Daring Bakers' Dobos Torte!

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

This torte turned out to be pretty tasty. As usual, I cannot be trusted with an entire chocolate cake in the fridge, so I took some to the Brain's office, took some into the jewelry store (did I mention I got a job? I work in a jewelry store! I like it.) and I have a chunk to give to my friend A if she ever gets back from vacation! The general consensus however, is that the caramel layer is too lemony. The ladies at the jewelry store think that a salted caramel would have been much tastier. They really liked the chocolate buttercream though.

There are thousands of Dobos Tortes floating around the internet today. Go check out the rest of the Daring Bakers! Also take a peek at the Daring Store!

Daring Bakers Caramel Cake

This month the Daring Bakers were hosted by Delores of Culinary Curiosity, Alex of The Blondie and the Brownie, Jenny of Foray into Food, and the lovely Natalie of Gluten a Go Go helped with the alternative Daring Baker side of things. We made a Caramel Cake created by Shuna Fish Lydon. Her recipe can be found here.

I wanted to like this cake. I mean brown butter and caramel sounds amazing. I was excited to make this cake and it's been done for weeks. But as reports from other Daring Bakers trickled in about it being mighty sweet, I got worried. Then I started thinking that maybe if I made tiny little bite sized petit fours I could handle the sweetness. Unfortunately no. These were far too sweet for me of the Brain and eventually most of it went trashward bound. The frosting was simple, and the salt made it excellent, but it was super sweet and on top of a sweet cake it was a bit of overkill. I even tried pouring some very dark chocolate over the top to cut how sweet they are a bit. But that only made them seem sweeter in contrast.

I think I would make the cake again. And I probably would make the frosting again, but I wouldn't make them together.

Make sure you check out the rest of the Daring Bakers!

Le Glorieux

Yesterday would have been the 96th birthday of Julia Child. To celebrate I made a cake from her book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume 2, called Le Glorieux. Its a light and delicious chocolate cake flavored with a hint of orange. The filling is a decadent chocolate orange ganache. I then frosted the whole thing with an Italian Buttercream. It was super delicious. I served it on Super G's birthday because Super G is also great cook and is over 6 foot tall. The cake wasn't very hard although I did feel like I was doing a rogue Daring Bakers exercise.

So if I prepared ahead, and made this fabulous cake, why didn't I post yesterday in honor of Julia's birthday? Well, see, the Brain and I decided to go for my first bike ride post Wilma. And because I'm me. Something similar to this happened.

How? I have clipless pedals. That means my special bike shoes snap in to these little knobs instead of pedals. SO in order to stop I have to unhook a foot to be able to set it down. This only gets to be a problem if you unhook you right foot, for example, and lean left. That left foot would still be hooked to the bike and over you go. This in itself isn't too bad, although it's how I sprained my wrist. It gets a little more fun if your husband happens to be following along behind you when you go over.

The Brain is a terrific husband because although he wasn't going fast enough to swerve around me, and wasn't going slow enough to stop, he ran me over in the least damaging way possible. He's terrific because he managed to miss me with the wheel, so there's no tire tracks on my head. And he managed to get his foot up so he didn't literally kick me when I was down. Unfortunately his pedal whacked me smack in the back and I now have a strained dorsal (that's what the ER discharge papers say). I also have a nice pedal imprint going on.

I think that's a good reason for not posting. This cake is delicious. Please make and enjoy. And don't worry, we're putting my racing bike, with the clipless pedals and aerodynamic posture, away for a while. I will now try to ride, without further injury, the Brain's hybrid bike. It's like trading in a Ferarri for a family sedan.

Oh yeah, and I'm submitting this as my entry to the Layers of Cake Event over at Quirky Cupcake.

Le Glorieux

verbatim from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume 2

1) Preliminaries:

7 ounces semisweet baking chocolate

2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate

1/4 cup orange liqueur

The grated rind of 1 orange

2 four cup cake pans (such as round ones 8 by 1 1/2 inches), bottom lined with waxed paper, pans buttered and floured

2 sticks butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in middle level. Break up chocolate and melt with orange liqueur and orange rind over hot water; it must be perfectly smooth and creamy. Cut the butter into 1/4-inch slices and beat piece by piece into the chocolate, again making sure mixture is perfectly smooth and creamy. (A hand-held electric mixer is useful here.) If consistency is too liquid- it should be like a heavy mayonnaise- beat over iced water. Set aside.

