Summer Sun

The other day I was sitting out in the quad and I was inspired by the grass and warm weather, it finally felt like summer. So I decided to make a summery cake (like you do).

First, taking a note from Rose Levy Beranbaum, I used a base of an all-occasion downy yellow butter cake:

Ingredients:

• 6 large egg yolks
• 1 c. milk
• 2 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 3 c. cake flour, sifted
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 12 Tbsp. butter (1 1/2 sticks)

Mixins

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour two 9-inch cake rounds. In a small bowl, separate the egg yolks from the egg whites, then add 1/4 c. milk and the vanilla, stir to combine.

Sadly one broke or else this would have been a cool shot.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all the dry ingredients, stirring a few times until well combined. Add the butter and remaining milk, mix on a medium speed for about a minute and a half to develop the cake's structure.

Mixy mix.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Now add the egg mixture in three additions, mixing well after each addition.

Mmm....cake batter!

Now divide the cake batter between the two prepared pans. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Before...

After!

Allow the cakes to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Who needs air fresheners when your house can smell like fresh cake?

Now what would a cake be without delicious frosting?

For your frosting fixins:

• 2 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 6 c. sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• pinch of salt
• green food coloring

So much sugar but so good.

Beat the butter until it is nice and creamy, about 2 minutes, then slowly add the sugar, 1/2 c. at a time, scraping down the sides when needed. Beat in the vanilla, salt, and food coloring.

Hulk frosting!

What would a summer cake be without flowers? (Just a warning, this is my first attempt at fondant flowers, so if they look crappy, blame it on my inexperience.)

You can make you're own fondant if you're super talented (I made it once and it was too much of a hassle to do again so I just bought pre-rolled ready to use fondant, no shame in that). I bought a package of plain white fondant and then a colored package. You can always use food coloring to dye the white fondant any color you want, but just remember to wear gloves! (Unless you're into the tie-dyed hand look.) You'll also want a flower shaped cookie cutter or have some serious skills with an exacto knife. You'll also need some cornstarch and a rolling pin.

Mmm...sugar and corn syrup!

Sprinkle a light dusting of cornstarch on a clean work surface. Kneading the fondant with your hands, bring the fondant to room temperature. Then roll out to a 1/8 inch thickness with a rolling pin.

Flat as a pancake.

Using a cookie cutter (or exacto knife) cut out the flowers, re-rolling the fondant if necessary.

Cute!

Now to assemble the cake!

Place one of the cakes on a cardboard cake round and level the cake top with a serrated knife. Dollop some frosting on top, spreading to the edges and then top with the second cake:

It's like a delicious construction project.

Now frost the entire outside of the cake with the green frosting. Then using an icing bag with a #12 icing tip, pipe the grass stems on the top of the cake.

Super tedious, but super cute.

Now adorn the cake with the fondant flowers! Admire and enjoy!

Precious.

Apparently I need to update this thing more often...

I apologize for my leave of absence. I'm never too busy to bake but I guess I get to busy to update my baking blog. Just to forewarn you, this might be an overwhelming update so brace yourselves for the high sugar content ahead, I would hate to send someone into a diabetic comma.

January 29th, 2009: The glorious combination of cake and candy.

While at work on either the 29th or the 28th (my memory of this occasion is somewhat faded) I overhead my boss saying that she was really craving an almond joy. So I thought to myself, "what if you combined candy AND cake?" And I did. And it was good.

Seeing as how I have never made nor heard of an almond joy cake before, I sort of stumbled around blindly while making this cake, compiling different recipes to make a master almond cake recipe for my repertoire of cake savvy.

The first and simplest part of the cake was the actual cake part. I made a simple chocolate cake using a recipe courtesy of my favorite religious text, The Cake Bible. It goes as follows:

Perfect All-American Chocolate Butter Cake:

• 1/2 c. + 3 Tbsp. Dutch cocoa powder
• 1 c. boiling water
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 2 1/4 c. + 2 Tbsp. sifted cake flour
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 c. unsalted butter, softened

Start out by preheating the oven to 350 F. Then whisk together the cocoa powder and boiling water until smooth, then set aside and allow it to come to room temperature.

