When I read that the very lovely Renee of Shiokadelicious! had put the call out for the latest Is My Blog Burning? event and that the subject was to be an internet cake walk I heard the call and I answered thinking to myself, "I am SO THERE!" What a lucky coincidence that I had recently purchased some cake decorating equipment, a turntable, a new icing knife, and a starter decorating set with tips and vinyl bags. I was excited, these IMBB events are turning out to be a lot of fun, and can be as challenging as each individual food blogger or non food blogger or even non-bloggers want to make it. What I really like most is the non-competitive approach and the invitation to join the event is open to anyone that might be interested. Its fun and inspiring and the ideas so far have been terrific, as for the latest incarnation, I can’t think of a nicer way to spend some time...with a cup of coffee and cake, lots of cake, and without any of the calories!
Normally I'd spend time surfing the internet looking for recipe ideas and inspiration but because of my recent interest in cake decorating I've been reading a really great book called The Whimsical Bakehouse by Kaye Hansen and Liv Hansen This mother-daughter team hail from Ardsley, New York and are the owners of the Riviera Bakehouse, famous for its delicious and well... whimsical creations. I was lucky enough to try one of their cakes at a wedding I attended a few years ago and I must tell you, the cake was terrific (that is no easy feat Dear Reader since I find most wedding cakes to be just ok if not just a little eh) The execution of the cake was just beautiful and was tailored to fit the couple in a way that had special meaning to them and their new life together. It was a memorable cake, not just for the couple but for me too and when I found out the Hansen’s had recently written a book (2002), I bought it. The book is terrific, and really takes into consideration the novice baker; should you wish to recreate one of their designs then step by step instructions are provided, or, if you would rather just use the excellent information about baking, slicing, icing and decorating cakes and apply it to an original creation you come up with on your own, then the book makes it easily possible. I highly recommend it.
This was by far a much easier cake to bake than any of the other cakes I've tried baking recently. I'm not sure why, but the batter just seemed much more flexible, and less fussy to work with, which was nice. I was lucky to find cake flour which is funny because I wasn't really looking for any when I spotted it on the supermarket shelf, but since it was there, and I was there, I put it into my basket, earning an approving little gurgle from Ellie. If you can't find cake flour, a substitution for it is; for 1 cup of cake flour, substitute 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour. I used a little less sugar than the recipe called for, (probably about 1/4 cup less) because I wanted to use 4 ounces of semisweet chocolate instead of the 1 1/2 ounces the recipe asked for. I also roughly chopped the chocolate instead of shaving it and I'm glad I did, the resulting cake was moist and sweet but not too sweet, and with every few bites I was rewarded with a nice chunk of chocolate. The cake actually reminded me of a giant chocolate chip cookie! In their book The Hansen’s talk about letting your cake cool off completely before icing it, and I followed their orders, a little too well actually, having had to abandon operations for a long while to tend to the Bonnie (or is it Bonny?) Lass. Because I was unable to get back to the cake right away, it sat on my cooling racks for several hours and because of that it dried out a little. I decided that brushing a soaking solution onto the layers might help bring some extra moisture back into the cake as well as add a little extra super secret flavor surprise. I made a mixture of equal parts sugar, coffee and Kenya Gold, which is a coffee liqueur I brought back from a trip to Kenya a few years ago, then brushed each layer with some of the "secret juice", letting it soak down into the cake but not making it soggy. I think the additional step helped out with the dryness alot.
For anyone that knows me, they know I'm not a big fan of frosting and more often than not, I scrape it off of my cake and fling it across the room leave it on the plate whenever I have a slice of cake somewhere. I find that too often frosting tastes either way too sweet, in that gives-you-a-sore-throat kind of way, or its way too flavorless (!) and I do not enjoy the slick greasy feeling that buttercream, especially buttercream that is made mostly of vegetable shortening leaves in my mouth. So, it was with some trepidation that I embarked on making the buttercream recipe from the book. Kaye's Buttercream uses real butter...ALOT of real butter, but I think that’s part of what makes it so good. (just a little side note here, isn’t it funny how once you know what goes into a recipe the less desire you have to eat it ? I found that knowing the buttercream has 6 sticks of butter in it made me want to run to the Dr. and check my arteries like RIGHT NOW! ) The meringue step is quite an interesting technique, something I've not seen before and it was fun to make especially when I get to the part where I had to beat in molten hot sugar! This was by far the best buttercream I have ever tasted. I reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup and was very happy by that decision because the end result was subtly sweet fluffy cream that married well with the cake.
