Too much on my mind. Lots of thinking lately. Looking through old diary and realized how philosophical I was once upon a time. Flash forward to 10 years later (yes…10 years later. SIGH) and here I am still always unsure really of what’s on my mind. To save you all the insightful deets that may bore you, I’m in process of sorting out my life, my life-long happiness, and really getting things back on track and finding myself. Emo eh? Sorry, back to topic….
Today, I woke up with no purpose except to whip up a good dinner for my bestie. And yes, cooking and baking completely de-stresses me and it takes my mind off other things and all I think about is how the cake will turn out and I just get swept off my feet. Sounds a lot like love…
Green Tea Sponge Cake: (recipe adapted from food.com)
Note: If you follow original recipe via link above, it makes a 8” cake. But since it was literally for two people, I changed it to fit a 6” pan which is perfect for those nights when you just feel like you need to just eat yourself to sleep 🙂 Yes. We all have those nights. I hope I’m not alone!
Ingredients:
– 5/8 cup (around 157g) all-purpose flour
– 5/8 cup (around 157g) granulated sugar
– 1/4 cup honey
– 5/8 teaspoon (just a little more than half a teaspoon) vanilla extract
– 5/8 tablespoon (just a little more than half a tablespoon) green tea powder
– 1/4 teaspoon salt
– 4 large eggs, separated
– 1/8 cream of tartar (just put in a pinch- doesn’t have to be exact! the point of baking is to relax)
Directions:
1. Whisk sugar, honey, vanilla, green tea powder, and salt into egg yolks until everything is mixed together.
2. Fill a pan with hot water and place bowl in it.
3. With an electric mixer (I used a hand-held one for convenience) and beat for about 5 minutes on medium-high speed until mixture turns pale yellow and has doubled in volume.
4. Gently sift in flour into egg yolk mixture.
5. In a large mixing bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer until foamy. When eggs are foamy, sprinkle in 1/2 tablespoon of sugar and cream of tartar.
6. Beat until egg white mixture forms stiff peaks.
7. Using a spatula, fold the egg whites gently into the egg yolk mixture.
8. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
9. Use parchment paper to line the bottom of the pan and grease the sides. Pour in batter.
10. Bake for 35 – 45 minutes or until top is golden brown. When done, the cake sides will pull away from the pan slightly; top will be flat and will feel spongy when pressed with finger.
11. Let cake cool for 10 minutes. Then run a small knife between the edge of cake and pan and remove to let it cool completely so that you can move on to the frosting phase.
For the Whipped Cream Frosting:
Makes enough to frost a 3 layer 6” cake.
Ingredients:
– 1 cup heavy cream
– 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
– 1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
1. With an electric mixer, whip cream until soft peaks form.
2. Add powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until cream holds peaks.
And of course, when there’s sweet, you always crave salty. I guess it’s kinda in human nature to crave the opposite…ANYWAYS. FOCUS. OK. So, here’s my dinner for tonight: my beloved eggs bennys with homemade hollandaise sauce:
Revised Homemade Hollandaise Sauce (recipe adapted from gotnomilk.wordpress.com)
Note: I halved original recipe (so it should make around 4 servings) and made modifications due to lack of available ingredients and utensils in my kitchen so it ended up quite runny, but I ended up saving it by mixing cold water with a bit of corn starch and reheating the mixture while add the thickener and although it wasn’t perfect, it still tasted pretty good! So here’s my twisted version:
Ingredients:
– 2 egg yolks
– 1/8 teaspoon salt
– 1/4 teaspoon mustard (original recipe called for dry mustard)
– 1/2 tablespoon vinegar (original recipe called for fresh lemon juice)
– 4 tablespoons margarine
– Bit of cold water and pinch of corn starch
Directions:
1. Melt margarine in saucepan.
2. Using a hand-held mixture, mix egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar.
3. Reheat the melted margarine until it starts to boil and slowly drizzle it into the egg yolk mixture whilst continuing to mix.
4. Mix cornstarch with cold water
5. Reheat mixture at low heat and add corn starch mixture whilst continuing to stir and you should slowly see it start to thicken. Then turn off heat and it’s ready to serve!
I made a loaf of my baguette recipe and topped a slice off with a perfectly poached egg (key is to add vinegar to boiling water, stir to create a hurricane-like effect, break in egg and voila! It will all stick together), and drizzled with the hollandaise sauce.
Dinner ready to serve along with a glass of wine. Then seriously, just chill out….
lovefoodlongtime 