The bite size creation I present to you this week is a very interesting one. I was inspired (ages ago) at the fishermen's forum in Maine while attending a seminar on seaweed harvest and the suggestion was made to use seaweed in cake recipes. I decided to combine this thought with a couple interesting food items I picked up at IKEA a couple months back (see photos below). I've created a savoury, yet slightly sweet, muffin like treat incorporating nori into the batter and sparingly topped each with a salmon cream cheese mixture, sprinkled with seaweed caviar (not unlike a Philadelphia maki roll).
Nori Cupcakes
1/4 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup ground nori sheets
3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp lemon zest
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add liners to pans.
In a large bowl combine butter and sugar until fluffy (~3 minutes). Beat in the egg. In a medium bowl sift together the nori, flour, baking powder, soda, salt and pepper. Add the dry ingredient mixture to the butter/sugar mixture in thirds alternating with the milk, starting and ending with the dry ingredients, until combined. Fold in the lemon zest. Pour the batter into the pans. This batch yielded 22 mini cupcakes baked for 10 minutes. Allow to cool.
1/4 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup ground nori sheets
3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp lemon zest
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add liners to pans.
In a large bowl combine butter and sugar until fluffy (~3 minutes). Beat in the egg. In a medium bowl sift together the nori, flour, baking powder, soda, salt and pepper. Add the dry ingredient mixture to the butter/sugar mixture in thirds alternating with the milk, starting and ending with the dry ingredients, until combined. Fold in the lemon zest. Pour the batter into the pans. This batch yielded 22 mini cupcakes baked for 10 minutes. Allow to cool.
Salmon Cream Cheese Frosting
1/3 cup IKEA salmon spread
4.5oz cream cheese
In a small bowl, cream both ingredients together.
I frosted each cake with a star tip and finished each off with a dash of IKEA seaweed topping (veggie caviar).
1/3 cup IKEA salmon spread
4.5oz cream cheese
In a small bowl, cream both ingredients together.
I frosted each cake with a star tip and finished each off with a dash of IKEA seaweed topping (veggie caviar).
The Panel:
(Note: Only 9 reviews were generated this week.)
Presentation was definitely the stronger point of this week's cupcake but was still lacking at that. Though comments were made in appreciation of the star pattern applied with the frosting, the overall appearance struck out. Many described the flavour of the cake as 'fishy' and 'salty', some adding that they experienced peppery bites also. One comment was made that the texture of the cake was slightly on the grainy side. Given the low rating, many suggestions were made for further improvements on this recipe: remove caviar, sweet soy sauce glaze to counter saltiness, add onions and capers, wasabi filling, sesame seed toppers. Given the intense profile of the cake, Sweet Pea sat this one out sending Gaudreau to bat for her.
Giovanni: "Muffin was right on with the nori coming through in a novel yet familiar way."
Gaudreau: "not terrible, but not delicious."JRock: "Intense!" glad it was small. pleasant and neat presentation.
Shannah: "It was too fishy for me."
My comments:
I like to describe this one as a mouthful of ocean, it definitely had some overwhelming fishy components; I was all set with my single serving. The pepper was detectable, unlike the lemon zest, and is something I would add less of in the future. The salmon frosting was quite strong and the seaweed topper put the 'ocean' flavour over the top. I felt my presentation was well executed though this wasn't entirely met by the judges. I would really like to use the cake recipe again as a basic muffin, with slightly less nori powder.