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Parties, Culinary Drama, Review and a Wreath Cake…..

Ahhh, December….the month of gastronomic indulgence to celebrate the season’s cheer. December goes by very quickly because every other day or night is just another party or dinner at someone’s house or place. I recently had mine last weekend with a group of awesome people. There was a feast…of course they’ll be a feast, there’s always a feast…what’s a party without a feast….

 Slowly building up…..

 ….to a grand spread!!!! 

1st row; Mashed potatoes, vege sticks and dips, cocktail sausages, quiche
2nd row; Fried chicken, Cherry tomato soldiers (crackers, tuna, cheese,
pineapple, cherry tomatoes), mini muffins, cous cous
3rd row; Salad, tucking in, Festive booze, chocolate fountain waiting to be fired up….


The night really stretched on because we had so much fun with the carols, gift exchange, games and laughing at other people. Those with small kids can attest to the feeling that you wish you could stay longer but by the certain hour, crankiness and boredom kicks in for all the little ones. My little man was no exception, he was doing his ‘squid manoeuvres’ on the floor and screeching at the top of his lungs to get attention. By the time this photo was taken, we had already been through a 5 minute friendly tussle.

Now, I did say I was going to do a review and it all started the day I crave to bake some Christmas-y cake. The recipe calls for almond extract or essence so I went and got one. But something disastrous happened. It was a cream cheese pound cake and after adding the essence, my entire mix curdled like cheese (below). It was devastating not to mention exasperating and total crud of crap. I felt like absolute excrement for the rest of the night because I kept seething at the thought of wasting my eggs, cream cheese and butter.

 Only good for the trash now…..

Now you might think that I’m going to diss this culprit for all it’s worth but I think to be fair, I’ll review this more as an informative piece. Looking at the ingredients in the essence (below), it has glycerine, propylene, glycol, water and almond flavour. When I looked up information for the main 3 chemicals, I found that glycerine is what they use as an emulsifier in some products and also to make soap. Why is there glycerine in the essence? Beats the hell out of me….I suppose it has its function for some other baked dishes. But the label there says for cakes, custards and puddings…all dishes that are liable to split because of some form of dairy in it.

So I think one shouldn’t say this product is bad but personally for me…in the future…if I were to make any baked dishes that has butter, cream cheese, milk or cream in it, I’d stay away using any products that has glycerine in it. The conclusion is…read the label, be informed and decide for yourself. I had my lesson the hard way and that’s why I’m writing it to you now.

I wanted to bake the wreath cake so badly, not because the recipe was damn fantastic but I fell in love with the picture of the cake before I even knew what was in it. The recipe was from To Food With Love. This is the first time I’ve ever been so taken by a photo, I want to make it no matter what. It is a lovely cake. So I tried again the second time with the recipe and photo stuck to where I can see it.

The second try, I omitted the essence completely and it came out perfectly fine, so I wasn’t just being paranoid when I said the essence was the culprit. Cherries cost a bundle here. I was contemplating on whether or not to mix in some berries just to stretch the filling but I decided not to mess with ‘perfection‘ and stuck with just the cherries.

I saved a few back for the garnish but the rest went into the cake. I want the taste to matter more than the look and I want abundant cherries in the filling. I didn’t have a bundt cake mould (that would’ve been sooo awesome) so I used an ordinary sponge cake pan.

I’m happy at how it turned out and the taste was everything I imagined it to be. Do I want to say it’s worth all that trouble I went through? No…I don’t ever want to waste food, PERIOD! But, in all spirit of Christmas, peace and goodwill, I’m gonna ‘have my cake and eat it too.’

 Cherry Cheese Pound Cake with….

 ….Orange Icing Glaze

Merry Christmas!!!

