Red "Velvet" Cake

Full disclosure:  I'm not particularly enamored with red velvet cake.  

Most of my aversion stems around the artificial color.  Not that I have a spectacularly sophisticated palate, but I can taste the coloring (sort of in the same manner I'm able to taste the can from canned foods and beverages).  

My other pet peeve with red velvet cake is that most of what I've been served is not what I would consider to be velvet.  In my opinion - and this is totally just "Dawn on cake" - if it doesn't have the fine crumb and delicate texture of a true velvet cake, it's nothing more than a mild cocoa cake with red food coloring.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Crusted Cake

Occasionally, I foolishly agree to do things that I know I shouldn’t.  I know that it’s going to cause me stress and make me temporarily insane(r).  But I do it anyway because I also know that the end, my insanity will result in someone else’s joy.

Such is the case for this birthday cake.  The office manager in Tug’s school, Arthurina, sent me a message asking if I did birthday cakes.  The school’s administrative aide, Sheila, had a birthday coming up and they were going to be celebrating at the office.  Since I’ve returned to work, I’ve been saying “no” to cakes as they can be time consuming and I refuse to use frozen cake.  I probably should have said “no” to this one.  But since I didn’t . . .

Pumkin Gooey Butter Cake

Continuing with my apparent theme of fall flavors, pumpkin gooey butter cake had been on my mind for awhile.  Several years ago I made Paula Deen’s version; but given that I haven’t purchased cake mix in over four years, I needed a new recipe.  While I was in the process of trying to come up with my own “cake mix” recipe, my friend, Tracie, found this recipe for from scratch pumpkin gooey butter cake for me.  Did I follow it?  Not exactly, of course.

Battenberg Up

When I read this month’s Daring Baker’s challenge, I was kind of excited that it was cake.  "Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease."  It’s been awhile since I’ve made a cake and I’ve been feeling the urge a little bit.  This cake was the perfect answer as although it’s small in size, it involves a lot of technique.  Perfect!

Daring Bakers Go Armenian

For April, Daring Baker Jason (of Daily Candor) challenged us to make at least one of two recipes he provided which represent his Armenian heritage:  nazouk (or nazook) and nutmeg cake.  Both were completely new to me and right away I had a strong suspicion I would make both of them. 

Sour Dough and Sour Oranges

Since finishing my sourdough starter last week for the Tea & Cookies Cooking Challenge, it’s been hanging out the refrigerator.  Waiting.  Beyond the fact that I was busy with the caramels for the Icing Smiles Magic of a Smile gala, the starter develops more flavor and tang as it ages.  But it seemed like it was about time to start doing something with it since I have so much. 

The two recipes I chose to start with, Extra-Tangy Sourdough Bread and Sourdough Chocolate Cake, both required about a cup of “fed” starter.  To feed the starter, I measured out one-half cup of refrigerated starter for each recipe then added one-half cup of flour and one-quarter cup of tepid water, stirred them up and let them sit until doubled in size. 

In between this, I had finally made the decision that it was time to harvest the oranges off of the dwarf tree in the living room.  Some of the branches looked like they could break at any moment.  If these were sweet oranges that could be eaten out of hand, I may have left them on the tree and just used them as I wanted/needed them.  However, that’s not the case.  I’ve tried the oranges a couple of times in the last two months trying to gauge their ripeness.  Both times it was like eating lemons instead of oranges.  Through some Internet research, I think I’ve finally identified these as calamondin oranges.  They will never be sweet.  This does put some limitations on what I can do with them. 

So I’ll turn to the never-fail solution for citrus:  marmalade.  To be finished tomorrow.

In the meantime, my starters being ready, I mixed up the first steps of the bread as it needed to sit at room temp for four hours before going in the refrigerator overnight.  The chocolate cake also needed some fermentation time for the starter with some flour and milk, so that part was mixed and set aside.  Until about 10:00 p.m. when I finally had time to get back to it.

