Cake Slice Bakers - December 2013: Strusel Squares

I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since my last post. My life has just been so hectic with school and life and just everything that I haven’t baked anything new! I just keep baking these brownies over and over again because it’s quick, easy, and absolutely delicious. Oh and you can never go wrong with chocolate.

However I’m glad to come back with a Cake Slice post! I had to miss November’s cake (the first cake of our new book, Great Cakes by Carole Walter) due to, you guessed it: school. I was determined to make December’s cake though (even though it is a tad late)!

I’m not a big fan of coffee cake, so when this cake won I wasn’t too thrilled. This cake was a nice surprise though! I usually find coffee cakes to be so dry and flavorless, but this one had a nice crumb and good flavor.

 

One of the ladies suggested using half the amount of vanilla extract along with some almond extract. I must say that this was a very good idea. I think I may have added a tad too much almond because I can definitely taste the almond extract. It’s not a bad taste, but it gives off a very sweet flavor.

I know I must seem crazy when I say this but I don’t like crumb toppings. Wait, what? How can I not like crumble topping? It is pure sugar and perfectly acceptable to eat it for breakfast if it’s laid out over cake and muffins so what’s not to like? Well, truth be told, I just don’t like eating pure sugar! The crumb topping on this cake actually wasn’t too sweet and I actually enjoyed it. I think it has to do with the great amount of flour in the mixture.

I’m please to say that I have had at least one success out of this wonderful looking book and I can’t wait to bake more from it! Now if only I could get some extra baking done before school starts to take over my life again.

 

Strusel Squares

Makes one 8x8 inch pan

Slightly adapted from Great Cakes by Carole Walter

Ingredients

Crumb Topping

2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

½ cup + 2 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour

5 tbsp. + 1 tsp. dark brown sugar

½ tsp. cinnamon

Cake

1 cup + 2 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

½ cup sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract

½ tsp. pure almond extract

½ cup milk

1 egg white

Directions

Place rack on lower third of oven. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8x8 inch square baking pan with foil and grease with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter, flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Mix until the topping looks like coarse sand.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the butter on medium speed until smooth. Pour in the sugar in and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat the egg and egg yolk in. The mixture will look curdled, but that’s ok. Once the eggs are fully incorporated stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Fold in a third of the flour mixture followed by half of the milk. Repeat with the next third of flour and the rest of the milk. Fold in the remaining flour.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Whisk the egg white to break it up. Brush a little bit of the egg white on top of the batter (this will help the crumb stick to the cake). Sprinkle the pieces of crumb topping over the batter. Gently pat the topping to secure it into the batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the cake. Cool the cake in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely. Cut the cake into squares and serve with hot coffee, tea, or a big heaping spoonful of vanilla ice cream if you want it for dessert.

Cake Slice Bakers - October 2013: Lovelight Chocolate Chiffon Cake with Chocolate Whipped Cream

It’s October 20th (where did the time go?!) and you know what that means! Well if you re new here I’ll tell you, it means the lovely ladies from the Cake Slice Bakers are posting the 12th and final cake from the most wonderful cookbook ever: Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson.

I don’t think we have ever had a more successful cake book than this one.

I can still taste this Red Velvet Cake we made back in February, my god it was so smooth and delectable, and this Honey Bee Cake was definitely a huge hit for my roommates and me. The honey syrup was so sticky and sweet and just paired perfectly with the cake. Oh and don’t get me started on the Lemon and Almond Streamliner Cake. That is probably my absolute favorite out of all the cakes we made this year. So lemony, tangy, yet sweet too. And the frosting for this cake was amazing! I could eat that out of a bowl with a spoon if my goal was to gain 10 pounds in an hour.

So it has been a tradition for the past couple of years that on the last cake everyone makes a cake of their choice and keeps it a secret from everyone (including the members of the group) until the big reveal.

I ended up making this lovely beauty!

You would think an all-chocolate cake would be really heavy and dense, but not this one. It has 7 egg whites to make it light and fluffy and the whipped cream frosting keeps the whole thing light and pleasant.

I took this to my parents during fall break and by the end of my long weekend (only 4 days mind you) all by this slice you see here was gone. I had to salvage it because I didn’t have time to take pictures.

