Almond Torte

Over 2 weeks have passed since my last post, but I am still having trouble getting into a blogging frame of mind. I find it really hard to find anything I want to bake, much less write about (I hate writing) and it doesn't help that it's getting dark at 4pm and I can't take photos. I haven't even been baking much, which means I probably should see the doctor. So, complaining aside, what's been on the menu? Lots of spicy food and this one lonely cake. I made it when a friend was coming for dinner. It was the perfect end to a simple meal, no adornment needed. If you like to gild the lily, raspberry coulis, candied sour cherries or any fresh or cooked fruit would make a wonderful accompaniment. This recipe is from a cookbook I've had since I was a teen, and I've been making almost that long, though I had forgotten about it for a few years. I simplified it by making the whole thing in a food processor, and I won't go back to the mixer for this cake, as the food processor does a much better job of breaking up the almond paste anyway. Yes, almond paste. Aren't you glad you kept reading? Try it--it's a moist and tasty cake, and a good keeper too.

Almond Torte
Source: Cooking A to Z
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
1 package almond paste (7 oz/200 grams)
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup unsalted butter
4 eggs
½ teaspoon almond extract

1. Preheat oven to 350℉. Lightly grease bottom of a 9" cake pan; line with parchment. Grease sides of pan and parchment and dust with flour. Combine dry ingredients and set aside.
2. Crumble almond paste into bowl of a food processor, add sugar and pulse until it looks like fine crumbs. Add butter and process until it is well creamed. Add eggs, one at a time, processing until each is well mixed before adding another. Add almond extract with the last egg. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add flour mixture and pulse a few times, until just combined. 
3. Scrape batter into pan and bake until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Start checking after 40 minutes, though it could take up to 50. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then remove and cool right-side up on a rack.

This Year's Raspberry Cream Cake

My family loves raspberry cream cake, and we used to get delicious ones at a local bakery. The last one we got was overpriced and underwhelming, so we've sworn off them and I occasionally remember to make one, usually when local raspberries are in season. I used to want to recreate that bakery cake, but I always end up making something completely different. That's okay, because I can still remember the other cake fondly while I'm gorging on raspberries, cake and cream. This one was exactly like the fraisier I made for the July Daring Bakers' challenge. Okay, not exactly. I used raspberries, skipped the almond paste and soaking syrup, and added lots of lemon zest to the cake batter. The verdict? Delicious.
Here's the link to that recipe because I'm far too lazy to type it up.
:)

Update: I am still not home! I'm enjoying my last week in Ecuador, and thinking of all the things I'll miss and making plans to return. I know my last post said I was on my way, but that was a mix-up on my part. I had lots of auto posts scheduled but the death of my computer while I was here buggered that up a bit. Anyway, enjoy some cake and I'll see you in a week or so!

Strawberry Mirror Cake for Poppy

I'm back! Sort of. Well, not really. Hmmm. Not sure. I've been back from Toronto for about 5 days and have spent most of that time hanging out with my niece and nephew. Fun! Except when you are looking after a 3-year-old with some sort of nasty stomach bug and you catch it by the end of the day. What a sorry pair we were by the time his mom got home.

So, I'm not in Montreal, as that was cancelled very last minute. I'm still planning to go for a long weekend, though, as we have tickets to the tennis final (Go Nadal!). With my intermittent internet access I've been trying to sort out another short contract for the end of August and had to spend yesterday getting my passport renewed (oh, the photos are awful--why won't they let you smile?) and shopping for tickets. I do enjoy the search for contracts and plane tickets, though I'm glad I don't have to do it nearly every month, like I did for a few years.

Anyway, that's my excuse for not posting much recently, and for not visiting any of you dear readers. Are there any of you left? More apologies, for the poor photos: I took these at my mother's where the light is either blindingly bright or non-existent. I haven't even got a recent recipe for you--I made this cake in June, when strawberries were at their finest. It's 2 layers of sponge with a kirsch syrup surrounded by strawberry mousse and topped with a fresh strawberry mirror. It was fairly easy, as the components were all quite simple and there was lots of refrigeration time in between. We loved it. And who is Poppy, you may be wondering? She's my niece, who turned one in early July.

The Daring Bakers make fraisiers

This was the perfect challenge for July, I think. There were still strawberries in the market, and who doesn't love a light, moist cake crammed full of berries and cream. When I say crammed, I do mean it in the most elegant way, with the cut fruit showing on the sides. Oh, and the almond paste on top was the crowning glory. I wasn't sure that I would be able to make this cake, as I am working in Toronto and I haven't got the kitchen equipment or the time that I do at home. However, I did find a springform pan in the cupboard and decided that I would make this for some friends. With a borrowed rolling pin and a trip to the market I was all set.

I followed the challenge recipe this time, using Amaretto in the syrup and making a vanilla chiffon cake. I had no trouble with the cream filling setting up, but I did find that the cake recipe didn't work as well as the one I usually make. There was some confusion over pan size, and I used the 8" pan recommended. The pan was dark and non-stick, not my preference for cake pans. It rose far above the top of the pan, then sunk a bit when it cooled, leaving me with a mushroom shaped cake. Not ideal, so I sliced it into 3 layers and only used the bottom 2. This made a cake that easily served 10. I decided to keep the decoration simple, so made only a single marzipan rose. All in all, a delicious cake, and one I'll be making again with other fruit, though I will use my favourite genoise recipe next time. What should I use next, raspberries or cherries?

