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

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.

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.

Raspberry Ice Cream Cake with Homemade Ice Cream

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.

Almond Cake with Chocolate Raspberry Filling & Chocolate Frosting

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!).  

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 chocolate frosting.  

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! 

Baking Class Project: How to Make Petit Fours

 

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).   

Raspberry Shortbread Bars

These bars were by far the best fruit bars I've ever had. My local coffee shop (yes, there's only one in Williamstown) makes a raspberry shortbread bar that is pretty good, but I wanted to try to improve on it. These bars are not too thick, not too thin. The jam layer is thin which keeps the bars from being too gooey and messy, but it's enough to complement the shortbread. I'll definitely be making this recipe again and again, with lots of different types of jam. I think blueberry would be terrific.



And hey, there's fruit in there - it can't be that unhealthy, can it? But really, I'd so much rather have a small piece of real dessert then eat all that fake processed food. The only reduced fat food in my kitchen is my Jif reduced fat peanut butter, and that one's going to be hard to give up - I just love the taste. Luckily, I love to workout as much as I love to bake. When I teach step classes, I'm talking constantly - usually barking out steps to tell everyone what's next. But even when we start doing something more repetitive, I keep talking to take their minds off the work...but usually that means describing the big layer cake I made over the weekend or the latest treat I brought in for my students. And I'm so horrible, I never bring in any goodies to step class... bringing cookies to the gym just seems so wrong!




Recipe: (Adapted from Epicurious)

3 sticks butter
3 egg yolks
1.5 cups sugar
3 cups flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Cream butter until soft and fluffy.

Add yolks, mix well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt to combine. Add to the butter/yolk mixture, and mix until just incorporated. Freeze dough for 2 hours (or up to one month).


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

Set aside 1/3 of the dough for the top of the raspberry bars. The remaining 2/3 of the dough will be the base for the bars. Either place the dough in the food processor, pulse a few times, then gently pat into the pan, or grate the frozen dough into the pan, being sure the dough is spread evenly over the surface of the pan. Grating the dough yields a lighter shortbread. Bake for 20 minutes.

Spread about 1 cup (I like to use a little more than a cup) of raspberry jam evenly over the dough. Use more jam (maybe 1 1/2 cups) if you want a thicker jam layer. Crumble the remaining dough over the jam. It doesn't need to cover the entire surface. Bake another 20-40 minutes until the bars are light golden brown.