mix, mix…stir, stir

This week I get to step up to the podium and host the recipe for the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group. When I first joined the group 15 months ago, I wondered how I would ever choose which recipe to pick, but when my name was called, it really wasn’t such a hard choice. I turned immediately to my favorite category of baked goods, cakes, and honed right in on the Perfect Party Cake. June seems to be a big celebration month with Father’s Day, graduations, and in my family there are lots of June birthdays, so a Perfect Party Cake seemed like a perfect choice.

This party cake was extra special because I made it for my mother-in-law, Phyllis, in celebration of her 80^th birthday. A number of months ago she called to tell us she would like to gather the family from our scattered locations to celebrate her birthday in Las Vegas. David’s response was, “that sounds great, but there won’t be a cake.” I need to give you a little back story here. When David’s dad turned 80 our family got together to celebrate in Idaho, where they were spending the summer. I had the great idea to make him a cake and fly from Seattle to Idaho with it. David was sure this would be disastrous, but thanks to his expert skills of running blocker for me through the airports, we made it there just fine with the cake in perfect condition. Back to the phone call inviting us to Las Vegas, I grabbed the phone and assured Phyllis there will be a cake! This is a quick direct flight; of course I will bring a cake.

The big unknown with this trip were the new airport security rules. The cake isn’t liquid and can go through the scanner, so no problem, right? A little online sleuthing revealed that cakes getting through security can be hit and miss. If you happen to get a TSA agent in a bad mood (or maybe hungry?) the cake may just be denied passage. I am the eternal optimist and really didn’t believe there would be any issue. As the cake is being scanned, the agent behind the machine asks me in a friendly, just curious manner, “Is it a pie or a cake?”  I answer, and then she asks, “What kind?”  I tell her it’s a lemon cake with a raspberry filling and she smiles. The agent on my side of the scanner turns to me and says, “Raspberry filling is a gel and we can’t let that through.”  I am sure I turned as white as the layers of cake, yet I assume he is joking, but I’m also thinking if he’s joking he may not want me to know that right away.  There is also the chance that he is completely serious! My brain is about to short out trying to decide if I should just laugh it off or play into it. I go with the play-into-it strategy and deliver a stunned “No! Please tell me you’re kidding.” This went back and forth a few times and finally the agent holding my cake hostage in the x-ray machine sent it through and they started laughing. Really not so funny from my perspective, but if it lightened their day and I get to proceed with my cake, I’m happy.

The cake arrived mostly unscathed. The thing about jam fillings is they are slippery. Had I been thinking I would have stuck a few chop sticks or straws through the layers to pin them together. The top two layers slid off one side crushing a bit of the piped edging, but a tilt of the box slid them right back on. Once we arrived in Las Vegas we delivered the cake to the Grand Lux Café  at the Venetian Hotel, where the whole family was having dinner that night. The Grand Lux Café was so gracious and accommodating. They took the cake early in the day and kept it in the refrigerator for us. Once we arrived for dinner two different people came out to talk to me about how the layers had slid off and offered to have one of the chefs try to fix it up. They smoothed out the icing and piped on a new bottom boarder and made it look great. Then they added birthday candles and presented the cake to Phyllis. Thank you to the staff at the Grand Lux Café!  We had a great dinner and fun time that night.

The cake was tender, light, lemony and perfectly accented by the lush raspberry jam. I will admit that my first attempt flopped. Not that there were difficult techniques, it was more about mixing finesse. Knowing this was a big-deal cake; I turned right around and made it again with much better results. As I looked at the cake layers, I decided they weren’t grand enough for an 80^th birthday celebration, so I made the cake a third time. The third time was even better and I think the difference was in letting the batter beat exactly as described in the instructions. It was noticeably more aerated and the baked cakes were much lighter. Rather than cutting the two layers to make four, I left them whole and added a third layer from the previous batch. I wanted the cake to be tall and I thought cutting the two layers, just wouldn’t be enough. From previous experience I know it’s difficult to spread buttercream over a layer of jam, so I reversed the steps and put the buttercream down first, chilled it so it was set, and then spread the jam on with no problems.

This was a Perfect Party Cake for a great celebration. Happy Birthday Phyllis!

 Over 350 baking bloggers are baking our way thorough Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours . 80 recipes completed 141 to go!

As the recipe selector for the week, I have the honor of posting the recipe. Here is Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake from her book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. Here are a few additional tips from Dorie on making this cake.

