Club Baked: Mississippi Mud Pie (A) or, How to Salvage a Mess and Improvise

I love chocolate. So, despite the fact that my spring form pan was currently at a friends (because I had recently taken over a gluten free, dairy free cheesecake), I definitely wanted to make this cake. I thought about the possible alternatives: I had two 8" cake pans, one 9" cake pan, a deep pie pan or I could use a square or rectangular baking dish. I was leaning towards the baking dish, then the pie pan, then my husband intervened and said to just use the 9" cake pan.

I was also out of parchment. I figured I could deal with some white dust on the outside of the cake, so I buttered and floured the cake pan instead.

The freezer is full, so instead of freezing the pie crust, I just left it in the fridge for some time while I set out other ingredients to come to room temperature until I thought it felt pretty solid.

I then proceeded to make the filling. It came together easily and without issue. It looked amazing, sort of like a very light, less sweet version of French silk pie. I can get behind anything that even moderately resembles French silk.

The first problem came when I poured the batter into the cake pan. It was bound to overflow, so I fit as much in as I could without actually overflowing and hoped for the best. Once in the oven, the batter started to rise. It then started to spurt like a volcano from one of the sides. Once it started to firm up, it stopped and rose almost beautifully. Once removed from the oven, it fell (as it was supposed to) to almost fit back in the pan. But I knew that there was no chance that pudding was ever going to sit on top of this thing in any way, shape or form resembling the cookbook's photo.

While the cake cooled, I made the pudding (with goat's milk - the only substitute I made in the recipe). I learned my lesson with the Boston Cream Pie Cake, so once it started to thicken, even though with my continuous whisking I hadn't actually seen any bubbles, I pulled it off the heat and poured it into the awaiting bowl where I added the finishing touches. It really is a tasty pudding - very smooth, rich, but not too sweet.

Because I had no way to assemble and finish this cake in the way it was intended, I used the 3 hour chill time to figure out what to do. Should I build a fort around the cake to keep the pudding until it firms? Should I try and pour what I can into the well made by the sunken cake? I ended up settling on the best, and far by easiest, solution: a trifle.

This way no cake would be wasted, and it wouldn't matter if it was a bit sloppy, especially since I don't actually have a trifle dish. The only drawback being that this would be one boring, all brown trifle. I hoped the taste would make up for it, and it did.

It's a light and fluffy cake layered with rich, almost chocolate mousse type pudding in between homemade whipped cream. I took the few remaining sandwich cookies and crushed them up to use as a topping. It's really very good, not too sweet, but very rich.

I feel pretty good about myself and this cake and the progress I've made at baking. When I started baking along with this group, I was adamant about following recipes, I didn't trust my instincts, and never would I consider thinking out of the box. Even cutting a recipe in half gave me stress. I know had this little hiccup happened to me a few months ago, I would not have handled it as well. Now, as I have been doing with savory recipes for years, I'm able to go with the flow. By no means do I feel confident to go willy-nilly baking without a recipe just yet, but at least I have gotten past the point of being overwhelmed and upset when things don't turn out perfect.

Check out the other baker's outcomes here, and then head on over to Alexis' blog for the recipe! Nice pick, Alexis.

Club Baked: Caramel Apple Cake

This week, as part of Club Baked, we tackled the Caramel Apple Cake (hosted by Lulu the Baker). This is a three layer, spiced apple cake with a caramel butter cream frosting. The cake, and it's six sticks of butter, is otherwise known as "the cake that induced a heart attack". Fettuccine Alfredo has nothing on this cake.

Just pretend you didn't read that last bit as you enjoy your slice and then pawn off very small slices to unsuspecting friends and family.

It wasn't a very complicated cake to make, just a bit time consuming. I first had to hunt down a third 8" pan. Perhaps real bakers have three, but I was really thinking I was doing pretty good when I upgraded to two just a short time ago.

The morning of, although you could just as easily tackle this part the night prior, I made the caramel sauce. I was tempted to make cinnamon cajeta since I knew that recipe was foul proof, but I went ahead with the Baked caramel recipe and I am glad I did. It's much thinner than the cajeta, but I think mine turned out a bit too thin. The thinner consistency comes in handy when whipping the frosting, but as a topping, it's a mess. Once I got all the equipment, and restocked my butter, and had set aside the caramel, I was ready to begin the cake.

