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.

For Wurst: A Case for Using Parchment Paper

I did it.  I made a total rookie mistake. When I realized that I didn't have any parchment paper in a recipe that specifically said to line the pan with parchment, I should have stopped. right. there.  But, I continued to make my cake, thinking that if I just greased the pan a little more, it would be fine. 

Obviously, things did not turn out as rosy as I had hoped.  The cake stuck to the pan and I had a lot of trouble getting it out. So, it ended up cracking. A lot. But in the end, it didn't really matter: the cake was pretty boring.   The texture was surprisingly dry and chewy for a cake that called for a cup of sour cream, three eggs and three egg whites. And not very lemony.  I've made at least two cakes like just this one in the past, though at least they didn't get stuck to the bottom of the pan. However, as you can see, we ate some of it before I took a picture, and it was still a freshly baked cake.  And that's always something.  If you're interested in making the recipe you can find it here (and I just realized, the original picture also has a slice taken out too.  That wasn't on purpose!).

Yum...Cake

Photo from Urban Comfort

Geez Louise, has it ever been a long week.  About half-way through, I began requiring wine and vast quantities of cake to make it to Friday.  Last night, I spent a couple of hours just looking at pictures of cake.  It was weird. I really have never just sat around, looking at pictures of food before, I swear.  But really, there are some cakes out there in the blogosphere that are really inspiring, and not just for baking. I also recently saw the latest issue of Martha Stewart Weddings in the grocery store.  While I certainly don't miss planning most parts of a wedding, I'm still interested in looking at wedding cakes (as if you hadn't guessed). Some of the cakes featured looked like wallpaper or embroidery.  And so, I give to you some of my picks for the best of inspirational cakes.

From Martha Stewart Weddings--I think you could hang this display on a wall!

From The Knot--this would make a great girl's birthday cake.

From Martha Stewart Weddings--I love the classic Art Deco style.

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.

Replace it with Yogurt

I don't know that this is exactly the latest technique in cooking, but I find that a little dollop of yogurt can go a long way in replacing an extensive list of ingredients, including butter, sour cream, mayonnaise (I never buy the stuff), cottage cheese (ditto),eggs, buttermilk, or even regular milk. And since yogurt is healthful and contains less fat than many of the above-mentioned foodstuffs, it's a great go-to.

It can also taste better, I think. My new fiance(!), Sean, hates yogurt almost as much as he hates sour cream, mayo, and cottage cheese, but he never says no to one of my cakes made with yogurt.

Some of my favorite yogurt desserts include a yogurt lemon cake that I have previously mentioned on this blog, lemon-yogurt fritters (I love lemon, if you haven't noticed), and this cake:




The original recipe is for a chocolate chip sour cream cake. On the day I wanted to recreate this, I had all of the ingredients on hand, except for sour cream. I did, however, have some full-fat yogurt. The result is a cake that is much sweeter than it would be if using sour cream. You could adjust the sugar, if you choose. I did not make this adjustment, and the result was delicious. Most yogurt-cake recipes call for full-fat yogurt,so this is probably what you should use, too. But I wouldn't be afraid to use partial fat yogurt for this particular cake. Just don't use fat-free.

Chocolate-Chip Yogurt Coffee Cake


Ingredients:

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/4 cups sugar
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature, or slightly melted in the microwave
* 2 large eggs
* 1 cup plain, full-fat (preferred) yogurt
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 cup chocolate chips or as many as needed

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan. In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Beat together the butter and remaining 1 cup sugar until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, then beat in the yogurt and vanilla. Gradually fold in the flour mixture, in 2 parts, until just combined.

Pour half of the batter into the cake pan and sprinkle with half of the cinnamon-sugar and half of the chocolate chips. Spoon the remaining batter evenly over top. Sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon-sugar and chocolate chips.

Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes.


P.S.
At the risk of being obnoxious, I am posting a picture of my engagement ring, by request.

An Imperfect Recipe?

