Happy Birthday to The Cake Slice

Five years and going strong ... The Cake Slice!

This great group of bakers has been baking their way through cake cookbooks for 5 years now.  The cookbooks have included The Cake Book by Tish Boyle, Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman, Southern Cakes by Nancy McDermott and Sky High by Alisa Huntsman, Peter Wynne, Tina Rupp.  I joined this lovely group for this year's book ~ Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson.  We are having a great time trying out these retro recipes with a modern twist.

To celebrate this fifth year we have decided to bake up something special.  I have chosen to try out Black Bottom Cupcakes.  I chose to use the recipe posted by fellow CLBaker Monica at Lick the Bowl Good.

These cupcakes are pretty quick to put together.  I was a little surprised how thin the batter was, but they baked up very nicely.

The BB cupcakes came out moist and so darned tasty!  Everyone at the table asked for a second cupcake.

You can find the recipe for the Black Bottom Cupcakes @ Lick the Bowl Good.

Check out all of The Cake Slice Bakers @ the blogroll & like us on Facebook.

Enjoy!

:)

The Black & White Cake

Running a few days behind here.  But for a good cause.  I have been recipe testing for my sister's tea house.  She is hoping to open the beginning of October.  Fingers crossed for us please!

Now onto the cake.... our June choice for the Cake Slice Bakers is the Black & White Cake from Vintage Cakes.   In case you don't know about Cake Slice Bakers... We are a group of bakers that are baking a cake each month out of a specific cookbook.  This year of baking is being done from  Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson.  It is a great group of gals to bake with!  Be sure to check out all of their yummy blogs.

Rather than run through the making of the cake step by step this month I wanted to share how I used the cake.  One of the things that we will be offering at the tea house is a stacked cake for dessert.  So I thought this would be a good test for stackage!

I baked the cake in a sheet pan.  Be sure to butter the pan, lay down a piece of parchment paper then butter the paper also.  This will ensure that your cake will come out nice and easy.  Get a nice even spread by starting with batter all over the pan then spreading out in an even layer.

After the cake has baked and cooled, I put a piece of wax paper on top, wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap and placed it in the freezer overnight.  The next day I took it out and before it could thaw I cut circles out using a biscuit cutter.

The recipe called for a cooled ganache and a vanilla Swiss buttercream.  I opted for making what some call an American buttercream.

Now to just assemble the cakes.  Which isn't the easiest thing to do with the men folk in the house trying to 'help'.  

Cake, buttercream, cake, buttercream and zigzagged with ganache.

 

Nick wanted more ganache....

This chocolate cake is quite yummy without being overly sweet and has a nice moist firm texture.  This will definitely be a recipe I will use again.

Visit the other Cake Slice Bakers here.

The CSBs are now on Facebook ~ check them out here and be sure to 'like' the page.

Enjoy!

:)

More Layers & Behind The Curtain Dessert Challenge

Just as my life is getting a wee bit busier I decided to join another group ~ Behind The Curtain Dessert Challenge.  BTCDC is a blog hop.  

Each month we are given a couple of ingredients and we post a recipe that uses those ingredients.  This month's ingredients are almond paste and pastry dough.

Since I have been working with Danish pastry dough I figured perfect time to use a batch of dough!  I made what some may consider a classic Danish coffeecake but it is perfect for dessert also.... I love things that blur that line!

Let's get going!
Once again I have used Joe Pastry's recipe and techniques for making these Danishes.
The recipe can be found here.
The laminating process is here.
Based on The Classic Coffeecake.

I started with making almond cream cheese filling.
My cream cheese and almond paste were both at room temperature.  And I thought, never actually having worked with almond paste, that I could simply cream the two together with my hand mixer.  This was not the case at all.  The almond paste was much stiffer than expected.  So I took a fork and mashed up the paste then blended it with the cream cheese.
I added the rest of the ingredients to the mixture, whipped it for a minute and then set it aside.  There were still small blobs of the paste in the cream but not large enough to be a taste issue.

Got out my Danish dough and cut the piece in half to make two pastries.

Oh how I love seeing all those LAYERS!!  Yes i know it is like a layerfest at my house lately.  Trust me when I say there have been no complaints!

I rolled out my dough into a rectangle - or at least it was close to that shape once I whacked off a wavy edges.

I spread a generous amount a Bing Cherry jam onto half of the dough (made by your's truly *wink*).  Be sure to leave an edge without the filling.  This edge is needed for your eggy glue line.

I decided that piping the almond cream onto the pastry would be easier.... so bagged and went to work.  I made three lines of the almond cream.

Next I moistened the edges with egg wash (one egg white whisked with a splash of water).  Then I folded the plain side over the filled side.  Smooshed down the edges for a nice tight seal.

Now came the task of picking up and moving the pastry to a parchment lined baking sheet.  I was such a pansy with this one!  I thought I would never get it onto the sheet and that it would survive would be a miracle.

Ok, fine!  It really was not a big deal.  It survived, I survived and even the dog that was under my feet survived!

Once on the sheet pan I cut vents in the top and egg washed it.  Set it aside to work on the second pastry.

My son decided that chocolate sounded good to him and me being the awesome mom I am, agreed!

Made a quick chocolate filling of 3 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate and half an ounce of butter.  Microwaved until all melted and mixed together.  

Rolled out the second piece of dough, spread the chocolate filling on and piped on the almond cream.

Folded it over, transferred, vented and egg washed.  Time to let the pastries just hang out for about 45 minutes. Preheated the oven to 400 degrees and gave them a final egg wash before going into the oven.  

