Monday, August 6, 2012

Baking Recipe: Strawberry Lemonade Charlotte Cakes






It's MONDAY and I thought what would be more fun to do than kick start the week off right? Lets start the week or what is perhaps the last of summer or winter days with this tangy light STRAWBERRY LEMONADE CHARLOTTE CAKES.

The cake is almost like a pound cake texture, ultra moist and dense as there is sour cream and lemon zest incorporated to the batter. This is really simple to make and delicious. There is no need to cream butter and sugar, like the butter cake in some of my recipes that I have been making.
The Charlotte Cake is then, taken up a notch where White Chocolate Strawberry Ganache is added and lightly swirled into the batter, before being baked off in the oven. After the Charlotte Cakes were cooled, they were then taken apart, filled with some fresh strawberries, and a small dollop of fresh whipped cream is added [No! this is not a strawberry shortcake, and is just not it at all]. I had always been a huge fan of balancing anything sweet with either something dark and rich like dark chocolate, coffee or with something tangy, like a citrus glaze in this case. Very much like Yin & Yang. To make the cakes fit for any summer day, it wouldn't be a regular lemon glaze. It has to be Pink Lemonade Glaze. Don't you just love it? Is this Strawberry Lemonade Charlotte Cake 'drool worthy'?

Things will start to change gradually in Chic & Gorgeous Treats as you can see. To your right, you will be able to see my floating ribbon of buttons.I know that I have tons to share, but never really had the time to record or photo everything around me. So to share with you on what I am up to, or some photos that didn't make it to my blog, follow me on INSTAGRAM, or  if you like to see what I dream almost daily about, follow me on PINTEREST or if you are like me, feeling bored, where I sometimes take a moment to read through tweets, and respond to what I think interests me, follow me on TWITTER too.

What other changes? For starters, I will aim to post 2-3 times a week. Say every alternate day. For example; Monday-Wednesday and Friday. There will be at least a TGIF photo post when I can squeeze in something. A couple more exciting projects I have lined up for you, perhaps more Guest Posts? If you like what I do, feel free to buzz me at chicgorgeoustreats [at] gmail [dot] com, as I like nothing more than taking part in all the food blogging events out there.


Strawberry Lemonade Charlotte Cakes
by Chic & Gorgeous Treats



*makes 1 dozen (medium) sized cakelets
*cakes can be stored in a container, in a fridge up to 3 days without strawberry and cream filling.

INGREDIENTS
Strawberry White Chocolate Ganache
½ cup heavy cream
1 cup white chocolate buttons
¼ teaspoon strawberry essence
¼ cup strawberry puree

Charlotte Cakes
220g unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
2 cups cake flour, sifted
1 ½ cups caster sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon zest
¾ cups sour cream

Filling & Glaze
1 pack (125g) strawberries, cut in cubes
½ cup heavy whipping cream, whipped
soft peaks
3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons lemon juice
5 tablespoons Country Farm’s Pink
Lemonade Mix
cups hot water


DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium deep saucepan, heat cream until you see some bubbles forms at the
side but not boiled over. Turn heat off, and pour over white chocolate buttons. Using
a spatula, stir to help white chocolate melt. Add strawberry essence, and fold in
strawberry puree creating swirls with the spatula. (*To make strawberry puree: Blitz
½ cup of fresh/frozen strawberries with 2-3 tablespoons of caster sugar.) Cover with
a cling film and chill in the fridge for 2 hours or until ganache hardens slightly.

2. Preheat oven to 160°C, and grease medium sized fluted cake pans with some butter.
In a mixing bowl, on medium low speed beat melted butter, caster sugar, lemon zest,
eggs, pure vanilla extract and sour cream until well combined. Sift flour and baking
powder together and add to the wet mixture in 2 batches beating after each addition.
Beat for another 3 minutes until flour and wet mixture has fully combined. Pour batter
slightly less than a ¼ cup full, and bake for 5 minutes. Take out from oven, then scoop a
small dollop of strawberry white chocolate ganache into each charlotte cake. Top with
remainder charlotte cake batter until ¾ cup full and bake for another 10-15 minutes
or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Set aside to cool before removing it out of
the moulds and transfer it to a wire rack to let it cool completely.

3. Meanwhile, whip heavy whipping cream until soft peaks, and cut strawberries into
small cubes. Prepare glaze by mixing powdered sugar, lemon juice and pink lemonade
mix all together with boiling hot water.

4. To assemble, slice charlotte cakes into half, taking off a little cake from the base. Scoop
some strawberries and top it off with dollop of fresh whipped cream. Cover charlotte cake
with its’ own lid. Pour lemonade glaze over each cake, and chill in the fridge close to 1 hour.
Thaw 10 minutes before serving. Serve with a glass of cold milk, latter, or warm English tea.
ENJOY!
                                               *loosely adapted from Donna Hay





Have a good week everyone!!

xx





































































































37 comments:

  1. I'm in love with these cakes, honestly they look spectacular and very delicious :D
    Can't wait to see the guest posts to come - I would contact in a heartbeat but have some lined up and with my exams it's a little difficult :P

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No worries CCU! All the best for your exams and hopefully will get to guest post for you one day eh?

