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Posts Tagged ‘Cake Flour’

There is one small drawback to making homemade, custard-based, ice cream. And that is all the leftover egg whites! Sure, you can make meringue cookies, but lately I have had A Lot of egg whites! That means- angel food cake!

Angel food cakes are really easy to make, as long as you have a hand-held mixer or a stand mixer. If you decide to whip the egg whites by hand, well, I applaud you!! :)

Light, airy, and delicious, angel food cakes are great served with fresh fruit or lemon curd. This would be a perfect dessert for summer!

Lemon Angel Food Cake
Recipe lightly adapted from Epicurious
Prep time: 20 minutes     Bake time: 40-45 minutes

1 1/2 cups egg whites (about 10-12), at room temperature
1 1/2 cups confections sugar
1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 tablespoon lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Move the oven rack to the lower third of the oven.

In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites until foamy. Add in the cream of tartar and whisk on medium-high speed until the egg whites form soft peaks.

While the egg whites are whisking, sift together the cake flour, confectioners sugar, and salt onto a large piece of wax paper. Set aside.

Once the egg whites have formed soft peaks, keep the mixer running and slowly add in the sugar, and then the lemon zest. Stop the mixer, remove the bowl, and fold in 1/4 of the flour mixture. Repeat this 3 more times, until all the flour mixture has been folded into the egg whites. Pour the batter into a tube pan (ungreased), and bake until the top is golden brown, about 40-45 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the cake should come out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and invert it onto the neck of a wine bottle or metal funnel (I used a beer bottle). Let the cake cool completely like this. Once cool, run a knife along all the edges (and bottom) to release the cake. Cut using a serrated knife, with a sawing motion. Enjoy!

Made with love, not calories!

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WHOOPIE!!!

As in hooray! Come on people, behave yourselves!

We celebrated Nick’s birthday the other day, and I asked him what I could bake for him. “You know what I like” was his response.
Now on one hand, this makes things easy. I can choose basically whatever I want to make. On the other hand, this makes things more difficult. There are so many things I could make! I was given no direction (like- “I’d really like a cheesecake”, or “brownies would be great”).

Sigh.

One thing I know he REALLY likes, is cream cheese frosting. So I decided whatever I made, I had to incorporate that. Spice cake and carrot cake both work well with cream cheese frosting, so I decided to make something similar. Apple Spice Whoopie Pies. A slightly spicy batter with grated apples mixed in. I used cake flour instead of all-purpose flour, in order to achieve a more cake-like texture. I also added vanilla bean paste to the frosting for a little more added flavor. The whoopie pies are a delightful combination of flavors, and they were an enjoyable dessert for Nick’s birthday!

Apple Spice Whoopie Pies (with a cream cheese filling)
Makes: 12 whoopie pies
Prep time: 20 minutes     Bake time: 12-13 minutes

1 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup molasses
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup shredded apple, packed
3 cups cake flour
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, molasses, and brown sugar. Cream these items together. Add in eggs and stir to combine. Add in the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Stir in the grated apple (Note: I used 2 small apples and peeled them before shredding with a box grater. If you don’t have a grater, chop up the apples into very small pieces). Stir in the cake flour until just combined.
Using a large ice cream scoop, scoop dough onto a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12-13 minutes. Don’t under-bake!
Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, move to cooling racks and let cool completely.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add in the vanilla bean paste (you can substitute vanilla extract), then slowly add in the powdered sugar. Beat the mixture until smooth.

Once the whoopies/cake-cookies/cookie-cakes :) are completely cooled, spoon the cream cheese filling onto the bottoms of 12, then top with the remaining 12. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Dough- hmmm, not the prettiest picture!

Cream cheese frosting!

Question(s) of the day: What’s your favorite flavor of whoopie pie? What’s your favorite birthday dessert?

Made with love, not calories!

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