Zucchero Dolce - sweet sugar

Sugar High Friday Roundup - Layer Cakes!

2010-10-29T09:52:00.000-04:00

So many great cakes, I'll get right to it. Be sure to check them all out, there's a wide variety of flavors. Happy Cake Baking!

Vanessa at Sweet Artichoke made this beautiful Chocolate "Truffé" Cake.

Akheela at Torviewtoronto made this Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Jam. Check out the fancy plating!

I made this Yellow Cake with Amaretto Mocha Buttercream Frosting.

Barbara at Modern Comfort Food made this Carrot Cake with Pecan Coconut Frosting.

Valerie at Une Gamine dans la Cuisine made this Chocolate Sweet & Salty Cake from Baked.

Corina at Searching for Spice made this Chocolate and Macademia Cake.

Sunmi at A Heap of Lemon Zest made this Deep Dark Chocolate Cake.

Katie at Level2Mommy made this Lemon Coconut Cake.

Carolyn at All Day I Dream About Food made this Sugar High Chocolate Cake (fitting name or what?).

Melissa at Cute Kitty Punk in the Kitchen made this Sugary Sweet Spumoni Cake. Love the Italian theme!

Mihaela at De prin lume adunate made this Amandina Cake, a Romanian layered cake.

Alex at For the Love of Sucrose made two cakes:

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

and Four Layer Coconut, Lemon, Raspberry Cake

Dawn (no blog) made this Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Nuts.

Yellow Cake with Amaretto Swiss Meringue Buttercream for Sugar High Friday

2010-10-25T19:51:00.001-04:00

Small Chocolate Rose

Don't forget, time is running out to submit your cakes for this month's Sugar High Friday - Layer Cakes Edition! Click here for more info. The deadline is tomorrow, October 26th.

Last week, I took the first of three week-long cake decorating classes from Toba Garrett at the Institute for Culinary Education in NYC. It was a basic skills class which I had to take to take the more advances courses, but it was definitely worth it. The chocolate rose alone was worth the cost of tuition. And it was so much fun. First you make modelling chocolate from chocolate and corn syrup. After it rests for 24 hours, you can mold the chocolate. The rose above is a small chocolate rose or if you keep it a little tighter, the first step of the full chocolate rose, below. It took about 2 hours to make the large rose for the first time, but it was great!

We made this cake at the end of the week. Because the rose took so long, that left very little time to actually level, frost, fill, and decorate the cake. The recipes can be found in Toba's book The Well Decorated Cake. The cake was good, though I'm still a devotee of Shirley Corriher's yellow cake. The buttercream is great if you like a very buttery buttercream; if you want a lighter frosting, try this swiss meringue recipe, and add the coffee & Amaretto mixture instead of the vanilla and jam.

Moist Yellow Cake

(Toba Garrett's The Well Decorated Cake)

3 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350F, and spray 2 8" pans with baking spray. Line with parchment paper, and spray again.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Cut the butter up into small pieces, and beat on medium-high speed for about 4 minutes until light and creamy, scraping the bowl occasionally if you don't have a beater blade. Gradually add the sugar, scraping the bowl occasionally.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating until each one is just combined.

Stir the vanilla into the buttermilk.

Add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk. Divide the batter between the two pans, and smooth the batter with a knife or spatula. Drop the pans on the counter from a height of 3" or 4" to burst any air bubbles. Bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick comes clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans.

Double wrap the cake in plastic wrap. Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or the freezer for up to 2 months.

Hand Sculpted Large Chocolate Rose

Amaretto Mocha Swiss Meringue Buttercream

(Also Toba Garrett's)

12 ounces egg whites (about 1 1/2 cups or 10 large egg whites)

3 cups sugar

3 pounds butter, room temperature

4 tablespoons instant espresso coffee

1 fluid ounce Amaretto

Lightly whisk egg whites and sugar together in a mixer bowl over simmering water until the mixture reaches 140F.

Beat on medium-high speed with whisk attachment until it's about double in volume - soft peaks. Cut up the butter into small pieces while the mixture is beating.

Replace the whisk attachment with the paddle attachment. Add the butter, and increase the mixer's speed every 10 seconds until you reach medium-high. (If you have a 5-quart mixing bowl, add half the butter, pulsate the mixer on low until the meringue covers the butter, and add the remaining butter; otherwise the butter might spill out). Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 5-8 minutes.

Whisk the coffee and Amaretto until the coffee is dissolved. Slowly pour the coffee mixture into the frosting, and beat on medium-high for 2-3 minutes.

You can store the frosting in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Sugar High Friday - October's Theme is Layer Cakes!

2010-10-01T09:42:00.000-04:00

Yellow Cake with Chocolate & Raspberry Buttercream

Welcome to October's Sugar High Friday!

Sugar High Friday is a blogging event started by Jennifer at the Domestic Goddess. Each month, the host chooses a theme, and you all get to make a dessert showcasing that idea. At the end of the month, I'll post a round-up of all your delicious concoctions!

This month's theme: Layer Cakes! I love layer cakes, and with the weather getting colder out there, it's a perfect time to spend an afternoon in the kitchen. You won't even need to worry about your buttercream melting! Be creative with your flavor combinations -anything goes: peanut buttter, chocolate, carrot, almond, pistachio, lemon, pumpkin, ....

Hazelnut Cake with Nutella Mousse Filling and Praline Buttercream

Anyone can participate. Here are the details.

* Make a layer cake between now and October 26th.

* Post your cake on your blog (if you have one), with pictures, and a link to this announcement.

* Send me an email with the following info by Monday October 26th: your name, your blog's name, the name of your cake, the link to your cake post, and a 250 x 250 pixel jpg of your cake.

* If you don't have a blog, send me an email with your name, the name of your cake, and a 250 x 250 pixel jpg of your cake by Monday October 26th.

*Check back here on Friday October 30th to see everyone's cakes!

Here are some more cakes, just to start your creative juices flowing.

Almond Cake with Chocolate Raspberry Ganache, Chocolate Frosting, & Toasted Almonds

White Cake with Berries & Cream

Almond Cake with Chocolate Raspberry Ganache & Raspberry Buttercream

Mint Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Nutella Filling & Brown Butter Frosting

Caramel Cake with Brown Butter Frosting & Chocolate Ganache

Poppyseed Cake with Cream Cheese Filling & Chocolate Frosting

About

2010-09-05T14:26:00.000-04:00

It's about time I had an "About" section on this blog, so here it is.

I'm Allie, and I live in the Berkshires in northwest MA. For my day job, I'm a math professor. But I also run a home-based bakery called Zucchero Dolce. And, oh yeah, I teach fitness classes as well.

I bake all sorts of things (typically sweet), including lots of French desserts. But I have a very big Italian family on my father's side, and consider myself more Italian than anything else, hence the name Zucchero Dolce, which means "Sweet Sugar."

I'm also a vegetarian, and I'm a lover of healthy foods (except for dessert of course!): fruits, vegetables, and whole grains make me swoon. I blog more about dessert, but you'll find some savory vegetarian recipes here as well. You'll find some baked goods just for your lovable furry companions soon as well!

Oh, and here's my dog Tsuki and me:

Click here to become a fan of Zucchero Dolce on Facebook!

Sugar High Friday: Almond Cake with Raspberry Filling and Brown Butter Frosting

2010-08-31T13:03:00.001-04:00

The August edition of Sugar High Friday was hosted by Elissa at 17 and Baking.

The theme for this month is Brown Butter. I was very excited. I've made this brown butter frosting several times now, and it's one of my favorites. It's not as time consuming or potentially tricky as a buttercream, but way tastier than a traditional powdered sugar based frosting. And it's a great conistency for piping decorations. And the brown butter, with its slightly nutty taste, pairs very well with the almond cake.

I'll be hosting the October edition of Sugar High Friday's, so check back on October 1 to see what the theme is, and please consider submitting an entry.

Almond Cake (adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum)

4 eggs
1 cup sour cream, separated
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted
1/2 cup finely ground almonds, toasted and preferably unblanched
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
18 tablespoons butter (9 ounces, or 2 1/4 sticks), room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray 3 8" round cake pans with baking spray, line with parchment paper, and spray again.

In a medium bowl, stir together the eggs, 1/4 cup of the sour cream, and the extracts. Set aside. Don't worry, it won't be smooth or pretty.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all the dry ingredients - mix for 30 seconds. Add the butter and the remaining 3/4 cup of sour cream, and mix on low until combined. Mix on medium for 2 minutes to aerate batter. Add the egg and sour cream mixture in 3 additions, beating 20 seconds after each addition.

Split the batter between the cake pans, and smooth with a rubber spatula. Bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick just comes out clean.

Let the cakes cook in their pans for about 10 minutes, then turn on to cooling rack. Cool completely, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill until ready to frost.

Brown Butter Frosting (enough to frost and decorate an 8" 3-layer cake)

3 sticks butter, browned
1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar
4-8 tablespoons heavy cream
4-8 tablespoons Frangelico (or water or your choice of liqueur)
Pinch of Kosher salt (optional)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Brown the butter, pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, and set aside to cool. Wait for it to cool completely.

Pour the cooled brown butter into mixer bowl (paddle attachment). Add about 1/3 of the powdered sugar, and beat. Add the Frangelico, and continue beating. Add half the remaining powdered sugar, and beat. Add 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) of heavy cream, and beat until smooth. Add more cream if you'd like the frosting to be softer, and more powdered sugar if you'd like it to be stiffer. The exact proportions will depend on your desired consistency as well as the weather. Add salt if desired.

Refrigerate until ready to use. Re-whip the frosting right before use. If it's been in the refrigerator long (say over night), you might need to let it sit for an hour or two before it's ready to whip and frost).

Frosting Dam & Jam Filling

Tinted White Chocolate

Assembly

If you want to make the tinted chocolate shavings, melt some white chocolate, and add your desired color. When it's the color you want, pour onto something flat, like a clean cutting board. Let the chocolate harden, then use a vegetable peeler to make the shavings.

For the sugared raspberries, pour a little sugar into a small bowl. Add some raspberries, a few at a time, and coat with sugar.

For the cake: Make sure your cake is completely cooled, chilled is even better. Place one cake layer on a cake board or plate, and pipe a frosting dam around the outer edge, so the jam doesn't seep out. Spread raspberry jam inside the frosting dam. Repeat with the next layer. After you've placed the third layer on top, cover the entire cake with frosting, and decorate as desired. If your kitchen is too hot, you may want to chill the cake before frosting.

Berries & Cream Cake

2010-08-21T16:06:00.001-04:00

This would have made a great cake for the 4th of July. But berries are still in season, and it'll taste just as good on the 4th of September, or the 21st of August; well, you get the idea. As far as layer cakes go, this is on the lower end of the difficulty level - the filling and frosting are the same, and you can whip the cream in just a few minutes. The white cream is a great backdrop for all sorts of berry decorations, so have fun!

Berries & Cream Cake

Cake (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake)

Makes 2 8" round layers (or 2 thinner 9" layers)

2 3/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
5 egg whites (large)
1 7/8 (=1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons or 2 cups - 2 tablespoons) cups sugar
2-3 teaspoons lemon zest
10 tablespoons (1 stick + 2 tablespoons or 5 ounces) butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray 2 8" (or 9" for thinner layers) cake pans with baking spray, line with parchment, and spray again.

Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg whites and buttermilk.

In your mixer bowl, rub the lemon zest into the sugar with your hands until it's even distributed. This technique gets more out of your zest than simply stirring it into the batter later. Add the butter, and beat on medium-high for 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in the lemon extract.

Beat in the dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with the egg/milk mixture in 2 additions.

Pour the batter into the cake pans, and smooth the batter. Drop from a height of 3-4 inches to remove any air bubbles. Bake for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. The cake should start to pull away from the sides after you remove it from the oven. Cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then turn out onto parchment. Cool the cake right-side up.

Cakes made with egg whites like this one tend to dry out faster than some other cakes. It's best to make this cake the day you'll be serving it, or the night before (refrigerate well-wrapped overnight).

Whipped Cream Frosting

2 cups heavy cream
3/8 cup (=1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

When you're ready to assemble the cake, prepare the frosting: whip the cream until soft peaks begin to form. Gradually add the sugar while beating; add the vanilla. Continue to whip until the cream holds firm peaks. Cover and refrigerate.

Assembly

Raspberry Jam (I'm sure strawberry or blueberry jam would taste great as well.)
Berries and Mint Leaves, optional

Place one cake layer on a cake board, and top with a thin layer of jam, whipped cream, and berries. Top with the second cake layer, and spread the whipped cream frosting generously over the entire cake. Decorate with berries and mint leaves, and piped whipped cream, if desired.

Refrigerate the cake until soon before serving. Ideally, the cake should be served at room temperature, but in the summer, you'll need to be careful that the whipped cream doesn't melt.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

2010-08-15T15:08:00.001-04:00

I've been a vegetarian for close to 20 years, and I always will be, but I'll probably never be vegan. I usually eat 2 vegan meals a day, but I often have cheese with dinner, and it would be really hard to give up all my favorite baked goods... but being vegan is becoming easier and easier with vegan bakeries springing up all over the place. It wasn't so long ago that no one could even pronounce the word vegan, now it's a regular part of the culture.

I've done a reasonable amount of vegan baking and sampling, and unfortunately, many vegan desserts taste vegan - that doesn't mean they're not yummy, but sometimes they just taste a little... different. I don't think that's the case with these cupcakes though, especially if you eat the cake and frosting simultaneously. Go ahead, invite your friends over and have a taste test!

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

Adapted from Martha Stewart - Makes about 20 cupcakes

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup canola oil

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder dissolved in 1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 375F. Spray muffin wells with baking spray, or line with muffin wrappers.

Whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar

In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, espresso, and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients, and whisk until completely mixed. Add the vinegar, and stir quickly: the baking soda and vinegar will begin to react, and you'll see pale swirls throughout the batter.

Pour the batter into the muffin tins - each one should be about 1/2 full. Bake for about 12-15 minutes.

Vegan Vanilla Frosting

1/2 cup vegan margarine, soft

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla

3-5 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons water or soy milk

food coloring, optional

Beat the margarine and shortening together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until very soft and smooth. Beat in the vanilla (use clear vanilla if you want to keep the frosting pure white). Add the sugar in 3 or 4 additions, beating well between each addition. Beat in the water or soymilk. The powdered sugar and water/milk measurements are flexible (and somewhat weather dependent) - add more powdered sugar if you want a stiffer frosting, and less if you want a creamier frosting. You can also add water/milk to make the frosting softer and creamier.

Add a toothpick-full or more of gel food coloring if desired.

Yellow Cake with Raspberry Buttercream Filling and Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

2010-07-21T22:14:00.000-04:00

My niece Kate turned 4 not so long ago. This year, she had a family party and a kid party. Clearly two birthday cakes were required. The children’s party had a butterfly theme, and hence a butterfly cake. And it had to be chocolate. But more about that later.

For the family cake, we went with flowers. Chocolate frosting was still an absolute necessity, but Kate decided to try something different for the cake itself. We went with yellow cake, raspberry buttercream filling. chocolate buttercream frosting, and yummy vanilla flavored frosting roses. Don’t worry, the buttercream can be made in one batch, then split up and flavored with raspberry and chocolate. The roses can also be made a couple of days ahead of time. The raspberry and chocolate buttercreams are light and creamy and go together extremely well. The yellow cake is very moist.

I was so worried about keeping the buttercream from melting during the 3 hour drive to New York City, that I totally forgot what a roller coaster the Taconic highway with its potholes and bumpy ridged roads can be. Luckily, I had the cake in a bakery box, packed tightly into a soft cooler bag, placed snugly into a larger cooler, wedged between a suitcase and other assorted packages in the trunk of my car. I was thrilled to arrive on the upper west side, cake unscathed. Phew!

