Strawberry Kefir (Yogurt) Cake

This was one of the best cakes I've made so far, in terms of taste, freshness and simplicity. First saw an instagram posting by brunetkablog of this cake that she baked herself, she then kindly referred me to a pretty Polish baking blog for the recipe (thank you, googletranslate!).

The cake itself is light and not overly sweet, the texture reminds me of a soft/pillowy pancake. The texture benefits from the use of kefir, which is a thick fermented milk drink that tastes abit like yogurt (it can easily be substituted with a mix of yogurt and milk - see below instructions).

But the best part of the cake for me is way the juices from the fruits infuse into the cake, without making it overly soggy. It's the perfect summer snack or breakfast cake.
And it is super easy to make!

I'm going to translate the recipe here (I've corrected some of the mistakes I made in the previous translation).

Strawberry Kefir Cake

Translated from Zjemto Blog

Ingredients:

3 large eggs

1 cup of kefir (or substitute with 3/4 cup plain yogurt + 1/4 cup milk)

1/2 cup oil

2 1/2 cups A.P. flour (spoon and sweep)

3/4 cup sugar

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

2.5 cups (or 500 grams or 1 lb) of sliced/cut strawberries (fresh or frozen)

Powdered sugar to sprinkle over the completed cake.

Method:

Preheat oven at 355 degrees Farenheit.

Grease and line a rectangular 24 x 32 cm pan or baking dish, or a 9.5 x 12.5 inch sheet pan, with parchment paper (like you would line a pan to bake brownies).

Mix baking powder and flour, and set aside.

Lightly beat eggs with whisk or fork (try NOT to beat too much air in)

Add sugar, oil & kefir and whisk until combined.

Add flour & baking powder, and stir until combined.  Batter will be quite thick (don’t worry).

Pour batter and spread evenly into prepared pan. 

Spread out the cut strawberries evenly over the surface batter. Push each them down slightly so that they lay snug into the batter but you can still see the surface.

Bake for about 45-50 minutes (skewer should come out clean). 

Leave in pan to cool.

Sprinkle powdered sugar over cake before serving.

Double Layered Cherry Rum Chocolate Cake

Made this chocolate cake for my husband's birthday, a couple of weeks ago. It was my second experience making chocolate cake and I would say it turned out pretty well. The cake itself was very nice (recipe from Epicurus), very moist, tender and porous, chocolaty but not overly dense (dare I say it's pretty light but moist). It soaked the cherry syrup very well, which really complemented the cake, adding freshness and moistness (I do wonder if I should try a boiled syrup recipe next time). Dare I say that, it tasted almost like my favorite chocolate cake from this Singaporean baking chain called "Awfully Chocolate", called the "Cherry Rum Chocolate Cake".  The cake tastes best after the third day in the fridge, somehow the flavors has somehow molded better, so a note to self is maybe to make the cake a day or two in advance.  

One thing I noticed about the cake itself, it was somehow crumbly when cut, ie. it doesn't really hold its shape too well when cut, partly maybe because it is very moist. I could try maybe refrigerating the cake first before pouring the cherry sauce and applying the ganache, or even maybe add one more egg to the recipe?

The chocolate ganache recipe that I used (not from Epicurus), turned out pretty good and complementary, quite similar in texture to the AC's cake (slightly pudding-y), though somehow it was not dark as I would have liked. I wonder if using dutch processed cocoa powder would make a difference?

Although the recipe was simple enough, it took me 4-5 hours to complete the whole thing. And the kitchen was like a shipwreck during the process. But I attributed that to my clumsiness and inexperience. Hopefully the next time I attempt this again, the kitchen would look calmer.

Lemon Yogurt Cake & Strawberry Compote

During my quest searching for the elusive Moroccan ever-so-light yogurt cake, I came across several French yogurt cake recipes, all of which claim to be simple and light. I picked this one from Smitten Kitchen's blog because it seemed to have the least sugar content, and visually looks the lightest! I wasn't disappointed at all. It was not only light, but moist and flavorful. I used lemon, instead of lime, it worked. And used another JustOneCookBook's Strawberry Compote recipe, instead of the blackberry sauce. The sweet and freshness of the compote complemented the tanginess of the cake perfectly.  It was light enough to have for breakfast, with a cup of tea. Enjoy!

Banana Nutella Mille Crepes Cake

I've been wanting to try making the mille crepe cake since my first foray to baking, months ago. Been practicing a bit with cooking crepes several times before, did not seem too insurmountable.  Finally decided to make it for my Hubby on Valentine's Day, since he was going to cook the dinner's main course. So it was just the right time!

Bika Ambon

The Bika Ambon cake is an Indonesian dessert made primarily of tapioca flour (extracted from cassava roots), yeast, coconut milk, eggs, and sugar, typically flavored with pandan, lemongrass and keffir lime leaves (which also make the cake quite fragrant). When baked, bubbles created by the yeast creates the spongy/honeycomb texture throughout the cake. There are similarities to several other cassava-based cakes in the Southeast Asian region: the Bika Ubi cake (more popular in Malaysia), and the Vietnamese Pandan Honeycomb cake (Banh Bo Nuong). Similarities could even extend to the Brazilian cassava cake - which makes sense, since the cassava plant originated from South America, and some say that the Portuguese introduced the cassava (the plant from which the tapioca flour is made) to Asia.

The honeycomb structure itself could actually be inspired by the Chinese "White Sugar Sponge Cake" or "Bai Tang Gao / Pak Thong Koh / Bak Tong Gou", which is made from rice & rice starch and leaven by the yeast created by the fermentation of the rice. Indeed, the Bika Ambon cake in the past was leavened by "tuak nira/enau" or fermented palm wine/rice wine yeast (wine is soaked into batter overnight, as wine further ferments to create the yeast, I suppose).

An interesting trivia about Bika Ambon: The cake supposedly originated in the city of Medan, in North Sumatera (which is the North-Western-most part of Indonesia), or at the very least it was originally popularized there among the Chinese communities in the city. Yet the word "Ambon" refers to the name of another Indonesian island located in the Eastern part of Indonesia, far away from Medan, where the cake is not at all popular).

Moroccan Orange and Almond Cake

I am so enamored by Moroccan food, well at least the ones that I've had on my trip to Marrakesh and Essaouira. The dishes that I remembered, couscous, tagine, harira soup and this light breakfast cake I had for breakfast in this B&B Riyadh were ones that stuck to mind.
The cake was light and airy, akin to a sponge cake, yet not overly delicate or crumbly. The taste was light, slightly sweet, and went so well with the marmalade. It was such an amazing breakfast experience. Certainly having it on a Moroccan Riyadh rooftop balcony overlooking the city of Marrakesh had a lot to do with this as well.