Have I mentioned that I am also cat-sitting in Toronto? There are 2 beautiful, but incredibly inquisitive Siamese cats who made it very hard to make and photograph this cake. Not only does one circle my feet and bite them and my ankles whenever I am in the kitchen, but they shed a lot! So, after a thorough de-hairing of the kitchen, I got to work, shooing the cats as necessary. That means about every 30 seconds. The next morning, before racing out the door to work, I tried to get some photos, in the only place with decent light: the floor in front of the window. Well, you can see below how well that worked! The feline cake inspectors approved, I think.

Thanks very much to Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes for this challenge. There were some spectacular cakes this month, so check them all out on the Daring Kitchen homepage. Click here for the full challenge PDF, including recipes, links and photos. I hope that I can make the August challenge from another borrowed kitchen, this time in Montreal, but we'll see....

Lemon-buttermilk sponge pudding with strawberries

If you are looking for something simple to serve with beautiful summer berries, look no further. These sponge puddings are tart and actually taste of buttermilk, which I can't say of many of the other buttermilk baked goods I make. The texture was like that of a moist baked mousse. I was expecting a layer of cake and a layer of pudding, but that's not what I got and it was a very pleasant surprise. I served these with some of the first local strawberries, and am finally posting it so that you can make it with the last of the strawberries. If local strawberries are finished where you are, don't use those crunchy, white-centred imported ones. Choose another berry or even peaches. Just mix them with a bit of sugar until a syrup forms. Enjoy!
Here's the link to the recipe.

Lemon Mascarpone Layer Cake

Have you been over to my place for dinner yet? You should come. The food's good and so is the conversation. It's the getting there that's a struggle. You see, preparations for a dinner party follow a very predictable course chez Mary. Basically a dinner invitation means I want to cook up something I've never made before. I am not one of those people who goes for the tried and true. Once I finally decide on a menu, I procrastinate extensively. The day of the dinner party dawns, and is usually spent in a frenzy of cooking, cleaning, shopping, and just lying around, hoping it all magically gets done on its own. As the afternoon progresses, I look at the clock, wondering if there's anything I can skip. That is why you should never look in my closets. The laundry might fall over and smother you. As the minute of the guests' arrival approaches, I usually jump in the shower and then panic when I realize I've forgotten something crucial, like cleaning the bathtub. What? Well, you never know. The consummate hostess is prepared for everything. 

Last month I had the pleasure of welcoming some good friends from Australia, along with their son and his grandmother, for dinner. I used to work with L in Toronto, where we also had some fun kitchen adventures. I'm giggling remembering the Benriner episode, the double cardamom shortbread fail, and the pumpkin ravioli. Oh, and cringed when I remembered T eating the whole cayenne pepper I had forgotten to fish out of a curry. L and T had also been my guests many times in Toronto and knew the drill. They used to pace outside on my driveway, waiting for the appointed time, not knowing what they'd find if they showed up early. Smart people! I don't mind lateness too much, being chronically late myself, but I think being early is insufferable for all involved.

Anyway, they were most considerately 90 minutes late, and I was pretty well ready when they got here. I had even managed to get a photo of the cake, even though it was a grim, grey and rainy day. L is a photographer, so I stressed about this a bit. We had a simple, but delicious menu of orange and olive salad, chicken, spinach and tomatillo tacos, refried black beans, and this cake. The only thing that wasn't homemade were the corn tortillas, and they were awful--soggy and falling apart. Next time I will be better prepared and make them myself. Ha! No really. I actually had to run to the store to get them, with not much time to spare, and some jerk yelled at me because my umbrella and his wife's caught, soaking us both. 
The cake was nice, but I think it could have been better. The frosting, with the mascarpone and lemon curd was delicious--creamy and not too sweet. The cake seemed a bit floury and didn't rise as much as I would have liked, meaning I couldn't divide the layers. That meant there was a tiny layer in the middle where the syrup didn't reach. I don't think anyone else noticed, but it bothered me. Also, the cake wasn't as lemony as I would have liked. Next time I make this, I'll use a genoise from The Cake Bible and add use passionfruit curd instead of lemon. The raspberries were my addition, and I loved the texture and tart, winey flavour they added.

This cake had a lot of components, but it didn't take that long to put together. Or maybe I was just running on warp speed. Start the day before your dinner party, as the finished cake needs to sit overnight.
:)
Cake recipe after the jump!

Rhubarb-brown sugar plain cake

Does it ever seem that you run out of a lot of basic ingredients at once? My kitchen cupboards have been empty lately, and I  haven't even had time to stock up. May is a very busy month for substitute teachers, as schools run their last workshops of the year and teachers take a day off here and there to celebrate the return of the hot, sunny weather, or just to recover and write report cards. June is a different story, which means I should have lots more time to bake. Apparently I need the practice, as I broke 2 bowls getting this cake made.

This week's recipe, chosen by Cindy of Everyday Insanity, was originally for a blueberry cake. I love blueberries in cake, but it's rhubarb season here. I did not get a chance to preserve any, so I am using what I've got in the fridge everywhere possible, as it's gone to seed and there'll only be a bit more in the late summer, but that's it. Sniff, sniff. The recipe called for all-purpose flour and whole milk, but I was out of these, so I substituted cake flour and orange juice. Actually, I ran out of cake flour too, so there is also ⅓ cup of buckwheat flour in mine, along with 2 cups of thinly sliced rhubarb. Instead of cinnamon I used a citrus-vanilla extract. And who has an 11"x17" pan? Not me. I used a 10" springform instead.