And most importantly, the birthday girl loved her cake!

Yellow Cake (adapted ever so slightly from Shirley Corriher's Bakewise)

8 tablespoons (i.e. 1 stick or 4 ounces) unsalted butter cut in small pieces

3 cup sugar

4 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cup canola oil

6 large egg yolks

4 large eggs

3 1/2 cups cake flour

3 1/2 teaspoons (i.e. 1 Tbsp + 1/2 tsp) baking powder

1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350F at least 20 minutes before baking. Spray 3 8" pans with baking spray, line with parchment, and spray again. (You can also make 2 9" layers if your pans are a full 2" tall.)

Soften the butter in a mixer on medium speed. Beat until light in color, about 3 minutes (warning: it's not so easy to beat such a small amount of butter, but give it your best). Add the sugar, and beat until very light. Keep the bowl cool, and scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally (or use a beater blade).

Beat in the vanilla. On medium, mix in the oil.

On low, beat in the yolks, then the whole eggs, one at a time, mixing just until combined.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt until fully combined. Add about half the dry ingredients to the batter, and mix on low until just combined. Add in half the buttermilk, still on low, and add the rest of the dry ingredients until just combined. Finish with the remaining buttermilk.

In a separate bowl (make sure it's cold), whip the cream to soft peaks. Beat just a little longer. Stir in 1/4 of the whipped cream into the cake batter to lighten. Gently fold in the rest of the whipped cream. Pour into the prepared pans. Drop the pans (just a few inches) to knock out air bubbles.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until a toothpick just comes out clean. The cake should just pull away from the sides when you remove it from the oven. Cool in pan, on a rack, for about 10 minutes, then invert onto parchment paper and remove pan. Cool completely.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

6 egg whites
1 7/8 cup sugar
3 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter, softened, cut into smallish pieces
2 teaspoons vanilla

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

Place the egg whites and sugar in a mixer bowl, and place the bowl on top of a pan of simmering water. The bottom of the bowl should not touch the water. Whisk constantly until the mixture reaches 150F-160F. It's definitely easier with the thermometer. If you don't have one, it should take about 5-10 minutes, the mixture should be hot to the touch, and you shouldn't feel any sugar crystals, they should all be dissolved.

Remove from the heat, and attach the bowl to your stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Beat on high until the mixture is completely cool, and the egg white have reached firm-stiff peaks. I've read that this should take about 10 minutes, but it's taken me much much longer sometimes, so don't give up hope, keep beating. Theoretically you can do this with a hand mixer too, but it will take even longer.

Switch to the paddle attachment on the mixer, and add the butter a few pieces at a time while beating on low-medium speed. When all the butter has been added, increase to medium-high speed and beat a few more minutes. Add the vanilla and beat another 30 seconds. The frosting should be fluffy and not runny at all.

Separate your buttercream: place about 1/3 in one bowl (for the raspberry), and the remaining 2/3 in another bowl (for the chocolate). Beat the raspberry jam into the smaller portion of buttercream. Beat the melted chocolate into the larger portion of buttercream.

Did Your Buttercream Break?

If your frosting curdles, do not despair, and whatever you do, do not throw it away! It's fixable. Whenever my buttercream "breaks," it's because the bowl gets too cold. If that's the reason, just warm up the bowl (hold over a hot burner or steam or melt a few tablespoons in the microwave and add back to the curdled mess), and whip some more. Magical chemistry ensues, and your buttercream will be beautiful and fluffy again soon. If the bowl becomes too warm, the buttercream can also break; in this case, you'll need to chill it, bringing it back to room temperature (or slightly above).

Assembling the Cake

If you want to make frosting roses, you can make them out of buttercream - just up the recipe above by 1/2 or 1/3, and when separating the buttercream for the raspberry and chocolate, reserve some to color for the roses. Or you can make a powdered sugar frosting, such as the vanilla frosting here.

For information on how to pipe roses, see Wilton's tutorial.

The cake pictured is 2 8" layers, with the third layer tucked away in the freezer for later use.

Be sure the cake is completely cool before frosting. I always chill my cakes to be safe, you don't want cake layers melting frosting and sliding every which way.

Place one cake layer on a serving plate or a cake board, and spread the raspberry buttercream on top. Top with the second cake layer, and cover the entire cake with the chocolate buttercream frosting.

Pipe more frosting around the top and bottom edges of the cake if desired. Top with frosting roses or sugared raspberries. Serve at room temperature. Enjoy!

Healthy Berry Cake

2010-07-15T23:10:00.001-04:00

The food I tend to cook is definitely on the healthy side. I love vegetables, avoid processed foods, don’t eat any meat, use only whole grain bread and pasta, avoid recipes with cream. My own personal definition of healthy definitely excludes all things labeled “low-fat”, “low-calorie”, and “reduced-sugar.” If you could somehow trick me into drinking a diet coke, you’d be treated to all sorts of strange facial contortions if not a big soda shower as I rid my mouth of the offensive liquid.

Does that philosophy seem strange given the abundance of decadent treats on this blog? I hope not. I’d trade a small piece of Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake for plate full of sugar free cookies any day. So it’s no surprise that I haven’t really baked with Splenda, and most of my recipes don’t call for applesauce or yogurt to replace the butter.

This recipe, however, is a little different. There’s applesauce and yogurt, and whole wheat flour (still no Splenda or anything else of that ilk). And lots of berries. But I promise, it won’t taste “healthy.” Sure, it’s not as decadent as this Chocolate Cake with Brown Butter & Frangelico Frosting, but it’s perfect as a humble mid-week 9x13 pan cake that you sneak a square of for your daily sweet tooth fix. Or you can even dress it up a little in a 9” round cake pan and serve it at your next dinner party. I've served it to lots of college students with fancier and more outrageous desserts at dessert parties, and it holds its own.

There are a lot of bowls to clean with this recipe, but it's very easy - you don't even need a mixer!
Also, I'm not quite sure where the recipe originally came from, my mom has been making it for a few years now.

Mixed Berry Coffee Cake

1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup blueberries
1 cup raspberries
1/4 cup raspberry fruit spread

Topping (before baking):

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9x13 pan with baking spray.

Whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate, large bowl, whisk together the egg and sugar. Add the yogurt, applesauce, oil and
vanilla.

Make a well in the flour, and add the egg mixture. Mix just until moist. Set aside 1 cup batter in a separate bowl, and spread the rest of the batter in the prepared pan.

Mix together the fruit and fruit spread in a clean bowl. Spoon over the batter in the pan, then drop mounds of reserved batter on top. Stir together the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl, and sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar mixture all over the cake. Bake for 30-40 minutes until a toothpick just comes out clean.

Let cool for 30 minutes before adding the glaze.

Glaze

1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 tablespoons warm milk
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Stir together the vanilla and warm milk, then pour over the powdered sugar, and whisk until smooth. Warming the milk helps make the glaze smoother. Drizzle over cake.

You may want to use only 2/3-3/4 of the glaze for the round cake, since there's less surface area.

A rectangular version of the cake; simply bake the cake in a 9 x 13 pan.

Blogiversary: Almond Cake with Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Filling & Raspberry Buttercream

2010-06-22T20:50:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday to my blog!

It's been a great year! I started my blog, my home bakery, I taught a 4-week baking course at Williams, and most importantly, I've done a lot of baking! This weekend, I'm participating in the Northern Berkshire Food Festival in North Adams, so if you're in the area, stop by!

If you've been following my blog at all, you'll recognize the almond cake in this recipe. I used it for my birthday cake this year with brown butter frosting, and with chocolate raspberry ganache and chocolate frosting for a client. It's extremely versatile, and a great addition to your repertoire! And this frosting may be my new favorite. It's not as heavy as some buttercreams can be. It's light and fluffy, with a beautiful pink hue and raspberry taste. You may not want to make it without a stand mixer; there's probably a good 20-25 minutes of beating with the stand mixer. But if you need any more reasons to get a stand mixer, swiss meringue buttercream is it. No heavy, dense, sugary mouthfuls here, this frosting is more reminiscent of a smooth, high quality ice cream with a more subtle sense of sweetness. You'll see this frosting again soon, I'm sure of it.

And now, to celebrate my blog's birthday, I'm off to make a cake of course! A chocolate butterfly cake for my niece's 4th birthday tomorrow. Happy baking!

p.s. Stop by my Zucchero Dolce facebook page for more pictures, or to become a fan.

Almond Cake (adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum)

4 eggs
1 1/3 cups sour cream, separated
2 teaspoons almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/3 cups cake flour, sifted
2/3 cups finely ground almonds, toasted and preferably unblanched
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 sticks butter (12 ounces), room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray 3 9" round cake pans with baking spray, line with parchment paper, and spray again.

In a medium bowl, stir together the eggs, 1/3 cup of the sour cream, and the extracts. Set aside. Don't worry, it won't be smooth or pretty.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all the dry ingredients - mix for 30 seconds. Add the butter and the remaining 1 cup of sour cream, and mix on low until combined. Mix on medium for 2 minutes to aerate batter. Add the egg and sour cream mixture in 3 additions, beating 20 seconds after each addition.

Split the batter between the cake pans, and smooth with a rubber spatula. Bake for 30-40 minutes until a toothpick just comes out clean.

Let the cakes cook in their pans for about 10 minutes, then turn on to cooling rack. Cool completely, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill until ready to frost.

Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Filling

5 ounces semisweet chocolate
5 tablespoons (2.5 ounces) butter
Scant 1/2 cup raspberry puree*

*To make the raspberry puree, defrost about 2 or 2 1/2 cups of frozen raspberries (you can use the microwave if you're in a hurry), and puree in the blender or food processor.

Melt together the chocolate and butter (I use the microwave, heating on 30 second intervals, and stirring fully between heating). Stir in the raspberry puree.

Raspberry Buttercream (Swiss Meringue) Frosting

6 egg whites
1 7/8 cup sugar
3 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter, softened, cut into smallish pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

Place the egg whites and sugar in a mixer bowl, and place the bowl on top of a pan of simmering water. The bottom of the bowl should not touch the water. Whisk constantly until the mixture reaches 150F-160F. It's definitely easier with the thermometer. If you don't have one, it should take about 5-10 minutes, the mixture should be hot to the touch, and you shouldn't feel any sugar crystals, they should all be dissolved.

Remove from the heat, and attach the bowl to your stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Beat on high until the mixture is completely cool, and the egg white have reached firm-stiff peaks. I've read that this should take about 10 minutes, but it's taken me much much longer sometimes, so don't give up hope, keep beating. Theoretically you can do this with a hand mixer too, but it will take even longer.

Switch to the paddle attachment on the mixer, and add the butter a few pieces at a time while beating on low-medium speed. When all the butter has been added, increase to medium-high speed and beat a few more minutes. Add the vanilla and beat another 30 seconds. The frosting should be fluffy and not runny at all. Add the raspberry jam, and beat just until combined.

Did Your Buttercream Break?

Assembling the Cake

2-3 tablespoons toasted slivered almonds (toast at 300F for 5-8 minutes)

Semisweet Chocolate, Shaved

Raspberries, lightly coated with sugar

Be sure the cake is completely cool before frosting. I always chill my cakes to be safe, you don't want cake layers melting frosting and sliding every which way.

Place one cake layer on a serving plate or a cake board, and spread the chocolate raspberry ganache on top, leaving roughly a 1/4" border on the outer edges (the weight of the second layer will make the ganache spread to the edge). Top with the second cake layer, and chill if you have time (not long, even a half hour would be good if your kitchen is warm; you can assemble the whole thing at once if it's not too hot out). Cover the entire cake with the raspberry buttercream frosting.

Pipe more frosting around the top and bottom edges of the cake if desired. Scatter the toasted slivered almonds on top, and to with raspberries. Serve at room temperature. Enjoy!

Raspberry Ice Cream Cake with Homemade Ice Cream

2010-06-18T14:51:00.003-04:00

Are you finding it much too hot out to turn on the oven? Time for ice cream cake!

Chocolate and Raspberry is one of my new favorite flavor combinations - doesn't matter the form: cakes, brownies, cupcakes, or ice cream cake like this one... Plus, I love that it's pink!

Ice cream cakes are great for entertaining, because so much of the work can be done ahead of time. And guests are always impressed with homemade ice cream, though feel free to use store-bought if you don't have an ice cream maker. You can even stir in the raspberry puree into store-bought vanilla ice cream, if you want to go the semi-homemade route.

Oreo Crust

5 ounces crushed oreo cookies

4 tablespoons (2 ounces; 1/2 stick) butter

Melt the butter, and stir into the cookie crumbs. Press evenly into the bottom of an 8" springform pan, and cover with plastic wrap. Freeze at least one hour.

Raspberry Ice Cream

First, you'll need 2 cups of raspberry puree. Start with about 4 - 5 cups of frozen raspberries, thaw (or microwave briefly if you're in a hurry), and puree in the blender or food processor. If you want to strain your puree, you'll need to start with even more frozen raspberries (7-8 cups), but I didn't bother. I like the look of the darker pink specks in the ice cream, and it still tastes great with less work!

Raspberry Puree

Ice Cream (loosely adapted from David Lebovitz)

2 cups heavy cream, divided

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar
Pinch salt

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 cups raspberry puree

Heat 1 cup cream with the milk, sugar, and salt until the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour the mixture into the blender or food processor with the remaining ingredients, and mix well.

Chill thoroughly (45 minutes should be plenty). Freeze the mixture (according to the instructions) in your ice cream maker. If the ice cream is still extremely soft, freeze another hour or two in the freezer; otherwise you can proceed to assembly, and spread the ice cream onto the oreo crust.

Chocolate Ganache

4 ounces chocolate, finely chopped

1/2 cup (4 ounces) heavy cream

Place the chocolate in a small bowl. Bring the cream to a boil, and pour over the chocolate. After one minute, stir until completely blended. Let the ganache come to room temperature (this might take an hour or more), stirring occasionally.

Assembly

Remove the ice cream from the freezer and spread it over the oreo crust. Work quickly so that the ice cream doesn't melt. Cover with plastic wrap (press right onto the ice cream itself), and place in the freezer for two hours. Make the ganache; it should reach room temperature by the end of the two hours.

Spread the ganache over the ice cream. If the ganache has not cooled, the chocolate will melt the ice cream underneath. Place plastic wrap over the ganache, and be sure it's touching. Otherwise you'll get freezer crystals on top of the ganache, as in the pictures above. Place the cake in the freezer again for another two hours.

Remove from the freezer, and top with fresh raspberries if desired. Enjoy!

Amanda's Birthday Cake

Best-Ever (Bakewise) Pound Cake & The Science of Baking

2010-06-13T21:21:00.000-04:00

I taught a 4-week, 40-hour course in January called The Art & Science of Baking. We used Shirley Corriher's book Bakewise for a textbook. Shirley is a frequent guest on Alton Brown's show Good Eats. She's a chemist, and explains the science behind the baking. If you want to develop your own recipes, this is a must-read book. She explains how to check the math of a given recipe and the important differences between baking powder and baking soda, natural cocoa powder and Dutch-process cocoa powder, and so much more. One of the most surprising things I learned - so many cake recipes are way over-leavened!!