As this was a recipe I’ve not made before, I chose to make cupcakes instead of cake.  Cupcakes just seem to be easier to share than a cake with a piece missing.  I’d like to say I stayed true to the recipe, but that’s not the case.  This was one of the strangest batters I’ve ever worked with.  The addition of the sourdough starter made it gave the batter a texture that was most unappealing in its raw form.  It left me wondering what the baked version would be like.  I also had to consider that instead of using all vegetable oil, the majority of the fat I used was butter.  This may have had an effect on the final texture as well.  When I checked them during baking, I was concerned I had overfilled the cups, but fortunately they came out with perfect high domes without overflowing.  They’re not iced yet, but the one I tried seemed a little dry and not nearly chocolaty enough.  I’m wondering if the recipe would be better as written (imagine that!) with all vegetable oil and in cake form, but not enough that I’ll try it.

Sourdough Surplus

When I signed on for Tea & Cookies Cooking Challenge of sourdough bread with homemade starter, I had no idea how much starter I would end up with.  The reason I have so much starter is that unlike the instructions direct, I cannot bring myself to throw away portions of it.  So it just keeps multiplying. 

quantity of starter this morning

quantity of starter this afternoon
(the three half-pints are sitting in the dish in case of overflow)

Friends and neighbors beware.

Once I figured out that I was going to have more sourdough starter than any individual should ever need, the search for recipes using sourdough starter began.  Thus far, I’ve identified four recipes from the King Arthur Flour website to try:  sourdough chocolate cake, sourdough carrot cake, sourdough pizza crust and sourdough ciabatta.  (As my previous attempt at ciabatta didn’t work out as well as I would have liked, I thought it only fitting to include that one.)  In addition to these four, there will also be the upcoming sourdough bread recipe from the Tea & Cookies challenge.

Methinks I’m going to be more of a baker than a homemaker this coming week.  Thank goodness I have a patient and understanding husband!

20 Pounds of Butter

That's part of what was in my shopping cart yesterday.  Along with seven dozen eggs, a gallon of whole milk and two pounds of cream cheese.  And I'm not finished.  I still need about 20 pounds of sugar, 15 pounds of flour and a pound of cocoa powder.

Why do I need all of this?  At the end of May, I agreed to do the wedding cake for the sister of my dear friend, Alicia.  I really didn't know what I was getting myself into at the time.  The wedding cake has evolved into a bride's cake, a groom's cake, a sheet cake and cupcakes.  Cake for about 300 people.  I shouldn't be surprised.  Alicia asked me to do the cake for Kellie's bridal shower in September which was for 80 people.  I'd never heard of 80 people at a bridal shower.

Last year I did cupcakes for Alicia's wedding.  Initially she was going to have myself and someone else making the cupcakes and it was going to be 100 for each of us.  It became 200 for me when the other person backed out.  It wasn't that big of a deal.  Sans intricate decorations, cupcakes are much easier than cake and with some help from the Hubs in getting the cupcakes displayed, I managed to pull it off quite successfully.



Alicia's tropical tower of cupcakes

 And somehow I will pull off her sister's cakes and cupcakes.  It's going to require a lot of planning, being super organized, and working diligently.  Most importantly it's going to require that I squash these feelings of self-doubt and shut down that nagging voice in my head that's demanding to know, "what were you thinking?"  I will get it done.  I will also think twice in the future about what I'm capable of challenging myself with and what will be overwhelming.  It's a fine line sometimes, no?

A Tale of Two Cakes

This week I made two different cakes - one good and one evil.  Can you tell the difference?

 





Let me give you a hint:  much can be hidden under icing.

Let's begin with the evil - and I don't mean evil in the sense that "this cake is so good it's evil".  The cake was inspired by a cake I saw in the August 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living.  (Yes, I am an unapologetic Martha fan.  Think of me what you will.)  The look of the cake absolutely intrigued me.  It was layers of pastel colored cake covered in creamy white buttercream.  Upon reading the article and recipe, I was less enthusiastic upon learning it was a frozen rainbow chiffon cake made not really of cake, but essentially meringue with fruit puree.  Despite the fact that, at the time, I didn't have sufficient freezer space for such a project anyway, making a frozen cake in August in Southern Illinois is asking for trouble.  But I did come up with another idea.  The result of that is the iced cake on the left, or what I refer to as the antithesis of cake. 

