White Chocolate Cake - Jenn

I volunteer at a charity shop and we found out that there is a rash of birthdays this week (including mine) so we decided to have a party!  I said I'd bring the cake, this is my go-to cake when I have to make one big enough to feed a horde.  Making the batter so easy that I do it by hand which means no washing up the stand mixer equipment, there's no creaming or folding so it's stress free and it's also really quick to mix up.  Since it's a white cake people aren't expecting the level of richness that all that creamy white chocolate provides.  While white chocolate doesn't have much flavour on its own it does impart something to the cake so everyone always asks what is responsible for the flavour, they know there's something special in it but they can't quite pinpoint it on their own, which means as the baker you get to brag about your creation.

It's based on a recipe from one of my favourite dessert TV chefs James Martin.  He's actually a full repertoire chef who has earned Michelin stars and all sorts of other accolades but I'm not very fond of his cooking on TV, I'm just a huge fan of his desserts.  He is a man who loves his desserts, you can tell most chefs on TV don't actually like desserts, but James does, a lot.  You can tell he loves them when you start looking at his cake recipes, this cake recommends serving 10 people at a whopping 770 kcals and 50g fat per slice!  There's no "light and refreshing end to your meal" with James Martin.  I've never managed to slice this cake into less than 18 servings and I've reduced the amount of butter and sugar and it's still a beast of a cake that deceptively cuts into narrow slices that are still huge when you lift them onto plates.  When I start cutting down on things like fat and sugar in a recipe and serving smaller portions than recommended you can rest assured that the original was decadent beyond all manageable capacities.


White Chocolate Cake

Pre-heat the oven to 160^C (140^C for a fan oven)

In a double boiler over simmering water put

170 grams unsalted butter
140 grams white chocolate broken into pieces
250 ml milk (you can use low fat or skim milk - look at the first two ingredients, it's not losing richness)
1 tsp vanilla
leave it until everything melts - no stirring, you'll mess up the chocolate

While you're waiting for the melting, grease and flour two 8 inch (20cm) round layer cake tins and wrap with cake strips (I'll explain later).

In your mixing bowl, measure out

250 grams self raising flour
1/4 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) for extra oomph against all the fat
250 grams sugar
pinch of salt
whisk them up so they're evenly mixed

Once the liquid ingredients are melted take them off the heat and let them cool a little bit, then give it a whisk so that it's all smooth.  Then mix in

2 eggs lightly beaten

Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry and whisk until smooth.

Then pour half the batter into each pan and pop in the oven.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.  I switch  the pans about 2/3 of the way through the cooking time to bake them more evenly.  Leave to cool before icing.

I frost the cake with cream cheese icing because it's lighter than butter-cream icing and the slight tang of the cream cheese cuts against the richness of the cake, I decorate with fruit for the same reason.

Cake Strips
I used to have problems with this cake rising too much as it bakes and getting some crazy mountain action going on in the middle of the cake (think pyramid on a round base, really yes).  At first I thought I could get away with not adding that extra bit of baking soda but it came out unpleasantly heavy in texture, so the batter needs that extra oomph.  But I  wasn't going to cut 40% of the cake away to get a flat top on the layers, if you spend this much on chocolate for the cake you're serving the whole thing, so I did a bit of research into getting cakes to rise evenly and found this old trick that was probably used before oven temperatures could be regulated more accurately.  If you wrap the pan in a wet strip of old terry towel and secure with a safety pin it'll keep the outside of the pan a little bit cooler at the start of the baking time so the sides don't set too early in the bake.  The first time I tried it I sat in front of the oven watching the cakes the whole time completely terrified that they'd catch fire, they didn't, and they worked a treat, the cakes came out much more level.  You can buy cake strips made from high-tech insulating fibres that you don't have to dampen (they're all fancy with velcro to fit them round your pans) but if you have an old towel that you're going to throw away and some safety pins and a pair of scissors you can experiment for free!

