Week 31, March 21, 2011: Black Forest Cake

This is it friends!

Do you ever wonder where the time goes?
I'm sitting in my parents' living room tonight, less than a week shy of 30 and I can't even imagine where the last 30 weeks have gone let alone the last few decades.


This was February 25th.... Yes, that snow bank is as tall as I am.... and the seeds, well, that's what I did yesterday afternoon, after a preliminary backyard clean up.  In eight weeks-ish, these guys will be in the ground.


And look at this doll:

October 2nd:

 March 15th:

It's amazing how so many things diverge and converge to make our worlds so incredibly rich.  I never thought I'd be a baby person.  Now I look forward to pictures of that little smile every day and can't wait to see her.

I never thought I'd bake well... and well... I've had a few edible weeks.

I think that people are capable of change. I've said it before, but it bears repeating.  It's about opening up to the new, accepting that failure happens, but not accepting defeat (I've killed several plants and made some downright gross cake) and letting go of our preconceived notions of who we are (when death cake comes out of the oven, laugh, feed the garbage and start over).  Life is good stuff... if you haven't taken anything else out of this blog, know that I believe that and that I'm grateful for it all (though I forget sometimes):

"All the doors that I had to close

All the things I knew but I didn't know

Thank God for all I missed

Cause it led me here to this" 

-Darius Rucker, "This"

So, here's our last cake together.

Week 31: Black Forest Cake

recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Black-Forest-Cake-I/Detail.aspx

The ingredients are all assembled.  This took quite a few, but it was three separate processes.... so, let's begin...

I loved the cake recipe on this one: dries, add eggs, oil, milk and vanilla.  I don't know if it was the simplicity of the recipe or the weeks of practice, but I was completely present and for a lack of a better term, "in the zone" while making this one.  It just seemed surprise free and almost buoyant.

Mixing up the additions, I didn't need the mixer, a fork did fine...

Buttered and flour the pans...

 Panned and baked!

For those of you who like counting (I do, I do!): I made 79 cakes, plus about 14 dozen cuccidate and 6 dozen pusties.  There were 37 types of cake, including several chocolates, several cheesecakes and lots of tastiness.

And onto the cherry deliciousness!!!

 Mixing up about 40 oz of unsweetened cherries with a half cup of their juice, a cup of sugar and some cornstarch, and heat and stir until thickened... the recipe called for low heat-- but that took like forever, so I turned up the heat and kept up with the mixing and it was super quick.  Delightful.  I may have overcooked the second batch, it was a little congealed, but it was tasty.  Cup gave up chocolate for lent, so I did a separate bowl of cherries and whipped cream for him and he gave it a thumps up.

 Whipped cream was the last step.  Chilled 3 cups of whipped cream with some powdered sugar in a metal bowl with the beaters and beat the heck out of it.  I laughed hysterically when the cream splattered the walls and coffeepot.

 Assembly was amazing.  Cut the layers.

 Whipped cream and cherry layers.

 Here was the first attempt:

 And here was the second...

And ta da:

 I was a fan... The chocolate cake sort of needed to be more chocolate-y, and it could have used some kirsch (I mean, what's really the point of black forest without the sauce), but the crumb was good and the whipped cream and cherry had the nicest texture.  I broke my own rule (had my first slice at work today and then ate some more at mom's tonight).  It wasn't my favorite, but it was felt so nice in my mouth!

 Finding room for it in the fridge was a little tricky... but I managed.

The fam said it was "tasty".  The faculty had two comments: 1, I out did myself and 2, the cake tasted so good that they couldn't wait for what I did next....

As far as what's next:

 I have a few ideas... and I'll be keeping up on cake30 with everything since I will still be baking, just not always cake.  This leads us to idea 1, I want to branch into other desserts.  I'm a fan of pudding, custard (as you know) and creme brulee... not to mention pie.  Part of the faculty is supporting the pie idea.  2, home brewing... we were joking about it in the faculty room today.  3, organic gardening. 4, running. 5, not failing out of grad school... I think we're going to go for them all.

The basic idea of this blog was to do something I'd always wanted to do, but needed a space and some accountability for.

So, thank you!  Thanks for reading so far.  Thanks for trying the cake (if you'd been fortunate enough to be assaulted by it in the fac room, class, family event, etc).

Thank you to the amazing and interesting websites I've been able to borrow recipes from.

