Whipped Cream Cake Roulade

Thanks for your patience, everyone! Well, I'm more or less moved into my new house and I've been baking (a lot). Of course, as you can see I've not done so much blogging. I've had recipes to test and retest and I'm still getting used to my new kitchen and my new oven. No small adjustment either. My previous oven was a cavernous convection/conventional Viking professional gas oven that could fit full sheet pans--pans bigger than my kid's crib mattress--to a more ordinary Whirlpool electric.

While I can no longer bake dozens of cookies at a time, the modest oven hasn't disappointed (though several recipes have). Of course, I've not attempted macarons in this new oven and that's a headache I'm still saving for later.

So today is an absolutely gorgeous spring day in our new home town of Mill Creek which lies just north of Seattle. I was lucky enough to relocate to an area with a wicked good donut shop (Frost) and a brand new French Bakery (Mon Amie--yes they do macarons, go visit) that I'm now haunting. So before I go out and hit the garden and enjoy this sunshine, we're going to bake up a cake.

Something light, creamy and versatile. The cake is perfect with just about anything fruity, be it citrus curds, a drizzle of a thick fruit coulis, or fresh from the garden berries. Given that it is April, I wont pretend that any berries used today are fresh from the garden but as things warm up that will be a possibility. So let's talk cake!

Dead Man's Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Devil's Food & Dead Man's Peanut Butter Mousse
Slathered in chocolate fudge.
Oh yea. 

We're revisiting my Dead Man's Peanut Butter Pie recipe today, with a few fun tweaks.

Today I found myself wrestling with a familiar peanut butter and chocolate craving.  In such situations I have the following options:

1. Go to the store and buy all the available peanut butter cups. Of course, this isn't much of an option since getting out of the house with two small children and going anywhere requires nearly as much planning and preparation as a mission to Mars.
2. Eat peanut butter from jar with a spoon, dipping it into that 20lb bag of chocolate chips I have. Also not a great option, since with this method of consumption, any semblance of portion control vanishes and I just bought skinny jeans.
3. Bake something with peanut butter and chocolate for the blog, while wearing said skinny jeans and pretend that they will encourage restraint while tasting and testing.

I think we all know how this worked out.

Pumpkin Old Fashioned Donuts

It's Sunday and I'm back with pumpkin treats! Talk about deja vu, right?

When treats are good though, one can excuse repetitive use of ingredients. Besides, I've got pumpkin on the brain. Halloween is fast approaching and they're popping up everywhere--along with those 'fun sized' candy bars that will be my undoing.

So lets just get right down to how today's post came about. One of the added perks of being a blogger is you get lots of very friendly folks emailing you, offering to send you things to try. I tend pass on about 99% of these just because I'm a busy lady and I've got enough stuff to eat and store in my home without people sending me more and trying to finagle a blog post--and because no one has offered to send me an Audi TT (Audi, what gives?).

I do however like the opportunity to give things away to my readers. So today, thanks to the lovely folks at McCormick, I have a box of goodies for one lucky reader in the U.S. of A packed with goodies like McCormick vanilla extract & food colorings, and a few other little treats from Le Creuset, Mui, Wilton and Palderno World Cuisine to assist with your baking fun. 

For my part, I'm whipping up a Halloween themed post. I had several ideas, all utilizing the standard company of Halloween players. Some very cute, some scary and some complicated. In the end though, I settled on tasty. Tasty and pumpkin-y. 

Besides, my last pumpkin recipe didn't use exactly one can of pumpkin and that made those with the small cans of pumpkin, like commenter Katie, go all sad-emoticon.

That makes me :( too. 

I also had leftover pumpkin, so today we're using it and we're making a batch of festive fall donuts.

: ) @

See what I did there?

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

Hello, Cake.

I have a wonderful pumpkin cake to share today! 


About this time last year I had gone on a pumpkin cake baking spree. It never resulted in a blog post as I was disappointed with nearly every recipe that I tried. Some cakes were good, but not so good that I felt they warranted an endorsement.  I had some rather particular ideas of what a pumpkin cake should be like: moist, tender and with just enough spice to provide those fall warm and fuzzy feelings. 

