Cake thirty-one The Duchess Cake

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It sometimes happens I have an idea in mind which I think it’s perfect but then when it comes to the actual realization .. it turns out totally different... Do I get mad about it? Of course I do.... but I try to keep calm and consider it like a challenge between the cake and me: I must win anyhow! No good reason to give in.. anyway, a good chance to use my creativity and make something even better.The Duchess Cake is an example, in fact. It was my elder son’s graduation family dinner and I wanted to make a splendid cake for the occasion.

 I let him choose the cake, and I liked it too, quite a solemn cake, suitable for the event. But, while making it, I got more and more disappointed: the cake was nearly ready and looked like a white omelette tier cake! I felt desperate at first, but after a few minutes I had a new plan..  I baked some eclairs, and used all the former cake components to make a totally new cake, an elegant and quite sumptuous cake: no doubt about the name to choose - it was a duchess cake. Why duchess? No logical explanation, simply a stream of thoughts of pictures in my mind: in a moment’s time a flashback from some fairy tale books, royal receptions with ten meter long tables full of cakes and young princesses strolling along huge ball rooms. There it was my cake, the cake for a duchess, for sure!

Here’s what you need to make: (preparation’s quite long, I must say...)

Meringue Cake

Éclairs

Pastry cream

Choco Cream 

Chocolate decorations

Step 1 - Meringue Cake

6 egg whites

200 g icing sugar

1 tbs starch

80 g icing sugar

80 g grated almonds

Preheat the oven to 110° C. Pencil a 24cm circle on four baking paper sheets. 

Beat the egg white on medium speed with an electric mixer until the mixture resembles a fluffy cloud and stands up in stiff peaks when the blades are lifted. Now add icing sugar, a spoonful at a time, continue beating for 3, 4 minutes between each addition. Continue to fold in the remaining icing sugar until the mixture looks thick and glossy. Fold in starch and grated almonds. Spoon the meringue on the 4 circles and bake them for about one hour, until they’re crisp and you can lift off the paper easily. Leave the oven door slightly open with the help of a wooden spoon. Leave to cool completely.

Step 2 - Chocolate decorations

200 g dark chocolate

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Allow the chocolate to melt so that it is smooth, shiny and glossy. Spoon some on an aluminum foil paper and make 20 small thin rectangles of different sizes.

Step 3 -Pastry cream

3 egg yolks

250 ml milk

75 g sugar

2 tbs flour

Bring milk to a boil in small saucepan. Meanwhile beat egg yolks, sugar and flour in small bowl with electric mixer until thick. Gradually beat in milk. Return mixture to saucepan and stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens. Cool to room temperature.

Step 4 - Éclairs

40 g butter

120 ml water

70 g flour

2 eggs

60 g melted dark chocolate

Combine butter with the water in small saucepan, bring to boil. Add flour, beat with a wooden spoon over heat until mixture comes away from base and side of saucepan and forms a small ball. Cool. Beat in eggs with electric mixer until mixture becomes glossy. 

Spoon mixture into piping bag. Pipe 5cm lengths of mixture 3cm apart onto prepared trays with baking paper. Bake at 220° C for 7 minutes, then reduce heat to 180° C and bake further 10 minutes or until they’re browned lightly and crisp. Carefully cut éclairs in half, removing any soft centre. Bake further 5 minutes or until they’re dried out. Cool to room temperature.

Spoon pastry cream into piping bag fitted wit 1cm plain tube. Pipe cream into éclairs halves, top with remaining halves. Spread with melted dark chocolate

Step 5 - Cream cheese frosting

300 g cream cheese

200 g icing sugar

Mix cream cheese and icing sugar in a small bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Step 6 - Assembling cake

Centre one meringue circle on serving plate. Spread with some cream cheese frosting. Repeat with second layer and some of the pastry cream. Place third layer on top and spread with cream cheese frosting. Top with remaining cake layer. Cover top and sides of cake with pastry cream. 

