Of Egg White Cakes

The Iced Egg White Cake

I made Leche Flan for Christmas, and like the many other times I've made leche flan, I was stuck with the problem of leftover egg whites. I've tried making egg white omelets before but I've found that they're never as good as whole egg omelets. I've also tried making meringues, but I found that I do not have the patience for them. (1 1/2 to 1 3/2 hours to bake? Can't wait that long.)  It was a joy then to discover this recipe for egg white cake. 

It's actually an Estonian Egg White cake, also known to Estonians as Munavalgekook. (At least that's what the recipe says) I got the recipe from a blog called Nami-Nami. The author actually baked the cake in a Bundt pan, which (not surprisingly) I didn't have. With a change in cake pans, a little vanilla extract and a little icing, I was able to make a very edible dense cake.

Ready for the party-goers

Egg White Cake

6 large egg whites

1 1/3 cup (about 250g) caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup (about 160g) all purpose flour

1 tablespoon corn starch

1 teaspoon baking powder

100g (about 1/2 cup) butter, melted and cooled

In a large bowl whisk the egg whites, 2 tablespoons of sugar and vanilla extract until thick, pale and foamy. In another bowl, stir in the flour, corn starch, baking powder and the rest of the sugar. Sift this mixture into the egg white and gently fold them in. Fold in the butter.

Pour into a prepared cake pan, preferably a Bundt pan, but an 8-in cake pan will also do. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C (or 360F) for 30-40 minutes. Once done, remember to cool the cake completely before applying any frosting to it.

Vanilla Frosting (from Martha Stewart)

4 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups confectioner's or icing sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 pinch of salt

Sift the sugar into a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. Beat everything together until light and fluffy. (how easy is that?)

Chocolate Ganache (for decoration)

I will admit, that when I made this, I did not measure any of the ingredients. Basically, I threw a bar of bittersweet chocolate and some cream into a bowl (preferably metal, but you can also use glass. Do not use plastic!) and then placed the bowl over a simmering pot of water. The set up is similar to what you'd get if you had a double boiler. (If you have one, you should probably use it) Make sure the bowl with your chocolate and cream in it does not touch the surface of the water. Whisk everything together until the chocolate has melted and you have a smooth and shiny mixture.

If you're still not sure, you can use this recipe for ganache from allrecipes.com: Chocolate Ganache.

Assembly

The very first step is to cool the cake. If possible, refrigerate it for at least an hour. Gently spread the frosting onto the cake using a spatula. Finally drizzle the ganache over the cake. 

You can use excess ganache for a lot of things including truffles and flavoring the frosting of my next cake.

Yummy! Being eaten at the party

Of Basic Chocolate Cakes

One of my dad's friends just had a new baby, so my family trooped over to their place to see him. As a "baby-warming" gift, my mom decided that she wanted to give them chocolate cake. A strange choice since the baby can't have cake. Oh well, the mommy does love chocolate cake. Of course, I volunteered to make it. I wanted to try a new recipe, but my mom insisted on me using a recipe she had already tried, and whatever mom says goes. So, I had me a cake recipe, but I didn't have a recipe for frosting. With only a limited amount of butter and only cocoa powder on hand, I knew that I definitely wouldn't be doing a ganache. I did eventually found a perfectly chocolately frosting with the help of ehow.com and some simple experimentation.

Dark Chocolate Cake
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup brewed coffee (I actually used 3 teaspoons instant coffee and a cup of water), cold
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The first step is to preheat the oven to 350F or 175C. Then mix the milk with the vinegar and set aside. In a bowl, sift together the all purpose flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk gently to mix. In a larger bowl, whisk together the eggs,  vegetable oil, coffee and vanilla extract. Add the milk and vinegar solution. Slowly add the dry ingredients. Mix until just incorporated. Finally, pour into two prepared 8-inch cake tins. Bake for 30 minutes. The cake will be springy when touched and an inserted toothpick will come out clean.