Unfortunately though, I wasn't feeling so warm and fuzzy after baking and tasting all those cakes.  You see, the more recipes I tried, the worse the cakes seemed to get. Some were heavy with spices, which I thought I would enjoy, but often found they gave the cakes a harsh edge. Other cakes I found a bit soapy, which I attributed to the citrus or too much cardamom or ginger in the base. One particular horror to emerge from my ovens was a cake that managed to taste of baking soda and metal.  In all, it was a disappointing run.

So I gave up and moved onto other baking projects to populate the blog. I figured I would pick up the quest again when my desire to eat pumpkin cake returned. Well, along with the damp fall Seattle weather, that desire has returned and this time I found the cake. When I tasted it, I knew no tweaking on my part would improve upon it.  It was just right.  Delightfully moist and echoing the flavors of a pumpkin pie.

It was the perfect base for my whipped cream cheese frosting.  I guarantee a generous slice will provide those warm and fuzzy feelings. 

Midnight Sin Chocolate Cake

Happy Monday, everyone! 

We're baking cake today. In my blistering hot kitchen, which doesn't lend itself to working with chocolate mousse but whatever! I'm on a mission. A cake mission. 

So today we have a rich, moist chocolate cake. A simple, reliable chocolate cake recipe for folks who love their cakes uber-moist-a-licious. I've eaten this midnight-hued cake plain and unadorned many times, but today I could not resist filling it with bitter-sweet chocolate mousse and glazing it with ganache. 

Dulce de Leche Coffee Cake

I've been baking a lot this week. Testing recipes and frequently finding myself disappointed by the results.

It's been a little frustrating. Especially when Mr. Humble and I are at odds over the verdict for a particular baked treat. Like the well reviewed Epicurious pumpkin spice cake with my own mascarpone dulce de leche frosting. He loved it and insisted I should post it. I thought it tasted less like spice and more like salty-metallic baking soda.

He says he can't taste it but I think that's just because he has corrupted his taste buds with too much rooster sauce.

So we 're posting something we can agree upon today, a relatively simple coffee cake. It has passed the taste test, even though Mr. Humble professes a greater fondness for the plain version of this cake I make. He doesn't seem to understand that I made four cans of dulce de leche this week and they need to find a purpose before I start eating the stuff straight from the can from a spoon.

Big Chocolate Cake

Best way to follow up a healthy post? A massive, heart stopping chocolate cake.

I was tempted to load up on the chocolate curls, ganache, raspberries and fancy piping, but in the end I decided to make something a little more basic. A big, fat, simple chocolate cake.

Don't feel constrained by my minimalism though. Add-ons like raspberries and whipped ganache would be wonderful upgrades to this moist, fine textured chocolate cake.

Ruby Grapefruit Cake

Following Friday's disaster, my laptop keyboard is more or less working again. Some keys have been poorly reattached, jutting up at awkward angles and crying out for technological orthodontia, but for now, it works.

However I was not so lucky as to have all my keys turn up. I'm still missing my ESC, F3 and CTRL keys. When I ask my two year old what she did with Mommy's ESC key, she tells me she wants chocolate.

While I may not know much about negotiating with toddlers, something tells me this may be a trick...


Anyway, let's get down to the grapefruit cake. It's from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home cookbook. The cake, despite its rather humble appearance, is delicious. Low on fuss but high in flavor, each slice is moist and sticky with bitter-sweet ruby grapefruit syrup.

Lemon Mascarpone Cream Cake

Happy Monday, everyone!

So we're following up last week's easy cookie theme with something a little more fussy. Something that would get my apron dirty.

Today's cake is divine. Frosted with whipping cream, stabilized with mascarpone cheese and flavored with lemon curd. It's light, creamy and not too sweet. The cake is moist and dense, yet fluffy with a delicate crumb. Layered with a little lemon curd and the mascarpone frosting, it's easily one of my favorites.

Baked Cake Donuts

We're going to pretend that the wrinkled cloth looks super-artistic
and that I'm not too lazy to iron. Okay?!

We're baking donuts today!

Yes, I know we did donuts last week and yes I know it is going to be hard to top Thomas Keller's donuts but I think there should be special blog-space allowances made for donuts.

After all, donuts are good.

But are baked donuts good?

