Daring Bakers: Dobos Torte

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

5 layer sponge
Frosting: Coffee Buttercream
Made: Yesterday morning. A rush job I'm not so proud of as you can see with the coarse texture.

Recipe

TWD: Perfect Party Cake

I was so excited for this cake because last summer, this was the recipe I used to bake my first ever layer cake. Thanks to the DBers who raved about this enough that I had to give it a try. It was the first time I realized that cakes could be made from scratch! Since many of the experienced DBers had problems with flat layers, I decided to make a triple layer cake with 3 8 inch pans (I needed all the help I could get).


One year later I wanted to try it with 9 inch pans, since Dorie posted helpful tips to fix the height issues and because my 8 inch ones aren't the greatest in quality. I used all purpose flour and 2% milk. I omitted the 2 minute beating at the end because I didn't want to risk overbeating. 2 minutes of beating with all purpose flour... I don't even want to imagine what would happen to the cake! The layers aren't as tall as Dorie's, but I was really happy with the overall result.


The way I frost layer cakes hasn't really changed. I like to keep the outside bare because I'm not a huge frosting lover, but if there's one butter based frosting to make, it's definitely Cassie's SMBC. I can't say enough about it because it's that good! Creamy and perfectly sweetened without tasting like a stick of butter unlike most meringue based buttercreams. I used her SMBC instead of Dorie's and added some blueberry puree. I couldn't really taste the blueberry and will use jam next time for a more concentrated flavour. Even though SMBC is my favourite kind of buttercream, 4 layers of it can be hard to stomach. Instead, I made a lightened version of CI's pastry cream by omitting the butter and using milk instead of cream. I love how soft this cake was even with all purpose flour. I really liked it, although I can't really say the same for for the rest of my family. It can be so frustrating to bake for them because everything is either too buttery, too sweet, too rich, too moist (?!). I'm starting to get the feeling that what they really want is sandwich bread (and it better be Wonder bread since it's like biting into air) lightly sweetened with sugar.


Thanks so much to Carol of mix, mix... stir, stir for choosing this recipe! You can find the recipe on her blog or in Dorie's book. Don't forget to check out the TWD blogroll!

Pastry Cream, adapted from CI
1 cup milk
2 tbsp sugar
2.5 egg yolks
1.5 tbsp cornstarch

Whisk sugar, eggs and cornstarch together until incorporated
On medium high heat, heat milk.
Pour milk in egg mixture to temper the eggs
Pour mixture back into pot, whisking until thickened and bubbles appear on the side.
Remove from heat and pour into another bowl to stop cooking.
Place plastic wrap on surface and refrigerate until cool and ready to use.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Adapted from Cassie's How to eat a Cupcake

Ingredients
2 large egg whites
1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
1/4 blueberry puree

Directions
Put egg whites and sugar into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm (about 160 degrees).
Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 7 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low, add butter two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low; add blueberry puree and raise speed to medium and beat until incorporated.

TWD: Tiramisu

This was delicious. I even ate almost 1/6th of it myself and I made the whole recipe.. eek... that's a lot of cream cheese frosting!

Sorry for the background furniture and not the prettiest pic, but I was in a big rush. Right now, I'm either panicking, nervous or stressed because I'm either waiting to write, writing, or just finished writing my exam.

Thank you so much Megan of My baking adventures for this week's amazing pick! The recipe can be found on her blog or you can buy the book here. Don't forget to visit the TWD blogroll.

Amy Sedaris' Vanilla Cupcakes + Peach SMBC

Not only am I obsessed with finding the perfect cupcake recipe, but I'm now obsessed with the 1M tip. All I want to do is make cupcakes and frosting! When I finally got the beater blade, the first thing I baked were Amy Sedaris' cupcake recipe so I could make a batch of SMBC. The beater blade is so cool. It definitely makes creaming a lot more efficient and seems to incorporate more air. Seeing how the butter, sugar and eggs were being creamed so intensely, I was afraid of was overmixing so I switched back to the regular paddle to add the flour and milk. I'll have to try using it next time the whole way through to see how it compares with the regular paddle in cake texture although I have a feeling that I'll just use it for pre-flour purposes..haha. I can't help that I'm paranoid about overmixing! Thanks for recommending such a great recipe Cassie! I love how this cupcake wasn't overly dense or tasted like butter and egg overload like most cupcake recipes I've tried.