This recipe is called 'plain cake', but it was a bit fussy in its preparation. It called for separating the eggs and folding the beaten whites into the batter at the end, just before adding the fruit. I was going to skip that part and just add the whole eggs to the batter, but I had changed so many other things that I followed the directions for once.  A small part of them, at least. The cake turned out to be delicious, I am happy to report. It had an interesting citrus flavour from the juice and extract, and a tart, jammy layer of rhubarb mostly near the bottom. It was very tender and moist, and the buckwheat added speckles and a faint taste too. It was quite sweet, as is typical for this book's recipes, so I was glad to have the sourness of the rhubarb to balance it out. It would be great with a bit of cream, if you didn't want to serve it plain. Since it was so yummy, I guess I can leave off grocery shopping for another day and see what kind of substitutions I can come up with next. I still have a few things in the cupboard...

Maple walnut roulade

I love maple. I'm always a bit sad when sugaring-off season is over, even if it means the weather is above 0℃ on a regular basis. This year I didn't make it to the sugar bush at all, but luckily I still have lots of syrup from last year. I have lots of walnuts too: I won over a kilogram of fantastic walnuts from a giveaway on Evelyne's blog, Cheap Ethnic Eatz. They arrived when I was in Toronto, and I've been trying to decide what to do with them ever since I got home. As usual, I have lots of ideas, but can only eat so many sweets! Watch for more walnutty goodness around these parts, as this recipe only used about a half-cup.

I decided to make a small rolled cake, substituting walnuts for the almonds. For the filling, I went with mascarpone and maple syrup, because that is one of the loveliest combinations ever. I was worried about the maple syrup thinning out the filling too much, so I reduced mine, ending up with maple fudge. Now, maple fudge is a very good thing, but not what I wanted here. I used it anyway and it dissolved in the mascarpone, but I don't think reducing it was necessary, so I've adjusted for that below. I also couldn't resist garnishing with a few maple candied almonds. 3 components seems like a lot, but this actually took less than an hour to mix, bake, cool and roll. A quarter sheet pan measuring 33cm x 24cm (13" x 9.5"), made enough for 4 servings, so double everything if you want to make it in an 11" x 17" pan and serve 8. Measurements are in grams, as the amounts were small.

Candied walnuts

½ cup walnut halves

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

a pinch of salt, optional

Preheat oven to 275℉. Combine walnuts and syrup and salt, if using and spread on a parchment or foil lined baking sheet. Bake about 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Cool.

Walnut cake
Adapted from The Cake Bible, Rose Levy Berenbaum
18 grams toasted walnuts
10 grams cake flour
2 large eggs
55 grams sugar
a few drops vanilla extract
¹⁄₈ teaspoon cream of tartar

1. Grease quarter sheet pan and line with parchment. Grease again and flour. Increase oven temperature to 450℉. 
2. Combine walnuts, cake flour and about a tablespoon of sugar in a food processor and grind finely. 
3. Separate 1 egg and place the white in a small mixing bowl. Using a hand mixer, beat on medium speed until frothy, then add the cream of tartar. Once soft peaks form, add a tablespoon of the remaining sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
4. Place the yolk and the second whole egg in a small mixing bowl, along with the remaining sugar. Using the hand mixer (don't bother cleaning the beaters), beat on high speed for about 4 minutes, until thick, fluffy and tripled in volume. Beat in the vanilla.
5. Add the ground walnut mixture and fold in, using a spatula. When almost uniform, fold in the egg white. Spread evenly on the prepared pan and bake for about 7 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cake is golden and springs back when you touch it.
6. Loosen the edges and flip the cake, paper and all, onto a clean tea towel. Carefully peel off the parchment paper and sift a thin layer of icing sugar over the top. Roll it up from the short end, towel and all. Cool on a rack.

Maple Mascarpone Filling

Adapted from the Cake Bible

1-227 gram container mascarpone (1 cup)

¼ cup pure maple syrup

⅓ cup whipping cream

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl, and beat briefly, by hand or with a mixer until mixture thickens. Refrigerate while waiting for the cake to cool.

To assemble cake:

Unroll cake, remove towel and spread mascarpone filling evenly with a metal spatula. Leave the last inch of cake bare, as rolling will push the filling to the end. You won't need all the filling, unless you want a ridiculously full cake like mine. Re-roll and trim ends on the diagonal. Refrigerate, covered, until serving time. Garnish with candied walnuts.

Update:
I took the cake to some overworked friends, who said that it looked like a giant Twinkie. Exactly what I was aiming for...

German chocolate cake

Greetings from Toronto! I am here for a month to work on a short contract, but I have neither a kitchen or my camera, so I'm hoping to have time to share all the things I made last month and didn't get around to posting. I was actually expecting to catch up on responding to comments on the train here, but there was a problem and we had to travel by bus instead. Now, I don't romanticize the train, but it is a hell of a lot more comfortable than a bus. And it has wireless internet. And food that doesn't make you feel nasty the entire next day. Enough about that, I seem recovered now and ready for cake.