My mom says this is the best cake I have ever made. I think it has to do with it tasting very similar to this cake my grandma who passed away a few years ago; it was a tough time for my mom. But I’m glad I unintentionally made a make my mom had in her childhood frequently. The only difference between the two cakes was that my grandma put a burnt sugar toffee thing on the top. I really do think that would make this cake extra awesome!

(By the way please excuse all the terrible photos. I didn't have proper light for about a week and since this was the last slice I didn't want to get rid of it so it looks a little mangled.)

Lovelight Chocolate Chiffon Cake with Chocolate Whipped Cream
Slightly adapted from Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson

Ingredients
Whipped Cream
5 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups heavy cream
1 ¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp. cinnamon
Dash of salt

Cake
½ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
½ cup boiling water
½ cup canola oil
½ cup buttermilk
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
6 large egg yolks, room temperature
1 ¾ cup cake flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 ¼ cups dark brown sugar
7 large egg whites, room temperature
½ tsp. cream of tartar
½ cup sugar

Directions
Whipped Cream: place chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. Heat the heavy cream in a saucepan over medium heat until it reaches a slight simmer. Take off the heat and pour over the chocolate, swirling the bowl to coat all of the chocolate in heavy cream. Let the mixture sit for a little bit to allow the chocolate to melt. Whisk the cream and chocolate until combined. Stir in the vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge until cold, about 3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Take out your 10-inch tube pan, do not grease or line the pan. Just get it out in preparation for the batter.

Cake: In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder and boiling water until smooth. Whisk in the oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and yolks.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder, salt. Whisk in the brown sugar until the big lumps are gone. Stir the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula. Stir briskly until smooth. Do not over-mix.

In a clean glass bowl, whip the eggs whites on medium until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and increase the speed to medium-high until the whites reach soft peaks. Decrease the speed to medium and gradually pour in the sugar. Increase the speed to high and whip until the egg whites are stiff and glossy. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter using as few strokes as possible. Fold in the reaming egg whites until fully incorporated.

Pour batter into the UNgreased tube pan. Place the pan on the lower third oven rack and bake for 45-55 minutes. Do not invert the cake, but place it on a cooling rack until it reaches room temperature. To unmold the cooled cake run a thin knife around the edges to release the sides. Invert the cake onto a serving plate.

Assembly: Place the bowl of the chocolate whipped cream in the freezer for 5 minutes. Whip cream until it reaches a thick and spreadable consistency. Cut the cake into three horizontal sections. Spread 1/3 of the whipped cream onto the top (cut side up) of the bottom third of the cake. Place the middle section of the cake on top of the cream. Spread another ½ of the whipped cream on top of the middle section of the cake. Place the final piece of the cake on top of the whipped cream. Cover the top with the remaining whipped cream.

Cake Slice Bakers - September 2013: Butterscotch Cream Roll-up

It is waaaaay past the 20^th, but I finally took the time to sit down and write this post.  And I just want to thank to wonderful ladies for being patient with me.

Last month the other members of the Cake Slice Bakers and I made the Butterscotch Cream Roll-up Cake. I actually made this a week before the due date, but school (as always) has kept me from posting. Like just this past week I had two tests, back-to-back. I have been at school from 8am allllll the way to midnight every single day studying for these tests and attending classes. It’s ridiculous!

But luckily all my tests this week are finished and so I’m taking some “me” time and getting my stuff together. This weekend will be filled with studying too, but hopefully not at rigorous.

Anyways I have a small announcement before I get down to the sweet delicious cake part of this post. The Cake Slice Bakers are almost done with Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson, which means we are starting a new book come November. So if you are interested in joining the lovely ladies and I please e-mail Paloma at love(dot)for(dot)coffee(at)gmail(dot)com. Also, please mention my name if you do decide to join because we are having a little contest, and you want me to win, riiiight?  Also if you don't know if you want to join just yet, we have started this new thing that 6 months into the book we will open a small window for people to try out the group, so there is a chance then if you can't make up your mind now.

Ok, so cake time! First off, in order to make my hectic life a little simpler I just made this cake look like a regular jelly-roll cake instead of the elaborate spiral thing.

