CORNMEAL CAKE STUFFED WITH GUAVA PASTE
Good afternooon
Usually, every two weeks, I bake a cake on Saturdays. So when I decided to make this, I didn’t have anything that could add flavor to it and I didn’t want to put orange or lemon in it either. On the other hand, I was too lazy to go out and buy ingredients to make the cake surprisingly tasty. I quickly thought, what do I have that I could use? I remembered that I had a packet of guava paste, but I wanted a slightly different cake than usual, so I used that same ingredient in both the filling and the topping. For the topping, I melted the guava paste in coconut milk to ensure an extra coconut flavor, and I also finished it off with toasted coconut. Ah! I forgot, and of course, I put a few pinches of spices, which is why my cake did not have the traditional color of cornmeal cake, but believe me, it is a delicious and very easy to make. Few ingredients, some, however, can be dispensable or changed, as you can see below, and at the end, in the footer, some variations of this same cake. We can say that we have "variations on the same theme". I guarantee that, with or without spices, with or without topping is a delight. Enjoy and do it in various ways, or invent your own, but don´t forget to be sure to do it.
CORNMEAL CAKE STUFFED WITH GUAVA PASTE
Directions:
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Cut the guava paste into thin strips. I cut into cubes, but I advise you to cut into thin slices to prevent them from getting heavy and end up dipping into the dough. Then pass them in the flour and sift to remove the excess flour. Set aside.
Beat the eggs, milk, sugar and butter in the blender, then add the cornmeal and beat again. You can replace butter or ghee with oil. Particularly, I do not like to use oil in sweet cake, because regardless of the brand, I still think it tastes like oil, in any case it is an option. But there is an important detail, with oil the cake is fluffier, but in this case, as it has guava paste as the filling, the ideal, really, is to use butter to ensure that it is very soft.
In a bowl, put wheat flour, spices and baking powder. Spices are optional ingredients, but everyone knows I love them, both in sweet and savory recipes. In this case, you can choose cinnamon, clove powder, grated nutmeg, star anise (only the ground seeds), ginger, cardamom, in short, the ones you like the most, one or two, or even none, is a matter of taste.
Gradually add the blender mixture, stirring well with the aid of a fouet (fouet helps dissolve possible lumps).
Finally, add the anise seeds. Here also the anise seeds are optional, I, for example, have a friend who hates, then, repeating, to your liking. Detail, toast them before, so that the flavors become more accentuated.
Grease a round shape, put half of the dough and guava paste breaded in wheat flour.
Place the remaining dough on top and bake in a preheated oven for about 45 minutes.
Wait to get warm to unmold.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, put the rest of the guava paste, add 3/4 cup of milk or coconut milk and microwave for 2 to 3 minutes, depending on the power, stirring every minute. I put coconut milk because I love it, both in sweet and savory, but you can use milk or even water. If it gets too thick. Add a little more liquid.
Once the guava paste is melted, pour over the cake. To make it even more tempting, I added burnt coconut on top.
This cake is very easy and is really delicious. Accompanied by a cup of tea or coffee, there is no better. As you can see, mine doesn’t get cornmeal color because of the spices.
Note: in the footer I will give some suggestions of variations.
CORNMEAL CAKE STUFFED WITH GUAVA PASTE
Ingredient:
150 g cornmeal
125 g wheat flour
200 g caster sugar
260ml milk
125ml melted butter or Ghee
1 tbsp baking powder
2 eggs
Spices – optional
1 coffee spoon cinnamon
½ coffee spoon cardamom powder
Pinch of clove powder
Pinch ginger powder
½ coffee spoon grated nutmeg
1 star anise (seeds only)
1 tsp roasted anise seeds
Filling:
150gr guava paste
2 tbsp wheat flour
Icing:
120 gr guava paste cut into cubes
3/4 cup milk tea or coconut milk
Directions:
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Filling:
Cut the guava paste into thin strips and coat them with wheat flour. Remove the excess and set aside.
Dough: In a blender beat the eggs, milk, sugar and melted butter.
Add the cornmeal and beat again.
In a bowl, place the wheat flour, spices and yeast. Mix well.
Gradually add the blender mixture, stirring well with the aid of a fouet.
Finally, add the toasted anise seeds.
Grease a round shape, put half of the dough, the breaded guava paste. Put the rest of the dough on top and bake for approximately 45 minutes.
Wait to get warm to unmold.
Icing: in a bowl, place the rest of the guava paste, add milk or coconut milk and microwave for 2 to 3 minutes, depending on the power of the microwave.
If it gets too thick, add a little more liquid.
Pour over the cake and if you still want more flavor, sprinkle burnt grated coconut, or as a second option, you can sprinkle icing sugar with cinnamon.
Some variations
Filling: you can put on the guava paste a few slices of half cured cheese, or even a few spoons of cream cheese, or ricotta cream.
Topping: if you don't want the topping, you can melt the guava paste making it very creamy and serve it individually on the cake slices with a "quenelle" *** of cream cheese or ricotta cream.
Without spices and with spices
With cream cheese and topped with icing sugar and cinnamon
***Quenelle, to explain briefly, is a technique used to shape an ice cream, or something creamier, with the help of two spoons.
I emphasize, however, that the ingredients that will be molded should be well chilled and the spoons dipped in cold water before molding. That's basically it, we can explain better later. Of course you can simply put the cream cheese, or ricotta cream on top of the guava paste, after all we are not professionals, although this technique is very easy.