Saturday, November 27, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Birthday and Cake
One always hopes for nice weather on one's birthday - that's natural, don't you think? I imagine for those born in the months of winter, perhaps a picturesque fall of snow might be more appropriate, but since my birthday is in May, I always thought that sunny skies on my birthday wasn't too unreasonable a wish.
However, I'm not sure since my birthday falls right at the beginning of May, that sunshine always seem to be a 50/50 proposition. Perhaps it's all those April showers still carrying over - I recall a equal number of beautifully blue-skied birthdays as well as overcast, drizzly ones.
Mother Nature has decided to make it suspenseful for me this year by sending a spate of rainy, windy weather through the weekend. By the time most of you read this, I'm sure it will be Monday morning and I'll be peeking outside the window to see whether I'll be wearing birthday galoshes or not.
Regardless of weather, I've already been treated to a very nice pre-birthday dinner - I might review this place in a later post because I enjoyed it so much, and I got to enjoy the company of dear friends, which is always the most precious of birthday presents to me.
And, I have to admit that gloomy weather has made it easier to stay indoors and work on kitchen projects - my own little birthday cake to myself has been an experiment I've been working on since my last trip to Hong Kong. It's not quite perfect but it's in a pretty tasty stage right now - a little more tweaking and hopefully I'll reach what I'm envisioning in my dreams.
This cake is inspired by one of my favorite teas, jasmine, infusing a base of milk and whipped cream. It's meant to be airy, delicate, floral, and sweet - just like spring. For taste and texture contrast I made a layer of chocolate cake - almost genoise like in texture, and spread with a layer of melted chocolate and feuilletine.
For those of you who haven't used feuilletine, it's made of thin cookie-like sheets of butter, sugar, and flour, crushed into tiny flakes that resemble corn flakes. Feuilletine adds an intriguing, delightful crunchiness to desserts - it's usually mixed with ganache or sprinkled as a layer in cakes, to provide a surprising contrast. It's especially effective in mousse cakes like this jasmine cake, because the cream is so smooth and creamy, that the crunch of the feuilletine provides a fabulous extra dimension to an otherwise homegenously-textured dessert.
You can find feuilletine online, or you can also substitute Rice Krispies - that was what Pierre Herme used in his home recipe for his famous Plaisir Sucre in his Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme book, and it works beautifully.
The chocolate cake is rich, earthy, and grounds the ethereally-light jasmine cream without overpowering it. The feuilletine adds a nice crisp touch. The first few times I made the jasmine cream, the flavor came out too light, so be sure to taste the infused milk before you use it - if it seems too subtle, let it steep a little longer. When I can taste the jasmine against the chocolate, it's tastebud-tingling happiness.
Well, whether it's sunny, rainy, or cloudy, I'm looking forward to another sweet year. Thanks to all of you for keeping me company on this journey - you're the best!
Jasmine Chocolate Cake
makes (6) 2 1/2 cakes
Chocolate Cake
1/4 cup cocoa powder
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper.
Sift cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.
In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing to combine thoroughly.
Add in vanilla and mix to combine.
Combine buttermilk and vanilla together in a small cup.
Add in flour mixture and buttermilk to batter in 5 alternating additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix after each addition just to combine. The batter should be very liquidy.
Pour batter into prepared pan and spread out evenly.
Bake in oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool on wire rack.
Feuilletine Layer
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup feuilletine or Rice Krispies
Combine chocolate and butter in a metal bowl and place over a pot of simmering water to melt. Let chocolate butter and melt together, stirring to combine.
Remove bowl from heat and stir in feuilletine until combined.
Spread the mixture in a thin layer over the top of the cooled chocolate cake layer. Let set for about 30 minutes.
Place six 2 1/2 diameter cake rings on a baking sheet. Line the rings with acetate strips on the inside for easier removal of the cakes.
Cut out circles from the chocolate cake layer and place into the cake rings, fitting them snugly into the bottom. (Prepare the rings with the cake layers before you make the jasmine cream).
Jasmine Cream
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup jasmine tea
1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
1 1/2 cup whipping cream
Combine milk and sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
Remove from heat and add in vanilla and jasmine tea. Cover saucepan and let steep for 15 to 20 minutes.
Combine gelatin with 2 1/2 tablespoons of water in another small bowl.
Strain out jasmine tea from milk. Bring milk back to a boil.
Add in gelatin and stir until it is fully melted and combined.
Remove from stove and let mixture cool to room temperature (do not let it completely cool and start setting up).
In a stand mixer with whisk attachment, whip cream until it holds soft peaks.
Add in jasmine milk mixture a little at a time, folding it into the whipped cream carefully until it becomes a liquidy mixture.
Divide the jasmine cream among the prepared cake rings, filling them to the top. Smooth out the tops and chill cakes in refrigerator overnight to let the cream set. Remove cakes from rings before serving.
