Italian cherry cream cheese coffee cake

For our Christmas/Hanukkah party in the office I received several amazing cook books.
I guess my friends began to understand my passion for baking.

I was skimming one of the cookbooks, and I found this beautiful Italian coffee cake, I couldn't wait for the right time to make it.

In the original receipt they used plum, but because this isn't the season, I decided to use cherries.


Using the cherries was a good decision on my part, the cake was not just beautiful, it was also
tasty.

Italian Cherry cream cheese coffee cake - Adopted from a passion for baking

Cake:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

Filling
30 cherry, halved and pitted
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon pure lemon extract
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Direction:
Preheat over t0 350 F.
Generously spray a 9- or a 10 inch spring-form pan or a fluted, deep tart pan with nonstick cooking spray and place pan on parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

For cake:
in a food processor, cream butter and sugar until well blended
add eggs and vanilla and blend until smooth. Fold in flour, baking powder, and salt to make a soft batter.
Spread batter on bottom and sides of pan (Batter will appear thin in pan).

For Filling:
Prepare cherry. Place them cut sides down on cake batter in pan.
Mix cream cheese and remaining ingredients in a small bowl with a whisk and spread over fruit in pan.
Bake until top is browned and appears set. about 45 t0 50 minutes.
Cool well before serving.

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Orange Cake with walnuts cinnamon filling

There is nothing better in the winter then Orange cake, and when this cake combines with walnuts and cinnamon this cake taste two times tastier.



Orange cake with walnuts and cinnamon
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
1 cup orange juice
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the filling
1 cup chopped walnuts
3 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix together all the filling ingredients in a small bowel and set aside.

Direction

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a baking pans.
In the mixer bowel beat on medium speed the ingredients. (batter will be thin).
Pour batter into prepared pans.
Spread the walnuts filling and put the rest of the batter on top of the nuts.
Bake 45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

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White Chocolate Mousse Cake

Last Sunday we celebrated my son's 18 birthday.

I love Birthdays, parties celebrations and fancy cakes

For this special occasion I looked for a special cake, the kind that I never bake before and I was so happy to find this beautiful white chocolate mousse cake which turned out incredible both to look at and eat - rice and tasty..

My little baby become a young man



White Chocolate Mousse Cake-adopted from Avi Kitchen

For the cake base
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vinegar
1/2 cup boiling water
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F., Butter round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment and spray the parchment with cooking spray.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder salt and set aside.
Sift together the milk and the vinegar and set aside.
In a mixer bowl, beat the egg with the sugar for two minutes, add the oil and keep beating for another minute.
Add the dry ingredients and the milk alternately in 2 additions.
add the hot water and the vanilla extract beating until smooth and well blended. the batter is supposed to become liquid like.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center come out dry.
Let the cake cool on wire racks, unmold onto racks, peel off the parchment and wet the cake with some liqueur.
Put the cool cake into the pan again.

White Chocolate Mousse
2 pack gelatin
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
250 gr. white chocolate chopped
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream

Mix the gelatin with the milk and stir until the gelatin dissolve completely, let stand for 3 minutes.

In a heavy pot over low heat boil the heavy cream with the sugar and the vanilla extract add the gelatin and whisk continuously.
Remove from the heat add the chopped chocolate and mix until it completely melts.
Let it cool in the refrigerator, be sure to mix every half an hour to prevent chunks.
After the chocolate mixture becomes cold and seem like pudding whip the other heavy cream to medium peaks and fold it into the chocolate mixture.
Pour in the mousse over the cake base and refrigerate for six hours.

Ganache glaze:
125g semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 stick butter
2 tbsp light corn syrup

Melt the chopped chocolate the heavy cream the butter and the corn syrup in a pot over medium heat, stir until melted and smooth.
let it cool for a few minutes and pour over the cold white mousse chocolate cake and return to the refrigerator until completely cold.

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Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Yesterday my son ask me to bake him a cake;
something with a great smell and an even better great aftertaste..

Both of us love lemon cake and I told him about this Lemon Poppy seed cake.
He loved the idea! - so without thinking twice, I told him - go ahead, do it.

I was so proud to see my son in the kitchen mixing and pouring reading the recipe and doing everything.

