Woody's Luxury Lemon Cake

This was a new recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cakes cookbook. It consists of a white chocolate cake with lemon zest, lemon curd, and white chocolate buttercream with part of the lemon curd. The recipe indicated that I should reserve some of the lemon curd to put on the top of the cake in swirls. I decided I would skip that step and double the lemon curd that is between the layers of the cake.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a chocolate fan. That being said, this cake is DELICIOUS!

It was very time consuming. I started it at 9:30 a.m. and finished it around 3:30 p.m. There were several "let cool for x minutes/hours" in that time period, but I didn't extend any of them.

Other people who have made this indicated that the cake recipe is similar to another one of Rose Levy Beranbaum's, so I will be searching for that one. I also need to find a similar white chocolate buttercream. This one was made very differently than other buttercreams, the white chocolate and some of the butter were melted together and then the egg yolks added to that mixture, cooking them. After cooling, this base and more butter were beaten together and finally the lemon curd added. The part that's throwing me is what to use to replace the lemon curd.

Madalyn's Baby Shower

I made a cake for a coworker's baby shower last week. In order to make a 12x18 sheet cake and 8" layer cake, I made 5x the recipe of Butter Cream cake. I did this Saturday, June 26 and shortly after putting the cakes into the oven, the tornado sirens went off. Since Bret and Schandra don't have a good place to go for shelter, they brought the girls over here to sit under our stairs. (While Terry is painting in the next room so that we can be ready when our carpet and flooring arrive any day now.) As I was trying to help keep the girls calm and somewhat happy while they are in a 4'x8' area, I missed the timer on the cake warning me to rotate. End result - on Sunday morning I went to the store for good old Betty Crocker cake mixes.

I did stick with 'real' buttercream. I made mousseline buttercream which uses beaten egg whites. Even though I have a 7-qt mixer, I can't double the recipe because there's just too much. The first batch comes out wonderfully. The second batch does not - it is a curdled, weepy mess. I refrigerate it for an hour or so to see if that helps. Not so much. I'm guessing the fact that it's 80 degrees in the kitchen isn't helping. I use the icing anyway, hoping that it won't fall off the sides of the cakes. I make the third batch of icing at 8 pm and it also turns out fine. I'm guessing that it had something to do with the temperature and humidity of the kitchen.

I had cut out fondant decorations for the cake. My 2" alphabet cutters were probably just a bit too big, as my plan was to put all of the words on the sheet cake and just flowers on the 8". Oh well...

End result was that the cake was enjoyed at the shower, and most importantly, Madalyn is a doll!

The week in review

As I wrote last time, I reverted to cake mixes for Olivia's graduation cakes. My original intention was to have a very leisurely week - bake the white cakes a week early and put them in the freezer. Make the white icing early in the week, on Thursday, ice and decorate the white cakes, and then on Friday night bake the chocolate-cherry cakes.

Unfortunately, it was not a leisurely week... I did make all of the white icing early - on Monday. The kicker was finding out at my Tuesday appointment in Rochester that I needed to come back for tests on Wednesday and Thursday, being at Mayo by 7:30 a.m. each day. Reasonable people would probably just bite the bullet, go to Target for underwear and deodorant, and rent a motel room. If you know us at all, you know we don't fit into that category. So we "commuted" from Marshall to Rochester 3x, leaving home between 3-4 a.m.

On Wednesday, I came through the basement around 6:30 p.m. At 7, I turned on the faucet and realized that we were out of hot water. Terry thought I was nuts and went down the basement to a flood. "Bad water heater. No peeing in the house."

The new water heater didn't get installed until late Friday afternoon. So much for the best-laid plans. Now it was scramble-time. I got the white cakes crumb-coated and then saw an invitation from friends to go watch a movie in their backyard. Sounded fun - when you're schedule is shot, what's another few hours! So after watching "It's Complicated" in Kelly and Wendi's back yard, I came home and made the first cherry-chocolate cake. When it was finished, it was close to 2:30 a.m., so I didn't really feel like making the other one.

One note about cherry-chocolate cake - it's HEAVY! For a 12x18 cake, there are 3 cake mixes and 60 oz. of pie filling. After making the one on Friday night, I made Terry mix the other one on Saturday morning.

B&S came by with the girls just before Steve came to pick up the cakes. As I went into the kitchen to get the last one, I noticed a hand print in the side - not sure if it was from a 3-year-old or a 17-month-old, not that it matters much! I felt horrible, but I guess Olivia just kind of pushed the frosting back in place and it was none the worse for wear. Terry and I could tell when we went to the reception, but other people might have overlooked it.

