Daring Bakers' Panna Cotta

I've had Panna Cotta a couple of times in my life. First, when my mother made it and used yogurt in it. It was a sour Panna Cotta. Not cool. Second, when I ate it in a pizzeria. That was good, but nothing so special that I would want to make it myself. Of course, the Daring Bakers took care of that yet again. Here I am, and I can make Panna Cotta myself!

The February 2011 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Giada's Vanilla Panna Cotta

1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
1 tbsp (7 g) unflavored powdered gelatin
3 cups (720 ml) whipping cream (30%+ butterfat)
1/3 cup (80 ml) honey
1 tbsp (15 g) granulated sugar
pinch of salt

1. Pour the milk into a bowl or a pot and sprinkle gelatin evenly and thinly over the milk. Make sure the bowl/pot is cold by placing the bowl/pot in the refrigerator for a few minutes before you start making the Panna Cotta. Let stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin.
2. Pour the milk into the saucepan/pot and place over medium heat on the stove. Heat this mixture until it is hot, but not boiling, about 5 minutes. 
3. Next, add the cream, honey, sugar, and a pinch of salt. Making sure the mixture doesn't boil, continue to heat and stir occasionally until the sugar and honey have dissolved - 5-7 minutes.
4. Remove from heat, allow it to sit for a few minutes to cool slightly. Then pour into the glass or ramekin.
5. Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. Add garnishes and serve.

Nestle Florentine Cookies (makes 2 1/2 - 3 dozen sandwiched cookies)

2/3 cup (150 g) unsalted butter

2 cups (160 g) quick oats

1 cup (230 g) granulated sugar

2/3 cup (95 g) all purpose flour

1/4 cup (60 ml) dark corn syrup

1/4 cup (60 ml) whole milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups (250 g) dark or milk chocolate

1. Preheat oven to moderately hot (375°F - 190°C). Prepare your baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper.
2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan, then remove from heat.
3. To the melted butter add oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla and salt. Mix well. Drop a tablespoon full, three inches (75 mm) apart, onto your prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the back of your tablespoon, or use a spatula.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until cookies are golden brown. Cool completely on the baking sheets.
5. While the cookies are cooling, melt the chocolate until smooth either in the microwave or stovetop (in a double boiler). 
6. Peel the cookies from the silpat or parchment paper and place face down on a wire rack set over a sheet of wax/parchment paper (to keep counters clean).
7. Spread a tablespoon of chocolate on the bottom/flat side of your cookies. You can also choose not to sandwich yours, in which case, drizzle the tops with chocolate.

If you noticed that there are no photos of the cookies, congratulations. Yesterday was apparently a bad day for baking. My cookies ended up as a giant liquid blob. The whole baking mat was so greasy that the blob just slided off it. I wasn't going to eat that, especially after it hardened, because I like my teeth the way they are.

There was also a recipe for chocolate Panna Cotta. But I bake everything with chocolate, so I decided to make the classic. I only made a third of it, as usual, but ended up with 4 really small cups. Just the right amount for dessert after a big lunch. We topped the Panna Cotta with store-bought Rote Grütze (a pudding-like dish made of cherries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries...), which was a delicious combination. 

I've never heard of Panna Cotta made with honey, and I didn't like its taste very much. I read that it's possible to substitute it with sugar, so I'll do that next time. The cream really brings out the true taste of honey, so if you like it, you'll like the whole dessert too. We definitely liked it and I'm making it again soon, maybe topped with a homemade puree of some sort. Can't wait!

Look: 5/5

Taste: 4/5

Approximate cost (Panna Cotta): 8 €

Chocolate Cola Cake

Cola? In a cake? I was intrigued when I first found this recipe on The English Kitchen. I had never heard about anyone cooking or baking with coke (except that guy on Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares who cooked meat in a cola sauce). I had to try and bake it! And it was weird. Let's just say that might just be the only time you'll ever melt butter and Cola together in a saucepan. Weird!

