Thank You to my husband

After giving my first class in May (Buttercream Basics- Cake Decorating), I made my husband a "Thanks" cake to let him know how much I appreciated his support. 

One of his favorites is chocolate, so it was a chocolate cake topped with cocoa frosting. I baked a 6 inch cake (15.2 cm) using a modified Whimsical Bakehouse Chocolate Butter Cake recipe.

Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
125 ml coffee (1/2 cup)
51 g of cocoa powder (1/2 cup)
125 ml low-fat milk (1/2 cup)
156 g all-purpose flour (1 1/2 cups) (zeeuwsebloem)
24 g corn starch (maizena)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
165 g unsalted butter (1 stick, or 1/2 cup)
262 g sugar (1 1/4 cups)(fijn crystal suiker)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Heat oven to 350 degrees F or 177 degrees C. Using butter, grease the bottom of a 6" (15.2 cm) round cake pan that is about 3" tall (7.6cm). Cut a parchment circle to fit into the bottom of the pan(it will stick to the butter), and then grease and flour the parchment bottom and also the sides of the pan.

Combine the hot coffee and cocoa powder, whisking until no lumps. Add the milk to the coffee/cocoa and set this aside to cool a bit. In another bowl, combine the flour, corn starch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside the dry ingredients. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar. Beat well, and then add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix to combine. Add about 1/3 of the dry ingredient mixture (flour, etc.) and mix to combine.  Add about 1/3 of the wet ingredient mixture (coffee, etc.) and mix to combine. Continue to add the dry ingredients, mixing to combine, alternately with the wet ingredients (coffee, etc.) in about three additions each. You will have about 965g of batter. 
Pour 630g of batter into the prepared pan. Cupcakes can be made with the remaining batter- it makes about 5 cupcakes, fill the cupcakes about 60% of the way to the top.

Bake the cake for about 25-35 minutes. The best way to check the cake to see if it is done is to use both the tooth-pick test and the spring-back test. Insert a wooden tooth-pick into the center of the cake and it should come out clean (with no crumbs). Next, lightly press your finger into the center of the cake and it should spring back a bit (if it just leaves a dent, the cake is not done). (The cupcakes take about 20 minutes to bake.)

Take the cake out of the oven, run a knife around the edge to separate the cake from the pan, and then cool the cake for about 10 minutes in the pan, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, frost with Cocoa Frosting from the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts:

Cocoa Frosting
300 g powdered sugar (2 2/3 cups)
75 g cocoa (3/4 cup)
87 g unsalted butter (6 Tbsp)
80 ml milk (1/3 cup)
2 Tbsp light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
Combine all ingredients on low speed until blended. Increase speed to high and whip until smooth and glossy. Add a bit more milk if necessary to achieve your preferred consistency. 

Assembly:
First, I placed a dollop of frosting on the cake board (I often reuse the styrofoam circles that refrigerated pizza at AH is packaged on!) so that the cake won't slide around.

Next, I leveled the top of the cake and then torted the cake (cut it in half horizontally).

 

The cocoa frosting as a filling makes life simple (and is tasty!)

 I placed the second layer of cake on top and then remembered that I should have used the bottom (the part of the cake that is in contact with the pan) as the very top to make frosting the cake easier (fewer crumbs).

Oh well! I frosted the top and sides of the cake with the cocoa frosting.

I trimmed the edge of the foam to get rid of the unsightly frosting (this was tricky to do, and I have a better method I'll share involving baking paper around the edge of the cake, which is removed after you frost it.) A cake turn-table is essential for me when decorating, otherwise my wrists have to contort in all sorts of weird ways to get the borders even.

And I decorated with the Basic Buttercream icing that tastes amazing and looks divine.

My husband has supported me throughout our time together, and this adventure is no exception. Keeping our Dina occupied with fun things to do while I plan, blog, and bake is not easy. She's always interested in helping her mommy bake and decorate (and 'clean' up the extra frosting.)

I love that Dina is excited about my passion for baking. And I love that my husband is, too. Thank you so much, MJM!

Stay tuned for the next date for my Buttercream Basics Cake Decorating class, on a Sunday afternoon in mid-August. In addition, I'm planning a new class: Cupcakes in Buttercream, which will be a Tuesday night in late-August.

 Everybody loves cupcakes...

