Strawberries and Cream Chinese Bakery-Style Chiffon Sponge Cake, Gluten-free or not

We had some guests come for dinner the other night.  Hubby ordered Chinese take-out, so all I had to do was add a nice green salad (you can never get enough veggies!) and make a dessert.  

To keep with the Chinese food theme, what is a typical Chinese dessert?  For special occasions, my mother would either bake or order a beautiful vanilla chiffon sponge cake decorated with fresh fruit and whipped cream from a local Chinese bakery.   

You can use your favourite sponge cake with whipped cream and fruit.  I made 2 tube sponge cakes with this vanilla chiffon sponge cake recipe.  I decorated one cake and froze the second one to enjoy at another time for a quick dessert.   For those who are on a gluten-free diet, you can try this gluten-free vanilla chiffon sponge cake.  

Pressed for time?  Ready-made angel food cakes can be decorated fresh whipped cream and fruit.  

I usually fill and decorate these cakes with canned fruit cocktail that has been drained and blotted dry.  I have also made a "Strawberries and Cream" cake with fresh strawberries and  "Peaches and Cream" with canned peaches.  

This time, I used fresh strawberries and canned mandarin orange segments to fill and decorate the cake.  Make sure to blot dry the excess moisture from the fruit on a paper towel or napkin. 

Strawberries and Cream Chinese Bakery-Style Chiffon Sponge Cake, Gluten-free or not

1 - 8" vanilla chiffon sponge cake, gluten-free vanilla sponge cake or ready-made angel food cake
1.5 cups heavy cream
4.5 Tbsp confectioner's sugar 
1.5 tsp vanilla 
chocolate shavings, with a vegetable peeler
selection of fresh/canned fruit for decorating and filling (possibilities are endless!)
  - strawberries, kiwi, grapes, melon balls, etc
  - canned fruit (must be drained and blotted dry):  peaches, pears, mandarin oranges, cherries, etc.

Prepare chiffon cake and cool completely.

Whip 1.5 cups heavy cream with 4.5 Tbsp confectioner's sugar and 1.5 tsp vanilla for at least 3 minutes on high until the cream is stiff.  Be careful not to overwhip the cream (mixture will separate and become butter!).  If you would like extra whipped cream for piping or for serving, use 2 cups heavy cream, 6 Tbsp confectioner's sugar and 2 tsp vanilla.  

Dice about 1 cup (I forgot to measure, chop enough fruit to fill the cake layer) fresh or canned fruit for filling and blot dry on paper napkin/towel.  Set aside.

Cut cake in 2 layers.  Place one cake layer on a cake plate.  Spread the cake with whipped cream and place chopped fruit pieces (blotted dry) on top of the cream. Place the top layer on the fruit filling.  

Frost and decorate the cake as desired with the whipped cream.  

- Adapted from Vanilla Chiffon Sponge Cake

The cake didn't last long!  Of course, the kiddies had leftover cake dolloped with extra whipped cream for breakfast the next day!

Enjoy! 

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Simple White (or Pink) "Easy as Cake Mix" Cupcakes

Last week, my husband took our children out for an evening at "Dads & Tots".  It is a free local program that gives fathers (uncles, or grandfathers) a chance to take their children for a fun playdate evening with pizza and snacks for dinner.  While they were gone, I missed them horribly.  So much, I made a batch of really easy and simple cupcakes as a surprise when they got home.  

This is a variation of my Easy Vanilla Cupcake and whips up very quick, much like a cake mix.  I think real buttermilk helps give the cupcake its soft and fluffy texture.  Regular milk can be used too.  If desired, white vanilla cupcakes be easily changed to a different flavor with a different extract and food colouring.   I only had enough batter to fill 12 muffin cups half full but they still rose nicely!  

For fun, I tried strawberry extract and made them pink with a few drops of red food colouring.  Oops... I guess I was a little too heavy handed and they turned out "too pink" with a very artificial strawberry flavour...but it was so much fun to experiment!! 

Out of curiosity, I tried regular non-hydrogenated soft margarine (pink cupcake) instead of softened butter with great results (e.g. .Fleischmann's, Becel).  Results using "light" soft tub margarine (vanilla cupcake) turned out slightly gummy but still OK, if that is all you have on hand.  Regardless, the cupcakes did not last very long!   

I topped them with a fluffy, cooked flour frosting, flavoured with strawberry extract.  

