Odense Recipe Mocha Almond Pound Cake

oh bugger all. I got excited when I saw this because I'm planning on making a few items for the crew during our big gardening sale on Saturday. Then I looked in the pantry...and what I ACTUALLY had was not one, but TWO cans of Solo Almond Filling.

Filling versus Paste: Queries say they are NOT interchangeable.
 
Nope. I asked for both the steamed chocolate cake and the whipped cream cake because I KNEW I would be asked to make a birthday cake for the neighbor's dinner party. I even considered making it two layers with one layer of each type.

But what did he want?? Neither chocolate nor vanilla. He wanted...Carrot cake.

My go-to for that has always been Silver Palate's version with my personal additions, but it failed twice by collapsing. So this time I went with Claire Shaffiz's carrot cake. Hand to God, I swear my version is better, but i wanted a sure bet for Birthday Boy. Everyone enjoyed it. I was just okay with it.

Still, it didn't collapse and I guess that was the important part.

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Well it certainly looks like a Professionally made cake.....Beautiful....Marilyn I am sure you are treasured for your cooking and baking....Lovely Cake....
 
So Ms. M. I would like to know about your alterations to the SP carrot cake. I swoon over that concoction but really am curious to know what you do/did to improve it. And why did one fail?
 
marg, carrot cake typically uses the method of beating the eggs with sugar until very light and expanded. THEN the oil is drizzled in slowly, so that it emulsifies with the egg proteins. Between this and the rising agents, sometimes the middle of the cake looks fine...but caves in a bit in the middle as it cools. I never had this problem before...and can not for the life of me figure out why I can't depend on the method now.

I made my recipe adaptations years ago (actually DECADES) when I was experimenting with desserts for my godchild's wedding. Rather than a cookie table, I was going to make a dessert table. But with 300 guests, I thought that would get very sloppy very quickly. So I made 4 different desserts and each person received a plate with a small piece of each dessert plus a chocolate candy in the middle. That was in addition to the big wedding cake cut later.

Since there were going to be so many pieces cut (320 of each dessert), I needed each one to cut neatly. Carrot cake is notorious for including chunky things...like shredded carrots, chunks of nuts, some people put raisins in, shredded coconut...the list goes on. I needed it to cut cleanly so these were the changes I made:

Organic carrots that were steamed and then pureed
Fresh pineapple chunks cooked in simply syrup and then pureed
Walnuts toasted and then hand-ground with a crank. This makes fluffy ground nuts without the oil being extruded (which can happen if you use a food processor)
No raisins; no coconut

Also, I made a Lindt white chocolate cream cheese icing rather than a powdered sugar icing.
 
Oh my goodness. Below this thread us a link for an almond paste recipe! Ha! Thank you, Paul. I miss you every time I open this site.

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Well, Gay. Your almond paste bread will have to wait until next week. I’m scheduled to work every day from today until after our gardening sale on Saturday.

But now I have an almond paste source! Thanks deb in Mi
 
marilynfl said:
marg, carrot cake typically uses the method of beating the eggs with sugar until very light and expanded. THEN the oil is drizzled in slowly, so that it emulsifies with the egg proteins. Between this and the rising agents, sometimes the middle of the cake looks fine...but caves in a bit in the middle as it cools. I never had this problem before...and can not for the life of me figure out why I can't depend on the method now.

I made my recipe adaptations years ago (actually DECADES) when I was experimenting with desserts for my godchild's wedding. Rather than a cookie table, I was going to make a dessert table. But with 300 guests, I thought that would get very sloppy very quickly. So I made 4 different desserts and each person received a plate with a small piece of each dessert plus a chocolate candy in the middle. That was in addition to the big wedding cake cut later.

Since there were going to be so many pieces cut (320 of each dessert), I needed each one to cut neatly. Carrot cake is notorious for including chunky things...like shredded carrots, chunks of nuts, some people put raisins in, shredded coconut...the list goes on. I needed it to cut cleanly so these were the changes I made:

Organic carrots that were steamed and then pureed
Fresh pineapple chunks cooked in simply syrup and then pureed
Walnuts toasted and then hand-ground with a crank. This makes fluffy ground nuts without the oil being extruded (which can happen if you use a food processor)
No raisins; no coconut

Also, I made a Lindt white chocolate cream cheese icing rather than a powdered sugar icing.
Click to expand...
300 !! guests. Your posts exhaust me. But I thank you for this explanation. It is prompting me to make the carrot cake again. I always use canned pineapple. I wonder if its acid makes a difference to anything (egg proteins) given that you used fresh. I get a bit squeamish about fruits and veg cut by stores.