I have very strong convictions about what cake should and shouldn't be.  According to "Dawn's Rules of Cake", this cake is, essentially, everything I think cake should not be.

Dawn's Rules of Cake

1. Cakes should always be made from scratch.  This one is not.  I used (gasp!) boxed cake mixes.
2. With the exception of dietary restrictions, cakes should always have butter.  This one has canola oil.
3. Eggs should be cracked from their shells, not poured from cartons.  Egg whites from a carton were used in this cake.
4. Cakes should not contain artificial colors and/or flavorings.  These cake layers are colored and flavored with unsweetened Kool-Aid.  It doesn't get any more artificial than that.
5. Buttercream should not contain confectioner's sugar.  Four pounds of the stuff in and on this bad boy.

 

So given all of that, why did I even made this cake?  I'm still working on that, but all I can come up with is just for kicks.  To me, it doesn't even taste good.  Yes, I did taste a bite of each layer.  It reminds of of SweeTarts.  Kids would probably like it, but I'd never do that to a child.  And it's still in the refrigerator because I have no idea what I am going to do with it.  It's just not something I'll give to people I like.  I'm not even sure I'd give this to people I don't like.  Plus, I had absolutely no intention of eating the slice I removed for the picture so now it's also a broken and bandaged cake as I put the slice back. 

In summary, this was not a well-thought project and I'm feeling like I wasted time, money and ingredients.  Apparently I think keeping it in the refrigerator for now will temporarily assuage my guilt. 

It's my story; I'll tell it how I want.  Now, on to the good.

Earlier this month while visiting family and friends back home, I wandered into the newly opened Goodwill store with my friend, Bonnie.  I bought a small suitcase for my dad so he'll no longer have to borrow one when he comes to visit.  I also found a little copper-colored squirrel mold that matches a couple of molds that were my Grandma's, and a vintage egg slicer.  But my coup de grace was a cast aluminum bundt pan for a little under $9.  I've been wanting a bundt pan for awhile, but wasn't excited about shelling out the $$ for one.  My $9 pan has seen better days and I was concerned some of the scratches and flaws would be a problem.  Not so.

I used the pan on Tuesday to bake my favorite apple cake.  This is my go-to fall cake.  I absolutely love it and I don't know why I only make it once a year, other than it makes it seem more elevated in stature when it's an annual thing.  Sort of like only having pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.  This time I did omit the chocolate chips from the recipe and used two cups of chopped walnuts.  The apples I had on hand were not tart and I didn't want the cake to be cloyingly sweet.  They were barely missed.  I did eat the slice missing from the photo at the top, and even broke the rule of waiting until the cake was cool to cut it.  I guess maybe this week was about breaking rules.

Instead of greasing and flouring the bundt pan, I used Wilton's Cake Release.  While the cake release probably violates the artificial ingredient rule, the stuff just plain works.  The cake came out of the pan beautifully, even from the areas that were severely scratched. 

Since I do like this cake so much, getting rid of it wasn't a problem at all.  Over half of it went to work with the hubs, some went to a friend, and I kept several slices for myself.  I was sad to eat the last slice last night.  Maybe I'll have to go back to the orchard and get some tart apples and make this again with the chocolate chips.  After all, I need to see how the cake will release with the chips in the batter, right?

One Cake Down, One to Go

Earlier in the year, I had agreed to do a small wedding cake and cupcakes for a couple referred to me by a classmate from culinary school.  The wedding was September 3.  Of course at the time we had made these arrangements, I had no idea that my personal life would suffer the losses that it did.  I think that made me more vulnerable than usual.  While it's usual for me to get stressed when I'm doing cake for someone else, it was on the extreme side this time.  When I'm doing something that is so personal - for me and the other person - it causes self-doubt to creep in.  It didn't creep in this time so much as hit me like a linebacker.  This small cake gave me as much difficulty as it did doubt. 


The beginning of the candy clay acorns.



