Strawberry Tarts

This is to keep you all busy until I finish the blog post about the cakes I baked on June 13.

Late June, 2009
Name of Tarts: Ode to the Strawberry, two variations
Occasion: Strawberry Season!
Constituents: Jamie Oliver's short crust, whipped vanilla mascarpone and cream, fresh strawberries, dark chocolate, leftover sour cream ganache, cooked strawberry puree (not quite jam)

Version One: 11 inch tart, short crust, whipped vanilla mascarpone and cream, dark chocolate, and fresh strawberries.

Annmarie gave me a copy of Jamie's Italy for my birthday and one Saturday I sat down and read the book from cover to cover. There are lots of super yummy foods to try, but of course, what really got my attention were the few desserts Jamie had at the end. One of them was for a blackberry tart.

I didn't have blackberries, but I did have ruby-red, succulent and juicy strawberries just waiting to be loved. It is, to me, such a sad thing that strawberry season is so short, for this berry is such a understated beauty. A strawberry speaks of simplicity, of the bright possibilities that the beginning of summer holds. It is homey, tart, and unassuming. The last of the strawberries are being nabbed at the local farmer's markets while the raspberries--always a little louder and demanding of attention, in my opinion--have already taken the stage in raucous little seedy numbers.

Jamie's short crust looked really easy and contained curious little extras, like vanilla seeds and lemon zest. The liquid was either water or cream, your choice. Such mellow directions.

Despite my terrible habit of playing with my pastry dough too much, this crust came out all right. It was still what Jamie likes to call "short" which I assume he means "like shortbread." I am not a supertaster, so I really couldn't detect the vanilla in the crust at all, but the little black speckles are always neat to see.

After blind baking, I grated some dark chocolate over the crust and smoothed it out to create a waterproof seal, hoping to keep the crust from getting soggy and giving the tart a nice little chocolate pow. I mean, who doesn't love chocolate and strawberries?

The mascarpone gets beaten up with a cup of cream, more vanilla seeds, and sugar. Jamie calls for light cream, but I had an excess of heavy whipping cream so I used that instead. And made butter, again. It's this brand of heavy cream! It is two seconds away from being butter all on its own, I swear!

So the mascarpone cream was really tasty but had a slightly chunky texture. Oh well.

After smoothing the cream in the cooled tart shell, I sliced up my beautiful little strawberries and placed them over the top.

Fairly easy peasy! And fairly tasty!

Next time I would like a thicker layer of chocolate--I never got that chocolate pow I was hoping for. And I wouldn't make butter. When the blackberries come around, I am planning on adding orange zest to the cream. I love the combination of blackberries, vanilla, and orange. Yum.

Version Two: Two-person Tart with Sour Cream Ganache and Cooked Strawberry Puree

I have some of the short crust leftover and decided to make a little tart. I also had Sour Cream Ganache leftover from Noah's birthday cake. And, I had two pints of strawberries that were beginning to turn. So I put them all together.

I sorted out the strawberries and cooked down the non-moldy ones with a little vanilla sugar (the pod was leftover from Tart, Version One), lemon juice and water. After all the berries had basically softened into pulp and the liquid in the pan was thick, I pushed the jammy stuff through a fine mesh sieve to smooth it out. Then I stuck it in the refrigerator to cool and thicken.

I prebaked the tart shell, this time in a little ramekin in my toaster oven. It worked out pretty well!

One the shell had cooled down a bit but was still warm, I scraped the leftover sour cream ganache into the shell. I wanted the warmth of the shell to soften the ganache, which had been living in my refrigerator since Noah's party. I had enough to fill the tart about 3/4 full. Then I topped it off with as much of the strawberry puree as that tart could hold, and refrigerated it for a couple of days. (I was aiming for just a couple of hours, but it took me awhile to get back to it.)

By the time I pulled the tart out to sample, the jammy stuff had thickened nicely and was shiny and deep red. I realised that there was no way I was going to get that tart shell out of the ramekin without creating a disaster, so I took a spoon to it and dug in. Straight out of the refrigerator the crust was quite hard and the flavors a bit muted, so I waited about 20 minutes for everything to warm up and soften.

