bake away.  The soaked toweling keeps the edges of the pan cooler and helps to prevent the 'dome' building up in the center.  And, if you happen to have an old undershirt, clean of course, hanging around, it works as well.  I just wet it, doubled it up, to fit the pan, and voila I was able to use three pans at once.  I've still got a little of that towel left and I'm making of these. 
Best idea ever...  

A Cherry Cherry Cake

Above: Carrot Cake  
Below:  Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Three Way Chocolate Cake

Three Way Chocolate Cake

White Cake with Sour Cream Frosting

Three Way Chocolate Cake

and I can't forget my Buttermilk Cake with 'faux buttercream frosting'

This past week I made cupcakes though...
What can I say, I like cupcakes too.