Rave reviews on the cakes from the attendees at the reception. I'm hoping that Carolyn can provide me with some photos.

Today I made sour cream cupcakes because I had sour cream in the fridge and wanted to try that recipe. Also, we have about 6 kinds of leftover frosting in the fridge. May as well get rid of some. I liked this recipe, but I'm not sure if I can compare cupcakes to a layer cake, the texture is too different. It's definitely a recipe worth remembering, though.

Fondant Reviews, Almond Bundt Cake, Graduation Cakes

The fondant cake tasted better than I expected. I will admit that most of the time I peeled the fondant off and ate it separate from the cake, but it was pretty good. AND... the Golden Butter Cream Cake is now my absolute favorite recipe from The Cake Bible - it stayed moist and delicious down to the very last piece. I took it to work on Wednesday and it was finished off that afternoon. Not too bad for the cake to still be good that long after I iced it.

On Tuesday afternoon, Terry and I pulled in the driveway after our two days in Rochester, and Bret, Natalia, and Gabby were just leaving after coming to feed the dogs and let them out. I asked him if he had given the girls cake, and he said that he didn't, because we hadn't told him he could. Being the good grandma that I am, I cut a piece and was feeding it to the girls.

Natalia: "I want a polka dot bite."
Grandma: "Sure; here you go. Here's a bite for you, Gabby."
Natalia (as Grandma gets a bite ready with cake, icing, and "polka dot" (new technical name for fondant)): "I just want a polka dot. Give that bite to Gabby."
Natalia (as Grandma again prepares a bite with not only polka dots, but cake as well): "No! I just want a polka dot. That's Gabby's bite."
a few bites later...
Natalia (as Grandma gets a polka dot bite ready): "NO! Gabby can't have the polka dot! Give that bite to me."

(Fast forward to Friday night when they came to visit)
Grandma: "I made another cake. Would you like a piece?"
Natalia: "Sure."
(walk into kitchen)
Natalia: "Where's my polka dot? I don't like this cake." (Mind you, this is before she even tried a bite.)

(Skip to Saturday afternoon. I've just leveled off a white cake before putting it into the freezer. Warm "cake topping" is a Nordstrom family favorite.)
Grandma: "Natalia, do you want a bite of cake? Gabby likes it."
Natalia: "I don't want some today. I'll just have polka dots. Where are they, Grandma?"

I'VE CREATED A POLKA DOT MONSTER!

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We were discussing Almond Pound Cake at work a week or two ago and I've been searching high and low for a recipe that I made several times a few years ago. I can picture the recipe in the cookbook - recipe on the left page, photo on the right... but I cannot find the recipe. I went through every cookbook and couldn't find it. I finally searched for Almond Bundt Cake and found a recipe that seemed somewhat similar. I had a little concern since it doesn't contain any leavening.  It rose though - coming to the top of my bundt pan. I made that on Thursday night and took it in on Friday. Oh yeah... Joy's comment: "What is the point of a cake without frosting?" Needless to say, she didn't try it. Jenn, Jeri, and Wendi enjoyed it however.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I reverted to cake mixes today to get Olivia's graduation cakes into the freezer. I am making two 12x18 white cakes and two 12x18 cherry-chocolate cakes. The chocolate ones can't be frozen, so I will have to make them next Friday night / Saturday morning.

After going so long on "scratch" cakes, it was sort of strange to go back to the box. On the other hand, I've made Betty Crocker white cake so many times, I wasn't worried about it failing. That is one problem with trying new recipes - you never know if you're following the directions exactly as the author intended.

As I mentioned above, the warm cake topping was a favorite for everyone - except 'Talia.

Fun with Fondant

Years ago I tried using rolled fondant on a cake and I think we threw the whole cake away. Since then, I've understandably shied away from fondant. However, many of the blogs I follow and of course the cake shows on tv all use lots of fondant, so I wanted to give it another shot. All of the recipes came from the Cake Bible: 2 9-inch layers of Golden Cream Butter Cake, Moussaline Buttercream, and Rose's Rolled Fondant recipe.

I baked the cake last night. The timing called for 25-35 minutes, and I probably should've taken it out closer to 30 than letting it go the full 35. I let the cake (actually, there were 2 layers, so I should say cakes) cool a bit in the pans and then popped them into the freezer. While the cakes were cooling, I made the fondant since it is best if it sits for a few hours (or a day in my case).

The fondant went together remarkably easy, and the bite I tried even tasted good!

Tonight I made the buttercream and put a crumb coat on the cake. I put it in the fridge to let the buttercream set while I rolled out the fondant. Again, it was pretty easy... I'm a little scared about what it will taste like!!