I tell you, it was pretty darn good. The strawberry jammy stuff was bright and rich with flavor, and it contrasted nicely with the tangy sour cream ganache. I think in some ways, I liked this tart much better. I sure finished it on my own, instead of bringing it to Cookie's house to share with her and her husband. What can I say? It was good!

I still have enough crust leftover for one more little tart...not sure what I will try this time!

Noah's Birthday Banana Cake

You may remember Noah from Julie and Noah's Wedding Cake. Well, he just turned the big thirty-something (34? 35? 36? I can't remember) and threw an impromptu BBQ party. Julie was so sweet to call me up and let me know that as much as they love my cakes they were just going to order something from the store since the party was so late notice and they didn't think I would have time to bake something up. I told her I didn't take it personally (I don't--but how cute is it that she warned me? I love it.) but that I had some time to throw something together for him if their plans didn't work out.

I guess Noah's ears perked up when he heard I had time to bake him something, because a few hours later Julie called me back to say that Noah would love it if I had time to bake him a banana cake with dark chocolate frosting. I laughed, told Julie that the only banana cake I knew how to make was the same one they got for their wedding, and that it was no problem.

June 6, 2009
Name of cake: Birthday Banana Cake
Occasion: Noah's Birthday!
Constituents: one 9x13 layer Rose's Sour Cream Banana Cake frosted with Sour Cream Ganache

Noah doesn't like a lot of frosting. Neither do I, but he likes less frosting than me. He was really excited about how little frosting there was on my birthday cake (which was the perfect amount considering how seriously rich it was) so I knew he'd want something like that. I decided that the best way to have a little amount of frosting was to do a sheet cake--one nice layer of frosting on the top and sides, nothing in the middle. So a 9x13 it was.

Now as you know, a two layer, 9 in cake recipe will fill a 9x13 pan. Rose's Sour Cream Banana Cake recipe (and the accompanying Sour Cream Ganache) is for a one layer 9 in cake, so I doubled the recipe(s), headed out to the store and bought everything but the bananas. Dangit.

Seeing as I forgot the main ingredient, I spent that evening measuring out everything and getting it ready and planned to bake it the night before the party instead.

I love this banana cake. I am not much for bananas when they aren't in cake, but in cake, especially this one, I am 100% on board. It is moist, a little tangy from the sour cream, a little dense and sturdy because of all the fiber, but still tender, soft, full of flavor and not too sweet. It has a homey flavor dressed up in fancy textures.

I especially love this banana cake when it is frosted with Rose's Sour Cream Ganache. It hits the right rich and decadent notes without being too overbearing or too sweet. It stays thick, fudgy, and tangy. Perfectly delicious.

However, this cake was kind of a fail. The middle sunk because, as we discovered when we cut it, it didn't cook all the way through. Dangit. The cake tester had come out clean but it was a big liar. Joelf just told me to frost a little more heavily in the center so that it would all come out even, and we could cut from sides in and hopefully avoid the gooey bits. I warned Noah to take a piece from the outside because that's where the frosting was the thinnest, and the cake actually baked through.

When you get a cake from me, you either get sprinkles or flowers as decoration. I opted for sprinkles this time around--seemed more celebratory--and left a space in the middle for these cool glittered blue birthday candles. We lit them up and sang to Noah before he could blow them out.

It was a fun birthday bash as many of the party goers were also wedding goers. They were nice enough to remind me that they liked the wedding cake! It was fun to see them again, and fun to help Noah celebrate his big day.

that there little girl in the bottom right is picking off and eating as many sprinkles as she can before getting caught!

A Peanut Butter Birthday Torte

I belong to a wonderful doula group and we meet monthly to process about births we've attended, share our knowledge and experience, and eat and drink together. These potlucks have been great excuses to bake, as I know these girls will happily eat the cake and bring the leftovers home to their families.