Shirley examines pound cake early on in her book, and takes you through her process of developing the perfect recipe. Make this cake immediately, and as you taste the moist buttery cake with just a slight hint of almond (perhaps unidentifiable to some, but you'll taste something a little different), with a dense (but not heavy) crumb, you'll see how successful she was. The whipped cream is not a typical ingredient in pound cake, but after you make this cake, it might become a regular in all your cake recipes. It adds moisture, and of course enriches the flavor of the cake; whipping air into the cream lightens the texture of the cake. Replacing some of the fat (i.e. butter) with oil also adds moisture to the cake; oil is better at greasing the flour proteins than are butter or shortening, so less gluten forms.

Full-disclosure, I did adapt Shirley's recipe slightly. Potato starch isn't readily available at my grocery store, so I stuck with flour; Shirley says the potato starch adds moisture to the cake, and that the large granules make the texture a little less tight than the average pound cake. I believe her, but my version of the cake is still extremely moist, and the texture is not as dense and tight as your everyday pound cake. I also didn't add her optional cream glaze or pound cake icing. I didn't miss them.

Other things to note: don't make this cake in a loaf pan, it won't work. The abundance of butter and sugar in this cake make the cake perfectly moist and sweet, but don't contribute enough protein structure for the cake to dome in a loaf pan. Using a tube pan or Bundt pan insures that the cake remains fully in the pan; in a loaf pan, we would want the cake to dome nicely above the pan, but without the sides of the pan to climb, the cake needs sufficient protein structure to reach that high. Also, if the cake sinks slightly on top, it's not noticeable with these pans, since you invert the cake before serving anyway.

Oh, and I'm not sure she mentions this, but this cake improves after baking, so try not to eat it all the first, or even second day. It's still moist on day 3, and the butter flavor is even more pronounced (I haven't figured out why yet!).

The Best-Ever Pound Cake - Seriously (adapted from Shirley Corriher)

Makes 1 12-cup Bundt cake, 1 10" tube pan cake, or 1 10-cup Bundt cake & 4 mini-Bundts.

Just under 3 cups all purpose flour (3 cups - 4 teaspoons, or 13.3 ounces)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (6 ounces or 12 tablespoons) butter, room temperature

1/2 cup vegetable shortening (trans-fat free)

3 cups sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract*

1/3 cup canola oil

2 large egg yolks

5 large eggs

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup heavy cream

Powdered sugar, for dusting

*Don't let a lack of almond extract keep you from making this cake. I think the almond extract is definitely responsible for part of this cake's greatness, but it'll still beat out your average cake if you replace the almond extract with more vanilla.

Spray a 12 cup Bundt pan or 10" tube pan generously with baking spray (with flour). I used a 10-cup Bundt pan, and made 4 mini-Bundts as well. Preheat the oven to 350F**. Chill a medium bowl and the beaters of a hand mixer for use in a few minutes (if your kitchen isn't too hot, you will probably be ok if you skip this step, but Shirley might diagree).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt until completely blended.

Beat the butter on medium speed to soften. Add the shortening, and beat until light and pale in color, about 3 minutes. Add the sugar, and beat a few more minutes until very light; scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl if you're not using a Beater Blade. You want the mixture to stay cold. If it's a very hot day, you may want to place the bowl in the fridge or freezer if it gets too warm.

Beat in the extracts.

Beat in the oil, a little at a time, until fully incorporated.

On the lowest speed, add the yolks and eggs, one at a time.

On the lowest speed, add the dry ingredient mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk.

Take the bowl and beaters from the fridge, and whip the heavy cream to soft peaks. Whip another 30-seconds or so, just past soft peaks. Stir in about a quarter of the cream to the batter to lighten, then gently fold in the remaining cream.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Drop the pan on the counter from a height of 4 inches to knock out the air bubbles. Smooth the batter with a rubber spatula. Bake the cake for about one hour (could be a little longer, 60-70 mins) until a toothpick in the center of the cake just comes out clean. It shouldn't start to pull away from the sides of the pan until it has just come out of the oven.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes on a rack; invert the cake onto a serving platter to finish cooling.

Dust with powdered sugar immediately before serving. Enjoy! But try to save some for a day or two from now, it'll taste even better (see notes above).

(Shirley includes a cream glaze and a pound cake icing, but I really don't think the cake needs it. If you disagree, heat 1/3 cup heavy cream, 3/4 cup sugar, and 2 tablespoons light corn syrup in a pan over medium heat until the sugar is fully dissolved. Brush and rebrush over the warm cake until the glaze is absorbed.)

**Shirley recommends baking cakes on a pizza stone. The stone absorbs and retains heat, and protects your cake from the sometimes significant temperature swings that can be caused by opening and closing the oven door. I didn't use the pizza stone, but made sure the oven was preheated for a half hour before baking, and was careful not to open the oven door often or for very long.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

2010-06-09T22:21:00.003-04:00

I've never quite understood the world's fascination with carrot cake, but everyone seems to love it. I do think these cupcakes are pretty cute with the pecan on top, and I love cream cheese frosting, but carrot cake will never be my cake flavor of choice. To each his own...

By the way, if you don't already use an ice cream scoop to fill cupcake liners, I highly recommend it. It makes the whole process go much more quickly and I also think it makes it easier to fill the wells uniformly. Remember, each one should be filled just over halfway (for most recipes).

Carrot Cake Cupcakes: Makes About 16 Cupcakes (or 48 minis)

(Adapted from Dorie Greenspan)

A triple batch fits fine in a 5-quart stand mixer.

1 cup flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans (or walnuts) + more for decoration
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs

Position oven racks to divide the oven into thirds. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Place paper liners in 16 cupcake wells. It's ok to leave a couple of wells open.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

In another bowl, stir together the carrots and nuts.

In another bowl, preferably with a stand mixer, beat the sugar and oil together on medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, and continue to beat until the batter is even smoother.

Reduce speed to low, and add the flour mixture, mixing just until combined.

Gently stir in the carrots and nuts. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake holders; each one should be filled between halfway and 2/3 full. Bake for 15-17 minutes. The cupcakes are done when a toothpick just comes out clean. Cool completely on rack. Be sure that they are completely cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

(adapted from Martha Stewart)

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick butter (4 ounces), room temperature, in small pieces
2 cups powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese on medium speed for several minutes, until creamy. It's hard to get out all the lumps, but keep beating!

Add vanilla.

Gradually add butter while beating on medium speed. This will take several minutes. Turn up to high speed for 30-60 seconds; frosting should be smooth.

On low speed, add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time. If the frosting is stiff enough to pipe, you can use it now, but depending on the temperature in your kitchen, you may want to refrigerate it before using.

If it's too stiff after refrigeration, just mix again for 30 seconds or so.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake with a Brownie Crust

2010-06-07T09:55:00.001-04:00

It's been months since I posted any chocolate and peanut butter treats, that's just not right! So here's another. I don't need to convince you how great the flavor combination is. I made this as one of several desserts for a party for my Abstract Algebra students. I never have students over without serving cheesecake, it's so easy and quick, it serves a lot, most people really like it, and there are endless flavor combinations! And it can be made ahead of time, perfect for parties! You could definitely serve this on an oreo crust if you prefer, but I really like the brownie texture.

Brownie Base (adapted from King Arthur Flour)

12 tablespoons (6 ounces) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (1 1/2 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) sugar
3/4 cup (3 ounces) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour (or spray with baking spray) a 9 x 9 square or 10" round springform pan.

Melt the butter and stir in the cocoa powder. Cover, and set aside to cool.

Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs for 3 minutes (longer if you're using a hand mixer), then gradually add the sugar, beating 2 to 3 minutes more. Stir in the butter/chocolate mixture. Gently fold in the flour and salt, just until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs. Cool completely.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

2 pounds (32 ounces) cream cheese
1 cup peanut butter (not the natural kind that you have to stir)
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1/3 cup sour cream
1 cup heavy cream

Be sure to have all ingredients at room temperature, especially the eggs and cream cheese. This will help keep cracks from forming in the top of the cheesecake.

Preheat the oven to 325°F (if you're doing the cheesecake the next day; otherwise just reduce the oven temperature). Put a kettle of water on to boil for the water bath. Wrap springform pan in 3-4 layers of aluminum foil to prevent (or lessen at least!) leakage.

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese at medium speed for about 4 minutes, until soft and creamy. Add the peanut butter and beat for another 2-3 minutes. Add the sugar and beat for another 4 minutes. Beat in the salt and vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well (about 1 minute) and scraping sides of bowl after each addition. Beating at low speed, add the sour cream and heavy cream. The batter will be thin.

(Note: If you're using a hand mixer, you will want to increase the mixing times).

Pour the remaining batter on top of the cooled brownie base. You'll want to leave a little room (half-inch or so) at the very top of the pan, but it should be nearly full (depending on your pan size and your base, you may have a little extra batter which can be cooked in small cake pans or muffin tins).

Place the cheesecake in the pan for the waterbath, and place in the oven. Pour the boiling water in for the water bath, it should come about halfway up the side of the springform. Bake the cheesecake for about 55-65 minutes: it should hold together and appear set at the edges, but there will still be a lot of jiggle in the center. Turn the oven off, and leave the cheesecake in the oven for another hour. After one hour, remove the cake from the water bath, and let it finish cooling on the counter top. Remove the foil, and refrigerate overnight.

Ganache Topping

5 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

3 fluid ounces heavy cream

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium-sized bowl. Bring the heavy cream to a boil, and pour over the chocolate. Let sit for one minute, then stir until smooth. Let the ganache cool to lukewarm or even room temperature, and then pour over the chilled cheesecake. Spread the ganache evenly over the entire cheesecake, and return to the fridge to set.

Bring the cheesecake to room temperature before serving. Run a thin sharp knife around the edge of the spring form pan before removing the outer rim of the pan.

A warm knife works best for cutting the cheesecake, you may want to wipe it clean between slices.

How To Keep Your Cheesecake from Cracking

1. The water bath greatly helps prevent cracks in your cheesecake, because it makes the cheesecake cook more slowly. The problem is that water almost always leaks into the springform pan. You can use a regular cake pan, rather than a spring form - no leaks, but you have to flip the cheesecake out, and then flip again to make it right side up. That's kinda scary. When using an oreo or brownie base, the small amount of water that leaks in can make the crust a little fudgier which I like. So I usually use the water bath, and wrap it with at least 3 layers of aluminum foil.

2. It's very important to have all ingredients at room temperature. Take the eggs, sour cream, and cream cheese out of the refrigerator way ahead of time. But, of course, life happens, and sometimes you forget! You can fake it if you have to: let the eggs rest in warm water for 10-15 minutes to bring them to room temperature. You can also microwave the cream cheese (not too much! use 5-10 second increments and low power) to bring it to room temperature.

3. Don't overbake the cheesecake. The middle should still jiggle a lot when you turn the oven off.

4. Some people swear by just reducing the oven temperature and letting the cheesecake bake for longer (with no water bath). I've never tried this method, but let me know if you do!

5. Cracks come from quick and drastic temperature changes. The water bath keeps the cheesecake from baking too quickly, and leaving the cheesecake in the oven keeps it from cooling too quickly. Placing a warm cheesecake in the fridge may also cause cracks.

6. Even if it cracks, it still tastes great, so don't worry about it! And if it really bothers you, make a sour cream or chocolate ganache topping and cover it up. No one will ever know.

Almond Cake with Chocolate Raspberry Filling & Chocolate Frosting

2010-06-05T11:57:00.002-04:00

Do you own 6" cake pans yet? I love mine! If you like to bake, and don't want to gain 5 pounds, you should definitely invest in some 6" pans. You can usually just half the recipe for a 9" cake, and make it as a 6" instead - no complicated math required! If you're intimidated by the thought of putting together a big layer cake, a 6" is also a little less scary. The smaller layers are less likely to break while you're assembling the cake, and frosting the 6" is just a little bit easier than a bigger, unwieldy cake.

I didn't get to eat any of this cake unfortunately (it was for a Zucchero Dolce order), so I don't have any shots of the inside. I'll just have to make it again soon so I can get you some more pictures... yeah, that's the reason I need to make it again soon. Really it is...

Almond Cake (adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum)

This recipe makes a 2-layer 6" cake. Double the recipe to make a 3-layer 9" cake, a 3-layer 8" cake, or a 2-layer 9" cake if your pans are a full 2" tall.

2 eggs
2/3 cups sour cream, separated
1 teaspoons almond extract
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups cake flour, sifted
1/3 cup finely ground almonds, toasted and preferably unblanched
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons butter (6 ounces), room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray 2 6" round cake pans with baking spray, line with parchment paper, and spray again (you can probably skip the parchment if you spray well).

In a medium bowl, stir together the eggs, about 1/4 (that's a little under 3 tablespoons) of the sour cream, and the extracts. Set aside. Don't worry, it won't be smooth or pretty.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all the dry ingredients - mix for 30 seconds. Add the butter and the remaining 1 cup of sour cream, and mix on low until combined. Mix on medium for 2 minutes to aerate batter. If you don't have a beater blade, scrape down the sides of the bowl frequently with a rubber spatula. Add the egg and sour cream mixture in 3 additions, beating 20 seconds after each addition.

Split the batter between the cake pans, and smooth with a rubber spatula. Bake for 20-30 minutes until a toothpick just comes out clean. (that's a big time window, but cooking time can vary drastically with different ovens, so it's best to keep an eye on it).

Let the cakes cook in their pans for about 10 minutes, then turn on to cooling rack. Cool completely, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill until ready to frost.

Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Filling

3 ounces semisweet chocolate
3 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup raspberry puree*

To make the puree, I find it easiest to use frozen raspberries. Thaw (or microwave) the frozen berries, and puree in the blender or food processor. You'll need about 2 cups of berries to get 1/3 cup puree.

Melt together the chocolate and butter in a double boiler or in a microwave (short 30 second spurts, stir in between or you're likely to burn the chocolate). Stir in the raspberry puree, and use to fill the cake. If you make this ahead of time, you may need to microwave it very briefly to bring it back to spreadable consistency.

Chocolate Frosting (adapted from Chocolate Chocolate)

4 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid

2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid

Large pinch of salt

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

3 fluid ounces (3/8 cup) milk, heated to tepid

Beat butter on medium speed for 1-2 minutes.

Blend in the melted chocolate, salt, vanilla, and 1 cup powdered sugar.

Add in the rest of the powdered sugar in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions (begin and end with the powdered sugar). Add more powdered sugar for heavier (this may be necessary if you want to pipe your frosting) frosting, or more milk for a creamier frosting. Use the frosting immediately. If it starts to harden before you're ready to frost, re-whip, adding a small amount of milk if necessary to restore the creamy consistency.

Assembly

About 1 cup ground almonds (I like salted)

2-3 tablespoons toasted slivered almonds (toast at 300F for 5-8 minutes)

Raspberries, lightly coated with sugar

Be sure the cake is completely cool before frosting. I always chill my cakes to be safe, you don't want cake layers melting frosting and sliding every which way!).

Cover the sides of the cake with the ground almonds while the frosting is still smooth and creamy (if you wait too long, the frosting will begin to harden and the nuts won't adhere to the cake). To cover with nuts, just scoop some nuts up in your hand and gently press in to the cake. Many many nuts will fall down on to the platter. Just keep scooping them back up and pressing on to the cake until it's covered. Work quickly, so the frosting doesn't harden.

Pipe chocolate frosting around the edge of the cake if desired. Scatter the toasted slivered almonds on top, and to with raspberries. Serve at room temperature. Enjoy!

Croquembouche - The Recipe

2010-06-03T12:44:00.001-04:00

Photo by Amanda

Sorry to make you wait, here's the recipe for the Croquembouche with the Daring Bakers. As I mentioned, it didn't quite turn out to be the towering beauty I longed for, but after doing it once, I'll do it again - much sooner. Amanda and I made this for her birthday (along with a raspberry ice cream cake); everyone seemed to have fun disassembling the pyramid.

