A Spotty ''Fling'' Cake

Yes, I bought another cookbook. I just couldn't resist. I got The Whimsical Bakehouse: Fun-to-Make Cakes That Taste as Good as They Look from Book Depository, because there was a discount if you paid with Paypal. And because they have free shipping.

This book is packed with ideas. The authors believe that the whole cake should taste good, so they don't use fondant, but buttercream instead. There are pictures of cakes and then the instructions with the recommended recipes for the design. I'm not going to make a list of recipes I want to make from this book, because I don't think I'll be using it for the recipes, but mainly for the designs and instructions. There are a few recipes that I don't like and I almost definitely won't be making them. But the ideas are really wonderful and the book is way too short.

I simply had to try one of the recipes as soon as I got home. I had an exam on Friday and got home a few hours later in the afternoon. Of course, I started baking right away. I chose the Chocolate Chip Pound Cake and a design called Fling.

On Sunday, I went to Munich to see the 30 Seconds to Mars concert, which was the highlight of the last few months (I paid for the ticket in November already). So I had to leave home on Saturday afternoon already and get back to Ljubljana because the bus was leaving from there. I packed almost a quarter of the cake so I would have something to eat in the next few days (and because it tasted so good). The concert was definitely the best one I have ever been to. I took a lot of photos at first but because Jared was moving all the time, none of them were good, so I just started filming everything.

This is one of the few good pictures I took at the concert. I call it ''My god Tanja, this cake is delicious!''. :D

Chocolate Chip Pound Cake (serves up to 18)

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter
8 ounces cream cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs
2 1/4 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Grease two 9 inch round cake pans, preheat the oven to 350 F and have all ingredients at room temperature.

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter at high speed until light and fluffy. 
2. Add the cream cheese and beat well at high speed. 
3. Add sugar and cream the mixture at high speed until light and fluffy. 
4. Add sour cream and vanilla extract and mix well at medium speed. 
5. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 
6. Sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the other mixture and beat on low speed until smooth. 
7. Fold in the chopped chocolate/ chocolate chips.
8. Divide the batter into two pans and bake for 25-35 minutes.

Whipped Chocolate Ganache (makes 3 cups)

7 ounces dark chocolate
2 1/2 cups heavy cream

1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water.
2. Boil the heavy cream in a saucepan and whisk one third of it into the melted chocolate.
3. Slowly whisk in the rest of the cream and refrigerate overnight or freeze for a few hours.
4. Whip until stiff.

This cake was actually meant to be filled with the chocolate filling and covered with chocolate glaze, but I only realized that when I got home from the store. So since I didn't have enough dark chocolate at home and I had already poured all of the cream in the pan to boil,  I decided it would be best to just cover the cake with the filling too. It didn't end up looking as pretty and dark as in the pictures, but it was still cute.

I made the spots with white chocolate, which I melted and then added different colors of food coloring. I took a spoonful of chocolate and made a spot of it on parchment paper. (In the book, they recommend piping the chocolate, but I don't have the piping bags or tips, and they also recommend wafer chocolate, which I can't get anywhere.) Then I put the spots in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. I used gel paste food colorings, which resulted in pastel colors. I wanted more neon-like colors but I had never worked with these colors before so I didn't know what was going to come out. The colors were all a bit more yellow than expected, because white chocolate has a strong yellow color.

I wanted to make a smaller cake, so I only used 3/4 of the recipe and baked the cakes in an 8 inch pan. I made only 3/4 of the recipe for filling too, but it was still too much and there was enough to cover the cake with it too! So I think that the quantities I used in the filling recipe are probably enough to fill a 9-inch cake, so I modified it a little. 

This cake tastes good and it's really moist because of the cream cheese. I don't usually do white cakes because I don't like their taste, but this one has pieces of chocolate in it, so that's enough chocolate even for me. 

Look: 5/5
Taste: 5/5

Approximate cost: 8.70 €

Rose Levy Beranbaum's Heavenly Cakes: My new favorite cookbook

Ever since I had seen this book in a bookstore (in November), I wanted to have it. But, since it was much cheaper to order it from Better World Books than to buy it in Slovenia (it's sad, but true), I ordered it and had to wait for more than three weeks. It was supposed to be a Christmas present, but it arrived a bit late, in January. I didn't have any time back then anyway, so it remained unopened until last week. Well, actually it wasn't exactly like that; I read it on the train for two hours, but when I got home, I put it on my shelf because the recipes seemed very complicated and I knew I would need many hours to bake a cake from it.

You can read this book almost like a novel; every cake has a story behind the recipe and all the recipes are very detailed. It's divided into five sections: butter and oil cakes, sponge cakes, mostly flourless cakes and cheesecakes, baby cakes and wedding cakes. There are detailed instructions and tips for perfect results in every section, for every type of cake. It's by far the most detailed cook book I have ever seen, some of the recipes are covered and explained in four or even five pages!

