Devil’s food cake - Scientifically Sweet

I always look for recipes online to try something new. 

I don’t have any particular chefs that I follow, and I always randomly find something yummy to cook.

One day I found this website, called “Scientifically Sweet by Christina Marsigliese,” which caught my attention.  After the website loaded, first thing that caught my eyes were chemical structures drawn behind the title.

I am a chemist; I deal with chemical structures every day.  I got curious who the owner (or the chef) of this website is.

The chef, Christina, is a food scientist, and she includes scientific background in food as well as delicious recipes.

The other day, Matto’s best friend, JoJo, posted news about Christina’s first book, Scientifically Sweets, on her Facebook page.

Why did she post the news of Christina’s book?

Because Christina is a JoJo’s sister-in-law!

I was really surprised when I found out that the owner of the website, that I randomly found, was related to our friend.

Seriously, how small of a world is this?

Her cooking book can be purchased at either Amazon or her eStore.

Last week, Matto got me the Scientifically Sweet, and it was delivered to us today.

I just started reading the book.

This book is very unique.

What kind of chef talks about background of cookies using 2 pages?

What kind of chef talks about background of brownies using 4 pages?

What kind of chef talks about acid-base reaction or Maillard reaction of food in their recipe books?

This book contains lots of yummy baking recipes with pictures.

She also talks a lot of the food science behind the ingredients throughout the book, which is very interesting and fascinating.

To honor her book, I decided to use one of her recipes as a dessert for a dinner with our friends. The recipe is called Devil’s food cake.

I should have used her original recipe, but sorry, I made a few modifications.

I cut 1/3 of sugar in sponge cake, and used the cream that was used in filling as icing as well, instead of ganache.

I’m sure it would have been delicious if I followed the original recipe, but my husband is on diet right now and I have to cut as many calories from wherever possible (no baking isn’t an option by the way).

Overall, it was still delicious!

Over time, it gets harder to cut when the cake sits at room temperature due to a large amount of whipping cream content, so keep it refrigerated when it is not in use.

Devil's Food Cake

For the cake:

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

2/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

¾ cup boiling water

½ cup full fat sour cream

2/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cups granulated sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

3 large eggs

For the filling and icing:

6 tbsp cocoa powder

6 tbsp sugar

3 cup 35% whipping cream

1 pint fresh raspberries, rinsed and dried

Details of this recipe can be found at this site.

Shrimp risotto

I am an Asian woman, who grew up in Japan for years and was raised by Japanese parents.

In Asia, the main meal is rice.  We eat rice all the time, and I was raised by eating rice everyday.   I can eat rice three times a day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I still don’t get tired of it.

Particularly, I eat a specific type of rice, Koshihikari. This is one of the most popular varieties of rice in Japan and is grown in my hometown.

Luckily, I can get this rice at an Asian market for a reasonable price in the US, and this is the only rice that I buy.

However, the other day I decided to buy different kind of rice, Arborio.  This is an Italian short-grain rice and used in risotto.

Risotto is my favorite Italian food, and I always order it whenever I see it on a menu at a restaurant.

I always thought making risotto was hard until I first time made Pumpkin risotto for Halloween.

Making risotto requires a really simple step, keep adding liquid to rice and cook until rice gets soft and puffy.

Shrimp and Spinach Risotto

Serves 2

200 g Arborio rice

1 onion (minced)

3 tbsp butter

100 ml dry white wine (Sauvignon Blanc)

600 ml fresh seafood stock

170 - 200 g of the smallest pink shrimp

200 g spinach

2 tbsp finely chopped parsley

½ cup Parmesan cheese

Salt

1. Heat the fresh seafood stock until warm, but not boil.

2. In separate pot (thick-bottomed), heat butter over medium heat, and sauté the minced onions for 2-3 minutes, until just translucent.

3. Add the rice to the pot. Stir-fry the rice for 2-3 minutes, until all the grains are well coated in butter and are beginning to toast.

4. Increase the heat to high and add the white wine. With a wooden spoon, stir the rice vigorously. Once the wine boils, turn the heat down until the wine is just simmering gently. Stir almost constantly. You are doing this to agitate the rice, which releases its starch and creates the creamy sauce you want in a risotto.

5. When the wine is almost cooked away, pour in two ladles of the hot clam broth. Stir well to combine, and add a healthy pinch of salt.

6. Stirring constantly and let this liquid reduce until it is almost gone. Then add another ladle of broth. Continue this until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Taste the spoon and see if the risotto needs salt. If so, add a small pinch.

