Let there be cake! Baking with my friend Carol and Devil's Food Cake w/ Black Pepper Buttercream

T

traca

Well-known member
My heart is full. And there is cake for breakfast.

My friend Carol spent 8 hours giving me a lesson in cakes yesterday. We talked about everything from leavening to her thoughts on greasing the pan (Don't. Parchment on the bottom of the pan is all you need.) to the big picture ideas of ratios, and what happens when you change the ratios. We geeked out on a bit of science and she lovingly prepared a notebook for me...complete with teaching notes from her favorite baking books. Amazing!

Over the course of the day, we made two cakes. A chocolate cake with buttermilk (a lesson in leavening) and a chiffon cake. And three frostings: 2 different buttercreams (for technique comparison) and a chocolate fudge frosting. She taught me how to make precision straight layers. Then we watched a couple videos on YouTube studying frosting techniques, and practiced on the cakes. (The finished cakes had an irregular mismash of roses, waves, and various other pipings.) And finally, she grabbed the blow torch and toasted one of the buttercreams for a toasted marshmallow effect.

PS. Among many other things my friend Carol has made, I was particularly impressed with the fact that she completed the entire Baking with Dorie challenge. The buttercream we ended up toasting is Dorie's recipe from the cover of the book.

We made:

- 6-layer Devils Food Cake with Black Pepper Buttercream (Linked)

- 3-layer Lemon Chiffon with Lemon Curd, Fresh Raspberries, and a Toasted Buttercream

http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/1016313/devils-food-cake-with-black-pepper-buttercream.html?action=click&contentCollection=Dining%20%26%20Wine&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article

 
Printing....this is an excellent candidate 4 the local 2015 A Taste of Chocolate Festival come Feb!

 
Wigs, this cake is so good! The pepper is the barest hint in the background. I'd guess

most folks wouldn't even know it's there. But the frostings? Amazing! And not overly sweet. And it's showy and beautiful. I'd say it's an excellent candidate!

 
Lots of people! I was handing out cake like Johnny Appleseed! Carol cut both cakes

and we each took a half. She suggested slicing the chocolate cake in individual pieces, wrapping them separately. "Then you can have cake whenever you want!" I did that. With the chiffon cake, the frosting is too delicate to do that so I've been doling it out to friends. It's really nice to be able to reach out to friends, "I have cake! Want to come over for coffee?"

Coincidentally, I also happen to be house sitting in a fabulous artist's home that looks straight out of a design magazine. She told me I could have people over. Cake + fabulous home. Winner! And after a long series of roommates, can I tell you how much I enjoy the silence again? Three precious weeks in this place. They're going to have to remove me by force. smileys/smile.gif

 
The main takeaway I remember about the chiffon cakes is to cool them in the pan

upside down. Chiffon cakes stick to the side of the pan so cooling them upside down,. they won't fall out. But she said they're like angel food cakes, which also must be cooled that way. She mentioned--that's why angel food cake pans have the tabs at the top of them, so when you flip them over to cool, they're raised up. She always pours a syrup over that type of cake and this time, she didn't. After I left, she found a cake syrup in the fridge from another project and gave it a try. The cake was much better. So for her, though the recipe didn't say it, she's inclined to use a syrup always.

 
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