Steamed Chocolate Pudding

I should clean the crumbs off the cake stand before snapping photos...
but sometimes you're just too busy eating chocolate cake to care about such things.

Today I'm trying out something new in my kitchen, a steamed pudding.

This dessert, as it turns out, was just meant to be.

Allow me to explain.

About a week ago, Mr. P of Delicious Delicious Delicious and I were discussing steamed puddings and sponges. It came up that I lacked a pudding basin--one of the more basic items in an English kitchen--or even knowledge of what a pudding basin was. In my defense they're not exactly easy to find around here. The bowls with their thick rims are no longer common place, outside of a few high-end cooking supply shops. Not to mention, pudding in my part of the States is limited, with few exceptions (save perhaps bread pudding), to the Jell-O sort. Sad but true.

So Mr. P was extolling the wonders of steamed goodies and I figured I was missing out and should venture into that baking realm. Eventually, should I ever find myself in possession of a good basin.

Then while at Sur la Table the following weekend, poking through the clearance baskets hoping to find some discount cooking treasure, I pulled out one of these.

Easy Baking

Easy Bake Set-Up Still Life
Power tools are necessary when you cannot find a single normal screwdriver in your house

Playing with my Easy Bake Oven today!

The reasons are simple: I promised Mother Humble I would blog about her oh-so-hilarious gift and I am running low on essential baking ingredients. I'm nearly over the whole spider-episode I spoke of yesterday, so hopefully I'll be out of the house and restocking the Humble Household with necessary ingredients soon.

So today we're tackling my childhood dream of Easy Bake layer cakes. Equipped with cake mix, oven, light-bulb and power-tools we're making the twice branded Easy Bake Betty Crocker Party Cake. Complete with party-inducing sprinkles in the batter.

Let's start with the prep...

Yea, that's parchment

What?! The parchment cake rounds for easy bake pans shouldn't surprise you. If I had tiny insulated baking strips I would use those too.

Parchment is a necessary insurance policy against light-bulb bonded cake batter and the horror of trying to frost a pile of jagged cake chunks. Parchment is what really makes baking easy.

Eight year-old's would use parchment too, they just don't know they need it yet.

Delicious Cake powder! Hungry yet?

Now we have the cake mix. Just add water! Two teaspoons to be exact. Does cake get any easier than that?

When is Nasbro going to make a Genoise mix for me?

So I add my water... and it looks like cake paste.

Lucky for me, the recipe provides some instructions"

"If the batter seems dry, add water one drop at a time until it is the consistency of cake batter."

Oh well that's no problem. Cake batter only has one consistency, right? I just add a random amount of water to the mix, until it achieves a consistency Nasbro thinks that I would think it should look like. Crystal clear.

Now I understand the "results may vary" warning on the package.

So I add some more water, about a teaspoon, and pour my batter into my pan. Now we're ready to easy bake. So I push the pan into the oven, using my burns-are-bad safety-stick and wait the prescribed 10 minutes. Then I shove my safety-stick into the slot again and push the cake into the "cooling area".


Unfortunately the trip through the easy bake contraption resulted in the top of the cake being sheared off my the same flaps that prevent me from sticking my arm into the device.

Boo! Not only does the device curtail my compulsive desire to touch dangerous things, it mangles my cake.

Maybe they need to make the opening taller? Or maybe my cake is just too fluffy and perfect? Perhaps I am just that good. I'm a easy bake master!

Maybe not.

Okay, so I messed up the frosting. How does one mess up a just-add-water frosting?

You add too much water.

Apparently Ms. Humble cannot read. Something you may believe, given the rather slapdash proof-reading work I do on the blog. Still, I could have sworn the "recipe" called for 1 1/2 teaspoons per package, but apparently it is just a 1/2 teaspoon. Whoops.

So I resuscitate my over-hydrated frosting dust with some powdered sugar and whipped it into something I could slather my cakes with.



This was a tough cake to frost. So delicate I really couldn't do a proper crumb coat or frosting application. So I just gently daubed on the frosting. It suppose it looks respectable enough, given the tools I'm working with.



Speaking of tools... am I supposed to cut with this? This bizarre Lilliputian, blade-less knife? Forget about it. Someone get me my Global!


Though I'm all for the mini cake server. I need this.



