Apricots

There is a class of desserts made in French homes that does not seem to exist here in the United States. It's a pie or cake made of unhealthy things, but topped and flavored with fruit, delicately nested in with the unhealthy parts. The purpose of the fruit is not to make one feel like this dessert is somehow healthier, no no no. The fruit is there to make it more sweet and delicious. Because really, fruit that has been baked doesn't really have any nutritional value anymore. It has just become jam.

This isn't true of fruit pies of course. Don't try to use logic on baking rationalizations, it just doesn't work, OK? Because if you make a fruit pie, it's practically healthy. If you make a pie that happens to have fruit on/in it, like instead of mounds of whipped topping or meringue, it's adding deliciousness (much like whipped topping or meringue) without adding heft or fat, just a very light touch of sweetness. My aunt Nadia makes this chocolate pear tart which is absolutely delicious, but I don't have the recipe. What I did manage to put together is this apricot almond tart. Yum.

I used a pre-made pie-crust for this, but I bet a graham cracker or cookie crust would work well too. Parbake the crust while you make the filling and cut up the fruit.

Ingredients:
pie crust
7-8 apricots
1 scant cup ground almonds (100g)
1 stick of butter (100g)
1/2 cup sugar (100g)
2 Tbsp flour
3 Tbsp cream
2 eggs
1 Tbsp dark rum
pinch salt






I used a hand mixer, but I bet a stand mixer would work really well here.
Preheat oven to 450F.
1. Cream the butter and sugar.
2. Add almonds and combine.
3. Add eggs one at a time and combine.
4. Add cream, then flour, then salt and rum. Combine until homogeneous.
5. Pour batter into pie shell.
6. Halve apricots and nestle them into the pie. Get as many as you can in there.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until dough no longer jiggles.
You don't need to cool this pie very long before cutting into it. Just wait until it won't burn you anymore.

Wedding Cake Post

Yes, I made a wedding cake this summer. It felt pretty epic, especially since I did it all during a heat wave with no air conditioning. Pretty intense.

I have no pictures of me actually making the cake, because it was a heat wave and we have no AC! But it looked just like making any regular old cake, except A LOT of it. I'll post the recipes at the bottom if you want to try to make these yourself. The almond cake is my favorite. I think I finally found THE almond cake recipe.

I do have pictures of me decorating it, though. I made one huge batch of Swiss meringue buttercream (I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe) and left it white, and the second batch I dyed to match the bride's seafoam dress.







There you have it (more or less). The decorating of the cake. All I can see are the flaws, but everyone else seems to think it looked rather nice.



Oh, you notice that crane? Yeah... I folded another few dozen cranes. I guess I got really involved in this wedding... It was wonderful, by the way. I had a blast. Cutting the cake was a bit intense, though.


Nick helped a lot, which was good because we cut cake frantically for like 10 minutes, and the whole thing was gone. Eaten up! It was definitely good. If you want to make a giant wedding cake yourself, here are the recipes I used.
BTW, if you count the frosting, I used close to 7lbs of butter and 45 eggs to make this thing. Oh yeah.

Almond cake

6.75 cups cake flour
6.75 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
10.5 oz almond paste
4 cups sugar
3.75 sticks butter (room temp)
1.5 Tbsp almond extract
15 egg whites
2.25 cups whole milk


1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8-inch (but 9-inch will work just fine) round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set the dry ingredients aside.

3. Place the almond paste and sugar in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in another large bowl if using a handheld mixer. Begin to cream the mixture on low speed to break up the almond paste, then increase the speed to medium for about 2 minutes, or until the paste is broken into fine particles.

4. Add the butter and almond extract and beat it well, then the egg whites, two or three at a time, beating just long enough to incoperate after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl several times to make sure it is evenly mixed.

5. Dust about a third of the dry ingredients over the batter and fold in with a large rubber spatula until just combined. Fold in about half the milk. Fold in half the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remaining milk. Finally, fold in the last of the dry ingredients just until no streaks of white remain. Use a light hand and do not overmix. Divide the batter among the three prepared cake pans.

