2012: A Cake Odyssey

While looking for a new cooking or craft project to kick off the new year, I came across something that was the perfect combo of both crafts and cooking. The recipe for Momofuku Milk Bar's Birthday Cake in the Milk Bar cookbook by Christina Tosi (the pastry chef) that I picked up back in December. I purchased mine in NYC, but I've seen it at Barnes & Noble too. The recipe is intriguing for various reasons, like the use of (strange to me) ingredients like glucose and citric acid. I was most drawn to the challenge of creating a layer cake that you bake in a sheet pan, then cut out the layers, and stack them with the support of acetate sheets. Feeling scared? Think it's too complicated for you? It's not. And it's TOTALLY worth it. Every single minute of effort is SOOOOO worth it.

Because I work full-time and have a child, my free time is fairly limited. I tackled this cake project over two nights. Well...let me back up just a minute, maybe more than two nights. Before I started the cake, I had to get all of the ingredients and other supplies which involved more than just a trip to the grocery store. Most of the ingredients were basic stuff like eggs, butter, sugar, etc. However,  I didn't have cake flour, grapeseed oil,  glucose, citric acid, or clear vanilla. In the end, I picked up the glucose at a local cake decorating supply store (check the baking aisle at Michael's too). If glucose scares you, then you can substitute corn syrup (she notes this in the recipe). You can find cake flour and grapeseed oil  at most any grocery store. I had no luck finding clear vanilla (I just used my regular brown-colored vanilla) or citric acid, but will keep an eye out for those. I can't say that those two missing ingredients made one difference in the taste or appearance of the cake. I picked up the cake ring, a large round metal cookie-cutter looking thing, that you use to cut the cake layers out of the sheet pan, and then use to form the base of the cake, at Sur la Table. You can also order them on Amazon. I purchased a sheet of acetate (clear plastic) at the local art supply store and cut out two 3"x 20" strips. You can buy these plastic strips online, but for the cost of the strips and the shipping and the fact that this is not my business, it was easier to just go the art supply store route.

So, back to the cake. The cake is made up of four separate recipes: the crumb, the icing, the cake wash, and the actual cake. I made the crumb and the icing the first night. They were very simple and quick. After I made them, I put each in their own air-tight container and placed in the fridge. To use the next night. I think Christina Tosi notes that the icing will keep for a week in the fridge and the crumb up to a month in the freezer.

Birthday Cake crumb

Crumb straight out of the oven. It's perfectly sweet, salty, and crunchy.

The next night I baked the cake. It's a pretty standard recipe, but you really must follow her instructions carefully. If she says you need to let the mixer go for 8 minutes, then you need to make sure that happens. Same thing when she says only let it go for 30 seconds. The cookbook has a great introduction written by Tosi that lays out how she arrived at this job, these recipes, and her reasons why you need to do what she says. I figure she's a renown pastry chef in NYC, not me, so I was very careful to follow each recipe to the letter--which is something I rarely do.

Once the batter was ready, I spread it out on a parchment lined quarter-sheet pan. The recipe calls for sprinkles and you can use any color combos you want. I was making this around the time we were celebrating the Baltimore Ravens' football team in the playoffs, so I figured purple, black, and yellow sprinkles were appropriate.

Straight out of the oven.

Once the cake has cooled, you cut two of the three layers out with your cake ring.

You use the left over "scrap" cake to form the bottom layer of the cake.

So now that all the parts of the cake were ready, I could finally begin to assemble. This is where that fourth recipe comes in...the cake wash. It's just vanilla and milk, so that one's not complicated at all.

Here is my set up: I lined a regular 8" cake pan with parchment. Then I put the cake ring in the middle, and lined the ring with one of the two strips of acetate.

You form the bottom layer of the cake, as I mentioned, with the scrap left over from cutting out the other two layers. So I just pressed the scrap pieces of cake into the round until I had a layer that was flat and about the same thickness as the other layers.

Then I got all excited about assembling the cake and forgot to take photos! So after the bottom layer of cake is in place, you brush the wash over it, then a thin layer of icing, sprinkle some of the cake crumb, then another thin layer of icing.

This is the first layer, before you put the layer of icing on top of the crumb.

Then you put one of the cut-out cake layers in place, after you add the other strip of acetate.