After Terry left for work, I went to take a picture of the plain white cake and decided that it needed a bit of color. The easiest thing seemed to color a few leftover scraps of fondant and make a polka-dot cake.

I will let you know how it tastes in a day or two. Of course, Terry had to point out that it might have been poor timing on my part to make a cake when were going to be gone on Monday and Tuesday.... hopefully either the cake is good enough that it's all eaten tomorrow, or it will still be good on Wednesday!

Bad blogger

I realized that I've baked two cakes in the last few weeks that I didn't include here, and of which I neglected to photograph. I think it's because they were 'plain' cakes without any icing, so there didn't seem to be a need to take pictures.

Two weeks ago (or so), I made Genoise Rose from Rose's Heavenly Cakes. It was the first genoise I've made, as well as the first recipe calling for beurre noisette (browned butter). I'm not sure I am sophisticated enough to tell the difference between a genoise and a regular butter cake, but this one was very good. It was baked in a Bundt pan and brushed with an orange liqueur-based syrup after coming out of the oven. There was no icing added. Terry certainly enjoyed it.

Last week, I baked the pound cake from Rose's Cake Bible. Again, it was unfrosted. I did dust this with powdered sugar to take to work. Wendi and Jenn liked it :) One observation I had was that this cake is better when sliced somewhat thin instead of taking a thick piece. I think that it seems to 'melt in your mouth' more when cut about 1" thick.

Sorry about the lack of photos.

Red Velvet Cake w/ Cooked Flour Icing

After cleaning the oven on Friday night, I was ready to bake again - I haven't been too thrilled with the taste of things coming out of the oven lately; to me everything tastes a little too smokey. Apparently I didn't do a good enough job cleaning after the flash-fire in February.

I baked a double-batch of the recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum's book, Rose's Heavenly Cakes, yesterday in two 9" cake pans. They baked slightly longer than the recipe indicated; possibly because I had two in the oven instead of just one. They came out of the pans nicely with very little problem. I realized today that I forgot to take pictures yesterday, so I took photos just before frosting them today. Instead of a 2-layer cake, I am making two cakes with torted layers. That way, there is a small one for the family and one to take to Schwan's for taste testing. (Note: Terry was very kind and volunteered to take the Schwan cake in tonight when he works and share it with the Help Desk. He says that he will leave the rest for my "official" testers in Integrated Marketing. I told him that the three people there overnight cannot consume over half of the cake. We'll see tomorrow how that goes!!)

Rose's cookbook suggests a cream cheese icing for this cake, but I really like the recipe I got 20+ years ago that has a base of cooked flour and milk. I doubled the icing recipe, but I should have gone 2.5 times. There was not enough to adequately cover the sides of one of the cakes.

Terry and Bret were very impatient to get to their pieces tonight. I had to practically lock them out of the kitchen so that I could take photos. (impossible, I know, but you get the point...) They each gave the cake a thumbs up.

Also, as you can see, Gabby LOVED it too. We're still waiting for Natalia to finish the chicken from her chicken sandwich so that she can have a piece.

WTF? Is March the official 'Cakes for Jenn' month?

No post for 2 weeks - that's what happens when I get a stomach bug! That's not to say that I haven't been baking after I recovered. Terry is a tad bit jealous because apparently I've been baking too many cakes for Jenn. The Chocolate Lover's Angel Food cake I made last time was because Jenn's birthday was approaching and chocolate angel food is her favorite cake. Then there was the mock angel food with chocolate frosting for her son's 2nd birthday party. Finally, it was the chocolate angel food cake again with milk chocolate buttercream for her birthday.


Mock Angel Food with Chocolate Frosting - AKA Sullivan's Yo Gabba Gabba Birthday Cake
Sullivan's birthday party was delayed for a couple of weeks, but apparently enjoyed the mock angel food cake. Older brother Lincoln was a fan of the frosting (what 5-year-old isn't?). I will ask Jenn for pictures and post them later.

Chocolate Lover's Angel Food with Milk Chocolate Buttercream
This was for Jenn's birthday on March 18. I didn't serve it with Raspberry sauce; instead, I made an extremely simple milk chocolate buttercream. It was simply melted milk chocolate and bittersweet chocolate mixed with butter. It was literally melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Of course the recipe came from the Cake Bible.

One thing I need to figure out is how to let melted chocolate cool to room temperature but not have the edge around the bowl harden. The last times I've used melted chocolate in icing it has ended up with bits of hardened chocolate in it. Very frustrating....