This cake took me two slices to finally appreciate the amazing flavor. At first I didn’t really like the cake; I thought it was ok, but not the best from the book. I decided to give the cake another chance the next night and oh my gosh my taste buds were in Happyland. The butterscotch whipped cream in the center is so light and soft it was like biting into a cream-colored cloud. The cake itself didn’t have much flavor, but it serves as a good vehicle for the whipped cream filling. The best part was definitely the butterscotch sauce! I only made half of the cream filling, which meant I had over ¾ of the butterscotch left over, so I decided to drizzle some on top of the cake. Let me tell you one thing: BEST DECISION EVER! Seriously. I still have a lot left over and I wish with all my heart I had some vanilla ice cream so I could smother it with this stuff.

Next month will be the last cake from this particular book, but I have a feeling I will be using this book way more in the future for whenever cake sparks my fancy. So please stay tuned in a couple weeks because I will make it my personal goal to have the last cake posted on time!

 

Butterscotch Cream Roll-Up
Slightly adapted from Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson

Ingredients
Butterscotch Sauce
5 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
½ tsp. salt

Cake
1 cup cake flour*
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ cup canola oil
4 egg yolks, room temperature
¼ cup water
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
6 egg whites, room temperature
¼ tsp. cream of tartar
* or ¾ cup + 2 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour and 2 tbsp. cornstarch, sifted multiple times

Filling
¾ cup heavy cream, cold
½ cup butterscotch sauce, chilled

Directions
Make butterscotch sauce first. Melt butter over medium heat in a large saucepan. Dump in the brown sugar and stir to combine. Stir frequently. Cook until the mixture begins to simmer and changes from a wet sand consistency to a liquid that looks like taffy. Drizzle about ¼ of the cream into the mixture and stir vigorously to combine. Whisk in the remaining cream. Turn the heat up to medium-high and allow sauce to boil. Whisk until the color darkens. Remove pan from the heat and allow sauce to cool for a few minutes. Add vanilla and salt. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold.

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a 12x16 inch jelly roll pan with parchment paper and grease with cooking spray.

To make cake: sift together the cake flour, baking powder, salt, and ¾ cup of the sugar in a large bowl. Whisk to combine. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, yolks, water, and vanilla. Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until smooth.

In a clean glass bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy. Add cream of tartar and continue to whip until the whites reach a soft peak. Gradually add in the remaining ¼ cup of sugar and whip until the whites hold firm, shiny peaks.

With a clean rubber spatula fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter to lighten it up. Use as few strokes as possible. Add remaining whites, folding until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth the tops. Place cake on the center rack and bake for 16-20 minutes or until the top springs back up when lightly touched. Cool cake on a wire rack until it reaches room temperature.

Make the filling by placing a clean glass bowl and whisk or beaters in the freezer for 5 minutes. Add the cold cream and butterscotch sauce to the chilled bowl and whip until ingredients are blended. Increase the speed of your mixer until the cream holds soft peaks.

To assemble to the cake: turn the cake out of the pan, top facing up. Spread 2/3 of the cream filling over the top. Take the short end of the cake and roll it up. Spread the remaining filling over the top and sides of the cake. Keep the cake well-wrapped in the fridge.

For extra amazing flavor, drizzle the remaining butterscotch sauce all over your slices of cake, you won’t regret it!  

Cake Slice Bakers - August 2013: Maple Pecan Chiffon Cake

So much is happening today! For one, today is my parent's 20th anniversary of being married! Which I think is pretty dang awesome for today's day in age where everyone is getting divorced or separated left and right (or does that only seem to be celebrities?). Today also marks my best friend's 19th birthday! Happy birthday, Z! And I can't forget about the Cake Slice Baker's cake reveal of the month!

August's cake happens to be a chiffon cake. I have never made a chiffon cake or angle food cake, yet I have the pan, odd. I have had the pan for several years with the best intentions of baking with it, but I was just never inspired. So needless to say I was happy when my choice of the maple pecan chiffon cake won. That is until a certain incident happened....

You see this pan was stored in my closet because there was no room in the kitchen. You should also know I am deathly afraid of spiders. My dad says I need to see a psychiatrist. I say he needs to realize that spiders are plotting my death. 

Anyways, when I went to get the pan from my closet a spider decided it would be a great time to make it's presence known to me. I screamed and threw the pan at the wall and I'm pretty sure I had my very first heart attack. God, I despise spiders.