Despite the unseasonably warm temperatures, it was a fall-themed wedding.  Who knew in April it would be 100 degrees in September?  The bride wanted about five dozen cupcakes with fall-themed decorations and a small white cake to cut.  We agreed on peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate ganache, cappuccino cupcakes with mocha buttercream and pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese buttercream.  She also wanted the cake to be peanut butter with ganache filling.  She liked the look of fondant, but not the taste; so my plan was to cover the cake with white candy clay.  I've used chocolate candy clay to cover a cake before and it worked beautifully.  White candy clay did not.  I finally made a judgment call and went with straight buttercream.  This presented problems of it's own as you must be very careful not to make marks in the buttercream once you have it smoothed.  And you have to figure out how to fix it when you have a decoration fall off and leave a big divot.

  

These leaves ended up getting tossed. 
The gold color I was using beaded
up on the candy clay.

I can't say the icing was perfectly smooth.  Sometimes it's necessary to recognize that trying to fix it can only make it worse.  At least I had sense enough to realize that.

Going with the buttercream presented another problem as well.  My original plan was to make small, leaf-shaped tuiles in fall colors to have sort of a "leaf pile" on top of the cake.  (The bride didn't have a topper.  My instructions were "make it pretty.")  Given that the tuiles would likely absorb moisture from the buttercream, I needed a plan B there as well.  Honestly, I struggled with this one.  Finally I decided to use some of the uncooperative candy clay to make ribbon roses.  Ribbon roses are not my favorite decoration.  I prefer more realistic flowers, but there simply wasn't time.  And since ribbon roses are not my favorite decoration, I'd not made them before.  I'm sure they could have been better.  My lack of experience and the fact that just the heat from my hands made the uncooperative candy clay even more so was problematic, but this is mere hours before delivery so it was time to just make it work.  I had shortened my deadline because I wasn't aware of what the set up was going to be and needed to make sure I had enough time to set up and be gone before the wedding party arrived.  I made my deadline, didn't get lost, and even got it all delivered and set up intact.  And most of the anxiety was dismissed after I received a wonderful follow-up note from the bride.

 

These are the cappuccino cupcakes with mocha buttercream and the finished candy clay acorns.   It's quite possible these are my favorite cupcakes. 

Pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese buttercream (not the sickly sweet stuff) and edible gold painted fondant leaves.

Peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate ganache underneath a candy clay maple leaf.

The wedding cake with vanilla buttercream, candy clay roses and leaves, fondant ribbon and initial plaque.  By the time I was finished with this cake, I was a nervous wreck and swearing I wouldn't do any more cakes.  Except the one I promised my friend, Alicia, I would do for her sister's bridal shower.  For 80 people.  On September 18.  Occasionally, I am a glutton for punishment. 

Cappuccino Cupcakes

¼ cup Kahlua or other coffee liqueur

⅓ cup instant coffee granules

¾ cup whole milk

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1½ cups unsalted butter, softened

2 cups granulated sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

½ tsp salt

5 each large eggs

  

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Prepare muffin tins with paper liners.  

Microwave the liqueur and ¼ cup milk until warm in a glass measuring cup.  Add instant coffee and stir until coffee dissolves, reheating as necessary.  Watch carefully – it will boil quickly!!  Add enough of the remaining milk to equal 1 cup of liquid and set aside. 

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. 

In a large electric mixer bowl, beat butter until soft.  Add granulated sugar, vanilla and salt and beat until light.  Lightly beat eggs in a large measuring cup.  Add eggs approximately two tablespoonfuls at a time beating well after each addition.  Stop to scrape the bowl and paddle halfway through.  

Scrape the sides of bowl and paddle.  Add flour mixture into butter mixture alternately with coffee liquid, beginning and ending with flour.  Using an ice cream scoop, fill muffin tins approximately ¾ full.  

Bake 18 – 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Remove from oven and cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes.  Remove cupcakes from pan and cool completely on a wire rack. 

If you don't want to use alcohol in this recipe, just use very strong coffee or espresso.

Makes approximately 36 cupcakes.

Mocha Buttercream

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 Tbs instant espresso

3/4 cup whole milk

1-1/2 Tbs all-purpose flour

1-1/2 tsp natural cocoa

1/4 tsp salt

1 Tbs vanilla extract

6 Tbs heavy whipping cream

2-1/2 cups unsalted butter, cubed, room temperature

Heat the milk, sugar and instant espresso over medium low heat in a heavy bottomed pan until the sugar dissolves.  Remove the pan from heat and gradually sift in the flour, cocoa and salt while whisking until smooth.  Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to cool.  After the mixture is cooled, whisk in the vanilla extract.

