Golden Chocolate Rose Cake

One of my guilty pleasures is to stroll down the baking isle in grocery stores (I know, shocker!), even when there's nothing I need. Usually there isn't much of interest besides baking ingredients, but sometimes they'll carry something a little more fun, like, say, edible gold spray.

I made a chocolate birthday cake for a friend this past weekend, and decided to give the gold spray a try. I love how easy it was to use. You just shake, spray, and voilá! You have yourself a fancy dessert. The brand I used is called Duff Cake Graffiti and was bought at Giant.

Just a tip for when you want to turn things up a notch!

And if you're looking for a great chocolate cake recipe, check out this one I posted a couple of weeks back. I have used the same for this rose cake, and it never disappoints!

Happy baking!

Rose Cake with Strawberry and Crème Anglaise

Growing up, I was spoiled by my dad's wonderful cream cake. Every time we had a reason to celebrate - no matter if it was graduations, birthdays, or just the supermarket having a sale on strawberries - he'd make it. Even today, there's nothing like my dad's strawberry cake to me, with the sponge cake and layers of vanilla custard, some kind of preserves, and fresh strawberries. It tastes like Swedish summer.

I remember when I was still living at home with my parents, my dad would often be up at night baking. (Sounds familiar?) I was usually studying, when all of the sudden I'd hear him call "Evalena!" from the kitchen. He would always save me the very last of the batter for me to scrape clean with a spoon. It was the best break from studying anyone could ever have.

Even now, when I go back to visit during the summers, he still lets me lick the spoon. Some things will never change.

I came across two new recipes recently that reminded me of my dad's cake. The first one is referred to as "ice cream filling". Basically, it's a vanilla custard, also known as a crème anglaise, mixed with whipped cream. It tastes just like soft vanilla ice cream! It's not hard to make, but you have to be careful when heating the custard, since it will curdle if it gets too hot.

This was my first time making crème anglaise, and I had to keep myself from eating it all with a spoon. It's THAT good. This custard is wonderful to serve with poached fruit, puddings, or your favorite crumb pie.

The other filling I made is whipped cream and cream cheese mixed with confectioners sugar and fresh strawberries. It has a mousse-like consistency, but the fresh strawberries gives it a nice texture. I recently saw another recipe like this one that also uses freshly grated lime peel, and I think that can be a lovely addition.

I often get questions on how I make the roses out of buttercream. If you can frost a cupcake, you can also make roses, I promise! Usually when frosting a cupcake, you will start from the outside and work your way in towards the middle. Making roses work the other way around. Start from the middle and work your way around the center, and voilá, you've got yourself a rose! 

  



And since today is my dad's 77th birthday, Grattis på födelsedagen, min Pappa! I hope you eat some delicious strawberry cake for me!

Crème Anglaise

from Leila Lindholm

500 g milk (3%)

1 vanilla pod

135 g sugar

7 egg yolks

40 g corn starch

50 g butter, softened

 Directions:

1. Split the vanilla pod in half, scrape out the seeds and put both seeds and the pod in a sauce pan with the milk. Bring to a boil.
2.  Whip the egg yolks with sugar and corn starch. Pour in the hot milk, while whisking.
3. Pour the mixture back into the pot and carefully heat the liquid, while whisking. As soon as the vanilla cream has started to thicken, take the pot off the heat and pour the crème into a cold bowl.
4. Add the butter, stir until fully melted, and let it cool in a refrigerator. Stir occasionally to prevent a skin to form.

 To make the vanilla cake filling, mix one cup of the crème anglaise with 1 cup of whipped cream.

Heavenly Strawberry filling

from the cooking magazine Hembakat

400 gram heavy whipping cream

175 g cream cheese

120 g confectioners sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

400 g strawberries, cut into small pieces

Instructions

1. Whip the heavy whipping cream. Set aside.
2. Whip the cream cheese with confectioners sugar and vanilla sugar.
3. Fold the cream cheese mixture into the whipped cream. Add the strawberries.

 For the vanilla cake recipe, see this post, and for the buttercream recipe see this post.

Vaniljkräm

från Leila Lindholm

5 dl  mjölk, 3%

1 st  vaniljstång
1,5 dl  strösocker
7 st  ekologiska äggulor
0,75 dl  maizena
50 g  mjukt smör


Gör så här:

1. Dela din vaniljstång på längden med en vass kniv och skrapa ur fröna. Lägg både skal och frön i en kastrull tillsammans med mjölken. Koka upp.                    
2. Vispa strösocker, äggulor och maizena luftigt med elvisp. Slå över den heta mjölken under vispning.                    
3. Häll tillbaka blandningen i kastrullen och värm upp försiktigt under vispning. Så fort vaniljkrämen börjar tjockna, häll snabbt över i en kall skål.
4. Tillsätt smöret, låt smälta och kyl vaniljkrämen i isbad eller kyl. Rör då och då i såsen så att det inte bildas skinn.

Himmelsk Jordgubbsfyllning

från tidningen Hembakat

400 gram grädde

175 g philadelphiaost

2 dl florsocker

1 tsp vaniljsocker

400 g jordgubbar