Vanilla Buttermilk Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream

I made this for a wedding cake I made this weekend, everyone loved it. This might be one of the best yellow cakes I've ever tried, it light, buttery and moist.

Vanilla Buttermilk Cake 
Makes one three-layer 9-inch round cake 

3 3/4 cups cake flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon plus 2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 sticks (10 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups plus 1/3 cup buttermilk
5 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter three 9-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.
2. Combine the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl. With the mixer on low speed, blend for 30 seconds. Add the butter and 1 1/4 cup of the buttermilk. Mix on low speed briefly to blend; then raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and the remaining 1/3 cup buttermilk until well blended. Pour one-third of the egg mixture into the cake batter at a time, folding it in completely after each addition. There will be 9 cups of batter; our 3 cups batter into each pan.
4. Bake for 26 to 28 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Turn the layers out onto wire racks by placing a rack on top of a pan, inverting it, and lifting off the pan. Peel off the paper liners and let cool completely.

While cake is baking, you can start preparing the buttercream. I love using Italian Meringue Buttercream because it light & fluffy, has less sugar then traditional (american) buttercream and decorator frosting. I am not going to lie, at first I was intimidated by the thought of making meringue and adding hot sugar but if you have a standmixer it's so easy!

Italian Meringue Buttercream

5 eggs whites (large)

10 ounces (1 1/4 cups) extra-fine granulated sugar, divided

1/4 cup water

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, soften

-candy thermometer & standmixer with whisk attachment would be helpful

1. Separate the eggs and place the whites in the bowl of the standing mixer fitted with a wire whip attachment. Reserve the yolks for another use.
2. Measure 1 cup of the sugar into a heavy-bottomed 1-quart saucepan with 1/4 cup water. Gently stir to combine; I use the candy thermometer for this. Leave the candy thermometer in the saucepan, numbers facing down to balance the thermometer.
3. Measure the 1/4 cup sugar into a small bowl and set aside.
4. Cut the butter into tablespoon-size pieces and set aside in a medium bowl.
5. Begin making the sugar syrup. Place the saucepan with the sugar and water over medium-high heat. Partially cover with a lid to capture the evaporating water -- this helps to moisten the sides of the saucepan to prevent sugar crystals separating from the syrup.
6. Begin whipping the egg whites to stiff peak in a standing mixer fitted with the wire whip attachment set to high speed. When the whites are at stiff peak you have a meringue. Keep the mixer running and pour the 1/4 cup of sugar into the meringue.
7. Raise the heat to bring the syrup to 245 degrees if it is not there already. When the syrup is at 245 degrees, remove the thermometer.
8. Slowly pour the syrup into the meringue when pouring, keep your eye on the bowl. Aim for the space between the mixer bowl and the revolving wire whip. To maintain the same rate of pouring, pour slowly and raise the saucepan from your shoulder. Twisting at the wrist or elbow tends to throw off my aim.
9. After 1 to 2 minutes reduce the speed to medium for about 3 to 4 minutes or until the meringue is cooled.
10. Add the butter one tablespoon at a time. Increase the speed to high for one to two minutes to fully combine the butter with the meringue.
11. At this point, flavorings can be added to the base recipe for Italian meringue buttercream, below is an example of the amount of flavoring to add to the buttercream.
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract or any extract (almond, orange, etc.)
-1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate, melted
-2 to 4 tablespoons (to taste) dark rum
-2 to 4 tablespoons (to taste) amaretto/coffee
-1/4 to 1/2 cup raspberry puree
-2 tablespoons lemon liqueur (lemoncello)
-1 teaspoon orange oil
-1 teaspoon lime oil

Adult Cupcakes: Raspberry-filled Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Chambord ganache & Mascarpone frosting

A few years back my husband wanted a sophisticated birthday cake, I found this recipe for cupcakes which I made into a car shaped birthday cake... OMG this cake as to die for!

Source

Ingredients

Cupcakes

8 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup (1 1/2 ounces) organic cocoa

3/4 cup (3 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 large organic eggs

3/4 teaspoon instant espresso powder

3/4 cup (5 Ounces) sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup(4 ounces)sour cream

Raspberry Filling

1 10 oz. package frozen raspberries with sugar

3 Tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Chambord Ganache

3/8 cup heavy cream

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter

4 ounces dark chocolate chips

1 1/2 teaspoon Chambord

Mascarpone Frosting

4 ounces mascarpone cheese

3/8 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted

1/2 cup whipped heavy cream

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-sized muffin pan (cups have 1/2-cup capacity) with baking-cup liners.

