Black and Gold: Chocolate Hazelnut Torte

There's no better occasion for a slightly over-the-top dessert than New Year's Eve. A dense chocolate hazelnut torte, coated in dark chocolate ganache, jeweled with candied hazelnuts and topped with a halo of spun sugar is great for a special occasion. The torte is soft and dense since it is flourless, with a slight graininess from the ground hazelnuts. This was a crowd pleaser as the chocolate and hazelnut flavours really come through without being cloyingly sweet. It can also sit out without refrigeration so guests can enjoy it at their leisure while waiting for the countdown.  

The recipe is somewhat work-intensive, but for a special occasion it is well worth the extra time. The actual process is not difficult but there is a good amount of prep work (chopping and melting chocolate, toasting and grinding hazelnuts, caramelizing sugar, etc.) 

This was the first time I made spun sugar. It was fun to (carefully!) fling the hot caramel between two skewers and watch the glossy strands form. The glittery gold threads were the perfect touch for a dessert to ring in the new year.

Recipe after the jump!

Say Cheese(cake): Low-fat New York Cheesecake

When asked what she would like for her birthday cake this year, my grandma requested a cheesecake. I'd never made cheesecake before so I started with a little research, as usual.

First came the recipe selection. Lately, I've been doing less low-fat baking than I had in the past. I just find that "full-fat" recipes yield tastier baked goods. This time I had to make an exception though. Most of the recipes out there for great cheesecakes contain extremely decadent ingredient lists including some combination of: several blocks of full-fat cream cheese, whipping cream, sour cream, and multiple whole eggs. 

I wouldn't feel great serving something quite that heavy to my family so luckily I found this recipe for a low-fat cheesecake. Even better, it doesn't require any "weird" ingredients like tofu and cottage cheese. While it doesn't quite have the silkiness you can only get with all the rich ingredients of a typical cheesecake, it was still deliciously creamy and light thanks to the meringue. A pretty decent trade-off, if you ask me.  

It seems like every experienced cheesecake baker has their secret to the perfect cake. Most of the tips and tricks I read were aimed at preventing the number one cheesecake-ruining culprit: cracking. Some recommended using the cream cheese straight from the fridge, while others said to wait for the cheese to come to room temperature. Many recipes called for baking the cheesecake in a waterbath or placing a pan of hot water in the oven. There were various ways of cooling cheesecake as well: in the oven, on the counter under a bowl etc. etc...

I used cold cream cheese, baked the cake with a pan of water in the oven and cooled the cake gradually in the oven for about 30 minutes before removing it to a cooling rack. I also found it helpful to line the bottom and sides of the pan with parchment paper so the cheesecake could shrink upon cooling without resistance from the sides. I breathed a sigh of relief when the cake was finished, crack free. It left a nice smooth surface for some personalization, too! 

Recipe after the jump!

Season's Eatings: The Christmas Feast

Well hello!! I've neglected this poor blog for long enough so it's nice to have time to post again. I hope everyone had an excellent food-filled holiday. I certainly did and had a great time cooking up a family feast on Christmas Day. It was actually the first time I made a whole turkey and to my relief, it worked out and we weren't stuck having pizza delivered for dinner.

Want to see it?

Ok. Don't laugh.

Errr, I know. This bird isn't particularly sexy, and it isn't going to be gracing the glossy pages of Food and Wine magazine anytime soon. But what it lacked in looks it made up for in taste. It's inner beauty that counts, isn't it? The turkey was filled with cinnamon steeped apples, onions and herbs before it was roasted. The aromatics steamed and flavored the meat so perfectly I don't think I will ever stuff a turkey with normal stuffing. Herb butter was also rubbed under the skin, which seeped into the meat and made it extra juicy. Delish.

Of course, the turkey was served with the works (cranberry sauce, gravy, stuffing, roast vegetables and mashed potatoes). Unfortunately we got too excited to eat and the meal was quickly devoured before I got any photographic documentation. But the recipes are included below for reference.

