St. Lily Peach Cake

(Torta di Pesca del Santa Giglia) I don't care if many people, or even my friends, think cake is overrated (or even downright revolting). I love cake. I would almost never turn down a slice of a cake I've never tasted before. I think there's plenty of unexplored territory with regards to the flavors, constructions, and combinations. The problem is that so few people bake. Therefore, many people, when a birthday comes along, buy cake. And they're afraid of buying a cake no one will eat, so they buy the same old chocolate cake, or to be adventurous, vanilla or coffe cake with whipped cream. Pretty soon everyone is tired of cake. This is compounded by the fact that to maximize output, giant cake chains will manufacture only 3 kinds of cake at the most-- vanilla, mocha, and chocolate, and 2 kinds of icing-- boiled (marshmallow) icing and buttercream. Then they pray that you will just find whatever action figure on top interesting. Then, people who are presented with a strange new cake will wonder if the reason they've never seen it before is that it tastes bad.

Flo Braker's book, The Simple Art of Perfect Baking, has never steered me wrong recipe-wise. The lady is a cake goddess. She has an incredibly simple recipe for cake: brown sugar génoise filled with peaches and frosted with whipped cream. The taste is surprisingly complex given the fact that the cake is imbibed with fresh, new flavors. And they go really well with peaches. The whipped cream is a cushion for the flavors, rather than an overly sweet icing that saves a bland cake. This is officially a birthday cake for my friend Faith who hates onions. I hope she liked it. I'm pretty sure she did. (Recipe follows)

Grease and line an 8-inch cake pan and preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Sift together 3/4 cup (75g) sifted cake flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/8 teaspoon salt; set aside. Whisk 3 tablespoons heavy cream in a small bowl until slightly thickened; set aside. In a large bowl over hot tap water (50°C/ 120°F), whisk together 2 large whole eggs, 2 large egg yolks, 1/4 cup (50g) light brown sugar, and 1/4 cup (50g) sugar for 30 seconds or until it has reached body temperature. It should be smooth and not feel granular when rubbed. Using a mixer, beat the eggs on medium until it is pale, thick, tripled in volume, and falls back in ribbons from the beaters without sinking immediately, about 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle in and fold the flour mixture into the eggs in 3 additions. Pour 1 cup of the batter into the whipped cream, then fold until combined. Return this to the rest of the batter and fold to combine.

Pour into the pan and spin the pan to create a slightly raised edge. Bake for 20-22 minutes until it sounds spongy when tapped, the sides are contracting, and the center springs back.

When cool, split in two and fill with whipped cream, slices from a blanched peach, then another layer of whipped cream. Frost the top and sides with more whipped cream.

As you can see, I made royal icing rosettes for the top. They were supposed to be lilies but I'm a doofus and I made the royal icing too thick. I squeezed the bag as hard as I could, but so help me I've never squeezed anything so stiff in my life. Only a little bit came out the tip after my forearms nearly fell out (I think there may have been shouting involved--- ARGGHHHH!!!). So I cut my losses and replaced the petal tip with a comfortable open star and just did my corny rosettes. Looks like those realistic flowers will have to wait... (and so will the how-to.)

Maraming Salamat, Rob!

Though I was trying to keep my anguish while reviewing for the medical boards to a harldy audible whimper, Rob, gracious host of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts and Letters forums dessert forum, showed his support during that time. After I'd passed, he got to work on several very inspired Filipino-based desserts, though he doesn't have any Filipino background that I know of. I'm extremely humbled since he's done more Filipino desserts than I have and probably knows the ingredients in and out. What can I say, the guy is a dessert prodigy.
Check out his Filipino desserts on his blog entry here.
Also, you can check out his descriptions of his desserts at the eGullet forums here.
Here's a sample of a modified cassava cake (got rid of the treacly top and replaced it with a more elegant mango mousse and pineapple):

Many more familiar desserts after the links.

Many thanks for your support, Rob!

White and Dark Chocolate Mousse

Chocolate mousse (at least the version made with eggs, and not with whipped cream) is another one of those secret recipes that can help you get rid of all your egg whites. The thing is, it only has 4 ingredients, so you had better find the best, smoothest-tasting, most exquisite, luxuriousUGHDHSJDHJND sorry... Donald Trump had been taking over the writing for a while. Anyway, BEST chocolate you can find. As in fall-out-of-your-seat. And I again hadn't taken into account that white chocolate is excessively sweet on its own, so naturally its sugary vanillaness (somehow Nigella Lawson has popped in as well) would be amplified when it stands basically alone. Result: a too-sweet invention. Sorry, Pierre Hermé, I won't mess with your mousse. It's bitter all the way from now on. (Recipe follows)

Melt 6 oz (170g) chocolate (ideally bittersweet, NOT WHITE, HAHAHA) in the microwave, then cool until it is only warm to the touch. Meanwhile, boil the milk in the microwave and pour it over the warm chocolate and whisk together gently. Add 1 egg yolk and gently whisk it in. In a separate bowl, beat 4 large egg whites until they hold soft peaks, add 2 tablespoons sugar, then continue beating on high until stiff and glossy. Take 1/3 of the eggs and beat it into the chocolate. Dump the chocolate into the rest of the whites and fold it in gently with a rubber spatula. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Make sure your eggs are pasteurized, well-inspected, or you don't feed this to pregnant women, children, and the elderly.

Pond's Age Miracle?