For this month's meeting, I promised one of our doulas a birthday cake. She just turned 30 yesterday. She is extremely knowledgeable and funny, she has two adorable children and she's a chicken wrangler. She is also a placenta encapsulation specialist which I think is so amazingly awesome, and so desperately needed.

Anyhoots, I asked her what kind of birthday cake she would like to have; at first she was polite, and told me to bake whatever I wanted. I remembered how happy she was when I brought a chocolate-chocolate cake to one of our meetings, so I suggested chocolate. She then chimed in that she liked chocolate AND peanut butter, so I suggested the peanut butter torte in Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. My doula girl was very excited; when I walked in tonight she was quite pleased I came through on my promise. Awesome.

June 8, 2009
Name of Cake: A Doula Girl's Peanut Butter Torte
Occasion: A Doula Girl Turns 30!
Constituents: A Chocolate Ganache Topped Peanut Butter Mousse with Spiced Peanuts and Mini Chocolate Chips in an Oreo Cookie Crust

This torte is outrageously peanut buttery and seriously decadent. It is creamy, smooth, irresistible (provided you like peanut butter), and richly satisfying. One little slice is plenty. For all of the fancy pantsy vibes this torte gives off, it is really easy to make. It is a good dessert for the summertime as you only need the oven for ten minutes.

The crust is made from 24 crushed Oreo cookies, melted butter, and a pinch of salt. It is blind baked for a few minutes and made the house smell so good.

The filling is made of four main components: whipped cream, cream cheese, peanut butter, and a mix of salted peanuts and mini chocolate chips which have been mixed with a little bit of sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. The whipped cream is beaten to medium-stiff peaks and set aside while the cream cheese is beaten with powdered sugar. The peanut butter is added to the cream cheese along with a little bit of milk and the peanut-chocolate chip mix. Once that gets all combined the whipped cream is folded in and the whole shebang gets scraped into the cookie shell and refrigerated for at least 4 hours or overnight. I opted for overnight.

I was pretty pooped when I put this torte together last night, so I was glad it was easy to do. My peanut butter lovin' roommate got to lick the bowl clean, and he was a little sad that he wasn't going to get any torte. I told him he had to be a doula to get any of this dessert. My only complaint is that this recipe sure does mess up a lot of bowls. I am thankful I have a dishwasher but it is only a little half-size dishwasher--this pretty much filled the machine!

This evening, before the party, I made the ganache. You know, I hate to risk jinxing things, but that will be the third time in a row that I made a ganache and didn't mess it up. Have I turned a corner, or is it just luck?

It turns out that two doulas were celebrating birthdays this week, and the other doula's sister is a professional baker with the cutest name ever for a cake business: MaryJane's Cakery. Cakery! I love it. Her cake was a three layer chocolate cake, not too sweet, light and airy, with a beautiful whipped cream frosting with fresh berries. It was wonderful, and just the right amount of sweetness.

(I'm sorry this photo is so blurry; I wanted to continue eating! There were chopped fresh cherries in the filling. and did you see the two different shades of whipped cream? Something about frosting that shade of pink (which unfortunately you can't really see) just makes me want to eat it.)

Everybody dug into both cakes and loved them both. These girls are smart; they know better than to say no to free cake. The doula girl that asked for the peanut butter torte took the last piece home to savor after she tucked her kids into bed. I don't know if she was going to share with her husband. My guess? Nope.

How many times do you get to say that you met with some of your favorite people, who also are women with whom you do business, and during the meeting you shared two cakes and several bottles of wine? I say that every month (well maybe not the two cakes part)! I love my life, and I love my doula girls. Happy birthdays, ladies!

Other doula favorites: Mom's Apple Cake, and Lemon Pudding Cake.

ECL's Favorite Birthday Cake

Well people, another birthday has come and gone and not only am I a year older but I also have leftover cake which I can eat for breakfast for the next few days. I say job well done.

