A Little Bit of All Right

My family was feeling the need for a chocolate cake after several fruit-based cakes, so I turned to American Cake  as I hadn't baked from it in a while.  In the 1917-1945 chapter, I found exactly what we needed, The Brooklyn Blackout Cake.  This is chocolate cake, layered with chocolate pudding, and covered first in chocolate buttercream and then chocolate cake crumbs. The cake layers were moist and chocolatey.  I split the two layers in half to make four, used three for the cake and the fourth was crumbled up to cover the frosting with. The filling was pudding-like but made without eggs.  The buttercream was unlike any I've ever made.  The instructions had me melt the chocolate, add the butter and mix until it was melted, then place the warm mixture over ice and beat until thick and spreadable.  At first it looked like it would never thicken up, but then, right around 8 minutes, it thickened up beautifully.  All of the components were d...

After having spent so much time on a cake from another Mary, I decided to bake the cake attributed to Mary Lincoln.  This almond cake is pretty straight forward.  I did substitute 1/2 t of almond extract for some of the vanilla simply because I love the smell it produces. The cake was light and flavorful.  The cook book suggests topping with 7 minute frosting, but that seemed completely unnecessary.  If you were looking for something a little more decorative, I would simply add a nice flavored glaze.

I've finally returned to baking from The American Cake .  I've actually baked this particular cake twice, once last spring and again in November for a work potluck.  In the book, it's called a Robert E. Lee Cake, but that seems a bit of misnomer since he neither created the cake or baked it.  So I rename in honor of the woman who did all the work (assuming she didn't just take credit for the work of one of her enslaved persons). This cake consists of a light lemon cake layered with lemon curd and covered with a citrus buttercream.  The lemon cake is one of the best I've ever made.  The buttercream is very tasty; the use of both orange and lemon juices really sets it off.  Where I've had trouble both times is the lemon curd.  The first time I made this cake, I followed the recipe as written.  The curd was very sticky, and I felt overcooked.  It was difficult to work with as it tore the cake when you tried to spread it.  The second tim...

For this month's Cake Slice Bakers bake, I selected the Swiss Hazelnut Cake.  It has two layers with ground hazelnuts mixed into the batter and filled and frosted with a delicious frosting made in part with marshmallow cream and hazelnut liqueur. Bittersweet chocolate covers the outside.  The instructions say to use a food processor to shave the chocolate.  I don't own a food processor, so I chopped the chocolate. In general, I was pretty happy with this cake.  The cake was tasty and moist, and I really liked the texture with the ground hazelnuts.  The frosting was also good, though a little sweet, but it completely lacked hazelnut flavor.  Also, I think the cake would have been better overall if the chocolate had been sandwiched in between the layers to better cut the sweetness of the frosting. An InLinkz Link-up get the InLinkz code Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current boo...

The Cake Slice Bakers continue to bake out of The Perfect Cake  #atkcake. This month I chose to bake a Tres Leche Cake.  This cake is a soft yellow cake soaked in a mixture of milks and cream and topped with a lovely whipped cream topping.   I was a little surprised by the amount of milk poured onto this cake - I didn't see how the cake could possibly hold it all.  But hold it, it did producing a wonderfully moist and flavorful cake. Each cake from this book becomes my family's new favorite. An InLinkz Link-up get the InLinkz code Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through.  This year it is The Perfect Cake from America's Test Kitchen #atkcake.  We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun a...

My bake for this month for the Cake Slice Bakers was a Wellesley Fudge Cake.  I've seen this recipe in a couple of cookbooks but have not tried it until now.  Don't know what I was waiting for!  It was a pretty easy recipe to follow, and the results were amazing!  It's a chocolatey layer cake with a fudgey frosting.  Perfect for the chocolate lovers in the group. The cake was extremely moist and kept well.  I had the last little piece four days later (how did my family miss it?), and it was as moist as when I first cut into it. An InLinkz Link-up get the InLinkz code Wellesley Fudge Cake Tahini-Banana Snack Cake Hazelnut-Chocolate Crepe Cake Gateau Breton Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through.  This year it is The Perfect Cake from America's Test Kitchen #atkcake.  We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20...

One of my Christmas gifts to myself this year was copy of the book American Cake: From Colonial Gingerbread to Classic Layer, the Stories and Recipes Behind More Than 125 of our Best-Loved Cakes .  I had been wanting this book for sometime as it combines two of my favorite things - American History and baking cakes. The book is laid out chronologically.  Each chapter covers a different time period.  There's information about the ingredients available during that period in America, events that were influencing baking, and any big baking trends.  Each recipe also has a write-up that provides some history on the cake and its creator.  I'll be baking through this book over the next year or two, picking two or three cakes from each chapter. The first chapter covers 1650-1799, and the first cake I chose to bake from here is Harriott Horry's Water Cake.  Harriott Horry was from South Carolina. The cake has only a few ingredients - sugar, water, eggs and flour ...