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!

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...

Peach and mascarpone cupcakes (Bake-N-Blog)

Just try to tell me that's not the happiest looking cupcake you've ever seen! A few weeks ago, my friend Anne-Marie of 10 Rooms sent me a link to a Bake-N-Blog event hosted by Staci, over at Staci Edwards Design. It seems that Staci had fallen in love with Ming Makes Cupcakes and wanted to make all of the cupcakes on her site, but thought that 33 batches might be too many. So, she enlisted blogland to choose a cupcake and post about it today. I had a hard time deciding which one to make, and couldn't choose between the chocolate beet and the parsnip one. I thought folks might ignore the humble root vegetables in favour of the more glamourous ones. And then I saw this one, slathered in mascarpone cheese and whipped cream. Sorry, root vegetables. 

Of course, being mesmerized by the possibility of putting an entire tub of mascarpone on cupcakes made me overlook the fact that these cupcakes had 2 ingredients I don't even like that much: apricots and sour cream. Sour cream baked in cakes is fantastic but I hate the smell and having to touch it! I used thick yogurt instead, and replaced the apricot jam with homemade peach preserve (just peaches and sugar, cooked). I put a heaping tablespoonful in each cupcake, but the cupcakes ate it, so they don't look a lot like Ming's. They are smiling, though, so that was a bonus.

I took a half dozen of these over to my friend P's house for dinner, where I had the most delicious risotto. The teenager in the house refused to try them, on the basis of the peaches, and the 3 year old licked up the icing only. My 2-year-old nephew demolished one in seconds flat after I picked the almonds off. I ate a couple myself, and I thought they were very tasty. 

Peach and mascarpone cupcakes (cupcake 18)

Adapted from Ming Makes Cupcakes

1 cup flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

½ cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

½ teaspoon almond extract

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup full-fat, thick yogurt or sour cream

peach, apricot, or any thick preserves. I think rhubarb would be wonderful, but I'm a rhubarb addict, and saving the last of my jam, so I won't know till next spring.

Preheat oven to 350℉. Line a cupcake tin with 12 paper liners. Sift flour, salt and soda together and set aside. Cream butter and sugar and then beat in egg and extracts. Add the yogurt. Batter will look curdled, but don't worry--it'll come together when you add the flour. Add dry ingredients and mix gently. Fill liners ⅓ full, then top with a tablespoon or so of preserves. Top with remaining batter. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Mine did not have a domed top, and neither did the originals, so don't worry if they look a bit fallen. More room for mascarpone! Cool, then top with:

8 ounces mascarpone

½ cup whipping cream

½ cup icing sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat all frosting ingredients together until soft peaks form. Dollop on cupcakes and top with toasted sliced almonds. Keep refrigerated.

These were fantastic--enjoy!

The Daring Bakers make chocolate pavlova!

Lots of pictures and not so many words today. I'm sure many of you are grateful! I made this challenge only days after it was revealed, which is very unusual for me. As I didn't write it up then, I can't remember much. What I do remember is that it was delicious, and I took it on a picnic along with the Daring Cooks' challenge of pâté and bread. This pav wasn't exactly what I think about for a picnic dessert, but it was certainly good. Even though I'm not a big fan of chocolate, the chocolate-mascarpone mousse was rich and delicious. The meringues were nice and crisp, and the crème anglaise-mascarpone-Amaretto mixture was the most amazing dessert sauce ever. 

I made a vanilla meringue, as chocolate on chocolate does not appeal. I'm glad I did, because this was already an incredibly rich dessert. I garnished with some wonderful organic cherries I had found on sale that morning. They were the reason I decided to make this dessert on a very busy day, what with the pâté and bread I was already making. 

I had fun piping the meringue and mousse in swirls. This is the sauceless version I packed up for the picnic, so we could add it at the last moment. I may even have tried to lick the jar it was in. The one I kept right-side-up travelled surprisingly well. 

They looked just like this on our picnic. In our minds' eye, anyway. But, I still had a few baked meringue bases left over, so a few days later, on a very cloudy and rainy day, I put together a blackberry curd pavlova with the curd left from these shortcakes. Click on the link for the curd recipe. It was a perfect combination, though the colour looks a bit weird in the gray light.

A few days after that, with my move date looming, I thought I had better use up some of the egg whites that were still in the fridge. This time I made a soft, marshmallowy meringue in the true pavlova style. There was lots of discussion in the forums about whether a crisp meringue was actually a pavlova, but I just stayed out of it and kept baking. I topped this pav with some strawberry-white chocolate mousse left over from the wedding cake, and topped it with some fresh strawberry coulis. This was fantastic! I'd go make another now if all my baking equipment weren't in storage. 

Blog-checking lines: The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard

Original challenge recipes can be found here.

After the Challenge: Caribou Marsala

After I made the tiramisu, I had some leftover mascarpone that I certainly didn't want to throw away. I also had some caribou chops in the freezer, courtesy of Uncle Ron and his hunting trip to Labrador. I didn't want them languishing in the freezer for a month while I was away, so I decided on a caribou marsala. This has to count as one of my wisest decisions ever. It was lick-your-plate delicious and I can't wait to make it again.

I made the sauce by searing the caribou in a hot pan, removing it and cooking some chopped shallots. I added marsala, reduced it, and then added some reduced beef stock. To finish, I swirled in some butter and garnished it with a bit of chopped parsley. Make this sauce! It's old-school, but delicious. 

On the side I served polenta with mascarpone, Parmesan and black garlic. Black garlic? I've been seeing lots of blogs about this stuff, so when I saw it on sale at my local grocery store I picked some up. It's got a funky smell, but a mild flavour, and the texture is a bit like that of roasted garlic: soft and sticky. I don't believe the miracle properties ascribed to this stuff, but it's an interesting ingredient, and certainly a dramatic-looking one. Oh, and roasted Brussels sprouts. I love Brussels sprouts:)

The black garlic.