The apples and spices in the cake remind me of apple bread, a good thing since I looove apple bread. I used unsweetened store bought apple sauce, although if you are adventurous you could make your own. It's not hard to make applesauce at home, but this cake is quite involved as is, so I gave myself a bit of a reprieve on that one. It's not like I'm worried about the nutrition value...

Once I had the cakes out of the oven (which took a bit longer than the recipe indicated, about 50 minutes), I began to work on the frosting. I was truly nervous here since I had heard some other bakers had trouble, but mine came together without a hitch. I did heat the goat's milk, sugar and flour in a cast iron dutch oven, so the temperature was quite stable and slow to heat. Once it started to thicken, I poured it into my mixing bowl and whipped until cool and then, of course, added three sticks of a little butter and the caramel sauce. Seriously, I read the recipe several times just to be sure that was the correct amount of butter.

With the cakes cool, I assembled the cake into three layers, with lots of butter cream frosting in between. I also snuck in a bit more caramel, drizzling a thin layer on top of each cake layer. It quickly soaked into the cake after which I smothered it in frosting. With an added drizzle a moderate pour of caramel to the top, it was ready to serve.

I served the first slice to my hubs and I (we shared as I was still getting over the butter) and he told me that I wasn't eating fast enough to stop him from eating the whole thing (He doesn't know about the butter...). He even said that I was getting better at baking cakes (I'm a pie person) and that I had perfected frosting. Needless to say, this cake was a winner. It wasn't too sweet as I had feared it would be. It does have a very moist, dense consistency similar to an apple bread, with the light sweetness of the frosting. The frosting is like a sweet, buttery cloud. I thought the thickness of the frosting layers was obnoxious at first but, once I tasted them, it all made sense.

I would say that if I had been more adventurous and made homemade applesauce, leaving little chunks of apple in there so not to be quite as homogeneous as store bought, it would have been even better. Like off the charts good. The hubs wished it had a bit more caramel, but that was easily remedied with a drizzle from the jar left in the fridge.

All in all, as if you couldn't tell, this was a great fall cake. The spice, the apples, the caramel - pure fall. <3 Check out Lulu the Baker's blog for the recipe!

Club Baked: Sunday Night Anniversary Cake

Yesterday was my one year wedding anniversary. Can you believe it? One whole year. It went by so quickly I can hardly believe it myself. A new job, quitting old jobs, being unemployed, moving across the country. It's been super busy and crazy, but equally as fun. We've been truly blessed this past year and I thought it would be nice to celebrate at home - with a nice dinner, some champagne, netflix, and this Sunday Night Cake from Baked: Explorations.

I know! You are supposed to eat your wedding cake on your one year anniversary, but I couldn't eat my wedding cake on my wedding day. Well, I could eat the "groom's cake" that my lovely aunt made for us, but not the tiered one, so there's no top tier for us to eat. And really, I don't know the reason or tradition behind eating the old cake, but for me, wasting freezer space on old cake for an entire year seems pretty silly, especially when you can make fresh, yummy cake for the occasion.

This Sunday Night Cake was noted to be pretty easy and quick to make - which is why it is called Sunday Night cake and not Friday Night cake. It was painless - even for me. I was surprised by how fluffy the batter was - I had to restrain myself from just liking it right out of the bowl. I did substitute strained sheep's yogurt for the sour cream as I've done in the past, but that was my only substitution in the batter. I baked mine for 40 minutes in our toaster oven although it came out a bit too toasty. Next time I'll be sure to check on it when it's coming up on 30 minutes.

I baked my cake in a round pan (8 or 9 inch-ish) since that's what I had. It occurred to me later that I probably could have used a glass baking dish that I did have, but oh well. I think that if I had made it in the square pan, or in a springform pan (which would have had taller edges, allowing the cake to rise higher?) that it might have grown a bit taller and been more airy. But we're all short in this house, so I guess the cake fits in. 

For the frosting, I used 62% Cocoa dark chocolate instead of the unsweetened the recipe suggests because that's what I had on hand. I don't know what the unsweetened version tasted like, but this was amazing. I did manage to frost the cake, but I for sure licked the bowl when I was done. It wasn't too sweet as cake frosting usually are and, like the donuts, the flavor of the frosting complimented the spice in the cake in the most delicious way possible.