Pour the cooled milk/sugar mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  On low speed, add the cream and butter cubes.  Continue mixing on low for about 30 seconds to incorporate the butter.  Gradually increase the speed to medium high (about 8 on a KitchenAid).  The buttercream will start to look curdled.  It’s okay – don’t panic!  Just keep going; it’s nearly impossible to overbeat this icing.  Beat for 8 – 10 minutes or until the buttercream is smooth and creamy.  It will happen.

This is definitely a fair-weather icing; it does not hold up particularly well in warmer temperatures.

 

Intimidated by Cake / Local Business Shout Out

Actually, it's probably more accurate to say I am intimidated by the creator/baker of the cake.  I've owned Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible for years - decades, actually.  I've baked from it before.  Somehow over the years though, it began to intimidate me.  Rose is, after all, THE authority on cake baking and I do have such a hard time following instructions.  The self-doubt was creeping in.  I've been wanting to make her Golden Grand Marnier Cake for quite some time.  It's been on my mind the last couple of weeks and I've been very adept at finding excuses to put off making it.  Today, I decided to stop making excuses and bake the blasted cake.  I would like to say I followed the instructions implicitly, but that would be a lie.



Fresh from the oven with their first shower of syrup.



Believe it or not, I had a few squares of Ghirardelli 72% and 86% dark chocolate left over from Valentine's Day.  Those coupled with some coarsely chopped 60% chocolate chips took the place of the mini chips.  The recipe calls for ground, slivered almonds.  My original thought had been to just use some almond flour I already had on hand.  Except I didn't have any on hand and I found myself not enamoured by the idea of mucking up the food processor to grind almonds.  I used an equal weight of all-purpose flour.  Though I had saved orange zest from the orange I juiced for the bourbon and brown sugar pound cake, it wasn't enough.  We had just bought tangerines, so tangerine it was, as well as for the juice in the soaking syrup.  And as much as I wanted to revert to my method of mixing, I did follow her instructions for that.  Very begrudgingly, but she's the expert.  And I don't have a 9-cup fluted tube pan.  I do have a 6-cake bundt-lette pan, and that plus six cupcakes worked perfectly.

  

Out of the pan and ready for more boozy syrup.

Despite what seemed like my attempts to force failure, it all worked.  They even came out of the pan beautifully, about which I had been extremely concerned.  (As much as I often find fault with Wilton, their Cake Release works amazingly well.)  I was absolutely thrilled. 

But now they needed glaze.  I used Rose's recipe for Chocolate Cream Glaze, which really is nothing more than a medium-thin ganache with a bit of liqueur added after the ganache is blended.  Very tasty, though I think the technique may be a little more complicated than necessary.  But again, she's the expert.



All snuggled in with a lovely coat of Grand Marnier infused ganache.



Using the cake flour gave the cake a very light, airy texture.  And while I had at one point considered this as a tier for the wedding cake, it's quite clear that as is, it will not support the weight of fondant and certainly not tiers stacked on top of it.  Using all-purpose flour instead of cake flour may give it more strength and I may experiment with that in the future, especially since a-p flour is much less expensive than cake flour.  But in considering that there are usually children at weddings, I've come to the conclusion that if I do use alcohol in the cake, it must be confined to just one tier and clearly identified as such.  I certainly don't want to be contributing to the delinquency of minor wedding guests.  (But I do so think the bourbon and brown sugar pound cake would be awesome at a barbecue!)



My reward.  I love that chunk of dark chocolate right in the middle.


And now to the local business shout out:

If you've not yet been to La Unica Bakery (213 West Main in Carbondale), you need to go.  Right now.  Drop what you are doing and go.  Yes, parking is inconvenient (in the back) but you'll get over it.  The hubs and I stopped in last Wednesday.  He had a bread stuffed with cream cheese and jalapenos, I had one stuffed with cream cheese and covered in slivered almonds.  We also picked up a croissant (not totally authentic, but very good) and a small batard.  Our total was less than $3.00.  If we lived closer I would be there daily.