TWD - not a fan of malt

This week's recipe was a cook with malt powder in the dough and Whoppers chopped up. I do NOT like malt. I don't like to drink malts and I do NOT like Whoppers. bleah. They always taste so chalky.

So instead, because I needed a birthday cake for my mom's party this week, I turned to the Dorie book and on page 250 I found the Perfect Party Cake. Perfect it is!



The recipe as written calls for raspberry preserves but my mom specifically asked for apricot so I used a jar of preserves (way more than the 2/3 cup called for).

I had never made a Swiss meringue buttercream successfully before, but this one came together beautifully.

Everybody loved it, including my mom. I was ok with it, it wasn't up there with my favorites. (I think I am just not a white cake fan). But it is very versatile and bakes up great so I'll use it in the future.



4 layers with buttercream and apricots sandwiched between - yum!

Strawberry Shortcake

I am of the camp that does NOT like a biscuit-y shortcake. I know, I know, how very unSouthern of me. When I think of it, my mouth just gets dry, like most shortcakes I've had.

Growing up, we always had those little sponge cakes that had indentations in the top with our strawberries. I guess we always want what we are comfortable with.

I was very pleased to find this recipe for an almost sponge cake baked in a tube pan like an angel food cake. I appreciate that it does NOT need 12 egg whites like angel food cake. I never find anything to do with all those leftover egg yolks.

Sponge cake for strawberry shortcake

4 eggs at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup milk

Note - it says cake flour, not all purpose flour. I usually use Swans Down brand. Cake flour has a low protein content, unlike bread flour, and therefore should not be used to make bread. You want a cake that is light and fluffy, and does not develop gluten like bread. Softasilk is another popular brand. If you do not have cake flour, you CAN use 7/8 cup all purpose flour and 2 tablespoons cornstarch per cup of cake flour, but I would try and use cake flour if you can.

Preheat oven to 325 deg F.

Separate eggs, placing yolks in large mixing bowl and setting whites aside. Beat yolks with sugar until very light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.

Sift cake flour with baking powder onto waxed or parchment paper.

Fold dry ingredients alternately with milk into egg mixture, beginning and ending with dry. In a separate bowl beat reserved egg whites until stiff and then fold into batter.

Pour into an ungreased 9 inch tube pan and bake in preheated oven 45-50 minutes. Invert pan to cool. Remove from pan when cake is completely cool.

It's best cut with a serrated knife.

This would be very easy to modify with different extracts and things such as lemon/lime/orange zest.

I served with macerated strawberries and whipped cream. yum!

Utterly Delicious Chocolate Cake

I stole that description from Martha - she's always saying use superlatives to describe your food and your guests WILL BELIEVE that it is utterly delicious! In this case, the superlatives are not needed, as this great hunk of chocolate bliss stood on its own. Rich chocolate cake supported by its favorite player, velvety ganache. mmmmm. The above picture shows all that was left after my grandmother's 77th birthday celebration.

I truly couldn't believe how well this cake turned out. I'm not a great cake maker, as something always happens in the oven to make my cake come out lopsided or just baked WRONG and then no amount of frosting can cover it up. This time was no exception. I had thought I had 1 9" cake pan at home, so I purchased a 2nd, only to come home and find that I had 1 8" cake pan at home. sigh...so I was left to make them in my sorry silicone cake pan bakeware, which requires much babysitting and moving around of pans. Still, they didn't come out completely horrible, and after a few shave-downs to make them more even and an overnight visit in the fridge and a quick chill in the freezer, they weren't half bad to work with. From now on I'm taking the advice of professional cake makers and making my cakes ahead and chilling them.

The star of the cake I think truly was the ganache. I'd made ganache before to churn out bonbons, but never as a frosting. I had always assumed it was too liquidy to be a frosting, but chilling and letting it set up really gives it the consistency of frosting. I don't know if I will ever really go back to using buttercream, as it's such a pain to make and work with and this...well it was utterly delicious!

Awesome Chocolate Cake

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
3 cups granulated sugar
5 eggs, room temp
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, room temp
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups strong coffee

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour sides and bottoms of pans. Set pans aside.

In large bowl of mixer, stir together the flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and soda. Stir in the sugar.

In small bowl, combine the eggs and vanilla extract. Mix into the dry ingredients. Stir in the buttermilk, melted butter and coffee. Divide batter evenly among pans.

Bake at 350 for around 50 minutes. Transfer to wire cooling rack.

I can never find enough to make with buttermilk so I never have it on hand. In this case I subbed milk with some vinegar added. I couldn't tell you the measurements, but just make sure the mixture equals 1 1/2 cups. I also didn't use strong coffee, but instead chose to follow the directions on the back of my instant espresso powder for making 1 1/2 cups or 12 ounces of espresso.

Easy Foolproof Ganache

18 ozs semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon liquor or flavoring (optional)

Heat cream until nearly boiling. Pour over chocolate chips, cover and let sit 10 minutes. Whisk chocolate and cream (and flavor if using) until well combined; dark, smooth and glossy.