The meal was topped off with a Buche de Noel. The cake is a traditional Christmas dessert made to look like a log used in winter solstice rituals. This rendition was made with a delicate flourless chocolate cake roll, inspired by roulade leontine. The inside was filled with hazelnut buttercream. The outside is usually covered with chocolate buttercream and textured by dragging a fork through so that the surface imitates tree bark. I wanted to pull out all the stops though, so I covered the top with flakes of dark chocolate bark. (To make the bark, temper about 1/2 lb chocolate and spread it thinly over a parchment lined baking sheet. Allow to set and break into pieces). To add to the disguise, the "log" was garnished with little meringue mushrooms. When it was finally all assembled, it looked like this:

Missing a little something though, right? Like, SNOW!


That's better. All in all, the Christmas feast went quite well. And good company only makes good food better.

(Recipes after the jump)

Tiramisu Redux

Tiramisu is one of my go-to desserts. It is definitely a crowd pleaser with its luscious layers of chocolate, espresso, and mascarpone cheese. In fact, it was the very first food post on this blog.

This time, I made it as a charlotte. The cake mold was lined with ladyfinger biscuits and then filled with the custard. This recipe made a filling that was firm enough to be free-standing when unmolded. This version of tiramisu makes a delicious and unexpected birthday cake.

Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer: Black Forest Cake

Black Forest Cake (or Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte) is a South German dessert, usually prepared with sour cherries and kirsch (cherry brandy). Not all Black Forest Cakes are created equal, although they all contain some combination of cherries, chocolate and cream. The cake base in this version is an ethereally light chocolate chiffon sponge. Since it is prepared with oil rather than butter, it stays beautifully spongy and soft, even after a thorough chilling in the fridge. The cake is filled with canned dark cherries. (Yes, canned. I find them sweeter, juicier, and... cherry-er than fresh cherries. You also don't need to pit them!) I think it's the juicy tartness that cuts the mellow, rich flavour of cocoa, which can get boring in a plain chocolate cake. If time allows, let the assembled cake sit in the fridge for a few hours before you serve it; the flavours mingle and improve over time.

Unfortunately, I decided to make this at the height of a summer heat wave. Whipped cream gets unstable in the heat, and attempting to cover a cake with a mixture of milk and air gets tricky when the kitchen is over 25C. Things got a little precarious as the cream started sliding around, but here are a few quick tips for frosting with whipped cream:

-Keep things COLD. Whip the cream in a bowl and beaters that have been chilled in the freezer. Keep the bowl in a sink of ice water while you're working with it. Chill the cake as well before you ice it. Pop everything in the freezer for a few minutes if things start melting. I also cooled my hands in the ice water before handling the piping bag.

-Stabilize the cream. Many recipes call for whipping melted gelatin into the cream (1 teaspoon, bloomed and melted, to 1 cup of whipping cream), but this can be tricky. If the gelatin is too cold, it will form lumpy globs before it becomes uniformly mixed into the cream. If it's too hot, it will melt the cream, making it difficult to get peaks. Use the gelatin when it's on the warm side of room temperature.

-An alternative to gelatin is a starch stabilizer. The cream won't be as firm as if you used gelatin but the starch is much easier to use. Dr. Oetker's "Whip It" is a stabilizer that can be found in most well-stocked grocery stores. It doesn't change the flavour of the cream at all, but stops it from separating over time.

-Use a whipping cream with a high milk fat (% M.F.) content. Cream with a fat content higher than 30% qualifies as whipping cream. It can get as high as 40%, although this tends to be difficult to find. I used a 36% cream.

-Last but not least, avoid working with whipped cream on the hottest day of the year, if you can help it...

Fit for the Queen: Victoria Sponge and Triple Berry Trifle

I was blog surfing when I came across a British one called "How to Make Cakes." There, I found a lovely recipe for Victoria Sponge that promised to be simple and delicious. I've never had Victoria Sponge, and it's not easy to find any in the area, so the best way for me to see what it tastes like is to actually make it. Besides, a "toss-everything-in-a-bowl-and-stir" cake that promises to be light and fluffy? This, I had to try.

I was surprised at how well it turned out. The eggs made the cake very flavourful and it was very tender. It's not what North Americans would call a "sponge cake"; it's more of a cross between butter cake and pound cake. Traditionally, jam and cream is sandwiched between two tall layers, but I had other plans instead...

