Heavenly Cake Bakers: Gâteau Breton

This past weekend I was busy with Mother's Day cake orders and I wasn't planning on making this cake until...

I read all the rave reviews from other Heavenly Cake Bakers about how DELICIOUS this cake was and also how quick and easy it was to make.  You see, when I glanced at the upcoming month list of cakes, I had already made a mental note of a couple that I was planning to make and especially the free choice at the end of May.  But I quickly made new plans and so last night in between baking cakes for today's orders, I made this FANTASTIC cake.

You may be looking at the pictures and thinking I've lost my mind calling this a cake, when it is clearly in a tart pan--a tart pan that I just purchased on Monday and have had on my wish list for awhile.  But let me explain by giving you a great explanation from Rose herself, at the top of the recipe in her book. 

"Gâteau Breton is crisp like a pastry around the outside edge, but has a soft, dense, and moist interior...Gâteau Breton is most cakelike on day one, but it progressively approaches the shortbread spectrum and is still excellent even after a week at room temperature." ~ Rose's Heavenly Cakes, pg. 69

Between this description and the many other glowing remarks about this cake, I was hooked!!  The picture in the book shows the Gâteau Breton in a 9 1/2 x 1 3/8-inch fluted tart pan, but the yield amount is also perfect for two 11 x 4-inch fluted rectangle tart pans.

Since this recipe was so quick and easy, I didn't even think about taking pictures during the process.  I followed the directions as instructed, but I did omit the rum or kirsch, and just doubled the vanilla in place of the alcohol (since I don't bake with it and don't have any in my kitchen). And before I knew it, I had the batter in the pans and smoothed the tops to keep them even like this:

The next step was to brush the surface with a beaten egg and then use a fork to drag the lines over the top.  Although this gives the cake a nice, simple decorative look, the real reason is that this step prevents the cake batter from puffing up unevenly and keep it even while it bakes--genius!

                           

After baking for about 35 to 40 minutes, or until it turns a nice golden brown, you pull the cake from the oven and then you wait for it to cool.  The simplicity of this cake is amazing.  It's quick and easy and it looks and tastes delicious.  Just look at the golden brown shine and how tender and flaky the crumb is!

And because I always have to be a little creative, I curved the decorations from the fork dragging technique to create a "wave-like" look, but I did follow the directions to have more straight lines on the other cake.

Did the taste live up to all the hype??  Oh yes.  It is DELICIOUS!!  It's sweet, but not overly sweet and has the perfect amount of almond and vanilla flavors and a subtle taste of salt to balance everything out.  One of the cakes is half eaten and I can neither confirm nor deny if that was from going back again and again, only for "just another small taste."

Heavenly Cake Bakers: Whoopie Pies & Banana Cupcakes

Do you ever have the best of intentions to follow a PLAN that you've carefully thought out and scheduled accordingly? And once the PLAN is in place, have you ever had that PLAN completely fall apart or rather be replaced with a new PLAN, because LIFE happened? This is what has happened to me over the last month (some really BIG decisions regarding Jillicious Desserts moving in a new direction) and I'm in the process of finalizing these plans and will share when I know more. But more about that later and in case you noticed (or not) it's been a month since my last post, so today I'm getting back on track, at least in the blogging world.

Today's Heavenly Cake Bakers recipe is: Two Fat Cats Whoopie Pies, named after the Two Fat Cats Bakery in Portland, Maine.

These were quite easy to make and very quick, both in mixing and baking. The whoopies are made with dark chocolate and cocoa powder, but aren't overly chocolatey (as if there is such a thing as TOO much chocolate--well, at least not in my book).

The filling was actually the part that took the longest, but again, not too difficult. Rose points out that this "marshmallow cream" is actually a type of mousseline-buttercream; having more butter and sugar than a classic mousseline. And if you would like to know exactly what a mousseline is, see the definition below.

mousseline [moos-LEEN] "Any sauce to which whipped cream or beaten egg whites have been added just prior to serving to give it a light, airy consistency." ~ Food Lover's Companion, pg. 400

The filling is fairly sweet, so the dark chocolate whoopies are a nice contrast to the sweetness and help to balance it out. I actually liked them better after they had chilled for an hour in the refrigerator. I felt like the sweetness of the "marshmallow cream" filling relaxed and it worked well with the dark chocolate whoopies.

Now, I would like to review last week's Heavenly Cake Baker's pick: Banana Refrigerator Cake w/Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting. The recipe yield was a 9 x 2-inch round, single layer cake, but I decided to make mini-cupcakes instead.