May 30, 2009
Name of cake: ECL's favorite birthday cake
Occasion: ECL's birthday!
Constituents: One layer yellow cake with chocolate-raspberry ganache

I used to hate baking my own birthday cake as it usually meant I spent my entire day baking and worrying that what I was baking was terrible, but this year was completely different. My real birthday was Wednesday--which I took off from work--and I had just been to a great birth the night before. The day was beautiful, my mood was euphoric, and I had lots of time on my hands. While listening to 80's New Wave, I assembled, premeasured, and prepped for my birthday cake in fits and starts. I had decided to bake my favorite cake for my birthday: yellow butter cake with raspberry ganache frosting. Simple, just enough chocolate, perfect with vanilla ice cream. I had also decided to bake a half sheet, as it looked like my birthday weenie roast was going to be about 23 cake lovers strong.

I know I say this all the time, but I am so thankful for Rose Levy Beranbaum and her Cake Bible. This woman not only has the best freakin cake and frosting recipes I have encountered, but she also has this amazing section in the back of the book that allows the home baker to convert one of her recipes into whatever sized cake desired. In this case, her base recipe for her yellow butter cake had to be multiplied by 7 in order to bake up a half sheet cake. I already knew that a half sheet is about three 9 inch cake recipes and comparatively the math held true. Easy peasy.

Easy sure, but a home baker like myself who doesn't even have a K5 mixer (just a cute little 4-quart KitchenAid) can't mix up the batter for a half sheet in one fell swoop. On Thursday I tried to skirt around that by attempting to mix all the ingredients together using a hand mixer and a giant bowl. I'll pause a moment to let the absurdity of that situation sink in.

This must be an example of my KitchenAid dependence, this forgetting how powerful and strong my beloved stand mixer is. To actually think a hand mixer could power through a beautiful, thick, butter batter where there are 14 egg yolks, 700 grams of both flour and sugar, and 28 tablespoons of butter is sheer folly. And I think I might have burned out the motor for good. I was able, at least, to blend all the ingredients together even though I couldn't get the mixer going fast enough for more than a few seconds to properly aerate the batter. So I pulled out Ol' Trusty and in two batches beat the batter until it looked nice and silky and aerated.

And once more, I've gotta give thanks to Rose for teaching us home bakers how to mix a cake batter in such a way that you don't have to be afraid of overbeating, so that I could do what I did without worrying about my cake coming out all tough and depressing. Rose, you are awesome!

After the cake was baked and cooling, I decided to wrap it up airtight and frost it the day of the weenie roast (two days later). I've done that before with Rose's butter cakes with no noticeable drying or spoiling of the cake, and I've left them out on the counter to boot. So I wasn't worried. Plus, when Cookie and I bought the hot dogs at CostCo I bought a lifetime supply of my favorite plastic wrap in the world, Stretch-Tite. This stuff sticks to everything! I slid the cake back into the cake pan, covered it with parchment paper so that it wouldn't stick to the plastic wrap, and mummified the cake pan with plastic wrap. Obviously there wasn't any room in the refrigerator (52 hot dogs were in there), so I stored it downstairs in the guest bedroom. (The downstairs is half underground with cement walls and remains a cool 50°F year round.)

Saturday morning I brought milk and raspberry puree to a boil and added it to a bunch of chopped semisweet chocolate. I made a double batch of Chocolate-Raspberry Ganache in order to have enough to frost the cake. (I decided to have just one layer of cake. Can you imagine how badly I would split a sheet cake?) It took awhile for the beautiful, shiny, tangy, rich, chocolaty ganache to cool down enough to frost, but when it did, frosting was easy. And delicious.

I topped the cake with swirls of ganache, tiny little nonpareils, and hot pink sanding sugar. Turning 36 requires hot pink sanding sugar.

The day was hot and sunny; we picnicked in the shade of big old evergreens on the local extinct volcano. After filling up on hot dogs, potato chips and deviled eggs, we broke into the cake. True to form, the yellow cake was tender, light and moist; not too sweet and a perfect foil for the intense, fudgy, raspberry ganache. A perfect foil for this girl's 36th birthday.

