Chocolate Sour Cream Cake

This cake has been quite a while in the making, in a lot of ways. I turned 21 last week, and had decided to make my own cake (it saves me from complaining and turning up my nose and making faces), so I knew I wanted to make something rich, indulgent and chocolate-y.

But I get ahead of myself. The idea for the topping came from over a year ago, in the sleepy back row during lecture for a class called "Science and Cooking" at school. We had a guest lecture that day by Bill Yosses, the White House pastry chef. He had some interesting stories from his work, casually mentioning the chocolate cookies that were Sasha and Malia's favorites, but I'm afraid I found the majority of his presentation thoroughly uninspiring. Mr. Yosses spent the majority of our 90 minutes discussing the history of electricity (which I'm sure did somehow relate to the culinary arts, but I definitely wasn't paying close enough attention make the connection). 

The one part I do remember is watching him play with melted sugar, carefully shaping it to make a delicate candy apple. It looked like blown glass, and there was something so beautiful about how ephemeral it was, to be eaten or to melt from the moisture in the air. (You can see him make the apple here).

So the idea of melted sugar decorations had been bumping around in my head for a while, and I thought they would be perfect perched on a cake, especially against the contrast of a chocolate one.

The cake itself has also been waiting to be made for a while. At my desk one October afternoon, I looked up from Pinterest (my go-to form of procrastination, though ModCloth is a close second), turned to my roommate and announced that I really wanted to make a chocolate cake. Helen responded with something like a sad shake of the head at the things that occupy my brain before returning to her physics homework, but despite my preoccupation, the cake never happened last semester. 

To be honest, I've always been sort of reluctant to tackle fancy layer cakes. They're hard to photograph, and making even cake layers and smoothing the frosting--and worse, cutting the cake--have always kind of stressed me out. But if not for my birthday, then when?

The chocolate cake is lovely, dense, rich, and extremely chocolate-y. It's simple, and a perfect go-to basic chocolate cake. I thought I had adapted it from Magnolia Bakery's chocolate cake recipe, but as I opened my can of Hershey's cocoa powder to make the cake, lo and behold, there was the almost exact same recipe. (Feel free to go off the Magnolia version, if it makes you feel classier. I promise not to tell!) 

However, it's definitely the frosting that steals the show in this cake. The richness of the chocolate (almost a pound of it!) is tempered by the sour cream, which gives it a faint tartness. Fudge-y and smooth, it's almost like frosting your cake with chocolate truffles. Believe me, this is a hundred times better than that awful too-sweet buttercream. 

Putting all of these elements together, this cake was definitely worth the wait.

Stay warm,
-Caroline

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Chocolate Sour Cream Cake

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe
Yields one 8-inch cake
Adapted from Hummingbird High

Ingredients
For the Chocolate Cake
2 cups cake flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup strongly brewed hot coffee

For the Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
12 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped (you can replace some of it with semi-sweet or milk chocolate if you prefer a sweeter, less intense chocolate frosting)
½ cup butter, cubed
2 tablespoons honey
½ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons milk

For the Spun Sugar Decoration (optional)
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup water

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs and white and brown sugars until smooth. Mix in the vegetable oil, and then the vanilla extract and buttermilk. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and gently whisk until combined. Whisk in the coffee. Pour the batter into the two cake pans (try to distribute it evenly), and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cakes cool for an hour, unmold, then let them cool completely. 

Make the frosting. Place the chocolate, butter, and honey in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water (make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water). Stir constantly until the chocolate is melted and smooth. 

Take the bowl off the heat, and stir in the sour cream and milk. Let sit for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the frosting thickens in consistency and is spreadable.  

Place one of the cake rounds, domed side up , onto a cake stand or serving plate, and spread a thick layer of frosting over the top. Place the other cake round, domed side down, on top of the frosting. You can cut off the domes to level the cake layers before assembling them if you wish, but I didn’t find this necessary.

Spread the frosting over the top of the cake, then on the sides. It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth--frosting swirls give this cake a certain appeal. If the frosting becomes too hard, re-heat it over the water bath, and it will soften again.

When you’re ready to serve the cake, make the spun sugar decoration, if desired. Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Gently stir over medium heat until it comes to a bowl. Let boil until the sugar turns a golden color. (Once it begins to boil, stop stirring or the sugar might seize and crystallize). 

Let the sugar cool until it thickens slightly. If you insert a fork into the sugar, it should trail thin threads of sugar as you pull it away. 

As you wait for the sugar to cool, grease the handles of 4-5 wooden spoons (chopsticks work as well), and tape them to your kitchen sink (or to a countertop) so that the handles are hanging over the sink (or over a newspaper-covered floor). 