This was a fairly straight forward recipe and was quick and easy to make. It called for either creme fraiche or sour cream and since I had sour cream on hand, the choice was made. Instead of granulated sugar, Rose uses turbinado sugar (raw cane sugar) which added a nice flavor, to these cupcakes.

I was looking forward to trying this Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting, since so many of the Heavenly Cake Bakers had great things to say about it. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised and I too, agree that this is a wonderful frosting.

I think that refrigeration is the KEY to making this recipe a success. I tried these right after I frosted them and was kind of disappointed with the overall taste--it seemed to be missing something.  After they had been chilled in the refrigerator for at least an hour, I decided to taste them again and I was happy to discover that they tasted MUCH better. The frosting is a wonderful, slightly tangy, creamy flavor and paired with the chilled cake, the flavors really melded and came together in the perfect ratio of subtle banana flavor and white chocolate.  I stand corrected from my first reaction.

I garnished these cute mini cupcakes with a white chocolate curl and I was very pleased that this cake recipe worked well portioned as cupcakes.  If you have this book, try this recipe and don't forget to keep it chilled.

Happy Monday!

Heavenly Cake Bakers: Double Chocolate Valentine Cake

Double. Chocolate. Valentine. Cake.  No other words needed.

If I had a Valentine, this is what I would have baked for him.  And of course, he would have to share!

This is the second cake that I've baked with the Heavenly Cake Bakers group and I can't begin to tell you how glad I am that I joined this group. First of all, everyone has been so welcoming and have left such kind comments on my blog. I had a rather busy week last week (hence, only one post last week) and I will be catching up with my blog reading and will get back to those in my group who have been so nice and friendly during my first week (again, THANK YOU for your comments). In addition to the wonderful support, I was honored to be the featured baker at the Heavenly Cake Blog and it totally made my week!

When I first went through Rose's Heavenly Cake book, this was one of the MANY recipes I marked that I wanted to try. I'm so glad that I didn't have to wait long, because this is a FANTASTIC chocolate cake! I had a feeling that this cake would be very TEMPTING and since I'm trying to not eat too many desserts (since I'm around them so often with Jillicious Desserts), I decided to cut the recipe in half and use my new small heart-shaped pans for this cake. But let me just state for the record, when I make it again, it will be the regular 9-inch size and I'll have to invite friends over to help eat it, so I can justify making a larger cake--yes, it really was that DELICIOUS.

Double Chocolate Valentine Cake

Prior to making this cake, I read the directions carefully and even watched this video over at Rose's Blog, Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum and found this cake very easy to make. This particular cake pan had fairly deep heart shapes and because I did cut the recipe in half, it made four nice sized heart cakes. Because they were smaller cakes, it only took less time, about 28 minutes to bake.

As soon as I pulled them from the oven, I used a bamboo skewer to poke holes in them, to prepare them to soak up the chocolate ganache glaze.

Ganache Glaze

I made the ganache the regular way; stirring the scalded cream into the finely chopped chocolate. Since it was a small batch, I didn't use the food processor (although that technique works very well) mostly because I didn't want to wash any extra dishes. (I made the ganache while the cakes were baking.)

After poking the holes in the cakes, I brushed the ganache over each of the cakes and then following the detailed directions from the book, I inverted them onto a tray with plastic wrap, poked holes in the bottom (which was now the top) and brushed more ganache over the surface and sides of the cakes.

I could already tell that this was going to taste great--just look at all that wonderful chocolate goodness!

After soaking a good amount of ganache on each cake, I refrigerated them for about an hour and then decorated them.

Whipped Cream Topping

In the recipe, Rose suggests to pipe the whipped cream around the base or serve with a dollop of cream on the side. I decided to pipe the whipped cream on the top of the cakes, because I used a darker cocoa in the cake and knew it would need the whipped cream to balance out the richness of the dessert. It was the perfect combination of rich chocolate and sweetened whipped cream.

Decorations

Luckily, I had a few raspberries left over from some dessert orders over the weekend and I didn't have to go searching for them or pay the expensive amount they cost at this time of year. I also garnished the cakes with some Guittard Dark Chocolate curls that I had made.

Jill's Notes

One of things that I find very useful when trying new recipes, is to make notes right in the book. I find that in doing this, the notes won't get lost and if it is awhile before I make it again, I'll know exactly what I did, or changed or what to do differently next time. Also, I write the date I made the recipe and when I make it again, I note that date as well. I usually rate the recipe as excellent, very good, good, fair or poor and this one was definitely rated EXCELLENT. Since I'm not the best at keeping a regular journal, I love looking back to see how often I was baking and remembering the experience--like a little baking journal.