Anyways after about 30 minutes of scrubbing that pan clean I got to baking. I thought it was a little weird not to grease the pan, but I must follow those kind of directions. The cake baked up all nice, tall, and fluffy. It looked so beautiful; I was so proud of myself.

Getting the cake out was kind of tricky though because I didn't know how to get the cake out without manhandling it. I finally managed it with only a few finger indentations on the top. But nothing a little frosting can't fix.

Oh my gosh the frosting is so delicious! It's basically the same frosting from my rice krispie cake, but I wasn't as scared about browning the butter this time, so the frosting had this intense nutty flavor! So good. And the cake was so delicious! It had this perfect brown sugar taste. I did omit th pecans because no one in my family is a big fan of the nuts and I knew no one would eat it if it had nuts in it. But no matter, the entire thing was gone within three or four days. So I will most certainly be making this again!

Maple Chiffon Cake
Slightly adapted from Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson
Makes 1 10 inch tube pan

Ingredients
2 cups minus 3 1/2 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour*
4 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch*
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
6 egg yolks, room temperature
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
8 egg whites, room temperature
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1 recipe Brown Butter Icing (below)

*or substitute 2 1/4 cups cake flour

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line the bottom of a footed 10 cup tube pan. Leave the pan ungreased.

Sift together the flour and cornstarch 3 times. Whisk together the sifted cake, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the yolks, oil, maple syrup, water, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until smooth.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and increase the speed to high. Whisk until soft peaks form. turn the mixer speed down to low and gradually pour in the sugar. Turn the mixer back up to high and whip until firm, glossy peaks form.

Fold a third of the whites into the batter using as few strokes as possible. Fold in the rest of the whites until incorporated. Gently pour the batter into the lined (NOT GREASED) pan. Bake until the top springs back when gently touched and the top is a light golden brown, about 50 minutes.

Allow to the cake to cool upside down, so the cake is resting on its feet. If your pan does not have feet, use a wine bottle the support the chimney part of the cake. Once the cake has completely cooled, take a long, thin knife and run it along the edge of the pan. Gently knock to pan against a hard surface until it slide out. Top with the icing and serve. Note: when cutting, use a serrated knife and use a sawing motion so as not the crush the delicate cake.

Brown Butter Icing

Ingredients
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1/4 cup whipping cream, cold
1/2 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Directions
Put the sugar in a medium bowl and set aside. Melt the butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Keep heating until the butter turns from a lemony yellow to a dark golden brown. Once the butter has browned and has a nutty smell, add it to the sugar (do this while the butter is hot). Add the cream, vanilla, and salt. Whisk until smooth. As the butter cools the frosting will thicken. Once the frosting has thickened to the desired consistency, spread over the top of the cooled cake.

Butterscotch Krispie Cake with Butterscotch Frosting

 

If you read the blog regularly or maybe semi-regularly you may remember I participate in a wonderful group called Cake Slice Bakers. I have been baking with this group for almost three years and it has been so wonderful!

Today the group turns 5 years old. I think that is pretty significant and so do the other ladies in the group which is why some of use decided to bake cakes as a celebration (check out our birthday cakes on our new Facebook page!).

I didn’t make a traditional birthday for the celebration though. I saw this rice krispie cake Darla had made for Dobby’s birthday and I became obsessed with it.

SIDE NOTE: Yesterday was Harry's, Neville's, and JK Rowling's birthday, so Happy Birthday to them and the group!

I’m slowly starting to fall in love with butterscotch. Last year I made some biscoff butterscotch cookies (they didn’t make it to the blog due to all the cookies being gone before I could take cookies) and they changed my entire perspective on butterscotch.

This “cake” has such a beautiful deep butterscotch flavor due to butterscotch chips strewn throughout and butterscotch sauce (like the kind from Smucker’s). But I also have to give credit to the brown butter frosting that get slathered between the krispie treat layers.

I haven’t worked with browning butter very much. I can count how many times I’ve browned butter on one hand. I don’t think I browned the butter enough for this frosting out of fear for burning it, but it still gave a wonderful caramely flavor.

My favorite part about biting into these was definitely the partially melted butterscotch chips. I think I have officially because a butterscotch lover!