Amy Sedaris' Cupcakes

24 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 1/2 stick (12 tbsp) unsalted butter
1 3/4 cup sugar (I used 1 1/2 cup sugar)
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/2 cups flour (I used all purpose, but I guess you could use either all purpose or cake flour)
1 1/4 cup milk

Directions
1. Preheat over to 350 degrees (Amy uses 375, but I think that's too high).
2. In a bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt together
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in eggs, one at a time making sure it's well incorporated
5. Beat in vanilla
6. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with milk. Do not overbeat.
7. Divide batter evenly. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes and toothpick inserted into center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.
9. Cool on wire rack for 5-10 minutes then transfer cupcakes to cool completely

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting
Adapted from How to eat a cupcake

Ingredients
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp
1/2 cup peach jam (could barely taste it, will add more)

Directions
Put egg whites and sugar into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm (about 160 degrees).
Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 7 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low, add butter two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes.
Press jam through a strainer to get rid of lumps and beat into frosting. Beat until frosting is smooth and creamy. Continue beating for 2 minutes on low speed to eliminate air bubbles

Billy's Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes

These were by far the best vanilla cupcakes I've ever made. I originally saw these on Martha. There's something about her and how she talks to her guests that annoys me, but when cupcakes are being made, how can I not watch? During the segment, I noticed that Martha likes to turn her machine up to a higher speed and aerate the batter for a little while (a long while to me). Other than Dories Perfect party cake, I've never done that. Maybe that's why I have bouts of over/undermixing, a perfect combination.. that is if you want something with a weird texture. Luckily, the problem is only mostly in white cakes and sometimes muffins (but I'm getting better!). These were the first vanilla cupcakes I've made in a really long time. I was having so many failed attempts that I decided bake stuff that wouldn't yet again be thrown away. After seeing Clara's vanilla cupcakes (actually.. lemon cupcakes), she totally convinced me into baking cupcakes again. Plus, her progress picks were totally tempting me! I actually made these weeks ago, but didn't have time to write about them til now.. when I really should be studying for final exams!


8 hours later, I wouldn't say these were still amazing, but considering all the other times I made vanilla cupcakes, these were still the best. It's crazy how the texture changed from nice and fluffy to dense and slight crumbly.. WHY!?!? Even though I didn`t get to cream the butter, sugar and eggs (my favourite part), reverse creaming definitely produces a more tender, fluffy and airy crumb. Too bad these cupcakes weren't able to retain their cake mix-like texture hours later. As for the frosting, there was no way I was taking the icing sugar route and make Billy's vanilla frosting.. well sort of. I used the left over frosting from the DB challenge (my icing sugar-SMBC frosting duo). I'm definitely making these cupcakes again, but try it with more milk to hopefully keep them moist.


Billy's Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes about 30 cupcakes.
1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar (I used 1.5 cups)
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk (I added 2 extra tablespoons of milk because some said these cupcakes were dry)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.
2. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.
3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 15 minutes (17 to 20 minutes. )
4. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat process with remaining batter. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Serve at room temperature.

Daring Bakers: Caramel Cake

I went into this month's DB challenge a little nervous (suprising?). We were basically making a white cake (with caramel).. something that has never turned out right for me! Either I'm looking for all the wrong things, I can't bake vanilla cakes or something is seriously wrong with every recipe I've tried. It annoys me insanely everytime I waste a perfectly gorgeous butter/sugar/egg emulsion. Luckily, this recipe was a little more forgiving and I was able to get away with even a not so pretty batter. That was such a relief considering the streak of caramel I had on the top of some cupcakes. Actually, it was more like a streak of caramel sugar crystals. Since I made the caramel sauce in advance, I had to microwave it to get it flowing again. The only problem is when the ever so slightly warm caramel hits the cool butter, you get melting butter and sugar crystals! Luckily, it all came together after the eggs were added, even though there were streaks of crystalized caramel.

Now for the tricky part, alternating dry and wet. If there's anything that's emphasized in virtually all recipes it is 'don't overmix'. To me, that translates into don't mix at all, or something close to that. To give you an idea of what I do, I add the flour at stir and stop the machine immediately so I can start pouring the milk, then I start the machine to add the next batch of flour and stop the machine to dump the rest of the milk followed by the rest of the flour. As I'm typing this out, I'm starting to realize how silly it sounds.. between the 10 seconds the machine is actually stiring, no wonder why I have patches of flour in some areas and puddles of liquid in others. Yet, I still get the feeling that if I let the machine run, I'm overmixing!


