A Manly Cherry Birthday Cake
My husband's birthday is today. I had him look through my library of cookbooks and pick whichever looked best to him.
He chose this one:
French buttercream is similar in process to Italian meringue buttercream--except you use the yolks instead of egg whites. Like its Italian cousin, you mix in a hot sugar syrup and add bunch of butter once it cools down. This makes it rich and completely melt in your mouth.
Ooo lah lah.
Since I wasn't making it pink, I decided to make a chocolate ganache drip to give the cake a little more drama. I had a lot of extra melted chocolate from the dipped maraschino cherries, so I just added a bit of cream and put it on top.
I think it looks like a giant ice-cream sundae.
Happy Birthday, Stanley!!
1 can of cherry pie filling, rinsed in a sieve under running water and dried well with paper towels
1 cup whole milk
6 egg whites, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup cake flour
1 3/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
12 T butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 cubes
2 cups mini chocolate chips
1 T solid coconut oil (or shortening)
1 10-oz jar maraschino cherries, drained and patted dry
1 recipe vanilla French Buttercream
3/4 cup heavy cream, divided
1. Heat the oven to 350. Grease two 8 inch pans and line the bottoms with a circle of parchment.
2. Chop the cherries from the filling finely and save 1/2 cup. Eat the rest when no one is looking. Or if you have toddlers, let them eat them since they've been standing there looking longingly since you started.
3. Whisk together the milk, egg whites, and vanilla. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add the butter a piece at a time until there are only pea-sized bits.
4. Add the milk mixture (except for 1/2 cup) and mix on medium high until fluffy (about 2 minutes). Turn the mixer down to low and add the rest of the milk mix, beating about 30 seconds.
5. Fold in the cherries and chocolate chips, and divide the batter between the two prepared pans. Smooth the top with a spatula. Bake until a toothpick comes out cleanly--about 20 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack
Buttercream
8 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1 T vanilla
1/4 t salt
5 sticks butter (1 1/4 lb)
1. Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, beat egg yolks until very pale and slightly thickened (4-6 minutes)
2. Bring the sugar and corn syrup to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring every few minutes to melt the sugar (3ish minutes)
3. Take boiling sugar mixture and pour it into the egg yolks with the mixer running on low. Don't let the syrup hit the side of the bowl or whisk. Once it is all added, crank up the speed to medium high and beat until the outside of the bowl is cool (about 10 minutes).
4. Turn the speed to medium low and add vanilla and salt. Add the butter a couple tablespoons at a time until it is all incorporated. Then crank it up to medium high and whip it, whip it good until it is very smooth--about 2 minutes.
Cherries, Chocolate Ganache, and Whipped Cream
1. Melt the remaining chocolate chips and coconut oil in the microwave in short bursts. Line a plate with wax paper, and dip the maraschino cherries in melted chocolate--placing them on the wax paper. Chill in the fridge.
2. Take the remaining melted chocolate and add 1/4 cup cream, mixing until smooth. If it looks gross, heat it in the microwave for 20 seconds and stir again. Place it in a squeeze bottle to have better control over where it drips on the cake.
3. Whip 1/2 cup heavy cream until soft peaks form.
To Assemble:
--Put 3/4 cup of buttercream over the first layer of cake. Stack second cake.
--Top with 3/4 cup buttercream. Use remainder to ice the sides. Make a small mound in the middle of the top layer.
--Making sure the ganache is a good dripping consistency, drip around the circumference of the cake. Then cover the top, making sure you don't flood it over your hard work.
--Dollop or pipe the whipped cream around the center of the cake. Top with cherries.
Enjoy!
He chose this one:
Good choice, Stanley!
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| I've been playing around with food photography. It's harder than it looks! Setting up shots, getting good lighting and telling a story in a pic is not easy. In fact, as soon as I had taken these pictures, the black poster board fell over and messed up the frosting on the back. Doh! |
Fun fact about my husband--he loves anything with chocolate chips. If he has a choice of muffins, pancakes, or whatever--he'll choose the one with chocolate chips. Me? I'll go with whichever flavor sounds the most exotic. But this guy loves chocolate, and especially that of the chippy variety. That was one of his major criteria in choosing a birthday cake out of the hundreds of pictures in my books.