2) The cake batter

5 "large" eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

An electric mixer and 3- to 4- quart bowl (be sure mixer blades and bowl are clean and dry)

1 cup (4 ounces) cornstarch measured by scooping dry-measure cup into starch and leveling off

A sieve or sifter set over waxed paper

The chocolate-butter mixture

A rubber spatula

Beat the eggs and sugar for a moment at low speed to blend, then increase speed to high, add vanilla, and beat several minutes (7 to 8 with a hand-held machine) until mixture is pale, fluffy, doubled in volume, and holds soft peaks.

Just as you are ready to blend the various batter elements together, sift the cornstarch onto the paper, check on the chocolate-butter to be sure it is a smooth, thick cream, and give the eggs and sugar a few turns of the beater if they have lost their body.

At slow mixing speed, gradually sprinkle the cornstarch into the egg mixture, taking 15 to 20 seconds to incorporate it but not trying for a perfect blend; you must not deflate the beaten eggs. Remove bowl from stand, if you have that kind of mixer. Fold a large gob of egg mixture into chocolate-butter to lighten it. Then, a large gob at a time, start folding chocolate-butter into eggs, rapidly cutting down through batter and out to side with rubber spatula, rotating bowl, and repeating movement 2 or 3 times. When almost incorporated, add another gob, and continue until all is used. Immediately turn the batter into the prepared pans. Rapidly push batter up sides of pans all around and bang lightly on table to deflate possible bubbles. Pans should be about 2/3 filled. Place at once in middle level of preheated oven, leaving at least 2 inches of space between pans as well as walls and door of oven.

3) Baking, filling, and frosting

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Cakes should remain slightly moist, in the French manner, and are done when a skewer or toothpick plunged into center comes out looking oily, with a few speckles of chocolate clinging to it. Cake will usually rise 1/4 to 1/2 inch above rim of pans. Cool for 10 minutes. Top of cakes will crack and flake slightly, which is normal. Make the following filling while cakes are cooling.

the chocolate filling:

3 ounces semisweet baking chocolate

1/2 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate

3 Tbsp orange liqueur

4 to 5 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch slices

Melt the chocolate in the liqueur over hot water. When perfectly smooth and creamy, beat in the butter piece by piece. If mixture is too soft for easy spreading, beat over iced water until the consistency of mayonnaise.

filling the cake:

A cake rack

A cookie sheet

When cakes have cooled for 10 minutes, ran a knife around edge of one to loosen it from the pan and unmold onto cake rack. Peel off waxed paper.

Spread top with filling. Immediately unmold second cake onto one end of cookie sheet. Line up cake on sheet exactly with cake on rack, then slide the one upon the other. Peel paper off top of second cake. If sides are uneven, trim with a knife.

(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: If not to be iced or served immediately, cover airtight as soon as cake is cool or it will dry out. Cake may be frozen at this point; thaw for several hours at room temperature.

4) Frosting and serving

WHIPPED CREAM. To serve the cake as a dessert or with tea, spread lightly whipped cream, sweetened and flavored with vanilla or orange liqueur, around and over the cake. Decor ate with shaved or grated chocolate.

MERINGUE ICING. Or use the plain Italian meringue (hot sugar syrup whipped into stiffly beaten egg whites, Volume 2, page 426) or the meringue butter cream in Volume 2, on page 489. (I'll be posting this next time.)

CHOCOLATE ICING. Or while the cake is still warm, spread on the same chocolate and butter mixture that you used for the filling, or use one of the chocolate butter creams listed in Volume 1, pages 680-4.

Triple Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I'm sure I'm not alone on this, but I have a glut of zucchini going on. For example, before I went on vacation I had 9, yes nine, zucchini to do something with. I couldn't bear the thought of leaving them and having them go bad. I made some zucchini bread that was a combination of my mom's and my stepmother's recipes. I grated a bunch and put them in 2 cup packages in the freezer. I grilled and sauteed a bunch. And I made cake. Yep, when life hands you zucchini, make cake.