As for the frosting, as soon as I saw powdered sugar, it was already a warning for me. It's hard enough for me to eat frosting, but when there's powdered sugar involved, that's a signal for pasty, grainy or it may be a stretch to say this, but uncooked flour. How can I explain this better.. you know the taste and feel of a sauce or pie with added flour that isn't cooked through, well the raw flour taste is what I'm talking about. I wish there was a way to cook the cornstarch in powdered sugar, maybe then it will be less pasty.. but who knows I could be totally wrong with that theory I have! I started off slowly and gradually added the sugar starting with 1 cup and stopping when I got to 1.5 cups (how could this possibly take 4 cups of sugar!). There was no way I could handle any more sweetness, but the frosting was so liquidy, I was left with an icing. I decided to make a half batch of SMBC to frost the cupcakes I was serving to people and use this icing for the challenge. I ended up combining the two frostings and made a powdered-SMBC frosting duo. It was nowhere near as melt in your mouth as SMBC, but it covered up the pastiness of the icing. Everyone seemed to love the frosting, but I was really happy about the cake. It was really moist even the next day and suprisingly soft considering that all purpose flour was used. I can't wait for next month's challege.. I hope it's something sweet!

Thanks to Dolores of Chronicals in Culinary Curosity and her co hosts Alex of Blondie and Brownie and Jenny of Foray into Food for this month's SWEET DB challenge!

Here's a link to the original recipe Caramel Cake by Shuna Fish Lydon

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake - Cupcake Style

I didn't have some sort of memory lapse and make the chocolate chocolate cupcakes for the second week in a row. There just wasn't enough time to make the rugalagh for TWD... I hope you guys don't stop reading! Last week, it was my friend's birthday so I decided to bake her cupcakes. She hasn't had anything I baked recently, since I put her through my rigorous chocolate chip cookie testing last year...haha Those were the days when only the batter tasted good while the baked result resembled something more like a hockey puck. It wasn’t until I stumbled on Cook’s Illustrated last Christmas when my desserts were finally edible. Not to mention, I also started to measure properly and stir the dry ingredients so that I wouldn’t end up with a cake that tasted soapy and bitter. Even though some may find CI to be a little annoying because they tend to focus on only one particular way of doing things and can put a limit on the creativity, I think they lay down the basics really well for an inexperienced baker. It also helps keep paranoid bakers like me from thinking too much and to just go with it. If I’m given too many choices, I’ll probably never end up baking anything! It’s kind of like when there are 2 parking spots in front of me and I end up parking in both. I hope you guys don’t take this to be a sign of a bad driver.. haha.. it’s just that I am that indecisive.

Earlier in the year during the PBS telethon, CI featured the old fashioned chocolate cake, which looked absolutely irresistible! I actually decided to bake a cupcake version of this recipe one hour before leaving for school. I even thought I could multitask and whip the eggs and sugar while measuring out the dry ingredients. It wasn’t until I tasted the batter when I realized I forgot to add salt! Luckily, I used salted butter, but there was still something that was definitely lacking. Thank god people eat with their eyes and seem to have some sort of obsession with frosting. I’m not usually into frostings other than whipped cream or cream cheese, but swiss meringue buttercream on the other hand, actually I should say, this SMBC from Cassie’s How to Eat a Cupcake is definitely worth the calories. It was simply melt in your mouth and creamy without coming off as tasting like a stick of butter. To help boost the flavour of the almost salt-less chocolate cake, I made a coffee flavoured frosting and used salted butter... hoping that the salt in the frosting would compensate.

After school, I made the frosting, but totally forgot that I wasn't bringing these until the next day. I wasn't into the idea of making people sick so I put the frosting in the fridge all ready to go in a piping bag. I was totally not expecting a lumpy curdled frosting the next day after I let the frosting come to room temperature. It was really gross and there was brown liquid from the coffee and vanilla separating out. Instead of taking out the mixer, somehow I thought I could hand whip this curdled mess into frosting again with my cake spatula. Well, after some vigorous mixing it was not coming together, but I already spent so much time on it, I didn't want to give in and take out the mixer. Then, it was almost like magic and the frosting came together. I could have easily avoided this whole mess had I just frosted the cupcakes and stored them in the fridge. But, no, my overly paranoid self was afraid that refridgeration would unfluffify the cake. I also wouldn't have to deal with the aftereffects of arm pain from all that hand mixing.. haha I know.. very embarassing!

