Rose-ish Cake

This will be my final post on this blog, but good news! In a couple months, I'll be kicking up a new one. My actual last post will be a link to that lovely, lovely futureblog, but until then, here's a slice from a little number I threw together for a dinner party:

The buttercream is mixed berry, using a reduction that I made out of actual berries. It was extra delicious with this dark chocolate cake for a foil.

Anyways, that's all for now cakefolk. I'll see you on the flip-side...

Bake Hard!
Azara

Omi's Mocha Torte

Just before Christmas my mom and I came across my grandmother's cookbook and started poking through it and... lo and behold, we found my Omi's famous Mocha Torte recipe! Because we were having a traditional Golston family dinner with goose, rotkraut (red cabbage with wine, sugar, vinegar and cloves), chestnuts, goose gravy and kartoffelklose (potato dumplings), I thought, why not bring back the Mocha Torte?

Usually Omi's cake was a 9" round, but we don't have those pans at our place in NY so I used a sheet pan and made a rectangular box-shape. 

In a break from my usual hardcore from-scratch approach, the Mocha Torte was made with Betty Crocker yellow box cake. I have tried in the past to scratchify my Omi's Mocha Torte, but each time it has missed the mark. With box cake, that stuff tastes like childhood! Some things, you just don't mess with.

But the key is the super fluffy delicious frosting! You start by whipping heavy cream, and then you fold it into a melted chocolate-coffee-marshmallow goo for a light mocha cream... Sooo good.

Here are some pics of my process, with a recipe to follow:

Scraps!!

Omi's Mocha Torte

1 package yellow cake mix
1 cup chocolate chips
3 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoon instant coffee powder
1 1/2 cups whipping cream, chilled

Prepare the cake mix, bake and cool. Split into as many layers as you like (my Omi suggests 4).

Combine the chocolate, marshmallow, milk and coffee in a bowl and set over a pot of simmering water. Heat until the marshmallow melts completely, and then cover the mixture and chill.

When the mixture is cold, whip the cream and fold it in.

Frost the cake and keep it in the fridge until it's time to eat!

We were so full after Christmas dinner, but everybody made more room for Mocha Torte =D

Merry Christmas!
Azara

So I Made This Weird Thing

... Yeaaaaah...





My favorite comments so far: "It looks like it just landed," and "It looks like it should be orbiting something."

The slats are made of lollipop syrup spooned into irregular "petals," and the sugar balls were rolled from the syrup when it reached that perfect state between burning-hot liquid and cool, brittle solid. I want to play with sugar at that stage more, but it's so difficult to keep it right there!

Lucky 13 layers! Chocolate cake with super dark chocolate ganache and a coffee soak, with red currant preserve. The outside is vanilla swiss meringue buttercream. Mmmmm =)

In order to eat the cake, it needed to be plucked first! A sorry sight...

Dark Chocolate Ganache

2 cups heavy cream
22-24 oz chopped semi- or bittersweet chocolate

Heat the cream just until it boils (be careful to keep it from boiling over!) and add the chocolate. Stir until completely smooth and allow to cool until thick enough to fill the cake layers.

Easy!


Bake Hard,
Azara

Chocolate-Pumpkin Muffins (for when you want to pretend to be healthy)

These are a stand-by when I want a small, pretend-healthy hit of chocolate. The muffins are moist and chocolatey and full of yummy pumpkin fiber!

The buttercream I used for decoration purposes was some leftover hazelnut (it freezes very well); you can find the recipe here.

 

 Chocolate-Pumpkin Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup almond meal
1/3 cup bran (optional)
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 can pumpkin puree (1 3/4 cups)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
4 oz baking chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare two muffin pans with Pam or shortening.

Whisk the dry ingredients until fully combined. Set aside.

Whisk eggs and canola oil together until an emulsion forms. Add the pumpkin and the sugar, and finally the apple cider vinegar and vanilla.

Mix wet and dry together until uniform and work in the melted chocolate.

Dole batter into muffin pans and bake muffins until they spring back when the top is gently poked, about 30 minutes (but check after 20 and keep a eye on them; baking times have differed for me!).

Bake Hard,

Azara

Mint Chocolate Layer Cake

On Friday I had a blast at a party at my friends Victor and Patrick's house! It being Patrick's birthday, the occasion called for a cake, so I put one together and it came out quite well... but I guess I am biased towards chocolate-mint seeing as how it's the best flavor combo EVER. Good choice, Patrick! Chocolate cake, mint Swiss-meringue buttercream, a Moroccan mint tea soak... awwww yeaaaah.





Of course I gave the cake my new signature Azara look: almost flat on the sides but leaving room for irregularities (not refrigerating and re-smoothing with a heated palette knife), and a swirl on the top. Straight-forward, no-fuss, but elegant.

This time I tried using a Swiss meringue for the buttercream, a departure from my usual Italian meringue. Instead of making a hot sugar syrup and beating it into whipped egg whites, the Swiss version calls for melting the sugar into the egg whites in a bain-marie (double boiler) and then beating that mixture into a meringue. I liked it; it was very soft, but didn't cause any structural problems as I layered it. My only complaint is that every once in a while I detected a grain or two of sugar that hadn't completely melted. Next time I'll keep it on the bain-marie for longer!

Moroccan Mint Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients:
3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons very strong, warm Moroccan mint tea (or whatever other tea you'd like to use)
1/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons powdered egg whites (with the tea, equivalent to 7 egg whites: you can use regular egg whites and just flavor the buttercream with mint extract)
2 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 1/3 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 lbs butter (eight sticks) at room temp
Mint extract

Reconstitute the powdered egg whites with the tea. Place the sugar, water, and reconstituted whites in the top of a bain-marie filled with simmering water, and stir constantly to dissolve the sugar. Once all the grains have disappeared, beat the mixture on high speed until the bottom of the bowl is cool to the touch.
Gradually beat the butter into the meringue. It may look like it's breaking, but keep beating until it is light and billowy! Taste and add mint extract as needed.

The chocolate cake recipe I used is here.

Here are some terrible night-pictures of the inside! 14 layers...

Bake Hard,
Azara