Personally, I wasn't a huge fan of the cake, but Jenn said it was great. When we cut into the cake at work, I had a couple of bites and then just threw away the cake - saving the icing of course!!! I think that some of my issues with the cake have to do with the fact that I got the flu 24 hours after I made it the last time!!

Chocolate Lover's Angel Food

I was looking for a chocolate angel food cake recipe and lo and behold, there's one in the Cake Bible. I was able to use up all of the egg whites in my freezer, and didn't have to run to HyVee for any ingredients - that's nice on the purse-strings!

The cake was easy to make, even with 3-year-old Natalia's help :) It's funny; I used to avoid any recipe where I had to beat egg whites because I was afraid they wouldn't get enough volume. I guess cream of tartar and having them at room temperature (OK, today they were at 55 degrees, which is too cold even for me!) really helps.

The cake baked exactly according to the recipe - 40 minutes. I didn't have any bottle that fit the hole in my angel food cake pan, so it's propped up on soup cans right now. That appears to be working. I will take pictures after it comes out of the pan.

I also have raspberries thawing as well as some raspberry sauce. I'm not sure I can handle the whole berries (grits, you know!), but I love the sauce. I also have leftover raspberry ganache in the fridge that may taste good on the cake.

Mock Angel Food w/Chocolate Frosting

This weekend's cake was supposed to be mock angel food with chocolate frosting for Sullivan's 2nd birthday party. Unfortunately, the party was delayed a week, so the cake is in the freezer. Hopefully the cake will be enjoyed next Sunday!

Chocolate Taste Testing

Curiosities: Why does it seem women like chocolate so much more than men do?

http://www.news.wisc.edu/13719

The "girls" at work really seemed to like the All-American Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Neoclassic Buttercream icing. In fact a couple indicated that they liked it better than the other cake they had tasted. Both Natalia (3 yrs) and Gabby (14 months) ate it up with no problem. I was thrilled that there was icing left over that could be eaten 'as-is'

However, it didn't go over so well with men... my husband didn't even try the cake, my son didn't care for it, and Wendi's husband, Kelly, didn't care for it (although Kelly ends up with pieces of cake that were cut about 12 hours before he eats them and I'm not sure that's very fair).

So, what to do? Do I keep trying different chocolate recipes in the hopes of converting men, or do I just make the cake for females?

Perfect All-American Chocolate Butter Cake with Raspberry Ganache and Chocolate Neoclassic Buttercream

Wow; this cake used almost every pan/bowl in my kitchen! I started it last night by baking the cake and making the raspberry puree.

Cake
The cake wasn't too difficult; the worst part was having to wait for the cocoa/boiling water to cool so that I could make the cake. I learned my lesson from the yellow cake and baked two 8" and one 6" layers. They baked for 27 minutes. The cakes didn't seem to raise very high. Of course, that could be because I'm comparing it to the yellow-cake where I had overfilled the pans.

Raspberry Puree/Ganache
The first step for the raspberry ganache was to make raspberry puree from two bags of frozen raspberries. This was very time-consuming to make and strain to get all the grits out.


In all, I spent about 2.5 hours baking the cake and making the puree.

At lunch today, I made the raspberry ganache. Using Rose's food-processor method of making ganache was very easy. By the time I was ready for it, it had thickened too much, and I had to soften it a bit in the microwave.

Chocolate Neoclassic Buttercream
My first attempt at an egg-yolk icing. I melted the chocolate first and then put it in the fridge to cool down. What I didn't account for was how long I would need to beat the egg yolks and sugar syrup to reach room temperature. By the time I was ready for the melted chocolate, it had cooled a bit too much. This resulted in what I will consider chocolate-flecked icing. One thing to note is that the chocolate flecks don't work well when using a pastry bag - the chunks get stuck!

I will post tomorrow with the comments from my taste-testing crew!

Note that I am including two photos of the finished cake. I bought a pocket camera this weekend and I want to see how it compares with my 'real' camera. The first is from my Nikon and the second is from my new Kodak.

 

All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake - Take 2

I couldn't imagine our girls' weekend in the Cities without cake, so I had to regroup and take another shot at this recipe. I hurried home from the K of C fish fry (excellent meal, by the way) to whip it together.

I'm getting comfortable with Rose Levy Beranbaum's directions for making a cake from scratch. Just as with the White Velvet cake, the batter was delicious even before baking. I had to be very disciplined to get as much into the pans as possible, and not leave a lot on the beaters.

On Thursday, I had noticed that dividing the batter between two 8" pans would work as they weren't more than 2/3 full. That is what I did on Friday night. There was 20 oz. of batter in each pan. Unfortunately, this was too much batter, and the cakes baked for 50 minutes before the center was done. They also rose about 1/4" over the tops of the pans. The tops were overdone, and the cake was a bit too dry because of the overbaking.

