Read Rose's Heavenly Cakes Online
Authors: Rose Levy Beranbaum
Rose's Heavenly Cakes (17 page)
Volume | Ounce | Gram | |
white chocolate containing cocoa butter, chopped | . | 3 | 85 |
cream cheese, softened but still cool | . | 4 | 113 |
unsalted butter, softened but still cool (65°F/19°C) | 2 tablespoons | 1 | 28 |
crème fraîche or sour cream | ½ tablespoon | 0.2 | 7 |
almond extract | 1/8 | . | . |
Melt the White Chocolate
Heat the chocolate until almost completely melted. Use a small microwavable bowl, stirring with a silicone spatula every 15 seconds (or use the top of a double boiler set over hot, not simmering, water, stirring often—do not let the bottom of the container touch the water).
Remove the white chocolate from the heat and, with the silicone spatula, stir until fully melted. Allow it to cool until it is no longer warm to the touch but is still fluid.
Make the Frosting
In a food processor, process the cream cheese, butter, and crème fraîche for a few seconds until smooth and creamy. Scrape down the sides. Add the cooled melted white chocolate and pulse it in a few times until it is smoothly incorporated. Add the almond extract and pulse it in.
Highlights for Success
Use white chocolate containing cocoa butter, such as Green & Black's with vanilla seeds or Valrhona.
The frosting becomes more firm in the refrigerator.
For a whiter frosting without the subtle flavor of the white chocolate, you can replace the white chocolate with 1 cup (lightly spooned into the cup)/4 ounces/115 grams powdered sugar and ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract.
Compose the Cake
When the cake is completely cool, set it on a serving plate. Frost the top with swirls of buttercream.
Notes
Some people have a problem with the idea of using red food color and use beet juice in its place. In recipes using baking soda, the beet juice would turn brown, but with this highly acidic batter, the crumb will stay red, though not as pretty a red as offered by the food color. The best way to harvest beet juice is to roast the well-washed beets in their skins, leaving an inch of root and stems, in an aluminum foil package at 350°/175°C for about 45 minutes for medium beets, up to about 1 hour and 15 minutes for large ones. Remove the beets and use the foil to pour the beet juice into a small container.
For a distinct chocolate flavor, you can use up to ¼ cup cocoa/0.7 ounce/21 grams, sifted before measuring, but decrease the flour by the same amount. The color will be a much darker red.
16 to 20
30 to 40 minutes
I created this cake for the Campbell's Kids fiftieth birthday and brought it in to the New York Stock Exchange for the company celebration and honor of ringing the opening bell for the stock market. (Getting through security was harder than making the cake.) I decorated the cake with a pastillage model of "the Kids" and made a ring of Pirouette Rolled Wafer Cookies around the cake to serve as candles. The flames were piped with buttercream tinted red.
This cake is great for a party. No one will ever guess the mystery ingredient. Tomato adds both a deeper color and intriguing zing to the chocolate. Don't worry about the absence of salt in the ingredients—it's in the soup.
Plan Ahead
Make the ganache several hours before using.
Volume | Ounce | Gram | |
unsweetened (alkalized) cocoa powder | 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (sifted before measuring) | 3 | 85 |
condensed tomato soup, preferably Campbell's (1 can) | 1 cup (8 fluid ounces) | 10.7 | 305 |
4 large eggs, at room temperature | ¾ cup (6 fluid ounces) | 7 | 200 |
pure vanilla extract | 1 tablespoon | . | . |
cake flour (or bleached all-purpose flour) | 3 cups plus 2 tablespoons (or 2¾ cups), sifted into the cup and leveled off | 11 | 312 |
superfine sugar | 2 cups | 14 | 400 |
baking powder | 1½ teaspoons | . | . |
baking soda | ½ teaspoon | . | . |
unsalted butter (65° to 75°F/19° to 23°C) | 3½ sticks | 14 | 400 |
Special Equipment
Two 9 by 2-inch round cake pans, encircled with cake strips, bottoms coated with shortening, topped with parchment rounds, then coated with baking spray with flour
Preheat the Oven
Twenty minutes or more before baking, set an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C.
Mix the Liquid Ingredients
In a medium bowl, whisk the cocoa, tomato soup, eggs, and vanilla until smooth.
Make the Batter
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda on low speed for 30 seconds. Add the butter and half the cocoa mixture. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Raise the speed to medium and beat for 1½ minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Starting on medium-low speed, with the mixer off between additions, add the remaining cocoa mixture in two parts. Beat on medium speed for 30 seconds after each addition to incorporate the ingredients and strengthen the structure. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Using a silicone spatula, scrape the batter into the prepared pans, being sure to press the thick and fluffy batter against the sides of the pans, and smooth the surfaces evenly with a small offset spatula.
