Tuesdays with Dorie: Perfect Party Cake

You know, I'm not the most obedient Tuesdays with Dorie baker. Sometimes I take liberties with an ingredient (or two, or three...) and I don't always stay true to the recipes. But I like to think I have my priorities in order, and I follow the instructions when they're absolutely necessary.

So when Dorie ordered us to have a party to go with this Perfect Party Cake, by golly, I had a party.

Okay, so she may not have demanded the party, so much as suggested that this is a good party cake. And I may not have had a party so much as a mini partylet. But still. An excuse to hang out with friends and eat lemon-strawberry cake? A fine recipe indeed!
You know what was not fine about this recipe? The combination of soft buttercream, slippery jam, and sweltering midday heat. I don't usually have issues with layer cakes, but this one gave me fits--it kept shifting and sprouting jam leaks from the sides. I went from having a tidy cake to a leaning tower of Pisa to a Sissy-Spacek-in-Carrie-when-she's-covered-in-blood monstrosity in about two minutes. Which wouldn't have been the end of the world, except I had the partylet planned for that evening, and kind of needed a party cake to go with it.

After much chilling, straightening, spackling with buttercream, and voodoo, I had an approximation of a straight layer cake...as long as no one looked at it wrong or breathed near it. And of course, once it was cut into, it started its slow slide into entropy once more. But at least it (moderately) held its shape until then.

As for the cake itself, I thought it was good. I liked how well it came together, and it was very easy to cut and layer. The buttercream had too much butter for my taste, and not enough sugar or lemon flavor. My biggest problem was the (cheap, supermarket brand) jam. It was way too sweet and didn't have enough strawberry flavor, and as I mentioned above, it was too loose and didn't work well as a filling. I topped the cake with lemon curd and fresh strawberries, which helped add some flavor and some tartness, but in the end it was just a little too sweet for me, without enough fresh berry taste.

I think the basic cake recipe is good, and I would make it again, but I would either add fresh berries and omit the jam, or make jam from scratch so that I could control the texture and sweetness. So for me, I guess I would have to say it was a not-quite-perfect party cake, but it still made for a great evening. Party on, Wayne.

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DB Bakewell Tart: In Which I Abuse British-isms

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was that most English of desserts, the Bakewell tart. Jolly good! Shortbread crust, a layer of preserves, and a frangipane (almond paste) topping, all baked up nice and brown, and Bob's your uncle.

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.
But the Barney Rubble* is, I don't really like aggressively almond desserts. You know, the ones that rely on lots of almond extract, like those almond danishes, or anything with lots of marzipan, or (sigh) this tart. And I kind of knew that going in, but I hope that through the magic of the daring bakers, my tastebuds would be transformed and I would enjoy it. Alas, the whole thing was just too almondy and fakey and, I don't know, chewy and cakey in a weird and dodgy way.
I made a custard sauce to go with the tart, because when I lived in England, it seemed like I couldn't get a dessert without custard, try as I might. Apple pie? Mandatory custard on the side. Chocolate mousse? Not complete without custard. Want a jam doughnut? Not without custard, you don't! Cup of custard? How's about a nice dollop of custard on top. Cor blimey, it was everywhere. Fortunately, vanilla custard sauce was a really nice accompaniment to this particular tart, and helped cut some of the almond flavor for me.

My absolute favorite part of this tart, though, was the homemade apricot preserves I used. The apricots were a little tart to eat on their own, which made them perfect for the jam and kept it from being too sweet. I had a little extra tart dough left over, so I made small shortbread cookies out of it, and topped them with the apricot jam. It was brilliant! So delicious.The jam was a slapdash experiment that worked perfectly, and I was chuffed to bits at how well it came out. And it couldn't be easier! This makes a little more than a cup of jam, perfect for filling this tart and nibbling on leftovers.

Apricot Jam

1 lb apricots, ripe but firm
12 oz sugar
1/4 cup honey
juice from 1/2 lemon

Pit the apricots and coarsely chop them--their skins are so thin, they do not need to be peeled. Place them in a medium saucepan over medium heat, and add the sugar, the honey, and the lemon juice. Stir until the sugar dissolves and the apricots are evenly coated.