The reaction? Well, the first thing people commented on was how amazing the frosting was, but the cake part was really good too. How can a cake made without salt taste good? I guess it’s true, a cake is simply a vehicle for frosting. This has officially taken over the place of Dorie's devil’s food white out cake as my favourite chocolate cake, mostly because of its texture. My friend actually ate 3 in one sitting! I'm not even going to mention how much butter was in the frosting alone, but then again, birthdays are only once a year. Sorry for the bad pics again, but I have no idea where my camera charger is so I took these with my cell phone.


Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Adapted from Cassie's How to eat a Cupcake
* I used salted butter to compensate for the lack of salt in my cake (it wasn't too salty because it was coffee flavoured, but I definitely wouldn't use salted butter for vanilla frosting)
* I increased the amount of butter by 1/2 a stick because the frosting was still really soft
* I added 2 teaspoons of instant coffee

Makes about 4 cups (enough to frost 24 cupcakes)

Ingredients
4 large egg whites
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup (2.5 sticks) salted butter, at room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons instant coffee

Directions
Put egg whites and sugar into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm (about 160 degrees).
Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 7 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low, add butter two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low; dissolve instant coffee in vanilla and pour mixture into mixing bowl and continue beating 2 minutes to eliminate air bubbles.

Daring Bakers: Filbert Gateau

Finally.. my first challenge as a Daring Baker is completed! Ever since I started blogging, I've had the opportunity to try new desserts and learn new techniques, but this filbert gateau was at a whole other level. I actually didn't complete this until late July because I didn't really know where to start... praline paste? buttercream? the ever so delicate sponge?! Although there was a lot of recipe re-reading and not to mention, a whole day's worth and more dedicated to this gateau, it was totally worth it. The most frustrating part was trying to skin the hazelnuts, which was like a marathon spread over a couple days. Some of them were so stubborn that even after multiple toasts the skins still remained stuck on.

I started off with the praline brittle, thinking it would be easy.. haha. After patiently waiting 10, then 20 minutes for the sugar to caramelize and nothing happened, I spooned in some water (what was I thinking!). Rather than speeding up the process, there were random chunks of sugar everywhere. The only way this could be salvaged was by turning the 'brittle' into the sugar syrup that I flavoured with the Jamaican rum suggested by the recipe. For my second attempt, I cranked the heat up to medium and the sugar slowly melted into a beautiful caramel. This time, the sugar was ever so slightly burned, but it actually added a nice deep butterscotchy flavour.

The cake part was not as scary as I anticipated, but how could I not be worried. The most crucial part was done by hand, no KA could do the folding component for me. I tried to be as light handed as possible and repeated the 'down through the middle, scrap up from the bottom, twist and up' until everything was incorporated. For the buttercream, I only made 1/4 of it because I didn't want any leftover. I can't stand all frosting except for cream cheese, whipped cream and 7 minute icing. This on the other hand was suprisingly delicious! It didn't taste like a stick of butter, but was smooth, silky and melt in your mouth with the occasional crunch from the praline brittle. By mistake, I added double the amount sugar because I forgot that I was making 1/4 of the recipe instead of 1/2. I'm actually glad I screwed up on that because it still had the perfect amount of sweetness. Since there was so little frosting, there was barely any left for decorating so I had to compromise by piping dots on the bottom instead of continuing with the stars.


After all that work, I was a little hesitant to cut into it, but was tempted to taste it because I've never eaten a cake made with nuts before. Flavourwise, this has to be the best cake I've ever eaten. It was so nice to taste the hazelnuts, rum, buttercream and chocolate ganache all in one bite. The texture was a little coarse, but that was probably from underprocessing the nuts and because my mesh strainer didn't catch all the bits. For the bits that were leftover, I just topped it on my cake (I could not waste any hazelnuts, especially since I spent forever skinning them!) It might take a super special occassion for me to make this again, but the buttercream on the other hand.. I'm going to have to experiment with different flavours. Next time I'll definitely have to find already skinned hazelnuts!