Gorgeous cake! So sorry your plans got cancelled, but birthday boy must have been delighted!
I was thinkin’ you had to taste for quality control😄
Thanks. Yes he was delighted and better still it was his second birthday cake.
Thanks! Is it cakey or custardy?
I do love the fine texture of cream cheese pound cake, I wonder if this is similar.
I baked old-fashioned lemon sponge custards today, the type that separate in the oven. They were just right to finish off a Hanukkah dinner, as holidays demand dessert, my family never wants much after demolishing a platter of latkes. These are both light and brightly flavored, but not overly sweet. I used Meyer lemons, so reduced the sugar to 1/3 cup.
Absolutely loving this cheesecake. This is supposed to be a burnt cheesecake, but I know that 400 in regular oven rather than a convection oven with top and bottom heating elements will not result in burnt cheesecake. I need to set it to 500-550. Still I decided to try 450. Well, the second issue was recipe called for a 20 cm pan. I decided to use an 8-inch one which is close enough, but perhaps mine is taller, because it wasn’t even close to the rim of the pan when I poured it. The custard layer ends up rather low in that size pan so that was another sign I’d achieve no browning. But what was done was done, so nothing left except bake and settle for unburned top. But what matters is the taste and it’s great! Definitely using a 7-inch pan next time, though!
What makes this one interesting is it called for semi-cured cheese along with cream cheese to emphasize the cheesiness. My thought was to use havarti since I’m pretty sure it meets the criteria of being semi-cured and all cow’s milk, but in the end I decided to use some Spanish semi-cured cheese which is readily available here since we get lots of Spanish products. There is sheep’s milk in this cheese, but at only 80 grams I thought it wouldn’t matter, and it doesn’t. I can’t taste sheep’s milk.
The second thing I like about this is the crust, which is made with flour and cocoa and pressed into the pan and left unbaked before the custard gets poured onto it. I’m used to baking this type of crust first, unlike ones made with cookies, but this comes out perfectly.
I find this one tastes better if allowed to sit out of the fridge for a bit first rather than thoroughly chilled. I also wonder if increasing the semi-cured cheese to 100 g wouldn’t be even better. And maybe a slight reduction in the sugar in the crust, but not totally sure it’s necessary yet.
Looks so good. Have you ever tried a european cheesecake where the base is a yeast dough?
The most I’ve done is a sort of braided yeast dough encircling a cheese filling, but no, I’ve done either cookie/crumb crust or sponge cake.
I wouldn’t call it exactly cakey, it doesn’t have the same kind of crumb as a typical egg/oil cake. It is more tender - almost like a sour cream pound or Bundt cake - but I don’t know if you would consider that custardy. Sorry - this assessment feels very subjective!
Custardy is that it’s sort of pudding-like, or if it helps, like clafoutis, which isn’t quite a custard, but not cake either. The Marie-Helene cake has a bread pudding-like crumb, so I think saregama is looking for something more like a cake. It’s moist and heavy with more fruit than batter and the batter itself is pretty rich (more butter than flour). What you’re describing is cakey, just the type of cake is a dense butter type (pound cake) vs something like a tea cake.
Well i dont know what to say about this cake. My daughter said my sil went on and on about it everytime he had a piece and my 15 year old grandson brought a piece to his best friend and grandmother. I guess i will have to make another one soon. I tried to find recipe on internet and couldnt.
Wow! High praise , indeed! You need to make one for you!
It’s beautiful!
Someone over here or on the Holiday Treats thread made a beautiful tray of baklava and gave me a crabing for it. I’ve made a very different style to what I would normally have, I made the pastry but it’s not done in a filo style aa it’s much softer and moister. The filling was well whipped egg whites and sugar with chopped nuts folded through and it was very simply layered. Because the filling and dough were already moist, there’s no need to make a syrup. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out but I loved it, the inside reminded me of cakes I had when I was little in Eastern Europe so I’d definitely make it again.
No pictures sadly as the edges were very ugly and it was a little bit stuck to the pan so I’ll definitely need to line it next time.
Hooray, Hachiya persimmon season is in full swing. I can buy fully ripe persimmons at the farmers market. Usually, my husband eats all of them over the sink, and I buy a lot. He says that there is no way to improve upon a fully ripe persimmon.
I was able to squirrel away enough to make these persimmon cookies. They are delicious. Here’s my usual caveat that while I find the name of this blog cringe-worthy, they post lots of wonderful recipes.
I used pecans for the nuts; I toasted them before adding them to the batter. I used dried wild blueberries and dried tart cherries in place of the raisins; I thought that as persimmons are sweet, a tarter dried fruit would work better. I grated the nutmeg; since I started grating nutmeg I don’t use pre-ground nutmeg ever. I refrigerated the batter for ninety minutes before I baked the cookies; they came out nice and fluffy. In contrast to the verbiage in the recipe, my cookies barely spread at all.
Those of you who prefer your sweets not very sweet should pass on this recipe. These cookies are quite sweet.
I’m about to make a yellow cake that i have made twice a year since at least 2007.
This one;
This year I wanted to sift the flour and mix the dry ingredients the night before. Would that work, or does it defeat the purpose of sifting?
The next step involves blending in butter in pieces, then mixing in a mixture of eggs, milk, and vanilla in three stages
Santa was good to me!
We exchange gifts on Christmas Eve, and this year I received several baking books, as well as all that I need for some intensive study of making Swedish knackebrod. Thanks to @jammy for the inspiration in the rye department.
Nice! Happy baking. 
what a stack!