Then you do the wash, the icing, the crumb, and the icing again. Place the last cake layer on top of that, do the wash, the rest of the icing, and place the remaining crumb all over the top, or just in the center (which is what I did). And you have this:

The cake then goes in the freezer for 12 hours (minimum) and can keep in the freezer, well wrapped, for 2 weeks. About three hours before you serve it, place it in the fridge to defrost. And viola!

I must say, that in the beginning I had doubts that all this effort would be worth it for a 6-inch cake (I manged to get 12 slices out of it, so it's share-able). I was wrong. Very, very wrong. It was definitely worth the effort and it's good to know that I can whip this thing out if I need to (with a little notice) for birthdays or any other reason. The cake has the texture of angel food cake, light and fluffy, but with the flavor of a perfect vanilla cake. I think the wash adds just the right amount of moisture. As I mentioned, the crumb is perfectly crunchy, salty, and sweet. The icing is divine! I would make the icing for use on any other cake. It's a combination of buttercream icing with a little cream cheese and a touch of sea salt. Put all of those things together...the light, moist cake with the sweet, salty crumb, sandwiched between the creamy icing and it's perfection. Tosi definitely knows what she is doing!

Since I don't want to be sued, I can't post the recipe here. But someone else did, so you can read that here. Or you can just buy the book. It provides recipes for almost everything they serve at Milk Bar. From compost cookies, blueberries and cream cookies, to their famous crack pie and cereal milk.

Tasty Cake

I've been avoiding this cookbook for an entire year. I avoided it at Barnes & Noble. I avoided it at the library. And then I caved. It's Fall and I'm all in my crazy Fall cooking and baking mode, so I couldn't resist.

It's a great book of southern-inspired desserts with a modern twist here and there. I need to make a point to visit Baked (FYI don't click that link if you're starving...it will be the end of you) next time I'm in NYC.

There is a Sweet & Salty Brownie recipe I want to try. And the Buttermilk Pie. Be glad I don't have a photo of the Double-Chocolate Loaf with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Spread. Then there are the Marshmallow Chocolate Cups. See...there is a reason I was avoiding this book!

So I wanted to try the Burnt Sugar Bundt Cake with the Caramel Rum Icing because I haven't made a bundt cake in a long time and thought I'd like to give it a whirl again. Amy Atlas posted the full recipe on her blog back in January. I won't go through a step by step, but I did take some photos of my progress.

If you had smell-o-vision you would know that this batter smells like the buttery-est cake you have ever imagined. You could could just make this batter and set it out as an air freshener.

In the recipe, they say to "pour" the batter into the pan. That's not happening. It's insanely thick, so you just have to spoon it into the pan and then spread it out.

Now, let's take that extremely buttery, sugary cake batter and heat it up! Now the entire neighborhood is going to smell like the most delicious smelling cake you've ever imagined. 

In my highly dysfunctional oven, it took this behemoth an hour to bake. And then I had to let it cool over night before I could even think of getting it out of the pan. The next morning it popped right out!

I definitely suggest making the caramel shards for the top of the cake. Not only are they a cool decoration to the top of the cake, they add a nice crunch too. I didn't have a silpat, as they suggest in the recipe, so I just used a piece of parchment paper (I was afraid to use wax because I thought since you're pouring boiling sugar onto it, the wax might meld into the sugar and that would be gross.

So, here is the final cake! The icing was very runny because I set it out to warm up a bit (I made it the night before while I was baking the cake), while I was getting ready for work. By the time I got ready, after chasing around a 2 year old, it was not as chilled as it should have been so it ran down the sides of the cake. That is totally my fault. If you make the icing according to the recipe, it turns out nice and thick and would spread as perfectly as it is shown in the photo in the book (and on Amy Atlas' blog).

I know better than to keep something like this around the house, so I took it into work to be tested by my official taste-testers. I had tons of compliments and about ten people told me it was the best cake they ever had. It was really good and definitely something I would make again for a special occasion, but it's not a quick cake to make with making the burnt sugar syrup, then the batter from scratch, the baking time, making the icing, the caramel sugar shards, and then assembling the whole thing. In other good news, they do sell some of the Baked cake mixes (but not this one) at Williams Sonoma if you're interested in trying something but don't have half your life to devote to it.  And while you're over at Williams Sonoma please also notice that they're now selling a SWEET POTATO BISCUIT MIX!!!!!!