Chocolate Pastry Cream

2 cups milk
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 egg yolks
4 tablespoons butter (2 ounces), cut into several small pieces
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Dissolve cornstarch in 1/2 cup of the milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.

Beat the eggs and yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Slowly pour the milk/sugar mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly (you don't want to cook the eggs). Strain.

Return to heat (medium/high flame), and continue whisking until the cream thickens. After the cream comes to a boil (little blips, not an active boil), cook one more minute; keep whisking!

Remove from heat, and stir in the butter, chocolate, and vanilla and melted chocolate. Cool completely in the refrigerator or over an ice bath. The ice bath will cool the cream more quickly.

Choux Pastry (from Nick Malgieri)

3/4 cup water
6 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour (all-purpose is fine, we used bread flour)
4-5 eggs (approximately)

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Combine water, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil, stirring constantly. When the mixture starts to boil, remove from heat and stir in flour.

Return to heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixtures dries slightly and begins to leave the sides of the pan. Transfer to a bowl, and let stand for 5 minutes to cool; if using a stand mixer, beat for one minute to cool.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time; be sure to wait until each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. You might not need the entire fourth egg; you might need another half egg. The dough should be stiff enough to pipe; if you swipe your finger through the dough, it should close up on itself fairly quickly.

Immediately pipe the dough into small mounds (about an inch in diameter) and bake for about 10 minutes or until well-risen. Lower the oven temperature to 350°F and continue baking until completely dry (another 20-25 minutes most likely). It should be completely firm when you take it out of the oven or it will collapse; usually it needs another 20 minutes in the oven after it starts to look done.

You'll get about 45 puffs if you keep them small.

Caramel Glaze (from Martha Stewart)

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Prepare an ice-water bath large enough for your pan of caramel to sit inside.

Bring the sugar, water, and lemon juice to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Use a wet pastry brush to wash down the sides of the pan so that sugar crystals do not form there. Without stirring, cook until the sugar dissolves, 5-6 minutes. Raise the heat to high, and cook until the syrup is a medium-deep amber color, continually swirling the pan by lifting it just off the heat. This will take another 5 minutes or so. When the color is how you want it (you may want to test a small drop on a white plates to get an accurate color reading), remove the caramel from the heat and set the bottom of the pan in the ice bath to stop it from cooking. If your ice-water bath isn't ready yet, the caramel will burn while you're preparing it. Use the caramel immediately.

Assembly

Make the pastry cream, as directed above.

Make the choux pastry, as directed above.

When the puffs and pastry cream are completely cool, fill each of the puffs with the cream. Take a sharp knife and cut a small hole in the bottom of each puff (put the point of the knife through, then twist to get a circular hole), large enough for the very tip of your pastry cream bag to fit through. Next, fill your pastry bag (or large ziplock bag) with pastry cream (put a round tip at the bottom, or just cut the tip of the bag off so that the opening is about 1/4" in diameter; fold the edges of the pastry bag down a couple of inches, and fill the bag with cream; fold up the edges of the bag, push the cream down towards the tip, and twist the top so you don't get leakage out the wrong end!). Fill each puff with cream; you will know to stop when the puff begins to feel heavy, and it feels like more pressure would be required to let any more cream out. If you push too hard, the cream may burst through small cracks on the top or sides of the puff.

Next, make the caramel glaze, as directed above.

Now you're ready to build your tower. Amanda and I assembled our tower free-hand. Next time, I'll make a cone and use that as a mold (see here for a much larger and prettier croquembouche). Dip the bottom of each puff in the caramel, and set on parchment paper (caramel side up). Reheat the caramel if it begins to get too thick. I've seen many pictures of these with a heavy dose of caramel on each puff (like ours), but I think I prefer the look of the thinner glaze.

Make the spun sugar, if desired. I think I'll hold off on posting the directions here until I do it again with more success.

Croquembouche with the Daring Bakers

2010-05-27T22:19:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to make a Croquembouche (also known as a piece montée) for months and months, and I finally did it. Not quite as eye-catching as I'd like, but it'll be better next time. I'll have the whole recipe and more pics really really soon, but here's one to tide you over!

Fine print:

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

Lemon Squares

2010-05-23T21:21:00.000-04:00

I promise, my baking repertoire includes more than just layer cakes! Take these lemon squares for instance. They're not overly sweet, but they have a strong lemony flavor. My only complaint about lemon squares is that after you've completed the none-too-short tasks of juicing and zesting the lemons, putting together the crust, and baking the final treats, you're left with... lemon bars. They taste great, but as I stare at my bare, disemboweled lemons, I always feel like I've earned something just a little fancier.

Three cake orders in the next week though, so many more layer cakes to come! And a really fun Daring Bakers Challenge this Thursday - stay tuned!

Lemon Squares (Williams Sonoma Cookies)

Crust

1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8" x 8" pan with foil; let the foil hang over the sides. Spray the foil with baking spray.

Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Cut in the butter until crumbly using two knives or your fingers (don't use your fingers if you have warm hands, you don't want the butter to melt at all). Pour the dough into the pan, and spread evenly.

Bake for 22-25 minutes, until the crust is golden at the edges. While the crust is baking, prepare the filling. Reduce the oven temperature to 325F when you remove the crust.

Filling

3 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
pinch salt

Whisk together the flour and lemon juice. Add the eggs, sugar, zest, and salt, and whisk until smooth. Pour the filling into the baked crust. Bake for 30 minutes, until center is springy.

Cool completely in pan. Remove from pan by lifting foil. Cut into squares or strips. Dust with powdered sugar immediately before serving.

Mint Chocolate Layer Cake

2010-05-17T21:02:00.000-04:00

It's rare that you eat a piece of chocolate cake and feel as refreshed as if you had just brushed your teeth. But mint does that, even when it's combined with lots of chocolate. I've been using the chocolate and mint flavor combination a lot recently, and only by request, but I just may be coming around to this dynamic duo myself.

No picture of the inside of the cake, as it was an order - but I really like the look of the white filling against the dark cake layers. And if you're really feeling adventurous, dye the filling green!

This recipe is for a 2-layer 6" cake. You can double the recipe for a 3-layer 9" cake.

Chocolate Cake (adapted from Bon Appetit)

1 1/2 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate
3/4 cups hot brewed coffee*

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
1 teaspoon baking soda
scant 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoons Kosher salt
2 large eggs (use 3 eggs rather than 4 if you double the recipe)
3/8 cup (that's 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons, or 6 fluid ounces) vegetable oil
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
scant 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

*You can replace the coffee with half whole milk, half water if you're baking for kids. The coffee flavor is barely discernible in the cake, it just enhances the flavor of the chocolate.

Preheat the oven to 300°F and spray 2 6" pans with baking spray. Line bottoms with rounds of parchment paper and spray paper as well (you can get away without the parchment paper if you spray the pans very well and if your pans are good quality).

Finely chop the chocolate and place in a medium bowl; pour hot coffee over the chocolate. Let stand for one minute, then stir until chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

Whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

In another large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer).

Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well.

Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well.

Divide batter between pans and bake in the middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 50-65 minutes.

Cool the cake layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove parchment paper and cool layers completely.

Mint Filling

1 stick butter (4 ounces), room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon mint extract (or 1/4 teaspoon mint oil)
3 cups (about 12 ounces) powdered sugar
3-4 tablespoons milk

In a large bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer. Add the vanilla and mint extracts. Gradually add one cup of sugar, beating well on medium speed. Scrape the bowl. Add the remaining sugar, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the sugar.

Add more powdered sugar to make the frosting stiffer, more milk or water to make frosting creamier.

To save time or to really overload on the chocolate, you may want to use the mint chocolate frosting to fill the cake as well. I personally like to cut the chocolate a little with a different filling.

Mint Chocolate Frosting

4 1/2 tablespoons butter (2 1/4 ounces)

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2 ounces semisweet chocolate

A pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon mint extract (or 1/4 teaspoon mint oil)

3 cups (about 12 ounces) powdered sugar

3 ounces (1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) milk, heated to lukewarm

Beat butter on medium speed for 1-2 minutes.

Blend in the melted chocolate, salt, vanilla, mint, and 1 cup powdered sugar.

Assembly

Be sure to chill the cakes before frosting. Place a layer of chocolate cake on a plate or cake board, and place scraps of parchment paper between the cake and plate/board. Spread a thick layer of mint frosting on top, leaving a 1/2" border at the edge (the weight of the second layer will cause the frosting to spread towards the edges). You may have some filling left over. Freeze for a later use (you can use it in place of the mint layer of chocolate mint brownies). Top with the remaining cake layer, and chill while you prepare the chocolate frosting. Frost the cake as soon as the chocolate mint frosting is done - if you can't, you'll need to rewhip the frosting, and you might need to add some milk.

Decorate with shaved chocolate and mint leaves, if desired.

Birthday Cake 2010: Almond, Chocolate, Praline & Brown Butter

2010-05-16T23:50:00.001-04:00

Wow, it's been over 3 weeks since my birthday, and I'm just getting you the recipe now. It's been a crazy two months - lots of orders, exams to grade, finals to write. But Friday was my last class until February, so I should be here a lot more often in the coming months. I have been baking this whole time, and I have all sorts of things just waiting to post!

For the past four years, I've made a peanut butter cake with chocolate ganache and cream cheese frosting for my birthday, but I decided to change it up this year. This year, I made a raspberry ice cream cake (coming soon) and an almond cake with chocolate praline ganache filling and brown butter moscato d'asti frosting. It went over really well. I couldn't taste the wine in the frosting as much as I would have liked, so I'll try to remedy that next time, but otherwise I think I'll leave it as is for next time.

Almond Cake (adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum): makes 3 9" layers

4 eggs
1 1/3 cups sour cream, separated
2 teaspoons almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/3 cups cake flour, sifted
2/3 cups finely ground almonds, toasted and preferably unblanched
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 sticks butter (12 ounces), room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray 3 9" round cake pans with baking spray, line with parchment paper, and spray again.

In a medium bowl, stir together the eggs, 1/3 cup of the sour cream, and the extracts. Set aside. Don't worry, it won't be smooth or pretty.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all the dry ingredients - mix for 30 seconds. Add the butter and the remaining 1 cup of sour cream, and mix on low until combined. Mix on medium for 2 minutes to aerate batter. Add the egg and sour cream mixture in 3 additions, beating 20 seconds after each addition.

Split the batter between the cake pans, and smooth with a rubber spatula. Bake for 30-40 minutes until a toothpick just comes out clean.

Let the cakes cook in their pans for about 10 minutes, then turn on to cooling rack. Cool completely, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill until ready to frost.

Chocolate Praline Ganache Filling

6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup praline

Place the chocolate in a bowl; it doesn't have to be chopped finely, but you don't want any pieces that are much bigger than a blueberry. Bring the cream to a boil, and pour over the chocolate. Stir in the praline if desired, and chill.

The ganache should be fairly thick before you spread it on the cake, you don't want it to squish out the sides when you place the cake layers over it. A couple of hours in the fridge should be sufficient. If it's too thick to spread when you remove from the fridge, just microwave on half power for 10 seconds or so and stir.

Brown Butter & Moscato d'Asti Frosting (enough to frost and decorate (but not fill) a 9" 3-layer cake)

3 sticks butter, browned
1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar
6-8 tablespoons heavy cream
6-8 tablespoons Frangelico (or water or your choice of liqueur)
Pinch of Kosher salt (optional)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Brown the butter, pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, and set aside to cool. Wait for it to cool completely.

Pour the cooled brown butter into mixer bowl (paddle attachment). Add about 1/3 of the powdered sugar, and beat. Add the caramel syrup, and continue beating. Add half the remaining powdered sugar, and beat. Add the 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) of heavy cream, and beat until smooth. Add more cream if you'd like the frosting to be softer, and more powdered sugar if you'd like it to be stiffer. Add salt if desired.

Dye the frosting if desired. Refrigerate until ready to use. Re-whip the frosting right before use. If it's been in the refrigerator long (say over night), you might need to let it sit for an hour or two before it's ready to whip and frost).

Assembly

Place one cake layer on a cake board, and slide scraps of parchment paper between the cake and the board. Top with half the chocolate ganache. Top with another cake layer and the remaining ganache. Chill before frosting if the ganache is not thick enough to set yet.

Frost the top and sides of the cake. When you've covered the whole cake, run your offset spatula under hot water for 30 seconds, and quickly dry it. Run the spatula around the top and sides of the cake to smooth out the frosting (hold the spatula still very lightly against the cake at an angle, and rotate the cake on a revolving cake stand if you have one). Remove the parchment paper, and decorate the rest of the cake as desired (borders, flowers, etc).

What a difference flowers make!

Butterflies & Birthday Cakes

2010-04-27T15:01:00.000-04:00

Wow, April has been a busy month, can't believe it's almost over. Have you noticed how many birthdays there are in the last half of April and first weeks of May? I swear there must be more Tauruses out there than other signs. My birthday was this past weekend, and I'll have pictures and recipes up soon: I made a raspberry ice cream cake and an almond cake with chocolate praline ganache filling and brown butter moscato d'Asti frosting.

In the meantime, however, here are some pictures of a cake I did for a client last week. It's a simple chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. The birthday girl's dad emailed me the next day to say that the kids wouldn't let him put the cake away, they just sat at the table and looked at it, kept smelling it. So cute!

Baking Class Project: A Cornucopia of Cupcakes

2010-04-10T22:32:00.002-04:00

Well, ok, only 3, but I've always loved the word cornucopia. These cupcakes were made by Jared, and they were gorgeous! Here's the menu:

Coconut Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache Filling & Peanut Butter Frosting

Recipes after the jump...

Herbed Biscuits

2010-03-30T15:03:00.002-04:00

Warm from the oven

Do you have any idea how quick and easy it is to make fresh, home-made, flaky biscuits from scratch? Quick, like 10 minutes or less between your great idea to make biscuits and your placing the tray of little beauties inside the warm oven... well, maybe a little longer depending on how long your oven takes to preheat! You should make these right away. Omit the herbs if you want biscuits for strawberry shortcake (I'm a firm believer in the biscuit-type shortcake, not the cake-type) or for smothering with maple syrup. Change the herbs depending on what's in your kitchen. Use all white flour, or throw in some whole wheat flour if you're so inclined. I am definitely so inclined. My favorite way to eat biscuits? Warm from the oven with salted butter, yum....

Before baking.

Herbed Biscuits with Whole Wheat Flour (adapted from King Arthur)

Makes 8-12 biscuits. (I got 9 relatively large biscuits.)

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour (see note below)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons butter, cut in 4-6 pieces
1 cup milk, buttermilk, or water

Preheat your oven to 425°F.

Whisk together the flours, salt, baking powder, herbs, and sugar. Add the butter, and use your fingers to blend the butter in. Keep rubbing the butter with your fingertips, through the flour, until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. You should have small pea-sized and smaller bits of butter.

Add the liquid all at once, mixing quickly and gently for about 20 seconds until you have a soft dough. Pat the dough into a rectangle, about an inch or so thick (thicker, maybe 1.5", if you like really tall biscuits). Cut into biscuits (with a biscuit cutter or a sharp knife). I have round biscuit cutters, but I usually use a knife so there are no scraps.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned. Serve warm, if at all possible, with salted butter.

Enjoy!

Notes: I've made these with only all-purpose flour, and I honestly couldn't taste the difference with the whole wheat flour. Maybe next time, I'll do half and half with the flours. Feel free to substitute your own combination of herbs as well.