Thanks for the advice- Mom, Lisa, Maria, Nan, Aunt Ro

Lisa, thanks for the impromptu lessons- caramel and I will forever be friends... I still have to get some of those turtles.

Mom, thanks for letting me borrow half of your bakeware: most of it made it out unscathed :P

Thanks for the laughs.  Nan especially, walking into your house bearing dessert and hearing, "What did you do?" is definitely a confidence builder.  And thanks for the two pasta sessions and all of the family recipes, it's nice to be able to make the food that's part of who we are.

And thanks for the presents!  The aprons, bundt pan, kitchen towels, recipe box, measuring cups, espresso pot and the hand-me down anchor hocking from Nan... The kitchen made a lot of new friends these past 31 weeks.

I was offered a kitchen-aid mixer as a b-day present, but I turned it down, there's something so much more personal about using a hand mixer.  I liken it to kneading the dough for pasta: you can feel when it's done.  So, a shout out to three unsung heroes: the oven, the hand mixer and of course, my blackberry, which took nearly all of the cake mixing and making pics.  (and to Miss, Ker and Laura for getting me all of the Emers pics!)

See you next week with party pics and a run down of the plan for the next month(ish)!

Be well and happy baking!

Week 30, March 14, 2011: Marble cake with Bavarian Cream filling and Marshmallow fondant

This is going to be a long one, so grab a spot of tea and settle in on your bacon.

This is our penultimate cake and I figured it was high time you heard about some super important people in my world of cooking- I alphabetized them... so enjoy.

Char:

St. Patty's party- which one of us has been out since 9am?

I met Char in our Masters' program and we became fast friends for one big reason: It was summer and there was only one thing to do after sitting through 4 excruciating hours of bull class... head downtown and pop a brewski outside.  She knows everyone... and I laugh at the number of times I've heard people order rounds for "Char and her friend".  She's one of the first phone calls when the poo hits the fan (see not swearing during lent can work) and besides crises can be trusted with make up colors, home decor issues and soup recipes.  She also gives amazing presents- remember the nesting doll measuring cups and sweet ruffled apron--all her.

Lisa:

No photos, but you should definitely check out her family's blog for her mom: http://rbriggs51.blogspot.com

We've worked together for years now, but started bonding over blogging and baking, since she's usually my expert advice after I've messed things up.  Lisa is one of the few people I know who can rock pig tails and clarks.  She's got this hippie-yoga vibe and if she ever decides to give up teaching and baking, she's got a solid career as a country singer.

Seema:

Seems is my doctoral bff.  We share two loves: good food and wanting to be done with grad school.  We have all the same tastes in food: sushi, Mexican, sweets and lots and lots of coffee.  Our only culinary difference, she doesn't like fruit in things... I love it.  If you recall the almond joy cake-- that was for her.  She and her husband are super accommodating when I need to stay near school.  Their daughter is one of my favorite people on the planet.  Her facial expressions are priceless, hairstyles are fabulous and reading taste is impeccable.  I'm pretty sure that she and Emers are going to be bffs at my par-tay.

I'll get to the last one when we get to the fondant.

This week: Marble cake with bavarian cream filling and marshmallow fondant.

Cake and frosting recipe from butter+cream.blogspot.com

Marshmellows from joyofbaking.com

Bavarian cream from http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Bavarian-Cream-with-Raspberry-Coulis-235956#ixzz1GPJ8nupr

I'll be the first to admit that this was wayyyy too much to take on for one weekend.  It was a two day process that filled most of the two days.  The results were hilarious, but you'll see that for yourself...

I started on Saturday with the marshmallows (does anyone else think it should be marshmellow?), the cake and then the cream and did the assembling, decorating, etc on Sunday.

Homemade marshmallows are probably a nice endeavor and I will revisit them once the cakes are over, but for a weekend crammed with papers, party planning, parties and grading, it was a poor choice.... c'est la vie...

The marshmallows start off with boiling some sugar and water... and you all know how friendly I am with boiling sugar ;)

It requires a significant amount of softened gelatin and when you marry them, you need to beat like the dickens.

They get super gross and super sticky and if you aren't especially fluent in flavoring extracts, you can easily add too much.  Case and point: 

Mom said that it tasted like perfume.  The whole point of doing lemon marshmallow fondant was for deliciousness... oops.

It was also a pain to make into fondant, but you see below that it actually looked decent when worked and spread.

The cake was next. 

