Week 14, November 22: Pound Cake

Hi guys!

Sorry it's been so long since a post.  I've kept up on the baking, but fallen behind with the posting due to papers, traveling and company for Thanksgiving.

Last week (November 22nd), I tackled pound cake.

Now, I want to tell you a few things about this week and next week's cakes.  1, I'm not a big fan of pound cake, nor coffee cake (next week's cake).  I think that sponge cake and angel food cake are really superior for their absorbency and versatility. 2, I baked both sponge cake and coffee cake because I made a promise to myself that I'd conquer the "normal cakes" alongside the fancy ones.

The recipe for this normal cake came from joyofbaking.com

Simple as far as they go, but I found it a little backwards from what I'm used to:  eggs and vanilla in one bowl, sugar, flour and rising agents in another and then cream in the butter.  It made mixing a little awkward- I know with pie crusts you cut in the fat after mixing the dry's to make it flaky, but I don't get the rationale for it with the pound cake.



It seemed to take a lot longer to bake than the instructions said.  After an hour the toothpick came out clean



I fed the first one to my little cousins who designed my front porch lighting scheme- pictures to follow.  They said it was really blah and tasted like a plain sugar cookie.  One liked it better once we introduced raspberry preserves and fresh whipped cream to the mix.  I agreed with them.  It's a decent canvas, but it doesn't hold up on it's own.



Next week, I have a special surprise (we'll see how it works)!

Week 13, November 15: Sponge Cake

Week 13: Sponge Cake

So, I'm cheating a little bit- I technically made sponge cake last week too (for the Tres Leches), but the sponge did some sinking, so I decided I wanted to try again.  That and I promised the kids and Seems some cake for Friday, so here we are...

Recipe from joyofbaking.com

First things first, separated some whites and yolks... whisked some flour and sugar.  Creamed the yolks and some more sugar.

added the water and vanilla and lemon zest and beat some more.  I love the way zesting lemons makes your hands smell!

I sifted in the flour-- this is where the recipe got hairy.  They said to just leave the flour unincorporated, and fold it in with the whites, but when I did the first this way, it came out grainy.

So, I beat in the second.

Egg whites--we're friendly now!

Folding, folding, folding...

The good news, it didn't sink.  The bad news: 1, they said no greasing the pan- bad idea. 2, they kept talking about a tube pan- and I was like huh? I used a springform pan and it worked.

It was yummy and hit the spot.  I'm a fan.

Week 12, November 8, 2010: Tres Leches

Week 12, Tres Leches

Recipe from: http://pieceofcakeblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/no-para-la-lactosa-intolerante.html

http://pieceofcakeblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/great-all-american-sponge-cake.html

So super delicioso!

Remember, I'm a sucker for textures: I would put sweetened condensed milk in my coffee everyday if I could.  Heck, I'd eat it by the spoonful.  The mixture of milks and light sponge cake topped with freshly whipped cream makes this cake something that I'd always wanted to learn how to make.  I searched far and wide for recipes and found one on a blog that was actually a rip off of the recipe cited above.  Piece of cake is now one of my favorites- she's so happy about colors and tastes and textures.  She runs and she wants to yell at people who don't take care of their fruit trees--she's good people.

The sponge cake recipe seemed simple enough.  Whisk dry ingredients.  Separate eggs.  Add some sugar to the eggs and beat...

and beat and beat.

Warm some milk and vanilla and add to the mixture and beat some more.

Add the flour and beat...

And then, the magic: egg whites!

No cream of tartar- no tricks up my sleeves, just lots of beating.

Look at those peaks!  Now for some folding.  I'm not sure that I have the hang of that yet...

On the way to the oven...

Looking a little weird...

OH no!  It's sinking!

Now the tricky part is adding the milk-- I set aside the mandatory cup per cake, but it was insane how much liquid seemed to need to go into these cakes!  I added it in three additions, leaving 20-30 minutes between additions as I tooled around the kitchen- cleaning, etc.

The cakes are still soaking.  Notice, there's more to go in waiting in the beige bowl and they're anticipating the whipped cream frosting.

The finished products- frosting really covers all sorts of sins!

A good week for cake.  I will figure out the sponge- and I'm trying something new on the breakfast nook- an old cake stand with cordial glasses from Italy- mom doesn't like it.  What do you think?

Week 11, November 1, 2010: German Chocolate Cake

So, joyofbaking.com hasn't only given us some tasty recipes, such as last week's, but also has really cute stories or good historical info on the cakes.

I found out that this week's cake, German Chocolate Cake isn't actually German in the sense of nationality. The name came from an employee of Baker's Chocolate, who invented their blend of German chocolate.  The recipe I used, from joyofbaking.com, naturally, used semi-sweet chocolate and oh my goodness, if there is one recipe that you try, it's this one.

Cake for work (watching Emma as I do the dishes). Don't adjust your monitors- this cake is lighter in color than the top one.

I've come to realize that as much as I love the taste of nearly everything delicious in this world, I really am partial to textures: the smooth, silkiness of cheesecake, the heavy, denseness of pound cake, the light sponginess of angel food cake and the creaminess that simply fills your mouth when you eat chocolate.  This cake was good for that, but this frosting had the sticky, crunchy, coconutty thing going on and I'll admit to nearly not having enough frosting for the cakes.

Insert menacing laugh

As cakes go, this had more steps than I like.  There was chocolate to chop and melt.

Coffee to brew and mix with buttermilk.

which chocolate to use? how 'bout one in each cake?

Dry ingredients to sift.

Butter and sugar to cream-- Is there anything in the world lovelier than sugar folding into butter?

Eggs and vanilla to beat in.

And then, there was mixing it all together.

I had to borrow an extra pan from my mom- and learned that I've been using 10" pans all along, wow.

The cake was more pungent than any I've made before, but the frosting was a little tricky.  The first batch (the home batch) came out perfectly.  I heated the eggs, sugar and evaporated milk over a slow flame and stirred constantly.  It took a good eight minutes to thicken, I never actually saw it boil, but I felt it get dense.  Then added in the crushed pecans and sweetened coconut flakes.  Again, the texture of this frosting is pretty much better than having a cleaning man in a cabana boy outfit take care of the triple track windows--that good.

that shadow is me whisking!

The second batch I cooked at a higher temp and it boiled, but I wound up with yolk stuck to the side of the pan.

who needs a food processor when beating the daylights out of nuts is so fun?

The best part: the assembly:

It had the best reviews from the faculty of any cake.  The PA who spends Mondays with my buddy the nurse called me during my last class of the day to tell me that it was the best cake she'd ever eaten and that she hopes my birthday never comes.  WOO!  This made my day as did a lovely gift from one of the teacher's aides, pustie pans and her family's recipe-- she wanted me to know that she appreciated the Monday "pick me up" that my cakes have become.  I felt the love, and look forward to 21 more weeks of deliciousness.

And on a fun note for next week-- all roads lead to San Francisco right now.  Our Tres Leches recipe comes from a San Francisco baker/ foodie, who happened to do a review on Gary Danko, which I learned about on an episode of the Cheap Seats with Chris Rose when he was interviewing the Giants' closer Brian Wilson.  The pitcher also happens to be a huge fan of Chuck Norris jokes-- for those of you who didn't know, my paper on Chuck Norris jokes and intercultural pragmatics in humor is the basis for my dissertation.  Small world.  I may celebrate Halloween belatedly and don a black beard for next week's post.

A slice of cake after Nan's cooking, reminding me of the reason I live so close to the fam.

I cooked, who's cleaning?

besos!