Perfect Party Cake

Stick a bright-colored Post-it to this page, so you’ll always know where to turn for a just-right cake for any celebration. The original recipe was given to me by my great dear friend Nick Malgieri, of baking fame, and since getting it, I’ve found endless opportunities to make it – you will too. The cake is snow white with an elegant tight crumb and an easygoing nature: it always bakes up perfectly; it is delicate on the tongue but sturdy in the kitchen- no fussing when it come to slicing the layers in half or cutting tall, beautiful wedges for serving; and, it tastes just as you’d want a party cake to taste – special. The base recipe is for a cake flavored with lemon, layered with a little raspberry jam and filled and frosted with a classic (and so simple) pure white lemony hot-meringue buttercream, but because the elements are so fundamental, they lend themselves to variation (see Playing Around), making the perfect cake not just perfect , but also versatile.

For the Cake

2 ¼ cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream

1 cup sugar
4 large egg wites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing

 2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves, stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut

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

To Make the Cake: Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.

Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter, and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and will aerated. Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch- a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up. (The cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.)

To Make the Buttercream: Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or other large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream. Remove the bowl from the heat.

Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6 to 10 minutes. During this time, the buttercream may curdle or separate-just keep beating and it will come together again. On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny, smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

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

Makes 12 to 14 servings

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

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

Playing Around

Since lemon is such a friendly flavor, feel free to make changes in the preserves: other red preserves- cherry or strawberry-look especially nice, but you can even use plum or blueberry jam.

Fresh Berry Party Cake: If you will be serving the cake the day it is made, cover each layer of buttercream with fresh berries-use whole raspberries, sliced or halved strawberries or whole blackberries, and match the preserves to the fruit. You can replace the coconut on top of the cake with a crown of berries or use both coconut and berries. You can also replace the buttercream between the layers with fairly firmly whipped sweetened cream and then either frost the cake with buttercream (the contrast between the lighter whipped cream and the firmer buttercream is nice) or finish it with more whipped cream. If you use whipped cream, you’ll have to store the cake in the refrigerator-let it sit for about 20 minutes at a cool room temperature before serving.

Candied Lemon Party Cake: Make a batch of candied lemon slices (page 468) to slip between the layers. Spread each of the bottom 3 layers of the cake with preserves or marmalade, then buttercream; pat some lemon slices dry, slice them into small pieces and arrange them in a single layer over each layer of buttercream. Omit the coconut, or not, and finish the top of the frosted cake with lemon slices or with one decoratively twisted candied lemon slice in the center.

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie project starts out with me not being able to find a pineapple at either of the two stores I visited. Not having the time or desire to do a city-wide pineapple search, I happily settled on a mango substitution.

Figuring I am already off-track with this recipe, I decide to play around with a few other elements. The filling is supposed to be a white chocolate ganache, which is simply white chocolate and cream combined. With a fresh bundle of basil resting in my fridge, I couldn’t resist infusing a nice handful of the fresh leaves in the cream. Basil with mango certainly works and I love basil in sweet creamy things, so I considered it a safe bet. After just a 10 minute bath in the warm cream the basil left a light herby aroma and flavor as delicate as the gentle green tint the cream had taken on. After whisking in the white chocolate and chilling the mixture, I was a little surprised and slightly worried at how runny the ganach was. Following the instructions to whip the mixture I felt a rush of happiness when the liquid transformed into a pillow of fluff. So taken with admiring this transformation, I proceeded to overbeat the fluff to a slightly lumpy consistency, but it still had a divine sweet herby fresh flavor that I couldn’t get enough of.

Dacquoise is a nut flavored meringue, traditionally baked as round disks until dry and crisp. The meringue is then layered with cream or buttercream and chilled so the meringue becomes soft like a layer of cake, but still maintains a slight crunchy element in the center of each layer. The texture is delightful and addictive.

The pineapple was to be roasted under a broiler, so I did the same with the mango, but also basted it with a bit of honey to boost the caramelization, and sprinkled it with a touch of curry powder. Yes, curry powder. A friend I recently met has a spice company, Nataraja Spices, making different Indian spice mixes, and he gave me a sample of the Sambar Powder.  As you can see, I have been putting in and on just about everything, including Caramel Rice Krispie Treats, but that’s a story for a different post. It’s a warm rich mix of spices that isn’t shy about delivering a heated kick. I have had great results with it in more expected applications like chicken, fish, and potatoes, but also really like it as a balance to sweet. I used a very light dusting on the mangos adding a subtle warmth that grew quietly, but never fully revealed itself, just lending a perfect touch of flavor intrigue.

