SUNDAY WITH MARLENA- CHEESE FILLED JERUSALEM KODAFA DRENCHED WITH SYRUP

This is one of the recipes I thought looked so interesting and the picture was so pretty in Marlena's cookbook. The "cake" is made with couscous, cheese and lots of honey. I` love honey! I love those little packets you get in a restaurant at breakfast, I just eat the honey straight out of the packets. I also love couscous so this recipe really caught my eye and the end result was a buttery very intensely honey/saffron flavored cake. I think I would have liked a softer creamier filling but it maybe just that the cheeses I used weren't conducive to that or maybe I baked it too long. I wasn't quite sure what the texture was supposed to be or how set it should be. I want to try making this again with different cheeses.

Serves 6
preheat oven to 375-400 degrees

1 1/2C couscous
2 1/4 C boiling water
1C butter cut into small pieces
1egg lightly beaten
pinch salt
1 3/4 C Ricotta Cheese- the ricotta I used was very dry, try using a creamier ricotta
7 oz cheese, such as mozarella, Taleggio or Monterey Jack grated- I used mozarella but I think I'd use Jack next time since it is creamier
1 1/2C honey
2-3 pinches saffron threads or cinnamon
1/2 C water
1tsp orange flower water or lemon juice
6 Tbsp chopped pistachio nuts.

Put the couscous in a bowl and cover with the boiling water. Stir and let sit for about 30 minutes or until the water is completely absorbed and couscous is cooled.
Fluff the couscous with a fork, stir the butter into the couscous then stir in the beaten egg and salt. Spread half of the couscous into a 10" spingform pan (sprayed with Pam), patting evenly to form the base.In a bowl mix the cheeses and 2-4 Tbsp honey. Spread the honey mixture over the couscous.

Spread the remaining couscous over the cheese mixture pressing down gently. Bake until the couscous begins to puff about 30 min.
While the cake is baking make the syrup:
Put the remaining honey, the honey or cinnamon (or both) and water into a pan. Bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for 5-7 minutes until the mixture turns to a syrup. Remove from heat and stir in the orange flower water or lemon juice.
When the Kodafa is cooked place under the broiler for a few minutes to brown the top of the cake.
Sprinkle with the pistachio nuts, serve warm with the syrup.
Like I said the ricotta cheese I used was extremely dry so that might be why my filling was dry. I think I might next time mix the ricotta with some marscapone cheese and mix a little bit of honey and lemon rind into it. Instead of serving the syrup with each slice, I ended up pouring the syrup over the cake so it would soak up the syrup. I stored the left overs in the refrigerator and you do need to pop it into the microwave for a few minutes to slightly warm it otherwise it is very hard. The flavor reminds me of Baklava. A very interesting cake.

Go to Shankari's blog, she is also doing a honey cake. Mel will also have a great recipe for you also.

WEDNESDAY WITH MARLENA SPIELER

First off I am thrilled to say I've finally met Marlena!! She is sweet, down to earth and a lot of fun. The story of our meeting is a story for another blog.
Today I am featuring POLISH APPLE CAKE.
This is a moist dense cake layered with apples that I adapted from Marlena's recipe that she based on a recipe from an old Polish lady in a California Lubavitcher community.

POLISH APPLE CAKE

31/4C self-rising flour
3-4 large apples
2tsp ground cinnamon
21/2C super fine sugar ( I used regular granulated sugar and it was fine)
4 eggs lightly beaten
1C vegetable oil
1/2 C orange juice
2tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
grease a 9X13 pan, dust with flour

Core (do not peel) and thinly slice the apples.
Put the apple slices in a bowl and mix the cinnamon and 5Tbs of the sugar.. toss to coat the apple slices. Set aside.
In bowl beat together the eggs, remaining sugar,vegetable oil, orange juice, and vanilla until well combined. Sift together the remaining flour and salt and stir it into the wet mixture.
Pour two-thirds of the cake mixture into the prepared pan, top with about 1/3 of the apple slices. Pour the remaining cake batter over the apple slices and top with the remaining apples. Any of the juices left in the bowl, pour over the apples.

Bake for about 1 hour or until golden brown and cake tester comes out clean.
Leave the cake to cool in the pan to allow the juices to soak in. Serve while warm or at room
temperature.

note: Using orange juice instead of milk is typical of Jewish baking as it allow the cake to be eaten with both meat and dairy products in keeping with the Kosher laws.

Be sure to go to Mel and Shankari's blog for their Wednesday with Marlena recipes.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

BIRTHDAY CAKE

A birthday cake for one of our client's mother. Sue made the cake (carrot) and I'm the decorator.

She loved the cake so much she ate some last night instead of waiting for today and then had cake for breakfast this morning. She is the cutest little lady.

_Eileen_

Birthday cake

Since Kenzie was about 2yrs old I have been making her birthday cakes, on and off. The first one was Nemo (Finding Nemo), last year she wanted Hibiscus flowers on her cake to represent Hawaii. This year she wanted a puppy paw print cake. She wanted chocolate cake to represent muddy puppy paw prints. Decorations were to be bones and paw prints. This is girl knows her mind, she's turning 6 this year.

It is just a basic Devils Food Cake with chocolate butter cream filling and butter cream icing.

I found a cute paw print stamp and used cocoa to make the prints.

The "bones" are made of Royal Icing. No matter how hard you try, even with a good crumb coat it is hard not to get little crumbs of chocolate in the final frosting. Good thing we were working with muddy paws... those little bits of chocolate crumbs turned into little mud spatters.