Decorate top and sides with éclairs, chocolate rectangles and small cream cheese dollops.

also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/11/cake-thirty-one.html

Cake thirty Choco Dream

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It’s undoubtedly a cake for chocolate lovers. Although it’s hard to believe, there are some who don’t like chocolate! I do respect their opinion and in a way I kind of envy them, in fact they don’t have to resist the temptation to eat it, they don’t have to bear negative consequences, such as spots on your face or tummy troubles, but on the other side I feel sorry as they lose a whole world of flavours and delicious treats!

It’s not a difficult cake to make but you need time and it’s better if you start baking the cakes a day ahead, so that they’re cold when you need to pile them up and cover with chocolate frosting.

Don’t let the quantity of butter, sugar and chocolate scare you, the result is superb!

I personally like it as a square cake, but any shape is fine....

Dark Chocolate Mud Cake

150 g dark chocolate

250 g butter, chopped

440 g sugar

250 ml milk

225 g flour

75 g self-raising flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Combine butter, chocolate, sugar and milk in a saucpean. Stir over heat, without boiling, until smooth. Cool 15 minutes. Add flours and eggs. Mix well. 

Line bases and sides of a deep 20cm-square cake pan with baking paper.. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake at 150° for about 50 minutes. Cool cake.

White Chocolate Mud Cake

150 g white chocolate

250 g butter, chopped

440 g sugar

250 ml milk

225 g flour

75 g self-raising flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Follow the same procedure as Dark Chocolate Mud Cake

Chocolate mixture

300 g milk chocolate, chopped coarsely

300 g dark chocolate, chopped coarsely

250 ml cream 

Combine milk chocolate and cream in a saucepan, stirring over low heat until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until mixture is of spreadable consistency. 

White chocolate mixture

300 g milk chocolate, chopped coarsely

125 ml cream

Follow the same procedure as Milk chocolate mixture

Assemblage and Decoration

White sanding sugar 

Split the two cakes in 

half.

Put one cake on serving plate, starting with a white one.

Spread with chocolate mixture. 

Repeat with second layer, a dark cake this time, and half of the white chocolate mixture.

Continue with third layer, a white cake now, and spread with chocolate mixture.
Top with remaining dark cake layer and spread with white chocolate mixture.Refrigerate until chocolate mixtures are firm. Then cover top layer and sides with remaining chocolate mixture.Decorate with white sanding sugar and refrigerate until icing is firm.

also visit:
http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/10/cake-thirty.html

Cake twenty-nine Symphony in red, black and white

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This time my task was not easy: cupcakes which had to be ready one day ahead and needed to be transported for about 200 km. and, to make things more complicated, we'd have to eat them in the university courtyard with no tables or seats available. We went on for weeks talking about the right size of the cupcakes, the right recipe, the type of icing or frosting and, of course, of decoration that would resist a three-hour drive. We also needed a tray or something similar to transport them safely to destination, something nice of course that’d suit a graduation ceremony.

After some wandering in town I found a plexiglass tray that looked perfect for this purpose, but I still didn’t know how to keep the cupcakes well separated one from the other: I was afraid they’d be all messed up and the decoration would be destroyed. Coffee beans was the answer! And it did work well! The cupcakes arrived in a perfect state and what’s more they had an unexpected aftertaste of coffee that made them special!

We chose to make two different tastes with different decorations and decided on the smaller size for the cupcakes  The colours would be red and white for one type (red is the  typical colour for graduation here) and black and white for the other type. 

Symphony in red and white

250 g butter

250 g flour

250 g sugar

3 eggs

150 g choco chips

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time (don’t forget to beat in some flour between additions) and then the flour. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour mixture into cupcake cases and bake at 180° for about 15 minutes. 

White chocolate frosting

100 g white chocolate, chopped

3 tbs milk 

175 g icing sugar 

Put the chocolate and the milk in a heatproof bowl and rest the bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Leave until the chocolate has melted, stirring frequently.

Remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the icing sugar until smooth. Use freshly made. 