I really enjoyed making this dessert, especially the meringue, but overall it was too sweet for me. I was glad to have added the spices as a counterbalance, but I suspect what it really needed was the acidic bite from the pineapple that was supposed to be used. Maybe the mango would have worked better without the white chocolate adding so much sweetness to the filling. This week’s pick comes from Andrea in the Kitchen, where you can find the recipe posted, and visit the blog roll to see the results of other bakers who may have actually followed the recipe!

Over 350 baking bloggers are baking our way thorough Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours . 79 recipes completed 142 to go!

Sunny warm air and a bounty of ripe fruit can only mean summertime. Of all the luscious seasonal offerings a perfectly ripe peach stops my world. Plump and fuzzy with blushes of ruby red, orange and pale yellow, based on appearance alone there is a promises something lovely.

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, selected by Tommi of Brown Interior, had me down at Pike’s Place Market searching for some beautiful peaches to make Honey Peach Ice Cream, and though I love ice cream, I knew it would be a challenge to forgo eating the fresh peaches to make this recipe. Standing at the counter staring at glistening pile of juicy ripe peach slices was a test of will, but most of them did make it into the ice cream.

I really can’t seem to heat milk or cream without the thought of a flavor infusion creeping into my mind. I became fixated on the idea of mace with this ice cream and infused one large mace blade in the cream and milk for 10 minutes, and then preceded with tempering the eggs and cooking the custard with the mace blade, removing it before chilling the mixture. The flavor was exciting, spicy, warm and peachy. The mace seemed a touch too pushy but when I tossed in a pinch of pink flake salt the flavors balanced to a lovely harmony.

The cool creamy texture initially hijacks the tasting experience, but once the texture is satisfactorily processed, the sunny flavor of fresh peach blooms bringing with it smooth spicy hints of nutmeg from the mace infusion. I used my good honey for this ice cream; the honey that gets to live in my new honey pot.  Last month I attended the International Food Blogger Conference organized by Foodista, and one of the sample products, or gifts, graciously bestowed to the participants was a ceramic honey pot from Le Crueset. Growing up we always used a honey pot with a wooden honey dipper, but I seem to have gotten by all these years using the handy upside down squeeze bottles, which are an amazingly clever idea. Though clever and handy, the squeeze bottle misses on the pleasurably tactile experience of dipping and drizzling honey from a pot.

Special honey now lives in my pot. I don’t know if it was a happy coincidence or a well planned strategy, but a beautiful jar of Guajillo honey from Range Honey in Texas was also gifted to us conference attendees. I had a Winnie the Pooh moment while making this ice cream when I was standing over the sink licking every last drop of honey out of the measuring spoon. Needless to say, I really like this honey.

Over 350 baking bloggers are baking our way thorough Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours . 78 recipes completed 143 to go!

This must be the best pastry trick ever! Cut a piece of puff pastry, put any tasty topping on it, and bake in a hot oven (400 degrees F) until golden brown (25 minutes or so). Anything baked on puff pastry seems to taste fantastic and look elegant. Memorize these three simple steps and you will never be caught in a bind when you need to whip up a dessert or even a savory hors d’oeuvre.

These tarts really were as simple as a piece of dough, topped with fruit, a light sprinkle of brown sugar and a dot of butter. I had some almond pastry cream hiding in the freezer so I added a dollop to each pastry before adding the fruit, and in honor of cinnamon month here at TableFare I dusted the apple and pear tarts with some freshly ground true cinnamon.

Once I used up the two apples and one pear I had, I started rummaging for toppings for the rest of my dough. The rhubarb tarts are just sliced rhubarb with a bit of honey and cardamom. I still had two naked rounds of dough and turned to some savory toppings. A light sprinkle of grated Monterey Jack cheese, a few thinly sliced onions, chopped garlic scapes and red bell pepper garnished with a light touch of olive oil, salt, pepper and smoked paprika. These would make an outstanding snack for an hors d’oeuvre party and they don’t even need to be served hot. This type of pastry is also really easy to pack and eat out of hand making it perfect for a picnic.

There is really only one thing that could trip you up with this oh-so-simple recipe that you now have tucked up your sleeve, okay, maybe two things. One; you need to have puff pastry and two; you need to keep that pastry dough cold. The first issue is not such a big one because really good puff pastry is sold in the freezer section of most grocery stores. The fact that it’s frozen does require a little planning because it needs to be thawed in the refrigerator before it can be used. The key to buying good puff pastry is to read the ingredients and make sure it’s made with butter. Puff pastry made with butter is more expensive, but you’re getting off easy on the work, so spring for the fancy stuff, it really does taste better.

