Espresso Fudge Cake

I had a really hard time deciding what cake to make for my birthday this year. I flipped through several books looking for inspiration, and nothing called out to me. I didn't want to make the usual carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, even though it is one of my favorite cakes, and I didn't want something bland and boring either. I considered coconut cakes, peanut butter cakes, maple cakes and lots of things in between. I flipped through most of my baking books and even searched online looking for just the cake to make. I found a really promising cake on Smitten Kitchen -- chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and chocolate/peanut butter ganache -- I even printed the recipe and made sure I had all the ingredients, but it just didn't feel quite right to me.

Finally, the night before my birthday I decided I wasn't going to bother with a cake. If I couldn't decide on a recipe then there was no point in messing with it. After all, my sweet tooth gets plenty of attention through my regular baking so there was no need for anything special for my birthday. (not to mention the fact that Chris was already planning to make me incredibly fattening mac & cheese -- which turned out to be beyond amazingly awesome -- for my birthday dinner....)

So naturally after deciding there would be no cake making for my birthday, I woke up with a particular cake on my mind this morning. In my search for a more involved layer cake, something incredibly indulgent, rich and just not the sort of thing you whip up on the spur of the moment, I had flipped through my Death by Chocolate baking book and the Espresso Fudge Cake had caught my eye. Chocolate cakes with a layer of espresso chocolate ganache and a super-rich espresso chocolate buttercream... I had dismissed it before because the recipe was quite involved and included a cooked egg-white buttercream -- something I was definitely not interested in messing with.

However, since it was my birthday and all... I knew I could get Chris to do the cooked egg white part for me and everything else was fairly routine baking and assembly. :) problem solved.

This is not a recipe to undertake lightly. It dirtied a whole lot of my dishes and took several hours of active time not to mention the hour of chilling in the freezer. It involved fairly easy sour cream chocolate cakes that I baked early in the morning. Once they cooled I threw them in the fridge to make them easier to cut later, which was a very good decision considering how soft and moist they were. It also involved a chocolate ganache which wasn't difficult to make, and of course the buttercream which wasn't horribly hard, but it did have many steps and several opportunities for things to go horribly wrong.

Luckily I had Chris helping me out and things did not go wrong. In fact, they went very, very right. This cake is so incredibly rich and indulgent, with so many layers of chocolatey, coffee goodness that I had two bites and I was done. It was so rich and wonderful and incredible.... mmmm... a perfect sort of birthday indulgence... even if I'm the one who has to wash the dishes afterward.

Ingredients:

Cake:
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped into pieces
8 tbsp butter,
2 cups cake flour
2 tsps baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups tightly packed light brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
1 cup sour cream

Espresso Ganache:
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp granulated sugar
8 oz semisweet chocolate broken into pieces
1 tbsp instant espresso powder

Chocolate Espresso Buttercream
8 oz semisweet chocolate broken into pieces
2 oz unsweetened chocolate broken into pieces
2 tsps instant espresso powder
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
5 egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar

To make the cakes:
Preheat oven to 350. Spray two 9x2 inch round cake pans with baking spray. Melt the chocolate using a double boiler, or by nuking for 30 seconds and stirring, then for 15 seconds at a time, stirring after each trip in the microwave, until the chocolate is smooth. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for 5 minutes. While that is mixing stir the flour, baking soda and salt together in another small bowl. Once the butter and sugar are light and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then add the vanilla, mixing well after adding.

While the mixer is running on low, add part of the flour mixture to the egg/butter mixture, then add half of the sour cream. Add more flour, then the rest of the sour cream, mixing all the while. Finally add the last of the flour and then the boiling water. Let the mixer run until the water mixes in. You don't want this process to take a really long time, so just let the mixer go around a couple of times before adding the next ingredient in the process.

Once the batter is uniformly mixed divide it between the two cake pans and place in the oven. Bake 35 to 45 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. The book says 55 minutes, but mine were done in 35 so err on the side of caution and check them early. When they are done remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 15 minutes before turning them out onto a rack. When they are completely cool wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate until you are ready to decorate.

