Yellow Cake with Amaretto Swiss Meringue Buttercream for Sugar High Friday

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

Yellow Cake with Raspberry Buttercream Filling and Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

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!

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

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.

School Pride Cupakes & Vanilla Bean Paste

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.

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.

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.

 

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

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.

 

Baking Class for Winter Study! And a genoise recipe.

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