This chocolate cake was adapted from an allrecipes.com recipe.

Cocoa Powder Frosting
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk
2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the butter. Then add the cocoa powder. Stir. Add the milk and stir until combined. Gradually add the confectioner's sugar. Finally, add the vanilla extract. If you want the frosting to be a bit more liquidy, add more.

Make sure that your cake has cooled completely before frosting it. After frosting the cake, remember to refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes or until the frosting has set a little. Now since this recipe yields two 8-inch cakes, you can either layer the cake one on top of the other with some of the frosting in between or just frost two different cakes. We went with the latter choice since two is better than one!

Of Malunggay

Seen this green leafy vegetable lately? If you're in the tropics, chances are that you have, and depending on your family chances are that this plant is either a vegetable or a random shrub. It's definitely a vegetable for my family. My mom adds to practically anything. I love it in tinola or fish soup. My mom loves it in omelets, and I concede that they're great. 

So what is it? In Filipino it's known as Malunggay or scientifically, Moringa oleifera. What I love about it is that it practically has no taste. Ok, there's a little leafy taste, but not as much as other green leafy vegetables. I'd definitely rather eat this in soups than cabbages. I've heard that malunggay has several medicinal benefits, but as far as my mini research is concerned, most of these benefits need more study. Yes, it's very nutritious, but I wouldn't expect it to cure cancer. At any rate you can do more research on Google scholar and Pubmed. Make sure the articles you read are from a reputable journal.

My mom has two malunggay plants in our garden. It's quite easy to grow actually. All you need to to is to make a limb cutting and plant it during the rainy season. After that it's a matter of regular watering and sometimes giving a little fertilizer (although in my experience it rarely needs it). 

To prepare the malunggay leaves, simply give the branch a rinse (preferably in a water plus vinegar solution). Then in a pinching position run your thumb and index finger down the smaller branches that hold the leaves. Be sure to do this in the direction opposite to the way the leaves grow. The leaves will fall from the branches quite easily. Your malunggay leaves are now ready to enjoy!

Of Bananas

I grew up in a tropical country, so bananas were almost always on the menu. In fact, I use to eat them whenever I got bored when I was little. It also helped that we always had several varieties of bananas, none of which ever saw the light of a US grocery store. We'd have one variety that was strictly for cooking, another for babies and yet another strictly for export. We'd have really tiny ones, really long one and really fat ones. Then there was the differences in taste. Some bananas were really sweet, while others were a bit more mild. I'm going to try to show you three bananas most commonly sold in Philippine grocery stores.

Latundan

Latundan bananas are my favorite bananas. According to Wikipedia these bananas have an apple-like flavor (probably why in parenthesis it is also called Apple bananas or Manzana bananas). According to me, they don't taste like any apple I've ever tasted, but that's probably just me. They do have a  what I would call a mild banana flavor and can be eaten raw. These bananas have thinner skins than most varieties of bananas, making them more susceptible to bruising and having little flies flying around them. Since their skins are quite thin, latundan bananas are rarely exported.

Legend has it that latundan bananas are perfect for babies who are starting to eat solid food. I think it's because this banana are quite delicate; delicate taste and delicate skin. Older people say that it's easier to digest, but I have yet to see scientific evidence of this. At any case, always consult your pediatrician first before feeding your baby anything.

Size of the Latundan Banana compared to a tablespoon

Saba
Saba bananas are my second favorite bananas and they are strictly for cooking. As kid I would sneak one off a bunch and eat it raw. My mom would also warn me about getting diarrhea from eating it raw. I never did, though. Despite being used strictly for cooking, Saba bananas have a distinctly different look from Plantains. Saba bananas are what I call short and fat. They have a bulky squarish look to them. When raw, Saba bananas have a slightly sweeter taste than Latundan bananas and they feel a bit more fibrous. When cooked though, their sweetness multiplies and they become softer.