Allow the apricots to cook and break down, stirring frequently to prevent scorching on the bottom. After a time, the mixture will start to produce an orange froth on top that bubbles vigorously. Use a spoon to skim this off the top. If you save the orange foam in a small container, it will liquify and become an amazing apricot syrup--great on french toast or pancakes!

Continue to cook the apricots until they have broken down and are at a consistency you like--for me, this was about 35-40 minutes.

*Speaking of Cockney rhyming slang, did you know "raspberry tart" is rhyming slang for "fart"? Think about THAT the next time you're blogging about a nice fresh berry tart.
...And many apologies for the wanton abuse of the English language, next post will be back to our regularly scheduled American slang.

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TWD: Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise

In honor of this week's TWD recipe, a coconut-roasted pineapple dacquoise, I have composed an original song. Sing with me now:

If you like pina colada,
and making egg white meringue
and placing chunks of pineapple
under an open flame,
Even if fancy french dessert names
tend to stick in your craw
You will like this week's pick of
Coconut-Pineapple Dacquoise!*

*recipe name shortened because the lines already had enough trouble scanning as is, thank you

Yes, folks, this week's dessert made me want to sing. It's hot, it's officially summertime, and what better way to celebrate than with a fruity tropical dessert? Never mind the 3+ hours of baking time to cook the dacquaoise layers, the oven temp is so low it's *practically* like it's not even on! (Riiiiight.) Seriously, though, all that baking in the heat was worth it because this was delicious!

A number of people on the TWD blog commented that the white chocolate ganache either failed for them, or was really too sweet for the rest of the dessert. I took their advice and skipped the ganache and filled my coconut dacquoise layers with a simple whipped cream instead. It was the perfect touch, but I definitely went too heavy on the cream--look at how thick it is! Next time I'll hold way back so that the cream doesn't overwhelm the rest of the dessert.

The oven was taking too long to roast the pineapple and give me my nice caramelized color, so I brought out my butane torch to do the job for me. You remember Old Sparky, right? He joined my kitchen family for the creme brulee challenge, and he's been teacher's pet ever since. I have one other regret with this dessert. I was kind of hypnotized by the picture of the dessert in the book, and like a good sheep I blindly mimicked the precise rows of roasted pineapple in the layers and on top. It looks good, but it wasn't enough pineapple for me! Along with decreasing the amount of whipped cream, I would definitely increase the roasted pineapple next time.

These leftovers are what I want my next attempt to look like:
Other than that, I loved this one. Tangy, juicy fruit, rich cream, crispy coconut meringue melting together in one dish...definitely song-worthy!

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TWD: Peach-Honey Ice Cream

I'm baaaaaack! Peru was amazing. We hiked the Inca Trail up to Machu Picchu:

And visited various islands on Lake Titicaca, including these crazy floating islands made entirely of reeds:

We explored the rainforest and saw way too many enormous insects and spiders, but also lots of cool stuff, like a whole family of capybaras! Check out the little babies near the bottom. Awwww.We also visited some OG markets in the bigger cities and expanded our pansy American culinary sensibilities:


One of the best parts was stalking the local wildlife and taking photos with whatever poor animal was too slow to evade my grasp. I have tons of pics like these:

Clockwise from top left: rare Andean deer, alpaca (not llama!), tuckered out donkey, Peruvian hairless dog.

However, after several weeks of frequent travel, erratic meals, days without electricity, bathrooms without toilet seats, and non-potable tap water, we are glad to be back home. I am also excited to get back to my dessert (and dessert-blogging) routine. No offense to my Peruvian peeps, but I was decidedly underwhelmed with the desserts we tried. When plain old ice cream is consistently the best thing on the menu, something is wrong.

I guess all the ice cream tasting was in preparation for this week's TWD recipe, though. And what perfect timing: peach-honey ice cream to welcome in the official start of summer next week.

