Blueberry Cake

Ah, the return of fresh blueberries! We go to pick your own places and buy at least 20 pounds. My kids will eat several pounds in a few minutes before I shoo them away. We freeze many of them to use the rest of the year but we bake several delicious goodies immediately. This cake is one of those lovely things that you must try. However, please go pick fresh berries and don't use those marbles that they call blueberries in the winter months.

Blueberry Cake

9 oz cake flour, approx 2 cups

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ginger, ground

2 oz unsalted butter, room temp

5 1/4 oz sugar (approx 3/4 cup)

1 large egg

1/2 cup whole milk

15 oz (approx 3 cups) fresh blueberries

3 1/2 oz sugar (approx 1/2 cup)

1 1/2 oz cake flour, (approx 1/3 cup)

1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

2 oz unsalted butter, chilled and cubed

Spray 9 oz glass baking dish with cooking spray. Mix flour, baking powder, salt and ginger, set aside. In bowl of stand mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add egg and beat well .Add 1/3 flour mixture, beat on low speed just until mixed, then add 1/3 of milk and mix well. Repeat alternating additions until all combined. Gently stir in blueberries and pour into prepared dish. In small owl, combine sugar, flour and nutmeg. Add butter and work into the dry ingredients using a fork to combine. Continue until crumb like texture. Sprinkle over top of cake. Bake in middle rack of oven for 35 minutes until golden in color. Cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe Source: Alton Brown's Good Eats TV show

Chocolate cakes with liquid centers

Simple, delicious, rich. Quick yet impressive. Chocolate. One of my favorites.

Chocolate cakes with liquid centers
1/2 cup butter
4 (1 oz) squares bittersweet chocolate
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp white flour

Preheat oven to 450 F. Butter and flour 4 4oz ramekins or custard cups.
Melt butter and chocolate in double boiler until chocolate is almost completely melted.
Beat eggs, yolks and sugar until light colored and thick.
Beat together butter and chocolate mixtures by pouring chocolate mixture into egg mixture while beating. Qucikly mix in flour just until combined.
Divide batter between molds and bake at 450 for 6-7 minutes. The centers will still be soft. Invert onto serving plates, let sit 15 minutes, then unmold. Serve immediately with fresh whipped cream.

Dobas Torta

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful
of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos
Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite
Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

So, what is the Dobos Torta (or Torte)?

The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. (You may come across recipes which have anywhere between six and 12 layers of cake; there are numerous family variations!) It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. The recipe was a secret until Dobos retired in 1906 and gave the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners' and Gingerbread Makers' Chamber of Industry, providing that every member of the chamber can use it freely.

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The last time I attempted a multi-layer cake, I had issues with stacking the layers and getting a nice cake shape. Guess what I had issues with this time? The same thing, only worse since there were more layers!

Additionally, making the layers for this cake was quite difficult for me. It involves lots of parchment paper, drawing circles, pouring/spreading batter, multiple timers and shelf rotations...and not really knowing how dark to let a layer get before it was done. I think I should have cooked most of my layers longer because they were extremely sticky still when cool and stuck to everything. (I also realized afterward that I had forgotten the vanilla to flavor them, but luckily they still had a good flavor.)

There was no way I was going to be able to trim the 9" rounds into perfect 8" rounds, just keeping them whole was challenging my skills. Plus I used a large plate to flip some of the layers off the parchment paper and one layer stuck firmly to the plate. Since there was no way to remove it, it became the bottom layer. I toyed with the idea of trimming the rounds, but my layers were too delicate and sticky. It just wasn't going to happen without shredding them - which meant I would destroy the circles I had so carefully kept whole coming out of the oven!

Making the buttercream went a lot better, but I should have chilled it longer before assembling the cake. It was still a bit runny and slid all over the place. My cake frosting skills are not the best anyway, so this became quite the challenge.

The caramel came out extremely lemony and hard to eat for us. No one liked the flavor, and it seemed incongruous with the rich chocolate buttercream flavor. At least in making the caramel layer I succeeded pretty well. Though I suspect maybe my caramel had caramelized too much perhaps and the fact that I used store bought lemon juice may have affected the flavor as well. Extra pieces of caramel were twisted to try and make decorations but they proved too soft and chewy to hold much shape.

With no hazelnuts or almonds on hand to decorate I used the extra buttercream to make some rosettes to dress it up a bit, but I think nuts would have been lovely. My dinner party guests loved the cake, the rich buttercream and light cake layers are very delicious together, even if not aesthetically stunning.Would I make it again? Maybe. The buttercream I would use again, perhaps a different recipe for the cake layers. No caramel layer though.

Thanks to the hosts for a great Daring Baker challenge! It stretched my skills and introduced me to new things. It was great fun to say I was making a Hungarian dessert! For the recipe, visit the hosts' blogs, linked at the beginning of this post. Make sure to visit other Daring Baker blogs to see some awesome cakes made by all the amazing Daring Bakers out there.

