Cake #7 - Orange Angel Food Cake - FINALLY from Mindy

Finally! Finally I make this Orange Angel Food Cake with Caramel Sauce and Tropical-Fruit Compote that Sherie made back in late November!

And, more importantly, I FINALLY made a great cake! It was easy! It was tasty! I didn't throw any away! Huzzah and hooray! Yes, that's a lot of exclamation points, but I am happy ! ! ! ! ! !

I needed this cake to reinvigorate me to the project. Really, really needed after the last few cake disasters.

Only a couple of notes, mostly in response to Sherie's post:

Carmel: Thanks for the tip to let it cook Sher, I really let it go until it was, well, caramel color, and it turned out perfect. I did, in fact, add the cardamon to the sauce even though you really didn't like it (oh, and I got just the right amount from the bulk tubs at Whole Foods, and it only cost a few cents). And, while I didn't love the caramel and cardamon by itself (which is probably good or I'd still be eating it out of the fridge by the spoonful), I did think it complemented the cake very well.

The Compote: I was lucky and was able to get all the required fruit (although I did go with no kiwi and more mango because one of our diners is allergic to kiwi), and it made for a really beautiful side to the cake. I might leave out the passion fruit next time (first time I've ever bought or used it) only because I didn't love the crunch of the seeds. But the color was beautiful and very refreshing.

Overall, I'd make this again, for sure. I had forgotten how easy angel food cakes are - they might become my go-to cake for future birthdays. Easy and very little guilt!

Oh, thank you, angel food cake, for restoring my faith in the cake project. I can't thank you enough.

Cake #12 - Fresh Coconut Layer Cake

I had such high hopes for this cake. I really love coconut. The recipe as written was quite easy and did not require a half pound of butter and twenty-two steps and multiple cooling times. So, where, oh where, and how oh how, did my cake go horribly (I thought) wrong?

The answer: basic chemistry and the surprising floral notes of fresh coconut.

It all started great and very promising. How fun is it to lay out your tools for a cake and include a hammer, two screwdrivers and real coconuts?

And, while I thought dealing with the coconuts would be difficult, it was surprisingly easy and a lot of fun. This is what a coconut looks like after it's been baked in the oven, shell cracked off and peeled. You can see an unpeeled coconut right above the white one.

One tip - the recipe recommends that you shred the coconut on the large holes of your box grater. Maybe my grater is dull, but it was extremely tedious work. Halfway through one coconut, I switched to the shred function on my food processor, and the work was done in seconds rather than tens of minutes.

The cake portion of the recipe was simple and produced delicious and light batter and gorgeous light cakes. Although, I did use three 8" pans because I don't have three 9" pans, and I absolutely refuse to buy any more bake ware! I didn't take any pictures, but believe me, they were fantastic, and my mouth was watering waiting for them.

So far, so good, right? This is when CHEMISTRY reared it's ugly head. First problem, maybe. I ran out of white sugar and had to substitute raw cane sugar.

Oh neighbor, I should have asked to borrow a cup of sugar!

I don't think it was the sugar substitute that made a huge difference - maybe a little flavor difference, but overall seemed okay. The real chemistry problem came with the fact that I do not own a hand-held mixer. We have a standing mixer. We have a stick blender. Usually, I am able to get by with one of the two, but in this frosting recipe, you are supposed to:

"Beat together egg whites, sugar, water, corn syrup, cream of tartar, and salt in a large deep bowl with a handheld mixer (clean beaters if necessary) until combined. Set bowl over a pot of simmering water and beat mixture at high speed until it holds stiff, glossy peaks, 5 to 7 minutes."

I attempted to use my hand mixer in this step, and even after 10 minutes of mixing, I never saw stiff, glossy peaks. I abandoned the step and moved onto beating with my standing mixer for the second part of the recipe, and things looked pretty good as evidenced by the picture below.

The frosting tasted great (very meringue) and had great consistency. Quickly, however, I learned that all was not right with the frosting. As soon as I mixed in the shredded coconut into a portion, it began to sink and weep.

The frosting is already starting to ooze out due to the weight of the second cake layer.

After I frosted the entire cake, I could tell I was in trouble. Sliding, oozing, not the elegant cake I had been going for.

By the time we ate the cake a few hours later? Full on ooze.

