Thanksgiving #11: The Greatest Cake In The World

I know I'm very late with this post, but I'm backdating it to go with the Thanksgiving series. I just couldn't manage cooking and real-time blogging. Maybe for Christmas.

Now, what's Thanksgiving without dessert? Okay, I had two desserts, but who's counting? (You have to have at least one pie and one cake.) This year's cake was a coconut cake. Done right and it is one of my favorites. How do you do it right? Get rid of that 7-minute frosting.

I spend more than $5 a slice for coconut cake from Bloomingdale's. I was determined to recreate it myself and do it better than they did. Tall order. I couldn't find one recipe that did exactly what I wanted, but I could steal bits and pieces from other recipes. The cake and pastry cream come from Cook's Illustrated. The simple syrup is from Bobby Flay and the frosting is from Rosy Levy Beranbaum. It was time consuming, expensive and worth all of it. What really worked out is that the frosting was all yolks and the cake was mostly whites, so there was no waste with the eggs.

I tackled the pastry cream the night before so that it would be fully chilled and the flavors would meld. Boy was it good. So good that I almost came up short because I kept thieving random spoonfuls until I made the cake.

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Here are the humble beginnings of pastry cream:

Cook on the stove.

Refrigerate. It's not hard at all.

Let's move to the cake. I don't have any "making of" pics. I was itching to use my new Williams-Sonoma cake pans. These babies did not disappoint!

I don't have any pics of it, but I also made a coconut simple syrup. Let's assemble. We know I suck at torting cakes. I actually got it right this time!

After brushing on the simple syrup, reach for the pastry cream.

Cover this with another layer and repeat the process. Your top layer should be a bottom.

Let's get to the icing. I made a half batch of icing, which was almost enough to cover the whole cake. Because I used pastry cream between the layers, I just couldn't see wasting all that butter and eggs for a full batch of icing.

Believe it or not, this was the start of the icing.

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Now the application wasn't pretty, so there aren't any photos of that. Hey, I was covering it with toasted coconut anyway.

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This cake was the cause of the five pounds I picked up over Thanksgiving. (Okay, well the dressing, rolls and sweet potato pie helped too.) A bite is heavenly. It was moist and full of coconut flavor. I loved how the different textures worked together. If you don't think you can deal with the temptation, it freezes beautifully.

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More Adventures In Cake Decorating

I finished Wilton III! I know this may not seem like a big deal to you, but this was my third attempt at this class. It is a huge deal for me. My lily nail flowers suck, but whatever. I’m loving the gum paste flowers better than the butter cream versions. I think I may take the advanced class one day. It’s a little pricey.

Anyhoo, here’s how I got to the above cake. Well ... it’s not a real cake; it’s Styrofoam covered in fondant. Start with a mat an your fondant.

Knead in a little Gum-Text or another type of gum and your icing color. Let me say now that none of my colors turned out the way I wanted them. I worked it out with a ribbon to pull everything together.

After kneading, roll the fondant out very thin. Work quickly. (This will be an ongoing theme.)

Next, use the smallest flower cutter and cut several shapes.

Take two or three and roll them into a teardrop shape. Make sure the others are covered with plastic wrap. (This is another theme.)

Dip a toothpick into shortening and insert into the base of the teardrop.

You can stick the whole thing into a Styrofoam cup to harden.

Now that we’ve made the rose bases, let’s move to the petals. Using the large flower cutter, cut out three petals.

Grab one and cover the other two. Using a small spatula, cut a five small slits into each petal. Do this on your thin foam.

Using the ball tool, soften the edges of the petals. Move the petal to the thick foam and use the ball tool to cup the center of the petal.

There are no pics of the next few steps, but shape the first blossom around the base. Brush on clear vanilla to get the fondant to adhere to itself. Move on to the second petal. Once it's shaped, form it around the rosebud.

After your third petal, you have a beautiful bloomed rose!

Get fancy and make some in a second color. I used too much Gum-Text and my flowers dried ashen.

