This is my entry to the Hotpoint family baking competition

For the Kid’s homework he was asked to make a ‘favorite recipe.’ The Kid loves to cook and the choice was easy: my neapolitan mochi cake. He followed the entire recipe himself (a little helping holding the bowl, etc) and in the end he got to eat his creation!

ingredients:
1 pound mochiko (1 box)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
2 cups sugar
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
2 Tablespoons Valrhona Cocoa Powder
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
pink gel food coloring

Mochiko is a sweet rice flour. It’s very fine, almost dusty. You can find it in most asian markets or online. It gives a familiar ‘chew’ to baked goods, reminiscent of mochi itself.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a bundt pan by greasing it with butter. Personally I never flour it, but that’s all on you.

In a medium bowl whisk together the mochiko, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Stir together the melted butter and sugar. Then add the evaporated milk. Add the vanilla and the eggs and mix well. Now add it to the dry ingredients and mix well.

Divide the batter into three bowls, leaving one bowl as is.

In the second bowl add the Valrhona cocoa powder and the chocolate chips. Stir well.

In the third bowl add a touch of pink gel food coloring just until you get a nice pink. Set aside.

In the prepped bundt pan, pour in the chocolate batter.

Top that with the vanilla (plain) and then finish it off with the pink.

Place the filled pan on a baking sheet and bake for 45-50 minutes depending on your oven. Check to see if it’s done by piercing it with a large skewer.

Let the cake cool in the pan, then turn the pan over onto a wire rack and the cake will pop right out.

Slicing into the unassuming cake and seeing all the pretty colors is what makes this cake so fun! The Kid loves the mochi texture and he likes to eat each color one at a time. This Kid is methodical.

This cake is a delicious and fun family treat!

While I make my Watermelon Ice Cream Bombe on the regular, I wanted to somehow incorporate cake. My family LOVES ice cream cake.

So I made a ‘green’ base by baking a matcha (green tea) cake, and then layering it with a fresh watermelon ice cream, studded with mini chocolate chip ‘seeds’. It came out beautifully and the family loved it!

watermelon ice cream ingredients:
5 cups watermelon, cubed (will become 2 cups watermelon juice)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup mini choco chips

In a blender, blend the cubed watermelon until it becomes fully liquid.

Pour into a cheesecloth and strain out the pulp. Keep 2 cups of pure watermelon liquid.

In a bowl mix together the watermelon liquid, sugar, lemon juice, and heavy whipping cream until the sugar is dissolved.

Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and churn per the manufacturer’s directions. In the last 5 mins, add in the mini chocolate chips.

Keep in an airtight container in the freezer until ready to use.

matcha cake ingredients:
4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup cake flour, sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon matcha powder
Pinch of salt

Matcha is a highly concentrated green tea powder, you can find it in the tea section of most asian markets. It’s…pricey. But nothing can compare. Nothing will give you a full rich taste green tea taste like powdered matcha.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prep a springform pan.

Separate the whites and the yolks. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry and set aside. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks until light. Add the sugar and vanilla, and mix well.

In a bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and matcha powder. Add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture. Fold in the egg whites.
Pour the batter into the springform pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until done, depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

Once the ice cream has set and the cake has cooled, now you can assemble!

Level off the cake and place it back into the springform pan. Warning, the cake may have shrunk.

Spoon the watermelon ice cream on top of the matcha cake, speading evenly.

Gently press the ice cream down to form an even layer. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer until you are ready to serve.

When the cake is cut you will have sweet, delicious slices of fresh watermelon…in cake and ice cream form! Perfectly refreshing for summer!

I love fresh blueberries and luckily the Farmer’s Markets are full of them every weekend. This is a coffee cake that I brought up to date by using milk tea. The tea adds a subtle, wonderful flavor and it’s great to serve with tea too.

Perfect for breakfast or a shower party…or standing up at your kitchen counter with crumbs everywhere. I’m classy like that.

ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whole milk
2 Tablespoons tea (I used Royal/T tea)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups freshed blueberries (washed and dried)

crumb topping ingredients:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
6 Tablespoons butter (diced)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 9×13 pan with buttered parchment. Set aside.

Steep the tea – I used Royal/T milk tea because I love the flavor. It is infused with rose and has a nice fragrant flowery taste that really compliments fruit so I thought it’d be great together with the blueberries.

In a small saucepan, warm the milk being careful not to scald it. Take it off the heat and put the loose tea in an infuser and let the tea steep in the hot milk. Set aside. You want this good and overly saturated, the milk will start to darken in color. Let cool.

In a bowl whisk together the flour, cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and the vanilla.

Alternate between the whisked dry ingredients and the cooled milk tea.

Pour the batter into the prepped pan, spreading evenly. Sprinkle the fresh blueberries over the top.

These will not sink into the cake, I came up with this recipe because I didn’t want the blueberries mixed in. Is that weird? I kind of like them to stand on their own – they are so fresh and flavorful, they almost pop in your mouth when you eat the cake. I feel that sprinkling them on top just adds to their beauty and stand alone flavor. I wanted a clear taste difference – layering the cake, with the blueberries and the topping.