As soon as I put them into the oven I turned the temperature down to 375 degrees and baked them for just under thirty minutes.  Took them out of the oven when they were awesome brown and crispy-flaky looking.

Let the cool before applying the icing and slicing.

Filled Danish

by My Sister's Table

Components:

the Danish dough

the almond cream ~ recipe below

jam of choice or chocolate filling

the icing

Begin by making your almond cream.  Set the cream aside to work on your dough.

Roll your dough out into a rectangle   Spread or pipe your filling(s) onto one side of the dough, leaving a sealing edge.  Egg wash the edges, fold the dough over and press down the edges to seal.

Transfer the pastry to a lined baking sheet.  Cut vent holes in the top with scissors or a sharp knife.  Egg wash the top of the pastry then allow to rest for about 45 minutes. 

While the pastry to proofing preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

At the end of the 45 minutes egg wash the pastry again and put into the oven.  Turn down the oven to 375 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes, turning halfway through the bake time.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before icing and serving.

Almond Cream

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

3 ounces tube almond paste, at room temperature

1/3 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp. brown sugar

dash of fresh ground nutmeg

Using a fork smash and break up the almond paste.  Using a hand mixer, beat together the almond paste and cream cheese.  Once as mixed as can be, there will be small bits of the paste throughout, add the rest of the ingredients and beat until combined.

Printable recipe here.

Enjoy!

: )

RVC = Red Velvet Cake

When this cake came up as the next cake to be made for Cake Slice Bakers I was not... happy.  Yes I am one of THOSE people.  I loathe today's RVC.  I am one of THOSE people that can taste the chemical flavoring of the red dye.  But I am one of THOSE people that really wants to be a team player so we make the RVC!!  Even though there will be some tweaking.  No. not tweeting, I am not one of THOSE people.

This month we are making the Red Velvet Cake with Mascarpone Cream Cheese Frosting.  I have read here and there about the origins of the RVC, about the red being the result of a reaction between vinegar, buttermilk and the cocoa used.  Another way of making the cake reddish was by using beets and or beet juice in the cake.  I am not trying to completely change this recipe so I discarded the idea of causing a reaction, instead I wanted to use beets to achieve the color.  I really had no desire to make a beet cake either.  I simply did not want to use the food coloring so I decided I would swap out the food coloring for beet juice.

I started off by pureeing a small can of sliced beets.  Poured them into a strainer and let them sit to get as much of the juice out of the puree.

I then put the juice into a sauce pan and simmered it for about 10 minutes until it reduced down to a syrup.

Set it off to cool and moved to making the cake.

Start by preparing your cake pans.  I choose to use two rounds.  It is quite helpful to line the bottom of your cake pans with parchment.  Remember making paper snowflakes?  Yep, you got it, like that! But without the frilly cuts.

Once you have your circles cut you need to butter the pan and it is helpful for removal later to butter the cake side of the parchment too.  Using your empty butter wrapper go to town on the pans.

Now open up your circle, place it in your pan and rub it down.  Grab an edge and turn it over, there you have both sides buttered. *wink*

Sift together your dry ingredients and set aside.

Next cream together your butter and sugar until it is fluffy.  While it is fluffing, crack your eggs into a bowl and in an other bowl mix together the oil, vanilla and your coloring.  I added in the beet juice - about 2 tablespoons.  Once you achieve fluff slowly add your oil mixture then your eggs one at a time.

Well it is slightly pink.  Yep that is it - with all the extra work and I get slightly pink.  Oh well let's proceed and see how it turns out.

On a low speed add in the dry ingredients and buttermilk, alternating between the two until all is incorporated.

A side note... I was given a scrapper paddle.

It is a love - hate relationship! I love that I don't have to stop and scrape down the sides as often but I hate the mess it makes!  It kicks out huge amounts of stuff when you turn on the mixer - at the lowest speed even.  Plus the scrapper edge gets gunked up so you do have to scrape off that part pretty often.

Verdict is still out on this tool...

Yes that messy!

Alrighty then!  All mixed and poured into your pans, ready for the oven.  Looking brown not pink or even red-ish.

Cooked the cakes to 200 degree internal temperature but was not real happy with the slight dark edge on the top - easily gotten rid of thankfully because this just became a birthday cake for my cousin.

Let the layers cool and got busy on the frosting.  This was a pretty straight forward frosting, fluff, sweeten and flavor.  It came out quite tasty and not overly sweet.  I made a double batch because I decided to split the layers.

Started off by leveling the layer. Using a sharp bread knife just slice off the bump.  Try to avoid any downward pressure, if you press down it will get wonky.

Put a small blob of frosting on your cake plate before placing your first layer.  This will help your keep your cake from sliding around.

Many years ago I was taught an easy way to split a layer is with floss.  You read that correctly, dental floss.  Just be sure it isn't flavored!  Take a long piece of floss, wrap it around the layer, make sure it is in the middle all the way around. Now holding both ends in one hand and steadying the cake with the other hand, pull the floss right through the cake.

Brush the loose crumbs off of the cake and place your first layer onto the cake plate and give it a nice coating of frosting.

Repeat with the rest of the layers.

Red Velvet Cake with Mascarpone Cream Cheese Frosting

can be found in the cookbook Vintage Cakes.

This cake turned out well even if it lacked the red color.  It was very moist and not overly sweet.  Try it!

Happy Birthday to my cousin Heather!!

Sorry for the not great slice pic - it was a quicky shot and then gone.

Enjoy!

Visit the other Cake Slice Bakers here.

:)