Cake #22 - 12 Layer Mocha

This was supposed to be our "graduation" cake.  And it was supposed to happen over Labor Day Weekend to mark the end of the 30 cakes in 52 weeks.  It is the creme de la creme of all cakes.  It has 12 layers for pete's sake.  Mocha, chocolate, frosting, yum!  But, as the delinquency post pointed out, not so much for the timing or order of these cakes.  

Turns out I was visiting my mom over Labor Day Weekend and she likes herself a cake project too, so we set out to do this one together.  I figured the more help, the merrier, plus with all the effort involved, we really needed a group around to appreciate.  

What I wound up appreciating was my mom.  Who had to clean up my mess and who had the time and energy to re-do the merengue layer from what I originally screwed up.  

See, we wanted to get to the Wonder Lake Water Ski Show in time to see the opening act, which left me with no time to re-do the layer that was royally messed up.  

The merengue layer was a problem.  I believe I had the oven too high and the timing all wrong.  As you can see below, I burnt it to a crisp, and thought it was supposed to be like that.  

Another part I messed up was the mocha filling.  I did this in 2 stages as well, and the filling did not benefit.  By the time we were back from the ski show, I thought I'd whip up the frosting and assemble.  But from the show came my teenage nephews and their teenage girlfriends who saddled up to the island and watched.  Finally I got to cook all Batali style and show my stuff.  But what I showed was how to make mocha look like oatmeal soup.  Oooof.  It required a LOT of blending to thicken that up.  And one of the emo girlfriends piped in with a suggestion, so I looked at her incredulously, until it sunk in that she knew how to cook and was right.  Only then did I let her have a go at the beaters, and it worked.  We finally got this baby assembled.  

And it . was . good.

I do want to make this one again in my kitchen while I am focused on it.  It wasn't sooooo amazing that everyone will remember it, but it could be one of those cakes that I make for every X holiday and becomes a go to cake.  For the effort though, I am not likely to make this for just Ben & me on a Tuesday night.  

And, I have to say, doing the "graduation" cake early, made me lose a little steam for the remaining 8 cakes.  

Hey, maybe my occasion for this one will be "graduations".  

The uber-burned merengue.

Cake # 21 - White chocolate layer cake with Apricot Filling and White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

That's right, 4 layers...but only 2 cakes.

This is a middle layer.

Good gravy, this is not supposed to end like this.  Clumpy and not melty.  Again.

White. Chocolate. Is. My. Arch. Nemesis.  I have had troubles with white chocolate before, so I knew to handle it with extra caution.  It didn't help.  White chocolate is just evil.  In fact, it is not even chocolate - so it should not get the same love.

You may have noticed that the chronological order of these pictures is backwards.  That is because I wanted to show that the end result was good, even if we had to go about this the hard way.  I mean really, what is the deal with white chocolate?  Kind of like accounting, it is something many people understand, but I will never get it right.  After 2 attempts on the double boiler to get it to a smooth melty consistency, it was finally there.  But then cooling it, I went too far and it became solid as a rock with the knife standing straight up in it.  Gross.

This cake was not my cup of tea from the beginning.  But, like a couple of the others, it really surprised me.  The cake itself was delicious and moist.  The frosting was very good - though if blind taste testing, would I ever have guessed it was white chocolate?  No.  The fresh apricots were fun to use, but mainly because I could easily buy them in a tiny crate from Trader Joes.  

My household is not a huge fan of nuts on dessert.  We like nuts.  We like dessert.  We don't turn down dessert with nuts, but we just don't prefer to make them, which is why this cake only had half of its circumference covered in the requisite walnuts.  

Overall, this cake turned out to be a) a lot of work and b) totally delicious.  Not sure I am gunning to make it again, but several months after the fact, I am still craving it in a good way.  

Happy Baking!

In our Delinquency Defense / Attention Fertility Clinics

As Mindy mentioned, yes, our last post WAS in August, but in our defense, we are busy gals balancing a whole lotta acts.  I could just let it rest and suffice it to say that:

a full 100% of the women participating in our Bake Me a Cake blog 30 cakes in 52 weeks challenge wound up pregnant before the end of the year!

