caramelized pear upside-down cake

ok, I'm little late on posting, I made this cake in the same week that I made cheesecake.

this one is one of my favorites. I tried apple before but caramelized pear something else,... yummy...
the recipe is from "sweet cakes" and here it is :

FOR THE TOPPING
2 medium pears
1 recipe of basic caramel ( I posted at the end)
2 oz ( 4 Tbs.) unsalted butter , cut into 4 pieces

FOR THE CAKE
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
   1/2 tsp. ground ginger
   1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
   1/4 tsp. salt
   1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
   1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs

heat up the oven to 350. and butter the bottom and sides of your pas. a round pan ( not use a spring-form pan) is recommended but I used square pas.

MAKE THE TOPPING
peel, core the pears lengthwise into slices. arrange the pear on the bottom of the pan in a circle around the edge (if you are not using a circle pan , just fill one row with pears and go to the next row). the pears overlap each other slightly. at the end the bottom of the pas should completely covered with pears.

make the basic caramel ( direction at the end). immediately remove the pan from the heat and whisk 4Tbs. of butter one by one till they are completely melted. pour the hot caramel over the pears. it should completly cover the pears and do not go on the bottom of the pan.

MAKE THE CAKE BATTER 
mix the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. in a smaller bowl mix the milk and vanilla together.
in another bowl,mix the butter with electric mixer till it is fluffy ( about 1 minute). in the medium speed , slowly add the brown sugar. increase the speed and mix for about 2-3 minutes. reduce the speed to medium again and add the eggs one by one.
reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture and milk mixture in five additions, starting and finishing by flour. do not over-mix.
spoon the cake batter on the top of  pears and smooth and even them. bake till the top is golden brown about 35-40 minutes.
transfer the pan to the rack and cool about 5-10 minutes.

BASIC CARAMEL:
 this will give you about 2/3 cup of caramel.
1 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup cold water
 in a sauce pan stir sugar, lemon juice and cold water. bring to boil ( the side of the pan should be clean of any traces of sugar). it takes about 5-8 minutes that mixture starts to color around the edges. gently swirl the pan to even out the color. continue to cook till it turns medium amber. keep an eye on it because it changes color very fast. then remove it from the heat.

comments:
if some of the caramels leak to the bottom of the pan, when it is cooled , it will be hard to get the cake out. you could turn the pan upside down when it is rather hot or like me, you could put the pan on the steam for a couple of minutes and like this the cake will come off very easily.
this is a such delicious cake so bake it and enjoy!
Mania

cheese cake as a birthday cake...

last weekend was one of my friends' birthday and I decided for the first time to bake a cheese cake as a birthday cake. my first attempt in cheesecake process was not completely successful so there was a huge chance that  this time the cake won't come out very well either. the birthday was on Friday night so I  prepared it the night before.. so till the time I served it I had no idea how it was going to be.but anyway it was not that bad ( that's what everybody said and I hope they weren't just being nice )
here is the recipe and it is from the "sweet cakes"

new york style cheesecake

For the crust 

5 3/4 honey ground graham crackers
2 1/2 oz (4 Tbs.) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar ( I did not use sugar in my crust)

For the cheesecake

4   8-oz package of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/3 cup  of sugar
1 Tbs. flour
4 large eggs
3/4 cup of sour cream
2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
Important note :set all the ingredients at least 4 hours before you start baking ,out of fridge.

Make the crust:

heat the oven to 350 C. combine the cracker with melted butter till the crumbs are evenly moistened. put these crumbs in a 9-inch pan and press them with a back of a spoon into the bottom and walls of the pan. bake them for about 5-7 minutes. be carful that you don't brown the crust. let the pan cool on a rack while you prepare the cheesecake.
make the cheesecake batter
with the mixer beat the cream cheese with sugar at medium speed till it's fluffy ( about 2 minutes).on the low speed add the flour and one at a time add the eggs beating for about 15-20 sec in between. add the sour cream, lemon juice and vanilla. the batter should be smooth and the consistency of a thick milk shake.