7. If risotto is almost there – firm in the center but translucent on the outside, and fully surrounded with a creamy sauce – add one more cup of broth, stir well, and taste one more time for salt. (If not, you have old rice and you’ll need to go one more cup and let it cook away.).

8. Add in the shrimp and the parsley. Stir constantly until this last cup of broth is about half gone: remember you want this risotto to be loose and creamy.

9. Add in the Parmesan cheese and serve at once.

I sprinkle Zatarain’s Creole Seasoning on the top before serving.  This gives a bit different flavor to the risotto and spices it up.

Kalbi

Kalbi is the most popular Korean dish in Japan.  It is marinated beef short ribs with Korean soy sauce.

This fatty-marble short rib is hard to find at the grocery stores around here, but I can find it at the Asian market.  Whenever I go there, I have to get this meat and pounds of pork belly meat.

Kalbi is Matto’s favorite dish in Korean cuisine, so I often make it at home.  In Japan, we pronounce it Kalbi, but in Korea it is pronounced Galbi.

Kalbi (for 4)

Beef short rib 2.5 lb

Cooking rice wine (Sake) 1.6 fl oz

Sugar 1.3 oz

Garlic cloves (chopped) 2 tablespoon

Ginger (chopped) 0.6 oz

2 Green onions (chopped)

Sesame oil 1 teaspoon

Sesame 2 tablespoon (optional)

1. Add all ingredients in a Ziploc bag and keep refrigerated over night  (original recipe says 10-20 min, but it is always better to marinate overnight

2. Put a small amount of oil in a cooking pan, and cook the meat

It tastes so good and smells great while cooking.  Your neighbors may get jealous by smelling this Kalbi.  This sauce also goes great with chicken, pork, other types of beef, and even seafood.

Valentine’s Day

Today’s topic is about Valentine’s Day.

The Valentine’s Day here in the US is different than how we celebrate, in Japan.  First off, it is not a couple’s day to celebrate.

In Japan, it is a day for a woman to tell a man how special feeling she has towards him, mostly by giving him chocolate.

Traditionally in Japan, it is not OK for women to express any special feelings to men because it is not a women-like action.  Valentine’s Day is the only exception.  This is the only day of the year that a woman can gives chocolate to a man to expresses her feelings.

If a girl already has a significant other, a girl still gives chocolate and/or a gift to a man, but not from a man to a woman.

Of course, there is another way for man to give a gift in return.  March 14^th, a month after Valentine’s Day, is called White Day, and a man has to return a gift to a woman whom they received chocolate from on Valentine’s Day.

Women often give out chocolate to male colleagues, male relatives, and guy friends as well.  It is not necessary that women have special feeling towards these men.  This type of chocolate is called “Giri choco” meaning “Thank you for your friendship. This is a sign of my appreciation.”

Of course, the gift on White Day is expected from these men, too.

The most important item on Valentine’s Day is chocolate, not flower or teddy bear.

Therefore, I made a chocolate cheesecake for my Valentine, Matto.

White Chocolate Cheesecake

http://recipe.gourmet.yahoo.co.jp/J000980/

Ingredients:

Graham cracker 1 ¼ cup

Sugar 3 tablespoons

Butter 1/3 cup

Cream cheese 12 oz (two 8oz packages) at room temperature

White chocolate 16 oz

Sugar 1.8 oz

Heavy cream 16 oz

Recipe:

1. Preheat an oven to 350 F

2. In a medium bowl, add graham cracker, sugar, and melted butter and mix them.

3. Spread the graham cracker mixture in a baking cake pan and bake it for 8 min

4. Set cooked graham cracker mixture aside and let it cool

5. In a large bowl, add cream cheese and sugar and mix until they get smooth

6. Add melted white chocolate and mix well

7. Pour the mixture over the graham cracker

8. Keep refrigerated overnight before serving

It was a pretty good and easy-to-make cake.  Matto thinks there was a bit too much white chocolate, but we loved it overall.

Palline di Limone

My colleague brought a bag of lemons from his parents’ backyard and shared some with us.

I don’t use lemons often in my food. When I have lemons in my refrigerator, I don’t know what to do with it.

Therefore, I looked for a dessert recipe using lemons, and I found this Palline di Limone (http://www.abbeycatchat.com/2011/04/palline-di-limone.htmlMy) recipe, a traditional Italian cookie.

