I've made a lot of yummy cakes from mixes. Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme for example, finished with a can of Betty Crocker cream cheese frosting. Pretty damn good. And I've messed around with this cake recipe and that, because the write-up in the LA Times food section makes them sound so good. Last winter my friend Maryanne and I tag-teamed on a couple of sponge-cake recipes, trying to figure out which one worked best. But really, again, why do the work when someone else has done it for you? Someone like the great food scientist Shirley Corriher.
I've been hooked on Shirley since I first heard her interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air. My mom bought me her cookbook/textbook Cookwise, which teaches not only how to cook, but why. It's a fantastic tome. Then, my fried Gail started experimenting with her quickbread recipe, and said she sure wished she knew more about adjusting proportions as she changed her ingredients around. Well, bless Shirley's heart, she had just put out another cookbook all about that very topic: Bakewise. There was Gail's Christmas present (and of course one for me too).
Because she explains not only how to do something, but why, Shirley Corriher's recipes turn out yummy and reliable. She admits she has a powerful sweet tooth, and cakes are obviously nearest and dearest to her heart. There is no cake mix on earth that can come close to her Satin-Glazed Midnight Black Chocolate Cake. As much as I love chocolate, however, I have to award the blue ribbon to her Magnificent Moist Golden Cake. I baked it yesterday, and went to bed with the sweet perfume of vanilla and cream still hovering in the air.
Nonstick cooking spray with flour
4 Tbl unsalted butter, cut in 1-Tbl pieces
1 ½ cups sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup canola oil
3 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
1 ¾ cups spooned and leveled cake flour (NO SUBSTITUTE!)
1 ¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/3 cup buttermilk
½ cup heavy cream
1. Arrange a shelf in the lower third of the oven, place a baking stone on it, and preheat the oven to 350.
2. Spray a 9 x 2-inch round cake pan with nonstick cooking spray with flour and line with a parchment circle, then lightly spray the top of the parchment, too.
3. In a mix on medium speed, beat the butter to soften. Beat until it is light in color, about 3 minutes. Add the sugar and continue to beat (cream) until very light, scraping down the sides and across the bottom of the bowl at least once. While creaming, feel the bowl; if it does not feel cool, place in the freezer for 5 minutes, then continue creaming.
4. Beat in the vanilla. On medium speed, blend in the oil.
5. On the lowest speed, blend in the yolks, one at a time, mixing just to blend. Blend in the whole eggs, one at a time, mixing just to blend.
6. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the flour, baking powder, and salt for a full 30 seconds at medium speed with a hand mixer or with a fork or whisk by hand.
7. On the lowest speed, blend over half of the flour mixture into the batter. Continue on lowest speed and blend in half of the buttermilk. Continue adding the remainder of the flour until all is incorporated. Blend in the remaining buttermilk.
8. In a cold bowl with cold beaters, whip the cream until soft peaks form when the beater is lifted. Beat just a little beyond this soft-peak stage. Stir about one-quarter of the whipped cream into the batter to lighten. Then fold the rest of the whipped cream into the batter.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Drop the pan onto the counter from a height of about 4 inches to knock out bubbles. Place the cake in the oven on the stone and bake until the center springs back when touched, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean but moist, about 40 minutes. Ideally, the cake should not pull away from the sides until it has just come out of the oven. the center temperature should be about 209 degrees if you check by inserting an instant-read thermometer.
10. Place the cake in the pan on a rack to cool for about 10 minutes, then shake the pan to loosen the cake all around. spray a cooling rack with nonstick cooking spray and invert the cake onto the rack to finish cooling. Peel off the parchment. Cool completely before slicing into layers, storing, or icing.
Today, I sliced the cake into two layers and filled the middle with some homemade strawberry jam thinned with a little Grand Marnier and a nice helping of mocha frosting, made with Shirley's Basic Confectioners' Sugar Buttercream recipe. The outside is a thick layer of more of that frosting with walnuts pressed into the sides. Tom's about as Guy's Guy as a guy can get, so I didn't want to make it too frou-frou, but at the same time it's so much fun to play around with frosting tips, so I got a little flourish-y with the dark purple embellishments. I don't think he'll mind!
If you want the frosting recipe, or more details on the whys and wherefores of the cake recipe, or just want to spend some time learning really cool stuff about the science of baking, or just get your hands on a whole passel o' kick-ass recipes, you must check out Shirley's book (actually, check out both of them!); you can also catch her quite often on Alton Brown's Good Eats cooking show on the Food Network. Shirley teaches a lesson with each recipe in her book, and although I didn't take the time to include them here, she gives each amount in ounces and grams, which I often use to make sure I have the proportions perfect. They came in especially handy this time, since I used some of Gail's duck eggs to make the cake. They're larger than chicken eggs, and knowing exactly how much the yolks and whole eggs should weigh made it possible to use just the right amount. Bakers swear by duck eggs--the yolks are heavy and rich and assertive. All I know is that the cake turned out perfect.
One should not read your blog so early in the morning! Makes me want to cook all day..
ReplyDelete