The first is a spectacular white cake with mascarpone cream filling all topped with sherry macerated berries. Gorgeous AND Easy (and no, I'm not talking about myself)
For cake:
2 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
For berries:
1/2 cup Fino (dry) Sherry
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups mixed berries, cut if large
For cream:
8 ounces mascarpone (1 cup)
1 cup chilled heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
Garnish:
confectioners sugar
Preparation
Make cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan (2 inches deep). Line bottom with a round of parchment paper, then butter parchment.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer at low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, mixing after each addition until just combined.
Spread batter in cake pan, smoothing top. Rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles.
Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake to loosen, then invert onto a plate. Discard paper and reinvert cake onto rack to cool completely.
Macerate berries:
Bring Sherry and sugar to a boil in a small heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Put berries in a bowl and pour hot syrup over them, gently tossing to coat. Let stand 15 minutes.
Make cream and assemble cake:
Beat mascarpone and cream with sugar in a large bowl using cleaned beaters until mixture just holds stiff peaks.
Halve cake horizontally with a long serrated knife. Carefully remove top half and reserve. Put bottom half on a plate, then spread evenly with all of cream and replace top half. Serve with berries
The second dessert was a luscious Banana rum cream pie. I LOVED the addition of curry to the crust. What an unusual and yummy combination.
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs from 9 (4 3/4 - by 2 1/4-inch) crackers
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon curry powder (preferably Madras)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
1 cup chilled heavy cream
4 teaspoons dark rum
4 firm-ripe bananas
Special equipment: a 9-inch pie plate
PreparationPut oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.
Stir together crumbs, butter, curry powder, cinnamon, and 2 tablespoons brown sugar in a bowl with a fork until combined well. Reserve 1 tablespoon crumb mixture for garnish and press remaining crumb mixture evenly onto bottom and up side of pie plate. Bake crust 10 minutes, then cool completely in pie plate on a rack, about 20 minutes.
Beat together cream cheese, zest, and remaining 6 tablespoons brown sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
Beat cream with rum in another bowl with cleaned beaters at medium speed until it holds soft peaks. Gently stir one third of whipped cream into cream cheese mixture to lighten, then fold in remaining whipped cream gently but thoroughly.
Thinly slice bananas and arrange evenly over bottom of crust. Spread all of cream filling over bananas, then sprinkle reserved crumb mixture over top. Chill pie, loosely covered, 20 minutes.
All recipes courtesy of Epicurious.com
No comments:
Post a Comment