It's hard to see, but there is NO frosting left between the layers, it has all oozed out and is sliding around on the cake plate. Boo hoo.

And, how did it taste? The cake part tasted great, I thought, but I hated the coconut. So very floral. Like eating a bottle of sun tan lotion. Uck. The general consensus was the same, although Sam really liked it - he even came back later in the night for a second piece!

We ended up dropping 3/4 of a cake into the trash before the night was over. *Sigh* It's times like these that this cake project gets really frustrating.

Cake #11 - Chocolate Chestnut Torte with Cognac Mousse - Cambridge edition

Before I start this, if you have not checked out the other cakes posted in the blur of posting since our unintentional hiatus, look in the sidebar and click on the other cakes from the January posts.  Mindy & I made 3 this holiday season - some not to be missed!

Ahhh, the Chocolate Chestnut Torte with Cognac Mousse. as it is supposed to look.  And how it looked when I finally was through with it.  My journey, and it was a journey, was nearly identical to Mindy's with the exception of the QUEST.  Or I should say the challenge that became my quest in search of these cursed "marrons glaces".  A seemingly minor ingredient, since one needs only 6 of them, and they appear to be candied chestnuts, and they get chopped up and put inside as a thin layer of nuts in the cake.  Actually the regular chestnuts required in the recipe were no picnic either.

Well, I left Whole Foods in my usual huff.  After asking at the bakery counter about chestnuts, candied chestnuts, and dried chestnuts, I was carrying around a baggie of bulk whole chestnuts that I would need to roast and shell - surely adding 2 hours to the process.  But then, I found a 7oz jar of the "whole, roasted, peeled chestnuts" I needed.  Yahoo! Except I need 9 oz.  And this little jar costs $15.99.  I would need 2 jars of them.  Outrageous!  They sell the exact same chestnuts in bigger jars at Russo's in Watertown.  I don't care if it is New Year's Eve and Ben & I had a daytime date, I would just have to squeeze in a trip to Russo's (30 minutes away) - and hope that they did not clear out their stash after Thanksgiving (where I bought their 2nd to last jar this year).

Since it was supposed to be a date, I told Ben we should run this quick errand first, but stop off at Sofra for coffees to get us through, since we have been meaning to check it out (owned by the Oleana folks) and it was in the same direction-ish.  What a wonderful pit stop!  And they sold candied dates and Rose Water (remind me of that when we need it for the Persian love cake - it will cost $8 for a bottle of which I will use 1 tablespoon and then maybe attempt to make Mashti Malone's rosewater ice cream) - so we thought maybe the elusive "marrons glaces" could not be far behind.  We showed the chef our recipe and she suggested Whole Foods and an Italian specialty in Davis Square, but was not at all encouraging.

The snow is coming down at a blinding clip now.  Wasn't expecting that.  Success at Russo's!!  Sort of.  They have a 16oz jar of the exact same chestnuts as WF, but for $12.99!  Yeah!  Take that WF!  Though it has now been 2 hours of my day to save that extra jar.  We scour the specialty shelves for "Marrons Glaces" - I finally ask someone.  YES!  Well, they USED to have them, but nobody bought them, then they expired and they did not re-stock them.  Hmmm.  Bummer, but now we know they do exist.

There's at least 2 inches of snow on the ground and more coming.  We stop off at iParty to be more festive with staying in on New Year's Eve.  And its right next to the liquor store where we need to buy cognac.  We are not cognac drinkers.  Big debate over whether it is a type of liquor or a brand and how many ounces are in a tablespoon.  Oh baby, it is a type of liquor (Brand = Courvoissier)  and a cheap bottle of it costs $29.99.  C'mon, really? This is the most expensive cake of all time!  We need 5 tablespoons.  We find an airline minibottle, but it might only have 2 TBS, so we buy the mid-flask size for $16 - good gravy, I hope we like cognac.  Turns out we do not really, so if you stop by and want a glass, by all means, drink the leftovers.  I am sure it will still be in the cabinet.  Liquor store also has a snootie foodie (and dusty/rarely used) gift food section with candied nuts of every variety, except chestnuts.  Well, crap.  I've made candied pecans before, I'll just do it with the chestnuts.

But wait!  Remember Formaggio Kitchen?  We don't.  All we know is that we pass it on the way to Full Moon and Mindy once gave us a ridiculous foodie gift basket from there.  It's worth a shot.  Heck.   There's only 3 inches of snow on the ground now.

