Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting

Posted by gmirage1 on Mar 14, 2010 in Baking, Cafe World, Ruby Tuesday | 17 comments

(Cafe World inspired dish # 3)

Patience is not one of my greatest virtue. That was why I was surprised that I found joy in baking this masterpiece.  Although I intended to make cupcakes at first since it’s less the works and I have more chances of success, this project was all worth the effort. It was not only me who waited with anticipation, the kids were there watching the cake with wonder, “is that strawberry cake mommy?”  was  the question repeated for the whole hour.

Red Velvet cake is said to have originated south of the US. There are many speculations but  there’s just nowhere to point, just like other legendary foods that made us wonder and crave…well, go ahead and just eat it, we can research later!

Originally, beets were used to color this reddish treat, but red food coloring has replaced it long ago. Other common ingredients are buttermilk, butter, flour, cocoa and is normally finished off with white icing, usually of cream cheese. I am not so sure about the sweetness of this particular recipe, I didn’t put in buttermilk but it still turned out moist.

Some recipes include coconut flakes for the icing, since my “customers” are kids, I opted for candy sprinkles. For now, I am posting the ingredients of the other Red Velvet cake I’m planning to bake…directions will be posted soon.

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Red Velvet Cake:

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup  buttermilk
2 tablespoons liquid red food coloring
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 – 8 ounce  cream cheese, room temperature
1 – 8 ounce  tub of Mascarpone cheese, room temperature
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup  confectioners’ sugar, sifted

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Lamb Chops with Pomegranate Sauce

Posted by gmirage1 on Feb 8, 2010 in Restaurant City, Ruby Tuesday | 7 comments

How long has it been since my last Ruby Tuesday post? I think more than half a year! After receiving my prize for Mary the Teach’s blogoversary contest I had to hurriedly leave for the Philippines so I wasn’t able to post about it.The circumstances which led me home has kept me down for quite sometime and I know, it should’t be getting in to me, but it did badly. Anyhoo, coming back I am posting a Restaurant City inspired dish, lamb with pomegranate. I had always wanted to try the dishes in that game and here’s my first! (P.S. Restaurant City is my favorite facebook game!)

Ingredients: (this is the original recipe but I downsized for 2 servings)

* 4-5 pieces lamb chops
*2/3 cup pomegranate juice (from two large pomegranates, or bottled juice)

* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
* 1/4 cup water
* 1/4 cup dry red wine
* 1 teaspoon cornstarch
* 1 teaspoon dried basil
* 1/2 teaspoon crushed dried thyme
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons molasses

Directions (lamb)
1. Heat the oil in a pan.
2. Season the lamb chops with salt and pepper (I added some basil and thyme).
3. Add the lamb chops to the pan and cook until they reach the desired doneness, about 5 minutes per side to get a thick chop to medium rare.
4. Set the lamb aside.

Directions (sauce):

1. Preheat broiler or grill and oil rack of a broiler pan or prepare grill as necessary.
2. Put olive oil in a medium saucepan and heat until hot.
3. Sauté garlic in hot oil for 1 minute, stirring frequently.
4. Stir in the pomegranate juice, wine, water, cornstarch, herbs and molasses.
5. Bring mixture to boil then reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.
6. Pour mixture into a sauceboat.

Pour the sauce over the lamb.

How do you seed a pomegranate by the way? One is to make few cuts on the peel of a fresh pomegranate and place it in a bowl of water. Break open the pomegranate underwater to free the arils. The arils will sink to the bottom of the bowl and the membrane will float to the top. Sieve and put the arils in a separate bowl. To get fresh juice, cut 2 large pomegranates in half and juice them with a citrus reamer or a juicer. Pour mixture through a cheesecloth-lined strainer or sieve or watch this video.

Let me thank Mary, the Teach again for last time, I got the package, thank you very much! Also, I’m so sorry for being late.I missed this meme by the way. Have a nice week ahead!

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