Butterscotch Krispie Treat Cake with Butterscotch Frosting
Adapted from Bakingdom
Makes one 9x13 inch pan

Ingredients
Treats
6 cups rice krispie cereal
½ cup butterscotch chips
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed
10 oz. mini marshmallows
¼ cup butterscotch sauce

Frosting
1 stick unsalted butter, browned and solid
2 cups powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp. butterscotch sauce

Directions
Line a 9x13 inch pan with tin foil. Grease foil with cooking spray.

Combine the cereal and butterscotch chips in a large bowl.  Combine marshmallows and butter in a large saucepan set over medium heat. Stir the marshmallows and butter until both are completely melted into each other. Once the marshmallows have melted pour in the butterscotch and stir until combined. The mixture may bubble a little. Pour the cereal into the melted marshmallow mixture and stir until the cereal is completely coated in melted marshmallows.

Press the hot mixture evenly into the prepared pan. Allow to cool completely.

While you wait for the rice krispie treat to cool, make the frosting. Beat the browned butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment for 30 seconds. Gradually add the powdered sugar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. The mixture may look very dry and crumbly. Beat in the salt and the butterscotch sauce. If the frosting is still too dry add a little bit of milk or cream.

To assemble the “cake”: cut the rice krispie treat in half hamburger ways (if you are not an elementary school teacher this means you cut the cake so you have two 9x6 inch rectangles). Place one of the layers on a serving plate. Spread about 2/3 of the frosting on top of the bottom layer. Stack the remaining layer on top of the frosting. Use the remaining frosting to decorate the top of the cake.

Cake Slice Bakers - July 2013: Boston Cream Pie-lets

Today the girls of The Cake Slice Bakers and I come at you with Boston Cream Pie-lets. In a way I’m glad I got another chance to make some Boston Cream Pie because last year’s cake didn’t go so well. This year’s cake did turn out much better, but yet gain I had trouble with the pudding. Gosh-darn pudding always seems to give me trouble!

Despite my pudding handicap, this cake turned out so much better than last year’s pie I think.

This cake uses so butter. In fact, the cake gets it height from whipped cream. And boy did this cake grow! I really didn’t expect the cake to grow so tall. And it’s so light on the tongue. Is that weird to say? Oh well. It really is a fabulous cake.

 

The pudding I’m assuming would taste oh so amazing if it had actually set up properly. The recipe calls for a vanilla bean, something I have never used ever! So that was actually pretty exciting. And even though my pudding didn’t set up, I still used it. I know I cooked it for long enough, it just didn’t want to set up. I put some of the vanilla sauce (that’s what I’m calling it) on the bottom of the glass and on top of the first layer of cake. The sauce absorbed into the cake and made for a wonderful texture. I don’t know how to describe the texture without it sounding gross. How about it feels like cold ice cream running through a thick slice of warm cake? Am I the only one that loves when that happens? Yes? No? Ok let’s move on.

The ganche that tops this cake has been used several times in our baking adventures for this book and as always I am very pleased with the results. I didn’t have any bar chocolate or normal sized chips on hand so I used 4 oz. of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips along with the cream and it still turned out fabulously!

All together this cake is pretty great. Not in my top favorites for this year, but definitely a contender. I think I would have liked the cake a little more if I poured the vanilla sauce over the top layer of cake too. And even though I am pudding challenged, my absolute favorite part was the vanilla pudding sauce just because of the vanilla beans. I can’t wait to use vanilla beans again!

 

Boston Cream Pie-lets
Slightly adapted from Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients
Cake
1 cup (minus 2 tbsp.) unbleached all-purpose flour*
2 tbsp. corn starch*
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
¾ cup heavy cream, cold
½ cup + 2 tbsp. sugar
1 egg + 1 egg white (use yolk for pudding)
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

*or you can use 1 cup cake flour

Pudding/Sauce
½ vanilla bean
2 cups milk
½ cup sugar, divided
4 egg yolks
¼ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. corn starch
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed

Ganache
½ cup heavy cream
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped or chips

Directions
Line an 8x8 inch square cake pan with foil. Do not grease the foil. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

To make the cake: Sift together the flour and corn starch several times. This is to get the consistency of cake flour. Or alternatively you can just use 1 cup of cake flour. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment whisk the cold heavy cream on high speed until soft, droopy peaks form. Turn the speed down to medium-low and gradually pour in the sugar. Whip the mixture until stiff peaks form. Turn the speed down to low and add the egg and egg white followed by the vanilla. With the speed still on low whisk in the flour mixture into the whipped cream in three parts. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure all the ingredients have been incorporated evenly.