I made this for my brother's birthday. Like me, he is not a chocolate fanatic, but he does love coconut. That's what I told myself anyway, as I've been wanting to make this cake for a while. My mother used to make it for us when we were kids and I don't think I'd had it since. My plan was to use a recipe from America's Test Kitchen via Leite's Culinaria, but there were a few comments about the cake being dry, so I made one from Rose's Heavenly Cakes instead. Not only was it dark, moist and absolutely delicious, it used up a couple of extra egg whites, and I always have those around. The cake has a fairly light texture and stays soft even when cold, though our cake didn't last long enough to need refrigeration. It was huge, so if you can make yours last more than a day or two, keep it covered in the fridge and bring to room temperature to serve.
Cake
Source: Rose's Heavenly Cakes
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons (2.3 oz/66 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa
½ cup (4 oz/118 grams) boiling water
½ cup (3.7 oz/108 grams) canola oil (I used grapeseed)
4 large eggs, separated, plus 2 egg whites, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup (2.6 oz/75 grams) cake flour
⅔ cup (2.6 oz/75 grams) all-purpose flour
1½ cups (10.6 oz/300 grams) superfine sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350℉/175℃. Grease only the bottoms of 2 9" round cake pans and line them with parchment. Cake strips are recommended for the most even cakes, but I didn't use them and it was fine. I also didn't use a stand mixer, just a hand mixer and slightly higher mixing speeds than those noted below.

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the cocoa and boiling water until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and cool to room temperature. Add the oil and the yolks to the bowl. Start on low speed, then beat on medium for about 1 minute, or until mixture is shiny and looks like buttercream. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add vanilla and beat briefly. 
2. Whisk the dry ingredients together (including the sugar), then sift half the mixture over the cocoa mixture. Beat on low speed until moistened. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and repeat with the remaining dry ingredients. Raise the mixer speed to medium-high and beat for 1 minute. The mixture will be very thick. On low speed, add the egg whites. Gradually raise the speed to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes. The batter will be like thick soup. Divide the batter evenly between the pans (17.5 oz/495 grams) in each.
3. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until a wooden skewer comes out clean, and the cakes spring back when pressed gently in the centre. During baking, the batter will rise almost to the top of the pans and be domed in the middle, but this will lower just before they are ready. Right after removing the cakes from the oven, run a knife around the edge of the pan and unmold onto a cooling rack. Remove parchment and re-invert so cakes can cool right side up.

For the topping, I went with the recipe from Leite's, as it just looked better and used evaporated milk instead of condensed, meaning I didn't need to make another trip to the grocery store. I had extra, as I didn't cut my cake into 4 layers. It'd make a great topping or filling for cakes, cookies or cupcakes, if you don't eat it all with a spoon.

Coconut-pecan topping

Source: Leite's Culinaria

4 large egg yolks
One 12-ounce can evaporated milk
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups (finely) chopped pecans, toasted 

1. Whisk the yolks in a medium saucepan; gradually whisk in the evaporated milk. Add the sugars, butter, and salt and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture is boiling, frothy, and slightly thickened, about 6 minutes.

2. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, whisk in the vanilla, then stir in the coconut. Cool until just warm, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cool or cold, at least 2 hours or up to 3 days. (The pecans are stirred in just before cake assembly.)

To assemble cake:

1. Stir pecans into filling. Slice layers in half horizontally, using a serrated knife, if desired. Top each layer with a generous amount of filling and top with another cake layer. Spread more filling on top of cake. 

The Daring Bakers make fancy cake

Well, what we really made was a joconde imprimé and wrapped it around a filling, making an entremet. Fancy cake is a bit clearer, no? This was a fantastic challenge from Astheroshe of accro. I would never have made something so fancy-looking on my own, and I was thrilled to see the challenge and discover that it was not too complicated, though there were plenty of components. In fact, I was so eager to get started that I neither read all the instructions nor watched the video that was described as 'MUST WATCH THIS'. So, I was a bit disappointed with my results. It tasted amazing, but it just didn't look as nice as I wanted it to. If you were in a nice French bakery, your gaze would pass over mine, unless you're a real softie. Anyway, I'm being a bit melodramatic. If you decide to make one of these, please read the PDF and watch the video. No, I still haven't watched it.
:)

I used the passionfruit mousse from a couple of weeks ago to fill my entremets, and topped them with some passionfruit gelée (that's the fancy name for homemade Jell-O). The decor paste was tinted with cocoa, and the cake is an almond sponge. It was the construction where I messed up. I had it in my head that the entremets needed a cake base (they don't--it's in the instructions), but it just looks kind of stuck on. I also wrapped my molds completely in plastic wrap before lining them with parchment, meaning I mangled them a bit when trying to unmold them. Again, it was in the instructions not to do this. Like a few others, I discovered the gelée had run down the outside of the entremet, staining the cake a bit. Not tragic, but I definitely plan to make more of these, as I have so many ideas for designs and fillings. Stay tuned!

Thanks so much for a great challenge, Astheroshe! The Daring Bakers really went all out this month, so head over to The Daring Kitchen to see the slideshow of gorgeous entremets. 

Blog-checking lines: The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

Chocolate beet cake

Pudding. That's all I want to eat these days. Rice pudding, tapioca pudding, maybe even bread pudding. I even made a cornstarch based vanilla pudding, but it was too starchy for me. I like custardy puddings best, and would be quite happy with baked custard and more crème caramel. So, maybe I'll be back in a few days with a pudding, but for now I've made you a cake. The quest for beet cake started back in October when I first moved. My mother gave me a large bag of beets and I was looking for ways to use them. I made one, but wasn't completely happy with it, so the draft of that post languished until the other day when I had more beets to use up. Yes, they were from my mother again. She likes to send me home with iron-rich foods. Thanks, Mom.

Oh, and guess what? I got a brand-new stove! I got home the other day, and there it was. So far, so good. The temperature is spot-on, and it goes up to 500℉, which is 100℉ hotter than my old oven, and means I can make great pizza and bread again. In fact, I've already made pizza, but I ate it all up, alongside some celery soup, which is my new favourite soup. My old oven was probably donated to a museum, or maybe you can see one just like it on an old episode of Happy Days. I'm hoping the new stove shakes me out of my blog ennui. I just don't feel like making much these days, and can never find the time to take pictures or write about what I make. Work has been busy and daylight is hard to find. Also, puddingy things are not the most photogenic desserts, at least not in my hands.

