The Daring Bakers Do Dorie

As I recently wrote, I'm a new Dorie Greenspan cult follower, so I was pretty psyched to see that this month's Daring Bakers recipe was to be Dorie's own Perfect Party Cake. If Dorie Greenspan herself is calling something "perfect," you know it's going to be good. When Joe was here visiting a couple weeks ago, we set off on this baking adventure with great relish.

The Perfect Party Cake is a layer cake lightly scented with lemon, and between each set of layers it's got both raspberry preserves as well as buttercream frosting. More buttercream frosting finishes the outside of the cake, along with some shredded coconut for good measure.


Everything went perfectly this time around, and the flavor combination of lemon, raspberry, and coconut was truly sublime. However, I've come to realize that I simply don't care for buttercream frosting. It's just...too much. Too rich, too much butter. Nonetheless, Joe and I had a great time baking the cake, and an even better time eating it. I would definitely make this again with another, lighter kind of frosting.

To see hundreds of other takes on Dorie's Perfect Party Cake, head on over to the Daring Bakers Blog Roll. While the host doesn't appear to have the recipe on her site, many of the other Daring Bakers have posted it.

Sign Me Up for the Dorie Greenspan Cult

Tonight I got the baking bug at midnight (a not infrequent occurrence) and decided to make my first recipe from Dorie Greenspan's oh-so-praised tome Baking: From My Home to Yours. I chose the Cardamom Crumb Cake because for some reason I crave breakfast goods at night, and also because I had all the ingredients on hand.


Let me just say -- all you bloggers who rave about Dorie constantly, you were right, she is a freaking genius. To be fair, this crumb cake was bound to be an instant hit with me because cardamom is far and away my favorite spice. But adding orange zest? And espresso? What seemed like a strange combination of flavors melded together into a miraculous epiphany in my mouth.

Not only is the cake to-die-for delicious, but the recipe was extremely clear and easy to follow -- no guesswork required. I am eagerly looking forward to trying more of Dorie's recipes in the very near future. For now, I've officially joined the cult following.


Cardamom Crumb Cake

For the Crumbs:

• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. grated orange zest
• 1/2 tsp. instant espresso powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1/2 stick (4 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature

For the Cake:

• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1+1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1 tsp. instant espresso powder
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. finely grated orange zest
• 1 stick (8 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 c. whole milk
• 1/2 c. strong coffee, cooled
• 1+1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan (I used a 9-inch round--BH), dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess. Put the pan on a baking sheet.

To make the crumbs: Put all the ingredients except the butter in a bowl and toss them together with a spatula just to blend. Add the butter and, using your fingers or the spatula, mix everything together until you've got crumbs of different sizes. It's nice to have a few big pieces, so don't overdo it. Set the crumbs aside. (The crumbs can be made up to 3 days ahead, covered and refrigerated.)

To make the cake: Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cardamom, and espresso powder in a large bowl. Turn the dry ingredients out onto a sheet of wax paper, and put the sugar and zest in the bowl. Rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of orange strong, then return the dry ingredients to the bowl and whisk to blend. Put the remaining ingredients in another bowl and whisk them to blend. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir--don't beat--to mix. Stir only until you've got an evenly moistened batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and top with a thick, even layer of the crumbs. Pat the crumbs ever so gently into the batter. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the cake has risen (it will crown), the crumbs are golden, and a thin knife in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a rack to cool in the pan before serving warm or at room temperature.

The Daring Bakers Do X-Mas

This month was Round 3 for me in the Daring Bakers challenge, and it was by far the hardest one yet, involving not one but multiple snafus and do-overs. The Daring Bakers are a group of over 300 food bloggers who prepare the same elaborate recipe each month and post about it on the same day. This month, our recipe was holiday-themed: a beautiful Bûche de Noël, or Yule Log. A Yule Log is a genoise sheet cake rolled up with a buttercream frosting filling into the shape of a log. I baked mine this afternoon in preparation for a little holiday gathering I'm hosting later tonight.


The Yule Log involves three steps. First, you bake a thin sheet genoise cake, whose batter has lots of eggs and is made fluffy by beating air into it. Second, you make a coffee buttercream frosting (potentially the most difficult step - at least for me). Third, after assembling the cake, you make little "mushrooms" out of marzipan to decorate the log.