This recipe from America's Test Kitchen is a white cake studded with cherries rinsed from a can of pie filling and mini chocolate chips. It was moist, tasty, and came together quite easily.
However, the real star of the dessert was the frosting (which Stanley requested NOT to be dyed pink as it was in the recipe. I guess he figured a man now firmly established in his 30s needs something manlier than a pink birthday cake). It was a silky, dreamy French buttercream.
Now, I love my frostings. I've never understood those who "aren't frosting people." Maybe they have only had Cookie-Monster-blue-shortening-based-lockjaw-from the sweetness grocery store bakery frosting--in which case I would not be a frosting person either. But give me a good meringue buttercream and I'll eat the whole bowl.
True story.
No, really. When I was 8.5 months pregnant with Will, I made a batch of strawberry Italian meringue buttercream just to eat with a spoon.
Because I could.
I was great with child and no one would tell me I couldn't.
French buttercream is similar in process to Italian meringue buttercream--except you use the yolks instead of egg whites. Like its Italian cousin, you mix in a hot sugar syrup and add bunch of butter once it cools down. This makes it rich and completely melt in your mouth.
Ooo lah lah.
Since I wasn't making it pink, I decided to make a chocolate ganache drip to give the cake a little more drama. I had a lot of extra melted chocolate from the dipped maraschino cherries, so I just added a bit of cream and put it on top.
I think it looks like a giant ice-cream sundae.
Happy Birthday, Stanley!!
Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake
(adapted from ATK's The Perfect Cake)
1 can of cherry pie filling, rinsed in a sieve under running water and dried well with paper towels
1 cup whole milk
6 egg whites, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup cake flour
1 3/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
12 T butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 cubes
2 cups mini chocolate chips
1 T solid coconut oil (or shortening)
1 10-oz jar maraschino cherries, drained and patted dry
1 recipe vanilla French Buttercream
3/4 cup heavy cream, divided
1. Heat the oven to 350. Grease two 8 inch pans and line the bottoms with a circle of parchment.
2. Chop the cherries from the filling finely and save 1/2 cup. Eat the rest when no one is looking. Or if you have toddlers, let them eat them since they've been standing there looking longingly since you started.
3. Whisk together the milk, egg whites, and vanilla. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add the butter a piece at a time until there are only pea-sized bits.
4. Add the milk mixture (except for 1/2 cup) and mix on medium high until fluffy (about 2 minutes). Turn the mixer down to low and add the rest of the milk mix, beating about 30 seconds.
5. Fold in the cherries and chocolate chips, and divide the batter between the two prepared pans. Smooth the top with a spatula. Bake until a toothpick comes out cleanly--about 20 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack
Buttercream
8 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1 T vanilla
1/4 t salt
5 sticks butter (1 1/4 lb)
1. Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, beat egg yolks until very pale and slightly thickened (4-6 minutes)
2. Bring the sugar and corn syrup to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring every few minutes to melt the sugar (3ish minutes)
3. Take boiling sugar mixture and pour it into the egg yolks with the mixer running on low. Don't let the syrup hit the side of the bowl or whisk. Once it is all added, crank up the speed to medium high and beat until the outside of the bowl is cool (about 10 minutes).
4. Turn the speed to medium low and add vanilla and salt. Add the butter a couple tablespoons at a time until it is all incorporated. Then crank it up to medium high and whip it, whip it good until it is very smooth--about 2 minutes.
Cherries, Chocolate Ganache, and Whipped Cream
1. Melt the remaining chocolate chips and coconut oil in the microwave in short bursts. Line a plate with wax paper, and dip the maraschino cherries in melted chocolate--placing them on the wax paper. Chill in the fridge.
2. Take the remaining melted chocolate and add 1/4 cup cream, mixing until smooth. If it looks gross, heat it in the microwave for 20 seconds and stir again. Place it in a squeeze bottle to have better control over where it drips on the cake.
To Assemble:
--Put 3/4 cup of buttercream over the first layer of cake. Stack second cake.
--Top with 3/4 cup buttercream. Use remainder to ice the sides. Make a small mound in the middle of the top layer.
--Making sure the ganache is a good dripping consistency, drip around the circumference of the cake. Then cover the top, making sure you don't flood it over your hard work.
--Dollop or pipe the whipped cream around the center of the cake. Top with cherries.
Enjoy!
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