Inside Formaggio Kitchen, there is a festive champagne tasting and cheeses too!  The guys running the place look at our recipe, and light up!  YES!! They do indeed have "Marrons glaces".  YIPPEE!!  And then they berate us for making them our 5th stop in the search.  I berate us too when I see their tiny produce section has celeriac, which I cannot find anywhere.  While we sample cheeses, the young clerk comes back, hang dogged, "Well, we had them yesterday.  Beautiful little packaging.  Must have sold them all."  Drat.  All is not lost, we bought a bottle of the champagne since we forgot at the liquor store and now 5 inches of snow on the ground, we are not headed back out.

(Cake batter with chestnuts ground into the flour.  Looked luxurious.  And like an "Apre Apricot Facial Scrub")

On our ride home, I talk about how I will candy the chestnuts.  While we wait for a light in Harvard Square, I remember Cardullo's.  Maybe I should just pop in there and ask while Ben waits?  It's not totally out of the way.  SUCCESS!  In less than 30 seconds, the clerk leads me to the aisle, tells me they ran out of the little packages, but they have them.  She hands me a beautiful tin.  A small tin. A tin with no picture of these things or what might be inside - but I am holding the elusive "marrons glaces".  Now, after 5 previous stops, I was prepared to pay, and pay a LOT for this dumb ingredient.  But, when the shop-keeper of this gourmet food shop says, "they're a little pricey".  I pause. How pricey? SIXTY-FIVE DOLLARS!  Umm, no.  Quest over.  That is not even funny.  No joke.  What are they, like $10 per chestnut? Candied in gold?

(Oh, in order to have a cognac mousse, you have to make an entire chocolate mousse and then use it as a layer in the cake.  It would have been great on its own.  Minus the cognac.)

(Here THEY are red tin or blue tin - $65!  BTW, the top right and left jars of chestnuts on the shelf are the regular ones we bought from Russos)

They have some other "candied chestnuts in syrup" for $17.  I have no idea if that is an appropriate substitution.  Shopkeeper calls over their buyer to describe it to me.  Doesn't sound too promising.  I note that they have my jar of regular chestnuts there too, the big one, like from Russo's.  $18.99.  More than I paid from Russo's but still loads cheaper than WF - and this is a gourmet shoppe - I feel good about that.  And really, not all that panged about leaving the $65 "Marron Glaces" behind.  There is no way to have bought them in good conscience.

(my version of marrons glaces with the midi size Remy Martin cognac in back)

Now there are 6 inches of snow on the ground.  We need to pick up the girls from day care, shovel the land, and I need to candy some chestnuts at home and start the cake that says it will take 5 hours.  Date over.

(This is the layer with my "marrons glaces" - really?  6 stores for this layer?!)

Truth be told, I used all my steam in the quest.  We'll have leftover peppermint ice cream for dessert tonight and make it a danged New Year's Day Cake.  If you want to know how the actual cake making went, read Mindy's post.  Nearly identical, except I used the chestnuts required, and when I started to make my own "marrons glaces", the recipe I found, begins:  "Start this recipe FOUR DAYS before you want to use them".  HA!  Of course.  Short story is that I Rachel Rayed their asses into some version of a candied chestnut, chopped them up into the cake - and we will never know the difference since we have no idea what it is we were missing.

(Cake requires 3 8 inch round pans.  I have 2.  Borrowed 3rd from neighbor.  Cakes baked.  Chose best one for top layer.  Then saw that it was too big and lopsided.  Tried to flip it over but flipped it back when I feared it would crush the mousse layer.)

Cake cost just for the ingredients I did not have:

Cognac:  $45 (if you bought the whole bottle)

Chestnuts: $32 (if you bought at whole foods)

Marrons Glaces: $65 (if you bought them)

Total:  $148

My total: $29

(so, i took the risk of sawing off the excess - fortunately, with success, though Kassi was taking this picture to officially document disaster.)

And while this is the most expensive cake to ever attempt to be made, and I spent my entire date hunting the ingredient I ultimately did not buy, and we do not like any form of liquor in our cakes or mousse's, and the cake was great, but not worth a repeat performance (unless you have a chestnut lover), I would not have traded the hunting day with Ben for anything.  We could never have planned that date, nor a better one for us.  Plus, we now have Sofra & Formaggio Kitchen in our arsenal - practically in our backyard the whole time and never would have gone there otherwise, so thank you crazy Chocolate Chestnut Cognac Mousse Cake.