I was pleased with the ease of preparation and flavor of this cake. It was a bit on the dense side for me, but still moist despite me baking it into obliteration. I was a bit hesitant while frosting the cake as it seemed like a crazy amount, but was glad I went all out. Because the cake is so dense, for me, the added frosting helped balance out the cake to frosting ratio, especially since there are no layers to get a bit more frosting in there.

We served this with a dinner of homemade calzones (as requested by the hubs), sauteed french beans and of course, a glass of champagne to celebrate our one year and toast many more to come.

To see how this turned out for the other bakers, check out this link. For the Sunday Night cake recipe, check out Julie's blog, Little Bit of Everything. Thanks, Julie for hosting!

Club Baked: Time to Make the Donuts!

This recipe was hosted by Gloria, The Ginger Snap Girl, so you can find the recipe on her blog. Also check out the other member's results from this recipe at Club: Baked.  

Do you have any idea how often I've heard that phrase? For most of high school and all of college, I worked at Dunkin' Donuts. Every day that I went to work, my dad would say, in a sing-song-y voice, "Time to make the donuts!" Needless to say, I know donuts. I can decorate them, fill them, frost them, you get the picture. It was a fun job, creating new combinations in the back, an unlimited supply of caffeinated beverages, and (usually) fabulous customers. (And too you not so fab ones - I'd be careful about being mean and cranky to the person that supplies your morning pick me up - Do you want decaf?).

I have never made donuts from scratch though, so I was thrilled when Gloria picked the Farm Stand Buttermilk Donuts for the second recipe of Club: Baked. When I got the book it was absolutely one that I wanted to try. Only problem? Buttermilk.

Easily solvable problem though. For this recipe, I substituted buttermilk for a mixture of 3/4 cup goat's milk and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. I let that sit and mingle while I drained the sheep's milk yogurt that I used as a substitute for sour cream  (more details on how to do that over here).

To get my itty bitty donut hole centers, I used a metal frosting tip to cut out small holes. It worked out, although they were a bit too small at 3/4". But I thought it was good improv since I don't have a 1" biscuit cutter.  

disregard the semi-phallic shape being formed by the frying donuts - i didn't notice until editing!

This recipe was fun to make and very tasty to eat! My friend and fellow sprinkle lover, Patty,  and I made up a full recipe. Luckily, she took several with her when she left. Which was good because after using a 2 1/2" biscuit cutter for the outer edge of the donuts, I ended up with far more donuts than I could eat (about 30!). I liked their small size - it was perfect for sampling all the flavors without feeling stuffed, but it did make far too many! Next time I will certainly make a half recipe as I suspect they are best fresh.

As for the toppings, I made the chocolate frosting & cinnamon sugar as the recipe suggests. For the donut holes, I actually tossed them in some powdered sugar. I would say the powdered sugar topping was actually my favorite, followed in close second by the chocolate (with rainbow sprinkles of course!).

The donut itself was absolutely yummy. It was cakey, moist, and had just the right amount of spice. The nutmeg and cinnamon really took this donut over the top. They weren't overly sweet, either, which is sometimes a problem with donuts. The dark chocolate frosting was much more suited to this particular donut than the sweeter traditional chocolate frosting.

All photos in this post were edited with the PW Vintage Photoshop Action.

Club Baked: New York Style Crumb Cake

I have never had NY style crumb cake, but seriously, how delicious. As it was baking, I was crossing my fingers that it would turn out because the smells coming from my oven were beyond good! Luckily, after waiting impatiently while it cooled, I took my first bite and it tasted even better than it smelled.

This crumb cake was a good first pick for Club: Baked as the steps were relatively easy and straight forward. I decided to make a full recipe in the recommended pan size (9" x 13") since some of the other bakers had problems when trying to halve the recipe. Being a newbie, I wanted to play it safe. And honestly, I have never had much of a problem finding people to eat desserts. Quite honestly, the hardest part was waiting the half hour prior to cutting as suggested by the authors.

The recipe itself also did not require many substitutions to accommodate my milk allergy. For this recipe, I did substitute strained sheep's milk yogurt for sour cream, but was able to use the rest of the ingredients as indicated.

