Belle Pastry

One of happy moments in the month of August came in a box full of treats.  My birthday fell on the second week of last month and I went to Seattle with my family for a small celebration.  In the beginning of the year I was so stoked to have it somewhere warm and sandy; but in reality having it lavishly isn't always the option.  I settled for something less but equally excellent, in fact it made me fell in love with its beauty.

Anyway, when I was in Seattle I got a chance to visit one bakery in Bellevue area which is called Belle Pastry.  It's located in the downtown area and when I visited it in mid-morning, it's already packed with people buying breads and pastries.  It sells artisan bread, fine pastries, sandwiches, chocolates, and cookies as well.  The store is delightful, the offerings are excellent.

Sadly, the only pictures I took were these two cakes, Pear Caramel Mousse and Le Pistache.  I wish I bought more!

Cherry Cream Layered Cake

Yesterday I just got back from my short vacation to Eastern Oregon for five days.  I had an amazing time there, the scenery is so beautiful, it's worth driving the long miles.  Even though I'm tempted to write the story here, I usually write it down on my personal blog.  I also am taking a two-week vacation from my summer work since last week, and today I realize how good it feels not to wake up in the morning to my alarm buzz.

Last night while I was just done with dinner and starting to read last week's newspapers, my phone rang.  It was my friend, Julie, who wanted to come over and she's saying that she had something to share with me.  In less than five minutes she was at my door, bringing me  a tasty treat.  It was Rainier cherries; big in size and sweet in flavor.  We exchanged our hellos and started to talk about where to buy cherries with the best prize.  So far, she won :)  I went to pick cherries a couple weeks ago at Hood River and they're quite expensive though they're organics.  My parents and my family picked several types of cherries, including Bing, Lambert, Van, and Rainier.  We went a bit overboard with the deed, it seemed that once you picked you couldn't stop until all the buckets were full.  I don't know if that's called greedy or it's just plain uncontrollable yearning after waiting for a year for the cherry season to arrive.

Most of the cherries have been eaten fresh, some will be made into cherry pie filling, and a handful made it as the filling for a simple, four-layer cake. I made up my mind of what kind of cake I wanted to make, this time a vanilla chiffon cake was suffice to be the base.  Whipped cream was the frosting and fresh Rainier cherries soaked in kirsch dressed up the cake.  The result was a rustic and homey cake.  The flavor is fantastic though, if you're a fan of chiffon cake, you'll like it when it's paired with whipped cream and fresh fruits--I'm always partial to this combo anyway.

There's no definite recipe to get this cake right.  All you need is some creativity:

• Have about 2-3 cups of fresh, pitted cherries, let them soak in a tablespoon or two of kirsch in a bowl before you start the cake.


• Recipe for vanilla chiffon cake can be found here.  It's from my old blog and to change it into a vanilla-flavored cake, change the lime juice with water, omit lemon extract, add vanilla extract instead, and add lemon zest.


• In this post, I made the cake in two 9-inch pans and each cake was cut into two layers.  Alternately, you could still bake it in three 8-inch pans like the original recipe.  Baking time for 9-inch pans is about 20 minutes.


• I made whipped cream frosting from 2 cups of heavy cream and 2 tablespoon of sugar.

It didn't need to look perfect as along as it tasted delicious!  My son could eat this night after night for dessert.

Strawberry Milkshake

I hope you haven't gotten bored with another strawberry related post.  I promise to move on once my strawberry supply has become nil :)

To make this milkshake more interesting, I added a layer of freshly blended strawberries with sugar at the bottom of the glass and then topped it with the milkshake.  Add whipped cream at the end, you'll have a pretty satisfying milkshake!

The basic recipe for the milkshake layer is:

1 1/2 cups strawberries

1/2 pint vanilla ice cream

1/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste

Mix everything in a blender until smooth.  Makes about 2 cups.

If for some reason you think the ice cream part is not enough, feel free to add some more.  I like to taste it along the way to make sure I get it right.  Again, there's no right or wrong way to make this; here's a glass to celebrate the summer of the year.

Strawberry Pops

Now is the right time to enjoy pops, especially homemade strawberry pops.  They are not hard to make, in fact, I don't have a specific recipe of how to make it.  Just blend fresh strawberries with sugar and some milk.  Pour it into a popsicle mold and there you have it!  Perfect for a Fourth of July picnic, I must say.  Enjoy the pictures and make some!

Three-Berry Spoon Cake

Strawberry season is in full swing in Oregon.  I was not planning to go u-picking this summer for strawberry because my parents have a little patch of evergreen strawberry in their garden.  Even though their strawberry is small in size but they are prolific plants.  Each week either my mom or dad can be found in the garden picking the juicy morsels; they are trying to save most of it before the slugs can get hold of.  But I gave in and set out u-picking last weekend.  My goal was to pick Hood strawberries, but the two farms that I went to, both closed their Hood fields because of overpicking.  People are really going for those berry once the weather turn nice.  Last weekend we had back-to-back sunny days and this weekend the sun finally spread out its glorious rays.

So even though I didn't get to pick Hood strawberries, I got to pick Tillamook variety in a Sauvie Island farm.  Of all the berries that I picked some will be made into jam, lemonade concentrate, pies, milkshakes, pops, and marmalade.  Yes, I have lofty ideas yet I am still finding time to do all of those so for right now my strawberries are safely bagged in the freezer.  Some of the fresh ones were made into this three-berry spoon cake.  I have this urge to make cake with berries for some time, something substantial, something that I can sink my teeth into.   Looking up a recipe in my book collection, I found the perfect answer.  I've never made a spoon cake before and I can't find the origin for this cake either.  All I know is that this is a homey dessert; the batter part is similar to pancake batter and it puffed up considerably and was pretty sturdy.  I just love it.  You should see my husband scarfed down this cake in a beat :)

Here is the recipe and you really should try it this summer!

Three-Berry Spoon Cake

Makes 8 to 10 servings

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For the filling:

4 pints strawberries (2 pounds), hulled and quartered if they are big; if they are small you could leave them whole

2 pints blackberries (12 ounces)

2 pints blueberries (12 ounces)

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoon cornstarch

For the batter:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, melted

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To make the filling:  Combine strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries in a large bowl with lemon juice, sugar, and cornstarch.  Toss to combine; let stand 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degree F.

To make the batter:  Combine flour, sugar, lemon zest, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; whisk to combine.  In a smaller bowl, whisk eggs, milk, and vanilla extract.  Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk them until evenly moistened, then whisk in the melted butter until evenly smooth.

Scatter the filling in a 13-by-9-inch baking dish.  Spoon the batter on top, leaving small gaps.  Bake in the center of oven for 1 hour, or until the fruit is bubbling and a toothpick inserted into the topping comes out clean.  Let the cake cool for 1 hour before serving.

Source:  adapted from Food and Wine:  Reinventing the Classics