I'm not usually a huge ice cream person, but I was excited about this recipe for nostalgic reasons. Growing up, we had several peach trees in our backyard that always produced tons of peaches every summer. So my childhood is marked by canning peach slices, making sticky peach jam, luscious peach cobblers and pies, and of course, homemade peach ice cream. We had an old machine that used rock salt and ice, and I still remember the vibrant, creamy ice cream bursting with chunks of soft peaches. Well, friends, here is the sad truth: the hard little stones sold as "peaches" at my local market are poor imitators of the soft, juicy, bursting-with-flavor peaches I remember from my childhood backyard. And try as I might, my nostalgia is no match for their bland taste and texture. So while I didn't think this ice cream was bad (on the contrary, I liked the honey addition, and thought the texture was perfect) the lack of strong peach flavor was really disappointing. I may have to try this recipe again the next time I visit my folks and have access to real peaches.

But I can say that the spiced sables I made to accompany the ice cream were terrific. These were based on Dorie's basic sable recipe, and they're absolutely perfect. Love the extra hint of salt, and the sandy texture.

I would also be interested to try this with apricots or plums instead--maybe those'll prove to have a bit more flavor. Happy summer, everyone!

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Tuesdays with Dorie: Parisian Apple Tart

I'm still in Peru. Holla! By the time you read this, I will have already hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and will be in the Amazon, taunting piranhas and taming capybaras and hopefully not contracting malaria from mosquitoes the size of grapefruits. Good times!

But of course I wanted to vicariously participate in all the TWD recipes with my peeps, so the week before we left was a frantic blur of working, packing, baking, and pre-blogging. This recipe was especially awesome because I was able to rush home from work (by way of the grocery store), make the recipe (including adding extra steps), bake the tarts, and photograph them, all in the space of about an hour, before losing the natural daylight. I also had time to compose the world's worst run-on sentence!

My recipe change was to caramelize the apples before baking. I don't like it when fruit dries out during the baking process, and I thought that putting raw apples in a 400* oven for 25 minutes might not leave them as luscious as I like. So, I made a caramel of butter and sugar, and cooked my apple slices for about 10 minutes, until they were softened and a nice golden brown.

It's important not to pre-cook them too much, so they don't get mushy. I also kept the caramel that I cooked them in, and brushed on an additional layer after they came out of the oven, so they were moist and glistening:

I thought these tarts needed a little ice cream love, but I didn't have any around and time was short, so I decided to do the next best thing: creme anglaise. I made a vanilla-cinnamon anglaise to go with (and under, and on top of) the tarts. The vanilla and cinnamon flavors went perfectly with the caramelized apples and the buttery puff pastry. After rushing around to make this recipe and photograph it, I couldn't wait to give it a taste. I thought it was great! Really simple, but clean, classic flavors. I loved how fast it came together, but how it looked and tasted like a sophisticated dessert. I will definitely be keeping puff pastry in the freezer to whip these babies out in case of dessert emergencies.

Next week I'll be back to my normal life, and I look forward to baking in 'real time' and catching up with everyone's blogs.

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Tuesdays with Dorie: Cinnamon Squares

You guys, my brain is fried. There is a small pathetic puddle of gray jelly in between my ears, where my thinkbox should be. I can't even summon the mental fortitude to wax rhapsodic about the cinnamon squares we made this week:



See, I'm writing this entry a few days in advance, because we're going to Peru for a few weeks and I don't want to leave my blog sad and outdated, so I've been planning on writing and dripping the TWD posts while I'm gone. However, I have also been working, and hosting my visiting brother, and shopping for the trip, and making endless (endless!) checklists and plans and contact lists, because I am a high-strung Type A monkey who can't eat breakfast without a 5-bullet point plan of action. Long story short: I have been trying to write this entry all evening and have not been able to concentrate long enough to think of something clever to say.

Which is a shame, because this was a really nice cake. I love the combination of cinnamon and chocolate, and I thought the cinnamon swirl running through the middle was a really nice touch. The cake came together easily, and had a nice, moist crumb. I might have wanted a little ice cream on the side, but that's really not the cake's fault, now is it?

Sorry Dorie, it's a nice cake, but it's no match for Vacation Planning Brain. Cinnamon Squares: 0, Mush Brain: +1. Rematch next week!

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Daring Bakers: Strudel sans Apple

True Confessions time: before this Daring Bakers challenge, I didn't know what strudel was.
[pause for everyone to stop laughing]
I'm serious. All I knew was that it was a German (Austrian? Austro-German?) dessert, and that it was mentioned in "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music, along with "shnitzel with noodle." Come to think of it, I don't know exactly what shnitzel is either, but I think it might involve fried meat.