Pour the batter into the foil-lined pan. Bake on the center rack for 20-22 minutes or until the top is slightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack while you make the pudding.

To make the pudding: Slice the vanilla bean in half, length wise. Scape out the seeds from one half of the pod and place them, along with the pod, in the sauce pan. Add the milk and a few tablespoons of sugar to the sauce pan. Place the pan over medium heat and heat until the milk is hot. While the milk is heating, whisk together the egg yolks and remaining sugar. Stir in salt and corn starch. Stir 1/3 of the hot milk over the egg yolks. Pour the mixture back into the pan and cook over medium-low heat until mixture begins to thicken. Strain mixer over a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl. Whisk in the butter until melted.

To make the ganache: In a small sauce pan, bring cream to a simmer. Place the chopped chocolate or chips into a large, heat proof bowl. Add the hot cream to the bowl. Swirl the bowl to ensure even coverage of cream on the chocolate. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap for 5 minutes. Remove lid and whisk the chocolate from the middle and outwards. Start with small circles in the middle and move outwards until all the chocolate has melted.

To assemble: Cut 2 ½ inch circles in the cake. You will get four circles, so you can use the left over cake for another 2 servings. Cut each circle in half horizontally so you have 8 circles. Place a few tablespoons of pudding on the bottom of a glass, top with one cake circle. Dollop a few more tablespoons of hot  pudding on top of the cake and top the pudding with another cake round. Cover the top cake with the chocolate ganache. Cover the cakes with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving.

Cake Slice Bakers - June 2013: Black and White Cake

Hello, and Happy Thursday! I have more magnificent cake to share with you today from Julie Richardson’s Vintage Cakes. I know I didn’t share last month’s cake, but in all honesty there was just so much going on what with coming back home, getting settled, and then my sister’s graduation, there was absolutely no time to bake that cake. So because of that little slip up I made sure to make this month’s cake (I as so determined I made it about two weeks in advance).

This month’s cake is called the Black and White Cake. It’s basically the exact opposite of The Classic I made back in January. This is a dark chocolate cake filled and topped with chocolate ganache and creamy vanilla buttercream. Although this has not been my favorite cake out of the book, it definitely is delicious!

The recipe for the cake requires hot coffee, and since I am not a coffee drinker and no nothing about coffee, I grabbed any old thing of coffee my dad had lying around. It turns out I grabbed some pretty strong coffee because the chocolate cake turned into a chocolate mocha cake. The resulting flavor was surprising, but it was a sort of nice surprise. And after a day in the fridge, the mocha flavor subsided just a enough to bring the flavor of chocolate through a little more. So, if you like the taste of chocolate mocha, go for the strong stuff, if you want just a chocolate cake, reach for the decaf.

The only tricky part about this cake is the frosting. This is a basic vanilla buttercream, but it called for egg whites and cooking it down with sugar and a bit of cream of tartar. I have never used a buttercream recipe that called for egg whites only because I’m afraid I won’t cook it enough and someone will get sick. Despite my apprehension, I did make the classic vanilla buttercream and it was so creamy and smooth. I can’t wait to try another variation of this buttercream method.

The recipe I have down below makes two 8-inch round cakes. However, I halved the recipe to get one layer and I cut that layer in half horizontally.

Black and White Cake
Makes two 8-inch round cake
Slightly adapted from Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson

Ingredients
¾ cup (60g) natural unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup hot coffee
½ cup sour cream
1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups (180g) unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
10 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ¼ cup (240g) dark brown sugar
1/3 cup (64g) sugar
2 eggs + 2 egg yolks, room temperature
1 recipe chocolate ganache (below)
1 recipe vanilla buttercream (bellow)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two 8-inch round baking pans with parchment paper. Grease each pan with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, combine the cocoa powder and hot coffee and stir until thick. Stir in the sour cream and vanilla. The mixture will still be thick but it will be a little looser. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until smooth. Slowly add in both sugars. Beat until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs and egg yolks one at a time until. Beat until fully incorporated. Turn the mixer speed down to low and add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the chocolate mixture in two parts. Begin and end with the flour. Scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure all the ingredients are blended together.