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  2. Oh my! These mini cakes are a treat to the eyes and love your choice of flavors!

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    1. I have such a weakness for berries and anything tangy. It's perfect for us here since it's hot all year round. Might start experimenting with stronger flavours ;)

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  3. This cake look so beautiful and I bet it taste wonderful!

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  4. These are making my mouth water! I love the sound of that white chocolate strawberry ganache!!

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    Replies
    1. It is delish! Though I may not be a huge fan of white chocolate, adding a berry to it helps to balance the flavours ;)

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  5. I love the molds that you used! They're so chic and gorgeous! And fitting for the blog too ;)

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    Replies
    1. Hehehe.. I do try my hardest to please the eyes :).. Thanks for coming over..xoxo

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  6. Pretty pictures as always, Jo.
    I love me a cake recipe where I don't need to cream the butter. And this strawberry ganache got me! Think I'll start the day with dessert! :)

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    Replies
    1. Yeayy!! Nice to share my guilty pleasures in the food blogosphere..

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  7. These cakes are gorgeous :D!!! That ganache looks/sounds divine! Looking forward to more treats like these :)

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    Replies
    1. THANKS Nic! I am working on changing Chic & Gorgeous. Cause she's definitely growing and the aim is to only make really great treats that not only look good to the eyes ;).

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  8. I came back here again and I am drooling while staring at the screen. Filled with fresh strawberries and fresh whipped cream....What have you done to me?

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  9. Oh! These are on the cover of the latest Donna Hay magazine. Yours are as beautifully made as Donna's. Very impressive!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Zoe! How're you? Thanks so much for coming over.. Yes I loved the look of the cakes so much and was so inspired that I had to try my hands on making them.

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  10. Your Strawberry Lemonade Charlotte Cakes look delicious:) Strawberries and lemon are a tasty combination. Beautiful photos!

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    Replies
    1. They are right? So light and instead of drinking lemonade, we get to have it in our cakes ;p

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  11. What a way to start a Monday - def on the right footing & off to a roaring start! I LOVE these. Everthing you ake is mag so it comes as no surprise Jo:) Those strawberry swirls are too precious for words!

    chow :) DEVAKI @ weavethousandflavors

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Devaki, you always have a sense of describing your words ;). I always anticipate for your comments, cause they make me keep dreaming about what to bake next to entice all of you with my treats.

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  12. Hi Jo, your charlottte cake form are so adorable...certainly have not seen anything like these around here. These cute little cake look and sound so yummy with the strawberry ganache, and the glaze on the top!
    Certainly a Top 9 choice...if we could even get on Daily Buzz, but what I've noticed, they already chose who they are promoting the top 9 and have accepted them for their food community.
    Hugggsss!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awww. THANKS Elisabeth to think that they are still Top 9 worthy! Yeah I am beginning to notice that about DailyBuzz. Oh! well, we just gotta keep doing what we love and support one another in the food blog world! Huggss, Jo

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  13. These mini charlotte cakes are so pretty!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are dainty and quite girl.. oh! well, time for me to make some men friendly treats. soon I hope.. lOL

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  14. Amazing! I would love to taste one of these please :)

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    Replies
    1. I wish they would allow us to mail food abroad.. but then I know it will never make past the immigration. Sadly! Otherwise I will be more than happy to air fly them to you frozen. hehehe..

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  15. SO cute AND yummy!!! I love berry desserts and cakes filled with berries are the best!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are aren't they? I feel absolutely the same ;)

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  16. It looks so moist and dense! Great ingredients! I would like to try this recipe once.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Vera! Thanks for coming over. I will be checking your blog soon too. Do stay in touch. Cheers, Jo

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  17. these look so so so good! love the flavors in here!

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  18. I not only love the name, since I live in Charlotte NC:-) The cakes look gorgeous, and the flavors sound fantastic! Take care, Terra

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  19. New to cooking and need help, please...what are white chocolate buttons, strawberry essence and strawberry puree and where can I buy them?....You have me drooling. Can hardly wait to try to make them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. White chocolate buttons, can be substituted with white chocolate chips. Basically one shape more like tiny buttons and the other more like little hershey kisses. You can always make your own strawberry puree, by processing them in a blender or I guess you can get both strawberry essence and puree from your local baking specialty store. Essence can always be found at the baking aisle in supermarkets. Hope that helps!

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  20. These cakes look absolutely delicious, but where on earth did you manage to find the individual fluted cake tins? I have been looking for months with no success. Any suggestions? Please help!

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Hey foodies! THANK YOU for leaving me with sweet comments. I hope to inspire you like how you inspire me. Cheers~

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