Passion-Orange-Guava (POG) Cake

Before POG was a game in the ’90s, it was an acronym for a juice blend invented in the ’70s on Maui. The tart yet sweet blend of passion fruit, orange, and guava juices is nostalgic for many — especially my Dad.

(Oddly enough, the game “pogs” is named after the juice — in ’91 a school teacher used POG juice caps to teach a modern version of a plantation-era game flipping ‘milk covas’ from the ’30s. My ’90s mind would have been blown!)

POG is relatively unknown on the mainland, and it is near impossible to find. I have only seen Aloha or Hawaiian Sun brands on the east coast, which are thick, syrupy, and lack freshness.

But, the POG experience can be re-created. For my sister’s rehearsal dinner in March we catered dessert from Taste of Aloha and the POG cupcakes were non-negotiable.

I asked baking kumu Amy if she would share her cupcake recipe so I could make it into a birthday cake for my Dad. Thankfully she obliged!

Cross-Section

Slice

Cake

POG cupcakes from my sister’s rehearsal

The POG cake was a hit (again!). Since I made cakes instead of cupcakes, the baking time was much longer (~40 minutes), but the cake was still incredibly moist and flavorful.

I also opted for 2 different fillings since there were 4 layers of cake. Filling 1 was a tropical fruit curd which consisted of: peach-passion fruit juice, palekaiko tea, ginger, orange puree, li hing powder. Filling 2 was the incredibly creamy and smooth liliko’i butter from Kahuku Farms that I recently lugged back from Hawai’i.

I covered the cake in toasted coconut because I didn’t want to make candied orange peel, but in hindsight it would probably be quicker to make the orange peel!

Earl Grey Madelines

For this month’s Secret Recipe Club I spent a long time perusing Susan’s Australia-based blog, My Whole Food Family, bookmarking recipes such as Cappuccino Brownie Bites, Palmiers, Pear Tea Cake, Christmas Cake, and Caramel Cheesecake. I had my heart set on re-creating this daring Bûche de Nöel and even bought a silicone mold for it, but time got away from me.

But then I remembered that over a year ago I had purchased a madeline pan from World Market and still had not used it. Additionally, I had all of the ingredients for these Earl Grey Tea Madeleines on hand, including a brand new tin of Cream of Earl Grey.

I took a batch of these over to our veterinarian as a thank you for all of their help during Leopold’s last days.

These madeline cake-cookies were the perfect treat for tea-time. The fruit zest is bright and the madeline texture is springy without being greasy. The tea flavor was lost on me, but it might have been the tea I used (even though I added more than the recipe called for) or the fact that my lemon zest was extra “zesty”. The original recipe calls for the zest of half a lemon, but the recipe printed in Bon Appétit lists only a packed half teaspoon, which I would recommend to have more balanced flavors.

If you are planning to make these, remember to allow the batter to chill!
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Pineapple Tarts (鳳梨酥)

For this month’s Secret Recipe Club I was assigned Shirley from Enriching Your Kid, who is a clinical psychologist-slash-homemaker that chronicles her family recipes and cooking experiences through her blog. There were a few recipes I was thinking about making, especially Mint Chutney, Dal Lentils, and Chole Chana Masala. I had been itching to bake something so I zoomed in on pineapple jam. I was thinking about all the ways I could use the pineapple jam: pineapple cookies, swirled into banana bread, plain on toast, and pineapple cakes.

The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival was in the month of October so I already had Asian sweets on my mind. Pineapple cakes (sometimes called pineapple tarts) are all over Asia and each region has its own special format. The Taiwanese version is named s Fènglísū (鳳梨酥).

I really enjoy eating pineapple cakes, but the store-bought kind tend to be dry and the filling lacking in flavor. making your own pineapple filling allows you to control the texture, spices, and sweetness. I switched out the cardamom in the recipe for ginger and cut down the sugar, cooking it down until it was nice and thick.

The dough for these tarts comes together quickly and is ridiculously easy. There are only 3 ingredients: sweetened condensed milk, flour, and egg yolk. I busted out my wooden mooncake molds that I picked up in Chicago’s Chinatown years ago and brushed them with an egg wash mixture before filling.

Mooncake Mold

Freshly baked cakes

Eaten warm, the dough is thick, buttery with a nice tender crumb. The filling is the perfect consistency that doesn’t ooze out when you bite into it but is soft enough to mix with the dough in each bite.

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An Edible Flower Picnic

Today is my husband’s birthday! Earlier in the month we received some lovely edible flowers from Marx Foods as part of their Edible Flowers Photography Challenge.

About edible flowers:

Nasturtiums – Nasturtiums have a peppery flavor which lends well to just about any savory dish.