Chocolate Cola Cake

250 g (1 cup 2 tbs) butter

250 g (1 3/4 cup) self raising flour

300 g (1 1/2 cup) golden caster sugar

3 big tbs cocoa powder, sifted

generous pinch of baking soda

200 ml (3/4 cup) cola drink

75 ml (1/4 cup) milk

2 large eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter a 9-inch round cake pan.
2. Whisk flour, sugar, cocoa powder and baking soda together in a large bowl.
3. Melt the butter and cola together. Add to the dry ingredients along with the milk, eggs and vanilla. Mix gently but thoroughly.
4. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Buttercream Icing

60 g (4 1/2 tbs) butter, softened

200 g (1 1/2 cup) icing sugar

2-3 tbs cocoa powder, sifted

2 tbs cola drink

Beat all the ingredients together until smooth and fluffy. Spread over cooled cake.

Unfortunately, I didn't like this cake. It didn't taste like chocolate (since there was too little cocoa powder in it) and there was no taste of Coke either. I don't know why, but I always expect food with label coke-flavored to actually taste like Coke. But it never does! I especially don't get coke-flavored lollipops. If anyone has a recipe that uses Coca-Cola and the finished product actually tastes like it, please let me know! I'm not done with this project yet.

Look: 4/5

Taste: 1/5

Approximate cost: 6 €

Vertical Layer Cake

I read so many baking blogs. I love looking at what others are baking and I usually spend a few hours browsing when I find a new blog, getting a zillion ideas every time. So, last week, I found this. Now, I have never piped a design before so I wasn't even thinking about doing the roses. However, the vertical layer cake! Awesome! I knew I had to make it for Valentine's Day. 

At first, I wanted to do a chocolate-red velvet cake, so it would be more red and Valentine day-ish. However, since we're not red velvet cake lovers, I decided against it. I thought it would be the safest to use the recipes that I am Baker provided, but there weren't any! So I used the basic white cake and chocolate cake recipes from her blog. Little did I know that I wasn't going to make two, but three cakes.

White Cake (makes one 8 inch - 20 cm two layer cake - from Joy of Baking)

2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter and flour two 8 inch (20 cm) pans.
2. Mix sifted flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Beat the butter until soft and creamy. Add 3/4 cup of sugar and beat for another 2 minutes. Add egg yolks, one at a time, and beat until completely incorporated. Add vanilla extract and beat until combined.
4. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix until incorporated. Then add 1/2 milk and mix until combined. Add half of the remaining flour mixture, mix, add the remaining milk and mix. Now add the remaining 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix until combined. Do not overbeat!
5. In another clean bowl, whip egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar. Beat until soft peaks and gradually add the remaining sugar. Beat until you get stiff peaks (about 3 minutes). 
6. Fold the egg whites into the cake batter. Do not overstir the batter.
7. Put batter into pans and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry or with very few crumbs.

Chocolate Cake (makes one 8 inch - 20 cm cake, make only half of it! - from the Barefoot Contessa)

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cups good cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk, shaken

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 extra-large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter 2 8-inch (20 cm) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, butter and flour the pans.
2. Mix sifted flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. 
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry with the mixer on low speed. 
5. Add the coffee and stir just to combine.
6. Pour the batter into prepared pans. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes. Then turn them out on a cooling rack to cool completely. 

Forget the part about cooling the cakes. Immediately out of the oven, cut the upper crust of both cakes and stack them. Then place them into the freezer. Now you have 5 (or more) hours to proceed to I am Baker and learn how to make the vertical layers.

I should warn you, though, that you won't get the same amount of cake from both recipes. Sure, they both say that they make enough batter for an 8-inch, 2-layer cake, but they don't specify how tall the layers are going to be! I ended up with a whole other 9-inch chocolate cake. Yes, you guessed right, there was too much chocolate cake batter. But I made the best of it. Nom. The best idea here would be to only make one half of the chocolate batter. I'm sure it would be enough.