Dip the fork into the melted sugar and gently flick it back and forth over the spoon handles, trailing sugar threads over the handles. Repeat until you get the desired amount of spun sugar. (If the sugar become too hard, heat it on the stove again until it softens.)

Carefully remove the sugar from the spoon handles and place on top of the cake. Serve immediately. (The spun sugar will melt in a few hours).

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Persimmon and Pomegranate Tea Cakes

This blog has been looking a little gray recently...not in a bad way, mind, with chocolate and golden-brown pastries. But still, a little too earth-toned. It makes me miss summer desserts like cobbler and ice cream, light (okay, light is a pretty subjective word here), fresh, and bursting with fruit.

Winter brings its crop of fruit, but I've always found that it takes a lot more effort to incorporate them into desserts, beyond the basic cranberry relish and citrus zest. I was thrilled to get a shipment of seasonal fruit from Melissa's last week, challenging me to use them in dessert. It's nice to get a little pop of color on the blog.

I used some ripe persimmons to create mini almond sponge cakes, something of a cross between a financier and a Madeleine. For those of you who are unfamiliar with them, persimmons are a plump, tangerine-sized fruit (no, that's not a tomato you see there). When they're ripe, their flesh becomes very soft and sweet, almost honey-like. The color fades in the oven, but the fruit makes the batter a wonderful bright orange.

The persimmon pulp and almond meal makes the cakes incredibly moist, and the persimmon glaze provides additional sweetness and color. I think the pomegranate seeds make them extra cute--they're practically begging you to make them and throw a tea party.

Enjoy!
-Caroline

Melissa's provided me with a free sample of their products to review. All opinions are my own.

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Persimmon and Pomegranate Tea Cakes

Click here for the printer-friendly version.
Yields: about 24 tea cakes

Ingredients
For the Cakes
½  cup finely ground almonds (almond flour)
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
⅛ teaspoon salt
2 persimmons, very ripe
2 eggs
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons butter, melted

For the Glaze
2 tablespoons pomegranate juice*
½ teaspoon cream of tartar (optional)**
1 cup powdered sugar
pomegranate seeds, to decorate

Notes
*You can either use store-bought pomegranate juice, or press about ¼ cup of pomegranate seeds through a fine mesh strainer.
**The acid in cream of tartar will allow the glaze to keep its reddish color. It can be omitted, but may make the glaze become more of a purple color.

Directions
In a large bowl, whisk together the ground almonds, flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. 

Place the persimmons, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract in the food processor, and blend until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. You want to beat the eggs enough that the mixture becomes thick and foamy. Add the melted butter and blend again.

Fold the persimmon/egg mixture into the flour mixture. Refrigerate the batter for 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease 24 tea cake molds (you could also use muffin tins or even a madeleine pan) with vegetable oil. Fill the molds ¾ of the way full with batter, and place them on a cookie sheet.

Bake the cakes for 12-13 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, and the cakes are golden-brown around the edges. Let cool for 20-30 minutes, then carefully release them from the molds and place on a cooling rack to cool completely.

Make the pomegranate glaze. Mix together the pomegranate juice and cream of tartar, then mix in the powdered sugar. Dip the cakes into the glaze, and place a few pomegranate seeds on top of each cake. 

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Yuzu Panna Cotta

I had my first taste of panna cotta in Venice, at the most aggressive restaurant I've ever been to. My friend and I glanced at its storefront a second too long, and all of a sudden a waitress jumps at us out of nowhere, all but dragging us inside for lunch. Before we knew it, we were seated at a table, menus and thin crispy Italian bread sticks in front of us. I don't recall the quality of the food (the waitress seems to have overridden those memories), but the panna cotta was lovely.

The dessert is still associated in my mind with traumatic abductions, but it truly is wonderful and worth trying. It is a rich Italian custard dessert, usually topped with some sort of fruit sauce, and ridiculously easy to put together. If you can make Jello, you can make panna cotta. It's a simple matter of heating some milk and cream, adding some gelatin, and letting it set in the fridge. 

It has about the consistency of flan or creme brulee, but without any of the work of tempering eggs, straining, or water bath. Its cool and creamy texture pairs perfectly with a tart fruit sauce. This is a great recipe for beginning bakers, and is sure to impress.

Panna Cotta is seriously under-appreciated.

I flavored my panna cotta with yuzu, a Japanese citrus fruit. They're rather sour and not that great on their own, but wonderful for cooking due to their fragrant aroma and distinctive flavor. They're used for everything from marmalade, savory dishes, sodas, and cakes.

Yuzu can be pretty hard to find in the United States, but it's definitely worth trying to hunt them down (though you could swap in oranges or grapefruit). They are bright and citrus-y, yet with a unique flavor that I really can't compare to any other fruit. I got mine here, from Melissa's, a California-based fruit company that conveniently ships to your door. Normally I'd ask why it's worth getting produce shipped to you when you can just go to the grocery store, but they have a pretty impressive variety of fruits and vegetables, such as these yuzu (yuzus?) which are hard to find locally.