For the ganache:
put the chopped chocolate and espresso powder into a medium, heat-proof bowl. Heat the butter, heavy cream and granulated sugar in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve the sugar. When the mixture comes to a boil pour it over chocolate and espresso mix and stir until smooth. Set aside until needed.

To make the buttercream:
melt the chocolate -- either in a double boiler or the same microwave method described above. once it is smooth set it to one side until needed.

Cream the butter in a stand mixer on medium, for at least 3 minutes, then on high for another 3 minutes -- you want it really light and fluffy. Scrape it into a large bowl, then wash and dry the mixer bowl. Next, put the egg whites and the granulated sugar in the bowl of a double boiler (we use a metal bowl set over top of a pan of boiling water) and gently whisk the eggs and sugar -- the book says until 120 degrees, but we didn't keep track -- we just whisked for 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the egg whites to the mixer bowl and whisk with the whisk attachment on high until stiff peaks form -- about 4 minutes. The egg whites will look like marshmallow fluff when they are ready.

The next step is to fold the melted chocolate into the whipped butter -- but make sure the chocolate is below 80 degrees before folding it in, otherwise you will melt the butter and ruin the frosting. Once the chocolate is completely folded into the butter, gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate butter mixture until no streaks remain.

Last: assemble the cake. Cut each cake in half giving you four layers to work with. Place one layer in the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Spread 1 1/2 cups of buttercream evenly over the layer. Top with another layer of cake, then spread 1 1/4 cups of ganache over that layer. Add another layer of cake, then another 1 1/2 of buttercream. Finally add the last layer of cake then wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap and freeze for an hour.

After an hour pull the cake from the freezer and unwrap. Run a knife along the inside of the springform pan to loosen the cake (this turned out to be far more difficult and messy than anticipated...) Remove the cake from the springform pan, trim any edges that are ragged (quite a lot on mine) then frost with the remaining buttercream. Run a knife under hot water for a few minutes, then wipe it dry before cutting the cake to get pretty slices of cake.

Bluebarb Cherry Pie

I have definitely gotten better at making pies. Earlier posts talk about cursing, crying and throwing things in various failed attempts to get a flaky, great tasting pie crust, but I believe those days are now firmly behind me. Sure there may be relapses now and again, but the last several attempts have turned out decently.

The technique that finally helped me succeed (as much as I have so far) is to freeze the flour and butter for at least 4 hours before using the food processor to cut the butter into the flour. The recipe doesn't seem to matter as much, but I have used the Dorie Greenspan version, the Bubby's Pies version and numerous others and the only way any of them work out for me is to freeze the flour. My pie crusts are still not perfect. I still struggle with how much water to add and how much kneading I can get away with to get it to come together -- but they are edible and now I'm not completely embarrassed to share my pies with friends and family.

For this particular pie I had some fruit (cherries, blueberries and rhubard) in my fridge that needed to be used quickly before it went bad. Instead of following a recipe, I borrowed from several recipes. I used the Bubby's crust, but the filling technique and crumb topping from Nick Malgieri's book Modern Baking. The joy of the filling is that it was soft and juicy, but much firmer than other fruit pies I have attempted and I did not end up with a liquid puddle in the bottom of the pie pan. I also used a technique that Dorie Greenspan uses where she puts a 1/4 cup of bread crumbs on the bottom of the crust to help soak up excess liquid and prevent a soggy bottom (because nobody likes a soggy bottom...) I didn't have bread crumbs, but I threw a 1/4 cup of graham cracker crumbs on the bottom and it seemed to work... it certainly didn't hurt anything.

Most 9-inch pies call for 6 cups of fruit. I used a technique from Nick Malgieri's Modern Baking on the filling. I took a cup of the mixed fruit, combined with 3/4 cup sugar and some cinnamon and brought it to a boil. While it was coming up to a boil I put 4 tbsps of corn starch and 2 tbsps of water into a bowl. Once the fruit was boiling I took some of that liquid and mixed it into the corn starch mixture until it was smooth and then added it back into the pot and brought the whole thing back to the boil again.

After it comes to a boil again remove it from the heat and add it back to the uncooked fruit and toss until everything is combined well. Next scatter the crumbs (bread or graham cracker) across the bottom of the crust and then fill the crust with the fruit. You're also supposed to scatter 3-4 tablespoons of chilled butter over the surface of the pie before adding the crumb topping, but I seem to always forget and this time was no exception -- the good news is that it tasted fine without the extra butter.