Method

Combine the butter, chocolate, and cocoa in a glass bowl over a saucepan containing barely simmering water. Heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and combined. Set aside to cool until just warm to the touch.
Sieve the flour, baking soda, and baking powder in small bowl to combine. Whisk eggs in second medium bowl to combine and add espresso powder, sugar, vanilla, and salt and whisk until fully incorporated. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Sift about one-third of flour mixture over chocolate mixture and whisk until combined; whisk in sour cream until combined, then sift remaining flour mixture over and whisk until batter is homogenous and thick. Take care not to overbeat the batter.
Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake until skewer inserted into center of cupcakes comes out almost clean, 15 to 18 minutes.Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before icing, about 30 minutes.

Raspberry Filling
Thaw raspberries and drain. You should have almost 3/4 cup liquid/juice. Put liquid in a small saucepan and combine with sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Cook stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil and is very thick. Let cool. Stir in raspberries without the extra juice that drains further (you want the filling to be thick). Fill cupcakes by removing a small piece in the middle of the cupcake, fill hole with about 1 – 1 1/2 teaspoons of filling. Trim the piece you have cut out and place back over the filling in the cupcake. You can also pipe filling into the cupcake, however, this is pretty thick, so it is more difficult.

Chambord Ganache
Bring cream and butter just to a boil. Pour over chocolate chips. Let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk until glossy and smooth. Add Chambord. Let mixture sit 5 minutes to set before frosting cupcakes.

Mascarpone Frosting
Beat together mascarpone cheese and sugar until smooth. Gently fold in whipped cream until combined. Place in a decorating bag and decorate tops of cupcakes as desired

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This is a repeat from my blog but thought it would be appreciated here too.

I just made this recipe last night, and it turned out great (moist and delicious) , I definitely making this again, I mad a few changes to the recipe adding Cinnamon, less sugar, and using milk + lemon juice rather than buttermilk.

Photo source

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups ripe, mashed bananas (approximatively 3 bananas)

2 teaspoon lemon juice

3 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (heaping spoonfuls)

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup softened butter (3 sticks butter)

2 cups sugar *I probably only added 1 1/2 cups 

3 large eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 cup chopped toasted walnuts (optional)

Cream Cheese frosting:

1/2 cups of softened butter (1 stick)

1 - 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups confectioner (powdered) sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees  *Since I've notice my oven does not always heat properly I actually preheated to 300 degrees and then when I put the cake in turned it down to 275

2. Grease and flour a 9x13" pan

3. In a small bowl, mash up banana & lemon; set aside

4. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside *I added about a tablespoon of Cinnamon

5. In a large bowl, cream butter & sugar until light and fluffy. *this is where I love my KA standmixer

6. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in vanilla extract

7. Add in approximatively on cup of flour mixture, mixing alternately with buttermilk (approx. 1/2 cup) until all flour mixture and buttermilk is added.

8. Stir in banana mixture.

9. Pour batter into pan, bake for approximatively one hour or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

10. Remove from oven and place directly into freezer for 45 minutes, this will make the cake very moist. *For you cold weather ladies, I stuck my cake outside with the snow (as long as it wasn't currently snowing or raining)

11. While cake is chilling prepare the frosting, cream butter and cream cheese until smooth

12. Beat in vanilla extract.

13. Add in about half of powdered sugar, beat at low speed until combined, then beat at high speed until smooth.

14. Taste frosting, continue adding powdered sugar until frosting reaches your desired sweetness *I never add the total 3 1/2 cups of adding powdered sugar 

15. Spread frosting over cooled cake

16. Sprinkle walnuts over frosting

~ Homemade Goddess

Homemade Wonton Soup

This weather is perfect soup making weather. My favorite soup to make lately is Wonton Soup....it's better than anything you'll get at any Chinese food delivery, or at least I think so.  This soup is going to take a couple of hours to make but there are plenty of left-overs, probably making enough for 7-8 people or freezes up nicely for future meals. Since I know some people may have some problem getting some of the ingredients, I provided alternatives.

Wonton Soup 

Ingredients:

3 bunches green onions/scallions

4-inch piece of ginger root

8 cloves of garlic

1 medium yellow onion

1/2 tbl Shao Xing (Chinese) Cooking Wine or dry sherry cooking wine

2 tbl Chicken Base + 6 qts water OR 48 oz Chicken Broth + 4 qts water

2 lbs ground pork

1/2 lb boneless pork chop

1 bunch of chives or 1 cup if sliced napa cabbage

1 lb of box choy or napa cabbage (optional)

One egg

1 teasp Sesame oil

1 tbl oyster sauce

1/2 teas of  cracked black pepper

large pinch of kosher salt

One package of wonton wrapper

I do all my chopping first, & placing them into small bowls, you will need to:

- mince 4 cloves garlic (wonton filling), leaving 4 peeled whole cloves (broth)

- rather than peeling ginger I cut off sides of ginger using them for the broth, leaving a skinless rectangular piece of ginger from the center of the root, I mince this piece of ginger making ~approximately 1/4 cup minced ginger for the filling

- Cut one bunch of green onion into 3-inch sections, with the other two bunches, cut off ends from green onion (saving them for broth), thinly slice green onion forming ~approximately 1 cup of little green rings

- Peel skin off of yellow onion, slice in half

Cut up pork chops into thin strips, approximately 1/8" wide, 2" long, leaving fat trimming to side momentarily.

