Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Strawberry Mousse Cake

There are a lot of birthdays lately.  My husband and my sister's birthday are both in October.  Today I'll blog my sister's birthday cake.  She requested strawberry mousse cake for her birthday.  So I searched around and found a pretty attractive one online from Eupho Cafe.  The cake was delicious and it tasted even better the next day. 
 
 
Strawberry Mousse Cake
12 servings ~213 calories each
(recipe adapted from Eupho Cafe)
 
Ingredients:
Cake:
3 eggs, separated
100g sugar
1/5 tbsp of vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
20g cake flour
50g corn starch

Mousse:
1/2 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
800g fresh strawberries
90g sugar
15g gelatin
1 tbsp of rum
2 yolks
2 tbsp lemon juice

Glaze:
1 tsp gelatin and 1 tbsp warm water, dissolved.
 

Utensils: 
8" springform pan or mousse ring, 9" pan or mold (need to grease & flour to prevent from sticking), spatula, sieve, blender, brush.

Directions:
1. Cake: separate egg whites and yolks. Beat yolks with 100g sugar until fluffy and the color turns pale, and then adds vanilla extract and mix well. Preheat oven at 300 F.
In a clean and grease-free mixing bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar using a mixer until it can form a soft peak. Add in the yolk mixture and combine gently. Sift cake flour and corn starch together into the mixture, slightly combine until incorporated and relatively lump-free, and then pour the batter into the 9" pan; bake for about 35-40 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool, cut it to the size of 8" and then level into 2 slices.





 



2. Mousse: remove stems and rinse strawberries. Blend 400g of strawberries into puree, cut 200g strawberries in halves, and slice the rest 200g for decorating. Dissolve gelatin with milk, then heat the milk until gelatin is clear and totally dissolved. Add sugar to the gelatin mixture, then add in two blended egg yolks, lemon juice, and rum. Whip heavy cream till thick (still looks like liquid, but much thicker), and then pour the strawberry puree and gelatin mixture into the whipped cream. Mix well.

3. Remove the bottom of the springform pan (or just use a mousse ring), put the ring on a plate or a cake circle. Line the bottom with a layer of cake, arrange strawberry halves on the side, pour in the mousse, cover with another layer of cake, press the top a little bit to make sure there is no bubbles inside. Decorate the top with strawberries, glaze strawberries with a soft brush, then transfer to refrigerator to chill at least 3 hours.
4. If it's difficult to remove the ring, use hot towels to surround the mousse ring to soften the mousse till it can be easily removed from cake.




 



Bundt Cakes

A coworker of mine brought me a Bundt cake pan as a birthday gift.  I can't wait to try it out!  So far I have baked two different favors of Bundt cakes with similar recipes.  They both turned out pretty good.  I love big Bundts!


Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake
(recipe adapted from weight watchers)
24 servings, 114 calories each

Ingredients:
butter/cooking spray for greasing cake pan
1 box Betty Crocker Super Moist Chocolate Cake mix
2 boxes fat free sugar free chocolate fudge pudding mix
5 fresh egg whites
1 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup water
90 gram Mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray or butter and set aside.

2. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, egg whites, sour cream, water, applesauce and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, mix on low speed for 30 seconds until dry ingredients are moist, about 30 seconds. Then mix on medium speed until batter is almost smooth, about 2 minutes; fold in chocolate chips.















3. Pour batter into prepared pan and level the surface. Bake until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Allow to cool in pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes; invert cake onto rack and cool completely. Slice and enjoy!








































































Lemon Bundt Cake
(recipe adapted from weight watchers)
24 servings, 103 calories each

Ingredients:
butter/cooking spray for greasing cake pan
1 box Betty Crocker Super Moist lemon cake mix
2 boxes of fat free sugar free lemon instant pudding mix
5 fresh egg whites
3/4 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup water
1 tsp lemon zest

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray or butter and set aside.

2. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, egg whites, sour cream, water, applesauce and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, mix on low speed for 30 seconds until dry ingredients are moist, about 30 seconds. Then mix on medium speed until batter is almost smooth, about 2 minutes; mix in lemon zest.


3. Pour batter into prepared pan and level the surface. Bake until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Allow to cool in pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes; invert cake onto rack and cool completely. Slice and enjoy!