 

 ...especially my Dina!

Vegan Cocoa Cake

My neighbor, Inge (pronounced "ING-ah") has two boys. One is allergic to milk (I find it so sweet how the Dutch say the word for milk: melk... but they pronounce it "Mel-ek" with two syllables- cute!!) and the other is allergic to eggs. In general, cooking anything cake-related without eggs seems like blasphamy in my mind but I really wanted to help my friend's kids eat cake, so I began a quest for a vegan cake.

My daughter, not to be fooled, was skeptical of such a cake.

Indeed, I too was skeptical. But, I spent some time improving a recipe I found on the internet named "BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE EVER." Also, I discovered that the right frosting carried this cake to greater heights. Starting from a frosting recipe I had in the Belimar book, I made it vegan, too. Both of Inge's boys enjoyed this version and I was surprised at how moist and tasty this frosting/cake combo became.

Chocolate Vegan Cake 
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (300 g Zeeuwse bloem)
2 cups granulated sugar (440 g)
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (70 g)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups coffee (500 ml)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup (166 ml) vegetable oil
2 tsp distilled white or apple cider vinegar

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Grease two 9" round pans, then line the bottom with baking paper. Then, grease the baking paper.
2. Sift together the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just to combine. 
3. Pour batter into two 9" round pans. (if you are precise, it is about 680 g of batter in each pan, just over half-way up the sides of a 1.5" tall pan)
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) for 35-45 minutes. Check your cake by doing the toothpick test (toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean), and also the spring-back test (lightly press your finger into the center of your cake- it should spring back almost to its original shape).
5. (EDIT:) Allow cakes to cool for 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks and allow to cool completely before frosting. Remove the baking paper after they are turned out.

Chocolate Vegan Frosting
2 & 2/3 cups powdered sugar (400 g)
8 Tbsp margarine (120 g)
1/3 cup oat milk (83ml) (this is key, do not substitute soy milk- oat milk is the consistency of cream. It is lovely, actually)
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (70 g)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat all ingredients together until creamy. This frosting is a bit sloppy and so does not make a really attractive cake, but if you don't mind using crisco instead of the margarine, then it will hold its shape better and allow you to pipe it, if desired. Inge minds using crisco, so I didn't do it.

Aside from making this for Inge's boys, I doubt I'll be making this often. For egg-eaters, I have my favorite chocolate cake recipe, which is a story for another day.

Happy Birthday, Inge!

Christmas Cupcake Fiasco

 A few of us (on the Mums and Toddlers group I'm on the committee for) decided it would be fun or interesting (or basically way better than the ridiculous dessert normally served) to bring cupcakes to our annual Christmas party. The party had about 40 adults who had rsvp'd, along with about 40 kids so we decided about 8 dozen cupcakes would work. Rachael and I each made 4 dozen cupcakes of varying Christmas related designs.  I'd love to say it was easy and great fun, but in reality it took a lot of time (although the design making was great fun) and I learned about how I have a propensity to over-do it. Why was this a surprise, you ask? Ha. The good bit was that I finally made buttercream. REAL buttercream- the kind which involves eggs being cooked (but not too much) and dissolving sugar in water and boiling it to a specific temperature and streaming said sugar/water into the eggs... so complicated and yet so luscious!!

The main reason I've hesitated on making buttercream this way is that my old standard of butter, powdered sugar and a bit of milk is really good, and works well to decorate a cake, cookies, or just spoon out of the bowl. It is quite sweet, however. Plus, I'd been watching the CIA's DVD Cake Decorating and the description of making Swiss buttercream really sounded almost easy. It was time to bite the bullet and try it. So, one night last week, I tried making the Swiss buttercream. And I had success! Once I did that, the world was my oyster. I'm not one to pre-judge a recipe, and in the CIA's Baking and Pastry book there are FOUR buttercream options, so I decided to try three of them. I also made the Italian (very similar to the Swiss) and the French (much different because it included egg yolks). And it only took me an entire evening, until 1:00am in the morning.

Then, naturally, we had a scientific taste test which meant my husband had to sample all these buttercreams. It was clear to both of us that the French buttercream had something amazing about it. The Swiss and the Italian both were outstanding, waaaaay better than the average standard buttercream... but the French. Ahhh the French! They really know how to blow you away with food, don't they!? It was almost like slightly melted ice cream but not cold. Other thoughts: smooth, airy, rich, fluffy, creamy, buttery, complex.