I went with a crumb topping on my pie because I suck at top crusts and crumb toppings taste so good. I can't remember the proportions for the crumb topping, but I would figure that most crumb toppings for 9 inch rounds or squares would work for this pie. I used a little cinnamon and a little nutmeg for this crumb topping just to add a little more depth to the flavor.

All in all this pie was a success. I still have room for improvement for the crusts, but each attempt seems to be a little better than the last one and I love the technique of boiling some of the fruit and mixing in the corn starch -- purists may think corn starch is cheating, but it works and right now that's far more important to me than purity.




Bubby's All Butter Pastry Pie Dough
8-10 inch double crust or 12-inch single crust

5 to 6 tbsps ice cold water
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
11 1/2 tbsps cold unsalted butter

Measure the water for the crust (with a bit of extra water in the measure in case you need a touch more) and then add ice cubes. Chill it in the freezer.

Measure out the flour (unsifted) by leveling off dry measuring cups, and add the flour to large bowl. Add the salt to the flour and give it a quick stir to combine evenly.

Use cold butter, measure out the amount you need, and then coat the cold, solid stick with the flour in the bowl. Using a dough scraper or a long butcher knife, cut the butter lengthwise in half, and then lengthwise in quarters, coating each newly cut side with flour as you go. Dice the butter into 1/4 inch cubes. Break up any pieces that stick together and toss them all to coat them with flour. If it is warm, chill briefly before continuing.

Using a pastry cutter, press the blades through the mixture bearing down repeatedly like you would to mash potatoes. Repeat this gesture until the largest pieces of fat are the size of shelling peas and the smallest are the size of lentils. Rechill if necessary.

Add water one of two tablespoons at a time, quickly tossing the mixture with your hands after each addition to distribute the water evenly. Work the dough as little as possible.

Continue adding water a little at a time until there are no floury bits left -- just little comet-like cobbles that don't quite cohere. To test the dough for consistency, lightly pat together some dough the size of a tennis ball. If the ball crumbles apart or has lots of dry looking cracks in it, the dough is still too dry; let it bread apart. Add a drop or two more water to the outside of the ball and work it just a little. If it holds and feels firm and supple, mop up any remaining crumbs with the ball. IF they pick up easily the dough is probably wet enough.

For a double crust divide the dough into slightly uneven halves and shape each half into a ball. Cover each ball tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour to relax and slow the gluten development.

Blueberry Rhubarb Crumb Bars

I wanted something red white and blue for the Fourth of July and had blueberries and rhubarb so decided to make it happen using my new book The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle which I got with one of the gift cards we got at the wedding. So far I have been quite pleased with the book, and these bars are definitely worth repeating even though they didn't quite fit the red white and blue theme I originally envisioned.

The base is brown sugar short bread that is topped with berries then topped with a crumb topping. The original recipe only called for blueberries, but I wanted the rhubarb so I split the difference, 1/2 blueberries and 1/2 sliced rhubarb. The center of the bars didn't seem to set up quite right, but I'm not sure if that's because rhubarb has more liquid than blueberries, or whether that's just the way the bars are.

The only slight quibble I have with the recipe is that it dirties a lot of dishes. The base is made in the food processor, the blueberry filling dirties a bowl, and the crumb topping dirties yet another bowl. Is it really a big deal? Probably not, but also not the quickest and easiest thing to throw together at the last minute on a hot summer day.


Brown Sugar Crust #2
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
11 tbsp cold unsalted butter but into 1/2 inch cubes
1 large egg
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1/2 tsp vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Place the flour, brown sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to blend. Scatter the butter cubes over the flour mixture and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few pea-sized pieces of butter, about 6 seconds.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, lemon zest and vanilla extract until blended. Add the egg mixture to the food processor and process for a few seconds, just until the dough is blended but still crumbly. Do not allow the dough to form a ball around the blade or the crust will be tough.

With lightly floured hands press the dough evenly into the bottom of the pan.