So how does it taste?

This is not a great cake. Ms. Humble's inner child is a little disappointed.

Something about the cake's texture is off. It seems spongy. However the real problem is the taste and aroma. The cake has this odd, lingering flavor. Like a combination of powdered gelatin and the water leftover from poaching eggs.

Pass. Maybe the cookie mixes are better?

Or maybe I should stick to baking cakes the old fashioned way.

Ottolenghi's Chocolate Fudge Cake

I'm rushing today. My hack job photography will be testament of that.

I've had a busy day cleaning, baking and as I often do in the summer when school is out, babysitting (word gets around that you're a stay-at-home mom and willing to watch kids occasionally). Once I post this I'm going to change out of my chocolate splattered clothing, drop off little Humble at her Grandfathers and go volunteer. Woo! Eventually I'm going to crash and burn on this schedule but so far it has been fun.

So, food... Lately I've been testing and tweaking a lot of recipes, in addition to my blogging. Today it was Lemon Meringue. One of my ultimate baking quests is for the perfect lemon meringue pie. I love this pie and I've been making it since I was a tween and still, I can't seem to settle on a recipe.



I can do a mean crust and meringue, it is just that filling that is so pesky. I want to be able to cut it cleanly (not slump or weep) and yet still have a nice acidity. Which is the trouble, as the more lemon juice you use the more likely your thickeners are going to struggle to maintain the structural integrity of the pie. Pesky baking chemistry! So frustrating.

Today's post isn't about lemon meringue pie though. I'm just posting my pie because it's gorgeous (and tasty, just not OCD perfect). Today's post is all about chocolate.

So one of the souvenirs I brought back with me from the UK was a cookbook. I really like picking up cookbooks while in Europe because they always use metric and as un-American as it is to say this, metric is just a better way to cook.



One of the cookbooks I was looking for was Ottolenghi's latest book. Since I've been home, I've cooked from it quite a bit--the spicy meat pie is wonderful--and today we're baking the chocolate fudge cake. It seems that I've developed an obsession with ugly cakes this week, because like the Gâteau Basque Cake, this cake is hideously delicious.



It is hard to describe. It is like a cross between a cake and a baked chocolate mousse or soufflé. One layer is firmer, cake-ier and the other is gooey like brownie batter. It packs a lot of dark chocolate and is probably best reserved for the most of ardent chocoholics.



Ottolenghi's Chocolate Fudge Cake
serves 8-10
240g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
265g dark chocolate (52% cocoa), chopped
95g dark chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped
290g light muscovado sugar
4 tablespoons water
5 large eggs, separated
pinch of salt
cocoa powder for dusting

Preheat your oven to 170°C (350°F).

Butter a 20cm (8") springform pan and line the bottom and sides with parchment.

In a large heat proof bowl, combine the chopped chocolates and butter.

Combine the muscovado sugar and water in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Pour the boiling syrup over the chocolate and butter and stir until they have melted. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, to the chocolate mixture and then set the bowl aside until the mixture comes to room temperature.

In a large bowl, beat the egg whites and salt to a firm but not dry meringue.

Using a rubber spatula, fold a third of the meringue into the chocolate mixture. Once combined, add another third, fold and then fold in the remaining third until just combined.

Pour 2/3rds of the batter into your prepared pan (about 800g, reserving the remaining batter for later) and bake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and leave it on a wire rack to cool completely. Flatten the cake with an offset spatula. Don't worry about breaking the surface crust and pour the rest of the batter on top. Level the surface again. Return the cake to the oven and bake for a further 20-25 minutes. When tested with a skewer the cake should have a few moist crumbs clinging to it.

Allow to cool completely in the springform pan before attempting to unmold it. Dust with cocoa powder before serving.

Gâteau Basque Cake

Happy Monday!

I apologize for being so lax with my blogging this last week and then late with today's post. It has been so crazy-busy around here. We've been getting the Humble household "organized", which of course requires its top to bottom destruction. That's how everyone organizes, right?

Unfortunately the organized Humble Household phoenix isn't really rising from the ashes, it is sort of coughing a sputtering as it crawls around in a daze. Dragging its soot covered bottom across the carpets.

This place is a mess.