Math & Cake: Chocolate Cake with Chocolate-Nutella Filling and Brown Butter Frangelico Frosting

2010-03-29T16:50:00.001-04:00

Last week, I gave a talk about Math and Cake. Ok, I had a fancier title, but my "side hobby" in mathematics is an area called fair division. At some point in your life, you probably needed to fairly divide a candy bar or some other yummy treat between you and a friend: one of you cut the treat in two, and the other got to choose first. Fair! But what do you do if there are three people? Or more? My college adviser asked me this question on my very first day of college. He does research in the area, and got me interested in the subject. Extremely interesting mathematically, but also when else do I get to show pictures of all sorts of cake during a math lecture?! See my book if you'd like to learn more about fair division and cake-cutting.

This is the cake I made for my talk. It was sort of a prop, but I figured it'd give the audience something to look at if they zoned out for the math content! No pictures of the inside of the cake unfortunately, but it went over very well. Not a crumb left.

Chocolate Cake (from Epicurious)
3 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee (I used hazelnut coffee)
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons Kosher salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 300°F and spray 2 10" pans with baking spray (I used 2 9" pans and made an additional 3 inch cake; I've also used just the 2 9" pans before). Line bottoms with rounds of parchment paper and spray paper as well.

Finely chop the chocolate and place in a medium bowl; pour hot coffee over the chocolate. Let stand for one minute, then stir until chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

Whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

In another large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well.

Divide batter between pans and bake in the middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Cool the cake layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove parchment paper and cool layers completely.

This is a tall cake!

Chocolate & Nutella Frosting (adapted from Chocolate Chocolate)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid
1/3 cup Nutella, depending on taste (the Nutella taste is somewhat mild)
Large pinch of Kosher salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 1/2 - 4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk, heated to tepid

Beat butter on medium speed for 1-2 minutes.

Blend in the melted chocolate, Nutella, salt, vanilla, 1/3 cup milk, and 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar.

Add in the rest of the milk; beat for 1 minute.

Add the rest of the powdered sugar; beat for 1 minute. Use more powdered sugar for a stiffer consistency, less for a softer consistency.

Refrigerate the frosting for 1-2 hours until spreadable.

Brown Butter Frosting (enough to frost/decorate a tall 9" 2-layer cake or a 3-layer 8" cake)

3 sticks butter, browned
1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar
6-8 tablespoons heavy cream
6-8 tablespoons Frangelico
Pinch of Kosher salt (optional)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Brown the butter, pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, and set aside to cool. Wait for it to cool completely.

Pour the cooled brown butter into mixer bowl (paddle attachment). Add about 1/3 of the powdered sugar, and beat. Add the caramel syrup, and continue beating. Add half the remaining powdered sugar, and beat. Add the 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) of heavy cream, and beat until smooth. Add more cream if you'd like the frosting to be softer, and more powdered sugar if you'd like it to be stiffer. Add salt if desired.

Refrigerate until ready to use. Re-whip the frosting right before use. If it's been in the fridge awhile, you might need to let it sit at room temperature for an hour or so until it's soft enough to whip.

Assembly

Lay one of the chocolate cake layers on a cake board or plate. Spread the chocolate frosting over the surface, leaving a half-inch border all around the outside. You can also spread just half the frosting on this layer, and spread the rest on top. You'll still cover the whole thing with the brown butter frosting.
Place the second cake layer on top of the first, and cover the whole cake with a crumb coat (very thin layer of frosting). Be careful not to let your offset spatula touch the cake, or you'll get tons of chocolate crumbs in your frosting. Place the cake in the fridge so that the crumb coat sets. You should be able to touch the cake gently without leaving any impression in the frosting. Frost the cake again; it'll be easier this time with the crumb coat in place. Use any leftover frosting to pipe shells, and/or tint some of the frosting and make roses. It's a good consistency as is, but if necessary (if it's very hot or humid out), add some more powdered sugar to make the frosting stiff enough for roses.

For instructions on how to do a crumb coat and how to decorate your cake, see King Arthur's online cake decorating tutorials.

For information on how to pipe roses, see Wilton's tutorial. Or, take a class at your local Michael's.

Caramelized Onion & Blue Cheese Tart with a Whole Wheat Crust

2010-03-24T23:25:00.000-04:00

I haven't really posted any savory items on this blog yet, but that would be wrong. As unhealthy as all my desserts are, I'm a pretty healthy eater overall. I'm a vegetarian, I eat lots of fruit and veggies, and besides my sweets, I stick to whole grains as much as possible.

I wasn't always this way. I remember well the days in college and early grad. school when I would become incredibly sleepy and lose all energy after every meal I ate. These were the days when I would also regularly get a cheeseburger-without-the-meat (I've been a vegetarian since high school) and french fries at McDonald's. Even when I wasn't eating junk food for lunch, I still ate things with white flour. Then it was announced that McDonald's french fries are not vegetarian! I was angry, of course, at the time, but it all worked out for the best, because I never went to McDonald's again after that. At about the same time, I started eating pizza with whole grain crust for lunch a lot. Then I started eating exclusively whole grains for breakfast and lunch (and as much as possible for dinner as well). Wow! I was again a fountain of energy (ask my aerobics classes if you don't believe me), and life changed forever!

Most whole grain breads still contain a large amount of white flour, often up to 50%, but this crust is made exclusively with whole wheat flour. It's thin and crispy, and the caramelized onion and blue cheese pair very well. I'll definitely be making it again.

Caramelized Onion & Blue Cheese Tart with A Whole Wheat Crust

(Adapted from Food and Wine)

For the Crust

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon salt
9 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1/4 cup cold water

As with most crusts, you can make it by hand or with a food processor. If you're using the food processor (which I recommend if you haven't made a lot of pie crusts before), pulse the flour with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. Add the diced butter and pulse until it’s the size of small peas or just a little larger. Sprinkle in the cold water and pulse again until the tart dough begins to come together. Turn the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and pat it into a disk. Wrap the dough and refrigerate until it is firm, at least 1 hour. You can add more water if it's not coming together, but only add as much water as you absolutely need. If there are a few crumbs that don't hold together, you're fine.

If you're doing it by hand, whisk together the flour and salt. Add the diced butter, and use your fingers to work in the butter until it's the size of small peas. Add the water, and stir it in with your hands, bringing the dough into a disk. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.

For the Filling

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 teaspoons thyme (dried)
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
3 ounces creamy blue cheese, crumbled (about 3/4 cup)

To Caramelize the Onions (you can do this in advance; refrigerate onions until ready to use)

In a large skillet, cook the onions and olive oil over low heat, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden, about 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are golden, about 15 minutes longer. Remove from the heat and let the onions cool to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to a 12-inch round. Wrap the dough around the rolling pin and transfer it to a 10-inch fluted tart pan (9" will work fine) with a removable bottom. Press the dough into the pan and trim off any excess (roll the rolling pin over the top, and the excess dough will just fall off). Use the scraps to patch any cracks. Prick holes all over the bottom of the crust with a fork. Bake until the crust is lightly browned, about 20 minutes.

Pre-Baked Crust (it shrank quite a bit from the sides)

Spread the onions in the tart shell and sprinkle with the blue cheese, thyme, salt, and pepper. Bake until the cheese is melted and the onions are warm, about 5-8 minutes. Cut the tart into wedges and serve.

Caramel Cake - The Sequel - with Brown Butter Frosting

2010-03-21T17:59:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I posted another caramel cake recipe. I think I might like that cake recipe better, but this frosting is one of my new favorites.

Heart-shaped Version

Caramel Syrup (from Peabody)

2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup boiling water

Melt the sugar in a heavy skillet, stirring constantly until deep-brown syrup is formed. Remove from heat and immediately stir in the boiling water, slowly, being careful that steam does not burn your hand. Set syrup aside to cool.

Notes: The first time I made this cake, I had to make the syrup 3 times. One time, I didn't stir constantly, and the sugar formed one giant clump. Another time I added the water too quickly, and it formed a giant clump. Ugh!

Also, whenever making caramel, it's a good idea to wear long sleeves, and have a bowl of ice water ready to plunge your hands into if you burn yourself. Not a bad idea to wear glasses as well.

Caramel Cake (adapted from Peabody): Makes 2 6" layers or 1 9" layer

1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray two 6-inch cake pans with baking spray, line with parchment paper, then spray again.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

Cream butter in bowl of electric mixer for 3 minutes. Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until each is incorporated (but no longer). Stir in 1/4 cup of the cooled caramel syrup (be sure that it is completely cool). Stir in the vanilla.

Add flour mixture to the batter, alternating with the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat until smooth. Divide batter evenly among the two prepared pans and bake 20-25 minutes, or until wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove pans from oven and let stand about 10 minutes, then turn out cakes onto wire rack, peel off paper and cool completely.

Notes: This cake dries out more quickly than some; it also doesn't seem to freeze as well as many cakes.

Double recipe to make 2 9" layers, but only increase eggs to 3.

Brown Butter Frosting (enough to fill and frost 1 6" 2-layer cake)

2 sticks butter, browned
1 pound powdered sugar
4-5 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 cup caramel syrup
Pinch of Kosher salt (optional)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Brown the butter, pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, and set aside to cool. Wait for it to cool completely.

Pour the cooled brown butter into mixer bowl (paddle attachment). Add about 1/3 of the powdered sugar, and beat. Add the caramel syrup, and continue beating. Add half the remaining powdered sugar, and beat. Add the 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) of heavy cream, and beat until smooth. Add more cream if you'd like the frosting to be softer, and more powdered sugar if you'd like it to be stiffer. Add salt if desired.

Refrigerate until ready to use. Re-whip the frosting right before use.

Thick Chocolate Glaze

8 ounces good quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
2 tablespoons corn syrup (for shine)
3/8 cup heavy cream

Melt together the chocolate and corn syrup, and set aside. Bring the cream to a boil, and stir into the chocolate mixture until smooth. Use immediately.

School Pride Cupakes & Vanilla Bean Paste

2010-03-20T21:43:00.000-04:00

Purple and Gold. Those were my high school colors. They're also the colors of Williams College, where I teach now. I can't escape them! It's been a long time since I wore that little purple and gold skirt to dance at halftime... these days I show my school spirit a little differently. With cupcakes! Congratulations to the Williams College basketball team for making it to the Div 3 NCAA Championships!

You've seen this chocolate cake recipe before, it's my go-to chocolate cake. I have several other recipes I'd really like to try, but it's hard to make myself stray. What are the chances that I'll like those more than this one? I only came to this one after spending 3 hours one day reading pages and pages of an egullet thread on the best chocolate cake recipe ever. It's like when you're at a restaurant, and although several tasty dishes try to pull you to commit, you end up ordering the same thing you did the last 20 times you ate there. Granted, I don't have that problem all too often, since most restaurants offer only a few vegetarian options - but I do tend to order the "usual" even when I do have choices. Hell, the baristas at my local coffee shop start pouring my iced tea before I even get to the counter!

Ok, but let's talk about the real wow factor in these cupcakes - it's the vanilla bean paste in the frosting. Have you ever used vanilla bean paste? It's much less scary than an actual vanilla bean, but much more flavorful than extract. The frosting tastes almost like vanilla ice cream, and it's beautifully speckled with vanilla throughout.

if you don't go crazy with the butter, the frosting is light and creamy, not overly sweet like powdered sugar frosting can sometimes be, without making you feel like you've just eaten an entire stick of butter. I know what you're thinking, but no 4 sticks of butter is not going crazy with the butter, given the amount of whites in the recipe. This makes a lot of frosting. If you have extra, store it in the fridge for a few days or freeze for up to a month. If you are of the Paula Deen, butter is better, ilk, throw in another half a stick, and add a smidge more vanilla too.

For the Cupcakes: makes ~30 cupcakes (adapted from Epicurious)

3 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee (I used hazelnut coffee)
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons Kosher salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 300°F and line muffin tins with cupcake wrappers (or just spray with baking spray, I often skip the wrappers).

Finely chop the chocolate and place in a medium bowl; pour hot coffee over the chocolate. Let stand for one minute, then stir until chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Cover with plastic wrap to keep liquid from evaporating.

Whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

Fill muffin tins about 2/3-3/4 of the way full. I got about 36 cupcakes. Bake until a toothpick just comes out clean, about 12-15 minutes. Cool completely.

For the Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

7-8 egg whites (a little over a cup, about 8.5 ounces)
2.5 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
4 sticks butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (you can use extract if you don't have paste)

In a large heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water, whisk together egg whites and sugar until sugar is melted and mixture reaches 140-150 degrees on a candy thermometer, 7 to 10 minutes.

Transfer mixture to the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with the whisk attachment; beat on high until stiff peaks form, 12 to 15 minutes. Add cream of tartar and beat for one minute more. If the bowl is still warm to the touch, continue beating.

Make sure your butter is soft, but not melted. I usually microwave each stick for about 15 seconds, and then squeeze it to make sure it's pliable. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and add the butter, a few pieces at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla; beat until well combined, about 2 minutes.

Almond Orange Olive Oil Cake with Brown Butter Glaze

2010-03-14T14:47:00.000-04:00

Happy Pi Day!! To celebrate, I'm bringing you this, um, cake. Oops. No time to make pie this weekend, sorry! I'll have to catch European Pi Day on July 22 (22/7 is one of the best approximates of pi).

When I got tenure (over a year ago now), my mom and I wanted to go someplace nice in New York. The problem with lots of nice restaurants in NY? Not very vegetarian friendly. I think we've narrowed it down to Daniel's and Babbo, but our celebration dinner has yet to happen (this summer hopefully!)... in the meantime, this cake is by Gina DePalma, pastry chef at Babbo.

This cake is perfect for a Sunday brunch or afternoon meeting or any other time when you'd like something (relatively) light and sweet without totally taking you over into a sugar coma. It's a somewhat unusual combination of flavors with the citrus, the almonds, and the olive oil - but it works! And it's Italian. And did you see how there's brown butter in the glaze? You're going to want to start using this glaze on everything. It's yummy. And no mixer required - just some whisking and stirring - easy.

Orange Almond Olive Oil Cake with Brown Butter Glaze

(adapted only slightly from Gina DePalma)

For the Cake

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup blanched or natural almond flour (you can finely grind the almonds yourself)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
Grated zest of 1 medium lemon or 1/2 a medium orange (I used orange)
1/2 cup orange juice (fresh squeezed if possible)

Notes:

The first time I made this, I used 1/2 cup lime juice and 1/2 cup lemon juice instead of the orange juice, and used lemon zest instead of orange zest. I liked it, but it definitely tasted different. I prefer the cake made as above, but if you're a huge fan of lime, you may want to experiment with adding some lime juice.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray an 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pan (the 8-inch will give you a slightly taller cake, but it won't overflow if the sides are 2" tall or higher).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In a largebowl, whisk together the eggs to break up the yolks. Add the sugar to the bowl and whisk it in thoroughly for about 30 seconds. Add the olive oil and whisk until the mixture is a bit lighter in color and has thickened slightly, about 45 seconds. Whisk in the extracts and zest, followed by the orange juice.

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and whisk until they are thoroughly combined; continue whisking until you have a smooth, emulsified batter, about 30 more seconds. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake the cake for 30 to 45 minutes, rotating the cake pan halfway through the cooking time to ensure even browning. The cake is done when it has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan, springs back lightly when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool for ten minutes in the pan, then gently remove it from the pan and allow it to cool completely (right-side up) on a rack.

For the Brown Butter Glaze and Assembly

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons whole milk or heavy cream
1/2 cup slivered almonds

While the cake is cooling, make the glaze. Brown the butter, and let sit (it will continue to get a little darker after you turn off the heat).

Toast the almonds: scatter them evenly over a baking sheet, and bake at 350F for 5-10 minutes, until lightly browned.