Pour half of the batter into one prepared pan and the remaining batter in the other pan. Tap each pan on the counter a few times to allow air bubbles to escape. Place each pan on the center rack, evenly spaced, and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle and the tops are cracked.

Cool the cakes in the pan for 30 minutes before inverting them and placing them top side up on a cooling rack to cool completely before assembling.

To assemble the cake, lay one of the cakes, top side up, on a serving plate.  Frost the top with about ½ cup of ganache, spreading it just before the edge of the cake. Refrigerate for about 5 minutes to allow the ganache to firm up. Once the ganache has firmed, spread about 1 cup of the buttercream, covering the ganache, and taking it all the way to the edge of the cake. Align the second cake on top of the buttercream, top side up. Frost the top with another ½ cup cup of ganache. Chill in the fridge for another 5 minutes. Once chilled, spread a thin coat of buttercream all around the cake, creating a crumb coat.  Place in the fridge for about 10 minutes to firm up the thin layer of frosting. Frost the cake with the remaining buttercream. Decorate the cake with dots or kissed with any of the remaining ganache in desired.

Chocolate Ganache
Makes about 1 ½ cups

Ingredients
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped or chips

Directions
Place the chocolate into a medium heat-proof bowl. Heat cream in a medium sauce pan set over medium low heat. Stir occasionally until the cream starts to simmer. Remove the cream from heat and pour over chocolate. Swirl the bowl to ensure all the chocolate is coated. Cover the bowl with a lid and let the cream and chocolate sit together for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and stir the cream and chocolate together. First start with small circles in the center and gradually increase until all the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Allow to sit up to a couple hours to become creamy.

Vanilla Buttercream
Makes about 5 cups

Ingredients
6 egg whites
1 ¼ cup sugar
¼ tsp. cream of tartar
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, cubed and room temperature
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Directions
Using a hand whisk, whisk together the egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. The more the mixture is heated, the more fluid-like it will become. Continue to gently whisk the mixture until very hot to the touch (130 F on a candy thermometer).

Move the bowl to the stand mixer and, using the whisk attachment, whip the whites and sugar mixture together on medium-high speed until it has tripped in volume and its appearance is thick, glossy, and holds stiff peaks. Turn the mixer down to medium-low speed until the bowl is cool to touch. Turn the speed back up and add the butter, one cube at a time. At first the mixture will still look like meringue, then the frosting will look as if it has curdled. Continue to add butter and mix no matter what. Continue to whip the buttercream until it is fluffy and creamy. Blend in the vanilla and salt until combined.  

Buttermilk Cinnamon Cake

I have been so, so lazy lately. I know this because I haven’t been getting out of bed until 8 am every morning for the past month (which is by no means normal for me). Then I look a recipes and think of making things and then I get caught up in sitting in bed and doing absolutely nothing. I don’t like being lazy. I need to be doing something. So now I’m getting off my lazy butt and making delicious things for you to drool over (and possibly make yourselves –hinthint-)

Today I bring you something I have been meaning to make for such a long time now. I think I have written the recipe down on at least three different occasions, but never made it. This is something I really regret because this cake is so moist, so tender, and best of all, so cinnamony that you will scrunch down on your seat and do your little happy-wiggle dance (you know you have one).

If you haven’t checked out Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, please do. And when you do try to pick your jaw up off the floor with as much dignity as you can. Her food is so rich, fattening, and scrumdidliumptious, just how desserts should look and taste. But if her food is not your style, just go for her words. I love every single post because of her words. Even if I don’t like the look of what she is sharing, I still read for her wit and wisdom.

