Cakes and Tortes..... Part I

In school I have been making cakes and tortes. This is one of my favorites parts of school so far. Here are some pictures.

Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Torte with a Raspberry Mirror Glaze

Chocolate Symphony Cake. ( Chocolate buttermilk cake, with dark, milk, and a white chocolate honey, mouse)



Chocolate Cinnamon Ganache Torte





Strawberry Yogurt Bavarian Cake



Fund Raiser!

Tonight I made two cakes for a fund raiser. I had alot of fun, as if you couldn't tell! decorating the cake is always the funnest part of making it! I hope they raise a lot of money! Let me know what you think!



First we have a Cappuccino Torte. This consists of almond, chocolate sponge, layered with a scrumptious whipped, chocolate, cream cheese filling, frosted with a very buttery Espresso butter cream!



Second, we have my favorite! A moist pina colada cake, filled with a luscious, creamy pineapple filling, frosted with a cloud like coconut whip cream, and topped with perfectly toasted coconut, to add that ideal crunch for texture! WOW! Are you hungry yet? I know I am!!!!

Food of the Angels......

I love Angel Food Cake!! It is so light and spongy! It practically melts in your mouth. In my opinion, the only way it can be improved is when it is chocolate and served with raspberry mousse! Yum!!!!!! Well, today, I did just that! It was a sunshiny day. This light combination was perfect for this summer day! Here's the cake recipe and some pictures of the cake!

Chocolate Angel Food Cake
Ingredients
• 3/4 cup cake flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3 (1 oz.) squares semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, grated
• 12 egg whites
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
• Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Process
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees (F). If it does not have a removable bottom, line a 9 or 10 inch tube pan with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa and 3/4 cup of the sugar. Set aside.
3. Grate the chocolate (my beloved microplane grater really came in handy for that) into a small bowl. Stir in 3 tbsp. of the flour mixture.
4. Using an electric mixer set at low speed, beat egg whites until foamy. Increase mixer speed to medium, stir in cream of tartar and salt, and continue to beat until egg whites form soft peaks. (The eggs should look soft and still fold over on themselves when you remove the beater.) Gradually mix in the remaining 3/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. (The eggs will have a sheen, and they won’t fold over anymore). Don’t overbeat! I don’t think this should take more than 5-10 minutes with a stand mixer. (I always had problems whipping egg whites with my hand mixer, so it might take longer if you’re using one of those. Just make sure to stop and test the thickness of the whites every few minutes.)
5. Gently stir in the vanilla and lemon juice.
6. Very gently fold the flour mixture into the beaten egg whites, then fold in the grated chocolate, stirring just until blended. (I had problems with it not being mixed well at the bottom of the bowl, so I found it helpful to transfer about half of the mixture to the pan and then finish folding the rest.)
7. Gently scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the surface of the batter and tap the pan lightly to remove any air bubbles. Bake in center of the preheated oven for 45-60 minutes, or until the surface springs back when touched.

Tee Time on Father's Day.....

As you all probably know, last Sunday was Father's Day. It was also the U.S. Open for all you non-golfers out there. My dad really enjoys golf. Well, about a week ago, a friend of mine had sent me a fun idea for a golf cake. So, on Father's Day, I decided to give it a whirl. This is how it turned out!

Waste not.....Want not.....

If you've ever carved a cake, you'd probably understand there is always leftover cake, reduced to crumbs usually. One very good thing I learned while working down at the bakery was to never waste anything, if you can help it. Invent something new! You never know it might be the next chocolate chip cookie (that was the world's luckiest accident!)So back to leftover cake! About a week ago, I made a couple cakes for my niece's baby shower; I made a yellow and a red velvet. I ended up with about 3 cups of cake leftover, so I put it in a zip lock and threw it in the freezer for a rainy day. Today came along and it was a very rainy day. So I pulled out my frozen cake and commenced to conjior up something delicious. With bread you can bake a delicious bread pudding, so I decided to try a cake pudding. Along with the cake I added some milk and eggs to make a batter and then decided to take Rachelle's advice (thanks for the suggestion!) and I tossed in a bunch of chocolate chips and coconut. I then baked it at 350 degrees for about 30 mins. While it was baking I whipped up some fudge frosting and toasted some coconut for the topping. Wallah!!! Perfecta Mon do!! My new favorite dessert (and Dylan's)!! and surprisingly enough (because of the red velvet) It was Pink!!!!