Today, I am presenting a recipe that seems to be rather flawed. However, it is so delicious that I feel it deserves some mention. My original intention was to make this . I have been reading a lot of Orangette. The writing is just so good, and the stories are really entertaining. The recipes that are featured really appeal to me. I especially liked the idea of a rich chocolate cake like this one, but then I came across a similar recipe in one of my cookbooks. This second recipe uses fewer eggs and less sugar, so I figured it would be less filling, but it would taste richer.
As the cake came out of the oven, it smelled delicious. However, it looked a little dry. When it came time to serve dessert, the cake proved to be dryer than I would have liked, though there were pockets of moist (how I hate that word), rich cake. It was really similar in texture to a brownie, but the flavor was more sophisticated than most brownies I have tasted. While it crumbled apart and was impossible to eat with anything but a spoon, it was undeniably delicious.
My belief is that the temperature of my oven is off, and the delicate nature of this cake could not properly endure the extra heat. As a result,the cake was slightly overcooked. I intend to buy an oven thermometer to prevent future problems like this one.
At some point, I would like to try this cake again, in order to perfect the texture. If this doesn't work, then I will turn to the Orangette recipe above. The extra eggs should prevent dryness in this type of cake. And so, though I have ideas on how to fix this problem (and it really is worth it!), the cost of ingredients and the calories of the recipe discourage me from remaking it right away. When I do, however, I promise to tell you about it. Does anyone else have thoughts on how the cake could be less crumbly?
I have reprinted the original recipe below.

Charlie's Afternoon Chocolate Cake
reprinted from Chocolate Ephiphany by Francois Payard.

Ingredients:
Vegetable cooking spray, for the pan
All-purpose flour, for the pan
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 oz. (usually two bakers' chocolate bars) 60% chocolate, chopped
2 large eggs
2/3 cup of sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray the sides and bottom of a round 9-inch cake pan with cooking spray. Dust with flour, shaking off the excess, and set aside.
Bring the butter to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir to prevent from burning. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate to the pan. Stir the mixture until the chocolate is melted and smooth
Whisk together the eggs and sugar in a large bowl, until well-combined. Add the flour and mix well. Add the chocolate to the batter and stir until the mixture is just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.
Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 300 degrees and bake for an additional eight minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool completely in the pan. Unmold, and serve.

Makes one 9 inch cake; serves eight to ten.
Serve with whipped cream, ice cream, or powdered sugar, if desired. This cake freezes well.

Seasonal Delights

I am now going to report about Sunday, which was a much more successful day for cooking.

I started by preparing a light lunch for myself. This is a difficult time of year, in terms of produce. Tomatoes are mealy in texture and tasteless. Bell peppers are rotten and ugly, and broccoli is no longer a good choice. This leaves asparagus, new potatoes and artichokes.

While I love artichokes, I really have no desire to extract the tender hearts from their pointy exteriors. One way that I have found to get fresh artichokes without any of the work is by purchasing artichokes from the olive bar at the local grocery store. The ones that I brought home are called roman artichokes. These already have a lot of flavoring.

A recipe that I like to use for artichokes is based on a recipe from Giada DeLaurentiis . However, on Sunday, I made a smaller version using ingredients that were available to me at the time.

This is a really tangy, flavorful dish. There is also a nice hint of spice. Eating with bread or crackers balances the flavors. Still, a little goes a long way.

Artichoke Gratin
(based on a recipe by Giada DeLaurentiis)

* 3 tablespoons butter, plus more for topping the breadcrumbs (optional)
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 1/4 pound roman artichokes, chopped
* salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste (if using cooking wine, use less salt)
* pinch red pepper flakes
* 1/4 cup chicken broth
* 1/8 cup Marsala wine or sherry
* 1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
* 1/4 cup grated Romano or similar cheese

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Melt two tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the artichoke hearts, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes and cook until the artichokes are starting to brown at the edges, about 3 minutes. Add the chicken broth and wine and simmer for 3 minutes. Transfer the artichoke mixture to a small baking dish or gratin dish.