Apricot, Orange, and Almond Mini Cakes
Remember the chocolate salon I mentioned attending a couple of months ago? Not only was it a great place to meet chocolatiers both celebrated and up-and-coming, but also of course to meet fellow chocoholics. One person I was extremely excited to meet was esteemed pastry chef and cookbook author Carole Bloom. The "Carole Bloom section" on my bookshelf has grown steadily over the years: The International Dictionary of Desserts, Pastries, and Confections is indispensable for deciphering the complexities of pastry terminology, while The Essential Baker is a fantastic resource for ingredient-specific baking inspirations. Carole was a speaker at the salon; when she learned I was also speaking, she very sweetly contacted me and suggested we meet up beforehand. How exciting to get the opportunity to meet someone whose work I'd admired! In person, Carole is warm and personable, generous with sharing stories and tips. It's easy to tell that she's experienced in baking and in explaining it to the curious beginner. I'd love to take a class from her sometime, or just watch her in action! Carole mentioned her new book which was about to come out, Bite-Size Desserts: Creating Mini Sweet Treats, from Cupcakes and Cobblers to Custards and Cookies , and very kindly offered to send me a review copy. A few weeks after the salon, I found a shiny new copy of her book in my mailbox - thanks so much, Carole! Bite-Size Desserts is an adorably named, very attractively produced book with some seriously scrumptious recipes. Any reader who goes through my site will quickly realize I have a predilection of miniature desserts; individual portions can be fun to put together, easier to photograph, and of course people love them! In her cookbook Carole has created mini versions of all the classics, from cakes to cobblers to custards, and shows how to plate and present them beautifully. From tiny cupcakes with rose-like swirls of chocolate frosting to espresso cups of mousse, it's a spread of dollhouse-sized delights. As a side note, all the measurements are in both volume and weight - LOVE!
I finally got the chance to try out one of the recipes in the book last week: Apricot-Orange Loaf Cakes. Made with brown sugar and vanilla, studded with Grand Marnier-soaked apricots, these little lovelies fall somewhere between pound cake and coffee cake - moist, fluffy, and rich. The recipe also calls for adding in chopped walnuts, but I decided for a lighter touch and sprinkled the top of the cakes with sliced almonds and some sugar. The gave the baked cakes a crackly, crunchy top that went very well with the velvety texture of the cake beneath. The combination of flavors is subtly sophisticated - while apricots make it summery, I could see substituting different ingredients for the changing seasons and the cake would retain its satisfying appeal.
The recipe calls for baking them in mini 4" x 2 1/4 " loaf pans. However, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to use some paper bakers I picked up in Japan last winter. Talk about tiny, Japan has been associating small with "kawaii" (cute) for ages and somehow, everything there does seem twice as adorable with their petite proportions.
These wax-lined bakers seem to be a common item in Japanese houseware stores - I wish them sold more of these items here, as they are perfect for gift-giving - you simply give your cake to the lucky recipient in the same pan it was baked in. They also come in a multitide of designs and colors, making a pretty presentation a snap. I really liked the scalloped edges on these papers. I found similar bake-and-serve papers on king arthur flour ,for those not making a trip to Asia in the near future.
Back to the topic of tiny, these bakers were a scant - did my little loaf cakes ever look precious when they came out of the oven, but practically speaking, they really are single-serving size. No sharing here -and you probably won't want to, given how delicious the cake is! I baked some of the batter in the recommended pan size and it does a produce a more slice-friendly loaf - see last photo. It keeps very well and the flavors seem to deepen over time.
I'm now eager to try out some of the other recipes in Carole's book - it's fanned the flames of my miniature mania for sure! Thanks for writing such a lovely book, Carole!
Apricot, Orange, and Almond Loaf Cakes
adapted from Carole Bloom's Bite-Size Desserts
makes 12 4"x 2 1/4" loaves
2/3 cup (4 ounces) dried apricots, finely chopped
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier
2 cups (9 ounces) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup (5 ounces) sugar plus extra for sprinkling
3/4 cup (4 1/2 ounces) light brown sugar
2 extra-large eggs, room temperature (I used large and it turned out fine)
1 extra-large egg yolk, room temperature (same as above)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon orange extract
zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup sliced almonds
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray twelve mini loaf pans with cooking spray and place on a baking sheet.
Combine apricots and Grand Marnier in a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let marinate for 15 minutes.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
Beat butter in a stand mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugars and beat until well combined.
Combine eggs, egg yolk, extracts, and orange peel in a small bowl. Add to mixture and beat until well combined.
Add the flour mixture and buttermilk in three alternating additions, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix just until combined.
Add in the apricots and mix until combined.
Divide mixture among prepared pans, filling about 3/4 full. Sprinkle almonds and sugar over the tops.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool on wire racks before serving.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