So, if you have this book, turn to page 113 and make this cake today!

Monday Must Have: Rose's Heavenly Cakes Book and a New Baking Group.

Whew! The weekend just FLEW by way too fast and the first week of February is already a distant memory. But, I have a treat for you today. Not only do I have a fabulous Monday Must Have, I also joined a new baking group based on the book I'm highlighting today.

Let's start with the Monday Must Have. I have had my eye on this book since I heard that Rose Levy Beranbaum was releasing a new book last September called "Rose's Heavenly Cakes" and I finally purchased it last week. You may be wondering what took me so long, but as I've mentioned before, I own a TON of baking books and I was trying to show a bit of self-control and purchase things I NEEDED, not things I WANTED. I had received a Border's gift card for my birthday (last October) and recently received a 40% coupon and I decided it was time to buy myself a belated birthday gift (thank you Jenna!). I can't believe I waited that long.

For those of you who may not know about Rose Levy Beranbaum (the author of this book), she also wrote "The Cake Bible" which happened to be the very first professional cake book I had ever purchased about three days into culinary school (the first class I had was a cakes class) and one that I've used many, many times over the years for information or inspiration. Buying this book brought back memories of the excitement I had when I first looked through "The Cake Bible." Her newest book is full of helpful hints, informative technique descriptions and beautiful cake photographs.

This brings me to the second part of this post: the Heavenly Cake Bakers group, which I recently joined. I had been following this site for awhile now, and after finally buying the book, I decided it was time to join. It's a smaller group and I'm looking forward to getting to know the 29 other bloggers and see their creations too. The requirement is to bake at least two cakes each month and then post on Monday. So from here on out, two Mondays each month will have the Heavenly Cake Bakers posts and the other Mondays will still focus on the Monday Must Have.

Also, since everyone in the group has the book, the purpose is to share our experiences and discuss how the baking process worked, rather than posting the recipe in its entirety. Usually, I will share pictures of the step-by-step process, but this time I was caught up in the enjoyment of baking and I forgot to take pictures along the way.

True Orange Genoise
This week's cake is the True Orange Genoise, which had several components: genoise cake layers, orange simple syrup, orange curd and a dark chocolate ganache icing.

The Genoise Cake Layers
It's been awhile since I've made a genoise, and this one was an excellent one. Rose does a wonderful job of explaining the technique, especially if you've never made one before. She gives many helpful hints and very specific directions each step of the way. I found that these cake layers to be the perfect combination of light fluffiness and a hint of vanilla. The cake texture was due to the Wondra flour used--which is equal parts of cake flour and cornstarch sifted together. I was very happy with this particular formula and will definitely use it again.

Orange Curd
The whole point of this cake was to use Seville Oranges, which are bitter oranges which are used for marmalade, curds and sauces. Also the peel can be candied and the essential oils from the peel can be used to flavor foods. One of the downsides to living in a small town is that we don't have access to ingredients that aren't as common (I really missed the Bay Area when I couldn't find any here), so I used blood oranges, naval oranges, lemons and limes. In combining these citrus' I was able to have a similar flavor to the Seville Oranges, but I suspect that it wasn't exact. The curd recipe was very straight forward and similar to a curd recipe I use often.

Orange Syrup
I used the blood oranges and the syrup was a pretty red-ish, pink color and tasted delicious. When I cut the cake, it had a very cheerful color inside from the red in the syrup and the orange in the curd.

Dark Ganache
Although, I LOVE dark chocolate ganache, I felt that this particular ganache was too dark and too heavy for such a light, sponge cake with the citrus flavors. The recipe called for 60% to 62% cacao, and I used a bittersweet which was probably closer to 67% cacao. But I did enjoy making the ganache in the food processor, which I don't typically use in making ganache (usually I just stir by hand).

Decorating
The yield of this cake was one 9x2-inch layer, which is split in half. Instead of using a 9-inch pan, I split the batter in two 6x2-inch pans and then cut each in half, creating four layers. I decorated mine a little different than the picture in the book--I added chocolate shavings about two-thirds up from the bottom of the cake and decorated it with chocolate curls and fresh orange slices.

Jill's Thoughts
Overall, I thought this was an easy cake to make, especially since the directions were so detailed and helpful. I loved the genoise and I think that was my favorite part to make. Rather than the dark ganache for the icing, I think I'd try a whipped cream with some orange curd folded in for a lighter frosting--with these changes, it would be a lovely spring dessert.

I think I'm really going to enjoy being a part of the Heavenly Cake Bakers and I'm looking forward to making the next cake and marking some more recipes for future use.