Mix together the crumb topping ingredients and sprinkle over the blueberries.

Bake for approx 50 minutes depending on your oven, and until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake is ready.

Let cool, cut and serve!

There’s nothing like fresh blueberries, they way they pop in your mouth when you bite into them, whether they are fresh or cooked. This cake is a perfect to share on a summer morning!

My brother’s favorite ice cream is Italian Spumoni. Spumoni is an Italian ice cream made up of three flavors of ice cream: Chocolate, Pistachio and Cherry. It’s available during the holidays or at your local Italian deli. I make this dessert during the holidays, but a roll cake filled with ice cream is good anytime of the year!

ingredients:
4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup cake flour, sifted
pinch of salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Spumoni Ice Cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Separate the whites and the yolks. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry and set aside.

In another bowl, beat the egg yolks until light. Gradually add the sugar and vanilla, and mix well.

Whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture. Fold in the egg whites into the egg mixture.

Prep a jelly roll pan (or cookie sheet – by lining it with parchment paper, and greasing it with butter. This will make it easy to remove.

Pour the batter right onto the lined pan. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until a golden brown.

While the cake is baking, put a clean towel down and dust it with powdered sugar. You will invert the cake onto this to start the rolling process.

When the cake comes out, turn it onto the towel and peel off the parchment.

Begin with the narrow side and roll the cake and towel up together. Cool cake on rack, seam side down, for 10 to 15 minutes. You’re trying to get the cake to maintain it’s ‘roll’ shape.

Once cake has cooled, gently unroll and spread cake with the softened Spumoni and re-roll. Place back in the freezer until you are ready to slice and serve!

Mochiko is one of my favorite ingredients. Savory or sweet, it’s so versatile. This is a take on old skool Hawaiian custard mochi but in cake form filled with beautiful fresh blueberries! A lovely cake with that special mochi ‘chew’.

ingredients:
1 pound mochiko (1 box)
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
2 cups sugar
1 can evaporated milk
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1-1/2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×13 pan with melted butter. Set aside.

Mochikois a sweet rice flour that you can find in Japanese markets or even online. It adds a chewiness to both desserts and savory dishes.

Stir together the sugar and the melted butter. Add the evaporated milk and mix well. Then add the eggs one at a time, along with the vanilla.

Carefully stir in the mochiko, baking powder and salt.

After the batter is mixed, fold in the blueberries. If you are using frozen, move quickly – the batter will start to color or ‘gray’.

Pour the mixture into the prepped pan and bake for 1 hour.

Let the cake cool in the pan and then cut it into squares to serve.

This dessert is a lovely blueberry cake with an added surprise of a mochi chewy consistency. It’s perfect with afternoon coffee and tea!

Rob Schrab is a writer, creator, artist extraordinaire. He is known for co-writing the movie Monster House, working on the Sarah Silverman show and for comic fans – the creator of Scud the Disposable Assassin. His new book “But I Can’t Do Anything Else! The Art of Rob Schrab” highlights his sketches of sci-fi, horror and monster images that have never been released.

Image Comics asked me to make a cake for the Rob Schrab book release party held at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood.

My design concept was to make a massive cake that looked like a fuzzy monster, complete with peeking eyeballs along the side and the actual book cover on top. Scary, but cute, and oh so delicious. I am not good at scary monsters but I can do kawaii monsters better.

I made a two layer red velvet cake and frosted it with cream cheese frosting. To achieve the ‘fuzz’ I baked another cake and crumbled it to smithereens.
This can either me fun – or an ocd nightmare. I say the latter. There was red velvet crumbs everywhere and I couldn’t break out the vacuum fast enough.

I pressed the cake crumbs into the sides of the cake – just enough pressure to stick, but not smush. I still wanted it to look furry.

I added various sized sugar eyeballs along the sides of the cake – enough to look cute but disturbing.

Much like the Adam WarRock cupcakes, I had a local bakeshop print out the book cover image with edible ink. The colors were flawless. I laid that on the very top of the cake, and then pressed more ‘cake fuzz’ right up along the edge of the image.

I’m really happy with how this turned out. Now I am obsessed with ‘monster fuzz’ on cakes! If you love great art, and monsters, and all things amazing get a copy of “But I Can’t Do Anything Else! The Art of Rob Schrab” it will inspire you!

As requested by the Baby, I made this as part of ‘Max’s Dinner‘ from Where the Wild Things Are.

I like the smoothness of mascarpone – and when you use it in a pound cake, you get a dense, flavorful cake with a nice crusty outside. The perfect way to end a meal for the King of the Wild Things.

ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Line a loaf pan with parchment paper, and then and butter the parchment – this will make the cake easy to lift out.

in the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, then add the mascarpone, eggs and vanilla. Mix to combine.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and lemon zest. Carefully add this to the mascarpone mixture until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepped loaf pan and place on a baking sheet.

Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

A lovely cake as is or add a little whipped cream for a tasty finish!

1st birthdays are a glorious thing. Parents put in so much work, the decor, the planning…and the kid won’t remember a thing! I’m joking. Sort of. Hey, I’ve hosted two gigantic 1st bday parties, I know what I’m talking about. But that’s ok, because it’s all about celebrating the 1st year of life and all the fun that is to come.

