cream cheese Archives

This post reminds me of my favourite time of the year..Summer! I adore everything about Summer. But what sets it apart from the other seasons for me, is the abundant choices it brings along when it comes to fruits and vegetables. I’m far from Summer at the moment…quite the opposite to be precise but the last I remember of Summer was filling up my baskets with loads of sweet, luscious stone fruits at the markets and biting into them as soon as I reached home.

Plums are still available here though its winter (I spotted them at Coles yesterday) but I like to buy them in season. So this is one of those recipes I promised I would pull out from my reserves for my friends in the northern hemisphere. I actually have quite a few Summer recipes that are yet to be posted. A small consolation I guess, as we get past the colder months.

This is a lovely tray-bake cake. Easy to make yet combining the best of two worlds. A baked cheesecake and a regular moist cake with fruit in it. There are multiple textures that come to play as you take a mouthful. The plums can be replaced with any other stone fruit or even berries. The cake tastes best when warm with a custard or whipped cream on the side.

Plum Cream Cheese Swirl Cake (Adapted with variation from Delicious Magazine, March 2012)
Serves 10

250g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup (55g) castor sugar
4 eggs
175g softened unsalted butter
175g brown sugar (about 7/8th of a cup)
200g self-raising flour, sifted (about 2 cups)
400g plums, seeds removed, sliced
Icing sugar, to dust

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line an 18cm x 28cm lamington (rectangular) pan.

Add cream cheese, vanilla, castor sugar and 1 egg to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 2-3 minutes until smooth.

Place butter, brown sugar, flour and remaining 3 eggs in a clean bowl and beat for 2-3 minutes until creamy. Spread half the flour mixture in the tray followed by half the cream cheese mixture, swirling to gently combine, then top with half the plums. Top with remaining flour mixture, cream cheese mixture and plums. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden.

Dust with icing sugar, slice and serve warm with a custard or whipped cream.

If this banana cake is looking anything different to you than…well, a banana cake, let me assure you this is the same one, you and me bake in a loaf pan and slice up for breakfast or bake into muffins to put into your lunchboxes. Yeah, the same one that transforms the fate of overripe bananas and they end up with some dessert love (a lot of love in my house) than entering the dustbin.

I started out the usual, predictable way. Ignoring the bananas while they turned black and made the cupboard smell serving as a reminder each time I opened the door that it was time to use them up. I put the batter together intending to bake it in my loaf tin. But the loaf tin was nowhere in sight. And that was because it was sitting in the freezer with a semifreddo I made a few days back. I didn’t want muffins so the batter landed up in a cake pan.

You know I have a weakness for round cakey objects. I feel the urge to spice it up or add nuts or anything that would go with the cake.And frost and decorate and just do something to it. So, before it hit the cake pan I added some poppy seeds to the batter. I frosted it with a quick cream cheese frosting which I’ve been meaning to try out in a while. This one uses whipped cream instead of butter along with the cream cheese so it is lighter and naturally uses far less sugar to get a piping consistency. The frosting can be easily spread on top of the cake if you are not comfortable with piping bags. A drizzle of caramel sauce (store bought) finished the cake. Both the recipe for the cake and the frosting have been separately adapted with some variation from Joy Of Baking

The flavours are lovely together. I was amazed how good the poppy seeds tasted in a banana cake. I think this is by the far the easiest cakes I have made despite having a dressed up look.

Banana Poppy Seed Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Serves 6-8

For the Banana Poppy Seed Cake
13/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp. poppy seeds
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 large ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
1 tsp vanilla essence
Cream Cheese Frosting, to frost
3-4 tbsp. thick caramel sauce, to drizzle (I used store bought)

For the Cream Cheese Frosting
125g cream cheese, room temparature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted
1/3 cup cold whipping cream or heavy cream.

Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Grease and line the base of a 19 cm round cake tin with baking paper.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and poppy seeds.
In a medium sized bowl combine the mashed banana, eggs, melted butter and vanilla with a wooden spoon. Lightly fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until combined. Take care not to over mix the batter or it might result in a rubbery cake. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for about 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre come out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and keep aside for 5 minutes. Carefully turn the cake onto a wire rack and cool till room temperature. Once cooled, pipe or dollop cream cheese frosting onto the cake. Drizzle with caramel sauce.

To make the cream cheese frosting: In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and confectioners sugar and beat until smooth. Gradually add the heavy cream and whip until the frosting is thick enough to pipe. Add more sugar or cream as needed to get the right consistency. In case you are using a brand of heavy cream that does not whip easily, then whip the cream separately to stiff peaks and fold it gradually into the cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate till needed.