When the cake finally came out the oven, after we all tasted it we could not complement him enough! -

Congratulations! - this cake is amazing- great job!

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake Recipe Adopted from Cafe Fernando

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp poppy seeds
• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp lemon zest (zest of 2 lemons)
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp of your favorite jam

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 12 x 4 inch loaf pan.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Mix in poppy seeds.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine butter, sugar, heavy cream and lemon zest and beat until creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vegetable oil, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Beat to incorporate. Add the flour mixture and stir with a spatula until combined. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
4. Bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Remove the cake from the oven, remove from the pan and place it on a wire rack. Brush the top of the cake with your favorite jam and let cool completely.

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Chocolate Cake

Last week I had a huge craving for a chocolate cake, I woke up and dream about the smooth and chocolaty kind cake..

Where one slice of a cake leaves amazing taste, and makes everyone come back for more...
I found a chocolate cake recipe in the Hershey website and decided to use it.
Although I was a little worried about the amount of liquids at first, towards the end the cake became stable.
The taste is so rich and chocolaty it’s easier to make, for this week I highly recommended the chocolate cake.



Chocolate cake - Adopted from the Hershey Kitchen Recipes


Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely

Chocolate Ganache
1 Cup heavy cream
8 oz. semi sweet chocolate

On a medium sized saucepan over medium hear heat the cream. Bring to boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir until smooth.

Cover the cool cake with the Ganache.

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Strawberry Coffee Cake

The minute I saw this recipe in "Taste of Home" I knew I'd make this cake.

Although the original recipe they used was Raspberry, I decided to use fresh strawberry that I already had.

The cake came out so good that I am pleased with my choice.
This is a light, buttery and fluffy cake with great combination of fruits.

Strawberry Coffee Cake

1 -1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup cold butter
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
6 tablespoons water
1 cup fresh strawberries
1-1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Topping
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
4-1/2 teaspoons cold butter

• In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
• cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
• whisk egg, milk and vanilla, stir into crumb mixture just until moistend. Spoon into a greased 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pan.
• In a small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; stir in water until smooth. Add strawberries and lemon juice. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Pour over batter; cut through with knife to swirl.
• In a small bowl, combine flour and sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter.
• Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until a tootpick comes out clean.
• Cool on a wire rack.

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Carrot Cake

This cake is one of my favorite carrots cake, I baked before so many kinds of carrots cake, but this one is definitely the one that we love the most.

Yesterday I bought 3 packs of carrots, just in case - when my husband came home he brought another 3 packs, with all this carrots in the refrigerators I decided to bake a carrot cake
no one can believe that there is carrots inside the cake, the cake has a great moisture and wonderful taste.

Great idea to use carrots..

Carrots cake

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup shredded carrots
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

In the mixer bowl, cream sugar and eggs together, Add the flour the baking powder, oil, cinnamon, vanilla to a creamed mixture.
Fold in raisins & carrots.

Pour into a greased pan.
Bake at 325 F. for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted neat the center comes out clean.

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Tiramisu

A couple days before Valentine day, I was in the kitchen trying to think about the most romantic desert for my own Valentine, my husband...
Something sweet, but not too sweet, something small but still with a lot of meaning.. a taste that would last for hours...

Then I knew...
On our first (and only) trip to Italy my husband tasted Tiramisu and said this is Heaven!
I'll bring him heaven once more, except even better, no sharing this time :)

When I saw the recipe in David Lebovitz blog I knew it would be a huge success, and man it was... I served the Tiramisu in a small cute candle holder that I bought in Ikea, it was perfect for individual Tiramisu


Tiramisu
1/2 cup (125ml) espresso, at room temperature
2 tablespoons dark rum
1 tablespoon cognac
2 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
pinch of salt
7 tablespoons (90g) sugar, divided
1 cup (250g) mascarpone
twelve 3½-inch ladyfingers (70g, or 3 ounces)
optional: 1 ounce (30g) bittersweet chocolate

unsweetened cocoa powder, for serving

1. Mix together the espresso, rum, and cognac. The mixture should taste strongly of alcohol. If not, add more until it does. (That flavor will tone down when mixed with the other ingredients, but feel free to adjust to taste.)

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they begin to get stiff. Beat in half of the sugar until stiff. Scrape the egg whites into a small bowl.

