What are You Baking the Week of September 17, 2017

[BakerAunt]

I'm probably not baking today, but for those of you who are, here is the thread.

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[BakerAunt]

I found overly ripe bananas at the grocery for 29 cents per pound earlier this week, so Wednesday morning for breakfast, I baked a new recipe, "Fruity Yogurt Muffins," from Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book (1998), p. 395. I made some changes by substituting in 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour (total flour is 1 3/4 cups), adding 2 tsp. flax meal, and using 1/2 cup buttermilk rather than that much low-fat flavored yogurt. I baked these as six giant muffins rather than a dozen regular ones. I changed the topping from 1/4 cup Grape Nuts or 2 Tbs. brown sugar to 6 tsp. Grape Nuts and 3 tsp. sugar-in-the- raw. I sprinkled the cereal on first, then the sugar. I like this topping, as it gives just a bit of crunchy sweetness which nicely complements the banana.

[BevM]

Today I am making another Italian Lemon Creme Cake that my granddaughter likes from the Roma Cafe. Previously I attempted this without tasting the actual cake. It turned out pretty good (all was eaten both times) but today I am changing a few things. One is a simple syrup on the cake. It seems like it will change the texture from dry/crumbly to more moist. I also used oil instead of shortening/butter. Hopefully, it will be edible and the girls will like it.

[BakerAunt]

Wednesday afternoon, I baked the Banana Crunch Cake from KAF's Whole Grain Baking (pp. 66-67). It's a coffee cake, but sweet enough to serve as dessert. My only change was to use buttermilk rather than yogurt. I love the combination of bananas and oats.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made a chocolate cake for a neighborhood gathering. It's a sour cream chocolate cake and I made a simple chocolate frosting. I used to make this all the time but since I married and had kids I don't think I've made this since. My family 1) tends to prefer white cake (no they cannot even be satisfied with yellow cake so I have to separate the eggs) and 2) the like cupcakes and since my wife does not want a dozen cupcakes she tends to buy them. So I probably have not baked a cake in over ten years.

I think the last time I made this particular cake was for the 30th birthday of two friends who not only introduced me to my wife but insisted that I was a decent guy and she should go out with me. We will have been married 16 years next month so it's been a while.

It's a hard cake to mess up. I boosted the chocolate by a ounce and added a tbl of cocoa. I forgot to let the frosting set so it was a little more runny than usual but it firmed up on the cake.

I did not taste it myself but the neighbors seemed to like it.

[Mike Nolan]

Can you post the recipe or a link to it?

[aaronatthedoublef]

I'm looking for a version of it online but I cannot find a link. It's in this book which Rosie still sells. It's also available on Amazon. Having spent most of my adult life building and selling IP I don't like to give away someone else's.

I will say this is one of my favorite cookbooks. You can tell from the pages that I've used it a lot. It was on a remainder table in a Barnes & Noble in Seattle after I had just moved there from Boston. I was a little said about the move and this reminded me of Boston and a bakery I'd loved since I started college so I picked it up.

I did find a recipe for her Soho Globs which were another favorite. I modified this recipe too. I increased the chocolate and the butter. I use

12 ounces of semi sweet chocolate
8 ounces of unsweetened chocolate
1.5 sticks of butter

Rosie melts all the butter with the chocolate and I melt half the butter and cream the other half.

Then I chill the dough before baking.

I'll keep looking for a legal version of the cake recipe to post.

Sorry

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[Mike Nolan]

My eyes are old, weak and tired, I had to read your post at least twice before I saw that there was a link to Rosie's book. I may have to see if I can tweak the default template to make links easier to recognize. (That's one reason why I often write: See this link: XXXXX)

Having spent 20 years in the publishing industry, I'm well aware of intellectual property rights issues and try to respect them as best I can.

[BakerAunt]

Don't feel too badly, Mike. I also missed that there was a link and was about to ask for the book title.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Sorry about that. I originally inserted the full link but it did not show up so I stuck it in with "book" but it is hard to see. I'll endeavor to do better in the future.

[BakerAunt]

I may just have to buy that cookbook, Aaron.

Friday afternoon, I baked the Wheat-Oat Flax Buns from the KAF site. I substituted in 3/4 cups buttermilk, deleted the special dried milk, added 1 Tbs. flax meal, omitted the orange juice reduced the yeast to 2 tsp. and the salt to 1 1/4 tsp. I also use the whole egg in the dough, as I do not seed the buns. I used the bread machine to mix and knead the dough, as it does a better job on a small amount than my 7-quart Cuisinart does. This recipe makes a wonderfully light, smaller bun, although you could make fewer and make them larger. I make this recipe a lot. We will have it with Sloppy Josephines this evening.

I also baked "Golden Cinnamon-Pumpkin Bars, from KAF's Whole Grain Baking (pp. 353-354. My only change was to add 1 Tbs. of flax meal, and instead of canned pumpkin, I used a cup of the puree from that Galeux d’Eysines pumpkin I processed earlier in the week. I've made the KAF recipe before, and marked it as "excellent," my highest rating. I did note at that time that the bars are better the day after baking when the spices mellow.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I love that book. I've made a modified version of Rosie's orgasms numerous times. I made them into a wedding cake once. It is the first and only wedding cake I have ever made and given the stress I don't know that I would ever make another.

[BakerAunt]

A friend has relatives who were professional bakers. They always politely refused to do wedding cakes for family members because it was too stressful.

I actually made my own wedding cake, but I made double layers with a mini-tier set that Wilton used to sell, then made three double layer 8-inch cakes to set around it. I was not into fancy decoration. I just wanted it to taste good--and I still have people rave about that cake from Susan Purdy's The Perfect Cake.

[aaronatthedoublef]

First, I was making a two wedding cakes - the brownie cake and an Australian style fruitcake (the groom was an Aussie). This was in the nascent days of the web and there were no recipes online so it was some trial and error with some non-baking Aussie friends acting as taste testers (and they tried some really vile cakes). I eventually got it right with a couple days to spare.

I moved onto the bride's cake. She was a dear friend of mine and I tried to convince her to allow a mutual friend who was a James Beard nominated pastry chef to make the cake but my friend wanted me to make it. The cake was fine but I could not make the buttercream without it breaking (I was not allowing it to cool before dumping in the butter). This was all happening the morning of the wedding. At the last minute my brilliant girlfriend suggested I used whipped cream and we decorate it with flowers. She saved the day.

Of course I should have waited to put the whipped cream on until AFTER we transported it. And I should have made EXTRA whipped cream to repair any damage that happened on the ride over but we made it to the wedding on time with both cakes in one piece!

The mother-of-the-bride put the cake at the end of the buffet and after the wedding the husband of the bride went through the line and cut himself a huge corner of the cake before the bride and groom cut it. I can still hear the shrieks from the bride and her mom.

But the brownie cake was completely consumed (I should have but did not make a topper -doh!) and the fruit cake was about half gone. And it was heavy. So it was a success and I will retire with my streak intact.

[Mike Nolan]

We did most of the catering work for our son's wedding, which was in our back yard (on a very hot 4th of July), but the cake came from someone who does wedding cakes professionally.

The 'Elegant White Cake' recipe in the KAF cookbook is pretty good, but making a tiered cake (and especially decorating it) is beyond our skills and patience. If you've never read the Susan Reid blog on making buttercream frosting, I highly recommend it. See Buttercream Frosting

I've considered taking the cakes course at SFBI, but what I really want to take is the weekend course on baguettes or the week-long bread course that includes baguettes. But I need to get in better shape, doing the Chocolate Academy course in Chicago a year ago was VERY tiring.

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