Moving, Summer, One Kitten, and Two Cakes

 My goodness, time really does get away from me. It's been over a month since I've posted anything!  Since then, I moved, put together several pieces of Ikea furniture (three of them alone!) got a new kitten (we now have a dog and two cats), had a birthday, and celebrated our first wedding anniversary. Phew. June was quite a month.  We also didn't have a working stove for the first week, and a really spotty internet connection for nearly a month. But, we're loving our new home and our new neighborhood.  It's so nice to take our dog, Pookie, for evening walks in a neighborhood that's really interesting and full of history.  We also love our new kitten.

Her name is Lily, and she's quite a little girl.  She loves purring, cuddling and sleeping.  She also loves clawing feet and sticking her head in my latte, not to mention a not-so healthy love of ambushing both Pookie and our cat, Molly, in their sleep. She's become the life of the household, almost always inserting herself in the action. We got her from the Humane Society near our new home, where they called her Sweetpea and had her on the news.  We were the lucky family that got to take this pretty girl home!   Lily has also become my baking buddy.  I never had a baking buddy before, and I didn't realize that I needed one.  Lily likes to place herself in a corner of the kitchen, occasionally coming over to swat my feet, but usually falling asleep and giving me something adorable to look at. She stays with me no matter how long it takes or how hot the oven makes the room.  Who says cats aren't loyal? 

 A baking buddy has become really handy lately, because I've been doing a lot of baking. I recently took Rose Levy Beranbaum's new cake book, Rose's Heavenly Cakes, out of the local library. My mom had a copy of The Cake Bible that I used to flip through from time to time, but I never really read what Rose had to say about cake.  She knows--and has been the one to discover--so much about cake!  Her recipes really are great. I find that I really do prefer her two-stage mixing technique, and that's something that I need to post about in the very near future.  I plan to change all of my favorite butter/oil cake recipes to use this method.  I've made several cakes in the book, including her recipe for red velvet, her yellow cake, and the white velvet cake (this one is so good!).  But, this is what I made for my birthday:

It's the Almond Shamah Cake, dressed up a bit, by using Rose's recipe for Raspberry Mousseline on the outside.  I used the raspberry flavored whipped cream for the filling. While the mousseline was really tough to make in hot, humid weather (really, it's the only thing I don't like about summer), it did help the leftover cake hold up really well, in the refrigerator, for about five days.

Four days after baking the Almond Shamah Cake, I baked an anniversary cake that looked like the top of our wedding cake (No, I am not manic, and yes, I do sleep).

To go back to what I was just saying, I didn't utilize the two-stage mixing technique (the recipe I used was from Martha Stewart Weddings), and while the cake was great, mixing the ingredients was tedious and messy.I also thought the recipe instructions were not as clear as a Rose recipe. Add to that a need to reduce all of the ingredients from a full-size wedding cake down  to one cake top, and you have a complicated task! Though this cake also took some time and patience, mainly because of the weather, again, I prefer baking to trying to eat freezer-burned cake, and then throwing the rest away.  I love cake far too much to ever do this. This was my first attempt at decorating a cake, and I was proud of myself, though it wasn't perfect.

And, that pretty much sums up my month, more or less. Tomorrow is the fourth of July, and I have lots of treats to prepare.  I'll be sure to report back with some of the results.

I Eat My Words (and Cake)

I love making (and eating!) birthday cakes. Unless it’s mine, that is. It’s really fun to think of a cake that’s just perfect for the birthday boy/girl in question. It’s also a good time to show off, or try something fancy.
The last birthday cake that I made was for Sean’s birthday. Since he is always eating Snickers Bars, I decided to find a recipe that would work for his taste buds and my baking skills. The result is a cake that is very rich, and perhaps even gratuitously sweet, but it was a hit at the birthday party. The cake has a good, rich chocolate flavor that compliments the caramel and peanuts of the candy. In the end, it was the chocolate icing that could benefit from some adjustment. Possibly a light ganache, applied sparingly over the top of the cake, and in between layers, would be adequate for this cake. However, this was to be Sean’s birthday cake, and so a sweet, fluffy , over-the-top icing was in order. Regardless of what you choose, whoever you make this cake for will know that you love them.
My recipe for Snickers Birthday Cake is a very loose adaptation of a recipe I found on Epicurious.com. If you wanted to make a show-stopping cake in a hurry, you could use a boxed German chocolate cake mix with canned icing. Just add Snickers. The cake recipe here calls for two nine inch cakes or three eight inch layers. I used the chocolate cake recipe from Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cookbook, 1990 edition, as shown below. However, any good chocolate cake recipe would do. The frosting recipe was something that I found online (maybe cooks.com or allrecipes.com ?) while looking for an eggless butter cream.

Snickers Birthday Cake
Makes two nine inch layers or three eight inch layers
For Cake:
2 cups cake flower, sifted
2 Teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
½ cup plus two teaspoons cocoa powder, preferably dark
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup plus two tablespoons vegetable shortening
½ cup warm water (warmed on stove or in microwave)
2/3 cup milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For Frosting:
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons whipping cream
10 ounces chocolate, finely chopped
10 ounces Snickers Bars, chopped into small pieces (I used the small, one bite ones that are an ounce each).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease two nine inch or three eight inch cake pans, and line the bottom with circles of parchment paper that have been cut approximately 1/8 inch smaller than the pans.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa and sugar together. Add the shortening, water, milk, eggs and vanilla. Blend on very low speed until the ingredients are just moistened. Mix three minutes on medium speed , scraping down to fully mix ingredients. Scraping time should not be included in the three minutes.
Pour the mixture into the prepared two nine inch cake pans. Bake until the cakes bounce back when gently pushed in the middles. This will take about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool the pans on a cake rack for ten minutes before removing them from the pans. Allow to cool completely before applying the frosting or Snickers.
While the cake layers are baking, melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave. Set aside and allow to cool, but do not let the chocolate harden. Chop the Snickers Bars and set aside.
In a small bowl of an electric mixer, mix butter and sugar until well-blended; reduce the speed and mix for three minutes. Add vanilla, cream and chocolate. Beat an additional one minute, or until the chocolate is blended.
Place about 1 1/2 cups of frosting in a bowl. Add the Snickers pieces and gently mix. Refrigerate if not immediately using.
When icing the cake, spread the Snickers frosting mixture on the top of one cake that has been placed on a serving platter or cake stand. Place the second layer over top, and cover top and sides of the cake with the non-Snickered icing.