3. In the same bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until stiff and light-colored, about three minutes. (If using a standing electric mixer, you may need to stop and scrape down the sides.) By hand, beat in the mascarpone with a spatula or whisk, until lump-free.

4. Fold in half of the beaten egg whites, then the remaining half, just until fully incorporated.

5. Put a splat, a heaping soup spoon, of the mascarpone cream into each vessel.

6. Submerge each ladyfinger in the espresso mixture for 5-10 seconds, until completely, utterly soaked. (Dried ladyfingers will take longer to saturate than softer ones.) Break the ladyfinger in half to be sure; they should be dropping wet, and can't be saturated enough. Then layer them over the mascarpone cream in each vessel. Use two ladyfingers per.

7. Grate a generous amount of chocolate over each.

8. Top with remaining mascarpone cream, cover, and refrigerate at least four hours, but preferably overnight.

9. Right before serving, shake powdered cocoa generously on top.

Happy Valentine Day !!

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Chocolate Cheese Ball's

It all started with a cheese cake..

What happened was that in the beginning I thought of making a cheese cake with whip cream and strawberries..

the cake looked amazing in the oven, but the minute i took it out, it flattened and it's balance was off.. I couldn't even put a coat of whip cream or the strawberries that i planed to.
So I decided to make the cake into chocolate cheese balls

I scooped the cheese cake into about 1 inch balls and placed them on a sheet of aluminum foil.
then I refrigerated for about one hour.

In the mean time I started making the ganache. I let it cool for 15 mins and dipped the frozen cheese cake ball's into it.

It turned out to be amazing. Just the right gift for Valentines day!

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Dried Fruit Cake

This dry fruit and nuts cake is typical in my country for spring time, usually we welcome this season with cake to thanks the trees for their goods and to bless their fruits, "Tu-B-Svat" is the name of this Holiday, the tree's holiday and the first sign for the summer

Here is still winter and still snowing so I thought maybe if I'll bake this cake, the spring will came also :-)


Dry Fruit Nuts & Chocolate Cake

• 3 Cups Flour
• 1 1/4 Tbsp baking powder
• 2 stick soft butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1 cups milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup mix dried fruit
• 2 tbsp crushed nuts
• 2 tbsp chocolate chips
• 1 tsp. rum

In a bowl combine flour, baking powder dry fruits, nuts and chocolate together.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Reduce the speed and add the flour with the fruits and nuts and the rum.
Pour into greased 8-in. x 4-in. x 2- in. loaf pan.
Bake at 350 for 50-60 min. or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Take a piece and leave me a comment :)))

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Chocolate Cup Cake

There is something special in cupcake that makes the difference. Not just regular piece of chocolate cake, but the whole mini cake for yourself, no need to share and there is no limit for the imagination with the cream the colors and the decoration... When I really wants to see my kids enjoy their treat, I'm baking for them this Chocolate cup cake with cream cheese frosting and the joy is all over the house..
Chocolate cup cake

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.
3. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Frost with your favorite frosting when cool.

Cream cheese frosting:

• 1 pound cream cheese, softened
• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.

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Black Forest Cake

cakes are fun way to show someone how much you appreciate them.
Yesterday was my father in-law 65 birthday and it was a great chance for me to bake an astonishing black forest cake.
I've always wanted to bake this cake and waited for the right moment..
folks, this was a great success..

For the cake
5 separated egg room temperature
2 spoon of cocoa powder + 1/3 cup of flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling:
1 canned sour cherries, drained (reserving the juice)
2 tablespoons Kirsch (cherry liqueur or brandy)
1 cup heavy cream + l/3 cup granulated sugar

Decoration:
16 pirouette cookies cut into 2

Directions:
for the cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., Butter a 10 inch round cake and line with waxed paper. Beat the egg white with the sugar to a smooth foam, add the yolk the vanilla extract and whisk it to blend. combine the dry ingredients and fold it to the mixture.
pour into pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted to the center comes out dry and clean.

cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
Cut cake into three layers, sprinkle the cherry juice over them. Spread first layer of cake with 1/3 of the filling and the cherries. Repeat with the remaining layers. decorate the top layer with chocolate curls and gently press cookies pirouette into sides of the cake.

Refrigerate the cake

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