Dark Chocolate Cake

My dear husband loves chocolate. I love chocolate. We really prefer dark chocolate. It is hard to get a great dark chocolate cake recipe that doesn't involve coffee or liquor though. But this month at birthday time, we had a revelation. Look on the back of the Hershey's special dark box! And there was a deep dark chocolate cake recipe and frosting. Of course we had to try it. IMHO they don't put bad recipes on the backs of products. They want you to try their product!

We used a chocolate ganache for the inner filling. The combo of the moist dark chocolate cake, sweet ganache & dark chocolate frosting was fantastic. It was a big hit in our home. Not much in the way of leftovers!

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• ONE-BOWL BUTTERCREAM FROSTING(recipe follows)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round pans or one 13x9x2-inch baking pan.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of electric mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes for round pans, 35 to 40 minutes for rectangular pan or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. (Cake may be left in rectangular pan, if desired.) Frost with ONE-BOWL BUTTERCREAM FROSTING. 8 to 10 servings.


ONE-BOWL BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
2-2/3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup HERSHEY'S Special Dark Cocoa
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat butter in medium bowl. Add powdered sugar and cocoa alternately with milk, beating to spreading consistency (additional milk may be needed). Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Lemon Layer Cake

I guess I've been interested in meringues lately...this cake asked me to make it! It was a lovely delicious Easter dessert. While mine is not as pretty as the Cooks Illustrated photo, it was very tasty. Almost like a lemonade pie filling between cake layers with a soft meringue frosting. Tart & sweet, full of lemon flavor. It was so delicious, I didn't think to take a picture until it was half gone! :)


Lemon Layer Cake
(From Cooks Illustrated)

The filling can be made a day ahead and refrigerated, but it will become quite stiff; fold it with a rubber spatula to loosen it before spreading onto the cake. For neater slices, dip a knife into hot water before cutting the cake. Leftovers can be stored covered in the refrigerator, with the cut side of the cake covered tightly with plastic wrap, for up to 3 days.

Serves 10 to 12

Lemon Curd Filling
1 cup fresh lemon juice from about 6 lemons
1 teaspoon gelatin (powdered)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (10 1/2 ounces)
1/8 teaspoon table salt
4 large eggs
6 large egg yolks (reserve egg whites for cake)
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into 1/2-inch cubes and frozen

Cake
2 1/4 cups cake flour (9 ounces), plus extra for pans
1 cup whole milk , room temperature
6 large egg whites , room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar (12 1/4 ounces)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into 12 pieces, softened but still cool
Fluffy White Icing
2 large egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
1 tablespoon corn syrup


1. FOR THE FILLING: Measure 1 tablespoon lemon juice into small bowl; sprinkle gelatin over top. Heat remaining lemon juice, sugar, and salt in medium nonreactive saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves and mixture is hot but not boiling. Whisk eggs and yolks in large nonreactive bowl. Whisking constantly, slowly pour hot lemon-sugar mixture into eggs, then return mixture to saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with heatproof spatula, until mixture registers 170 degrees on instant-read thermometer and is thick enough to leave trail when spatula is scraped along pan bottom, 4 to 6 minutes. Immediately remove pan from heat and stir in gelatin mixture until dissolved. Stir in frozen butter until incorporated. Pour filling through fine-mesh strainer into nonreactive bowl (you should have 3 cups). Cover surface directly with plastic wrap; refrigerate until firm enough to spread, at least 4 hours.

2. FOR THE CAKE: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch-wide by 2-inch-high round cake pans and line with parchment paper. In 2-cup liquid measure or medium bowl, whisk together milk, egg whites, and vanilla.

3. In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt at low speed. With mixer running at low speed, add butter one piece at a time; continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs with no visible butter chunks. Add all but 1/2 cup milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed until mixture is pale and fluffy, about 1 1/2 minutes. With mixer running at low speed, add remaining 1/2 cup milk mixture; increase speed to medium and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium speed and beat 20 seconds longer. Divide batter evenly between cake pans; using rubber spatula, spread batter to pan walls and smooth tops.

4. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of cakes comes out clean, 23 to 25 minutes. Loosen cakes from sides of pans with small knife, cool in pan 10 minutes, then invert onto greased wire rack; peel off parchment. Invert cakes again; cool completely on rack, about 1 1/2 hours.

5. TO ASSEMBLE: Following illustrations below, use serrated knife to cut each cake into 2 even layers. Place bottom layer of 1 cake on cardboard round or cake plate. Using icing spatula, spread 1 cup lemon filling evenly on cake, leaving 1/2-inch border around edge; using cardboard round, gently replace top layer. Spread 1 cup filling on top. Using cardboard round, gently slide bottom half of second cake into place. Spread remaining cup filling on top. Using cardboard round, place top layer of second cake. Smooth out any filling that has leaked from sides of cake; cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate while making icing.