Chocolate Fans

Did you notice that the recipe calls for the funny amount of 140 grams of chocolate?  Since I had to buy it in bars I bought 200 grams, which meant I had 60 grams leftover.  I'm not the biggest fan of white chocolate for eating so I thought I'd use it for decorating the cake, I drew up a little schematic of a stylized fan and placed it under a strip of baking paper then used it as a template to pipe out some white chocolate fans - simple to do but retro-chic impressive to look at!  If you're wondering where the long strip of paper came from, when I have to cut off an edge of baking paper to fit in a pan I save it and then either use it for lining the upright edges of baking pans at another time or for little projects like this.

Icing Technique

If you've been on pinterest you'll most likely have seen this technique from Lisa at Sockerrus, check out her blog for instructions, it's in Swedish but it translates easily with google, although her pictures explain it all very clearly.  Her decorating skills are far superior to mine and I love looking at her cakes.

Cream Puffs - Grandma Ross

I don't remember much about Grandma Ross' cream puffs, mainly what I remember is her serving desserts that were sandwiched together with whipped cream.  Mostly meringues with whipped cream but Mom says she also made cream puffs and I found her recipe for them.  I've made choux pastry before and, despite common opinion, it's such a doddle that I didn't know why Mom never picked up the recipe, especially if she was trying to impress company because choux pastry always looks impressive.  Cream puffs are especially impressive because they're nice and big.

A recent conversation with Mom revealed that she was just stymied by the recipe instructions her mother left and for some reason they were always slimy inside even though she thought they were fully cooked.  Well, I can understand her difficulties, especially in the pre-internet world, these are the instructions from Grandma's recipe, "When water & butter are boiling add flour & salt.  Remove from heat.  Add eggs & beat one in at a time." - that was it, nothing else, so no wonder, huh?  If it wasn't for the internet I wouldn't know what to do with the recipe either, so thank-you technology.

 

Cream Puffs

Pre-heat the oven to 400^F (205^C)
Heat in a pot until boiling:
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup butter

While waiting for the water to boil, sift together:
1/2 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt
The moment the water and butter are boiling, turn the heat off, move your pot to a cool burner.  Dump all the flour into the water in one go and start stirring furiously.  I use an electric hand mixer but don't if your pot has a non-stick coating, mine are stainless so I'm good.

Once the dough comes away from the side start adding one at a time
2 eggs
It'll look like scary scrambled eggs for a while but keep mixing until the dough is smooth, shiny, and drops off the beaters (or spoon) easily.

Grease your baking sheet then splash some cold water on them and give them a shake so that you only have small drops of water clinging to the sheet.  This is a trick I found on the internet, because it's the steam that causes the choux pastry to puff up, if you have slightly damp baking sheets it creates extra steam for extra puff.  I'm not sure if dampening the tray makes much difference, I've always had my choux pastry puff up big and I only found the water trick recently, you still have to grease the sheet though, even if it's non-stick.

Spoon big tablespoon sized dollops of the dough onto the sheets leaving enough space for the cream puffs to expand to double their size without touching each other.

Bake  for 40 mins.

When you take them out of the oven, scoop them up off the baking tray immediately and punch a small hole in the bottom then put them on a wire rack to cool.  The internal structure of the choux pastry will remind you of strands of cobwebs like you see as special effects in old haunted house movies.  If you don't make a hole the steam has no where to escape, it'll stay inside, condense, and turn the cobweb strands slimy.  You could possibly try rescue your cream puffs by scraping the insides out with a spoon after you cut them open but you won't have any body left to it and the steam might also have gotten into the shell of the cream puff and there's no rescue for that.  Punch a hole in it, I used the handle of a spoon.

Once they're cooled, they'll keep for a few days if you don't fill them, but where's the fun in that?  Cream puffs can be cut open and filled with whipped cream or creme patisserie.  If you make profiteroles, the cream puff's miniature-cousin, they should be filled by piping the filling in through the hole you made to vent the steam.  To make the dessert extra indulgent you can also top them with sauce or chocolate shavings.

 

Gram LuVerne and Allana's Lemon Curd Caper

*Image note below

Intro by The Scone Apprentice:

My sister Allana went to university on Vancouver Island, where Gram LuVerne and Grandpa Bill Pierce lived in their retirement years. Allana was near enough to visit them on weekends and it was during all these visits that Gram and Allana forged a bond that is more than just Grandmother and Granddaughter, they became good friends. I don't think it was just geographical proximity that created this friendship; those two are sometimes thick as thieves. So when I heard about their most recent kitchen escapade I thought I'd hand the reins of the blog over to Allana to archive one of these events.