Voila!

Cake #11 - Chocolate Chestnut Torte with Cognac Mousse

yield: Makes 8 servings

active time: 1 3/4 hr

total time: 5 hr

That bit of information is from the recipe.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ah ah hah. Total time: 5 hr, my ass!

This cake ate up two days of my time. This cake should have been dinner party-worthy. This cake was such a visual mess in the end that I threw up my hands and gave up. Oh, I wish for all those hours of time back!

Here were my major problems:

1. Couldn't find whole roasted chestnuts. Apparently the sun goes down on Christmas Day and then chestnuts are pulled from the shelves of all the Whole Foods in Chicago. My solution: I substituted pecans.

2. Couldn't find candied chestnuts. My solution: I substituted pecans.

3. Both of my ganaches were nightmares. The main one I made on New Year's Eve and then chilled. Even after sitting out on the counter for OVER FIVE HOURS on New Year's Day, it never thoroughly softened. The cognac ganache, once chilled and then brought to room temperature separated and then never set up again.

4. Wow, that's a whole lot of cognac! No thank you to the cognac mousse that looked disgusting and reeks of alcohol.

Let's take it step by step because there were points when I thought this cake was going to be awesome.

DAY ONE:

First up: Chocolate. How can you go wrong with six bars of chocolate?

Suck it, chestnuts. Pecans roasted in the oven and then ground saved the day.

The cakes (I had to buy a 3rd 8" pan...buying bakeware is getting old) come out of the oven and they are beautiful and fragrant, and I want to eat them immediately. But, they and the ganache are put in the fridge to be used the following day.

DAY TWO:

It feels wrong to be opening a bottle of cognac at 9:30 a.m. When I add the cognac to its ganache, I am bowled over by how much it tastes like cognac. Worry that I should not have let Charlie lick the spatula, it's that strong.

I take the ganache from the day before out of the fridge when starting the cognac ganache so it can come to room temp. The recipe says that it may take 2-3 hours. No problem! I have all day. After at least four hours, I am able to smear some on the bottom layer of the cake mainly because the cake has spent time in the freezer, so I can apply some pressure.

Apply a layer of candied pecans. I am whistling, smiling, feeling good.

I make the cognac mousse (whipped cream and whipped egg whites added to the cognac ganache), and it's all wrong. It's grainy and weird. And so very cognac-reeking. I have hopes that as part of the bigger cake it won't be so strong.

I apply the third cake layer and put it in the fridge for it to chill an hour and set up. Friends stop by, we hang out and chat. I lament that I don't have my sure-to-be-awesome cake ready to share.

HOURS later, I return to the cake to put the ganache all around the cake. The ganache that has been sitting on the counter ALL FREAKIN' DAY, and it's still stiff and solid. The cognac mousse has not set up and so when I try to put on the ganache with pressure, the mousse oozes out, and the ganache will not spread. All cheer is gone. All is frustration and annoyance. I peel the ganache off the cake, and it takes a layer of cake with it.

I decide that this point that I will skip the ganache layer and just pour the melted ganache over the top. I am still remembering how awesome it was on the gingerbread cake (see cake #10). And, in theory it works. But I don't have enough ganache not studded with cake crumbs to pour on the cake to cover the whole thing. And my cake is now lopsided from the pressure I had to apply to get the ganache on. The result is some parts of the cake with ganache, others without it.

Failed, defeated. OVER IT. The cake goes in the fridge to set up YET AGAIN.

Finally, we can taste the cake. And the verdict? The cake itself is awesome. Moist, nutty but not overwhelming. The ganache and nuts are great. The cognac mousse is too strong. Even combined with other bites, it's too strong for my taste. I will continue to eat this, but I'll skip that layer.

Will I ever make this cake again? Hells no.

Cake #10 - Chocolate Covered Gingerbread Cake by Mindy

Thank goodness for an easy cake! Huzzah and hooray. I was able to bake this cake after Christmas Eve dinner while my mother very helpfully wrapped all the Christmas presents that needed to be put under the tree for Christmas morning. The cake cooled overnight, and then on Christmas morning I only had to make the ganache.