For this particular 1st birthday it was a Dr. Seuss theme – so fun, and how fitting that today is actually Dr. Theodor Seuss Geisel’s birthday!

First birthdays are about excitement and new adventures and smash cakes are a big part of the celebration, and for a lot of kids, it’s often their first taste of sugar. My oh my, you’re in for a ride.

Aptly named the ‘smash’ cake is to be SMASHED at the party, and they are often tiny, about 4″ – 5″ in diameter. I made this one to look like the Cat in the Hat‘s red and white striped hat. The mom wanted it to be very frosted, lots of fluff, perfect for smashing.

I baked a brown sugar cake (recipe, here), and using a 5″ circle, cut out three layers of cake.

I stacked the cake, but only used a very thin layer of frosting in between. I wanted to give the hat height but also keep it in proportion to the smallish cake.

Then using vanilla buttercream, I crumb coated the cake to start.

I would have used fondant to get a ‘clean’ look, but let’s face it, fondant is not fun to smash or eat for your first taste of cake. So buttercream it is! To get the stripes I tinted half the frosting in red, then alternated the stripes around the cake.

Instead of getting a possibly wonky black line to separate the stripes – hey, nobody’s hand is perfect – I opted for the easy way out by adding some thin black licorice. It was whimsical AND it did the trick!

To top it off, I printed out the Cat in the Hat himself, with a little message to the birthday boy.

I’d say by the looks of it, this cake was definitely loved and smashed to smithereens!

Ya heard? It’s National Bundt Day! Who knew there was such a thing – well the Food Librarian knew and she made 30 bundts in 30 days to prove it.

She even gave away my “I like big bundts” pins if you participated by making a bundt today! So in honor of National Bundt Day I wanted to do something visually spectacular. I love brown, white and pink – I make so many neapolitan things it’s crazy. Cookies, Ice cream musubi, cupcakes, Inside out ice cream sandwiches – I love those colors and it’s about time I make a bundt. That plus mochi? Well, you’ve got yourself a mighty fine dessert to celebrate National Bundt Day.

ingredients:
1 pound mochiko (1 box)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
2 cups sugar
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
2 Tablespoons Valrhona Cocoa Powder
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
pink gel food coloring

Mochiko is a sweet rice flour. It’s very fine, almost dusty. You can find it in most asian markets or online. It gives a familiar ‘chew’ to baked goods, reminiscent of mochi itself.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a bundt pan by greasing it with butter. Personally I never flour it, but that’s all on you.

In a medium bowl whisk together the mochiko, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Stir together the melted butter and sugar. Then add the evaporated milk. Add the vanilla and the eggs and mix well. Now add it to the dry ingredients and mix well.

Divide the batter into three bowls, leaving one bowl as is.

In the second bowl add the Valrhona cocoa powder and the chocolate chips. Stir well.

In the third bowl add a touch of pink gel food coloring just until you get a nice pink. Set aside.

In the prepped bundt pan, pour in the chocolate batter.

Top that with the vanilla (plain) and then finish it off with the pink.

Place the filled pan on a baking sheet and bake for 45-50 minutes depending on your oven. Check to see if it’s done by piercing it with a large skewer. If it doesn’t scream, it’s done – I MEAN, if it comes out clean, it’s done…

Let cool on a wire rack, when the bundt has cooled and you are mentally ready, turn the pan over onto a wire rack. All goes well the bunt will pop right out – let it cool off a bit more until you are ready to serve.

I just love the movement and color of the layers when you cut into it. The prettiest of cakes with that perfect mochi chew.

I like bundt cake, but it always feels like it needs a little ‘something’ extra. So I CHOPPED it in two and lathered it with maple whipped cream. Ah, there – perfection.

ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup pumpkin
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream

Maple Whipped Cream (recipe, here)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a bundt pan by greasing it with melted butter. A lot of people will tell you to grease AND flour it. I say heck no. Butter alone is the best way to get those suckers to pop out. For this particular cake I went for an old skool bundt pan. No fanciness, just nice rounded edges.

In a large bowl whisk together the four, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla until combined.

Mix in the pumpkin, and then alternate in the dry ingredients with the sour cream. Combine everything until you get a nice pumpkin-y batter.

Pour the batter into your prepped bundt pan. Place the pan on a baking sheet, just in case there is spillage – also it’s easier to transport it in and out of the oven. Bake for 50-60 minutes depending on your oven. 55 minutes seems to be the magic number for me. Test the cake with a long skewer for doneness.

Let cool for about 15 minutes or until the pan is just slightly warm to the touch. I like to carve off the risen top (which will eventually be the bottom) so that it’s nice and even.

Then go for the gold and flip the cake over and if all went well it will pop out nice and easy. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Now make your Maple Whipped Cream (recipe, here). When the bundt is fully cooled, take a long knife and slice it across the middle. I just eye it, but if you’re not comfortable with that you can measure it.

The cake still might be a little warm in the middle. Let the two sides cool completely.

Then add the maple whipped cream to one side. Top with the other side and…

You have a lovely, creamy, pumpkin bundt! DEEELICIOUS.