In a medium bowl, add the milk or heavy cream to the powdered sugar and stir. Slowly add the browned butter, and stir until smooth. Add more milk/cream if you'd like the glaze to be a little thinner; add more sugar if you'd like it thicker. Spread onto the cake with an offset spatula when cool, and allow to drip down the sides of the cake. Scatter the toasted almonds evenly over the surface of the cake. Enjoy!

Mint Chocolate Brownies for St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-13T12:18:00.001-05:00

It's spring!! Still a little chilly out there, and it's not very sunny out today... but I saw some flower buds beginning to push their way out of the ground yesterday on a walk. And the birds have been singing. It's still light out at 5:30, and tomorrow it will still be light out at 6:30! And the number one sign of spring for me? I'm wearing my flip flops again! Hooray for spring.

Need to make something yummy for St. Patrick's day? These brownies converted some mint-chocolate skeptics I know, including me! Personally, I've always been more a fan of the toffee flavored Andes candies than the mint chocolate ones, but these brownies surprised me. Yummy, and you feel minty fresh after you eat one! And, hey, you can always add some green food coloring if you feel so compelled.

Mint Chocolate Brownies (Adapted from King Arthur)

For the Brownie Layer

3/4 cup butter (12 tablespoons), melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon mint extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with baking spray.

Stir together the melted butter, sugar, and salt. Mix in the cocoa powder, beating until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating just until each egg is incorporated. Beat in the mint extract.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder. Stir in to the batter, and then pour the batter into the prepared pan. Use a spatula to smooth the batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes until set (a cake tester or toothpick should come out with just a few crumbs). Cool completely.

For the Mint Frosting Layer

3 cups confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons melted butter
3-4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon mint extract
Green food coloring, if desired.

Stir together all the ingredients until smooth. Spread evenly over the cooled brownie layer.

For the Ganache

1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate. Let sit for one minute, then stir until smooth. Pour over the frosting layer, and smooth.

Chill for a few hours, if possible, to make cutting the brownies easier. Enjoy!

Tiramisu with the Daring Bakers

2010-02-27T20:26:00.000-05:00

Daring Bakers time again! Tiramisu this time, with homemade lady fingers. The homemade ladyfingers are definitely worth making - they really weren't too difficult, and they tasted much better than store-bought. In addition to the mini-trifles (above), I made a tiramisu sandwich as well (see pic below); I think it's adorable!

I absolutely loved the cream filling on this tiramisu, though I didn't follow the recipe exactly. Instead of making the pastry cream (which is not present in a traditional tiramisu anyway), I increased the zabaglione, and just folded that in with the whipped cream and mascarpone. It was delicious! I absolutely loved the cream filling on this tiramisu. The coffee and lemon combination was wonderful, and I'll definitely serve this as a mousse in the future, with some raspberries on top. Yum!

Fine Print: The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

Tiramisu

Recipe Yield: 3 individual tiramisu trifles + 1 tiramisu "sandwich" + some leftover ladyfingers

For the Ladyfingers

3 eggs, separated
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
3/4 cup cake flour, sifted
6 tablespoons powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Separate the eggs. Beat whites until foamy, then gradually add sugar while beating. Keep beating to stiff peaks. Whisk yolks together, then gently fold into the whites with a wooden spoon. Sift the flour over the egg mixture, and gently fold in. Work gently so as not to deflate the batter.

Fill a decorating bag with the batter, and a wide round tip. I think I used a 1/4" or 3/8" tip, but I'd use bigger next time. Pipe your desired ladyfinger shapes: disks, individual lady fingers, or lady finger band (pipe individual ladyfingers that touch), so you can either make the tiramisu sandwich or wrap the ladyfinger band around the outside of your round tiramisu.

Bake for about 10 minutes, then rotate pans, and bake another 5-7 minutes until just golden. Cool for about 5 minutes on the tray, then use a metal spatula to remove the ladyfingers from the pan while still warm (otherwise, they might stick to the parchment).

For the Zabaglione

3 yolks
1/4 cup + 1/2 tablespoon sugar
3/8 cup brewed coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon lemon zest

Whisk together all the ingredients in a metal (or other heatproof) bowl, and place over a saucepan with 1 inch of simmering water. Whisk constantly over low-medium heat until the mixture thickens. This took me a little over 15 minutes. The original recipe says it should resemble a thick custard, but mine never really looked like a custard, though it did get considerably thicker.

For the Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Whip the cream until very soft peaks, then gradually add the sugar while continuing to whip. Add the vanilla, and beat to firm peaks.

To Assemble the Tiramisu

1/2 cup brewed espresso (4 shots)
2-3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup mascarpone
chocolate shavings or unsweetened cocoa powder

For the individual tiramisu trifles: Dip a ladyfinger disk in the sweetened espresso on both sides, and shake off excess liquid. Place on the bottom of the trifle dish, and spoon a layer of cream on top. The cream should be about as thick as or slightly thicker than the ladyfinger disk. Top with some chocolate shavings if desired. Repeat with a second ladyfinger disk. You can use a decorating bag and star tip to pipe little rosettes of cream on the very top. Top with chocolate shavings or cocoa powder. Chill for at least 4 hours or overnight before serving.

For the tiramisu sandwich: I piped a ladyfinger band roughly 3" x 6". I cut the band in half to make two 3" x 3" squares. I just dipped the flat side of the band in the sweetened espresso, and kept the ridged, undipped side for the exterior. Spread a thick layer of cream on the wet side of one of the ladyfinger squares, and top with chocolate shavings. Place the remaining ladyfinger square on top, wet side down. Top with a dollop of cream, and more chocolate shavings or unsweetened cocoa powder.

Baking Class: Cheesecakes

2010-02-26T12:30:00.000-05:00

Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake with Oreo Crust

Baking Class has been over for awhile now, but I still have lots of goodies to post from it. During the last week of class, we made cheesecakes. This is a recipe adapted from the Daring Bakers; the students made a lot of different varieties. It's a very adaptable recipe - so have fun and design your own flavor combination!

Anna & Jen

Graham Cracker Crust

1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons melted butter
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Spray the springform pan with baking spray. Stir together the crumbs, sugar, and melted butter until it begins to clump. Press into the bottom (and up the sides if desired) of the prepared pan, and bake for 8-10 minutes until set. Cool completely.

Sean, Andrew, & JC

Oreo Crust

1 ½ cups oreo cookie crumbs
4 tablespoons butter, melted
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt

Batter Mixing

Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake Batter - Before Baking

Cheesecake

24 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tbsp liqueur, optional

Be sure to have all ingredients at room temperature, especially the eggs and cream cheese. This will help keep cracks from forming in the top of the cheesecake.

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Put a kettle of water on to boil for the waterbath. Wrap springform pan in 3-4 layers of aluminum foil to prevent (or lessen at least!) leakage.

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese at medium speed for about 4 minutes, until soft and creamy. Add the sugar and beat for another 4 minutes, until the cream cheese is light. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well (about 1 minute) and scraping sides of bowl after each addition. Beating at low speed, add the heavy cream, lemon juice, and vanilla. Stir in the liqueur, if using. The batter will be thin.

(Note: If you're using a hand mixer, you will want to increase the mixing times).

Bake the cheesecake for about 80-90 minutes in a water bath; it should hold together, but there will still be a lot of jiggle in the center. Turn the oven off, and leave the cheesecake in the oven for another hour. After one hour, remove the cake from the water bath, and let it finish cooling on the counter top. Refrigerate overnight, and bring to room temperature before serving.

Lemon Cheesecake

Flavor Variations

Lemon: Replace liqueur with fresh lemon juice, and stir in 2 teaspoons lemon zest.

Coffee: Dissolve 2/3 tablespoon espresso powder into 1 tablespoon very hot water, and cover until using. Add to batter at the same time as the vanilla extract. Omit the lemon juice, and use Kahlua for the liqueur.

Chocolate Swirl: In a separate bowl, stir together about one-third of the batter and 3 ounces melted semisweet chocolate. Pour the plain batter on top of the cooled crumb crust. Drop the chocolate batter mixture on top of the other batter in spoonfuls. With a knife, gently swirl the chocolate batter through the plain batter.

Coffee with Nutella Swirl : See my previous post.

Pumpkin: See my previous post.

Coffee Cheesecake with Chocolate Swirl

Hazelnut Brown Butter Financiers

2010-02-23T15:57:00.002-05:00

Is it clear by now how much I love hazelnuts and brown butter? It will be soon enough if it's not already. See, I thought that I didn't like nuts, especially nuts in any sort of baked good. But I recently discovered that I love the flavor, I just hate the texture. So no nuts in brownies or cookies or cakes or anything like that unless they're ground up (or just scattered on top for decoration maybe); if they're ground up, I can't get enough apparently! So I'm really just making up for those 30 nut-free years.

Financiers should be made in a financier pan - they look like tiny little loaf-shaped cakes. But I don't have a financier pan, so I used my mini-muffin pan instead. They're sort of like a Madeleine in that they're a cross between cookies and cake. I liked these, and the rest of my department seemed to really enjoy them too, so I'll definitely make them again. But I think I may play around a little more - maybe add one whole raspberry to the middle of each one or some sort of chocolate... and the brown-butter glaze with fleur de sel is delicious!

For the Financiers (Adapted from Rose's Heavenly Cakes)

Makes 28 mini-muffin-shaped financiers, or 16 actual financiers (3" x 1" x 1 1/4").

3/4 cup toasted and ground hazelnuts
10 tablespoons butter
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
4 egg whites, room temperature
3 tablespoons hazelnut praline (you can use store-bought or make your own)

Preheat the oven to 375F. Spray a financier pan or a mini-muffin pan with baking spray.

Brown the butter: heat the butter over low heat until melted. Continue cooking until the butter is a deep brown. Immediately pour the butter through a strainer into a glass liquid measure.

Run the hazelnuts, powdered sugar, and flour through the food processor for a few pulses.

Beat the egg whites on medium-low speed until foamy (with the whisk attachment if you're using a stand mixer). Add the flour/nut mixture on low just until incorporated. Scrape the bowl occasionally. Slowly add the browned butter, a couple of teaspoons or so at a time; wait until it's fully incorporated before adding more. This should take about 5 minutes. Finally, mix in the praline, and beat for a few more seconds.

Pour the batter into the financier or mini-muffin molds; each one should be about 2/3 full. Bake for 10-12 minutes until they spring back when gently touched.

My financiers developed little humps, again kinda like a Madeleine cookie.

Naked Financier

For the Glaze

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup powdered sugar

3-4 tablespoons milk or cream
fleur de sel (optional)

Brown the butter, and set aside to cool. While it's cooling, measure out the powdered sugar. Stir in 3 tablespoons milk or cream until smooth. Stir in the browned butter. Add more milk or cream if the glaze is too thick.

Assembly

Spoon the glaze over the financiers. Sprinkle with fleur de sel or your favorite coarse salt. Enjoy!

These are best on the day they are made, but still pretty yummy the next day. They might start to dry out after that, but I doubt you'll have any left!

Enjoy!

Caramel Cake with Caramel Frosting & Chocolate Glaze

2010-02-21T10:07:00.000-05:00

Wow, seems like forever since I've posted anything I've made... and I only helped make this cake! My student Teresa did most of the work. We made this back in November, but I did another caramel cake last week, so I wanted to compare the two. This cake is moister I think, but the frosting on the other (coming soon) is amazing. This cake also is better the day after it's made, which is really convenient.

Big week this week. My kitchen is being officially inspected on Wednesday. I have to have (minor) surgery Thursday.

Caramel Cake with Caramel Frosting & Chocolate Glaze

Makes a 2-4 layer 9" round cake.

Caramel Syrup

1 cup sugar

1 cup boiling water

Heat the sugar in a cast iron skillet or another heavy bottomed pan with high sides. Heat over a medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar melts into a clear brown caramel syrup. Gradually add the boiling water, pouring it down the sides of the pan so that if the syrup foams and bubbles up, you should be protected.

Continue cooking, stirring often, until the water combines with the syrup and becomes a deep brown. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Store the cooled syrup in a sealed jar if not using immediately.

Caramel Cake (AKA Burnt Sugar Cake by Nancie McDermott)

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup milk

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1¾ cups sugar

4 eggs

½ cup Caramel Syrup

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray two 9 inch round cake pans with baking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and stir with a fork to mix well. Stir the vanilla into the milk.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and the sugar with an electric mixer at high speed for 2 – 3 minutes, until soft and fluffy. Add the eggs, one by one, beating well each time. Pour in half a cup of the caramel syrup and beat well. Add a third of the flour mixture and about half of the milk, beating at a low speed, until just incorporated. Mix in another third of the flour and the rest of the milk. Finally, add the remaining flour.

Divide the batter between the cake pans and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the cakes are golden brown, spring back when touched gently in the center and begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Let the cakes cool in the pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Turn out the cakes into the wire rack to cool completely.

Caramel Frosting

3¾ cups confectioners sugar

½ cup Caramel Syrup

¼ cup (½ stick) butter

½ tsp vanilla extract

3 – 4 tablespoons milk

In a large bowl, combine the confectioners sugar, the caramel syrup, butter, and vanilla. Beat with a mixer at medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl now and then to bring the ingredients together. Add 2 tablespoons of the milk and continue beating until the frosting is thick, soft, smooth and easy to spread. Add a little more sugar if it is thin, and a little more milk if it is too thick.

Chocolate Glaze (From Payard)

4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 tablespoon light corn syrup (for shine)
1/2 cup heavy cream

Bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from heat and add the chocolate and light corn syrup. Whisk until smooth. Strain, if necessary, and use immediately.

Assemble.

Be sure the cake layer are completely cool. Cut each cake layer in half, horizontally. Place one layer of cake on your plate, and top with 1/4 of the frosting. This is a thin layer - the frosting is very sweet, so you don't want too much. Repeat with the remaining layers and frosting. Chill for an hour. Make the glaze while the cake is chilling. Pour the chocolate glaze over the top of the cake, and let drip down the sides. It's not the neatest presentation, but it's yummy. For a prettier presentation, cut slices of the cake before it's glazed, and serve each slice in a pool of chocolate glaze.

Almost Open for Business!

2010-02-11T23:23:00.000-05:00

www.zuccherodolce.com

My business cards are done, my website's almost ready! I realized one day that the only way I would actually make even a fraction of what's on my to-bake list is if it becomes more than just a hobby, so here goes!

Hopefully soon I'll be making even more cakes and pastry, and assembling home-made care packages for students. What fun!

More to come soon...

World Nutella Day: A Hazelnut Cake with Chocolate-Dipped Florentines and Nutella Mousse

2010-02-05T00:05:00.000-05:00

Happy Nutella Day!

I love Nutella. A friend once told me that my slogan should be "Life is Better With Nutella." I use it to fill macarons, to decorate cupcakes, to flavor pastry cream, to enliven ganache or frosting... there are so many possibilties. But this Nutella mousse is one of my favorite (and easiest!) Nutella recipes. Here it is as the filling for my favorite yellow cake.

The cake, however, is not so easy. The frosting alone took me over two hours, though that includes the time it took to skin the hazelnuts and make homemade praline. If you're in the mood to spend a few cozy evenings in the kitchen with your mixer and your oven though, it's totally worth it. If not, just make the mousse, and your guests will still be smitten.

For more Nutella recipes, see the World Nutella Day Website; World Nutella Day is sponsored by Ms. Adventures in Italy and Bleeding Espresso.

Hazelnut Genoise Cake (adapted from Carole Walter)

1 1/2 cups hazelnut flour (finely ground hazelnuts)
2/3 cup cake flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 large eggs, separated
2 large yolks
1 cup sugar, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 cup warm brown butter

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray 3 8" cake pans with baking spray, line with parchment, and spray again.