The thing that I don't like about this book is that the recipes are written for (very) specific pans and ingredients, and that's why you can never substitute any ingredients or bake it in a more ordinary pan. There are some ingredients in the book (like Wondra flour), that I can't buy here because it doesn't even exist in Europe, so I'll probably have to substitute them and see what happens.

As usual, I made a list of all the cakes from the book that I want to bake, because this makes choosing one so much easier (and because I love making lists!). It's also great to cross items off the list; I learned that with my Martha Stewart's Cupcake list. So, here it is:

Butter and Oil cakes

1. Apple Upside-Down Cake (made the peach version)
2. She Loves Me Cake
3. White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache
4. Heavenly Coconut Seduction Cake
5. Southern (Manhattan) Coconut Cake with Silk Meringue Buttercream
6. Whipped Cream Cake
7. Karmel Cake
8. Spice Cake with Peanut Buttercream
9. Golden Lemon Almond Cake
10. Lemon Poppy Seed-Sour Cream Cake
11. Woody's Lemon Luxury Layer Cake
12. Apple-Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake
13. Marble Velvet Cake
14. Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake
15. Cradle Cake
16. Sicilian Pistachio Cake
17. Gateau Breton
18. Fruitcake Wreath
19. Rose Red Velvet Cake
20. Chocolate Tomato Cake with Mystery Ganache (!)
21. Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake
22. Devil's Food Cake with Midnight Ganache
23. Chocolate Layer Cake with Caramel Ganache
24. Bernachon Palet d'Or Gateau
25. Double Chocolate Valentine
26. Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake
27. Black Chocolate Party Cake
28. Chocolate Ice Cream Cake or Sandwich
29. Miette's Tomboy

Sponge Cakes

1. Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake
2. Chocolate Apricot Roll with Lacquer Glaze
3. Genoise Rose
4. Genoise Tres Cafe
5. Chocolate Genoise with Peanut Butter Whipped Ganache
6. Moist Chocolate Raspberry Genoise
7. Red Fruit Shortcake
8. Catalan Salt Pinch Cake
9. Almond Shamah Chiffon
10. Torta de las Tres Leches
11. Apple Caramel Charlotte

Mostly Flourless Cakes and Cheesecakes

1. Cranberry Crown Cheesecake
2. Coconut Cheesecake with Coconut Cookie Crust
3. Tiramisu
4. Chocolate Feather Bed
5. Hungarian Jancsi Torta
6. Le Succes
7. Zach's La Bomba

Baby Cakes

1. Yellow Butter Cupcakes
2. Chocolate Butter Cupcakes
3. White Velvet Butter Cupcakes
4. Golden Neoclassic Buttercream
5. Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting
6. Chocolate Egg-white Buttercream
7. Designer Chocolate Baby Grands
8. Mini Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes
9. Quail Egg Indulgence Cake
10. Marionberry Shortcake
11. Coffee Chiffonlets with Dulce de Leche Whipped Cream
12. Classic Brioche
13. The Bostini
14. Barcelona Brownie Bars
15. Baby Chocolate Oblivions
16. Two Fat Cats Whoopie Pie
17. Mud Turtle Cupcakes

Wedding Cakes (yes, I'm going to bake a wedding cake for myself, even though I'm not getting married, lol)

1. Grand Marnier Wedding Cake 

I like this book a lot and I think everyone should have it at home (although I don't own the Cake Bible yet, but I'm working on that). You can purchase it on Amazon here: Rose's Heavenly Cakes. 

This week, I got my first award! It's the Sunshine award and I got it from Christina Hearts. 

The rules for accepting this award are:

 - put the logo on your blog or within your post

 - pass the award onto 12 bloggers

 - link to the nominees within your post

 - let they know they received this award by commenting on their blog

 - share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award

I would like to pass this award on to:

17 and Baking

52 Cupcakes

Bake in Paris

Cannelle et Vanille

Munchkin Munchies

Spache the Spatula

Free People

Not So Humble Pie

Katiecakes

The Bake-Off Flunkie

Trendy Treehouse

Daydreamer Desserts

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes (39)

I haven't had time to bake anything in the last week, because I had to study, so this gap of free time that I have right now between the previous exam and the next one (next Friday) is perfect to write a post about these cupcakes. It has been two months (I think) since I last made them, but I never got to writing the actual blog post because I always make them when I have a few egg yolks left, and that is when I make Swiss Meringue Buttercream. The blog post is then usually about the cupcakes with the buttercream. These are from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes (makes 18)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for tins

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup whole milk

3 ounces (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for tins

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour standard muffin tins. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Warm milk and butter in a saucepan over low heat.
2. Beat eggs and sugar with a mixer on high speed until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Beat in dry ingredients.
3. Bring milk and butter to a boil. With mixer on low speed, add milk mixture to batter, and beat until smooth. Add vanilla. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each halfway. Bake cupcakes until light gold, about 15 minutes. Let cool in tins for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks. Let cool.
4. Using a serrated knife, cut each in half horizontally. Spread 1 tablespoon vanilla cream on each cupcake bottom. Sandwich with top. Spoon glaze over each, and serve immediately.