Sweet Potatoes

I love sweet potatoes, especially in the fall.  I thought I'd just share a few of my favorite dishes.

Sweet Potato Casserole
Of course, being southern and all, there is the standard sweet potato casserole. My version is a hybrid of many different recipes, many of which I have lost somewhere along the line. I just make it from memory but it goes a little something like this one from Paula Deen. Some people have issues with the marshmallow topping. Sometimes I add it, sometimes I don't. If you want to include it, just wait until after the casserole is finished baking, cover the top in mini marshmallows and broil them until they start to brown. This is tricky and you don't want to turn the dish into a black, burnt marshmallow mess, so just keep a close eye on it in the oven.

Paula Deen's Sweet Potato Bake

Sweet Potato Pancakes
Sweet potato pancakes are also fantastic in the Fall. I get Bruce's Sweet Potato Pancake Mix at The Fresh Market (although you're certainly welcome to make them from scratch....there are tons of recipes out there). The only adjustment I make, is that I usually add about twice the liquid than is listed in the recipe on the box. The mix is way too thick for me if you follow the directions. It's almost too thick to even pour.

Grilled Sweet Potato Slices
Before it gets too cold  to use your grill, another good idea for sweet potatoes is to grill slices. This post provides a good idea for how to cook them in the microwave to prepare for grilling (and you could also do this using the cubes on skewers technique instead of slices), but this is what I do:

First, peel them, then boil them for about 15 minutes or so..until they're starting to cook, but not mushy. Drain, let them cool, peel them, and then slice them. I brush them with a little oil and then throw them on the grill. Once they're done, use a pineapple or mango coconut pepper sauce (The Fresh Market also carries a very good store brand of this) to dip them in. They're also a good side for a little jerk chicken and maybe some black beans and rice!

Sweet Potato Brownies
I made these FANTASTIC Sweet Potato Brownies back in June. I found the recipe on Bake It Pretty. My only alteration to the recipe was that I used mashed sweet potatoes that I found in the refrigerated section at Wegmans, instead of shredding sweet potatos. I had a hard time finding good sweet potatoes at the grocery store in June, so I had to improvise. If you look at the photo on Bake It Pretty, hers are a little lighter than mine. I'm not sure if that's because of the type of molasses I used or if that's a result of using the mashed sweet potatoes in lieu of shredded. They tasted fantastic and I'm making them again for a birthday party in a few days.

Excuse the poor quality photo...I didn't plan to post them on the blog when I made them Bastille Day!

Sweet Potato Biscuits or Rolls
Once again, we're back to the Fresh Market. Maybe this should be a post about The Fresh Market. In the Fall they sell sweet potato biscuits in the bakery...just FYI. I love them with country ham. Maybe I should try them this year with a little bacon jam! Recently, I noticed in the frozen foods section that they carry these sweet potato & molasses rolls from Anna Mae Southern Bread Co. in Greensboro, NC. They're really good with rosemary ham (Trader Joe's), smoked Gouda (also Trader Joe's) and a little dijon mustard.

I haven't tried the others yet, but the sweet potato rolls are delish!!!

Holiday gifts

So I did a fun little test run making candy bark--something I will likely give as Christmas gifts this year. I'm trying to work up a collection of candy and/or baked goods to send to some of my out-of-town relatives and other folks on my holiday list. I had lots of fun making this white chocolate bark. It's the best non-baking, baking project I've ever tried!!!

White chocolate with dark chocolate swirl, pecans and orange flavored cranberries. So the question is....I wonder how well it will ship. Hmmmm. The more important question is....how much fun am I going to have making cute little holiday packaging for this stuff!!! I think sometimes I make stuff just to have an excuse to play with packaging.

Very first post

So, I'm taking a stab at creating a blog. It's something I've been wanting to do for awhile now but haven't had the chance to start. I like that my shoes match my blog (see heading photo)! I'm not sure what all I'm going to be posting but I'm pretty sure it's going to involve adventures in photography, travel, Roan, random craft experiments, a little baking here and there, and my Sadie Priss jewelry designs. Obviously, I'm doing this entirely to entertain MYSELF. :)