I love chocolate and I love hazelnuts and so when I saw the recipe for the Chocolate-Hazelnut Mousse I knew that it would be the perfect filling for this cake. Now, I very rarely buy or keep Nutella in the house because it is evil... dangerous... and so tempting and delicious. A jar, even the smallest eensiest one, does not last an hour a day with me around and so I don't bother ever buying it, otherwise I'd have to be 47 feet tall for my height to match my weight. I made the mousse and I really grooved on it, so luscious and richly decadent, however, the mousse did not hold up well as a filling for the cake. It may be that I could have done something wrong when making it, I don't know, but it was runny and kept oozing out of the sides of the cake even with the border of buttercream that I had piped all around the outer edge to prevent the mousse from doing just that. I suggest making the mousse and eating it as a separate dessert and not as filling. As for the leftover Nutella, I have no idea what happened to it okay.
Decorating the cake is by far the most fun part of the whole process and I really had to resist the urge to overdo it. I have not yet had the chance to sit down and make practice flowers and so after starting to pipe green colored buttercream onto the sides of the cake to simulate flower stems and leaves and having a tough time of it I decided to go with the more simple design you see above. I think sometimes less is more, and I was quite happy with the end result. To get the darker buttercream I mixed some of the leftover mousse into the white buttercream, aren't I clever?
In my opinion, this isn't a cake for little children, (gawd, when did I start sounding like a mother?) it's loaded with caffeine from the coffee and chocolate, there's lots of sugar to make the little ones jitter and vibrate, and if you do add the extra step of using a soaking liquid like I did, then the additional coffee and alcohol really makes this an unsuitable cake for kids. Besides, if you share with the little ones then there's less cake for you and that just aint right!
The cake was incredible tasting. The buttercream is by far the best I've ever had and the chocolate-hazelnut-mocha combination is right on. I'm going to bring a few slices in to work to share with the co-workers because this is so good I don't want to keep it to myself.
Adapted from The Whimsical Bakehouse by Kaye Hansen and Liv Hansen
Start by greasing and flouring two 8x3 inch round pans. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Have all your ingredients at room temperature. (let me interupt here with a Deb notation: I suggest reading through the recipe and getting all your ingredients together, measured, and mixed before starting, it really, really helps not to have to keep stopping once you get started).In the bowl of an electric mixer, (a bowl and a handheld mixer works well too) beat at high speed until light and fluffy:
Add at medium speed and beat well
On a piece of wax paper, sift together:
In a separate bowl dissolve:
Add:
Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture alternately with the coffee-flavored milk, beating at medium-low speed until the batter is smooth.
Fold in by hand:
Pour 2 cups of batter into one prepared pan and the remaining batter into the other. Bake the less full pan for 18 to 25 minutes and the fuller pan for 20 to 30 minutes, or until cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cakes on a wire rack for 15 to 20 minutes before turning them out of the pans.
Yield: 6 cups of batter
In a sauce pan, bring to a boil:
Use a clean brush and cold water to wash down any sugar crystals that form on the sides of the pan as the water heats. When the sugar comes to a boil set a timer for 7 minutes, and let boil.
After 5 minutes, in the bowl of an electric mixer, ( a handheld mixer works just as well) begin to whip at high speed:
Whip until stiff. They should be done when the timer goes off.
With the mixer on high speed, slowly beat the sugar syrup into the egg whites, pouring the syrup to the side of the bowl to avoid the whip. Continue to beat until the bowl is cool to the touch, about 10 minutes. Slowly add:
When the buttercream begins to jump out of the bowl, reduce the speed to low.
Mix in at low speed:
Beat until light and fluffy. At some points the mixture might look curdled. Just keep beating it; it will become smooth again.
Yield: 8 cups
In the bowl of an electric mixer at high speed, (a handheld works well too) whip until stiff:
Soften by heating in the microwave for 10 to 20 seconds or over a pan of hot water (I used hot water):
Gently fold the Nutella into the whipped cream.
Yield 4 1/2 cups
Written by Deb on April 18, 2004 12:18 PMA MurrayHill 5 Creation ©2002-06 The contents of this website and all images are © D. Byer unless indicated otherwise. All rights reserved. Please do not use images and/or content without permission and credit to this site. For more information contact: mh5deb(at)gmail(dot)com