6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in their pans on wire racks for about 10 minutes. Turn the cakes out on to wire racks, carefully peel off the paper liners and let them cool completely, about one hour.

7. Assemble the cake: Place one layer flat side up on a cake stand or serving plate. Slide small strips of waxed paper under the edges to protect the plate from any messiness accumulated while decorating. Brush first layer with simple syrup, if using. Spread 1/2 cup of the raspberry preserves over the cake, leaving a 1/4 inch margin around the edges. Repeat with the second layer, brushing syrup if using and using remaining preserves. Add the third layer and brush with syrup if using.

8. Spread a thin layer frosting of your choice over the top and sides of the cake. Let frosting set in the fridge for about 20 to 30 minutes (this is your crumb coat) then spread a thicker, decorative coat over the base coat. If you have any frosting remaining, pipe a decoration of your choice.

Chocolate cake

cake flour 6 cups
baking soda 6 tsp
salt 3 ½ tsp
cocoa powder 3 cups
sugar 6 cups
butter (room temp) 6 sticks
cinnamon 3 ½ tsp
eggs 6
buttermilk 3 cups
coffee (room temp) 3 cups

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter three 8-inch square cake pans. Line the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.

2. In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. With the electric mixer on low speed, blend for about 30 seconds. Add the butter and buttermilk and blend on low until moistened. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Whisk the eggs and coffee together, and add to the batter in 3 additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating only until blended after each addition. Divide the batter among the three prepared pans; each pan will take about 3 1/4 cups of batter.

4. Bake for 38 to 40 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Carefully turn them out onto wire racks and allow to cool completely. Remove the paper liners only when they are cool.

Almond Update

In the search for a mightily almondy cake, I stopped by David Lebovitz' blog which includes a lovely and simple almond cake recipe.

It includes almond paste, which I was worried I would not be able to find in the middle of the Midwest. Since I moved to Indiana, there are many little things that are harder to find, so I typically assume the worst. Lo and behold, Meijer super-stores offer Solo almond paste, right in the baking isle along with all those other pre-made pie fillings. I have never used one of those, but I assume they're terrible (there I go with the worst, again).

In any case, I tried making his recipe with cake flour in a 9-inch layer pan instead of a cake pan, so I had enough left-over batter for 10-cupcakes.

Did I say ten? I meant eight. Just ignore that open wrapper at the top there. I also only baked the cupcakes for about 45 minutes, and the cake for 55 minutes. I think I could have left the layer cake in for longer.

The actual cake did "sigh" as David so nicely puts it. Maybe "totally collapsed into itself" would be more accurate.

Mind you, this thing had domed up about twice as high as it is in this picture. Ah well. I filled in the sad crevice with chocolate butter-cream frosting, so it was a happy crevice. Unfortunately, we ate the entire thing before I could take a picture. Here are the remaining cupcakes.

Overall, the flavor is very almondy. The texture is pretty light, though, totally unlike a pound cake. So the search for an almond pound cake recipe is still on. Let me know if you find one!

Almond Cake Recipe

Adapted from David Lebovitz

265g white granulated sugar

1 - 8 oz can almond paste

140g unbleached cake flour (David's recipe calls for one cup of flour. I measured my 140g, and found that I had between 1/2 and 3/4 cup of flour. So that's what I used.)

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed and brought to room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

6 large eggs, at room temperature

1. Pre-heat oven to 325ºF. Grease, flour, and line with parchment a 9" layer cake pan. Put paper liners in muffin tin.

2. In food processor, process the sugar, almond paste, and 1/4 cup of flour. Process for about 15 seconds, until the texture is sandy.

3. Add butter and extracts, and process until the texture is fluffy, about 30 seconds.

4. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating each egg before adding the next.

5. In a small bowl, combine rest of the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add half this mixture to food processor, and use short bursts to incorporate it, making sure not to overmix.