The marble cake recipe came from Martha Stewart weddings.  It wasn't perfection, but it was one of the better marble cakes I've had.  It was pretty straightforward with the only funky part being chocolating up two cups of white batter to make the marble.

I figured out that I'm not so fancy when it comes to trying to swirl to marble, but it wasn't a bad first attempt.

The exciting part of baking was the medium spring form pan deciding not to stay latched.  I stuck it in a cookie sheet and prayed.

On to the custard:

I could write a whole post just about custards, but I have a paper due and this weekend's been pretty tight, so I won't.

Custards are pretty spectacular for so many reasons.  The texture is luxurious.  Their flavor is subtle.  And the mixture of the way they feel in your mouth and that creamy, light flavor is at the same time comforting and stimulating.  People bad mouth pudding, but stove top pudding is absolutely a treat.  I don't have much experience with baked custards (creme brulee is on the list for our last week of baking), but cooked custards are a beautiful thing.

Lisa and I were talking about how gorgeous bubbles are.  The caramel bubbles were absolutely beautiful and we both love the way milk looks and smells when it's getting to the point of scalding.  And custards, like caramel require bubbling, tending and a nice dose of vanilla.

 I've been debating how and why vanilla seems to get such a bad name.  Vanilla in popular culture is plain and simple and boring- I so disagree.

lots of egg yolks in this guy!

 Vanilla orchids are gorgeous and I'd love to have one, but would probably kill it (the orange tree isn't doing so hot right now).  It's not easy to grow, it's not easy to cure.  I really think we take spices for granted.

 Vanilla has become a base flavor for so many other things.  It plays well with everyone... It's the dependable guy who you don't realize really rocks your world until after he's long gone.  After an interesting and late night out with Char- daylight savings messes up my world, I went home and contemplated my love of vanilla and custards while making this Bavarian cream.

Only after the fact comment on this one, I needed to scoop the beans.  This was my final custard for my cake experiment (#4): lemon curd, boston cream pie, and the base for tiramisu was creme anglaise and this one required Bavarian Cream.

 It was a little too clotted for the cake filling, especially noted when I had to switch around the layers of the first cake (grrr).

 The frosting came from butter+cream's blog as well... it's strikingly similar to our family recipe for the cuccidate frosting (except for we really don't have any measurements written down).  One comment: if you don't cream the butter alone first, you'll have a mess on your hands.  And... if you try to melt/ soften the butter first, it needs a lot more sugar not to be a log o' buttered sugar.


Onto the frosting and decorating:

Lisa instructed me that pre-fondant, you need a sweet butter cream base.

You also need some of this to play with the fondant:

So with my toys all set up, I made a couple of pizzas and bribed my sister with them to help me decorate the cakes.

Laura (aka, Louise, Lupe, Lulu), my little sister has been one of my guinea pigs nearly the whole of the cake expedition.  She's the one who will fake gag on your latest creation as she chokes out sarcastically, "it's good."  Whether or not it is.  She tells it like it is.  She's got a dry sense of humor and comes out with these one liners that leave you laughing hysterically.  Between the pizza, the sugar and the hours of playing with fondant, we were beyond punchy by the time we brought the cake over to Nan's and then my parents'.

We used two types of fondant, the homemade marshmallow and the store bought.  I did the main sheet and she did most of the decor.  

There are a few things I love about fondant: 1 is the way it dyes your hands along with everything else. 2, is how it stretches and molds.  It's like clay... and the store bought version tastes almost as gross... not that mine was much better.

We decided (or I decided, I don't remember) on an under the sea theme for the faculty cake and a garden theme for the other cake.

It was on, but not quite even, but we decided to make the gaps work for us...

Is that purple coral?  Absolutely-- I piped purple frosting on to cover the worst of it.

And I made a pink octupus-- we didn't name him or her (we respect its privacy)... but I was thinking of that naughty Kevin the whole time and how Emers and co will be here in just over a week!

The second cake was our garden scene.  By then, we were spent and sugared up, so we just did some frosting piping, Lau made a whale that she named Billy.  She said he was the watering device for the garden, I complained that he got into the rhodedendrum (not even going to attempt spell check for that one).

It was a good time.  Followed up by a messy clean up:

And then a dance party at mom and dad's, checking out Lau's party playlist and speakers.  Festive.

Last cake next week (well actually, by the time this posts, probably in a couple days!): Black Forest!