I love coconut and am allergic to walnuts. So away I go. I have to make another one now.
 
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marg, the pineapple is no longer fresh when it goes into the cake batter. I've been using this method since the wedding back in 1999.

Rose Levy Beranbaum's Fresh Preserved Pineapple

from The Cake Bible...a brilliant resource.

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
4 cups fresh pineapple (peel, core, cut into chunks)

Bring sugar/water to boil.
Add pineapple. Bring back to boil.
Cover and cool overnight at room temp.

Drain pineapple. Save syrup for another use.
Puree pineapple in processor or food mill.
Freezes well.


Makes ~3 cups puree.

*********************
I add 3/4 C of puree to the Silver Palate recipe.
Bonus, the drained liquid is AMAZING in cocktails.

PS: Check the sweetness of the fresh pineapple first. They just keep getting sweeter and sweeter and you may not need as strong a simple syrup.
 
I’ve never found a recipe as good as this frozen one from the 1970s. and I’ve tried many recipes.Rip Oregon Farms carrot cake. Nothing is your equal.


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the taste of the carrots makes the difference. Even organic ones now have almost no taste. I feel certain carrots tasted much better back in 1970-1990...a period I think fondly of as the last visual sighting of my waist.
 
marilynfl said:
marg, carrot cake typically uses the method of beating the eggs with sugar until very light and expanded. THEN the oil is drizzled in slowly, so that it emulsifies with the egg proteins. Between this and the rising agents, sometimes the middle of the cake looks fine...but caves in a bit in the middle as it cools. I never had this problem before...and can not for the life of me figure out why I can't depend on the method now.

I made my recipe adaptations years ago (actually DECADES) when I was experimenting with desserts for my godchild's wedding. Rather than a cookie table, I was going to make a dessert table. But with 300 guests, I thought that would get very sloppy very quickly. So I made 4 different desserts and each person received a plate with a small piece of each dessert plus a chocolate candy in the middle. That was in addition to the big wedding cake cut later.

Since there were going to be so many pieces cut (320 of each dessert), I needed each one to cut neatly. Carrot cake is notorious for including chunky things...like shredded carrots, chunks of nuts, some people put raisins in, shredded coconut...the list goes on. I needed it to cut cleanly so these were the changes I made:

Organic carrots that were steamed and then pureed
Fresh pineapple chunks cooked in simply syrup and then pureed
Walnuts toasted and then hand-ground with a crank. This makes fluffy ground nuts without the oil being extruded (which can happen if you use a food processor)
No raisins; no coconut

Also, I made a Lindt white chocolate cream cheese icing rather than a powdered sugar icing.
Click to expand...
My favorite is Dorie Greenspan's carrot cake recipe. She beats the sugar with the oil first, instead of the oil drizzling method you describe above. I also use Rose B's white chocolate cream cheese frosting for the icing. Glad your neighbor enjoyed it. Sometimes we're too hard on ourselves!
 
I copied the Mocha Almond Pound Cake recipe. I had to disable my antivirus software to access the Odense website. It didn't like something in the coding.


Mocha Almond Pound Cake

Time
20 minutes or less to assemble
45 minutes to bake
Total Time: About an hour

Yield
1 10 inch bundt cake
or 2 – 8 x 4 inch loaves,
or 4 mini loaves.


Ingredients
1/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 cup hot coffee or espresso
1/4 cup milk
1-7 oz box Odense Almond Paste (grated using large hole side of a box grater)
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 sticks butter, room temperature

Directions
Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour the bundt pan or loaf pans.

Whisk cocoa powder into hot coffee until dissolved. Stir in milk and set aside to cool.

With an electric mixer, beat together Almond Paste (grated using large hole side of a box grater), sugar, and butter until light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each egg.

Add vanilla extract and beat until just blended.

In a separate bowl sift flour together with baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.

Beating on low speed, alternately add flour and cooled coffee mixture into the creamed ingredients until all mixed together. Increase speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes more.

Fill the pan(s) with batter.

If using a bundt pan, bake for 35 - 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 1"" from edge of pan comes out clean.
 
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