6. Add rest of flour mixture, and again use short bursts to incorporate flour.

7. Pour about 2/3 of batter into prepared cake pan. Place about 1/3 cup of batter into each prepared cupcake liner.

8. Bake cupcakes for about 45 minutes, and cake for 50 to 60 minutes.

9. Let cool on rack. (I removed the cupcakes immediately, but let the cake cool in its pan for about an hour or more.)

Chocolate Butter-cream Frosting

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

1/3 cup of white granulated sugar

6 tablespoons of egg whites (I use leftovers, but it's about 2 large egg whites)

pinch table salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1.5 sticks (6 oz) butter, cubed and brought to room temperature

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled (I used Trader Joe's 72% dark chocolate)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

[Note: You can do triple use with a pot of boiling water. First use it to melt the chocolate double boiler style. Then use it to warm up the egg whites while whipping. Then, cook your linguine with kale in there for dinner. Num. Don't forget the garlic!]

1. Combine egg whites, sugar, salt and lemon juice in stand mixer bowl. (The salt and lemon juice stabilize the egg whites and help them fluff up)

2. Over a pot of simmering water, whisk the ingredients constantly for about 3 minutes until egg whites are all frothy (and the temp is about 150ºF).

3. Place the bowl back in your stand mixer with whisk attachment, and and beat mixture on medium (I used level 6 out of 10) for about 2 minutes, or until it's fluffy. America's test kitchen says like shaving foam, but I have never seen shaving foam look like my egg whites do. More importantly, the egg whites should have cooled so when you touch your bowl it's warm rather than hot.

4. Add the room temp butter, one piece at a time.

5. Add vanilla extract.

6. Add melted chocolate.

[Note: Make sure to keep scraping the sides of the bowl down as you keep adding ingredients.]

7. Increase mixer speed to medium-high (I went all the way up to 8/10) and mix until light and fluffy. This took mine a few minutes. Actually, I stuck the whole thing in the fridge for about a half hour, and then beat it again. My chocolate was not completely cooled though, so you might not have to do that.

Finally, assemble your cake/cupcakes by slathering as much frosting as you can on each baked good. By the way, this frosting is very creamy, but not very sweet, so piling it on tastes lovely without hurting your teeth.

Elusive Almondy-ness

Last week, I ate the most delicious almond pound cake I have ever had. It might have been the only almond pound cake I had ever had, but I would even venture to say that this was the best pound cake I had ever had. It all started when my good pals John and Lisa got engaged.

How friggin cute are they. Lisa asked me to be a bridesmaid, and John asked my husband Nick to be his groomsman, and of course we both accepted. Lisa has to be one of the nicest people I have ever met. She is the kind of girl who really likes you before she even meets you. This also seems to translate into her cake preferences; if it's cake, she likes it. So, she invited me to the cake tasting because I am not the nicest person anyone has ever met, and I certainly do not whole heartedly embrace all cake as delicious. In fact, I have very discriminating tastes. Fondant? I don't think so. All purpose flour in angel food? What's the matter with you!? Imitation vanilla flavoring? Not on your life!

So last week, Lisa, John and I headed over to "Classic Cakes" in Carmel, IN, and tasted some cake. And after a taste of their almond pound cake, I demanded that the couple include this flavor in the most important four-tier-cake of their lives! They happily obliged, so all ended well. But now, all I can think about is delicious almond pound cake. I quickly looked for a recipe, and found one on America's Test Kitchen. I made it and brought it to a dinner party. Our friends rather liked it.

However, I can not recommend the recipe. It's a smidge dry, but that might just have been because I didn't bake it in a loaf pan. More importantly, it's boring. The only almond aspects involved are a couple teaspoons of almond extract and some slivered almonds on top. There was no bold almondy goodness explosion in your mouth! So I'm on the lookout for a good almond pound cake recipe. I'm going to try out a few more, and let you know what works best. Almonds, here I come!