The kitchen is no exception. As I'm trying to cook today, every inch of counter space is taken up by boxes and stacks of… who knows what. I want to pull a diva-card and shout "I can't work like this" but I know that the current state is essentially my fault and besides, there is no one to listen to my whinging save my two year old and Mr. Stinky.

Neither is very sympathetic.

So yes, "organizing" and I also found myself busy with volunteering, there is that. Then there was that heat advisory in Seattle last week and it was far too hot to even think about cranking up the ovens. So yea, I've been a bad blogger of late.

So today we're making a cake based on the Gateau Basque. This is my second attempt to blog about this dessert as I botched the last one. The little Humble decided that she would go mess with the knobs on my oven during its hour long baking process and the results were neither pretty nor edible.

Now gateau basque is a bit hard to describe as there are several different variations (owning to differences in region and individual taste preferences). Typically the dessert involves fruit preserve filling and/or pastry cream baked between layers of pastry. Like… a Poptart, only better.

Not all Gateau Basques are pastry however, a few versions are more cake-like, like the one I am baking today. This version is a bit more difficult than the others. Why? Well, it shouldn't take much imagination to conjure up the failures that can occur when attempting to combine pastry cream and cake batter and bake it into a structurally sound dessert. Still, I adore the idea of baking jam and vanilla cream into a cake. When done right, the flavors and textures meld together a bit during baking, creating a cake with a gooey creamy layer that is different and delicious.



Now admittedly, this isn't the most attractive of cakes. It lacks frosting, icing or even a dusting of powdered sugar. However it really doesn't need any of that frivolity. Once you taste it, you'll understand it needs nothing else. The cake is aromatic with orange juice and zest, creamy with the layer of the vanilla cream and fresh preserves. It is good. This cake was meant to be eaten naked.

The cake, folks. The cake.



Enough rambling, let's get started...


Pastry Cream
1 cup whole milk
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a small sauce pan over medium heat, combine 2 tablespoon of the sugar and 3/4 cup of the milk. Stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves and the milk begins to simmer.

While attending to the milk, whisk together the remaining sugar with the egg yolks in a separate bowl. Add the remaining milk and corn starch and whisk thoroughly. Temper the egg mixture with the hot milk, adding it in a thin stream, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat whisking constantly. Once thick, whisk in the vanilla and then strain through a fine sieve into a clean bowl. Press a piece of plastic wrap onto the surface of the cream and set aside to cool completely.

Once the pastry cream is cool you can start the cake batter.



Gâteau Basque
yields 8-10 servings
adapted from The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 medium orange
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsalted butter

1 cup pastry cream
1/4 cup raspberry preserves (feel free to use cherry, blackberry, etc)

Note: You'll need a professional sized cake pan for this. A 9 inch round with 3 inch sides, lined with parchment. I know high sided cake pans are not the norm in the housewares sections of big box stores, I'm sorry, but they really should be. You can find them online, at specialty baking stores like Sur la Table and restaurant supply outlets. You may also use a 9" springform pan.

Preheat your oven to 325°F and arrange a rack on the lower third of the oven.

Melt the butter and set it aside to cool.

Zest and juice the orange (you'll need 1/3 cup of fresh orange juice for the cake) and set aside.



Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a small bowl and set aside.

In your stand mixer's bowl, using the whisk attachment, beat the eggs and sugar on high speed for several minutes until the mixture has doubled in volume. Reduce your mixer's speed to low and add the orange juice and zest and combine.

Add a third of the flour to the egg mixture and beat on medium speed, then add half the melted butter and repeat. Alternating the flour and butter. Mix until just combined.

Immediately pour half of the mixture into your prepared pan. Spoon the pastry cream onto the batter, staying a full inch away from the sides of the pan. spread the jam onto the cream and then pour the remaining batter into the pan, around the outside of the pastry cream and jam and then spread gently with an offset spatula to cover.

Place into the oven and bake for 50-65 minutes. Until firm to the touch and the cake no longer jiggles loosely in the center. I probably pulled my cake out 5 minutes too early as the center sunk a little after it cooled. Unfortunately this is one cake where the toothpick test is of little help.

Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Once cool, turn out onto a plate and remove the parchment. Invert onto a second plate and serve.