Anyway, I went looking for a beet cake recipe online, and found a few, but none of them were quite right. One used 2½ cups of oil for 2-9" layers, which seemed like an awful lot. Another one used chocolate, which I didn't have on hand (it's also in Portuguese, but that's not a big problem: I speak food rather well). The third one used just a little chocolate and spice, so that wasn't it either. Still another one used raw beets, but I had already roasted mine, and had no intention of buying more. So, slightly disappointed that I didn't have a Goldilocks moment, I decided to wing it. That's not as hard as you might think, especially if you understand the interactions between ingredients and what purpose they serve in a baked good. Some folks, especially non-bakers, think of baking as chemistry, where everything has to be just so for it to work. That's just not true! You may not get a prize-winner on your first try, but something made with lots of butter, sugar, eggs and flour will only rarely be a total fail. Here's how I went about developing this recipe:

• I wanted to use oil, as in a carrot cake, for moistness. I also didn't think the taste of butter would come through with all the cocoa and the beets. Oh, and I had bought 2.5 litres for the doughnut challenge
• I had no chocolate, only cocoa
• I was having trouble getting a fine enough puree of beets on their own, so I knew I needed to add something else to the food processor. Buttermilk and cocoa make a great cake, so I went with that. And I had found a litre of it in the back of the fridge. Expiry date today!
• I like brown sugar in chocolate cakes, so I used it
• Buttermilk and brown sugar are acidic, meaning that baking soda would be a good addition. I also added baking powder. Think of it as leavening insurance
• Usually when I make up recipes I don't measure anything, but I did this time. I used my scale because it was easier to see the proportions of ingredients. Sorry, no cup measurements this time!

Go ahead, pile on the whipped cream! You're having beets for dessert.

Chocolate Beet Cake (Updated, based on my friend Judy's results and my 3rd remake)

200 grams all-purpose flour
75 grams Dutch-process cocoa
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
200 grams brown or white sugar
200 grams cooked beet
½ cup water
100 grams buttermilk (or yogurt, or sour cream)
2 eggs
150 grams oil

1. Preheat oven to 350℉/180℃. Grease a 10” pan and line with parchment.
2. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Puree beets and buttermilk until smooth. Add eggs, brown sugar, cocoa mixture and oil and combine well. (I just put all this in the food processor and liquified it)
4. Pour over dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Do not overmix.
5. Scrape into pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. (May take longer)
6. Cool in pan on rack, then turn out of pan. Dust with icing sugar and serve with whipped cream.

The verdict? Well, the top was very cracked, but it was very moist, chocolaty and fudgy. It doesn't taste of beets at all. I found it perfect with whipped cream and a cup of coffee.

This is the first one I made, back in October. It had more cocoa, no water,
less oil and a fussier preparation. It looks much the same as version 2 though.

Cardamom crumb cake

I was so excited when I saw this cake appear on the December recipes list, thanks to Jill of Jill's Blog. However, with work, a nasty bug and general holiday craziness, I didn't get much time to spend on this. The one night I was able to bake this I discovered that I didn't have enough cardamom for both the cake and the crumbs. I put what I had in the cake, as I'm not usually a fan of crumb toppings and figured I'd be picking it off anyway. I know many people who prefer the crumb topping to the actual cake, but I am definitely not one of them. Other changes I made were to use slivered almonds instead of walnuts and I omitted the orange, as I wasn't convinced that it would work with both the coffee and cardamom. In the end, I didn't much like this cake, but I think it was probably my own fault. I found it tasted more of coffee than cardamom, and the texture was a bit coarse, like those boxed snack cake mixes my mother would occasionally buy when I was a child. Oh, and no surprise, but I didn't like the crumb topping. One good thing about it was that it kept very well: it sat around for about a week before I took a photo of it, and it was still perfectly fresh-tasting. Please don't let my poor results deter you--this was a well-liked cake by the rest of the TWD bakers. You can find the recipe here. I do have my eye on another cardamom cake recipe, so hopefully I'll be more successful next time. 

Gevulde Speculaas (Spice cake with almond paste)

This is an autumn cake from the Netherlands, and if you like spices and almonds it's the perfect treat for you. If not, well, I've got a chocolate version in the works--stay tuned. It's quite rich, so it's best served in small slices. Don't worry--you can always go back for seconds! I definitely did. It's actually more like a cookie than a cake, as the dough is dry enough to roll out. The resulting confection is firm, sweet, spicy and crumbly, and perfect with tea or coffee. This is another recipe from Warm Bread and Honey Cake, my favourite new baking book in ages. I want to make almost everything from this book, as the writing and photos are wonderful.
Spice mixture*
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
¼ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon aniseed
¼ teaspoon cloves
⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon mace
9 oz/1⅔ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
7 oz/1 cup brown sugar
6 oz/¾ cup unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
1 egg, well beaten
Filling
10½ oz coarse almond paste (I made my own, see below)
about ½-¾ of a beaten egg (reserve the rest for glazing)