Pansies – Pansies have a mild semi-sweet wintergreen flavor that pairs well with both sweet and savory dishes. They float flat in liquids, too, which can make them extra fun to experiment with.

Micro Flower Blend – a blend of tiny flowers that varies with what’s freshest at the farm. This blend typically includes flowers like Micro Marigolds, Sun Daisies, Dianthus, White Mums, Bachelor Buttons, Micro Orchids and/or Starflowers. Some of the flowers in the micro blend can be bitter, but the blend can be used in many ways.

We had a great time visiting the local markets and picking up some artisanal ingredients to pair with these beautiful flowers. We couldn’t settle on just one way to use them so we came up with a few different uses and had an picnic this past Saturday while dining al fresco on our balcony.

Smoked Salmon Toasts with Edible Flowers

My first idea was to pair the flowers with jewel-like salmon. I usually don’t like cured or smoked salmon, but I did my research and visited a place that specializes in smoking meats, Neopol Savory Smokery. They had several different types of salmon so we took home the traditional, Thai, and Green Tea smoked salmons. The salmon was layered on top of some toasted rye bread, cream cheese we mixed with chives, and topped with pickled golden beets and edible micro flowers.

Rhubarb Macarons with Edible Microflowers and Lemon Curd Filling

I had originally planned to make some earl grey madelines decorated with microflowers, but I could not find my madeline pan anywhere! I must have been crazy because I decided to take a crack at making macarons for the first time ever! I found this excellent resource for macarons on brave tart that not only said I didn’t need to age my egg whites, but had very specific instructions for every step along the way.

After adding a dash of rhubarb syrup to the mix, I piped the macarons and topped them with the flowers before baking. Some didn’t develop the macaron “feet”, but they were all delicious! I filled most with lemon curd but some were extra lucky and were filled with cookie butter.

Aviation Cocktail

Flowers go extremely well with this crisp, floral, and refreshing cocktail. This drink is easy to make with only a few ingredients, and it seems to be great in the winter or the spring! You can get the recipe, which is from the PDT cocktail book, here.

Earl Grey Cake with Elderflower Cream Cheese Filling

I wanted to use the larger flowers in an edible capacity as well. I candied some pansies since they have a sweeter profile than nasturtiums. I lined a pan with preserved cherry blossoms and micro flowers then poured an earl grey cake batter over them. Like sweet sushi, I lined the cake with cream cheese filling flavored with some elderflower syrup, then added a layer of fresh pansies. I rolled the cake up and chilled it overnight. After slicing the cake I topped it with pieces of the candied flowers.

I brought this cake into work and everyone loved it! Some were a little wary of the flowers, but some ate the candied flowers whole and even had seconds of the cake.

Thank you to Marx Foods for sending me these amazing flowers to play with! I am participating in the Edible Flower Photography challenge — voting is through their instagram so head on over to see the other entries starting 5/5!

Product provided for review. All notes & opinions are my own.

Espresso Biscoff Birthday Cake

Last week I celebrated my 27th birthday. It’s hard to believe that 10 years ago I was starting college and dating my-now-fiance Dan. We’ve started a tradition where each year Dan bakes me a cake for my birthday. Last year he baked this amazing Coffee & Donuts cake and this year we decided on an Espresso Biscoff concoction.

This recipe, also from Sprinkle Bakes, was sure to be a winner. I love coffee and speculoos, so there was no risk. I also had a super cute dinosaur candle I had picked up a few years ago while on vacation and was waiting for just the right moment to whip out.

Since Dan didn’t cut the cake into a heart and pipe the frosting on, he sprinkled some crushed chocolate-covered espresso beans on it.

All in all, the cake tasted good, but the cake part itself was lacking a bit of flavor. Though there was a lot of Biscoff cookie spread and espresso in the batter, it tasted plain in comparison to the filling. If I were to make this again, I would change the cake to be a deep, dark chocolate cake with brewed coffee in the batter. The bitterness would help the Biscoff filling and Biscoff-mocha frosting stand out more. I would also see if it were possible to fill the cake with pure Biscoff instead of adding the sugar and butter to it. It tasted great, but without a bold cake, the filling got too sweet for me rather quickly.

This slice of cake was a perfect excuse to whip out my new Anthropologie plates! My best friend and I had this cake for breakfast, warm from the oven, before heading out to a local flea market and holiday popup. I do think this cake might taste better the day(s) after, when the coffee-flavor has had time to become more pronounced.

The only thing that could have made this birthday better was if it were warmer outside (I hate the cold)!

Hapa-tite

edible adventures & cultural explorations

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