6. FOR THE ICING: Combine all ingredients in bowl of standing mixer or large heatproof bowl and set over medium saucepan filled with 1 inch of barely simmering water (do not let bowl touch water). Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture registers 160 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove bowl from heat and transfer mixture to standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Beat on medium speed until soft peaks form, about 5 minutes. Increase speed to medium-high and continue to beat until mixture has cooled to room temperature and stiff peaks form, 5 minutes longer. Using icing spatula, spread frosting on cake. Serve. (Cake can be refrigerated for up to 1 day before serving.)

Chocolate Nemesis

The challenge for September between my friend at Create Cakes and I is flourless chocolate cakes. The first recipe we decided to try was a popular one from the River Cafe in London called the Chocolate Nemesis.

If you have read my other blog, you may know that I do not usually make cakes. I prefer cookies & brownies, which I almost always succeed at. It's not that I can't make cakes, but until recently, I couldn't frost them at all.

Then there is the extravagance of the ingredients in this cake. I probably would have attempted it sooner, but the amount of chocolate alone is staggering! Luckily in a taste test at Cooks illustrated, Hershey's Special dark came out in the top three and is the cheapest, so I decided to go with that from a cost perspective. It was given high marks in cake by them too.

Here is the recipe adjusted for American measuring, with the directions re-ordered a bit.

Chocolate Nemesis
Serves 10-12

24 oz bitter-sweet chocolate, broken into small pieces
10 whole eggs
2 3/4 C + 2 Tbs sugar
2 C unsalted butter, softened
1 C water

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Pick your pan sizes and line the bottom with parchment paper and the sides with pam. You can use a 12 inch, or 2 8 inch pans.

2. Heat 2 cups of the sugar in a small pan with the water until the sugar has completely dissolved to a syrup.

3. Place the chocolate and butter in the hot syrup and stir to combine until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

4. Beat the eggs with the rest of the sugar until the volume quadruples-this will take at least 10 minutes in an electric mixer.

5. Add warm chocolate mixture to the eggs and continue to beat, more gently, until completely combined- about 20 seconds.

6. Pour into the cake tin and place in a water bath. It is vital for even baking. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until set. Let it cool in the tin before turning out.

There is a lot of detail missing in these directions. Questions that came to mind while I was baking: How long do you let the sugar syrup boil when it becomes clear? How do you best add the chocolate & butter to the sugar syrup to prevent separation of the chocolate (or worse - burning)? Can you over cook this mixture in trying to get it smooth? How do you best mix the chocolate mixture and egg mixture without causing the egg to curdle? How do you know if the cake is set? Because the top is set, or by toothpick or what? How long do you let them cool before trying to invert them? How do you keep from spilling the water bath all over the place? Why did I try to do this while my kids were awake?

I chose to keep the mixer running on low and slowly add the chocolate mixture to it to try and help prevent curdling and cause better incorporation. Unfortunately my pan didn't want to cooperate and I spilled chocolate mixture on my counter. I tried a funnel but it didn't help much. Putting the lip of the pan on the mixer and pouring carefully was the best I could do and then salvage the rest off of my (thankfully) clean countertop. (This is part of what I consider a major design flaw on kitchen aid mixers that is only remedied by buying a pouring shield to help add mixtures that I do not own.)

I was warned that it would take more than 30 minutes for the cakes to set, and I'm grateful for those warnings because the top was set at 30 minutes, even though under the top it was totally liquid. At 45 minutes the tops had risen up higher but it was still a bit jiggly, so 10 more minutes. At 55 minutes they were ready to come out. (The smaller square one came out at 40 minutes.)

Oh, I had way more batter than would fit in my 2 8-inch pans. So I quickly pammed an 8 in square pyrex pan and started it with the rest. I didn't take the time to cut a parchment square, figuring I'd just claw it out like brownies if it wouldn't come out easily.

My lack of cake baking also translates into a lack of cake pans. The two tiny 8 inch pans, the 8" square and 9x13 rectangle pyrex pans are all I've got. If I'm going to be making many more cakes in the future, I think new pans are going to be necessary. :) Yay, a shopping excuse!

The photos: First is a slice of the finished cake and then the sliced cake. Next is the sugar syrup boiling and my prepared work surface. Following is the egg/sugar mixing up, and then the chocolate butter mixture. Next is the pans going into the oven, followed by how they rose coming out of the oven. Then a slice from the thin 8" square pan and finally the finished cake before being sliced.

Taste: Amazing. Smooth and creamy. Like a firm pudding or a chocolate custard. Rich chocolate flavor, but not bitter or intense. Tastes similar to the chocolate bar. I'm happy that I used the Hershey's Special Dark because it will appeal to more people flavor wise. A Lindt 70% cacao bar flavor might be enjoyed by my DH & I, but not many others like intense chocolate bite. Maybe something to try one day.