Keep going until you have enough flowers for your cake.

Now. There are no pics of me covering the Styrofoam/cake in fondant. Color the fondant, roll it thin and drape over the cake. Work quickly. Very quickly. Press the sides down first and remove and buckling. Trim the excess and smooth the top with a fondant smoother.

You can use buttercream to stick the flowers to the fondant. I piled mine on the top sans buttercream. (I was going to throw the Styrofoam away and reuse the flowers.) Now, because my colors did not turn out the way I wanted them to and because I was not going to pipe any trim, I used ribbon to finish the cake.

Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Tools of the trade:

• Wilton Fondant/Gum Paste Tool Set
• Wilton Fondant Foam Set
• Wilton Flower Making Set
• Wilton Fondant Smoother
• Wilton Brush Set

Adventures in Cake Decorating

I'm taking Wilton III, again. This is my third attempt: I lost my job during the first one and didn't feel like being around people. I just didn't have the time to complete the second one. The third time is the charm. This time, I'm seeing it through. (Even though I missed the first class; I was on vacation. Besides, I'd taken the first class two times before!) We're taking the classes at Cakewalk Chicago. Lori, the owner, is our instructor.

The second class is where you make your square cake look like a present. I just went for the bow on top. I have a short attention span and I'm not a huge fan of fondant. I'm so lazy that my cake was actually a Styrofoam square. I'm saving up for the Williams-Sonoma square cake pans. No square cakes until I buy them.

I'm taking the course with my coworkers. Here are their cakes. These women made homemade fondant. WTF??!:

I tease both of them because they have become Wilton crackheads. Every week, they are buying something new. Tiff gets an additional teasing because she brings so much crap to class. She has a tool caddy and a gigantic tub.

Tools of the trade:

• Satin Ice Fondant
• Wilton Course 3 Kit
  

More Minis

My love affair with mini desserts continues! Also the cheap side of me kicked in. I love to go to bakeries and look at the fruit tarts. They are so elegant and beautiful. I never buy them because I think they are really expensive. I finally got up the nerve to make one myself!

One of my favorite cookbooks is Williams-Sonoma's Tools & Techniques. It has recipes for both the tart dough and the pastry cream. Here we go. Let's start with the pastry cream. Grab a vanilla bean. Split it with a pairing knife and scrape the seeds out. Place the seeds and the pod into a pot with milk to steep over medium heat.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar. I whisk until the mixture turns to a pale yellow.

By now, your milk and vanilla should be warm enough.

Slowly pour a quarter of the warm milk into the eggs while whisking constantly.

Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan. Whisk constantly and cook until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Pour the mixture into a sieve placed over a bowl. Strain out the solids.

Add the butter to the strained cream and stir until it melts.

Place plastic wrap over the pastry cream. (Make sure it's touching the cream so a skin won't form.) Refrigerate for at least two hours.

Let's make the tart dough now. Get all of your dry ingredients into the food processor. Please, please, please, weigh your flour.

Take the dry ingredients for a spin. Add the butter.

Process lightly and add the egg and heavy cream.

Bring the dough together in a ball. Flatten into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for two hours

Here's the challenging part for me, rolling the dough. Sprinkle well with flour and grab a French rolling pin.

Yeah. Lesson learned: don't roll dough in a hot house!

I quickly wised up an placed a sheet pan in the refrigerator. I rolled the re-chilled dough on it. I used a fluted cutter to make rounds for my muffin pan.

Sorry. No more work-in-progress pics. My kitchen was still hot and I had to move quickly. I placed the rounds in a standard muffin pan I used a tart tamper to shape them. Then I docked them with a fork. Here's the finished product.

Tools of the trade:

• Totally Bamboo Maui Cutting Board
• Shun Pairing Knife
• French Whisk
• All-Clad 2-Quart Saucepan
• All-Clad Strainer
• KitchenAid Food Processor
• French Rolling Pin
• Wilton Muffin Pan
• Tart Tamper

So Pretty

Yes. More cupcakes. What's really surprising is that I lost weight this week, even with these and pound cake. Anyhoo. These were for a coworker's birthday.