Unripe Saba banana

Ripe Saba banana

There are an endless number of ways to cook Saba bananas. The easiest is boiling them. If you plan to do this, do not peel the bananas while cooking and remember to add just a touch of oil in the pot so they don't stick to each other. The next easiest is frying them (peel, slice, fry). Once you've mastered these two techniques, you can do slightly more complicated recipes like Turon (wrap in spring roll wrapper, fry and sprinkle brown sugar) or Banana Cue (sprinkle brown sugar while frying, skewer). You can also add these bananas to desserts like ginataan (dessert cooked in coconut milk) or savory dishes like nilaga (Filipino beef stew).

Boiled Saba banana, notice the squarish shape it has

Lacatan
Now if you love than banana flavor, Lacatan bananas are perfect for you. Unlike Latundan and Saba bananas which have pale cream colored flesh, Lacatan bananas have a darker yellowish-orange flesh and is definitely sweeter. They also have a very distinctly banana smell. They thicker skins allow them to be far more hardy than the Latundan. I always imagined Lacatan bananas as the bananas used in banana splits. Personally, I don't like eating these raw, but they are perfect for things like banana pancakes and banana bread since Lacatan bananas get too sweet from me when they are ripe. Plus they banana flavor will not be overpowered by the addition of other ingredients.

Lactan when peeled

Of Calamansi

Calamansi compared to a US dime.

The calamansi fruit is the ultimate citrus fruit of the Filipino kitchen. Until very recently, I did not realize that it was also known as the calamondin (courtesy of Wikipedia and my own curiosity on whether it had an English name. Can you how much you can learn by just being curious and having access to Wiki?). Despite being really tiny, its juices's sour citrus flavor gives that extra kick to dishes without overpowering them. That's also why I like to call it the vodka of citrus fruits. Case in point: calamansi is often squeezed on top of a plate of pancit (stir fried noodles) to give it a little something something. Or you can do this too on a bowl of congee or arroz caldo. A little calamansi juice mixed with soy sauce makes a perfect dipping sauce for almost any kind of meat or seafood. The same calamansi-soy mixture with a little onion and garlic makes a perfect marinade for grilled pork or Filipino bistek (beef steak). 

Another way I love to enjoy calamansi is by making calamansi juice. You can make this using the same method you use for making lemonade (squeeze, strain, add syrup, add cold water, stir). Although, I've never tried it, I hear you can also use it to make curd, like lemon curd. I don't recommend zesting this fruit though, since its skin is really thin. I also don't recommend eating it raw. That would be like drinking vinegar. 

I always thought that calamansi only grew in South East Asia. I was extremely surprised when I saw calamansi trees in Florida. They were all over campus and I had to resist picking the fruit because I'm pretty sure the gardeners in the university would not have liked it. 

They're actually pretty easy to grow. My mom threw a couple of seeds in our garden once and in a few months we had a calamansi plant growing out of the ground. A few more months later, we managed to harvest a few calamansi fruits. Then, our neighbor's cat jumped on it and broke the plant in two, effectively killing it. Lesson: protect your plants from your neighbor's cats.

Of Mini Stick-O's

I went grocery shopping with my mom today. Grocery shopping can be both a chore and piece of excitement for me, depending on what day it is and if I feel like cooking on that day. In fact, my dad recommends giving the grocery store in the country you're visiting a little visit too along with other tourist spots. He swears that you can learn more about the culture of a nation by visiting their grocery stores and public markets than just visiting tourist spots. Anyway, today, mom and I chanced upon this little gem...literally little. I always thought Stick-O's came is bigger jars and longer sticks, at least that's how I remembered them. But here these were. I immediately had an image of a tiny five-year old grasping one of these. (Since I don't have kids, I imagined myself as a five-year old.) We had to get some. Taste-wise, it's still the same Stick-O taste you get when you buy the bigger jars, nothing min-blowing. But these tiny jars were. Definitely something super cute.

PS. This is not an ad for Stick-O. I just thought the little jars were too cute to not mention in this blog.