The zucchini really isn't noticeable in this cake. It's dark. It's rich. It's chocolaty. It doesn't scream, "Eat me! I'm a healthy vegetable!" Oh but they're in there. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the inside because I took it on family vacation and simply forgot. I did have three pieces and numerous opportunities, but by the time I remembered, the cake had gone moldy. Take this lesson away with you. Zucchini cake left on the counter and not eaten will go moldy. In about 5 days. The irony here is that after my third piece, I decided that I better slow down so that other people could have some when they wanted it.

Triple Chocolate Zucchini Cake

adapted from Serving Up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman

2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

3/4 cups dark chocolate cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 cups lightly packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 large eggs

3 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup coffee

3 cups grated zucchini

1 cup chocolate chips

powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter and flour a 10 inch fluted bundt pan.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon into a medium bowl.

Beat together the brown sugar and butter. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the melted chocolate and vanilla. Add the flour mixture, alternating with the coffee, and beat until smooth. Fold in the zucchini. Fold in the chocolate chips. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Cool the entire cake in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Invert the cake, remove the pan, and let cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar right before serving.

Walnut Gateau with Praline Buttercream

The Daring Bakers are at it again! (This time starring the lovely addition of my little sister Super G. Go check hers out. We talked on the phone the whole day we made it and her sounds amazing.)

This month, Chris over at Mele Cotte picked Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream, from Great Cakes by Carol Walter. I wasn't worried at first. I thought, actually, whew. A layer cake. This won't be so hard. I had to go and get cocky about it. I had some problems. The cake stuck to the pan. Bad.

See? So I had to bake the cake part again, the second time using a sheet of parchment paper to line the bottom of the pan. But that was the only real problem. Otherwise it just took forever and my kitchen was really hot.

Let me tell you how I made mine different. Instead of the hazelnuts in the original recipe, which can be found on Mele Cotte, I used walnuts. I had a giant bag of them in the freezer, so it wouldn't cost me anything and I'm not sure I can get hazelnuts here without traveling some distance to get to the big city. Then instead of the rum or orange flavored liquor, I used Crown Royal. We're whiskey people here and we were fresh out of bourbon. We had two bottles of Crown and believe me, the Brain was not too happy I was cooking with the good whiskey. And finally, instead of the apricot glaze I used blackberry.

After that white chocolate opera cake that was far too sweet for my taste buds, I was excited to see how this would taste. It was fantastic! I cut a small sliver after I let it chill and brought it to the Brain with two forks. We both sat there worried that I had spent the entire day baking this beautiful thing only to find out we didn't like it. In fact when the Brain came home and I was still working on it he said, "This isn't going to be like that cake you made we couldn't eat is it? Hey! Are you cooking with the Crown!?!?" But fortunately we loved it. It was light, it wasn't too sweet. It was rich, but not overpowering. The Brain ate the whole piece. The next morning when I had a slice for breakfast, I knew I was in trouble and gave it away before lunch. Whew! That could have been disastrous for my hips!

Make sure to check out all the other Daring Bakers and how they all made theirs different. And especially check out Super G's. Hers looks great too! And thank you Chris for such a memorably delicious challenge!

Pink Butterfly Guavaberry Opera Cake!

When I discovered that the Daring Bakers would be doing an Opera Cake for our May challenge (hosted by Lis of La Mia Cucina, Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice, Fran of Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie, and Shea of Whiskful you know the drill, go check them out) I was ridiculously excited. I had seen these elegant cakes before and always wondered how they tasted and how such elegant and lovely cakes were created. I had never made one because a)I was too chicken to attempt making one and b) I knew that if I made one that I would eat it and my thighs would expand exponentially. I knew that now was the time for me to make it. See, now I have a husband, and in-laws who gather on a frequent basis and I had season tickets to the opera. You can't bring an opera cake to the opera, but when I go to the opera I see my best friend T and my family so I can always drop off goodies there.