I am an official cupcake convert. I love them for portion control and decorating ease. I've taken the Wilton cake decorating classes (with some degree of success); I just am not the type of person to sculpt something with fondant. I prefer the simple elegance of cupcakes. Many of the more popular bakeries have a standard way of applying the icing, not matter the cupcake variety. Perhaps the most famous is Sprinkles, in LA. I like that standardization.

Anyway, I'm a swirl kinda girl, although I'm still trying to get mine to look like these from Blue Cupcake. In hindsight, think it's a large rosette. Mine are like ice cream cone swirls.

So, I decided to make a cupcake version of the strawberry cream cake by Cook's Illustrated. From previous miserable experiences, I knew better than to mess with an egg-foam cake. I turned to the All Occasion Downy Butter Cake by baker extraordinaire Rose Levy Beranbaum. You know I've had a jones for sweet potato and caramel brought together as a dessert, so I decided to go for that too.

Before we get started, let me just say how thankful I was for two KitchenAid stand mixer bowls. I'm thinking about purchasing a second paddle and whisk too. I didn't take any cake-in-progress pics for the cupcake part of the strawberry cream cake, but you know the drill, don't you? While your cupcakes bake, move on to the strawberries.

Quarter them and toss with sugar. Let them sit for an hour. Stir periodically. You should end up with this:

Drain and reserve the liquid. Give the berries a good mash. CI suggests a food processor. I didn't want to dirty another appliance. Pour the strawberry juices into a small saucepan. Add some Kirsch and reduce until it becomes a syrup. Add this to the mashed berries.

Now grab some strawberries and slice them thin. Place these on the outer edges of the cupcake like a border. Spoon a little bit of the mashed berry mixture into the center.

Now let's move to the topping. Whip room temperature cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Don't try to cheat and use cold cream cheese. You will have lumps. And lumps aren't cute are they? Nope. Add cold heavy cream and vanilla. Whip until fluffy.

No fancy piping needed for decoration. In this case, the unfussy dollop of the cream really underscored the real strawberries, real cream cheese and real whipped cream. Natural is good.

Add a strawberry slice to the center and you're done!

Now let's get to the sweet potato caramel. These would have been perfect if there were one less stick of butter in the icing. That's just my preference. Everybody else loved them. Let's keep it moving. The base recipe is CI's Yellow Cupcakes. I took leap of faith and tried to strike a balance between the sour cream and mashed sweet potato.

Roast your sweet potato. I'll take roasting over boiling any day. I think some of the flavor boils right out into the water.

Mash while hot or you will have strings. Strings are not a good thing.

Sorry, no pics of me making the cake. I was going for speed. So pretend I listed all of the steps and took pics. Here's what you end up with: orange-colored goodness.

Now for the frosting -- caramel Italian meringue buttercream. Very ambitious. Especially first thing in the morning. I got up to make it and the cream topping at midnight. I realized that I was in no shape to do anything that required precision, so I went back to bed until 4. That didn't help much because I burned the first batch of caramel!

What's so cool about this icing is that it's like a song with four movements: crème anglaise,

caramel (yes this eventually turned into caramel),

meringue,

and butter (and lots of it).

Here's the result. Beranbaum's recipe called for four sticks of butter. I found that while the icing was unbelievably silky and light, I tasted more butter than caramel. I'm going to try it with three sticks next time.

Grab a piping bag and tip and have at it.

Now my ultimate flavor combo is sweet potato, caramel and pecan. I chopped a few nuts for the folks to sprinkle on their own. I didn't want hurt anyone with severe nut allergies. Um, yeah. I had to try one. 'Twas great!

All packed up and ready to go!

Tools of the trade:

• KitchenAid Stand Mixer
• All-Clad 1-Qt Saucepan
• Shun Santoku
• Totally Bamboo Butcher Block
• Wilton Disposable Decorating Bag
• Wilton 4B Tip