Raspberry Lemon Coconut Cake

Today was one of those bad food-blogger days where you wake up with absolutely no idea what you're going to post.

Generally, what I do requires a lot of preparation. Planning, shopping and prep work, all taken care of on the weekends. Then I can assemble, finish or bake during the week quickly and with minimal effort. It tends to work well.

Well the key words here are "tends to".

Sometimes though, things don't go according to plan... recipes turn out to be a little "meh" or worse "bleh". Occasionally I will get all persnickety over the visual appearance of an otherwise fine dessert. Like my creme caramel: "they would look more impressive if they were baked in a smaller ramekin and were taller". My baking OCD can work against me in times like this and I end up refusing to post it.

Things like the above end up leaving holes in my schedule, holes I feel compelled to fill with something...

So before I've even showered or had breakfast, I start digging around in cookbooks looking for inspiration. (See how glamorous the life of a food blogger is?) I was leaning towards a cake today because I was hungry and two of the blogs I follow posted some seriously nom-worthy cakes recently (Chocolate Overload and the Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cake ). These are not things you want to look at or think about before breakfast. They can make you do impulsive things...

Like bake a layer cake on a Thursday morning.

Luckily, this cake wasn't too fussy--well relatively, we are talking about a layer cake here--and it came together quickly and easily. Layers of raspberry preserves and lemon buttercream decorated simply with a little coconut. No piping tips needed.

The one thing I hate about layer cakes is cutting them.
It always squishes the back of the cake a bit, making my once perfect layers look messy. Bah!
Yes, that is my food-blogger/baker OCD talking.

When frosting this cake I had to go back and make another half batch of buttercream to get the coverage I wanted for the four 8" layers. So if you're a frosting fiend like myself, or baking in 9" pans, plan ahead and make extra buttercream.

Raspberry Lemon Coconut Cake
from Baking
2 1/4 cups (244g) cake flour
1 tablespoon (12g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup (295ml) whole milk or buttermilk, room temperature
4 large egg whites, room temperature
1 1/2 cup (302g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons fine lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons 113g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

Lemon Buttercream
1 cup (201g) sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (339g) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/4 cup (59ml) fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


2/3 cup raspberry preserves (strained for seeds, if desired)
1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded or desiccated coconut (I'm using desiccated for this cake)

Pre-heat your oven to 350°F and place a rack in the lower third of your oven. Coat two 8" or 9" pans with butter or nonstick spray and line the bottoms with a circle of parchment. Place the pans on a baking sheet and set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

In a second small bowl, combine the milk and egg whites and set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the sugar and lemon zest and mix for a minute on medium speed until fragrant. Add the butter and cream together on medium speed for 4-5 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the lemon extract and then grab your bowl of flour and milk.

Reduce the mixer's speed to slow and add 1/3rd of the flour. Once moistened, increase the speed to medium and mix until incorporated. Then add 1/2 the milk mixture and beat until the mixture is uniform. Repeat with the remaining flour and milk, alternating until you've finished with the last 1/3rd of the flour. Mix the batter for a further 2 minutes to ensure it is lump free and well aerated.

Divide the batter between your baking pans (I think it was a bit over 500g for each pan) and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until the centers of the cake springs back when touched lightly.

Place the cakes on wire racks to cool. After a few minutes, run a knife around the outside of the pan to release the cake and remove from the pans. Allow to cool right side up until room temperature.



To make the buttercream:

Combine the sugar and egg whites in a bowl over simmering water. Whisking constantly, beat until the mixture is warm to the touch and the sugar is no longer gritty. Remove from heat and continue to beat until you have a thick, glossy meringue.

Transfer the meringue to the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment and beat for several minutes on medium speed. Once the bowl of the mixer feels cool to the touch you can add your butter, one stick at a time beating on medium high. Once the butter is all in, continue to beat for 6-10 minutes.

The mixture may seem to curdle at some point but don't worry, continue to beat and it will come together into a velvety buttercream.

Once well beaten, you can add the lemon juice a little at a time, beat until absorbed and then adding more. Then add the vanilla and you're ready to frost.



To assemble the cake:

For a four layer cake, level and divide the layers with a serrated knife. Place the bottom layer onto a cake round (or onto a cake plate with tuck strips of wax paper under the cake to protect the plate while frosting).