The Lemon Curd Caper:

I’m not known to be a very good baker or cook. I eat whatever I make - good or bad. Despite being complacent with my own cooking, I do recognize good cooking and baking when I taste it and my Gram LuVerne is an excellent baker and cook. During all my visits to see her and Grandpa Pierce, it was 100% goodness at every meal.

After Grandpa passed on, Gram had to change her cooking to suit one person so whenever I went to visit, Gram wanted try something else. About 7 years ago, I arrived at Gram's to find that she had bought seaweed wraps and Japanese sushi rice because she wanted to try sushi. To this day, we still laugh about our attempt to make sushi at home. Using the internet as our guide, we looked up how to roll sushi, make tempura, and deal with seaweed wraps. I’ve eaten tonnes of sushi in restaurants, while Gram had never tried it before. Despite my experience eating sushi, I was of no use when it came to making it. Gram had to assume the responsibilities of rolling the sushi and she did a good job of it too! I did what I do best – I ate it. And it was good.

But this is a baking blog, not a cooking blog. So let’s get back to baking.

I don’t really recall too many baking memories with Gram LuVerne. I remember eating lots of her baking and hearing the tales of her legendary apple pie (Dad). The Scone Apprentice talked about the money birthday cakes, which was a specialty that only she made. Yummy ginger snaps, bran muffins, and oatmeal cookies. I recall homemade canned peaches and cherries with ice cream. Grandpa Pierce showed us how to pack cherry pits inside the top of our lip like a chipmunk so we didn’t have to eat a cherry, spit out the seed, repeat. By packing the seeds in the top lip, you can spit them all out into your spoon at the same time. It’s more efficient. And fun.

Back to the baking.

A short time ago, Gram received an email forward that extolled the virtues of the lemon - from its nutritional benefits to antibacterial properties. According to the forward, the whole lemon has many nutrients, but most people only use the juice, pulp and zest while throwing away the pith, which apparently has many nutrients and we are missing out.

So, armed with a challenge, Gram took out her lemon curd recipe and reconfigured it to suit the entire lemon - juice, pulp, zest and pith. I offered to take a few pictures to document the event and also take some notes for TSA. I hadn't considered that I might be called upon to write for The Scone Apprentice. I am honoured and frightened at the same time because I know my storytelling is not up to her standard; nor are my run-on sentences. (tee-hee)**Scone Apprentice has no issues with her run-on sentences, she considers them a "writing style" and believes her audience finds them endearing.**

Before I launch into the baking lesson, I feel it’s important to impart Gram’s philosophy on becoming a master baker. According to Gram, "if you want to become a master baker, you need to have your hands in the dough" (December 23, 2012).In other words, you need to practice. That is the only way you will become good at it and truly learn the secrets that we playfully accuse Mom, Gram, Granny Ross, and Margaret from keeping from us. So, there it is. The words of wisdom from the master herself.

Today's Recipe:
1/4 c butter
1 c sugar
4 - 5 eggs beaten. Add slowly. (4 eggs if you want a thin curd, 5 for a thicker lemon curd)
Add lemon - 3/4 c (approximately 1/2 a whole grated/finely chopped frozen lemon)

Cook - in a double boiler stirring frequently or microwave for a few minutes, stirring between minutes in the microwave until it reaches the desired thickness.  - The Scone Apprentice wants to interject here, I use an electric hand held mixer because it's easier and I'm lazy.  I'm very impressed with Gram's hand whisking!

Now, The Scone Apprentice has already written extensively on lemon curd in her post about Lemon Tarts by Gram. This post is just some of Gram's finer tips of making lemon curd since I had the opportunity to observe the master baker in action.