Obviously men do not use skin care products as much as women do-- dare I say almost none, taking into account the more than 4 billion male people in the world. That being said, my skin is quite atrocious. So much so that when I dared myself into using Pond's Age Miracle to put my money where my mouth (or in this case fingers) is, I took pictures but decided not to post them so that little children will not be traumatized if they happen to chance on this blog. So I have here an objective report on my week-long experiment. I think it's warranted given the hype surrounding it on commercials.
Pond's Age Miracle costs about P400 ($9) for a 30mL pump bottle. The ingredients are as follows: Water, Dimethicone crosspolymer/ Cyclopentasiloxane, Ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, Glycerin, Caprylyl Methicone, PEG-10 Dimethicone/ Disteardimonium hectorite/ Cyclopentasiloxane, Isomerized Linoleic Acid, Caprylic/ Capric Triglycerides, Zinc Oxide/ Triethoxycaprylylsilane, Fragrance, Tetradibutyl Pentaerithrityl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Stearic acid, cholesterol, Mica/ Titanium Dioxide, Tocopheryl Acetate, Bisabolol, BHT, DMDM Hydantoin/ Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Linoleic acid, Borago officinalis Seed Oil, Disodium EDTA, Retinyl Palmitate, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Butylene Glycol/ Carbomer/ Polysorbate 20/ Palmitoyl Oligopeptide/ Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7, Coriandrum sativum seed oil.

As far as I can tell with my regular Joe college Chemistry, the mix consists of various moisturizers, vitamin A, C, and E (potent antioxidants), sunblock (it says here SPF 15), and peptidoglycans. The literature boasts many benefits, which we'll go through:
1. Helps visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles - I'm inclined to think that with Retinyl palmitate in the ingredients, this should happen. However, after the short time of 1 week I've yet to see any improvement in this area (in short: there's no change). In the long term, the mix of sunscreen and antioxidants should retard wrinkle formation.
2. Strong and firm young skin - I'm not sure how they test skin strength. Do they slap you around? My face did feel firmer, for all it's worth. In my mind, when the polymers are dried out in the atmosphere, their grip on your skin and to each other tightens.
3. Helps visibly reduce age spots - I'm 25. I don't think I have age spots, but I do have a bit of sun damage from before and a bunch of acne scars. Since the summer I've done my best to avoid the sun further. In the span of 1 week, no change. There's no even-ing of my complexion at all. They are all still there, taunting me. This was the most disappointing aspect of this trial. Still, using sunscreen that comes with it should prevent further damage and give your skin time to heal your old scars, but is SPF 15 enough in this country? (Maybe for the common office worker it is.)
4. Supple, moisturized skin - I have to confess, I didn't actually feel any different until a friend of mine who had been using it told me her skin felt softer. I guess she is right. Also, I noticed that the early-evening oil slick my face usually turns into was not so prominent, so that's a good point.
5. Radiantly glowing skin - eh? No change. As usual sunscreen does help but my face is still just a light tan. There are no whitening ingredients from that mix as far as I can tell, but I'm not obsessed about being cyanotic.
6. Visibly smoothened skin - No, at least not visibly.
7. Finer skin with visibly small pores - I will say that my skin felt finer, but looking at the pictures there's no difference in pore size, not that mine were humongous.

So what's the verdict? First of all, it's probably better for your skin than nothing. At first I thought I might be getting an allergic reaction but it turned out to be from something else. I have visible skin reactions quite easily but probably didn't have one from this, not that you shouldn't test it on a small patch of skin first and take it easy. It does have fragrance and some natural plant products after all; it may not be safe for all. The best part about it is that late in the day my face feels fresher and not like I dipped it in my desserts.

The problem with the advertisements is that it can be easily misconstrued as proof that it will fulfill all of its skin-renewing properties in 7 days when it only fulfilled about half its promises in that amount of time. Time will tell if it does indeed hold up, but as a guy I won't be spending P400 (though you do use very little) every 3-4 months for a facial product I'm not sure is the best for me and uses up time that I was pretty content with before spending sleeping. Also, the women in those advertisements have probably already been blessed with drum-tight skin and have been using products like Clinique for years. I mean, the editor of a the beauty section of a magazine? God, was she a horror before using this product?

Fruit Salad Pavlovas

The problem with doing so many custards and creams one after the other is the abundance of egg whites you will accumulate. At least you can freeze them for a long time in freezer bags. The quickest way to get rid of all of them without using a single yolk is by making a meringue: in this case, Pavlova, the Australian (or New Zealand, debatable) dessert named after a famous ballerina. I based this recipe off Chocolatier magazine, and despite cutting the sugar by half, they are (like most Pavlovas) too sweet. The fruit goes some way to cutting the sweetness with a little tartness and freshness. (Recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F). Beat 4 large egg whites on medium speed until it holds soft peaks, then gradually add 1/2 cup (the original recipe called for 1 cup + 2 tbsp) sugar on medium-high speed until the whites hold stiff, glossy peaks. On medium speed, add 1 teaspoon lemon juice and 3 teaspoons cornstarch and beat until combined. Place the meringue in a large pastry bag fitted with a large open star or plain tip (1/2" or more), then pipe out meringue nests onto a lined and greased baking sheet. What I do is pipe out a 4-inch circle and build around the edge multiple times. Place in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 120°C (250°F). Bake for 60 minutes then turn off the oven and leave to cool in the oven for at least 1 hour.

Whip 1/2 cup (125ml) heavy cream until it holds stiff peaks. Drain 1 very small can pineapple slices and cut each into quarters. Drain 1 small can peach slices. Peel and slice 1 kiwi fruit. Cut strawberries into 6 wedges each.

Once the meringues have thoroughly cooled to room temperature, pipe whipped cream on top and arrange the fruits on top. Obviously there's no hard and fast rule for what fruits are appropriate. Don't refrigerate; this has to be served shortly after assembling.