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🍰 food log 2: seven desserts from hell, day 2
part two of the first post, with the last few desserts i made this past weekend for a separate occasion. four total: cardamom chocolate cake, tiramisu, japanese cheesecake, and cupcakes. but the cupcakes were technically just the cardamom cake in cupcake tins, so i won't do a writeup for them--just know they exist lol.
starting with the japanese cheesecake first. i didn't take any pictures myself of what i made because it was a high stress day, so it's bad picture zone. :^) check out the cheesecake in the oven lol.

japanese cheesecake
i think part of the novelty with the cheesecake was that it required a water bath, which i've straight up never done before...and was part of the reason why i didn't want to do it before lol. but it was well worth it: the recipe was pretty good, straightforward, the ingredients were solid...AND i finally did mise for it, though i didn't realize there was a metric conversion at the bottom until afterwards. possibly i fucked up somewhere because i was going for conversions in metric with google searching (which never works out), but mostly it was alright.
5 eggs, at room temperature
1 g cream of tartar
100 g sugar, divided
225 g cream cheese, at room temperature
120 ml low-fat milk
55 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
15 ml lemon juice
35 g all-purpose flour
15 g corn starch
quite frankly, i made so many meringues for these desserts that i'm kinda put off by it. but meringues are key for everything...so one has to simply suck it up! but it worked out: i am absolutely obsessed with the way the batter turned out, it was sooooo good and smooth and silky or whatever. like, the absolute satisfaction of folding the egg mixture in...omg!
the cake was for someone else, so i didn't actually get to try the cheesecake lol...but i tried some of the stuff that got cooked and leftover on the tinfoil and the pan (rip) and it tasted alright, so i think it was a categorical win all around. possibly i left it in the oven too long, but once again: my sister doesn't have fucking toothpicks, and i wasn't about to stick the paring knife in there, so we were guessing based on sight alone. maybe that's why it was a little too brown on the top? anyway, topped it with some powdered sugar after letting it set in the fridge all night, then sent it out. the feedback was good, so i think it was yummy after all...but i'll make it again for myself to see if this is a Save save recipe. but next time i'll possibly use a smaller springform, since i wasn't into the size with the regular 8 inch pan.
classic tiramisu, according to new york times

i didn't take that picture lol. my giftee did, and i think it's so fucking funny how blurry it is, so....
i made this recipe once before, like a year or so ago, and it was good so i decided to remake it. this was something i made for my coworker's bf, bc i was making the cheesecake for my coworker's birthday and i also adore his bf...also i've been stewing in my massive lesbian crush over the coworker's bf's sister for like the past year so this was just a fun and easy way to sneak some sweets into their household, because she made me ???? bread ??? for my last day ???? and i had a small heart attack about it. but that's neither here nor there: the recipe is good, and extremely easy.
YES you have to make another meringue. but also that's like the worst part of it, so it's not even that bad. the recipe in question.
(cream)
4 large egg yolks
½ cup/100 grams granulated sugar, divided
¾ cup heavy cream
1 cup/227 grams mascarpone (8 ounces)
(assembly)
1 ¾ cups good espresso or very strong coffee
2 tablespoons rum or cognac
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
About 24 ladyfingers (from one 7-ounce/200-gram package)
1 to 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, for shaving (optional)
as i said, the recipe is quite fine indeed...like it makes a yummy tiramisu lmao. but listen: because i am both stupid and a rat, i forgot the put the fucking egg mixture in the cream, so after i whipped up the eggs to soft-medium, i put the mascarpone in and it went straight to hard peaks. i was so confused, but i rolled with it. like the cream still tasted alright, so i didn't even suspect a thing. and then afterwards, during cleanup, i went and looked and found the egg mixture still sitting in its bowl...well. just thinking about it still makes me feel the depths of despair. re: the egg mixture tho, i mixed it over a double broiler bc i got concerned about salmonella...it wasn't in the og directions and i didn't do it the first time i made it, but you never know!
anyway, all the Discourse™ about a good proper tiramisu recipe in the comments has me wanting to make like the extremely complicated Superior Italian Original Recipe type shit, so we'll see about that. but this one's good enough to make in an hour or so, then just let sit over night!
chocolate cardamom
no pictures bc this was my FAILUREEEEEEEE i was so mad about it. the cakes themselves were good, nice and springy (!!!) but i fucked it up when i was decorating with some leftover swiss cream (my first mistake) and THEN i spilled gold dust all over it so like...............yeah. anyway, reviewing the actual cake here. recipe! i love this recipe bc it keeps saying bicarbonate of soda instead of baking soda. like, what?