Spread a third of the raspberry preserves onto the bottom layer of the cake and then a layer of buttercream. The trick to layering buttercream on top of a slippery layer of preserves is to put your buttercream into a disposable piping bag (or ziplock bag) and cut off a 1/3" diameter opening. Starting in the center of the layer, pipe a coil of buttercream. Continue to coil tightly, round and round until you have an even layer of icing on top. No need to spread the frosting with a spatula using this method. Top with a second layer of cake and repeat two more times. Place the last layer on top and then crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of icing. Chill the cake until the icing is firm and then frost the cake with the remaining butter cream. Smooth the remaining buttercream over the cake with an offset spatula until it is level and smooth.

Sprinkle the coconut over the top of the cake and coat the sides by gently pouring the coconut between your hand and the cake.

The cake is best eaten the day it is made. If you need to store it, refrigerate it covered for up to two days, allowing plenty of time to bring it back to room temperature before serving.

L'Orange

Baking from Seattle local Fran's Pure Chocolate today.

Fran describes this tort as one of the most accessible in her book for new bakers and I would agree. It was very simple to make and the result, a rich Viennese style fruit and nut torte that is intensely fragrant. As Fran puts it: "...When you slice into it the room fills with the most remarkable orange essence."

The tort is dense, pebbly with almonds and moist with a total twenty tablespoons of butter. Did that get your attention? Yea, this is one of those 'yum... oh no, what have I done' desserts.

In other 'Oh no, what have I done' news. Ms. Humble ordered a new ice cream maker last night. No, not the pricey gelato machine I wanted, I settled on a much more reasonable Cuisinart. I figure having it around will prevent me from buying the gelato maker and then quickly spiraling out of control on a month long gelati binge.



Fran's L'Orange
from Pure Chocolate
6 ounces (170g) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 large navel oranges
12 tablespoons (169g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (200g) sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 2/3 cups (188g) almond meal

Place a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat to 300°F.

Lightly butter a 9-inch metal pie or cake pan and line the bottom with a circle of parchment.

In a double boiler melt the chocolate over low heat. Set the chocolate aside to cool, keeping the water simmering in case the chocolate thickens while you're preparing the cake.

Wash the oranges thoroughly and then zest them with a microplane directly into the mixing bowl you will be using. This ensures that none of the wonderful orange oil will escape.

Add the butter and sugar to the orange zest and beat on medium high speed using the paddle attachment for 3-5 minutes. When the butter and sugar is fully creamed (light and fluffy) scrape down the bowl. Continue to beat on medium high adding the eggs to the mixture one at a time. Beat this mixture for three minutes on medium high until it has lightened in color and increased in volume.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the almond meal with a rubber spatula. When the flour is incorporated, fold in the melted chocolate.

Pour this mixture into your prepared pan and baked for 40-45 minutes until puffed and domed in the center with slight cracks near the edge of the pan. A cake tester inserted with have a few moist crumbs attached.

Allow to cool at room temperature in the pan for 15 minutes and then run a knife around the edge of the pan. Invert the cake onto a flat dish lined with a piece of parchment.

Allow the cake to completely cool then you're ready to glaze.

Fran's Chocolate Butter Glaze
from Pure Chocolate
4 ounces (113g) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter, room temperature

In a double boiler melt the chocolate over low heat. Remove the chocolate when nearly melted and continue to stir until smooth. Add the butter a few tablespoons at a time stirring until no traces of butter remain. If the butter melts and turns greasy, stop and allow the chocolate to cool slightly before adding the remaining butter.

When done, the graze should be glossy and smooth. At about 80-85°F the glaze is ready to use (when stirred it will hold a line on the surface for about 10 seconds before disappearing).

Transfer the cool tort from the plate using the parchment and then place it (minus the parchment) onto a wire rack. Set the rack over a jelly roll pan to catch excess glaze. Trim any uneven edges on the tort and then you can pour the glaze.

Start by pouring the glaze around the tort, about 1 1/2 inches from the edge letting it coat the sides. Pour the remaining glaze into the center of the cake. Spread the glaze with a offset spatula to smooth and touch up any missed spots. Allow to set at room temperature until firm. In about 30 minutes the glaze will be firm enough that you can transfer it gently from the rack to a serving dish.