The cake came together fairly quickly. I did take a break part way through to let the crumbles "rest" - a suggestion by the authors to produce "gargantuan" crumbles. During this time I also allowed the butter for the cake batter to soften and the yogurt to strain.

When substituting yogurt for sour cream in a recipe, place the yogurt in a metal strainer or cheese cloth suspended over a bowl. Allow it to drain to the desired consistency. For a sour cream substitute, I recommend a minimum of 30 minutes and a full hour if you can spare it. Also, always measure out an amount greater than what is needed so when it has drained, you end up with the amount required. For the 1 1/4 cup of sour cream required for this recipe, I started out with about 1 3/4 - 2 cups of yogurt.

Thanks to Karen of Karen's Cookies Cakes & More for hosting this week's recipe. To see what the other bakers did with this week's recipe, head on over here. I heard that someone made muffins - yum!

Coconut Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Me and coconut have a funny relationship. We're just getting to know each other. See, I always, always thought of coconut (especially the shredded stuff) as being dry, gross and texturally unappealing. The thought of it gave me shivers. I should have known better - I think the only time I had shredded coconut was on a grocery store bakery cookie. You know the freebie kind they give kids so that their parents have one half-minute of peace before the sugar rush kicks in? That coconut. No wonder we had issues.

But this coconut I can get behind. Unfortunately, it also is quite a lengthy process, but so worth it. If you aren't a purist, you could use store bought extract, coconut milk, coconut cream and shredded coconut which would make this a much faster cake, but I wanted to try it with fresh ingredients first. It turned out great - soft, moist, sweet but not overpowering. I think the fresh coconut adds a lightness that you wouldn't get with the store bought shredded stuff. If I do ever make this with store bought ingredients, I will definately share with you it's shortcomings if there are any.

Coconut Cake
from this recipe from Alton Brown
icing recipe from the Barefoot Contessa


Ingredients:
Vegetable Oil
14 1/4 ounces cake or pastry flour, plus extra for pans, about 3 c.
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. fresh coconut milk*
1/2 c. fresh coconut cream*
8 oz. unsalted butter, at room temperature
16 oz. sugar, about 2 1/4 c.
1 tsp. coconut extract*
4 egg whites
1/3 c. coconut water*


1 lb. cream cheese, at room temperature
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 lb. powdered sugar, sifted
6 oz. shredded coconut*

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.


Lightly oil your cake pans. I used a 8" pans. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom of the pan. Lay that in over the oil and then oil the parchment paper. Flour the pan lightly with cake flour and set aside.


Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl and whisk to combine.

Combine the coconut milk and coconut cream in small bowl and set aside.


Cream the butter using the paddle attachment on your stand mixer on medium speed until it is fluffy. Decrease the speed on the mixer to low and slowly add the sugar over about 1 to 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and continue mixing the butter sugar combination on medium until it is light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Stir in the extract.

Turn the mixer on low and add the flour and milk mixtures alternately in three batches to the butter and sugar. Begin by adding the flour and end with the milk. Mix until just combined, don't over mix.

  

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the batter, just until combined. 

  

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pans so they are basically equal. You can drop (gently and from just a few inches) the pans onto the counter to remove any air and distribute the batter evenly.


Place into the oven on the middle rack and bake for 30 minutes of until the cake is golden in color and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove and transfer the cakes to a cooling rack.

When cool, cut each cake into 2 layers, forming a total of 4 layers. With the cakes cut side up, brush  coconut water onto the cakes using a pastry brush.

To make the frosting, add the cream cheese, butter, vanilla and almond extract to a mixing bowl. Using the paddle attachment of your mixer, mix on low until the ingredients are combined. Add the powdered sugar (sifted) in small batches so that large clumps don't appear. Don't worry if a few do, though, just use some shredded coconut to cover when assembling.

To assemble the cake, place the first layer on your plate or cake platter. Add frosting to the first layer and, using an offset spatula, spread until it is an even layer and is to the outside edges. Top the icing with shredded coconut. Continue to add the layers until you have assembled all four cake layers. Once all the layers of the cake have been added, frost the ouside of your cake and dress with more shredded coconut. Cool in the fridge prior to serving.

*For instructions on how to make the coconut cream, coconut milk, coconut water, coconut extract and shredded coconut, refer to my post on coconut cake prep.