Issues with eggs:

From Gram, I learned that if you don't thoroughly mix the eggs whites into the curd properly, you could end up with cooked egg whites (spots of white) throughout the curds because egg whites cook faster than other ingredients in the recipe. To avoid ending up with white bits, it's important to mix the ingredients like a cake. First, cream the butter and sugar together. Blend the eggs thoroughly and slowly add them to the butter and sugar. Stirring a lot in between additions. Then, add your lemon puree slowly, stirring it constantly. If your bowl wiggles all over the countertop while simultaneously pouring and hand stirring, place a damp wash cloth under the bowl and it will not skitter about the countertop.

When you first crack open an egg, there are often two little white ghosts beside the egg yolk - one on either side. They are called the chalaza and are the part of the egg that keeps the yolk suspended in the centre of the egg. If you do not remove the chalaza before cooking, they will appear as a little white spot in your recipe. Gram takes a few minutes to remove the chalaza before beating the eggs. I've never done that before and never considered doing that before today. But, I've never made a recipe where that would be such a noticeable bit.  - The Scone Apprentice horning in again, if I think it'll matter to the results sometimes I pick the chalaza out in advance other times I sieve the whisked egg mixture to catch them later, depends on what is easier.

Perfectionism - Strive For It:

Gram is exceptionally organized before beginning baking. When I arrived that morning, she told me that she assembled the utensils and some ingredients the night before and had just set out the last of the ingredients. The jars were already washed and sterilized, just needing to be filled with lemon curd in about 20 min. It's also important to note that Gram keeps her recipe card out and refers to it while baking despite having made lemon curd for decades. I'm sure she knows the recipe by heart, but it shows that you never take for granted that you know everything. 

Gram has two lemon curd recipes.

One from Reader's Digest c.1995 and one from her sister Lillian from 1960.

She uses the Reader's Digest one more often as she says it's less rich.

Gram might be 92 years old, but her eyes and mind are still sharp as she demonstrates her dedication to perfection and pride in her work in her baking. For example, the lemon puree had a couple seed bits in it that the blender missed and Gram spotted them immediately and stopped production to make sure they were removed. I would like to think I would be that dedicated, but I tend to think I'd tell myself to enjoy the extra fiber. Gram's a great example to all of us that you're never too old to take pride in your work and do a good job. So I pledge, from now on, to fish out those bits, should they fall into my recipes, in order to make a good product. 

Microwaves: 

The main recipe calls for using a double boiler, but Gram has moved into the modern world and has adapted her recipe for use with a microwave. When cooking with the microwave, you have to periodically check the lemon curd as it will boil up quite quickly. It's difficult to watch the goings-on with the curd in the microwave due to the fashionable screens on the windows. This is one of Gram’s pet peeves - no one makes a clear window for microwaves or stoves any longer. When the curd starts to boil, take the dish out and give it a stir. You only need to do this about 3 times and then it will be cooked and thick enough. 

Official Scientific Results:

5 eggs definitely makes a very thick and stiff lemon curd.

The lemon curd needs to be refrigerated or frozen after you make it. It keeps well, particularly in the freezer so that you can use it when needed.

Gram, Dad and I enjoyed some lemon curd on crackers for our taste test soon after it was made. Verdict: using the entire lemon is not very tasty. The pith adds bitterness to the curd so it’s probably best to just use the lemon juice and zest when making this recipe.... but that didn't stop me from eating my little jar of lemon curd immediately when I returned to Vancouver. (As I said in my intro, I eat everything I make).

* I couldn't get a good image of Gram's jar of Lemon Curd from the photo that was emailed to me to use as the header, and it was such a sweet photo that I really wanted to include it.  After many hours of arguing with my basic photo editing software with my primary graphics skills I gave up and made a jar of lemon curd myself to recreate the photo in a more usable raw image.  If you're wondering why the colour is funny (and you should be wondering) it's because I didn't have any lemons so I used limes, so it's really lime curd but it's still yellow---ish.

Nutella Thimble Cookies

It's World Nutella Day and since my niece Kayla is a nutella fiend*, but all the way over in Canada, I thought I'd long-distance-tease her with some nutella thimble cookies.

I used the same recipe as my birds nest cookies but omitted the step of dunking the dough in egg white and rolling it in coconut.  Then I filled with nutella instead of jam.


*Kayla and I both think that the ultimate spa day would involve relaxing in a giant hot-tub-sized vat of nutella.