I made 2 8-inch cakes, but I had to discard the outermost layers because they somehow fell apart. I ended up with two 6-inch cakes. They were small, but delicious and more beautiful that they would've been if I left the outer layer there. It's the first white cake that I actually liked (frosted with chocolate though), and the chocolate cake was really good too. I think I'll make the two cakes again, since they're really basic and simple recipes that produce great results.

To frost the two vertical layer cakes, I used one batch of Nigella's Chocolate Icing, which tastes heavenly. You can use any frosting/icing you want, but I like this one because it uses sour cream, which we always have at home, and it's very easy to prepare. I would've used red buttercream, but I find it too sweet and I don't like using artificial food colorings on my cakes.

I mentioned that I actually made 3 cakes. I was left with so much leftover chocolate batter that I poured it into a 9-inch pan and baked it. I frosted it with a strawberry-chocolate frosting, which didn't taste like strawberries. Apparently, I didn't use enough of them. It's really not worthy of a blog post. I'll try some other time, maybe with raspberries. More of them.

Look: 4/5

Taste: 5/5

Approximate cost: 6 €

Lola's Cupcake Counter - Top Shop, Oxford Circus, London

Who opens a cupcake counter in the middle of a clothes store? Apparently, Lola's Cupcakes. It looks like the customers were so hungry that it was the only logical move. I guess.

Back in August last year, Top Shop was so packed that I didn't even try to get in. When I came back in December, a few days after the sale had started, it was almost empty. Anyway, I was browsing the store and there they were! Lola's Cupcakes! There aren't many people who could resist the colorfulness of their display. I sure couldn't. (I was secretly hoping I would get the cupcake in one of those blue boxes. And didn't. They serve them on a paper napkin.) You can have any of their 14 flavors in regular or tiny form. Regular cupcakes cost 2.25 £ and tiny cupcakes cost 1.10 £. I already wrote about their Selfridges' cupcake ''bar'' last year.

I had the Rocky Road mini cupcake. I still don't know why, since I hate marshmallows. But it does look good with all that's happening on top of it. I didn't like it though. I give it 2 stars. When did I start giving stars for cupcakes? Oh, well. 

I also tried the Chocolate Milk Cupcake, which is a chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting. It wasn't bad, but there was sooo much frosting! Thankfully, I keep a frosting-loving person with me at all times. Otherwise, I would've just thrown it away.

Verdict: if you are shopping for clothes in Top Shop on Oxford Circus and you suddenly get hungry during the 8-hour shopping spree, get a cupcake. I'm not sure who does that, but I guess there is a market for in-store cupcakes, otherwise they would've already closed this cupcake counter. If you're just a cupcake lover and you want to try Lola's cupcakes, you don't have to walk all the way up to Selfridges anymore. Yay!

Lola's Cupcake Counter

Topshop, Ground floor, Oxford Circus

6-38 Great Castle Street, 

London W1W 8LG

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cups

Guess who has just discovered peanut butter! Yes, it's me. After watching one of Nigella's Christmas shows, I decided it was finally time to buy it. Have I ever mentioned how much I love watching Nigella bake? Nom.

These little cups aren't exactly baked, but they're made with sugar. And flour. And butter. So they count.  Maybe you still have no idea what to make for Valentine's day. I use Valentine's day as an excuse to bake red things. That way, Valentine's day doesn't use me. Ha! I've got it all figured out. So, if you want to make/bake red things too, this is certainly a recipe you can try. It takes little time and produces beautiful results. All you need is love, red petit four cases... and six other ingredients.  

The red cases on the photo are purely coincidental. I actually made these for Christmas dinner and it was the only logical choice between blue, orange, black and red. Nigella used golden stars as decorations. I couldn't get them anywhere, so I used silver nonpareils. So, this year, you don't have to buy expensive chocolates at the store; you can make your own! And they're so good... I divided all the ingredients in half, but if you have a big family or a big stomach, make the whole recipe. They don't taste bad at all! And I like peanut butter now. 