80 g (2.8oz) dark chocolate chopped
160 ml (⅔ cup) hot strong espresso coffee
35 g (rounded ¼ cup) cocoa powder
125 ml (½ cup) buttermilk
200 g (1 + ⅔ cup) plain flour
1 + ⅓ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cardamom (about 10 pods)
80 g (⅓ cup) softened butter
225 g (1 + ¼ cups) light brown soft sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
i think the cake itself was actually pretty good, but i have no idea what i was expecting to begin with. <-- guy who's never had cardamom before
the texture when it came out of the oven was good...i just made the whole thing and put it in some 4 inch pans. but it rose a LOOOOOOT, like there was a huge rise when it was done. but it baked quite nicely, was easy to track, and when it came out of the tins it was nice and springy. as for the flavor...it was alright! you can definitely taste the cardamom lol, but i feel like the chocolate wasn't dark enough. it was springy because of the butter and the buttermilk combo, but this could've used a bit more oil to make it just a leeeetol bit more tender. between this and the last chocolate cake i made (from the other post), what i'm looking for is definitely somewhere in the middle lol.
overall, pretty g! i'd make it again. since the cake was a failure i still have it in the fridge, so i'll have to try it again before i decide if it's worth making again or not. i think this is one of those sponges that would work better with chocolate buttercream, like the original recipe supplies, but i went with the leftover vanilla and it was alright...anyway, as i said: i'll have to make it again and try it out, but overall good bakes, aside from the hideous mess i made of it while decorating. the cupcakes also turned out well, if risen a bit much! but all's well that ends well, in my opinion. :-))))
update re: the cardamom. i ate it and it fucking slapped. well, not SUPER slapped, but it definitely was alright. i think part of the downsides of making a butter cake is that it takes some time for it to re-tenderize after sitting in the fridge. granted, of course, this cake was sitting in the fridge for like 4 days but it mostly just tasted like a soft chocolate cookie (my brother's words)! the cardamom flavor kinda died after hanging out in the fridge for so long, but it was still there (subtly). so, overall a win but could be better!
starting with the japanese cheesecake first. i didn't take any pictures myself of what i made because it was a high stress day, so it's bad picture zone. :^) check out the cheesecake in the oven lol.

japanese cheesecake
i think part of the novelty with the cheesecake was that it required a water bath, which i've straight up never done before...and was part of the reason why i didn't want to do it before lol. but it was well worth it: the recipe was pretty good, straightforward, the ingredients were solid...AND i finally did mise for it, though i didn't realize there was a metric conversion at the bottom until afterwards. possibly i fucked up somewhere because i was going for conversions in metric with google searching (which never works out), but mostly it was alright.
5 eggs, at room temperature
1 g cream of tartar
100 g sugar, divided
225 g cream cheese, at room temperature
120 ml low-fat milk
55 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
15 ml lemon juice
35 g all-purpose flour
15 g corn starch
quite frankly, i made so many meringues for these desserts that i'm kinda put off by it. but meringues are key for everything...so one has to simply suck it up! but it worked out: i am absolutely obsessed with the way the batter turned out, it was sooooo good and smooth and silky or whatever. like, the absolute satisfaction of folding the egg mixture in...omg!
the cake was for someone else, so i didn't actually get to try the cheesecake lol...but i tried some of the stuff that got cooked and leftover on the tinfoil and the pan (rip) and it tasted alright, so i think it was a categorical win all around. possibly i left it in the oven too long, but once again: my sister doesn't have fucking toothpicks, and i wasn't about to stick the paring knife in there, so we were guessing based on sight alone. maybe that's why it was a little too brown on the top? anyway, topped it with some powdered sugar after letting it set in the fridge all night, then sent it out. the feedback was good, so i think it was yummy after all...but i'll make it again for myself to see if this is a Save save recipe. but next time i'll possibly use a smaller springform, since i wasn't into the size with the regular 8 inch pan.
classic tiramisu, according to new york times

i didn't take that picture lol. my giftee did, and i think it's so fucking funny how blurry it is, so....
i made this recipe once before, like a year or so ago, and it was good so i decided to remake it. this was something i made for my coworker's bf, bc i was making the cheesecake for my coworker's birthday and i also adore his bf...also i've been stewing in my massive lesbian crush over the coworker's bf's sister for like the past year so this was just a fun and easy way to sneak some sweets into their household, because she made me ???? bread ??? for my last day ???? and i had a small heart attack about it. but that's neither here nor there: the recipe is good, and extremely easy.