Blueberry Crumble Toppins
blueberry filling:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp corn starch
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground gingre
2 cups blueberries (or 1 cup blueberries and 1 cup rhubarb)

Crumb topping:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsps unsalted butter, melted

Make the filling:
In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and ginger. Add the blueberries and toss to coat well. Spread the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust.

Make the topping:
In a medium bowl stir together the flour, sugars, cinnamon and salt until blended. Stir in the melted butter until the mixture comes together. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the blueberry filling.

Bake for 48 to 50 minutes until the topping is lightly browned and the filling is bubbling. Cool the bars completely in ahte pan on a wire rack.

Wedding in Oregon

We are back safe and sound from Oregon. As you can see from the picture we had a beautiful day on the Oregon Coast for our beach wedding and we had a fantastic time celebrating with our family and friends. My goal was for a simple, easy, relaxed celebration and that is exactly what we got. Our only complaint is that our DJ was terrible, but that was funny more than anything (Du Hast was playing at one point... I'm not against Rammstein, I even have the album the song is on, but not necessarily appropriate for a wedding.) Luckily the DJ was one of the least important aspects of the whole thing since we decided we didn't want to do any of the traditional dances and we knew that the people we were expecting at the wedding were not really into dancing anyway.

And since this is a food blog... about the cake. I refer to the cake as a little Forest Gump. It looks great from a distance, but when you got up close you could see the problems. The first problem we ran into is that I did not bring the recipe with me to Oregon. I intentionally didn't bring the book the recipe was in because I was SURE that I had blogged about it. Have I mentioned that my memory sucks? Because I hadn't blogged about it. I intended to blog about it, but I never quite got around to it. Oops.

The recipe I intended to use was from the Sweet Melissa Baking book. It was a superb lemon pound cake that was soft and moist, and yet firm enough to stand up to being done in layers with frosting and fondant. I searched high and low online and could not find the recipe posted anywhere. The book was not in the local library and the town does not have a book store to speak of. (lots of used book stores which are normally great, but not so great in this case.)

So I started looking for alternatives. I had the Cake Love Lemon Pound Cake recipe online and that certainly has the qualities I was looking for -- soft, moist, yet still firm -- but that recipe calls for a lot of obscure ingredients that I wasn't even sure we would find in the small town grocery stores and I didn't feel like driving to the bigger towns -- at least 2 hours away -- to hunt for them.

I had found other recipes in my blog, but I wasn't thrilled enough with them to use for my wedding cake. I looked around the blogosphere and found many great-looking recipes, but I didn't want to try something new either. In the end I went with one of my go-to lemon cake recipes -- the Ina Garten Lemon Cake. It's a great, fantastic, wonderful cake... but it's awfully moist and soft and I was very concerned about how it would hold up as a stacked layer cake with fondant.

Luckily my mother has lots and lots of stuff for baking and decorating cakes and she had a great wedding cake stand that would serve quite nicely and eliminate the extra weight of the cakes stacked on each other. Which was a good thing because the cakes were so soft that when the fondant went on they got a little bulgy and crooked. The fondant was also stretched, lumpy and/or torn in a few places, but we were expecting a certain amount of that because our experience was limited and we were okay with it.

What I loved most about this cake though was that it was a true group effort. I did the cakes and the buttercream. Chris did the fondant work. My friend Lindsay, who is a whiz with arts and crafts and created all of the decorations for the reception, did the ribbon work. And my mom did the finishing touches with the buttercream dots. The cake in the picture below is not actually how it looked at the wedding -- but I didn't think to take pictures of it then, too many other things on my mind I suppose. At the reception there was a cake topper as well as rose petals scattered around the edges of the cake and it looked pretty damn great for a wedding cake we made ourselves and decorated in a vacation rental.

The cake also tasted great which is always a plus. :)

absence

Sorry I have not posted in so long but life has gotten crazy. A short break has turned into an extended absence and I'm not quite sure when I will be back. Just to reassure any readers who may remain -- there is nothing serious going on, and I do continue baking (I'm afraid of what my coworkers would do to me if I didn't) but I haven't managed to fit the blogging in with everything else. Mostly my extra time has been taken up commuting to work on my bicycle instead of driving, an excellent way to get some exercise into a busy day and to have one less car on the road, but terrible for the blogging.

