Sugar Escapade

To start off, Happy New Year everyone! I hope '08 turns out to be a very blissful and healthy year! Although I never quite understood why new year celebrations were THAT big of a deal... it's not like your life changes overnight because the last number of the year becomes an 8 instead of a 7... I also think there is something impersonal about new year celebrations... the moments of change really come when you lose your first tooth, graduate, get your first job, fall in love, start on a new project... these are the real moments that mark one's life and are worth remembering and celebrating.

Anywhoo, enough bla bla.

Let's talk about cake! Just a little more cake talk for me before I go on a 3 day detox plan... all that food stuffing over the holiday season needs to stop!

So, back to cake. Well, the story is that I wanted to try using a lot of grapefruit in something sweet. Grapefruit is not an ingredient I use too often when making desserts. Either it's a breakfeast food item, or on the sweet side, it's a sorbet. But what about it in cake? I find it such a beautiful fruit, with refreshing vibrant colours. It could only work in a cake that screams summer!

Initially, my ideas were floating around grapefruit and Campari... but because there was no Campari at home, and I was too impatient to bake, I put that idea aside- for the meantime. Then I was concerned with balancing out the bitterness from the grapefruit. It needed to be part of something sweet and tender, which suddenly brought back some nostalgic thoughts into my head. My mom used to make this signature cake which was something like a spongecake, literally bathed in freshly squeezed orange juice (sweetened), and then coated with whipped cream and coconut. It's without a doubt my mother's signature cake, and each bite is meaningful and packed with memories. So I decided to do something slightly similar, but not quite, which led me to this:

It looked pretty, smelled nice, and tasted absolutely wonderfully great! I just wish I had added way more fruits though. The cake texture is perfect, and each spoonful melts in your mouth bringing in exotic flowers, beach waves, sunrays, and pink skies... But beyond all that, what I enjoyed the most was the satisfaction baking (and cooking) can provide. I really do look forward for more memorable kitchen moments in 2008! For the recipe, scroll down...

Recipe for summer escapade:

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 150gr sugar
• 150gr butter
• 170gr flour
• Baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 200cc coconut milk
• 300cc fresh liquid cream
• Shredded coconut
• Grapefruit, litchis, and raspberries

How to make it:

1. Preheat oven to th5
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar together.
3. Beat in the butter. Mix
4. Follow with the flour, baking powder, and pinch of salt. Mix batter well.
5. Place batter in mould and bake for 40-45 mins.
6. When cake is ready, pull out of oven, let cool and then slice horizontally.
7. In the meantime, whisk the cream until it becomes whipped cream. Set aside in the fridge.
8. Drizzle over each cooled cake slice the coconut milk.
9. On the bottom cake slice, add the fruits- grapefruit, litchis and raspberries.
10. Close the cake with the upper slice.
11. With a spatula, cover the top and sides of the cake with the whipped cream, and sprinkle all over with shredded coconut.
12. Place cake in fridge for about an hour before serving.