Bake the cake in a water bath 

wrap the outside of the pan in 2 sheets of heavy duty aluminum  foil to make the pan water proof.brush the crust with a light coating of melted butter. then pour the batter into the crust. put the cake pan in another pan and carefully  pour water into the big pan till it reached halfway to the wall of the cake pan.bake at 350 for an hour. after an hour you could open the door of the oven and check the top if it's golden( when you shake the pan a little jigil in the middle is ok, it will set when it cools ) about 1h 10 to 15 minutes is enough.
remove the pan from the water and let it cool on wire rack. run a knife around the inside of the pan to free the cake from the sides.
after it is barely warm you could refrigerate it for at least 8 hours, or even better overnight.
for serving it , I put fresh blueberry on top, I did not had much time ( 30 minutes to get myself ready and the topping before going to the party) but it is much better to fix the blueberries with a thin layer of gelatin or
glace.
In the original recipe, the recipe for the cranberry- cointreau sauce is described wich used for the topping. I'll try that next time.

 

golden top

comments: this time the cheesecake did not crack on the top and was much softer than the first time. I think baking in the water bath helped a lot and the fact that I did not let it bake too much.

enjoy!

my new favorite taste...

this past weekend, I made something completely new ( of course it was new for me). I never tried adding the caramel taste into my cakes before. and let me tell you something it is something beyond good..!
I am in love with the taste of werther's original caramel candy or the softer ones, but always had problem with them when they stick to my teeth. but by having the same taste in a cake now, the problem is solved :)
so here is the recipe,  it  is taken from "sweet cakes" magazine which I received as a gift.

Triple caramel cake

2 cups of heavy cream
2 1/2 cup sugar
6 oz. ( 12 Tbs.) unsalted butter at room temperature
4 large eggs (at room temperature)
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of roasted , crushed walnuts ( this is my own addition to the recipe)

Making the caramel sauce

pour 2 cups of cream in a saucepan and slowly bring it to boil then lower the heat and keep it at a bare simmer.
put 1 cup of sugar in another saucepan and put it on the medium heat. do not disturb the sugar till it starts to melt and darken. at that point start to gently shake the pan to avoid the sugar from burning.
when all the sugar has melted and caramel getting a dark amber color, remove the pan from heat. add the cream carefully and stir constantly with a wooden spoon. if the caramel is harden, it's ok ,it will melt at the next stage.
put the pan on the medium heat and for about 5-7 minutes keep stirring. then remove it from heat and put aside to to cool it down for about 30 minutes, stir often.
after the caramel is ready measure 1 cup of it and use it in the cake.

Making the cake

heat your oven to 325C. grease and flour your pan ( I used Bundt pan).
cream the butter and 1 1/2 cup of sugar with an electrical mixer until it's fluffy.add the eggs one at a time, mix each well before adding the next one. mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. gently add the dry ingredients into the butter and egg mixture alternately with the reserved caramel, beginning and ending with dry ingredients ( here I added the roasted walnuts). and pour into the prepared pan. and bake for abour 40-45 minutes.
then cool it completely . then pour  the remaining  caramel sauce on it and serve it with ice-cream or everything else you are in mood for.

comments: 

the roasted walnut actually went very well with caramel taste, highly recommended. next time I will add more.
my caramel sauce was a little bit soft. next time I put it on the oven for longer period ( more than 5-7 minutes) so when I pour it on the cake it does not absorb in it.
enjoy!

cable-less....

it's been more than 2 weeks that we cut off our cable, so we are officially TV-less. the cut back was necessary because we felt we are watching TV a lot even when there was nothing on. of course I miss some of it like HBO, food network but I'm ok now ;)
I'm still watching and following my shows but online and the new thing that we tried is that we started to rent dvd from our library ( we did that before but now is more often ) and we watch them whenever we want . so we now are at  the end of 30 Rock , season 1 ( which is  so funny by the way and  we loved it , I know a lot of people do ) and next week will be big love :). I watched 2-3 eposides of the last season when we had HBO and I really liked this show, it is one of the best. so I decided to watch them all.
I watched some of heroes but not from beginning, in the middle.   I don't know I'll start from the beginning maybe I just follow it from now on .though  I  have to find out what season is on now.
so here is the list of the shows that I choose to watch from now : Dexter, bored to death, hunk,  the adventures of old Christine ( I followed it before till season 2).and I am more tv person compared to my husband, I don't know he is gonna follow them with me hope he does.
 less TV ( or manageable TV ) means me-time which I used for reading, painting and things that I like.

