Robin Williams
Gimme a layered cake to make & I’m in 7th heaven!
As you can obviously guess from my blog posts, I love baking cakes. I have Morven @ Food Art & Random Thoughts to thank for posting such a wonderful challenge..Dorie Greenspan’s ‘Perfect Party Cake’. After my first 2 challenges I was pretty much on shaky grounds (what with LMPs & French loaves), I must admit I procrastinated even going to check on March’s challenge! Crumbs…by the time I checked, had already begun work on our anniversary cake (Chocolate Orange Cloud Gateau; nice one) so felt like kicking myself! The next opportunity was grabbed with both hands & I marched into a cake baking frenzy!
As Morven, the large-hearted lady said…put your stamp on it. In her words…”I wanted to pick something that had potential for putting your personal stamp on. Although this is essentially a white cake I know there are some lemon haters among us so feel free to use your imagination. If you inner chef tells you that you need to make a chocolate layer cake then by all means do so.” I did just that. My stamp had to be COFFEE!! So, I flavoured the basic sponge with coffee essence & a medium roast instant coffee blend. The icing was of whipped cream, again mildly flavoured with coffee. Drooooooooooooooolicious!! The edges I finished off with a dripping of thick chocolate ganache; the 2 flavours really compliment each. A few coffee beans completed my stamp!!
The theme was worming its way into my mind. Here’s what I did. I made an Easter basket of sorts with melted chocolate & filled it up with Easter eggs & crystallised flowers from our garden! This is something that gave me a lot of satisfaction & creative pleasure. I also added a few flowers & butterflies that I piped onto parchment & peeled off when they had set. Thank you Morven for giving me such endless joy…this is actually my passion in life, to be able to fill up a ‘cake canvas’ & extempore!!
Courtesy of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours (page 250).
Ingredients:
1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon coffee essence
For the Whipping cream:
Whip about 500 ml of whipping cream with 5-6 tbsps of icing sugar & 1 tbsp of instant coffee till firm.
Getting Ready:
- Centre 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 pan 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.
-
Add the butter & with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Add coffee & beat for another minute.
-
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 well aerated.
-
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
-
Bake for 30-35 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, unfold 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 two months).
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 whipped cream.
- Repeat with the next 2 layers.Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining whipped cream to frost the sides and top.
- Garnish, decorate as desired.
-
If you use whipped cream, you’ll have to store the cake the in the refrigerator – let it sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature before serving.
-
Notes:
Like Morven said in her notes, my cake didn’t rise much at all and had a slightly coarse texture but was still quite delicate and moist.
It gave me an opportunity to use my 4 egg whites that I had frozen away…saved from 2 batches of banana muffins I had made previously. For those who don’t know this, egg whites freeze beautifully.
Also, since I had just a single 9″ tin, I baked the whole batter in 1 go, & later sliced it into 4 layers, Painstaking, but possible; not quite the perfect solution though.
Finally, the cake was a little sweeter than I thought it would be. The kids lapped it up, so did my old folks; DH & I thought it was a bit sweet…but I put it down to personal taste! Was a nice cake; sliced beautifully & perfectly.
Perfect slices…can you see all 4 layers?
Couldn’t resist a little trivia about Dorie Greenspan that I found online…
…She burned her parents’ kitchen down when she was thirteen. She never even baked a chocolate chip cookie until she was a newly wed nineteen-year-old. Yet today, Dorie Greenspan is one of the most sought-after baking authorities in the country.
Dorie was finishing up her doctoral thesis when she found herself consumed by love of baking. She immersed herself in a complete culinary education and begged her way into famous pastry kitchens to work as an apprentice. Eventually she was hired for her first professional job, where she caught the eye of the owner, who noted approvingly, “How chic! A thin pastry chef.” Always an experimenter, Dorie couldn’t resist tweaking one of the restaurant’s signature cakes. The customers loved the results, but Dorie immediately learned the perils of upstaging a boss. She was promptly fired for “creative insubordination.That insubordination was the beginning of a fabulous career as a cookbook author, culminating in BAKING: FROM MY HOME TO YOURS (Houghton Mifflin Company, November 1, 2006). ”
Dorie was finishing up her doctoral thesis when she found herself consumed by love of baking. She immersed herself in a complete culinary education and begged her way into famous pastry kitchens to work as an apprentice. Eventually she was hired for her first professional job, where she caught the eye of the owner, who noted approvingly, “How chic! A thin pastry chef.” Always an experimenter, Dorie couldn’t resist tweaking one of the restaurant’s signature cakes. The customers loved the results, but Dorie immediately learned the perils of upstaging a boss. She was promptly fired for “creative insubordination.That insubordination was the beginning of a fabulous career as a cookbook author, culminating in BAKING: FROM MY HOME TO YOURS (Houghton Mifflin Company, November 1, 2006). ”
I haven’t got a copy of any of her books, but am now going to keep my eyes open for them whenever they show up here in our part of the globe!
The cake is on it’s way for Easter Cake Bake, Round 2 @ A Slice of Cherry Pie with Julia. She launched her very first food blogging event last March, the ‘Easter Cake Bake’ & asked fellow bloggers to bake themed cakes for Easter. It brought in outstanding cakes with wonderfully creative ideas, & is onto ‘Round 2’ this year!!
