Marble Chiffon Cake

The Marble Chiffon Cake is delicious! It looks delicious too, right?

We made this cake in class earlier this week and I just have to share it with you guys. It's not as sweet as cakes you see from the store, which I personally like. It tastes great too. I plan on recreating this cake later on to bring to parties. I know that it will be a big hit.

I do warn you that the beating of the egg whites is really important. It is what gives some structure to the cake. In this culinary class, we are learning some of the science behind cooking and baking as well, which I love! Anyway, here is the recipe and I hope you guys enjoy this cake!
By the way, don't you love how we marbled the cake?

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup cocoa 
• 1 ½ cups + 2 Tbsp sugar  
• 1/4 cup water 
• ½ cup + 2 Tbsp vegetable oil 
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour 
• 1 Tbsp baking powder  
• ½ tsp salt 
• 7 egg yolks, at room temperature 
• ¾ cup water 
• 2 tsp vanilla 
• 7 egg whites, at room tempera­ture 
• ½ tsp cream of tartar 

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 325°F.

2.      In a small bowl, combine cocoa, 2 table­spoons sugar, ¼ cup water, and 2 tablespoons oil until smooth; set aside.

3.      In a large bowl, stir together the flour, 1 ½ cups sugar, baking powder and salt; add ½ cup oil, egg yolks, ¾ cup water and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are com­bined. Beat 5 minutes on high speed, scraping bowl several times.

4.      Place the egg whites and cream of tartar in a large bowl and beat, using clean beaters, until stiff peaks form.

5.      Pour batter in a thin stream over the entire surface of egg whites; fold together gently. Remove a third of the batter to another bowl; gently fold in the chocolate mixture. Pour half the vanilla batter into an ungreased tube pan; spread half the chocolate batter over the vanilla batter.

6.      Repeat layers; gently insert a spatula or knife into the batters and swirl gently for a marbled effect. Bake for 65 to 70 minutes; or until cake springs back when touched gently.

7.      Remove cake from the oven; invert the pan until completely cool. Loosen the cake around the edges and middle of the pan; remove insert; loosen the bottom of the cake from the pan and invert onto a cake plate for serving.

 
I hope you guys enjoy this cake. Make it tonight!

What's your favorite type of cake?

I personally love angel food cake, ice cream cake or sponge cake. My most favorite are the ones from the Chinese bakery! I really don't like cakes that are too sweet. 

Do you prefer having your cakes decently sweetened or really sweet?

HoW (Health of the Week) 1 and Single Serving Chocolate Cake

Hey hey everyone! How was your guys's New Year? I know mines was pretty eventful! I'll talk about it later in the post.
For now, I have some other things to talk about. For one thing, I'm changing Workout Wednesday (WoW) to Health of the Week (HoW). So, It will be more broad on the health spectrum, not just on workouts but also nutrition as well. Also, I have to give you guys the single serving cake recipe. It's absoulety delicious! I'm scared of the calorie count, especially since I decided to eat it with peanut butter on top. However, it's pretty much healthy and it tastes delicious. Here's the recipe.
Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoon whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 3 tablespoon milk
• 3 tsp applesauce
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Combine all the ingredients into a bowl. 
2. Microwave for 40 seconds. 
3. Take out and enjoy. I like eating it with peanut butter. 

This is how the cake looks before I put the peanut butter on top: 

Anyway, I have to talk to you guys about my past couple of days. 

For one thing, one of my favorite snacks is this: 

It's nonfat greek yogurt with dark chocolate chips, 1 crushed Nature Valley Granola Thin, and ground cinnamon. It tastes amazing. It's also really healthy. 

We also bought a few groceries from Wal-Mart on New Year's Eve. 

 With the fish, I plan on eating it with quinoa and steamed vegetables. With the cheese, I plan on making a casserole with it.

I also got this at Target:

They were only like 86 cents! They were on sale. It's probably because it's a holiday item. But I can't wait to try this! I love pita chips and I love gingerbread. I hope this tastes good. I'll tell you guys how it tastes when I eat it. 

As you know, one of my New Year's Resolution is to eat healthier. Well, that's been quite a challenge. That's where the HoW comes in. For one thing, we went to McDonald's on New Year's Eve. I ended up ordering this: 

The classic grilled chicken sandwich with no mayo. It's not the healthiest thing in the world (it has transfat and the bun isn't 100% whole wheat) but it is better than ordering other things on the menu. If you can't eat completely healthy, at least choose some of the healthier options. Get grilled chicken instead of the crispy or fried ones. It would have been better if I hadn't eaten the bun but I didn't want to waste it (my parents would scold me). If you're going to order a salad, don't eat the croutons and the bacon. Leave the dressing on the side or choose healthier types of salad dressing. 

Then, on New Years Day, we decided to eat brunch at a local American diner. They had steaks, omelettes, fries, shakes and all of that stuff. I ended up ordering an veggie egg white omelette with cheddar cheese, whole wheat toast, coffee and hashbrowns. 

I didn't eat the hashbrowns. But I did eat the broccoli my sister didn't want. I had to special order the omelette so that they'd use egg whites. I forgot to tell them to not put butter on the whole wheat toast but I guess that's okay. I also ended up seeing one of my old classmates that works there ( I didn't know until yesterday that he worked there). 

Then, we met up with family, took pictures and walked. It was pretty nice. 

Then, my family from SF decided to come over around dinner time. So, we went to Hometown Buffet. You can imagine how hard it was to eat healthy yesterday. I did my best to stick to the healthy stuff. 

My first plate was baked fish, broccoli and green beans. I added some salsa to the beans and broccoli.  I also got the Minutemaid Lemonade that's only 5 calories a serving. Coffee, tea or water would have been better but it's okay. 

My 2nd plate was broccoli, bake chicken and I had half a salmon filet (that's not picutred). My next plate was a fruit plate. I got melon and canned peaches (I assume the peaches were canned). Then, I got a lot of ice cream. The first is the swirl soft serve with some peanuts. The other one is nonfat vanilla froyo with peanuts. I love froyo. 

It was nice spending time with my cousins. We talked, ate and then went back to our place. They also gave us tons of Ghirardelli chocolate. All of it is dark chocolate with either some filling or almonds. The non dark chocolate ones are the peppermint bark. Here's one of them I tried and it was delicious. 

It has sea salt with roasted almonds. Yummy!

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that when eating out, try to make healthy choices, or at least healthier ones. You'll be happy you did. 

Oh yea. I have to add one fitness advice. It doesn't hurt to start strength training. It's good to build muscle when you're younger. It boosts your metabolism because muscle uses energy, unlike fat. Also, if you have more muscle now and maintain it, it will help you once you start again. I plan on incorporating  more strength training into my workouts this year. 

So, how was your New Year?

Do you have any tips on sticking with your New Year's Resolutions?