1. Combine spices, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the beaten egg and run the food processor until the dough comes together. Try not to eat all the dough. Divide the dough into ⅓ and ⅔ portions, shape in discs, wrap separately in plastic and refrigerate. Chill for one hour. It can be made the day before, but will need to warm up before rolling to prevent it from breaking up.
2. Preheat oven to 340℉/170℃  and grease a 9" cake pan.
3. Mix the coarse almond paste with enough beaten egg to make a fairly soft, spreadable filling. Set aside. Roll out the larger portion of dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap to an 11" circle. Make sure there are no creases in the plastic wrap. Use this piece of dough to line the pan, pressing it to the sides of the pan so it doesn't fall inward. Spread the almond paste evenly over the dough and fold in the dough edges so they rest on the almond paste. Reuse the plastic wrap to roll the smaller piece of dough into an 8½" circle. It should be slightly smaller than the cake pan. Trim it so the edges are neat. Moisten the edges of the dough in the pan and lay the smaller circle on top. Press the edges gently together to seal. Brush with the leftover beaten egg and prick with a fork in several places. I forgot to glaze it and it was fine. 
4. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Leave to cool in the pan, then transfer carefully to a serving plate. If you can stand it, wrap this and let it sit for a day or two before serving for best flavour.

*I reduced the cinnamon, upped the cardamom and ginger, and left out the cloves and aniseed. Use what you have, making up any missing spices by increasing one of the first 3. This is the place for fresh and freshly ground spices, as you can really taste them. I also halved this recipe and made it in a 6" pan, which still made 16 slices. It freezes well, too. 

Coarse almond paste:
My new neighbourhood has a fantastic store for buying very fresh nuts, so I have given up on store-bought almond paste. They do not sell blanched almonds there, but the almonds were huge and very fresh, so I did it myself by covering them with boiling water and letting them sit for a minute or two, till the skins wrinkled. I then rinsed them in cold water and squeezed the almonds out of their skins.
8 oz blanched almonds
5 oz icing sugar
1 egg white
lemon zest (optional)
almond extract (taste first to see if it's necessary--I didn't add any)
Grind almonds in food processor until coarsely ground. Add icing sugar and egg white and process until it comes together. Best made a few days in advance and refrigerated. Can also be frozen.

Marie-Helene's apple cake

This was the first thing I baked in the oven in my new place. I thought and thought about what I wanted to make first. The more I thought, the harder it was to choose just the right thing. In the end, I had a huge bag of apples and an apple cake recipe on the list for French Fridays with Dorie. This is only my second recipe with the group, as there is no requirement to cook along every week. I am the slacker sort, so I have been picking and choosing to make only what I can eat/have time for. I am so glad I made this recipe, though, as it was delicious. So delicious that I made it twice. This is the second one above, for which I browned the butter and replaced the rum with Amaretto. It was a much nicer colour than the first one, but also significantly sweeter. I used the same apples for both--a mix of Empire and Cortland, so not sure why it was so much sweeter--more than a few tablespoons of Amaretto would account for. Anyway, it was fantastic, and luckily I sent lots of it home with a friend, or I would have eaten the entire thing. Here's a picture of the first one, made before I realized my oven runs 50℉ lower than the temperature gauge indicates:

Check out the 'Leave your Link' feature on the spiffy French Fridays with Dorie site to see how the other bakers fared. Oh, and if you're looking for the recipe, it's in the book. We've been asked not to publish recipes from this book, and you can hardly blame Dorie, with her recipes burning up the blogosphere.

Plum and cardamom sweet bread

Do you have a recipe that you return to every year? This is my September cake. That's when Italian plums are available here and I look forward to this recipe for the other 11 months. I've never tried it with the imported plums that are available all year round, and I don't intend to. This is so good that it's worth the wait. I've made it twice this month already, and may try to make it again before the local plums disappear. When you are putting the thick batter in the pan, it will seem like the heaviest cake ever, but the cake bakes up sweet, with a soft crumb and pockets of tart fruit.

This cake has cardamom, and I think cardamom and plums are the best match ever. I may be biased, though, because my friend Judy says I think cardamom goes with everything. It does. It goes with everything I like, so there! I made a small loaf and a few large cupcakes with the first batch, and a 9" cake with the second batch. As you can see, I didn't get much fruit in the cupcakes, but the loaf had lots.

Okay, there are only 10 days of September left--go make this cake! Here's the recipe:

Plum and Cardamom Sweet Bread

from In the Sweet Kitchen, by Regan Daley

Makes one 9”x5” loaf

¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

¾ cup tightly packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons freshly ground cardamom

¾ cup full-fat sour cream

2 cups diced Italian/prune plums

1.     Preheat the oven to 350℉, grease the loaf pan and line it with parchment. I have also made this in a smaller loaf pan, with a few extra cupcakes, or in a 9” round pan.  Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping the sides of the bowl. Beat in the vanilla.

2.     Reserve 2 tablespoons of the flour and sift the remaining with the baking powder, soda, salt and cardamom. Add this mixture to the creamed mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the sour cream in two additions. Toss the plums with the reserved flour and fold them into the batter, mixing only until the plums are evenly distributed. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

3.     Bake the loaf in the centre of the oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes to 1 hour and 45 minutes, or until a wooden skewer poked into the centre comes out clean. Cool the loaf in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then remove it and cool completely. This cake keeps well at room temperature for a few days, but I doubt it’ll last that long.

TWD: Upside-down cake, two ways

This week's selection was one of my favourites. Cake is my favourite thing to bake, and with lots of extra butter and sugar, plus fresh fruit, this was a huge winner. It was so good that I had to make it twice. The first time I used peaches and we ate it up in no time. The cake was light, yet very moist and the buttery, caramel-drenched fruit was a bonus. The only changes I made to this recipe were to omit the cinnamon, as I usually do, and use brown sugar instead of white for the caramel. I also added some grated fresh ginger in the cake, and the sharpness went perfectly with the fruit. Then I went for a walk in my mother's backyard and discovered the rhubarb that I had cut down in the spring had sprouted again, yielding 2 kilograms! I made one more cake, spiced with orange zest, and froze the rest. Now I can enjoy it all winter, though I'll try to resist posting any more rhubarb recipes till spring.