Base (makes 48 tiny cups) (from Nigella)

2 ounces (50 g) soft dark brown sugar
7 ounces (200 g) icing sugar
2 ounces (50 g) butter, softened
7 ounces (200 g) smooth peanut butter

Topping

7 ounces (200 g) milk chocolate

3 1/2 ounces (100 g) dark chocolate

decorations

1. Put the ingredients for the base in a mixer and blend until it looks like sand.
2. Use one teaspoon of the mixture for every petit four case. Press the mixture down to form the bottom layer.
3. Melt the milk and dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Spoon the mixture onto the bases of the petit four cases. 
4. Decorate the tops with decorations of your choice.

See, I told you it's an easy recipe. 

Look: 5/5

Taste: 4/5

Approximate cost: 5 €

Daring Bakers' Joconde Imprime

You're looking at a piece of the January Daring Bakers' challenge. Yes, I know I'm a week late posting this. But January was such a busy month, especially the last week, and most of the time I wasn't even at home - so I didn't have the privilege of a working oven. But I have some great news. After all the hard work, I passed all my exams, so that's it with school for this year. Holidays 'till October! Yay! I do have some plans for the rest of the year, which include the majority of my bucket list, but more on that later. The important thing is that this is the cake I celebrated with. It's that good!

The January 2011 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Asteroshe of the blog Accro. She chose to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert. It's easier to make than it looks. You just gotta have some courage! And a pastry comb.

Patterned Joconde-Decor Paste (makes two 1/2 size sheet pans or a 13''x18'' (33x46 cm) jelly roll pan; I made only 1/2 of it and there was still way too much)

14 tablespoons (200 g) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups plus 1 1/2 tablespoons (200 g) confectioners' sugar

7 large egg whites

1 3/4 cup (220 g) cake flour

food coloring gel/paste/liquid

***Cocoa Decor Paste variation: reduce cake flour to 6 oz (170 g). Add 2 oz (60 g) cocoa powder. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together before adding to creamed mixture.

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (use stand mixer with blade, handheld mixer, or by hand).
2. Gradually add egg whites. Beat continuously. 
3. Fold in sifted flour.
4. Tint batter with coloring to desired color, if not making cocoa variation.

Joconde Sponge (makes two 1/2 size sheet pans or a 13''x18'' (33x46 cm) jelly roll pan; I made 2/3 of it)

3/4 cup (85 g) almond flour
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (75 g) confectioners' (icing) sugar
1/4 cup (25 g) cake flour
3 large eggs
3 large egg whites
2 1/2 teaspoons (10 g) white granulated sugar or caster sugar
2 tablespoons (30 g) unsalted butter, melted

1. In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whites and white granulated sugar to firm, glossy peaks. Reserve in a separate clean bowl to use later.
2. Sift almond flour, confectioners' sugar and cake flour. (This can be done into your dirty egg whites bowl.)
3. On medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition. Mix until smooth and light. (If using a stand mixer use blade attachment. If hand held a whisk attachment is fine, or by hand.)
4. Fold in one third reserved whipped egg whites to almond mixture to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whipped egg whites. Do not over mix.
5. Fold in melted butter.
6. Reserve batter to be used later.

Preparing the Joconde - how to make the pattern

1. Spread a thin layer of decor paste approximately 1/4 inch (5 mm) thick onto silicone baking mat with a spatula, or flat knife. Place mat on an upside down baking sheet. The upside down sheet makes spreading easier with no lip from the pan.
2. Pattern the decor paste - here is where you can be creative. Make horizontal/vertical lines (you can use a knife, spatula, cake/pastry comb). Squiggles with your fingers, zig zags, wood grains. Be creative whatever you have at home to make a design can be used. Or use a piping bag: pipe letters, or polka dots, or a piped design. If you do not have a piping bag, fill a ziplock bag and snip off corner for a homemade version of one.
3. Slide the baking sheet with paste into the freezer. Freeze hard, approximately 15 minutes.
4. Remove from freezer. Quickly pour the Joconde batter over the design. Spread evenly to completely cover the pattern of the decor paste.
5. Bake at 475°F/250°C until the joconde bounces back when slightly pressed, approximately 15 minutes. You can bake it as is on the upside down pan. Yes, it is a very quick bake, so watch carefully.
6. Cool. Do not leave too long, or you will have difficulty removing it from the mat.
7. Flip cooled cake onto a powdered sugared parchment paper. Remove silpat. Cake should be right side up, and pattern showing! (The powdered sugar helps the cake from sticking when cutting.)