So I obviously had a big learning curve when it came to this month's challenge. Step one: learn what strudel is! Step two: make some.

Turns out making strudel is easy. And fun! You get to play with your food, like this:

I was seriously tempted to drape it over my face and have a little Silence of the Lambs moment, but there was no one in the house to freak out, so I let it go.

I really like apple desserts, but I just was. not. feeling. the apple strudel recipe. I don't know, maybe it was all the breadcrumbs-- yes yes I know they're for absorbing moisture, but it just seems wrong. What's next, croutons in cake? It's a slippery slope, people.
So I solicited the hungry hungry hubby for filling ideas, and he suggested a cream cheese filling, like a danish. Denmark, Germany, danish, strudel, potato, po-tah-to, right? I ended up making a chocolate cream cheese filling with toasted hazelnuts and chopped dried cherries. Looks like hell, tastes like heaven, and it all evens out in the end.
The filling had a great flavor from the tangy cream cheese, bittersweet chocolate, nuts, and sour cherries. I wasn't sure how it would bake, all rolled up burrito-style, but it turned out fine, and of course it was much improved by the standard dollop of whipped cream on top.
The dough flaked and layered really nicely, and overall I'd say my first strudel outing was a success. It wasn't my favorite thing to eat--too much filling, not enough pastry around it--but the hubs adored it and ate three pieces in a row, so I felt better about my own apathy.

I don't know if I'll be making strudel again, but at least I'll be confident during this year's Sound of Music sing-a-long (September! Hollywood Bowl! I am so there) that I know exactly what Maria's favorite things are.

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TWD: Chipster-Topped Brownies

I'm sure we were all thinking the same thing when we read the description of this week's recipe, a bar cookie that combines chocolate chip cookie dough and brownies:

"Toniiiiight is the niiiiight that two become oooone..."

Don't play coy. You were all with me on the Spice Train, right?



[And also, I'm sure you've all seen the Spice World movie, right, and currently have an awesome mental image in your head of Alan Cumming singing "3 become 1" in a parody, right? ...just me, then? Okay.]

Aaaanyhow. Brownies! Chocolate chip cookies! Two become one, indeed.

These looked pretty sexy, what with the fudgy brownie bottom and the super crispy, chocolate-studded topping. They were a little iffy in the pan (a bit cracked on top, and way past the "golden brown" stage for me) but once cut, they looked much more palatable. And also, enormous. I don't know why I physically can't cut small slices, but it's like a personal failing. Each bar must be at least 3" long. It's like my knife hand has as mind of its own.I was all ready to love these right up, because I'm a simple girl, with simple tastes, and chocolate chip cookies and plain brownies are two of my favorite things. But I think in this case, the final product was a little less than the sum of its parts. Don't get me wrong, they weren't bad, and heaven knows I ate half the pan myself, so I did enjoy them. But I guess at the end of the day, I'd rather have a really well-made cookie and a well-made brownie separately than the two baked together.
But these were a fun little experiment, and I did think the brownie layer was ooey gooey goodness. The cookie layer could have been beefed up a bit more, since all I really tasted was a crackly crust. I think the extremely long bake time was a problem--by the time the brownies were done, the cookies had been baked into oblivion.

Next time I might try baking the brownie layer a bit first, and then adding the cookie layer, so that the cookies stand a chance of retaining a bit of soft texture. And, you know, I would consider adding a touch of cinnamon or something, since they could use a little...spice. Hi-yo!

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Butterfly Cupcakes and the Tijuana Turtle Effect

So my boss Esti has a theory about miniature desserts we call the "Tijuana Turtle Effect." Observe:

One miniature butterfly cupcake is pretty cute.


Three mini butterfly cupcakes are kind of darling.
But a huge spread of dozens and dozens of mini butterfly cupcakes, arranged wing to wing? UNBEARABLY ADORABLE. This, my friends, is the Tijuana Turtle Effect.