CHERRY CHEESE WREATH POUND CAKE RECIPE
(Taken and adapted slightly from To Food With Love)

Ingredients;

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
A pinch of cinnamon

1 cup butter
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup fresh cherries, drained, halved, pitted
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Fresh cherries for decorating
Icing sugar for dusting
Sprigs of mint leaves

Orange glaze icing:
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
About 2 tbsp fresh orange juice

Steps;

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Grease and flour an bundt pan or a sponge cake pan.
2. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla (I omitted the almond essence for this cake).
4. Slowly, beat in the flour mixture, mixing just until incorporated.
5. Dredge the well-drained cherries in 1/4 cup flour, then gently fold into batter.
6. Spread into prepared pan and level the mixture with a spatula.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 60-80 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
8. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
9. Once the cake has cooled, combine the ingredients for the orange glaze icing in a bowl until you get a smooth mixture that is not too runny.
10. Drizzle the cake with the glaze and arrange fresh cherries on top. Add a sprig (or more) of mint leaves. Dust liberally with icing sugar.

Note; Looking back at my photographs, I realised one thing and here’s a tip, if you keep berries in the fridge, wait for them to come down completely to room temp so as not to suffer condensation, especially if you use them as garnishes. It’s not a big deal but just doesn’t look nice in photos.

I am submitting this post to;

Aspiring Bakers Event #14 – Creative Christmas (2011)
hosted by Hankerie

White Christmas Recipe Challenge
organised by Very Good Recipes via Quay Po Cooks.


White Christmas Challenge on Very Good Recipes


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Next Post: Blessed Christmas!!! »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hui Min says

    December 23, 2011 at 1:02 am

    Niiiiiicccee cake Sharon!! And the squid on the floor, lol 😀

    • Sharon says

      December 23, 2011 at 1:19 am

      haha….wrestling the squid, the only way it pacified was from taking short breaks before continuing. Merry christmas babe!!! To you and ur family.

  2. wendyywy says

    December 23, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    Beautiful cherry cake! And that’s a whole lot of food!

    From what I know, some butter cake recipes call for glycerine to keep the cake moist, maybe factory made ones will use this, but homemade ones won’t. I guess…

    It’s available at BWY and CT. And halal vanilla extract also uses glycerine to make. Some things may be used for industrial purposes, but they could be edible too. Take for instance, baking soda. It’s an ingredient in household cleaners.

    • Sharon says

      December 23, 2011 at 8:08 pm

      When i opened the bottle of the essence, it had a strong smell in it and i wondered if almonds smelt that way. Im aware they’re edible and possibly mixed with the right stuff wud work but i jus wondered why it curdled my batter….that baffled me immensely….. 🙁

      • wendyywy says

        January 3, 2012 at 9:58 pm

        Did it smell like …. cockcroach? or something like kerosene?
        Well, sorry but that’s how I describe the smell of almond, like those in almond milk.

        • Sharon says

          January 3, 2012 at 10:18 pm

          haha, no worries….they smell like kerosene.

          • wendyywy says

            January 4, 2012 at 4:05 pm

            I guess then we are both the same…. Cannot stand the almond flavourings. Those Hong Kong almond cookies that comes in a metal tin also smell this way and I hate it, but my mom loves it. I always give her the “Ewww” look when I see her eating it, hahaha.

          • Sharon says

            January 4, 2012 at 8:22 pm

            yea loh….now i dun know what to do with that whole bottle of essence, so overpowering the smell.

  3. Fern says

    December 24, 2011 at 6:51 am

    Hi Sharon,
    Your cake turned out beautiful and love how you’ve decorated it! Sorry to hear that your batter curdled, although it was fine when I made it. It’s actually quite common for batter to curdle a bit after adding eggs, and it usually smoothens out again if you add a little flour to the mixture. Did you make sure all the eggs and cream cheese were at room temperature before beating them?

    By the way, that’s a fantastic spread you have….so much yummy food and even a chocolate fountain! 🙂

    • Sharon says

      December 24, 2011 at 11:01 am

      Hi Fern, thanks for dropping by and thanks for the great cake recipe. I really, really love the picture! It’s stuck on my fridge for inspiration! Yeah, i made sure everything was in room temp but i don’t think the batter was salvageable looking at the condition so i didn’t want to waste the flour. When i made it the second time, the batter didn’t split at all and was smooth and beautiful. Something wonky must’ve happened in between but i did prove it was the essence because the second batch was fine when i omitted it.

      haha…me and my peeps know how to gorge….and then suffer the wrath of feeling bloated the next day. Silly of me to take the fountain without the chocolate, but by then i was too busy eating. 🙂

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