The cakes of birthdays past:
2003--I decided to make two cakes based on RLB's Star Spangled Rhapsody cakes for my 30th birthday.
2004--I made a two-tiered cake just to see if I could do it.
2006--I made ice cream cakes a la Baskin and Robbins.
2007--an awesome GF Tiramisu.
2008--the Lazy Bakers joined me in baking up Dorie Greenspan's Devil's Food White Out Cake.

(Wow. That's a lot of cake blogging.)

Cookie Gets Even Crustier

My best friend Cookie asked for another white-white birthday cake this year, and of course I vowed to deliver. I really wanted to master that damn crusty frosting she loves, and this year I was pretty sure I had finally, totally, figured it out.

April 15, 2009
Name of cake: Crusty, part three
Occasion: Cookie turns 30, yet again
Constituents: 2 layers, 9-inch white velvet butter cake filled and frosted with crusty white American buttercream

For those of you that need a refresher on the subject of Cookie and Crusting: Crusty, part one, and Crusty, part two.

Two years ago, when the quest for crusty frosting began, I discovered the website Baking 911, where I learned that (what I like to call) American buttercream tends to crust if certain precautions are not taken: you need to substitute shortening for part of the butter, and/or you need to use full-fat milk instead of low or non-fat milk. This keeps the crusting at bay.

Two years ago, I decided on a 50% shortening frosting, to make sure the frosting didn't crust so badly it would crack. Cookie said it could have been crustier. Last year, I used 100% butter but full-fat milk. Cookie said it was better, but it could have been even crustier. This year, I used 100% butter and low-fat milk. Cookie seemed impressed with the crusting. Finally.

The cake was, as always, really easy to put together. The cake is straight out of The Cake Bible, page 46. I can bust out this cake faster, it seems, than any other. And I love that!

We spent her birthday re-learning how to roller skate. Cookie has discovered her hidden talent and would like to take up rollerskating as a hobby. It was fun, but sometimes going around and around in circles can get a little monotonous. The roller rink is down in the Sellwood neighborhood at Oaks Park, our own little amusement park. I've never been there before and it looks like a fun place to spend a warm evening this summer eating cotton candy and riding the bumper cars. Portland just keeps getting more and more awesome.

As does Cookie. Have you all read about how she saved my eyeball from popping out of my head? We all are very lucky to have her as a friend, even if she does like crusty frosting.

Cookie-Approved Classic American Crusty Buttercream

This stuff kind of offends me, what with its ridiculously high proportion of powdered sugar, but most of us were raised on this stuff so it feels familiar. As a tribute to Cookie, I have decided to post the recipe.

makes 4 cups (enough to fill and frost a 2 layer 9-in cake)

• softened butter, one cup
  
• powdered sugar, a ton (4 cups)
  
• vanilla extract, 1 tsp
  
• low-fat milk, 2 tbsp (or more)

Beat the butter at medium speed until light and fluffy, 3-5 min. Reduce speed to low; slowly add the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, add vanilla and enough milk to thin out frosting to desired consistency. I prefer about 4-5 tbsp to get a nice spreadable consistency. Use immediately; it will begin to crust up after about 20 minutes. No need to refrigerate, but after a week at room temperature it starts to look not as good (but it won't be spoiled).

Brains' Chocolate-Chocolate Cake

I met my friend Brains possibly during my freshman year at Willamette (that was back in 1991), but I remember most vividly some point during my sophomore year when he showed up at our dorms looking to hide from one of his housemates. He lived in this old, 5 or 6 bedroom craftsman house off-campus that was widely known as The Asylum. All of his housemates were Willamette students at the time, and they were all a bunch of really goofy, kind of crazy, super smart guys (and maybe one girl).

The night in question, when Brains showed up at our dorm seeking asylum--haha, get it?--he told us he and one of his housemates, Jason, had got into a little fight. I can't remember how it started, but it ended with Brains shooting the fire extinguisher at Jason, locking himself in his bedroom, and Jason waving a big knife at Brains through the crack at the bottom of his door. Apparently up until the knife came out, the fight was in jest. I can't remember how Brains snuck out of the house, but somehow he made it out to live another day.