Decoration

red food coloring

chocolate sprinkles

red sugar sprinkles

Divide the white chocolate frosting and put them into two bowls. Beat some red food coloring into one bowl until the desired shade is reached. Put the red frosting into a pastry bag and pipe generous swirls of frosting over the cupcakes and decorate with chocolate sprinkles. Repeat same operation with the white chocolate frosting.

Symphony in black and white

250 g butter, chopped

150 g white chocolate, chopped coarsely

225 g flour

75 g self-raising flour

440  g sugar

250 ml milk

2 eggs, beaten lightly

150 g choco chips

Combine butter, white chocolate, sugar and milk in medium saucepan. Stir over heat, without boiling, until smooth. Cool 15 minutes. Whisk flours into white chocolate mixture then whisk in eggs. Pour mixture into prepared cupcake cases and bake at 150° for about 20 minutes. 

White Chocolate frosting

see above

Dark Chocolate Frosting

100 g dark  chocolate, chopped

2 tbs milk 

50 g butter

150 g icing sugar 

Put the chocolate, the milk and the butter in a heatproof bowl, stirring frequently until the chocolate and butter have melted. 

Remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the icing sugar until smooth and shiny.

Decoration

red sugar sprinkles 

chocolate sprinkles

Put the white frosting into a pastry bag and pipe generous swirls of frosting over the cupcakes and decorate with chocolate 

sprinkles. Repeat same operation with the dark frosting.

also visit: 

http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/08/cake-twenty-nine.html

Cake twenty-eight Lilac Chic

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There’s something in the tiered cakes which attracts me a lot. It’s like a personal challenge, the kind of ‘Will I be able to make it?’, in other words a chance to test my skills. Sure, but not only! There’s also some unconscious reason which takes me back to a happy memory from my childhood: a photo of one of my first birthdays, me with my parents and a two-tiered birthday cake decorated in white with some silver pearls my mum had made for me.. 

Although decoration is very important as it’s what we see first, the choice of the cake is nonetheless relevant since it’s what we actually eat.

When making a tiered cake you should always choose a solid cake which can stand the weight of the other cakes you put on top. 

For this cake we chose three different cakes which all have, anyway, a common ingredient - chocolate. (My younger daughter loves it...)

Phase 1: Recipes

Dark Chocolate Mud Cake

250 g butter, chopped

150  g dark chocolate, chopped

440 g sugar

250 ml milk 

225g flour

75 g self-raising flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten 

2 tbs cocoa powder

150 g fresh raspberries

Put butter, chocolate, sugar and milk in medium saucepan, stir over heat without boiling, until smooth. Cool 15 minutes. Add flours, eggs and raspberries.  

Line base and sides of a 30cm-round cake pan with baking paper. Pour mixture into pan. Bake at 150° for 50 minutes. Cool cake.

White Chocolate Mud Cake

250 g butter, chopped

150  g white chocolate, chopped

440 g sugar

250 ml milk 

225g flour

75 g self-raising flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten 

2 tbs cocoa powder

150 g fresh blackberries or 150 g choco drops

Same procedure as Dark Chocolate Mud Cake.

Bake two cakes: one in a 30cm round cake pan - use blackberries; the second one in a 24cm round cake pan - use chocolate drops.

Chocolate icing

200 g chocolate, chopped

200 g icing sugar

1 egg

Melt chocolate in small saucepan over boiling water. Cool. Add egg and icing sugar. Stir until smooth.

Chocolate Butterscotch Cake

25 g cocoa powder

250 g butter

200 g brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tbs golden syrup

185 g self-raising flour

125 ml milk

Beat cocoa, butter, brown sugar, eggs, golden syrup, flour and milk with electric mixer until combined.

Line base and sides of a 18 cm-round cake pan with baking paper. Pour mixture into pan. Bake at 180° for about 1 hour. Cool cake.

Mascarpone Cream

250 g mascarpone cheese

300ml thickened cream

Mix mascarpone and cream until soft peaks form.

Caramel Icing

60g butter

100g brown sugar

60ml milk 

240g icing sugar

Heat butter, brown sugar and milk in small saucepan, stirring constantly, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Add icing sugar and stir until smooth.