The other big news is that Chris and I will be in Oregon on Monday June 9th and will be getting married on June 15th. :) My good friend Lindsay has done most of the heavy lifting for the wedding planning so I don't even have that as an excuse for not blogging -- it's just been a busy Spring. We are planning to do a very basic cake ourselves and I will hopefully get pictures of that and the story posted when we get back to Maryland. (lemon pound cake with raspberry jam between the layers, covered in lemon buttercream and then topped with plain white fondant -- since this is a foodie blog and all.)

French Lemon Loaf

This is actually a very nice loaf cake. The crumb is soft and has a great texture. The lemon flavor is there without being overwhelming. It is soft and after being well-wrapped on the counter for 3 days, still fairly moist. Which makes me feel like I'm damning it with faint praise.

The problem is that I have a go-to lemon-poppy seed loaf that I like quite a lot more than this one. My go-to loaf has a really bright, intense lemon flavor to it, while this cake is much sweeter and mellower. For someone looking for a nice basic loaf cake with a mellow character, this lemon loaf would be perfect. For someone looking for intense lemony goodness, try the poppy seed version instead.

I pulled this version from my Passion For Baking book and it is a basic, easy, loaf cake. The lemon syrup helps keep it moist, and it would also handle a lemon powdered sugar glaze quite well.



Ingredients;
1 1/3 cups sugar
zest of 1 large lemon
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp pure lemon extract or 1/2 tsp lemon oil
6 large eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsps milk
2 1/4 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Lemon glaze:
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon extract or 1/2 tsp lemon oil

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x5 loafpan with cooking spray and place on a baking sheet.

In a mixer bowl, blend sugar and lemon zest 2 minutes. Add butter and lemon extract. Beat until light and fluffy about 3 to 5 minutes. Blend in eggs, and add some of the flour from recipe if mixture seems curdled. Add milk and fold in remaining flour, baking powder and salt. Spoon batter into prepared pan.

Bake 1 hour and then reduce oven temperature to 325 and bake another 10 to 20 minutes (my cake was perfectly done after 1 hour so be sure to check yours before adding more time.) The edges of the cake should be pulling away from the sides of the pan and a cake tester should come out clean. Remove cake and after 10 minutes unmold to a wire rack with parchment paper underneath to catch the extra glaze.. (I left mine in the pan to add the glaze -- less mess that way.)

Meanwhile, for Lemon Glaze, simmer water, lemon juice, and sugar in a saucepan 5 minutes. Cool to warm and then stir in lemon extract. Using a cake tester, skewer, or small paring knife, make small holes or slits in cake surface.

Drizzle or spoon glaze over cake. If you unmolded the cake onto a wire rack recoup the extra glaze from the parchment paper and drizzle back onto cake.

Baked Brownies

I always get excited when I see brownies being offered because I happen to love brownies. However, I am also usually disappointed after I grab one and discover that they are dry and don't offer much chocolate flavor. Most people I know seem to think that you can get decent brownies out of a box which is pretty tragic because brownies aren't actually all that hard to make. The tough part is finding a good recipe for deep, rich, fudgy brownies since like many other basic baked goods (think chocolate chip cookies) it is easy to find okay recipes and difficult to find really great recipes.

This is a really great recipe. This is a swoon-worthy recipe. This is everything a good brownie should be. The tops are crackly and shiny and almost shatter a little bit as you bite into them. Underneath that top is some of the richest, densest, moistest chocolaty goodness that you can find on the planet. The only change I made to the recipe was to throw a generous cup of walnuts into the recipe (they would have been better toasted) just because I like walnuts in my brownies.

The recipe came from the Baked book which I talked about here, here, and here. Unlike the other recipes which I was only so-so about (apparently I am the only food blogger on the face of the planet who is not completely in love with the book), this recipe alone was worth the price of the book. Of course that makes perfect sense considering that the Baked Bakery is known for their brownies and their Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake which is high on the list of things I want to bake but won't get to for some time because it's a more complicated recipe than cookies and quick breads.


Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72% cacao), coarsely chopped
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9 x 13 glass or light-colored metal baking pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, cocoa powder together.

Put the chocolate, butter, and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.

Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely, then cut them into squares and serve.

Tightly covered with plastic wrap, the brownies keep at room temperature for up to 3 days.