I hadn't spent much time with Brains before that, and so I was more than a little concerned about the knife and this Jason person. (Brains kept assuring me that it was all in jest, which I guess must have been true as both of them are still alive and friends today.) We became better friends as the years wore on, and especially when I moved to Portland as he was one of the three roommates I lived with at first. Knives were never a part of our friendship.

He celebrated his 39th birthday yesterday and asked me to bake him a chocolate-chocolate cake. Chocolate has always been a part of our friendship so this I was happy to do.

brains and a different cake in 2006

April 25, 2009
Name of Cake: Chocolate-chocolate for Brains
Occasion: Brains' birthday!
Constituents: 2 9-inch layers chocolate cake filled and frosted with chocolate fudge frosting, heavily sprinkled with sprinkles

Unfortunately, I have no photos for you as my camera is in the repair shop.

But picture this: Rose's All-American Chocolate Butter Cake, made partly with golden baker's sugar and Alter Eco Unrefined Sugar. This sugar is moist and dark and beautiful. Plus it comes from the Philippines, and I like that. E. Guittard Cocoa Rouge Cocoa Powder, which gave the cake this deep red hue, and a deeply lovely full-bodied chocolate-ness. Two layers of moist, chocolaty but not overpowering, tender and light cake.

Picture also: a dark, rich, shiny chocolate buttercream made from one pound of E. Guittard 61% melted chocolate into three sticks of butter beaten with 1/2 cup powdered sugar. As if this wasn't enough, beat in 6 tablespoons of cocoa powder paste (made from equal parts cocoa powder and boiling water).

The frosting, unfortunately, hardened like a chocolate bar after a few hours. This was a great way to keep the cake from drying out, but as a filling and frosting it was a bit too much. Next time, I would at least fill the cake with something creamier. Also, I think serving it soon after frosting would be better as the frosting would be fudgy but not hard. Also, during a hot summer day this frosting would probably stay nice and soft. On a 50 degree night? Chocolate bar.

However, this didn't stop any of us partygoers, incidentally many of whom were Asylum alumni (including Jason!), from polishing off 90% of the cake and lapsing immediately into a chocolate coma.

My work is done.

Currant Scones

The winds that blew Wicked through town a few weeks ago brought another delightful treat as well: the Grant boys. My roommate is crazy awesome, but when his two brothers are around the crazy and the awesome are exponentially greater. Which means fun will be had by all.

Since the boys were staying with us, I thought I'd whip us up some scones for the weekend. This way, I could try my hand at scones, and--bonus!--I wouldn't eat them all myself. A win-win for everybody.

April 2, 2009
Name of baked good: Wicked Currant Scones
Occasion:The Grant boys are here!
Constituents: Scones, with currants

Last Christmas my sister gave me Martha Stewart's big book of baking, or whatever it is called. It is a nice primer on all the different types of baking one could get excited about. The first projects in the book are yummy things like biscuits and scones and muffins and quickbreads. As you all probably know, Martha's hallmark are her very detailed and beautiful photos. This book is no exception, especially when these yummy things are the subject. The photos of the scone dough look so tempting--and that is just the freaking dough. I was looking forward to getting my hands in such delicious dough.

After I baked the Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte I pulled out the ingredients for the scones and looked over the recipe one more time. Martha's recipe wants you to freeze the dough for a few hours before baking, which I decided was totally ridiculous. I understand the desire the relax the dough and keep the butter chilled, but freezing? I checked Dorie's book and she says nothing of the sort about freezing scones before baking. She is also much warmer in tone and much more relaxed in instruction. Martha in comparison, can be kind of clinical.

So mixing the two women's styles, I precisely--yet very relaxed and nonchalantly--cut in the butter, patted out the dough, cut up the scones, and refrigerated the dough for an hour or so. I think I could have added a tad more milk as the dough was really crumbly. But no big deal.

The scones, after baking and cooling, were absolutely delicious. Again, I think a tad more milk would have been good but again, no big deal. We ate them warm, we ate them cold, we ate them with butter and tea in the morning and at midnight. They were good. I can't wait to make them again!