Unlike Sherie, I had the correct pan, and I also had ground cloves. Like Sherie, and since she bought molasses for the first time, she doesn't realize this, neither of us had "light molasses". I remember a Cooks Illustrated tasting thingy on molasses from a few years back, and Grandma's makes a "mild" version of molasses - I'm guessing that equals "light". Either way, I couldn't find it and used the molasses that I had on hand. Which was definitely not mild as you can see by the dark rich color in the picture below.

The super dark stuff is the molasses

As a result, the cake tasted more like a rich molasses cookie than gingerbread, which was okay by me. I love molasses cookies!

You know what I also love? This ganache/frosting. This might become my go-to frosting for cakes: whipping cream, butter, corn syrup, chocolate, vanilla. Melt it all together, let cool slightly and then pour on your cake. The result is a fudgy goodness of just the right thickness. Since frosting a cake is not my forte, this was perfect!

The finished product:
Yes, yes, it's missing the crystallized ginger. Truth be told, I don't care for crystallized ginger. I would have picked it off my portion of the cake. Rather than do that, I just left it off, and I don't think that the cake suffered without it.

I'm not sure that this cake will be made again, but I was totally happy with it. Which, given the chaos of Christmas, is a pretty great thing to be able to say.

Cake #9 - Peppermint Ice Cream Candyland Cake by Mindy

I was waiting for Sherie to post first on this cake because she was rock star enough to complete the damn thing.

First, I should be honest that this cake bore the brunt of me trying to do too many things at once with not enough time. It never fails. I suppose if I ever start going to see a therapist, I should let him/her read my blog posts, and I'm sure s/he will say that I have a problem with time management. As a result of my time problem: no candy brittle. All of a sudden, I was faced with accomplishing that portion of the cake with a crowd of family arrived for Christmas Eve dinner, and since I was already afraid of making the candy, I bailed rather than fail in front of others.

Anyway, in brief, while the cake was tasty, I don't think that it was any more tasty than an ice cream cake you might buy at your local Baskin Robbins. And, I think that a lot of that had to do with the quality of my ice cream. I was spoiled by 3+ years in New England. I now have a preference for really top quality ice cream. The only ice cream that I could find was made by Deans. Which was fine, but not special. If it's not worthy of eating a big bowl of on its own, is it really worthy enough to be made into a cake? Can me an ice cream snob (and, I am), Deans does not have that wonderful rich mouth feel of a Toscanini's, JP Licks, or Lizzy's. If you had really special ice cream (c'mon Sher, Christina's didn't have peppermint ice cream that would have set you back $40?), it might be worth it to make this cake. And while the cake portion was very tasty and probably better than any available in a Baskin Robins cake, when cake is frozen, it's hard to really appreciate its great taste.

That being said, as mentioned, time was my problem. While my cakes were thoroughly frozen, and my ice cream softened, I did not have time to let the middle layer of ice cream set up before "frosting" the rest. The result was a big mess. When my ice cream softened, it was soupy in some places and frozen in others. In retrospect, I might have had more success, if I had given the ice cream a really good stir to fix the consistency before trying to use it. But, have I mentioned I was out of time?

Here it doesn't look to melty and ugly and messy....but wait for it:

So, I had a time crunch in the frosting, and then I found that an hour plus is actually not enough time for the whole cake to set up. As a result, when I sliced the cake, it looked like this:
A big mess. But, a big mess that could be easily rectified by pouring chocolate sauce all over it. That chocolate sauce really elevated things. Of course, no picture. I did not bring the cake to the table, and other slices looked better than this, so I don't think that my guests were repulsed by the look of the cake. It was eaten with compliments.

The next day, when I pulled the cake out of the freezer to saw it in half (half went in the trash, half went into a tupperware container for future eating), the layers stayed together and actually looked pretty good.

And since I cut the cake and stored it properly? Not a single bite has been eaten. No one in my family is interested. The ultimate failure of a cake!