Vanilla Cream (makes 1 1/2 cups)

2 large egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

pinch of salt

1 cup whole milk

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Whisk yolks until smooth. Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add milk in a slow, steady stream. Cook, stirring, until mixture begins to bubble and thicken, about 5 minutes.
2. Pour 1/3 of milk mixture into yolks, whisking constantly. Return mixture to saucepan, and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until thick, 2 to 4 minutes. Stir in vanilla.
3. Pass vanilla cream through a fine sieve into a bowl. Press plastic wrap directly on surface. Refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour, or up to 2 days.

Chocolate Ganache Glaze (makes about 1 1/4 cups)

2/3 cup heavy cream

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Bring cream to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat, and add chocolate and corn syrup. Let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, and let cool, stirring often. Use immediately.

According to Martha Stewart, the vanilla cream is supposed to be white, but I can never get it in the right color. I guess that's because you're supposed to mix the egg yolks for quite a while with a mixer, which is impossible if you are working with one yolk. The batter is a weird color too, not the same as in the book. The cupcakes are interesting because they are cut into two layers and have a filling and a glaze too.

The first time I made them, I used a type of cream that has about 30% fat in it, but the chocolate glaze was almost liquid and it didn't remain on the cupcakes. This time I used cream for cooking, which hardens over time when I use it elsewhere. It worked here too and the glaze stayed on top of the cupcakes, but it didn't really harden, so they were perfect to eat. I made one third of the recipe because I only had two small egg yolks to do the cream with, and I got 6 cupcakes (the whole recipe then makes exactly 18). I used paper liners and then peeled them off, because I didn't want to have the extra work to do if the batter stuck to the pan. They would have looked better if I had baked them without the liners, but I'm always really busy when I'm making two different types of cupcakes, plus a frosting, a cream and a glaze at the same time!

They taste good, but I can't stop thinking about the fact that I'm eating something with raw egg yolks in it.  I'll definitely be making more of these in the future, because they are perfect for using up egg yolks that remain after making swiss meringue buttercream.

Look: 5/5

Taste: 4/5
Approximate cost of one cupcake: 0,30€ 

Linzer torte

A torte is a cake, which is supposed to be made without flour, primarily with eggs, sugar and ground nuts. Variations also include flour and/or bread crumbs. I have never heard of tortes before because in Slovenia, the word torta means the same as torte or cake. We have never made a difference. Tortes are Central-European in origin. My favorite is the Sacher torte. Others include the Black Forest cake (Schwarzwald), Linzer torte and many others that I have never heard of before (most of them are french). My mother likes to bake the Linzer torte because it takes only 20-30 minutes to make and it's very easy too. I don't like the fact that you have to knead the dough by hand, because I hate getting my hands dirty with it. That's the main reason why I don't make such tortes, or cookies. I didn't have time to bake something on my own this weekend, because I have an exam on Monday, so my mother baked this instead.

This torte is considered to be the oldest known torte in the world. It was first mentioned in 1653. It's named after the city of Linz (Austria). It's often eaten at Christmas in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Hungary.

Linzer torte (adapted from Lisa magazine)

200 g sugar
250 g butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
250 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
150 g ground hazelnut
cranberry marmalade
a pinch of salt

1. Knead sugar, butter, one egg and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Mix the flour, baking powder and hazelnuts and add it to the mixture. Knead the dough or mix it with a handheld mixer. Make a ball out of the dough and put it in the freezer for 60 minutes (or even better, leave it there overnight).
2. Preheat the oven to 160° C (320 F). Press two thirds of the dough to the bottom and up the sides of a 26 cm (10 inch) buttered round pan. Roll the remaining dough and cut a few 1 inch wide strips (with a knife). 
3. Cover the torte with cranberry marmalade. Lay the strips across the torte in four or five rows, turn it and lay the remaining strips across the first four (or five). Mix one egg with a pinch of salt and spread it over the torte.
4. Bake for 45-50 minutes and take it out of the oven immediately to cool. 

This torte is very moist, if you eat it right out of the oven. It gets drier after that. You can keep it for a few days or even a week and it still tastes good. It's great to eat with tea or coffee, as an afternoon snack. 

Approximate cost: 6,60 €