Mascarpone & Meringue Cake | You've Got Meal!

I started thinking about this recipe as a great one for the 8th of March, International Women's Day, but honestly it is a good one to keep for all special occasions. It is "absurdly" simple, so it is a nice choice for everyone who actually can't bake, but want to make a sweet surprise for the women in their life.

I chose to use a store-bought sponge cake because it is way easier, but you can find many recipes online if you want to bake it yourself. Actually, if you use a round  one, you get an awesome anniversary cake, but you can always go for a square or rectangular one and serve them as dessert squares.

As far as the cream goes, the cake had 3 cream layers plus the top. For such a simple recipe I just had to use a Mascarpone cream, because I love it the most and it makes any dessert so smooth and silky. You can't go wrong with Mascarpone. To mix things up, I added some apricot jam and some crushed meringues for fun and for a lovely, crunchy surprise. Of course you can make your own meringues also, but I saw some lovely colorful ones in a bakery and I figured they would look great on the top cream layer.

That being said you will need:

• 1 simple cake/ sponge or cake mix
• some jam of your choice (apricot worked perfectly, great would also be peach, fig or orange, cherry or strawberry might overshadow your cream)
• Mascarpone cream (see recipe below)
• some crushed meringues (preferably colored, so they can be spotted through the white cream)

For the Mascarpone cream:

• 250 g Mascarpone cheese
• 70 g sugar
• 2 eggs

1. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the mix is smooth and creamy. 
2. Add the Mascarpone to the egg yolks and fully incorporate the cheese. 
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until peaks form.
4. Add the egg whites to the cream mixture, fold it in fast but gently with a spatula.

1st layer: (jam + cream) Spread some apricot jam on the first sheet, then spread some cream over the jam.
2nd layer: (cream) Time to keep it simple, just spread some Mascarpone cream.
3rd layer: (jam + cream) The same as on the first layer.
4th layer, the top one: (cream and meringues) Crush some meringues, leaving some bigger bits and sprinkle them over the remaining cream. Fold the meringue bits gently and spread the mix on top of the cake.

Save some more meringues to sprinkle on top before serving. Store in the fridge for at least 4 hours before serving. If you have dense, hard cake you can pour a bit of simple syrup or fruit liquor on each layer before spreading the cream and you will get a softer, moist cake.

It is a dessert recipe worth trying, it is just sweet enough, it is super fun to make if you prepare ahead and there is no baking involved.

Enjoy,

Christmas Cake Recipe: Buttery and Sticky Orange Cake | You've Got Meal!

Nice and simple recipe for buttery and moist cake with oranges and poppy seeds. Perfect Christmas or holiday cake with minimum effort.

This cake recipe is inspired by the classic Lemon Drizzle Cake. Oranges are great this time of the year and I wanted to take as much advantage as I could of their full flavor. It is as buttery as lemon drizzle cake, of course it uses oranges instead of lemons and, to take it to the next level, you add a delicious sticky orange syrup on top and some drunken orange slices.

For the cake/ sponge:

• 200 g butter
• 200 g powder sugar
• 3 eggs
• 300 g flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 50 g poppy seeds
• 200 ml milk
• 150 ml orange juice

Method:

1. In a bowl, beat the butter (at room temperature) with the powder sugar. I did it with a hand mixer.
2. Add the eggs and mix some more.
3. In a different bowl mix the dry ingredients: flour + baking powder + poppy seeds
4. Incorporate the flour mixture into the eggs and butter mixture.
5. Add the milk and the juice to the bowl and mix.
6. Line a round cake tin with detachable bottom with baking sheet (both the bottom and the sides).
7. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake in a preheated oven, medium heat, for 30 minutes.

Syrup:

• 300 ml orange juice
• 200 g granulated sugar
• the zest from 1 orange
• 1 cinnamon stick

Method:

1. Put all the ingredients in a sauce pan.
2. Bring it to a simmer.
3. Let it simmer for at least 10 minutes, until it gets thicker. Beware that the syrup gets thicker when it gets cold.

For the oranges on top:

1. Heat up some rum (around 100 ml) in a sauce pan. No need for it to boil, just make it really hot.
2. Cut 2 oranges in slices. Try to remove as much white skin as you can while doing it.
3. Put the orange slices in the hot rum and let them soak and absorb the alcohol for 50-60 minutes.

To put the cake together:

1. While both the cake and syrup are warm, make tiny holes in the cake with a fork on all the surface and pour the syrup on top. 
2. The syrup will be absorbed and the cake will be soooo moist.
3. You can reserve some syrup for extra flavor for each slice. The syrup is also amazing cold, so don't worry.
4. When the cake is slightly colder and you have removed it from the tin, take the orange slices out of the rum and place them on top of the cake as desired.
5. Optional, sprinkle some powder sugar on top.

I hope you will find the result as rewarding as I did. I took some slices to work the next day and everybody loved it, they were surprised how much beautiful orange taste it had. I also want to mention that the cake is at its best when it is served after it had been refrigerated for 2-3 hours.

Happy December,

Lemon Drizzle Cake

If you're ready for something sweet but also sour, buttery and moist, this recipe is perfect. It makes a great breakfast, you can serve it in the afternoon with tea or better yet, spoil yourself with a decadent dessert if you add it some cream and/or berries.

For one loaf you will need:

Recipe from the book "Carte regala de bucate"- Principesa Margareta a Romaniei

225g room temperature butter
225g sugar
225 all purpose flour
4 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
2-3 tbsp poppy seeds

For the syrup:
2 lemons juiced
100 ml water
200 g sugar

• With a hand mixer mix the sugar and butter until you get a white cream. 
• Add the eggs one by one and keep mixing.
• In a different bowl, mix the dry ingredients, the flour with the baking powder and the poppy seeds.
• Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ones.
• Pop it in the heated oven in a bread tin and let it cook for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
• While the cake cooks you should prepare the sauce. 
• In a small sauce pan mix the water, sugar and lemon juice and simmer it for 10 minutes
• As soon as you take the cake out of the oven pierce the whole top with a fork and pour the hot sauce on it.
• The cake will absorb the syrup and it's gonna go from great to amazing in a couple of minutes.
• Let it cool in the tray before cutting it.

Extra: If you like lemon zest, you can add the zest from 1 lemon in the cake dough after you add the eggs.

Enjoy!
Mrs. G.