For days(four days, actually!) I made little toppers for the cupcakes, using white chocolate, red pre-colored marzipan, (and I meant to buy marzipan but accidentally ended up with green fondant- argh!), and white marzipan.  I piped, rolled, cut, and shaped poinsettias, candy canes, snowflakes, and holly.

It is handy to be able to do these sorts of things ahead of time, but of course then it becomes a situation where you spend as much time as you have (and that can be a lot if you aren't careful!). But I do love making the decorations! For the flowers and leaves, I dried the marzipan or fondant pieces on a curved surface, so they would have a bit of realism to them.

The day before the party, I baked the cupcakes. First, I made chocolate cupcakes using The Whimsical Bake House cookbook's Chocolate Butter cake recipe. Next, I used my good old standby,  CIA's Baking At Home classic white cake recipe to make vanilla cupcakes, which turned out to be a COMPLETE DISASTER.

I made biscuits. Not cupcakes. They looked terrible. Just look at them! Horrific, no? Who wants to eat that shit? I was mortified. My helpful husband said, "Frost 'em up! No-one will notice!" But I couldn't do it. Instead, I hunted in the cabinet for my panic box. The Pillsbury Yellow Cake mix box, that is. It was a cop-out but also a sanity check. Since I still had to frost and decorate these puppies, I decided that Pillsbury was better than biscuits.

Overall, I'd say it was a success. Would I do it again? Maybe...
The best part of all was watching my kid eat a cupcake. Her smile can melt butter. She choose the vanilla cupcake with a buttercream wreath and then proceeded to only eat the frosting. Smart girl.

For those thinking they might give a real buttercream a go, here is the (relatively easy) CIA's Swiss buttercream recipe (with my notes):

Swiss Meringue Buttercream
227 g sugar (1 cup plus 2 Tbsp plus 1 tsp- golly, isn't weight easier?!)
114 g egg whites (one large egg white is about 30 g, so a little less than 4 egg whites)
284 g butter, (about 2 sticks plus 4 1/2 Tbsp) at room temperature, no colder than 70 degrees F. (if it is colder than this you will have to heat your mixture)
1 tsp vanilla (5ml)
(You will also need a thermometer to attach to the side of your bowl)

1. In a stainless steel bowl set over simmering water, put the sugar and egg whites and whisk to combine. Heat, whisking constantly, until mixture measures at least 140 degrees F and not hotter than 165 degrees F. If you are worried about salmonella, you should make sure you hit 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).

2. Transfer the bowl to your mixer and whip the mixture with a wire-whisk attachment for about 5 to 10 minutes, or until the mixture is shiny. Touch the bowl to see if it is room temperature. (There is no risk of over-whipping here, so do not worry about that, just keep whipping)

3. If your bowl feels like room temperature, you are now ready to add the butter. Change your attachment to the paddle attachment and gradually add the butter, a small piece at a time while whipping at medium speed. The buttercream should look light and creamy. If it does not, your butter was too cold and you'll need to put your bowl over the pan of simmering water again and 'melt' it a bit to heat it up. Do not melt more than 5-10% of your mixture. The edges of your mixture should look a bit like ice-cream as it melts, and you should put it back on the mixer and see if it whips up nice before melting more of it if needed.

4. Add the vanilla. If you want a chocolate frosting, you can separately melt 128 g of bittersweet chocolate (good quality!) and then cool it to room temp, and then blend it in at this point in the process. You can also add mint flavoring (about 1/4 tsp) if you want a chocolate mint. (yum!)

5. You can use the buttercream now, or cover the buttercream with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge at this point for up to 1 week. To 'reconstitute' it, leave it out at room temperature for several hours, or, do the melt it over a pan of simmering water routine and then whip it with a paddle attachment until it looks smooth and creamy. You can also freeze it for up to a couple of months.

6. Load it into a piping bag with a star tip, or a plain round tip and pipe it onto your cake or cupcakes. Enjoy!

In the beginning...

Cake is love. Where does the name of my blog come from, you ask? Grab a cup of coffee (a frappy, if you are able) and find an old copy of Cooks Illustrated. Then, use the coffee to bake a chocolate cake. Drink the frappy.