Whisk together the hazelnut flour, cake flour, cornstarch, and salt; set aside.

Beat the 7 egg yolks until thick and light in color, about 3-4 minutes. Add 3/4 cup sugar very slowly, beating another 3-4 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and lemon zest on low.

Beat the 5 egg whites to soft peaks. Slowly add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, and beat for another minute. Whisk in the yolk mixture, whisking for one minute. Gently and quickly fold in all but 2 tablespoons of the flour mixture, a couple of tablespoons at a time. Pour the warm brown butter over batter, and gently fold. Fold in the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour mixture. Pour into pans, and bake for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick just comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 5 minutes, then flip over onto greased cooling rack.

Nutella Mousse (from The Scotto Family)

1 jar (13 ounces) Nutella
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1 ounce Frangelico

Beat together the Nutella and mascarpone on high for several minutes until very smooth.

In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream and Frangelico to stiff peaks. Fold cream into the Nutella/mascarpone mixture. Chill for at least a half hour (longer in warm weather). If it's very lumpy when you remove it from the fridge, you can beat it for 30 seconds or so to smooth it out.

Frangelico Simple Syrup

1 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon corn syrup
1/2 cup water

1/4 cup Frangelico (or other liqueur)

In a heavy saucepan, bring the sugar, corn syrup, and water to a boil; set aside to cool. The syrup can be stored in the fridge for a few weeks, but it's a little too heavy to spread on a cake. First, we'll dilute it and add some flavoring.

To 1/2 cup of the heavy syrup made above, add 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup Frangelico. Stir, and reserve until ready to brush over cake layers.

Hazelnut Praline Paste (you can buy this at some stores, I promise I won't tell.)

This is like nutella without the chocolate. It's great to add to pastry cream, to buttercream frosting, or just to spread over toast!

2 cup hazelnuts, roasted and skinned (as much as possible)
3/4 cup sugar (you can keep it at 1/2 cup if you want to cut the sweetness)

Grind the hazelnuts and sugar in the food processor until the hazelnuts become oily, about 4 minutes. Scrape down the food processor bowl once or twice.

Peeling hazelnuts is not fun at all, I can never get the skins all the way off. I usually get like 10 perfect ones and a bunch with partial skins. Luckily, the slight bitterness that the skin adds isn't really noticeable.

Ready for Buttercream

Italian Praline Buttercream Frosting (makes 2 pounds, enough to frost 3 layer 8" cake)

2/3 pound (about 2 1/3 cups) sugar
1/3 pound egg whites (from about 5 large eggs)
1/3 cup water
1 pound (4 sticks) butter, soft
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 ounces praline paste

Combine 1/4 of the sugar (1/6 pound or 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon) with the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer. Whip the mixture with the whisk attachment, first on low, then increasing speed, to soft peaks.

Combine the water with the remaining sugar in a saucepan, and cook until it reaches 240F (soft ball stage). Immediately, pour the syrup into a warm glass 2-cup measure (it's easier to pour from this than the saucepan). While the mixer is still running, pour the syrup into the mixer bowl, avoiding the whisk (pour it right at the edge of the bowl and you'll be fine). Continue whipping until the mixture is room temperature.

While the mixture is cooling and whipping away, cut the butter into small pieces. It should be very soft but not melted. When the mixture is room temperature, switch to the paddle attachment, and gradually add the butter on medium speed, beating until the frosting is smooth and light. If the bowl gets too cold, the mixture will curdle (i.e. break). Don't despair, you can fix it! A little warmth is usually all it takes. I hold my mixer bowl over a burner on the stove to warm it up (it's ok if a little bit melts) for a few seconds, and then start mixing again. Good as new!

Add the praline paste, and mix until thoroughly combined.

Hazelnut Florentine Close-up

Hazelnut Florentine (Makes 2 8" Disks; Recipe from CIA)

1/3 cup heavy cream
2 2/3 ounces sugar (just under 1/3 cup)
2/3 ounce (1 1/3 tablespoons) butter
4 ounces hazelnuts, finely ground
1/6 ounce (just under 2 teaspoons) cake flour
3 ounces semisweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350F. Trace 2 8" circles on parchment paper, and flip over on baking sheet (so the ink doesn't touch the batter).

Combine the cream, sugar, and butter in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Stir in the hazelnuts and flour. Remove from heat, and spread half the mixture evenly over each disk with an offset metal spatula. Bake until golden brown, about 18-20 minutes.

When the florentines are set, no longer sticky, but still slightly warm, place an 8" cake board over each disk, and trim the edges using a pizza wheel, creating a perfect disk. Cut each disk into 8-10 wedges. Let cool completely.

Melt the semi-sweet chocolate in a small bowl, and dip the edge of each florentine about 1/4" into the chocolate. Lay flat on parchment paper until the chocolate is set.

Assembly

Place one cake layer on a cake board. Brush with simple syrup. Top with about 1/4 of the buttercream. Repeat with other layers. Cover the sides of the cake with frosting, and smooth with a metal spatula.

Pipe buttercream shells around the base of the cake with a star tip.

Pipe 8 (or however many wedges you cut from the florentine) small balls of frosting equally spaced around the cake, about halfway between the center and outer edge. Just before serving, lay the florentine wedges on the balls of frosting for support. If you do this too early, the florentine wedges may start to bend.

Baking Class Project: How to Make a French Buche de Noel

2010-02-02T23:13:00.001-05:00

Another final project from my baking class: Peter made a beautiful French buche de Noel. This was a Daring Bakers project about a year ago if you want to look for other interpretations, but I'm not sure you'll fine a prettier one. He did a great job!

Oh, and did you know that this Friday, February 5th, is World Nutella Day? Come back then for a Hazelnut Cake with Nutella Mousse and Chocolate Dipped Florentines.

Baking Class Project: How to Make Petit Fours

2010-01-30T16:15:00.004-05:00

Some of the Final Projects - More Coming!

My winter study baking class ended this week, and I'm definitely going to miss spending 4 hours in the bakeshop every afternoon. I could not be more proud of my students and their super impressive final projects though - they were great! The bakeshop even offered them all jobs after watching their progress over the past month.

Our final class was at my house this week. Everyone brought their goodies to share and discuss with the class. Everyone left in a sugar coma. Here's a look, and you'll be seeing them in a lot more detail soon.

First up, Vanessa teaches us how to make petit fours.

I have always loved petit fours—deliciously tender cakes enrobed in elegant fondant and beautifully

decorated (and miniature, which makes them even better)—but have never had the courage to attempt

them myself. So, I decided to give it a shot.

The cake is the determining factor in the success of petit fours, and I consulted several cookbooks for a good sponge cake recipe that would be very moist, or even close to a pound cake consistency (my favorite petit fours of all time are hardly spongy—much more buttery—and I was attempting to match

that texture).

I made the cake on the first of the three days that we spent working on the final projects, along with a light syrup to brush between the layers of cake when assembling the petit fours. I cooled

the cake in the refrigerator overnight, weighing it down with a few extra jellyroll pans on top of a

piece of parchment paper, so that it would be slightly denser and easier to cut.

I then brought the saucepan full of fondant over to the

workspace on which I was cutting the petit fours, cut my first petit
four from the pre-cut vertical strips, set it on a wire rack, and tried
to pour the fondant over the tiny cube of cake. Unfortunately, the
fondant began to seize up almost immediately (probably due to the
cold air that was blowing near my workstation), refusing to enrobe
the whole cube, and setting rather inelegantly. I tried several
methods of covering the petit fours, including dipping each side in
the fondant, trying to spread the fondant with a spatula, and simply
trying to pour so much over the top that it would eventually cover
all of the sides as well.

Berry Galette (Crostata)

2010-01-28T17:50:00.017-05:00

My favorite restaurant in the world is Al Forno in Providence. I went there as often as I could afford when I was in graduate school, and I try to go every time I get back to Providence (it's so popular, I once went there on Valentine's Day and was told there was a 5-hour wait!). The chef/owners at Al Forno invented grilled pizza; they serve an amazing baked pasta in pink sauce; the corn fritters alone in August make the 3 hour drive worth it. The menu changes daily according to what's in season, and you have to order dessert at the same time as you order your meal. Their signature dessert is their crostata - strawberries in the spring, apples in the winter, berries in the summer, and if you're very very lucky, white peach. Yumm.... This galette (i.e. crostata) uses the Al Forno dough, with a berry and lemon curd filling. If you're feeling extra indulgent, serve the galette in a pool of creme anglaise.

You'll have lots of extra lemon curd, but it tastes great with scones or fruit; or fold in some whipped cream for a light lemon mousse. It lasts a few weeks in the fridge, and several months in the freezer.

My favorite thing about the galette: it looks great (think rustic!), and is so much easier than a traditional pie. So if you're scared of making pie dough from scratch, try this - you still have to roll it out, but no struggles to fit the dough perfectly into the pie plate and no fancy crimping required.

This was another recipe we covered in baking class. Stay tuned for the students' final projects, they did great work! Baked alaska, an orange and white chocolate Charlotte, Pierre Herme's plaisir sucre, macarons, Opera Cake, and so much more!! Pictures and recipes coming soon.

Brushing excess flour off dough

Galette Dough (from Al Forno Restaurant, Providence)

1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup ice water

Cut the butter into the dry ingredients using a food processor or by hand. Add the ice water and stir with a fork until all ingredients are moistened. Do not overmix. Turn the contents of the bowl out onto a sheet of aluminum foil and shape it into a rough ball. Wrap the dough in foil and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until firm.

Christina & Anna making lemon mousse from lemon curd

Lemon Curd

6 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
½ cup fresh lemon juice
zest from 1 lemon
1 stick (4 ounces) butter, in small pieces

Whisk together the yolks, sugar, and lemon juice in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook over low/medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon, 10-15 minutes. Do not let the mixture boil (lift off heat if it looks like it's approaching a boil). Transfer to small bowl. Stir in butter, 1 piece at a time. Stir in zest. Cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate.

Filling is ready; time to fold over the edges
(I'd suggest leaving a much smaller border around the filling as indicated, unless you want to make a dumpling)

Galette Filling

2 cups fresh or thawed frozen berries
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (optional)

Egg-washing the dough

Assemble the galette.

Preheat the oven to 425F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Roll out the dough to about an 11” circle, and transfer to the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread a thin layer of lemon curd over the dough, leaving a 1 1/2 “ border all around. Toss berries with sugar and lemon juice. Drain excess liquid. Mound the berries in the center of the tart dough, leaving a 1 ½" border all around. Fold in the dough to partially cover the berries, and gently pinch together the pleats of dough on the border to help minimize leakage. (Some berry juice will almost certainly leak through anyway) Sprinkle with sanding sugar if you have it.

Bake the tart for about 20-25 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Let cool. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving (warm or room temperature).

Variation: Make individual tarts instead. Divide the dough into 3-4 pieces before freezing. Roll each piece into a 5" - 6" disk, and prepare as directed.

Sean's ready to bake the galette

Baking Class: How to Make Choux Pastry

2010-01-23T22:33:00.000-05:00

Done with cakes. Next up in baking class, choux pastry: cream puffs and eclairs. Coming soon: meringues, pies, and tarts. And all sorts of spectacular final projects are being planned, wait til you see them!

A few things to keep in mind with choux pastry:

* Be sure to let the batter cool before you start adding eggs. If it's too warm, your puffs will not puff, and you will be very sad!

* It's not clear how many eggs you'll need. Try 4, but be ready to add more. If you add too many, the batter will be too runny, and you won't be able to pipe it. But you want to add as many as the batter can take to get the most rise in your pastry. In our class, one group used only 4, one used 5 1/2. As soon as the batter closes back in on itself fairly quickly when you swipe your finger through it, it's ready!

* All purpose flour is fine, but if you have bread flour, use it. It browns a little more, and the extra protein allows the batter to hold a little more egg - so more puff!

* The batter's not particularly tasty, don't worry. And, in fact, the pastry cream doesn't even smell very good when you finish it (very eggy). But it gets better after it chills (and especially after you add the flavoring). The final product is totally yummy. (and I'm sure some people even like that eggy taste...)

Pastry Cream

2 cups milk
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 egg yolks
4 tablespoons butter (2 ounces), cut into several small pieces
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Dissolve cornstarch in 1/2 cup of the milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.

Beat the eggs and yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Slowly pour the milk/sugar mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly (you don't want to cook the eggs). Strain.

Return to heat (medium/high flame), and continue whisking until the cream thickens. After the cream comes to a boil (little blips, not an active boil), cook one more minute; keep whisking!

Remove from heat, and stir in the butter and vanilla and melted chocolate. Cool completely in the refrigerator or over an ice bath. The ice bath will cool the cream more quickly.

Flavor options:

Vanilla: Leave as is.

Chocolate: Stir in 3 ounces melted semisweet chocolate when you add the butter.

Coffee: Dissolve 1 ½ teaspoons espresso powder in 1 ½ teaspoons boiling water; let cool. Whisk into pastry cream with butter.

Almond: Replace 1 teaspoon vanilla extract with 1 teaspoon almond extract.

Kate, Peter, Andrew piping away

Choux Pastry

3/4 cup water
6 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour (all-purpose is fine, we used bread flour)
4-5 eggs (approximately)

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Combine water, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil, stirring constantly. When the mixture starts to boil, remove from heat and stir in flour.

Return to heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixtures dries slightly and begins to leave the sides of the pan. Transfer to a bowl, and let stand for 5 minutes to cool; if using a stand mixer, beat for one minute to cool.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time; be sure to wait until each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. You might not need the entire fourth egg; you might need another half egg. The dough should be stiff enough to pipe; if you swipe your finger through the dough, it should close up on itself fairly quickly.

Immediately pipe the dough into the desired shape (try some cream puffs and some eclairs) and bake for about 10 minutes or until well-risen. Lower the oven temperature to 350°F and continue baking until completely dry. It should be completely firm when you take it out of the oven or it will collapse; usually it needs another 20 minutes in the oven after it starts to look done.

Baked puffs and eclairs

Chocolate Sauce

1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
12 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla (or Kahlua)

Bring the cream and sugar to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in corn syrup, chocolate, salt, and vanilla/Kahlua. Let sit for one minute; stir until smooth.

The Makings of A Chocolate Sauce

Fill and Decorate

When puffs/eclairs are completely cool, use the tip of a sharp knife to poke a hole in the bottom of each puff; for eclairs, poke one hole on each side of the bottom of the eclair. Use a pastry bag to pipe the pastry cream.

Dip the top of each pastry into the chocolate sauce. Drizzle with melted white chocolate, if desired. (Heat the chocolate sauce in short intervals if it's already begun to set.)

Glazed puffs and eclairs

Sean's coffee cream puff

The Best Yellow Cake Ever! And the Best Mousse.

2010-01-17T22:19:00.005-05:00

Does yellow cake seem a little boring to you? I actually loved yellow cake with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles when I was younger (hell, who am I kidding, it still sounds pretty great!), but I don't make a lot of yellow cakes these days. Until now perhaps. This cake is anything but boring. My cakes domed, and I leveled the tops, and those bites of cake scraps were one of my most memorable cake-eating experiences. So simple, so plain even, and yet so perfect... you really can stop looking for a perfect yellow cake recipe now. I think I have. It uses both butter and oil so you get the moistness that the oil gives (oil coats flour proteins better than butter, resulting in less gluten formation) and the flavor that makes butter so popular. The cake flour adds tenderness, and helps keep the layers level (mine still domed, but I baked it in the bakeshop oven, not my own). And there's whipped cream! To add more moisture, flavor, and great texture. Can't wait to go try whipped cream in my other favorite cakes... but that's for another day.

