Festa "a sorpresa" per Lucas

I know, I haven't posted in a long time.. too long! I really had too many things to do -mostly too much work, yesterday I was home at 8 pm!!! I don't like this at all, but it's going to go back to normal soon, hopefully.

Anyway, back to more fun memories.. The first thing I want to talk about is the "surprise" birthday party that I threw for Lucas. Actually, it would have been almost a real surprise, if it wasn't for the fact that Saturday morning, the day of the party, he woke up with a really large and bad-looking rash all over his torso, and it was going up his neck and face... so I decided it would be better to let him know that so many people were coming that evening, just in case he decided that taking Benadril every six hours was not compatible with being at a party.. I had to spoil the best surprise, which was that his brother and his brother's wife, Jason and Kelley, decided to come from Washington!! So, ok, the party was transformed into a 'surprise the guest party', because the guests arrived thinking to find the house empty, and prepare for the surprise, and instead, they saw Lucas there, with his neck all dotty and red :) :)

But, surprise or not, it was a very nice party, a lot of people came, and it was really nice of Jason and Kelley to come all the way down here.
People brought some really good food, and I made some focaccia and two cakes. I really liked the cakes, so I'm going to give the recipes to my affectionate readers. I must say in advance that both cakes were made with a home-made Pan di Spagna (lit: bread of Spain). This is a very fluffy dough that is used for layered cakes in Italy. Usually you buy it in the grocery stores, but recently I succesfully made it a few times.. So, first of all, you need to know how to make Pan di Spagna.

Pan di Spagna

Versione italiana
(ricetta presa dal fantastico sito cooker.net sotto il nome 'fragolosa' e modificata da me)
# 80g fecola
# 80g farina
# 120g zucchero a velo
# 3 uova intere + 2 albumi
# 3 cucchiai d'acqua
# 1 bustina vanillina
# 1 cucchiaino raso di lievito in polvere

Preparazione
Montare a neve gli albumi con l'acqua.
Aggiungere lo zucchero a poco a poco continuando a montare con le fruste.
Unire i tuorli.
Unire lievito, farina e fecola setacciati insieme.
Mescolare bene.
Versare in una tortiera a cerniera imburrata e infarinata.
Cuocere a 160 gradi per 35 minuti.
Lasciar raffreddare e poi dividere in tre dischi.

English version
You need three egg yolks and five egg whites. Beat the egg whites with 3 tbsp water, until they become really hard. Add 1 and 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, while beating. Then add the three yolks. Mix together 1 teaspoon yeast, 2/3 cup flour and 2/3 cup cornstarch. Add to the mixture of eggs and sugar and mix. Cook at 350 F for 35 min. Slice into three disks.

You can put any kind of filling in these layers. I used it to make an ice cream cake, once, which turned out very good, with some chocolate ice cream (home made!!) as one layer and a mixture of ricotta, whipped cream and orange blossom water in the other layer. That was a very good cake too. But here are the two birthday cake recipes.

Torta Malaga nera (Black Malaga cake)
Prepare Pan di Spagna as above. But, instead of 3/4 cups of flour, use only 1/4 or 1/2 and add the same amount of cocoa powder (I used a mixture of sweetened and unsweetened to have a black color but not too bitter). You can choose how much cocoa you want to add depending on how dark you want the bread to be.
For the filling I thought I would make a cream that resembled the Malaga flavor in the ice cream. Basically I made a sort of custard with less eggs. I used two eggs, and approximatively two tbsp flour, about 1 & 1/2 cup of milk, 1/2 cup sugar or as much as you like: mix everything in a pan (add the milk slowly not to make clumps) and heat on the stove, mixing continously expecially when it starts boiling, until it thickens. Then add 3 tbsps rum (or again as much as you like), and 3 tbsps raisin (that you will have preemptively soaked in warm water for ~10-15 minutes). Stir everything in and turn off the stove when it's thick enough. You don't want it to be too thick otherwise it will not moist the bread. If it's too thick add milk, if it's too thin add flour (carefully not to make clumps). Spread this cream generously between the three disks. Then, for the top, make this cream which is called 'ganache' (no clue why): take three cubes of baker's chocolate and add a little bit of milk, put it on the stove and make the chocolate melt. Add 2-3 tbsps sugar or as much as you want to have the sweetness you like. Then, add 1/2 cup heavy cream to it, and beat this mixture until it gets a little bit fluffy. Spread it abundantly on the top.
My white writing was done with one of those decorative creams that you can buy.

Torta bianca al cocco (White coconut cake)

Versione italiana
Sempre da cooker.net, modificata da me (se volete vedere la versione originale, cercate 'cuore di cocco' su cooker.net. C'e' del cioccolato bianco nella copertura che io non ho messo perche' non mi piace).
- per il dolce:
# pan di spagna (vedi sopra)
# 2 cucchiai colmi di cocco essiccato in polvere
# 2 cucchiai di zucchero a velo vanigliato
# 150 -200 gr. di ricotta
# 1 vasetto di yogurt intero al cocco
# 2 fogli di colla di pesce
# poco latte

- per la copertura:
# 100 g yogurt bianco
# 100 g ricotta
# 100 ml. di panna da montare
# 2 cucchiai di cocco essiccato in polvere

Preparazione
Mettete ad ammollare in una vaschetta colma d'acqua i due fogli di colla di pesce e nel frattempo prepariamo la crema.
In una ciotola uniamo lo yogurt, la ricotta, lo zucchero a velo e per ultimo il cocco in polvere; mescoliamo bene con l'aiuto di un frullino elettrico a bassa velocità.
Il composto non monterà naturalmente, (come potrebbe?) ma incorporerà un poco d'aria che regalerà maggiore sofficità.
Non preoccupatevi se a causa dello yogurt la crema vi sembrerà un po' liquida.
Fate scaldare un poco di latte in un pentolino, unitevi i fogli di colla di pesce strizzati e mescolate perché si sciolgano bene.
Quindi uniteli con cura alla crema.
Cominciamo ad assemblare il dolce su un bel piatto di portata.
Con delicatezza trasferiamo, con l'aiuto di due coltelli a lama larga, il disco di pan di spagna sul piatto facendo attenzione a non romperlo (avrete notato che spesso sono un po' attaccati tra loro), versiamo metà della crema con l'aiuto della spatola, quindi secondo disco a cuore, secondo ed ultimo strato di crema.
Adesso riponete il dolce in frigo a rassodare mentre prepariamo la copertura.
Mescolare tutti gli ingredienti (montare la panna in precedenza). Fatto :) Mettere sulla torta. :) Per la scritta decorativa ho usato la crema di cioccolato della ricetta precedente.

English version
Mix 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt with 1 cup ricotta cheese, 2 tbsps powdered sugar and 5 tbsps grated coconut. To thicken the cream I used this italian thing that is similar to gelatine. So substitute it with the mixture that you use to prepare gelatin (take an unflavored one, and uncolored) and add a little bit of it to the cream (no idea of how much exactly because I never used, so try.. :) ). It'll work even without it, since American yogurt is a lot thicker and more 'gelatine-like' than the Italian one. Add this mixture between the layers. For the cover, mix 1 cup yogurt with 1 cup ricotta and 5 tbsps coconut powder. Beat 1/2 cup heavy cream until it gets fluffy and hard and add to the mixture. Spread on top of the cake. For the writing, I used the 'ganache' chocolate cream used for the cake above.

I must say, they were both _really_ good. I loved the cream with rum and raisin in the black cake, and the white cake was delicious, I love coconut and it was refreshing and fluffy..