Cake au Jambon et Olives

This past week I have been very busy working on my thesis. However, on Monday night I was needing a break from writing and decided it was time to cross something off of my New Year's Resolution List: making a cake aux jambon et olives.


This is something Lisa and I learned how to make a few years ago while we lived in France and I have not had the courage to attempt this until now. We decided that since the recipe we tasted in France turned out a little on the oily side, instead I was going to follow a recipe from online which I found here. There are two versions of the recipe on that site and I decided to follow the original as much as possible (looking into this further, I have also found the original recipe in French on several sites). I think the cake turned out well, although a little on the salty side, maybe rinsing the olives next time would help with that...

Valentine's Day Tubing Adventure

I recently added to my list of reasons to love California life: on a February day in Southern California when the temperature is in the mid 60's, you can drive for less than an hour and a half and all of a sudden find yourself in the middle of a winter wonderland. The best part of this is that once you have satisfied your crave for winter weather, you can be back to your mid 60's weather in just a short drive. Drew and I decided to try this out this past Valentine's day when we went to Mountain High to go tubing. After rummaging through boxes until we found all of our old Wisconsin winter gear we headed out the door. Crazy- within a couple of miles you go from desert to winter wonderland. The tubing resort wasn't as exciting as we had hoped (it would have been better to just go off the resort and tube on our own as many people were doing), but we made the best of it and had a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures from our adventure...

black forest gâteau

A couple years ago Drew and I purchased a cookbook simply titled "Chocolate" by Linda Collister. Ever since it found it's way into our collection of cookbooks I have been dying to attempt the black forest gâteau found on page 40. I'm normally not a big cake (or sweets in general) baker- mainly because there are just two of us (plus a tiny pup) in the blue-cakes household and if I bake a cake it usually either gets wasted; or, more often than not, we are unable to resist and therefore push ourselves to devour the entire thing and end up with a stomach ach. And, well, eating an entire cake in two or three days doesn't exactly fit to well into our attempt at a healthy lifestyle. :) That said, ever since my recent trip to Morocco, where I was lucky enough to taste one the the best cakes ever (which I previously blogged about), I have developed a new found desire to bake cakes. So, when I found out we were celebrating a friend's birthday in the small group fellowship we participate in, I jumped at the chance to make a birthday cake. When the birthday guy's wife suggested I make "anything chocolate" I immediately thought of this recipe. I finally had a chance to make it! Plus as there are 13 of us in small group, I was certain that there wouldn't be many leftovers. :)

The recipe got rave reviews from everyone who tasted it, except yours truly, the baker herself. Perhaps I am just critical of myself, or more likely, perhaps it's just that I prefer a more brownie-like cake (and therefore would have preferred a different type of cake all together). That said, for a black forest cake it was good and it was super fun to make. (A note though- it is putzy).

Judge for yourself, here's the recipe:

black forest gâteau
from "Chocolate" by Linda Collister

Cake:
9 XL eggs, separated
1c sugar
1c unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

Filling:
25oz can Morello Cherries in kirsch syrup- or syrup plus 3T kirsch
2c heavy cream
3T sugar
2oz. bittersweet chocolate, grated

1). Combine egg whites and 1c sugar in bowl and beat until thick and mousse-like. Sift cocoa into mixture and gently fold in with metal spoon
2). Put egg whites in spotlessly clean, grease free bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. Carefully fold into Yolk mixture in 3 batches.
3). Divide into 3 8in pans (buttered and bottoms lined with parchment) and bake for 20-25 mins at 350F or until cakes spring back when gently pressed and have shrunk away from the sides of pans.

4). Drain cherries and save syrup: you will need 7 T (if using sugar syrup, combine 1/4c syrup and 3T kirsch). After cherries are well drained, dry on paper towels.

5). Beat cream until soft peaks form. Sprinkle 3T sugar over cream, and beat a bit more. Reserve 1/2 mixture for top of cake. The other half will be split to spread between the 3 the layers.

6). Set 1 cake on serving platter and sprinkle with 2T kirsch syrup. Spread cream on cake, line with cherries, put next cake on top, sprinkle with 2T kirsch syrup, line with cherries; repeat the same process for the 3rd layer. Frost outside of cake with remaining cream and decorate with cherries and chocolate shavings as desired.

Enjoy!

Paramount Ranch and Rösti

This past weekend included more adventures in the form of hiking and cooking!



Hiking: Lisa had heard of a hike at the Paramount Ranch out near Malibu. This is the place where they filmed many movies / TV shows with old western themes since from the ranch you can't see any signs of civilization. While we were there, we walked around the town they currently have set up for filming and also walked through the trails used for the show Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.

Cooking: While Lisa was traveling last month, she visited our friends in Switzerland for a few days. As part of her souvenirs she brought back a Swiss cookbook, which we decided to try out for dinner. The recipe we tried was her favorite, Rösti. This is basically a dinner version of hashbrowns, and in our case, cooked with onions, swiss cheese, and mushrooms. This turned out very well, although a little mushier than in Switzerland. I think maybe we will have to try pan-frying both sides of it to help with that next time.

Cake and a Date

Last weekend we attempted to bake an awesome cake and went on a fun date...


Cake: While in Morocco earlier this month, I was introduced to the best cake ever- Ghiradelli's Devil's Food Cake with Mocha Buttercream Frosting. Yumm. The cake was so delicious- dense, not not too heavy, not dry at all, and with the perfect amount of chocolate goodness. Now I'm not normally a mocha fan, but the frosting complemented the cake so well, I didn't mind one bit that there was coffee involved. When I got home I HAD to try to reproduce the cake. So last weekend Drew and I gave it our best shot. While the cake we produced was delicious, it wasn't quite the same. We followed the instructions on the website exactly so I am not exactly sure what the deal was. One thing we did notice was that it tasted better the second day. Go figure! I plan to contact the person who made the origianl cake in Morocco to see if she took any short cuts or made any special additions and then will try this cake again. :)

Date: We also went on a date this past weekend- to see and take a tour of the Gamble House in Pasadena, an old craftsman beauty. It was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.