For the Mousseline Buttercream, I used Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur instead of Gran Gala Orange that I used last week. I liked the flavor of the Chambord better than the Gran Gala. The only drawback is that because the liqueur is so dark, the icing had a slight lavender tinge to it.

On to the taste test.

After we saw Footloose at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater, we headed back to the hotel and took the cake out of the refrigerator. We let it sit for approximately 20 minutes so that it wasn't so cold. Everyone liked the cake; however, none of them had tasted last week's White Velvet cake, so it wasn't a scientific taste test. (Yes, Jenn; I'm admitting that you were right and that the I.M. team should taste all of my cakes before anyone else!) I have had both cakes and in my opinion, the yellow cake was a bit drier than the white, which could be attributed to the fact that it was baked longer.

Test Cake #2 - All-Occasioin Downy Yellow Butter Cake

Spent the day in Bloomington in meetings, arriving home around 8 pm. Since I'm heading to Chanhassen early Saturday for a girls' weekend, I wanted to bake the cake tonight and ice it tomorrow after work.

This cake went together very smoothly. I had separated the eggs last night and put them in the refrigerator, so that eliminated a little bit of time. I'm not sure if this batter was denser (more dense?) than the White Velvet cake, but I only used the two 8" pans. Dividing the batter into two (approximately 19 oz. each), the pans were only slightly more than half full, so I thought this would be fine. I skipped the 6" pan.

NOTE TO SELF: If you notice leftover grease on the bottom of the oven from the baked pasta, it is best to clean it up before attempting to use the oven; otherwise you end up with a grease fire in the oven......

Scratch the idea of taking a cake to Chanhassen.

Test Cake #1 - White Velvet Butter Cake w/ Mousseline Buttercream with Gran Gala Orange Liqueur

My first test cake - Sunday, February 21, 2010

White Velvet Butter Cake: The recipe was for two 9" layers. My 9" cake pans are packed away in the garage, so I made two 8" layers and one 6".

Each 8" layer had 13.5 oz. of batter and baked for 24 minutes. The 6" layer had 10 oz. of batter and baked for 32 minutes.

For the icing, I made Mousseline Buttercream with Gran Gala Orange Liqueur. It was delicious!

 

The 6" cake was an at-home sample. Terry took one bite and proclaimed his praise! That's pretty good since usually he isn't forthcoming with his praise of sample recipes. When I ask him if they taste ok, his reply is "Of course." I am considering this cake to be quite a success since he actually offered a compliment! Bret commented that he thought the icing had an alcohol-aftertaste.

The 8" cake went to work for an Integrated Marketing taste test. Putting it in the fridge for a few minutes firmed up the icing so that I could cover it with Press-n-Seal. Terry took it in on Sunday night and put it in the Test Kitchen's walk-in cooler. I took it out of the cooker about half an hour before we cut it. The texture of the icing was slightly firm. It didn't take long before the icing was very soft. The team ate about 2/3 of the cake on Monday. I put the cake back into the cooler to save for Tuesday. Everyone said that they liked it. Jenn was worried about the icing since she knew exactly what Bret meant when describing the alcohol aftertaste; however, she didn't notice one at all. She just noticed the hint of orange.

On Tuesday, I brought the cake downstairs and immediately cut it so that Wendi could have a piece. The cake definitely needs to warm up before cutting. The icing was too hard right out of the cooler. Jenn thought that it was almost too buttery when it was so chilled. Wendi took the last piece home to Kelly who is recuperating from having his gall bladder removed yesterday. I'm anxious to hear his thoughts.

Summary

This was an excellent cake and icing combination. It is important to remember that cakes with this icing cannot be cut right after removing from the cooler.

My cake quest history

I started baking cakes when we were living in Des Moines in the early '90s after taking a Wilton decorating class. I only use Betty Crocker cake mix and a shortening/powdered sugar icing recipe. My cakes do taste pretty good, based on the comments I get as well as the requests to bake cakes for people.

When I started taking classes a few years ago, I knew that I had to give something up. Baking cakes was what had to go.

I'm ready to get back into the baking world, only now I want to try my hand at scratch-cakes and "real" buttercream icing. Brittany - one of my daughter's friends since we moved to Marshall in 1995 - and Mat are getting married in October, and Terry suggested that "we" make the wedding cake for our gift to them. I've owned Rose Levy Beranbaum's book, The Cake Bible for years, but haven't seriously tried any of the recipes. This time around, I'm getting serious and I'm going to find the perfect cake for Mat and Brittany's wedding!