Pumkin cake with orange syrup

one of my dear friends gave me a baking cook called "the best of fine cooking, sweet cakes". I love it. one of most intresting feature is that each cake has at least a picture  or if it is necessary more photos of its baking steps. I like cooking books that have final photo of the cooking results, it is a kind of motivation for me.
well ,this weekend I baked a new cake from that book. here is the recipe:

FOR THE CAKE:

1 cup of unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup of sugar
1 Tbs. orange zest
1 egg
2 eggs, separated
1 cup of pumpkin pure ( I used canned pure pumpkin)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup fine-ground yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup of toasted crushed walnuts and raisin ( this is my own addition)

FOR THE SYRUP:

1/2 cup fresh orange juice ( I used Tropicana orange juice with pulp)
1/2 cup sugar

MAKE THE CAKE:

heat the oven to 350 F.beat the softened butter and sugar and orange zest till light and fluffy with a mixer. one at a time, add the eggs and egg yolks ( keep the whites) . add the pumpkin and vanilla.
mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and cornmeal. add this mixture to the pumpkin batter at 3 stages and stir gently.then I add my walnuts and raisin mix.
in another clean bowel, whip the egg whites till they hold soft peaks ( with very clean whisk). very gently fold the egg whites in the batter and then pour the batter in your prepared pan; smooth the surface and bake about 40-50 minutes ( check with wooden skewer)
let it cool then dust it with sugar if you like ( I didn't do that)

MAKE THE SYRUP:

in a saucepan  over low heat. combine the orange juice and sugar and mix till the sugar is dissolved. increase the heat a little and put it for 2 minutes without stirring. then when it was still warm I pour it on the cooled cake; and served it with caramel ice cream .

say cheeeeeeeeese...:)

as I discussed it in my last post, I baked my first cheese cake. I liked it :) and of course it need so much improvements, it was not bad for the first time.
I got the recipe from my friend, she lives in Toronto ( she makes one of the best cheesecakes I ever had ), so here is her reciepe and at the ened I got the comments I gathered from my friends and my dear husband..

Classic creamy cheesecake:
FOR THE CRUST:
1 1/4 cup honey Graham crackers
1/3 cup melted butter

FOR THE FILLING:

2 egg separated
1 egg white
500 gr cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs. orange zest ( this was not in the original recipe, my own addition)

Heat the oven to 350 C. grease the bottom of your pan.

MAKING THE CRUST:

mix the graham crackers with the melted butter and press the mixture in the base and the wall of the pan with your fingers or back of a spoon. make sure that the crumbs are evenly distributed. put it in the oven for about 3-4 min.

MAKING THE FILLING:

beat the softened cream cheese and sugar with mixer and add the eggs one by one till the batter is smooth. at the end add orange zest and vanilla.
pour the batter into the cooled crust and bake in for about 40 minutes. if it is necessary bake for another 5 min. after that transfer it to a cold place and let it cool down. set in the fridge for a minimum of 5 hour or over night.
for its topping you could buy ready topping from your grocery store.

Comments:

1- I think my cheese cake was a little bit overcooked so it wasn't that creamy when I served it . because when I cut it it wasn't going smoothly. it is clear from the picture. so next time I bake it for 35 minutes ( and that is all because of my oven ) 

2- again because of my oven ( the heat is not distributed evenly and I have this problem all the time ) the top of the cake cracked . I read that in a cook book they put the pan in a larger pan surrounded by hot water for a same amount of time (40 min), I will try this method next time!
3- this amount of sugar won't give you very sweet cheesecake, so if you like the sweet ones add 1 cup of sugar instead of 3/4 cup.
4-for the topping I like to use fresh fruit next time. it will look and of course taste much better.
so  here is the recipe, Enjoy!

I'm back

after a long absence I'm back ..
I was looking to my post and when I saw the last post was on 13 Dec . I shocked, I didn't realize that it's been so long , time passes very quickly
the reason for this absence was that I had a deadline to make and I was working and working even throughout the holidays and after that I took a week off ,going to vacation which was very fun
at the last day of our vacation I caught a cold and I'm still sick. I think my head is exploding .
I had so much plans for my off times: baking , cooking ,cleaning .. which I didn't do . I only baked a few cakes , I didn't cook ( just for one occasion :our Christmas gathering ). I didn't take photo form my cooking results but I'm going to post the recipes here. during our vacation I had the best cheesecake ever and I'm motivated to make one myself. I prepared everything and I'm going to bake my first cheesecake this weekend. hope it wont become a disaster !
tonight is my fist vist at a gym after a week of eating and sleeping. I know it'll be a little hard .
so till next time with a new cheesecake, bye