Strawberry Cheesecake and My New Life

I spent a few weeks in Colorado at the beginning of the summer and my mother was kind enough to let me bring home a beautiful, nonstick springform pan. So of the course the first thing I must do when I get home is make a cheesecake. I have been wanting to try a cheesecake ever since I saw a cheesecake recipe on Smitten Kitchen. Her pictures are far more beautiful than mine but I bet my cheesecake tasted just as good. It took forever, I had a few disasters but It turned out pretty darn delicious...

I lost the recipe and all the changes I made to it, but I am working on it.

Mother's Day and a Marathon

Yes I do realize that Mother's Day is long gone, but I didn't get the chance to tell everyone about my amazing mother. My mother celebrated her 46th birthday on Mother's Day by running a marathon. I know, she is amazing. She has been training for the past 10 months so that she could wake up at 3am and run 26 miles down the Poudre Canyon. And then come home and shower so that we could go to church. Oh and then 2 days later she had to take her Spanish final. In honor of her I made this cake. But because she was not eating sugar as part of her marathon diet we did not actually eat it. We took it to a church function for other people to eat. But it is delicious and looks wonderful. I discovered this recipe when I was writing my Folklore Research Paper about food blogs. This cake was the first recipe I tried from a food blog, and I found it on Orangette, a food blog by Molly Wizenburg. I made a double batch and forced banana cake upon my roommates, boyfriend, neighbors and the Quarry Staff. I got a positive response so I decided to make it when I came home. I tried messing with it this time to make it more light. I don't know if it made a difference...

Sour Cream Banana Cake with a Chocolate Ganache (Adapted from Orangette)

For the cake:
2 cups + 2 Tbsps all purpose flour
¾ cup plus 2 Tbs sugar 
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 large ripe bananas 
½ cup sour cream (not low- or non-fat)

1/4 cup cold water 2 large eggs, separated 1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
10 Tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature
For the ganache:
¾ cup heavy cream
8 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate chips ( Ghirardelli of course)
1 Tbs vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 9-inch round springform pan with cooking spray, line the base with round of wax paper and spray again.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a blender, purée the banana, water and sour cream until completely smooth. Add the egg yolks and vanilla, and blend briefly to combine. The mixture will be light yellow and soupy.
Add the softened butter and about ½ of the puréed mixture to the dry ingredients in the bowl. Beat to combine on low speed; then increase the speed and beat for about 90 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and add the rest of the purée, beating to combine well. Whip egg whites with a pinch of cream of tarter until stiff peaks form. Fold in egg whites to batter until just combined.

Pour and scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and dry. Remove the cake from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes, and then remove the other rim of the pan. Invert the cake onto a wire rack, and carefully remove the base of the pan and the parchment paper. Allow the cake to cool completely.
When it is cool, begin the ganache. Put the chocolate in a medium mixing bowl. Bring the heavy cream to a near boil in small saucepan. When it is steaming well, remove it from the heat, and pour it over the chocolate in the bowl. Stir or whisk until most of the chocolate is melted; then cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir or whisk gently until the mixture is completely smooth. Stir in the vanilla. If all of the chocolate chips have not melted stick it in the microwave for a minute and stir. Chocolate should be thick and pourable.

Place the cooled cake and its wire rack onto a rimmed baking sheet, and slowly pour the ganache over the cake, using an icing spatula or long, flat knife to spread and smooth it across the top and down the sides. Scrape excess ganache off of the baking sheet for reusing, if you like. You will likely only need to use about 1/3 of the ganache for one cake; the rest will keep in the refrigerator for a week, or frozen for up to 3 months. Soften or melt before using. Allow the cake to sit at room temperature for at least a half hour before serving. 

*This was also my first attempt making sugared flowers. I think they turned out quite nice. I just went to this website for instructions http://www.essortment.com/all/howtosugarflo_rgcv.htm. 

Chiffon Cake and Goodbyes

Saying goodbye is a funny thing. My goodbyes at the end of this school year were mostly to people I knew I would see again. Some people I would see in 3 weeks, and most people I would see at the end of the summer. So of course I felt ridiculous being sad about leaving. Some people I already miss more than others and some people I'm sure have forgotten that they promised to call. That is the wonderful and sad thing about this change. No matter how much you miss someone or don't miss them- life goes on. The sun keeps setting, clocks keep ticking and the world adjusts to a new rhythm. With each new season things change, but thankfully some things stay the same. Like lemons, they will always be wonderful. So of course my first chiffon cake would be a lemon chiffon. I made this cake to avoid studying for finals and to bring to our goodbye work party. I dedicate this cake to all those wonderful people in the CCC. And I want to thank my roommate for letting me wake her up after she had gone to bed so she could taste it for me.
Lemon Chiffon Cake (adapted from every Chiffon Cake Recipe I could find)

*I doubled this recipe and it made ridiculous amounts of lemon chiffon cake. I made 12 cupcakes, 1 8 in round cake and an entire bundt cake with it. All of them delicious, just a lot. 
2 cups flour 

1 1/2 cups sugar 

1 tablespoon baking powder 

3/4 teaspoon salt 

1/2 cup cold water 

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup vegetable oil 

2 teaspoons vanilla 

Zest from 2 lemons 

7 egg yolks 

7 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar 

Glaze: 

1/3 cup soft butter 

2 cups powdered sugar

Zest from 1 lemon 

2 teaspoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in bowl and stir to mix. Add in order: the cold water, the oil, vanilla, lemon zest, and, one by one, the egg yolks. Set batter aside. Combine egg whites and cream of tartar and beat until very stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into the batter and pour batter into a pan. If making cupcakes pour into paper liners and bake for about 20- 30 min. Watch until they are golden on top. Turn upside down on cooling rack. If making a round or budnt cake pour into ungreased or parchment paper lined (very important) pan and bake 40 minutes. For bundt cake, hang upside down over a bottle until cake is cool. Turn out. Top with glaze and if feeling colorful add strawberry puree. 

For glaze, mix soft butter with powdered sugar, zest and lemon juice. Spread over cooled cake.

Wake up your roommate at 11pm to taste some. 

Story in progress...