The biggest rule of all was that we had to make a light opera cake. It had to be light in color and flavor. This meant massive amounts of white chocolate. Call me crazy, but I'm a dark chocolate girl. White chocolate really isn't my thing. But I was game so I thought and thought and thought (by this time half the DBers were done with their cakes). And I had a terrible time figuring out what flavor to pick. Well, until I was sort of reorganizing my cupcake supplies, sprinkles, liners, et al. and I saw my tiny jar of guavaberry honey tucked away.
So my flavor for the cake was guavaberry. Don't confuse guavas with guavaberry. Guavaberry is indigenous to the Carribean and the Brain and I picked up our guavaberry honey and liquor (and a big fat bottle of guavaberry rum) from this great shop that we were drinking in as soon as we docked. Well, we were "sampling" in. Guavaberries are a sort of tart tasting fruit that almost reminds me of a cranberry, but much much sweeter. The berries have a very large stone and a thin layer of pulp. It is also very labor intensive to pick these fruits. That's why they are so rare and if you get the chance to go to Sint Maartin, go to the Guavaberry Emporium and pick up the honey and the liquor and the rum. Oh heck, everything there is super delicious.

So I made the cake and it was delicious. And I made the buttercream and flavored it with guavaberry honey and it was such a lovely blush pink color. And I made the syrup for soaking the cake with guavaberry liquor. And I melted the white chocolate with no problems and made the mousse flavored with guavaberry liquor and it turned out a little darker of that beautiful blush color. And I assembled the cake and stuck it in the fridge while I made the white chocolate glaze flavored with guavaberry liquor and again with the lovely pink. And then I sprinkled my brand new butterfly sprinkles on top and I was happy. I mean please, it was a pink cake with butterflies, what's not to be happy about?

I had actually made half the cake into a rectangle to share with the Brain's family for the bi-monthly birthday celebration. The rest of the cake I cut into "individual" sized round cakes about 2 inches in diameter. Not wanting to waste the delicious cake scraps I made one tiny little heart shaped pink butterfly opera cake for me to taste.

Wow. That's some rich cake. The heart shaped cake was just the right size for me. I took the round "individual" cakes up to my Mom's and it was decided that one whole cake was far too rich. I shared one with my mom and felt like my teeth were rotting. I took the rectangular cake to the in-laws and the Brain and I both had tiny pieces. The Brain liked the guavaberry flavor, but agreed it was too rich. His sister had one bite of hers and was done. And his mom didn't eat the frosting and declared the cake part to be delicious. I think if I make this again, I would do it with a dark chocolate. I can handle rich, but this cake was far too sweet. It might be lovely if it were cut up like a petit four. I would have to wait until I had some elegant event to take them to.

If anyone has managed to get their hands on some guavaberry honey and guavaberry liquor and wants to know how I flavored it, shoot me an email. Otherwise the recipe is here or here or here or here. And don't forget to check out all the other beautiful and far more delicious opera cakes that are currently posting all over the internet!

Barbara of Winos and Foodies had to leave our Daring Baker group for health reasons and so I dedicate this very pretty pink butterfly opera cake to her. Barbara, I hope you are winning the battle and come back to join us when you can!

Perfect Party Cake!

It's that time of the month again. Daring Baker Challenge time! Hoooray! This month's Daring Baker Challenge was Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake and was picked out by Morven at Food Art and Random Thoughts. When I first saw the recipe I thought, well this isn't very challenging. I can make a cake. I'm actually pretty good at buttercream frosting. And I can deal with the amount of fruit in jam. But then I noticed that I would have to cut the cakes in half. So AHA! It was going to be a challenge after all.

I remembered a photo from an old Betty Crocker cookbook of my mother's that had toothpicks along the outside of the cake and they used the toothpicks as a guide to cutting the cake. I was pretty impressed. That worked out pretty good. Well it worked pretty good for about 1 1/2 cakes. The last half cake wasn't so hot. I also realized it was a challenge to spread frosting on top of jam. I will have to experiment more to get this just right. But overall this wasn't too difficult.

So what did it taste like? Well I was expecting a pretty boring cake to be perfectly honest. But this is no ordinary boring cake. This was a light fluffy super lemony cake! We gobbled it up after Easter dinner. Even the leftovers were fantastic. This was indeed a perfect party cake.

Make sure you check out the other Daring Bakers here.

For the Cake:

2 1/4 cups cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 ¼ cups buttermilk

4 large egg whites

1 ½ cups sugar

grated lemon zest from 1 whole lemon

1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream:

1 cup sugar

4 large egg whites

3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing:

2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable

Getting Ready

Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out cleanTransfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Buttercream

Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.Remove the bowl from the heat.Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake

Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half. Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.Spread it with one third of the preserves.Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream.Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover).Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top.

Serving

The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing

The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.