Last Cake, Next Cake

WHOA! After last week's low participation, everyone is back with a bang this week. Everyone made something different for this week's free choice. It was really fun for me to discover and read everyone's different baking adventures.

Mendy made the No Bake Whipped Cream Cheesecake, with the help of his daughter, looking like such a expert baker already with both hands holding the hand mixer. Mendy thought that the recipe is "rather unique what with the custard, italian merringue and whipped cream cheese." He made some modifications to the recipe, substituting the creme fraiche with cream cheese, reducing the whipped cream cheese, and used more egg whites than the recipe called for. The cheesecake was a hit. "This fabulous cheesecake really is light as feather. Well done Rose, you really captured something nice here."

Modest ECL claimed that her Chocolate Raspberry Trifle is a bit on the rustic side, as she halved the recipe and composed the trifle in a glass container that was too wide and too short. I thought her trifle looks gorgeous, you can see the creme anglaise seeping through and the beautifully pink raspberry whipped cream. (Yes I'm afraid I'm a bit biased as I have a soft spot for whipped cream). In any case, ECL made up for not having a pretty trifle dish by taking a beautiful close up and personal shot of the raspberries. ECL thought that the cake, despite of it having a lot of steps, are all pretty easy. As for the taste, it tasted wonderful. She agree with Rose that it is "deceptively light and very flavorful; the creamy vanilla creme anglaise, the tart strawberries, and the mellow chocolate genoise are a perfect combination."

Kristina, excited that she's nearing completion of the Sponge Cake chapter, made the Catalan Salt Pinch Cake. She has been putting off making this cake for a while because of the name and the lack of frosting. "I shouldn’t have passed it up. It’s easy to make (though time consuming) if you let your mixer do the work." The time consuming part comes from adding the eggs, 2 tbsp at a time. Not wanting to waste time waiting in the span of the 20 minutes or so to complete this process, Kristina grabbed her copy of Les Miserables and started reading.

Monica, having issues choosing which one to make for free choice, sat her boyfriend down and made him choose. Obviously he choose something with fruit, his favorite kind of cake. So she made the Apple Upside Down Cake, after making him promise that he would be responsible for eating the whole thing. The cake was easy to make, and Monica was very happy that it un-mold perfectly with nothing sticking to the pan. As for the taste, her boyfriend liked it: "it's very good, the walnuts gave the cake a grainy texture - almost like corn bread, but it's delicious."

Melissa chose to make something that she thinks all members of her family like: Sticky Toffee Pudding. This pudding is common in the cafe world in Canberra, so she was excited to compare the taste (which was fabulous, btw). "The cake is perfectly pudding-like. It was almost uncanny." Melissa went on and describe all other types of pudding that she's made. Most of them seem to have a cake-looking structure but squishy/spongy upon cutting, and they are all baked in pudding basin and cooked in water bath. This pudding, she noted "is baked just like a cake, but arrives cooked just like a pudding. Isn't she amazing, that Rose?"

Lois made both the Gold Ingots and Chocolate Ingots (way to catch up!). Describing financier like bars of gold, Lois is a fan of financier, saying "the only thing better than a financier may be financier batter." She liked the chocolate one best, "they're really tasty prepared this way.  I can see popping a few to take care of a chocolate craving.  I imagine they would also be a nice crunchy topping on ice cream."

On a side note, I just realized that the last time I wrote LC NC Free Choice round up, I chose a FEATURED BAKER. This is not something Marie or myself usually do for free choice (it took me looking back at all my free choice posts and to a couple of Marie's to double-check/confirm). I must not have had my head screwed on straight when I wrote that post, LOL. Anyway... I thought I mentioned it just in case you lot wondered where the FEATURED BAKER is for this post, :).

Next week we have the German Chocolate Cake. The cake only has 2 components, the chocolate cake base and the topping. It looks pretty easy, the recipe is only 3 pages long. I am pretty curious about this cake, mainly because the cake base is so good. For those of you who have made the Chocolate Ice Cream Cake, it is the same cake base. The only thing I'm not sure about is the combination of condensed milk, pecans, and coconut. I'm not averse to any of them, just the combo sounded strange. But, knowing Rose, I expect to be pleasantly surprised.

The week after we have the White Gold Passion Genoise. This calls for passion fruit, which may not be a staple in your grocery store. I think it was Jane who mentioned that she found frozen passion fruit puree at Whole Foods. I checked my local Whole Foods and they didn't have any. If you have a Latin supermarket somewhere nearby, it might be worth checking them out, to see if they carry it. I'm planning to do this hopefully this weekend.