A Little Bit of All Right

New year, new book!  The Cake Slice Bakers are baking from The European Cake Cookbook  by Tatyana Nesteruk.  For January, I chose to bake the Chocolate St. Honore Cake.  This cake starts with puff pastry onto which a three concentric circles of pate a choux is piped and then the entire thing baked.  You create two of these, fill with chocolate pastry cream and flavored whipped cream, layer them and top with chocolate filled and dipped profiteroles. I knew when I saw this as a choice for January that I would need to at least attempt.  I didn't great confidence in my ability to complete it because I have never managed to create pate a choux that baked up correctly. I spent a couple of week watching videos and reading articles until I had a good sense for what I had done in the past.  For this cake, I started with the author's pate a choux recipe, but I used bread flour instead of all-purpose flour, and I beat the eggs slightly so that I could add part ...

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.

December represents the finishing of one cake book and the preparing for new one.  I have really enjoyed baking out of The Perfect Cake .  I have used several of their recipes for a special treat for my family (the microwave mug cakes were early favorites) as well as meal enders for special occasions.  The clear instructions have given me courage to try baking cakes that went a little beyond my usual comfort zone. The Cake Slice Bakers have a tradition of allowing each baker free choice of any recipe in that year's cook book for our December bake.  I chose a cake that had tempted me back in February but definitely felt outside my abilities, the Chocolate-Espresso Dacquoise. A dacquoise is a meringue that has finely chopped nuts folded in before baking.  For this cake, there are hazelnuts and almonds added to the meringue.  Often, you bake each layer separately, but  America's Test Kitchen recommends baking one long sheet and then cutting into four ...

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...

Happy Fall!  Where we live, the weather has definitely shifted from summer to fall, and all of the autumnal items are out my us to enjoy - pumpkins, the fall rainbow of leaves, corn mazes, and apples.  I recently went to a farm with my children and a group of their friends that had all of these things and more.  While there, we picked up some apples and apple cider to bake this cake for the October Cake Slice Bakers bake. . We all loved this cake! It uses an apple cider reduction in the cake batter, brushed onto the finished cake, and in the glaze.  The cake was very moist, and the apple cider taste was present in each bite. I can't wait to make it again! An InLinkz Link-up

September's King Arthur Bakealong was as Pane Blanco - basically a type of savory stuffed bread.  There recipe calls for sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil, but I was not up for a trip to the store that I would have had to go to to find those things, so I used some roasted red peppers that I had in the cupboard.  The recipe produces a slightly sticky bread dough that you roll out, add filling and then roll in a style similar to that used for making cinnamon rolls.  You then cut through the top layers to expose the filling and form it into a figure eight. After it's allowed to rise for another hour or so, the interior is exposed more.  I think it would have worked better if I had gone through another layer of dough. Bake and eat. Delicious and easily modified to fit a variety of palates and dinner menus.

This month's Cake Slice Bakers' choice was an easy one for me.  I've been wanting to make a Smith Island Cake since I first came across the recipe several years ago.  It look delicious and is the state cake of Maryland.  A couple things have prevented me from doing this: 1. most of recipes call for either having many more cake pans than I own or cutting the cakes into layers and 2.  I have a small kitchen and did not know how I could possibly find space for all of those cakes.  The recipe in America's Test Kitchen's The Perfect Cake , however, seemed a little more doable.  Two cake pans, reused over the course of a morning.  Frosting made separately and refrigerated until ready to assemble. To deal with the space issue, I re-purposed our dining room table and used a stacking cookie tray rack I owned.  Here are some of the cakes cooling. The cake consists of eight thin layers of yellow cake filled and frosted with a fudge-type frosting....