YES you have to make another meringue. but also that's like the worst part of it, so it's not even that bad. the recipe in question.
(cream)
4 large egg yolks
½ cup/100 grams granulated sugar, divided
¾ cup heavy cream
1 cup/227 grams mascarpone (8 ounces)
(assembly)
1 ¾ cups good espresso or very strong coffee
2 tablespoons rum or cognac
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
About 24 ladyfingers (from one 7-ounce/200-gram package)
1 to 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, for shaving (optional)
as i said, the recipe is quite fine indeed...like it makes a yummy tiramisu lmao. but listen: because i am both stupid and a rat, i forgot the put the fucking egg mixture in the cream, so after i whipped up the eggs to soft-medium, i put the mascarpone in and it went straight to hard peaks. i was so confused, but i rolled with it. like the cream still tasted alright, so i didn't even suspect a thing. and then afterwards, during cleanup, i went and looked and found the egg mixture still sitting in its bowl...well. just thinking about it still makes me feel the depths of despair. re: the egg mixture tho, i mixed it over a double broiler bc i got concerned about salmonella...it wasn't in the og directions and i didn't do it the first time i made it, but you never know!
anyway, all the Discourse™ about a good proper tiramisu recipe in the comments has me wanting to make like the extremely complicated Superior Italian Original Recipe type shit, so we'll see about that. but this one's good enough to make in an hour or so, then just let sit over night!
chocolate cardamom
no pictures bc this was my FAILUREEEEEEEE i was so mad about it. the cakes themselves were good, nice and springy (!!!) but i fucked it up when i was decorating with some leftover swiss cream (my first mistake) and THEN i spilled gold dust all over it so like...............yeah. anyway, reviewing the actual cake here. recipe! i love this recipe bc it keeps saying bicarbonate of soda instead of baking soda. like, what?
80 g (2.8oz) dark chocolate chopped
160 ml (⅔ cup) hot strong espresso coffee
35 g (rounded ¼ cup) cocoa powder
125 ml (½ cup) buttermilk
200 g (1 + ⅔ cup) plain flour
1 + ⅓ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cardamom (about 10 pods)
80 g (⅓ cup) softened butter
225 g (1 + ¼ cups) light brown soft sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
i think the cake itself was actually pretty good, but i have no idea what i was expecting to begin with. <-- guy who's never had cardamom before
the texture when it came out of the oven was good...i just made the whole thing and put it in some 4 inch pans. but it rose a LOOOOOOT, like there was a huge rise when it was done. but it baked quite nicely, was easy to track, and when it came out of the tins it was nice and springy. as for the flavor...it was alright! you can definitely taste the cardamom lol, but i feel like the chocolate wasn't dark enough. it was springy because of the butter and the buttermilk combo, but this could've used a bit more oil to make it just a leeeetol bit more tender. between this and the last chocolate cake i made (from the other post), what i'm looking for is definitely somewhere in the middle lol.
overall, pretty g! i'd make it again. since the cake was a failure i still have it in the fridge, so i'll have to try it again before i decide if it's worth making again or not. i think this is one of those sponges that would work better with chocolate buttercream, like the original recipe supplies, but i went with the leftover vanilla and it was alright...anyway, as i said: i'll have to make it again and try it out, but overall good bakes, aside from the hideous mess i made of it while decorating. the cupcakes also turned out well, if risen a bit much! but all's well that ends well, in my opinion. :-))))
update re: the cardamom. i ate it and it fucking slapped. well, not SUPER slapped, but it definitely was alright. i think part of the downsides of making a butter cake is that it takes some time for it to re-tenderize after sitting in the fridge. granted, of course, this cake was sitting in the fridge for like 4 days but it mostly just tasted like a soft chocolate cookie (my brother's words)! the cardamom flavor kinda died after hanging out in the fridge for so long, but it was still there (subtly). so, overall a win but could be better!
commenting on both parts of ur baking log at once
Re: commenting on both parts of ur baking log at once