If you don’t like a dessert that is too sweet, you will probably like it.  Next time, I would add 1 – 1 ¼ C of sugar instead of ¾ C. I prefer cookies to be sweeter.

Surprisingly, after 2-3 days, the cookies got sweeter and they didn’t get soggy like regular cookies do.

The amount of ingredients below would probably make 30-40 cookies which is good because these cookies still taste good after a few days, too.

Ingredients:

4 cups flour

1¼ tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

3 eggs, at room temperature

1½ tbsp lemon extract

1½ tsp almond extract

3 tsp lemon zest, grated

1/3 cup milk

For Icing:

1½ cups powdered sugar

4 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1.              Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.              In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside

3.              Beat butter and sugar until fluffy

4.              Beat in eggs one at a time, and then add lemon extract, almond extract, and lemon zest

5.              Stir in half of flour mixture and then add milk.  Add remaining flour mixture and stir until blended

6.              Make a 1 inch ball and place them about 2 inches apart (I used a dessert decorator)

7.              Bake for 15-18 minutes until puffed but not brown. Allow to cool fully on wire rack

8.              Combine confectioners sugar and lemon juice.  Stir in water drop by drop until desired consistency

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I didn’t know why pineapple upside down cake was called “upside down cake” until I actually made the cake. Whenever I ate the cake, the pineapple was always on the top just like other fruitcakes. I always wondered, “Why is it called upside down cake?”

One day Matto requested that I make a pineapple upside down cake, so I found this recipe below.

http://sitdownandeat.typepad.com/sit_down_and_eat/2008/06/classic-pineapp.html

Now it all makes sense why it is called upside down cake!

Overall this cake was moist and tasty, but I made one modification by mistake.

Usually, when I bake a round cake, I use a detachable baking pan instead of a regular cake pan because it is easier to get the cake out of the pan. This time I baked the pineapple upside down cake in the detachable baking pan as usual.

I first made the pineapple layer with a stick of butter and brown sugar and placed the mixture in the pan. While I was making the second layer, I realized that butter was leaking from the bottom of the pan!

There was a tiny gap between the two parts of the baking pan, and the liquid butter was leaking from there.

It was too late to transfer to a regular pan, so I decided to keep baking. While baking, the butter from the first layer kept leaking. Overall, I probably lost a half stick of butter. Well, I guess the cake was healthier than the original recipe since the cake contains 1 ¼ C of butter instead of 1 ¾ C.

Ingredients:

For Topping

1 can of pineapple slices in their own juice, drained but reserve the juice for the batter

1 stick of butter

1 cup of brown sugar

For Batter

1&1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

3/4 stick of butter

1 cup of white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 tablespoon of rum (optional, I didn't use it)

1/2 cup of reserved pineapple juice

Recipe:

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degree

2. Melt a stick of butter in a sauce pan

3. Next add brown sugar and simmer for about a minute or two until it is bubbly and syrupy, stirring often

4. Then pour into the greased cake pan 

5. Stick one slice of pineapple in the middle, and then circle it with the rest of the slices.  Set aside while you make batter

6. Mix four, baking powder and salt in small bowl on the side. 

7. Beat butter in mixer until smooth, add sugar and beat until fluffy - 2-3 minutes on high

8. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each.  Add vanilla and rum, mix to combine

9. Add half of the dry mixture, then mix until just combined

10. Add pineapple juice and mix again until blended

11. Add remaining flour mixture and mix, again until just combined

12. Pour batter over pineapple mixture and spread lightly over pineapple

13. Bake 45 minutes

14. Remove from over and run a knife around edge.  Let sit for 10 minutes and then flip onto platter

Hello Kitty Cake

I made a Hello Kitty birthday cake for my colleague who is obsessed with Hello Kitty.

I found the following website in which you can download a Hello Kitty cake template for a 13 x 9 inch baking pan.

http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/cartoons/hellokitty/cake.htm

Originally, I wanted to make a Hello Kitty shaped cake, but I failed to make the sponge cake.  It broke when I tried to remove it from the pan.

In the end, I hid the broken sponge cake with icing and drew a Hello Kitty instead.

It is still very cute ;)

I used a cake mix box, so I am not going to talk about the recipe today.

I also used heavy cream as icing.

In the U.S., many people like to use butter cream or cream cheese icing.  Those icings are thick and easy to decorate with,  however, the cakes tend to be rich and fatty.

If you substitute the icing with heavy cream (or whipping cream), it tastes lighter and moist J

I like cake with heavy cream icing much better!!!