As she explains it, it's like when you go to Tijuana and see these stalls selling hundreds of small bobble-headed turtle figurines. The sheer volume of the teensy turtles hypnotizes you into thinking they're just the cutest things you've ever seen, and pretty soon you won't be happy until you own a Tijuana turtle for yourself. Of course, you get home and it's not nearly as cute without its brethren--but that is the lesson of the Tijuana turtles. We've found this also holds true for all types of miniature desserts. No matter how cute something looks, it invariably looks twelve times cuter when surrounded by hundreds of clones. I made these butterfly cupcakes for my friend Heather's baby shower. Citrus flavors are her favorite, so I did lemon cupcakes with four different flavors of citrus curd inside. The green ones are key lime, the pink are pink grapefruit, the yellow are lemon, and the orange are (you guessed it) orange. Each is topped with vanilla buttercream and a white chocolate butterfly.
Arranged at the shower:
So the next time you're not so pleased with the appearance a dessert you've made, simply make a few dozen more and arrange them side by side. I guarantee they will look way cuter, and if you're still not pleased, you now have a ton of dessert with which to comfort yourself. Win-win!

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TWD: Mango Bread

Mango bread? Never heard of it! Apparently it's a Southern thang. After making mango bread for the first time this week, I think it's going to be a regular thing--sorry, thang--around my house from now on, because I totally dug it! Here are the main flavor components of mango bread:
Yes, the dreaded raisins strike again. Why anyone would want shriveled grape carcasses in their delicious spiced mango bread is beyond me, but never fear--I left them out and was all the happier for it.

I'm a big fan of most quick breads--banana bread and pumpkin bread are both high on my list of fast and easy desserts/snacks/breakfasts/etc. This bread was very similar in texture to banana bread, right down to the amazing crackly, sugary crisp top layer. I pretty much never eat the bottom half of these breads, but could devour the top half in one sitting. If anyone ever opens a Seinfeld-esque Top of the Muffin bakery, for reals, I would be their biggest customer.I was surprised at how subtle the mango flavor was in the final product, since there was a lot of mango added. But it seemed to blend in very nicely during the baking, and I thought the balance of ginger, lime, and mango flavors was perfect. My one quibble with the recipe would be the pan size, since I got the Mt. Vesuvious of bread eruptions in my oven from using an 8.5 x 4.5 pan. I really debated using the pan, since it seemed so small (oh hindsight, call me next time!) but decided to follow the recipe, like a sucker. Next time, my larger 9.5 pan for sure.
One last note, because I think I have some Eddie Izzard fans reading. He does one particular sketch where he's talking about making breakfast, and he sings about "freshly squeeeezed mango juuuuice!" and that phrase has been on a loop in my head every time I think about this bread, only it goes, "Freshly baaaaked mango breeeead!" And um, I don't really know how to finish this anecdote, because I guess it isn't really that funny out of context. The end.

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TWD: Tartest Lemon Tart

This week's lemon tart was a nice walk down memory lane for me. My first pastry job was at an LA bakery called Sweet Lady Jane, and while I was there I developed a lemon tart recipe pretty similar to the one we made this week. Of course, getting the perfect recipe required many many trials, so there was a period of a few weeks where I was obsessed with lemon tarts. I dreamt of lemon tarts. I poured myself a big bowl of lemon tarts and milk for breakfast in the morning. And I tasted the tart variations constantly, so I was stuffed with lemon tart for about 3 weeks straight. Possibly because of that overdose, I haven't made a baked lemon tart in years, and eating this one brought me right back to the Lemon Tart Testing days.

This time, I followed some advice I found on the TWD blog and added fresh raspberries to the tart before baking. I had been planning this step from the beginning, but I absent-mindedly poured the filling in before laying the berries on the crust, so I ended up pushing them in as an afterthought. I think this is why you see the "floaters" through the filling. Ah well. The taste more than made up for the spotty appearance.

I also followed some advice and removed the white pith before pureeing the lemons in the food processor, to take away some of the bitterness. I reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup to compensate, and I thought the resulting filling was the perfect balance of sweet and tart.

For something so easy to throw together, this tart is a knockout. Eating it brought back a lot of memories to when I was a fresh young pastry pup, and I was pleased to realize that I still love the creamy, sweet-and-tart taste of this tart as much as I did back then.

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