My "rainy day" Bars



Dylan enjoying the beaters!




Chef Ronni helping me!!



my niece Zoe!!




Zoe's baby shower cakes!!

Let them eat birthday cake................

Hello. How are you today? Summer is almost here. Why does it always seem that there are more birthdays in the summer months then any other time of the year? I don't know but I sure do love birthdays! When I worked down at the bakery we called it wedding and party season, my favorite season out of the year. Well, it happened to be a friend of mines birthday this weekend, and she was having a party today. So her sister and I baked a cake for her. There is only one thing that takes the cake with baking, and that's doing it with a friend. Like so many other things, baking is always better with people. Therefore my friend Amy and I baked and decorated this white cake with very pink frosting (my favorite color!).


P.S. Go ahead and post any ideas of desserts you think I should try or recipes you have. I'd love to hear from you! Thanks Marie



Me piping the border.


Amy piping some royal icing flowers.

Life Hands Me Lemons...... I Make Lemon Chiffon......

Today was definitely a baking day! The sun was shining and I felt like making something special! I looked through my fridge and found I had a lot of lemons! What to do ? Well, Everyone loves a light chiffon with rich lemon curd and lemon whip cream frosting, Right? so I searched and searched till I found the perfect recipe to try: Triple Lemon Chiffon Cake! Doesn't that sound delicious? Chiffon means having a light and fluffy texture. So I endeavored to make this zesty, cloud like cake! Let me know what you think.

TRIPLE LEMON CHIFFON CAKE
adapted from: SKY HIGH - IRRESISTIBLE TRIPLE LAYER CAKES by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne
makes a 9 inch triple layer cake

For the Cake
8 eggs, separated
1/4 cup walnut oil**
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon of lemon zest
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
1 and 1/2 cups of sugar
1 ans 3/4 cups of cake flour*
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt

[*1 cup of cake flour is equal to 3/4 cup of AP flour plus 2 tablespoons of corn starch]
[**equal amount of either almond oil, hazelnut oil, or canola oil]
Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line the bottoms of three 9-inch pans with parchment paper but do not butter or grease the pans.
In a med-large bowl whisk together the egg yolks, oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and water.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar on medium speed until light and frothy. Slowly add 1/2 cup of sugar and continue to beat until soft peaks form.
Sift the flour, remaining sugar, baking soda , and salt into a large bowl. Whisk gently to combine.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in the egg yolk mixture and mix to create
a smooth paste. Add one-fourth of the egg whites and fold in to lighten the batter. Fold in the remaining egg whites and divide the batter among the three pans.
Bake for about 16 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Transfer to wire racks to cool in the pans. Once cool run a knife around the cake to in order to un-mold the cakes. Carefully pull off the parchment paper from the bottoms of the cakes.
To assemble the cake, place one layer on a cake stand. Top with a heaping 1/4 cup of lemon curd and spread it evenly. Repeat with the remaining layers. Frost the top of the cake and the sides with the lemon cream frosting.

Rich Lemon Curd

3 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
grated zest of three lemons
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, at room temp.

Whisk together the whole eggs, yolks, sugar, lemon juice , and lemon zest together in a medium bowl. Transfer to a small non-reactive saucepan. Gently heat the mixture, whisking until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. make sure not to boil the mixture. Pour the mixture through a sieve into a heatproof bowl. Stir in the butter and cover the curd with plastic making sure the plastic touches the curd. This should prevent a skin from forming on the curd. Refrigerate until cold. Then remove 3 tablespoons of curd and set it aside for the icing.

Lemon Cream Frosting

1 and 1/2 cups of heavy cream
2 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoon of lemon curd

Whip the cream and sugar in a large chilled bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold in the lemon curd, forming a stiff frosting.

Here's some pictures of how it turned out!