This week’s heavenly cake selection was the Torta de las Tres Leches. Marie at the Heavenly Cake Place had already made this cake way back in May, long before Rose’s Heavenly Cakes was officially released. Hanaâ requested this cake especially for this week, to make for her husband’s birthday, so she’s the ‘guest host’ this week. I really expected to love this cake, based on everyone’s description. You’ll have to wait to the end of the post to hear my thoughts.
Category: Baking
Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cupcakes
This week’s ‘heavenly’ cake selection is the chocolate streusel coffee cake. The recipe makes a 6 cup bundt pan and two cupcakes. I looked at that, and thought “If the excess batter can be made into cupcakes, why shouldn’t I make the whole thing as cupcakes? Saves me finding a 6 cup pan.” Then I kept reading and realized Rose suggests the very same as an option. 🙂
Whipped Cream Cake
This week’s heavenly cakes bake-through choice was the whipped cream cake. Rose mentions in her introduction to the recipe that though this cake contains no butter, the fat content of the whipping cream more than makes up for the ‘lack’ of any other fat.
Meringue Mushrooms
I had a question about the meringue mushrooms I did for my version of the holiday “pine cone” cake that wasn’t a pine cone. They’re really really easy. The recipe can be scaled up if you want more mushrooms.
1 egg white
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp dutch processed cocoa (optional)
Beat the egg white until frothy, then add the cream of tartar. Beat to medium peaks, then gradually add the sugar, beating to stiff peaks. If desired, add a tablespoon or so of cocoa for colour. Pipe into a variety of round and tall shapes on parchment paper. You’re piping the stems and tops of the mushrooms separately. A variety of heights of stems works well (between 1/4 and 1 inch tall, or so). Bake in a 200 degree Fahrenheit oven, for 1 hr. Turn the oven off and leave door closed for 1 more hour. You’re trying to dry them out more than you are cooking them. Store in an airtight container once cool & crispy.
Close to when ready to serve, take a paring knife and hollow out a small crevice in the middle of the bottom of the caps. This crevice should be about the width of your stems. Pipe a bit of ganache (for me, this was easy, I had some leftover from the biscuit roulade) into the crevice, and stick the stems into it. Don’t do this too far in advance, or your meringues will absorb the moisture from the ganache and start to get soggy. Dust the tops with some cocoa and/or icing sugar for ‘dirt’ & ‘snow’.
Holiday Log Cake
This week’s cake for the heavenly cake bakers was the Holiday Pinecone Cake. I decided early on that I was going to make a holiday log, rather than a pine cone, because I wanted to make meringue mushrooms to go with it. This post is late, and rushed, because I’m at my parents’ for the holidays. Between computer problems yesterday and running around helping Mom out with various things today, I haven’t had time to write this up. Sorry for the lack of details or clever commentary (not that you normally find clever commentary here, anyway)!
English Gingerbread Cake
I’m not going to bother with pictures today, because the ones I took weren’t very interesting. Plus, I’m grabbing a few moments at lunch at work to type this up and I don’t have my pictures available here. This week’s “Heavenly Cake” was English Gingerbread.
This cake definitely belongs on the quick & easy list. I made it while my husband was mashing potatoes and letting the meatloaf rest before serving on Saturday night. It was facilitated by having everything measured out beforehand, but it was still pretty darn quick. Definitely easy.
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Classic Carrot Cake
…with Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting. Doesn’t that sound heavenly?
I’m sitting here finishing off the last lonely piece that my co-workers left behind, listening to the train running by just across the street. This recipe was really easy. The hardest part was probably washing the food processor twice. Once after grating the carrots, and again after making the frosting.
Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake
I think I’m going to let the pictures do the talking for this post. I’m not feeling terribly talkative tonight.
Woody’s Lemon Luxury Layer Cake
…say that 3 times fast.
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Lemon Luxury Buttercream – White chocolate custard
Just a quick note, in case it helps anyone. My white chocolate custard completely seized up on me. I’m talking a big lump of white chocolate on the bottom of the bowl with a soupy mess of yellow butter (probably mixed with cocoa butter) on the top. The more I tried to whisk it back together, the worse it got. I even tried with an electric hand mixer. Nothing was going to bring that back together. I remembered something I’d seen Alton Brown say: a little bit of water causes chocolate to seize, but more water will smooth it back out again. I thought, “Hm. Eggs contain water, and they’re also an emulsifier. I’m supposed to be adding the eggs to this anyway. Worst that can happen is I waste the eggs, because the butter and white chocolate are already a total loss.” So, I slowly beat the eggs into my awful, disgusting mess with the electric hand mixer. Tada! Smooth and creamy!
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