One of my favourite English desserts has to be the trifle. I also think it's the perfect dessert to bring to potlucks for several reasons:
It's "make ahead" and tastes better the day after it's made.
It's assembled in a bowl so transportation is easy (a buttercream layer cake sliding around in the car in the summer heat=tragedy waiting to happen).
It looks pretty and pretty impressive.
It's not too heavy and rich after a big meal.
It can be adjusted to serve a few or many people.
And nobody can resist cake, berries, and cream.

There is much debate over what goes into the trifle bowl. Generally speaking, trifle consists of cake, cream, custard, spirits and fruit. There are hundreds of recipes and combinations out there, but in the height of summer, I like to make a simple, lightened version with tangy lemon curd and lots of fresh berries. However, the Victoria Sponge cake made it a little heavier than usual. If you try making trifle with chiffon or sponge cake and don't sog it down too much, the dessert could just float away...

Lemon Triple Berry Trifle
Serves 15

1 pint each: strawberries (halved and then sliced), blueberries, raspberries
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoon lemon juice

2 cups whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons icing sugar

1 recipe of Victoria Sponge (or pound cake, or sponge cake, if desired)
1 recipe lemon curd (about 1 1/2 cups), thinned with a tablespoon of whipping cream if necessary

In a large bowl, combine berries, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir and macerate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

In a large chilled bowl, whip cream on high speed with an electric mixer until billowy and soft. Add vanilla and sift in icing sugar. Continue whipping until soft peaks form.

In a deep glass bowl, place a layer of cut up cake. Top with half the berries and drizzle juice on top. Make sure some berries are pushed to the side of the dish so you can see them through the side. Drizzle with lemon curd and then cover with a layer of whipped cream. Repeat layers, ending with a layer of whipped cream.

Decorate the top with whole berries (toasted flaked almonds are nice too). Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours.

Victoria Sponge (http://www.howtomakecakes.co.uk/2007/09/back-to-victoria-sponge.html)

Ingredients
285g Self-raising flour
2.5 teaspoons (12.5ml) Baking powder
285g Margarine
285g Caster Sugar
5 Eggs
Raspberry or Strawberry Jam

Buttercream Ingredients
150g Softened Butter
340g Icing Sugar
3 tablespoons (45ml) Warm water

Equipment required
2 greased 8-inch sandwich tins
Sieve
Large mixing bowl
Electric whisk

Cake
- Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large bowl
- Add all the other ingredients into the bowl
- Using an electric whisk beat the ingredients together, starting slowly then medium until you get a smooth, creamy consistency
- Divide the mixture between the two sandwich tins and bake at 170 degrees centigrade (340 degrees Fahrenheit) for 30-40 minutes. The cake should be springy to the touch.
- When cooked immediately turn out onto a wire rack.

Buttercream
- Soften the butter and beat until smooth
- Gradually add the icing sugar, beating well
- Add the water and beat until smooth

Spread some jam on one half of the sponge and buttercream on the other and sandwich together. Sieve icing sugar on top

Tips
My tips for a good Victoria Sponge are:
1) Use good quality 8-inch sandwich tins. Line them with greaseproof paper to avoid the cake sticking
2) If you have a fan oven, do not use the fan feature. Cakes cook much better on the traditional oven setting
3) Be careful not to use too much jam or buttercream otherwise the cake may slide apart when sandwiched together. Do however spread the jam and buttercream to the edge of the sponges as this will enhance the appearance of the cake
4) When turning out the cakes onto the wire rack, try turning one out onto a solid surface (like a chopping board) and then put it on the wire rack so that the top of the cake does not get the marks from the wire rack. This will make it look much better.

Lemon Curd:
Yields 1 1/2 cups

3 large eggs
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely shredded lemon zest
3/4 cups sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cool and cut into small pieces

In a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and lemon juice until blended. Cook, stirring constantly (to prevent it from curdling), until the mixture becomes thick (like sour cream or a hollandaise sauce) (160 degrees F or 71 degrees C). This will take approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately pour through a fine strainer to remove any lumps. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk into the mixture until the butter has melted. Add the lemon zest and let cool. The lemon curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Cover immediately (so a skin doesn't form) and refrigerate for up to a week.


Victoria Sponge recipe courtesy of Mark Sanford and How to Make Cakes
Lemon Curd recipe courtesy of Joyofbaking.com
Image and trifle recipe property of beets and bites