Cake #10 - Chocolate-Covered Gingerbread Cake

This Chocolate-Covered Gingerbread cake was supposed to be for Christmas Eve at Ben's folks.  Namely because this cake holds no appeal to me, but seemed like one his family would really go for - well,  the adults anyway.  It was moved to Christmas Day with my folks and for the smaller group.  It required a 9x9 inch SQUARE cake pan.  I have 9" rounds and 8" squares and happened by 2 stores which did not carry 9x9 squares.  After doing a quick area/volume calculation requiring me to remember Area = (Pi)(r)^2, I decided 9 inch round would be just fine for me.  See the square version here.

This cake calls for fresh ginger root as well as candied ginger.  I did blatantly omit an ingredient:  ground cloves.  I have whole cloves.  I have not one, but TWO mortar and pestles and planned to just grind it up - but in the throws of the mixing,  I could not find any of the parts needed to grind.  Since there were other super fragrant spices already there, I omitted.

Candied ginger was a revelation too.  We have had the same jar of candied ginger in our spice drawer for 5 years.  We use a couple pieces of it every year in our turkey brine for Thanksgiving and it is not otherwise touched.  I knew I needed more - I sampled my jar thinking it would be like rock candy.  Not at all - tasted fine, even after 5 years.  And I was surprised it was soft.  Apparently my sister Jess eats it like candy.  So, she should look in the mail for some from me b/c I sent Kassi to Christina's Spice shop for it and for $7.49 you can buy their smallest amount, about 2 pounds worth - which by my estimation would be a 6 lifetime supply for us here.

The cake was surprisingly good (for me).  It was also elegant and fancy for a dinner party.  I am glad I garnished with the candied ginger as directed b/c it elevated the look of the cake.  I planned to pick it off my piece, but it all just worked.  The cake did "cry for whipped cream" my dad said - and he was not wrong.  I also ate it with leftover peppermint ice cream from cake #9.

Showcasing the fresh ginger root and Grandma's Molasses.  I have never bought molasses before this.  Cute packaging.

Oh!  And easy since it was 1 pan, 1 layer.  The frosting was very simple, though required a double boiler - but you just pour it over the cake - that part couldn't be easier.

Cake #9 Peppermint Ice Cream Candyland Cake by Sherie

Ooooh, Ahhhh  - Doesn't this look straight out of an old-timey cookbook?  And like it would be super duper hard to make and not that good to eat?  Good news - not too hard, but time consuming and tastes great, if you pick the candy brittle off the top to save your fillings.

Oh sure, now as I link to the picture of the cake do I read that I should try to match the candy brittle to the color of my peppermint ice cream.   Though that would have involved seeing my peppermint ice cream in advance, but Ben was at the store buying it while I was making the brittle.  And, the brittle was largely driven by the bits of hard candy I stole from the left-over dregs of Christmas baskets around the office.  If anyone is missing their candy canes, see me in cubicle 14.

This cake was FUN to make.  It was difficult in that it required many steps and planning and space in the freezer.  Mindy & I had need for at least 3 cakes between us over the holidays and we decided on this and 2 others.  I was going to have this on Christmas Day, but after starting it and realizing it might have some good "wow" factor, namely for little kids - I moved it up to Christmas Eve.  But that also meant transporting it and clearing space in my mother-in law's freezer.  And still, it was worth it.

My helpers with mallots and hard candy, smashing away with gusto for the candy brittle.

The cake itself tasted great - but could also have used box brownie mix if pinched for time.  Edy's peppermint ice cream is tasty - thankfully since we hadn't tried it beforehand.  I did get knocked by a couple people for not making my own ice-cream, which I would have liked to do, but it called for 3 quarts and hey, people's presents were suffering at the hand of our cake project.  And finally, the comment I liked best was "Wow!  It looks like a 1960s hair salon!"  And, I did not take this as an insult. I thought it looked like a fruit cake - but the taste was GREAT and when I forgot the chocolate sauce after many had finished their cake, a few asked for a second piece to try with the chocolate sauce, you know, the way it was intended.

You can't see the 300 degree clear syrup we made and poured over this candyland.  I was worried it would not set or would otherwise go wrong - but my Mom was here to help and it was quite successful.

I left the ice cream out for almost an hour to soften and started assembling layers. You have to put it back in the freezer to set between layers - not hard, but not easy to carve the time or space.  The cake cooks in 1 sheet pan - supposed to be 10x15, but I could only find a 10x14 - and then cut it in thirds to stack.

Stumbled across my spoon from my rice cooker when I was spreading the ice cream - it was the best tool for the job - what luck.