The cake was easy (dare I say - it was a piece of cake). The hard part was the frosting. This frosting is not the healthiest thing in the world. I'll be straight with you and tell you that it involves three sticks of butter. The first time I attempted to make it, I got a little overzealous with the "softening" of the butter that the recipe calls for. I wasn't thinking, and I didn't realize that if I softened it too much, the frosting would be too liquidy. That first batch had to go down the drain. The second batch I didn't soften the butter at all, and it was solid enough, but it kind of ... curdled. Like, the butter just was kind of lumpy and not incorporating fully into the frosting. Fortunately, I kept beating it until it started to look like normal frosting, and all was well. The marzipan mushrooms were a breeze to make.


To see hundreds of other takes on this Buche de Noel, mosey on over to the Daring Bakers Blog Roll starting today. Some of them probably have the recipe posted, which I'm too lazy to do ;) Happy holidays, everybody!

Sweet Like Victory

Welcome to my first entry in the monthly Daring Bakers challenge, in which hundreds of food bloggers prepare the same elaborate recipe and post about it on the same day. It's mighty coincidental that the selected posting day this month is the day after the Boston Red Sox won the World Series - and that the chosen recipe is for a dessert modeled after Boston Cream Pie.


Meet the Bostini Cream Pie. Whereas the traditional Boston Cream has two layers of vanilla sponge cake filled with vanilla custard and topped with chocolate ganache, the Bostini begins with a thick vanilla custard in a bowl, throws a mini orange chiffon cake on top and drizzles the whole thing with warm chocolate glaze. Needless to say, it's delicious, although so rich that I'm pretty sure it took at least a week off of my life - the custard alone called for 10 egg yolks, not to mention the rest of the heavy cream, butter, sugar, and chocolate that went into the entire production.


Although the Daring Bakers are instructed to follow the recipe to the letter, we were allowed to reduce the recipe this time because of the massive portions of dessert it was designed to produce. I halved mine, and it still turned out beautifully. I made it while Joe was here visiting earlier this month, and he was the best sous-chef any girl could ask for. (I hope he forgives my baseball-related gloating; he's not exactly a Sox fan.)

To see hundreds of other Bostini Cream Pies, presented and plated in all kinds of creative ways, visit the Daring Bakers blog roll starting today. If you're feeling daring yourself, you can check out the recipe over at Alpineberry, whose creator, Mary, is this month's host and selected our delicious recipe.

Test Kitchen Magic

I love trying out recipes from food magazines, especially when I have work to do (hello, procrastination!). Last night the lucky recipe was a graham cracker pound cake from the December issue of Food & Wine. Now, I was in the mood for something a little more special than just a pound cake, so I decided to kick it up a notch with some caramelized pears to spoon on top and soak the pound cake with their gooey caramelly goodness. Result: magic. Even Steve gave this dessert an A, and he's no grade inflater (unlike Harvard...) Oh yeah, and it's easy. Make this and thank me when you're rubbing your tummy and staring blankly into space in a sugar-and-butter-induced food coma.


Graham Cracker Pound Cake with Caramelized Red Anjou Pears

Pound Cake:

• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (I cheated and used all-purpose so don't worry too much about this)
• 1/2 cup ground graham cracker crumbs
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp whole milk
• 2 Tbsp heavy cream
• 3 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325. Spray an 8-by-4-inch glass loaf pan with vegetable oil spray. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the butter with both kinds of sugar. In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour with the graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, cream, eggs, and vanilla. Beating a medium speed, add the dry and liquid ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture in 3 alternating batches. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake in the lower third of the oven for about 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached (mine took 65 minutes). Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn the pound cake out onto a rack to cool completely. Slice and serve with caramelized pears (see below).

Caramelized Red Anjou Pears:

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp brandy, port wine, or other liqueur (I used Sandeman ruby port)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2-4 red Anjou pears, peeled, halved, cored, and sliced

In a saute pan on medium heat, melt butter, then stir in the sugar. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until it begins to turn golden brown. Add the brandy/port/liqueur and the lemon juice. Let it simmer to incorporate. Add pears and cook slowly to tenderize and caramelize. How long you let them cook depends on how patient you are; I let mine go for about 15 minutes before I devoured them. Serve on top of graham cracker pound cake.