bake 52: New York-Style Crumb Cake

I think I've shared my feelings about cake here before.  So my slight skepticism is understandable.  But, lets take this piece by piece...

We start by making the crumb topping.  Here we've got some sugar, brown sugar cinnamon, salt, some melted butter, and some cake flour.

Here it is all mixed.  Now, it would have been a lot prettier, like the one in the book, had I used dark brown sugar.  Alas, I didn't have any, and didn't feel like making a run for the store just for that.  But, it still tasted super.  Set that aside.

Here's the cake:  Whisk the flour, sugar, soda and salt together.

6 Tbls. of softened butter.

Beat the butter into the flour, one piece at a time.  It was supposed to resemble moist crumbs.  I don't know.  But that's what I got.

Then we add eggs and vanilla.

Lastly the buttermilk is added.

Beat until smooth and fluffy.

The batter is put in a pan, previously lined with a tin foil sling.

The crumb topping goes on top.  The book had detailed instructions on how the crumbs were supposed to be rolled, so that they'd stay moist.  Mine didn't end up very round... but I'm thinking that maybe the over-all shape isn't so important?

Here's the cake right from the oven.  I was supposed to dust the top with powdered sugar.  I forgot to.

Looks nice.  I'm wishing I had the dark brown sugar in that crumb topping.  The pictures in the book just look so great!

It was good.  I REALLY liked the crumb topping, and may or may not have ended up taking very shallow bites of cake, resulting in high crumb to cake ratio.  Don't judge.

Check out the full recipe on Jenn's blog.  Great pick!

Bake 52: Chocolate Blackout Cake

Chocolate.  Blackout.  Had to be good.  I am very picky when it comes to cake.  I don't like dry cake, and typically, that's just what cake is.  So I was really hoping for a yummy, moist, chocolate cake.  And that's what I got!

Yesterday was my Phebe's birthday.  Ten.  Wow.  Where did that go?  Luckily she wanted a chocolate cake for her birthday.  I showed her the picture in the book, and she said that would be great.  Thank goodness.  I mean, I only NEED so many desserts hanging around.

Pudding:  Whisk sugar, cornstarch, and salt together.  Slowly add half-and-half and milk.  Simmer.

Chop the chocolate.

Stir in the chocolate and cook about 1 more minute.  Remove from heat, add vanilla.

The pudding is transferred to another bowl, and plastic wrap is placed directly on the surface of the pudding.  ( This way you don't get the skin that sometimes forms on top.)

Cake:  Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.

Melt butter and cocoa in saucepan.

Whisk in coffee, buttermilk and sugars.  (The coffee is added to bring out a stronger/deeper chocolate flavor.)  I'm not a coffee drinker, so I added Pero.  Worked great!

Whisk in the eggs and vanilla, then slowly whisk in the flour mixture.

Pour, (the batter is pretty runny), into the prepared pans.  I did two small rounds, and then 6 large cupcakes.  Thought it would make such a fun little birthday cake, and I had a feeling this would be a pretty "rich" cake.  The giant cupcakes will make a couple of GREAT thank you's to some friends.  I'm thinking one to each, will be just perfect.

The cakes sat in the pans for 10 minutes, and then we turned out and allowed to cool for 2 hours before frosting.

The book had some great tips on slicing the layers in half.  Using a ruler, mark with a small sharp knife the middle of the layer.  Do this all around the cake.  Then using a long serrated knife, and the marks made previously, "score" the cake all the way around.  Then carefully slice through the layer, turning and cutting through a little at a time.  Worked like a charm.  Although, I was wondering if the marks made with the little knife would be easier to see on a lighter colored cake?

Both layers are sliced in half, so you end-up with 4 layers.

Place one on your cake place, with parchment strips laying under on all sides to catch crumbs.  It's all about the presentation!

Then start layering.  Cake, pudding, cake, pudding, cake and then frost the whole thing with pudding.  The last layer (number 4), is crumbled and then pressed along the sides and top of the cake.

Now here's where it went south... when I took my pudding out of the fridge, it was so stiff.  I just knew that it would never spread, and it would rip my cake to shreds.  (This cake was so moist and soft, I just knew there was no hope.)  So, I decided to add a little milk to thin it out... just a bit.  I'm thinking I thinned it a bit too much.  You can tell from the pictures that it was a little too thin.  Dang.  Maybe I should have left it, and given it a try?  I'll never know.

So there's the finished product.  The picture in the book was amazing.  The pudding really looked like frosting (so maybe my pudding was right at first, and I shouldn't have messed with it?).  And, I couldn't see any holes between the cake crumbs, showing through to the pudding - like you can with mine. 

But, it tasted great.

I had a little bit of whipped cream on the side of mine, but most of the kids had a small scoop of chocolate ice cream.  Nothing goes better with chocolate than chocolate.

And Phebe?  Well, she loved it.  She didn't mention the holes between the cake crumbs, or the slightly sliding pudding.  I think she had a great day.  Happy 10th, Sunshine!

For the full recipe, check out Courtney's blog.

Bake 52: Tres Leches Cake

I have had this cake once in my life.  At a restaurant.  I actually wasn't that impressed with it.  Couldn't figure out what all the hipe was about.  So, I was a little unsure about this one.  Curious really.  Curious to see how this would turn out.  Curious to see what I'd think about this cake.

The cookbook explained that for the best flavor, the cake needed evaporated milk, cream and dulce de leche (a caramel made by boiling an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk for an hour.)  But to cut bake on time, you could microwave the sweetened condensed milk in the microwave until slightly darkened and thickened... about 15 minutes.

Slight mishap occurred here.  It explains the need for stirring occasionally.  Guess my occasionally wasn't occasional enough.  Even melted the plastic wrap.  Thankfully I had decided to half the recipe, so I had the other half of the sweetened condensed milk, just longingly waiting to be used for something.

Here's what it looked like as it cooked in the microwave.

 Stir it and then place it back in the microwave.  Keep doing this until it's slightly darkened and thickened.

I'm not sure if I allowed my "dulce de leche" to get too dark or what, but it was a little hard to get it to mix in with the other milks.  Eventually it did.  Set aside.

Dry ingredients... flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon.

Heat the milk, butter and vanilla, until butter is melted.

Here are the beaten eggs, with the sugar being added, slowly.  Then the continue to be whipped until they're thick and voluminous, 4-8 minutes.

Add the melted butter mixture, and then the flour mixture.

The batter goes into a greased and floured pan.  Bang the pan on the counter a few times to release some of those air bubbles.

Once the cake is cooked, poke holes all over the top with a skewer.

Pour the 3-milk mixture over the top of the cake.

Let it soak in the fridge for about 3 hours.

Then we frost with a slightly sweetened whip cream.  And... it was yummy.  It was fun to make.  I love moist cakes.  I really liked the soft flavor of the cinnamon.  Not too strong, but just right.

Check out Amanda's blog for the full recipe.