In all seriousness, the title of my blog comes from a little taste-test event my best friend, Jenny and I organized years ago.

MLG and JCS

It was in the fall of 2002... I remember the frost on the ground and Jenny and Jeff's house on Dewey Ave with the long skinny kitchen, and bright, open dining room. We had a plan, Jenny and I. Her husband, Jeff was a huge fan of chocolate cake. Neither of us were sure what was the 'best' chocolate cake recipe, however, so we decided to find out so she could make it for his birthday. We each invited judges- for me it was Minh&Matt and for her it was Debbie&whats-his-name, and her brother-in-law, Mark. We prepared for days, testing cake recipes, deciding on the final twelve (!!!) options to sample.

The answer key! Note the chocolate smudges!

We each had made 2 types of chocolate cake:(Curly cake, Black Magic(BM), Godiva Chocolate Raspberry Cake, and Triple Chocolate Celebration(T3)) and with several frostings/toppings that made a total of 12 pairings. With our group of judges, that meant we would need 9 plates, each with 12 tiny slices of cake. But how to rank them? And what to name each one? Or to use numbers?
It was complicated... until we realized we didn't have to number or name the samples- we could use letters!
"W" "H" "Y" "C" "A" "K" "E" "I" "S" "L" "U" "V".  Twelve unique letters, Twelve pieces of cake. And we'd put each letter on a little piece of paper taped to a toothpick. So we decided couples could share a plate and we made 60 of them (4 couples+1 single*12 pieces of cake each). We also stayed true to each original recipe, so for example Triple Chocolate Celebration Cake had the proper frosting/fillings for letter "K". The Godiva cake had the proper fillings for "L", but we also tried other fillings with "Y" and "A". We had our favorite chocolate frostings that we included: cocoa frosting and sour cream frosting(SC). The day of the event, when I arrived at Jenny's house with my two cakes, frostings, ballots and toothpicks, Jenny told me about the interloper. Some friend of Debbie & Jenny's from high school was in town and he loves cake and Debbie told him about our little taste test and he wanted to come so she said 'sure!" I was peeved! Not so much that he was coming (just one more plate of 12 pieces of cake, ugh) but he WAS BRINGING HIS OWN CAKE TO ENTER. As if this was a contest. Nooooooo!!!! We had already printed the ballots, made the toothpick labels, made a huge mess of Jenny's kitchen and I just said, 'no.' He can come, he can bring his blasted cake, I don't care, but he isn't entering it. If people want to comment on his cake, fine. But this is a scientific study on home made chocolate cake! The interloper was bringing a doctored box cake mix! With doctored box pudding filling! Blasphemy!

My friends made me proud. Especially my then boyfriend (now husband), MJM. His ability to discern the merits of each cake and frosting combo was to be admired. And Minh and Matt did a bang-up job judging, too. Honestly, after days of chocolate cake baking and frosting making, and bowl-licking and crumb munching I could barely tell the difference. I was overwhelmed, but tried my best to rate each one both in terms of flavor and texture for both the cake and the frosting. Poor Jenny couldn't even fill in the ballot. We were exhausted!

MLG (me) on the left (notice how everything is mostly 8s and 9s) and Jenny's ballot on the right.

MJM on the left and JAS (Jeff) on the right

Minh on the left and Matt on the right

What's his name on the left and Debbie on the right

Mark on the left and Interloper on the right

My initial plan was to do statistical analysis in Matlab on the results to determine the winner. Unfortunately, that meant a delay, which was deemed unacceptable by the crowd. So we leafed through the ballots... I found it interesting that the frosting or topping really affected the perception of the cake! Consider Jeff's ballot (the only one that really mattered, after all). "W" "E" "S" and "V" were all the same cake- Black Magic cake, but the different letters had different frostings. However, he gave W a perfect 10 and E got a 9 and 8, S got two 8s and E- two 6s!! But I'm sure the only thing you care about is what was decided! Which cake was the winner!? The consensus winner was "W": a combination of 'Black Magic Cake' on Hershey's website and 'Cocoa Frosting' from the Belimar book (a book our friend, Belimar recommended), The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts. A great book, check it out.

But most importantly, what we learned from this experience was: be careful what you wish for. Maybe it wont sound surprising to you, but Jeff actually requested a non-chocolate cake for his birthday that year.