We may or may not have been trying for a new baby, and it certainly was not the intent of this idea, but we did indeed become pregnant and/or had the baby before the end of the challenge.  My friend is a doctor and said that we should be marketing this concept to a fertility clinic as another edge to couples trying to get pregnant.  Alas, for those of you paying attention though, a data set of 2 women is hardly enough to start an epidemic, but if anyone of our readers (and I still believe we only have 1 reader,and I am guessing is past her child bearing years) start their own challenge and wind up pregnant before the end, do let us know.

By itself, pregnancy could be enough to derail a cake blog, but we are determined folks.  And we blew right by the Labor Day (no pun intended) scheduled completion date and now it is part of my agenda to at least complete all the cakes before my baby's first birthday.  I have a leg up on Mindy here as I have been making the cakes, just not posting for quite a while.  I am on #29 and have 1 more to go!  I hope to post about them during maternity leave, but god help me to remember any of the details.

And just in case you think we are just having babies and making cakes, our excuses continue that also in the last year some combination of us:  lived through kindergarten applications, started a company, sold a house, moved into temporary housing while looking for a house, took on a challenging new client, potty trained toddlers, bought a house and started renovations.  There is more, but you get the picture.  

This is why I need cake.  This is also why Mindy & I are contemplating our next challenge - which might need to be something along the lines of 100 Salads or "how to drop cake weight".  Missing our timeline will not deter us.  We do have to eat after all.  

Really, the last post was AUGUST?

Oh lordy. To say we have been delinquent is putting it mildly. I have been delinquent in making and posting. Sherie has merely been delinquent in posting! Seems she has made all but TWO of the cakes. We have not forgotten this project, and we plan to get back to it.

Stay tuned!

Cake #20 Black Forest Boule-de-Neige

I have to say, this Black Forest Boule-de-Neige cake caught my attention early on in this project.  Looked like a total ball to make.  Plus, I like Black Forest.  It seemed kind of "holiday", so we didn't do it right away.  Then there were so many actual holiday cakes, this one got lost, which is how I wound up making it on a hot day in August.

Part of my excitement was that I already had the requisit metal bowl - we use it all the time, so I was glad it did not get ruined after its stint in the oven.

Our friends Amy & Dave were coming to visit - not that I need an occasion to make a cake these days, but really, I was glad to have a deadline.  I thought I had to hit the store for key ingredients to get started, so I did not do it Friday night.  Turns out my pantry was stocked, with a couple exceptions - we even had dried cherries on hand!  How on earth did Ben let this slip by him? He usually eats them the moment we get them home.

The recipe calls for lining the bowl with tin foil.  I was supposed to melt the cherries in a cherry jam, but I used leftover strawberry jelly from the beach.  Not a big deal on the substitution scale.

 On Saturday we were out and about and decided to pick up some nosh for our friends at Formaggio Kitchen.  Now, faithful reader, in case you recall the marrons-glaces debacle from New Year's Eve, this is the same store that ALMOST had that elusive ingredient.  We were going for olives & cheese, but I thought they might have this garnish:  candied violets.  I was fully prepared to substitute with purple skittles or cake decorations,  since from the picture it just seemed like garnish.  But, it turns out, I saw upon the shelf, in a great glass bottle:  Candied Violets.  And then I saw:  $99.99 per lb.  Whaaaaaaaaaaaa???? Really?  You've got to be kidding me.  The candy counter girl saw my reaction and volunteered to count some out for me - "so, uh, yeah, how much would like 10 run me?  Am I in for $25?"  Luckily no.  I was able to buy 15 of them for $3.00.  Whew.  Wish they sold the marron-glaces like that.

The funny part was when I got them home, one of my "helpers" opened the box and dropped it at the same time scattering them across the kitchen.  No worries, the floor was recently cleaned, and we deemed the 3 second rule to be in play.  Sorry officemates, now you know.  But it was weeks ago, and you are fine, right?

The cake was fun to frost, fun to make, but really waaaaaayyyy to sludgey in the end.  It said it would be a little runny when a cake tester was inserted - but what is "a little"?  Mine was, and the interior was more like raw brownie fudge, and not really in a good way.

The top of it where it was nice and brownie like was awesome, but that was only about 1/4 inch of the whole cake.  Maybe baking it longer would have an impact.   I won't know 'cuz I am probably not going to make this beauty again.