This week's recipe was chosen by Sabrina over at Superfluous. She'll have the recipe on her site, most likely for the original cranberry version. I think you could use lots of different seasonal fruit here, and I know that this is now my go-to upside-down cake.

TWD: Rum-drenched vanilla cake

This is the recipe I would have chosen if I ever got to choose one with the Tuesdays with Dorie group. You know, if there were 400 more recipes in the book, and if I had joined a lot earlier than I did. No matter, cause Wendy of Pink Stripes chose it, and I just got to make and eat it, which works better for my lazy self. She'll have the recipe on her site.
I made half a recipe, as the original makes 2 loaf cakes. I halved all but the rum, just because. I really thought I would love this cake, as all the ingredients are among my favourites. My only doubt was whether the syrup would make the cake a bit soggy. I love syrup-soaked cakes, but prefer sponge cake in this situation. It gets moist, but never heavy, like butter cake can.
I thought the cake had a wonderful vanilla flavour, and all the vanilla bean seeds added a slight crunch that I liked. The rum was good, but the syrup never soaked through the entire cake. I poked holes in it and even made it in a 9" pan so it was shallower, so this was disappointing. The texture was lovely, but a bit mushy on the top crust and the bottom dried out quickly. I'll definitely try this again, as I want a perfect result next time.
Check out the other TWD bakers for many different takes on this cake.

TWD: Dressy chocolate loaf cake

Some of Dorie's recipes have funny names, don't they? I love loaf cakes, but dressy and chocolate don't really do it for me. I do have some chocolate-loving friends, though, and they were helping me to move yesterday, so dressy chocolate loaf cake it was! What gussies this cake up is that it's cut into 3 layers and  sandwiched with jam. I used sour cherry jam, thinned with Amaretto. The frosting is a simple mixture of melted chocolate and sour cream. I used a mix of milk chocolate and 72% dark chocolate in the interest of using up what was left in my cupboard.

This was a really quick and easy cake to mix, which was a relief after the wedding cake marathon. I added some vanilla and upped the salt, as I find many of the recipes in the book could use a bit more. Some had trouble with this overflowing the pan, so I only filled the pan about ½ to ⅔ full and it rose just to the top. With the extra I filled a couple of ramekins. I think I'm going to have to break down and get a muffin pan one of these days, because I keep ending up with gigantic cupcakes. And eating them.

This is the one I taste-tested inhaled, so I used a different frosting. Chocolate cake I can do, but with chocolate icing too, no. Mixed with sour cream? Nope. So, I had some very sweet white icing in the freezer that was actually leftover Oreo filling, from this fun day. I thinned it with a bit of cream and slathered it on. Yum. Cleaning out the freezer was on my list, so this wasn't just idle procrastination from packing. I think this is why I've been 'almost finished' for 3 days. I'm sure some of you are rolling your eyes, but not only am I not a chocoholic, but I hate sour cream. I won't go into great detail about all the reasons I don't like it, but ick. It does make great cakes, though. I sometimes replace it with yogurt, which I love, love, love, but I wanted the richness here, and I wasn't sure yogurt would work for the frosting. 

I don't have a picture of the finished cake to post because it looked like a big brown blob. Maybe when I slice it and have internet again I'll add one. I'm writing this on Sunday night and the move is tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be sound asleep and all my stuff will be in its new home (storage) when this posts. :)

Thanks a lot to Amy Ruth from Amy Ruth Bakes for choosing this recipe. It was one I definitely would have passed over, and that would have been a shame. Check out the rest of the TWDers here.

Strawberry wedding cake

It still amazes me that anyone would ask me to make their wedding cake. Sure, it would probably taste good, but would I finish on time? I'm happy to say that I finished this cake with 6 minutes to spare. Yeah, 6 minutes didn't leave much time for piping, hence the rather rustic coat of whipped cream on it. Oh, and it tasted good! Sadly I didn't get a photo of the cut cake, which had a lovely pink filling, but I was so relieved by then that it hadn't collapsed that I just sat down and ate some. In fact, this is the only picture I got of the finished cake.

This cake was for my friends M and D, and it was the most relaxed wedding ever. Nobody could be further from being a Bridezilla than M. In fact, her only requirement was 'cardamom', and we did discuss berries, and there was a definite preference for whipped cream rather than buttercream, but that was it. And D, well I think he'll eat anything. I got pretty stressed out by this cake, which is unusual, especially when it comes to baking. I usually throw things together without too much of a plan, and because I have enough experience, it usually works. However, I wasn't willing to have a big, slumping, melting mess of a cake unveiled in front of lots of people I didn't know, and some that I do. So, I thought about it a lot. I read books and looked at websites and forums.  I bought new pans and lots of accessories. I stole a dozen straws from Starbucks. Not exactly stole: I paid $3.25 for a latte, and took them in lieu of sugar.