Place the fat trimming in your stockpan on medium heat, cook fat down slightly this will add a little flavor to pan and create a little grease, then add pork strips, toss slightly for about 2-3 minutes (pork should not be cooked completely), remove pork strips, put aside.

Begin broth by adding chicken broth & water (well I use chicken base, since it's easier to have on hand than gallons of chicken broth) in the stockpot you used to cook the pork strips with washing the pot (those tasty pork bits cook to the bottom of the pan will make for a delicious soup.

 The broth should taste like a diluted (weak) chicken broth. Add in the whole garlic cloves, yellow onion, inger scraps & the green onion. Bring broth to boil. Add in Chinese cooking wine. Now lower broth to a simmer for about 1-1.5 hrs, stirring occasionally. Season with black pepper & salt to taste.

While broth is cooking, prepare Wonton filling by combining ground pork (which can be purchased by asking the butcher at a grocery store to grind a piece of pork shoulder), egg, Sesame oil, osyter sauce, black pepper, salt, and chives or napa cabbage (or both).

I like to use my hands to mix the filling even though a spoon would probably be sufficient.

Now prepare your workstation for folding your dumplings:

You will need a large plate to for finished dumplings, a cup of warm water, and a working surface like a cutting board.

Now take a wonton wrapper (can be purchase at most grocery stores in the produce section) and place about half a tablespoon of filling in the center of the wrapper.

Wonton Step 1

Use warm water to moisten all four sides of the wrapper, fold wrapper in half forming a triangle, be sure to remove any air within the wrapper & filling.

Wonton Step 2

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Moisten the two long corner of the triangle with the warm warm, now pull the two corners together, pressing them to seal them. (it helps to push the center slightly to get the two corners together)

Wonton Step 3

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Before long, you'll have several dumpling ready to cook!

Once you have started to make two or three dozen dumplings, you can start cooking them. To cook them, in a large sauce, bring ~about 4 cups of water to a boil, place about 6-8 dumpling for 8 minutes, (during this time I continue to fold more dumplings, remove all the broth vegetables from the broth & put pork slices into the broth), when the dumplings are finished they will float, place them into broth, continue to cook & fold all the dumplings until you run out of either Wonton wrapper or filling.

About 5 minutes before serving the soup, I like to add in additional vegetables (boy choy or napa cabbage) using heat to slightly wilt them. 

Serve 5-6 dumplings with each bowl & garnish with the sliced green onions.

~Homemade Goddess

Asian Country Beef Cubes

This is one of my favorite recipes and I'm kind of bummed I wasn't picked as a  finalist for The Nest's "Couples who cook" contest...hmm maybe it was too adventurous but I thought it was easy to make & a good alternative to stir fry. 

Country Beef Cubes is a Vietnamese dish that great for dinner entrée, it's real name in Vietnamese is "Thit Bo Lu Lac" which translates to "Shaking beef", perhaps this is because the beef needs to be toss in the wok so that all the sides are seared. My family has been cooking this dish for years.

Photo Credit

Ingredients 

• 1 1/4 pound Tri-tip(bottom sirloin/culotte) Steak
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon canola or peanut oil

2 cups of cooked rice

1 bunch (~2 cups)  of watercress (use only the tender leafy parts)

Trim excess fat from the steaks and then cut each into 3/4-inch cubes. In a bowl, combine the pepper, sugar, garlic, oyster sauce, fish sauce and soy sauce. Add the beef and toss well to coat. Set aside to marinate for 20 minutes or up to 2 hours


Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add the beef and spread it out in one layer. Cook in batches, if necessary. Let the beef sear for about 1 minute, before shaking the wok or skillet to sear another side. Cook for another 30 seconds or so and shake. Cook the beef this way for about 4 minutes total, until nicely browned and medium done.


When the beef is done, pile the beef on top of the watercress and serve immediately with lots of rice.


Serves about 2-4 people


**I've been asked a few times but you can usually find watercress near by the parsley &  other herbs at most grocery stores, it's green & leafy with a peppery, tangy taste to it. This is not to be confused with water chestnuts which are completely different. The heat of the meat wilts the watercress a little and the pan sauce (from the marinade) makes the flavor of the watercress less intense... if you prefer to not use watercress, I recommend using some sort of green leafy lettuce 


Also often Mr.HG & I like to add in more vegetables with our meal, so we usually accompany this dish with some cooked carrots or sliced cucumbers.   


~Homemade Goddess