Cream Cheese Pound Cake

A firm moist cake..tasted like a sponge cake... and a bit sweet with this recipe found all over the web under cream cheese pound cake.. :) I will lower the sugar by half cup next time*.
Edit
*By day 2 the sweetness has reduced and the cake has mellowed...perhaps owing to the cheese in it..
So I guess I will reduce only 1/4 cup of sugar next time.. :)

The following recipe is adapted from http://www.marthastewart.com/349993/cream-cheese-pound-cake

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour ( as some recipes called for cake flour, just to experiment, I have replaced 2 tablespoons per cup of flour with corn starch and sifted well)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon  salt
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 package (8 ounces) Philadelphia brand cream cheese
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract                                                                                                   

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease two 7 inch pans with cooking spray/ butter.
2. In a medium bowl sieve/ whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Combine butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar, increase the speed to high, and beat until light and airy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture. Beat just until incorporated.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake until the cake is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the cakes comes out clean, but with a few moist crumbs still attached, about 90 minutes in my oven...keep an eye on it after 50 minutes.
5. Place the pans on a cooling rack and cool for 20 minutes, then remove the cakes from the pans and let cool completely. Serve at room temperature.
   
   Notes:
    With the addition of corn starch, the cake is lighter than the one I had made with APF.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Custard Powder Cake

What would you do if a very dear friend gets transferred...... to some place miles and miles away... and you miss them so badly....
:) I usually have a habit of baking something to push away the gloom..(believing that the process of creating something takes my mind off the subject...:) Anyway...I decided to bake a cake (with some custard powder she had given me) and after searching the net for a recipe, I came across this one ..(and several others which were almost similar)... All recipes were eggless ones, very easy to make as you just mix all the ingredients together..no creaming, folding, etc...
The cake came out pretty well..not too sweet, rose well considering the fact that it contains no eggs..you can call it an eggless yellow cake. It can be layered with jam or some preserves and frosted with buttercream and made into a special dessert.
I think I'll try variations of this..maybe with an egg or some coffee flavour and let you know. Now I am posting this recipe which I picked from https://www.mydiversekitchen.com/recipe/egg-free-custard-powder-snack-cake-recipe  ...

 

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup vanilla flavoured custard powder
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1  tsp vanilla extract
• 150 gm butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk

This recipe makes one 8” cake or 8 to 10 servings.

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F). Grease an 8" cake tin with butter and line the base with wax paper.
   Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Use a wooden spoon and mix well.
2. Add the milk and the butter and beat with the spoon until you get a smooth batter.
3. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake at 180C (350F) for about 45 minutes to an hour or till the cake is done and a skewer poked into the cake comes out clean. Sometimes, depending upon your cake tin and the oven, this cake might take about an hour to cook especially in the middle.
4. Cool on a rack and serve.snack

Buttercream Frosting

This is a 'no fail' plain buttercream frosting... you could use it to decorate your cakes as it is or add some flavouring of your choice.. This makes about 1 cup frosting/icing.

Vanilla Buttercream frosting:

(20ml tablespoon and 250ml measuring cup)

• 75g butter, softened (unsalted butter)

• 1/4 tsp (1.25ml) vanilla extract

• 145g  icing sugar, sifted or superfine powdered sugar

• 1 tablespoon (20g) cream (35-40 percent fat)

•  a pinch of salt 

Using an electric mixer or electric hand-held beaters, beat butter and vanilla with a pinch of salt in a medium bowl until creamy. Add the icing sugar in three batches, beating for about one minute after each addition, and stopping the machine a couple of times to scrape down the side and base of the bowl. Add the cream and beat until completely incorporated.

Pipe or spread frosting onto cakes.

Chocolate flavoured buttercream:

Just beat in 25g melted chocolate (broken into pieces and melted in a double-boiler, then cooled slightly)

Coffee buttercream:

 Beat in 1tbsp coffee powder blended with 1tbsp hot water to the butter, vanilla and salt until creamy and then add the sugar. Add cream only if necessary.