Phase 2: Tiers

Here’s a sketch of the cake showing details of each tier.

1. Chocolate Butterscotch Cake

2. White Chocolate Mud Cake (with raspberries)

3. White Chocolate Mud Cake (with choco drops)

4. White Chocolate Mud Cake (with raspberries)

5. Dark Chocolate Mud Cake (with blackberries)

A. Mascarpone & Caramel Icing

B. Choco Icing

Phase 3: Decoration

purple and peach food colour

600/700 g ready-made white fondant

some corn starch

Assemble and decorate each tier separately. 

Bottom tier

Take the Dark Chocolate Mud Cake and place it onto serving plate.  Spread with chocolate icing.

Take the 30cm round White Chocolate Cake and split into two layers. Put one layer on top of cake and leave second layer aside for middle tier.

Dust a large nonstick mat lightly with corn starch and knead fondant until smooth and pliable.

Roll fondant out in the approximate shape of the cake. Roll fondant up around rolling pin and then place it onto the cake. You can cut out the centre of the circle if you don't have enough fondant.

Add some purple and peach food colour to some white fondant and knead until you have the colour you like. Roll it out and cut about 30 2cm wide circles. 

Decorate cake with some of the circles using some mascarpone cream to help them stick to the cake.

Middle tier

Cut the second 30cm round White Chocolate Cake layer the same size as the 24cm round White Chocolate Cake. 

Place one 24cm round cake on a plate, spread with chocolate icing and put second cake on top.

Colour some fondant the same shade as the spots and follow same procedure as per cake from bottom tier.

Top tier

Split Chocolate Butterscotch Cake into three layers. Put one layer on a plate, spread with some mascarpone cream and some caramel icing. Repeat with second and third layer. Cover cake with white fondant and purple spots.

Phase 4: Assembling the cake 

Once all cakes are ready assemble the cake and carefully put one tier on top of the other.

also visit:
http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/07/cake-twenty-eight.html

Cake twenty-seven alias Bread one - Multigrain Dove

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This is my favourite bread and the shape I like most: It’s a must on my Easter table, dove is in fact a symbol for this day: we do have a ‘Dove’ cake in Italy just as we have ‘Panettone’ for Christmas.

Whether you use a bread machine or not you need a few hours before your bread is ready. I don’t have a bread machine although I’ve been thinking to buy one for some years. In fact it’s quite practical and saves a lot of your time: you don’t need to knead your dough more than once which is in some cases hard work. When you make bread the old style, I mean without a bread machine, you need a whole morning considering rise and knead times - I’m speaking of yeast bread of course! Anyway I think you should try and I'm sure you'll love it! 

50 g buckwheat 

80 g pearled barley

50 g sunflower seeds

10g dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

180 ml warm milk

60 ml warm water

235g white plain flour

180g wholemeal plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons olive oil 

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon milk, extra

2 teaspoons sesame seeds, extra

Place buckwheat, pearled barley and sunflower seeds in small heatproof bowl, cover with boiling water, cover and stand 30 min. Then rinse and drain well.

In the meantime combine yeast, sugar, milk and water in small bowl, whisk until yeast is dissolved. Cover and stand in warm place about 20 min or until mixture looks frothy. 

Put flour and salt into a large bowl, add grain mixture, oil and yeast mixture. Mix to a soft dough. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead well until dough is smooth and elastic (about 10 min).

Place dough in large greased bowl, cover and stand in warm place about one hour or until dough has doubled in size. 

Turn dough onto a floured surface, knead until smooth. Divide it into 3 pieces, shape each piece into a 30cm sausage. 

Plait sausages and place dough into a greased loaf pan.

Cover, stand in warm place about 30 min or until risen.

Brush dough with combined egg yolk and extra milk. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake at 200° for about 45 min

also visit: 
http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/07/cake-twenty-seven-alias-bread-one.html

Cake twenty-six Sicilian Cassata

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It’s a cake which steals a lot of your time and patience of course. It’s not too difficult to make, anyway: you need some practice to get to the right combination of good taste and elegant decoration but it’s well worth a try! 