Those of you who have seen my kitchen are probably wondering how I did it. There are 6 layers of cake, all made on my 16" (40 cm) of counter space, and baked in my apartment-size oven. No worries, I have a breakfast table that's 13.5' (4.1 m) from said counter. Did I mention that I am moving? I am, on Monday, meaning that the space between counter and table is littered with half packed boxes, and requires hopping, turning sideways and taking a very circuitous route. Needless to say, it was a tight squeeze, and I broke 3 plates in the process, including my lovely old cake plate. I was upset about that one, as good cake plates are hard to find, but, as for the other two plates: less to pack. I also managed to drop a full container of cornstarch off the kitchen counter and discovered that it can fly all the way to the breakfast table, and even stick to the curtains. I came home the other day to discover a set of white footprints leading from my apartment to the elevator. I keep thinking I've got it all cleaned up, but it's hard with all the boxes in the way.

Anyway, back to the cake. All the recipes were from The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Berenbaum. No recipes, as I've already packed the book. I made the génoise classique in 6", 8" and 10", with 2 layers of each. This took 22 eggs, but less than 200 grams of butter! It was a light sponge cake, spiced with freshly ground cardamom, soaked with a rum syrup and filled with a strawberry-white chocolate mousse. This mousse was a combination of Rose's strawberry cloud cream and white ganache. I frosted it with sweetened whipped cream flavoured with vanilla and stabilized with cornstarch. There was more than 2 litres of whipping cream in the cake, more than making up for the lack of butter, I think.

I baked the cakes on Thursday evening, syruped and put the layers together on Friday night (after the civil service and a great Chinese dinner), meaning I finished at 3 am. On Saturday morning, I woke up at 9 and thought I had better find a box to transport it in, and pick up some strawberries to garnish it. As you can see, I went a bit overboard with the strawberries, buying a flat (12 pints). I finally finished them yesterday. :) I got the tiers put together, using those straws to support them, and got the whipped cream on at 1:24 pm. My ride was arriving at 1:30. All I needed to do was get dressed. I was really worried about the cream melting, so I ripped a rack out of my fridge by force, and jammed the cake in.

When my ride arrived, I got the cake in its box and got it in the car, but sat in the backseat with it, as I was really worried. It was then I noticed I was wearing my house flip-flops, which did not match my dress at all. Oh well. Even though I had pushed a wooden dowel down the centre (a long cooking chopstick, actually), I could envision it sliding apart. Sure enough, on a corner that T took like an F1 driver, the whole thing tilted dramatically. Once I saw that it was okay, I relaxed. A bit too much, apparently, because as we took off from a stoplight, the box and cake lurched backward, smearing on the back of the box. Luckily it wasn't too bad, and I fixed what I could and put that side against the wall. I put the strawberries on at the venue, and watched the cake through the whole dinner, as I was really worried about it melting, or just collapsing entirely. It seemed the time to eat it would never arrive, to both me and the four year old at our table. He kept asking, "Is it time for cake yet?"

Well, it's always time for cake, in my world, but I think I'll stick to simpler things for the next little while. See you Tuesday!

Rhubarb and orange mini cakes

This is the last rhubarb recipe, I promise! Till next year, anyway. I have about 12 things I didn't get around to making this year on my mental to-do list. Don't worry, I'll probably forget at least half of them. 

I made this recipe twice last week, because it was that good. That good, but problematic too. The first time, I made a half recipe in a loaf pan, as the recipe called for, and it was delicious, but too tender. Too tender is usually not a problem with cakes, but this was impossible to slice. I ended up bringing a container of icing covered crumbs to school. They were all eaten, as teachers are not that fussy, I guess. Especially when it comes to a soft cake with rhubarb melted into it, leaving behind a tangy flavour. The second time I made it I decided to make individual cakes. I'd call them cupcakes, but I haven't got a cupcake tin, and so I used ramekins, which made for 7 slightly-too-large-for-one serving cakes out of another half recipe. I think you'd get a dozen if you use a regular muffin tin. Or refrigerate your cake for easier slicing. But cold butter cake? It doesn't appeal to me much, as it gets so firm.

This recipe was adapted from one in Rustic Fruit Desserts, by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson. They call it Lemon buttermilk rhubarb bundt cake. Makes 1 bundt cake, 2 dozen cupcakes, or 2 loaf cakes. Go ahead, make the whole recipe. Otherwise you'll just make it again the next day.

Cake:

2½ cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour (12½ ounces+⅝ ounce)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter

1¾ cups (12 ounces) granulated sugar

zest of 1 orange

3 eggs

¾ cup buttermilk

1 pound rhubarb, trimmed and very thinly sliced (3 cups or 12 ounces prepared)

Preheat oven to 350℉, and butter your pan(s).

Sift the larger measure of flour, the baking powder and salt together. Cream the butter, sugar and zest together for 3-5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition. Stir in the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. The batter will be very thick, but that's fine, because the rhubarb will release a lot of liquid. 

Toss the sliced rhubarb with the 2 tablespoons flour and fold it into the batter. Spread the batter evenly in your prepared pan(s). 

Bake for 20-25 minutes for cupcakes, 55-65 minutes for a loaf cake, and an hour for the bundt cake. Bake till the top is firm and the centre springs back when lightly touched. A toothpick will come out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before unmolding. Turn right side up to cool completely.

Orange glaze

2 cups (8½ ounces) sifted icing sugar, or more as needed

juice of 1 orange 

1 tablespoon soft butter

Whisk the glaze ingredients together. The mixture should be thick, so don't add all the orange juice at once. Add more sugar or juice to get the consistency you want. Spread over the cake/cupcakes as soon as you remove from the pan. (I preferred the cake without this, as it was very sweet)

Apparently this cake keeps for 3-4 days, covered at room temperature. I ended up keeping mine in the fridge, because it was so hot, but the texture was better at room temp.