The yuzu sauce I made to go with the panna cotta is tart and delicious, good enough to be eaten on its own with a spoon. It's a slightly more liquid version of marmalade, and if you have extra, it's great spread on toast or stirred into black tea (or simply hot water).

So there you go. Two underrated yet fabulous foods in one. 

Enjoy!
-Caroline

The fabulous people at Melissa's provided me with a free sample for this post (thank you, by the way, for patiently responding to my bjillion emails!) All opinions are my own.

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Yuzu Panna Cotta

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe.
Yields: 5-6 servings
Adapted from David Lebovitz

Ingredients
For the Panna Cotta
1 cup heavy cream
1 ¼ cup whole milk
zest of 1 medium yuzu
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup cold water
1 packet gelatin (2 ¼ teaspoons)

For the Yuzu Citrus Sauce
2 medium yuzu
1 tangerine
⅓ cup water
⅓ - ½ cup sugar

Directions
Make the panna cotta. Heat the the milk, cream, sugar, and yuzu zest in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it begins to simmer. Turn off the heat, and let sit for 30 minutes to allow the yuzu zest to steep.

Pour the water in a small bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin on top, and let sit for 10 minutes. Return the milk/cream mixture to the heat, and cook until it simmers again. Add the gelatin and stir until it is dissolved.

Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove the yuzu zest. Spoon the panna cotta into 5-6 small greased bowls. Refrigerate overnight, until the panna cotta is set. 

Make the yuzu sauce. Juice the yuzu and the tangerine. The yuzu may not yield that much liquid and most of it will be pulp, but do your best. 

Slice off the yuzu’s zest, and cut it into thin strips. Be careful not cut off any of the white pith, or else the sauce will be bitter. 

Add the juice, pulp, zest, ⅓ cup sugar, and water in a saucepan. Simmer on medium-low heat for 20-30 minutes, until the zest becomes translucent and the sauce thickens slightly. (The yuzu have a lot of pectin, so you don’t need to add any thickeners). Add the remaining sugar if the sauce is too sour. Add another 1-2 tablespoons of water if it becomes too thick. Let cool completely.

Unmold the panna cotta. Dip the bottom of the bowls in hot water for about 15 second, then flip upside down onto a plate. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of sauce over the panna cotta, and serve!

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Outtakes 2014

There's a folder on my laptop called "Blog Pictures," taking up probably half of the occupied space on my hard drive. As I waded through all the sub-folders in search of photos for a post, I realized just how many had never seen the light of day. Despite the fact that I publish desserts I made every other week, I somehow have all these extra food posts. This was both somewhat impressive and rather concerning. 

So I thought I'd share some of the sweets that I never published, for one reason or another. I didn't like the photos for some of these, found the recipe somewhat uninspiring for others, or just plain forgot. 

I made this pecan pastry ring last spring, roughly adapted from these bear claws, and similarly inspired by Panera. It was lovely, but there always seemed to be something more exciting to post at the time.

Some classic lemon bars, not too different from these fabulous whole lemon bars. These guys are still in the works; I'm still looking for a perfect lemon bar recipe. (Check out my search here.)

Matcha ice cream. Good, but not great.

Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies. The chocolate/peanut butter combination in the brownies was amazing, but I wasn't crazy about the pretzel crust. I adapted the brownie batter from Alice Medrich's amazing cocoa brownies, similar to what I used for these brownies.

Casarecce with Kale and Sausage from this summer, using The Candid Appetite's recipe.

Coconut pound cake. I fully intended to post this one. The cake was amazing; sweet, moist, coconut-y. Unfortunately, I completely winged it while making it, and never wrote down a recipe. If I manage to make it again, I'll be sure to share it with you.

Chocolate Ginger Macarons. These are from ages ago, made at the same time as these chocolate raspberry macarons. I thought that they were too similar to be worth sharing.

Citrus Frangipane Tart. Beautiful, but not that delicious. I overbaked the crust a bit, and the filling as too grainy. I used Martha Stewart's recipe, but I think this one from Dulce Delight might be more promising.

Chocolate Babka, sorta from Smitten Kitchen's recipe. Unremarkable, but that's probably due to the fact that I completely disregarded the directions for the filling.

Coconut Chai Scones: made these last spring, and meant to post it this fall since it seemed seasonal, but never got around to it. I do recommend the coconut and chai combination though!

Black and White Cookies! A fun classic using Joy the Baker's recipe, but I swapped out the glaze for a thick coat of buttercream. I had a cutesy story planned out, about our College dean and finals week, but never went through with it.

And so, enjoy, and here's to another year of dessert, published and unpublished.

-Caroline