Let sit at room temp until cooled. To thicken, beat with hand mixer for a few minutes. Also thickens over time as it sits.

Refrigerate in airtight container for up to a week. To restore to spreading or glazing consistency, heat and stir over double boiler for a few minutes until softened.

I let my ganache sit out and in the fridge for probably 30 minutes, then spread it between the layers and on top. I then put the whole frosted cake in the fridge until it was time to transport. This helped a lot to firm it up for its short, albeit warm, transport to the party.

I omitted the liquor and flavoring as I didn't want to screw it up. In the future I would probably experiment with Kahlua or Grand Marnier, or even citrus extract. I would probably match it in the cake as well.

Chocolate Cake

You know all those individual little chocolate cakes that are on every menu you see? You know...the ones that are cakey on the outside and oozy in the middle? I'll let you in on a secret - they are incredibly easy to make! And so tasty!

Continuing my work through David Lebovitz's chocolate book, I decided to make some for my 1-year wedding anniversary this weekend. The recipe normally makes 6 cakes so I halved it for 2 of us - no problems with the recipe. I'm in for a real treat if all his recipes are as good as the ones I've tried so far.

Hot Chocolate Cakes

Makes 6 cakes

10 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons sugar
4 large eggs, separated

Butter 6 6-oz custard cups or ramekins. Sprinkle the insides with sugar and tap out excess. Adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.

In a large heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water - or a double boiler - melt the chocolate and butter together until smooth. Remove from the heat and whisk in 2 tablespoons of the sugar and the egg yolks.

In a clean, dry bowl, whip the egg whites with an electric mix on medium speed until they are frothy. Increase the speed and whip until the egg whites start to form soft, wet peaks. Whip in the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and beat just until the whites form shiny, droopy peaks.

Fold one-third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then fold the remaining egg whites into the chocolate mixture.

Divide the batter into the prepared cake molds, set them on a baking sheet, and bake for 12 minutes until they feel slightly baked in the center. Remove from the oven and let stand for a moment before unmolding onto serving plates.

As a bonus I had made some strawberry-raspberry coulis the previous night from some frozen berries and sugar zipped up in the food processor, then passed through a fine sieve. It was a really good accompaniment to the bittersweet chocolate.

These are really easy to make in ramekins - but unmolding onto a plate can be a bit tricky as they are jiggly and soft in the middle.



Since there were only 2 of us I played around with making some in muffin tins as well. They came out perfectly (taken out just a tad earlier than the ramekins) and were the cutest little 3-bite chocolate cakes. They were great even 2 days later as we celebrated the last of our anniversary goodies.



I want to experiment with this recipe in the future. Some liqueur added to the batter... throw in some mini chips or cocoa nibs... espresso powder...

Pudding Cake

I made pudding cake last night, as the light ending to our typical mid-week dinner. By Wednesday or Thursday my imagination has been exhausted, we're strapped for time, and no sign of weekend leftovers. I usually turn to one of our favorite low-fat turkey or chicken sausages that we get in mega-packs from Costco. So last night was no different, with sausage, salad, and roasted brussel sprouts. What WAS odd was that my cat decided he suddenly LOVED brussel sprouts, and perched himself next to me on the couch and stole one from my plate, fast as lightning. Didn't want any of my sausage but gimme that brussel sprout!

So anyway, I found a recipe for these orange pudding cakes, and they take so little effort and the only fat in them is from the one egg per two servings. They were alright - I'm pretty sure I had the oven up too high as I didn't let it rest from the roasted sprouts and so they came out overcooked on top. A lower heat would have allowed them to cook slower and the middle be more pudding-y. Regardless, they were unbelievably easy and fast to whip-up while the rest of dinner was cooking. And I had a bunch of clementines I'm still working through, so they provided the zest and fresh juice.

I stole the recipe from here, but I'll reproduce it as well. This cake, being fruit-based, is more fragile and like a souffle than the typical chocolate pudding cakes. The sorry bit of whipped cream I stuck on top wasn't enough - next time might call for a creme anglaise!

I halved it for the 2 of us. I cooked it in 2 souffle cups, but you could do it in a pan like the recipe says as well. I stuck a pan of water in there with the cups to keep it moist.

Orange Pudding Cake
(adapted from All American Desserts)

2 eggs, separated
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 tsp orange zest
2/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F.

Place a 9-inch cake pan, filled with about 3/4 inch of water, into the oven. Grease a 1 quart (4 cup) souffle dish and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour and salt. Add in egg yolks, orange juice, orange zest, milk and vanilla, and whisk thoroughly.

In a medium bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks. Stir or fold egg whites gently into orange mixture, until well combined. Pour mixture into prepared souffle dish and gently place in water bath.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the cake has risen and begun to pull away from the sides of the dish. Serve warm. Serves 4.