Consider one day to bake and assemble it, then another day in the fridge before decoration and a couple of days before eating so that all the flavours can harmoniously blend in.

Step 1 - Sponge Cake

6 eggs, separated

250 g sugar

250 g flour

Beat yolks and sugar with electric mixer until thick and foamy. Fold in flour. In the meantime beat egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gently fold a little of the beaten egg whites into the batter to lighten it and then add the rest of the whites folding just until incorporated. Do not overmix the batter or it will deflate. Pour mixture evenly into a 20cm-round tin and bake cake at 180° for about 30 min.  or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. 

Immediately turn cake onto a wire rack prepared with baking parchment to cool.  

Step 2 - Ricotta filling

1 kg fresh ricotta

250 g sugar 

100 g chocolate, chopped 

Should ricotta be too wet, place it on a colander for about 30 min. Then whip ricotta and sugar with an electric mixer until well blended and smooth. Fold in the chocolate. Refrigerate.

Step 3 - Marzipan

200 g marzipan 

green food colouring

Knead marzipan and some green food colouring until you get a vivid green and the colour is uniform.

Step 4 - Cake assembling

sponge cake

green marzipan 

some vermouth 

ricotta filling 

plastic wrap

Line a 30cm frying pan with plastic wrap. 

Roll out a 10cm wide marzipan stripe. Line the side of the pan as in photo. Cut the sponge cake into 1cm thick slices and use them to line the base and sides of the frying pan. Sprinkle some vermouth over the slices until they’re moist but not wet. Spread ricotta filling evenly over cake base. Top with remaining cake slices and sprinkle vermouth over cake. 

Refrigerate for at least one day.

Step 5 - Royal Icing

2 egg whites

375 g icing sugar

some lemon juice

Whip egg whites and sugar with an electric mixer until hard peaks form. Pour in some lemon juice.

Step 6 - Cake assembling

Cake in the frying pan

Royal icing 

Candied fruit: cherries, citron, a tangerine, or any fruit of your choice.

Turn Cassata onto serving plate. Discard plastic wrap.

 Decorate the cake to your taste. Refrigerate for 3/4 hours at least.

also visit:

http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/06/cake-twenty-six.html

Cake twenty-five Choco Lollipops

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You don’t need special ingredients for these lollipops: you need chocolate, of course, patience, some free time, your fancy and the right moulds! They’re not complicated to make but you have to proceed step by step and be extremely precise when filling the spaces if you’re using chocolate of different colours.

These chocolate lollipos are in the shape of an egg, and they’re typical of Easter but chocolate is too good to be limited to a special time of the year... so you don’t have to wait until next year to have a go.

g 100 white chocolate 

g. 200 milk chocolate

g. 300 dark chocolate

any food dye you like

lollipos sticks

1. Make sure your lollipop mould is clean and dry.

2. Melt chocolate first of all. You can use a microwave which is faster, if you like  but I prefer the double boiler as you can better control the temperature. Set up your double boiler with a small amount of water - the water should not be touching the top pan- and warm it over medium-low heat. 

Start with white chocolate. Cut it in small pieces and place them into pan,  stirring occasionally, just until the mixture is smooth, then remove the pan from the heat. White chocolate is particularly sensitive to burning, so take extra care and stir meticulously.

3. When chocolate is melted and smooth, take a spoon and dip it into the white chocolate. Place enough white chocolate in the bottom of each cavity. 

4. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes or until chocolate is set. 

5. Melt the milk chocolate following the same procedure. 

6. Place some chocolate spoonfuls into the mould and continue to add until cavities are full.

7. Position lollipop sticks in place. 

8. Refrigerate to set. 

9. Pop the lollipops out of the  moulds. Decorate to your taste. Place them in small cellophane bags with a ribbon, for example.

You can alternatively use dark, milk or white chocolate and add any food colouring too. It’s all up to you and you fancy!

 

also visit:

http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/05/cake-twenty-five.html