Melt one tablespoon of butter in the same skillet used to cook the artichokes. Remove from heat. In a small bowl, mix the melted butter with the bread crumbs. Stir in the Parmesan and top the artichokes with the bread crumbs. Dot the top with pieces of the remaining butter, if desired. Bake until the top is golden, about 5 minutes. Serve with fresh bread or crackers.
Serves two as a side-dish or light meal.


Part II
______________________________________




My other project for Sunday was a lemon-yogurt cake. I got the idea for such a cake on Friday, while perusing Orangette. I remembered a very similar recipe from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa at Home. I chose the second version because I don't actually own the right type of cake pans at the moment, though I do have loaf pans.
The result of this recipe is a luscious, bright-tasting dessert. My cake was rather soft in the middle, so I would like to try the making the cake as a sort of hybrid the of the loaf version and the round cake. One detail that I really like about Ina Garten's version is the lemon juice and sugar mixture that you pour onto the cake ten minutes after taking the cake from the oven. It adds an extra layer of sweetness and tart lemon flavor.

Lemon Yogurt Cake
Reproduced, with my own notations, from Barefoot Contessa at Home by Ina Garten. Clarkson/Potter Publishers, 2006.
This recipe is a variation of a recipe by Dorie Greenspan. A berry sorbet or ice cream would complement this delicious, easy-to-prepare cake very nicely.

*1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt
*1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
* 3 large eggs (Ina Garten calls for extra-large, but this is optional)
* zest of two lemons (about two teaspoons)
*1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
*1/3 freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the glaze:
* 1 cup confectioners' sugar
* 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (will turn out to be about 1 1/2 lemons)


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease an 8 1/2 X 4 1/4 X 2 1/2 inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan (I used Pam with flour).
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into one small or medium-sized bowl. In another (larger) bowl,whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup of sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated.



Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester place in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup of lemon juice (strain the juice to remove any seeds) and remaining 1/3 cup of sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Remove from heat; set aside.

When the cake is removed from the oven, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.

For the glaze, combine the confectioner's sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

Makes one loaf.

The Feast

As promised, I am here to report on Easter dinner. Easter is one of my favorite holidays, because it is food and family (or friend) based, without much blatant commercialism and feelings of obligation. Thanksgiving is more food oriented, of course, but there is some dictation on what you will make, if you are something of a traditionalist, like me.

There is just so much more room for creativity on Easter. Sean and I went to my sister's house, where we feasted on red snapper, potatoes and asparagus. I made an appetizer of goat cheese truffles, which I found here on the lovely blog Chocolate and Zucchini.

Per Clotilde's suggestions, I used herbes de provence, fresh chives, fresh basil, chopped hazelnuts, and toasted sesame seeds. I also used a lemon-pepper flavored garlic salt that Sean found in the spice section of the local Giant Eagle (the major grocery store chain in Pittsburgh). These selections were all delicious, and I was able to mix and match. Personally, I found the herbes de provence a little too dry, but my brother-in-law liked it.

I also tried the paprika suggestion. My initial plan was to just use paprika, with nothing to cut the intensity of the flavor. There are some paprika covered truffles in Clotilde's picture, and they looked really nice, and added great color to the plate.

I after I had rolled my first paprika truffle, I began to have doubts. I don't even really like paprika! I tasted it, and it was very strong. It was so strong, in fact, that a chocolate-covered pretzel that I ate about ten minutes later tasted of paprika. So, I don't really recommend the paprika, unless you mixed it with something else, or you really, really like paprika.

Served with fresh bread and sesame wheat crackers, the truffles were a great success. But, in my opinion, the real show-stopper of the evening was the dessert that my sister, Rachel, prepared.

It was not the lemon tiramisu that I had thought she was going to serve, but an Italian lemon and nut cake from Vegetarian Times. Sean described it as a "soft biscotti." With fresh citrus flavor and an agreeable crunchiness, this is a satisfying, but light, dessert that makes a great end for a large meal.

Now that it's the end of a very long week, I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend of being outside and baking. It may be too ambitious, but there will be some baking and breakfast making in the lineup. Hopefully, at least one of my attempts will be something worth sharing with you!

**Photo credit to thedailygreen.com