Bake the Cakes
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a wire cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean and the cakes spring back when pressed lightly in the centers. The cakes should start to shrink from the sides of the pans only after removal from the oven.
Cool and Unmold the Cakes
Let the cakes cool in the pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Run a small metal spatula between the sides of the pans and the cakes, pressing firmly against the pans, and invert the cakes onto wire racks that have been coated lightly with nonstick cooking spray. To prevent splitting, reinvert the cakes so that the top sides are up. Cool completely. The cakes will be slightly smaller at the tops (more so if you haven't pressed the batter up against the sides of the pans).
3 cups/26.6 ounces/754 grams
Volume | Ounce | Gram | |
dark chocolate, 60% to 62% cacao, chopped | . | 12 | 340 |
heavy cream | almost 1½ cups (12 fluid ounces) | 12 | 340 |
condensed tomato soup, preferably Campbell's | ¼ cup (2 fluid ounces) | 2.6 | 75 |
4-inch Pirouette Rolled Wafer Cookies, preferably Pepperidge Farm brand (2 cans; optional) | about 59 | 27 | 765 |
red-tinted buttercream and red or clear piping gel (it's fine to use the Wilton tubed variety; see | 1 tube 1 tube | 4.2 1.3 | 120 38 |
Special Equipment
(Optional) Pastry bag fitted with a small star decorating tip (number 21 or 22) | (Optional) Small clean artist's paintbrush
Make the Mystery Ganache
In a food processor, process the chocolate until very fine.
In a 4-cup or larger microwavable cup with a spout (or in a medium saucepan, stirring often), whisk together the cream and tomato soup and scald it (heat it to the boiling point; small bubbles will form around the periphery).
With the motor of the food processor running, pour the cream mixture through the feed tube in a steady stream. Process for a few seconds until smooth. Scrape the ganache into a glass bowl and allow it to sit for 1 hour. Cover it with plastic wrap and allow it to cool at room temperature for several hours, or until the mixture reaches frosting consistency. The ganache keeps for 3 days at room temperature, for 3 weeks refrigerated, and for 6 months frozen.
Compose the Cake
When the cakes are completely cool, spread a little ganache on a serving plate and set the first layer on top. Slide a few wide strips of wax paper or parchment under the cake to keep the rim of the plate clean.
Spread about 1 cup of the ganache over the layer. Place the second layer on top and use the remainder to frost the top and sides. With the tip of a 1¼-inch-wide metal spatula, make wavy lines through the ganache on top of the cake. Slowly slide the paper strips from under the cake. If storing the cake under a cake dome, allow the ganache to set for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight before applying the Pirouettes or the moisture from the ganache will soften them.
To surround the cake with the Pirouettes, you may first have to trim them to about 4 inches, using a small serrated knife. Repair any broken ones using ganache and press them gently against the sides of the cake. The ganache will hold them in place. If the ganache becomes too firm, heat it by applying a spatula run under hot tap water and dried.
If desired, pipe little flames of red buttercream on top of each Pirouette. If not using a coupler or tip that screws on to the tube of buttercream, hold the small star decorating tip in place with your hand. Hold the tube of buttercream in a vertical position over the Pirouette and squeeze with your free hand to pipe the flame onto the top of the cookie. Allow it to dry until set, about 30 minutes. As a further option, you can enhance the look of the "flames" by painting them lightly with piping gel, brushing them very gently with the artist's paintbrush from the bottom of the flame to the tip.
Note
Wilton decorating buttercreams and gels come in a variety of colors and are available at cake decorating supply stores and from Wilton (See
Equipment Sources
).
16 to 20
30 to 40 minutes (25 to 30 minutes for the cupcakes)
This cake is a study in contrasts: a soft white cake filled with creamy pale-pink strawberry mousseline buttercream and encased in Miss Irene Thompson's dark, slightly sticky chocolate frosting.
This unique frosting was inspired by Ariane Batterberry, co-publisher of
Food Arts
magazine. The recipe was given to her by Miss Thompson on her deathbed with the promise that if it ever was published, it would bear her name. The original recipe contained a huge amount of powdered sugar, but I have adapted it to a more contemporary bittersweet version, replacing the sugar with extra corn syrup, which enhances its sticky quality. Though its consistency is more firm and fudgy than any other chocolate frosting, it holds well to the cake because of its delectable stickiness, but it is very tricky to apply, requiring the patience of a craftsperson. It is well worth the effort, however. Once it sets up, you can touch it or even mold it with your fingers.
I love to hear the surprised gasps and
ummms
of immense delight when I cut the cake and the beautiful layers are revealed. When I made it as a surprise for Michael Batterberry's birthday, what pleased him most was the unusual intensity of the strawberry buttercream.