In another bowl, combine the eggs, 1/4 of the cocoa mixture and vanilla. Like so:

Mmm...raw egg

Sift the cake flour (yes it takes forever but it gives the cake a finer texture so unless you want to be eating a cake that has the consistency of a sea sponge, sift!).

Sifty sift.

In yet another bowl (it's handy to have 80 million mixing bowls in your kitchen), combine the remaining dry ingredients and mix until well, combined.

(Insert snarky comment here)

Now in the bowl of a stand mixer (we're upgrading here) combine the dry ingredient mixture, the butter and the remaining cocoa mixture on a low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 1 1/2 minutes to aerate and develop the cake's structure (it's like a delicious and cool chemistry lab). Scrape down the sides and gradually add the egg mixture in 3 batches, beating for a few seconds after each addition. Scrape the batter into prepared pans (greased and floured with 2 Tbsp. cake flour) and bake for 25 to 35 minutes.

Allow the cakes to cool on a wire rack for about 10 to 15 minutes.

While the cakes are baking, you can start on the almond joy filling and chocolate candy coating.

Filling:

• 1 c. evaporated milk
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 pkg (10 oz.) mini marshmallows
• 1 pkg (14 oz.) flaked coconut
• 1 c. almonds, coarsely chopped

Chocolate Topping:

• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. evaporated milk
• 1/2 c. butter
• 1 pkg (12 oz.) bittersweet chocolate chips
• Almond pieces and flaked coconut, for decoration

For the filling, combine the sugar and milk in a saucepan and stir until sugar is dissolved. Over low heat add the marshmallow, stirring until marshmallow is just melted. Remove from heat and stir in coconut and almonds and set aside.

For the chocolate topping, combine the sugar, milk, and butter in a saucepan and bring to boil then remove from heat. Add chocolate chips and stir until smooth. Let cool for a few minutes.

To assemble the cake:
Place one cake layer on a cardboard round and sheets of wax paper (this is to collect the spillage of the chocolate coating), then add a hefty dollop of the almond-coconut filling, spreading to the edges. Repeat until you have used all your layers and filling but do not put any of the filling on top of the top layer. Carefully and slowly pour the chocolate mixture over top of the cake, using an icing knife to spread and coat the edges. It's okay if some excess spills over, this is what your wax paper is for! Once your cake is doused in chocolate goodness, sprinkle almond bits and coconut flakes on top for a decorative finish. Let the chocolate harden. Carefully remove wax paper. Admire for 30-60 seconds then dig in.

Cake + Candy = Happiness

February 14th, 2009: The day of jam-filled hearts.

Oh Valentine's Day, there are many sarcastic and snarky things I could say about this Hallmark holiday. But because I'm a true romantic at heart, I made uber girlie Valentine's Day cookies while watching Sleepless in Seattle.

Valentine Linzer Cookies:

• 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c. ground toasted almonds
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 c. butter, softened
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• Raspberry jam, red sugar, and confectioner's sugar, for decoration
• Heart-shaped cookie cutter

To get your linzer on:
Start out by preheating the oven to 350 F. Grease a baking sheet. Whisk together the flour, almonds and baking powder in a small bowl then set aside. Beat the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined well. Add the flour mixture and beat until just incorporated. Divide the dough into four equal portions and wrap each portion in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 1 hour.

Take one portion of chilled dough and place between 2 sheets of wax paper. Roll out to a 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into rounds with a 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter and transfer to baking sheet. Using a smaller (1 to 1 1/2 -inch) heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out a heart shape from half of the cookies. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are just lightly browned. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To assmble the jammy goodness:
First mix together a 1/2 Tbsp. of confectioner's sugar and water each to make a simple paste. Using a pastry brush, brush the tops of heart cutout cookie halves. Sprinkle with red sugar crystals (this should be incredibly easy to acquire around this joyous holiday) or confectioner's sugar and let dry. Spread about 1 Tbsp. of raspberry jam on flat side of solid cookie and sandwich with flat side of 1 cut out cookie. Repeat. Enjoy.