Simple White "Easy as Cake Mix" Cupcakes

makes 12 large cupcakes or 1- 9" round single layer cake

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened, (or non-hydrogenated soft margarine, regular or light)

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla (I used 2 tsp strawberry extract, I will use less next time)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup milk or buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk, mixed with 1 1/2 tsp vinegar or lemon juice)

few drops food colouring, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a muffin pan with paper liners or grease and flour a 9-inch cake pan.  

Pour buttermilk in a measuring cup and add vanilla (or other flavour extract) and salt.  

In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the egg. Combine flour and baking powder.  Add alternating amounts of the flour mixture and the buttermilk-vanilla.  Mix until well combined and batter is smooth.

Add a few drops of food colouring, if desired.

For cupcakes, bake 13 to 15 minutes.  For 9-inch pan, bake about 20-25 minutes.  Cake is done when it springs back to the touch or when cake tester (toothpick) comes out clean. 

- Adapted from Easy Vanilla Cupcakes

Enjoy!

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Half-Sugar Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Chia seeds - Whole Wheat or Gluten-Free

Growing up in a Chinese household during the 70's and 80's, my parents would predominantly cook Chinese meals for dinner.  Usually, we had the classic stir-fried vegetables with slices of meat and lots of fluffy white rice.  If we were lucky, we had ice cream for dessert.  How much we looked forward to hauling out that 4L/gallon bucket of Neapolitan (strawberry/vanilla/chocolate) ice cream!

What a contrast nowadays!  I guess I got tired of Asian food and wanted branch out.  Rhubarb is not what we ate growing up.  I have two rhubarb plants in my garden and this season, I have harvested and frozen enough to last the year!  It's mid-August and in my rural BC town, my rhubarb plants are still producing!  After playing around with Strawberry Rhubarb pie, I wanted to try a lower sugar version of Strawberry Rhubarb crisp.   

There are so many recipes out there but I wanted something super easy and not loaded with too much sugar and fat.  Of course, if you want to add more sugar and butter, be my guest!

This basic recipe uses whole wheat flour and half the amount of sugar compared to conventional recipes.  It got rave reviews in our household!  The kiddies wanted it for breakfast the next day.  I was worried that it would be too sour, but it wasn't for us.  Our strawberries were sweet, so that helped. 

For fun, I also made this gluten-free with great results.  Oats can be contaminated with gluten during processing, so if you are serving oats to guests who are gluten-sensitive, make sure they are certified gluten-free on the package. 

Instead of using whole wheat flour to thicken the filling, I mixed in chia seeds and arrowroot starch.  I bought a few scoops of chia seeds from the bulk organic section my grocery store to try.  Apparently, it has great thickening properties, extra fibre, and plant omega-3s, like flaxseed, according to the Globe and Mail.   I like to try different kinds of food... sometimes it's healthy...sometimes not! 

In the lower left corner in the picture above, you can see the chia seeds in the sauce.  The chia seeds swell up, like tiny tapioca pearls.  They absorb the extra liquid and I don't notice a difference in taste. 

Next time, I will try using quinoa flakes in place of the rolled oats.  With these substitutions, this has been very forgiving recipe with whatever ingredients on-hand!

Half-Sugar Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Chia seeds - Whole wheat or Gluten-free

Filling:

1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/3 cup sugar)

3 Tbsp whole wheat flour or cornstarch (I used 1 Tbsp chia seeds + 2 Tbsp arrowroot starch)

3 cups quartered strawberries

3 cups diced rhubarb (about 1/4-1/2-inch chunks or about 1.5cm)

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Topping:

2/3 cup rolled oats (I will try quinoa flakes next time!)

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed (I used 1/4 cup)

1/4 cup whole wheat flour (or your fave gluten-free baking mix*)

1 Tbsp butter, melted (I needed to use 3Tbsp melted butter with the gluten-free flour)
dash of cinnamon

Mix first 5 ingredients for the fruit base. Pour and spread evenly in a 2.5qt/L dish.

Mix topping ingredients, spread evenly over the fruit base.

Bake at 350F for 45 - 55 minutes until bubbly.

Serve warm or at room temperature.  With ice cream is good too.  

- Adapted from SparkRecipes: Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

*As for the gluten-free baking mix, I tried  Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free All-purpose flour mix for a different recipe and I didn't like it.  It had a strong (nasty) aftertaste, due to the bean flour added to it.  To salvage this, I used 2 Tbsp of Bob's GF flour, 1 Tbsp rice flour, 1/2 Tbsp tapioca starch and 1/2 Tbsp potato starch to make up 1/4 cup flour.  Gluten-free flour mixes usually have a combination of rice flour, tapioca and potato starches. 

 We served our strawberry rhubarb crisp with homemade vanilla bean ice cream. YUM!

Enjoy!

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