Preparing the mold for entremets (I used an 8-inch round springform pan)

Start with a large piece or parchment paper laid on a very flat baking sheet. Then a large piece of cling wrap over the parchment paper. Place a spring form pan ring, with the base removed, over the cling wrap and pull the cling wrap tightly up on the outside of the mold. Line the inside of the ring with a curled piece of parchment paper overlapping top edge by 1/2 inch. Cut the parchment paper to the top of the mold. it will be easier to smooth the top of the cake.

Preparing the Joconde for molding

1. Trim the cake of any dark crispy edges. You should have a nice rectangle shape.
2. Decide how thick you want your joconde wrapper. Traditionally, it is 1/2 the height of the mold. This is done so more layers of the plated dessert can be shown. However, you can make it the full height.
3. Once your height is measured, then you can cut the cake into equal strips, of height and length. Use a very sharp paring knife and ruler.
4. Make sure your strips are cut cleanly and ends are perfectly straight. Press the cake strips inside of the mold, decorative side facing out. Once wrapped inside the mold, overlap your ends slightly. You want your Joconde to fit very tightly pressed up to the sides of the mold. Then gently push and press the ends to meet together to make a seamless cake. The cake is very flexible so you can push it into place. You can use more than one piece to wrap your mold, if one cut piece is not long enough.
5. The mold is done, and ready to fill.

I got the idea for the filling on You Made That? and I liked the amount of chocolate in it. So I made it. I got creative when I ran out of the ingredients though!

Crust (in case you don't make enough cake to cover the bottom of the pan)

100 g (3 oz) biscuits

40 g (3 tablespoons) butter

1. Blitz the biscuits until crumbly. 
2. Put the crumbs in a bowl and add melted butter. Mix thoroughly.
3. Tip the mixture into the springform pan and press to create the bottom layer.

Cheesecake Filling and Chocolate Ganache

3 oz (90 g) cream cheese
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
8 oz bittersweet chocolate
2 1/2 cups whipping cream

1. Whip cream cheese and two tablespoons of sugar until smooth. 
2. Whip 1 1/2 cups cream with two tablespoons of sugar. Fold one half of the whipped cream into the cream cheese. Scoop the mixture into the cake pan and smooth out evenly.
3. Break chocolate into small pieces and put it into a bowl. Bring 1 cup of cream to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes, then pour it over chocolate and stir until smooth.
4. When it cools completely, pour a half of the ganache over the cream cheese mixture.
5. Beat the remaining half of the ganache until lighter brown and fluffy. Scoop it over the ganache layer and refrigerate.
6. Put the remaining whipped cream into a piping bag and pipe something on top of cake. Refrigerate some more.

Just in case your pan is too high to fill it with this recipe (like mine is) and you don't have any more ingredients at home, you can throw all the cake leftovers in a mixer and mix until you get crumbs. Just because I had so many of them, I added walnuts and they had a nice taste. Then, make another ''crust'' on top of the ganache with this mixture (press it in). Cover with whipped cream. 

Or maybe add some butter to hold it together. I didn't and it all crumbled when the cake was cut. But it was good anyway, and I didn't have to throw any cake away!

You could decorate the cake with sprinkles or even fresh fruit like raspberries or strawberries. I decided to leave it as it is. It crumbled a lot when cut, but the taste was so heavenly that it didn't matter. I'm definitely making it again some time, because the outside layer is so sophisticated and elegant. It would make a great birthday cake.

Look: 4/5
Taste: 5/5
Approximate cost: 10 €