This Nutella mousse is also unforgettable. It's tempting not to give out the recipe because then you'll see how easy it is to make, and the end result might not seem so impressive. But it's too good not to share, so here it is. I use it over and over again; I was actually quite surprised to see it's not on my blog yet in fact. It more than holds its own as a pie or tart filling; it's delightful between cake layers; it's delicious with nothing but a spoon.

So is this my new favorite cake? Surprisingly, no. I love each component separately, but they didn't quite become more than the sum of their parts when joined. Maybe the yellow cake just doesn't have as much of a shelf life as some cakes, I admit I did not serve it on the day it was made. I'll give it another try, serving immediately. Now, don't let me dissuade you from making this cake; it is wonderful. It's just not quite as amazing as I had expected, given the brilliance of the individual components.

Tomorrow, in baking class, we graduate from cakes. You'll be seeing meringue, cream puffs, eclairs (oh how good this Nutella mousse would taste inside a fluffy crisp cream puff), pies, and tarts. Happy baking!

Yellow Cake (adapted ever so slightly from Shirley Corriher's Bakewise)

4 tbsp unsalted butter cut in 1 tbsp pieces
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup canola oil
3 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cup cake flour
1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350F at least 20 minutes before baking. Spray 2 6" pans with baking spray, line with parchment, and spray again. (You can also make a single 9" layer.)

Soften the butter in a mixer on medium speed. Beat until light in color, about 3 minutes (warning: it's not so easy to beat such a small amount of butter, but give it your best). Add the sugar, and beat until very light. Keep the bowl cool, and scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally (or use a beater blade).

Beat in the vanilla. On medium, mix in the oil.

On low, beat in the yolks, then the whole eggs, one at a time, mixing just until combined.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt until fully combined. Add about half the dry ingredients to the batter, and mix on low until just combined. Add in half the buttermilk, still on low, and add the rest of the dry ingredients until just combined. Finish with the remaining buttermilk.

In a separate bowl (make sure it's cold), whip the cream to soft peaks. Beat just a little longer. Stir in 1/4 of the whipped cream into the cake batter to lighten. Gently fold in the rest of the whipped cream. Pour into the prepared pans. Drop the pans (just a few inches) to knock out air bubbles.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until a toothpick just comes out clean. The cake should just pull away from the sides when you remove it from the oven. Cool in pan, on a rack, for about 10 minutes, then invert onto parchment paper and remove pan. Cool completely.

Freeze one cake layer for another time.

Nutella Mousse (The Scotto family)

1 jar (13 ounces) Nutella
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1 ounce Frangelico

Beat together the Nutella and mascarpone on high for several minutes until very smooth.

In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream and Frangelico to stiff peaks. Fold cream into the Nutella/mascarpone mixture. Chill for at least a half hour (longer in warm weather). If it's very lumpy when you remove it from the fridge, you can beat it for 30 seconds or so to smooth it out.

Assembly

1 package Pepperidge farms chocolate hazelnut pirouette cookies

Cut one cake layer into three equal layers. Place one layer on a cardboard cake round. Spread with about one-fourth of the mousse. Top with a second layer of cake, and spread another one-fourth of the mousse on top. Top with the remaining layer, and brush off as many crumbs as you can from the top and sides of the cake. Spread another one-fourth of the mousse on top, and the remaining mousse around the edge. It doesn't have to look pretty, but you need something for the pirouette cookies to cling to. Cut cookies in half, and place around the outside of the cake.

Here's another variation of the yellow cake that two students Jen and Vanessa made for my baking class. It's the 9" yellow cake, sliced into two layers. Raspberry jam and a thin spread of ganache lie between the cake layers, and the whole cake is glazed with the remaining ganache. Yum!

Jen & Vanessa's Yellow Cake

Chocolate Ganache (for Yellow Cake Filling)

1 cup heavy whipping cream
6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Bring cream to simmer in saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolate; let stand 1 minute. Whisk until smooth. Chill uncovered overnight or for several hours until the desired consistency is reached.

Baking Class for Winter Study! And a genoise recipe.

2010-01-15T01:00:00.002-05:00

Williams College has this wonderful tradition called Winter Study. Williams students are overloaded with courses, sports, extra-curricular commitments, and who knows what else during the fall and spring semesters. During January, for 3 1/2 weeks, they get to relax - just a little. There are academic courses offered for those who are so inclined, but a majority of students participate in the type of course that would not be offered as a regular college offering. In the past I've taught a course called Pilates: Fitness, Physiology, and Philosophy. Other courses offered include Atheism, Wine Tasting, Contemporary Movie Criticism, Mathematics of the Rubik's Cube, The Philosophy of Chess, and so many more! I am absolutely thrilled this year to be teaching a course called The Art & Science of Baking.

The dining services staff have been absolutely wonderful, and we've been allowed to use the College Bakeshop. We're meeting for 36 hours (in 3 hour increments, though they often stretch longer) over the course of the month, baking up all sorts of yummy concoctions. It's such a learning experience to bake in a professional kitchen, even though we're not touching most of the heavy machinery (I want the students to be able to bake in their own home kitchens when this is all over with afterall). I've been planning this course for the past year, and it's so worth it. I can't wait to do it again.

Though much of class time is spent with aprons on, hair pulled back, and flour flying, we've been reading about the science of baking in Shirley Corriher's Bakewise. It is completely fascinating, and I'm sure my copy will be covered with chocolate and dried batter soon, despite my best attempts to keep it clean.

Week 1: Cakes

We baked butter cakes, oil cakes, combination cakes, a flourless chocolate cake, and a genoise cake. They were covered with powdered sugar frosting (aka American Buttercream), chocolate frosting, chocolate ganache, cream cheese frosting, and buttercream frosting.

Peanut Butter Cake with Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ganache and Cream Cheese Frosting

(Recipe/more pics here):

Kate & Aom's peanut butter cake

Peter & Cake

Yellow cake with Raspberry Jam & Chocolate Ganache

(Recipe coming soon)

Genoise with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Rob and Jared and their almond scented genoise with chocolate buttercream

Anna & Christina's chocolate and peppermint genoise roulade

Sean, Andrew, and JC and their perfect creamy buttercream
(which turned out way better than mine!)

For the Genoise Cake: (from Shirley Corriher)

6 large eggs
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
3/4 cup cake flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Spray a 10" x 15" jelly pan or a 9" round pan with baking spray; line with parchment paper; spray again.

Preheat the oven to 400F; set an oven rack in the middle of the oven.

Set a medium saucepan of water on the stove, with about 2-3" of water; bring to a boil. Keep at a simmer.

Whisk the eggs, yolks, salt, and 1/2 cup sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Place over the simmering water (the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl). Whisk constantly for about a minute - you just want to heat the mixture to lukewarm - not hot. If you heat it too long, the cake will be dry.

Remove from heat, and attach the bowl to the stand mixer. Beat on medium-high with the whisk attachment until the mixture is cool (the outside of the bowl should be completely cool) and has tripled in volume. This will take several minutes.

While that's whipping, whisk together the cake flour, cornstarch, cocoa, and 1 tablespoon sugar in a dry bowl until the cocoa is full incorporated.

When the egg batter is ready, sift about 1/3 of the flour mixture over the batter, and gently fold it in with a rubber spatula. Repeat two more times. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Bake for about 10-12 minutes. It will be firm to the touch and just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Don't overbake or it will be dry.

Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then flip onto a piece of parchment paper on a cooling rack.

Genoise cakes can often be dry. I like to pour a little flavored simple syrup over the cake before frosting. We used almond extract, frangelico, or peppermint extract to flavor the syrup.

Chocolate Buttercream

4 large egg whites (or 4.5 ounces egg whites)
1 cup sugar
3 sticks butter, softened
2 1/2 tablespoons Frangelico or Kahlua or Amaretto (or water)
4 ounces semi-sweet or bitter-sweet chocolate, melted (do not use chips)
1 teaspoon vanilla (or other) extract

Whisk the egg white and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in another heat proof large bowl if using a hand mixer). Set the bowl over simmering water, and whisk constantly until the sugar is dissolved and the egg whites are hot (if you touch the whites, you'll need to immediately remove your finger). Remove from heat, and attach the bowl to your stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium until the bowl is room temperature (it should feel like it was never on the pan of simmering water). This will take 5-10 minutes or so.

While you're waiting, dissolve the espresso powder (if using) in the liqueur (or water if you don't want to use alcohol).

Remove the whisk attachment, and put on the paddle (or my favorite, the beater blade). Be sure that your butter is softened (you can microwave it just a little, or squeeze it with your hands if it's already room temperature). On medium speed, add the butter, and beat until smooth. This will take about 3-5 minutes. Beat in the liqueur/coffee mixture and the extract, then the melted chocolate.

You really want your meringue cooled completely and your butter soft - this will speed up the beating process, and keep your buttercream from breaking. If it does break (appear curdled), don't throw it out! It's not ruined. If it's curdled before you add the chocolate, the warmth of the melted chocolate may fix it. Add the chocolate while still somewhat warm, in a few additions, if this is the case.

The frosting should be very light and fluffy now. Add food coloring if desired.

Variations

Chocolate: Omit coffee from recipe.

Vanilla (plain): Omit espresso powder and chocolate from recipe. Add 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.

Coffee: Omit chocolate from recipe.

Almond: Replace vanilla extract with almond extract. Use Amaretto for the liqueur.

For a chocolate genoise and a mocha buttercream recipe, go here.

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Mousse Filling and Chocolate Frosting

Jen and her chocolate cake layer

Chocolate frosting (recipe here)

I don't have pictures of the final products for this one - let's just say (and I've said it before), be sure your cake is completely cool (and preferably even chilled) before frosting! For more ideas of what to do with this versatile chocolate cake, go here or here.

Vanessa, Jen; Aom, Kate

Anna & Christina

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T17:15:00.000-05:00

Hmmm, I'm not really a New Year's Resolutions kind of girl. Don't think I've ever written down a list of resolutions, and the only one I usually ever make, even in my head, is to drop those last 5 pounds. But I do feel like I'm in something of a transition period (I got tenure just over a year ago which gives me more freedom academically, I'm on sabbatical next fall which will give me a lot more free time, and I'm in the midst of starting my home-based baking business), so I guess I'm feeling a bit more contemplative than normal.

Here's a recap of some of my food-related highlights of 2009.

Wishing you a wonderful 2010!

January 2009: Caramel Cake with Brown Butter Frosting Filling and Chocolate Glaze

Dinner Party - January 2009

March 2009: My Version of Pierre Herme's Concorde with Chocolate Meringue and Nutella Mousse

April 2009: My Birthday, Trip to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA)

Dessert at the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe at the CIA

April 2009: More birthday desserts: Hazelnut Dacquoise topped with a layer of milk chocolate crunch, topped with chocolate mousse, lemon mousse, more chocolate mousse, then a chocolate ganache glaze

July 2009: Paris and Italy

Tomato Parmesan Risotto at the Rose Bakery in Paris

Macchiato at Platti in Turin

Spaghetti Pomodoro in Turin - No picture, but one of the best pasta dishes I've ever eaten

August 2009: Pastry Course at the Institute for Culinary Education (ICE)

Mille Feuille with Chocolate Pastry Cream (See more pics here, here, and here)

October 2009: Brioche and Croissant Course at the ICE (still haven't posted about this yet, but I will!)

Brioche a Tete and Braided Brioche Round

Pain au Chocolat

December 2009: Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

I've been making versions of this for almost 5 years now, but it will always be one of my favorites.

December 2009: Buche de Noel (and the Cutest Cookies I've ever made)

Lemon Poppyseed Cake with Toasted Almonds

2009-12-28T12:41:00.000-05:00

(the inside looked pretty good at least!)

I know better than to frost a cake without chilling it long enough, especially when I plan to frost it with cream cheese frosting... especially when that frosting hasn't chilled long enough... but life gets in the way, and I do things that I shouldn't. In the grand scheme of things, frosting a cake too early isn't really so bad on the list of things that I could do but should not, right? It does, however, result in a leaning tower of cake which makes me panic and scramble to see what I can do to make it look a little better. I made this cake right before Thanksgiving, and thought seriously about not sharing it with you since it's not the prettiest cake on the block, but it's so yummy that not sharing the recipe would just add to the list of things I did wrong here.

Seriously, cream cheese frosting is slippery! These cake layers are rather large. Not a good combination unless both cake and frosting are nice and chill(ed).

For the cake: (adapted from Martha)

3 sticks butter

3 3/4 cups flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups sugar

7 eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup milk, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 cup poppy seeds

Spray three 8" cake pans with baking spray. Line with parchment paper; spray again.

Place two racks in the center of the oven; preheat the oven to 350F.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together thoroughly; set aside.

Cream the butter on low-medium speed for 1-2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar, and keep beating for another 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy. Drizzle in eggs in 4-5 additions, beating in between. This should take another 4-5 minutes. Beat in vanilla.

Add the flour mixture (in 3 additions) on low speed, alternating with the milk (in two additions). Just beat until combined. Stir in the zest and poppy seeds.

Divide the batter evenly between the three pans, and drop from a height of 4" to get rid of air bubbles.

Bake for 25 minutes; rotate pans for even baking. Bake another 10-15 minutes until the toothpick just comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes in pan, then turn out onto cooling racks and cool completely. Cut off domed tops if necessary. If not frosting immediately, refrigerate overnight or freeze for up to 2 months.

For the cream cheese frosting: (also Martha)

16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla
2 sticks butter, room temperature, in small pieces
3-4 cups powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese on medium speed for several minutes, until creamy. It's hard to get out all the lumps, but keep beating!

Add vanilla.

Gradually add butter while beating on medium speed. This will take several minutes. Turn up to high speed for 30-60 seconds; frosting should be smooth.

On low speed, add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time. If the frosting is stiff enough to pipe, you can use it now, but depending on the temperature in your kitchen, you may want to refrigerate it before using.

If it's too stiff after refrigeration, just mix again for 30 seconds or so.

Cake notes: I like this cake more than the poppy seed cake I made in October. This one is moister, and I like the lemon. It's also a very sturdy cake, though it is heavy... heavy enough to slide all over the cream cheese frosting if it's at all warm. It freezes really well.

I often serve this cake with cream cheese frosting filling in between the layers, but without frosting the outside (and without the almonds, though you could sprinkle them on top or in between the layers). It still looks good, and it's a whole lot quicker to put together.

Assemble the cake:

Toast about 1 cup of slivered or coarsely ground almonds in the oven at 325F for about 10 minutes or until just brown. Let cool.

Place one layer on the serving plate or a cardboard cake round. Spread frosting over the cake layer. Place the second layer on top, and cover that with frosting. Place the last layer on top, and frost the top and sides of cake. Gently press slivered almonds over the entire outer edge of the cake. Alternatively, you can do almonds on top of the cake and in a 1" border along the bottom outer edge of cake.

My attempt at fixing the cake... look closely and you'll see a bulge of cream cheese frosting and a bare spot in the nuts from the cake sliding. Oh well... my friend told me it looked homemade. He didn't mean it as an insult, but I wasn't so happy. :)

This is actually carrot cake, but the picture gives you a better idea of what this cake should look like from the outside!

The Winner

2009-12-22T09:40:00.000-05:00

And the winner is.... Topher, who's inspired to cook for his family at the holidays. Happy baking Topher, I'll send you an email to get your address. Meanwhile, I really encourage everyone to read My Life in France, and if that's not enough Julia for you, the Julie and Julia dvd is out now too!

Happy holiday baking!!