Hubby's Birthday 2010: Durian Cream Cake & Dark Chocolate Truffle Cherry Cake

My husband's birthday was here again. I wanted to make something special & different for his birthday cake and had been pondering over this matter for quite sometime. ;P Reason was his favorite fruit was Durian, so making a durian cake seems like a super idea. However, the kids were not fans of durian so they won't get to enjoy their daddy's birthday treat. :P So that falls back to chocolate cake again, similar to that birthday cake I made for him last year. And since I couldn't really decide on one, I decided to go ahead and make both! Call me crazy but I think it'll be crazier if I made a durian chocolate cake, lol! So on his Lunar birthday (based on Chinese calendar), I made him his favorite, Durian Cream Cake.

A simple 6 inch square cake, containing 6 layers of vanilla sponge and 6 layers of durian cream. Well, you would wonder if there is any significant meaning in that? No, lol! It's just so happened, that's all. :)

I had made it so small because only my husband and I will be enjoying this cake, so better not make it any bigger then necessary.

Here it is, a slice of the durian cream cake. :) Pretty tall for such a small cake I must say. Well, it almost looked like a cube, lol! But a delicious cube that is. :) The vanilla sponge cake was nice and soft, so when it's sandwiched between the thick luscious durian cream, it was perfect! Each bite is light and yet packed full of flavors...a dream desert for durian lovers, well besides the real durian of course. :)

I am actually rushing to post this up, so I'll skip posting the recipe this time. Will try to post up the recipe in future if opportunity comes. Overall, very satisfied with this simple cake, and dear hubby was delighted too. :)
The other cake I made for him on his actual birthday, which was yesterday is....drum-roll....Dark Chocolate Truffle Cherry Cake! Never heard of it? Well, that's because I came up this cake "combo" myself, lol! I wanted to make something deep, dark and chocolaty, but yet I wanted to add that bit of moisture to the cake, so can cherries seems appropriate. :) Almost like black forest but not exactly because of the truffle layer. :P

As you can see, it has a number of "rough edges", not that well decorated...*sigh*. Reason was I only started working on it on that morning and even went out lunch and shopping in between before even completing it, lol! Well it's a Sunday fellows, ...heehee. ;)

Although I had the idea of making a dark chocolate truffle cherry cake, but I have no clue what so ever how am I gonna decorate it! I had to browse through all my bakery books for ideas, but still couldn't piece up to a nice picture. :P In the end I just went with the flow, and went with more melted chocolate and thus this not so fantastic looking cake. :P

As you can see from this cut out slice, this is just a simple 2 layer chocolate sponge cake with a thick layer of dark chocolate truffle (yes, thicker then the sponge cake, lol) and sweet cherries sandwiched between, yummm! And considering I use purely Valrohna 70% cocoa baking chocolate and powder, you can imagine now deep and chocolaty this cake will be. ;)

I think I can have a slice of this any time of the day or year, lol! Hubby? Of course he loved it too! Luckily the rest of the family enjoyed it very much too and complimented it was chocolaty and not too sweet. :) I was glad I made this 2nd cake for the rest of the family to enjoy. Although much more work involved in making 2 birthday cakes....but isn't 2 better then one? Lol! But I told my hubby...just this once, hahaha!

Have a great great week all!

Plum-Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Fact, I always look forward to going back to my parents place. There is always good food, good company and lots of laughter and love involved. My parents are excellent cooks and their theory is to cook more then enough to feed an army. Wasteful? Try telling it to them, but they that feel if everyone has eaten to their heart's content, one will be happy. And happy we are every single time. ;) Left overs? Always taken home to savor the next day by us siblings of course, lol! Their generous move always made me motivated to bake something nice for them. This time is no exception. I made an Italian Plum-Cream Cheese Coffee cake. My parents love fruits and I always make a point to incorporate fruits into my bakes for them to enjoy.

Very rustic looking right? Not as pretty as I hoped it will be, lol! Simple butter bake at the bottom, stone fruits and topped with dollops of cream cheese mixture...how homey and simple can you get with this?

This was made a few weeks back when plums were still in season. But you can definitely replace the plums with any fruits that you fancy. So slow on blogging nowadays, made me feel really out of fashion sometimes, lol! :)

Ingredients for Plum-Cream Cheese Coffee Cake: (Makes an 8" round)
Cake:
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
5 tbsp caster sugar
2 large eggs
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1.25 cup (150g) all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
100ml fresh milk

Filling
8 to 10 plums, cut half and pitted
4 ounces cream cheese (1/2 package of the standard Philadelphia cheese )
1/2 cup (112g) caster sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease an 8" spring-form pan or a fluted, deep tart pan. Place parchment paper.

• For the cake, cream together to butter and sugar will creamy. Add eggs, vanilla and blend until smooth.
• Fold in flour and salt to make a smooth batter. Pour batter into prepared pan.
• Gently pressed in the halved plums with cut sides down into the cake batter.
• Cream cheese layer: Mix cream cheese and remaining ingredients in a bowl and whisk till well blended. Spread the mixture over the plums in the cake pan.

• Bake in the preheated oven until the top is golden brown and appears set, about 45 mins. Cool completely before slicing to serve.

A shot of a sliced piece, looks much better then the whole cake I think. :) At least we get to see the juicy bright purple plums in the cake. :) Perhaps I have pressed the plums way too deep into the cake batter, so cannot really see the fruits from the outside. :P I love the tangy & juicy taste from the plums, a very nice combo with the creamy cream cheese top. And the soft butter cake layer at the bottom makes an excellent compliment to it. ;)

This cake is a really simple and delicious cake to whip up. Try it yourself and you will taste this delicious cake just like me and my family. ;) Happy Baking!!