The second issue is you need to keep the pastry dough cold, which means work quickly and toss it back in the refrigerator if it starts to get soft. After rolling and cutting the dough into individual portions, chill it before piling on the toppings and baking. Puff pastry is referred to as a laminated dough and is made up of 729 layers of dough each separated by a layer of fat. Are you wondering who counted?

It’s math. The first step in making puff pastry is to roll out a flour/water dough and top it with a layer of butter or some sort of fat. The dough is folded over the fat into thirds creating 3 layers of dough each separated by a layer of fat. This laminate of dough and fat is chilled and then rolled out again and once again folded in thirds, so now the dough is 9 layers, this is repeated a total of six times and if you keep multiplying, the finished dough is in fact 729 very thin layers. The reason it’s important to keep the dough cold is so the fat stays cold and maintains the distinct layers. If the fat melts into the dough, you lose the benefit of the laminate construction and won’t get the puff, and therefore won’t get the spectacular sensation of biting into hundreds of distinct crispy flaky layers of pure delight. The puff is generated from the water content of the fat vaporizing and expanding the air between the layers of dough, so the layers of fat need to be distinct and the oven needs to be hot. To the simple recipe add this simple rule; keep the dough cold, get the oven hot.

An additional tip: use a very sharp knife to cut the dough so the layers don’t melded together on the cut line from being pressed with a dull blade. I actually didn’t remember this and used a ring mold to cut my rounds; had I used a nice sharp knife, I probably would have gotten a puffier edge around the fruit.

I took this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe as an opportunity to try making puff pastry, which I have never done before. Don’t be overly impressed just yet. I used a quick puff pastry method where the fat is initially cut into the flour like it is when making pie crust or biscuits and then only three rounds of folding and rolling the dough are used to create the laminate.  It was actually quite easy and I am thrilled with the results. The biggest challenge was the 70 degree F temperature in my kitchen! I rolled the dough out on a granite slab that I had pre-chilled by placing a sheet pan filled with ice cubes on it. Also, while cutting out rounds on one end of the dough I set a cold sheet pan (not one filled with ice because it will sweat and get water all over the dough) over the rest of the dough to keep it chilled.

Jessica of My Baking Heart gets all the credit for the great recipe selection this week. Thanks to her, my baking skills have expanded to include puff pastry. She has Dorie’s recipe posted on her blog, but you already have the three steps memorized along with the two rules and one tip, right?

Over 350 baking bloggers are baking our way thorough Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours . 77 recipes completed 144 to go!

The coincidence of this week’s recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie corresponding to Dorie Greenspan’s Spice Inspiration feature on TableFare is quite remarkable. Dorie shares her thoughts on her favorite spice, cinnamon, along with the recipe for Cinnamon Squares that showcases the spice perfectly.

Cinnamon Squares is about as easy as a cake recipe can be. You just need a couple of bowls and a good spoon for stirring. This cake is all about the cinnamon, almost 2 tablespoons worth of cinnamon!  Even with such an aggressive quantity of the spice, it doesn’t overwhelm the cake.  Playing along with the cinnamon are some great flavor companions – chocolate and coffee. The frosting is as simple as melting chocolate and butter together and I added a heaping ½ teaspoon of ancho chile powder just to give it a little surprise ending.

The ribbon of filling running through the middle of the cake adds another layer of chocolate flavor and the hint of coffee from the addition of espresso powder. The best part about the filling is it’s just baked right in. No cake layers to work with, just pour half of the batter in the pan, sprinkle on the filling, and top with the rest of the batter. Simple. The cake is tender and moist and the accents of chocolate in the filling and icing make it rich and satisfying.

 I made the cake exactly as written in the recipe, with a “pinch of salt” equating to a scant ½ teaspoon in my world. I used a beautiful Vietnamese cassia (cinnamon), which is known for having a very bold flavor due to the high volatile oil content of this particular variety of cassia.  I was delighted with the end result and expect Cinnamon Squares will be showing up frequently at our house. If you would like to read about the different varieties of cinnamon and how cassia and cinnamon are different visit our Spice Library.

Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures selected Cinnamon Squares for us to make this week and I applaud her perfectly timely selection that corresponds to cinnamon month here at TableFare.  You can visit her blog for the recipe or find it in our featured recipes section.

Over 350 baking bloggers are baking our way thorough Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours . 76 recipes completed 145 to go!