So, back to this cake – Peabody calls it a bread but to me it has more qualities of a cake. This cake is very soft and has a beautiful swirl of cinnamon inside. I ate one slice plain and at room temperature. The cake was delicious, but I couldn’t really taste the cinnamon. Later that night I tried a slice heated in the microwave with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and WOW! That made all the difference. The cinnamon flavor was heightened about 100 times and the hot-cold combination of the cake and ice cream was out of this world. I really recommend eating a slice warmed up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Buttermilk Cinnamon Cake

Recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Makes one 9x5 inch loaf pan

Ingredients

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1 large egg, room temperature

¼ cup canola oil

¾ cup sugar

½ cup sugar

½ tbsp. ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, oil, and sugar until completely combined. Fold the flour mixture into the buttermilk. Stir just until combined, do not over mix. In a small bowl, combine ½ cup sugar and ½ tbsp. cinnamon.

Spoon about 1/3 to ½ of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle as much of the cinnamon sugar mixture on top. Cover the cinnamon sugar with the remaining batter. Sprinkle a little more cinnamon sugar on top. With a knife, swirl the cinnamon sugar through the batter, much like making a marble cake.

Bake for 40-45 minutes. Allow to cake to cool in the pan for about 30-45 minutes. Turn the cake out and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack. Once cake is completely cool, drizzle glaze over the top of the cake. Slice and serve.

To make glaze, combine ¾ cup confectioners’ sugar and 1 tbsp. milk. Add more or less milk to obtain desired consistency.   

Antique Caramel Cake

It’s been 3 weeks since my last post. Whoops.

I didn’t mean to go so long without posting anything. I thought that once actual classes ended I would have time, but then I wound up studying for finals about 7 or 8 hours each day. But now that finals are over and I’m done with school for the summer I will be posting a lot more often, hopefully.

Oh, incase any of y’all care, I passed my physics class with a C! I have never been more excited to have a C in my life. I was terrified I was going to fail that class and have to retake it, but no sir-y Bob, I will not have to take that class ever again!

In other news, I’m breaking the silence on this blog with a delicious caramel cake!

My mom adores anything with caramel in it, so I knew this would be the cake for her. This cake was so good that within 12 hours the cake was halfway gone

This cake has basically three components of caramel. The cake, with its sturdy crumb, tastes like a combination of brown sugar and liquid caramel. The frosting tastes like salted dark caramel, and then there is a caramel drizzle that goes on top. The caramel on top was store bought, but if you would like to go and make your own caramel to drizzle the top with, I say go for it!

The best part about this cake was the frosting. It has the perfect soft consistency and the flavor is phenomenal. I found myself cleaning the plate with my finger to get any frosting that had stuck to the plate.    

Antique Caramel Cake

Slightly adapted from Laura’s Sweet Spot

Makes one 8-inch round cake

Ingredients

Cake

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

½ cup + 2 tbsp. sugar

¼ cup dark brown sugar

1 egg + 1 egg white

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

 ½ cup buttermilk

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tbsp. distilled white vinegar

Frosting

¼ cup dark brown sugar

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temp and separated

1 ¼ oz. heavy cream

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

pinch of salt

1 cup powdered sugar

liquid caramel

Directions

To make the cake: preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8-inch round pan with parchment paper. Grease bottom and sides of the pan with cooking spray.

Beat butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy. Add both sugars and beat on medium speed until fluffy. Scrapes the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the egg and egg white and beat until well incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the flour in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk in two parts, starting and ending with the flour.

In a small bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the white vinegar. Pour the mixture into the batter and mix to combine.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Place on the center rack of the preheated oven and bake for 25-28 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

Cool the cake in the pan for 20 minutes. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting: in a small saucepan, melt 2 tbsp. of butter with the brown sugar over medium heat. Stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for 10-15 seconds. Remove from heat and whisk in the heavy cream. Pour the mixture into a separate bowl to cool.

Once the brown sugar mixture is almost cool, beat the remaining 2 tbsp. of butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until creamy. Add the cream cheese and salt and continue to beat until smooth. Turn the mixer speed down to low and add the powdered sugar. Beat until the mixture feels loose. Refrigerate the frosting for 10-15 minutes in order to firm up

To assemble the cake: cut the completely cooled cake in half horizontally. Set the bottom of the cake on your serving plate, cut side up. Place a little less than half the frosting on the top of the cake on the plate. Smooth over the frosting. Place the top of the cake, cut side down, on top of the filling. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. Drizzle liquid caramel on top. Refrigerate cake for 15 minute to set before serving.