The tort will keep quite well at room temperature for roughly three days. You may store it in the fridge, but the glaze will lose its glossy finish.

Sorry I don't have many photos for today's post. I was having a wretched time getting the exposure right and most of my photos look freakish.

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

Last weekend I found the most adorable cupcake liners! The sweet little, fluted orange cups caught my eye immediately.

So I'm standing there in the baking store, holding paper liners and slipping quickly into the food blogger trance of doom... must... make... orange creamsicle cupcakes.

Oh yes.

So I baked them last weekend and they lasted roughly 5 minutes. I admit to eating way more than reasonable. It was a total slip in my generally reserved approach to baked goodies. Now I have to go work out to make up for the extra calories. By my calculations I need to spend roughly a month on the treadmill to break even.



So, for these cupcakes I used an orange bakery emulsion. Generally, this isn't something you can find at your local grocery store, but you can order them online and find them in specialty baking shops. You use them like extracts, but unlike the alcohol based extracts, the flavor they impart will not bake out.

They are absolutely wonderful, I reach for my emulsions far more often than I do my extracts. They make an almond emulsion that makes my pound cake bliss...

...

Darn that trance!


Anyway, before I ramble further on about individual ingredients, let's get to the cupcakes.




Not So Humble Orange Creamsicle Cake
yields 24 standard cup cakes, a 9x13" cake or 2 8" rounds
3 large egg whites, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon orange gel coloring
1 1/2 teaspoon orange emulsion
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200 grams all purpose flour
200 grams granulated sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (58 grams) canola oil
1/4 cup (57 grams) (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (115 grams) sour cream

Preheat your oven to 350°F with a rack placed in the lower third of the oven.

Prep your pans with cupcakes liners (or if baking a cake, use parchment and nonstick spray).

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder and set aside.

In a second bowl gently mix the egg whites, orange gel coloring, orange emulsion and vanilla. You don't want to over beat the eggs, just make the mixture uniform.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the butter and oil with the paddle attachment for about a minute on medium speed. The mixture won't be completely smooth, so don't worry about little bits of butter suspended in oil.

Add the sour cream and mix to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until the ingredients are moistened and crumbly. Add half of the egg mixture to the flour and beat on low for 20 seconds until moistened and then beat on medium high speed for 40 seconds. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, then add the remaining egg mixture and beat on medium high speed for 40 seconds.

Divide the batter into your cupcakes (or pans if using), filling each cup halfway.

Bake for 20-25 minutes for standard cupcakes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you're baking the 9x13" or the 8" rounds, allow 5-10 more minutes. Also
this is very moist, delicate cake, so be careful when checking on the cakes. I usually don't pull my cakes out on the oven rack, as too much jostling of the pan before the center has set could cause the cake to fall. I just stick my hand into the oven and touch the center of the cake. If it springs back, it is done and you can pull the cake out carefully.

Frosting is flexible. For the layer cake I made today I used a regular vanilla butter cream. On the cupcakes I used a white chocolate cream cheese frosting. Feel free to use your favorite creamy vanilla frosting, I can't think of a single type that wouldn't pair well with this cake.



If you want the frosting shown above, no worries I'll post it.

Rose's White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from Rose's Heavenly Cakes
yields 2 cups frosting, you'll need to double this if you're planning on loading on the frosting or doing a layer cake.
6 ounces white chocolate
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the white chocolate, either in the microwave or over a double boiler. Set aside until no longer warm to the touch.

In your food processor, beat the cream cheese, butter and sour cream until smooth. Scrape down the sides and add the cooled white chocolate. Blend until the chocolate until incorporated and then pulse in the vanilla.

For a firmer frosting place in the refrigerator for roughly 30 minutes, until it reaches the desired consistency.


Oh and if you like the mini cupcake liners too, I'm so sorry but I wasn't able to find them online. I did find the standard-sized version of the cupcake liner here though: Pastel Fluted Baking Cups

@ Mr. Humble: So, how about a nice four layer orange cream cake for dinner? Or are you going to insist on 'real food' again?



You know, there is a pound of butter in that photo, seems pretty 'real' to me.