And, it turns out that my friend Deb wins the prize for telling me what Boule de Neige means ... its French for snow ball.  Duh.

Cake # 19 Frozen Passionfruit Meringue Cake

This cake is Frozen and made of meringue ... therefore not a real "cake" in my book  - but hey.   Frozen screams beach in July.  So what if the title ingredient calls for "3/4 c frozen passionfruit pulp" which "can be found in Latino specialty food shops".  I did not have high hopes for finding said shop on the Outerbanks of NC where they seem to import only eastern European summer help.  That said, we did actually find a latino convenience store which sold a slew of cool spices and dried peppers, but their frozen section consisted mainly of popsicles.  I anticipated this at least and already mentally compromised by using Mango.  Which I found fresh at Food Lion.  I used 3, skinned and cut them into the blender to make a puree.  Then whipped it into the freezer only to read later that the "frozen passion fruit pulp" was to be thawed before using.

This cake was fun to make.  It requires measuring and drawing on parchment.

Squeezing the meringue layers with cake piping bags.

Multiple steps and freezer bits.  I made it on my way to the pool.

Then swam for a while.  Came in, made a few more steps, then went to the ocean.  Popped it in the freezer and had myself a nap.  When everyone else was having cocktails, I piped on the decorative icing.

A few things I learned:

I could never have made this cake at my house.
I do not have a serving dish long enough.
You really need an empty freezer to fit the dang thing in there - who has that, besides a huge beach house with an extra, and dare I say, tie-dyed, empty freezer in the basement gameroom?

There was not enough whipped cream - I wound up whipping more. Should have just made a whole 2 cups to start.
My niece and nephew there thought this was the "best cake in the whole entire world"  and that it "looked so awesome and pretty".  And they liked hanging around to benefit from licking beaters and bowls.
We brought it over to our cousin's house for a dessert night that was to die for.  This cake was eaten and seemingly well liked - but I much preferred the chambord chocolate brownies that Janet made.
It was fun to make.  If frozen and meringue is your thing, go for it. Who knows how different it would have tasted with passion fruit instead of mango?  I'll never know b.c I am not going to make this one again.

Cake #18 - Pecan Spice Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

We went to the beach for a week and I took advantage of my hobby by knocking 2 more cakes off the list...which if anyone is keeping score, still puts us way off track from actually finishing all 30 cakes by Labor Day.  Not to mention, Mindy had her baby Juliet a couple weeks ago, and Juliet is not so good with a blender yet, so she is no help!

Alas, we are also getting down to a random assortment of cakes - many of which seem too heavy and holiday/winter-like.  I was really not looking forward to this one, but then thought, Hey!  We are going to North Carolina and there are all those veggie and nut stands on the sides of the road on the way down.   This recipe leads with "a Southern treat" or something.  Bingo!  I will make this cake and pawn it off on all of Ben's relative -using only the freshest pecans from the side of the road.

Well, okay smarty-pants, apparently NC is not know for pecans.  Peanuts, sure - lots of places sold those - but I guess I need to go to Texas for Pecans.  Therefore, my cake was made with the store-brand Food Lion pecans - though I did go to the trouble of toasting them myself.

My first cake with an ocean view!

Baking in a rented beach house is funny.  It's better than camping, but a little like grab-bag.  I anticipated some trouble in this department, so while we were leaving the house for our 12 hour drive, I ran back in to grab a few provisions...funny Ben did not kill me when he saw me grinding cloves with the mortar & pestle while holding the car keys and wearing my purse.  But, this is a spice cake for goodness sake, if I had to buy all 37 spices for a pinch of each, it would have cost more than the chocolate cognac cake from New Year's Eve.  I brilliantly packed them all in a baggie and was on my way.

The cake was very straight forward to make.  I did cheat by not slicing each cake in half making it a "4" layer cake as in the picture.  I worried there would have been too little frosting - and there would have been - and it would have been a bear to slice there and frost - very crumbly texture.  Oh, but the frosting...THIS WAS THE BEST CREAM CHEESE FROSTING EVER.  I probably think this b/c it has hints of lemon in it - and I left out about a 1/2-3/4 cup of powdered sugar.  I should use this one in lieu of all my other cream cheese frostings.