Week 11:
This week was really off, so off in fact, that I forgot to blog about it... oops! So I made jerk salmon, the original recipe called for mackerel but the store didn't have any and the internet says that salmon is a good substitute. What the jerk in jerk salmon is, is a type of paste with a distinct flavor that you rub on the fish. I was kind of upset because the recipe called for scotch bonnet peppers but I couldn't find any... I just used serrano peppers, but twice as much as the recipe called for. The papaya salad consists of: papaya, bell pepper, jicama, lime juice, and cilantro. I was supposed to julienne the veggies but a butchered them :( They were like french fries. My papaya completely fell apart. The salmon was really good but it didn't go with the salad. On top of everything I cut myself while cutting an onion. The paste was really good. I would smear it on anything. The salad got a 7 1/2 and the fish got 8 1/2. I forgot to mention, my week was so off that I didn't notice that I had two recipes for this week, so I moved it to week 73. We're gonna have to wait a while...
See you next time internet! Love, Alexa :)
Week 10:
I can't believe that this has been going on for 10 weeks!!!!! To celebrate 10 weeks I made stuffed poblano peppers. The recipe called for chihuahua cheese. NO, not the dog. I couldn't find chihuahua cheese so I just used cheddar. Worked perfectly fine. The way the did the recipe is actually a really cool idea. You make a cheese sauce, mix thing and you take some of it and add chopped shrimp, grilled bell peppers, and a bunch of other good stuff into it. The remaining cheese mix gets turned into a sauce. You need to broil the poblanos and bell peppers but i don't have a broiler so my dad grilled them for me. The weather was overcast when we started, then it started raining... :( We were still able to use the b-b-q despite the rain. It was a really good dish but I didn't really like the poblanos taste and ended up scraping out he filling and just eating the filling on its own. We serve the peppers with rice which was a awesome idea from my dad because those two peppers were not enough for an entire meal. My family gave it an 8. It's a decent score. I'm really exited for double digit weeks!
See you next time internet! Love, Alexa :)
You guys probably already guessed this, but this cake does not actually have daffodils in it. It's a way to use up those 12 egg yolks you'd have left over if you did my angel cake recipe. It's a good cake but kind of dry since there aren't any egg whites. Don't eat the two cakes together since the daffodil cake will taste soooooo dry. Anyway, here's the recipe:
12 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon flavor
Beat the egg yolks until thick and lemon colored. Make almost a yolk meringue by adding the sugar a little bit at a time. It won't puff up like normal meringue but it's almost the same technique. Add the boiling water and beat for 30 seconds. Gradually sift in the dry ingredients, then add the flavorings. For the lemon flavor I just used lemon juice and it seemed to work fine. Beat it all together for about 5 minutes. Bake in an ungreased 10-inch bunt pan in a 350 oven. The recipe says for an hour but I checked on the cake with 10 minutes left and it was almost burned. I would recommend starting with 40 minutes then adding time as needed. See the angel cake for cooling. Serve with fresh fruit.
See you next time internet! Love, Alexa :)
OMG!!!! I'm back! It's been such a long time! For mother's day I decided to make a coconut angel cake using my new bunt pan. A bit of it came off while I was taking the cake out of the pan and it was really good. What I'm going to do is give you guys the basic angel cake recipe then tell you how you can add stuff to the cake. Also, you've been warned, if you don't like sifting, don't do this cake. Here's the angel cake recipe:
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups cold egg whites (about 12 large egg whites)
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)
Sift the flour, 3/4 cup sugar, and salt into a bowl 3 times. Set aside. In a large bowl beat together the egg, water, lemon juice, cream of tartar, and extracts on low speed for 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the mix increases in volume 4 1/2 to 5 times and looks like foam. This takes between 1 1/2 and 3 minutes. Gradually beat in the remaining sugar one tablespoon at a time, taking 2 to 3 minutes. When all the sugar has been added keep beating until the mix is glossy white a has soft peaks when the beaters are lifted. Sift about one eight of the flour mix on top of the egg mix then fold in until the flour is almost incorporated. Repeat with the other 7 eighths of the flour mix. Keep on folding the last addition of flour until no traces of flour remain. Bake in an ungreased 9 or 10 inch bunt pan at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool for 1 1/2 hours.
How to cool an angel cake
Now for the variations:
Spiced angel cake: add 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp ground cloves into the flour mix. Sift in with the sugar and salt. Frost with a coffee frosting.
Coffee flecked or flavored angel cake: Crush 3 tbsp of freeze-dried coffee with a rolling pin. sprinkle on top of angel cake once all the flour has been mixed in. Fold in gently. If you want a more consistent replace the water for 3 tbsp of cold extra-strong coffee. Frost with chocolate icing.
Candy angel cake: Crush with a rolling pin enough candy to make 1/3 cup. Fold into the batter with the last addition of flour. Frost with a vanilla frosting to which you can add more crushed candy.
Coconut angel cake: Fold 1/2 cup of shredded sweetened dried coconut to the batter with the last addition of flour. Frost with whipped cream and sprinkle on more shredded coconut.
Lemon or orange angel cake: Take out the almond extract and add in 1 tsp of lemon or orange extract. Stir 1 tsp of lemon zest or 2 tbsp of orange zest into the flour mix. Frost with lemon or orange frosting.
Cocoa angel cake: Take out 1/2 of cake flour and put in 1/2 cup of coca powder. Don't frost.
Nutty angel cake: Fold 3/4 cup of finely ground nuts into the regular or cocoa angel cake.
Extra-chocolate angel cake: Finely chop 1 to 2 oz of semisweet or bittersweet chocolate and fold into the batter of either the regular or cocoa angel cake. Serve with whipped cream.
Marble angel cake: Prepare the regular AND cocoa angel cake alternate the batters in the end. Note: this makes 2 cakes.
WOW! That was a long entry. Happy mother's day guys!
See you next time internet! Love, Alexa :)