Sugar-coated love.

You can even make stars if you're really opposed to hearts.

April 1st, 2009: I think there's something in the water...

No, this isn't about the questionable lead content in Western's water supply. But I swear there is something in the water at my place of work, the Western Foundation. Three, now four women who work within the University Advancement team are pregnant (including one of my bosses). So to celebrate baby fever, my office held a joint baby shower for all those expecting little bundles of joy. And of course, because I'm the cake girl, I made the cakes for the shower. The first was a simple yellow-downey butter cake from the beloved Cake Bible, dyed blue and pink layers, topped with vanilla buttercream, which I dyed yellow to go with the color coordination of baby-dom. The second a dark chocolate cake topped with chocolate buttercream. All in all, delicious. I'm still getting compliments on them.

Baby Cake #1

Baby Cake #2

*******************************************************************************

I'm sure more baking extravaganzas occured between January 29th and April 1st, I just forgot or chose not to document them. But I do promise to not wait 4 months to update my blog again. Until then, who know's what I'll be making next. I might attempt a forray into sorbets and tarts. You'll just have to wait and see, sitting on the edge of your seat and biting your nails in anticipation of course.

Stress baking can produce delicious results

I started baking as a means to deal with my stress. I figured it was a productive usage of my time. Since I'm still in college, I'm not exactly mellow all the time. Hence, a lot of baked goods are produced in my kitchen, especially around midterms and project due dates. This week's creations were centered around my Sociology research project's due date and my craving for Chex Mix and my friend's birthday.

Now when I went to the store to buy said Chex for said mixin', I noticed that there are no longer oven directions only...microwave directions ::hiss:: Terrible. Chex Mix should never, EVER, be made in a microwave. So if you're looking for a traditional oven prepared Chex Mix, don't fret:

Chex Mix (compliments of my sister):

3 c. Rice Chex
3 c. Corn Chex
3 c. Wheat Chex
1 c. Pretzels
1 c. Rye chips
2 c. Mixed nuts
6 tsp. butter (melted)
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

Mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Melt butter over low heat. Add the spices to the butter and mix well. Pour butter mixture over dry ingredients, stirring constantly to coat evenly. Bake in the oven at 250º for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool on papertowels.

Now if you're interested in something more sweet, here's a recipe for Muddy Buddies:

9 c. Rice Chex or Corn Chex or a combination
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/4 c. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

Measure cereal into a large bowl and set aside. Melt chocolate chips, butter, and peanut butter in a microwave on high for 1 minute, stir. Microwave for another 30 seconds or until mixture is smooth. Then stir in vanilla. Pour over cereal and stir to coat evenly. Pour into a 2 gallon Ziploc bag. Add powdered sugar and shake the bag to cover all the cereal. Spread on wax paper to cool.


My last creation of the week was a birthday cake for my friend Holly, who happens to be allergic to soy. Now one tricky thing about soy is...it's in practically everything! So it requires thoroughly reading the ingredients, a combination of recipies and some serious substitutions to make a delicious cake that meets her dietary needs. I made her cake from a few recipies in Rose Levy Beranbaum's "The Cake Bible." To be more specific, downy yellow butter cake and white and dark chocolate buttercream. This recipe used butter instead of shortening and veggie oil, which makes the cake lighter and softer, but still delicious! And the buttercream is well, butter. Paula Dean would be so proud! And I used Dutch processed cocoa powder instead of bar chocolate (which contains soy) to make the buttercream chocolate. After frosting the cake with the chocolate butter cream, I used the white chocolate buttercream to add some decorative touches. The cake turned out scrumptious looking and I really hope that she likes it!